The Obsessive Researching Mommy

Saying Goodbye To Our Cherry Tree

2020-08-20T17:40:00.002-07:00

It was a hot afternoon in August 2020. The doorbell rang. An arborist from the City introduced himself and told us that they were doing an annual pruning and one of his crew thought our tree may need to be removed due to rotting. He showed us that at least three branches had rot problems. He said that he ordinarily just leaves a letter at the door and does not speak to homeowners. We expressed how sad we were to see the tree go. It keeps the air cool around our house in the summer. Trees act as natural air conditioners, and we were aware of this. He said we would have about a week to say goodbye. So I took the image above one day after we finished a family run.

This is a wild cherry tree, very unique for this area for its species and size. Every March it has white blossoms and it produces tiny red black cherries with a large pit inside. I tried eating one once, and it is mostly pit, but the fruit tasted decent.

Only five days later, the tree removal crew arrived. The man with the chainsaw said he was an arborist. He estimated the tree to be around 75 years old, which would mean that this tree pre-dated the development of this entire neighbourhood. My neighbourhood is the least historic in this city, having been developed last! In 1959, the city's first shopping mall opened in my large block. Currently it is being developed into a second downtown-type area, with over a dozen residential towers reaching their fingers into the sky and blotting out the sun and dwarfing the surrounding family single homes.

The green arrow shows the location of the tree in 1958. Before development, this area was once home to the Vancouver Gun Club's rifle range.

Above: Image taken after the crew finished the first day, mostly removing the greenery from the southwest corner of the tree. The next day, the majority of the work was done, leaving nothing but the trunk and treeless branches.

The third and final day. Every day we were heartsick watching the tree being meticulously chopped. I created a time lapse video which you can view here.

I feel sickened with the death of the tree. Every year when we came home from our March vacation, the tree would be there, welcoming us home. The tree sheltered our house as the sun set in the west, keeping our house cool through some hot summers. Our house felt like it was set in the middle of a park.

The City of Vancouver has 22.5% coverage by the tree canopy. For many years, homeowners were removing trees on their private property, leading to a deforestation of the city. The trees helped decrease carbon in the atmosphere and regulate the air temperature, as well as preventing soil erosion. In 2014, the City amended the bylaws to require property owners to obtain a special permit before removing trees from homeowner's property.

Above image: My area, Oakridge, had only 15% canopy cover. There is no shade for pedestrians or runners so it makes the neighbourhood less liveable and decreases the chances for developing the community, meeting your neighbours on your evening walk. The nearby Tisdall Park must serve that purpose, and even then, the canopy cover does not fully cover the walking path.

Image: cross section from the beloved tree. The centre appears to have heart rot, but that will not kill the tree, as the bark and outer layers of the tree can sustain it. The diameter is 30.5 to 31.5 inches, and this is not the base of the tree, but is part of the main trunk.

Wild cherry wood is the most desirable wood for furniture. The grain is straight and it is resistant to rot.

Above images: Top - before. Bottom - after. What my front yard looks like without the tree. Truly shocking.

Goodbye, dear cherry tree. You will be sorely missed.

Cat Friendly Plants

2019-07-31T13:15:00.002-07:00

To clean the air in my home, I wanted to buy plants. However, I share the house with two cats, who have a tendency to eat my plants.

What to do.

Which plants are best at cleaning the air? From NASA's list:

Back in the late ‘80s, NASA was looking for ways to detoxify the air in its space stations. So it conducted a study to determine the most effective plants for filtering the air of toxic agents and converting carbon dioxide to oxygen. In 1989, their results were published in a clean air study that provided a definitive list of the plants that are most effective at cleaning indoor air. The report also suggested having at least one plant per every hundred square feet of home or office space.

Here is that list:

Dwarf Date Palm *
Boston Fern *
Kimberley Queen Fern ?
Spider Plant *
~~Chinese Evergreen~~
Bamboo Palm *
~~Weeping Fig~~
~~Devil's Ivy~~
~~Flamingo Lily~~
Lilyturf *
Broadleaf Lady Palm ?
Barberton Daisy *
~~Cornstalk Dracaena~~
~~English Ivy~~
~~Variegated Snake Plant~~
~~Red-Edged Dracaena~~
~~Peace Lily~~
~~Florist's Chrysanthemum~~

I checked the list of these plants against the list of toxic and non-toxic (to cats) plant list from the ASPCA. I crossed out those which were toxic and marked non-toxic plants with an asterix (*). Where I was uncertain about the toxicity, I marked those with a question mark (?).

So here is a short list with the best non-toxic cleaning plants and images to help you with your shopping:

Dwarf Date Palm *
Boston Fern *
Kimberley Queen Fern ?
Spider Plant *
Bamboo Palm *
Lilyturf *
Broadleaf Lady Palm ?
Barberton Daisy *

Happy cat friendly plant shopping!

Broccoli Sprouts as Medicine: Sulforaphane

2019-07-31T13:06:00.002-07:00

I've been having issues with my left knee for a year now. When I twist it or run on it, it feels sore. Before my MRI results came back, someone suggested it may be due to arthritis. Well, turns out I had a torn meniscus. This did not stop me from researching cures for arthritis.

Why Sulforaphane?

There are myriad benefits to eating sulforaphane. Some of my favourite benefits are the prevention or delay of:

arthritis;
Alzheimer's;
cancer; and
diabetes.

Broccoli Sprouts vs Mature Broccoli

I started researching the role of broccoli to reduce arthritic symptoms and came across broccoli sprouts as a much more potent source of sulforaphane, which is the salient component of broccoli. Three day old broccoli sprouts contain 10 to 100 times the amount of sulforaphane of mature broccoli.

One ounce (28 g) of broccoli sprouts has 10 times the amount of glucosinolates as half a cup of mature broccoli. So your jar of broccoli sprouts is equivalent to eating 50 cups of mature broccoli!

How much broccoli sprouts should you eat daily?

According to Dr. Rhonda Patrick:

1 g of broccoli sprouts has 0.425 mg of sulforaphane.

Studies have shown beneficial effects of sprouts on inflammation, cancer biomarkers, or a reduction of triglycerides with a dose of 40 to 60 mg/day of sulforaphane, or 100-140 g of broccoli sprouts.

Each 1L jar of broccoli sprouts, grown from two tablespoons of broccoli seeds, produces 280 g of broccoli sprouts or around 90-120 mg of sulforaphane. I did not get as high a yield as Dr. Patrick. I was only able to produce 160 g of broccoli sprouts per jar.

Of course, the longer you grow the sprouts, the heavier they become. I weighed them at the four day mark.

In other words, each jar contains sufficient sprouts for two people per day, or about one tablespoon of broccoli seeds per person.

One tablespoon of broccoli seeds produces about one cup of broccoli sprouts.

Increasing bioavailability of sulforaphane

Dr. Rhonda Patrick suggests soaking the sprouts for 10 minutes at 70C to increase the bioavailability of sulforaphane. You must be careful not to overheat the sprouts as this will destroy the myrosinase which is used to create sulforaphane.

How much is too much?

Four cups of sprouts is the limit for toxicity.

Amazon Delivery: Prime Service? Just Not on Sunday or Monday

2017-01-29T21:16:00.001-08:00

I ordered some electronics through Amazon.com on a Thursday in the early evening. Since I was leaving the city on Tuesday, I paid an extra $8.99 to have the package delivered with "Two Day Shipping - get it Saturday, Jan. 28."

The next day I received a confirmation email that the package "has shipped. Arriving Saturday, January 28."

Checking with tracking, the original expected delivery time was Saturday at 5:00 pm. This was revised to Saturday before 8:00 pm, so I waited up until that time. It did not come.

When I complained to Amazon, I was told to contact FedEx for an estimated delivery time.

Well, surprise.

I was just told that "FedEx Home Delivery" does not open on Sundays or Mondays. In other words, the earliest I can receive my package is... Tuesday. The day I am leaving the city.

Dear Amazon:

I am asking you to clearly state that your delivery service does not operate on Sundays or Mondays. So really, the two day service is clearly a TWO OR FIVE day service if your delivery service happens to fall on a Saturday. In other words, if delivery is late, it will not be late by one day, it will be late by three days.

Your customers can then make informed decisions. Better yet, dump FedEx and find a company that works on Mondays.

Yours truly,
The Obsessive Researching Mommy

How the BC Liberals are Privatizing Education

2016-06-21T17:20:00.001-07:00

Lizanne Foster wrote a post in Facebook. I am posting it here because it needs to be read more widely. She made the following observations:

Despite all the cautionary tales about them from the U.S, we will soon see Charter schools in East Vancouver. They'll be attended by students who have won lotteries. They will be run by those corporations who have long been tantalized by $5 Trillion spent on the "education sector" worldwide. We'll be told that they provide parents with "choice".

The pathway to this inevitability is clear to see.There is no conspiracy.

1995 Milton Friedman, a neoliberal economist, suggests that schools should be privatized.

1998 The Fraser Institute begins its ranking of schools

2002 BC Liberals begin removing $336 million from education funding each year

2003 Minister of Education, Christy Clark, cancels class size and composition agreements. She also amends the School Act to remove government commitments to school buses. She cancels rules around catchment areas. (This is when the exodus from East Vancouver to West Vancouver schools began, fuelled by Fraser Institute School Rankings)

2003 BC Liberals pass legislation that makes it possible for school districts to be run like a business. Districts are encouraged to "sell" BC curriculum in China, Japan, Taiwan. A few still run schools there.

2005 - 2014 Teachers' strikes draw the public's attention to the defunding of schools, the learning conditions of students, especially those with special needs. The defunding continues.

2015 With all school districts in desperate need of funds despite having cut all "low hanging fruit", the BC Liberal government demands an extra $54Million from school districts.

2016 Government announces that they only really wanted $29million after all. Schools get to keep $25million.

Funding-by-photo-op fiscal policy results in a tiny fraction of school district needs being met.

School districts announce multiple school closures.

2017 Increase in the spin about the merits of High Tech High.

2020 High Tech High arrives in East Vancouver

The same pattern will unfold in other areas of the province. Charter schools are more likely to pop up in traditional NDP territory, with publicly-funded private schools will continue to exist in traditional BC Liberal areas.

Yesterday the Vancouver School Board (VSB) announced a list of schools in Vancouver that are on the chopping block. The closure of some 200 schools across BC since 2005 is due mostly to the declining education budget. The VSB will see the loss of elementary Band and Strings as well as many valuable programs. Education as a percentage of the provincial budget has dropped from 23% to 13% from 2002 to 2015.

This makes no sense as the Clark government has reported a surplus of $400 million. Why does the BC Liberal government continue to make cuts to public education with a surplus, while simultaneously increasing funding to private schools? This year alone the BC Liberals increased funding to private schools by $30 million from the previous $311 million, which is nearly a 10% increase. It was certainly not due to enrollment, which only increased by 1.3% last year. Public schools are reporting an increase in enrollment for the first time in 20 years. Why would the BC Liberals be hell bent on stripping even more funding from public schools?

What can you do about chronic underfunding of public schools? The non-partisan grassroots group of concerned parents Families Against Cuts to Education has created an email tool which will send a letter to Premier Clark, the Minister of Education, the Minister of Finance, your MLA, and the Opposition. Let the BC Liberals know that public education needs sustainable, adequate, and predictable funding.

Frayed, Broken MacBook Pro Magsafe 60W Adapter Blues

2015-12-15T14:36:00.001-08:00

Thinking of buying a MacBook Pro? Is it worth it? Well, it's sort of like buying a luxury car, with the exorbitant bills to fix it if something goes wrong.

And something did indeed go wrong with mine.

I bought my MacBook Pro in January 2013. My adapter cable casing broke and frayed at the end close to the square transformer. I figured this out while I was charging my Macbook Pro and I smelled something burning. The break point was not subject to unusual strain. I've only taken the Macbook on the road a handful of times.

Selling adapters that have a tendency to fray and break at a cost ranging from $69 to $99 is robbery. Apple knows that these cables break frequently (with any given "genius" witnessing five of these breakages a day), and yet when the customer returns with a cable for out of warranty service, the charge for the replacement cable makes a tidy profit for Apple.

Someone has even capitalized on the inherent tendency to fray with creating a special protective overlay!!! The "frayfix." WHY, I ask, why is that necessary? Why doesn't Apple build that kind of strength into the cable in the first place?! Where is the stress relief? It's not like I haven't already paid a 100% premium to buy this computing power in the Apple version vs. PC, that they had insufficient money to build some quality into the adapter cable.

For previous versions of this type of cable there was a successful class action lawsuit in the U.S.

The "genius" insisted that I surrender my frayed adapter for "recycling" when selling me a new adapter for $69. He said that I would have to pay the full price of $99 for the adapter plus cord if I did not surrender my frayed adapter. So this image is all I have left. As far as I know, $69 is more than a fair price for just the adapter and not even the cord connecting to the electrical outlet. You can buy clone adapter+cords on eBay or Amazon starting at $17 for the adapter PLUS the cord.

I wanted to keep my old adapter and cord to fix it and use at home. Now I can't. Apple can re-use the parts in refurbished computers, generating further profit. I, on the other hand, paid an inflated price for an adapter that certainly results in yet more profit for Apple. This reeks of profiteering on Apple's own faulty products!

And... there is only a 90 day warranty on the new cable. That sure shows confidence in your product, Apple.

Knowing the next cable is likely to fray, you can wrap a pen spring around the base of the cable.

So, keep in mind that if you buy an Apple product, you agree to pay another $100 down the road to keep using it if you plan to have it more than two years.

Update: October 29, 2017.

This week by cable broke again, despite my winding a pen spring around the base of the cable. It broke in precisely the same spot. If I hold it in a certain position, it can still charge.

After putting electrical tape on the joint, I put a bubble tea straw over the joint and used scotch tape to keep it in place.

Underfunding Public Education in B.C.: MYTH OR FACT?

2015-04-13T00:43:00.002-07:00

I am excited to announce that this will be the laziest post that has ever been published on the Obsessive Researching Mommy Blog to date!

This is my humorous way of saying that I would like to thank Kim Hancock for the following facts and sources to cite when someone, like a Minister of Education, says to you something outrageous such as “there’s nothing to be gained by perpetuating a myth that our public education system is underfunded and broken."

I did not do this research. I wanted to file it away on this page so I can retrieve it later, and because I love you, dear reader, I am making it available to you too.

I was SO lazy that I even borrowed the picture and the contents for the caption from a tumblr blog called Fix BC Ed which you should all go and visit after you are done getting outraged from reading the statistics below.

BC falls behind in K-12 funding as a % of GDP

Total expenditures in public elementary and secondary schools as a percentage of the GDP BC as a percentage of GDP 3.3% Canadian average 3.6%
Source: Statistics Canada (2010)

BC falls further behind Canada in per student funding (operating expenditures per FTE student)

2010-2011 ($988.00 below the national average)
Source: Statistics Canada (2013)

Most provinces hired more teachers

BC lost 3.7% lowest in Canada – PEI hired the most 14.7%
Source: Statistics Canada (2013)

BC has the worst student–educator ratio in Canada

BC average in 2011 16.8 students per teacher
Canadian average 13.8 students per teacher
Source: Statistics Canada (2010)

If our BC funding met the national average we would have:

- 6,600 more teachers in our classrooms this year
- On average four more teachers per school
- $568 million more in the education budget

Since the contract strips of Christy Clark when she was Education Minister

Loss of

286 librarians
120 counselors
770 special education teachers
342 English Language Learner Teachers
11 Aboriginal Education teachers

Source: BC Ministry of Education Staff by Year and Program Code 2002, 2012

Increase in classes with four or more designated student with special needs

2007 9,559
2012 12,651
Source: BC Ministry of Education Overview of Class Size and Composition in BC Schools

BC is last or next to last in Canada in the following key measures

Operating expenditures 12th
Operating expenditures per student 13th
Total expenditures 12th
Total expenditures per student 12th
Total expenditures per capita 12th
Source: Statistics Canada (2013)

BC spends much less that the national average on our public school children:

Between 2008 and 2012 Board Operating Expenditures on public schools increased by 13.8% in Canada and only 3.4% in BC – if funding in BC had been at the Canadian average there would be an additional $493 Million in education funding this year
Source: Statistics Canada (2010)

BC far behind expenditures of other Western Provinces

Board operating Expenditures for public schools – increased 24.7% in Alberta, 22.1% in Saskatchewan, 15.7% in Manitoba and 3.4% in BC
Source: Statistics Canada (2010)

Education funding not keeping up with inflation

According to the Conference Board of Canada BC caps education (K-12 and post secondary) spending increases to 0.6% per year between now and 2017 estimates BC needs to increase education spending by 2.7 % per year or 1.6 billion over three years to maintain inflation adjusted funding per student
Source: Vancouver Sun August 7, 2014

Downloaded costs are increasing what School Districts need to pay

General inflation on supplies and services
Increased Medical Services Premiums
Increased BC Hydro Rates
Unfunded salary increments for employees moving up on grid
Increases to employer contributions for payroll benefits, health / dental benefits and employee pension plans
3.5% salary increase for support staff (2013-2014)

Totalling 192.7 million in cost pressures in 2014-2015 (source: BC Association of School Business Officials)
Source: Ministry of Education Estimates 2014-2015

The public is saying to spend more on K-12 and post secondary and if necessary raise taxes to do so:

What did the public say about increased funding to public education

71% chose to increase revenue through taxes
72% selected K-12 and post secondary education as a first priority

Source: Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services

Is Homemade Raw Food for Cats Cheaper Than Canned?

2014-03-08T08:48:00.001-08:00

One of my two Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue cats in her favourite sleeping place, my lap. Adopt a black cat today. They are the best.

I've been making my own cat food because it is healthier and has less packaging. Eating raw meat in chunks also cuts down on the need for cleaning my cats' teeth as well.

For your reference, here are some quick calculations on whether I'm saving any money.

The main ingredient is bone-in chicken thighs, which is around $6/kg ($2.70/lb) at either Safeway or Costco. The recipe requires you to discard 25% of the bone and 50% of the skin.

Other ingredients include egg yolks, chicken livers ($3/lb), chicken gizzards ($3/lb), and chicken hearts ($3/lb).

This worked out to $25.07 per 9.3 pounds of finished food, or in detail:

$17.87: 5.56 pounds of chicken thighs and one pound of gizzards
$2.19: 4 egg yolks
$2.12: fish oil, psyllium husk powder, Vit B-50, Vit E-400, taurine powder
$2.89: chicken hearts
$1.64: chicken liver

This includes two cups of water in the final product weight.

Cost is $2.88 per pound, or $0.18 per ounce.

The cost for commercial food? Previously I'd written about how First Mate dog food has the same composition as its cat food. First Mate dog food (canned chicken) is $3 for 12.5 oz or $3.84 per pound.

So, cost savings of about 33%. It takes 1.5 hours for me to make the food, including cleanup and putting the food in jars.

What I am *not* including is the cost of the Tasin 108 meat grinder. It should be factored in. If you'd like to make your own cat food, there are detailed instructions here.

Silence of the Doors: Fixing a Squeaky Door

2014-03-08T08:46:00.003-08:00

What can these things possibly have in common?

When I first moved in six years ago, I used WD-40 to lubricate door hinges. It was quick and easy but it stank.

Googling a solution to squeaky doors comes up with many different options.

Popular Mechanics suggests that squirting in oil is only a temporary solution. The long term solution is to remove the pin in the hinge, clean it, and grease it up.

I was surprised there were so many options for the lubricant and not one popular standout, so I've listed the top 10 Google hits, in order of my personal preference for a solution along with comments from the sources:

Tri-Flow Chain Lube: Ask.com (If you're a cyclist you have this, and it's long lasting)
Silicone Spray: Home Repair Central (Must be used more often than grease but is less messy and easier to use), Ask.com ("best option--long lasting, effective, not messy, easy to use)
White Lithium Grease: Popular Mechanics, Home Repair Central, ask.com (next best option to silicone spray)
Paraffin Candles: Apartment Therapy (leaves little residue compared to soap, oil or lubricant), Ask.com (or bees wax, an antiquated solution, but messy)
Soap: Apartment Therapy, Wikihow
Petroleum Jelly: Family Handyman, Apartment Therapy, Ask.com (not recommended since it will accumulate dust and dirt)
Coconut Oil: Pistachio Project
Three in One Oil and Machine Oil: Home Repair Central
Butter: Huffington Post (ew, suggested as a temporary fix, but ew)
Graphite Powder: Ask.com, but dismissed as too messy especially over carpet by some
WD-40: Wikihow

You can pick one of these solutions based on being:

long lasting
convenient to buy
environmentally friendly
less messy
less dirt attracting
easier to apply

I can't make the decision for you because I don't know what's most important to you, as some of these factors are at odds with one another, such as long lasting vs. environmentally friendly.

You can do it handyperson!

Priceline Roulette

2013-11-04T20:14:00.003-08:00

Priceline's map of Seattle, Area 14 demarcating "Downtown-Pike Place."

Dearest Google Researcher,

Here's one of my bad experiences that you can learn from.

Priceline is a hotel discounter. But not just a simple discounter--you have to bid blindly on a hotel of a certain quality in a defined geographical area. You do not know the name of the hotel until after you have paid for it (non-refundable).

Summary of my rant: Do NOT bid for a 4* hotel in Downtown - Pike Place Seattle on Priceline. Do not trust Priceline.

This is my sad story. Of how I played Priceline Roulette and lost. I say "sad" because that sounds better than "angry" which is a more accurate description of my state of mind.

I have been using Priceline to buy hotels since 2009, loving the savings and gaining some white hairs in the process. The first time I used Priceline I was a nervous wreck, sweaty armpits, shaking... and this only being a slight exaggeration of the state I was in. I mean, there are no refunds! You don't know which hotel you're getting! I do use Bidding for Travel, the Bidding Traveler, and Better Bidding to know how to operate the system and to guess what hotel I might be granted.

There have been very good and very bad experiences among my 14 Priceline hotel purchases.

In a few cases I've ended up at a hotel that is currently undergoing renovations. So they must have resorted to Priceline to continue to move room inventory while the restaurant was being rebuilt, or the entire first floor being renovated.

And once I ended up in the wrong city! In 2010, I found myself in at Hotel La Jolla by the Shores, 45 minutes away from where I intended to be, near Legoland in Carlsbad. This was because the La Jolla hotel was in the "North County Coastal" area when I wanted "North San Diego" for the San Diego area. When I was bidding, I must have been tired and only saw the opening word "North" when selecting the area. This double name confusion has since been corrected by Priceline as I notice today that the North San Diego area no longer exists.

The other con to using Priceline is that hotels use Priceline as a way of selling off some of their less desirable rooms. You know, the ones with a view of the parking lot, or facing the loading zones with the trucks going beep beep, or beside the freeway. You, dear customer, are paying 30% less, so we'll give you a 30% less nice room.

Now for today's rant.

I bid on a 4* hotel in Seattle in the "Downtown - Pike Place" district. Bam, I got the Silver Cloud Stadium, located at the very southern perimeter of the area "14" shaded above in the photograph. Technically, it is considered "Downtown" as part of Pioneer Square, but really since it is a 25 minute walk from the centre of the action, I don't know how you can consider this downtown. When you pay a premium to buy a downtown hotel, you expect to be within walking distance of something. Shopping. Restaurants. Not to be in the middle of an industrial area surrounded by vast tracts of lands in stadiums. For the Silver Cloud Stadium, you need to take the hotel shuttle to get to the real downtown. If I wanted to take transportation to go downtown, I would have saved my money and stayed in Bellevue, which is a mere 15 minute drive across the water.

Worse yet, in July 2012, this was a 3.5* hotel. The last time I checked, this was not a 4* hotel. I was not expecting to get it.

Just so you know it's not me who is angry to get a non-downtown non-4* hotel for a downtown 4* price, here is a selection of rants by others just in the last few weeks, all on the Priceline site itself, so you know that Priceline knows that people are pissed at this misrepresentation:

October 26, 2013: "Yes. I did not sleep because of the noise in the room the first night due to trains in the area. Location it's horrible.
I am completely shocked that you rate this hotel with 4 stars. The room quality, location regarding noise and I can't believe you called this a downtown hotel. I've used priceline for a long time and due to this experience I will probably not use you again."

October 18, 2013: "Hotel room was NOT of 4 star quality. The grout in the bathroom was disgusting - not clean at all. No upgraded amenities like other 4 stars that I stay at (JW Marriott, Ritz, Kimpton, Starwoods, Hyatt). Satellite TV kept going out. Wifi worked only intermittently. Rooms were small On the plus side - the lobby was clean."

October 18, 2013: "Location was misrepresented by Priceline. I selected Seattle- Pike Street. Seattle Stadium was definitely not Pike Street."

November 1, 2013: "Not up to the Priceline standard for hotels in the 4-star category. Very sketchy part of town surrounds the hotel. Not really a part of the downtown core as represented."

October 26, 2013: "The accommodations were not 4 star quality. Room finishing was old and the space, even in a suite, was very confining. The location may not fit into other categories, but this was not "downtown" - a fairly important misrepresentation from the site."

October 17, 2013: "Rooms seem dated, furnishings seemed old, and it just didn't feel like a 4 star hotel compared to the other 4 stars on the list. Also, unless you're attending an event at Safeco or Century Link it's not a great location for downtown.
Very nice staff, rooms are adequate, but feel dated. Location is not where you expect to end up when selecting a downtown option with Priceline."

October 16, 2013: "I do not consider this the downtown area of Seattle."

October 15, 2013: "This hotel is 3-3.5 stars at best. It is in a poor location, except for the sporting stadiums, rooms are small, lobby and lounge area very mediocre. Probably would not stay at this hotel for this price."

October 15, 2013: "I did not like that Priceline has included the Seattle Stadium area in the "Downtown" selection. It is not in the downtown shopping area.
The hotel was fine. Clean and nice staff. Just not downtown Seattle. Will no longer recommend Priceline to my friends as I have done for several years. "

October 10, 2013: "They charged for parking. $25/night.
Hotel in SODO district. Not downtown. A bit misleading as Priceline needs a SODO location in addition to downtown."

October 10, 2013: "It was supposedly "downtown", Pike Street area. It was NOT, no matter how you try to spin it. For this reason, I won't be using the Priceline service in the future. It can't be trusted."

October 3, 2013: "The location said it was pike place. It was not but that would be error on priceline I guess not the hotel. They did have free shuttle to make up for that mistake."
September 30, 2013: "High parking costs, just did not feel like a 4 star hotel.
It was clean and nice but not a 4 star hotel. More like a 3 star. Parking was unreasonably high priced at $25 a day."

September 30, 2013: "This is NOT a 4 Star Hotel. It was 3-3.5. I travel quite a bit and have stayed at 4 star hotels recently in Seattle (Grand Hyatt) and there is no comparison. Nice Hotel, just not 4 star."

September 29, 2013: "Beware when booking! Priceline identifies the hotel as Downtown but it is NOT. At least a mile walk to anything worth seeing. The hotel is disappointing for four stars. Loud refrigerator, loud Mechanical units. Free shuttle has limited usefulness.
The location is terrible unless you are going to a sports events, and is of poor quality for a 4-star hotel."

Priceline executives: are you listening? Do something about this.

As for myself, I am going to avoid using Priceline. People are frightened enough that they don't want to use Priceline. This kind of unwanted surprise isn't helping things any.

You know, I warned you Priceline that if you were not going to listen to me that I would write in my blog about it. This has been going on for more than a year and you have heard from many of us. Stop cheating us.

Sunscreen Smackdown

2013-09-19T09:35:00.001-07:00

I hate sunscreens. My eldest hates it so much that sometimes she would rather stay home than apply it. She would rather wear a long sleeve shirt and long pants in the hot sun than wear sunblock. If you decide to go this route, I can recommend the White Sierra Gobi SPF 30 shirt to do the trick, as it is loose fitting, wicking, and dries quickly, rather than the typical rash guard shirts. My kids love theirs.

So which is the best sunscreen? Four criteria here:

Best sun protection;
Safe ingredients;
Best feeling on the skin; and
Best value

Some day I'll make up a table and put it all together for you, to figure out which sunscreen is the best overall, but today is not that day. This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for three months and I've realized now that I'm never going to get around to it. If you manage to create a table with the sunscreen names, protection factor, price, EWG rating, and Amazon rating (for how consumers like how it feels on the skin), please send the link to me! The fact that there are a gazillion different types of sunscreens, and multiples from the same manufacturer, leads to a Goliath worthy task.

Now, I'm thinking this is the Impossible Dream, getting a sunscreen which rates well for all of the four criteria. So it is up to you which factors are the most important and the weighting you give to them to determine the overall winner.

Here is a discussion of the four criteria and what I've come up with after some obsessive research.

Best Protection from UVA and UVB

For best sun protection, I turn to Consumer Reports. Unfortunately, the SPF does not tell you how well protected you are from UVA and UVB rays. "Most of the sunscreens we tested provided less protection than the SPF listed on the container," Sue Booth of Consumer Reports said.

Sky-high SPF numbers are no measure of product effectiveness. A sunscreen’s sun protection factor, or SPF, measures its ability to screen skin burning UV rays, primarily UVB rays. The SPF value does not reflect the product’s ability to filter out UVA rays that, according to a growing body of evidence, cause skin damage, immune suppression and possibly melanoma. Studies show that high-SPF users are exposed to as many or more ultraviolet rays than those who use lower-SPF products. Experts believe that people get a false sense of security from those big numbers, don’t apply enough sunscreen, wait too long before reapplying and spend too much time in bright sun.

About 1 in 7 beach and sport sunscreens is labeled with SPF values greater than 50+. The FDA has proposed to limit SPF claims to 50+ but has not issued a regulation to that end. European manufacturers are bound by a European Union rule that caps SPF claims at 50+.

If you just want the best SPF sun protection for value, buy the EQ Sport SPF 60 sunscreen from Walmart. At $7 for 237 mL, it's a steal. I am not recommending any spray on sunscreens because they are still researching the danger of that application method, given that the fumes may be inhaled.

Here are the top four according to Consumer Reports in 2010:

Up & Up Sport Continuous SPF 30, by Target. It is administered by spray and costs $0.88 per ounce.
Walgreens Sport Continuous SPF 50. Also a spray. Cost, $1.33 per ounce.
Banana Boat Sport Performance Continuous SPF 30. Spray. Cost, $1.60 per ounce.
Aveeno Continuous Protection SPF 50. Spray. Cost, $2 an ounce.

Ranking below those are:

Coppertone UltraGuard Continuous 70+ SPF, costing $1.62 per ounce. Spray.
No-Ad with Aloe and Vitamin, 45 SPF scale, costing $0.59 per ounce. Lotion.
Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Body Mist with Helioplex, 45 SPF, costing $1.90 per ounce. Spray.
Badger, 30 SPF, costing $4.83 per ounce. Lotion.
La Roche-Posay Anthelios 40 with Mexoryl SX, 40 SPF, costing $18.82 per ounce. Cream.
Avon Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard Plus IR3535 Expedition, 30 SPF, costing $3.50 per ounce. Pump spray.
Burt’s Bees Chemical-Free with Hemp Seed Oil, 30 SPF, costing $4 per ounce. Lotion.

Safest Ingredient Sunscreen

For safe ingredients, I turn to Environmental Working Group's extensive ratings. Here is where I save you the work. I've cross referenced the Consumer Reports list with the EWG ratings for you.

0-2: Low Hazard
3-6: Moderate Hazard
7-10: High Hazard

Here they are ranked from best to worst. Click on the rating number to see the full description of the hazards.

For the Consumer Reports top rated sunscreens:

Up & Up Sport Continuous SPF 30, by Target. It is administered by spray and costs $0.88 per ounce. 7
Walgreens Sport Continuous SPF 50. Also a spray. Cost, $1.33 per ounce. 7 for the 15 SPF spray version.
Banana Boat Sport Performance Continuous SPF 30. Spray. Cost, $1.60 per ounce. 7.
Aveeno Continuous Protection SPF 50. Spray. Cost, $2 an ounce. 7

For the next to top rated sunscreens:

Coppertone UltraGuard Continuous rated a 70+ in SPF, costing $1.62 per ounce. Spray. 7.
No-Ad with Aloe and Vitamin rated 45 on the SPF scale, costing $0.59 per ounce. Lotion. 7
Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Body Mist with Helioplex had a 45 SPF, costing $1.90 per ounce. Spray.
Badger scored a PDF of 30, costing $4.83 per ounce. Lotion. 7.
La Roche-Posay Anthelios 40 with Mexoryl SX, scored a 40 SPF, costing $18.82 per ounce. Cream. 2.
Avon Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard Plus IR3535 Expedition scores a SPF of 30, costing $3.50 per ounce. Pump spray. No EWG data available.
Burt’s Bees Chemical-Free with Hemp Seed Oil got a 30 SPF, costing $4 per ounce. Lotion. No EWG data available, but the Baby Bee Sunscreen Stick has a rating of 1.

Note that EWG has its own measurement of UVA and UVB protection, and the list appears to be kept up to date.

Best Feeling Sunscreen

I hate the feeling of greasiness and my skin breaking out, so I turned to the recommendations given by Well and Good NYC. Most of the sunscreens on the list were prohibitively expensive. The least expensive one was by Goddess Garden, Facial Sunscreen SPF 30, at $18 for 3.4 ounces.

The highest ratings on Amazon for natural sunscreens were for:

Burnout Kids Physical Sunscreen SPF 30, $5.29.
Sprunk-Jansen ThinkBaby Sunscreen SPF 50+, $4.80.
Vanicream Sunscreen for Sensitive Skin, $2.80. 4.5*, EWG 2
ThinkSport Kid Safe Sunscreen Thinkbaby Livestrong SPF 50+, $5.25. 5*
Thinksport Livestrong Sunscreen SPF 50+, Water Resistant, $3.67. 4.5*, EWG 1
Seventh Generation Baby Sunscreen SPF 30, $6.53. 4.5*
Banana Boat Natural Reflect Sunscreen Lotion SPF 50, $2.25, 4.5*, EWG 3
Adorable Baby SPF 30+ Sunscreen Non-Nano Zinc Oxide UVA/UVB, $5.11, 4.5*
Blue Lizard Blue Lizard Australian Sensitive Sunscreen Spf 30 Plus, $4.38, 4*
All Terrain KidSport SPF30 Oxybenzone Disney Phineas and Ferb Free Natural Sunscreen, $3.53, 4*, EWG 2

Best Value Natural Sunscreen

The final consideration is cost. Most experts recommend TWO shot glasses of sunscreen, or around two ounces. Given that many of the sunscreens come in 3-4 ounce containers, it seems they would be finished in only two uses!!!

Not wanting to look up the cost of every single sunscreen listed as a top sunscreen by EWG, I took this shortcut by jumping off the research done by The Daily Green for winners on the EWG list.

The Daily Green listed the 21 Most Affordable Natural Sunscreens, listed in order of cost. Not all of these sunscreens are available in Canada. Cost is listed "per ounce." My own additions to the list are in bold:

MexiTan and Tropical Sands Sunscreens, $2.19.
Purple Prairie SunStuff Natural Sunscreen, $2.31.
Nature's Gate Mineral Sportblock, $2.34.
Solbar Zinc Sun Protection Cream, $2.46.
Alba Botanica Mineral Sunscreen, $2.50.
Caribbean Solutions SolGuard Biodegradable Sunscreen, $2.67.
Jason Mineral Sunblock, $2.87.
Vanicream Sunscreen for Sensitive Skin, $2.80.
Loving Naturals Sunscreen, $2.94.
Goddess Garden Natural Sunscreen, $3.00
Earth's Best Mineral Sunblock, $3.11.
Aubrey Organics Natural Sun Saving Face Sunscreen, $3.46.
All-Terrain Aquasport Sunscreen, $3.54.
MelanSol Natural Sunscreen, $3.99.
Beyond Coastal Natural Sunscreen, $4.00.
Episencial Sunny Sunscreen, $4.25.
Badger All Natural Sunscreen, $4.69.
Sprunk-Jansen ThinkBaby Sunscreen SPF 50+, $4.80.
Blue Lizard Australian Sunscreen, $4.96.
Green Beaver Non-Whitening Fragrance Free Sunscreen SPF 30, $5.26.
Burnout Kids Physical Sunscreen SPF 30, $5.29.
Kabana Green Screen Natural Sunscreen, $5.95.
True Natural Cosmetics All Natural Sunscreen, $6.00.
Climb On! Mineral Sunblock, $6.00.

The Best Sweetener: Erythritol

2013-06-30T22:56:00.003-07:00

Edit: August 8, 2024. Erythritol is linked to blood clotting and a risk of heart disease. https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/08/health/erythritol-blood-clotting-wellness/index.html

Edit: February 27, 2023! Erythritol can be harmful! It is linked to heart attacks and strokes! https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/27/health/zero-calorie-sweetener-heart-attack-stroke-wellness/index.html

Original article:

I thought all low calorie sweeteners were harmful until I found this.

No adverse effects associated with other low and non-caloric natural and artificial sweeteners
May have antioxidant potential
Has 60-80% the sweetness of sugar
Can be used in baking
Safe for diabetics

Buy the powder since the granular form needs to be dissolved in liquid otherwise it remains granular. It is $9 a pound for powder in the US, and in Canada ranging from $8/lb (5 lb bag includes $10 shipping) (but may crystallize in liquids after a time), $12 (free shipping), or $19 per pound (free shipping) in Canada.

If using it in baking, it is a little tricky. It really really wants to re-crystallize. Be careful when putting it in things that are dry, like cookies and brownies, as it will re-crystallize as it cools. You can prevent this effect by using it in a combination of 1:8 of Thick-it-up Low Carb Thickener to erythritol (2 T per cup) for powdered form and 4 T/cup for granular form.

For higher liquid products, like icing and pies, you should be okay, but you can also grind it into a powder if it has re-crystallized in storage or if you have the granular form.

It leaves a cooling/minty effect in your mouth in some cases. Some bakers like the crunch from the re-crystallization in their products.

On a cautionary note...

Erthryitol was rejected by the EFSA in March 2013 as an additive to soft drinks because for children aged 3-9 years old (22 kg on average), drinking 650 mL of the soft drink had a laxative effect. I don't know what kind of parent would let their sub-10 year old drink the equivalent of two cans of pop a day, but I'm sure they exist.

Here is a list of harmful sweeteners:

acesulfame-K (Sweet One) - DNA damage

aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal) - hypertension

cyclamate (Sugar Twin) - banned 39 years ago but still sold in Canada

saccharin (Sweet'N'Low) - bladder cancer

sucralose (Splenda) - migraine trigger

sorbitol, xylitol - (Extra, Eclipse, Orbit...) - laxative

We don't know whether stevia is safe. Yet. I bought stevia leaf powder, and it was horrible to use. It had a distinctive leafy green taste, and a terrible aftertaste. Not the kind of stuff I want to put in my baking or tea.

Bringing A New Kitten Home

2013-06-28T12:55:00.001-07:00

Here's a journal of our first days with the kittens, to be updated as we go along, so you know what to expect. Each kitten is different, and here is our story.

The kittens are 8 weeks old (and three days) and were found in an abandoned house with their mother, aunt, and grandmother. All three adult cats had kittens at the same time... The kittens' mother was only one year old when she gave birth. Thus the importance of spaying your cat by five months old. The kittens are two sisters in a family of five: four sisters and a brother. All were black with random white hairs, except the one with Siamese markings, pictured above. We had wanted only one kitten, but ended up with two when we decided that she would be lonely.

Day 1

5:30 pm. We were glad of our decision already by the time we'd put both cats into the carrier for the 30 minute ride home in rush hour traffic. The kittens huddled together, quietly, nervously quivering.

6:00 pm. Arrival home, both kittens huddled in carrier, with door left open. We put the kittens in the bathroom so they would not be overwhelmed by the large wide open spaces of the house.

7:30 pm. White comes out of carrier.

8:00 pm. White starts playing with kids.

9:00 pm. Feeding First Mate Chicken Cat Food mixed with warm water. Black comes out and eats like she was starved. White does not eat and goes to sleep.

Day 2

7:00 am. My youngest daughter wakes up the kittens by checking in on them. They were silent all night.

8:00 am. Breakfast. Both eat, White quite heartily. White keeps pausing to paw the ground and she looks nervous and jumpy, exploring all over. I was concerned that she was looking for a place to pee...

12:00 pm. Lunch. Both eat. Then nap.

3:00 pm. Black pees for the first time in the litter, after I send a frantic email to the shelter concerned that they haven't peed for nearly 24 hours. White pees seconds after. Black poos minutes after.

4:15 pm. Dinner. Black eats well, White eat some then starts pawing the ground.

4:45 pm. White pees.

5:00 pm. First purr. White approaching us and wanting some loving. We cough up some love, and she purrs.

Day 8

The kittens are purr machines. You touch them, and that is the "on" switch for the purr machine. My supplies finally arrived, and they are loving the Kong Zoom Groom, which is an unconventional hair brush that is based on static electricity. It's a big gigantic for their tiny bodies, though.

Yesterday was the first time that the kittens left the bathroom they've been living in, to explore any distance from the bathroom. One of the kittens made it almost all the way down the stairs. She climbed out onto a wardrobe, the top of which is accessible from the stair railing, and she slipped and hung onto the edge with her front paws, seven feet off the ground. Thank goodness my husband got to her in time and scooped her to safety. He felt like a hero.

The door was open all day yesterday, but the kittens were too frightened to come out.

We've had a number of strangers come to visit and handle them, to get them better socialized.

The sound of kitten feet galloping through the upstairs hallway is pretty hilarious.

The kittens like hanging out in the litter box, and will sleep in it as well. I guess I keep it pretty clean.

Day 12-13, June 30

The cats are out of the bag! They now hang out in the upstairs hallway, and sometimes venture down the stairs. The black one is the leader. Tonight both of them were cruising the living room and they protested when we closed the door on them in the bathroom at 9:15 pm for the night.

Their purring ability has further developed so that now, they begin purring within seconds of touch. Every morning when you open the door, they are already purring, probably in anticipation of their
food.

Day 22, July 9

First potty accident. Black sniffed around one of the kids' paintings and decided it was an awesome place to let her bladder go. No punishment here, we just cleaned it up with vinegar. She's the equivalent of a two year old human at this point.

Day 24, July 11

I started the raw food diet today. Purchased beef and chicken drumettes from Safeway, sliced them up into chunks and strips, and fed them. Black was quite wary, but White attacked the meat. Following White's cue, Black eventually loved eating the raw meat.

So, no need to slowly introduce them to raw meat. They're naturals.

They are now confidently roaming around the main floor, sleeping in the open and also behind the TV, which is turned off most of the time.

Clipped their nails for the third time today, just a touch up. Some of the nails, maybe 2/3 of them on White were sharp. For Black, only 1/3 were sharp and needed trimming. I used a human nail clipper while waiting for my father to give me the proper cat claw clipper that I left behind from my previous cats. I need to get them used to being handled and having their nails cut.

Day 28, July 15 12 weeks old

The kittens are two days away from being 12 weeks old. So I took them into the vet today for their first shots. After a checkup and weigh in (Black is now 1.3 kg and White is 960 g), it was time for the dreaded shots-- The vet had one vial of the yellow liquid, and he gave it to them subcutaneously, lifting up the skin at the scruff of the neck and injecting there. The kittens made no comment, so it must have been relatively painless.

In other news, the cat tree finally came today.

August 13, almost 4 months old

Yesterday for the first time, the Black jumped up onto my lap for affection, kneaded me, and slept there. I never would have thought she would be a lap cat. The White is finally allowing me to stroke her without running away (sometimes). Both of them are so good natured that they don't scratch or bite when handled by small children.

Both are using the cat tree for some of their naps.

I started feeding my homemade raw food around July 17, and both cats loved it. Now, a month later, both will still eat it, but the Black shows a preference for canned First Mate and the White prefers the raw food. So I serve out a scoop of each at meal times.

Cats and Dogs Are Not Equal When It Comes to Food

2013-06-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

Did you notice that cat food is more expensive than dog food?

The foster for my adopted kittens told me that the food she is feeding the cats is dog food, but it is the same as cat food. I was skeptical, because I know that cats and dogs have different dietary requirements. For one, cats don't and shouldn't eat grains and vegetables. Cats need taurine.

Sure enough, the labels were exactly the same, ingredients and percentages. For the First Mate brand, this was true. The chicken, turkey, and salmon dog food cans are 12 ounces, for $3. The "cat food" can of 5.5 ounces is $2. So for "dog food" you are paying 25 cents per ounce, and for "cat food" you pay 36 cents per ounce. If you have two cats, it really makes sense as you would be using food at twice the rate and could handle the 12 ounce size. My nine week old kittens are eating around 6-7 ounces of food a day, between them.

Of course this is not true for all dog foods, that they can be fed to cats.

The only criticism I have of the First Mate brand is the potato content, which the sales rep guesstimated at 2%. He said they needed to replace the carageenan and guar gum with a binder and potatoes fit the bill.

So go ahead and save yourself some cash. Buy some dog food for your cat.

Adopting a Cat

2013-06-15T16:01:00.003-07:00

Aren't they adorable? These the kittens that we will be picking up in a week's time, as soon as they are old enough to leave the mother's care.

So you've decided to get a cat. Here's the consumer's guide to acquiring and outfitting your home for a cat.

Fresh Cats Here! Get Your Fresh Cats Here!

There are many folks selling kittens on Kijiji for amounts varying from free (rarely) to $1000. Generally they seem to be around $100-150 for mixed breed cats. Older cats are free, or if purebred, can still be sold for a pretty penny. I did not want to pay someone in Surrey/Langley, where the majority of kittens and cats are for sale, to run a kitten mill. It was tempting, however, because we were hoping for a specific type of cat that would be less allergenic, for the sake of guests and possibly immediate family.

In fact, one person seemed to have endless litters of Siamese-looking kittens for a special price (If you pick up, TODAY ONLY!) of $100, and a regular price of $150. I never got to speak to a human being because "she" preferred to communicate by email and text only, although I asked many times to telephone her. Run, don't walk away from this situation!

Craigslist had a much more limited selection of cats for sale.

Of course, I hope that you do decide to get your cat from a shelter. Kitten mills are despicable "for profit" operations that sometimes breed unhealthy kittens for a buck. There are far too many cats without a home, and no need to encourage non-licensed breeders to continue.

We'd heard of the SPCA. What we didn't know is that there are many other non-profit no kill shelters for cats. Here are just some of them:

Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association (VOKRA)
Katie's Place (Maple Ridge)
Richmond Cat Sanctuary
Meow-Aid
HomeFinders Animal Rescue Society
SARA (Surrey)

If you want a central place to cover these shelters, you can go to Pet Finder and do a search, by location, gender, breed... Pretty nifty!

In the end, we went with the shelter we were comfortable with. The adoption fee of $175 covers a checkup at the vet, flea treatment and deworming, spay/neuter, first vaccine, and a tattoo. We must promise to keep the cat indoors and to have her/him spayed/neutered at five months of age.

Feeding

I've previously owned three cats, and all eventually developed problems with urination. Turns out that it was likely due to their diet, of wet food and dry food. Cats originate from the desert, and get their water from prey, and as such do not have a good sense of thirst, and you cannot trust them to drink enough water. Not having enough water, and poor quality food, leads to problems with urination as crystals may form in their urinary tracts. They end up peeing outside the litter box because they think it might hurt less to pee somewhere else.

This time I will be feeding my orphan cats wet food in cans, or raw food. There is already a large industry of locally available raw food, available frozen at pet food stores. You will not find healthy food for your cats at your local grocery. Most wet foods contain grains, which they do not need as carnivores, and carageenan, which is a cancer causing additive. You can read more detail about my conclusions here.

In fact, you will find very few canned options without grains and carageenan in specialty pet food stores as well. Although some are "grain free", the second ingredient below meat is... potatoes. While potato is not a grain, it is a carbohydrate, which can lead to an overweight cat. Here is a list of local pricing, so you have an idea of how much different options cost. The reason why I have focussed on Wellness and First Mate is that these are brands suggested by the adoption agency. I will not be using these brands myself later as Wellness contains carageenan and First Mate has potatoes! I'll be phasing it out and replacing with the food of my choice, which will likely be raw foods from Club Canine.

I would really like to make First Mate my food of choice, particularly because it is based on North Vancouver. Why is it more expensive than similar quality companies in the U.S. like Great Life or Hound and Gatos? Perhaps meat is cheaper there? And what's with the potatoes?

If brave enough, I might make my own food. It is a heckuvalot cheaper that way. I'll list in order of price.

Club Canine, cat food raw chicken with bone, 200g x 10 for $15.05. $0.215/oz
Bosley, canned Wellness Chicken, 12 x 12.5 oz for $38.17. 0.25/oz
wholepetsholistic.com, canned Hound and Gatos homestyle chicken, case of 24 x 5.5 oz (includes discount and shipping charge), 0.26/oz
Simply Natural Kerrisdale, canned Wellness Chicken, 354 g for $3.35, 0.27/oz
Petflow, canned Great Life Essentials Chicken, 24 x 5.5 ounce for $36, $0.27/oz
Bosley, canned First Mate Chicken, 5.5 oz for $1.99, 0.36/oz
Tisol, canned First Mate Chicken, 5.5 oz for $1.99, 0.36/oz
Pet Food N More, canned First Mate Chicken, $1.99 for 156 g = $0.36/oz, $46.99 for case.
Bosley, canned Weruva Lickin' Chicken 5.5 oz for $1.99 = $0.36/oz or 24 for $50.81=0.38/oz
Simply Natural Kerrisdale, canned Wellness Chicken, 155 g for $2.23, 0.40/oz
Bosley, raw Chicken, 4 oz for $1.99. 0.50/oz
www.petonly.ca, canned Tiki Cat Koolina Luau or Puka Puka Luau (Chicken), 12 x 2.8 oz for $18, 0.54/oz
Simply Natural Kerrisdale, raw Chicken 4 oz for $2.82. 0.70/oz
Super Pet, Richmond, canned Merrick, Addiction, Before Grain, Science Diet (unwilling to provide prices over the phone)

If you want to make your own food, you can buy a Tasin TS-108 Meat Grinder for around $150. This will pay itself off within a year, if you're planning to go the raw food route.

Equipment

Here is a list of what I bought, all of which I thoroughly researched for best prices and best reviews:

Tenth Life Stretch Collar, $7 at Bosley's (as recommended by VOKRA)
Petmate 21231 Two Door Top Load 24 inch Pet Kennel, $38 plus tax = $42, at amazon.ca: best to have a top loader for a reluctant cat
Nature's Miracle Scoop and Caddy, $6.77 at amazon.ca* and following two items total $29.54
Easy Walk Cat Harness and Bungee Leash, $10.91 at amazon.ca (for taking the cat on walks)
Flexi Cat Retractable Cord Leash, 10 feet, $8.70 at amazon.ca

You also need to buy:

Litter pan: sifting is better, for easier mess cleanup. I have a litter box that I put together myself: the sifting top was to be thrown out by the shelter. They said that the sifting boxes are useless, so they let me take it home, at least the top half of it. I fit it into the bottom plastic pan, which was used 15 years ago for another cat's litter. It works well with the pine pellets, so you stir the pellets around and the sawdust falls through the grid to the pan below, and the pellets are kept clean. Awesome.
Litter: Clumping litters are no longer recommended as they have been found to clog your cat's internal plumbing. An environmentally and health safe alternative is wood pellets, called stove pellets. The same thing you use to heat your wood burning stove is what your kitty will poop and pee on. It is available at Rona, $5 for 18 kg (Firemaster), at Canadian Tire for $5.50 (Firemaster), and perhaps Lowe's (item 87059) when it's in stock, and possibly Home Hardware for $6.29 if it's ever in stock. You see, I called all of these stores, and while they appear to be selling them online, the actual stores don't have the product. Could be a seasonal thing. Home Depot used to carry them but alas, no more. Wood pellets are also used for horse bedding, so you can check horse suppliers, like Vanderveen Hay Sales in Surrey if that happens to be close to you. The price is $4.99 for 40 lb bags of Eagle Brand, and $4.75/bag for a skid of 50!
Grooming brush/rake
Nail clipper: try to buy one that won't crush the nail--this one is good: the Ultimate Touch Cat Claw Clipper for $5.50.
Scratching post preferably with a perch on top

And you know, silly person that I am, I also looked into toilet training cats, for later. There are three possible alternatives: Citty Kitty, Litter Kwitter, and... a tin foil roasting pan with duct tape. You can guess which system is the least expensive. The cat should be at least three months old. So we'll re-visit this in the future.

I had a difficult time choosing grooming equipment. In the end I chose the Zoom Groom, because it's easier for the kids to use without hurting the cat. Here are the top three recommended alternatives for my medium haired cat, with the suggestion that you may need more than one:

Kong Zoom Groom, an innovative "brush" not made of plastic or metal, but of a rubber-like tactile substance that creates static to attract hair, and acts as a massager, available at www.well.ca for $10 and Bosleys for $11. Main criticisms are the static charge it creates, shocking the cat in the dry air of winter (wet it down), not as effective as the furminator for removing hair, and that some cats do not like it (minority).
Furminator (new version) Deshedder, large or small for long haired cats, available on eBay for $30 (includes shipping), Petsmart for $42, or Bosleys for way too much--there are the original and improved versions of this, so watch out which version you buy because the new one with the fur ejector is 30% more expensive. This is a blade embedded in a comb which supposedly pulls out the fur in the undercoat like nobody's business. The main criticisms are that the fur flies all over the place, some cats don't like it, and you can accidentally cut the fur instead of pulling it out.
Safari Slicker Brush with Ejector for cats, $8 at petland.ca, $20 includes shipping at amazon.ca, $29 at ebay.ca.

Okay, and now we're into the "you really don't need this, but if you love gadgets then..." section.

Here is what else I bought:

Pioneer Pet Big Max Ceramic Drinking Fountain, $48.82 at amazon.com. I was making a trip down to the border anyway to pick up hiking purchases, so I used the American Amazon site. The thing that stood out to be from the customer reviews was this: "easy to clean." I thought about buying the Drinkwell 360 Fountain from costco.ca for $72 and buy the Forever Filter (re-usable carbon filter) but decided against it since the inner workings are plastic and it is more difficult to clean. I just hope to golly that it doesn't break down, as so many reviewers claimed. But it seems that the pumps really didn't stop working, that they just needed to be cleaned properly.

If you so much cash you don't know what to do with yourself:

The "Catsomat" is a new automatic feeder that works with wet food. It not only keeps your food cold, but also heats it before serving!!!! You can put in 7 or 10 compartments. It is a slick German invention, for the cool price of... wait for it... $547 CAD, plus tax... I didn't even bother checking the shipping cost. I would think the Catsomat would look good in a kitchen with your Subzero Fridge and your solid gold taps (but solid gold would probably be too soft... so may be a gold metal mix).

ID Tags

Even if yours is an indoor cat, you should have an ID tag around the collar. If your cat wanders away or escapes as you're transporting her/him, the ID tag helps you get her/him back. After I'd spent a long time finding engraved ID tags at stores like Petsmart or cute high quality Red Dingo tags at homesalive.ca, I found out about free tags you can get from:

Hartz Pet ID Tag Offer: Free for US and Canada, and pay $3.25 for shipping.
Humane Society of Canada: Free with registration of your pet. Tag only says "Humane Society of Canada" and gives a telephone number and toll-free number. Your pet's information is kept in perpetuity and you call them to make changes to your address or other details. I like this because you have less work if you move, and your personal information is not on your pet's tag.

Another interesting alternative is the GPS trackable tag from pethub.com. It allows smartphones to scan the tag and get your information. The cost ranges from $13 to $40. I don't know why I would need to pay that kind of money for a high tech tag when a simple ID tag with a phone number provides the same result.

In fact, today we found a stray dog wandering around the park near my home. The dog had a city license tag around its neck with the city's telephone number and its ID number. We simply called the city and less than an hour later, a truck picked up the dog and returned her to her owner.

Pet Insurance

The shelter recommended that I buy pet insurance at the first vet visit, specifically Petsecure. While reading a cat forum, another poster alerted me to this article. In a nutshell, don't bother buying pet insurance because it is useless. The insurers will find reasons to deny coverage, or the coverage will be inadequate and less than the premiums you put in.

Best course of action is to set aside some money yourself as if you were paying the premiums, so $30-50 a month, to pay for future expenses. The insurer bases premiums on statistics, so if the insurer suggests these amounts, then likely it will cover any eventuality on the balance of probabilities.

Lava Tours in Volcano National Park

2013-06-03T23:10:00.001-07:00

Haven't you always wanted to poke a stick into red hot lava? This is a rewarding but very challenging activity. At times I was wondering whether I was an unfit parent, taking my kids on this adventure, but for our family, it was an acceptable risk.

Access to live lava flows at Hawaii's Volcano National Park is by three methods:

Helicopter;
Hike; and
Boat tour

With #1 and #3 you don't get a chance to get up close and personal. So here's a guide to hiking in the park.

There are two options for seeing the lava. Within the park, take Chain of Craters Road to the end and hike from there. Outside the park, you drive to Kalapana and take a guided tour there. The path to the lava flows may run over private land, so you are required to get permission to hike.

Presently the surface lava flows are very close to the ocean entry point for the lava. From Volcano National Park, it is currently an 8-10 hour hike, and from Kalapana, it is a 4-5 hour hike.

Here is a rough guide to the many companies and individuals offering a lava hike:

Lava Bed Tours

David Ewing used to run a Bed and Breakfast located right on the lava flows. He offers tours every evening at 4 pm for $100 per person (pp), less for larger groups.

Kalapana Cultural Tours

This is run by native Hawaiians and includes a cultural aspect to each tour. $150 for private tours. $100 for scheduled group tours at 8 am, 3:30 pm, 4:30 pm, and 5:30 pm. Minimum age is 10 years old.

There have been complaints by many that this company has guides who are territorial and abusive to hikers who attempt the hike without a guide. Here are some examples:

From Yelp: "I have a friend who was on the tour when the tour guide lost it! She isn't on Yelp but since she shared with me and I am, I thought it would be best to pass this info on to unsuspecting visitors, especially those who want to use this tour company!

A person with Kalapana Cultural Tours threatened every person and group walking to the end of the road while she was there! He screamed, using foul language and insults. He even said he would beat them all up! They told him that they wouldn't go off the old highway, but he told them again that he would beat them if they went anyway!. They said no, thanks to the tour guide, but called the police. He left before they got there. She said that they did give the police his name." This account pretty much echoes the advice given by the authors of Hawaii the Big Island Revealed on their update to their latest edition:

"Lava Flow Viewing Access Update: The lava is sporadically flowing a couple of miles from the end of the county road on Hwy 130, but things can get complicated. Although the old state highway still exists under the lava flow (and is therefore state land), County Civil Defense dissuades hikers from proceeding when they start duty around 4 p.m., and they absolutely have that authority. Visitors arriving before then might encounter a couple of private tour companies that will walk you a couple of miles out to the flow for around $150 per person. When I politely declined their services, one company rep from Poke-a-Stick Tours incorrectly told me there were state officers “patrolling the lava flows and arresting viewers who weren’t with paid guides.” Another person representing Kalapana Cultural Tours threatened every person and group walking to the end of the road while we were there, screaming obscenities and insults to all who approached. In our case, he said he would beat us all up and singled out my 4-foot 11-inch daughter-in-law saying, “You shut your mouth. I slap girls, too!” We explained that with GPS we wouldn’t be straying from the old Hwy under the lava and would not trespass onto private property, which the gentleman correctly indicated the lava might be flowing onto. But we were told that the state had “stolen all the land” under the highway anyway and that the same beating would take place if we proceeded. We declined the tour and called the police, then watched as others got the same threats before the police arrived, by which time the man (whose name we gave to the police) had left. My point is you may encounter unauthorized “enforcers” at the end of the government road on Hwy 130, and regardless of your feelings, rights or pride, you should turn away if you feel unwelcome. The lava might indeed be flowing onto private property and you do not have a right to trespass onto it. If you want to pay a guide, that’s your decision. Personally, we’ll take a pass."

And another comment from Yelp: "Seeing the lava was awesome but the guide's meltdown was unnecessary. Initially the guides had some interesting insights into the history and flora of the area. Viewing the lava was spectacular. Things went dramatically down hill from there. We spent an extra forty five minutes at the lava while our guide screamed, cursed, threatened violence, and verbally abused tourists who wondered onto the lava unguided. Unprofessional, untrained, and out of control guides with no wilderness first responder training for a hundred dollars a head and the threat of violence if you go out unguided is not the aloha spirit that usually marks the big island. So the the tour part was lame but seeing the lava was amazing."

Poke a Stick Guided Lava Tours

The name says it all! The goal is to have you poke the provided walking stick into the lava. Careful you don't burn off too much or that walking stick will be useless for the journey back! 7:30 am and 4:00 pm departures. Guide Cheryl purchased a lava covered property in 1985 and built a B&B on it, calling it the Kalapana Lava Refuge. You park your car on their private property to start your hike. Cost is $100 cash, with a 10% discount for a group of 4 or 15% for a group of 6.

Kalapana Lava Boat

$125. Must be 6 years of age or older. Six guests per guide. 5:30 am and 3:30 pm. 4-6 hours round trip.

Volcano Discovery

Supposedly the best, and most expensive.

The Lava Proximity Hike

HIKE as close as safely possible, when it's possible! At present, this hike requires 7mi / 12km / 4-5 hrs walk at sea-level over uneven terrain crossing recent & historic lava flows and islands of native vegetation, allowing ~2 hrs at the site of activity on an 8-hr tour leaving from Hilo or Volcano (or 6-hr meeting in Kalapana).

Price from $175 per person.
Included:

All transportation on the Big Island in private 4WD vehicle
Expert local guide with presentations on eruption history
Legal access over private land with contribution to local community
Fresh local fruits, local snacks and juices en route

6+ Hours.

Lava Ocean Tours

Hawaii lava hikes depart daily at 4AM, 10AM, 3:30PM 4:30PM. Tour varies 4-6 hours round trip, departs near Kalapana lava viewing area.

Tour Rating: Moderate to Advanced; guests need to be 6 years and older.
We Provide: Walking sticks, Bottled water, Hawaii Lava Tour from local lava Guide highlighting Kilauea Volcano, Plant Life and Geological features.
Prices: Adult $150.00. Child (12 and under): $125.00 taxes included
Group Size: Tour limited to 6 guests per guide. Multiple guides available.

Lava Walk by Tail Me Tours

In the past, was $50 per person for a 90 minute total tour, when the lava flows were closer. Now it's a 4-4.5 hour tour, goes out every morning at 5:00 am to 6:00 am and evening 4 pm. About a one hour 45 minute walk, and you will see ocean flowing lava then poke a stick. $125 per person or $100 per person. Must be at least 5 years old. One of the companies allowed to get on the land. Andy is their guide. They also do lava boat tours.

gregnottingham@TailMeTours.com
(808) 333 4016 24/7

Burning Question #1: Why bring a whisk?

Oh, and if you're wondering what the heck people mean when they tell you to bring a whisk, they are referring to the fact that it is difficult to get a take home lava sample on the end of a blunt wooden staff. Difficult, but not impossible. Of the five tries we had, we got two samples to adhere to the end of our stick. The lava is crusted over and difficult to get a small piece to separate and stick to your staff. It is easier to tape a whisk to the end of your staff or stick and dip it into the lava to get a take home souvenir of lava covered whisk. When we got our samples home, we found they had crumbled into pieces due to their fragility.

Burning Question #2: Can my child do this hike?

There were children ranging from toddler to tween on this hike, when I did it in March 2013. The family with a toddler, pregnant wife, and baby in carrier were turned away as they could not keep up with the pace. Unless your child can walk over rough terrain for three hours, which is as tiring as hiking up a mountain, I would say leave them at home.

My kids are quite freakish as they are very fit and were able to complete the hike at least as fast as the slowest adult, but even adults find travelling over uneven lava, with the crumbling unsound footing, to be extremely difficult and exhausting. By the end, my feet were quite sore from the punishment of the uneven ground, up and down, and sharp edges, and I am a seasoned triathlete. A tween on this hike fell repeatedly on the lava, more often as the trip wore on and he became tired, cutting up his hands and legs. At one point he fell and said he could not get up. His parents never expressed concern, and in fact, I don't know where the heck his parents were as I never saw them talking to him on this hike.

If you decide to do this hike with children, I recommend decent hiking boots to protect their feet from the uneven terrain, and you can pretty much expect whining as you will be pushing your kids to their physical limits. It is not so much a judgment call based on age but on physical fitness and toughness to endure the hours of hiking, especially if you hike back in the dark and it is very visually boring. One of my kids was the youngest in the group, and she was also one of the fastest and most fit. She also did not whine and enjoyed herself immensely.

Burning Question #2: Any tips on surviving the hike?

Definitely bring rain gear, as the weather can suddenly change. A hat and sunglasses, if the weather warrants. Long pants to protect from falls, and hiking soles to make it easier for you. I liked having ankle support. Bandages and antibiotic cream. If it is not provided for you, bring a high energy snack for the return trip and ample water.

Burning Question #3: How dangerous is it?

There were a few times I was questioning whether I should be on the hike. The first was when we were standing on the cliff beside the ocean entry point. The guide warned us that if we heard any cracking sounds or felt any ground shaking, we were to run like hell inland. There was a horde of us standing on the newly formed lava ground when she said this.

The second was when the guide warned us to keep our feet moving while standing on fresh lava, as the temperature was so hot it could burn through our shoes. While poking a stick in the lava, you get a true sense of the searing temperatures of the lava, as the oppressive heat feels nearly unbearable on your exposed face and hands.

The third was when one of the hikers in another group attempted to get lava on the end of his stick and ended up flinging a red hot piece of lava up into the air and nearly hit another hiker with it.

Before you go, you will see a warning video at the Visitor Centre of the Volcano National Park covering various dangers of lava hiking, including unstable land suddenly sliding into the ocean. If there is a shift of the wind, you could potentially be breathing in toxic fumes that could lead to long term health problems.

This is not Disneyland, although it may feel like it sometimes with the forest of video cameras with glowing lights and the feeling of wild west chaos at the surface lava flows with multiple tour groups arriving at once. Treat the experience with respect and caution.

Unsupervised Children on the Net

2013-06-03T22:56:00.000-07:00

My most popular posting on this blog deals with a popular children's role playing game which is highly addictive, Animal Jam. Shockingly, many of the commenters are children.

Today I received a comment from someone claiming to be a nine year old, calling me "A DEMON" (capital letters the emphasis of the "child" writer) for limiting my child's use of Animal Jam. Here it is:

i am a 9 year old kid. animal jam is epic, you DEMON, i hate you, animal jam is epic, it's epic, don't make them get off! more than an hour miss!

Is it normal for nine year olds to call strangers demons?

My blog is aimed at adults, not children, but clearly children are reading it. I am left to wonder whether the parents have any idea that their child is reading, or what they are posting.

A study has shown that 3/4s of five year old children use the Internet every day. On March 2, 2011, the Mail Online reported the following:

"As many as 72 per cent of pre-school children are lured online on a daily basis by sites such as the BBC’s Cbeebies and games like Peppa Pig, the research reveals.

Many parents are allowing their under-fives to explore the web without supervision, leaving them vulnerable to predatory paedophiles."
...
It is feared that spending so much time online will mean they lack reading and writing skills, and scientists believe the glare from the screen may damage the brain development of young children.

Professor Tanya Byron, a clinical psychologist, said leaving a five-year-old unsupervised on the internet is equivalent to ‘abandoning a kid in a shopping centre for a couple of hours’.

She warned: ‘Parents don’t realise they have a responsibility to prepare children for the online world as much as for the real world.

‘A lot of parents haven’t been brought up on the internet and don’t know its dangers.’"

There was a popular public service announcement on American television back in the 1960s to 1980s, when I was growing up. "Do you know where your children are?" It was asked on Buffalo, New York television at 10 or 11 pm, sometimes before the news came on. It made reference to the local curfew time, and helped make parents more aware of the need to supervise their children. Growing up in Southern Ontario, this was a catch phrase that I remember.

Now I ask you. Do you know what your children are watching? Whether it is television or the Internet, there is still a need for supervision. Please watch your children.

Am I a demon? Yes, little children. I am your worst nightmare.

Glass Showers: Out Damned Spot! Out I Say!

2013-05-02T11:40:00.003-07:00

The Obsessive Researching Mommy is pleased to bring you her newest first world problem: how to clean those white water stains off glass shower doors. Now, I believe the whole glass shower door thing is really a problem that was created especially for middle class homeowners. In the past, people had shower curtains, or nice frosted shower doors that hid water stains. I can't believe I renovated my bathroom and put one of these in... yeah, it's beautiful, but after every shower, I stand there with a squeegee and scrape the thing down... to prevent water marks. And you know, that doesn't work, because water still drips down and you can't squeegee the surface perfectly.

After a previous round of research, I tried baking soda. Didn't work, but my arm got nice and tired. I went out and eagerly bought Bon Ami. It didn't work.

Heck, let me make a table for you of things that don't work that were suggested in various forums:

Baking soda
Bon Ami
Bounce Dryer Sheet
Cornstarch
Mr. Clean Magic Erase

With no amount of scrubbing was I able to remove the marks. I still had numerous vertical lines from previous water drips, with the worst at the bottom of each glass panel. Perhaps if you have the time to clean regularly so that there is little build up, these might work for you, but they did nothing for me.

My next miracle solution that I tried was Bar Keeper's Friend. Since I last researched this, it has become more widely available in Canada, albeit not at the low price you can find it everywhere in the U.S., like in Walmart ($2 for 13 oz of the liquid cleanser). The cost in Canada ranges from $5-6.50.

You can find a listing of stores in Canada, but shipping costs make it an expensive proposition to buy online, so you are better off buying it locally if you can. Here are some locations in the Vancouver area:

Williams-Sonoma, 2903 Granville Street.
Call the Kettle Black, Edmonton and Vancouver (Kerrisdale), North Vancouver (Edgemount Village).

After patronizing Call the Kettle Black, the container sat in my cupboard for a month. I tried it today, and...

IT WORKED!

Minimal amount of scrubbing. I bought the powder form, put it on a damp scrubbing sponges, like the 3M Scrub Sponge, and applied to the surface. Ten minutes later, I rinsed it off, and voila. No more white water deposits! I did this after a regular shower, which made sure the glass had water soaking on it for a while. I wore my Crocs while standing the shower while working on the glass, otherwise, no telling what the Boric Acid would do to my triathlon hardened foot skin...

Who said you can't get fulfillment by being a stay at home mom? :-P

Chia Blueberry Pancakes

2013-04-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

Ugh. These look terrible, but they taste really great! It's a mix of stuff that's good and bad for you. You can make it all good by substituting the butter with another type of oil. I'm posting it here because I don't want to misplace the recipe. It was a hit with the whole family, and that's saying a lot because there aren't many foods in the world in that category.

Chia Blueberry Pancakes

1/2 c whole wheat flour (pastry preferred)
1/4 c spelt flour
1/4 c chia flour (chia seeds ground using coffee grinder)
1/4 c flax seed (ground)
1/4 c wheat bran

(Note: You can use any combination of flour or flour substitutes that add up to 1.5 c)

3.5 t baking powder
1 t salt

1.5 c soy milk or regular milk
1 egg or egg substitute
3 T butter or coconut oil (any oil will do)
frozen blueberries to taste...

Mix dry ingredients. Add milk, egg, butter. Mix. Add blueberries last, to the density you prefer. Note that these pancakes should be cooked at low heat, and they are fragile, so make sure you see lots of bubbles in the wet batter before flipping. Pour about 1/4 c of batter at a time, then tilt the pan to spread them out. There is also a tendency for the inside to stay raw because of the frozen blueberries, so they need to cook a long time. You can turn on the oven to 200F and keep a plate in there to keep them warm until you are done cooking all of them.

Yum.

Bellingham Airport Parking Throwdown

2013-04-23T17:16:00.001-07:00

The last time I flew through Bellingham, it was to go to Hawaii. Well, we're going again and it's time to figure out where to leave our car.

Previously I chose U-Haul, which actually isn't primarily in the business of airport parking, but had this as its side business. Back in 2010 it was very unprofessional. There was no shuttle, and it was hard to get a human being to answer the phone. But it was cheap and you could walk there from the airport. When we arrived very early on a red-eye, the facility was closed and we had to send the drive to walk the one mile.

This time I chose U-Haul again. You get some man on his cell phone, and he asks you to text message him with your flight information, which he confirms by texting you. So how did it work for us?

I texted him again to add a second car for parking, which he confirmed. We arrived 30 minutes earlier than expected, and he wasn't there. After waiting for him to show up at the confirmed time, we found out that he somehow forgot the second parking spot, but luckily there was exactly one left, so we were okay. It was about a 20-30 minute walk from the airport, which my husband opted to do instead of getting a ride in either direction.

Here are the parking options I found, in order of proximity to the airport:

Port of Bellingham, right at the airport: Main lot $10/day, overflow $9/day. This will drop down to $8/day in the overflow lots, starting March 1, 2013.

Easy Airport Parking, $7/day, includes shuttle. 0.9 miles. 3360 Airport Drive.

U-Haul is $30/week or $5/day. This includes a ride to the airport, either by a van or by taxi, which they will pay for. 6 am - 10 pm. 1.0 mile. 3340 Airport Drive. Reservations accepted.

Bellingham Parking >=2 weeks, $5/day. 1.2 miles. 3703 Bennett Drive. Free shuttle 9-5, pay $7 outside these hours.

Wiki Wiki: $8/day, includes shuttle, drink. Reservations accepted. Special rates for 30 days. Secure, gated. 1.4 miles. 4770 Pacific Highway.

Designated Park & Ride, $5/day. You pay for your own taxi. Requires 24 hours' notice, $5 deposit. 2.1 miles. 4226 Pacific Highway.

Enjoy your trip!

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Do You Want Cancer with your Candy?

2013-04-23T17:11:00.002-07:00

Today at school pickup I found both of my kids lined up at the infernal ice cream truck that shows up and parks in front of the school when the weather warms. They had just purchased a product from Popsicle called "Shots."

I bluntly told the kids that they will get cancer if they continue to eat things with artificial colours. Yeah, okay, I admit that I was guilty of a bit of frothing at the mouth over the top mommyism, but there was some truth there. When I got home, I did some research on this.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest says that food dyes pose the risk of cancer, hyperactivity in children, and allergies.

The three most widely used dyes, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, are contaminated with known carcinogens, says CSPI. Another dye, Red 3, has been acknowledged for years by the Food and Drug Administration to be a carcinogen, yet is still in the food supply.

Despite those concerns, each year manufacturers pour about 15 million pounds of eight synthetic dyes into our foods. Per capita consumption of dyes has increased five-fold since 1955, thanks in part to the proliferation of brightly colored breakfast cereals, fruit drinks, and candies pitched to children.

“These synthetic chemicals do absolutely nothing to improve the nutritional quality or safety of foods, but trigger behavior problems in children and, possibly, cancer in anybody,” said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson, co-author of the 58-page report, “Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks.” “The Food and Drug Administration should ban dyes, which would force industry to color foods with real food ingredients, not toxic petrochemicals.”

Blue 1, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6 have long been known to cause allergic reactions in some people. CSPI says that while those reactions are not common, they can be serious and provide reason enough to ban those dyes. Furthermore, numerous studies have demonstrated that dyes cause hyperactivity in children.

But the biggest concern is cancer. Back in 1985, the acting commissioner of the FDA said that Red 3, one of the lesser-used dyes, “has clearly been shown to induce cancer” and was “of greatest public health concern.” However, Secretary of Agriculture John R. Block pressed the Department of Health and Human Services not to ban the dye, and he apparently prevailed—notwithstanding the Delaney Amendment that forbids the use of in foods of cancer-causing color additives. Each year about 200,000 pounds of Red 3 are poured into such foods as Betty Crocker’s Fruit Roll-Ups and ConAgra’s Kid Cuisine frozen meals. Since 1985 more than five million pounds of the dye have been used.

Tests on lab animals of Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6 showed signs of causing cancer or suffered from serious flaws, said the consumer group. Yellow 5 also caused mutations, an indication of possible carcinogenicity, in six of 11 tests.

In addition, according to the report, FDA tests show that the three most-widely used dyes, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, are tainted with low levels of cancer-causing compounds, including benzidine and 4-aminobiphenyl in Yellow 5. However, the levels actually could be far higher, because in the 1990s the FDA and Health Canada found a hundred times as much benzidine in a bound form that is released in the colon, but not detected in the routine tests of purity conducted by the FDA.

I decided to look up Red 40 at a helpful website of the same name and find out if it was in any of the foods that my family eats. Unfortunately, it was, including the Popsicle brand, although "shots" were not mentioned. It did list other frozen treats by Popsicle that are brightly coloured.

Here are some of the foods we sometimes eat in our family that contain Red 40:

Froot Loops (We eat it only on vacations)
McCormick Food Colours (not sure whether this is the brand we buy)
Sprinkles (on Tim Horton's doughnuts and Purdy's ice cream)
Twizzlers (at the theatre)
Starburst
M&Ms
Skittles
Candy Canes
Bubbalicious
Trident
Smarties
Minute Maid Orange Soda
Schweppes Raspberry Gingerale
Gatorade Fruit Punch
Lipton Brisk Iced Tea
Ocean Spray Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice
Kraft Barbecue Sauce
Kraft Catalina Dressing
Frito Lay Doritos
Betty Crocker Fruit by the Foot (A&W kids' packs)
Hershey's Strawberry Syrup
Kellogg's Nutrigrain Cereal Bars
Jell-O Instant Pudding Chocolate
Mott's Fruitsation Apple Sauce Strawberry
Children's Tylenol Cold Liquid Grape
Bayer Children's Flintstones Multivitamin
Centrum Performance Multivitamin

That was only one of the potential cancer causing food dyes. What about the rest of them?

Moral of the story:

Avoid buying processed foods, drinks, and drugs.

"Car Free": The Oakridge Redevelopment Project

2013-04-19T17:34:00.004-07:00

They're going to redevelop the mall near my home over the next 10 years. It was first built in 1959 as Vancouver's first mall. What is proposed is an eyesore, with at least one phallic building 45 stories tall in the middle of a flat calm sea of single family housing. That is taller than buildings in downtown Vancouver. It does not make any sense, especially considering the fact that Oakridge is located at the highest point in Vancouver, adding to the phallus effect.

The developers intend to provide less parking spaces per square foot of retail space and less parking for the proposed 2,800 new residential units than is normally provided. Why? To promote alternative modes of transportation.

About one third of the residential units will have parking. There will be 6,694 parking spaces. Currently retail area is 620,000 and they want to increase it to 1,430,600. More than a doubling of retail space, but no doubling of retail parking.

Let's forget the fact that they're also saving $20,000 for each parking space they DON'T provide. Yes, that's right, we believe you, developers, when you say that you're doing this for the environment, not to increase your profit. After all, developers are environmentalists, aren't they?

WWF Canada commissioned a survey with some interesting findings:

The driving paradox: more than three-quarters (78 per cent) of Canadians know their driving has a negative environmental impact, but they are not likely to give up their vehicles even when they could easily use other forms of transportation (75 per cent). In fact, Canadians are more willing to give up their cell phones, TVs, Internet access, coffee, junk food, credit cards and for some, even sex, before they set aside their car keys.

It's interesting to look at an extreme example of car free development in a 42 storey condo development in downtown Toronto.

Normally, building plans follow a formula for how much parking space should be allowed; current standards, if applied to the building, would provide approximately 140 parking spaces for residents.

"To assume a residential development of the project's scale might be totally car-free runs counter to expert study and experience," the staff report stated. "Although there are many households in the downtown (area) without cars, it would be highly unlikely to find 315 of them permanently concentrated in one building."

It also stated that, "exempting the project from the city's parking standards would create a negative precedent that undermines the integrity of the parking provisions of the zoning bylaw."

The skeptic in me just doesn't buy the lines the developer is feeding us. Less parking spaces does not mean less people will be using their cars. It just means they will park elsewhere. If I was a retailer at Oakridge now, I would be asking those questions, because parking hassles are bad for business.

Chia Brownie Recipe

2013-04-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

No idea how this would turn out, substituting chia flour for regular flour-- and wow. Just wow. It tastes pretty much like a regular brownie. What is wicked about it is that everything in the brownie is now healthy, except the, ahem, three cups of sugar!

I've taken an existing recipe from allrecipes.com for Brooke's Bombshell Brownies, my favourite brownie recipe, and just substituted chia flour and coconut oil but otherwise left the recipe the same.

Chia seeds are getting easy to find nowadays. I had to order my chia off Upaya Naturals site, but now you can buy them at Costco! I've written previously about where to buy chia in Canada. I've only used half my 5 lb bag, and now that I've discovered how great chia is for baking, you'll see it disappear pretty quickly.

From an article in the National Post, now quoted since the original texts seem to always disappear when I need them:

Like all seeds, seeds from the salvia hispanica plant are calorie-dense, packing 137 calories per ounce (28 grams), which means that small portions can go a long way. Also like other seeds, chia seeds provide both protein (4 grams per serving) and fibre (a

whopping 11 grams, or about 40% of an average Canadian’s daily needs, per serving). They are a good source of calcium, providing 18% of an adult’s daily needs.

Perhaps most impressive about chia seeds, however, are the nearly 5 grams of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids per serving, which is more than double the amount in a serving of salmon. Having said that, the omega-3s in chia exist as alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a plant form of omega-3 fat that is not readily converted to the metabolically active form of omega-3s, known as EPA and DHA, by the human body (it’s estimated that 0-9% of ALA is actually converted all the way to DHA, the form of omega-3 that is incorporated into cell membranes). Even so, the amount of ALA in chia is substantial enough that if even a fraction is successfully converted to DHA, it can still be a valuable source of essential omega-3 fatty acids, especially for those who do not consume fish.

Since buying my 5 pound bag of chia, I have had problems incorporating it into my food. I tried chia pudding, and found it, I don't know... gross! However, grinding it finely into chia flour using my hand coffee grinder seems to be my solution. You can replace regular flour in baking recipes with chia flour. It did not seem to alter the taste much of my favourite brownie recipe. It did cook much faster, and seems drier. The finished brownie has a coconut scent but tastes fudgy.

Here it is:

Chia Brownies
(Modified from Brooke's Bombshell Brownies on allrecipes.com)

Wet Ingredients:

3 c sugar
1 c coconut oil (Costco!)
1 T vanilla
4 eggs

Dry Ingredients:

1 1/4 c chia seed flour
1/4 c white or whole wheat flour
1 t salt
1 c cocoa powder

Optional:
1 c chocolate chips

Mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately, then throw them together. Mix in chocolate chips. Bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes in 9x13 pan lined with parchment paper for ease of removal.

YUM!

May 4, 2013: Note to self-- Do NOT substitute any of the sugar with stevia leaf powder. Supposedly one teaspoon is equivalent to one cup of sugar. While it wasn't horrible, you could really taste the stevia in the final brownie, although my kids still ate it without complaint. It had an aftertaste like Splenda.

The 5-2 Fast Diet: A Diary

2013-04-03T14:36:00.001-07:00

In 2012, the BBC broadcast a documentary, "Eat, Fast, and Live Longer" in which medical journalist Dr. Mosley investigated how to eat to live longer. His plan to decrease IGF-1, a growth factor which contributes to aging and diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's, involves intermittent fasting. For example, you fast on two days and eat for five days, thus the "5-2" ratio. For me, I will try to fast on Mondays and Thursdays and eat basically whatever I want on non-fast or "feed" days. You'd think that you'd gorge on non-fast days, but generally people on these diets eat 110% of their regular amounts. Dr. Mosley has now written a book and has an excellent website to guide you should you decide to accept this mission.

BBC - Eat, Fast And Live Longer (Jedz, pôsti sa a ži dlhšie) from Jozef on Vimeo.

Fast days allow you to have 500 calories if you're a woman, and 600 calories if you're a man. So you get to eat something.

I'm going to chronicle my experience on this diet and will edit this page as my experiment progresses. I've always been a believer in basically eat whatever you want, but don't overeat. This has served me well until now, as menopause begins to rear its ugly head. I find that I am slowly putting on weight, and it is much more difficult to lose than before on my (non-diet) eating philosophy. As a moderate to heavy exerciser who trains for triathlons, putting in 5-8 exercise sessions per week of swim, bike, or run, I'm finding that exercise is no longer enough to keep my weight down.

My base weight is 129 pounds and I am 5'3. I would like to get down to 118 pounds, which makes me quite thin as I have a lot of muscle mass and large bones.

Wednesday, April 2, 2013: 129 pounds. Fast day.

Breakfast: 2 eggs. 144 calories.
Lunch: Nothing.

I am obsessed with food, and my stomach growled for the first time around 1:00 pm. It was torture to prepare a lunch for my kids, and sitting now in the kitchen is more torture. Watching the documentary on fasting is torture.

As long as I was distracted, I did not notice the hunger. Surfing the net is not distracting enough as there are food images everywhere!

Dinner: Swiss Chalet's Healthy Choice West Coast Salad, 380 calories. It is made up of white meat chicken breast, greens, raisins, sunflower seeds, walnuts (?), and onions. I received two dressing cups. I hope the calorie count is accurate!

Was surprised to find a dinner under 400 calories in a restaurant menu! There were about three choices under 400 calories at Swiss Chalet.

Total calories for the day: 524. I am over by 24 calories (well more, because I greedily ate 4 of my daughter's french fries). I am quite full and should have no trouble sleeping.

I did not drink any extra water today, so I should see some weight loss due to dehydration, unfortunately.

Thursday, April 3, 2013 126.5 pounds. Feast Day.

Water loss is pretty impressive. And I was still wearing my pajamas. Wasn't famished when I woke, but did eat two "two ingredient" cookies (made only of banana and oatmeal). Went for a run and felt normal.

Sunday, April 6 125.0 pounds. Feast Day.

Went for a 75 km bike ride yesterday and was really bagged-- could barely maintain average 30 kph speed at the end. Wondered if it had anything to do with my "diet" despite only fasting one day. I noticed that since my weight is coming off, I'm feeling encouraged and eating even LESS! Even on my feast days, I tried not to eat too much.

Today ate at McDonald's because it was the last day for the coupons and had: six chicken nuggets (290), medium fries (360), small blueberry-pomegranate smoothie (210), one dipping sauce (60) for a total of 920 for one meal. I grabbed one of the nutritional information sheets (the back of the tray liner) and was shocked to find out that the blueberry-pomegranate smoothie has only 6% my required daily Vitamin C with 47g of sugar, the same sugar in a hot fudge sundae!!!

And, for future reference, when I need a 360 calorie evening meal at Mickey D's on a Fast Day I can eat these:

350 Mighty Caesar Entree Salad with Grilled Chicken
330 Tuscan Salad with Warm Grilled Chicken
311 Cashew Teriyaki Salad with Grilled Chicken
290 Chicken Snack Wrap
340 Bacon Cheeseburger
300 Cheeseburger and 40 Garden Side Salad
250 Hamburger

Monday, April 8 126.5 pounds. Fast Day.

And so finally my weight went up instead of down.

I celebrated by frying two eggs for breakfast, but didn't have time to eat them before I headed to a spin class. I sweated my face off there, followed by a yoga session. When I got home, I wolfed down the two eggs.

This time the fast was much easier. Yes, I did think about food often, but I wasn't in agony. I think I can do this regularly.

Dinner was a very salty tuna tataki salad (with very little greens--restaurant!) and marinated tuna on a small bed of rice. I'm pretty sure that exceeded 350 calories, but oh well, I tried. There is no calorie guide in a local Japanese restaurant.

My kids offered me a popsicle and I had to refuse it. My husband gave me a tea with milk and sugar, and I took it. That probably blew my calorie allotment.

Not too hungry going to sleep.

Wednesday, April 10 126.5 pounds. Feast Day.

Did no exercise at all today. Did no exercise at all yesterday. Ate fried rice at lunch, but still felt starving, and had to eat another one. I hope I had enough calories today to be able to fast tomorrow.

Saw a documentary yesterday night which examined the question of whether there are naturally thin people, that is, people who cannot get fat. Some naturally thin people tried to eat double their usual calorie intake for many weeks. It outlined these points:

You are genetically predisposed to a certain weight.

Mothers can impact the weight of their unborn babies by their diet.

Some children will eat treats even if they are full, and those chidren will have a tendency to be fat later.

Fat cells have a finite capacity. When this capacity is reached, more fat cells are created. Fat cells never disappear but shrink. Having extra fat cells makes it easier for you to gain weight in the future.

Obesity may be caused by a virus. The adenovirus.

Some people cannot gain as much weight as others because they have coping mechanisms. They may physically reject the food by feeling the need to vomit. They may increase their metabolism in response to overeating. They may grow more muscle to increase their metabolism, despite not exercising.

You'd better watch the documentary yourself because I could be wrong about some of the above facts--my recall isn't what it used to be!

Thursday, April 11 126.5. Fast Day.

Okay, I admit that I failed at the fast. I was so darn hungry in the morning. So for the day I ate:

1 cup cottage cheese 203
three oatmeal cookies 200
1 cup cottage cheese 203
1 cup snap peas 41
3 mandarin oranges 37x3=111
1.5 cups soy milk 135
TOTAL 893

Cottage cheese is quite high in calories. Okay, yeah, it's actually not the cheese that ruined it, it's the oatmeal cookies. And the soy milk. And the two mandarin oranges. One was okay. Wow, 500 calories really is next to no food at all.

But I need to drink 2 cups of soy milk a day to stave off perimenopausal symptoms. That saps 180 calories from my budget, with only 320 calories left. So, I can drink one cup of soy milk for breakfast, and have one at dinner with my slice of chicken and salad.

You see, I ate the extra food because I was afraid that I would die during my first track workout in, um, two years. I was trying out a new running group, one which intimidates me because they run 45 minute 10Ks. Well, it turned out that I was right. I wasn't able to keep up with them for the 800s, and definitely not for the 1600s. Instead, I plodded around by myself, and they lapped me. How humiliating.

Not sure whether this is due to the fasting, or poor fitness, or both. I have only done two runs in the last month.

On top of that, I ran into a guy who had wanted to date me in first year university (although he knew I already had a boyfriend). It was a bit of an ego boost that their 14 year old son could not keep up to me on the track, though. He and his wife were standing on the field watching their kid's soccer game. Yeah, and I had no makeup on and was exceedingly sweaty with bad hair from wearing my bike helmet.

And the running coach obviously disapproved of fasting. I probably come off as one of those people who does every gimmick diet around, when actually this is my first real diet. Heck, it's not even a diet, but a way to prolong life, prevent cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimers. I'm just hoping to lose weight on it. It seems everyone else has, but it has occurred to me that maybe they were fairly fat to begin with? And maybe I am too close to ideal weight.

Still hungry, but I'm going to forget my failure. Hard to feel encouraged when my weight hasn't changed for a few days. I don't even overeat on my FEAST days.

Saturday, April 13 126.0

Did a 2.5 hour bicycle ride doing hill repeats.

Here's a cool tool for graphing your weight. It updates automatically, so what you are seeing is my present weight and progress.

Get your own graph at skinnyr

Sunday, April 14 126.5 Feast

This is very discouraging. Ran for 30 minutes, ate normally.

Monday, April 15. 128.0 Fast

Wow, this is getting ridiculous and continuing to be discouraging. Should I expect my weight to go up on Mondays after three Feast days?

I'm really questioning this fast/feast dichotomy now. They said that I would not overeat by more than 110-130% on my Feast days. I have been trying not to overeat on my Feast days, but something is happening. I feel bloated and big. I *think* I am eating the same way I did before this whole experiment.

Ate nothing until 11:10 am, and in the meantime, ran 6 km and walked 2.5 km.

Maybe this experiment will not result in any weight loss. I mean, you cannot go on losing weight forever. Maybe I am already at ideal weight and the only people who can expect to lose weight on this are those who are overweight or obese to begin with. From the first day, I had a normal weight, but was trying to get to my "race weight." The problem with that normal weight is that I had a small gut, an overhang. My clothes were clearly too tight and I was getting muffin top, yet my BMI pegged me as being "normal."

Also, I wonder how they came up with the 500 calorie limit for women on Fast days. I just read that the average Canadian woman, who is my height, weighs 153 pounds. Is that 500 limit for 153 pound women? Then if I weigh only 127, proportionately my limit should be 417 calories.

I'll have to console myself with the fact that the main object of this exercise should be to extend life, not lose weight.

This entire fast day I felt hungry and insatiable. I ate nearly a normal dinner. Maybe I'm not drinking enough water.

Wednesday, April 17 127.0 Feast

Well at least my weight didn't go up.

Friday, April 19 127.0 Feast

I didn't fast yesterday. Couldn't bring myself to do it. I was so hungry when I woke up. But I have gone for a run four out of the five days this week. Then I read an article by DH Kiefer that suggests that women should avoid steady state cardio because it basically messes up their metabolism.

"Studies—both clinical and observational—make a compelling case that too much cardio can impair the production of the thyroid hormone T3, its effectiveness and metabolism[1-11], particularly when accompanied by caloric restriction, an all too common practice. This is why many first or second-time figure and bikini competitors explode in weight when they return to their normal diets, and it’s why the Jessicas of the world can run for hours every week with negative results. ...

Too little T3 (hypothyroidism), and the body accumulates body fat with ease, almost regardless of physical activity level. Women inadvertently put themselves into a hypothyroid condition when they perform so much steady-state cardio." ...

Training consistently at 65 percent or more of your max heart rate adapts your body to save as much body fat as possible. After regular training, fat cells stop releasing fat the way they once did during moderate-intensity activities[32-33]. Energy from body fat stores also decreases by 30 percent[34-35]. To this end, your body sets into motion a series of reactions that make it difficult for muscle to burn fat at all[36-41]. Instead of burning body fat, your body takes extraordinary measures to retain it.

That’s not all. You can still lose muscle mass. Too much steady-state cardio actually triggers the loss of muscle[42-45]. This seems to be a twofold mechanism, with heightened and sustained cortisol levels triggering muscle loss[46-56], which upregulates myostatin, a potent destroyer of muscle tissue[57]. Say goodbye to bone density, too, because it declines with that decreasing muscle mass and strength[58-64].

And long term health? Out the window, as well. Your percentage of muscle mass is an independent indicator of health[65]. You’ll lose muscle, lose bone, and lose health. Awesome, right?"

So all those runs and swims I've been doing the past year? Yup, I did them at a steady pace... almost all of them. Sure, I did intervals, like, TWICE while running and TWICE while swimming, but 99.9% of my workouts were steady. Because I hate pain, and intervals mean pain. Now, it's not that I didn't know that already, that high intensity intervals are the way to go. It was just that I had convinced myself that I needed to build up a base before I start speed training. And now to find out this.

It certainly explains why I not only haven't lost any weight since I first started in earnest on my weight loss program back in January, and then resorting to my first ever real "diet" in my life with the 5-2 plan.

Monday, April 22. 126 lbs. Fast.

Breakfast: one piece of homemade matcha pound cake. 350 calories.
Cup of milk. 146.
Dinner: fish taco. 250.
200 ml beer leftover from beer batter: 140

Day's total: 886

Maybe it's okay... if I swam for 44 minutes... 255 calories burned. I also cycled for 30 minutes. 249 calories burned. Does Dr. Mosley's formula for 500 calories apply if you're sedentary, or active? Does it matter? Apparently, it doesn't.

Here's a handy tool for calculating how many calories you burn from exercise, with weight taken into consideration.

Another blogger asked the original scientists interviewed in Dr. Mosley's Horizon program to many questions I had, and I will try to sum those answers up for you:

Can you eat the 500/600 fast day calories all at once or can you spread them out throughout the day?

1. Best is fasting for four days in a row each month, with intermittent fasting during the week to maintain.
2. Try to eat plant based low protein food.
3. Try to do a strict fast for as many hours as possible.
4. If you must eat on a fast day, have the calories at breakfast and do not eat until the next day (this doesn't make sense to me... If you already fasted overnight from 7 pm after dinner, then the one meal could be dinner, to make it a 24 hour fast. Having it at breakfast interrupts the fast from the previous day's dinner, and starts the clock again, ending at breakfast the next day, so again, 24 hours.
5. It is best to have no calories at all on a fast day.
6. If you must eat on a fast day, eat all calories in one meal. One of the scientists allowed fasters to eat between noon to 2 pm on fast days.

So, for fast days make sure you have a 24 hour period with no food at all (but hydrate with zero calorie beverages). No food at all is the best. So forget the plan where you eat eggs and ham at breakfast, nothing for lunch, and a 350 calorie dinner. That would only result in a 14 hour fast, at best.

Thursday, April 25. 125. Fast.

Last night I decided to do the 24 hour fast, as recommended. The problem was, I ate a vegan dinner, and a tiny one at that. So by 10:00 pm I was already really really hungry. Do I eat again? That would re-start the 24 clock. I ended up eating 2 slivers of fresh mango from my daughter's plate.

Today both my kids were home from school with 37.3C fevers. I prepared blueberry pancakes for them that I could not eat myself. I went to school to pick up their homework and smelled food in the hallways, and saw a box of almonds on the teacher's desk. I could not have any. It's hard to imagine what it is like to be hungry all the time, as some people in the world must experience. I felt like I was being mightily tortured.

So, I get to live longer. I sure hope I get used to this feeling of hunger. My stomach started growling at 9 am, and I was not sure how I was going to get through the rest of the day. But I can always look forward to dinner today, 500 calories at that, which is a LOT OF FOOD.

Monday, April 29. 124.5. Famine Day, I mean Fast Day.

Yesterday at dinner I was cognizant that the next day would be a fast day. I wanted to eat extra, but I also did not want to eat more than 100% of a normal day's calories. I dread Fast Days. I really do.

I forgot it was a Fast Day this morning and ate gummy vitamins. I hope that does not ruin the fast.

My stomach started grumbling by 9 am. It is torture to prepare food for others when you're fasting.

Ran 5.5 km, cycled 6 km, and swam 2 km. I did not feel weak at all. I thought if I exercise, I can fill the time and not notice the hunger.

By 4 pm I gave in and ate popcorn with the kids. At 6:15 pm I ate a normal dinner which definitely exceeded 500 calories. Reasoned with myself that it is the 24 hours (oops... 23 hours) without food that is making the difference, not the 500 calorie meal. Probably wrong about that.

Tuesday, April 30. 125.5. Feast Day.

I'm pretty sure I was trying to make up for calories missed today. I ate four chocolates, leftover nuts, tofu dessert, macaroni and cheese, an apple, two bowls of ice cream, sole, spinach, and soba noodles. I was having an intense craving for high calorie foods. That's 1635 calories.

According to myfitnesspal, I need to eat only 1200 calories a day to lose just half a pound per week. I need a daily calorie deficit of 270 calories. It will take me 2.5 months to lose 5 pounds. We're looking at summer before I go under 120 pounds.

Thursday, May 2. 122.5. Fast Day.

Forgot to weigh myself this morning, so, unfortunately, I weighed myself after my 5 km run, so there is some water loss. At first when I got on the scale, I couldn't believe my eyes: 121 pounds! But lately I've been weighing myself 5 times to get a proper reading, because the first reading is always 1-2 pounds lighter than some of the other readings.

At dinner, I ate normally because I foolishly made some chia brownies and ate some. Then at night, I had a greek yogurt ice cream bar... delicious. I was surprised it was only 90 calories when I checked.

Total calories for the day: 942. Exercise calories burned: 354. Net calories for the day: 588. So although I overate, the calories for the day are only a little above the 500 maximum under the fasting rules.

I'm liking myfitnesspal. It makes me more carefully track all the food I eat and pushes me to do more exercise to keep my daily numbers down.

Saturday, May 4. 121. Feast.

Who doesn't like brownies for breakfast? Love the ability to eat whatever I want on feast days. Yesssss!

I'm now below my target "sustainable" weight of 122 pounds. Yesterday I wore a dress that was tight on me just five months ago, when I wore it at a party. Now it gapes under my arms and drapes loosely around my body, when I was practically straining the zipper the last time I wore it.

After my two hour bike ride, my scale showed 119.5 pounds! Nice to see, even if it's only water loss.

Here is what myfitnesspal told me today:

Totals (calories eaten): 2,553
Your daily goal: 2,956
Remaining: 403
(You've earned 1756 extra calories from exercise today)

I am allowed 1200 calories per day to lose weight. Exercising the equivalent of 1756 calories allows me to eat a total of 2956 calories!!! And I almost made it there.

"Remaining: 403" means that I have room to eat an additional 403 calories while still losing weight.

Surprising food fact: dulce de leche gelato in a waffle cone is a whopping 400 calories!

Tuesday, May 7. 122. Feast.

It might not be such a good idea for me to track diet and exercise on Myfitnesspal. Today I received a warning that eating less than 1200 calories would lead to starvation mode. So I ate a third piece of cake to bring my total to 1,205. Yeah, you heard that right. I ate THREE pieces of swiss cake roll, and my total calories for the day was still barely over 1200.

This morning I ran 6 km and then in the afternoon I swam 2175 m freestyle at a good clip. That is 778 calories, not counting all the walking I did. Myfitnesspal adds the exercise calories to your daily allowance, so my base 1200 calories has 778 calories of exercise added to it, so in theory I can eat up to almost 2000 calories while losing weight!

The reality is that almost every day I eat less than the allotment of calories. Without the exercise bonus, it is challenging to eat under 1200 calories.

I think for myself that using Myfitnesspal encourages me to eat more.

Advice for those starting fasting: The feelings of hunger will come and go throughout the 24 hours. Sometimes you feel like you want to gnaw off your own arm, and other times, you forget that you haven't eaten all day. Try to ride out the waves by drinking water or (sugarless milkless) tea and engaging your mind. Another trick I do is to exercise a lot.

Friday, May 10. 121. Feast Day.

Yesterday was a fast day and I forgot I was on a fast and ate the kids' leftover corn cob... ate a couple rows before I did a forehead slap.

The hunger was incredible. I went out for a 6.3 km run, did yoga for 40 minutes, then rode my bicycle around slowly spectating an event. That really helped to pass the time.

While fasting, I did some research on how many hours it takes for autophagy to kick in, autophagy meaning the cellular repair processes that help you live longer. You run out of liver in glycogen 12-18 hours. There was no clear study on when autophagy begins, so I have to guess that it is some time after 12-18 hours. I would think you're looking at a minimum of 18 hours. Why would I be looking this up? Because I wanted to eat sooner. That day.

When I'm satiated on a feast day, it is easy to look back at a fast day and think, "Hey, that wasn't too bad." But the reality of it is, although fast days are getting easier, they are by now means EASY. It's like childbirth, and raising babies. You get amnesia after your first child, thinking, hey, that wasn't too bad. Let's have another! But then when you have another child, you remember how bad it was! Hahaha! So I'm never going to tell someone that fasting is easy, even just a 24 hour fast, because it is uncomfortable feeling so hungry that all you think about is food, and your stomach grumbles like the giant empty cavern it is.

Friday, May 25. 123. Fast Day.

I didn't actually gain weight. I switched scales. My new scale, the Fitbit Aria, has me weighing two pounds more than my old scale. Sigh. It was demoralizing finding out I wasn't as light as I thought I was.

It seems that I have a new body weight setpoint, because I haven't gained any weight this week despite going off the 5:2 regimen.

Since getting the new scale two weeks ago, although my weight has remained steady at 123 (121 on the old scale), my fat has increased by 1%. This week has been a mess because I spent full days doing volunteer work and did not have a chance to exercise. So far I swam, ran, and did yoga once, and that's 50% of my usual load. I also did not fast on Monday because it was a holiday, and then when Tuesday came, I could not do it, despite eating huge amounts on the weekend. I also did not fast on Thursday. So a very bad week. This is the first week that I haven't done any fasting. I'll try to fast today, but in order to go 24 hours, I need to eat nothing until 9 pm, because that's when I last ate.

Have a commercial audition at 4 pm today. I hope my stomach doesn't growl in the quiet room.

Wore my skinny jeggings last weekend. I had avoided them for months because they were too tight and now they're loose. I love intermittent fasting!

The only thing I don't love is this: I am having frequent hot flashes again. When I mean frequent, I mean sometimes every 30 minutes or less. Sweaty, annoying hot flashes. My sleep is interrupted, waking 3-6 times a night, always followed by a hot flash, throwing off the covers, then resuming sleep.

After some research, I have decided the cause is likely the rapid loss of fat, since fat cells produce estrogen. I had been battling hot flashes a year ago and solved it with drinking soy milk, which contains a plant estrogen-like compound. It seems my estrogen was barely adequate and with this fat loss has brought back perimenopausal symptoms.

My response has been to buy maca root powder. My research suggested it as a possible cure. Bought a one pound bag for $24 at Nesters Market on Main Street. I mix one tablespoon with hot water a drink it daily. So far, it's done nothing for me, and I've been taking it since Mother's Day, May 17. I'll try to be patient since I read it takes three weeks to have an effect.

After that I'm going to try hormones. It's not okay to have terrible sleep all the time. Last weekend I had a nap on a beanbag chair in the children's section of Chapters, I was THAT tired.

Friday, May 31. 122.2 Feast Day.

Well, it finally happened. We had a long weekend, and so Monday was a holiday. And not a fast day, because I don't like fasting when the family's at home.

I figured I would do it the next day. But I didn't. Then I thought I would do it on Thursday. But I didn't. Monday. Failed again. Finally, Wednesday, I did it. My next fast will be Monday again.

Perhaps because of this failure, I signed up for a bootcamp. Every time I do a bootcamp, I get injured. So far with this new bootcamp, which only costed me $29 for a month of unlimited classes, I have not been injured, but I certainly do have excruciatingly sore muscles. Not sure I subscribe to the method of basically pummelling the same muscle group repeatedly through different exercises for most of the class.

I joined on Wednesday, and that was quad and hamstring day. Thursday was tricep and bicep day. Friday I could not go as I had volunteered to supervise a end of year field trip to the garbage dump. Yeah, I know what you're thinking... who would choose a dump over exercise? But the dump was really very interesting!

The problem with the bootcamp is that I will not be able to do my usual running and cycling during the week, limiting myself to swimming.

My weight has remained surprisingly stable despite lack of fasting. It is now hovering around 122, which is 120 on the old scale. So now I've lost around 10.5 pounds.

We shall see whether the bootcamp will kickstart more fat loss. Interestingly, although I have lost 10 pounds, my body fat has also increased, from 24.6% to 25.1%. So perhaps I am losing muscle.

My hot flashes are still bothering me, despite now increasing my soy milk intake to 3 cups daily and one capsule of black cohosh. My sleep has improved, from four wakeups to one or two.

Thursday, June 12. Fast Day. 121.

I stopped going to the bootcamp after only two visits because I became injured. That is the last thing I want. I have to be in pain free shape so I can train for triathlon.

On Monday I finally returned to regular fasting. I was only half-heartedly fasting--doing the 500 calorie breakfast/dinner combo I first tried successfully. The 24 hour fast was too much as I would be waking up ravenously hungry.

I received my $99 Fitbit Flex yesterday. It is a tracker for walking (and running) and for sleep. I wanted it to motivate me to move more (and sleep more), but it hasn't, so far, since I only walked 5,700 steps yesterday. Although I spent the whole day dressed in my running clothes, instead I spent my day researching various things that I convinced myself were urgent.

This week I am acting in a commercial, and it is occupying my energy. Last week I put on a dress that I bought during March Break in Hawaii. It fit well then, but now it is is unflatteringly large on me, with the sides pooching out, an extra three inches of fabric around my chest area. Have I lost that much weight? My body fat is back down again.

I bought a box of Aero chocolate bars and another box of an assortment of chocolate bars. I have been eating whole chocolate bars, and my weight is still not going up, appearing to have stabilized.

My hot flashes have largely disappeared. I am thinking it is because I had stopped fasting the past two weeks? Or because I am drinking more soy?

My body fat percentage dropped below 25% again recently.

The other surprise is that I am running faster with less effort. I keep setting personal bests in my usual run, and I don't feel like I am trying particularly hard. My riding is also getting easier. Last weekend I rode with only my husband, and although I wasn't killing myself on the bike, it was our second fastest time for the usual route, despite there being only two of us and not the usual six for drafting.

If on the old scale, I would be 119, which is only one pound off my desired weight. I am almost there.

Monday, June 17. 124.7. Fast Day.

Forgot it was Fast Day and ate 1/4 brownie... and ate various junk food throughout the day.

So I've gained back nearly four pounds in the space of a few days. This coincides with my feeling of being bloated, and my body fat decreasing 1-2%, and, uh, ovulation. Let's hope it's just water weight. I did a terrible job fasting today, so I'll have to try again tomorrow. I might have to take baby steps and get back to how I started, with 500 calories spread between breakfast and dinner. That was easier than 24 hours of nothing.

Filmed my commercial on Sunday and ate delicious film set food...

Saturday, October 19. 122.5. Ended fasting.

I abandoned intermittent fasting because I could not handle the hot flashes any more. Once I gained weight, around five pounds, I noticed that my hot flashes stopped.

Recently, however, I have started increasing my running since I am training for a marathon. My weight has come down again, from a high of 127 two weeks ago. My hot flashes returned, just a few at first, and now I wake up regularly at night 3-5 times, sweating after I wake. My body fat measures 24.5-24.9%. I thought it was important to update this blog to note that it was not intermittent fasting that caused the hot flashes, but the low body weight.

Update: January 13, 2014. 125.3

Well, I gained weight over Christmas with the kids off school and no time to train. To the tune of 128 pounds by January 5. My hot flashes disappeared again. I am now losing weight again as I increase my mileage while marathon training. My hot flashes have returned. And I am not doing any intermittent fasting! When I was 125-128 pounds and body fast as high as 26.7% (thank you Christmas chocolates!) for a glorious few months, I was able to sleep through the night. Now as I lose weight, my sleep quality is going to pot. Last night was the worst yet. I woke up twice. I hope it does not revert back to the 3-5 times a night that it was when I was at my lowest weight.

I Hate Low Rise

2013-02-14T09:34:00.001-08:00

Dear Clothing Designers,

(Gap and Old Navy, I'm looking at you!)

The low rise trend was over in 2002, according to Vogue. Would you please stock your stores with pants that do not show my underwear when I sit down? I'm not asking for mom jeans. I'm just asking for pants that do not gape open at the back when I bend at my waist. I wear your size 2 and have a normally shaped body with a waist and everything.

I kinda bend at my waist pretty regularly. If I wanted to show my underwear, I would wear no pants at all, thank you very much.

Low rise pants are really inappropriate for my pre-teen girls. You perverted designers. A bunch of pedophiles.

Here's an article from Slate Magazine in 2003. 2003!!! This has been going on too long.

"Yet the real problem with extremely low-riding pants is that they're impractical. Sitting is difficult: If you can't find a chair with a closed back, you have to tie a shirt around your waist—always highly attractive—or risk scandalizing the room. If you drop something, or need to tie your shoe, abandon all hope; bending over with dignity is next to impossible. You must perfect the art of squatting, back straight, head up, as though preparing to curtsy. Low-riders also tend to slide down, requiring the wearer to hitch them up repeatedly. In their way, low-rider jeans bear a creepy similarity to Chinese foot-binding—they constrict a woman's action, rendering her ornamental. And like foot-binding, the jeans can have deleterious medical consequences. In 2001, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published a doctor's report stating that low-rise jeans can cause a condition called meralgia paresthetica, characterized by numbness or tingling in the thighs, by pinching a nerve located at the hip. Left untreated, the numbness can become permanent. Forget the question of style: This is a human rights issue."

And don't get me started on the accompanying muffin top phenomenon that results from this stupid trend.

Thank you for your consideration,

Frustrated and Angry Mom