Why I could never be an english major

I walked out into the living room tonight and Ry was reading this for his class...
This was him posing after I said "Hey! Look smart!" and took the picture. And in the case that you don't believe me that it is seriously the size of a DICTIONARY, here is the last page of the book! I've never seen a page 1545!
I am very content thank you in my major. And p.s. I hate reading things I'm not interested in (i.e. 95% of the crap in bookstores). I will just stick to my little corner of health books and never touch the books Ry reads! Let's just hope our kids (that will be born in 10 years) get a combination of my likes of reading and Ryan's likes of reading! ...or all of his!

My health blog

Some of you wanted the link to my other blog. Sorry, I thought I attached it to my last entry. Here it is... click here! I am still working on it... and I don't know what RSS is; that just came with the template. I am really excited about it and am learnign a ton while writing it. Let me know what you think!

The scoop

So I did it.. I created my own health blog! Check it out :) I plan to update it once a week with things that every day people can do. I chose the name I did because I'm passionate about fruit :) Cheesey enough for ya??

Ryan is done with classes tomorrow and then he starts finals. I, on the other hand, still have a few more weeks. But, Ryan has real finals. I just have to wake up at the break of dawn because "we have to show up.." and we just have parties. I got finger printed today and am officially a substitute teacher for the Provo school district! (and salt lake and some other one I forget, but I don't plan on driving that far).

Las Vegas is in like a month! We are thinking maybe a van would be best to drive down in, since there will be 7 or 8 of us (still waiting for Buddy to let us know if he is bringing his lady love!). But I am way excited for that! What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so I will only be posting the pictures of "clean fun" :) ..just kidding!

Or am I?

It's over!!!

...my challenge, that is :)

The first two days were TOTAL hell because having a crapload of fruit for breakfast just wasn't enough for me and I would be starving about a half hour after breakfast. But after those first two days, my body was like, "Hey, this isn't a bad idea! I like it!" Oh, and natural peanut butter saved me. I had to find some heavy carbs somewhere!

And my waistline shrunk! That wasn't one of my goals.. I'm pretty happy with my waistline. But for all of you who want to bring that down a bit, do this for a week!!!

I think I'm am definitely going to keep up this lifestyle. Maybe not so extreme... I will still eat regular things, but I am definitely more aware now. Become aware.

I think I might start my own blog about this sort of stuff. I will keep this for stuff about me and Ry (like I should be doing right now...) and then for anyone who shares my passion for health, you can just follow that blog! Is this a bad idea? Eh..

Blame it on the sugar

Do you schmear the fake "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" all over your whole wheat bread for breakfast as you take a drink from your glass of orange juice and eat your "healthy" cereal? Do you REALLY believe that the fake butter is natural? Is it good for you? NO to both. Food items that are altered from their original state are mixed in with several chemicals and crazy other things that make it.. well.. not good for you.

Oh. And that whole wheat bread that is supposedly supposed to be healthier for you than white bread? Whole wheat bread contains a ton of sugar. Surprised? Yeast needs sugar to react.. and any kind of bread contains a ton of sugar. Orange juice contains a ton of sugar as well. Don't believe me? Go check the carton in your fridge! You should be having no more than 22 grams of sugar per day, according to nutritionists. Looking at the container of ORGANIC (yep, that's right) orange juice in my fridge right now, I see that there are 24 grams of sugar in just ONE CUP! My advice... squeeze your own and save money (and your bodies).

It's not that sugar is bad for you. We all need sugar in our bodies to survive. However, too much sugar will (yes, I'm going to say it...) make you fat! Like many other things, anytime our bodies are filled with more fuel than needed, your body needs to do something with the excess. In the case of sugar, excess glucose is turned into fatty acids by the liver and return into the bloodstream where it is delivered throughout the body and stored as fat! Main regions where the "excess-sugar-turned-to-fat" is stored are the hips, stomach, breasts (unfortunately fat was never delivered this area of my body), and butt.

But it doesn't end here! Once those areas are full of adipose (fat cells) tissue, the fatty acids begin to spill over into organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys. This raises blood pressure, restricts organs, and weakens the immune system! Ya, it's bad news for the body.

...I bet you're about ready for some good news :)
There are TONS of foods that you can still eat and not harm your body. Here's a list of just a few:
-apples

-oranges

-pears

-plums

-grapes

-bananas (not over-ripe)

-grapefruit

-oatmeal

-lentils

-whole corn

-sweet potatoes

-yogurt

-beans

Something I've really gotten in the habit of doing lately is reading the ingredients list off of everything before I buy it. It has become sort of a strange passion of mine, and I encourage you to start being more aware of what you are putting into this "Temple" of a body that God has given you. Here is a list of things to WATCH OUT for:
-Overall, stay away from processed and packaged foods as often as possible (they tend to include tons of artificial sweeteners... which KILL the liver!)

-sucrose

-maltose

-dextrose

-fructose

-galactose

-glucose

-arabinose

-ribose

-xyose (what the.. HOW do you pronounce this!? If you can't pronounce it, DON'T EAT IT!)

-deoxyribose

-lactose

See a pattern? The ending of -ose means SUGAR!!! These are ALL fake names for SUGAR!
Be careful.. even "healthy" juices and foods contain these ingredients.

Just try it. Stick to no more than 22 grams of sugar a day and see what happens to your body. That "bloated" area around your stomach will shrink (or even disappear if you keep it up), you will feel more energized throughout the day, and over time, your body won't crave sugar as often. It takes will power, but it is so worth it.

7-Day all-natural challenge!

Starting tomorrow, April 5, I am going to start a 7-day challenge to basically detox my body and give my major organs a rest. I will consume/use only all-natural products (shampoos, soaps, perfumes, toothpastes, etc... and maybe makeup, I still have to think about that one!). My diet will consist of strictly fruits and vegetables, along with a lot of fruit/vegetable juices. Everything I buy will be organic, meaning everything I intake will be God-given and from the Earth. I will work out 1-2 hours a day, doing both cardio and weight-lifting. I will also do mediation yoga 4 days out of the 7, and get no less than 9 hours of sleep a night. I will take an all-natural pre-natal vitamin (no gel coating--those actually aren't vegetarian because they're sometimes made of gelatin).

This may seem extreem, but by doing this, I will actually be getting the correct amound of fruits and vegetables everyone should be eating per day. Crazy, huh?

Utah saves animals

I like Utah a little more because of this..

On Saturday, March 27, 2010, Utah's governor signed the bill into law, formally amending the state's pound-seizure law. This means that animal shelters are no longer required to turn over animals for use in cruel experiments. Hooray!

Thanks in large part to e-mails, letters, and phone calls from thousands of compassionate supporters, Utah legislators voted by an overwhelming majority to amend a state law so that government-run animal shelters will not be forced to sell dogs and cats to laboratories for use in cruel and deadly experiments upon request. Once the governor signs the bill, Utah will no longer carry the shame of being one of only three states in the country that still requires animal shelters to engage in this cruel practice. The new law also lengthens the required holding period for animals in shelters and requires shelters to make greater efforts to find the guardians of lost animals.

These positive changes come on the heels of a recent PETA undercover investigation inside laboratories at the University of Utah. The shocking investigation revealed that each year, more than 100 homeless cats and dogs from government-run animal shelters in Utah are sold to the university for use in invasive, painful, and deadly experiments. In one instance, the university bought a pregnant cat from a local animal shelter and injected chemicals into her kitten's brains, causing fluid to build up inside their heads. All the kittens died.

With this new law, companion animals in Utah—and the people who care for them—can rest a little easier.

This is a sad (but unfortunately very true) video.. only watch it if you can handle it. The format doesn't allow the whole video to fit on my blog.. sorry, I don't know how to fix it.