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underWAY blog tour and giveaway

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Some of you may have hear of Smart for Life the “Eat Cookies. Lose Weight.” program designed by “Dr. Sass,” Dr. Sasson E. Moulavi, the Medical Director of Smart for Life® Weight Management Centers and and Better Health Bevarage, both headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.  He’s graduate of the University of Toronto where he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He completed post graduate training at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Dr. Sass has recently developed a supplement drink, infused with special HeroFiber and heart-healthy vitamins. It works naturally to suppress your appetite and quench your thirst.

underWAY curbs your hunger in two ways. Its special formulation not only takes longer to be absorbed by the stomach, it also slows the absorption of what’s already there, making you feel fuller, longer. What’s more, its unique ingredients stimulate your stomach, telling your brain you’ve consumed more calories that you really have which, with underWAY, is almost zero! Fantastic!

Each bottle of underWAY supplement drink:

  • Delivers the equivalent of nine grams of fiber nutrition (nearly one-third of our daily-recommended intake)
  • Contains no preservatives, sodium or caffeine
  • Only has 10 calories and 2 grams of carbs per 8 oz. serving
  • Has HeroFiber, a soluble dietary fiber that helps maintain normal levels of cholesterol, glucose and insulin that are already in the normal range and promotes slower absorption so we feel fuller longer

I know that these will help me get through my day at work. I can’t eat at my desk so mid-morning or mid-afternoon, I could drink some underWAY to get me to my next meal without my office-mate hearing my stomach growl.

Also included in my package were cookies, cupcakes, soup, cereal, shake, bagel, and crunch from the Smart for Life program.

Smart for Life programs involve meal replacement foods, such has cookies, cupcakes, shakes, cereals, bagels that help to control hunger while providing you with proper nutrition and quick, safe weight loss goal results.

Each Smart for Life cookie are made with extracts from all-natural ingredients including organic fruits, vegetables, wheat, milk and eggs. The program requires you to eat 6 cookies a day, drink 8 glasses water a day and a small dinner. For more information, check out the Smart for Life website.

The chocolate cupcakes are pretty yummy. I could definitely make that healthy choice when I’m craving something sweet!

I encourage you can learn more about Smart for Life and underWAY products, at www.smartforlife.com and www.under-way.com.

Would you like to try it?
You could win a case of underWAY

For all my readers, use discount code MCCAN10OFFUW to get 10% off your online orders!

If you like to enter to win a package of underWAY and Smart for Life products to try, please leave a comment sharing “why you’d love to try underWAY and/or Smart for Life products.”

I will select 10 lucky winners on August 4th.

Comments will close at midnight. Contest is open to Canadians only. And you may enter the contest on multiple blogs but are only eligible to win once as part of the underWAY blog tour contest.

Disclosure – I am participating in the underWAY program by Mom Central on behalf of Better Health Beverage, LLC.
I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation.
The opinions on this blog are my own.

maple leaf foods – a pledge for our safety

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A few weeks ago I was invited by Matchstick to attend a roundtable dinner with Maple Leaf foods.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  They had a huge recall due to listeriosis.  It was scary and it affected a lot of people.

So why me?  Because I blog and because I’m a parent.  They wanted to get out the message about their new safety pledge.

Upon arrival we were treated to appetizers and some mingling with the other invitees and Michael McCain, President and CEO.

It was nice to chat with him. We talked about kids and and families.  His kids are older and he expressed how much he’s going to miss having in his home; his kids are all growing up and moving out to start their own lives.  He spoke from the heart; family really means a lot to him.

When we all sat down for dinner, Michael spoke to all of us.

“We killed 22 people.”

It was a statement and it was heart-felt.  I was really impressed.  He didn’t try to cover it up and he didn’t come up with excuses.  What Michael and Maple Leaf foods did do is come up with a process and a pledge that this wouldn’t happen again.

The biggest part of this pledge, which Michael covered in detail, is their enhanced food safety protocols.

  1. New sanitation protocols are in place to ensure we effectively reduce the potential for bacterial harbourage points in building and equipment.
  2. We have strengthened our approach to environment, equipment and product sampling, testing and data analysis to find any potential contamination sooner.
  3. We have documented new protocols into new Standard Operating Procedures, obtained CFIA approval, and rolled them out across Maple Leaf Consumer Foods, involving training of our people.
  4. Maple Leaf has appointed Dr. Randall Huffman to the position of Chief Food Safety Officer, the first such position in Canada. Dr Huffman assumed this position effective January 5, 2009, reporting to Michael H. McCain, President and CEO.

There is much more detail on their website.

What are the other companies doing?

One thing that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about is “What are the other companies doing? Are they being this safe?”  Maple Leaf Foods thought they were being safe and they ended up killing 22 people.  Are the other food processing and packaging companies learning from Maple Leaf Foods’ mistakes and being extra cautious?  As a consumer, I can only hope that the food products that I buy for my family are safe and won’t harm them.

Not only did Maple Leaf Foods tell us what they are doing to keep us safe, they want consumers to be safe at home as well.  Here are some tips:

  1. Keep hand washing soap in the kitchen so it is easily accessible and wash your hands with soapy warm water for at least 20 seconds prior to starting meal preparation and during any new stage from preparation to meal time.
  2. Keep a clean kitchen. Keeping your kitchen clean and tidy can reduce the chance of bacteria build-up.
  3. Keep raw foods separated from cooked and ready-to-eat foods to avoid cross-contamination.
  4. Carefully monitor and check best-before dates and package integrity of perishable products. Do not keep products beyond expiration date printed on the packaging.
  5. Keep separate cutting boards, utensils and platters for raw meat, poultry and seafood and for ready-to-eat/cooked foods.
  6. Keep cold foods cold (4°C or below).
  7. Keep hot foods hot (60°C or above).
  8. Keep a working meat thermometer on hand to check the internal temperatures of cooked foods. Always cook meat to the safe internal temperatures.

Please read all of the amazing information on their website and I can’t even begin to go into the amount of detail that they do.

Plus I want to talk about the food! It being a round-table dinner, they fed us! And it was yummy.

I don’t normally buy “ready-to-cook” foods because of the amount of salt. But I think on the odd occasion, I would by the Dijon Mustard and Herb chicken breasts. They were very good. We also had potatoes and vegetables. Oh, and how could I forget…we started with their Demptster’s Over Fresh bread which they topped with garlic butter and cheese.

And the best part was we got to bring some chicken and bread home. My family loved it! We cooked the chicken and checked the temperature with the digital meat thermometre that they included.

You, my dear readers, get to get in on the chicken action as well. I have a gift cooler bag filled with bread, coupons, digital meat thermometre and other goodies to give away.

If you would like to win this nice little gift, let me know
what things you do in your kitchen for food safety?
The contest is open to Canadians only and will run until Sunday, June 27th and the winner will be drawn at 10pm.
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Maple Leaf Foods and Matchstick invited me to the round table dinner
and gave me a gift bag for participating.  All of the views and opinions expressed are my own.

more than you bargained for

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Remember this…. 

The Complete List of Recalled Foods

By: CTV.ca News Staff
Date: Sat. Sep. 6 2008 8:45 AM ET

A massive recall of Maple Leaf Foods was launched after Listeria bacteria was detected on some of the goods produced at one of the company’s Toronto plants.

Only a handful of products were named in the initial recall, but the company has since pulled more than 200 goods as a precautionary measure.

A Calgary-based distributor of ready-made sandwiches has also recalled dozens of Safeway brand and TakeAwayCafe brand sandwiches because they may contain meat previously recalled by Maple Leaf Foods Inc.

There is also one mushroom product that has been recalled because it may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

A number of products from Ivanhoe Cheese Inc. in Ontario have also been recalled over Listeria fears, though they have not been linked to the Toronto Maple Leaf plant.

Lots of people got sick and some people even died.  Those families’ food included more than they bargained for which changed their lives.  That in turn made us all start questioning the safety of our food so we don’t get more than we bargain for.

Well it’s been 2 years since that horrible outbreak and tonight Matchstick has invited me to be a part of a rountable dinner tonight.  Maple Leaf has made a deep commitment to becoming a global leader in food safety as a result of what occurred in August, 2008 and the Listeriosis illnesses and tragic deaths that were linked to their products. This dinner will be an opportunity for me to learn about that commitment and to ask questions directly of Maple Leaf executives and food safety experts who will also attend.

Here is a summary of the Vancouver round-table dinner written by Wendy from Give Love Create Happiness.

And I want to speak for you. What questions do you have or comments would you like to make? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll be sure to get some answers.

And what’s neat about this event is I’m going to get a chance to meet some of the wonderful women who write the blogs that I like to read everyday.  Here are their blogs about tonight’s dinner:

And some new-to-me bloggers:

Our food should be safe…we shouldn’t be getting more than we bargained for.

make that 4 in 9

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Not good odds.
I was happy to get an appointment today with our family doctor.  He had a cancellation so we were able to get in this morning.

Completely an aside, but I love our doctor.  He’s always on time….but you never feel rushed.

Once we were in the office, I showed him the copy of the report from the doctor at the walk-in clinic and the information about the antibotics that were prescribed.  He looked at her ears, thoat and felt her neck.  He agreed with the ear infection diagnosis. 

I pointed out that this is her 3rd infection in 5 months.  He said “and her 4th since August.”  Wow.  That’s a lot.  So he sent a referral letter off to the ENT doctor and we wait.  He said it could take a week or so to get a call to schedule the appointment. 

I’m trying very hard not to worry.  The idea of her getting tubes is a bit scary.  I know that lots of kids get them, but I think becuase I don’t know enough about them I’m worried. Going into the appointment, I really want to stress to this ENT doc that I want tubes to be a last resort.  We need to know what all the options are.

BigDaddy has been doing some graphics work for a homeopatic pharmacy so I’m going to see what they can tell me about ear infections.  I’m willing to try anything to avoid surgery.  Stitches in her face are one thing, but surgery where she will be unconcious is another.

So again, I’m going Google crazy trying to find out as much info as I can.  I want to know what questions i should be asking.  Anyone else out there “been there done that” and want to share their wisdom with me?  What was the sequence of events leading up to your child getting tubes? Was other treatments tried first?

Have you signed up for your Lay’s Chip Trips account yet?  Register by May 31st with my bonus code MAPSG‐RLBLG and you’ll get free 10 points.  That is enough to get a discount or two!  See here for more details.

3 times in 5 months

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I wish I was about to tell you about winning the lottery.  But I’m not.

Since November 2009, Peanut has had 3 ear infections.  And the last two were only 6 weeks a part… April 14th and now.  Poor thing has been complaining that her ear hurts and pulling on her ear.  Yesterday I decided to take her to the walk-in clinic after lunch.  One look from the doc and she was diagnosed with another ear infection.  So not fun.

Other than the odd talk about a sore ear, she was her normal self.  We headed to a friends’ house for a BBQ and fireworks.  I was thinking that this time her ear weren’t that bad.

Today was a different story.  She was very clingy, whiny and complaining much more about her ear.  She took 3 hour nap today.  Normally I wouldn’t let her sleep that long because that would mean a huge fight at bedtime.  Since tomorrow is a holiday I wasn’t too concerned about her getting to bed on time.

We had a late dinner and we did our normal bedtime routine.  She didn’t go right to sleep, but she didn’t take as long as I had feared.  The neighbours doing fireworks practically in our backyard didn’t help.

Hopefully the ibuprofen helps with the pain so that she gets some sleep.  And Tuesday I’ll be making an appointment with our family doc to get to get to the bottom of this.

And here’s where you come in… what can you tell me about your experiences with ear infections.  Should I be really worried about the frequency of her ear infections? Is there something I should be doing to keep her from getting them?  Please give me some answers before I go crazy searching this on Google….