Thinner....

Update: Mom is down 52lbs now.

I just bought new clothes today so I can stop stalling my weight loss and get back into gear. I was afraid if I lost more weight, I wouldn't have any clothes that fit me for the winter! It's easier in the summer in 1-size dresses, but I'd be too cold in the winter. I deliberately "cheated" on my diet for a couple weeks, just maintaining my weight. Now, armed with several new slacks, a nice warm wool/cashmire blend sports jacket, and new blouses, I'm ready to take on the next 20lbs.

So here I am at 155lbs or so. I'll be heading firmly into size 12 territory, and once I do, I'll have to abandon the size 16s I've been "getting away with". The size 14 clothes I still have will see me through the transition up to the brink of size 10, but there wasn't enough clothing for the whole cold season in New York.

Onward, and downward! :)

Anti-Aging conference call

Tuesday, August 26th 7pm-8pm EST


Do you want to feel younger and live longer?

I'd like to open up a FREE conference call to discuss the latest findings in Anti-Aging science and inform people of a revolutionary anti-aging supplement that's now available on the market. I will explain the biology of aging, and some of the findings from a collection of over 2000 clinical studies on how to prevent age-related diseases (cancer, diabetes, heart disease and more...), cellular wear-n-tear, and the low energy that is associated with aging.

There is a limit of 99 people on the call. If there's sufficient interest, I will book additional conference call dates.

Please RSVP for the call-in number, provide your name & your email address so you can be updated on any changes in the schedule. Please indicate whether you would like to be notified on other topics related to health and wellness, otherwise I will assume that you do not wish to be contacted about other topics.

Due to the nature of this topic, I personally think it's akin to a sin to hold back from telling as many people as I can about it. These new findings, this new natural product, may prevent deadly and crippling diseases, and may alleviate suffering for people with certain diseases or disorders, so I hope you don't mind my contacting you about it. I've been trying to consider how to politely inform as many people as possible and open up the opportunity to start living a much healthier life RIGHT NOW to as many people as possible.

Please invite your friends or family to attend the call!

Since some cancers or diseases may only be prevented, not cured, it is important that adults start using this product as soon as they feel comfortable doing so.

Criss Ittermann
Herbalist & Reiki healer

Documentary about Monsanto's food-supply conspiracy

I try to believe in the inherent good of all people. It keeps me going. I try not to look at anyone as absolute evil. After this video, I'm having a very very hard time picturing these people as anything but evil. It's one thing to be greedy -- it's another thing to hold all of life as we know it in your hands as a control & monetary leveraging tool.

This French documentary/exposé is a full-length feature film intended for theaters, and aired March 11 on French TV. Now it's essentially an underground video, squished from major video feeds and stores.

The World According to Monsanto

The video takes us through the beginnings of the Monsanto conspiracy, following a French investigative reporters' footsteps through the web of lies and government favoritism shown to this chemical-producing mega-giant. She goes to the US, India, Canada, the UK, Paraguay, and Mexico in pursuit of the truth. If you go to the Monsanto website, you will see many lies.

One example of a lie where Monsanto was caught is labeling RoundUp herbicides as "biodegradable" -- but the fines don't matter. After years of advertising the product as biodegradable, everyone already believed it -- the fines for false or misleading advertising don't matter. Once you've sprayed with RoundUp -- an intensive defoliation chemical -- it won't go away any time soon. Combine this with genetically modified crops -- crops modified to resist RoundUp.... I thought they would be modifying crops for better taste or yields, the same reasons we cross breed...this is absolutely insidious.

Don't break out the popcorn yet... corn, canola, cotton, soy and wheat are the compromised crops, with more to come soon.

Personal Note: I am SO glad my diet plan is non-gmo soy. However, I need to throw out my Boca burgers. :(

The moral: Buy organic (until the USDA allows gmos sprayed with RoundUp to be labeled organic -- I'm sure it will happen some day), buy non-gmo, buy local, and try SPIN farming. Meanwhile, we have to figure out something much more powerful to do, but what do you do when a powerful company can turn your food supply off?

You can order a DVD or download a copy using the big red button. I recommend downloading.

Toxic Household Quiz

If you're interested in the effect of toxins in the home, and what you can do about them, you probably want to try the Toxic Household Quiz to see how much you know about what we're doing to our bodies, our family and our planet.

The fact is that we need to change what we're doing. Toxic cleaning product companies started reaching out to consumers with mass advertising in the 1950s and we bought into it. Now nearly every home has products with chemicals that are not tested for human safety, especially 1-3 generations down the road. Now we're seeing the effects of these chemicals on our children & children's children, and watching the decline of human health in the U.S. and other so-called advanced nations. And with the expansion of modernization programs into third-world countries we are ensuring that those giant chemical companies will bring their toxic products into all countries, to their benefit and the global environment's expense.

If you're already ready to change what you're doing, see: The Price of Clean-- and just answer that one question in the quiz.

Namaste!

One Size fits me

174.6lbs. 36.5"waist, 45.25" hips. [Ed. oops, just noticed the typo -- I don't weigh 74lbs, nor do I ever want to!]

The way my body is built, I'll never have a 20" waist, but I'm going from "rather plump" to "pleasantly curvy" which is a change for the better.

I felt for the first time in a while like I could wear a dress yesterday -- 80 degrees, and I feel less than fat. A dress that would NOT fit me just last fall, now fits well and will only look better and better as I take off weight. I put on a different dress first, but while it fit, it was still too tight in the gut-hip area, where I'm carrying what my mom calls the family belly, so my daughter wore it.

I've been having discussions with my weight-loss partner (my mom) about rewards for a good job done on a diet, about feelings of entitlement when traveling or socializing. It's just not healthy to think that you spent so much money to go someplace you deserve to have a large meal (or dessert, or snacks, or...). The two are unrelated. Our society brainwashes us into thinking that white flour, sugar, potatoes are "rewards" and these messages are hammered into our head from the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep.

If you spent a lot on a trip you should darned well enjoy the trip, enjoy healthy choices, enjoy your food, relax, get extra sleep, get some extra exercise in the pool or workout room, but don't think that you deserve to treat your body badly because you're spending some extra time away from home or with friends.

I spend a lot of money every month on networking events, often those events come with breakfast, lunch or dinner. I also go to committee meetings where the fare of the morning is donuts or bagels (I've come to call them the "donut meeting" and "bagel meeting" respectively when talking about them to my partner, just to really point out how ridiculous this "culture" is.) I can think to myself "Well, I pay my $400/year for membership in this chamber, so I deserve the free breakfast!" And that type of thinking can get me into much more than $400 of health concerns and illness, and new larger clothes purchases to accommodate my brainwashed mentality. Several members of said chamber are in trouble healthwise and taking drastic measures to change their weight, and I find that very very alarming. I drink my shake religiously before going, treat myself to an herbal tea when I get there, and instead of fussing with food, I pay attention to the meeting! I can network better without a mouth full of bagel anyway.

We need to reconsider what we put into our mouths. 500 years ago there WAS no white sugar, or white flour, or white rice. It's not in our genetic or metabolic make-up to properly handle them, much less "high-fructose corn syrup" and "hydrogenated fats". To watch our weight, every calorie that goes into our body has to carry nutrients with it, and any nonsense calories that go into our body aren't holding up to their end of the reasons we ingest food in the first place. High-glycemic foods like potatoes, sugar and white flour cause a bounce-back reaction that leads to cravings, and cravings lead to binge eating and overeating. I watch people put 3-4 spoons of sugar into their drink, eat 3 pieces of white-bread before eating a full dinner, a plate full of french fries, etc. I just have to choose differently than they do, not feel deprived. I think of those things as fat cells going right into their bodies, and they're far less appealing.

I miss those starchy sugary foods just like the next person would, but I know better. Even if it takes a lot of mental willpower, discipline, and self-talks to stay away, I know I can change my own mind about anything, and I'm determined to erase the nutritional brainwashing and damage done by our culture, so I can live a healthy and long life.

Next goal: halfway point: 166.0lbs - squarely size 16 pants, and the original broadway cast recording of Evita (my reward, a 2 album set). Not going out to dinner. Not dessert. Not ice cream.

Eat Local Perishables or Perish

Check out what's going on with food imports, and buyer beware. Please locate and frequent your local small farms and food sources. What's happened to our spinach, our cat food, our melons, our children's toys, etc. needs to stop. Visit http://www.notinmyfood.org/ to send a letter to your representatives asking that food is traceable to point of manufacture, and labeled with country of origin, and that we start inspections before foods are even sent.

And for people in the area who want good local food & produce that doesn't come from other countries, please check out http://abundantlifefarm.com/ for the Virtual Online Farmstand -- 100mile radius foods delivered to your neighborhood.

Miscellaneous Update

I have been hard-pressed for time lately, as business for my web design company picks up. Here's my latest updates:

I've used the face product kit, and I really like it. It's not perfumed, my flaky skin stopped flaking, I have less pimples and even I could tell that my face tone was more even after. I did definitely look younger. At least to me :) Very nice stuff. I'm not wrinkled enough to notice an 88% reduction in my visible wrinkles, at 38 years old. :)

The fairies are still at work in my dishwasher. Even my roommates appreciate them. We'll leave milk and cookies in the dishwasher for them. I can't eat the cookies anyway.

I love the way my hair looks and feels -- rather than limp and lifeless, it's shiny and has terrific body. Either that or this is the best haircut I've ever had. Naah -- it's the shampoo & conditioner, because it's the actual texture of my hair that's better.

I gave in and cleaned the rest of the range hood :) No one else took me up on the challenge. (I had cleaned a small part of the range hood with the degreaser, hoping someone would get annoyed and clean the rest....I am not the world's best housekeeper, it's not my calling.)

I wrote a serious article about toxic cleaners on my website.

Next I'll write an article about my experiences with asthma. I was diagnosed asthmatic last fall, 2 weeks after an asthma attack almost put me into the hospital -- without health insurance! My resistance to go the hospital could have killed me, but since I lived and managed my asthma attack without transport, I've (financially) saved my family. An emergency room visit would have been a disaster. It's not fun to be uninsured, welcome to the norm for the middle classes, especially self-employed. 2 weeks later, my health coverage finally went through and I could see a doctor and get medication. One really really scary asthma attack is enough for a lifetime.

If I end up losing my health coverage again, I now have a health plan option to check out through Your Green Club. Thank goodness there's an inexpensive alternative. As my income increases, it's inevitable that I'll lose my current coverage.

I apologize for the disjointed email: I wanted to make sure to write something before I bury my nose back into a job proposal again. Thanks for visiting!

On my way to size 16

I haven't weighed in or measured this week -- my Week 2 weigh-in is tomorrow morning. BUT, I just had to say that I'm fitting into my size 18s better and better all the time. I'm not sure when I'll hit size 16, but it's not far off. My thighs were bursting the 18s, now they're comfortable. I bought 18 stretch because I NEEDED 18 stretch, now I don't need the stretch anymore.

I asked my partner if he'd still love me when there's less of me to love, and we had a good laugh. He's mimicing what I'm eating and taking a different brand of protein products -- he should be on an 1800 calorie diet, so his cheating here and there is probably OK -- and he said he lost a couple pounds too.

Here's a tip I wish I could follow: When you're bored -- exercise! :) Talk to you soon!

Shake Styles

I'll probably have more to say on this as time goes on -- I've been using the vanilla waist-loss protein shake powder as directed and mixing in fruits and having mixed results. Banana -- stellar combo. Blueberries are OK. Raspberries from my garden -- well, if you like a LOT of seeds, try it, but this was positively chewy at the bottom -- I can't blame anyone but me, though, it was all my idea. Another chewy combo: this morning I did 1/2 cup blueberries and about 1/8 cup of oat bran. I feel like a horse chewing on mash. However, 1 frozen banana + 1/2 cup frozen mango -- that was delightful, if very hard to shake, it was too thick.

The program suggested 1/2 apple, but it never specifies whether to put that IN the shake or just eat the apple, so I just ate the apple with the shake. That was a very good combination.

Variety is the spice of life, right? At least I'm not bored of the shakes :) I have more on the way of the vanilla, and my first try of the chocolate shakes are on the way. I'm also expecting a delivery of the meal replacement bars. I am not used to drinking 2/3 meals a day.

I'm not exercising enough, and I'm not drinking enough water :/

Oooh -- I get to weigh in and measure myself tomorrow. Stay tuned!!!

Infernal TortureTrack

[forgive my basement!]

Ok, who invented this device? It looks like something out of an inquisition's nether chambers. But it's a NordicTrack, skithing. I'm not a skier, much less cross-country (or is that cross-county?) skier. I have this thing thanks to Freecycle. I got on it for 20 minutes yesterday. I attribute my lack of tremendous backaches to the leucine. I have a minor ache reminding me to warm up before exercising.

I like that the machine is very very low-tech. I don't have to turn on the heart monitor, which runs on 2 AAs (and I have rechargables anyway). I know I'm a computer geek -- see all the computers in the basement? -- but it's nice to know that I don't have to use any electricity to get my workout.

My iPod will be my sanity savior. I did 20 minutes without my iPod yesterday. Dumb. But at least I got some time in getting used to the motions to make on this thing, and I'm not sure if I was more sweaty and tired when I was "done" or just plain bored. To ease the boredom, I became a member of the Manager Tools website which is terrific for entrepreneurs, business people, and geeks who are wannabe managers to learn business etiquette and good practices. I usually listen to them while driving. Episodes are a 1/2 hr long or longer, which is perfect as a distraction from the fact that time is passing that I could be doing something else for my business while I exercise. I'll be actually doing something for my own professional development while exercising. Guilt-free exercise. Yay.

If you're not a business person, check out the choices of podcasts out there, whether through iTunes or other podcast directories (podcast alley, etc.) because there is tons of interesting programming out there -- probably even podcasting about weight loss -- that you can listen to while exercising (or driving, but I'm not sanctioning any activity that causes anyone to sit on their rump one minute more than necessary! If I spend a few extra minutes exercising for a show that goes overtime, it's ok....). If you don't have an iPod or other "Mp3 player" you can still make audio CDs from them, or maybe you exercise near your computer, then you can just play them over the computer speakers. I like an in-my-ear experience, so my iPod is great.

My other exercise-of-choice (and this one DOES use electricity) for the winter is DDR (Dance-Dance-Revolution, on the Playstation 2) which is fun, but I can't really listen to podcasts while doing DDR, I'm too busy listening for music queues for dance steps. However, that has it's own advantages, so I'll blog about that once I'm back on the dance mat....

Do I weigh too much? The camera lies....

Just kidding about the lying. It's true. I weigh too much. Egads. Hard to look at. I hope I look fatter on camera than I do in real life -- eternal optimist, I guess. I'm glad I'm on a diet. I have to keep this blog around as a reminder. Whew.

I hate taking photos, but at least my partner and I can laugh together. That makes it far more tolerable. I stood in front of his pies, laughing about playing Vanna to them, then I did it....here I am showing off the pies. They're the Pièce de résistance! I'm going to resist. Nya.

So I weighed-in at 197lbs at 5'3" -- and I'm on a diet. I told you about the pies, and took a photo yesterday evening -- well, now there's about 1.125 pies left -- that's to say about 1 pie and one whopping slice or two petite slices. And it really wasn't me. I had a shake this afternoon with a frozen banana blended in. It was awesome. I got to choose a free item from the unmentionable company today, and I chose the 28 day supply of the supplements (metabolism regulation) you're supposed to take on this plan, because they're one of the more expensive single items, and I want to make sure I stay on the plan.

Anyway, time to run to see a potential client. I hope Ecto is working to post on my blog.

It's not REALLY clean if it makes your family sick

I guess I can say it until I'm blue in the face, but I'll say it again. We're intimately connected to our environment. Everything we put into our body, we are putting into our environment. Everything we put into our environment, we're putting into our body.

There's no way to escape this basic fact of nature.

It's true of toxic chemicals, from chemotherapy and household cleaning products (link to Household Products Database by the US National Institutes of Health) to the jet fuel used to get an airplane from one place to another. No matter how far away something is, it's in your environment -- indoor or outdoor -- and it will find you.

The flip side of this is that it doesn't matter who puts it into the environment. If industry does it, it still ends up in our bodies and homes. Neighbors. Friends, parents, children, government, someone on the other side of the planet. We are directly and indirectly responsible for each other's health and well-being.


So, let's start with an easy example. You use toxic household cleaners, and you clean your house. You wash some tile and bathroom cleaner down the sink, toilet, tub drain. It ends up in your cesspool, septic tank, etc. It leaches into the ground, even though it goes through a filtration process and could theoretically biodegrade. These toxic cleansers are not biodegradable, so they leech into the ground, and into the groundwater.

Many of us drink from this groundwater. Or at the very least, we wash our bodies with it. Our skin is our largest organ, and it DOES absorb chemicals. We think of it as a barrier, but it's a barrier that will allow things in. The same chemicals from cleaners with huge warnings on their labels are now in our bathwater. Maybe we drink that water. Maybe we cook with it. It probably isn't the chemicals I put into the water that I wash with. It's probably the neighbor's chemicals. Or someone across town. Or someone in the mountains. The basic point is that it's now in my water supply.

If we can convince our neighbors to change to natural biodegradable cleaning fluids, this wouldn't happen, or, assuming we can't convert everyone, at the very least it would be possible to lessen the impact of these chemicals on our bodies.


But what if we're cleaning with those chemicals. We may be poisoning our neighbors' groundwater, and we're certainly poisoning ourselves (link to a page by the National Organization for Women Foundation - stay at home moms & dads, and babies, beware!). Every spray, sprits, stream or the use of any product with fumes adds to the air pollutants in our homes. We breathe that air. Opening windows only helps a little, the fumes are there, we breathe them in, and it causes us to become sick -- either quickly, or a little at a time over a span of years.

What if we could change it? And still be clean and sanitary? Please join me in changing this. Once you've made the switch, tell your neighbors -- the life you may be saving could be your own. By purchasing environmentally-friendly, biodegradable, so safe you can let your baby and pets crawl on the floor, cleaning products you'll be making a change that makes sense (and cents, but I'll talk about packaging another time).