Gotta love getting ‘the call’ from your boss saying, “Are you able to speak freely?” UGH. Clerical errors suck, especially when you are the one who made said error. I love my job, but on occasion I get perturbed when I get called on mistakes. Granted, what I do affects the bottom line for both the company I work for and the company that contracted my company; so everything I do counts. However; it chaps my hide when one small mistake gets blown out of proportion. One way to look at it could be that I do such a good job that a mistake is just unbelievable! So why go to my boss and whine?

This just tells me I need to knuckle down… stop getting distracted… pay attention to the details. That is my job, after all. I was hired to sweat the small stuff that no one else wants to deal with. And, I’m good at it if I do say so myself. Save for an occasional hiccup now and then.

I will rise above the bull and make them all sorry they doubted my abilities!!! HA HA HA HA!!! (evil laugh)

It has been forever since I have posted and I apologize. I have no excuse, other than I am a lazy sot who needs a good kick in the pants. Well, I have gotten the good kick in the pants… though I barely felt it ‘cause I’ve gained a zillion pounds since October! The detox went great, as you can see. I lost 10+ pounds, and since Halloween I have put it all back on, and then some. However; 2008 will be a fit year. Just as 2007 was going to be a fit year, the difference… I have my gal pals behind me and doing the fit thing with me. Having a support group always helps.

Which is another reason I am blogging once again. I figure the worldwide web is a huge support system in itself. If nothing else, blogging about my daily ups and downs will be therapeutic, and I won’t need a medium of storage for my daily notes.

This next year is going to be fun-filled. I will take a page from a fellow blogger’s- and a good friend- book and let you all know up front the goals I have for 2008:

Save for a down payment on a home of my own
Get my First Degree Black Belt in American Karate
Take up yoga on a regular basis
Take a spiritual inner journey
Trip to CA
Another detox, and as many as it takes to stay healthy
Find myself
Continue to raise a healthy, happy, well-adjusted child
Support my friends as they graduate from college, and start families

Wish me luck folks! This list is subject to change… at whim… as is my life, on a regular basis.

TTFN!!

I'm back and here are my Week 3 and Week 4 updates. I am nearly finished with the detox and Saturday, August 18th is my last day. Yeah me!!

Week 3

This week I was able to add back meat; which meant chicken and tuna. That meant a lot more variety when it came to going out to eat. Still eating lots of rice and salads, only now I'm trying to eat more brown rice as it is a 'whole grain', while white rice is 'refined' and raises my blood sugar faster.

Water is still my best friend. I can really tell the difference on days when I don't drink enough. It makes me wonder how I ever survived on 8 oz a day.


Week 4

I am hungrier these days, so I am hoping that means my metabolism is speeding up a bit. I have managed to lose 5 lbs so far during the detox; and I'm down to 159 lbs. Went shopping last night and bought jeans a size smaller than I was wearing when I started the detox. And, most of my pants are fitting much looser these days! Woohoo! I have also gone down a notch in bra size.

Still can't get enough water! It makes me feel so good to be hydrated. I notice I can get crabby pretty darn quick if I don't get enough water. Watch out everybody!!

So, what was the point of giving up all those yummy foods? I now know that sugar gives me a headache, and makes me fat. I will start to slowly add back dairy and whole grain wheat items (I miss toast so much!!), and see what sort of reactions I have. I may stay off of dairy forever; but that would make eating ice cream pretty hard and I have missed that a lot!!

I may also stick to chicken/turkey/fish if I find out red meat doesn't agree with me. It can reak havoc on most people's digestion; yet it is a great source of protein and iron. Sacrifices are a part of life... sigh.

After I attend both of the weddings I am a part of I plan to go to DQ and have a Waffle Bowl Sunday! :)~

Thanks for stopping in. One of these days I'll try to post some before and after pictures. Can anyone show me how to do that? :)~

I bet you thought I’d fallen off the face of the earth; or, perhaps that my detox didn’t go so well and I was hospitalized? Nope! Still here, alive and kickin’.

So, here is what’s been happening:

Week 1

Major aches and pains as the toxins started to work their way out of my body. Now I know why you should drink so much water each day! Those toxins need to go somewhere, and if they hang out in your body they make you feel like $@*%.

This week I eliminated the following foods from my diet:

Refined and added simple sugars
Artificial colorings, flavorings, and sweeteners
Caffeinated beverages
Gluten-containing grains
Meat and seafood
Eggs and diary products
Alcohol

What’s left you ask?! Lots of things I didn’t know about; things that actually taste good. You would be amazed at how many things you can find made out of rice. Cereal, bread, syrup, crackers, flour, and the list goes on. I basically ate lots rice and beans this week with tons of fruits and veggies, and WATER. I was a bit lazy, so I didn’t get creative and try any of the recipes in the patient guide. But there are tons and one day I’ll make one of them.

I also drank yummy chocolate shakes that were ‘meal replacements’ and I had them as snacks with fruit/veggies to help keep my nutrition up while I was taking so many nutrient containing foods out of my diet. (In case you’re wondering, the ‘shakes’ did not contain any of the aforementioned items I eliminated from my diet. However, it still had calories, so I mixed it with water. Not too bad!!) I also took special capsules to assist my ‘detox organs’ to clean me out. I had shakes and took capsules 2x/day.

Note to Self: DRINK LOTS OF WATER!

Week 2

This week I ate just fruits, vegetables, ‘good fats’ such as olive, sunflower, sesame, and/or safflower oils, and water. I also upped my intake of shakes and capsules from 2x/day to 3x a day.

This week started out much better as I was getting used to the restrictions and was able to find yummy things to nosh on and drink that were within the guidelines.

Going out to eat and traveling proved slightly challenging. But I managed to stay within the guidelines while watching friends and family eat some of my favorite foods in front of me. Sigh. Where’s the love?!

I also began exercising a bit more this week as I was feeling much more up to it than the week before. More karate and cardio at the gym; and I will be going back to weight lifting- slowly- so as not to injure myself.

During the beginning of week 3 I will begin adding back a few of the items I eliminated in week 2, such as milk substitutes, bread (wheat/gluten free), and cereal. Later in the week I will begin to add back other things like legumes and nuts. All the while I will be keeping track of my body’s reaction to the re-introduction of the food. I should be all done with the detox by August 25th and we’ll see what my eating habits are like then.

Wish me luck and stay tuned! I promise I will be better about posting in a more timely fashion.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Great Detox. :)~ I have officially begun my journey into healthier eating by beginning my 28-day detox on Sunday, July 22nd. Keep up with my progress here and see how well I fare.

If you have any great healthy recipes that include whole fruits, veggies, or rice; please post a comment or give me a link! I could use all the help I can get since I am not Martha Stewart or Julia Child in the kitchen!

Wish me luck! And check back often to see how I'm doing. :)

I used to wonder what drove people to do what they do. I don't wonder anymore... I gave up. Human beings will never understand each other.

We lie
We cheat
We steal
We abuse
We mistreat
We pollute with word and deed... and for what?

For some it's a game; though I'm not sure who actually wins. Some people have just been hurt so badly in their lives that they make it their mission to make sure as many people as possible feel the same way. Why? Who benefits? No one.

I am trying to leave the world a little better than I found it, but my fellow man is making it really hard.

That's all I can say. Someone knows what I mean. Ugh!

OK, I decided I needed to get back into the world of technology so as not to miss the boat. I also have some news I want to share: I'm going to detox. No, I'm not an alcoholic, or a drug addict. I'm a food addict. I am attempting to fulfill one of my New Year's resolutions; Living Well- meaning living healthy. :)

Join me as I attempt to omit foods from my diet in an effort to cleanse my system and find out what foods I may be allergic to, or that just plain make me sick. I'm freaked out. I'm so used to the 'standard American diet' that the idea of actually eating fruits and vegetables every day seems slightly daunting. Let's watch what happens. :)

Stop back every now and again and see how I'm doing. I will attempt to keep up with entering my progress throughout the 28-day process.

New Year's Resolutions- 2007

Each year, like the rest of the world, I make a few New Year's Resolutions. And each year I break most, if not all, of them. This year I've decided to make it easier on myself and make resolutions that are things I am more likely to actually do:

Live well
**meaning healthier... eating better, exercising more

Live wise
**meaning stick to a budget... this will be harder, but I need to learn how to do it sooner rather than later

Laugh often
**it will help me keep resolution 1, and heck it's just fun!!

Love deeply
**they say it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all... I agree

Love what you do
**I hope to attain my dream job (RN) this year, and therefore love what I do

Technology

Yeah, technology... if it's so great why the $&@% can't I get a document to go from Word to this blog without looking like crap? Blast, I give up. I guess you can't copy and paste from an email, put it in word, change it, and then copy and paste it into your blog because you get content from the old email AND your word document too! Argh! I am so NOT computer savvy.

Babies!

Babies are everywhere... that's a fact. However; it seems that lately there are a lot of people having babies within the company I am working in. People that were newlyweds, seemingly yesterday, are popping out their first and second kids at lightning speed.

My 'baby' is now 13 years old. I love to hold 5 and 6-month olds and remember how it was when mine was that small. Sigh. I don't miss the waking up in the middle of the night with colic, or the not going to bed at all until very late- though those really didn't happen much to me. And, I don't miss the stinky pants 2-3 times a day. Bleh. But I do miss the way a baby needs you, and the way they hang on your every look and word. You are the center of their world, they love to be with you every minute of every day. It's a lot of responsibility, but it is also very, very rewarding.

That first word is the sweetest word you've ever heard. The first step is worthy of a standing ovation. When the child can dress himself/herself it's the beginning of a whole new chapter. Watching them grow and develop their own unique personalities, that are not so unlike your own, is really pretty neat.

I'm nearing 35 and I'm thinking that I want another child. I had my daughter so young I figured I'd want to have an 'adulthood' after she moved out; but I'm starting to change my mind. I have much more wisdom to impart to a young, blossoming mind than I did 13 years ago. Someday...

The best gift... time

Gift (noun) 1 : a notable capacity, talent, or endowment2 : something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation3 : the act, right, or power of giving.

This is the time of year when we give gifts to others to show them how we feel and how much they mean to us. We spend time listening them, and we do our best to find out what would make them happy so as to provide a memorable gift. I feel that the best part of receiving a gift is that someone spent their hard-earned time picking it out. I received a gift like this for Christmas this year. It brought tears to my eyes not so much for the gift itself, but for the fact that someone took the time to buy me something that I truly wanted.