Are you on a diet and watching what you're eating or drinking? Instead of reaching for the sugar-free cola or the diet soda, you may want to drink H20.
According to a new study from Children's Hospital and Research Center Oakland in California, those who sipped a few extra glasses of water (at least 33 ounces a day) lost even more weight. "Staying hydrated may increase metabolism, so you burn more fat," says lead study author Jodi Stookey, Ph.D.
Ordinary water is actually extraordinary because it's a more effective hydrator than any other beverage.
So your new diet should definitely limit your intake of any sugary drinks --example: juice, soda or iced tea -- to once a day, and have at least 6 cups of water (Tap, sparkling, bottled, or mineral has all produced the same result in the study).
If you want some twist in your H20, consider adding fresh mint or a slice of lemon or lime. And from my own experience, drinking more water also makes you feel more fulfilled sooner!
So go ahead and drink your glass of water.
Tracy
source: Shape magazine
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Happy Birthday, Daddy!
Today is my dad's birthday.
We talked on the phone for a little while and Christopher was talking (babbling) to him "Hi Opa (grandfather--in Dutch), hi hi." That just made his evening, he so loves Christopher. And Chris definitely loves him even more. We're planning to have a lunch on Sunday (which is going to be Easter Sunday and my birthday. I'm turning 29, everyone! Near the big 3-0). So it's going to be fun.
I'm going to post the link to one of the websites he's made! It's for St. Patrick's in Canby, and he's part of the Knights of Columbus as well.
http://www.stpatcanby.org/
My dad is one of the greatest men in my life.
He's very kind-hearted, loyal, understanding, patient, funny, energetic, positive, eager to learn, hardworking, creative, passionate (especially when it comes to his beliefs and the Church) and way way smart (too smart sometimes).
He's a really cool dad, he knows how to communicate with his children and he always believes and hopes the best for everyone (I do mean EVERYONE, he doesn't discriminate). Everyone who knows him just totally falls in love with him. My mom once said to me that she fell in love with him because he's the kindest, most sincere man she's ever known and until today, she's not changed her mind, in fact, she reaffirms this opinion. I agree with her wholeheartedly.
Simply put, dad's one of my idols, and I'd be very very lucky if I resemble some of his awesome qualities. I'm both so proud and lucky that he's my dad. Thank God for him.
May God Bless My Dad Always and Keep Him in GREAT health, and hopefully this year will be an awesome year for him too!
I love you, Dad! Happy happy birthday!
P.F. April 3rd 2007
Love,
Tracy
We talked on the phone for a little while and Christopher was talking (babbling) to him "Hi Opa (grandfather--in Dutch), hi hi." That just made his evening, he so loves Christopher. And Chris definitely loves him even more. We're planning to have a lunch on Sunday (which is going to be Easter Sunday and my birthday. I'm turning 29, everyone! Near the big 3-0). So it's going to be fun.
I'm going to post the link to one of the websites he's made! It's for St. Patrick's in Canby, and he's part of the Knights of Columbus as well.
http://www.stpatcanby.org/
My dad is one of the greatest men in my life.
He's very kind-hearted, loyal, understanding, patient, funny, energetic, positive, eager to learn, hardworking, creative, passionate (especially when it comes to his beliefs and the Church) and way way smart (too smart sometimes).
He's a really cool dad, he knows how to communicate with his children and he always believes and hopes the best for everyone (I do mean EVERYONE, he doesn't discriminate). Everyone who knows him just totally falls in love with him. My mom once said to me that she fell in love with him because he's the kindest, most sincere man she's ever known and until today, she's not changed her mind, in fact, she reaffirms this opinion. I agree with her wholeheartedly.
Simply put, dad's one of my idols, and I'd be very very lucky if I resemble some of his awesome qualities. I'm both so proud and lucky that he's my dad. Thank God for him.
May God Bless My Dad Always and Keep Him in GREAT health, and hopefully this year will be an awesome year for him too!
I love you, Dad! Happy happy birthday!
P.F. April 3rd 2007
Love,
Tracy
Mi Familia
See what I dug up from old pictures archive:
B&W magic
In color
Together in the kitchen
Thank you for the free hosting, Pixilive (http://www.pixilive.com).
So here's us in 2003, celebrating my aunt Hetty's birthday at my aunt Ellie's house. It was probably the last time that all of us were together. Now everyone is busy with their own lives, and some are back in Hong Kong, some are in Jakarta. There are more babies born, marriages, and even catastrophe.
Those are also the only pictures I have of the interior of my aunt's family's house before the 'fire/explosion' that happened at least a month ago. My cousin's husband's van blew up in the garage after he got there from picking the kids up from school. They were on the news too (fortunately no one was hurt).
I give you a cookie if you can recognize me (Okay, I was the one with real short hair, on your right hand side, wearing a white top). Unfortunately, I'm a total whale now compared to my old self. :)
B&W magic
In color
Together in the kitchen
Thank you for the free hosting, Pixilive (http://www.pixilive.com).
So here's us in 2003, celebrating my aunt Hetty's birthday at my aunt Ellie's house. It was probably the last time that all of us were together. Now everyone is busy with their own lives, and some are back in Hong Kong, some are in Jakarta. There are more babies born, marriages, and even catastrophe.
Those are also the only pictures I have of the interior of my aunt's family's house before the 'fire/explosion' that happened at least a month ago. My cousin's husband's van blew up in the garage after he got there from picking the kids up from school. They were on the news too (fortunately no one was hurt).
I give you a cookie if you can recognize me (Okay, I was the one with real short hair, on your right hand side, wearing a white top). Unfortunately, I'm a total whale now compared to my old self. :)
Monday, April 2, 2007
And That's What We Call The News, Folks...
Are you settling in for another humdrum night watching two hours of hysterical money-hungered contestants tonight on Deal or No Deal? Well, to cure your expected boredom, check out http://www.jibjab.com
Don't forget to tune in tomorrow evening for another special on NBC with Chris Hansen (by now, I'm pretty sure when he pops out nearby, it means you're screwed), that is if you don't want to torture yourself having to endure 1 minute of Sanjaya Salakar singing on American Idol.
Don't forget to tune in tomorrow evening for another special on NBC with Chris Hansen (by now, I'm pretty sure when he pops out nearby, it means you're screwed), that is if you don't want to torture yourself having to endure 1 minute of Sanjaya Salakar singing on American Idol.
Christopher Day
This blog entry is totally to celebrate the little boy human entity named Christopher J. Hood.
You know how your parents always ask you when you're going to start manufacturing humans when it's clear you don't have the investment capital and your production facilities aren't remotely close to being well staffed enough for such an endeavor? Well, they want to urge you to manufacture a human at any cost, and to do it quickly, because manufacturing a human was one of the best things they ever did, even though they are, admittedly, a little bit disappointed in how their human turned out.
Yes, eventually, everyone's humans become scowly and old and bark into their cell phones and wear bad shoes, but it doesn't matter, because when their parents look at them, all they see is pajamas with feet. With that in mind, I'm just going to go list my human, Christopher's progress before his 22nd month birthday coming in 13 days.
1) walking (since 9 months old)
2) running and crawling (if he feels like it)
3) understands words i.e. no, outside, yes, done, okay, come on, thank you, love you, smart baby, dance, jump, diaper, change, kiss, fish, dada, mommy, mama, owie (it hurts--or pretend hurt), big black (vacuum cleaner), hug/big hug, pee-pee, we're done. Commands such as : sit, be good, eat, drink, stop, no, clean up, light off, light on, can I have ___ (filled in objects you need).
4) can say words i.e. eeewww, owie, shoe, ball, love, no, okay, ya, fine/fun, fish, kiss, apa (Indonesian for: what, but he's calling my dad 'apa' because it's close to 'opa'--Dutch for grandfather), ema (Indonesian for: mom, but it's what he calls my mom 'ema' it's close to 'oma'--Dutch for grandmother), 'hi (fish, mommy, dada, apa, ema, la-la, po)' , tubby (if he wants to watch teletubbies), la-la & po (his fave teletubbies character), nanoo (the teletubbies' vacuum cleaner), more (food/drink), ba-ba (milk), wa-wa(water), juice, cheese, count 1 to 5, sometimes to 6 or 9, a-b-c, pee-pee, geico, good to go, dirt, kitty, doggie, duckie, bunny, tree, bye-bye, yayyy, wheeee, wow, cool, nice, yummy, are we done?
5) dancing (strangely enough most attracted to rap music beat)
6) jumping
7) throwing balls (rarely catching it)
8) changing television channel manually so he can watch cartoons
9) climbing up and down bed, chair,
10) opening and closing closet/door (also locking and unlocking--both Michael and I have been locked out before by him)
11) turning the light on and off
12) brushing his own teeth
13) throwing tantrum (quite) safely, he decided when he's upset to go to the carpeted area where he can slowly fling himself on it, pursing his lips defiantly then whine/cry (tearless) pretty loudly until he's distracted.
14) falling asleep by himself, and picking up blanket and bottle by himself before going to sleep
15) seeing you out (waving and saying bye-bye when you need to leave)
My current mision: getting him potty trained, he understand now the word "pee-pee," and he always says that after he did it and wanted to be changed...
There you go. I may add on as I see things progressing.
Love,
His mommy
You know how your parents always ask you when you're going to start manufacturing humans when it's clear you don't have the investment capital and your production facilities aren't remotely close to being well staffed enough for such an endeavor? Well, they want to urge you to manufacture a human at any cost, and to do it quickly, because manufacturing a human was one of the best things they ever did, even though they are, admittedly, a little bit disappointed in how their human turned out.
Yes, eventually, everyone's humans become scowly and old and bark into their cell phones and wear bad shoes, but it doesn't matter, because when their parents look at them, all they see is pajamas with feet. With that in mind, I'm just going to go list my human, Christopher's progress before his 22nd month birthday coming in 13 days.
1) walking (since 9 months old)
2) running and crawling (if he feels like it)
3) understands words i.e. no, outside, yes, done, okay, come on, thank you, love you, smart baby, dance, jump, diaper, change, kiss, fish, dada, mommy, mama, owie (it hurts--or pretend hurt), big black (vacuum cleaner), hug/big hug, pee-pee, we're done. Commands such as : sit, be good, eat, drink, stop, no, clean up, light off, light on, can I have ___ (filled in objects you need).
4) can say words i.e. eeewww, owie, shoe, ball, love, no, okay, ya, fine/fun, fish, kiss, apa (Indonesian for: what, but he's calling my dad 'apa' because it's close to 'opa'--Dutch for grandfather), ema (Indonesian for: mom, but it's what he calls my mom 'ema' it's close to 'oma'--Dutch for grandmother), 'hi (fish, mommy, dada, apa, ema, la-la, po)' , tubby (if he wants to watch teletubbies), la-la & po (his fave teletubbies character), nanoo (the teletubbies' vacuum cleaner), more (food/drink), ba-ba (milk), wa-wa(water), juice, cheese, count 1 to 5, sometimes to 6 or 9, a-b-c, pee-pee, geico, good to go, dirt, kitty, doggie, duckie, bunny, tree, bye-bye, yayyy, wheeee, wow, cool, nice, yummy, are we done?
5) dancing (strangely enough most attracted to rap music beat)
6) jumping
7) throwing balls (rarely catching it)
8) changing television channel manually so he can watch cartoons
9) climbing up and down bed, chair,
10) opening and closing closet/door (also locking and unlocking--both Michael and I have been locked out before by him)
11) turning the light on and off
12) brushing his own teeth
13) throwing tantrum (quite) safely, he decided when he's upset to go to the carpeted area where he can slowly fling himself on it, pursing his lips defiantly then whine/cry (tearless) pretty loudly until he's distracted.
14) falling asleep by himself, and picking up blanket and bottle by himself before going to sleep
15) seeing you out (waving and saying bye-bye when you need to leave)
My current mision: getting him potty trained, he understand now the word "pee-pee," and he always says that after he did it and wanted to be changed...
There you go. I may add on as I see things progressing.
Love,
His mommy
Sunday, April 1, 2007
How To Score Free Stuff
Believe it or not, it doesn't take a lot of hustle to get free stuff. With a little persistence, a little patience, most likely you will end up with awesome stuff that requires very minimal payment or no payment at all!
In my own experience, just last week, I scored a beauty/glamour photographs because I went on http://www.craigslist.org and browse around and it turns out a local photographer (with her own studio) wishes to expand her portfolio and was offering prints and pictures in exchange of me having my pictures taken and be put up on her website.
Next, I scored a free haircut from a hairstylist from a certain salon (from the same website: http://www.craigslist.org ) in exchange to be their hair model. Now on the beauty and general section hairstylists are searching for people for hair color and haircut models (read: free color and haircut)
The sections I usually browse in craigslist when interested in getting a great deals are :
1) free
2) barter
3) beauty
4) general
5) volunteers
You never know what gems await you by browsing and dedicating that small piece of free time (as a mom, it's usually when Christopher is napping or after putting him down to sleep at night) to find great deals.
A tip for browsing at craigslist org., make sure the person is legit, talk to the person offering the free service beforehand and see if you feel at all comfortable. Always meet up in public place, always let everyone knows where you're going if you're going by yourself (I try to bring someone with me if possible). And don't ever hesitate or feel pressured to leave or break the agreement if you don't have a good instinct out of meeting the person.
If you're a girl, I'm pretty sure that you've learned about this new fad in cosmetics : mineral make-ups.
There are so many of them out there and here we've got at least 3 different infomercials.
Unless you're more than willing to mull over the contract they want you to sign online, I must advise you to think twice before putting down/giving away your credit card numbers. You may be charged for things you don't feel you order, and I must caution how their advertisements can be deceptive. If you can, pay it with either a money order or a check (mail it to the address), do it the 'old-fashioned' way.
If you'd like to try mineral make-up, you can try these products:
1) Everyday Minerals (http://www.everydayminerals.com) or
2) Ocean Mist (http://www.oceanmistcosmetics.com/) or
3) Signature (http://www.signatureminerals.com/) for very nominal price (ONLY SHIPPING and HANDLING for around $4 or under). They also accepted money order or check so if you're interested, just option for that.
Another tips I will repost is how to get organic stuffs and getting a great deal:
http://frugality.blogspot.com/2007/03/very-good-article-from-organicorg.html
(Feel free to reread and implement to your daily lives)
I hope that everyone is having a splendid amazing day! I will be back with more frugal and green tips!
Love,
Tracy
In my own experience, just last week, I scored a beauty/glamour photographs because I went on http://www.craigslist.org and browse around and it turns out a local photographer (with her own studio) wishes to expand her portfolio and was offering prints and pictures in exchange of me having my pictures taken and be put up on her website.
Next, I scored a free haircut from a hairstylist from a certain salon (from the same website: http://www.craigslist.org ) in exchange to be their hair model. Now on the beauty and general section hairstylists are searching for people for hair color and haircut models (read: free color and haircut)
The sections I usually browse in craigslist when interested in getting a great deals are :
1) free
2) barter
3) beauty
4) general
5) volunteers
You never know what gems await you by browsing and dedicating that small piece of free time (as a mom, it's usually when Christopher is napping or after putting him down to sleep at night) to find great deals.
A tip for browsing at craigslist org., make sure the person is legit, talk to the person offering the free service beforehand and see if you feel at all comfortable. Always meet up in public place, always let everyone knows where you're going if you're going by yourself (I try to bring someone with me if possible). And don't ever hesitate or feel pressured to leave or break the agreement if you don't have a good instinct out of meeting the person.
If you're a girl, I'm pretty sure that you've learned about this new fad in cosmetics : mineral make-ups.
There are so many of them out there and here we've got at least 3 different infomercials.
Unless you're more than willing to mull over the contract they want you to sign online, I must advise you to think twice before putting down/giving away your credit card numbers. You may be charged for things you don't feel you order, and I must caution how their advertisements can be deceptive. If you can, pay it with either a money order or a check (mail it to the address), do it the 'old-fashioned' way.
If you'd like to try mineral make-up, you can try these products:
1) Everyday Minerals (http://www.everydayminerals.com) or
2) Ocean Mist (http://www.oceanmistcosmetics.com/) or
3) Signature (http://www.signatureminerals.com/) for very nominal price (ONLY SHIPPING and HANDLING for around $4 or under). They also accepted money order or check so if you're interested, just option for that.
Another tips I will repost is how to get organic stuffs and getting a great deal:
http://frugality.blogspot.com/2007/03/very-good-article-from-organicorg.html
(Feel free to reread and implement to your daily lives)
I hope that everyone is having a splendid amazing day! I will be back with more frugal and green tips!
Love,
Tracy
Sunday is Appreciation Day!
Hello all,
First of all, I must thank you Michelle for being so sweet and nice and awesome to give part of her time to write comments on my humble blog!
I hope she and Daniel will make their dream wedding a reality as soon as possible!
P.S. If you're interested in frugal wedding, I'm your woman, I'll be like your personal wedding consultant!
P.S.S. I understand how expensive some organic stuffs is, I usually utilize all coupons I get from Sunday's newspaper, or check out local market for veggies, and although I start to go green, I don't buy all products organic :) Only those that are affordable to the budget.
Love,
Tracy
BRB
First of all, I must thank you Michelle for being so sweet and nice and awesome to give part of her time to write comments on my humble blog!
I hope she and Daniel will make their dream wedding a reality as soon as possible!
P.S. If you're interested in frugal wedding, I'm your woman, I'll be like your personal wedding consultant!
P.S.S. I understand how expensive some organic stuffs is, I usually utilize all coupons I get from Sunday's newspaper, or check out local market for veggies, and although I start to go green, I don't buy all products organic :) Only those that are affordable to the budget.
Love,
Tracy
BRB
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
