News and Reviews
- Today is the start of the “What Do You Eat In A Day!” challenge hosted by Julie over on the If You Have an Egg Facebook Group. It’s not a competition, just a great way to challenge yourself and get some extra encouragement!
- Now we have a taco recall! Taco, enchilada, quesadilla, stir fry, and salad meal kits produced by Reser’s Fine Foods were recalled earlier this month due to the inclusion of recalled chicken from ingredient supplier BrucePac contaminated with Listeria. All impacted products have now been given a Class II recall classification by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
- Quick response to the questions I’m getting about the WW app updates. Mine has not updated and no one close to me has the update yet either for me to see. I will NOT be reviewing, commenting on, or chatting about the updates until I have seen them myself. I know you understand I always want to give you first hand info and I appreciate your patience!
And now it’s on to Turkey Day! Although the stores here in Knoxville seem to have skipped straight from clearance Halloween candy to Christmas LOL. As of when I checked this Thanksgiving Countdown clock we had just over 24 days to get ready. My family started making their food list today, how about you?
(just a reminder, as an Amazon Affiliate I will receive compensation for any purchases you make with my links. I am also an affiliate for other companies who may be linked in this post for which I may be compensated with free or discounted product and in some cases monetarily. We appreciate your continued support!)
Last week was Chat #386 “Shrink It, Swap It, Skip It or Savor It!”
My favorite episode of SNL contains a Jeopardy Skit featuring comedians portraying Burt Reynolds, Jerry Lewis and Sean Connery. I always thought Sean Connery was one of the dreamiest Hollywood actors and his accent just drove that home for me. In this particular episode he chooses a category called swords for $400. Alex Trebek played by Will Farrell corrects him, the category is “S” Words but Sean completely ignores him and carries on. I love it, it’s worth a quick watch here if you’ve never seen it!
It’s 32 days until Thanksgiving. You’re going to have a lot of “S” Words coming up really soon. Let’s start working on them now!
“S” Words for $400 Alex
We only have one category tonight folks and that is swords…I mean “S” Words for $400 Alex. This holiday season you will have to make alot of “S” Word decisions. Let’s use Thanksgiving as an example and explore “S” Words like:
- “S”hrink – there will be foods on your Thanksgiving menu that you want to enjoy but could probably get by with a little less than a serving. For me that would be pumpkin pie. I like it, it likes me, but we’re not best friends you know? So I usually opt to “shrink” it by getting full on all the really good stuff first and then going in for a sliver. It’s even better if I wait until everyone else has helped themselves
- “S”wap – because we all have our specialties, I use the list I am assigned to swap out some higher point things like green bean casserole with my zero point green beans. And I’m always up for a good swap using fat free cream cheese!
- “S”kip – I don’t know about you but I’m skipping anything I can get year round. I also skip anything that isn’t “thanksgiving-y” like sweetened or alcoholic point laden drinks, “normal” sweets and treats, or food to be eating just to be eating it
“S”avor – no here is the list I like to daydream about days, even weeks in advance. There are some foods that we literally only get at Thanksgiving and I WILL BE SAVORING them. Things like: loaded mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, parker house rolls…with REAL butter
Your homework was #SwordsFor$400. Take 10 minutes and think about a food you know for sure you have coming up (my example was Thanksgiving) and pick just one “S” Word and tell us what you’ll do with it!
- Katy is going to “S”hrink her portion of mashed potatoes and stuffing and “S”avor one homemade desert!
- Lynn’s “s”word is also “S”hrink. When her family gets together for Thanksgiving Instead of taking a huge helping of her sister’s dressing she will shrink it and take a smaller size portion. She will fill up her plate with turkey, green beans and baked sweet potato.
- Deanna has decided this turkey day she will choose “S”kip it. She’s not a huge turkey fan, or the whole 3 hour meal prep for 10 minutes of eating. So she would skip turkey, all Thanksgiving-y vegetables. Instead she will “S”avor anything homemade, stuffing, mashed potatoes, desserts.
Bravo, you did it!
This Week’s Topic: “Shape Your Sleep Routine!”
Isn’t it ironic that our topic was sleep in the same week that the time changed for everyone in the US and her territories except Hawaii, Arizona, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands?
WW wasn’t the only entity that was chatting about sleep and the importance of it this week. Wonder why and if it’s really that important? Let’s find out!
We are all just large toddlers
When you get down to it, we are all just toddlers in large bodies. Me. You. All of us. According to the Mayo Clinic children may suffer the following ill effects from frequent lack of or disrupted sleep
- Absenteeism from school (or work!)
- Being accident prone
- Challenges with impulse control (so that’s why my brain says salad but my mouth says fries and a milkshake at the drive thru)
- Decrease in attention span, mental alertness, and ability to learn and reason
- Decreased motivation (starting to sound familiar)
- Defiance or noncompliance
- Depression or anxiety (oh boy now you’re preaching!)
- Difficulty falling asleep (isn’t that crazy??)
- Difficulty in waking
- Hyperactivity and silliness or giddiness
- Impairment in decision-making, problem-solving and judgment (um hello?)
- Increase in appetite and sugar cravings (boom, that explains alot)
- Overemotional (been there done that)
- Poor concentration
- Poor school performance (insert poor life performance here)
- Signs of cognitive, memory impairment and forgetting daily tasks
- Tantrums, irritability or aggressive behavior (ok now you’re just meddling LOL)
You can’t make up for lost time
I will claw and fight for that extra hour when the time falls back each autumn. Who’s with me?
But that one hour doesn’t make up for all the times I stayed up way too late to finish a Netflix series. Or stayed up all night with John to drive to Disney. Or got up super early because I couldn’t stop thinking about something at work and drove on in.
Frequently losing hours of sleep whether intentional or not can’t be made up with a nap, a late morning in bed, or even an annual time change
Back to being a toddler
A few minutes ago we discussed just how much we are like a large toddler. I bet you were nodding your head in agreement on at least 3-5 of the results of not enough sleep.
And if your toddler or young child was exhibiting even just a couple of these behaviors you would get right back onto that old bedtime routine wouldn’t you?
Only you know how many hours a night it takes for you to be a sane, productive, and somewhat normal participant in society. What have you done in the past or could you do to make sure that “most” nights you get that perfect for you sleep for your sanity?
For me it’s:
- Turn off the tv, phone, anything with blue light at least an hour before bed
- Make sure I have on the coolest clothes possible and that my husband has on like six layers
- Read for the last 30 minutes before I shut off the last lights and lay my head down
This Week’s Homework: #SleepForYourSanity
Your homework for this week is #SleepForYourSanity. Take 10 minutes and list three things you did or do or think you could/should do as a nighttime routine to achieve the magic number of hours to be sane the next day. Now DO YOUR HOMEWORK because I promise there is someone who needs the idea you have already rattling around in your head. Whatever it is let us know, I promise your decision to participate this week will help you AND someone else! Then type it, snap it, share it however you like, and then tag me for your next cool badge!
Don’t forget to do your homework #SleepForYourSanity and tag me when you share on social media!
- Tag @ifyouhaveanegg on Instagram
- Tag @ifyouhaveanegg on our Facebook Page
- Tag @Kelly Green Milligan in our Facebook Group
- Tag @ifyouhaveanegg on WW Connect
The Amazon Wish List is UP and I so appreciate your support. This will provide a way for us to continue testing products for you, trying out new gadgets and recipes, and refilling the IYHAE pantry since it doesn’t look like the budget cuts are budging. If you don’t already know, it costs more than $100 per week to provide this free content to you and that doesn’t include my time. Your support really does help keep us going!
Amazon Wish List can be found here: If You Have an Egg Support Wish List
Extra Credit: #BulkItUp Wendy’s Chili
We are rapidly approaching Soup Season! I love big salads during the summer, but there is just something about autumn/winter that makes me crave soup!
I am mostly alone this weekend, so I am bulking up a premade chili from Wendy’s to eat while I am home alone. The girls were at the other grandparents house, Allan & Casey both had fully booked weekends, and John is out of town. Sooooooo let’s #BulkItUp some Wendy’s chili!
We created a chili bar for Beau’s birthday party, and it was such a great, simple way to keep myself within my WW points while also feeding everyone who came over. But how on earth did you get enough chili for a birthday party?!?! The Wendy’s in our area (I’m not sure they do this everywhere) has a family size tub of chili available, but you have to ask for it directly. It is HUGE, and please remember to ask them for bowls, sour cream, crackers, and utensils if you need them!
There are roughly 6 cups of chili in this large tub, and a serving is 1 cup (5 points). So you could easily have 6 different meals out of this ONE tub of chili! But now… what on earth am I gonna make with 6 servings of chili? I’m going to show you how to #BulkItUp in 6 different ways!
- Add 2 cups of air fried butternut squash (400 degrees & 20mins) and 1 cup of corn, both of which are 0 pts. Now, you get 1 1/2 cups for 5 pts still, and you ended up with 9 cups of chili instead of 6!!
- Adding that mixture to a sweet potato for a fantastic loaded baked sweet potato!
- Adding 1 Wendy’s light sour cream for 1 point to a cup of chili for 6 points total
- Or, swap the sour cream for nonfat plain greek yogurt! That would be an excellent swap and it doesn’t add any points to your chili!
- Our Fearless Leader Gwen loves refried beans! So I added some fat free refried beans and 1/2 a cup of chili to extend the chili for a few more days.
- Or, you can simply eat the chili on its own. It is delicious, relatively low in points, and such a simple quick meal!
Which #BulkItUp option would you try in your chili? Let me know in the comments below!
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