I messed around with a few of the "calculators". (I'm supposed to live past my 97th birthday if cancer doesn't get me first. I also have a "healthy BMI and need the average amount of calories.) I wasn't all that interested in many of the other calculators. There wasn't enough of the directions to tell me exactly how they worked and I was depressed enough anyway.
I admit I'm not as good about exercising as I should be. My mother is a certified personal trainer. (I can use her for free.) I own a tredmill which I use but not as much as I should. It's been kind of hard to motivate myself in the mornings with my husband home all day. (It's hard to exercise with him on the couch eating his cereal.) I was able to exercise this morning and will most likely get myself going in earnest again on Thursday when he starts back at work.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Wellness #39: Nutrition
I don't know how much I will actually use the NutritionData.com website. I really liked the unit conversion on the website and I might use it for that purpose. I put my lunch into the nutrition counter and came back all depressed. Although I don't think it is quite as high in cholesterol as the site claims (I'm not having as much corn pudding as I told the site I was.) it was still way too depressing for my taste! And of course it had to remind me about the amount of sugar in my small orange. Is anything safe to eat nowadays besides air?
For the Recipes.Sparkspeople.com website, I found a Chicken casserole recipe similar to a recipe I grew up with but no longer make (so now I don't have to feel quite so guilty). I found the Sodium content to be quite high but the recipe I used as a child contained salsa and chili peppers insead of Chicken Broth, Cream of Mushroom Soup and Velveeta. I think the one I ate as a child was healthier. The recipe I chose contained:
Chicken Breast, no skin, 30 ounces (remove)
Cream of Mushroom Soup, 1 can (10.75 oz) (remove)
Cream of Chicken Soup, 1 can (10.75 oz) (remove)
Canned Tomatoes, 1 can (remove)
*Velveeta Cheese Product, 16 oz (remove)
Swanson Chicken Broth 99% Fat Free, .5 cup (remove)
Cheddar Cheese, 8 oz (remove)
Corn Chips, 16 oz (remove)
And the Nutritional data:
Nutrition Facts
8 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories 767.4
Total Fat 46.1 g
Saturated Fat 17.0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 10.9 g
Monounsaturated Fat 9.7 g
Cholesterol 134.4 mg
Sodium 1,979.0 mg
Potassium 468.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate 44.9 g
Dietary Fiber 3.0 g
Sugars 5.6 g
Protein 47.1 g
Vitamin A 21.7 %
Vitamin B-12 10.9 %
Vitamin B-6 38.2 %
Vitamin C 5.8 %
Vitamin D 0.9 %
Vitamin E 7.6 %
Calcium 70.6 %
Copper 13.4 %
Folate 6.0 %
Iron 15.4 %
Magnesium 21.6 %
Manganese 15.7 %
Niacin 65.6 %
Pantothenic Acid 14.2 %
Phosphorus 48.5 %
Riboflavin 19.6 %
Selenium 40.7 %
Thiamin 8.7 %
Zinc 17.8 %
For the Recipes.Sparkspeople.com website, I found a Chicken casserole recipe similar to a recipe I grew up with but no longer make (so now I don't have to feel quite so guilty). I found the Sodium content to be quite high but the recipe I used as a child contained salsa and chili peppers insead of Chicken Broth, Cream of Mushroom Soup and Velveeta. I think the one I ate as a child was healthier. The recipe I chose contained:
Chicken Breast, no skin, 30 ounces (remove)
Cream of Mushroom Soup, 1 can (10.75 oz) (remove)
Cream of Chicken Soup, 1 can (10.75 oz) (remove)
Canned Tomatoes, 1 can (remove)
*Velveeta Cheese Product, 16 oz (remove)
Swanson Chicken Broth 99% Fat Free, .5 cup (remove)
Cheddar Cheese, 8 oz (remove)
Corn Chips, 16 oz (remove)
And the Nutritional data:
Nutrition Facts
8 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories 767.4
Total Fat 46.1 g
Saturated Fat 17.0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 10.9 g
Monounsaturated Fat 9.7 g
Cholesterol 134.4 mg
Sodium 1,979.0 mg
Potassium 468.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate 44.9 g
Dietary Fiber 3.0 g
Sugars 5.6 g
Protein 47.1 g
Vitamin A 21.7 %
Vitamin B-12 10.9 %
Vitamin B-6 38.2 %
Vitamin C 5.8 %
Vitamin D 0.9 %
Vitamin E 7.6 %
Calcium 70.6 %
Copper 13.4 %
Folate 6.0 %
Iron 15.4 %
Magnesium 21.6 %
Manganese 15.7 %
Niacin 65.6 %
Pantothenic Acid 14.2 %
Phosphorus 48.5 %
Riboflavin 19.6 %
Selenium 40.7 %
Thiamin 8.7 %
Zinc 17.8 %
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Games and Gaming #38: Console Gaming
Oh, this was just too cool! I LOVE this arcade website. I'm going to have to bookmark it on my home computer. I played Duck Hunt, Tetris, and Simon. I can't wait to try Astroids and Spaced Invaders. I did have a bit of a hard time trying to figure out where the controls were on my keyboard, but it wasn't too frustrating. I felt I was improving my eye-hand coordination and memory by playing these games as a child.
The Maud Marks Library already has a couple of Sony Playstations. I think for library purposes these consoles work well for us. The kids seem to like Guitar Hero and DDR. I would love to see us get Rock Band someday if we could find the room. I think these games work better in the library setting then some of the games which use only control pads. It would also be nice to get a Nintendo Wii, simply because it promotes active involvement in the games. I understand though that these would probably be better for schools who cannot afford gym teachers though.
In the case of our kids, I think they really do just come for the games and stay for the games. This is proven by the fact that the number of teens in the library always doubles when there is a possiblility of "Fun and Fabulous Fridays". Then, when the kids see there are no games, they don't tend to stay. Perhaps there is a way to bring books into the whole gaming day? That way we can get at least a few of them to come for the games and stay for the books.
The Maud Marks Library already has a couple of Sony Playstations. I think for library purposes these consoles work well for us. The kids seem to like Guitar Hero and DDR. I would love to see us get Rock Band someday if we could find the room. I think these games work better in the library setting then some of the games which use only control pads. It would also be nice to get a Nintendo Wii, simply because it promotes active involvement in the games. I understand though that these would probably be better for schools who cannot afford gym teachers though.
In the case of our kids, I think they really do just come for the games and stay for the games. This is proven by the fact that the number of teens in the library always doubles when there is a possiblility of "Fun and Fabulous Fridays". Then, when the kids see there are no games, they don't tend to stay. Perhaps there is a way to bring books into the whole gaming day? That way we can get at least a few of them to come for the games and stay for the books.
Games and Gaming #37: Get Your Game On @ The Library
I didn't really like the Carnegie-Mellon games at all. I wasn't able to find any directions on how to play the games. I found the game "I'll Get It" impossible to play. I clicked on the student and then nothing happened (or so I thought). Turns out I was taking the research question from them, but a newcomer to this game would not know that! Then after taking it to the catalog, it would only tell me search complete and not tell me what to do next. Perhaps if they added a dialog box to the bottom (ALA Runescape), it would be easier to understand and figure out what the player is supposed to do. The game "Within Range" was a little easier to figure out. It still took me a little while to discover what I was supposed to do. Perhaps if they had a page of rules and directions that they showed first, I wouldn't have had such a hard time with it.
I definitely agree that games belong in the library. We have not been all about BOOKS in quite some time. Libraries have been "media centers" for a while now and I know that Fort Bend library has actually had children's computer games (for literacy purposes) on a few of it's computers for years. As a learning experience, I like the way Mr. Martin put it in the New York Times article, "'If a kid takes a test and fails, that's it. But in a game, if you fail you get to take what you've learned and try again.'" It is a progressive learning trait that will help them in the real world.
For our library it is more about survival than anything. The teenagers are going to be coming here and playing Runescape anyway. It would be nice to have even more games for our Playstations and maybe even a Wii some day. As interesting as Runescape is, it is nice to encourage the teens to interact with each other more. I also agree that it brings more teens into the library. Perhaps if ye can get them in the door, we can encourage them to check out EVERYTHING the library offers.
I definitely agree that games belong in the library. We have not been all about BOOKS in quite some time. Libraries have been "media centers" for a while now and I know that Fort Bend library has actually had children's computer games (for literacy purposes) on a few of it's computers for years. As a learning experience, I like the way Mr. Martin put it in the New York Times article, "'If a kid takes a test and fails, that's it. But in a game, if you fail you get to take what you've learned and try again.'" It is a progressive learning trait that will help them in the real world.
For our library it is more about survival than anything. The teenagers are going to be coming here and playing Runescape anyway. It would be nice to have even more games for our Playstations and maybe even a Wii some day. As interesting as Runescape is, it is nice to encourage the teens to interact with each other more. I also agree that it brings more teens into the library. Perhaps if ye can get them in the door, we can encourage them to check out EVERYTHING the library offers.
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