so you wannabee a Domestik Goddess?

Madly off-topic, I know…

but I’ve really got to have a rant — followed by some truly useful links, I promise! — about the Vile Pond Scum known as Scrapers.

Scraper blogs are those ad-splattered automated blogs that steal content from the RSS feeds of hard-working real human bloggers, slap on some Google Adsense ads, and churn it back out again with flagrant disregard for law or ethics. They’ll even hijack your illustrations — so you pay for the hosting space and bandwidth, the Pond Scum Scrapers flash your pretty pictures to make their blogs look deceptively genuine…

Yep, those scraper blogs have finally ticked off the mild-mannered Domestik Goddess enough to make me drop the oven mitts and fight back.

They’ve cost me money, created confusion, sucked up my high quality crafting and gardening time, and (worst of all) spoiled much of the idle socializing that I’d had planned for this past sunny spring weekend.   (more…)

It’s true. No threats, no bribes, no whips and chains were required — not even any withholding of chocolate chip cookies — to get He Who Hogs The Power Tools to snack on a breakfast cereal with soy protein in it.

(PC Blue Menu Soy Crunch Multi-Grain Cereal, in case you’re wondering. It’s one of the new foods I’ve been trying as part of the Healthy Eating Challenge this past week.)

Honestly, when I started out on this 4-week adventure, I was bracing myself for a certain air of quiet martyrdom from the meat-and-potatoes man who shares my fridge.

Oh, sure, he was saying all the right things:

Really, whatever you want to do, I’ll support you. Yes, dear, this is a good thing. Yes, I suppose we should be getting more healthy foods and watching what we eat… Whatever you want to do, really, no, it’s fine…

But I wasn’t convinced that his heart was in it.

You should have seen us shopping for the motherlode of Healthy Groceries! Toddling around the store, menu plan in hand, I’m loading up with fruits and veggies and are you sure you need that much yogurt? …

Telling you, I’d have paid good money for one of those quick-snap photographers to be on hand to catch the expression on HWHTPT’s face when he saw me pick up the umpteenth healthy fibre-rich low-fat feeling-all-virtuous food product with Soy in its name!

So today, here we are, cruising the sunporch, watching the Sunday afternoon go by and having a cup of tea with my visiting mother.

HWHTPT suddenly clears his throat:
I made a sandwich yesterday with one of those Soy Deli Slices.
It wasn’t bad. Tasted a bit like bologna.

Silence. We turn to stare at him. He won’t meet our eyes.

After a minute he looks up, takes a deep breath, and says:
I’ve had a couple bowls of that Soy Crunch Cereal, too.

Pause.

I kind of liked it. Actually, it would be okay if we got some more of that stuff. It’s a pretty good TV snack… I’m not sure how much is left in the box.

Score one for the humble soy bean — magically transformed into a form of tasty low-fat high-fibre nutrition that even a Cookie Monster man will choose to eat.

Before:
Soft ‘n’ Squishy Not-So-Fit
Virtual Jen

So, I mentioned how keen I am to get on board with the Healthy Eating Challenge, right?

Brace yourself, we’re ready to rock!

And, by the way, nuts to those of you who expected me to post a real-life “before” picture! My Virtual Model here will do the job for now.

Besides, there are more motivations to eat healthy food in sensible amounts than a photo could show.

You know, like feeling all perky and fit and firm; and walking uphill without having to call for a tow-truck; and not having your mother try to slip a bottle of vitamins into your coat pocket whenever you drop in to visit her… all that sort of Quality-Of-Life thing.

Moving on…

I had my first chat with a Loblaw’s dietician this morning, picked up a few good food pointers, and I’m ready to head on over to PC.ca to pick out a menu plan for the next 4 weeks.

Feel free to follow along, by the way. The menu plans (and recipes and healthy eating tips) are available for anyone to use, not just us Loblaw’s groupies.

How many calories do I need in a day?

So, we’re looking at 3 different 4-week menu plans there, for three different calorie-intake levels.

Fortunately, there’s also a little questionnaire form to help you pick the right plan. Enter this info:

• gender,
• age,
• height,
• weight,
• activity level, and
• weight goals.

So far, so good. (And you might as well tell the truth for the first few of those, since no one’s looking. I won’t ask, or tell.)
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