New Year's Resolution Update

Well... almost a month has passed since I started Weight Watchers. It takes a month to form a habit, right? So far, so good! I have lost almost 10 pounds!

So, yesterday, I went out to eat with my in-laws for lunch. And I tried to look for one of the healthiest things on the menu. (I even substituted a fruit cup for my french fries!) When it came to me, I noticed that the bread of my sandwich was heavily buttered. Being who I am, I didn't want to complain, so I ate it, and chalked it up to the fact that I have my flex points. But afterwards, I not only felt guilty for eating it, I felt gross. The funny thing is, the sandwich was still relatively healthy, but I still just felt yuck!

So, I guess I have formed a habit, and one where junk food doesn't even sound appealing any more. However, I am getting sick of eating the same things every day. Funny!

Oh, and as for my ban on restraunts who won't give nutritional information, that is still going strong too. I am getting more upset at restraunts who claim they can't give me the information because vendors are different throughout the country, yet they can give me the information on the healthy part of their menu. I have officially, now as a voting citizen, written my congressman to see if I can get anything changed. If fast food restraunts need to be held accountable, I believe family restraunts (who I am sure are serving food worse than the fast food industry!) should be held accountable as well. I know... it seems trivial, but it is a big deal to me!

Of Voting Registration and Video Rentals

Well, I've done it! The thing I said I would never do. I sent in my form today to register to vote. It is a long complicated story, but I hope I can quickly sum it up.

Last night Jason and I watched a very disturbing movie. The movie is entitled Jesus Camp. It is a documentary of a camp in North Dakota for children, and it is run by an Evangelical Pentacostal Pastor, and a very fundamental one at that. At this camp they indoctrinated, and teetered very closely to the edge of brainwashing these children.

Now, if you know me, I am a Christian, but I am very against what was portrayed in this movie, and I feel the people in this movie are very poor representations of Christians. We were called to love others, not to "save" them. In fact, Jesus hated the haughty Christians of his day too!

In this movie there were 9-year-old children having emotional experiences way beyond their age! Besides, they were forcing these kids to take a stand on abortion and speak out against abortion. Do these kids even understand what they are taking a stand against??? Then came the political agenda. They were basically telling these kids that Republican equals good, and Democrat is bad. Again, do these kids even know what that means??? I was saddened because these kids are so young and impressionable, and they are being used!
So, in this movie, these kids were traveling all over the place to all these different Christian things, and one of the places they went was Ted Haggard's church... If you remember recent news stories of Ted Haggard... we know where he is now... Anyway, one of the comments that he made in an interview for this movie (he really creeped me out) was that if every Evangelical Christian voted we could keep the Republicans in office.

Who is to say that Evangelical Christians are all Republican? Did Jesus come with a political agenda? And why do we need to have a political agenda as Christians? So... this comment infurriated me, and I decided that I needed to stand up, as an Evangelical Christian, and do my part to not just blindly vote for the Republican party, because it is the "Christian thing to do!"

So, I am proud to say, that I hope my very first vote will be for Barak Obama in the 2008 presidential elections!!!

Birthdays

I love Birthdays! I like my own, but moreso, I like the Birthdays of the people I love. I don't know why, I just do. I love trying to make them feel special on their day! :o)

So, today is my little girl's 1st Birthday, and I am so excited for her. But, why is there this thing in the back of my head that thinks that when she turns 1, she will all of the sudden get up, walk perfectly, and say words that make sense? Why this thought? I was not even mildly shocked when we went to get her out of her crib this morning that she still refers to everything as "da da" (Even I am "da da" for the moment, which I guess will suffice!) and she still stumbles and falls while trying to take those steps!

Birthdays are funny things. They are markers for us, but why do we think that something big is going to happen? I guess my roll as Mommy is to make something big happen for my little one on her special day!
Happy Birthday, Sweetie! Mommy and Daddy love you so much, and are so proud of you!!!

Nutrition and Eating Out

I am a little upset at the moment. Since beginning this Weight Watchers thing, I am very anal about how many points things are. (If you know me, are you at all surprised by this statement!) Anyway, I e-mailed some of my favorite restraunts just to get the nutrition information of some of my favorite dishes, as I have flex points that I can use any time throughout the week, and would like to know if I am consuming 20 points or 60! Anyway, I get a nice "friendly" e-mail back from one of the restraunts claiming that they do not have the nutrition information available at this time! (I asked for the nutrition information for their SALADS!) As the e-mail continues... if you would like to eat healthy try one of these things on our menu!

So, the issue isn't that I just want to eat healthy, I want to know what I am putting into my body, and it outrages me that these restraunts won't even tell me what I am putting into my body. Wasn't there a law passed at some point about this? And if there wasn't, there sure should be. Isn't it our right to know what we are putting into our body, or are restraunts that afraid to tell us? And if they are that afraid, should we continue going? Now, I am not a huge "my rights" kind of person, but I still think that I have the right to know what I am consuming!

I e-mailed them back and let them know the reasons that I wanted the nutrition information, and if they still can't provide it, then I guess I'll have to find somewhere else to eat!

So, I think I have now started this "campaign" (be it ever so small) that I will not eat at any restraunt unless they are willing to give me the full nutritional information for the dish I want to eat. Simply because I want to know what I am putting in my body! When I cook at home I sure know what is going into my body!

New Year's Resolutions

Well, I've done it... I have joined the gazillions of Americans who have made the resolution to lose weight! However, I'm not so sure I did it as a "New Year's Resolution!" I simply did it because after Christmas you feel like such a hog from all the eating! (Especially in Florida... we were fed well!) So, I guess I just happened to start my diet on New Year's Day. Let's call it a coincidence!

I have had years of nothing but frustrations with my weight. I really don't feel like I eat that much, and for the most part I eat healthful. Everyone has to splurge once in a while, right? So, where does this weight come from? So, since I can't seem to do anything about this on my own, I joined Weight Watchers Online. (Does this officially make me obese???)

So far, I'm loving it... Ask me again in a few weeks! :o) At least Jason is doing it with me. (As if he had any weight to lose!) For now I am obsessed with this Weight Watchers thing... Gotta find out how many points everything is... Gotta portion everything out just so... Ooops, that was 13 tortilla chips on my plate, not 12, better put one back! But how long with this last? I'll keep you updated!