A Lesson from Kids on Food Additives!

This video is unlike any other I've posted.   This experiment was done in South Wales at a primary schools - a study on food additives and the effect they have on childrens behavior.  If you don't have children, don't blow this off - if the additive-free diet changed these kids, it has the same potential to help YOU!  What we are consuming in the name of "food" is frightening!

Why are experiments like this not being done in the U.S.?  Good question.  Please join me on Monday for some facts on the food industry that are way past due for exposure.  We need to become educated consumers.  We CAN change things!  But like all changes we try to make, first we need  awareness of what needs to be changed.    I'm writing PUBLIC SAFETY blogs and I encourage you to pass them on, tweet, facebook, email, whatever - not for my silly stats, oh please - but to get the word out there! 
 

Looking At My Desk

I ran across a quote the other day about work.

"I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me; the idea of getting rid of it nearly broke my heart."
Jerome Klapka Jerome (1859-1927)

Lots to talk about here. At first glance this dude hasn't inherited any creativity from his mother. (Jerome Jerome?) Secondly, Mr. Jerome - especially in his era - was probably not referring the care and maintenance of his home.  I think he is NOT referring to housework.

Housework. I hate cleaning the fridge, but nothing will get me to do is faster than some odoriferous mystery thing assaulting me when I open the door. I won't look at it, or keep it near - no, sir, it goes! I can look at the laundry just so long - it gets done. My heart never breaks getting this done (unless I had accidentally ruined another sweater). Whatever kind of work Mr. Jerome Jerome (let's call him JJ) did in his day had to be paperwork, nice clean paperwork, something that didn't stink as it aged on his desk.

Does JJ have a PhD in Procrastination? Does JJ have focus issues or A.D.D.? Does JJ use the word "can't"?

I love the quote, silly as it is. It begs me to look at my desk. The projects sitting here need to be worked on or before long they will need dusting. But because I love researching, I went on a hunt about JJ. A name is just a label and one quote does not reflect a life.

Turns out he named HIMSELF (his birth name being Jerome Clapp) so right away I love the man. How creative.  I changed mine on the blog from Susan to suZen - just because.  After 60 years of Susan, blah, let's reinvent a bit, right?   But it is not nearly as clever as his name!   He is billed in Wikepedia as a humorist and writer. (There lies all the clean white paper.)

Today, I look at my work on my desk. The magical fairies aren't doing any of it for me. My heart won't break when it is done; it might break if I fail to do it.

suZen

Color My World!

I live in the Midwest.  This is the time of year that Mother Nature is on coloring sabbatical.  She gessoed over the painted canvas - so for now, all is white.  The sky is mostly gray every day.  I find it peaceful, but I  have days where I LONG FOR COLOR - and I will confess.  I go to Realtor.com and look at houses in Arizona just to see the darn sun!  I look at Florida and Georgia to see green.

I found this awesome Yanni video with colors of nature that make the artist in my heart sing!  I thought I would share this today - I'm sure I'm not the only one with a white canvas!  Enjoy!

Discoveries in Being Hip - It's CODE

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Ok, I  am ready for a hip replacement.  No, no, not PHYSICALLY/surgically (fortunately) but in the sense that there are just times (more than I will admit!) that I feel out of the communication loop.   I am trying to keep up, keep current, be cool, and not feel like some antiquated being here.  And I'm finding more CODES than actual words.   Total mystery why we NEED these new things, but alas, they spit in my face and pop in my ears from everywhere and I'm determined to investigate what - if anything - they mean!

I was told I was a SKIER.
Nice.  I was hoping it wasn't insulting!
I USED to ski downhill.  Hubs and I tried cross country last winter (ugh!) but me, a skier?
Well today, this stands for parents who are Spending their Kids Inheritance.  Ahhh, got it.  Giggles.  Yes, I am!

By the same notion, I suspect my grown kids would be KIPPERS if I wasn't a SKIER.  Now hip folks know that a KIPPER means Kids In Parents' Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings.  So you see how this is working out now with me being a skier?

In a few short years, hubs and I will become RUPPIES - or Retired Urban People.  Of course a lot depends on how much skiing we do between now and then!

It should come as no surprise to you that I am (among other apparent technological deficiencies) suffering from being......(please read carefully lest you REALLY misunderstand!)...... Textually Frustrated.  Yes, I can admit this.  I DO know HOW to text, I just take forever (4evr) because I don't know all the short cuts I guess.  Another weirdo language it appears.

II went to the current on-line dictionary for help, for hip lessons.  Some of my fav's (favorites) plus additional commentary by me are as follows:

4COL = For Crying Out Loud - yes, I could do this one a lot!  It would replace my Geez?

511 = Too Much Information - which I *thought* was a simple TMI  but they must have used that up somewhere else???  I didn't see TMI on this list.  It must be OLD already!

404 = I haven't a clue - clearly this explains all of our existence, and all life's mysteries.

10Q = Thank you - should be said more often per Miss Manners, Millie and Me!

HAK = Hugs and Kisses - sounds like a bad cough to me, HAK - isn't that a cough?

NALOPKT = Not A Lot Of People Know That - well color ME amazed!

GMTA = Great Minds Think Alike - all the Great Minds I've ever heard of speak in words, hmmm.

PEBCAK = Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard - so they've found me!  I really like this one.  Although I imagine someone swearing what a pebcak I am when I call tech support!

You can see I'm trying!  I don't want to be left out of the future even if it means I carry this code sheet with me like a foreigner in a strange country looking up words in a bi-lingual dictionary.  It does feel like they are re-inventing the language, doesn't it?  Who is "they"?

Do you have a new expression or "piece" of language you have discovered?  I think I'll start a collection!

GTR
(Got To Run)
POH
(Plain Old Hugs)
suZen

Declaring Love - What? Just ONE day??

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I suppose I should look into the history of Valentine's Day - kinda busy doing other things - one thing I know for SURe - we should have more than one lousy day to declare our love to those who mean so much! 

so .....  for Hubs............this and more............always

Dr. Feelgood on Feeling Good

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Have you noticed that when you aren't physically feeling at the top of your game, that it affects your thinking, and sometimes emotions as well?  Do you know people who rarely, if ever, get colds or flu - and if they do, it's a lighter version of yours and they keep going as if nothing was wrong with them?  What's up with that?

Here are a few thoughts from Dr. Feelgood - not intended to take the place of your doctor.

1.  Take vitamin D-3 during the winter months.  It is the best immune enhancer on the planet.  If you get a cold it will be so mild you can almost ignore it (please do blow your nose, sniffing it back puts the congestion into your throat, spreading the booga-boogas - blow the stuff OUT!)

(Booga-booga is a code word for virus/bacteria/germ/icky stuff of varying form - can also be used to describe cysts, tumors, zits and whatever - very flexible medical code!)

2.  Wash your hands OFTEN (especially after shopping, opening doors, etc.)  It's a great season to wear gloves, nobody will know you are avoiding actually touching their germs, because it's cold outside.  Leave gloves on while grocery shopping or use wipes on the cart before you touch it - many stores here provide them right by the cart storage.

3.  Eat healthy foods.  Fast food is not meant for daily consumption.
4.  Sleep and rest as you know you should already.
5.  Avoid sick people
6.  Blah blah blah - you know this stuff already.

Dr. Feelgood has a lot of philosophy based on intense research into how we think versus how we feel.  Oh how powerful our thoughts are - haven't we all been writing and talking and reading about this?  You know if you feel good about things, things really ARE good.  If you change your thinking and think badly (whether its about you or stuff), well things start going to hell.

Dr. Feelgood says if you hear there is a flu epidemic and you get all fearful about it, think about it, worry about, try try try NOT to get it, well, it's almost a guarantee you will!  Giving thought to it gives it life.  Do not think about what you do NOT want - ever!  Think what you DO want.  You want good health, you want to be well - so declare that - "I AM HEALTHY.  I want my experience to be even more good health!  That's what I want!"  (This is positive, pro-active thought - the booga-boogas hate this language and stay away.) 

I used to say (with fear and trepidation) "I can't get sick - I don't have time to be sick - I hope I don't get sick" and it was as if I was taking a battle stance against getting sick.  Instead of doing the wise things, rest, reduce stress, taking vitamins etc.  I plowed ahead preparing to do battle if I got sick.  Then when I did, I fought it - hard!  I pushed myself, I grumbled, I was miserable.  Life looked all black and ugly, everything became a monumental effort.  How could this BE? I would ask myself.  Clearly I had no intention of wanting to be sick and now I am and it's screwing up everything. 

Then there was hubs - Mr. Cold and/or Bronchitis!  Every winter for 2 decades (I am NOT kidding!) it was one after another - then I'd get it, the kids got it, and by the time we'd all recovered, another round would begin.  It seemed endless as well as predictable.  I would stock up come November on cold medicines, kleenex, cough syrup - yes, I actually PREPARED for us to all get sick.  And we did.  Over and over and over again.

All that has changed.  Dr. Feelgood got a hold of me.

In 2003, I became seriously ill.   Oddly a friend also became ill.  We had many of the same symptoms. To me, my illness was the result of the emotional year I had sending my son off to war in Iraq - the stress, the sleeplessness, the sheer terror of the whole year just going right into my colon and yeah, booga-boogas ruled.  Now the surgeon insists it wasn't stress related.  He swore it wasn't.  I thought at the time (and still do) I think he is from another planet for being so out of touch with emotions and illness and what havoc we are capable of manifesting. 

My friend, Michelle, was diagnosed within the same weeks that I was.  She had stomach cancer and was going for surgery about the same time I was too.  I had a sigmoidectomy (several feet of colon removed) and Michelle was opened up - and closed - the cancer so bad they felt it inoperable.

It may seem odd for you to hear this, but Michelle's experience gave me a whole new approach to everything.  She would die.  She would not have the precious opportunity to recover, she had no life to look forward to.  As badly as I felt for her - and I did, believe me - I looked at what I was going thru like it was a piece of cake.  Clearly it was NOT in reality any cake, it was pretty life changing, but I put on the mantle of gratitude.  Compared to her suffering, mine was nothing.  Compared to her, I had absolutely everything going for me, tomorrows to plan for and getting better each and every day.

The doctors were astounded at my progress.  My hospital stay was the shortest on record for this surgery.  I totally accepted this illness, the pain, the long recovery, with the most grateful heart and never fought it, never complained.  Any time I was tempted to, I thought of Michelle.  We had our surgeries in May, she died in August.  What Michelle never knew was how she enabled me to really know the meaning of gratitude and how instrumental she was in my recovery.  She healed me in ways I will never forget.  I really cannot imagine how slow and awful my recovery might have been without this grateful approach. It was bad enough as it was but golly, I was SO lucky!  Nothing in my life had more impact on my attitude.

Why do I share this sobering fact in a post that started out lighthearted?  Because it is all connected.  I am grateful for my good health and that is all that I think about, everything I have to be grateful about - quite a list!   Couple this attitude with the D-3 that hubs and I take daily and we've not seen more than a minor sniffle I wouldn't even call a cold in years!  YEARS.

I don't know what you make of this.  To me, personally, attitude is everything.    Even if I'm having a lousy day for whatever reason, slathering a huge bunch of gratitude around makes everything shine again.  I don't get depressed like I used to, I don't have days I hate or dread.   And I rarely, if ever, complain about anything.  I really listen to my body.  If I'm fatigued, I rest.  If I'm hungry, I eat.  It's really very simple.  I just listen. And every day I send a message of love and thanks to an angel for teaching me to LIVE.

How are YOU feeling about all this?  Good I hope!

The Optimists Creed

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I have a written copy of this on my desk - I was amazed to find a video with the words, nice soothing music too!  How about we do THESE for resolutions - not for new year but all year?

Millie and Additives

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My guest blog shot at Manic Mother was one day - so I moved the Millie story back here!  Sorry for any inconvenience.

Millie Wisdom - Her Take on "Additives"

Millie and I were sitting on her covered porch having coffee.  She had just finished pruning and pampering the rose bushes that hugged the perimeter of the porch.  The roses provided color for the white background of the house and scented the air with a lovely perfume.  Millie still wore her gardening apron with many pockets and her floppy straw hat to shield her from the sun's rays.
"Great hat, Millie!" I said, stirring the cream into my coffee.  I almost thought I felt my spoon snap to attention at the strength of her brew.
"I never let the sun on my face - wrinkles, you know?  I know I have a FEW, haha!  Hard to be over 70 without wrinkles, but why ask for more?"  With that, she pulled her face taut with her hands, stretching her skin toward to her hairline and added, "Look what I would look like with a face-lift!"
"Millie, don't pull so hard - your eyeballs want to pop right out of your head!"
"Oh I do this in the mirror from time to time.  Have to see if I would still recognize myself! 
Hey, look how I can look Japanese." she said, angling the pull a bit.
"Yes, Millie, very exotic!"
"Oh honey, I'd love an exotic look at my age!" she giggled.  "I'd put on a geisha dress and strut into the senior center swinging my parasol!"
I tried to picture that.  "Millie, I don't think geisha's strut, or swing their parasols.  I do think you would be a hit though!" I said laughing.
"Well I'm tellin' you honey, I AM growing extra skin!  Look at all this extra stuff!" she said pulling on her jaw line.  "I resemble a de-feathered turkey for godsake!" she said, feigning a pout.
"Millie, let us all give great thanks - thanks that you are still here, turkey neck and all!" I teased.
"Oh haha.  Listen, I DO give thanks - everyday!  More than I can say for these young woman today!  Tummy tucks! Fake boobs!  Blowing up their lips with jello shots!"
"Millie you mean collagen - jello shots they drink at bars!" I said laughing at her confusion.
"Whatever!" she dismissed. "Mrs. Jensen got those big lip injections. Have you seen her?  They are so big but she says they are numb.  I say they are DUMB.  I heard that her dentures slipped right our during choir practice last week.  Those big ole lips didn't hold 'em back!" Millie slapped her thighs and bent over laughing so hard I had to join in.
Once under control, she went on, "We are all given a deck of cards.  You can only play hands with what you have got.  Some hands are better than others.  So be it.  You take your deck and do the best you can.  Now that's what I believe!  If you didn't get the full lips card, so what?  You don't go makin' one up or stealin' from another deck.  No siree you don't!  The good Lord gave you what you got.  Deal with it!"
"Aren't there people who, as the saying goes, are a few cards short of a full deck?" I asked, trying to calm her down. 
"Oh sure there are, honey!  My son David married one of those!  That's another whole story!  I'm just saying you can't cheat on God.  You go ask Mrs. Jensen how thrilled she is NOT about her attempt at that!  The other thing - the additive for breast enlargements!  That's another thing just frosts me up so I can only imagine what God thinks of THAT!"
"Well it's very popular, Millie."
"Let me tell you something about breasts!"  Her eyes lit up.  She scooted to the edge of her chair.  I felt a revelation coming on as only Millie could give.
"Breasts are FAT!" she said in a hushed ton as if anyone was listening to us out on her country porch.  "It's FAT! And I'll tell you how I know this fact."
"I'm all ears, Millie" I said grinning.
"Well, whenever I went on a diet to reduce the bulk on my butt and gut after having kids, the first place I lost inches was my breasts.  Once when I lost 35 pounds, they all but disappeared altogether!  I'm tellin you, I had to buy smaller bras - the little sizes.  Not smaller pants, mind you, smaller bras!  Oh no, butt fat is a different fat I learned.
"My husband John was in shock back then.  He saw me dressing once and said "Millie, my God!  What happened?  Where are your breasts?"  I just replied, "Look lower John.  They melted, fat that they are, and joined my butt, but look, John, I still have a fluffy, breasty fat butt!"  He told me to quit dieting!  Can you imagine?!"
"So boobs are fat, huh?" I asked for some confirmation.
"Absolutely!" she said sitting up primly in her chair matter-of-factly.  "You take what you get and say thank you.  It's your allotment and you don't mess with it."
Many times since that day, I've mused over the idea of "getting a pair" myself.  But I'm haunted by Millie's wisdom on additives.  I guess I'll keep my deck just the way it was dealt.  And when I see my husband drooling over big booby movie stars on tv, I try, (try being the operative word) to comfort myself by thinking he is just lusting after FAT.

The 15-minuet Diet

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Yes.  It's true.  I have a 15 minute diet trick.  You know if there is any way I can cut to the chase, I will find a way.  I haven't got time to count calories - besides, I hate math.  All y u need  is15 minutes to dedicate to this.  (Don't whine about this now - I've made this as quick a deal as I can!)

You will need 3 (THREE) raisins.  (Megan, I know you hate them - bear with me.)  Take your 3 - ONLY THREE - raisins and go find a comfy spot in your house.  Sit down - breathe in and out a few times.  Now, take ONE - only ONE - raisin, put it in your mouth.  DO NOT EAT IT!  You have five minutes (yes, 5) to explore this raisin in your mouth - close your eyes and really discover this raisin with your tongue, roll it over, really really think about this raisin.  It's craters make it feel like a little mini-planet or something.  After 5 minutes you can eat it - and then do the same thing - five minutes each - with the remaining two raisins.

This is so calming and relaxing, isn't it?  You have fifteen minutes of a raisin experience the likes of which I am just sure you have never had before, right?  I did this for weeks - mid-day - to get over my insane cravings.  I think I liked the quiet meditation of it, but honestly, after just three raisins, my brain was fooled into thinking I ate the whole box!  I was actually satisfied!  DUH.  I couldn't believe this worked. 

So after a few weeks, of course I hit a stumbling block.  I was out of the darned raisins.  But - but wait - in my freezer, in that yellow bag, yes, yes YES - chocolate chips!!  Aahaaa - saved!  So I sat down with three (3) lousy little chocolate chips and tried the raisin meditation.  Unfortunately the chip (yes ONE at a time now, don't cheat)  melts away before the five (yes 5) minutes are up, but the flavor lingers on.  Flow with it.  You can fool your senses if you relax and enjoy this process. 

After doing this - sincerely and honestly - I felt like I had eaten the entire bag of chocolate chips.  I can't think of a better way to have my chocolate without also having my chocolate butt!  Let me know if you try this - and no cheating now, that five minutes per raisin or chip may seem like forever but relax, think about how each were made.  Even the chocolate grew in a cocoa pod.

I promise to bring you all any late breaking, time saving, diet news as soon as my intense research yields something else.

Happy 15 minutes!