Seasonal Depression

Last winter I had a very bad case of seasonal depression. It doesn't help that we live in an old home and so it is very cold inside our house despite our greatest efforts to heat the place. This year I have resolve not gain weight like I did last winter and not let my seasonal depression rule my season!

So I am 1.) taking a daily vitamin D supplement and 2.) working out to get my serotonin levels up even when I feel like curling up on the couch with coffee and a good book. Hopefully these two changes will address the mood swings and winter blues I experienced last year. So far I feel like it is making a real difference!

Halloween. Nutrigrain vs. Fun Dip.

My house is a junk food free house, for the most part. I keep raw sugar and flour on hand to make homemade treats every once and awhile. It's been an adjustment, but it's worth it.Friends and family know that unless I am hosting a large group of people at my house there are not going to be snacks lying around. Okay correction, there will not be processed food around. Because of this change we snack less and when are snacking it is usually on something that does not create a sugar high and crashing headache 30 minutes later.

However, Halloween is the exception to my no-sugar rule (I purchase nothing packaged with over 5g of sugar). On Halloween I don't mind buying sugar and chocolate candy for the local neighborhood kids because it's once a year, and it's fun! Last night we passed out Fun Dip. It was a huge hit. Kids were so excited!

As the night rolled on I noticed kids with something interesting in their bags... Nutrigrain bars. No lie. I was appalled. I'm all for eating healthy and right, but these bars are just as processed and useless as the Fun Dip. When I first got a peak into one of the kids bags and the shiny fruit bar wrapper was staring me in the face I was shocked and irritated.

Fist, Halloween is only once a year, and the attempt to make it "healthy" is a joke. Halloween is a unique holiday to our country. When I lived abroad my Italian friends never had the joy of going door to door and getting FREE candy - and yes Italian children love Candy (and McDonald's too :) ).  Now if you are keeping mini bite size chocolates around your house year round, it probably shows, and their are consequences. A constant strain of sugar is toxic it more ways than one : high levels of sugar feeds off cancer, causes obesity, ADD, and so many other health problems. I agree that this processed candy should ONLY be an occasional, seasonal treat. After the joy ride of candy hunting all night kids intake needs to be monitored and parents should even consider (afterwards) getting rid of most of it.

Looking further into the Nutrigrain situation it turns out that one of the fun dip packets and one Nutrigrain bar have the SAME AMOUNT OF SUGAR! Don't believe me? Here are the Nutritional Charts for Both:

Nutrition Facts for one Nutrigrain Bar

Nutrition Facts for one Fun Dip Stick & Packet of Candy Powder

Not trying to start a riot. I just find the facts very interesting. Guess this house will be sticking to Fun-Dip for Halloween.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

I recently was on facebook and one of my friends posted an video from YouTube of the new ads PROMOTING high fructose corn-syrup. Cue the laughter. I know it is ludacris, but what's sad is that I am sure some people are totally believing these commercials. Guess the processed food industry is taking a big hit with all the research that is out about all the processed sugar that is put in our food.

As a nation we are addicted to sugar. It starts when we are only a few months old and gets worse as we get older. Almost all children's cereals and breakfast items are PACKED with processed sugar. I'm not talking the good sugars found in fruits. I'm talking white granulated sugar, and all the other sisters to sugar they put in processed food. It's toxic to our bodies and we have become addicted to it. Simply put these commercials are an outrage and a lie. How do you moderate something that is addictive? You don't and you can't, and we have been fooled for a very long time. You have to cut sugar out and enjoy those sugary treats once in a blue moon - not as a regular part of your diet. The tricky part is sugar is put into almost all processed foods - juices, and healthy items at the grocery store even. If it's in a box check the sugar content. Even the bottle that say 100% juice on the label - read the ingredients.

Wonderful stores like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods actually have juice options that DO NOT have added sugar - the ingredients will simply say "Ingredients: Oranges." The sugar content on the label is what NATURAL sugars are already in the oranges, and your body knows how to do business with these types of sugars.

For a video that explains more of this click here!

Hair School.

So my last post was on education! And isn't that funny! I have recently started Cosmetology school!

Getting back into the swing of studying and waking up at 6:00am and sitting in a classroom for 6 hours has been hard, but I am loving the challenge and I am learning so much!

My house was a wreck all last week, but that is due to some redecorating and reorganizing I was doing prior to starting school. Now I am just trying to get everything into it's place again so I can have a much more peaceful week than last.

Gotta love Mondays.

Education & Motherhood.

One of the most insulting things about being a housewife, is being told that I waisted my money or time getting a college degree. First I want to say, education is never a waste of time... ever. There a hundreds of non-profit organization around the world that advocate for women's education. Women in Africa, the middle-east, and India are among the benefactors of such organizations. Do these women seek education to become career women and move away from their village? No. Most of them will stay where they were born and raised while some will go on to be a teacher in the community. Seeking a higher education is never a waste of time. A quote from John Dewey puts it perfectly when he said:

"Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself."

In fact any statement that makes an accusation against women that choose to stay at home after earning a degree, is incredibly ignorant. In addition to that I will point out that only 27% of Americans earn a Bachelor's degree and out of that 27% percent few go on to actually work in a field in which they utilize their degree. I find this interesting, because if a person has a degree in history yet ends up working at an IT company nobody in their right mind would tell that person "Wow, you really wasted your time getting your degree" because that would sound absurd. 

Women who chose to stay at home and raise children are in fact choosing to walk a path that is very thankless. Keeping a home well is not easy, in of itself it is a full time job. Raising children is not easy and it is a task we have taken too lightly in our society, meanwhile any sign of a child with behavioral, emotional, or other problems is put on the shoulders of schools, drug companies and media. It's heart breaking. Raising small children isn't just about sleepless nights, putting someone else's needs before your own, while being thrashed up against the world's impossible standards of "doing it all" - it's a long term investment in the heart and soul of a human being. It is about teaching love and grace while also creating an environment that is safe, secure, and allows that child to grow into a person who is confident, eager and kind. This is not an easy task. This is not something to turn our noses up to, to scoff at, or to abandon. 

The New Feminism.

Feminism is not a dirty word, but today it implies so many things few of us would want to identify ourselves as "feminist". Here is an excerpt from a recent article in O magazine written by Gail Collins that I found fascinating. Though I don't agree with every point made, I can applaud and concur with her statement about a "Greater Cause". As women we often spend so much time judging and fighting other women instead of standing beside one another and rallying for the greater good of the world in regards to serious issues that we can ALL agree upon.

"... I know there's a theory that young women aren't interested in this sort of thing, but that's absolutely wrong. Many women do have trouble with the word feminism, but that's been true throughout all of American history, except for about two minutes around 1969. People think it means being anti-man or wearing really unattractive shoes. If we could just change feminism's name to Fred, everything would be fine.....

....Our Great Cause could be absolute zero tolerance for violence against women (refusing a marriage proposal shouldn't be grounds for having acid thrown in your face, and, honestly, what part of "restraining order" do people not get?). Or an end to international slave trafficking for the sex trade. Or equal rights to an education for girls in every country around the globe. Not to mention solutions to the nuclear arms race, global warming, genocide, and all the other challenges that are ours because they're everybody's."

- From "What Gail Collins Thinks The World (and Women) Need Now" by Gail Collins

O, The Oprah Magazine | April 26, 2010

Facebook and other Stalking Mechanisms

My rant for the day: Parent's please monitor your children's facebook, myspace, twitter, whatever accounts! It's getting bad out there. Check what picture's they have posted and the conversations they are having with their friends. Today children and tween's are more susceptible then any other generation to predators.

For more information on the seriousness of this issue please go to: http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm