My name is Sallee and I.....

I don't know what it is but every time I see any kind of article that talks about health and diet I have to read it.  I'm the reason that yahoo headlines are littered with stories of people who lost lots of weight and why there is an article about the 10 best "insert food here" every time you turn you head.  Sorry. 

So last week at the dentist office when I saw the TIME magazine from Sept 12 with a cover of Dr Oz saying "What you should eat now" I latched onto it.  I started reading it as I was waiting for the receptionist and I carried it with me through the appointment and only finished while I was waiting for them to print up my bill. I did consider taking it with me but decided that would be dishonest.

TIME doesn't publish full articles online so here is a contraband link and here's a link to a good summary (do not read the comments--it turns into a vegetarian and vegan free for all).  The article didn't tell me anything new (they never do).

The main points are as follows.

• It’s not necessary to restrict ourselves to low-fat foods.
• It’s OK to eat eggs, whole milk, salt, fat, nuts, wine, chocolate and coffee — as long as we don’t overindulge.
• The only fat accepted as “bad” is trans-fat, and that has been stripped out of most foods.
• Dietary cholesterol is less important than we used to think and is irrelevant to some people who have good genes.
• Excess salt is dangerous mainly for the minority of people with salt-sensitive high blood pressure.
• Foods labeled “fat free” don’t taste as good, so manufacturers add more salt, sugar, and thickeners, and people tend to eat more calories.
• Fad diets work by restricting food choices: they result in fluid loss and decreased calorie intake, and the weight lost comes right back when people stop the diet.
• The low carb diets change nutritional balance in ways that may not be desirable (and they give you stinky breath)
• The paleo diet?  Maybe not ideal as it is tailored to people who only lived to 40.  But they did look good.
• Weight loss is hard. To maintain a healthy weight, calories consumed must equal calories burned.
• High fiber foods augment satiety.
• One study showed that the foods most associated with weight gain are French fries, potato chips, sugary drinks, meat, sweets and refined grains and the foods most associated with successful weight loss are yogurt, nuts, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
• There are no elusive “superfoods.”
• Exercise is important but it doesn't give make it so you can eat anything you want.

Wait.  Let me see if I've got this right. You're trying to tell me that people who eat French fries, potato chips, sugary drinks, meat, sweets and refined grains tend to gain weight and those that eat yogurt, nuts, whole grains, fruits and vegetables lose it?

Incredible.

I never would have guessed.

TIME magazine, you dedicated a cover story and 8 pages to that?  Didn't Michael Pollen sum it up a little more concisely when he said, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants?"

But here's the kicker.  I ate it up.  I hoarded that magazine and read the whole dang 8 pages.Why do I keep searching and scouring the internet for articles about what to eat and the caloric content of things? I already know the answer:

Eat food (not food like substances.  Pollen says that if your great-grandmother wouldn't reconginze what you're eating you shouldn't be eating it--twinkies I'm looking at you), not too much, mostly plants.

So what are your internet pitfalls?  What articles can you just not pass up?

Some rules are made to be broken

We don't have too many parenting rules at our house. I like to think that kids have a pretty good sense of what they need and we try to let Claire make mistakes so she can learn from them (I'll let you know in 20 years how that's panned out for us).  At our house kids eat sand and sometimes crayons.  Claire climbs on things only to fall off them and if she wants to eat so many blueberries that she gives herself diarrhea she gets to.  I figure she'll learn. 

But there is one hard fast rule that we do stick to and only break in the most dire of circumstances--Never Wake a Sleeping Baby.  The doctor tells me to wake up my two-week old baby for feeding and I just ignore him.  I schedule appointments around nap time and I've been known to make the hubbs come home from work (he can work from home and he just works around the corner) if it looks like we're going to have to wake her up for me to go somewhere.

That being said, this week I broke that rule.  Claire has been sleeping from 7 pm until 8 am.  Which is pretty awesome except.....(I know that I'm about to complain about a baby who sleeps for 13 hours straight so feel free to stop reading here if you'd like) that she's only been taking 45 minute naps during the day.  And I'm not talking about two 45-minute naps during the day...just one. One 45 min nap during the whole of the day.  And it was killing me.

Last night we kept her up until 8 and this morning I walked into her room at 7 am and I broke that cardinal rule which was scary because it's kind of the only one we have. 

We're already at 1 hour and 45 minutes of nap time....oh let the clock keep ticking, let the clock keep ticking.

**Book Club.  This month (actually for the next 2) we're reading Moby Dick as suggested by Joan.  Get psyched to dig into a classic.  I've just started and it's slow-going but I'm enjoying it.

***Remember when Gilderoy Lockhart made the test for the first day of school to test if the kids had read the assigned books over the summer and it was all full of questions about him?  What's Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color? What is his ideal birthday present?

Don't you think it would be totally hilarious if that was the next Facebook/blogger trend?  People making quizzes all about themselves to see how carefully you're reading their blog/facebook page? 

Thank you Thank you Thank you

Dear Auntie Melissa,
Your gift arrived on Monday and it has been such a HUGE success--there are already track lines around the kitchen table and down the hall.  You seem to have a special gift for knowing just what kids need.  The good news is that if your career as a highly sought-after English professor don't pan out there is always a children's toy buyer.  We'd give you a great recommendation

Thank you again,
Love,
Claire and Sallee

Randomly Enough

*****

These days it takes us 5-10 minutes just to get out the door.  We live on the first floor (up one flight of stairs--21 to be exact.  I've had lots of time to count them recently) and Claire now insists on making the trip up and down all on her own.  She has one hand firmly on the rail and I hold the other.  She still teeters and falls and I have to catch her a couple of times going up and down.  It would be frustrating except that every time we do it I remind myself that I am just getting closer and closer to my dream of packing her with a little backpack so that she can help lugging the groceries up that narrow staircase.

*****

Do not buy this book unless you want to

1) Make amazing artesiean bread in no time and with little to no effort.  Delicious bread with a thick crunchy crust (On Saturday we ate it with homemade yogurt and it was like being in France)
2) Make the best pizza dough I have ever tasted and I have been to Italy more than once
3) Step on the scale 2 weeks after having the book arrive to find yourself 3lbs heavier than you were when it arrived.

Consider yourself warned.

*****

So remember when I went to the dentist and he drilled into my tooth and a stench like you would not believe filled the room?  And I was diagnosed with periodontal disease?  Well, this week I went back to the dentist for my checkup and things are going well.  Turns out my gums are reattaching themselves to my teeth.  It does show the sad state of things that I'm calling it a successful dentist appointment because the only super duper gross thing that happened was they jammed a slow release antibiotic under my gums to help with the reattachment.

*****

Two nights ago at 2 am when Claire was up for the 4th time and screaming and screaming and the only thing that would calm her was rocking and singing I busted out another and perhaps the most brilliant piece of my brainwashing repertoire.  For those of you who are not going to watch the video I'll just put the lyrics right here for you to commit to memory.  Somehow singing this as a lullaby makes 2 am way easier to stomach


First thing I remember knowing,
Was a lonesome whistle blowing,
And a young un's dream of growing up to ride;
On a freight train leaving town,
Not knowing where I'm bound,
No-one could change my mind but Mama tried.
One and only rebel child,
From a family, meek and mild:
My Mama seemed to know what lay in store.
Despite all my Sunday learning,
Towards the bad, I kept on turning.
'Til Mama couldn't hold me anymore.

I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole.
No-one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried.
Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading, I denied.
That leaves only me to blame 'cos Mama tried.

Dear old Daddy, rest his soul,
Left my Mom a heavy load;
She tried so very hard to fill his shoes.
Working hours without rest,
Wanted me to have the best.
She tried to raise me right but I refused.

And I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole.
No-one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried.
Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading, I denied.
That leaves only me to blame 'cos Mama tried.

I don't really know what to do....it's our first fight

Ladies and gentlemen I hoped this day would  never come.  I hoped that I could to through the rest of my life with just the lovey-dovey feelings I've told you about but the day has come and I don't know what to do.

24 Hour Fitness and I are in a fight.

Let me tell you what happened so that you can commiserate with me and leave me comments about how insensed you are too.

On Monday as the hubbs and I were getting Claire ready so that we could take the hubbs to the airport the hubbs leaned over to me as he was putting on her shoes and said, "Have you seen this?"  He then points out a little thing that looks like a pimple on Claire's ankle.  I had not seen it but as I'm looking I notice that she has another one on the side of her foot.  We talked about it for a minute and the hubbs says, "sometimes I get little blisters like that when my feet get too hot" and we continue on our merry way to the airport.  After the airport Claire and I head straight to the gym where we stay for about an hour.  After we're home I take her shoes off and notice another little blister on her other foot.

I panic.  I then carefully examine her feet and find three little red marks on the sole of her foot.  A couple of our friends have recently had hand, foot and mouth disease (HFM) and I know that it's making it's way around two of the housing complexes in this neighborhood.  I hit the internet and look up pictures and sure enough, the little marks on Claire's foot look like the pictures on the internet so we buckle down and I get prepared to spend a week at home.  I call a friend who's kids had it and she tells me exactly what her Dr told her.  It's a virus and there's nothing you can do and they are contagious for 48 hours.  I email anyone who has had contact with Claire to let them know they should be on the lookout and then I call 24 Hour Fitness to tell them the same thing and tell them that they probably need to Lysol down the kid's club to be safe.  I also canceled a Dr's appointment and the babysitter and hunker down for the week.

Well the week rolls on and nothing happens to Claire.  The 3 blisters on her feet and the 3 red marks on her sole don't expand--there aren't more of them, she just seems fine.  There's a chance she had it but really I think that she just had a heat rash on her feet--though to be safe we stayed away from kids for the 48 hours that HFM is contagious.

And here's where the fight begins.  Today I got a call from one of the managers at 24 (who is a very nice girl and who I really do like) and she says, "So, how's Claire." I just say that Clarie is feeling better because getting into the whole false alarm thing didn't seem like a great idea. And she says, "great.  I'm so glad.  So...I was wondering, do you think you could bring a Dr's note to the gym when you come back to tell us that she's okay?" 

I told her "No Way" and I start getting mad.

She said, "well...we're just trying to figure out how we can not tell everyone who it was."

I then explain to her that it is a common childhood virus and that there is nothing a Dr can do.  I tell her that it is contagious for 48 hours and that we have not been back to the gym in 4 days just so that we could be sure.  She sort of mumbled and said, "okay.  See you tomorrow."

I've hashed through this a couple of times with my mom (oh my poor mother having to hear this insignificant story all day long) and here's why I'm mad.

I was really trying to be responsible.  I didn't have to call to tell them what happened but I was trying to keep the other kids safe.  Then, after I had tried to be totally honest and responsible she calls thinking that I'm going to try to sneak Claire into the gym before she's totally well.

When I first hung up the phone my thought was, "That makes me not want to be honest and tell them when Claire is sick."

My second thought was what kind of witch-hunt is waiting for me when I get back to the gym.  I imagine all kinds of parents thinking there is some conspiracy and getting ready keep their kids from getting anywhere near that mom who would take a sick kid to the gym.  Really that's not what happened.  It was an honest mistake and I tried to take care of it the best I could.

So here is what I am going to tell myself before I go to bed and before I go to the gym tomorrow (where I will not take Claire just because if there are witch hunters waiting with pitch forks I'm much more nimble when I don't have her on my hip)

The Paradoxical Commandments*

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.


- Kent M. Keith


Be honest and frank anyway...be honest and frank anyway.

*a copy of these hung in Mother Teresa's Orphanage and thanks to a kind friend they also hang in my living room

You can just call me a computer genius

I am complete idiot when it comes to maintaining computers and my MO until this point has been to just get a new computer every couple of years.  Every time my computer starts slowing down or has trouble starting I just head out and for $400 get a brand new one--works like a charm.  This last couple of weeks my computer has been annoyingly slow.  It's 3 or 4 years old, missing the 'm' key and the battery is shot but it has served me well.  The trouble is that thanks to what I like to call, "the plumbing problem that can not be resolved" there isn't $400 in the budget to get a new one. 

And things were starting to get serious.  I have not been able to watch netflix at all while other programs are running for a week. The agony.

So today I took matters into my own hands. I removed old, unneeded programs, I made sure that there weren't any unneeded programs starting automatically at startup, I defragmented the memory and I did something else that I don't even know what it was but it told me that it freed up memory space.  I worked and worked.

Don't be too dazzled because I'm quite sure that I could not recreate the effort. But it worked.  Like some kind of computer miracle I am watching Netflix and blogging at the same time. 

My small victory has inspired me.  Maybe I don't need to buy a cheap laptop every couple of years and instead I can just learn to take care of this one.  It's good for the environment, good for my brain and good for my pocketbook.

My next project is to see if I can get more RAM and install it.  Let the researching begin.

I'll have to take a lesson from Claire who at our trip to the San Diego Mission insisted on reading, carrying and interpreting the only map they gave us.

A Crafty Friend Call Out

Ok,
Which one of my crafty friends wants to make these with me.

Anyone?  Anyone?

And just because it's been way too long since I tortured you with my incredibly stellar cinematography here is a video of Claire singing her favorite song.  Check out the morning hair (not to mention my morning voice).  I love the way her little arms flail out when the popcorn in popping.  I love the proud look on her face because she knows she is doing something well and the flair--oh the flair.  I just love it all.