Friday, April 30, 2010 at 07:05 AM
A note came home from school announcing that April 26th through the 30th was TV Free Week. So, we decided to participate. I asked my son to make a sign that we could put on the TV to remind ourselves of this observance. The frown face pretty much tells you how he felt about it.
I was checking out the site for the Center For Screen-Time Awareness (the originator of TV Turn-Off Week) and I found this great quote from a child who participated in this project:
“I really didn’t like TV-Turnoff Week except that I did notice that my grades went up and I was in a good mood all week.” – Second grader Drew Henderson, Donora, PA
I love it! According to the Center for Screen-Time Awareness, screen time cuts into family time and is a leading cause of obesity in both adults and children.
So, how did it go in our household? I’ll be honest, it was tough at times. We were up against a pretty difficult week. It was cold and rainy, so outside play was not an option. My daughter was sick from Wednesday on. What else is a 4-year-old to do when she’s sick? My husband and I had a lot going on (both on the homefront and for work) and it became obvious how much we rely on the tube as a babysitter.
Going in to the project, I thought, “Oh, my kids really don’t watch much TV!” But as I said, on this difficult week, it became apparent that we do turn it on probably more than we think.
Here’s some of the Highlights of the Week:
Monday: We forget that it’s TV Free Week, so our daughter gets to watch her 15 minutes of Elmo’s World as she does every morning. Her Guilty Pleasure. After School, the kids play Star Wars in the basement for 2 hours. Like real pretend play. Like we used to do when we were kids. I get tons of work done while they play. After the kids go to bed, my husband and I sit down at the kitchen table with a cup of tea. And Talk. While looking at each other. At bedtime, I head to bed early and read more than my usual 2 pages of The Help.
Tuesday: It’s 6:45 am and my daughter is sitting on the couch wondering why she can’t watch her 15 minutes of Elmo’s World. My son reads his Star Wars book. He starts making a list of Stuff He Wants. I guess TV Free Week does not cut down on materialism in kids. While I’m trying to make dinner, I run from the dining room where my son is looking at Star Wars merchandise on my laptop (we did TV-free, not Screen-free) to the living room where my daughter is reading books to the kitchen where I try to cook. My son almost purchases Star Wars merchandise worth one hundred British Pounds on Amazon UK. After the kids go to bed, my husband and I clean the house instead of watching TV. It is really clean now. At bedtime, I read more of The Help. It’s a great book!
Wednesday: Oh no. My daughter is sick. My mother graciously offers to come up to our house to watch her so that I can go to work at NuVal. I lift the TV ban for my daughter while she is home on the couch. She really feels lousy. The TV Free Week sign goes back on the TV when my son gets home from school. After dinner, the kids do extra homework and then play more Star Wars in the basement. We read extra books at bedtime. And I read even more pages of The Help.
Thursday: My husband and I are craving one of our favorite times of the day – the fifteen minutes before the kids get up where we have coffee and watch the local news. We break down, take down the sign, and watch the news for 15 minutes. Ironically, we actually spend the time talking to each other than watching. It’s just that the TV is on. My daughter is still sick and now it’s my turn to stay home with her. I have conference calls, emails to answer, a blog post to write. I lift the TV ban. She spends the day on the couch with freeze pops and fluids. When my son comes home from school, there is a note in his BackPack. TV Free Week will be celebrated next week, not this week! It figures!
Overall, I did not find that the kids were necessarily more physically active without the TV, but I think that was due to the bad weather and my daughter feeling under the weather. However, they definitely used their imaginations more, read more, and wrote more. They also did seek other avenues for Screen Time (like my laptop). The house was much quieter – which was really nice. As for us grown-ups, we got more done around the house without Dancing With The Stars luring us away. It was great to use my book as my wind-down time instead of TV.
So, adults and kids alike, I definitely recommend that you try out TV Free Week. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t make it the whole week through. We didn’t. Just try it out and see what you observe. Oh, and put a sign like that on your TV. It will help to keep you from grabbing a sneak peak!
Now the big question is, could we go Screen-Free (computers, Wii, Ipod, cell phone). That would have to happen on a vacation!
Question of the Day
Have you tried to go TV Free or Screen Free? How did it go?
Winner of Yesterday’s Lunch Box Love GiveAway
Congratulations to Commenter #18 Stephanie! You’ve won 4 packs of Lunch Box Love for Kids. Please email me with your mailing address at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: TV Free Week
Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 07:08 AM
There’s nothing like a healthy lunch to make me feel good. That is something I’m trying hard to pass along to my kids as well.
Here’s a sneak peak inside two lunches that went out the door at our house today.
First, my son’s lunch for school.
In his Transformers lunch box, you will find:
- Ham and Cheese sandwich on Freihofer’s 100% Hearty Whole Wheat bread (NuVal score of 33 for Freihofers)
- Chobani Champions Strawberry Banana Greek yogurt (not yet scored – I am eagerly awaiting the score on this new Chobani product for kids)
- Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans with No Salt Added (NuVal Score: 100)
- Horizon Organic Reduced Fat Milk (NuVal Score: 55)
- One Lunch Box Note reminding my son to pay it forward
More about those Lunch Box Notes later in this post!
He also took some Chocolate Teddy Grahams (NuVal Score of 25) and a Minute Maid Fruit Falls (NuVal Score of 41) for his afternoon snack. It’s always a challenge to pack something that will sit in his warm backpack until the 2 pm snack time!
I took some extra time to pack a nice healthy lunch for myself as well.
This is actually my morning snack and lunch. I eat a lot of food!
Morning Snack
- Strawberries (NuVal Score: 100)
- Chobani Fat Free Plain Greek Yogurt (NuVal Score: 94)
Lunch
- Romaine Lettuce (NuVal Score: 100)
- Red Leaf Lettuce (NuVal Score: 100)
- Cucumber (NuVal Score: 93)
- Cocktail Tomatoes (NuVal Score: 96)
- Goya Cannellini Beans (NuVal Score: 57)
- Dressing of Olive Oil (11), Balsamic Vinaigrette, Kosher Salt and Black Pepper)
- Cedar’s Red Pepper Hummus (NuVal Score: 61)
- Central Market Toasted Whole Grain Wheat and Flax Crackers (NuVal Score: 36)
- Orange (NuVal Score: 100)
- Ghiardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (NuVal Score: 8)
I was a little disappointed by the score on the Cannellini beans. I thought they would be higher. I’ve been spoiled by the Beans That Scored 100!
Those Central Market Toasted Whole Grain Wheat and Flax Crackers were a great find!
The average score for crackers is a 16. So a cracker that scores a 36 is great. And they taste great too! I found them on my last visit to Price Chopper.
Packing a healthy lunch is no easy task! And in my case, it takes a lot of containers. My lunch bag was bulging!
Today’s Bonus Giveaway
As you know, I usually reserve giveaways for Trade Up Tuesday, but the nice people at www.sayplease.com were kind enough to send me some Lunch Box Notes to give away after I wrote about them in Two of My Favorite Things. They sent me Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Lunch Box Love for Kids:
I love these notes! There are even some blank ones inside so that you can personalize your message. And if you are not a Mom, you could win these and give them away to a Mom that you love for Mother’s Day. Also check out their site for:
- Lunch Box Love for Girlfriends
- Lunch Box Love for People You Work With
- Lunch Box Love for Those You Appreciate
To enter, leave a comment below telling me what’s in your lunch bag today. You can enter twice by leaving a second comment with the NuVal score for something in your lunch bag. Check out the NuVal site for some sample scores. I’ll pick one winner at random by 7 am EDT Friday. Good Luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Chobani, Crackers, Lunch, Salad, bread, tomatoes
Tags: Lunch Box Love
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 08:05 AM
Yesterday’s post was kind of like that Seinfeld episode when Jerry and George pitched their “show about Nothing” to NBC. I wrote about coffee – which we’re not scoring at NuVal. I didn’t really have a trade-up story to tell. It was a post about Nothing. But in the end, it sparked some great comments and questions from so many A Better Bag of Groceries readers.
One of my favorites came from Carolyn C:
Carolyn C with two of her three boys
“I would love to see how the generic label foods rate from grocery stores vs. the brand name foods. We often buy the generic food labels (because of cost), and I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’d love to know what we are eating!”
Well, Carolyn you are not alone! According to the National Grocers Association Consumer Survey Report for 2010, 52% of shoppers reported that they buy store brands instead of national brands.
Just for the record, in the grocery biz’, we call store brand products “Private Label”. It sounds so secretive, doesn’t it?
Anyway, according to a 2009 study by A.C. Nielsen, U.S. private label sales were up 7.4% over the previous year. So, people are watching their budgets.
Unfortunately, Carolyn, my answer to you is kind of lame. The answer is, “It depends.” Sometimes, the private label product scores higher than the national brand, sometimes lower, and sometimes the same. One thing that I can tell you, though, is that the retailers who decide to implement NuVal in their stores are taking a very careful look at their private label products. If they score lower than the national brand, they are going out and reformulating their recipes so that they score equal to or better than the national brand.
Check out this pasta sauce example from Price Chopper:
You could buy Classico sauce with a score of 37…
or the Price Chopper brand, with a score of 81.
And look at the difference in price! You would pay 70 cents less for the product that has much better nutrition! I bought that Price Chopper marinara sauce and is was delicious!
Now, I know that many A Better Bag of Groceries readers are not so lucky as to have a grocery store near them that has NuVal on the store shelves. So, while you can learn a lot about National Brands here on my blog or on Trading Up Downtown, you are probably wondering how your Stop & Shop Nature’s Promise Whole Wheat Penne scores or how your Albertson’s 100% Natural Oats and Honey Cereal scores. Unfortunately, you won’t know how those Private Label products score until your store decides to implement NuVal.
I know many ABBGreaders are eagerly awaiting the day when their local store will implement NuVal. To speed things up, you can Suggest a Store on the NuVal website, talk to your local store manager, or get in contact with your retailer through their website.
In the meantime, if you are lucky enough to shop in one of the retailers that currently has NuVal scores on shelf (Price Chopper, Hy-Vee, Meijer, United Texas Markets, Kroger- Lexington, KY), please email me and/or send pictures about the stories in the scores that you are seeing.
NuVal Update:
Shoppers in Wisconsin get ready to celebrate. NuVal is coming to
Skogen’s Festival Foods! Read about it in Supermarket News
here. You’ll see scores on shelf in August!
There are also several other retailers who have recently signed on with NuVal. I’m just not allowed to tell you who they are yet. Stay tuned!
Starbucks Giveaway Winner
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Price Chopper, Private Label
Tags: Private Label, Store Brands
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 06:30 AM
Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday, a very popular day here on A Better Bag of Groceries because I talk about a Trade Up I’ve made and I give away free stuff.
I know you’re all dying to see what the NuVal score is on coffee…..
Oh, how I wish it was a 100. I’d even take a 50. But the truth is that it doesn’t have a score! You see, while NuVal is scoring virtually everything you find in a grocery store, there are a few categories that we are not scoring. Namely, we are not scoring the following:
- Cooking Sprays
- Teas
- Coffees
- Some spices
- Vinegar
- Salt
- Baking Soda
Now, this gets a little complicated, but basically we are not scoring products if they meet one of the following criteria:
- It is not a meaningful source of calories
- There is no inter-changeable choice
- Nutrition Facts Panel and ingredient information is not readily available
So, we are not scoring coffee. But, as you know, on Tuesdays, I always give away products that I now buy since I started working at NuVal. And I must tell you that since coming to NuVal, I drink more coffee anddarker coffee than I did before. It has actually started a little coffee war in our house. My husband is happy brewing up some Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Not me – I need something with a little more oooomph. Thankfully, Dunkin’ has now come out with Dunkin’ Dark and we can agree on that. However, this Starbucks (with no NuVal score!) does find its way into my shopping cart on a very frequent basis!
I would say that I am addicted to coffee since:
- The sight of a Starbucks franchise makes me crave coffee.
- By the end of my 5:45 am workout, all I can think about is the cup of coffee I am going to have when I get home (you would think I would be thinking about water!)
- I start to think about my morning coffee when headed to bed the night before.
One footnote I would like to add on the No Scoring List is that while we are not currently scoring teas, eventually we will. My NuVal Scoring Intel has informed me that because teas have lots of bioflavanoids, we will score them – just not yet.
In the meantime, I will be brewing up a nice pot of Starbucks!
To Enter:
One lucky reader will win this bag of Starbucks coffee. Just leave a comment below telling me your #1 product that you would LOVE to see scored. I will choose a winner at random at 8 am Eastern Time on Wednesday. Good Luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: coffee, Starbucks
Monday, April 26, 2010 at 06:56 AM
Hello Blog Friends! My husband surprised me with a long weekend on Cape Cod to celebrate my 40th birthday. The kids are at Grandma and Papa’s for three whole nights! So, I thought it would be good timing for you to hear from someone else who works for NuVal - Tina Haupert!
Tina is an award-winning healthy living blogger with a humongous following on her own famous blog, Carrots N Cake. She and I connected last fall and she came to work for NuVal in October. She also writes a NuVal blog called Trading Up Downtown. It’s pretty amazing to work with Tina and to hear all her stories. She’s always doing cool blogger things, like making cakes with Kelly Ripa! So, without further ado, I bring you Tina!
In general, I incorporate a number of healthy foods into my diet, but there’s always room for improvement, right? Even when it comes to the milk in my morning cup coffee, I know it’s possible to trade up its nutrition.
As a kid, I drank tons of low-fat milk. My sister and I could easily go through a gallon of 1% milk in just a few days. It was nuts how much milk we drank. When I moved out and went off to college, however, I stopped drinking milk as often. Sure, my college had it in the dining halls, but it wasn’t something I’d keep in my dorm room.
Once I graduated from college and moved into my own apartment, I started to buy milk again. But, since I was watching my calories, I opted for the non-fat version. Non-fat milk is a very nutritious option, but when it came to my morning cup of coffee, it was like adding water! It didn’t lighten my coffee at all. I love creamy coffee, so I switched from non-fat milk to soy milk and never looked back.
Ever since I started working at NuVal, I’ve paid much more attention to the nutritional value of the foods that eat. When I realized that soy milk scores an 82(Silk Soymilk LightMilk) on the NuVal scale and non-fat milk scores a 91, I knew it would be an easy trade up, so I decided to give the non-fat version another try.
Adding non-fat milk to my coffee still makes it watery, but now I just leave more room for it. I still love soy milk in my morning cup of coffee, but every few days, I make sure to trade up my milk selection for the more nutritious option.
Thanks Tina! Lots of our NuVal employees have made trade-ups for better nutrition. Read about Tyler, Alison, Annette, Leslie and Laura here!
Question of the Day:
How do you take your coffee?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Milk, Uncategorized
Tags: Tina Trades Up
