Let's Try Again

Well hello friends. Sorry about my slight disappearance there :) I spent at least an hour last night writing a weekend recap post and then it wouldn't post. That's happened to me once or twice before but last night it really annoyed me more than usual. I guess I was just thinking about all the pleasure reading and blog reading I could've done if I hadn't wasted my time writing a post that wouldn't publish. Anyway, it still won't publish now so I finally gave up and switched from Blogo (what I used to use for blogging) to Ecto, so I'll let you know how I like the swap in case anyone is interested in a new blogging software!

The main point of my post last night was to say that...

#1- Lots of people want doctors and lawyers in the family. I say you are really missing out if you don't have a landscaper in the family. If you did, you could come home to this...

Yes, beautiful pink and purple tulips. Last fall my sister's amazing boyfriend Chris was mowing our lawn while Eric worked a million hours a week teaching and coaching football. I knew he was doing a little extra at the time, but I had no idea he was planting tulip bulbs all along our fence, right at the spot that I stare at every time I pull into and out of the driveway. I saw something popping up before we left for vacation but I didn't really think much of it until we returned home to gorgeous tulips. Did I mention I love tulips? And I think we know my feelings on anything pink right? Like I said, you want a landscaper in the family, trust me.

#2- I went to my first Sox game of the season yesterday. The weather was calling for rain, but it stayed clear for the entire game (and all day today for that matter- which was also supposed to be rain, awesome).

I love Fenway, really I do. Add that to my list of happy places.

WIt was a fun game to watch, even though our bullpen totally blew it in the end, but hey, at least their was some excitement right?

Besides, you can never complain on a day when you get visited by Wally, Blades and Lucky all in one day haha

Lots of Boston sports pride all in one place. Gotta love it.

Speaking of loving it...I don't know if this is because this is the second time I have written this post but I think I am going to like this Ecto thing, speed blogging haha.

Anyway, today was back to the grind with the kindergarten kiddos. I went in with an optimistic attitude about it being close to the end of the year and the fun time of the year and all that, but my stomach ruined all optimism by absolutely killing today. I honestly cannot pinpoint the culprit as I didn't eat anything out of the ordinary yesterday, or this weekend at all. But I will say that I am less than impressed with one of my new ice cream treats. I doubt it is 100 percent to blame for my stomach today since I've had them before, but I doubt it helped.

Last night I was enjoying one of my Skinny Cow Cookies and Cream treats and I started wondering how they manage to have so much less fat in them than the Edy's small cups of ice cream (they have only 2 grams, and Edy's has 5- I know that's not huge but in very similar ice cream, I have to wonder). I was also a bit curious how Edy's frozen yogurt Double Fudge Brownie has 40 more calories than Skinny Cow's ice cream version. Suspicious is all I can say. Well, just call me the victim of not reading my ingredient list. I NEVER forget to read the ingredient list, but I probably figured ice cream isn't good for me anyway, why bother knowing how bad it is?

Well I should've bothered. Check it out...

At first glance, Skinny Cow seems great...it has only 150 calories per ice cream cup, where as the Edy's brand only manages 150 calories in their plain vanilla, and has closer to 180 or 190 in most of their flavors (this is in their 1/2 the fat versions by the way, the regular versions have over 200). Skinny Cow also has 2 grams of fat compared to Edy's 5 or 6 grams. BUT Skinny Cow has a lot more sugar, 22 grams compared to 17...not that either number is awesome. But hey, it's my dessert so that alone doesn't bother me that much. It's two ingredients in particular in the Skinny Cow, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup. Neither of those ingredients are found in the much shorter Edy's ingredient list.

Partially hydrogenated soybean oil = trans fat = raise bad cholesterol, lower good cholesterol. Thanks, but no thanks. Research (and media!) is conflicted on high fructose corn syrup, but it's a known trigger for IBS so I avoid it all costs and since no one is claiming it's actually healthy (well except those commercials that try to convince us it's like corn...um sure...) I figure I'm not missing anything.

I'm not saying never eat a Skinny Cow product, I think they have their place in the "diet foods" world, especially if they are replacing the giant bowl of 500 calorie ice cream someone may have consumed instead. I think in moderation most things are okay... However, this was an important lesson of: if it seems to good to be true with food, it probably is. For my tummy and my overall health, I'll take an extra couple of grams of fat and 30 calories for the Edy's brand :) I just wish they would make a few new flavors. But I do have to say I was SHOCKED at how amazing the Vanilla Bean flavor is. I'm not a big plain vanilla person, but it reminds me of Brighams vanilla ice cream, which is clearly the best.

Have you ever had an "oh shoot" moment when you realized the ingredients in something you like to eat? Do you avoid certain ingredients or just try to monitor the amount of "bad" ingredients you eat?