Reading Good Books: Good for What Ails Ya

Just finished In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan yesterday. This is one of the best books I have read on the topic of food. He discusses "nutritionism" which is the "science" whereby scientists isolate individual substances in a food and then make pronouncements about them. They find out that beta-carotene is good, and suddenly you see label after label announcing that this product has beta-carotene in it! Much conventional or official wisdom which has been spread throughout the land has later been found to be incomplete in some way. Remember how margarine was supposed to be better than butter? And then, oops, we mean margarine that doesn't have trans fats in it? Imagine how many people over the years, myself included, slathered on trans-fatty margarine thinking we/they were doing something healthy! Oops!

I am not a conspiracy theorist. Occasionally, I have books recommended to me that clearly fall in the conspiracy camp. I react as strongly to those as I would to be a bee sting. I go for reasonable and rational information. In Defense of Food is both reasonable and rational, and for me, completely believable. I could identify strongly with his assertion that going to the grocery store has become a pretty tough outing for someone who is trying to eat "right." How many thousands of food items are there in the store? How many do we need to avoid if we are trying to eat healthy food? If you want to just avoid high-fructose corn syrup, that cuts out a HUGE number of foods.

His main thesis: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. He doesn't advocate a strictly vegetarian diet, or any extremes, actually. The second half of the book expands on his thesis, in terms of what he means by "food," (don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food -- can you imagine her saying, GO-GURT? What in the world is GO-GURT?), what is not too much (how many times do we stop eating because the show is over, or the bag is empty, rather than based on whether or not we are hungry), and what he means by mostly plants.

For more info, go here.

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Budgeting: Good for What Ails Ya

Friday morning, Greg and I had a meeting with some financial planners. We found out about these guys because they specialize in helping families with a special needs family member. I was so inspired after this meeting because these guys were just so personable.

One thing I was inspired to do was print out our check register from June 1 last year to May 31 this year and start looking at the actual numbers. Budgeting has eluded me, year after year, as I have started out with good intentions, but never been able to make all the numbers add up to satisfactory numbers. So, I'm nearing the point where I will be able to put a budget on paper that I believe will work.

The other thing I was inspired to do was to ask these two guys how one gets started in the business they are in. I would love to work with people in financial planning, and although I am a bit tied up at the moment, I can see this as being something I would like to work into in the future.

I highly recommend these guys to anyone, special needs or not. They clearly know what they are doing and I came away from the meeting with a REALLY good feeling about what we were doing.

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Church: Good For What Ails Ya

So we've been going to this new church for about five weeks, or maybe six. Imagine my pleasure this morning as I walked through the church and heard someone call my name to greet me, and a little farther down the hall, I ran into someone I have known for about 8 years who said, "Are you attending this church?", hugged me, and said, "I'm glad you're going here. I like you."

Instead of attending the main service this morning, I went with Eli to the junior high meeting. Although I missed being in the main service, I loved getting to know the youth pastor a little better. I loved it that he encouraged the kids to bring their Bibles to church as they would need them. I loved it that he taught on the book of Jonah and I learned some things! And I loved that Eli did not want to go in but had to since I forced him, and ended up having a positive experience.

I loved running into "Karen," an acquaintance I've known for several years, who offered to show me where the junior high kids meet, made sure my son met her son, and introduced both myself and Eli to the youth pastor.

I'm glad we are there.

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Bowling: Good for What Ails Ya

Recently, I realized that it had been approximately 827 months since Greg and I had gone upon an actual date. We usually get a couple of hours on a weekly basis to run errands to Lowe's, etc., but that time is always spent in productive pursuits. Matthew Kelly talks about "Carefree Timelessness" in his book, The Seven Levels of Intimacy. Carefree Timelessness is the kind of time we spend with someone when we are young and in love. Remember spending hours on the phone with someone? Or going to a park and lying on a blanket looking at the amazing cloud formations? Well, I don't much like talking on the phone anymore and lying on the ground sounds painful, but I do think our little bowling trip qualified as Carefree Timelessness. We spent big and paid for two games at the beginning ($21 including shoes). I realized after we had bowled a few frames that we weren't talking about our kids, or any chores that needed to be done, or what driving we needed to do the next day to take people places. We were just hanging out together having fun. You can see from the photos that we are outstanding bowlers -- look at our form -- and that Greg scored his highest ever score, whereas I did not. So, here's a plug for bowling. It's great fun.

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Parenting 101

Dear Person Who Was Just At The Same Baby Shower As I Was,

Your daughter is sure cute. Her strawberry blonde hair was so pretty and she was obviously excited to be there.

Let me just point out, though, that she ceased to be cute when she insisted on opening the presents ahead of the honoree, and pulled things out of the gifts before the honoree even got to see the first item in the package.

I'm sure you noticed that the honoree was extremely gracious to your daughter, but did you not notice the rising tension in the room as your daughter continued to rush ahead? Did you notice that the hostess told your daughter to wait? Did you consider having your daughter come and sit back down with you instead of blocking everyone else's view and making the honoree focus as much on your daughter as she did on the gifts she was opening?

Your oft-repeated "Wait, honey" didn't do much. Did you notice? Did you notice how much energy had to be exerted to work with your cute little girl who just couldn't contain herself? Oh, did I mention that sometimes containing the child is the PARENT'S responsibility?

I'm sure your presence was welcome and appreciated at the shower. Your little girl was sure cute, but her behavior was neither welcome, appreciated, nor cute.

Your Friend,

The Lady at the End of the Couch

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Something New and Diff

I am twelve hours into a 4-7 day fasting cleanse. This is the first time in my entire life I have fasted, except for about 1 1/2 days on a wilderness trip, oh, 25 years ago.

I have food issues. Mostly surrounding the problem of eating. I like this fasting thing cause I don't have to eat. I guess it's not a long-term solution, though.

Anyway, so far, it's been pretty good. I did force Val to cook dinner though. I'm not all that tempted yet, but I think it's a little much to expect me to cook too! Especially cause I am such a good cook!

For the first time in my life tonight, I will be experiencing a colonic. Sorry if that is TMI.

The plan for this is to do this fasting cleanse and then go directly into a 21-day non-fasting cleanse. My fine naturopath sister is administering these and is a great support.

My other fine sister recommended that I build in some nice things for myself during this time. Duh, that didn't really even occur to me. Sisters are so nice to have.

This time tomorrow, I expect to feel significantly cleaner inside.

I'll keep you posted.

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A Nod to American Idol

I know, I know. I must be the last person in the world who decided to watch American Idol, considering it has been on for seven seasons now. Finally, in February I decided to give it a try, having pooh-poohed it without even knowing what it was. But Val had fallen in deep like with David Archuleta, and I wanted to know what it was all about.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that I really enjoyed watching this show. The judges are knowledgeable, engaging, and each has his own style. I love hearing what they have to say.

As I am not much of a tv watcher (due to that busyness mentioned in another post), though, I did figure out pretty quickly that we should record the shows and start watching them partway through so as not to waste time watching commercials.

There are a couple of songs on my playlist by David Cook and one by David Archuleta, who are the final two in the competition. They are both excellent singers and some of their songs have given me goosebumps. David A. is 17 and David C. is 24(?) and they have very different styles. Both will go far, I'm sure, and I'm not sure who I want to win at this point. They are both popular and polished performers.

I like American Idol!! OK, I LOVE American Idol!

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