Cicada on the hydrangea.

I’m really trying to learn to like cicadas. They have been underground for 17 years and are finally emerging to experience all the fullness of life for about one month before they die and the entire cycle repeats itself. It’s a tragic yet beautiful story.

But I have to say, these bugs still creep me out! Those red eyes! The sheer numbers of them!

I grew up in the western United States where there are no cicadas. While there are year-round cicadas in many places, only on the east coast do you really see the periodical cicadas where they come out of the ground in large numbers every 10 or 17 years or so. During the last brood emergence (my first exposure to this), I was panicked. The cicadas are supposed to love forested areas with lots of trees and that is exactly where we live. I pictured myself wearing a special suit to walk through wild swarms of cicadas and bugs crawling all over me. I considered holing up in my house until they were gone, like this lady.

It turned out the cicada swarm was much milder than expected that year. There were practically none at my house. There were quite a few in northern Virginia where I worked. The cicadas climbed on the window as I worked, peering in at me. When I walked a few blocks away to get a sandwich for lunch, one flew and landed on me. Panicked swatting ensued and it flew away. People walking by on the street, rather than offering to help, just looked at me with eyes wide as if to say, “Glad it didn’t land on me!”

This year we are seeing some activity at our house but “swarmageddon” would be an exaggeration. There are numerous molted cicada shells on the ground and the plants.

A cicada skeleton on the patio.

Another empty casing on a tree leaf.

Seeing all these cicada skeletons beneath the hosta is a little creepy though!

Once in a while we see an actual adult cicada. A few days ago, after a mild rain, we went on an evening walk and listened by the edge of the forest. Underneath the carpet of decaying oak leaves on the ground, it sounded like Rice Krispies. There were a few cicada nymphs scurrying about on top of the leaves, making a scratch-scratch sound with their legs. I tried not to think about what we would see the next morning.

But we didn’t see much at all! I don’t know if the cicadas like to stay beneath the leaves or if they flew away to more interesting places or if they were eaten. The bird population this year seems to have increased exponentially and we are enjoying hearing all the songbirds. We also have a huge population of skinks this year. One even entered our house somehow and my husband had to catch it.

The broadhead skink population at our house is robust! This is a male, which you can tell by the fact that his head turns orange during mating season.

While I remain a bit freaked out by the cicadas, my children find them curious and a great natural science lesson. A wonderful and brave mom at my daughter’s school helped my daughter hold a cicada and let it crawl up her arm. To my amazement, my daughter did not panic and just had fun interacting with this weird creature.

This girl is so brave it makes me proud!

This terrific mom also pointed me to a video about cicadas by the famous David Attenborough. The best part of this video to me was learning that we can now add “cicada” to the list of words that are pronounced differently in British and American English. You say si-CAY-duh, I say si-KAH-duh!

I found my own response to the cicadas softening by watching my daughter. My older daughter did the Bedtime Math Problem a few days back which asked her to calculate how old she would be when the cicadas came back in 17 years. I was shocked to realize that she will be grown, perhaps married or even with a family of her own by then! I can’t imagine the shock of the cicadas when they pop back out of the ground 17 years from now. What an amazing existence!

For now, we are trying to enjoy this quirk of nature and appreciate the beauty of the cicadas. It’s helping . . . but I still don’t want them to touch me!

Update: For a fascinating look at how scientists are organizing data on the Brood II cicada emergence or to report your own cicada emergence, check out this page from Radiolab.

The enormous dimensions of our round dining table.

If there is a theme to this month’s posts, it is removing small irritations from my everyday life. One such irritation is protecting our dining room table from spills.

The beautiful wood of the bare table.

We purchased a round dining table several years ago that, with leaves, extends to a generous 78 inches in diameter. It looks elegant in our square dining room and we generally love it. The downside, however, is that this is a very unusual size and shape for a dining room table—particularly when it comes to ordering tablecloths and table pads. If we had gone with a standard size rectangle, oval or smaller circle, we would have our pick of options. With our current table, there are some options but they are all pretty expensive.

Our first solution was to find the largest plastic round standard plastic table protector we could and place that on top of the table under a tablecloth. The plastic protector was a bit short and the 5 inches around the edge of the table were completely unprotected. For adults, this is probably not such a big deal. When kids enter the picture, this was a disaster because the children were ALWAYS spilling right on the edge of the table. Every spill left us scrambling to wipe it up as quickly as possible so it wouldn’t damage the wood.

This is one of those occasions where knowing how to sew saves me a heap of money.

78” round requires a lot of fabric just to cover the surface area. I wanted to find an inexpensive yet protective material. I came across some shower curtains at a discount store that gave me a lot of heavy plastic fabric for not much money. (Later, I also came across shower curtains at the dollar store and this is where I would look first if I were doing this again.)

The challenge: turn two rectangular shower curtains into a round table protector.

I needed two 54” x 79” shower curtains (the biggest I could find) to cover my table. At first, I tried just laying them on the table and trying to angle them in a way that I could sew them together. This was just not working. There was not enough fabric in some places and too much in others. I needed to do some math.

Here is what I came up with.

Our high-tech method of circle making.

For the most part, everything executed according to plan. It was a little difficult threading the 1/4″ elastic through the casing. It also required a very patient husband to help me stretch the finished cover on the table without ripping it. But in the end, I had exactly what I wanted!

The finished custom-fit table cover! No more worries about spills on the edges.

View from the underside — a snug fit!

One other thing to note about sewing with shower curtains is that there are lots of bits and pieces in the shower curtain that you might have to cut out or sew around. We cut out magnetic weights and metal hooks as well as some tabs with suction cups on them. It wasn’t a problem and I just sewed around these impediments. My clever daughter wasted no time re-using these scraps for Littlest Pet Shop accessories.

Excised shower curtain suction cups become LPS “cereal bowls.”

With just a little math, this project came together so easily. I am not intimidated should I have to do this again and even have ideas to make custom-fit tablecloths as well so we don’t have to worry about anybody tugging on the tablecloth and pulling it askew.

What are the custom-fit challenges in your own home? Please share in the comments.

A Mother’s Day card with a personal touch.

Happy Mother’s Day!

While I am away from my own mother and mother-in-law today, I wanted to share with you our attempt to send a bouquet of hugs to them for all the love and support we receive from them on a constant basis.

Our family is blessed with tons of amazing women and Mother’s Day is our chance to recognize all of the important work that not only our mothers do but also anyone who engages in the difficult, unpaid and under-appreciated work of nurturing and loving people that is so vital to us all.

I went looking for an idea for a Mother’s Day card and found Martha Stewart’s treasure trove of handmade Mother’s Day card ideas. To me, Mother’s Day conjures up a sort of nostalgic, old-fashioned vibe. We are reconnecting with fundamental notions of nurturing and love that have existed throughout time. I thought Martha’s ideas were lovely and I particularly liked her pressed pansy notecards. The only problem was, we don’t have any pansies in our garden.

But looking around, I realized that we had no shortage of blossoms to admire. In Virginia, we are just finishing azalea and dogwood season.

Azaleas in bloom.

The dogwood blossom is the state flower of Virginia.

So, I thought we would try using flowers from our own garden for an extra personal touch on our cards.

I gathered up some enthusiastic flower-pickers.

Cutting the dogwood blossoms.

Martha suggested that you include some leaves along with your flowers when you press them and that was a wonderful tip. Kids in particular just want to focus on the flowers but we made sure we cut a few stems with leaves as well. We also included a few “weeds” like dandelions and buttercups in our flower pressing.

In the past, I have experimented with various methods of pressing and drying leaves. The best method for preserving color was another tip from Martha to use the old-fashioned tried and true method of pressing the flowers in a large book between waxed paper. When I was a kid, my parents had a huge dictionary that we always used for this purpose.

For this project, we lined the phone book with plastic wrap (I was all out of waxed paper) and put our flowers in.

Pressing flowers in the phone book.

My son was not so into the flower picking aspect of this project but boy did he have fun pulling out the plastic wrap!

It’s a good thing we have plenty of plastic wrap!

Then, we gathered up all the “heavy” books in the house. My daughters knew instantly which books to choose. Many of these aren’t books we read regularly and I was surprised to see how readily they knew which books in the house were the heaviest. We piled them up high.

The pressing tower.

After about a week’s worth of pressing, my children were excited to see what had happened to our flowers.

Unpiling the book stack.

As expected, the colors were beautifully preserved with this method.

The pressed flowers after about 1 week.

We used a variety of craft supplies from around the house to turn them into cards. Some designs were simple and others more complex. I love how all of them turned out!

A simple dogwood blossom.

Getting a little fancier with an azalea bouquet, some glitter and decorative stitching from the sewing machine.

A mixed flower bouquet.

We mailed them out just in the nick of time and it seems that the postal service came through for us and got them delivered promptly.

Thinking today of all the people who support and inspire me in my work as a mother– my steadfast and patient husband; the tremendous examples from grandmothers, mothers, aunts, sisters, sisters-in-law, cousins and dear friends; the love and support from the men in my life–my dad, father-in-law, uncles, brothers-in-law, cousins and friends; and of course, my precious children, the lights of my lives who provide me with no end of creative challenges, questions to answer and the deepest love. Love and thanks to you all!

“Faucets.” Photo by Phil Roeder. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

You may sense a bathroom theme in my cleaning posts. Some of my most difficult cleaning challenges are in my bathrooms. Hard water creates a lot of problems for us. Also, we have higher expectations for the cleanliness of the bathrooms–as the rooms in the house where we go to clean and groom ourselves.

So, now that I have gleaming toilet bowls and sparkling glass shower doors, there is one more problem to address – water-spotted chrome.

Too much hard water had water-spotted our new chrome surfaces.

Chrome is supposed to be shiny and reflective and bright. That’s why designers use it as opposed to other, duller finish choices. So, it’s a big bummer when your chrome is not mirror-like.

A quick wipe with bathroom cleaner was doing nothing for my chrome. So it was time to dig deeper on a cleaning solution.

This site suggested a paste of baking soda and vinegar. You often read that you can clean just about any surface in your home with just the right combinations of baking soda and vinegar. I like the concept of this approach.

I mixed the baking soda and vinegar together

The bubbly mix of baking soda and white vinegar.

and applied it to my chrome surfaces with an old toothbrush.

Brushing on the baking soda and vinegar paste. Not the most convenient application.

Results? Disappointing. This helped a bit in restoring some shine but did not get rid of most of the water spots.

After the baking soda and vinegar treatment the chrome shined a bit more but you can still see most of the water spots.

Apparently you can vary your application of the baking soda and vinegar perhaps soaking cloths in vinegar and wrapping them around your chrome to soak for hours. This was just too much work for me. I did not want to spend that much time on this project so I went looking for a quick fix.

Since the auto glass water spot remover had been such a quick and reliable product for the shower door glass, I looked for something similar for the chrome. In some auto forums, I found that many automobile enthusiasts swear by a creatively spelled product called Nevr-Dull.

When I opened the can, I was surprised to see this

Inside the can is a bunch of lightweight material with chemicals on it.

They call it “wadding.” The cleaning chemical is saturated in the wadding. You just pull off a piece and use it on your chrome.

And the results are amazing!

My Nevr-Dull shining chrome. Wow!

Before polishing with Nevr-Dull and the brilliant after.

So easy and so quick. It is addictive. I started shining up all the metals in the bathroom.

The top knob has been shined with Nevr-Dull.

This is definitely a cleaner worth adding to your arsenal.

Do you have a tip for removing water spots from chrome? Please share in the comments.

*I am not affiliated with Nevr-Dull.

“Master bathroom.” Photo by snikrap. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

Clear glass bathroom shower doors are the latest trend. They look clean, classic and add light to any bathroom space. There is hardly anything negative to say about them . . . . except when you go to clean them!

When we upgraded to a glass shower door in our new master bath remodel, we actually thought that it would be less work to maintain. We paid a little extra when the glass was made to have it coated with something that would make it easier to clean. In our minds, we thought a quick spritz of Windex and it would be fine.

What we didn’t realize was that glass that is dirty cleans up relatively easily but glass that is constantly exposed to water suffers from more troublesome stains. In our case, hard water stains. However, children that like to “paint” on the glass with body wash and shampoo probably don’t help things either.

Our brand new shower door began to look very aged after just a few months. It was becoming almost opaque. Granted, we could be more diligent in our housekeeping efforts but still, this seemed a little ridiculous.

After Windex and Comet, this was the scene we faced in the shower each morning.

I scrubbed the glass with Comet cleanser and got more of the water stains out but it still looked pretty terrible. I noticed that if I scratched at a spot with my fingernails, however, that it would come off. So, I knew there had to be some cleaning solution that would work.

A little searching found this site with numerous options for glass door cleaning. The first tip was to try Bounce fabric softener sheets. Since we had a ton of these lying around, I wanted to test this out.

Interestingly, there must be some sort of soap-like substance in these sheets. Just wet the dryer sheet, wipe and rinse.

The “soap” generated by a Bounce dryer sheet.

This solution did make a noticeable difference and was cheap!

After cleaning with a wet Bounce dryer sheet. Much improved but still many visible spots.

But it wasn’t quite enough. If your doors aren’t too dirty or you clean regularly, this might be enough for you.

Bounce dryer sheet – before and after.

The next tip I tried was cornstarch. I made a paste of cornstarch and water and used it to scrub the door. This was difficult to apply and honestly didn’t make any difference. If Comet hasn’t worked for you, the chance that cornstarch will, seems pretty low as well.

But cornstarch is a mild abrasive and a “green” cleaner so it was worth a shot.

I was getting tired of cleaning the shower door at this point and needed something that would for sure work. The next tip I tried was to look for a water-spot cleaning product at an auto supply store. I have had great luck with auto detailing products for our cars so I had a lot of confidence in this solution.

Trying a glass cleaner from the auto supply store!

It goes on like car wax or silver polish and you have to rub a bit. There are thankfully no harsh fumes.

The magic green liquid of the water spot cleaner.

And it worked! It took out 90% of all the spots. The ones that remained were so light they could not be captured by my camera!

There are some tiny spots still left but they are so small they cannot be captured by my camera. I end up focusing on spots on the window outside instead!

There were still a few spots that would not come out even with this product, near the door handle though, but they don’t distract from the overall gleaming look! Overall, I was very impressed!

A few stubborn spots still won’t come out but we’ll just live with these.

If you are considering a glass door upgrade for your bathroom, just keep this cleaning obligation in mind. A few times a year you might have to “polish” the door and perhaps use a dryer sheet once a month. To me, this is a small price to pay for the light and appearance the glass door gives to the shower area.

Have you struggled with cleaning glass in the bathroom? Did you find a solution that works for you? Please share in the comments.

*I have no affiliation with Mother’s Polish or any other product mentioned here.

Armed and dangerous . . . to toilet bowls!

This month I am focusing on spring cleaning around my home and garden. I am slowly making progress forward. Part of what holds me back is a perfectionist tendency that when I am done cleaning something I want it to really look clean! It doesn’t seem like such an unrealistic expectation but when your home is 24 years old and you have a lot of degraded surfaces, it can be more challenging than you would expect.

This week, I am going to share three discoveries that made me smile and love my home more. I hope they might help you do the same.

When we first moved into our home, we inherited toilet bowls with rings in them from the prior owners. We have tried every type of cleaner imaginable on these toilets from toilet bowl cleaners to calcium, lime and rust remover, to porcelain restorers to Comet cleanser to baking powder and vinegar to scrub sponges and lots and lots of elbow grease.

Nothing touched these stains.

So, we cleaned the rest of the toilet the best we could, forgot about the rings and looked forward to the day when we could rip out the toilets and put new ones in.

Before: even the most powerful cleaners didn’t touch these toilet rings.

This spring, for some reason, I had a Dave Ramsey, “I’ve had it!” moment with these toilet stains. I just hated them and wanted them gone. So, I went online and researched how to get rid of them. There had to be a way!

The first site I stumbled across suggested a simple material that we have tons of . . . .

sandpaper!

First, flush the toilet and then turn off the water supply line when the toilet tries to refill so you keep the water level down.

Step One: Flush the toilet and turn off the water supply valve as the toilet tries to refill.

Put on some sturdy, waterproof gloves and grab your sandpaper. I started with 220 grit (fine) sandpaper and scrubbed carefully just in case it scratched up the bowl. I didn’t want to make it worse!

To my amazement, I was seeing some progress but I needed a little more firepower. So I upgraded to 150 grit (medium) sandpaper, scrubbing lightly at first then gently increasing the pressure.

Wow! Wow! Wow! I about fell over from the shock! A gleaming, bright white toilet bowl, finally!

After: The bowl is so bright I gotta wear shades!

I had to spruce up all the toilet bowls in my house.

My new spring cleaning ritual, sanding the toilet!

The best type of sandpaper for this task is a sanding sponge because it can get wet without disintegrating.

A sanding sponge is the best for this water-logged scrubbing task.

Due to our hard water, we will keep a sanding sponge with our toilet cleaning supplies for a quick scrub during our bathroom cleaning routines.

Have you sanded your toilet yet? It’s cheap, green, relatively easy, not that yucky and will make you feel like the most powerful person in the universe!

Have a cleaning challenge or cleaning tip? Please share in the comments.

*From time to time, I receive articles to consider for publication on my blog. This one from stylist Christie Maruka was well-written and gave some clear tips about how to review white items in your closet during your spring cleaning efforts.

Wearing white all year long has become a new trend – especially in the hot summer months. You’ll want to take into consideration the weight of the fabric, when buying white pieces for all year long.

Here are a few tips to consider while shopping for white articles of clothing:

1. Does white work for you? It works for many women, but not everyone. If you have a great tan or naturally dark skin, it’s beautiful. Warm skin tones go well with white. If it washes you out, forget about it.

2. The hottest way to wear white this season is head-to-toe. It can be really flattering if the proportions and the fit are just right. White jeans and a v-neck T-shirt or crisp button-down tailored shirt are great looks.

3. A crisp white pencil skirt with a classic white top can be fabulous. Be sure everything is slim but not tight. White can be unforgiving. As for jeans, make sure they are not cropped ,or they can make your legs look shorter. Pass on white skinny jeans unless your very slim.

4. An all-white look can be really great accessorized with one of summer’s uber-bright colors such as coral, turquoise or royal blue. A handbag, sandal or scarf in one of these shades can make white pop. A bright print top paired with white pants and blazer is beautiful. And don’t forget stripes with white, especially navy, black or white stripes.

5. The biggest mistake women make with white is what they wear underneath it. When wearing white, it’s critical to wear lingerie that is as close as possible to the color of your skin. Don’t wear white undies because every line will show. Don’t wear colored undies unless you are trying to make a statement.

6. When shopping for white clothes, opt for natural fibers, especially linen or cotton, which are beautiful in white. Avoid white satin or polyester.

7. Beware of cling when wearing white. White doesn’t take well to being too tight or showing bra or panty lines. Dresses that flow gently past the curves look best. Some flowing and billowing sundresses or flirty tops can be lovely in white as well, especially when paired with a narrow silhouette such as a skinny jean or leggings.

8. Avoid white for photos or TV. While it may look lovely in person, it can, sadly, add pounds when worn on TV or captured in photos.

9. When buying something white, especially a dress or pants, it’s important to make sure it’s opaque or solid and not too see-through. Try holding the dress up so the light shines through it.

10. Invest in quality white pieces that you will have for a while. This is where you can feel good about spending a bit more..because quality white pieces hang nicely, wash well, and you can wear year after year.

Please check out: www.fashionfixnj.com for more information on Christie Maruka and The Fashion Fix. She is also on Twitter @ChristieMaruka.

As you are editing your closet based on Christie’s tips:

KEEP OR SHOP FOR

• well-made white linen or cotton clothing
• flowing or billowing white sundresses
• nude-colored underwear
• white pencil skirt
• coordinating pieces and accessories in bright colors or stripes

TOSS OR AVOID

• any white unflattering to your skin tone
• anything too see-through
• anything too tight
• white cropped jeans
• white skinny jeans (unless you are super-slim)
• white satin or polyester clothing

*I have no affiliation with Christie Maruka or The Fashion Fix.

Adding some additional outdoor exercise lately to whip the garden into shape.

It’s the last day of April and time to check in on my weight maintenance progress as well as recap the last two-months of posts focused on diet and nutrition.

You may recall that my theme word for the year is “routine.” Without intending to figure out a diet and exercise routine that works for me, that is exactly what happened over the last two months. You may have noticed that I didn’t post a routine checklist for April. Because my mind was so focused on maintaining the weight loss I had achieved in March, I didn’t really feel up to working on all my routines at once. I think this focus really helped me. Now in May, I really need to add back in new routines, particularly for cleaning up around the house and working on the garden, which have suffered.

Below is a blank May 2013 daily routines checklist. I changed the format a bit. If you are using these charts, please let me know what changes you would like to see in them.

• 2013-05-01-BLANKDailyRoutines

Before I reveal to you how my weight loss maintenance has been going, I wanted to combine some lessons learned with a recap of the past posts.

1) If the inspiration strikes, act on it! When I received the offer to review the DDP Yoga system, I wasn’t really planning on a big weight loss or exercise focus to my blog. I don’t know why I was so enthusiastic about the program but I am so glad that I let that energy carry me. Diet and exercise require an intense amount of self-motivation so if the inspiration strikes you, go with it! Don’t wait for it to come again at a more convenient time. It may not!

2) Hard change requires a bit of anger. The last thing I wanted to have to do on my health regimen was go on a diet. I don’t like restricting my eating patterns. At the time, I was listening a lot to Dave Ramsey’s radio show, and he always emphasizes that you know you are ready to change when you get so angry and fed up with a situation to the point that you yell out, “I’ve had it! I’m not living this way anymore!” At that point, you are ready to commit fully to whatever changes you need to make to get your desired result. I was thinking about that when I kept stepping on the scale and seeing negative progress despite my exercise diligence and made the commitment to try a diet. It was that feeling that helped me continue my diet despite changing conditions like the snowquester and to take it to the next level by limiting myself to just 1200 calories per day. And with that level of focus and dedication, I achieved success, losing first 7 pounds, then 4 pounds, then 1 ½ pounds, then an additional 1 pound for a total of 13 ½! I faced up to some hard lessons during this process including realizing that dieting or calorie restriction is something that will continue to be necessary as I age.

3) Keep perfectionism in check. It is so easy for us to want our bodies to look like models or athletes since those are the images we are faced with every day. Yet we don’t really want to make the sacrifices these people make to look like that. Portia De Rossi’s book exploring anorexia helped me to realize that the key endpoint of exercise is to focus on achieving a skill or getting better at something. Exercising to achieve a body type is almost impossible. Also, we have to be realistic about our own time constraints to exercise and fix special diet-friendly meals. Parents, in particular, may be suffering from sleep deprivation or lack of energy and may have a harder time sticking to a diet. Pick an achievable weight loss. It’s so much more motivating to hit your goal than to be endlessly seeking a goal you can’t achieve.

4) It’s the big changes not necessarily the small changes that matter. While I spent some time agonizing over small changes like using whole wheat flour in my pancakes or coloring healthy hard boiled eggs or swapping out snacks for my kids, or reviewing the difference in fortified versus non-fortified processed foods, in the end, I’m not sure these changes made a whole lot of difference in my weight maintenance.

5) It’s hard to override human nature. When I first went off my diet, I had a great time eating! I showed you the paintable Easter Egg sugar cookies I made for my daughter’s preschool class and the Matzoh lasagna and matzoh lemon cake we tried.

6) You must have a pleasurable distraction if you are going to diet! When I am not eating, I am knitting a lot more. I made Easter sweaters, have completed another project I will share with you later and am halfway through a third knitting project. I had no idea how much time I spent eating! I also spent some time bargain shopping.

7) Be open to alternative interpretations of your results. While I knew my diet was giving me success in the weight loss department, I wanted to know if it really was healthier. My blood test results helped me to realize that my diet still could use a few tweaks.

8) Even when you are successful, keep looking out for new things to try. I keep reading just about every article I see about healthy eating and exercise habits. I get new ideas all the time. I try them out, like eating more parsley and drinking green tea. I was also introduced to fasting, the latest form of dieting through Dr. Michael Mosley’s PBS series. Ramit Sethi also hosted a webchat with his personal trainers and it was eye-opening to see how many women were facing the same problems. Why can’t I lose weight? How do I get these pregnancy pounds off? The trainers made an interesting recommendation that people try 16 hours of fasting per day and noted that estrogen is a challenging hormone when it comes to weight loss for women. It was about then that I realized that dieting often comes down to a “what” or “when” decision.

9) Each person is different. My experience trying to help my husband eat a healthier breakfast was a failure. When it comes to weight loss, we are all motivated by different things and have different taste buds. It’s important to keep searching until you find a routine that speaks to you. I received many positive comments on the 400 calorie salad recipes that I shared, including a humorous one from my dad that 2 or 3 of those together would make a good meal!

10) Normal people have a lot to think about besides diet and exercise but that is not an excuse for why we can’t be successful. In our family, for example, I had to spend some time in April doing some detailed financial research to audit our accounts, get our taxes filed, review our college savings strategy, review our retirement savings plans, research ideas to improve our investing strategy and plan our children’s summer educational activities. I could easily have said that all this stressed me out and derailed my diet but I didn’t let that happen.

So now for the moment you are waiting for . . . did I manage to maintain my weight loss in April?

Yes I did! But it wasn’t as easy as these numbers appear. The first week after my diet, I managed to regain 5 ½ pounds eating a lot of Easter candy and lemon cake! I realized that something had to change. I contemplated going back on my salads but didn’t have quite enough willpower to do that. So I decided to continue with the one part my diet that was easy for me, the breakfasts. I also decided to experiment with fasting and added a one mile walk to my exercise program. So here is the “formula” that is working for me.

If I don’t do every single one of these things every single day, I will gain about one pound the next day. This program works for me because it allows me to eat what I want and the exercise is enjoyable. I love the one-mile walk because it warms up my muscles. I also have fun with my children along the way. After the walk, I like to do my 30 minutes of strength exercises right away while my muscles are still warm. It really helps with my yoga stretches.

I can maintain this diet even if I am on vacation or otherwise not in control of my eating situation. If I have to, I can bring a bag of chia seeds and mix them with water for my breakfasts. I can also switch up the timing of the fast period, etc. if there is a special feasting event. My diet does not really impact anyone around me except that occasionally they will have to accept that I am not eating and will be sipping my water. Over time, I may have to cut down the “forage period” to keep my weight in check but it seems feasible that I will always have at least one hour a day when I can eat whatever I want to. So I don’t have to “cheat,” I just have to wait!

I keep improving in my fitness and that is exciting. My legs feel strong and light. It sounds weird but it feels like it takes so much less energy just to do basic things like walk and climb stairs in this condition. My flexibility is returning. It has taken 60 days worth of exercise to finally feel like my muscles are loosening up. I even had one yoga-related injury along the way! I sought the help of a chiropractor who told me that my hip flexor muscles are too tight and that I need to work on stretches to loosen them. As I understand, the hip flexor muscles connect to the abdominal muscles in some way and as my abs are getting stronger, my hip flexors seem to be getting better as well.

Going into May, I feel confident that my new diet and exercise routine is under control and that it will take less effort to maintain what I have established. Now to tackle other areas of my organization that need addressing!

How do you feel going into May? What would you like to accomplish? Please share in the comments.

“Wonder Enriched Bread,” Photo by spablab. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

Reader Ben (also my wonderful brother-in-law) posted several comments this month on my nutrition series inquiring about how to evaluate the health benefits of foods that are fortified with various vitamins and minerals compared to natural, whole foods.

“I have been wondering if these ‘fortified foods’ are better for us, or if they have been overprocessed to the point of not being healthy. Some advocate ‘raw foods,’ or foods that have not been processed at all, are healthier and easier to digest.”

For example, the Bisquick pancakes made with white flour compared to the homemade whole wheat flour pancakes. It is a good question and one I needed to research myself.

Why do we fortify foods in the first place?

Fortifying foods began as a way to reduce public health problems. For example, iodine, a mineral naturally present in seafood, good soils and the meat of animals who consume plants grown in iodine-rich soils, was added to salt in 1924 to prevent goiters.

“Coal miner’s wife (note goiter) and two children. Chaplin, West Virginia” (1938) Photo by Marion Post Wolcott for the U.S. Farm Security Administration. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

We now know that iodine may be vital particularly for pregnant women as it has been shown to impact fetal brain development. Although we hardly hear about goiters in the United States any more, it appears that iodine consumption is still a problem we need to monitor especially among poor populations. Some countries now mandate that iodine be added to all salt sold.

“Part of RR (Rural Rehabilitation) family, now dropped, children have hookworm, mother pellagra and milk leg, according to nurse’s report. Father works on WPA (Work Projects Administration). Coffee County, Alabama” (1939). Photo by Marion Post Wolcott for the U.S. Farm Security Administration. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

In 1943, many flours were fortified with niacin, thiamin, riboflavin and iron to prevent pellagra, a brain and skin-degenerating condition.

Since 1998, folic acid has been added to enriched grains to prevent neural tube defects in children.

Most of these enriched products appear aimed at the very poor who most likely do not take vitamin supplements or eat a healthy diet.

But what about the rest of us?

The debate about processed foods is confusing on many levels. Most of us have heard the message from various sources that we shouldn’t eat any processed foods and that we are better off eating “whole foods.” But what seems to get lost in translation is what a “processed” food is.

In today’s technology-rich world, I think it appeals to a lot of people to have one area of their life devoted to simplicity and relatively free of technology. For many people this area is food. It is easy to understand that a homegrown vegetable is better for you than a box of Mac ‘N Cheese. (and it most certainly is!) However, I think some people start to take this too far.

The case of flour is one example. You could grow your own wheat and grind your own flour (a processed food), for example. Your flour might be organic and pure and natural and all the other wonderful adjectives we can think of. But would your flour be better than an enriched flour that has been enhanced with various vitamins, such as folic acid and niacin mentioned above? Even though the enriched flour is produced by a large factory and probably grown in less desirable conditions, the answer might be that this “processed” flour is technically better for you. Similarly a yogurt with added fish oil might be healthier than one without.

*Note, I say might be, because there are factors like pesticide use and processing methods that could affect the final outcome.

What does “processed” really mean?

I also don’t think people appreciate that “processed” could also mean “cooking.” In my pancakes example, a whole foods purist would probably say that the healthiest pancake choice is neither pancake—that it would be better to just eat the eggs and milk (i.e. whole foods) in the pancakes alone and forget about making a cake out of them. We tend to deceive ourselves that just because there is whole wheat in a pancake it is less cake-like. There are some situations where cooking enhances the nutrient absorption of foods (like cooking tomatoes in oil) but most of the cooking we do probably “processes” our foods into less healthy versions of what we started with.

Recent nutritional trends also emphasize foods processed to remove “bad” ingredients, like high fructose corn syrup, gluten, and sugar. But what is amazing is the number of people who honestly believe that you can still eat the same products without those ingredients and it is somehow “healthier” for you. For example, you might buy “sugar-free” pudding at the store for your kids but when you look at the label, it generally has artificial sweeteners in it which could be just as bad for you. Perhaps you are buying gluten-free bread but bread itself is not that healthy for us and unless you have celiac disease or gluten allergy, the absence of gluten is probably of no consequence to you. Swapping rice milk for cow’s milk is not that great of a choice either as rice milk is converted to sugars in the body and has a relatively high glycemic index. Lately, a lot of “healthy recipes” I have noticed use rice milk in place of sugar as a sweetener. (For the record, I think rice milk is delicious but I don’t think of it as a health food.)

The Bottom Line

A whole foods purist would likely subsist on a diet that was almost exclusively vegetables, lean proteins and eggs with a splash of beans, nuts, whole grains and fruit. 99% of people don’t eat this way. But if you want a clear, simple, easy-to-understand guideline about what is healthy to eat, this is it.

We like our sugar, our carbs, our milk and cheese. In our family, we have come to accept that these foods may not be as healthy as we would like and should be eaten in whatever moderation we can summon. If we are going to eat these foods, we need to come up with our own hierarchy of evaluating bad versus less-bad food choices. I tend to go in this order:

1. “Banned” substances (There are certain things I won’t buy 99% of the time. Products with artificial sweeteners or trans fats are high on my list. The medical evidence may or may not support these choices but I think all of us have some things we just don’t perceive as healthy.)
2. Calorie count (At the end of the day, the calories have to stay low to maintain weight no matter what else is in the food. A low calorie count will generally only be overcome if the nutritional factors of the other food are extremely superior.)
3. Cost (Does it pay off enough nutritionally to justify the extra cost of healthier ingredients?)
4. Fat content (If it has trans fats, I will rule it out in favor of something that doesn’t. I will also go for lower saturated fat content.)
5. Dietary Fiber count (Higher dietary fiber is better.)
6. General vitamin and nutrient content (The more nutrients the better.)

Each person will have their own nutrition checklist based on nutritional needs and lifestyle choices. It is fascinating to learn what different people choose to eat and not eat. In some ways, we are all part of a grand experiment to find out what works.

How do you feel about the processed versus whole food debate? What is on your nutrition checklist? Please share in the comments.

A montage of Ruly salad creations.

Facebook fan Lisa commented recently to request a copy of the salad recipes that I used during my weight loss program last month. Lisa, you have no idea how much this thrills my heart! First, a comment! Hooray! Second, I don’t know if I have ever had original recipes to share ever in my life. So, of course, I wanted to fulfill Lisa’s request.

I went back through the calorie counting notes I took and compiled a list of 11 salads along with “recipes” to make them. These salads are so easy anyone can make them. It is not so much cooking as it is assembling a lot of basic ingredients in a salad bowl.

I condensed them into a one-page sheet that you can tack to your fridge for inspiration and even compiled the ingredient list for all the salads into a grocery shopping list if you are so inclined. The font is a tad small, however. If this gives anyone problems, please comment and I will try to modify it into a two-pager with bigger fonts.

• 400 Calorie Salad Recipes

Enjoy and happy eating! If you create your own low calorie salads you would like to share, please comment or link up!