Cops and Caffeine

I have some friends who wear badges and run towards the chaos.  In the midst of the chaos, long hours, weird encounters, and dangerous daily tasks, I asked them, "What's your poison?" 

Here's some of the replies:

Fuzzy 1: Mt. Dew.  Gotta have the Dew.

Fuzzy 2: Water, gym time, and protein *insert man grunt here* 

Fuzzy 3: COFFEE...<---must agree

Fuzzy 4: Sweet tea *I've heard it keeps'em sweet, otherwise they are a bear to work for*

Fuzzy 5: Diet Coke, coffee, Mt. Dew, straight caffeine works too.

Fuzzy 6: Coffee with a Diet Dr. Pepper chaser *wink*

The caffeine crusade continues!

**Just for S&G I asked about the donut diet...I'll save that for another post ;)

Halloween Countdown!

It's beginning to look a lot like the Nightmare Before Christmas!  I love this time of year when the smell of pumpkin spice lattes wake me in the morning.  Yeah, it doesn't take much more than a strong cup of coffee to get me excited, however, there is a certain thrill to this time of year.  Halloween is the kickoff holiday for end of the year festivities. 

What makes it more exciting than the candy, the decorations, the trick-or-treating and parties?! Why, the COSTUMES of course!  I'm a sucker for an original costume idea and for three years in a row in some form of social media I have posted a list.  This year I am going to do things a little differently.  Instead of posting the 20+ costume ideas I am going to add a new idea each day to count down to Halloween.  Since today is already October 2nd here are the first two:

1. English Muffin: Wear a size too small jeans so you have a muffin top, get a plain t-shirt and use a paint pen to color a British flag on it, and talk with a British accent.
2. Afro-American:  A classic (and once worn by moi), wear an Indian outfit with an afro. 

This will be a good for all of my readers to share this post and have everyone send costume ideas that I will add each day.  Sadly, no costume will ever beat THE MAGIC 8 BALL:

Just sayin...

Coffee

Good Monday morning...wait, *sip* ahhhh. Okay, now it's a good morning. Yes, I'm one of those people who need coffee in the a.m. to function. Well, not so much function, but to guard my patience. It may be hard to believe, those of you who know me, that I have very little patience. This happened over time. I'm the youngest of my clan, always having to wait my turn. In the service we had to have patience, the difference meant life and death. In motherhood and marriage I've lost it. I KNOW! You'd think having kids would put the P in patience, but not in my case.

No, over the years I have had to consume a morning cup of coffee in order to put on a "go ahead, it's safe to speak to me now" face. My children understand this. My hubs is usually gone to work before seeing this (key part of our happy marriage). My co-workers are lucky enough to see me after my second cup...hell, they're lucky to even see me at this point (side note for later).

The funny thing is I drink coffee to jump start my day, but I can also drink a cup at night and sweet dreams are soon to follow. My body tolerates caffeine better than most. I can also take a Tylenol PM and sit starring at the ceiling for five hours. Ambien...PFFFLT. Basket case of sleep walking while I'm awake; and yes, that is possible. It's called the zombie effect. Never, nada, nope, not gonna take that crap again.

Coffee is my morning mojo and a nice night cap. Here's some interesting coffee facts to ponder:

• The Coffea plant is native to subtropical Africa and southern Asia


• Brazil remains the largest coffee exporting nation, but in recent years, Vietnam has become a major producer of robusta beans


• Coffee ingestion on average is about a third of that of tap water in North America and Europe.


• Coffee was initially used for spiritual reasons.


• Studies have shown apparent reductions in the risks of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout.

The amount of bad vs. good effects of coffee is not enough to sway me from drinking it every morning. Hey, at least I don't smoke with my coffee...I save that for the afternoons when work has thoroughly run through my supply of patience ;-)

How do you get your mornings started?

Cereal Killers

Oh the horror!!! I started my 'diet' this past Friday as experts say it is the best day to start a new eating program; something about making it through the first weekend is the hardest, blah, blah, blah. Mind you, I love my chocolate, so ANY diet I pursue must/will have chocolate included in my daily intake. I am good about small portions and drinking water (though alternate with Diet Dr. Pepper when my caffeine levels drop).

I don't live off of bread, or other easy carbs, but if I have them I keep it simple and try to eat more of my chicken/steak (insert meaty animal here). I love fish, but rarely enjoy it due to non-fish eaters in my house.

Breakfast is usually a quick-fix of coffee and whatever cereal I have handy, or I swing by my local Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and bagel. Well this morning threw me for a loop when I actually took the time to look at the side of the box on the cereals in my cupboard. The four choices were Raisin Nut Bran (RNB), Cookie Crisp, Special K w/berries, and Marshmallow Mateys (like Lucky Charms). I'm thinking the obvious choice would be Special K or RNB...obviously not.

To my surprise, and horror that I had been depriving myself of cookie or marshmallow flavored cereal every morning, the two "healthy" cereals weren't the lowest in calories or carbs. Here's how they compare:

Raisin Nut Bran - 220 calories w/skim milk, 4g protein, 38g carbs, 5g fiber

Cookie Crisp - 140 calories w/skim milk, 1g protein, 22g carbs, 1g fiber

Special K w/berries - 160 calories w/skim milk, 3g protein, 26g carbs, 1g fiber

Marshmallow Matey - 160 calories w/skim milk, 2g protein, 25g carbs, 1g fiber


The rest of the diet world may do this differently, but I count calories before anything else and so far the Cookie Crisp is winning me over. Then I look at the amount of protein and think, ‘hey, maybe the RNB isn’t so bad’ until I look back at the calories. Then the carbs…well that puts the RNB out; and the fiber is somewhat important although I don’t have a problem with irregularity. I was disappointed. Trying to eat right and what do the sneaky food companies do? Disguise the good stuff as kids’ cereal and give adults the bran crap that you have to eat with watered down milk and STILL isn’t as healthy as Cookie Crisp!

As you can see from the picture I opted for coffee and a bagel. If I’m going to be consuming 220 calories or more then it better be worth it!