Less Chocolates for Valentine's Day

Less chocolates and more flowers would be the Valentine's Day wish for many women. Here's an upscale (and very expensive) floral arrangement via Los Angleles Florists. It's a tiny box of chocolates surrounded by a big box of roses.

Here via Anne Collins is the calorie count in popular chocolate treats:

Chocolate Calories
Milk chocolate, 1.5oz bar 220
Milk chocolate, 2oz bar 290
Cooking chocolate, 1oz 150
Chocolate Sprinkles (1 tbsp) 50
Carob bar or Carob chips, 1oz 140
Chocolate topping (2 tbsp) 90

How to Burn Calories and Make Money

How can you burn calories and make money at the same time? There's probably countless ways but here's one idea that will also help slow global warming to boot.

How long would it take to replace all the light bulbs in your home? And how many calories would you burn if it took you two hours? We're talking about a potential piddly 300 to 500 calories depending on your weight and how much you'd have to exert yourself.

But the savings to your budget would be much more impressive. If you replaced all your regular bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs you would save 50 cents to 75 cents per month per bulb. That adds up to more than a few dollars over the year.

More importantly we would make a significant contribution to slow global warming. These bulbs use only about one third of the electricity as the regular bulbs in our homes.

It's been estimated that if each home replaced only one bulb, it would be the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road in terms of global warming impact.

See more about compact fluorescent lightbulbs here.

Mushrooms have Amazing Healing Benefits

Mushrooms are often overlooked in today's daily diet but they are loaded with nutrition and amazing health benefits.

One of the most nutritious mushrooms is the shiitake. (They are on the top left in the photo above). These mushrooms make great meat substitutes. You can eat them on their own sauteed with butter and garlic as a side dish or put them in stir fries and soups.

Shiitake mushrooms have been used medicinally by the Chinese for over 6,000 years. An eight ounce serving (at only 87 calories) will provide you with twenty percent of your daily recommended iron intake, and about ten percent each of Vitamin C, protein and fiber.

Shiitake mushrooms contain lentinan. Lentinan has amazing healing benefits. It boosts the immune system to fight infection or disease. It has been shown to be more effective than prescription drugs in fighting influenza and other viruses. It's also been shown to be effective at destroying cancer cells. And it lowers cholesterol levels in lab animals no matter what kinds of fats they are fed.

Nutrition is still a very young science and it was only just over a year ago that L-ergothioneine, an extremely powerful antioxidant, was discovered in mushrooms:

In research presented at the 2005 American Chemical Society meeting in Washington, D.C., an American research team revealed that mushrooms contain higher concentrations L-ergothioneine than either of the two dietary sources previously believed to contain the most: chicken liver and wheat germ.

Testing mushrooms consumed in the U.S., the team found that shiitake, oyster, king oyster and maitake mushrooms contain the highest amounts of ergothioneine, with up to 13 mg in a 3-ounce serving. This equals forty times as much as is found in wheat germ.

Of the most commonly consumed mushrooms, portabellas and criminis have the most L-ergothioneine, followed by white buttons. White buttons, the most popular of all mushrooms consumed in the U.S., contain up to 5 mg per three ounce serving-12 times as much as wheat germ and 4 times more than chicken liver. And more good news, L-ergothioneine is not destroyed when mushrooms are cooked.

So where to get them and how to cook them? You can find dried shiitake in most supermarkets these days. Before cooking, soak them for about half an hour. Then chop them and discard the stem as well as the tough middle part above the stem. I like to sautee them in butter and garlic and then add them to a steamed vegetable such as kale or swiss chard. They are also really good in miso soup.

Check out the just hungry blog for more info about dried mushrooms. The above photo is by Chika.

Extreme Girdles: The Brazilian Waist Cinchers

While we're on the subject of girdles and shapewear, let's talk extreme girdles for a minute. These are the 'Brazilian waist cinchers'. They are girdles made out of actual rubber; the natural latex from the rubber trees of the Amazon. Contrary to the claims of the company who manufactures them - 'Squeem' - I can't believe they could actually be comfortable. But these Brazilian waist cinchers are selling well.

They are still much less popular than the big leaders in shapewear however. Spanx is still making the most popular shapewear today and another company whose products are called 'Lipo in a Box' is also showing surging popularity on Amazons sales rankings.

Even Katie Holmes Wears Spanx

It looks like Katie Holmes wears a girdle. For special outings anyway. She's lost all her weight since giving birth to her first child, but maybe she is conscious of her stomach not being as flat as a board as it was pre-pregnancy. These photos are via the Superficial. They say you can tell these are not nylons if you look how they cut into her thighs and because her feet look bare.

Here's a comment from one of their readers;

Yeah, the Spanx. Not glamorous, for sure. Definitely less sexy than the old-fashioned Scarlett O'Hara-type corset.

But even movie stars have stuff that jiggles around and needs to be contained. Underneath those designer gowns that adorn celebrities at various awards shows is an amazing array of cantilevered underwear to keep each breast and butt cheek from moving independently. And the ubiquitous duct tape, of course.

Too bad Katie's Spanx made it into the photo. How embarrassing. She looks really gorgeous. I wonder if her hairstylist managed to find a way to camouflage that Scientology plug-in on the back of her neck?

Spanx (brilliant marketing name, not spelled as Spandx for Spandex) are the modern version of yesterday's girdles. They are one of several companies vying for our attention in the growing body shapewear market.

Huckabee Loses 110 Pounds and Runs for President

Mike Huckabee lost 110 pounds in one year. He is now 51 years old and decided to change his lifestyle a couple of years ago when his doctor told him that his Type II diabetes would cause his entire body to deteriorate.

He turned around a lifetime of eating fried and sugary foods and began abstaining from these. He started an exercise routine by getting on a stationary bike each morning. He had been reading his newspaper each morning anyway, now he read it while riding his bicycle. He then started jogging short distances and has since completed four marathons. (His wife walked the complete marathon route of 26 miles on two of these). He was able to reverse his Type II diabetes diagnosis without the use of any drugs even though his parents and grandparents had also suffered from it.

He has become an advocate of the "culture of health" and is heavily involved with the Healthy America initiative.

We'll be hearing a lot more about Huckabee soon. He just announced he is running for President of the United States. He has been the Governor of Arkansas since 1996 and happened to grow up in the same tiny town as Bill Clinton.

A Sexy Plus Size Valentines Day

Valentine's Day is in two weeks. For many people this conjures up a vision of roses, chocolates and red lacy lingerie. I've never gotten into this habit myself (and it's too late to start now) but for those who are into it, there are so many vendors offering plus size lingerie online these days. Here's a couple of samples.

The first pic is the Stretch Cargo Net Set for $29.99. The sellers say it's a very comfortable cargo net set (larger holes than fishnet) with great stretch to it. Even the hems stretch to fit. It comes with a G-string and fits 1X and 2X.

The second pic is a stretch lace dress for $52.00. The sellers say it is one of their best fitting dress styles and has a sheer stretch mess full skirt with flirtatious rhinestone heart gathering at the decollete. It's available in red or black, has adjustable shoulder straps and comes with a matching G-string. It's available in sizes up to 3X.

For those who who can't see themselves wearing lingerie, but still want something showing skin and cleavage, this sexy top costs only seven dollars, though you need to buy a package of six to get this price. It comes in sizes up to 3X and is made of 90% polyester and 10% spandex.