Starbucks!!!!!!

Starbucks does it again!!!  Our Heros. Not only did they pack a huge amount of Emergency Food Boxes that will go out into Phoenix area communities, all 50 Starbucks volunteers took the pound for pound challenge pledge!  You can too!  http://www.pfpchallenge.com/
The poundage these volunteers pledged  x  .11cents for each pound will bring an approximate donation of $200 to St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance!!! 
I of course availed myself of half a Starbucks cinnamin donut.. yes they did bring plenty of fresh brewed coffee and bakery items... but isn't that what volunteering is all about? Partaking and participating!
Gotta walk off that half donut.
GO STARBUCKS!!!!!

10 States with the Deadiest Eating Habits

Yep, Arizona is on the list. Time to change things!

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/112083/10-states-with-the-deadliest-eating-habits

SEVEN POUNDS

Even with the infiltrating girl scout cookies.......SEVEN POUNDS....   slowly but surely. Just think what would happen if I super focused....   walked every day..  didn't eat the girl scout cookies (but I can substitute them for healthy foods as long as I keep within my weight watcher points... and Thin Mints have the least amount of points.of all the Girl Scout Cookies)...)  hee hee
You know, I thought I had left the Girl Scout Cookies in my desk drawer at work...   so I would be safe...
I get home and open the fridge and guess what is staring at me from the center rack....  THIN MINT GIRL SCOUT COOKIES  that someone had given my mother. Did they have to put them right in the front middle of the fridge?????

Okay enough already about the cookies. I have to get over it. There will be a point in the near future when our Food Bank will receive Lots and Lots of those Girl scout cookies to distribute to agencies and
other folks. Of course we who work here cannot grab and gobble them but they will be staring at us, driving us to hunt down girl scout selling them at our neighborhood grocery stores...hee hee...
OR maybe they will act as a catalyst to propell me away from them faster as I race towards the Government Commodities racks in the back of the warehouse... then I can race all the way around the tip of the warehouse up the front aisle past the freezers and again quickly past the towers of boxed girl scout cookies...
Maybe they should be considered a power food.... it takes power to disengage ones self from them...

Powering out!!!

Girl Scout Cookies???

Okay whose great idea was it to order girl scout cookies... mint girl scout cookies.. oh yeah that would be me... I thought I was doing myself a favor by ordering JUST ONE BOX,..... NOT..
Well here it sits... delivered today by a 7 ft tall surrogate girl scout who made sure I knew they were here. Thank you Chris...  You're seven foot tall, you don't have to worry about the effects a box of girl
scout cookies have on you... they go straight to your socks...
I on the otherhand , midget girl who has lost 6 lbs on weight watchers because of rigid carefulness and the new POINTS PLUS SYSTEM , now risk gaining it all back just by looking at the dang box..
Okay, I ate two... three...plus crumbs..
I didn't think girl scout cookies were allowed in Feeding America Food Banks...    not the correct nurtritional content..
WHO LET THE GIRL SCOUT THRU THE FRONT DOOR....  oh yeah, her Aunt works in Agency Services...
I put them in my bottom drawer. they smell very lovely....  really..
Hmmmm... I wonder how many points they are....  hmmmm...  well, I have 49 extra points for the week..
oops, I ate another one..
Maybe I'll give them to Jerry Brown in the office down the hall.. he's going on vacation back east... it's cold there... these could warm him up... ya know... mint toasty warmth.. oops..   another..
gotta go....  oh... maybe Stewart our official Guiniea Pig mascott would like them... they are much better than carrots or celery...  oopps.... you know what i just did...

So Lucky

I'm grinding away. I've lost 5 lbs. I have friends here at the food Bank who have dropped 20... but they are going to extreme measures. That's okay, I figure theyare younger than I and their bodies less prone to implode if they don't take in the proper nutrition.

I can't imagine being forced on an extreme diet. Apparently many American's are. According to the article linked below, 43.6 million Americans are receiving food stamps. Over 1 million of them live in Arizona. I took my laps around the warehouse today and looked at our shelves and racks of food. I began to appreciate the fact that our programs are designed to help these families by supplementing their food supply with nutritionally balanced food boxes. No one should be forced to go on an extreme measure diet, yet so many in our society are. For the number of people who receive food stamps you better believe that their are an equal number who need them but just miss qualifying or are just to proud. They have lived for so many years maintaining in a healthy economic diet. Now it's all changed.

So I will be thankful for the guidance I get nutritionally and for the ability to be able to purchase the food I need and also enjoy.

I can tell stories about living on Top Ramen in NYC....  next time.
Her's a link to a sobering article:
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/02/02/some-43-million-americans-use-food-stamps/

Coffee....now

Stairs, Elevator...Elevator...Stairs.... Elevator...

When I lived in New York I walked 5 - 6 hours a day. Dragged my laundry in a basket to the laundromat..
Used a cart to walk 8 blocks to the grocery store   squeeze thru the narrow crowded aisles...  and walk 8 blocks home..walk blocks and blocks to the elevated subway line... haul anything I was carrying up those stairs.. get to a main underground subway Station, where the elevators were unapproachable because of certain odors that were wafting from them so I would scurry to the 1/4 mile steep escalator that would carry me up to street level unless it wasn't working and then would have to utlize the steep stairway, my carrier banking behind me as I climbed to the street... and then the walking began....

I was lot's thinner...   actually had muscle tone...

Today, in Phoenix, when I get  in the car to drive to the Circle K around the corner  and don't have to worry about whether or not I can wear heels because I never have to walk that far in them or over

cracked and pottholed streets...   my delema      
                          STAIRS                            .........................        ELEVATOR

 

In New York the Elevator was my friend. I'll be danged if I am walking up to the stairs to the

the 89th floor of any Building.

But this is only one floor.   One floor at the Food bank. One flight of Stairs.

Just think of the calories that will be burned. The muscle tone that will be gained.

How happy I will be with the results.....    Oh, but look at that elevator. My friend.... I think I'm having flashbacks to having to climb the sairs to my second floor apt and my friends 4th floor walkups....

But....   yes.... my butt.......

Stairs

maybe I should carry a few canned donations...   burn more calories

I just noticed the names of deceased donors on the wall next to the elevator.... is that a hint???

                                                                                               

Where have I ...

...Where have I been. There is so much that can distract you from goal. Life just throws things at you and you have to keep on track...  That's what I'm doing right now. Tracking my food consumption for Weight Watchers.
I joined on Friday (to all you weight loss leaders, perkiness is not a prerequisite ...realness is. So please get real!)
Saturday, I tried to finish all the housework, Yard work and Mom work so I could concentrate on figuring this Points Plus program out. Never got to it.
Finally, Sunday afternoon I was able to sit down and study it. Points plus...STUDY. I am the kind of person who likes to get all her calories in a row before I embark on losing them. This is a good program and my ability to utilize it will evolve over time as I have more time to embrace it. But I am sloshing foward.
I have also joined the YMCA. I like it because I don't have trainers pestering me to pay for training sessions. They have a great pool. I just have to get brave enough to disrobe and use it.
Brianna our graphics designer extraodinaire is taking dance classes after work. I think that is marvelous. What a great way to tone up . Creative movement. I think that is what I will eventually do when I get my stamina up. If I can figure out how to set up my ipod with cool dance jam stuff I will just dance around the warehouse and my house till then.
Any thoughts on good dance jam music.... I'm an old disco girl...   really....