And the Weight Loss is...

Hooray for Monday and the end of the detox diet! And the official weight loss is (drumroll, please)...five pounds! Not bad for one week of starvation...oops, I mean, not bad for one week of DETOX.

I am going to continue drinking my 2 liters of water a day. I think I might also stick to the diet for breakfast and lunch, and then try to eat something normal but healthy for dinner. We'll see how that goes. Either way, you know what they say, "Eat right. Exercise. Die anyway."

Sweet Sixteens and Sleepovers

There we were, sitting in the parking lot of Jewel Osco in Tinley Park. We were probably around 9 years old. Her mother asked us to come inside with her, but we were determined to stay in the car. After a lot of begging, she finally agreed but warned that we couldn’t change our mind because she’d be turning on the car alarm. She went inside and, in just a few minutes, we realized that staying in the car was not as interesting as we thought it would be. But, how would we get out? We decided to crawl out the windows. Amazingly enough we managed to get out of the car without setting off the alarm...but, needless to say, her mom was not as impressed with our feat as we were.

Yes, I remember that. I also remember the surprise “Sweet Sixteen” birthday party I threw for her when she ended up covered in silly string. I remember sleepovers when she'd undoubtedly make me watch scary movies. I remember taking gymnastics with her, running around the playground with her, choreographing dances to Paula Abdul songs with her...

Basically, whenever I think of my childhood, I think of her.

There is another dear friend in my life. We were in Mrs. McGuire's G.A.T.E. class together. I still swear Mrs. McGuire saw that we would be inseparable before we did—that’s why she sat us next to each other in class. We were both having trouble with our some of our friendships and ended up finding a friend in one another.

With her I remember football games and Speech tournaments. I remember how she was always late picking me up, but also how we always had a blast riding around in her car. There was blue moon ice cream from Sherman’s, horseback riding in South Carolina, and, of course, my insane surprise sixteenth birthday party and its second installment, which got busted by the cops.

Both these women have taught me so much. They have taught me about confidence. They’ve taught me that taking risks can be fun. They’ve taught me how to let loose and how to overcome serious personal battles.

Most importantly, they’ve taught me that true friendship means never having to apologize for who you are—that no matter what your flaws are, you are still beautiful and worthy of love.

They are both amazing women. And, they are both lucky enough to have found men that recognize that. So, I would like to congratulate…

Andrea & Casey
and
Melissa & August

on their engagements. I love you, I thank you for the years of friendship and support we’ve shared, and I wish you the absolute best that this world can offer!

The Detox Diet---Anger Sets In

There we were sitting at the table. I was munching on my bland veggies. Damien was eating his weight in lasagna and garlic bread. He told me about his day. I kept staring at his food. Then, before I knew it, I was suddenly laying across the table, face first in his plate, chowing down on lasagna. (No hands, like we used to do during cake time at my birthday parties!)

I really don't know how it happened. I think as I watched him put bite after bite of delicious pasta into his mouth, the anger just took over my body. I thought, "Why can't I eat that too?!?!" And then, there I was. Eating it. And it was damn good!

Okay, that is all a lie. But it is what I WISH had happened. I'm so bitter watching him eat great food while I eat all this gross healthy stuff. Oh how I long for Monday!!!

Healthy Food Not As Available to Poor?

Here is part of a story from the Santa Cruz Sentinel that they quoted over on Diet-Blog:

"There are some poor neighborhoods where you can walk into a grocery store and you'll have a hard time finding fruits or vegetables or milk," said Gonzalo Coronado, director of the diabetes center. "But it's packed with junk food and alcohol. Overall, poor neighborhoods don't have the same accessibility as other neighborhoods might."

Although he is only 7, Jason Jimenez knows what he likes: Fritos, Cheetos and Doritos. His father, Isaac Jimenez, 45, said many children often resort to junk food because their families sometimes can't afford the staples, like meat and potatoes, especially when they're working at minimum wage.

"When you're only making $6.65 an hour, and you've got a family of four to support, it can be difficult," said Jimenez, a manager of a convenience store on East Beach Street in Watsonville. "And if you're away from the house and your kids are left alone, they're going to buy the fastest food they can eat: junk food."

I think this is really interesting. I have long said that eating healthy is really expensive. If you have a choice between a Lean Cuisine meal for $4.00 and Mac & Cheese for less than $1.00, and you're only making $6.65 an hour, which would you choose? I know that fruits and veggies are not that expensive, but when you're buying enough to fill up the entire family, it can get pricey. Especially when a lot of the unhealthy foods--like fast food--fill you up quickly and for very little. When I was at my poorest, I always resorted to things like Kool-Aid, Mac & Cheese, Speghetti O's, and fast food. They were cheap and made me feel full. And when you're concerned about when you'll be able to eat again, feeling full it top priority--not health.

Day Two: Detox Diet

This is day two of my diet and let me just say that I hate healthy food. Alright, I know, some of it's good. I love apples and oranges. And certain veggies are quite tasty. But plain oatmeal is like mushy cardboard. Rice cakes are just like normal cardboard. Not that I've ever really eaten it, but you know what I'm saying. Does anyone have any ideas for healthy snacks that do, in fact, taste good?

In her comment, Lisa asked me to say how much weight I've lost by the end of the week. When I weighed myself yesterday I was 138lbs. So, I'll check again next Monday and we'll see how I've progressed. More so than losing weight, I'm just hoping to get used to putting better things into my body--like all that water each day. I know I'm constantly running around dehydrated. Actually, I recently saw a report that said somewhere around 70% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Isn't that insane? I'm hoping this diet will help me get on the healthier side of that statistic.

Detox Diet: Day One

Okay, I have survived day one of the detox diet. I tried to have plain rice cakes for breakfast--but I caved in and put honey on them. I wasn't breaking the rules since honey is allowed by the diet, but I still felt like I was cheating a bit. Maybe just because it tasted sweet--and I was prepared for everything to taste like cardboard. Anyway, for lunch I had two small baked potatoes and an apple. I really wanted pasta, but I figured if I cracked on the first day I stood no chance of ever getting through the whole week, so I stood strong. For dinner I had a random type of tuna salad: tuna, sweet corn, and natural yogurt. Yes, yogurt. There is obviously no mayo allowed by the diet, so we used the yogurt as a substitute. It was surprisingly not half bad. Oh, and I had more baked potatoes with dinner. I think potatoes are going to be my saviors this week. Thank god for Idaho!!!

Detox Diet

I started a detox diet today. Some of you may already know, but I've lost a good 25 pounds in the last six months or so. I'm skinnier than I've been since, well, before the freshman fifty (I know it's supposed to be fifteen, but for me it was more like fifty). Even though I lost a lot of weight, I have still been putting a lot of horrible things into my body. Coca-Cola being the worst. I love Coke! I've definitely cut down the amount of it I drink, but I still drink way too much.

Anyway, the detox diet doesn't allow any fizzy drinks. It also doesn't allow meat (besides fish), dairy, wheat, chocolate, or chips. Basically, I'll be starving for the next week! Ha ha! I'm sure fish will end up being a main part of each dinner. Oh, and the diet allows potatoes (but no butter). I love potatoes and can get so full from them, so I'm happy their allowed. What else? Fruits and veggies are allowed, of course, as well as unsalted nuts and popcorn. And, I nearly forgot, you have to drink 2 liters of water each day! Right now I NEVER drink water. (I know, I know--I'm horrible.) Hopefully this will get me used to drinking it though. I've included the link to the diet. It's less restrictive than some other detox diets, and it's only for a week, which is good since these diets can often leave you low in certain vitamins and minerals. Anyway, I'm off to have some rice cakes! Wish me luck!

The Long Walk Home

This past Saturday night was like any other: a few drinks at the local bar, chats with friends, and laughter. That was of course followed by the walk back home--the walk that my boyfriend dreads each and every week. Why? It's not because he can't handle a little exercise. No, it's that he can't handle all the complaining I do about my shoes! I wear heels when I go out, of course, since they make me feel more confident and pretty. But, by the end of the night, I want to chop my legs at the ankle. So, Saturday night usually ends with my feet aching...and my boyfriend's head aching.

Alas, some grads from MIT think they have the solution to woman's number one problem: pain caused from high heels. New, more comfortable high heels can be worn by all thanks to a doctor and some rocket scientists from MIT. (Okay, I'm exaggerating, only one is ACTUALLY a rocket scientist!) Insolia design helps take some of the pressure off of the front of the foot and moves it back to the heel. This allows for more comfort and, I'm guessing, a lot more dancing!

Since MIT grads are not exactly Jimmy Choo, they are leaving the design of the shoes up to those within the industry. They simply sell them the use of the design for the insoles. You can check out some Amalfi pumps that have the Insolia design at Nordstrom.com. Just go to the women's shoe section and click on or search for Amalfi.

Or, if you happen by Nordstrom, you can identify shoes with the new technology by the Insolia logo on the sole.

Run out and buy a pair...your feet will appreciate it!

[You can see more of my high heels ramblings on Niner Niner's High Heels Blog.]

Best of Niner Niner 4.13.05

Has Sony 'patented an idea for transmitting data directly into the brain'? Scary.

Luckily Chris Bunting of Thumb Gods is keeping an eye on them for us. Unless, of course, this is all just a simulated Sony version of reality that we're living in right now.

For techies: Prototype - an Object-Oriented JavaScript library (disclaimer: I wrote this... so treat 'best of' status as spurios at best) :)

Blogging Naked: Clayton Cubitt: not quite safe for work... but beautiful

Nandini Seshadri: Sex and the Baby Boomer - Can drug therapy help? (Sometimes you don't like to think about these things as a young person... interesting though.)

Also, Become a novelist, boomer! Nandini says:

Long before he became a rock star and racked up two Top 10 hits and nigh-on a dozen albums, Greg Kihn loved The Twilight Zone. Skin-prickling episodes about apocalypses and phantom hitchhikers made him yearn, unlike the books he read in English class, to spin spellbinding stories all his own.

In class action news, Doctors back Bextra ban. There's all kinds of class action news these days with the Pfizer / Bextra / Vioxx stuff going on. Hopefully we can make reading about this stuff not nearly as dull as the mainstream media does. We'll see :)

Christy Patrick on the Diet Logs: How much is your diet costing you?

How much is your diet costing you? Well, according to a recent report from Forbes, it could be costing you over 50% more than a normal diet would. Forbes did research on ten of the major diets right now, from Jenny Craig to Subway, to find out how much it costs on average per week.

Patty Harder: More on calorie burning and what's your resting metabolic rate

PS: did you know that dark chocolate does a body good? I certainly didn't!


Thumb Gods: Police find crack cocaine hidden inside a PlayStation 2 game console

Feed Money: Darren Rowse makes a six-figure income from his blogging efforts. Find out how at ProBlogger.net.

Sarah White asks, are you in credit hell?

The tax man cometh right around this time of year. Christy shares some strange and unusual tax deductions. (See also the top 10 taxpayer mistakes.)

Nandini has scored a credit card search form to help you find the lowest rate cards. Sweet!

Nadini comes through again with an interesting chart on how much money you need to retire early.

More scary debt stats over on Fix My Finances:

$1.7 trillion
Total consumer credit.

$8,562
Credit card debt carried by the average American.

$50 billion
Total finance charges Americans paid in 2001.

78%
Percent of U.S. households deemed “credit worthy” by the lending industry.

1.3 million
Number of credit card holders declaring bankruptcy last year.

HIPAA Blog: medical privacy rules are confusing for patients (as well as medical staff!)

Over on Games for Money, we've got some Texas Low Limit Hold 'Em tips.

Also, did your parents did warn you about drawing to an inside straight? If not, read the post for some (inside straight draw) poker tips.

Over on High Heels Blog, after dabbling in some $100+ heels for a while, now the bargain hunt continues.

Ladies (and drag queens, and boyfriends), Nandini has posted her Guide to Buying Heels - Part 3. See also part 1 and part 2.

Sarah White on Medcare Forum discusses alternative medicine:

A new survey indicates that three-fourths of all adults in America over age 50 use some kind of alternative medicine (for the purposes of this survey, alternative included accupunture, chiropractic, massage therapy, breathing exercises, herbal remedies and alternative medicine). The survey of more than 800 adults found the most-used alternative therapy was chiropractic care.

On Healthy Living: Boost your energy with power foods! Or, just eat a twinkie (ugh).

Love strawberry shortcake but hate all the calories? Here's a healthier strawberry shortcake recipe.

It's almost time to hitchhike. Haven't read the book myself, but the previews look cool.

Laurie Barak points to some PayPal alternatives over on Powersellers Blog.

Nancy Callahan on The Single Life has some pointers on how to 'read' your date.

That's about it for this edition of Massively Multiposter Best of Niner Niner Roundup, '05.

You Know Who You Are

You know what's annoying? Getting hit by those people who walk towards you on the sidewalk and don't move. You know who I'm talking about--the people that have the entire sidewalk available to them, yet choose to run into you rather than to move. They see you walking along, struggling with the six over-filled bags of groceries that you've been dragging for, oh, 15 blocks now and, instead of moving aside, they run right into your bags. The bags swing backwards causing a chain reaction as first you, then the bags you are carrying with your other hand are forced to fall backwards as well. And do these people look back and apologize? Do they even really acknowledge your existence? No, because it's all just part of the daily routine in New York. They do it to you today, you do it to someone the next day, and on and on. What ever happened to manners?