Passion or Obsession?

Other than my hands being glued to my laptop all day, and taking care of my kids, the gym has been an escape for me for almost two years.

One of the first things I think about in the morning is throwing on my workout clothes and driving to the Weight Club.

At first, going to the gym was solely to lose the weight I gained while I was pregnant with my daughter( seventy freaking pounds btw), but after awhile, working out and changing my diet and lifestyle became a passion.

One day I just stopped and took a good hard look at what I was putting in my mouth and how it could be affecting my mood and energy. It's not just about how many calories something is, but what harm or good it was doing for my body.

A can of pepsi is 100 calories, but so is a yoplait real fruit smoothie. Obviously the smoothie is a better choice, but it wasn't a choice I was making. I am ashamed to say, I was drinking probably five to six pepsi's a day. ( OMG YUCK!) Drinking your calories is never smart, and sugar turns into fat anyway.

When I first started working out, being on an elliptical or a treadmill for more than five minutes was painful. :( And painful to watch I'm sure. I looked like a buffalo with three legs trying to run in a stampede. The cramps, and the way my legs felt like jello....ugh! It felt like torture. Let's not even talk about my first spin class... picture me, in the last row on the verge of puking and crying. (Pathetic)

I never gave up, and kept pushing hard every day. Pain and sacrifice got me to my goal weight, and then some.

Cookies are my favorite thing in the world!! I'm the girl who could sit with an entire bag of oreo's and a big glass of milk, and just keep on dunking. I have honestly lost count of how many cookies I've eaten before. Saying no, an eating a handful of grapes instead was hard, and it seemed so unfair. Oreos are milk's favorite cookie and my favorite snack... or, WAS my favorite snack.

But I decided I wasn't just fighting to be in shape, I was fighting to prolong my life and keep my health in check. It might seem like the little things we do don't have an effect on us now, but it catches up. When your sixty and you have clogged arteries, a heart attack, or diabetes, you'll wish you made smarter choices.

Your hair, your nails, your skin, even the rate at which you age is all affected by your lifestyle and what you eat.

And you tanning bed freaks out there, you think that sexy glow is hot now? Just wait until all those harmful rays come back to haunt you. You'll look like a dried out prune if you don't ditch the hot box, and lather up with SPF 100 at the beach.

Is this post obnoxious? Maybe! Do you wish it ended about five paragraphs ago? Yes, you do! It's okay! Is it something to seriously think about? Hell yeah it is!!

The way life is in general makes it extremely difficult to make smart healthy choices. Every road you turn down is a fast food restaurant or a bar. ( Don't even get me started on the effects of smoking and second hand smoke.)

But taking small steps everyday is one step closer to a healthier happier you!! Sometimes, I feel like I want to just give up and eat an entire cheesecake with chocolate melting down the sides. But then all my sacrifice and hard work would have been for nothing.

Start tomorrow!! Instead of that Cinnamon bun or chocolate donut, try Multi Grain Cheerios's with fat free milk or a whole wheat waffle with jelly!

It's not dieting, because that NEVER works. It's just eating the way your body needs you to eat to live longer and healthier! Lot's of rest, because your body craves carbs when you are tired, and water is now your new BFF.

When Clear Skies turn GRAY

Throughout my twenties I have always felt fairly attractive. I work out on a daily basis and like to think I smell good and at least attempt to look put together.
(Note: There is at least one stain on my clothes at any given time thanks to my lovely children, and my socks never match!)

I was extremely excited to hit the gym this morning since both my kids will be home with only me for the next two days. Those few hours alone to work out and not be bothered by three hundred questions is bliss.

I hop in the car, crank up my music and start adjusting my rear view mirror when something glistens and catches my eye. Was it a spot light accentuating my beauty? I can only wish.(By beauty I mean the dark circles under my make-up less eyes) It was not just one, but a cluster of gray hairs on the top of my head. Completely shocked, and annoyed, I flung open the car door and ran back into the house to examine these three little strands that were staring me right in the face. Hell, they weren't staring at me, they were practically dancing around my hairline.

"I'm only twenty-five, and this isn't supposed to be happening to me yet," I yelled at my husband when he asked, "What is that matter with you?"

After several failed attempts to pull them out, I rummaged through the kitchen drawer for a pair of scissors. There is something very annoying about a gray hair. They.Do.Not.Come.Out. Pulling on a gray hair turns it into a pogo stick apparently, because as soon as I pulled mine, it bounced back into my scalp and sprung into a tight curl, making it impossible to get a good grip on.

Thank God for scissors because I had to cut them out. Relief was short lived because I realized that if I continue to pluck and cut out every gray hair I find, I will be perusing through a wig store before I make it to forty.

We really can't let that happen, so unless three more gray hairs come to the funeral of the ones I cut out, I am okay for now. If not, you can find me cleaning out the hair color aisle at Walgreens.

To Lie, or Not to Lie

With Christmas sneaking up on us and being a mom of two, I can't help but think about Santa Claus and the lies we tell our children from day one.

It's all in the Christmas spirit to tell a child that Santa Claus is real and my husband and I even took things to the next level by giving our son an Elf On The Shelf. For those of you who have never heard of this, it is a book set that comes with the child's very own elf, which they get to name. The story is that each night the elf magically flies back to Santa's workshop and reports to him about the child's behavior and when they wake up the next morning the elf will be in a different spot in the house each morning until Christmas, when the elf then retreats back to the North Pole until the following year.

My son, who is seven, truly believes in all of this Christmas magic and it makes the holidays extra special and magical for everyone, including our two year old daughter. Although, I can't help but feel awful each morning when we wake up and he looks for Zeke. ( His elf) The excitement in his eyes is priceless. But then I think about how betrayed he might feel when he finds out one day that this was all something we made up.

I believed in Santa Claus until I was in middle school, until people told me I was a loser and that Santa Claus wasn't real. At which point I ran home, heartbroken, and begged my mother to tell me the truth. Once she revealed that the magical man of Christmas wasn't real, I actually cried and felt so hurt.

Is it wrong to lie about Santa? Should we emphasize the true meaning of Christmas and the religious aspect behind it all? I am one of those people who love to go crazy when it comes to gifts for my kids, but I just feel so bad about making up the reasons behind where the gifts come from.

Am I totally alone in all of this??

Dead Give Away

Being a mother is bittersweet. There are the great days, when your child is the picture of perfection and everything goes according to plan, then nap for three hours in the afternoon, sit like an angel at the dinner table, give you lots of hugs and kisses and you play blissfully until it is bedtime.

Then there are the days you wonder why you ever wanted children in the first place. There are tantrums after trantrums, food falling on the floor at dinner, pasta flying and don't let me forget the forty-five minute nap they took before noon.

At the end of the day it all really is worth it and you know you love your children no matter what kind of embarresments they put you through.

(My son at age three, screamed his head off all the way through the checkout line at Target and continued his tantrum all the way to the car and for the entire drive home over some dumb ass toy that he totally forgot about an hour later.)

Sometimes you can just look at a woman and tell she is a mother. Here is my list of, You Know You're A Mom If...

1. You have stickers anywhere on your body and don't realize until someone random stranger is pointing at your forehead and when you look in the mirror, Spongebob, or Hello Kitty is stuck to it.

2. You smell like soy milk, breast milk, or any kind of formula

3. You've become so immune to the smell of shit that it takes someone else to tell you your child has a poopy diaper.

4. You continue to watch the cartoon, or Disney movie, even after your child has lost interest or left the room

5. You tell other adults you have to go potty.

6. Your idea of date night involves Ben and Jerry and a spoon.

7.You wake up in the morning and see that it is eight am and think," Oh! We slept in this morning."

8. You are asleep before ten pm.

9. You find yourself humming tunes to your kids favorite shows while you are food shopping or running errands.

10.Nothing means more to you than your children.

I love every little annoying thing about both my children because they wouldn't be who they are if they were flawless well behaved tots.

It's the crazy stuff, the messes, and the fights that keeps life interesting.

Creating A New World

This blog post is really just a shout out to everyone who has inspired and helped me though the journey of writing a book.

There have been plenty of days when all I wanted to do was give up and cry. Staying awake all night because I was afraid if my idea's weren't written immediately I'd forget them. ( I probably would have!) Endless hours staring at my computer with writers block, just hoping something... anything would come to mind.

Knowing, and feeling so amateur compared to thousands of incredible writers out there, working as hard, if not harder than me, has at times made me feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.

But also knowing that even if I never get published, I have so many incredible friends that will read my first attempt at a book and I know I've accomplished something incredible. So thank you to everyone that has kept me going and told me to never give up and everyone who has listened to me complain and wiped my tears during my monthly meltdown.

Especially thank you to those of you that have let me bounce idea's off you, even if I wasn't making any sense. Thank you for the website suggestions, the harsh critique, and reading pages for me.

My book has become so real to me. I feel like the characters are apart of my life now, and I can't wait to share it with all of you.

This Is The Same As That

So most of you know how obsessed I am with eating healthy and exercising. Well, thanks to my obsession I am constantly comparing different foods to one another, and their calories, calories from fat and sugar etc. This post is merely to point out that most people have no clue what they are actually eating let alone the amount of calories and sugar that are in the foods we eat!

I went online last night and pulled up Mc Donald's nutrition menu. How they can even have the word nutrition anywhere near their menu is something that will baffle me until the end of time. Advertising is key in making us think we are eating healthy or getting something nutritious out of our food.

For Example, let's say you are feeling brave and decide to eat at Mc Donalds (gulp) and you think if you order the grilled chicken sandwich and small fries that you are eating healthy. If I could take that chicken sandwich and smack you with it I would.
Reality Check: Premium Grilled Chicken Sandwich is 420 Calories
Small Fry is 230
Now that is a 650 calorie meal not including a drink or dipping sauce. Not to mention the disgusting crap your sandwich is made out of. (YUCK!!!)

Eating that meal is the same as eating eight lemon butter salmon filets at 80 calories a filet. ( Unbreaded and no salt. Baked, not fried)

Just because I was so grossed out by this, I have to put it out there. A Mc Donald's Big Breakfast with hotcakes is a whopping 1150 calories. (WTF is anybody thinking when they order this??)

Did you know for a woman to maintain her body weight she should be eating 1200-1600 calories per day depending on exercise level. This disgusting breakfast almost tops that out, and before 9 am no less.

They also advertise fruit smoothie's now, but according to their "nutrition chart" there isn't one smoothie offered that is under 210 calories or less than 40 grams of sugar. Did you know there is less sugar in a two liter bottle of coke?!

So if you ordered a smoothie, that's the same as drinking two eight ounce glasses of Yoplait's ( actually real) fruit smoothies at 80 calories a glass and only 11 grams of sugar. Oh, wait... it still doesn't equal the sugar shit smoothie Mc Donald's offers.

So, be aware of what you eat because even if it isn't having an effect on you now, it will catch up to you later! Be smart, eat healthy. ( Translation, don't think you are eating healthy, know you are eating healthy. Good food doesn't come out of a drive thru window!!)
A few of my know it all tips...
-Switch from regular potato chips to baked chips and only eat the recommended serving size. If the calories state 120 calories a serving but you are eating four servings...defeats the purpose!

-Pack healthy lunches on road trips to avoid getting any type of fast food

- Eat food high in fiber, they keep you feeling fuller longer.

- Get your blood pumping by exercising everyday, even if it's just a brisk walk around your neighborhood after dinner. :)

Give A Little Bit

Why is showing off brand names and logo's so important? A purse is a purse isn't it? You put all your junk in it, you toss it on the floor of your car, you drop it on the floor when you get home from work. So why do people spend thousands of dollars on something you fling over your shoulder?

Now, for those of you who are making the big bucks you probably don't see a problem with this at all. You think, hey, I have the money so why not indulge?

If you have they money, why not do something more significant with it than blowing thousands of dollars on a bag, or two hundred dollars on a pair of jeans? Take that two hundred dollars and buy groceries for a family in need, or that three thousand dollars and support your favorite charity. If you are really successful, pay someone's way through college. Crazy?? Maybe! But I actually know someone who did it for more than one person. :)

I guess I don't understand why more of us aren't paying it forward and why we are so focused of material shit we don't really need.

I always feel better doing something for someone else than for myself. It's actually pretty contagious once you start. Just go up to a random someone and give them a hug, or compliment them on what they are wearing. Start small and then work your way up to bigger and more giving things.

If you are financially able, organize an afternoon with friends and give away free sandwiches, instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a cob salad at a fancy restaurant. Serve free coffee in your neighborhood!

Go through your old clothes, and furniture, have a free yard sale or donate to GoodWill without requiring a tax write off.( Kinda defeats the purpose of giving if you expect to get compensated for it down the road.)

Just venting some pent up frustrations about how selfish the world can be. There are so many other things going on in the world that are way more important than a stupid Louis Vuitton bag.

Oh! And just and FYI- Did you know that in 2005 an anonymous bidder bought a pair of 155 year old Levi 501 Jeans for sixty thousand dollars. This just disgusted me.