Gratitude Project: Day Today

1. I am very happy for my friend J and her family, who are in China picking up their second beautiful daughter.

2. Eggs that peel easily after boiling. Only one of the six eggs that I cooked today was cooperative. I was grateful for that one!

3. The tulip leaves pushing up in my front yard. Yay Spring!

Gratitude Project: Day 6

1. A clean craft room.

2. Lexie (Skye) and her blog post this morning, which was timely and touching.

3. Wine.

Gratitude Project: Day 5

1. Just one today. I was cleaning out my craft room this afternoon hoping to make it useful for stained glass work again soon when I found a notebook that I’d forgotten. After the accident, the students at Mayan’s high school signed banners and wrote supportive notes in this notebook. I have the banner folded up on a shelf and the notebook was with it.

I don’t remember ever reading through the notes, I suppose it was just too difficult at the time.

Despite the fact that the notes were sweet, beautiful and loving, reading through the messages was hard.

Through tears, lots of tears, I am grateful for these kids. They did make a difference.

She Was Doing What?

Mayan’s Facebook status read:

At the Scottsdale Arts Festival wine tasting with my grandma — at Scottsdale Center For the Arts.

My first thought was “um, what?!”, and then I remembered that Mayan is indeed 21. In fact she isn’t that far from being 22. I guess I’m in denial!!

They had fun. I wish that I had been there!

Gratitude Project: Day 4

1. Supportive friends.

2. A clean kitchen floor.

3. Fage Greek Yogurt with strawberries.

Gratitude Project: Day 3

1. Amazing generous friends.

2. This.

3. And I’m grateful that Mayan went into the basement today and discovered a leak/water problem before it became a huge issue. Problems I can deal with!!

Spring Break 2011

Mayan’s last official Spring Break and she decided that she wanted to visit my parents who were spending some time in Arizona.

Since we used to live there, she has an attachment to the Phoenix area and spending time with my parents is something that she always loves to do! She was able to visit and spend time with the little girl who used to live across the street and her best friend forever, Katie as well as her Big Brothers Big Sisters sister Jen.

My mom sent me a couple pictures that I wanted to share:

Dad and Mayan

Mom and Mayan

Mayan with her "big sister" Jen

I might have another picture or two to share in the next few days.

The last time she was in Arizona was four years ago when I took her, along with Sunny and Mel, to Phoenix for Spring Break their senior year of high school. We had such a good time. I am forever grateful that we were able to spend that time together.

Gratitude Project: Day 2

1. The sound of mowers and landscaping activity. It sounds like summer.

2. Open doors and fresh Spring air.

3. Driving with the windows down. Music turned up.

Gratitude Project: Day 1

Because I need this.

Today I am grateful for:

1. My daughter, Mayan, who reminds me to keep breathing. Each and every day.

2. Sunshine.

3. Bacon.

Eating for Life

A friend of mine called me just an hour before a nutrition talk at the local library. I had forgotten about the talk and was going to stay home, but she wanted to know if we could ride together. She is really good at getting me out the door!! And I’m glad that she did.

I didn’t know what to expect from the talk, but it ended up turning my thoughts (and life) upside down.

“Nutrition Series: The Importance of Dietary Fat”

Ask ten people what they believe is the healthiest type of diet and eight of them will say that a “low-fat diet” is the healthiest. This dietary myth has been perpetuated by the government, the food industry, and conventional medicine since the 1950′s. But this entrenched idea is based on incomplete observational evidence and bad science. This presentation will explain how fats work in the body (yes, just a teeny bit of biochemistry) so you can see for yourself how important dietary fat is to your health.  Ms. Westover will help you determine which healthy fats you should be including in your diet and which fats you should be avoiding.

Low-fat is a dietary myth? It appears to be so. I have been reading (googling, podcast listening, lecture watching) like crazy ever since, starting with Why We Get Fat, and What to Do About It by Gary Taubes as well as his Good Calories, Bad Calories. I’ve read Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon and Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. I have become familiar with the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Things are finally making sense to me. I have been a dieter since the age of 12, repeatedly and ultimately unsuccessfully. Losing and then gaining more and more weight. Feeling like a failure. Probably messing up my metabolism and insulin resistance in the process. Several years ago, tired of dieting and gaining weight, I stepped off the diet train…and stopped gaining. What I’ve learned recently is that it wasn’t me, I wasn’t the failure.

I have made some big changes in my diet (but I still refuse to be “on a diet” ever again!), including adding virgin coconut oil as a supplement (in the nutrition talk Ms. Westover mentioned the connection between coconut oil and the reversing and/or halting the progression of Alzheimer’s. Which caught my attention and since then I’ve read many good things about it, so I’ve decided to make it a part of my life for now.), and plan to make more changes in the future. I’ve lost some weight, I am not feeling deprived. My blog reader is bulging at the seams with all the new blogs that I’m reading.

It’s been an interesting journey.

I don’t know where I will be in a month or in a year, but I thought that I would share a bit of what’s up with me NOW….today.

Also, on another subject: It was brought to my attention this afternoon that there was a glitch in my blog. I think I have it fixed, but my apologies for not noticing sooner!