Suzy Q Homemaker

I never thought I would be here, writing about losing weight and all that jazz.  Isn’t that what people in their 30′s and 40′s do?  Oh….I’m almost 30.  Crap.

All joking aside, I have had a hard time treating my body well since Timothy was born almost fifteen months ago.  I was doing great, but life happens, right?  I had just started going back to yoga and pilates and trying to heal my split abs when I had that pesky appendix removed.  Recovering from that wasn’t all that bad, but winter came along, complete with everyone and their grandma getting stomach flu, colds, etc., etc.  Jamie was in classes in the evenings, I had rehearsals, and we found ourselves eating out A LOT, and I’m not even going to get into the horrible, horrible foods we were eating and eating to excess.  Oh, and going to the gym?  Forget it.  I tried taking Timothy and Simon by myself once, but it was a nightmare.

A couple months ago, I found out that I have high cholesterol.  I knew I was overweight.  Not obese by any means, but I weighed just a couple pounds more than I weighed when I was pregnant with my firstborn.  Yeah.  I have been embarrassed to go out in public because nothing fit but some drawstring pants and some t-shirts.  It was getting ridiculously depressing.

When Mom Central offered me the opportunity to try a new line of nutritional drinks and foods from Smart for Life that are (mostly) organic and contain good stuff like fiber & vitamins, I honestly couldn’t resist.

About the underWAY drinks:

The underWAY supplement drink, infused with a special HeroFiber and heart-healthy vitamins, works naturally to suppress your appetite and quench your thirst. underWAY curbs your hunger two ways. Its special formulation not only takes longer for the stomach to absorb, it also slows the absorption of what’s already there, making you feel fuller, longer. What’s more, its unique ingredients stimulate your stomach, telling your brain you’ve consumed more calories that you really have which, with underWAY, is almost zero! It contains no preservatives, sodium or caffeine, with only 10 calories and 2 grams of carbs per 8 oz. serving. HeroFiber, a soluble dietary fiber, helps maintain normal levels of cholesterol, glucose and insulin that are already in the normal range.

The Açai-Pomegranate drink?  SO GOOD.  I was also sent the Grape flavor, but I’m not a fan of any grape flavoring.   Jamie liked them, though!  I also loved all the different snacks they sent: cookies, cupcakes, etc.  It was all delicious and although I don’t believe I could follow a diet plan as outlined by the Smart for Life website, I already bought a package of the drinks when I ran out of the samples they sent.  I can see myself eating the cookies for breakfast, too.  They’re so yummy!!

Adding underWAY and Smart for Life cookies to my now very active lifestyle seems to be very promising for me.

Want a discount?

The nice people with Smart for Life are happy to offer my readers a special 10% discount code for underWAY and Smart for Life products. Please use MCUS10OFFUW for underWAY products at www.underWAY.com and MCUS10OFFSFL at www.smartforlife.com. These will go live July 2nd and expire August 30th.

I really hope you try these out for yourself.  Guilt-free snacks?  Can’t beat ‘em.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of underWAY and Smart for Life and received samples of the products to review.

Cause mom says so.

I am probably the worst advocate for drinking milk out there.  I know that I don’t get enough myself, but my kids could drink it all day long.  I mean, having all boys makes it incredibly difficult to keep milk in the refrigerator.  If it wasn’t for the WIC program, I think we’d either be bankrupt or have severe calcium and vitamin D deficiency.

The thing is, when I think of “summer”, I really don’t think of milk.  When we pack snacks and drinks to take to the lake or for a day trip, we usually grab juice boxes for the kids and sodas for ourselves.  When we’re just hanging out by the pool, we give the kids popsicles to keep cool.  Why not?  It’s easy, right?

The Good Mother that is somewhere deep inside me feels guilty for giving my kids drinks and treats full of HFCS and artificial colors.  I know I could do better, so that’s why I started checking out Whymilk.com.  The site not only has a lot of nutritional information that you may not have known about milk, it also has some really great-looking recipes for including milk in your diet.

Be sure to check out the Beverage Breakdown.  You’ll find out how an 8-oz glass of 1% milk compares to sports drinks, sodas, and more.  The Tips & Tools tab is full of calculators and comparison tools to help you see how valuable milk can be to your body and your wallet!

Like I said, I don’t like drinking milk.  I never, EVER drink it plain, so we usually keep Hershey’s syrup or Ovaltine around when I get the notion.  But I love the recipes on the Why Milk? site, especially for Rice Pudding and the Cookies  and Cream Smoothie!  Psst…if you’re frugal, the Rice Pudding is a great way to use leftover rice.

Thank you, Mom Central, for hooking me up to the Why Milk? Campaign!

At my WIC appointment yesterday, I told the nutritionist that Aiden had no problem eating, that he wasn’t picky, blah blah. Then at dinner last night, all he ate was green beans and then played with his mashed potatoes. What kid doesn’t like mashed potatoes? Especially MY mashed potatoes? I make them almost exactly like my mom’s. All I could think about was the kid on “A Christmas Story” who hated meat loaf. Seriously, Aiden doesn’t like potatoes in any other form than fries or chips. Is it strange that my child’s favorite food is green beans? Meanwhile, I had to tell Mr. Food Issues (Corey) that he had a choice of either eating all his green beans at dinner or having them for breakfast in the morning. He thought that it was hilarious and didn’t believe me. But I put on my Mom Face and he ate all his green beans right then.

I’m having a hard time understanding why people are selling their used prefolds for so much. The best deal I found was someone selling her used premiums for .75 a piece. Others usually try to get 1.50 or 2.00 for theirs, when someone could easily spend that much on brand new ones. So, I’ve just about given up on the trade boards for prefolds. I’ll buy Simon some new unbleached Indian pfs for Christmas.

Hm. What should I do today? I’m really tired still.