my addicitve personality is acting up again...geeeeez

dear stephenie meyer,

your twilight saga has gripped my heart. i am taken back to my own high school years and can now vividly remember just how electric just sitting next to the boy of your dreams was. the anticipation of first kisses and desperately needing to spend every waking moment with your love. your books grew from teenage infatuation to true love and the ultimate commitment to each other...i relived all my feelings for my hubby before we were married and i thank you....it's always good to remember that amazing spark that starts your own personal love story.

i do, however, have a few problems with you. first, my house work, my husband, my child, my parents, my friends, my neighbors, my dog, my personal hygiene, and my job have ALL suffered some degree of neglect because of you. second, it is very inconvenient to randomly sigh whilst thinking of edward and have to explain/or deny why to anyone who asks why you keep sighing and looking off into space with a dreamy expression on your face. third, along the same lines as number two, giggling like a school girl about a fictional character is not healthy. and last, but not least, you ENDED the saga. now what am i going to do. every other book i pick up pales in comparison. i am lost in a literal sea of books-to-be-read without a single one calling out to me to save me. i have even resorted to re-reading the saga. (it is just as good, if not better, the second time around, by the way) i suppose i will have to live with just talking about them over and over to anyone who will listen.

i like you stephenie meyer, but i am a little miffed.

yours mostly affectionately,

elisa.

p.s. the midnight release party for breaking dawn was amazing...i'm so glad we made "team edward" shirts and beat the crap out of those "team jacob" losers ....not really, but i wanted to...consider this a warning lahdeedah...i know where you live!

skinny b*$@h

so... i just read (literally i read it in like 3 hours) the book Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. it was recommended to me as a supplement to my reading of YOU: on a diet and The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood which i have mentioned before. it starts off telling you exactly the same stuff in the other two books - don't eat high fructose corn syrup, don't eat anything with dyes, eat whole grains, don't eat hydrogentated oils....blah blah blah boring i already KNOW this. but then.......the books hits you up side the head with the facts on meat and dairy in our society. wow. shane actually asked me what was wrong cause i was so shocked i couldn't speak. the book brought tears to my eyes, not only from the horrific stories (there aren't many - it's not a PETA pamphlet) of animal abuse and slaughter practices, but also from the policies or lack there of on the safety of the food that actually reaches our mouths via grocery stores and restaurants. i was pretty disheartened about my supposed "healthy" eating plan that i had in place for not only me but my husband and child. so that being said, we as a family are going to try and cut out most (if not all, in time) of our dairy and meat consumption. i want this to be clear too - that i don't in fact think it unethical to kill for food. i am concerned about how the food that i buy is killed and the seriously gross practices of the meat industry that compromise my family's health. i have ordered a few books from amazon to help us start slowly cutting out certain things... i'll post reviews as i read them...

for now, i leave you with an exerpt from the book. this is what put me over the edge.

"A worker at another poultry plant said, 'Every day, I saw black chicken, green chicken, chicken that stank, chicken with feces on it. Chicken like this is supposed to be thrown away, but instead it would be sent down the line to be processed.' Another worker at another plant said, 'I personally have seen rotten meat - you can tell by the odor. This rotten meat is mixed with the fresh food and is sold for baby food. We are asked to mix it with the fresh food and this is the way it is sold. You can see the worms inside the meat. " Skinny Bitch pg74.

take your health seriously - you only live once - now there's a different way to look at that saying!

p.s. the book does contain A LOT of profanity - i mean look at the title :) But, if you can get past it - it's brutally honest and a good quick, enlightening read.

the healthiest me i can be

so i've been reading several books lately that ... gasp ... aren't fiction! i know, so shocking! i never ONCE read a text book in college (except for my literature classes, but those were fiction or poetry so that doesn't count - i wanted to read those) and in high school i literally just skimmed. so for me to pick up 4 non fiction/text book type books in the past month and devour them is practically unheard of!

the first book i went through was YOU on a diet: waist management. this is a hilarious book that really teaches you how your body works - why eating one thing could cause another part of body to not work/function at it's full potential. it's not really a diet like the title suggests, more of a guide on how to optimize your body's performance. this is an amazing revelation if you are interested in better nutrition whether you're "big" or "little" already.

then i received a book from my mother-in-law called The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood by Dr. William Spears and his wife and two sons who are also doctors (pediatricians). if you have or are ever planning on having children - PLEASE READ THIS BOOK! i cried several times because i want to give eisley a better chance at being healthy and having a better body image than i received from my parents and i want to be a role model for her. Now, i'm not saying my parents did a bad job AT ALL! i can't remember a time when i was in school that we kept chips or cookies or soda - or anything like that at all in the house. in fact, i distinctly remembering training myself to like soda - it hurt sooooo bad at first to drink it - then of course it became easy :) so actually my parents gave me an incredible advantage starting out in that respect, but we also ate lots of mac-n-cheese and loads of other processed things with more salt or sugar per serving than one needs all day! i am an admitted salt junkie - if it's salty and has partially hydrogenated soybean oil in it, i probably like it! i can give or take sweets, but salty is where it's at. this book really has given me a new outlook on my role as a parent. the book mentions that we as parents naturally want the best for our children and also ourselves. we give them the best toys, the nicest clothes, want them to attend the best schools and get the best education, so why would we feed them sugar loaded breakfasts right before school that inevitably cause them to act out, fall asleep, zone out and not get the full experience at school and why would we feed them foods that break down their immune systems instead of fueling them so that they don't get sick as often? Since we as a family, my parents and shane's too, have been eating healthier, i can't tell you how much better i feel - more alert, happier, more energetic, i really like life again! If you never read this book, but i wish you would - remember these three things:

Never eat anything with these ingredients in them and you will be 90% of the way to eating very heathfully:

1. partially hydrogenated soybean oil


2. high fructose corn syrup


3. any dye/color followed by a number; red 40, yellow 5 etc...

then the next book i picked up was No Need for Speed: A Beginner's Guide to the Joy of Running by John Bingham. lauren, me, my mom and shane are going to run the bolder boulder in may (national pickle month by the way) and we are starting our training now. my mom and dad were runners before i was born and up until i was about 3 - they even wrote a running book - i can't find it anywhere online, but we have a copy somewhere in the basement. my dad has for probably the last 7 years been running again - on a treadmill because his knees can't handle concrete. my mom however, has not run since i was three - she actually ran the bolder boulder while she was pregnant with me! this is a great book too if you want to get into running - it lets you know it's ok that you're not going to be a marathoner overnight or even after a week's training for that matter. it's very inspirational and has lessons from everyday people like us that haven't been running that long and the changes it has made in them. The book has a quote in it that goes something like this, i don't have it in front of me so this paraphrased: when you untie the "nots" (reasons you are NOT capable, good enough, etc) you learn that you can change and you can change into the best you you can be. you may not be the best runner ever, but you can become the best runner you can ever be. as your outside changes you start to notice your soul change as well.

the fourth book, i'm still reading, is another running book called The Complete Book Of Running For Women by Claire Kowalchik. i just started it, but it's just geared, obviously, towards issues women face while running.

i'm excited to start my life, with the support of my family and friends - to become the healthiest me i can be!!!

book smell

i admit i am one to judge books by their covers...unless on a strict recommendation from a friend. i like to feel the cover, feel the the texture of the pages, i even smell the book (if no one is around - i love "book smell"). i run my fingers across the cover and down the spine and let the pages spill open and take a deep breath and wait to see if it's a welcome invitation to lose myself within. there's something about a story or written word that captures you. you can't help but be enthralled by a good story. your mind works its magic and in no time at all, you have the imagination of a child again. you can see the expression of the characters and envision the look and feel of their surroundings. you soon become part of the story yourself. it's both liberating and enslaving. you're freed from the physics of this world with your imagination, but you are trapped not wanting to stop reading till the end, or very sadly, wanting more of a story that's ended. i used to stay up for hours reading (one of those kids under the covers with a flashlight) and i still stay up late reading something. there are days when all i want to do is read. curl up on the couch with a good book and spend all day in that world. there are books that i read in grade school that i still have and read regularly (they're at a 5th or 6th grade reading level and sometimes, i want that). there are books that i make it a point to read at least once a year, no matter what, (pride and prejudice and the year of impossible goodbyes) there are books that bring up emotions and memories of good times and bad. there are books that explain things that you would have never understood any other way. books are in some sense alive.
i am not proud of the fact that one book that has literally stood the test of ALL time, has not captured my fancy like it should have - i have not let it. i read it when i feel far from god, when times are low and i know it's the "right thing to do." i don't read it when i should most - when i feel like i've got it all figured out, when life is great and the sun is shining. it's not a good place to be in when you think you've got it all figured out...god cannot be "all figured out", so i must be off somewhere! just like a good mystery that you rip through the pages trying to uncover the truth, so we should rip through the bible and search for god's truths. lord may i have more enthusiasm for you and your life giving word!