My first few points for the O&Es today can be traced back to my recent Florida visit and time spent in close proximity to my mother - i.e. we cooked and ate together :)

Twist Ties:  A trick I learned from my Mom - but only recently, (which makes me wonder why we didn't do this when I was little and who she might of picked it up from ) is: if you have a bag of something like lettuce or frozen vegetables,  cut the bag open with a long, straight, 1/4 inch strip, and use that strip as a twist tie to reclose the bag.  I do it all the time now!

Water Conservation:  Happy to see my Mom doing something I do and have mentioned in the blog.  When you wash your produce, e.g. grapes that you have to swish around and strain several times, you can use the used water for your plants.  If you do not have plants, you can pour it on the grass instead of down the drain.

Batteries:  Recall that I was very excited to report that my university offers recycling stations that include a place for batteries.  This is important because they can be harmful if placed in the trash and eventually, our landfills.  Making the recycling of toxic materials convenient is something that all states and cities should work on and few have.  I went through quite a few batteries taking pictures over the holiday but there was nowhere to put them.  So I flew home with them in my bookbag and promptly placed them in the school recycling cube.  Which, by the way, had plenty of batteries in it :) It is meeting a real need.
Oranges:  My sister has an orange tree as is common in Florida.  She brought me some fruit when she came to see me.  She made a point to note that she picked the smaller ones because she knows that I prefer them.  YES!!!  Jumbo fruit has less taste and more calories... we really only need what we need.  And, I love my sister.....

Toilet Bowl:  I asked Mom where her toilet bowl cleaner was and she replied, "I don't have any, I just use the brush."  Well - that is actually super cool - the chemicals would just find their way into the ground water.

*******************   In thinking of the above posts,
I am reminded that because many of us in many countries do not
continue to live in close networks or villages,
the things we would learn from each other are lost*************

Ford - I am watching:  Ford motor company is requiring that its materials suppliers use a certain percent of recycled material.  They are also using recycled plastic bottles to make seats in some of their vehicles. This is very cool.  Read about it here.

Weight Loss Goal Setting:  I have mentioned my dear friend who has had WLS - weight loss surgery - the major one, gastric bypass.  This is the woman with whom I take an hour walk on most Saturdays (yes, we're still at it).  I love her very much and so this past week I asked her about losing more weight this year - I suggested 10 pounds.  She thought that was not a big enough goal but I pointed out that it doesn't appear that she lost much last year, so we should start small.  To help her, (and playing it forward, my readers...) we went through her day to find any repetition that we could attack.  It is easier to identify a pattern and go for it then to just say "oh, I will eat 50 calories less."  So we found her iced coffee.  She is going to replace her whole milk (sometimes 2%) with skim milk, BUT she is going to froth it up first so it will be thick!  [I gasped when she said she was using whole milk!!]  Remember, WLS shrinks the stomach and the patient has to eat smaller amounts of food but that does NOT equal lower calories... that is a conscious choice.  I am not a fan of WLS - I am a fan of my friend.

And lastly - the semester starts tomorrow.  My classes included Advances Theoretical Basis for Community Health Education, Advanced Statistics for Behavioral and Social Sciences, Advanced Program Evaluation in Health Education and Public Health Practicum... so... not sure how much time that will leave for blogging - recall I also have an assistantship (which involved data analysis related to college athletes and alcohol, tobacco, OTC and RX drugs - not obesity, but quite interesting)
 
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