Dear Americans, WAKE UP!!!

This article on toxins in our food made its way onto my Facebook newsfeed today. My favorite part has to be the leading paragraph:

Yesterday, in the face of a just-released report by the National Cancer Institute that showed a 9.4% increase in childhood cancer between 1992 and 2007, the FDA let moms and dads all across America down. Instead of making the long overdue move to do something serious about getting rid of toxic food dyes so ubiquitous in our food supply, they instead fell back on those two simple words so often used to stall, delay and deny: "more research."

There once was a time I thought my son had Sensory Processing Disorder. He fit the bill. We even had him in regular therapy to help all of us deal with his "sensory issues."

I don't remember exactly what happened, but he was improving and I decided to leave therapy. Having people over to my house frequently was more stressful than dealing with his possible SPD. And he was doing SO WELL and seemed to be getting better. However, there was one weekend I realized his behavior was going downhill and he was sensory seeking (touching everything, throwing himself around, etc) like CRAZY. As I sat and sobbed to my husband about how overwhelmed and helpless I felt we tried to figure out what had changed in the last week or so. We figured it out...

We'd introduced gummy fruit snacks into his diet.

I'd read the articles about high fructose corn syrup and artificial dyes. I didn't go out of my way to avoid them but we did when we could find an alternative. I never questioned feeding my son bag after bag of these snacks.

We did a full purge and removed all HFCS and artificial dyes from the house. We read labels on our next shopping trip (it's shocking what has this CRAP in it! Food dye in jelly and jam. HFCS in CRACKERS)

A few weeks later a change happened. I realized I was cleaning his hands more frequently than ever. He seemed to be seeking out mess. This is the child that ate his 1st birthday cake with poise like the Queen of England. Now he was seeking out things to squish and get messy.

Right after cutting out HFCS and Dyes...

The sensory stuff was almost GONE. He wasn't spinning, he wasn't throwing himself on the floor (he still jumps but not like he was), he wasn't running his hands over every surface as he walked...and he was pleasant to be around.

When he had a single popsicle on vacation it all went back to how it had been before....the explosive anger, the sensory seeking...all because of ONE dose of that junk.


Have you cut anything from your diet or your family's diet? What changes did you notice?

In Shape to Workout?

I was always one of those people that felt like you had to be in shape to go to the gym. There was a day in college, after not working out AT ALL, I jumped on the treadmill and attempted to run. You can imagine how well that went...I was going to stick with it until one of the dance girls jumped on the one next to me and took off running with ease. I quit and walked off.

But it's a common thought...

When I share about Beachbody with people I occasionally get a despondent, "Oh no, I'm not in shape. I can't [insert exercise here]."

Do you know where *I* started? 10-15mins of cardio videos online. A walk around the hills in my neighborhood.

I did NOT start with P90X or RUNNING in my neighborhood.

I remember the first time I finished one of the videos online. It's my favorite cardio video. It's 30mins long and pretty high energy. The first time I FINISHED it (that's with breaks during) I was ecstatic. When I cut back on how many breaks I took it was awesome. The first time I did it with NO breaks? It was magical.

What CAN you do? 10 mins of that exercise video? A quick walk around the block? 10 situps?

Do THAT. Tomorrow, do it again. The day after, push a bit harder. Before you know it you'll be up to 15mins of that video or 2 laps around the block.

The Dangers Of Losing Weight

This weekend I had a small injury that I believe is directly related to my losing weight...that and not being safe with sharp objects!

Can you see that teeny cut on my fingertip? That's my big injury! lol

I was using my brother-in-law's apparently super sharp pocket knife to punch another hole in my leather belt to make it tighter...and it slipped through faster than I anticipated and sliced right into my fingertip.

So there you go! One of the hidden dangers of losing weight...and letting inexperienced people around sharp objects. Next time I'll just let my pants fall off...that's the style anyway!

I Don't Wanna!!

I did NOT want to workout today. I was crampy. It was in my lower back so there wasn't a "perfect" position to relieve them. (If they're in the front you can curl up in the fetal position)

This was totally me

I posted on Facebook asking for people to give me motivation to workout. I KNEW that it would help with my cramps. I KNEW that it would help with my energy level. I KNEW it would help with my mood.
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 But I didn't want to do it.

I did it anyway. I picked one of the free videos I used to do online (back in July when I started working out again). It's 30mins long. I changed into my workout clothes, had a small spoon of honey (too boost my energy a teeny bit), and pressed PLAY.

I only got through 26 minutes of it before my asthma hit me.

I did notice something positive.

I could keep up. Up until the asthma I was following the video.

All of a sudden I had another sign of how far I've come...


Have you reached a milestone lately? Have you accomplished something? Tell us about it!!!

P90X and Weight Gain

I was alerted (By Google) to an article that mentioned P90X recently. As I read more I came across the actual context for the comment...and it wasn't positive.

From the article:

2) If you're serious about seeing big changes you need to lift weights. 
-Correct your workout so you're working out specifically for weight loss and drastic change. 
-This doesn't mean you have to kill yourself or spend excessive amounts of time in the gym, but you do need to work out right. Programs like Zumba, Pilates and even intense systems like P90X can stop results dead in their tracks because they are so intense that you're ravenous after causing you to binge and that's always counterproductive. 
-You want a system with real results that's made for real people. You want the fastest results that you can actually maintain. 

I was with them until they mentioned P90X and LACK of results. I'm still scratching my head.

You know I've done the program. You also know that I didn't become an X Grad.

I couldn't help but comment on the article.

If you buy P90X from a LEGIT source (Team Beachbody Coach) you will get a meal plan. If you FOLLOW the meal plan you won't "get ravenous" and binge. The plan has you eating the proper amounts of carb/protein/fat at regular times to keep your metabolism fueled without starving yourself. Team Beachbody also offers a recovery drink designed specifically to go with the P90X program. Drinking it afterwards helps you refuel without over-doing it.
I had great results with P90X. Yes, my metabolism increased but I wasn't starving and binging.

The article does have *some* truth to it. If you buy/borrow P90X and don't follow the meal plan you won't get the same results. Diet is most of the battle.

This is just an example of why you should RESEARCH your decisions. I really hope no one reading their article is turned off of P90X because they think they can't handle it...

Have you ever not purchased something because of a negative comment about it? Tell me in the comments!

Pro-Ana (part one: Websites)

*Trigger Warning* I don't usually have to put one of these up BUT I know some of my readers are recovering from eating disorders and I don't want to trigger you. If that's you please LEAVE NOW!

This is hitting the news again (it cycles) so I feel the need to touch on the subject. If you are a parent please stick around for this series. It's quite serious.

For those that haven't heard the terms "Pro-Ana" or "Pro-Mia" or "Pro-ED" let me enlighten you...it's PRO eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia, eating disorder...respectively).

Yes, I'm serious. These websites have been around for a LONG time. I've been using the internet for almost 15 years and it's been around for the entire time.

For me it started with AOL chat rooms. Then, when the internet became much much more than AOL, I discovered the pro-ana websites.

I truly don't remember what I searched in Yahoo! to bring up these pages. I just know that I searched *something* related to eating disorders and it brought up a pro-ana site. I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole into an entirely new world. (Like that cliche isn't over-used right? lol)

These sites, in my opinion, are more damaging to your household than pornography. They're also harder to block! Is your child on Facebook, Tumblr, Xanga, Pinterest, etc? It's there. And it's not blocked as often as scantily clad women.

What's found on these sites?

Prepare to be disturbed...

There are tips for things like staying full, losing weight, and HIDING your eating disorder.

There are photos (many photoshopped) of varying sizes. The incredibly skinny are "thinsperation" and the obese are "reverse thinspo."

Most have a Letter From Ana. (I put it in a Google Doc so I wouldn't risk linking directly to a site)

There are "Thin Commandments" that include things like "If you aren't thin, you aren't attractive" and "Being thin and not eating are signs of true will power and success."

There are diets, exercises, and links to other blogs.

All that nourishes me, destroys me.

Are you scared? You should be. These sites tend to fall under "free speech." It doesn't matter if they get removed. It's like cockroaches...as soon as one is gone a dozen come in to replace it.

What do you do?

Be aware. As a parent you may browse these sites to know the signs. Know your enemy. With the rise of teaching children that fat is bad and telling them they're obese we may be feeding this problem.


Please share your thoughts below! And please please share this post!!

Sick...

Here's the backstory:

Sunday "morning" at 4am (quotes because anything earlier than 7am is "hell" and not "morning" to me) my toddler woke up vomiting. This continued several times until 8am...then he was fine. He was fine all day until he demolished a container of strawberries and got sick in the car.

Monday he was fine but my baby puked once.

Tuesday everyone was fine.

Today *I* woke up a bit sick. It feels like food poisoning...that pain in your stomach sort of thing?

I'm not going to do a full workout, but I will be drinking my Shakeology and doing some light yoga later. (Slim and Limber from Slim in 6 I think)

Do you have a plan?