http://newsok.com/americans-get-fatter-as-diet-drugs-lag/article/3527111?custom_click=pod_lead_life

I had to laugh when I read this.  How long will it freaking take for people to realize that diet drugs don’t work??? I mean, okay they may work in the beginning.  They use caffeine and other stimulants to increase your metabolism.  But if you don’t start watching what you’re supposed to eat, you’ll just gain it right back once you stop taking the drugs.  Well duh!

Let me say this plainly.  THERE IS NO MAGIC PILL.  To lose weight, you need to do 2 things… eat less and move more.

If you want to lose weight, change how you eat.  It’s as simple as that.  You might decide to follow a diet like the one that Gastric Bypass patients are told to do.  You might decide to follow the USDA food pyramid guide. You might choose to follow your own plan.  It’s not going to be fun.  I’m very familiar with it.  No matter what diet you decide to follow, it’s as simple as calories in, calories out. 

Unless you’re anorexic, you’re not going to starve.  Don’t get me wrong, anorexia nervosa is a very serious disease.  A dear friend of mine suffers from it, though at the moment she’s defeated the beast.  Instead, she’s gained too much weight and is losing it healthfully with Weight Watchers.  She’s being monitored so she doesn’t lose too fast and is making sure she gets all of the points she should be getting.

Back to the subject at hand the article states that doctors are complaining that the drug companies and FDA are being too careful, that morbid obesity is more of a problem than someone dropping dead of a heart attack because of the stimulants in the drugs.   If their patient’s morbid obesity is THAT much of a problem, what’s to stop them from following the same diet that Gastric Bypass patients do without actually going through the surgery.  It’s not the surgery itself that causes these patients to lose weight, it’s the eating plan.  If you question that, you can go to http://almostgastricbypass.blogspot.com/.  This guy has been following the same diet that is used by Gastric Bypass patients without actually having the surgery done.  He started at the beginning of June and has lost 160 lbs as of today.  His writing style reminds me of a dear friend of mine… except that friend wouldn’t be caught dead writing a blog, or having a FaceBook or MySpace page or anything social other than MUDding LOL.  (I gotta tease this dear friend about this subject and he knows that LOL)

Think that’s enough ranting for now.  The post about George the Ghost is almost done and should be up tomorrow.  Hope everyone is having a good holiday week.

I know it’s been a long time since I posted.  Mostly, I’ve been busy with the second paper route, and I’ve started MUDding.

But I’ve also been trying to deal with the day-to-day stuff at work.  We are still hearing rumors.  You know, we have a job, we don’t have a job, they’re splitting up the department…

Today, the individual members of the AP department met with someone from the new combined company.  I’m not sure who they met with, it may be one of the auditors/evaluators that has been trying to determine the most cost efficient way for the company to proceed.  They were told that their jobs were being eliminated, that at most 1 of the group will continue to have a job in 6 months.  They’ve been told that they can apply for other jobs that come open in the company, but all most to all accounts payable processing will go through Cincinnati.

My reaction to this news was to want to eat.  I want to move near my family, but part of me dreads hearing that my job has been downsized.  Unfortunately, the stress of not knowing at work has me wanting to eat crap that isn’t good for me.

To keep my mind off everything else, I”ll post tomorrow about George.  E got a kick out of hearing that I had been talking about it on my blog.  The information is in the archives for the local newspaper, or at least a good portion of it is.  There are so many other stories out there… like one of the supervisors went to the 3rd floor to get a roll of labels.  When she came back down, everything on the 2nd floor was dark.  She’s become a believer in George instead of making fun of M about her nervousness.

Off to get some sleep for the night…

I forgot to add… the friend from eDiets that was dying of cancer… she died last Monday.  I miss her so much already, and it really hurts.

I was reminded tonight of one of her favorite quotes:

“Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the small, quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.'” -Unknown

Hug your loved ones.  We need to be sure that they always know how we feel.

One of the girls at the office (I’ll call her M) doesn’t like staying alone late at the office at night.  George is supposed to be the ghost of a man that fell down the elevator shaft in our building in the early 20th century.  We actually still use the same elevator today, or at least one of the elevators that we use is in the same elevator shaft where George died.

I don’t remember all of the particulars about George tonight, though I will look them up for my next post.  However, I heard something from another coworker (I’ll call him E) that has been working evenings because he goes to school in the mornings…

A few months ago, the purchasing department put in automatic dispensers with sanitizing foam (Purell).  There’s one on the wall across the aisle from my desk.  There’s also one in the hallway outside of our office door.  E said that some nights you can hear the sanitizer in the hall go off even though everyone has gone home for the night.

M says she often gets internal calls from inside the building, but no one’s there when she picks up.

Some mornings, the early shift comes in to all the lights on the floor being on even though M says she turns off the lights before she goes home.

I really think the purchasing department put the sanitizer dispensers up to entertain George, since he’s fairly well known in the city.  The symphony shares a building with us, and the head of the symphony has seen him.  He’s even been written about in the paper.

Kinda makes you go hmm.

So obviously I haven’t been posting much lately.  We started a new paper route, a different paper route and it seems like I have less time than ever.  It’s honestly just that I’m poorly managing my time.  I’m working at getting better… starting with the extra coupons that we end up with from the new route.  The week before last, it was 97 sets of coupons.  I’m having a hard time throwing them away, though I suspect I will throw away a large number once I’ve given them to people on the MSN money board I post to… I may go to HotCouponWorld as well to give away more there.  I’m not sure what their rules are.  I haven’t told my hubby I’ll be throwing away that many, tho he’s ready for them to be gone.

Then there’s how the last few Tuesdays have gone… the day after Labor Day, my supervisor/coach had a heart attack.  She survived, and had open heart surgery that Friday.

The following Tuesday, I found out that a very dear friend that I met on eDiets is losing her fight against cancer.  The cancer has spread and she’s been placed on pallative care, mostly to keep her comfortable… My heart breaks for her daughters who are in their mid-20’s.  My heart breaks for her… There’s so much sadness, I’m at a loss for words.  Her situation has made me start to take better care of myself.  I realize that it’s up to me to be healthy and be around for my kids unless something unforeseen happens.

The third Tuesday, a former coworker died.  She had issues with her colon in 2007, and she never fully recovered.  She could only eat through a feeding tube since May 2006, so she fought a good fight.  Her sickness hit me in 2007 because it was less than 6 months after one of my closest friends died from advanced Crohn’s disease.

There are ups in my life as well, like how cute my almost 2 year old is getting… he likes to climb into my bed after I make it.  He pulls back the blankets, then says ‘night night,’ lays on the pillow and pretends to snore.  He also likes walking around in his sister’s play high heel shoes, we’re trying to break him of that little trick.

The new paper route is a definite up, though it leaves me little time to myself some days.

The job is a definite down, but mostly because we’re getting swamped and hearing contradicting rumors.  That we won’t have a job after the first, that we will have a job after the first but we’ll have to move to one of the plants.  I’m finding that I’m developing ‘short timer syndrome’ but I’ll get through it.

My daughter is a definite up, she’s learning her letters and the sounds they make at the beginning of words.  I’m working with her when she’s wrong, but it’s always so amazing watching them learn to read.

The other definite up is how proud I am of my oldest.  I may not talk to him much, but he knows when to post to me on Facebook and make me feel like he understands me when my husband rolls his eyes.  Then again, my husband isn’t into sci-fi so much, so he rolls his eyes a lot at the things I say LOL.

I’ve got 4 kittens that are free to a good home… or any home other than mine.  They think I’m some kind of new cat toy, the kind you climb on and sink your teeth into.  Ouch!

So I haven’t been posting as often this week.  Not for any real reason other than it’s time for school to start.  I’ve been getting my daughter accustomed to going to bed at a certain time, etc.  I forgot how time consuming that is.  I hadn’t had to do it for so long because my oldest never had a set bedtime once he got into high school.  It didn’t matter what time he went to bed, he just needed to be able to get up on time for school. 

For those of you who know that I’ve been trying to move… it’s not happening for awhile.  My mother just put in a bid on a house, but the house is a short sale so we’re not sure how long that’ll take.  Then we’ll need to play it by ear.  Plans are to stay with her once she can move.

Which means, the job situation doesn’t matter.  I’m going in and doing my work, then leaving.  It’s just a means to an end.  I do need to update my website(s) and work on the other one.  But I’m having issues with my graphics program, so I’m downloading the most current version to use. 

In the meantime, I leave you with this thought.   There is a difference between humility and low self-esteem.  The art of being humble can be a fine line to walk, but those who are humble do better in their relationships as a whole.

A parallel thought, what does your behavior toward your family show them?  I realized that time was passing and I wasn’t spending enough time with my younger 2 children, so I picked up a habit I had when my oldest was the same age as my daughter.  I read 1 to 2 books to the kids each night before bed.  I want them to remember my reading to them, not my sitting on the computer and ignoring them every evening.  My kids are important to me, even the girl that was almost a step-daughter to me. 

This week, I started walks with my husband and kids every night – though tonight I went for a walk alone since we were late getting home.  Sunday I started the reading.  Kids grow up too fast, as I well know.

“I have learned that finding fault elsewhere only serves to get you off the hook in your own mind, but eventually it renders you powerless to change your condition.” – Beyond the Clevage by Raquel Welch

Someone at work loaned me this book by Raquel Welch.  I really wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, but figured an auto-biography would be interesting to read.  Besides, have you seen how good she looks at her age?  She certainly doesn’t look like she’s going to turn 70 this year.  The coworker said that the book was more about Raquel’s views on life and beauty.  All things considered, I’m glad I read it.  I found out a few interesting facts.  Like when she was filming her famous role in One Million Years B.C., she was a single mom of 2 young children.  Like she refused roles because of nudity, and she refused to undress when changes were made to the script where she would have to be undressed.  She felt the nudity didn’t contribute to the films.  Turns out, she was right.

So what does it take to change your condition?  Before you can start making changes to your life, you need to acknowledge the changes you have control over.  Once you know which changes you can make, start a list of what actions you should take to make these changes.

Though the steps are easy, carry through is hard.  Then again nothing worthwhile is easy.

I was listening to something today about joy.  The person I was listening to spoke of how the valleys of sadness made his joy that much better.  That without sadness, we cannot appreciate joy.  I think it’s the same catch-22 that you see with all opposites.  Non-colors like black and white – can you tell how dark the black is without the white to compare it?

But too, the thought of the joy of the mountain tops made me think of the times I used to go hiking when I was growing up.  There are a large number of mountain or hiking trails in the northeastern area in Vermont.  Or at least these trails are within a decent driving distance.  The closest hiking trail here in OK is over 2 hours away.  Kinda makes it hard to go for a hike.  That is, unless you want to take the so-called hiking trail behind a restaurant nearby – where a large number of the town’s of homeless have set up tents.  Uhh no thanks.

I’ve been thinking lately that I miss living somewhere where I can take the kids for a day outdoors without it being at a play area where you have to watch the plastic slide because the temperatures have hit 100+ for the umpteenth time in a row.  Plus, it’s not necessarily good for the kids to be out in the heat when they’re accustomed to air conditioning all day and all week.

One of these days, I’ll take the kids to the closest mountain hiking trail I’ve been on… of course that trail is in the Smoky Mountains.  My oldest and I went on a nature trail when we lived in the mountains of North Carolina.  I think my daughter would love it… the baby, well he’s just gotten into the stage where he keeps saying people’s names.  Mine, his sister’s, his dad’s and his cousin’s.  Then he says bag, backpack, bath, Nickelodeon (they watch it a bit LOL).  Otherwise this one’s a hummingbird.  Ask him a question and he hums his answer… your pick what he means 😛

Though the writing is still slow, I’m spending a lot of time doing nothing much in particular, especially since I bought a laptop from work (they upgraded everyone’s computer to a Windows 7 box, I got a very good deal.  I still need to fix my other laptop, but it’s no longer as urgent).  I end up sitting in the recliner, rocking my son to sleep, and multi-tasking.  Generally surfing websites or playing games on Facebook and watching tv.

The question remains, since Apoc used to be my place to escape, why don’t I log on more frequently?

When I went so long without Internet last year, I allowed my characters to rent-die (don’t tell me about MUDs that don’t have rent, I’ve tried them and lost interest).  After they rent-died, I figured I might as well reroll anyway.  The characters were over 50 and just getting old.  Plus, my thief was only level 11.

So now I have a dilemma, my cleric is level 12 or so, but I’m having trouble getting the stats I want for an AP (Anti-Paladin).  With few people on much of the time, I’m not sure if I should continue to try to roll an AP or to try to roll a Thief since that’s what I’m now most familiar with playing.

I’m thinking AP still, even though I won’t be able to make the same types of runs that I made with the Thief.  I think perhaps I should try to roll an AP this weekend while I’m designing my new site that didn’t get done last weekend.  If I don’t get the stats I want, maybe I should consider Thief after all.

Three of my kitties are stalking my toes right now.  They’ve mastered the art of living in the moment.

Hoever, living in the moment needs to be balanced with planning ahead.  That’s something that we’re supposed to learn as we get older.  The question remains, how many of us actually get past the stage of living solely in the moment. 

Yet even those who live from moment to moment sometimes prefer not to spend time with themselves.  They may insist that there always has to be music playing or the television on.  There has to be something going on to keep from having to face themselves. 

It can be hard to know who you are if you don’t spend time with yourself.  Granted, even though you can spend too much time thinking while listening to music if there isn’t much else going on, as a general rule that’s not facing yourself.  Instead, your thoughts go around and around like a little hampster on a wheel.  At times, the end result is merely anger at whatever your thoughts have centered on – for example, how someone has wronged you.

My goal for tonight is to spend 5 minutes with no external distractions.  I want to learn more about who I am.  The lack of external distractions can help in other ways.  Sometimes you need these external distractions to go, so you can determine which negative voices are still affecting you.  Whether it’s the kids at school who picked on you, or something that your friend said that hurt in ways that they didn’t intend.  These thoughts can sometimes live on well past when you think you’ve forgiven.  These thoughts can hold us back.  We need to learn to turn these negative thoughts into positive ones.

The ones that stick in my head are from someone I was close to after high school.  This person called me stupid, lazy, & fat cow among other things.  I thought I had forgiven.  I vowed 7 years ago that I would no longer allow this person to live rent free in my head.  However, my subconscious hasn’t forgotten.  When I start making plans or a list of projects, the word lazy comes to mind.  When I want to do well at something, the word stupid comes to mind.

The last thing I am is lazy or stupid.  I know this, and continue to work on the negative reinforcement that I received when I was young.  One day soon, those words will be replaced by other words.  As an example, I can use the comments of the editors at the company I write for.  They’ve said several times that my articles are well-researched and virtually error free grammatically.  That’s not stupidity, that’s something else.  Something I can be proud of.