YAY!!!!

Guess who posted on In It To Gym It?? And its up there now, check it out!!

My Growing Hatred For Processed Foods

Most of you know by now that I strive to eat mostly organic foods. Of course I don't like the idea of all those chemicals in my produce, and I don't like to think of all those steroids and antibiotics and all that in the meat that Jay eats. But probably the biggest reason has to do with processed foods. I'm not saying that I don't eat them, because I think most people do at one point or another during the day. However, its important to make these organic as well, and an article that I read yesterday proves my point..

I think most of you hear that High Fructose Corn Syrup is bad for you. No matter what those stupid commercials tell you, (you know the ones, "its nutritionally the same as sugar and fine in moderation," blah blah, and yes, those commercials come from the corn industry, big surprise..) its horrible and its in EVERYTHING. I heard today that Duke has confirmed a study that getting too much of this garbage can actually cause a type of hepatitis because when eaten, it goes right to your liver and since its an unnatural substance, your liver cannot metabolize it. So it almost instantly turns to fat, causing cirrhosis, scarring, fatty liver, hepatitis, and even cancer. And.. there are not always side effects. So this could be happening, and you would never know about it. I decided a long time ago to try to eliminate this from my diet as much as possible and that's when I realized just how widespread it it. For example, the Campbell's tomato soup that I used to eat all the time. Along with a laundry list of other ingredients, HFCS is right up there. I switched to a brand called Pacific Natural Foods, and got their creamy tomato. Ingredients, (all organic,) are: Reduced fat milk, filtered water, tomato paste, evaporated cane juice, sea salt, sodium citrate, rice flour, cheese flavor, garlic powder, onion powder, white pepper. And I know, could it be better? Probably. But there are no chemicals or HFCS in sight, and it tastes amazing.

As bad as HFCS is, this is still not the reason for writing this, since unless you work for the corn industry, you should already know this is bad for you. No, the reason is.... FOLIC ACID. Apparently eating too much of this greatly increases cancer risk as well. And this is something that most people think is a good thing, myself included. In the late 90's, food companies started fortifying a lot of foods with folic acid because it reduces birth defects in newborns. I guess they thought they would put it in everything, because you can't get too much of a good thing. What they neglected to do was study the long term risk of this, because now they are seeing that along with the jump in folic acid consumption came a 21% increased risk of cancer. And similiar to HFCS, its in everything.

So what can you do, since these things and God knows what else is running rampant in the American diet? The government makes these decisions without fully informing the public or testing the potential dangers, and we unknowingly eat foods containing these things every single day. My choice is to take the time to read labels and eat organic as often as possible. Who knows that they will come up with in a few years and say oops, we decided it would be good to put this in all processed foods and didn't realize that it made your eyes bleed after 3 years of consumption. This is also why I didn't get a swine flu shot. It wasn't tested enough IMO, and I was not going to put something in my body that no one was sure what would potentially happen after. (Major, MAJOR family rift after my parents heard that I wasn't getting one. HUGE.)

Sorry for such a long post, but it makes me so angry. I feel like for the vast majority of Americans, the FDA is treating them like guinea pigs. They come up with medicines to treat an illness, and a while later reveal that it causes something else equally as bad. They want to pepper our foods with new chemicals, minerals, even vitamins such as folic acid, and then decide afterwards that maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Eating is something we ALL do. There is no way around it, and I am a firm believer that food is the basis for health and well being. Please, try to be as informed as possible about what you are eating. Everyone makes mistakes, and I am still learning every day, but I do the best I can because not only do I want a long life, I want good quality of life. And that's becoming rarer and rarer every day.

Exciting News!!

I got an email last week from one of my fav bloggers, LiLu, asking me if I would like to participate in co-writing a new blog, In It To Gym It. It looks like it has really taken off and although I haven't posted yet, I am very excited to be taking part in this. It is a support system for people who want to lose weight and get healthy, and a place to talk about accomplishments, to vent about frustrations, etc. I really like it so far, and I hope to post something later today if I have time. You all know how busy I am, and that I don't have a lot of time for working out, so I'm hoping this will make it easier for me to get out of bed on my days off and do SOMETHING. Anything. I eat healthy but that's less than half the battle for weight loss. I know that more than 60% is exercise so as a result, I'm not gaining weight but I'm not losing it either. I just have to realized that even if I can only go to the gym a couple times a week, well, its better than no times at all. If you are interested in checking it out, click the link above and enjoy :) Some of the stories are hilarious, I was in tears laughing over one yesterday. I think its going to be great. And thanks LiLu for putting it together, this was a great idea!!

The Mondays

Hey everyone.. I don't have a whole lot going on at the moment to talk about so this will be short, but since I haven't posted in a couple of days, I felt like I should say SOMETHING. My weekend was not great.. I had to open Target both days, so no sleeping in for me at all until this weekend. I also went on a carb binge and totally killed all kinds of bread and pasta, and I'm feeling sluggish today. I woke up with a migraine, (the bad kind, the kind that I don't usually let myself drive in,) but I came to work anyway because I really didn't want to take a vacation day. Its better now, but this morning was really rough between the pounding head and the nauseous stomach. J and I are fighting. Its just been one of those days, except its been one of those 3-days-in-a-row. If that makes sense.

There are some good things though. Friday my company had a meeting at the super-ritzy country club in town, and I won a $50 Macy's gift card in bingo. New pair of shoes?? I think so! I am back to eating like normal today, and my smoothie this morning was really good. I got new salad dressing, (Orange Miso,) and added brussel sprouts to my lunch salad, and I'm excited to eat it. I cleaned out my refrigerator and it looks like new, seriously. And I couldn't help but laugh when all the crap was thrown away, and everything was scrubbed down, that J only had 4 things in there... lemonade, applesauce, hot dogs, and baloney. My veggies and stuff took up the entire thing. It looks like the fridge of a SUPER healthy freak, which I strive to be but I feel like I fail a lot of the time. Case in point, the no-bake cookies that a coworker brought in today. YUM.

Anyway, I hope I have something good to talk about tomorrow. I'm in a blah mood today, sorry everyone :(

Part Two Of Two

I went to get the dress after work yesterday. After telling the girl (who decided to wear sweatpants to her job as a bridal consultant) my name, she went off in search of the dress. Here is the thing... the bride actually paid for the dress to begin with. So when I told her the name, I said, "It is either under Rachel or Jenny, I'm not sure which." I waited, and waited, and almost told the happy couple who came through the door to RUN, but didn't.... and she finally came back.
"I'm sorry, what was your name again?"
"Rachel."
"Oh. Well this is a purple, short Alfred Angelo dress, but this isn't the name. Could it be under something else?" Oh. My. God.
"Yes, as a matter of fact it could be Jenny ---."
"Oh. Well this doesn't have a last name, and it says Jennifer, not Jenny. Do you think that's the same one?"
"You know what, it probably is. Crazy.."

So I take it and I'm out the door, and she comes running over and whispers, "You already paid for that right?" I had, but at this point I realized who I was dealing with and that I probably could have gotten it for free, but I said, "Yes, back in December." She nodded and went back inside. She didn't even CHECK. I totally could have stolen the dress and no one would have been the wiser. (I have a guilty conscience so I wouldn't have done it, but still....)

And I went home and tried it on, and guess what. My size 14 hips fit perfectly in the size 10 dress. Who would have guessed?!? (There is a lot of sarcasm in those last couple sentences, in case you didn't catch on.) Actually, it may be the first bridesmaids dress in history that doesn't need to be altered. I know I took a risk, what with trying it on and all, so I'm happy it all worked out. (More sarcasm.)

In other news... this week, they have found three snakes in my office building. Since I have an irrational fear of snakes, my feet are not touching the floor, and if I see one I already let everyone know I would be leaving.

Also, I still have no allergy symptoms. So I'm thinking the greens are working???

Part One Of Two

I take serious issue with bridesmaid's dresses. I have been in one wedding, and I am coming up on the second and I'm already annoyed. Its not the actual dress itself, but rather the people selling it. The first time around, I had moved down here but the wedding was in NY and therefore I was not able to actually GO to the store and try things on. I had to get measurements and then send them to the place, and they sent me the dress. So off to the bridal place I went.... measurements came back, giant chest and butt, normal waist. (I have what my grandmother affectionately calls an hourglass shape... ask my brother and he will say "built like a football player... J just calls me thick, and this is the description I'm sticking with.) Anyway, I am usually a size 10. Now, I am aware that this does not translate well to bridesmaids dresses, and that it would probably be a little bigger, but imagine my surprise when I called in the measurements and they came back with a 14. A 14?? Excuse me?? No. I told her that I thought maybe a 12 would be better, and she says, "Well, your bust and your waist are measuring a 12, but the hips are a 14 so we need to get the bigger size." Ok. Keep in mind that even though I hadn't seen the dress, SHE had. And when I received said dress, I wanted to strangle her. It was strapless and when I put it on, it fell right back down. Easily. This idiot ordered me a 14 because my hips measured a 14, EXCEPT she failed to mention that the dress was very formfitting through the bust and waist, and then flared out where? Oh. At the hips. So please tell me why I needed it to fit the hips, because in this style, I probably could have gotten a 2 and my hips still would have fit. Dumbass. Anyway, by the time it was taken in TWICE, guess what. It was an 8. Major fail on the part of the woman ordering my dress.

This time, the dress is one I was able to try on. Its adorable, a dark purple color, short, strapless, (no, I am not describing a hooker dress, its very classy and adorable.) And its also formfitting all the way through the hips. At the store, I tried on a 10 that fit perfectly. With a little adjusting to the top, I could have probably just taken that one and called it a day, but oh well. So I tell the lady this is the one I want, (the bride let us choose, wasn't that nice of her??) and she proceeds to measure me. You know where this is going.. they want to order me a 14. No. Nonononononononono. I had on the 10, the 10 fit, I want the 10. And they ARGUE with me.
"Ma'am, your hips are a 41, they will not fit into a 10."
"Um, dumb blond, I just had it on and it DID fit."
And who was she to talk about my measurements? I have an ass, bigger than most white girls but I love it and its a 10, dammit. So I signed a form saying it was ok to order the 10 even though the measurements said differently. Even though she just saw me in the 10. Think outside the box salesgirl, you cannot possibly be that stupid.

Or can you?

This morning the bride called the shop to check the status of my dress. After calling about 10 times, they finally answered the phone. In the middle of getting her information, they hung up on her, and never answered again. So she called me all frustrated, and I tried to call. 5 times, and they answered. I gave them the information, and was put on hold. 10 minutes later, I was hung up on. My temper spiked... I called back, and finally got someone on the line.

"Hello?"

"Um, YEAH. I have called twice now and been hung up on. I want to know the status of my bridesmaid's dress. Now."

"I am so sorry I hung up. I had another call." (excuse me???) "Let me transfer you."

Another person- "Yeah hello?"

Me "Hi, I am calling to check on-"

Her "Um yes, I just called you back and left a message to let you know the dress is here."

Me (so irritated at being cut off and her entire tone) "Wow, thanks. I'm so glad I needed to CALL YOU to know that my dress is in." Click.

I have to go get it now. Unless I get arrested for choking this woman with the dress, I will let you know how it goes tomorrow. I'm sorry, but am I wrong in assuming that if you pay $150 for a dress, that you can at least be notified when it comes in, without attitude, without jumping through hoops? I guess not. All I needed to do was read the reviews of this place and I have my answer. Here I go..

Fun With Allergies

Thanks to everyone who read and commented on my last blog, (Especially Will, since when does a man volunteer to hear a woman complain??? So, standing ovation for Will, who has a very lucky wife.) Sorry for all the venting, but hey, I think it will be a better week so maybe you don't need to hear it for a few days? (Unless you know me in real life. Then I am not promising anything..)



Even though today is Monday, its a good day so far. Its gorgeous outside, and from my desk I see blue sky and about a million trees with little white flowers on them, just waiting to cause me headaches, sinus infections, and a lot of sneezing. Everyone, including J, is having some sort of allergy attack today. The woman who sits in front of me has even broken out in hives of some sort, and sinus meds were flying off the shelves this weekend in Target. Everyone is affected... everyone, except me. Which is strange, because I always get a sinus infection this time of year, and it is one of the rare times I will go to the doctor without procrastination. I learned this lesson in college when I got one so bad that I had to go to the ER in the middle of the night, and my alcoholic boyfriend was drunk so I had to drive myself, and he stepped on my kitten that night.... story for another time. (The kitten survived.) Anyway, when I arrived they took one look and let me lay down in a bed until they could get to me. UNHEARD OF. And also proof that yes, I let it get THAT BAD. Never again. But for some reason, I am Claritin Clear, without the Claritin. And I think its totally by accident. See, I was doing some reading this weekend about foods to eat to alleviate certain ills, and greens were on the list for allergies. Interesting, since I eat between 2-4 handfuls of greens every day between salads and smoothies. And this is along with other fruits and vegetables. I'm not saying its working, because allergy season has just begun. But I am going to take a risk for the sake of science, and I am NOT going to start popping my allergy pill. I am going to wait and see if all these greens can prevent symptoms in the first place. I may live to regret this, seeing as allergies usually leave me down and out for about a week, but if not then it will be worth it. I'm not huge on taking a lot of meds, but I am also a wimp when it comes to pain, therefore I take allergy pills and migraine meds and all that at the first signs. (Also since eating greens... migraines are MUCH fewer and further between. If you don't get migraines, you have NO IDEA the relief this is.) So if I can eliminate the allergy pills, I will be happy. If not...well, I guess that will explain my next "I'm Complaining" post. Because if you think I am a good complainer now? Wait till I'm sick :)