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Arrrree those brussels sprouts on ye dinner plate? Have no fear! Captain Cook is here and calling all hands on deck to show young mates how veggies and other healthy foods are friends, not foes!

From now through May 17, Please Touch Playhouse is proud to present "Eat Like a Pirate," a fun and interactive show designed to help parents and kids learn about the importance of a healthy lifestyle and the benefits of good nutrition and exercise.

Aboard their trusty ship, The Flying Lunch Bucket, brave Captain Cook and his crew, the Low-Sodium Dogs, sail past the Sandwich Islands up to the Great Food Pyramids a-searching for good nutrition, the proverbial free lunch and the ever elusive Berry Treasure! The show runs approximately 25 minutes.

***Showtimes are Mondays-Saturdays 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.; Sundays 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. unless otherwise noted.***

For those of you who don't have a crew of hilarious puppets or a wealth of catchy songs at home, there are tons of other ways that parents and children can have a great time while practicing healthy habits when they aren't playing here at Please Touch Museum!

Here are just a few ideas for ways that parents and children can play their way to healthy eating:

• Cooking doesn't have to be a job just for parents. It can be a fun and exciting activity for kids too! Invite your child to help you prepare meals and let him or her wear a chef's hat and apron and pretend to be a real chef! Recipes that involve tossing, mixing, or mashing are especially fun and encourage physical activity. Let your child shake up a zip-lock bag full of salad ingredients while an adult cooks up the main course or turn on some music and dance around the kitchen until dinner is ready! Activities like these can help make everyday meals an occasion for play.

• Parents can also make a big adventure out of the grocery store by letting kids help out with the shopping. Make a grocery list for your child using pictures of healthy foods instead of words. At the store, let your child take charge of finding those items. This activity will help keep them busy, active and engaged.

• As summer approaches, there are more opportunities for families to get outside and enjoy the nice weather. If you aren't playing with us at Please Touch Museum, we encourage you and your child to go outside to get your daily exercise. Bringing healthy snacks like fruits or trail mix along with you are great for when you're ready to take a break from playtime and might even curb your child's enthusiasm at the sound of the ice cream truck.

I did it! Well, God did it, but you get the gist of what I'm saying. On March 19th, I set out to lose 4 pounds by the 19th of April. I've lost the 4 pounds as well as a total of 5.5 inches. It's all about changing the way I'm thinking & including God in the mix. This weight loss journey is hard and I can't do it without Him. He's the one giving me the strength to exercise when I really don't feel like it. He's the one giving me the power to turn down whatever junk food I'm craving, but really don't need (now, of course I reward myself every once in a while). I'm going to keep focus on month-to-month weight loss...you know, take it slow. I'm so excited! 4 lbs down...71 more to go!

Overall Goal

Another pound gone away! Yay me! My goal for my first month (March 19h - April 18th) was to lose at least 4 pounds (one pound/week). I am more than halfway there, with 2 weeks left. I've lost a total of 3 pounds in 2 weeks...the safe way, of course.

What did I do differently? Changed my way of thinking and put God into the equation. I've asked Him to help me with my weight loss journey. I know...shoulda did this earlier. *Sigh* Doesn't matter, I'm doing it now and He's doing just what I asked. I've had the will power to turn away unhealthy snacks (sometimes, but, hey, we're allowed ice cream every once in awhile). I've also had the strength to workout everyday this week. So yeah, I'm getting results...and I'm feeling good. YIPPEE!

MONTHLY GOAL


OVERALL GOAL

Last week, I said I was changing my focus with my weight loss journey - moving my focus from the weight to God. I started this approach last Thursday, where I have a daily scripture and affirmation to meditate on. I've changed my way of thinking (all positive; no negative). Apparently it's working because I've lost 2 lbs in one week, which isn't bad for that amount of time. I'm still watching what I eat and working out.

Speaking of workouts, my new neighborhood has a sand volleyball court. I'm soooooo happy about that, since I LOVE playing volleyball. When we lived with our parents, my sister and I would just volley the ball back and forth as a workout since they didn't have a court/net. But now...oh yeah, we're about to get our workout on! And playing volleyball in the sand is an even better workout than regular v-ball. Yeah, baby!

I finally did the Laila Ali/Sugar Ray Leonard boxing workout. It's not on the same level of, say the TaeBo vids as far as production is concerned (not bad, though), but, to me, it's still a good workout. I haven't done the advanced dvd yet. Sugar Ray motivates throughout, but Laila does most of the talking (maybe her name should go first...but then, Sugar Ray is a bigger name). I'm working my way up to the heavyweight dvd (gotta get through the lightweight dvd first).

Spring Break. Waaaah! Spring Break is over! *Tear* It went by way too fast! It's already Friday. Our next big vacation (summer) won't be for another 11 weeks. Oh, the horror! The pain! The agony of waiting...counting down the days. It's a good thing I love my job.

So, you wanna know what I did for spring break (you probably don't, but humor me, will you)? Ab-so-lute-ly NOTHING...and I loved it. Rest and relaxation - ain't that what it's all about? I mean, yeah, my sis and I were supposed to be in San Juan, Puerto Rico, lying on the beach, batting our hazels at the local cuties, BUT, we're in our own house! I'm in my roomy master bedroom with my equally roomy master bathroom. WE HAVE A HOUSE! I think Puerto Rico and the cuties can wait - besides, we're going in December. So, this spring break, we stayed home to bask in the awesome-ness of having our own house.

Mi Casa Nueva. So, I'm sure you can tell that I love my townhouse. I am so blessed! God is so good...He really is. The townhouse is roomier than we thought it would be. It's perfect for a first house. I have the master bedroom. It's not cuz my sister let me have it out of the goodness of her heart since I'm the oldest. No. I had to pay for it...literally. I bought her an iPod and promised to cook for a month just so I can have the master bedroom. It's worth it! I'm lovin the roomy-ness! We thought we'd be moving in with practically nothing, but when people - especially my wonderfully awesome parents - found out we were moving and needed furniture/dishes/food, they gave. Isn't that awesome? Here are pics. Our townhouse is the one with the cars in the drive.

Here is our little office nook:

Fitness Friday. After years of trying to lose weight using different methods, I've realized that the reason the weight keeps coming back is because my focus was on the weight, not on God. I take everything else to God, why not my weight/health issues? So, I bought a spiral. In this spiral, I have a scripture and affirmation to meditate on for each day. I exercise and eat right like normal, but I've just changed my focus. With this, I want to lose, not only unhealthy physical weight, but also unhealthy spiritual and mental weight. I want God to remove any access weight - both figuratively and literally speaking - that is keeping me from becoming the woman He intended me to be.

I've decided to stop taking the Alli. Not because it doesn't work, but because I'm terrible with taking any kinds of medicine. There have been several times when I'd forgotten to take it when I was supposed to. So, needless to say, it's a hassle that I don't need right now. As far as pills are concerned, I think I'm just going to stick with trying to take my blood pressure pills faithfully like I should. Unlike Alli, or any weight loss pill for that matter, the blood pressure pills are for my health...kind of like a matter of life and death, so, I'm thinking these are more important. I do need to find out about vitamins to take, though. I've been so tired lately (but I think I may be coming down with something). Gotta get vitamins.

I'm starting to train for half marathon (little steps first...26 miles is out of the question) next week. I'm going by Prevention's walking calendar, which I did at the beginning of last year (and loved it...actually lost 11 lbs in 2 months because of it). The key for me is sticking to it. Like I said, I've been so tired, so I'm praying that I can rev up some energy to actually follow the calendar like I should.

I'm still eating better. I've been eating breakfast (yay me), which is usually hard for me. I'm not a breakfast eater, but, every morning for the past 2 weeks, I've been faithfully taking the time to eat breakfast. I've also been eating a small snack (like yogurt) between meals so I won't get the munchies. I haven't been snacking on junk either. In my parents' house, there are 9 of us (3 children, 2 teens, and 4 adults), which makes it hard to buy ingredients for the healthy recipes. Starting next week, it'll only be my sister and I (we're moving into our new house), so it'll be much easier. That's one thing I'm looking forward to.

Can I see the fruits of my labor in pound loss? Not much. I only see a 5 lb weight loss. My clothes are fitting a little looser, which means inches are coming off, if not lbs. I'm still happy, though. I mean, it could be worse, right? I could've gained everything back and then some.

I have been riding an incredible high, the result of making excellent grocery purchases and turning them into seriously good eats, since last Thursday. For the past year, I've been doing the majority of our menu planning based on A) what we've got in the house and B) what's on sale at Shoprite each week. I also try to use coupons whenever possible, and I'm lucky in that my mom will clip ones from the paper for us. Plus, I also discovered that even though the coupons for BJ's Warehouse have expiration dates on them, they're like Bed, Bath, & Beyond coupons in that they don't ever actually expire. By doing these things, and making sure Joe and I pack our lunches, we've been able to cut down quite extensively on our grocery bills. Even so, I'm always looking for more bargains, better bargains, and a way to buy the food I want to cook without sending us to the poor house.

One day while flipping through sale ads, I saw an insert for the Newark Farmer's Market, which sits right across the street from our gym. Joe and I had gone there once last winter and at the time I was excited by the variety of produce offered. Things I can't get readily anywhere else, like Japanese eggplant and every kind of chili pepper imaginable. They have a large selection of speciality items for Asian and Mexican cooking, too. But for some reason, after that first trip we never went back. Anyway, this sale insert I saw advertised a pint of fresh blueberries for 99 cents. At Shoprite, that will easily cost you $3. And they had bananas for 29 cents/lb. At Shoprite, it's at least 20 cents more. Etc.

So, last Thursday after class, I headed to the Newark Farmer's Market with my shopping list. An hour later, I walked out $35 poorer but loaded up with so much amazing stuff that I felt like a kid at Christmas. Pickling lime for $1? A pint of gorgeous grape tomatoes for 99 cents? A huge box of lavender green tea - 50 bags for $2.99? Ooh, baby. My biggest score was the fresh thyme. See, I know fresh herbs taste way better than dried ones, but it's not usually cost effective for me to purchase them. Even Trader Joe's charges $1.99 for a small package. But at the NFM, I found this enormous package of fresh thyme with very few bruised leaves. I needed the fresh for a recipe I was making over the weekend (more on that in a bit), but not nearly as much in the package. However, we recently ran out of dried thyme, too. And I thought, well, what about the dehydrator? I'd bought Joe one for his birthday two years ago, so we could play around with making our own beef jerky. But then I thought, what if we dried the leftover fresh thyme and ground it up in the old coffee bean grinder we use for spices? That's got to be fresher than the dried thyme you buy at any store, even Whole Foods (which, sadly, we don't have yet in DE anyway). Cost of the fresh thyme? $2.50. Cost of a tiny jar of dried thyme at Shoprite? $5.49.

Then, on Friday, I made my weekly pilgrimmage to Shoprite. I was especially excited because they had whole beef tenderloin on sale for $3.99/lb (marked down from $5.99). I dug through the bin and managed to find a little 4 lb. tenderloin - which means I got about four dinners' worth of potential filet mignon for $16 (and, if you read my list of 33 things I want to accomplish in my 33rd year, fabricating my own whole beef tenderloin was item #10). I picked up 5 lbs. of bone-in chicken thighs, 3 lbs. of sweet Italian sausage, 2.5 lbs. of hot Italian sausage - all of which were on sale as well - plus half and half, heavy cream, cream cheese, shredded cheese, a new 9x13 cake pan, and a cart full of other things for a whopping $70. Since the previous week I was able to pick up some top round London broil for $1.99/lb, and next week I can pick up boneless pork loin for $.99/lb and bottom round roast for $1.99/lb., I will have effectively stocked our freezer with enough meat to feed us roughly four to six months - and all for about $100.

Can I get a woot-woot?

On Saturday, I made Rachael Ray's recipe for portobello pizzas, which she intended as an appetizer but seeing as how one small mushroom cap was a Lara-sized dinner portion, we made a meal out of them. (Yay for the cheap but delicious grape tomatoes I scored at the Newark Farmer's Market, not to mention the reasonably priced portobellos!) Then, on Sunday, Joe and I made this recipe for eggplant lasagna that I saw on RESCUE CHEF - the sauce for which we also made from scratch. Okay, first of all? The sauce is amazing, and the recipe yields enough not only for the lasagna but extra for freezing. But also: how freaking ingenious is it to create a lasagna using roasted eggplant slices in place of noodles? I mean, I adore traditional meat-and-cheese lasagna, but oh. My. GOD. Between the homemade marinara and the sweetness of the roasted eggplant and the intense punch of the fresh herbs ... this was like a big ol' pan of love. And with the exception of calling for whole milk ricotta, instead of part-skim or fat-free, there is absolutey NOTHING unhealthy about this dish. Plus, it makes enough for eight normal-people servings, and since I get two full meals out of one normal-people portion, there are leftovers galore.

This is the thing that Joe and I realized over the weekend: as long as we stay excited about food and leave time for home cooking, we eat really healthfully. When we first moved in together, we were spending probably three times what we do now on food, and most of it was going to heart-attack friendly take out - a constant rotation of pizza, cheese steaks, jalapeno poppers and chicken fingers. Nowadays, creative and healthy eating is like this bonding ritual for us. We watch cooking shows together, go shopping for ingredients together, make delicious meals together, eat those delicious meals together, and even do the dishes together. It's nice. I like it. And I honestly don't miss BK bacon double cheeseburgers, not even for one second.

Other good things: our Wii arrived on Saturday, so we finally got our Wii Fit on! Ohmigod, it was so much fun. So. Much. FUN! It doesn't replace a gym workout - not by any stretch - but holy cow, were we laughing ourselves silly. Plus, by Sunday, the two of us were experiencing soreness in muscles that apparently don't get used much at the gym, so I think it will round out the weekly routine quite nicely. And because we're such dorks? Saturday night, we created an Alton Brown Mii, so now we get to work out along side our favorite Food Network chef.

Do you know how every now and then you feel so enormously happy that you think your skin might explode, because it can't possible contain all of that happiness? I've spent the better part of four days feeling like that, save for several hours on Saturday where every single thing that could've gone wrong did (including me losing my temper at a particularly snotty customer service rep from Citibank, and then bursting into tears because I really don't like losing my temper at anyone, no matter how snotty they are). Yes, money is tight, and yes, wedding planning still sucks (though we are making progress with a great caterer). Yes, I have 125 unanswered e-mails again, and yes, I'm behind on several deadlines at the moment. But so freaking what? Joe is amazing. Our dog is adorable. Life is really, really good. And I am really, really lucky.

Yeah.