I am a Three-peater

This is me and my tentmate, Diana, about a mile from the 2010 Seattle Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure finish line.

Yes, I am the one grabbing my boobs. But what is really scarey is that a total stranger is taking the picture. He may be scared for life. But one becomes a bit delusional after walking sixty (yes, 6-0) miles is just three days while spending your nights in little pink tents and showering in the back of semi-trucks. But it is worth it, having 1 in 8 women diagnosed with breast cancer is worse.

Anyway, it is official. I have signed up to again for 2011. This will be my third year, in 3-Day lingo I am a three-peater.  Please check out my Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure webpage and consider making a donation or forwarding this link on to your circle of family and friends to increase the impact that my walk will have.

Thank you,

~Julie

A Horrible, Horrible Idea

Clearly, whoever said to quit sugar cold turkey has a horrible, horrible sense of humor.

Yesterday went pretty well. I spent most of it with a Diet Pepsi in hand, wondering if that was really a healthier choice and reading labels. I had to return to the fridge three times before I found a salad dressing without any sugar listed (Yay, for Drew's All Natural Lemon Goddess Tahini) and I found dextrose in the bag of pre-made french fries I was baking with dinner. This actually became a moot point when I realized that high fructose corn syrup was second ingredient listed on the side of the ketchup bottle. I ended up having rice instead.

Curious to see sugar's aliases? I was. I am sure there are more, but here are 50:

1. Barley malt
2. Beet sugar
3. Brown sugar
4. Buttered syrup
5. Cane juice crystals
6. Cane sugar
7. Caramel
8. Corn syrup
9. Corn syrup solids
10. Confectioner’s sugar
11. Carob syrup
12. Castor sugar
13. Date sugar
14. Demerara sugar
15. Dextran
16. Dextrose
17. Diastatic malt
18. Diatase
19. Ethyl maltol
20. Fructose
21. Fruit juice
22. Fruit juice concentrate
23. Galactose
24. Glucose
25. Glucose solids
26. Golden sugar
27. Golden syrup
28. Grape sugar
29. High-fructose corn syrup
30. Honey
31. Icing sugar
32. Invert sugar
33. Lactose
34. Maltodextrin
35. Maltose
36. Malt syrup
37. Maple syrup
38. Molasses
39. Muscovado sugar
40. Panocha
41. Raw sugar
42. Refiner’s syrup
43. Rice syrup
44. Sorbitol
45. Sorghum syrup
46. Sucrose
47. Sugar
48. Treacle
49. Turbinado sugar
50. Yellow sugar

Last night, I went to bed feeling pretty proud of myself, down right smug, actually.

This morning, I woke up with the queen of head-aches. I cracked and a mocha was purchased on the way to work. You know, for the safety of the pre-school children in my class. Another was also purchased on the way home. You know, the day was already shot and all. It's moments like these that remind me why I try not to judge smokers, drinkers, "recreational" heroin addicts, crackheads, and serial killers.

In the middle of feeling envious of smokers, who at least have gum and patches to ween themselves off of nicotine, I developed Plan B. I had made it one day in January without sugar. If I make it two without in February, that would be progress.  This is lame, I know, but today it is the best that I can come up with.

I would like to share with the group, however, that I have been meatless for a month now and I have been doing a spectacular job of composting my kitchen scraps so I am promptly going to cross them off of my list!

My Nasty Little Secret

Hello. My name is Julie and I am an addict.

No, I am not joking. Addictions run fast and wild throughout my family tree and regardless of what it may look like from your side of the white picket fence, the one that I have spent years building, I am not exempt. From a Western point of view it probably is attributed to some genetic, biochemical, neuro-whatever, chromosomal glitch. A more Eastern perspective points to the existence of shared karma in which we did little in the past to temper our cravings or develop inner discipline. To me, both make sense but too much focus on the why makes it easier to slide around the main point of what I am I to do about it now?

My addiction is to sugar.

No, it hasn't caused me to end up in jail, to lose my children or my job, or impacted me in any of the other ways that "real" addictions do but my minimal research shows that sugar addiction is becoming more and more recognized as problem, one it seems that is responsible for many of the major illnesses that modern society is fighting, including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

My personal relationship with sugar is more muted, so far. It includes spending far too much money on iced mochas and processed foods, which crowd out more nutritionally dense foods which then, in turn, impacts my general sense of well being and cognitive functioning. I simply am not thriving in the way I want to, that I deserve to. And as some of you know, about a year ago my bio-mom passed away of ovarian cancer at the very young age of 57 and only two months ago my diabetic husband had a heart attack, almost leaving me as a widow at the age of 40. So, to me, sugar addiction is the real deal. Refined sugar is not my friend and, really, it isn't even a food it is a chemical.

The plan is for me to start tomorrow. Right now, I am fresh off of the internet where I searched for any tips and techniques (and, honestly, if any 12-step programs existed-there weren't) and sucking down my second mocha of the day. As it goes with the internet, there was a lot of info (one site listed 146 reasons why sugar sucks) and I am not sure how much of it was truly reliable but some of the things that resonated with me were to go cold turkey because it is really is too strong of an addiction to wean yourself off of, to drink lots of water to flush the sugar and other toxins out of your system, and to remember that brown in beautiful. You know brown rice, brown bread, yada, yada, yada.

Of all the things on my list, I believe that this will be my biggest challenge.

A Mid-Winter's Beach Adventure



Phone-tography on Samish Island, Wa!



Urged into action by my sister-in-law, I turned my attention to number 5 today. Visiting 30 different beaches while living in the Pacific Northwest shouldn't be difficult. Actually, it should be luxuriously simple. It is one of the perks of the area. I live amongst so much beauty that it is almost embarrassing. All I can say is that I must have been very good in a past life.

A Do Over on Number 17

Originally, I had intended to hold off on eliminating dairy until I had firmly gotten into the habit of grabbing the can of black beans off of the shelf instead of a pork chop out of the freezer, but I quickly noticed that I was over compensating for the lack of that certain sense of satiety that meat brings to the plate with a plump little mountain of sour cream or a warm blanket of shredded cheese, often on foods that I would have usually been perfectly content to eat without such caloric accoutrements.

Clearly, I needed to stop before it got out of hand (see number 60). I decided to wait until after my birthday to cut it out from my diet. You know, in case there was ice cream involved. It ended up that there wasn't, but there were three different cakes throughout the day so I really can't complain. But, really, how does that happen? All that cake and no ice cream? Really? No. Stop. Remember 83. Remember 83. Remember 83.

All was going well for about a day and a half. Then, yesterday, someone made cinnamon rolls. They sat around on the kitchen counter all day, being snatch up one by one. None from me, though. I was strong. Until sometime after dinner when someone decided to settle for just a half of one, leaving just one small, beckoning half left. I crumbled.

Today is a do over.

TP Roll Art: Master's Class

I am a bit of a toilet paper roll art expert. A connoisseur, if you will. No, I don't have hidden fetish. I am a pre-school teacher.  This is impressive. Very impressive. Just thought I'd share.   P.S. I found this here.

Number 66: Stop Worrying

I wish that I could tell you that I have been cured of worry-wortitice. Boy, do I wish that I could tell you that! But I can't. In all honestly, I let my worry habit impact my quality of life this week. And that's the thing isn't it? It's just a bad habit, nothing more. It's just a well worn rut that did nothing for me but create feelings of unhappiness and unproductivity. Which is really, just plain old uncool.

And nobody wants to be uncool, especially me. I want to be the cool-i-est, you know in that dorky, 40 year old mom sort of way. I want to thrive, you know, in that fabulous, 40 year old -when you know what you what your strengths are and what you want sort of way.

What I am a going to do about the Fret Festival I created, you ask? Well, I am going to leave it in last week, not give it anymore power by dwelling on it. I am going to make sure get my butt on a cushion for some old school meditation and when I am not on it, I am going to challenge myself to connect with with joy.

Luckily for me it is snowing today, it is hard NOT to find a little joy on a snowy day. Now I just need to find the hot chocolate.

But first, I am wondering, how would you tackle breaking a bad habit? How would you make room in your life for more things positive?