Great Day

You know that Crest commercial that says, "Life opens up when you do?"  I've known this is true for a long time, but it's funny that "trying" to open up at the wrong time just doesn't produce the results I wanted.  Anyway, it was as simple as taking a walk.

It was gorgeous today.  Upper 60s, sunny, everyone was out taking a stroll.  We take a slightly different path than usual (you know how changing the little things can make things refreshingly happy?).  We stop at our usual stopping place, when a runner comes out from behind us and pulls off at the same time.  Awkward, I think, and slowly start walking away to give her her space.  Apartment complex has these different "fit stations" along the way.  Station 18 is a balance bar that the girls always like to walk on, so we make a point to stop there.  Anyway, so I'm walking away when Emma starts saying, "Please don't go!  I want to go there," and, who could say no to that?  So I turn around, and we end up meeting the nicest girl.  The runner was using an app called Global Cache where you can find things.  She pulled out a tube from a hole in the wall, opened it, and there was a paper with people's names on it who had found the tube.  She signed her name, and put it back, but not without showing Emma what she was doing first.  It was like finding a secret treasure!  She showed me the app and we talked about it for a little while, so cool that there are things like that!

Anyway, so she runs off eventually and then a mom with her 2 1/2 year old daughter walk on by.  We start talking, too!  (I must have been sending off "talk to me vibes" today - not complaining!)  Turns out she is from Germany and she was friends with other moms from Europe, but they recently moved. :(  We talked about how there really aren't any activities for moms and parents in our complex, all of the events seem steered towards the single crowd, which is interesting because I see a LOT of parents and small children walking around when we take our walks.  She told me that she asked the management if they were planning on getting a playground or anything and was told that they weren't because they didn't want people who weren't living in the apartment complexes to use it.  (?)  That seems ridiculous to me, but I suppose if you're paranoid...

Anyway, so the kids will keep "sliding" down the wooden incline intended for crunches and walking on the balance beams. 

Then the bird man came!  The "bird man" is an older gentleman who dries corn kernels and brings a grocery bag full of them every day to feed the ducks, geese, and pigeons that live in our complex.  He gives other people food.  It's amazing how the birds will land on you and start eating out of your hand!  He let me do this several times.  Lizzie was laughing the whole time because he threw a bunch of kernels to where she was standing and the birds landed all around her.  The pigeons were so graceful and synchronized.  They would land, eat up the dropped kernels, and then, as if rehearsed, all take the sky in a loud cocphany of fluttering wings.  They would fly in a circle around the gentlman, and then land together.  They did this several times.  I had a pigeon startle me because it landed on my shoulder from behind, so I didn't see it.  It was amazing to just stand there and let these pigeons land on you and eat from your hand and to fly all around you.  It took a little bit of courage and a lot of peace.  There is something about letting other forms of life coexist with you peacefully.  Pigeons aren't really something that I usually pay attention to a lot.  Emma was a little scared of the birds, but she was playing with her little playmate "Eva" the entire time.

I later learned the name of the mom we had been talking to and whose daughter Emma had been playing with.  It was Veronica.  I hope to see her again.  It was amazing how natural and seamless interacting with her was.

It was also amazing to see all the passer-byes who waved or said hello to the bird man.  He is definitely a local celebrity!

Career Confusion

Ok... I am slightly freaking out at the moment.  The reason?  I don't know what career path to follow.  I have been reading up on the 100 Best Jobs of 2012, 2013, the 10 Best Jobs of 2012 by a different magazine... blah blah blah.  The bottom line is that the medical field and IT jobs will be getting a nice boost in the years to come.  I looked into becoming a pharmacist, but it seems like the only School of Pharmacy nearby is Texas Tech and I have to go to some god-forsaken campus for the first two years, and then the Dallas-Fort Worth campus for the last two (I thought a Pharmacy School only had to be 2 years?)  Plus, I would have to change my major from English to a science-related field which means most of the work I have done already will be wasted and I'll have to redo my pre-requisites = waste of time.  It is a good job, though, once you finally get it.  It has one of the highest median salaries.  Unfortunately, the bachelor of pharmacy degree is no longer being offered. :( 

Web developer.  This tickles my fancy.  It has the best of both worlds, creativity in a structured environment.  I believe that my English skills and attention to detail could fit in this field.  The cons are that to get a job you have to be pretty good at networking, and, let's be honest, I hardly know anyone where we are living right now.  I think that if I could overcome this, though, it could be a very good job.  I would also have to change my major from English to an IT related field.  University of Phoenix offers an online degree in IT with a focus in Web Development, which would be perfect for me.

Bottom line - any of the jobs worth having have a steep training curve and I feel I am wasting time with an English degree, even though that is where my current aptitudes lie.

I just did a search for job prospects of a copywriter (what I was planning on doing with my English degree bc teaching is such a joke), and, guess what?  That entire field will soon be extinct.  Sold to the cheapest bidder in India.  Great.

The entire point of me getting my degree online while the girls were young was so that I could stay at home with them while preparing for a career once they got in school.  Right now, I am on a short path to teaching.  No offense, but our society does not attract the cream of the crop to this profession, which is a real loss for our children.  But, unfortunately, I cannot change society.  Web development offers flexibility, but so does pharmacy.  Web development, though, has the training in a format I can pursue.

We shall see what I choose. I really don't want to delay my degree another year by doing more pre-requisites, but I also don't want to be wishing I had done this in 2 years when I get my "worthless" English degree.

Your Animal Is Not Your Child

You did not birth it.  You did not carry around your furry bundle of joy for 9 1/2 + months.  You do not have to send your animal to college.  You can leave your animal at home, you don't have to take it with you everywhere you go.  Your animal does not require a car seat, and it will probably not embarrass you in the supermarket because it can't have a candy bar.  You do not have to choose the best preschool or schools for your animal, and if you do, well I suppose you are a good animal "parent."  I won't say it is ridiculous because everyone is entitled to do whatever it is they want to do, as long as it doesn't hurt other people.  In this case, it is actually helping your animal, so it is a net gain.  The problem, though, is when these same people look down on other people for having the balls to actually procreate and have something they cannot completely control.  They say things like, "Sometimes I think my animal is smarter than other people," exposing their deep-rooted hatred of people in general.  That is what I have the problem with.  It's this holier-than-thou mentality, when, really, is having a pet like having a child?  You have to feed them, walk them, give them their shots, and keep them groomed.  I know there are "whiny" pets and pets that will annoy you with all the time they require, but guess what.  The average lifespan of a dog is 20 years.  In some ways, yes, having a pet is "like" having a child, but don't for one second think that it requires the same amount of effort.
I think that people who replace children with pets crave a certain level of control over their lives.  It is this fear to create that keeps them from knowing one of the scariest, and most rewarding, parts of life.  Can your dog carry on your name after you?  Will your cat give you grandkids?  I suppose, if you're really morbid and see things that way!

I have to say that I have no problem with people having pets.  Having a pet is usually a very healthy thing.  What I am speaking out against is people replacing people with animals in their lives because they hate other humans.  I am also speaking out against these people looking down on people with small children as if they are somehow better because they have a pekingese.  So, you spent $2,000 to get a dog.  Do you know how many animals are dying in animal shelters?  It is all about living an ego-centric life.  Everything revolves around you and your "style."  You think this type of dog perfectly complements your lifestyle, blah blah blah.  Let's expand this way of living to the entire world - oh crap.  In one generation humanity is lost and the earth is overpopulated by dogs.

The end.

Impatient!

I want everything to happen now.  I am like a seed, I feel all the potential, the energy, I know I have what it takes, but it is taken too long.  I am in school now and I will have to be for another 2 years just to get my Bachelor's degree!  Bloody hell.  I have to remind myself that the seeds I am planting now will bear fruit in the future if I am faithful, I just have to take the first step.  I feel like I wish life was like Jack in the Beanstalk, where Jack plants the seed and then BOOM!  A huge, strong plant just shoots up into the clouds and escorts any willing to climb into a magical fairytale land... Aah, but I am getting away with myself.

I was recently reminded of my desire to be a published author and think that I should pursue that.  Part of me just wants to pursue everything that I ever wanted but have never done, and I know that through all of this that I will find my path.  I don't have to have an end goal right now, I don't want to cage myself into something prematurely, especially if I don't have very strong feelings about any one thing.  I will just take it one step at a time, experiencing everything I can along the way, meeting people and forming relationships that are in tune with my desires and the way I am feeling so that I may find my destiny.

Watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

Hello!

I just finished a film entitled "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead."  I had heard of it before but never took the time to watch it.  I was referred to it through an article on "green juice."  Before this, I thought that green juice was just a smoothie that you would put kale or spinach or something to turn it green, but it turns out that it has a specific recipe (although I'm sure that minor modifications are allowed):

* 2 large cucumbers (peeled if not organic)
* big fistful of kale
* big fistful of sweet pea sprouts
* 4–5 stalks celery
* 1–2 big broccoli stems
* 1 pear or green apple (optional)
* 1 inch of ginger (or less)

This recipe will produce about 32 ounces which is enough for two people.  The film was about a man who, due to an autoimmune disease, weight gain, and dependence on medication, decided to make a drastic change to his lifestyle beginning with the way he ate.  He bought a juicer and went on a juice fast for 60 days which meant that he would eat nothing and only drink juice and water.  Now, the juice that he was drinking was not something you could buy from the grocery store.  Whatever "juice" we have been accustomed to has lost most of its nutrients through processing and just sitting there, if it is truly juice in the first place and not sugar, food coloring, and water.  The juices he was drinking were whole fruits and vegetables he pulverized and blended together to make a delicious and nutritious shake that was full of the micronutrients that his body was craving.

Most would say that this is extreme and even "crazy," but it's not.  What is crazy is the amount of people who can acknowledge that they would probably benefit from changing the way they eat but simply do not because of lack of willpower or motivation.  The world needs people like this to show them the way.  It takes one to pave the way and then many will follow.

The man who made this film's name is Joe Cross.  He is an Australian but was raised as a child in the United States.  For his fast, he decided to return to the U.S., spending the first bit in New York City and then driving across the country to San Diego.  He needed to unplug from his mind and remove himself from the family and friends that would bring him down with their eating habits.  This continues to be one of the hardest hurdles for anyone on any type of restrictive diet to overcome, is being exposed mercilessly to those foods that are being eaten by the people around them.

This film was so inspiring and motivating, I think that I would benefit from a juice fast, maybe 10 days.  I don't need anything drastic, but it is true that I have missed my daily smoothies.  I feel that something is definitely missing and I know that Andy is open to a change.

I want nothing more than to reach optimum health and help other people get there as well.  While Joe Cross was driving across the country on his journey, he happened to meet a man who had the same autoimmune disease that he had.  This disease is so rare that Joe had only met two other people with diseases similar to the one he had, but never the same disease.  The man he met was a truck driver who was over 400 pounds.  Joe invited him to his car where he had his juicer and invited him to try it.  He said that he liked it.  Joe then encouraged him to buy a juicer and gave him his number in case he ever was serious about taking a juice fast.

A few weeks later, Joe finishes his fast and returns to Australia.  He is "rebooted" - he has lost a significant amount of weight and his skin is glowing and clear.  He receives a message from Phil, the truck driver.  He says that he wants to make a change.  Joe realizes his responsibility to help this person and flies out to encourage and guide him on his journey.  (If only others had such empathy!)   10 months later he weighs 227 lbs. and has lost 202 lbs.  202 LBS.!!!!!

This is crazy.  If there was one thing this movie did, it was that it showed me that people can be open to new ideas.  I get really depressed when I think about the cynical nature of the people we are surrounded with, when I think of their resistance to change.  As Joe said, what he (and I) don't understand are the people who will scoff at or discredit something without even trying it.  Nobody has to go the full 60 days.  If you try it out and just go for 7 days, well, at least you tried, and your body will be better for it.  It surely is better than never trying it at all.

I hope that Andy is open to this.  I am also looking into becoming a yoga instructor.  Andy and I went on a walk around our beautiful apartment complex (it is, you have to see it), and he told me something very important.  He told me that I was focused on the wrong things and that is why I don't know what I want to do with my life.  I have only been focused on the fame and the recognition, focused on the money.  I was not looking into myself to see what my passions are, I had to literally put aside those things to figure out what it was that I really wanted to do.

The answer is help people.  I know that it involves healthy living and music, and they are all connected, aren't they?  I want to help people remember who they are and help them to live life to the fullest.  In this way I will be living life to the fullest.  I feel so alone right now but I know that if I put myself out there and try to help people in this way that I will never be short of friends.  And, what's most important, I will be setting a good example for my daughters on what is the good and most pleasing way to live.  A life that is gratifying and fundamentally satisfying.

I hope you will take this journey with me, I am very excited to start.

Down With the Kid's Food Industry!

As many of you know, I have two daughters, a 3 year old and a 16 month old.  My oldest is one of the pickiest eaters I have ever met.  Her extremely narrow menu includes chicken nuggets (only sometimes, and nevrer the mechanically separated kind, yuck!), nachos (affectionately called "chips and cheese" - this comprises the bulk of her diet), “honey toast” – which is just as it sounds, butter and honey on toast, and breakfast cereal.  I once made the mistake of allowing Lucky Charms into our house.  The entire time we had the cereal in our house it was all she would eat.  The frustration resulting from this is what led me to write this article.  She would refuse anything else in favor of her "rainbow cereal.”  Besides this, she will eat candy, the last of which we refer for bribes for potty-training, etc.  Ahem, rewards.
Due to clever packaging, it is pretty easy to spot the new foods she would be willing to try when we enter the supermarket.  You could probably spot them, too.  Anything marketed to kids, any brightly decorated breakfast cereal, fruit pouches with Mickey Mouse on them, it's pretty easy to spot the foods that comprise the "Children's Food Industry."
The idea of food that is intended primarily for children is a new development in itself.  Why do children need their own food types?  Why are there kid’s meals at restaurants?  Because we have been conditioned to believe that children are too young for, or simply not interested, in the plethora of food options healthy adults enjoy.  As Charlene Elliott explains in her 2011 article, "...the category of kids food has been entirely constructed through advertising and marketing" (as if we didn't know that already).
Think back to how children were raised a century ago.  There were no Tyson chicken nuggets, no kid’s meals, no goldfish crackers.  The modern parent might ask, "What did children eat???"  The answer is, simply, whatever their parents ate but in smaller proportions.  It really is as simple as that.
But no, we had to let the big, bad advertising in and allow them to change our images of self-identity.  We have allowed them to change the way we view ourselves in relation to our food and our peers.  The process of eating has historically been and still is a social activity.  Any child or adult who has had a meal in a social situation such as a school knows that they are judged by whatever they eat.  For me, I was mocked that my mother would only buy the generic brands of foods.  It was understood that if your food was not manufactured by a recognized brand that it was not only inferior but the social strata put you at the bottom of the totem poll.  This has caused children, and adults, "...to eat particular foods, not on the basis of their tastiness, or other benefits, but because of their place in a social matrix of meaning" (Schor and Ford, 2007:16).  If you scoff at this idea or believe it is ridiculous, it has probably been a while since you had a brown bag lunch at school.

While cafeteria-style lunch may take a bit of the social pressure from food away, it does not mean that these meals are healthy.  A similar situation would be the classic argument of uniforms vs. no uniforms at school.  The social implications of certain styles places children into groups and may cause other children to be picked on or bullied.  By putting everyone in the same clothes, more or less, we take away this factor.

I am not saying that we ban brown bag lunches in favor of cafeteria lunch, but what I am saying is that we remove marketing to children in the marketplace.  It is unnecessary.  It is unhealthy.  It causes problems in the home when it produces children who simply refuse to eat anything except the usually expensive and highly-processed products marketed to children.  To compensate for this, we have even developed “nutritional drinks” that are corn-based and filled with vitamins and minerals to aid in children’s development.  I am not speaking against these drinks directly as they have been, unfortunately, a key factor in my daughter’s development.  I am speaking out against a food culture that makes these drinks necessary.  Down with kids meals, down with Cap’n Crunch!  I value a society that makes sense, where adults prepare meals based on fruits, vegetables, meats, and grains, and their children enjoy the same fare at the same table without complaining.  Sound like a pipe dream?  It’s not.
Pamela Druckerman, in her book “Bringing Up Bebe,” retells her experiences as an American moving to Paris after her husband’s job transfer.  The thing that made the most impression on her was the way young children, even toddlers, behaved at restaurants.  They were well-behaved, silent, and ate what was put in front of them.  What a novel idea!  Some parents might at get the impression that these children are being stifled and not able to enjoy childhood to the fullest.  To the contrary, in French society much of early childhood is centered around establishing the “catre” or framework for life.  Things such as a strict bedtimes, mealtimes, etc. are established so that children may thrive in the framework.  A metaphor for this might be, would you rather have your children run “free” in the wild, or would you rather them have a framework, or “house” for them to play in and experience life safely so that they are enabled to see the wonder in the world around them?  We are not “free” beings in that we all have human needs, including food, drink, sleep, and shelter.  The “catre” takes care of these things while leaving the rest of the time for development and adventure.
I have to admit that I am quite disappointed in the way nutritional education is being approached in this country.  The idea that parents need food charts and pyramids to help "empower" them to make more healthful food choices for their children is ridiculous.  The government must think we're all a bunch of foam-mouthed zombies with nothing better to do than wait for their next publication.  Honestly, what parents really need is for the constant marketing targeting children to stop.  If this means cutting off the television, I am open to it, but it extends to the grocery store, too.  Perhaps I as a parents simply need to get used to my most important weapon in raising good, healthy kids – the word, “No.”

First Yoga Class Ever

Ok, so, I went to my first yoga class today.  It was not my first experience with yoga, though.  I have done it myself off of internet videos and iPhone apps.  I wanted to be familiar with the poses before I attempted a class.  I was very pleased with myself.  There were a few things I was not familiar with, but overall, a very good first class.  It was challenging but not too difficult, and I feel wonderful!  It is much more rewarding to go to a class because you are experiencing the same thing with other people.  It adds a whole new dimension that is satisfying.  I hope that I can continue to go to these classes, but you know how life is.  I said that about my kickboxing class, but every day is different.  As long as I can go to at least one class 3-5 times a week I will consider that an achievement!

They said to do something called "reverse your dog" and I will have to look that up because I have no clue what that means!  Other than that, I was pretty "yoga literate" if you will.