I'm a sugar addict. I challenge...no I DEFY anyone out there to eat more sweets in one sitting than I can. I promise you I'll win. I've been known, in times of desperation, to take the stuff straight from a dixie cup.
AND...I'm on a sugar fast. 2 days, no sugar, and I'm already in a tailspin. I want cake. Scratch that. I want icing. Here's how it all began:
My friend B and I were discussing the reports out about sugar being toxic and deadly and cancerous and awful. (Full disclosure -I know this is a hot news item right now, but I haven't read anything about it because I'm taking the typical Hilary approach - if I didn't hear about it, it isn't true). Anyway, B read that when you eat sugar it lights up all the places in your brain that also light up when you take addictive drugs. To me, this makes sense. Once I have a taste of something sugary, I turn into cookie monster and devour everything in sight.
A few days later, my friend, D and I were talking sugar, and how she's trying to cut down, or cut it out entirely. We decided to do it together. D suggested a week. I suggested a day, and that we start after Passover because if you take bread and sugar away from me all at once, my brain will EXPLODE. Then we settled on 2 days, starting on today.
I think D is going all out, and avoiding hidden sugars, which according to her are THE MOST INSIDIOUS KIND. I'm not as hard-core - I'm cutting out all the stuff that is obviously sugar-filled - the desserts, candy, nips of brown sugar, tablespoons of honey... the stuff I can't believe I'm admitting to in a public forum.
Sugar aside, my diet is pretty healthy, I work out regularly, and chase 2 kids around with great frequency. I go off the rails with the desserts, so my hope is that getting the sugar under control will help me with that pesky weight loss resolution - Wedding Weight by (gulp) 40.
Hopefully I'll make it through 2 days of sugar detox, and then maybe another day, then another more. My end goal is to think differently about sugar - instead of snacking on sweets throughout the day, see it as a treat to have and savor for special occasions.
Wish me luck!
Monday, April 16, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Bringing Tears To My Eyes
So far this week I've gotten teary-eyed over a couple of things:
1. That golfer and his wife who spent 4 years trying to adopt and finally adopted a baby. Then he had to go play in the...Masters? Whatever, some golfing tournament, and his wife stayed behind in Florida, where they adopted the baby, because you can't take the baby out of the state where he/she is born until the Interstate Compact Agreement is finalized. Then he won the tournament, and I'm getting all teary again just writing about it, because I'm JUST SO HAPPY FOR THEM. Also, I remember what a total PITA the Interstate Compact Agreement is. I was lucky enough to have my in-law's house to stay in while waiting for this, and not to have to stay in a hotel room with a newborn, but still. My MIL, who is a very sweet lady, still doesn't realize that she almost didn't survive the week because I WAS GONNA KILL HER SHE WAS MAKING ME SO CRAZY.
2. The adorable 9 year old boy in LA who built an entire arcade out of cardboard boxes in his father's garage, and how his video about the arcade went viral, and a flash mob decided to come by and check it out making him the happiest boy alive. Plus, now he has a very well padded college fund in place. This child is after my heart.
With all the crazy-awful things you read about, I love a good emotional happy cry over something wonderful.
Also in the news the past couple weeks is how one of the 3 winning tickets for the Mega-Millions Lottery was sold in MD, and this total nutter of a lady came forward saying she won, and there was controversy over whether the ticket was hers, or was group-purchased, and then she said she hid the ticket SOMEWHERE IN THE McDONALD'S WHERE SHE WORKS, and then she said she lost the ticket, and then it turns out she didn't win at all, but a trio of lovely-sounding teachers won. A bunch of my fellow Baltimore Facebook friends are lamenting that this kind of crazy is making their city look bad. I disagree. I have thoroughly enjoyed this woman's crazy. I think she is a DELIGHT. I wouldn't want to have a conversation with her or anything, but there's something so specifically BALTIMORE about her brand of crazy. As I read her crazy story, in my mind I can hear what it sounds like coming out of her mouth and see the utterly nutterly look in her eyes. I feel like I know her - like I've probably worked with her before.
1. That golfer and his wife who spent 4 years trying to adopt and finally adopted a baby. Then he had to go play in the...Masters? Whatever, some golfing tournament, and his wife stayed behind in Florida, where they adopted the baby, because you can't take the baby out of the state where he/she is born until the Interstate Compact Agreement is finalized. Then he won the tournament, and I'm getting all teary again just writing about it, because I'm JUST SO HAPPY FOR THEM. Also, I remember what a total PITA the Interstate Compact Agreement is. I was lucky enough to have my in-law's house to stay in while waiting for this, and not to have to stay in a hotel room with a newborn, but still. My MIL, who is a very sweet lady, still doesn't realize that she almost didn't survive the week because I WAS GONNA KILL HER SHE WAS MAKING ME SO CRAZY.
2. The adorable 9 year old boy in LA who built an entire arcade out of cardboard boxes in his father's garage, and how his video about the arcade went viral, and a flash mob decided to come by and check it out making him the happiest boy alive. Plus, now he has a very well padded college fund in place. This child is after my heart.
With all the crazy-awful things you read about, I love a good emotional happy cry over something wonderful.
Also in the news the past couple weeks is how one of the 3 winning tickets for the Mega-Millions Lottery was sold in MD, and this total nutter of a lady came forward saying she won, and there was controversy over whether the ticket was hers, or was group-purchased, and then she said she hid the ticket SOMEWHERE IN THE McDONALD'S WHERE SHE WORKS, and then she said she lost the ticket, and then it turns out she didn't win at all, but a trio of lovely-sounding teachers won. A bunch of my fellow Baltimore Facebook friends are lamenting that this kind of crazy is making their city look bad. I disagree. I have thoroughly enjoyed this woman's crazy. I think she is a DELIGHT. I wouldn't want to have a conversation with her or anything, but there's something so specifically BALTIMORE about her brand of crazy. As I read her crazy story, in my mind I can hear what it sounds like coming out of her mouth and see the utterly nutterly look in her eyes. I feel like I know her - like I've probably worked with her before.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
A Tale of Two Cities
April is a Dickensian month for me. Can you believe I've never read this? I made it though high school and college as an English major and still, I've never read ATOTC. So I'm on like, p. 6, and I think I'm in over my head. So far some guy is trudging up a hill, I think. I might need to hire a tutor who is also a sophomore at the local high school to guide me through this. How sad. My friend Alison, who suggested the book for my April read promises me that while you have to slog through the first part, the rest is a great read. I'm holding her to it.
Here's a thought - "Read More Classics" on my 2013 resolution list?
In a complete mental reversal, I'm thinking of 50 Shades of Gray for May - mostly because both my mother and my sister have read it, and I can't let them have a thing together without me getting in on it too, because I'm childish like that. In the meantime I'll pretend I'm WAY above reading trashy novels and act all high-brow because I'm reading Dickens. This from the girl who read the entire Hunger Games series during 3am feedings last year. Also? I will neither confirm or deny that I listened to the entire Twilight series while driving around the state of MD during my sales rep gig.
Here's a thought - "Read More Classics" on my 2013 resolution list?
In a complete mental reversal, I'm thinking of 50 Shades of Gray for May - mostly because both my mother and my sister have read it, and I can't let them have a thing together without me getting in on it too, because I'm childish like that. In the meantime I'll pretend I'm WAY above reading trashy novels and act all high-brow because I'm reading Dickens. This from the girl who read the entire Hunger Games series during 3am feedings last year. Also? I will neither confirm or deny that I listened to the entire Twilight series while driving around the state of MD during my sales rep gig.
Paper Flowers for Spring
Paper flowers are my thing right now. Well, they will be, when I get around to making more than 2. I'm cutting up old Highlights magazines - we have a 2 year stack in the basement, and I find they're great for paper crafts. Free too, which is a plus.
I found a paper flower tutorial on Pinterest: http://whimsicalworldoflaurabird.blogspot.com/2011/03/paper-flower-tutorial.html. They're relatively easy to make, and pretty forgiving too - even if your folding and gluing isn't perfect, they still look great:
The plan (and I do have one) is to embellish a bunch of pictures I've just hung up in my dining room - I've had these frames forever - they're all different, were all white, and all REALLY cheap. I spray painted them different colors, and now I'm going to glue paper flowers on them in bunches. If I ever make more than just the two. Here's my first sample:
I found a paper flower tutorial on Pinterest: http://whimsicalworldoflaurabird.blogspot.com/2011/03/paper-flower-tutorial.html. They're relatively easy to make, and pretty forgiving too - even if your folding and gluing isn't perfect, they still look great:
The plan (and I do have one) is to embellish a bunch of pictures I've just hung up in my dining room - I've had these frames forever - they're all different, were all white, and all REALLY cheap. I spray painted them different colors, and now I'm going to glue paper flowers on them in bunches. If I ever make more than just the two. Here's my first sample:
Spring Break is Kicking My A$$
I'm exhausted. J doesn't have school this week, so I have both kids, a REALLY HEAVY freelance workload, and a bunch of things to cook for Friday to help my mom (Passover dinner). I love having work come in, but I'm afraid to turn anything down because I don't want to get passed over for a projects, so I say yes to everything. Just like high school. (A little "teenager with low self esteem" humor for you. At my own expense though, so that's ok, right?)
On Monday, which seems like AGES ago now, my friend Barbara brought her two boys down and she helped me start my garden planting. Thanks to her, the strawberry pot has strawberry plants in it, the basil was potted, and the seeds for my lettuce, spinach, and kale are in the ground. Added bonus: she put in my gladiola bulbs and zinnia seeds in the front. Now I just need to wait for May 1 to buy my plants for the garden and flowers for the pots. Can't wait.
I'd fill up our week with crafts, but we've been outside almost constantly because the weather is so nice and there are so many kids in our neighborhood. That's been a lot of fun, and having close friends who live just yards away makes me really happy for El-D. Also, he's been doing a lot of coloring on his own, which has me completely surprised and thrilled. All of a sudden he's my little artist. Right now the theme is Angry Birds. He was drawing the red one today and was getting upset because it looked sad, not angry. I had to show him how to use eyebrows to turn a face from sad to angry. There's a trick that will serve him well for years to come. Baby N crawls around the house with crayons clutched in his little fists.
So this photo is of El-D's Angry Birds. Note the eyebrows on the red one.The green ones are evil pigs. Are evil pigs a thing? I'm not very Angry Birds literate.
On Monday, which seems like AGES ago now, my friend Barbara brought her two boys down and she helped me start my garden planting. Thanks to her, the strawberry pot has strawberry plants in it, the basil was potted, and the seeds for my lettuce, spinach, and kale are in the ground. Added bonus: she put in my gladiola bulbs and zinnia seeds in the front. Now I just need to wait for May 1 to buy my plants for the garden and flowers for the pots. Can't wait.
I'd fill up our week with crafts, but we've been outside almost constantly because the weather is so nice and there are so many kids in our neighborhood. That's been a lot of fun, and having close friends who live just yards away makes me really happy for El-D. Also, he's been doing a lot of coloring on his own, which has me completely surprised and thrilled. All of a sudden he's my little artist. Right now the theme is Angry Birds. He was drawing the red one today and was getting upset because it looked sad, not angry. I had to show him how to use eyebrows to turn a face from sad to angry. There's a trick that will serve him well for years to come. Baby N crawls around the house with crayons clutched in his little fists.
So this photo is of El-D's Angry Birds. Note the eyebrows on the red one.The green ones are evil pigs. Are evil pigs a thing? I'm not very Angry Birds literate.
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