This Way to Healthy Choices

The holidays are over, the New Year has begun. No more dragging of feet, it's time to bid adieu to foods that are tasty but not so good for us, and it's time to embrace eating smart and making healthier choices for our families.

The first step to making healthier choices begins in the grocery store. With this in mind, Stop & Shop Supermarket is launching Healthy Ideas, a new on-shelf symbol that helps customers easily identify foods that fit into a healthy lifestyle. To take the guesswork out of making healthy food choices, Stop & Shop has placed the Healthy Ideas symbol on more than 3,000 items and shelf tags throughout its stores. During my grocery shops, I spend a fair amount of time checking out the nutrition information on various products. Now all I need to do is look for a logo - how wonderfully convenient!

The symbol highlights foods that have less fat, saturated fat and sodium. It also helps to ensure that the foods we select include a healthful amount of at least one nutrient, such as fiber, whole grains, calcium and minerals.

The power of Healthy Ideas lies in the strength of its criteria which was developed by a team of registered dietitians and reviewed by an advisory panel of physicians and nutrition experts, including Dr. George Blackburn, associate director of the Division of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School.

Research played a critical role in the development of the symbol, which uses the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the USDA Food Pyramid (Mypyramid.gov) and the USDA/FDA's definition of healthy as a basis for its foundation. Look out for this new symbol!

Review Courtesy of MomCentral

Wordless/Word-filled Wednesday

Pudding Pie is on the brink of turning two, next week she will officially leave babyhood in the dust! Yup, my little one is enthusiastically embracing toddlerhood, but her mama keeps casting wistful glances backward to those precious baby days. Don't get me wrong: I'm thrilled for the strides she's taken in the past month, never mind the past year but oh boy, is it ever bitter-sweet.

For more Wordless/Word-filled Wednesday posts, visit 5 Minutes For Mom, Momdot and Angie's Circus.

Making It Easier to Snack Healthy

Every December 31st I resolve to drop the pounds, pick up the weights and embrace a healthier lifestyle. Each year I stick to my resolutions until about mid January and then, like clockwork, I fall off the healthy wagon and revert to old (unhealthy) habits. It's getting old. This year I did not trumpet my resolutions confidently, but instead unofficially resolved to work toward a healthier me. So far, so good. I'll admit it's January 11th and still early days, but I'm hopeful!

My problem has always been my penchant for snacking and what is helping me this time around are the very tasty, yet healthy Kellog's Special K® Crackers I've been munching on. They have only 90 calories and eight grams of whole grain per 17 crackers and they come in two great-tasting flavors, Multi-Grain and Italian Tomato & Herb. Now, each time I'm 'snackish', instead of dipping my hand into the candy bowl, I'm reaching for one of these Kellog's crackers. And guess what? My waistline is beginning to show the effects of my healthier choices! (At least I think so!)

They are also available in individual 90-calorie pouches and these are perfect as healthy and handy snack alternatives for both myself and my daughter when we're on the go. Visit Kellogg's.com to learn more about these healthy and delicious snack alternatives!

Review courtesy of MomCentral.com

Drugs.com and MedNotes: An Invaluable Resource for Moms

It wasn't that long ago that Pudding Pie had a particularly nasty cough. As her concerned parents, we wanted to do whatever we could to make her uncomfortable symptoms go away. We had a pediatric cough suppressant in the medicine cabinet and, before administering, I got online to confirm that we could give this medication to our toddler. It was then that I discovered the recommendation that over-the-counter pediatric cough and cold medicines not be given to children under the age of four, because of potentially fatal errors in dosing.

I realized how important it is to stay on top of new drug safety information. The problem is, keeping up with new drug safety information coming out nearly every day can be a huge challenge. Thank goodness for Drugs.com, the largest and most comprehensive online drug information resource out there!

This wonderful resource just became even more indispensable to moms everywhere with MedNotes. A recently-released, award winning tool that provides a free online personalized medication management program which can be used to track the whole family's medication profiles. On each personal family member profile you create, you can enter the names of all the medications being taken and then register to receive drug safety or interaction alerts to ultimately help reduce dangerous side effects and avoid unwanted drug interactions.

On top of this, MedNotes will send you new drug and specific condition news released by the FDA or drug makers related to the medications your family members take.

By being updated on all of your family's medication needs, you will feel the peace of mind that comes from feeling more in control of your family's health. I encourage you to visit Drugs.com and check out MedNotes.

Review courtesy of MomCentral

Wordless Wednesday

This is Pudding Pie in monkey-girl mode on Christmas Day.

Pardon our absence from the bloggy world, we have been caught up in the swirl of activity that always surrounds the holidays. We wish readers a happy and peaceful 2009, may all your resolutions be fulfilled! For more Wordless /Wordfilled Wednesday fun, visit MomDot, 5 Minutes For Mom and Angie's Circus!

Wordless Wednesday

My sassy girl.

Check out other Wordless/Wordfilled Wednesday posts at 5 Minutes For Mom, Momdot and Angie's Circus!

Save with the Safeway PowerPump Program

It's the holiday season at last, and along with all the extra fun comes extra expenses. With the recession, times are already tight and adding the holiday fun tab to everyday bills like groceries, prescription co-pays and gas can leave us gasping. Now is the time when loyalty cards are invaluable for the benefits they provide during everyday shopping.

Safeway and its family of grocery stores (Vons, Dominick's, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Pavilions, Carrs and Genuardi's) are helping make this season a bit easier. Shopping with Safeway's Club Card offers the chance to earn gas rewards whenever we grocery shop, buy prescriptions, and even gift cards.

Most significantly, you can earn double PowerPump Gas Rewards for every $100 in gift cards purchased with your Club Card at Safeway stores. The stores offer gift cards from over 300 retailers, restaurants, sports and entertainment companies (including Best Buy, The Home Depot, Macy's, iTunes, plus many more!). To find a participating store near you, go to www.Safeway.com/PowerPump and enter your zip code.

Big Savings Alert!! Not only can you buy gift cards as presents this season, but they can also be great for personal use to receive the extra benefit of double gas rewards at the pump. But don't wait too long to take advantage of this offer of double PowerPump gas rewards on gift cards, as it will only be available through the holidays!

Wordless Wednesday

Pudding Pie's beloved 'Ganny' left for the other side of the pond earlier this week. Here she is watching Ganny go 'byebye.' (Sniff, sniff.)

For more Wordless/Wordful Wednesday posts, visit 5 Minutes For Mom, Momdot and Angie's Circus!

Mom Central's Holiday Gift Guide

I must share with you Mom Central's utterly fabulous First Annual Holiday Gift Guide. With this, Mom Central has come to the rescue of moms everywhere. They've done the rsearch for us, they've evaluated and even neatly categorized loads of products for us - all we have to do is browse through their research and pick what we like! Also . . . Mom Central is holding daily giveaways, where you can enter to win wonderful prize packages. But hurry, the first seven giveaways of sixteen giveaways are completed, and the eighth giveaway ends today! All you need to do is register with Mom Central, then be sure to log in each day and enter to win!

Click here to register with Mom Central!

Hidden Valley's 'Search for Veggie Champions'

I’m lucky, I have a daughter who thinks peas, corn, broccoli and the like are pretty tasty foods to chomp on. She hasn’t yet learned that she’s supposed to balk at these foods, and I’m going to keep her from this kid truth for as long as possible!

However, I do know that as we become more comfortably ensconced in toddler hood, it is entirely possible that the day will come when she won’t let a vegetable cross her pursed lips. Not to worry, I am prepared for this. My weapon of choice? Ranch dressing! See, I love my veggies too and I never have to be persuaded to munch on them, but throw some ranch dressing into the mix and I get downright piggy about things. I'm thinking that if there is ever a danger of veggies becoming passé in our home, a potentially more picky Pudding Pie will be no match for the tasty combo of veggies and ranch dressing!

In fact, the makers of Hidden Valley® Salad Dressings launched the Love Your Veggies™ campaign soon after a 2006 study by the University of California Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and the Butte County Cooperative Extension revealed that kids ate 23% more vegetables when they were served with ranch dressing.

The Love Your Veggies™ campaign teaches families how to eat healthfully, purchase and grow the best veggies, and find innovative ways to serve them. The campaign has a site full of information at http://www.loveyourveggies.com/, and is offering a school grant program to provide students with better access to fresh produce. The campaign is also offering a mom retreat hosted by celebrity chef, Art Smith!

OK, Contest Alert! As part of the Love Your Veggies™ campaign, Hidden Valley has created a “Search for Veggie Champions” contest. They are inviting Moms to submit their brainstorms for a community garden and this garden can be at a school, religious organization, neighborhood park, etc. and would ideally help to get the community involved in and excited about eating and enjoying more vegetables.

The ten lucky winners will receive an all-expense-paid trip to Chicago for classes and lessons on selecting and cooking the best vegetable dishes, dinner at Chef Smith's restaurant, Table Fifty-Two, lots of pampering, and $5,000 to create or maintain their community gardens.

What are you waiting for?! Click over to loveyourveggies.com and find out more about how you can be a Veggie Champion!

Review courtesy of Mom Central