Angie Windheim

Giving a small thank you gift to your community can be fun, rewarding and even easy.   Sherwood has basically plopped three such opportunities in my lap this week.

1. Raindrops to Refuge, a non-profit group that seeks to protect Sherwood’s watersheds through activities, grants and education, is hosting a tree planting event on November 7th. Volunteers are needed to get over 750 trees and bushes in the ground from 9am to noon on the Platanus Trail (Take Sunset Blvd, right on Ladd Hill and turn on Willow Street). They’ll show you what to plant, how to plant and how fun will it be to come back and visit your work over the years. What a gift to the environment and yourself. And, there will be coffee for you and donuts for the kids.  Wear rough wear clothes, tough gloves, a water bottle, a snack and a shovel.

2. If you like the cause but not the labor, you can still help out Raindrops to Refuge at a fundraising Spaghetti Dinner on November 13th from 5:30pm-7:30pm. They’ll be serving up a steaming plate of home-cooked spaghetti with sauce, a tossed green salad, garlic bread and a drink. The dinner is hosted at the Rebekah Lodge on SW Washington Street in Old Town Sherwood. The kids and I attended their spring Spaghetti Dinner and had a good meal for a good cause and it was fun. Gives you that small town, warm and fuzzy feeling 🙂 Just $5 a plate for adults, $2.50 for kids and dessert is $1.

3. A new Thanksgiving tradition for my family is the Sherwood Give n’ Gobble Run/Walk and Food Drive. It’s great fun for the whole family and it helps feed hundreds of local families through the Helping Hands Food Bank.  My kids loved warming up with family and friends and then taking off on the 5K run/walk. A 10K run is also available for the more ambitious folks. 9am is the start time (not too early yet you can still get that turkey in the oven). They offer a family registration package for $85 for up to 5 people, and donating a bag of food gets you a free t-shirt!

Just finished another article on eHow. Check it out and let me know what you think!

How to Lose Weight with Technology.

How did you celebrate Earth Day? This was a much  happier Earth Day for me. Last year, I awoke to the sound of my neighbor basically clear-cutting his big timber.  No kidding. Earth Day began with the sound of chain saws. My boys and I watched in  horror as tree after tree hit the ground.  This year, no chain saws! Instead, I planted some peas and lettuce with Sam. I also weeded my blueberry bushes and laid down a newspaper and grass clipping weed barrier.  And, I went to MetroPaint with Emily to pick up a compost bin.  

I’m actually very excited about the compost bin. I’ve wanted one for some time, but they are often ridiculously priced.  MetroPaint sells a great bin for $39 and then you can buy a grid mat for underneath to prevent pests for an extra $7 http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=557. Composting is great to reduce your waste production. And, in the two gardening classes I’ve taken recently, composting appears to be the key to successful organic gardening. 

Incase you are wondering. Oregon MetroPaint is where you can buy latex paint for your home made from recycled paint. Dumping old paint is a no-no. Always recycle it.  You can take your old paint (and household cleaners, motor oil, compact flourescent lightbulbs, propane bottles, batteries, etc)  to Metro Central Station at 6161 NW 61st Ave., Portland (503-234-3000) or Metro South Station at 2001 Washington St., Oregon City (503-234-3000).  Or, Emily found out that Metro is holding a neighborhood paint recycling day in Sherwood on July 18th, and they’re schedule also says they’ll be at Tigard High School on June 26-27 from 9am-2pm.  The website covers how and what to bring.

Thought I’d spread the word that Raindrops to Refuge  is putting on a spaghetti dinner at the Rebekah Hall in downtown Sherwood on Friday, April 17 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.  The cost is $5.00 per adult and $2.50 per child.  This includes spaghetti, a salad from Sweet Tomatoes, bread and a drink.

Raindrops to Refuge is a nonprofit organization in Sherwood that protects the local watershed. A friend of mine, Emily McBride, has been a board member for two years and recently became president. Some of the things they do are:  plant native trees in Sherwood, sponser Naturescaping workshops, provide educational activity books about the life cycle of salmon to every fourth grader in Sherwood and restore small wetlands. They have also successfully fought to close a local unlined landfill that is polluting the Tualatin River and have provided comments and a letter of support for the Master Plan for Stella Olsen park.  

This year alone Raindrops to Refuge will plant several thousand trees, pull ivy from Stella Olsen park, speak to civic groups, co-host a tour of Metro’s new land aquisition on Chicken Creek and much more.

The health of Sherwood’s watershed is a vital part of what makes this city so livable.  As the only organization dedicated to the protection of Sherwood’s watershed, their presence here is of great importance!

100 percent of the proceeds from this spaghetti dinner will go directly to Raindrops to Refuge.  They hold only one fundfraiser a year and this is it!  

For more information, go to their website at  www.raindrops2refuge.org

Doing a little happy dance this morning. I’m now officially down 21 lbs. Yay, me! The Lose It! app on my iPhone has been a great tool. I use it a lot to help me make better choices when eating out.  And I’ve gotten the hang of how to be a little more in control of my eating and my portions. There’s more work to do, but it feels great to be on my way and have some super loose clothes.

So cool. The new U2 release, “No Line on the Horizon,” is fun listening. Really different in some ways and just good ol’ U2 in other ways.  “Get on Your Boots,” “No Line on the Horizon,” and “Stand Up Comedy” have all hit my work out playlist.  “Get on Your Boots” reminds me of the boost I’d get on the treadmill when “Vertigo” first came out.  From the mellow to the hyper tunes, U2 sounds like they’re having a blast with this CD and it’s contagious for the listener.

I’ve often said that my iPhone is the “best toy I’ve ever had.”  And, now I’m just giddy over a new tool called “Lose It!”  It’s a whizzy, cool application for the iPhone. It enables you to keep your daily food log, set your weight-loss goals, track your exercise, etc.  It brings all of the things that I loved about Weight Watchers online to the table with a few bonuses: I can take it anywhere, it’s way faster, and it’s FREE!!  One gotcha for some folks would be that it’s not going to teach you to eat “healthy.” It’s all about the calories. You can track fat grams and fiber and such, but it’s not going to give you a gold star for any of that.  Weight Watchers actively encourages you to take the multi-vitamin, drink the water, and to get the calcium and healthy oils into your diet.   For me, that’s not a big deal. I consider myself to be pretty wise on what the good foods are and truly believe they make me feel better. I follow a volumetric approach that works great for me. I think the Lose It! application rocks.

http://www.apptism.com/apps/lose-it

I’ve now lost 17 1/2 pounds since November. Nothing like a little progress to keep you motivated. I’ve got more work to do, but I think I’ll make my goal by late spring/early summer. Fabulous.  

Brian’s been great about encouraging me and noting the difference in my clothes and such. Thanks, honey. Trina said I looked smaller at Bunco. Bless her.  It’s kind of a private battle that I’m doing for my own well-being, but it is so nice to have people occasionally validate that it’s working.

Nothing helps kick a workout into gear better than the right song. I’ve listed some of my current favorites below. I update it constantly. Gotta love iTunes. Some songs are there ’cause the beat is awesome. Some are there because the lyrics make me happy or make me laugh. Some are there just because they have lyrics that motivate and I like word play (ie Steady as She Goes).  Honestly though, I could probably just play an entire Pink collection everytime. I just have to pick up my feet when her songs come up. I didn’t include any of her songs you couldn’t play in the car with the kids (though I LOVE some of those :-)).

Girl Power List

• Pink: So What, Sober, Please Don’t Leave Me, Bad Influence, Ave Mary A., Who Knew, Walk Away
• Sara Bareilles: Love Song, Fairytale
• KT Tunstall: Little Favours, Hold On, I Don’t Want You Now
• Sheryl Crow: A Change Would Do You Good, Real Gone, Everyday is a Winding Road
• Ting Tings: That’s Not My Name

Guy Singers that Still Rock

• Raconteurs: Steady as She Goes
• Spoon: You Got Yr Cherry Bomb, Don’t You Evah, The Underdog
• Jet: Are You Gonna Be My Girl
• U2: Vertigo, Desire, Helter Skelter

Weight Watchers and me go way back. My first round was just after Sam was born (he’s 6 1/2 years old now). It works for me. What doesn’t work? Not doing Weight Watchers.  Evidently, I need help to be a mindful eater. I need to look at my eating over the course of a week and save up for that night out or weekend splurge.

After Sam was born, it took me about 6 months to lose 35 lbs. I felt great and was totally sold on “nothing tastes as good as thin feels.” Unfortunately, I didn’t choose to stay with the maintenance program. I thought I could be casual about it, keep exercising and all would be well. Silly girl. It takes a day to put on a pound and a week of conscious eating to take it back off.  As of this fall, those 35lbs were all with me again. Sigh.  

So, I got back online and signed up on www.weightwatchers.com.  I find that I don’t need meetings. I just need to log my food, my weight and get inspired daily by new recipes an such.  I’m down 14 lbs since the beginning of November. I’m very happy with that because I had a trip to Florida and Christmas mixed into that time without derailing my progress. I highly recommend Weight Watchers if you are serious about losing weight. I also recommend combining that with a whole foods based diet and the Volumetrics Eating Plan by Barbara Rolls, Ph.D.  If you like to feel full like me, then these, combined with Weight Watchers, can help you cut back but not feel too deprived or hungry.