My Amazing M

  I have been a mother for eight and a half years if you count from the day my first child was born. My baby M took me 40 hours of labor before I was able to push her out into the brisk air of our hospital delivery room.

39 weeks, 5 days and in labor with M.

She was so perfect in every way that I got over the amount of time she made me suffer instantly.  Once home I would hold her as she would slip into a peaceful rest and in my postpartum state, I would cry at her beautiful perfectness.  Every morning she would wake up with a giant smile on her face and my whole day would be brightened with her spirit.

As a toddler, she would tell me that I was her best friend and even now she will tell me she is the luckiest girl in the world to have me as a mom.  I tell her it is more the other way around as she is so wonderful to have as a daughter.

Now she is so grown up that it is difficult to wrap my mommy mind around.  She is intelligent, kind, and imaginative.  She can be ubber creepy in her sense of humor and is ready to laugh. She is full of compassion.  Her heart is bigger than I can ever fathom my own being and she wears that big heart on her sleeve.  She is a joy and an honor to raise and love.

San Diego beach at Coronado

Sand Mountain

Weird and hilarious girl that makes everyday interesting for everyone lucky enough to be in her life.

The Tightrope We Tread

  I am a single mother of four children between the ages of 4-8 and even have a soon-to-be-stepson age 3 here with me every other week while his dad works on the weekdays.  Back when I moved to Nevada I had a $9.50 an hour part time job at Target that I had transferred from Tennessee.  The drive to that job would put me negative in gas as I had to drive an hour and ten minutes each direction.  As soon as I could, I got a local job only a five minute drive away from my home.  Due to the fact that the people I lived with were charging me $600 of my child support as rent AND childcare, I thought it would work out.  Well the woman I paid this money to decided to inform me that it was "Satan" telling me I needed to work and not be a stay-at-home mother.  She conveniently would not be available to watch the kids I PAID her to watch by springing out-of-town trips on me and or leaving for full weekends to fulfill other responsibilities.  I understood the weekends, but the other days were impossible.
  I called the Children's Cabinet here in Nevada that is a child care subsidy for low-income families that is meant to enable families to go to work and not hand their entire paychecks over to the child care providers.  They broke the news to me that all their funding was frozen and they were forced to drop literally FIVE HUNDRED low-income families from their services.  I have a daughter with behavior issues that would scare my new affordable private babysitters away by the second sitting job and that kept me on my toes trying to make it all work out.  Add in that I also have a daughter with a very serious congenital genetic disorder and child care was a nightmare.  She gets sick easy and the sickness escalates rapidly until I am sitting with her in the hospital not working to pay for the child care my other not-sick kids are at in that exact moment.
  I finally found a wonderful sitter that stuck with me and my high maintenance children that I could barely afford.  She worked with me and gave me a ridiculously low rate because she understood I was making almost nothing and had a lot of kids to pay child care for.  My mom stepped in and put my oldest daughter into a really great after-school program that my brother attends and saved my hide on one-fourth of the costs.  I barely saw any of my kids because I would drop them off at school and then go to work from 10 am-7 pm.  By the time I would pick them up I had to rush home to make them dinner, clean them up, and send them straight to bed.  I worked all weekends and the ONLY reason I was able to afford child care was because I only paid for three days a week because L and my mom would take them on my weekends free of charge.  They did it because they loved me and wanted to support me as the working single parent I needed to be to take care of my kids.
  Due to the fact that I made so little and paid so much, we all qualified for state assistance so I got some help in food and we all got medical coverage.  I was doing literally EVERYTHING in my power to provide for my kids, the people in my life were stepping up A LOT, and I still had to stretch myself as far as possible to survive.  I prayed about things as my college semester began to close in and I knew my cna class was going to be intense and time consuming.  In my prayers I was told to quit my job and that things would all work out.  So I did the final steps of getting my financial aid ready to go and put in my two weeks notice.  Once I left my job, my state assistance went up and my child care disappeared completely so it compensated for my loss in income.  I knew this was all being directed by God and I went with it and trusted in it and it did, in fact, work out beautifully although tight.
  Fast forward to now and I am a state licensed Certified Nursing Assistant capable of making $11 an hour starting.  I WANT to provide for my children and not take assistance if I can make a modest living.  I did the math and it is staggering.  Someone making $11 an hour at 40 hours a week will bring in $880 on a biweekly paycheck BEFORE taxes are removed.  Child care for each of my older two children would cost me $85 MINIMUM A WEEK if I did between three to five weekdays of work.  The first two of FOUR children would cost me $340 of what would be my $800 check after taxes.  With still two children left to pay child care for, that would leave me with only $460 of my check.  My second two will cost MORE because they are younger.  Per paycheck, I would be charged between $360-$468.  That would leave me per check with literally $100- NEGATIVE $8.  My state assistance would drop because I was making an income, so my food costs would rise far above the optimistic $100 I would have left.  Again, I would be negative just feeding my family.
  I called Children's Cabinet after a year since calling them last and nothing has changed.  All they can offer me is a place on a waiting list that makes anyone hopeless.  I mean, 500 families got assistance removed and I am guessing they are all ahead of myself on that waiting list for "when or even IF" the state ever releases funding to them again.  My next best option is to work evenings and weekends and utilize my fiance and oldest siblings to help him because those are the hours he doesn't work.  He is wonderful enough to be willing to do that for me, but is that fair to him?  He works his own 40 hours a week and for every waking moment that he is not at work to be him taking care of 4-5 kids while I work 40 hours a week is a huge thing to ask.  He and I would enter into the world of rotating work and kids and the last time I did that, it broke us both down to an extreme.  So here is a question:  what do I do?  Staying home is barely keeping us afloat and my fiance does what he can to help me any time he can, but he can only do so much.  I am capable of making a modest but not-to-be-scoffed-at amount (and more than I have ever made before), but child care is financial brutality if we are blunt and honest here.  I am open to any ideas that do not involve networking.  You can leave me a comment that I will see in my email before it posts on here or you are more than welcome to reply on my Facebook posts or private message me.  Until Next Time...

Going to the Chapel and We're Gonna... Pay Bills?

 
  Ah, weddings.  The flowers!  The cake!  The dresses!  The vows!  ...and the MONEY.  Ugh, the money.  I am at the very first steps of the marathon that is planning for a wedding and already I have learned some valuable lessons.   The first is that weddings are EXPENSIVE.  Even if you all you want is to throw on a pretty dress and elope, you are gonna pay BIG dollars.  Due to the fact that we are paying for our own nuptials, I wanted to try to go as cheap as possible on a wedding gown, make the flower girl dresses, rent the tuxes, and DIY as many of the little details and decor of the wedding as possible myself.  Lets talk about that first one...
  There are websites that sell wedding gowns that are beautiful and are incredibly inexpensive all over the place and they just seem too good to be true!  Guess what?  They are.  I found a website that looked great with affordable gowns that were incredibly beautiful so I hopped on over to my Pintrest to pin them.  (I have quite the Pintest addiction as a bride-to-be.)  Upon attempting to pin these dresses, Pintrest rejected my pins and sited that the website was a scam.  So I did some research and found out some very unfortunate information about the world of wedding dresses.  These cheap dresses are not the real designer's gowns at phenomenal prices.  These gowns are knock-offs made in China.  The real designer gown's designs are mimicked and a replica is made that might or might not match what is advertised when it shows up at your house.  The gowns might be very badly made, have very cheap fabrics, and be very ill-fitted even when you give exact measurements upon ordering.  If you are not satisfied with the gown and you somehow get a hold of the makers, they request a picture of the gown and then argue with you until you are forced to give up and either pay hundreds to have it fixed or just go spend more money on a gown from a wedding dress store in the states.
  As for dresses you buy in stores, I found some interesting accusations across the board on that as well.  Many future brides made the common complaints that after finding "THE ONE" and placing their order with their measurements and all, their gowns would show up over-sized.  This would then enable the wedding dress stores to "need" to do alterations on the dresses that would push the already sky-high prices of $800-$5000 of the gown up by a couple hundred more dollars minimum.  Profits galore, sky's the limit.  Add in all the accessories they push while you are caught up in the emotions of stepping into that perfect gown, and you are spending a thousand dollars on a five-hundred dollar budget!  It is enough to make me nauseous and I have not even stepped foot into a wedding gown store yet.  And to think, that is only the FIRST of the multitude of wedding costs and hurdles I am up against...
  I made a list of what a wedding budget includes the other day in order to get a realistic and honest perspective of what we are up against.  It is mind blowing!  Here we go:

1. Wedding dress, dress alterations, accessories, shoes...
2. Tuxedo rentals for L and our little boy ring bearers.
3. Wedding rings for both L and myself.
4. Flower girl dresses, and my daughter's Jr. bridesmaid dress.
5. Hair, nails, and makeup costs for the day of the wedding.
6. Ceremony and reception venue rental costs.
7. Tables, chairs, and decorations such as table clothes, candles, draping, lighting...
8. Flowers.
9. Food.
10. The cake. 
    
    
    
    
    
11. Photography.
12. Stationary for the save-the-dates, invitations, postage, and programs.
13. The officiant's fees (the person who performs the wedding).
14. Marriage license.
15. Gifts for your wedding party members.
16. Honeymoon.

It makes my head spin!  I have come up with some ways to really save money on some of the above costs but I am always open to anyone else's thrifty money-saving ideas.  So far I have found a nearby park that could serve the dual purpose of a ceremony plus the following reception to save on a double rental fee.  I am looking at making rather than purchasing as much as possible in decor and even flower girl dresses.  If you have experiences or advice, I NEED it please!  Until Next Time...

Progress Report

 
As of yesterday, I have completed a full month of triathlon training and I wanted to share my progress for any of you following my journey.  I can now swim a full 800 meters straight in 19 minutes and 43 seconds.  I looked up what I need to work toward and I will need to shave about 4 minutes from my time, but I am just happy to say I can swim 800 meters straight without stopping at the 1 month mark.  That is a great place to be at one month.  On the bike the longest and farthest I have biked is 48 minutes for a distance of 9.41 miles.  My goal is 13 miles so I am getting really close.  As for running, I am weakest.  I have gotten up to comfortably jogging for 5 minutes straight.  To anyone reading that thinking that 5 minutes is nothing, I triple dog dare ya to give it a try and see how you do lol.  My farthest distance during my interval couch to 5k training is 2.14 miles and that took 24 minutes.  My goal is 3.11 miles so I am getting there a little at a time.  I also do weight training on my run days and I can tell you that I am super sore, but I know it is making me stronger and healthier.
  This coming month's training will result in my continuing to increase my swim time, biking 58 minutes straight, and jogging 29 minutes straight.  In July I will be participating in some exciting 5k's.  I have lost 5.2 pounds, gained some great muscle, and am feeling better everyday.  Wish me luck!

Traumatized Pants and Other Lessons

  

  This is my section of what I have learned so far in the three weeks I have been training for a Sprint Triathlon.  Some of it is practical and some of it is the extra special and admittedly humorous experiences and lessons I have learned thus far.  Please enjoy and feel free to comment as I would love to hear from you :D . 

Swimming:

What I needed before getting in the pool was

• A good racer back style suit (or two)
• A good set of googles
• A swim cap that is made for people with a lot of hair
• The lap swim schedule at my local pool
• A swimming pass

What I have learned since starting my swims is

• I still love the way a good swim feels
• I am still very strong in the water
• Googles fog up and that is totally annoying.  I have researched and I am going to try the baby shampoo in the goggles idea and see if that helps at all.
• Pack a swim bag consisting of the following items:  your swimsuit/s, swim cap, goggles, towel, chlorine removing shampoo, normal shampoo, conditioner, a brush, hair ties, clean clothes, some makeup, and some perfume to help with the chlorine smell if it bothers you.

• If you forget your towel, you have fun times becoming super creative with the wall dryers and go through mild hypothermia before convincing your clothes to pull on over still damp skin.
• If you forget your brush you get to leave the locker room looking like you got in a fight with a water monster and lost.  Uncute look, people.

Where I am on my goal for the triathlon in the pool

• A sprint triathlon requires an 800 meter freestyle swim.
• As of my swim yesterday I did a 600 meter freestyle swim in 14 minutes and 20 seconds and I was able to full-out sprint the final 100 meters.  
• It felt AWESOME and I will continue to build up to 800 meters and then work on my speed.

Biking:

What I needed before getting on the seat of my bike was

• A bike and helmet (I must admit that I am riding a styling Hello Kitty bike that is hard to miss hahaha)  Once I have the money saved up, I will go more fancy with the bike, but I have this one and this one is what I am gonna use with pride.

• A tire pump and fix-a-flat for when my tire gets victimized by the roads
• Sunscreen (I learned this the hard way with an exciting sunburn)
• An mp3 with good tunes and headphones that allow one headphone to be on and one to be off to hear cars around you
• Sunglasses so you are not blinded by the desert sun

• A route that you will ride each day until you can do the full distance.

What I have learned since starting my bike rides is

• People do not see you unless you are IMPOSSIBLE to miss.  I wear bright pink and bright white and I still have a near death experience almost every single time I bike.
• Crosswalks at major intersections are terrifying.  Always bike during daylight hours and always walk your bike across intersections so that when a car full of teenagers doesn't see you crossing, you have enough time to not be hit by their car (personal experience, I am not hating on teenagers lol).
• Dogs like to chase down a person on a bike and bite them.  Luckily I have only had one vicious little lap dweller break free of its owner and chase me down to bite my pants leg before trotting off proud of itself.  Interestingly enough, the passersby in cars were more enraged about it than I was and they handled the dog owner while I continued on my way with a pant leg put in its place.

My traumatized pants.

• Wind is sent straight from Hades to punish all bike riders who dare to pedal the great outdoors.  I am in Nevada and wind is not a gentle breeze here.  It is the grumpy cousin of the tornado that took Dorothy to Oz and when you turn a corner on your bike and suddenly have 50 mph winds pushing against you, you just might audibly hear your leg muscles cry while you push through it, which I have done and feel I deserve a medal for.  Just sayin.

Where I am on my goal for the triathlon on the bike

• A sprint triathlon requires a 14 mile bike ride.
• As of yesterday (and three weeks of training) I did a 48 minute ride and made it 9.41miles.
• I am only 4.59 miles away from biking the full 14 miles and after my pure determination to keep pushing even in the face of 50 mph hell winds or cars almost sending me to my Father in heaven or my pants being emotionally traumatize by ankle biting dogs, I am super extra proud to be able to say that.

Running:

What I needed before hitting the pavement was

• A training plan that would gently ease my body into running more and more while not causing injuries or extreme fatigue.  I chose the Couch to 5K and love it.
• A running route that will eventually get me to my full distance.
• A goal 5K to run in (I chose the Superheroes and Villains 5K in Reno on July 13th).
• To go to an athletics store that specializes in fitting people with shoes.  I went to the Reno Running Company http://www.renorunningcompany.com/ at the Summit mall in Reno.  They had me run on a treadmill fitted with a camera that allowed them to view my pronation on both feet and then brought me different shoes until I found the best fit for me.  After about $100 I had a fantastic pair of running shoes fitted for my body's running.

• Shades and sunscreen (And don't forget an awesome shades-wearing-bunny-ears pic courtesy of L!)

• Water bottle
• My mp3 player and A LOT of great music on it.  Right now my top tunes are: 
• "Made for You" and "Counting Stars" by One Republic,
• "Can You Feel My Heart" by Bring Me the Horizon, 
• "Going Nowhere" by Little Mix, 
• "Sweater Weather" and "How" by The Neighbourhood, and 
• "This Little Girl" by Cady Groves.

What I have learned since getting out on the sidewalks of my town is

• Nevada air is DRY and HOT.  Always always always hydrate before your run and then bring a small water bottle with you with just enough water to wet your throat (a full water bottle can get very heavy on a run).  By the time I hit my halfway mark in my workouts, my throat is sticking to itself and I have to take tiny sips of water to breath.
• Even though a pedestrian ALWAYS has the right of way, especially when using a crosswalk, I have had to literally stop in the middle of a crosswalk and watch a car drive by while able to make eye contact with the driver of the car... multiple times.  Be aware of everything as you cross any street because no matter how brightly dressed or legally you behave with crossing, people just don't pay attention.
• L is as amazing at running a 5K as I am in a pool.  I told him about the Superheroes and Villains 5K and he wanted to join in on the fun.  He wanted to "check his endurance" for a 5K and about 40 minutes after jogging off came back looking invigorated and not at all like someone who just ran a 5K straight after a year of not running AT ALL.  To say I was perturbed is an understatement because jogging three minutes straight makes me have a near-death experience.  But if I am honest, I LOVE having a partner in life that is eager and capable of sharing these experiences with me.

Where I am on my goal for the triathlon on running

• A sprint triathlon requires a 5K run (which is a 3.11 mile run)
• The triathlon training program has you slowly add minutes each run and the C25K has you do intervals that includes a 5 minute warm up in it.  I made some modifications to accommodate both to build up my running by doing a 5 minute warm up and then the intervals of the week for the amount of minutes of the triathlon training.  
• Example:  On the Couch to 5K Week 3 Day 3 I did today, I was to do a 5 minute warm up followed by two repetitions of jogging 90 seconds, walking 90 seconds, jogging 3 minutes, walking 3 minutes.  That is a total of 23 minutes.  The triathlon week 3 day 3 had me doing a 24 minute jog.  I never allow my warm up or cool down times to be counted as part of my timed runs so I just did 24 minutes of the interval repetitions (12 one direction, 12 back) AFTER my 5 minute warm up.  I always do a 5 minute cool down when I am done.
• As of today, on the 90 second, 3 minute intervals, I went 2.14 miles.  Considering that on week 1 day 1 I made it 0.9 miles, I am very happy to have made it this far.  Running  is my weakest event and I can feel every single step I take and the effort it requires of me.
• Next week I start Week 4 Day 1.  The intervals will be jog 3 minutes, walk 90 seconds, jog 5 minutes, walk 3.5 minutes for 14 minutes.  Week four in the triathlon training program is a low impact week that allows for your body to relax and prepare for the intensity increase of month two.

Lastly I want to invite you all to comment and let me know if you have experiences like mine or ones I have not had yet.  I would love to hear your stories and take your advice as I take this intense journey.  Until next time...

Water and Bicycles and Pavement OH MY!

 In my previous blog I discussed the food side of my goal to get in shape before buying my wedding gown for my Summer 2014 wedding to L.  Now I want to discuss the exercise portion of my plan.  I have always been a swimmer.  My mom put me in baby swim lessons at only months old and since that time I was in swim lessons and swim teams until I was a junior in high school and got sick of the water politics.  When bullying in the pool was an acceptable form of showing your swimming "abilities", I knew I was just not cut out to be a part of it any longer.  But my love of the pool and swimming in it never died and when coming up with a fitness goal I decided that swimming needed to be a big part of it.  I thought about how much I have always wanted to work up to running a 5k and realized that a triathlon would be a perfect fit.
  I started researching triathlons for beginners and found this site: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=36 and knew I was on the right track.  After reading up on triathlons and different levels, I knew I wanted to start with a Sprint Triathlon in which you swim 800 meters, bike 14 miles, and run a 5K.  The site even provides a free basic plan of training and I set up my own calendar to get started.  There are three swimming, three jogging, and three biking workouts a week and they highly recommend weight training for muscle strength as well.  I looked at the local pool's lap swim times and made a schedule around that.  Then I got a very affordable gym memebership here in town that provides child care as part of the monthly cost for my weight training and running days.
  Something I had to think about is that although swimming comes natural and I can pick up where I left off in a pool, I am not an avid bicycler or runner and I needed a plan.  I chose to do the Couch to 5K (here is the website for C25K: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml ) as my running training and decided on only outdoors running because I get injuries when I use a treadmill and I am under trained when I try to run outside after using a treadmill.   Next I needed to know the routes I would be taking to reach my distance goals for my runs and bike rides.  I decided to utilize the free and awesome site SparkPeople.  I already have a loving history with this free resource so I went back to track my routes.  After creating a free account, you click on "Track My Workout" and scroll down to the "Map Your Route" option.  Once there you can simply type in your starting address and click on the map to build a route (they even have a "And Back" box you can click if you do a halfway and turn around workout like me to save clicking double on the map).  Put in your minutes and weight, click the "Calculate" button and then the "Add to Fitness Tracker" and you just logged your run or bike route FOR FREE with almost exact mileage.  I call that a win.  The link to SparkPeople is here: http://www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/start-now.asp#wheel and they do provide food tracking and tons of other goodies if you have time to cruise around.
  Now to scare you all just a little with what my week looks like for training...

1. Monday:  My awesome teenage next-door neighbor comes over to babysit my litter of children and I head off for my bike ride.  The time I am to bike is based off of what week and day of training I am on.  This last Monday was the start of week three and I did a 29 minute ride in which I went 14 1/2 minutes one way then turned around and finished my time up getting back to my starting point.  As soon as my ride is over and I am back home, I then grab my swim bag and head to the pool for my swim training of building up to a 800 meter freestyle.
2. Tuesday:  I load up my litter and head to the gym.  We go over the happy and unhappy possibilities of how they behave in the child care area while Mommy works out.  They all agree that happy is much better than unhappy.  I check into the gym, drop off the kids to the nervous-looking child care lady and leave her my number.  I head off on my run outside and do the interval training of whatever day I am on in the C25K plan.  This last Tuesday was to jog 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, jog 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes for 14 minutes.  I come back from my jog and do my upper body weight training from 15-30 minutes, I pick up the kids, and we go to a park where they can run wild and use up energy.
3. Wednesday:  Repeat Monday except with an increase in the biking time.
4. Thursday:  Repeat Tuesday except with an increase in the running time and I do a lower body weight training.
5. Friday:  Repeats Monday and Wednesday with yet another increase in the minutes and is the day in which pushes your boundaries.  The times are higher than ever and you have to push yourself that much harder.
6. Saturday:  Repeats Tuesday and Thursday with the minutes at the highest so far and is very challenging.  I do a full-body weight training at the gym.
7. Sunday: R.E.S.T.  Absolutely NO working out.  It is a day of rest and everything I have learned supports that your body requires time off to function at its best.  So R&R with my litter and L is what I focus on.

Now that sounds as intense as it feels to be honest.  But I want to show you what just three weeks has accomplished:
My before pic of me right after taking my CNA state boards.  You can see how chubby my face has gotten and that I fill out my scrubs a little too much.

My current pic of where I am as of today after three weeks of training and watching what I eat to the best of my ability and losing 3.7 pounds.  I am not as worried about weight because I am building muscle while I lose fat and muscle weighs more.

"Just Eat Healthy" They Said...

  As I posted in my "Make A Wish" blog, I am engaged!  Upon that happening I had the realization that I will have a wedding dress to put on in a year... and I want to be in a body I am happy with when I do that.  I just finished up a semester in college that was full-time and due to staying up as late as it took to study and getting up as early as I needed to for my kids to get to school, I picked up a nasty Coke drinking habit.  Combine that with sitting on my bottom at my computer or in a classroom for four months straight and I kinda gained a nasty thirteen pounds.  Not good.  My first step was to wean off all caffeine.  After that ugliness, I stopped drinking everything that was not water or a G2 Gatorade to at least taste a little sweetness in my fluids.  A G2 Gatorade only contains 75 calories, 0 grams of fat, 17.5 grams of carbs and those carbs are the sugar in 32 ounces.  Unfortunately they pull that crap of adding sodium to get you MORE thirsty instead of less and you do get 400 mg of sodium in that 32 ounces.  So I have limited myself to only one of those guys per day as a post workout drink (I consider it a reward because I have always hated drinking water lol).
  The next step was to start monitoring my food intake and try to get that under control.  It was HARD.  I did weight watchers and I felt like I was starving to death!  So I did my Nae-the-math-nerd thing and found that I was only being allotted 1252 calories a day to eat.  For a girl my height and activity level, I was used to about 1750 a day.  So I did my research and found that, yes in fact, for a girl my height and activity level, I had to consume 1252 calories a day to lose one pound a week (if you want to know your calorie info, I used this site: http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=30&csex=f&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=7&cpound=156&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cactivity=1.2&x=56&y=10 ).  No fun, but knowledge is important in motivating me to accept and live with certain less-then-fun lifestyle changes.  Now, for most people, dropping their calories to 1252 can be done with replacing "bad" foods with "good" foods.  Out with the processed junk and in with the fresh and healthy.  Not so easy for me.
  Since turning 19, I started getting allergies to foods that grow from the ground on trees or vines or as roots and so on and so forth.  It started with an avocado making me itch after eating it and over the last eleven years has progressed to every fruit or vegetable I eat making my face and neck go numb and any canker sores in my mouth swelling up from contact with the foods.  I once tried the "Flat Belly Diet" and by one week in from eating fruits, veggies, and raw nuts, had insides that felt like I was swallowing fists full of razor blades.  I went to the doctor and they ran a scan that showed my intestinal tract all inflamed.  A blood panel confirmed that I am allergic to the pollen molecules in the foods and that it comes from my hay fever as a child.  So eating "healthy" is an arduous task that requires "denaturalization" of everything I try to eat.  I have to steam to death, boil, bake, or destroy natural foods to eat them.  Even a canned fruit is a gamble I have to try and then see how I handle.
  Do to the fact that I cannot eat a salad or apple, I have to try to eat foods that will not make me sick but will also not be filled with preservatives, fats, and all kinds of chemicals.  It makes the eating healthy task sickeningly difficult and weight loss a slow process that requires huge amounts of exercise.  If I want to feel full ever, I have to eat too much and if I want to not eat too much, I have to eat so little that I feel like I am starving myself.  Plus after learning of the fact that "diet" and "light" foods and drinks contain aspartame and that aspartame is a toxin of its own, I avoid those as well.  On my next effort in eating a diet that does not kill me on calories or leave me ravenous, I am going to try out some nutrition shakes for breakfast and lunch and a controlled dinner that fulfills my nutrition needs.  I will throw in a multivitamin and keep drinking my water and one G2 a day starting next week and see if I finally have weight loss results.  Wish me luck.