My Update, Hot 100, and Just Tomatoes

I worked really hard this week, watching and weighing what I ate, exercising and tracking burned calories, working on my Kid's schoolwork, writing and so much more.

Weigh-In this a.m.: 214.6 pounds
Total Weight Loss: 84.4 pounds

I've been having some health issues:

(1) Both ears are plugged up. I think it might be an allergy ... the hay we have here for the livestock or maybe the low-carb protein drinks. Can't do anything about the hay but I can about the drinks so I'm temporarily off of them and eating homemade quiche for my breakfast instead. Yummmmy!

(2) My left arm really hurts and often feels like jello. I don't think I'm pushing too hard in my weight-lifting. It hurts from the inside in. Might possibly be the blood pressure cuff (still taking my readings daily) so I'm switching to using my right arm and hoping a week off will help. Have it wrapped in an ace bandage today because even moving it hurts.

We have way too much to do this weekend to be hurting. Even tho it's been in the 90's/90's here this week, we have to finish getting ready for the winter.... plants and livestock. Whether my arm hurts or not, ears are plugged or not, we will be busy busy busy bees this weekend!

Also working on getting ready to do "personalized letters from Santa" ... it's almost time to start that back up! I'll put a thingy on the right side of my blog when we're ready to go. (Cheap letters from Santa, mailed from the North Pole, $4.95 each ... pretty good deal!)

Instead of doing a C25K on November 14 (a challenge), I'll be riding my exercycle for 5 miles. Might go for 10! So starting yesterday, I'm in training!

Guess that's it for now. I'll do another update-posting next Thursday. Meanwhile if you wanna see what I'm eating, drinking and how much I'm exercising, it's at the top of the page!

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I'm taking the Hot 100 Challenge. That's about setting 3 or more goals in these last 100 days of the year, and working to achieve them. That said, my three goals:

1. Originally I'd planned to get to 199 pounds by Dec 31 but since I'm only 15 pounds away (at 214.6 lbs), I'm gonna make my first goal to be at 185 pounds by December 31 2010.

2. Exercycle 1 hour, 3 times a week (or a total of 3 hours a week) by Dec 31.

3. Write/finish 3 e-books.

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If you recall, I e-mailed "Just Tomatoes" on Sept 17 2010 about discrepancies in the nutrition facts for their products, and posted that on this blog (here). Here's a portion:

First, I buy a lot of the medium-sized tubs, but some say the product inside is 2 oz, some say 3 oz, and some say 4 oz. All so far say one serving is 1 oz. And all these tubs, when emptied into a measuring cup, equal 2 cups. That being said,

-Peaches: 2 oz tub = 2 1-oz servings or 1 cup
-Fruit Munches: 3 oz tub = 3 1-oz servings or 2/3 cup
-Carrots: 4 oz tub = 4 1-oz servings, or 1/2 cup

Same size tub. Just doesn't make sense. Besides, having more than 1/4 cup of any dried fruit or vegetable seems like too much.

Second, I also have purchased the powdered dried fruit: cherries, peaches and blueberries. There is NO nutritional information on these packages at all.

No response. No e-mail. No phone call. Nothing. So I called them again yesterday and spoke with Kelsey in Customer Service. She said:

(1) If I want the nutritional value of 1 ounce of dried blueberry powder, take the info for 1 ounce of dried blueberries.

(2) One ounce of a product is one serving, no matter what the size volume-wise. It's what their nutritionists have come up with.

Okay .... uh ... huh?

(1) It's like filling a jar with rocks then pebbles then sand... one ounce of pebbles does NOT equal one ounce of sand. There's room for air in the 1 oz of pebbles so there's actual less volume. Do they not understand this?

(2) THEIR nutritionist? What about the FDA guidelines for portion size? Kelsey said that doesn't concern them. They go by what their nutritionist says. I reminded her that one ounce of dried fruit (say apricot) is a LOT more when it's reconstituted, and a LOT more than a serving size / portion size. She said they go by the dried only. Not the reconstituted.

Sorry. Doesn't make sense. AT ALL. I explained that if I can't get some accurate information about their products, that I absolutely can't use them in my getting-healthy plan. And I can't justify buying them for my Kid. Kelsey wanted to transfer me to Becky who will give me more information. I explained that I already left her a voice mail and e-mail but never got a response. That I get phone calls back when I want to spend oodles of money on their products, but not now. And perhaps my readers here would be interested to know how little their care about nutritional values of their products. She talked me into leaving another voice mail for Becky, saying she'll for sure call me back by the end of the day.

I got an e-mail from them (but not BECKY!) but it still doesn't make logical sense. Basically was told I need to do calculations to figure out what a half cup or tablespoon would be. Oh, and they measure by weight, not volume.

Argh.

Anybody know of a different manufacturer of dried fruits and veggies, all natural, no sulphur? Please let me know a.s.a.p.