Allergies strike

It's that time of year again. Pollen, pollen everywhere. Gosh, I really dislike it. It's wonderful weather outside, so we wanted the windows open. Now every surface in my house is covered with a fine green dusting. My eyes hurt. My head hurts. I sneeze. I feel miserable unless I am inside a pollen free, air-conditioned area, which doesn't happen much.
Allergy medicine either works great and makes me sleepy or doesn't work very well. I can't seem to find any that work, with no sleepy side effects. I supposed I could actually go see my doctor, but that becomes a real pain with dragging kids along or finding a babysitter.
I used to take allergy meds year round when I was younger, high school and early college. Later in college, I quit using them because I lived in a house that was fully climate controlled. The windows had been painted and nailed shut years ago.
AC ran from the first warm day until the last. I also worked full time, went to school full time and had to do 16 hours a week for my internship so I didn't seem much time outside. I did take care of the yard and the flowerbeds, but just an OTC medicine would cover me just fine for that.

I escaped from the house again last night for a little scrapbook time with Sherry and Jenn. I was able to get some layouts done and some relaxing time in as well. I am scheduled to go back to Great Scraps next Friday with Sherry, Dorene and Marie.
My diet has been going really well for the last almost 3 weeks. I haven't broken it once. I am down about 6 pounds and 1 clothing size. I am very happy with the results so far, though the pizza and candy at GS last night were tempting. I stuck to the plan though and didn't have anything. I had eaten at home before leaving so I wasn't actually hungry. It can just be hard watching everyone else eat yummy pizza while not having any. The pizza that they order for Great Scraps is really good when hot, but horrible when room temp. So by the time I was a little hungry, the pizza was 2 1/2 hours out of the oven and not really a temptation anymore.
We are hoping to run the kids into the ground this weekend. They are just too wild and no amount of outside time this week has settled them. We going to try to change that this weekend.

A long night and my diet.

Okay, so I stayed up way way way too late last night. I tried to sleep. I tried really hard for a little over an hour. Then I gave up and read instead. The biggest problem with the reading that I was doing...it's not a book I've read before. It was also interesting enough that I wasn't sleepy. Jay (who'd been asleep on the couch) came to bed around 1 and fussed at me. I thanked him for his advice (you need to go to sleep) and kept on reading. I finally forced myself to close the book at 3:03 am and turn off the light. I laid there trying to sleep until after 3:30 before finally falling asleep. Yes, yes, I know...you are tired of hearing about my sleep problems. Well, I'm tired of talking about it too, but it's a prominent part of my life right now.

Okay, so the book I'm reading...well, the book I was reading last night...Time Traveler's Wife. I was reading several books at once (which I NEVER do) and finshed Dune Messiah yesterday and TTW this morning. I enjoyed the books, but more about them later, in another post.

Okay, my diet. I got a comment and two emails about this. Here are the problems with my diet:
1) While we don't eat a lot of processed foods, they do sneak in. Things like crackers for our soup, white rice instead of brown, ketchup, salad dressing, pretty much any of the tex mex food I love, etc. None of these are good.
2) Fast food. I hate to admit it, but we eat this about once a week. Sometimes less, but still too much. None of this is good.
3) Caffine free Diet coke. I seem to have a problem with this. I drink about 2-3 cans a day. Occassionally, I cut it down to 1 and sometimes I try to give it up. When I try to go cold turkey on it, I suddenly start eating all kinds of crap, like chips and candy bars. While part of my brain says that caffine free diet coke is better than the other stuff, there is nothing good or healthy about this. I know that I will be able to kick it in Australia as the diet coke they sell has sugar in it and tastes too sweet (also has like 8 calories or something). I had some while I was there last year and hated it. Hopefully, I'll be able to break myself of this. Meanwhile, I just try to limit it to once a day.
4)Sleep. Jillian talks a lot about the sleep our bodies need. I don't get it. The End.
5) Organic. During the summer, we eat a lot more organic food than we do any other times. When stuff is not in season, we don't tend to eat organic. I just buy cheapest. Also, we don't buy organic diary or meat. I am going to try to do better now that I have read some of this book.
6) Fat free. While I eat a whole lot less of this stuff than I used to, I still do use fat free cheese and fat free salad dressing. Bad very bad... basically poison. Weight Watchers is pretty much based on eating fat free.
7) Seafood. We don't eat nearly enough of it. What we do eat, tends to be farm raised and not wild caught. Why, you ask...well, it's complicated. Wild caught is better for the environment, however, after reading article after article in National Geographic or Science News about how over-fishing is wiping out populations...I have a hard time eating wild caught.
8) Protein. We are supposed to eat protein ever 4 hours. I don't. I usually eat just a banana for breakfast and something for lunch, typically salad or soup with not much protein. I will do better. Promise
9) Breakfast. I am bad about this. I get my children a nice breakfast every day, but I eat a banana or nothing. Unless it is a weekend and Jay makes something for me.
Those are pretty much my problems.

Organic eating

(Three blog posts in one day!)
Okay, I am like the worst possible person when it comes to this. I thought we were eating an okay diet, not much was organic (some was, but not much), but we eat mostly unprocessed foods, i.e. food that is food. I am currently reading a book that I strongly recommend to anyone who is trying to lose weight. It is by the Biggest Loser trainer, Jillian Michaels and is called "Master Your Metabolism." Bascially the book is about how all of our metabolisms are screwed up from the foods we eat and the environments we live in. I know that I have a screwed up metabolism. I have hypothyroidism. And though it is supposed to be controlled by my medications, I have a normal body temp of about 96.7 degrees. That just can't be right. As I am reading this book, it has been a real eye opener. Hopefully, when I make these changes, things will change for me.
BTW, insomnia can be linked to a lot of these imbalances as well as acne and fatigue (which I have as well).
Well, back to reading my book!