Smoothie fun

I'm delving into the world of smoothies for breakfast. What a tasty adventure...

This morning, I tried a combination of this Fruit/Protein juice by Silk, plus frozen mixed fruit, some spinach, and a little box of Fruitables Apple Harvest juice (which is fruit/veggie juice). It was really good, and I blended it up, tossed it in a cup and drank it on the way to work, which worked perfectly.

The only thing I need to work on is prep time. Since I played around with the liquids and stuff, it took more time than I intended. But it was fun, and I will be trying it again tomorrow with some different items. I also need to find something to add in for more protein as I was starving at work by 930am. Not a good thing. If you have tips on that, please share!

One week down...

It's been a week since I started back on modified Paleo. I gotta say, days 2 and 3 sucked really bad. But I pushed through it, and over the weekend, the cravings weren't near bad. Now, they aren't bad at all, a twinge every now and then for what I want, but overall much better. And
ya can't beat 8 lbs down. :) One key thing I am using is the word "later". During the cravings, I keep telling myself, I can have that "later". That I can have this "later". Everything "later". And
eventually that later will be never.

Ok so here's where I get real. I'd love for it to be all happy happy joy joy sunshine and rainbows up in here, but sadly, it can't be. Yes, I'm hanging tight to the eating, and overall, things are going well in my life, but I'm having so much trouble shaking some depression. I know that part of it goes along with the diet. It happens every time. When I'm dieting, I'm eating at home, not having social opportunities, and it just spirals, not having good adult interaction. But this is more than that. I don't even want to do social things right now. I cancelled a mom's night in at my house this weekend because I just couldn't deal with the anxiety of having people over (ya want honest, there, that's honest). And the worst part is, I can't figure out how to get out of this slump. I figure I'll give it a bit longer and then talk to my doctor, be proactive. It sure is getting to me though. It doesn't help that I'm lonely, though that's not anything new. I need to push myself
more right now to get out, but that's hard when dieting is just getting ramped up, and the weather is yucky right now.

I do think that this losing weight stuff will help some, and if I can get active more, that will help too. And I can not WAIT til March when I have my surgery. I know that will require some healing time but at least one of my problems will be taken care of.

Ok enough of my complaining, if you got this far, hey, you got this far, good for you! Next post will be more cheerful, I'll try to find a good happy news article for ya.

Paleo basics

Ok so here I am on day two of modified Paleo, and I thought I'd explain a little more about exactly what it is.

I'm pulling most of my info from here: http://www.robbwolf.com/faq

The basic of it is this:

Lean proteins (ideally) grass fed meat, free range fowl and wild caught fish
Seasonal fruits and vegetables
Healthy fats such as nuts, seeds, avocado, olive oil, and coconut oil

So no bread, no potatoes, no rice, no pasta, no soda. Ideally, no dairy or sugar, but I'm keeping those in there (in small amounts) to make it doable for me longterm. Also, certain things that we think of as veggies, are kind of borderline, such as corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, but I am keeping those in as well. The first time I committed to this in Oct 2010, I committed for a month, and felt great! This time, I'm not putting an end date on it. I'd love to do it all year, but right now, it's one day at a time.

The website I put above has tons of forums to get more info, so if you are seriously considering it, definitely check em out!

Happy New Year!

It all begins tomorrow. Jan 3rd, 2012. This is the year to get healthy and STAY healthy. I'll be weighing in tomorrow morning, and might just post it on here. We'll see how I feel about it...lol I just went through and cleaned out a bunch of junk from my house and tomorrow evening, D and I will be making a Sprouts trip to refill the house with fruits, veggies, and meat. As of right now, I'm going Paleo, but modified like I did last year. I'm ready for it, I hate how my body feels on junk food. So let's do this!

Recap of 2011 and moving on.

Ok so much for updating this a lot! No worries, I'm back and ready for action!

Let's look back at 2011 real quick. Holy freakin cow what a year it has been! D and I both had a ton of growth. For the boy child, he had two surgeries this year for his ears. He got tubes in them, but they fell out and the same problem started up again, so he ended up with another surgery for long term tubes. They are working fantastically! He did have some scary moments, in that he started having headaches again (which usually indicate seizures), but we could not get the headaches under control. We ended up seeing a neurosurgeon, but he couldn't help as the fluid in D's brain was not increasing. It was quite a frustrating time! Eventually, we were able to change seizure meds, and so far so good! However...the new seizure med leaves D open to dehydration. And of course he doesn't drink enough. So we went through a few months of hell with his poor tummy, he started having poop accidents, and was really constipated. But I think he has now adjusted to the feeling of it all, as we haven't had a poop accident in two weeks. (I say, we, like its me and him. No, it's all him! I just have to deal with it...lol)

Overall, D is doing really well in school, aside from the accidents. He's not reading yet, but is slowly making progress towards it. He does things on his own time. This school year so far has been great for him! We went back to an ARD meeting, as his special ed teacher wanted to add him more time for him, so now, aside from specials, he either has an aide with him, or is in the special ed classroom all day long. You can tell he is flourishing from all the attention!

Ok now on to me. Get ready...it's been a big year. First, I had surgery...actually, a procedure called an Endometrial Ablation. The hope was that it would lighten my periods or take them away completely. Yeah, it didn't. Well, that's incorrect, it did help SOMEWHAT. I'm down to 4 or 5 days, rather than 7 days of hell. And even at it's worst, it's not as bad as it was. It still sucks though. My hope next year is to have a hysterectomy and just evict my uterus completely.

Wasn't that a lovely topic? Ok, second, I started out 2011 determined to clear out the clutter and create for myself a dramafree life, as much as it CAN be. Mainly, anything that didn't work in my life had to go. Yes, I've ended some friendships, but I've also worked hard at enhancing friendships that ARE beneficial to me. This year has also been one of personal growth. I've come to terms with something that I have always tried to keep from thinking about much, and let me tell you, the relief in finally embracing that has made a huge difference in my life. I couldn't have done it without awesomely supportive friends though.

So 2011 is almost over and done with, and I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be quite a rush.

2012 is only 3 days away and I'm gearing up for getting healthy. I decided to start off the new year right by going Paleo again. It will still be modified like last year, to keep some dairy in and some of the healthy carbs, like sweet potatoes and corn. But I will be cutting out bread, rice, white potatoes, and pasta. I regret having made the conscious decision last year to stop doing it. It really did work well for me and it's not THAT hard. You don't have to measure and can eat as much meat, veggies, (and kinda fruit) as you want. As far as fitness, I'll be gearing up on that too. I don't plan to really make a resolution for New Years but I guess if I had to specify something it'd be to make it a point every day to do something healthy for me. After all, 2012 is when the world is supposed to end and I don't wanna go out like this!!

Stay tuned, folks, it's about to get real up in here!

Not my child!

So, California is now on my big list of places to never move. I'd seriously considered it at times, but now it's off the table. Completely.

News report today says that the Governor signed into law the right to vaccinate 12 year olds without parental consent with Gardasil and the Hep B vaccine.

Let's get this straight...they assert that children as young as 12 are able to give consent for a vaccine, and let's not consider how much railroading there would be. It makes me sick to think about a 12 year old, not even a TEEN yet, being railroaded into getting a shot that they have no idea about, and you know noone who stands to make a profit off this will be educating them! A 12 year old is NOT competent to make this decision, especially considering the side effects.

Hey, big pharmacy, quit trying to take away our parental rights in the name of big $$$$$. Jackholes.

What is wrong with people?

I seriously need to stop reading the news. Unfortunately, I am a news junkie.

There was a story just the other day about a 7 year old (that's D's age!!!) who was locked in a coffin in the basement to sleep. He was also duct taped to a chair. The house was infested with bugs, and has since been condemned. What the hell??? How do you justify doing that to your child? There are countless stories out there right now about "parents" doing this stuff to their kids. I can't even call them parents. They don't deserve that title.

A mother strangled her daughter for refusing to take a bath and throwing a 2 hour tantrum. Ok, yeah, parenting is hard and it sucks at time. But you don't kill your child over it. Stick em in their room til the tantrum stops. If they are hurting themselves, remove everything, so THEY are safe. There are ways to combat it that don't involve strangling your child. I hate to judge, but ya know, yeah, I'm judging.

It just breaks my heart to see children seen as worthless "things". They are our future. And before I break into a Whitney Houston song, I'll leave it at that. We need to pray for the kids of this world. That they grow up with love and hope and light in their lives.