Links and Updates

(Cool photo by elessar x)

Hey everyone!

It's a nasty, bleak, rainy day here in Illinois. I'd really still love to be in bed right now, but knowing me I'd toss and turn and think about all the stuff I should be getting done. So here I am working on some projects at the computer. Part of my daily routine is to read my favorite comics (and I have loads of them so it takes a few minutes) and catch up on my favorite blogs. I've found several interesting links lately I'd like to share.

First, an awesome post by one of my favorite bloggers - Tom Naughton. In his Fat Head blog, he gives us an idea of what life would be like if mechanics were nutritionists and nutritionists were mechanics. It's a hilarious, but true-to-life read that really helps drive the point home about how messed up some "health experts" are in their thinking. Check it out. And if you don't subscribe to his blog, you really should.

What If Mechanics and Nutritionists Switched Jobs


For those who do not know, my friend Dana Carpender started writing for CarbSmart early this year. Her weekly column is full of fun, advice and information. I especially like her column from last week about Halloween and traditions. Make sure you check it out, along with all her other great articles.

Have A Low Carb Halloween


And speaking of Halloween, I'll repost my examiner column link from last year when I wrote about non-sugar treat ideas.

The best Halloween treats for little goblins


Another friend, Laura Dolson, is looking for low-carb stories to share on about.com. If you'd like to tell your story - whether it be about weight loss, health benefits, or blood sugar control - be sure to check out her page here.


Now for an update: The scale dropped again this morning. That's now a total of 12.6 lbs gone since starting the Eades 6 Week Cure. I'm doing it a bit different than written, but Dr. Eades did say it was ok to stay on any of the week you like for as long as you like. I rotate between weeks 1-2 and weeks 3-4. So I have a shake week day or a meat week day, depending on what I feel like doing. I know I owe you all a review on the book, so I'll try to get that up asap.

Have a great low-carb day and I'll try to be back later with more interesting news. :)

Is it Friday yet?

I know it's only Tuesday, but it feels like it should be Friday. It's already been a long week.

So, just an update.

Weight is staying the same, but had a couple of bad days, so that's really pretty amazing considering I didn't do so well. I'm back on track now and just plugging away each ounce at at time.

I have a couple of reviews I'm ready to do. The new Atkins bake mix and a new bathroom scale from EatSmart. Lots to tell you on these so will hopefully have them up soon. Kids have a thing to go to this afternoon though, so not sure if it will happen today.

I purchased new hosting and domain transfer yesterday for my website - Healthy Low-Carb Living. As soon as that is all up and running, this blog will move there using WordPress. I'll be sure to let you know once it is all working correctly. I'm also working on a new design for all of it, so I'm excited about that.

On the photography front, I finished and sent in another unit. I have 3 more to go and my goal is to have them finished by the new year. This is another reason I'm having to push daily blogging aside a bit. I gotta get this schooling finished pronto.

On a different note, I'm really looking forward to the low-carb cruise in March. I hope many of you are able to go so I can meet you in person. :) It's going to be a great time!

Okay, gotta get them kids ready for their shindig. Lay-tah!

Would you please vote for me?

Hey gang! I just applied for a short-term blogging job and I need your vote to make it to the final round. This gig will allow me to do what I love, blogging, and pay some of those pesky bills that refuse to go away. ;) And don't worry, it won't take away from my blogging here. :)

I have to make it into the top 250 in order to be considered. I will be eternally grateful if you would vote for me every day up to October 30th. And please ask your friends and family to vote as well! This would be a tremendous help to my family and I and we will love you forever! *muwah!*


Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

Update

Hey gang. I'm working on several things at the moment for this blog that I think you'll enjoy. For now I'll just have to give you an update on some things, at least until I have these other posts ready.

Blogging: I have some product reviews in the works - complete with a few recipes. I can't wait to share some of the yummy stuff I've tried! I'm also in the process of reading Dr. Eades The 6 Week Cure for the Middle Aged Middle. So far it's been a stellar book and I'll be sharing my thoughts on it soon. I'm also going to try out the diet plan they use, so will try to update on that progress when I can.

Photography: For those that are interested, there has been a lot going on with me in this area. I was recently accepted as a participating photographer for Think Pink Photography. I find it a huge privileged to be listed among some of the most amazing photographers in the business. Think Pink is a completely volunteer network of photographers who donate their time and talent to photographing breast cancer patients and survivors. Some of the stories these photos tell are simply awe inspiring. And if non-cancer patients book a session and tell us they found us on Think Pink, we donate a portion of that session to the Eric R. Beverly Family Foundation.
On a similar note, I'm also participating in the one day event called Images for a Cure, in which all session fees for Oct. 11th, 2009 (in my case Oct. 10th) are donated to breast cancer research.
My photography schooling is quickly coming to a close. I should hopefully be finished by Jan. of 2010! :)

Ok, gotta run, but will be back very soon with some great stuff for you!

This, that and the other

Hey everyone! Just a quick update.

Diet ~ Still working on keeping water my main drink of the day. I haven't cut out the diet soda, but I'm doing better. (And for those of you who are determined to leave comments about how too much water will kill me, please save us both some time... and don't.) I'm also back to using my fitday program again. I'm getting way too lazy about counting so I need to pay closer attention.

Blogging ~ I'm going through writers block I think. It stinks. I was hoping that once things calmed down I'd be back to my old self, but I'm really struggling to write anything very interesting. Sure, I can blog about all the chaos in my life, but the dog chewing up my underwear kind of stuff can only go so far. I promise to keep trying though if you promise to keep reading. :)

Photography ~ This is taking up a good part of my time right now. I'm not complaining. I'm happy to be doing it because I love it so much. I'm constantly studying, experimenting and learning. And spending... spending seems to be a requisite to being a photographer. One day I might actually make enough to pay for all the equipment I've bought. Maybe.

Speaking of, I found this hilarious little youtube animation from a comic called What the Duck. WTD is a comic about photography and photoshop. It's hilarious to photographers and I'd guess anyone would get most of the jokes.

This animation is funny to me because I can't count the number of times my family has complained about how bright the flash unit is.

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic day. I'm going to try to stay out of this 105 heat index weather as much as possible. (Outside feels like a sauna already, thanks to the 1 billion percent humidity, and it's only 7 am. Cah-razy!)

I need your help

I'm trying to determine the direction of this blog. In order to do that I need to know what my readers would like to see more of, or less of, as the case may be. I'd thought about starting a poll, but honestly, I'd probably miss some important element. So here's what I'd like, if you don't mind sparing the extra minute or two...

Please leave a comment below answering the following:

What would you like to see more of? News? Research? My psycho-babble? Let me know what you do like and what you'd like to see increase.

What would you like to see less of? Tired of hearing about how tired I am or my teeth falling out? Prefer I don't gripe about junk science? Let me know what you think.

I can't promise I'll follow all the suggestions made, but they will at least give me some things to think about.

So please, pretty please, with all kinds of non-sugary good stuff on top? Please leave a comment (anonymous is fine if you'd rather not be named) and let me know your thoughts.

THANK YOU!!! :)

I'm sick

Hey everyone. My kids were sick most of last week, and that kept me pretty busy. This week it's my turn I guess. I'll try to post again soon. I need to heal first. Have a great week.

I suggest a compromise

And no, I'm not going low-fat. That's blasphemy! ;)

Anyhow, I've been watching the poll and it seems most of my readers are ok with visiting my column at Examiner.com and reading here. But there are a few of you who seem to hate reading at both places. SOOOOOOO....

To find some middle ground, I have posted the RSS feeds to my examiner column in the right sidebar of this blog. Now, if you want to see what's happening at my column, you can glance at the links to the right, which will be updated often (unless I'm experiencing writer's block, in which then you will hear the crickets echoing in my head).

I'll try to post relevant and interesting content here as well, so those who don't care for the examiner stuff will still have something useful to read. :0)

I think this will work for everyone that way. Sound fair?

Take my blog poll... Please.

*ba dum dum*

Ok, I wanted to point out that I have a poll going on the right over there. ---->
I'd love everyone's input on this. I'm trying to decide how to balance my examiner articles and my blog. So far, the majority doesn't like it when I write for examiner and then link to it here, instead of just posting it here too. Here's the problem though. I can't keep my job at examiner if you read it here and not on examiner. So I'm trying to find a way to keep the posts here and examiner interesting enough you'll want to read both. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

I owe, I owe.. so I work too much

Hey gang. Things here have just been nuts, as seems to be the norm lately. I'm back trying to find that balance again. You probably remember the balance between life, work, family and myself time that I talk about here and there. I feel like I'm on a teeter-totter right now. I can't seem to keep the thing level!

Anyway, to help with rising costs of living, etc. I've taken a part time job. Thankfully it's with a company right next door to my house, so no commute or anything. And I'm right there if the kids need me. My oldest is at the age he can be in charge by for a couple of hours a day, so that helps. Grandma or Dad will be around during those times.

So now I'm working part time next door, working from home on my examiner column, working in photography when the opportunity arises, and home schooling my children. Then there is daily stuff, like laundry, housework, etc. And I'm still trying to maintain this blog and help out in other areas.

So my point is, life is a never-ending cycle of bills and I'm chasing my tail here. ;-) No, actually my point is that I haven't forgotten you all and I'm doing my best not to neglect the blog. But it might happen from time to time, and I apologize for that. So please forgive me if my posts are occasionally a link to my examiner column and a quick hello, or an update and nothing much else. Hopefully things will settle down again soon and I'll have my schedule all figured out.

The good news is that I've made sure I take care of myself though all this. First thing in the morning I've been getting on the treadmill - it's been a good start to my day. I feel so much better afterward. I'm also back to carefully watching my food intake, which I repeatedly seem to get sloppy with. So maybe all this work with a combination of my diligence will get things moving again.

Ok... off to work I go.

It's My Birthday!

So I'm taking today off, with the exception of posting to my examiner column later today. But I am working on a giveaway for this week and hope to have it going soon.

I'm going to go enjoy my birthday lunch. :)

I'm moving....

But this time it's not to another home. I'm moving files from my old computer to my new one. It's such a time-consuming, painstaking process. But, so far every thing is working rather well, despite moving from XP to Vista. (Knock on wood...)

Once I get all this done I'll be able to accomplish my workload so much faster. That'll be nice. :)

Anyways, that's what I'm doing now, so don't have time to post much here. Gotta get the computer set up so I can actually find everything again.

OH.. just some FYI, we have another giveaway coming next week. So get ready!

Weekend Tragedy

Explosion
Originally uploaded by Sparkys Girl

Hi everyone. I'm writing to give you a quick update. I don't know how often I'll be blogging this week or the next.

My in-laws recently moved and on Friday the stove in their new place exploded. Thank the good Lord they are both alive, but my Mother-In-Law suffered 2nd degree burns on her limbs. At this time they have no place to live and we have moved them in with us. I'll be spending a lot of my time helping my Mother-in-Law and I don't think I'll have a lot of computer time.

We are asking for prayer for her healing and for things to resolve the way they need to. We'll need to eventually find them a place to live and they are both in their 70's and only live on Social Security. It's not an ideal situation, but God will work it out. It certainly could have been worse and we are counting our blessings.

I'll keep you updated and will try to blog when I can. Please just be patient with me while we work through this crisis.

Sickness abounds....

Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't blogged today. My daughter is pretty sick and I spent today taking care of her. Poor Baby. Looks like she'll be going to the doctor tomorrow...

It's Friday and I'm Itching

Wow. This week has just flown by for me. I have been so busy I've barely had time to breathe. Someone promise me this madness will stop soon, Please? Lie to me. I don't mind. Just give me hope!

Actually, I enjoy the busy-ness somewhat. I just wish it wasn't so much that I didn't have time for other things... like blogging.

I had a couple to topics planned for today, but it will have to wait until next week.I will give you a hint though. They involve a new sweetener and a cookbook review.

Here's the scoop on today's nuttiness:

I worked yesterday at a shoot in St. Louis, which was fantastic. I really have been enjoying the work and I always meet the most fantastic people. (Hi Gayle!) I came home happy, but exhausted.

I also came home to find that the sweet little furball kitten we invited to live with us just 5 short months ago is causing havoc. Not intentionally mind you, but it's happening none-the-less. It seems she has fleas. Now, at first I thought we had it under control. We put a flea collar on. That didn't seem to completely cover it, so recently we bathed her and applied a flea treatment from Hartz. What has happened next can only be described as an epidemic. I swear, it's right out of a horror movie. I think the fleas LIKE the Hartz stuff. They seem to have multiplied overnight. Is there any chance I accidentally got slipped some experimental flea reproduction serum instead of the flea killer I thought I was purchasing?

These fleas are attempting to take over my life. Just thinking about it makes my skin itch. Last night we realized just how bad it was when we found the cat in the bathroom chasing one on the floor, and found a few more dying in the sink. I can't deal with this!

So instead of posting today, my day will be full of rigorous cleaning, followed by bathing a soon-to-be unhappy cat (who, I might add, has sharp claws and and hates water), applying Bio-Spot to said cat, and then setting my house on fire with a flamethrower and gasoline. Ok... the last step is going a bit far, but it's tempting. Actually, we will be fogging the entire house. For those of you who have done this, you know just how enjoyable THAT will be. I can hardly wait....

Break Time

Hey everyone. I'm taking a self-imposed break from blogging right now. I just have too much else I need to get done and pressuring myself to blog isn't helping any. (Can we say STRESS???) It won't be a long break... probably just two or three days. But I need it none-the-less. I've got to regroup a bit and get some other things out of the way. Then I should be able to come back and actually post something semi-intelligent, instead of all my "Hi and Bye" posts like I've been doing lately.

So, I'll see you all towards the end of the week.

Speed Blogging

It's like speed dialing, but it starts with blog...

I guess it's just going to be one of those weeks where I don't get much done here. So here's a quick rundown of things.

New Internet Video Series
Jimmy Moore is once again on the cutting edge of things, and in this post tells us about the latest internet video series that I believe all low-carbers should see. I watched this interview with Dr. Mary Vernon last night (while folding laundry) and it's fantastic. I highly recommmend you take the time to see it. I'll be watching it again to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'm looking forward to the many other videos to come!


We're Back!
For those of you who felt completely displaced when a hacker took down the Low-Carb Disscussion forum, I'm happy to announce that we are back up and running at full speed. The new forum is at www.livinlowcarbdiscussion.com and is better than ever. Not only are there fun new features, but this baby is secure and being backed up daily. Sadly, we lost a lot of great content from the other forum. But many of us are working as fast as we can to get what little bit that was saved back up for everyone. I'm very happy to announce that the Good Calories Bad Calories reviews, posted by our wonderful Moderator Charles, are slowly being put back up. If you were a member of the old forum, please come join us once again. If you are new to our support forum, we'd love to have you join us! We really are just like family there!


Low-Carb Cruise in 2009
For those of you who may not have heard, last year approx. 45 low-carbers all got together for a Cruise to Mexico. They had a fantastic time and have planned to do it again. On this cruise you could meet many of your online friends, including myself, Jimmy Moore, Christin Sherburne, and the one and only Dr. Jonny Bowden! You can find out all the details by going here,
here, and here. I hope to see you there!


My Life
Things are busy here. We are trying to finish up school and get ready for summer. I can't wait! I need the break and so do the kids. There's more going on than I really have time to get into, but I promise I'll get back to more in depth blogging as soon as things calm down.

Have a good one!

Pay Per Post - Giving It A Try

I'm working on a few minor changes here on the blog. Nothing huge, but some things that I think will help me personally. One of those changes is trying a service called Pay Per Post. Pay Per Post will allow me to blog on subjects I find interesting while earning a fee for doing so. It also allows potential advertisers to hire me to post about their service or products. I was really on the fence about doing this, but it looks interesting and thought I'd give it a try. Don't worry though. I'm not going to post on anything I don't feel would be beneficial or helpful to my readers. I promise to be picky and scrutinize everything I post about first. I want you to be able to trust me. If you find my using blog ads undermines that, please let me know. While I could use the extra money, it certainly isn't worth losing my readers trust! To give you an example of what I mean, here's something that just happened last week. I was given a Pay Per Post direct offer that would pay me to blog about a weight loss supplement. I declined it. Why? It contained ephedra and seemed more like a "quick fix" kind of thing. Not what I would normally encourage here, so why do it for pay? I'm not interested in selling out. So I hope by now most of my readers realize that if I discuss or promote a product here, it's because I believe in it, paid advertising or not!

About Pay Per Post: It's a bloggers dream really. If you like to blog and would like to earn a little money (or a lot if you chose the right opportunities) doing so, then this is something you want to check out. I've seen some great offers and hope to snag some of them myself soon. Pay Per Post lists a variety of topics you can apply for. I've seen some pretty cool products on there too! So we'll see how this goes. I will post a disclosure, as you'll see below, telling you when it's a PPP post so you have no questions about it.

Would love to know your thoughts on this!

New Guest Blogger?

Five days ago we had someone come to live with us. Her name is Jasmine. How long she'll stay I can't really say. At first I wasn't sure how I felt about the new arrangement. I mean, another mouth to feed? Is it really such a good idea? But she's a charmer and I have to admit I'm completely enamored with her now. I'd be very sorry to see her go, so I do hope she'll spend many wonderful years with us.

She seems to have taken a great interest in my work on this blog. I sit down at the computer, start typing, and she's instantly at my side. She wants to push the keys. She wants to move the mouse. Maybe she has something she wants to share with you as well. But I'm not sure I should let her. She probably writes better than I do. And really... who wants to be upstaged by an 8 week old kitten? :0)

Just like a cat. Has to be right in the middle of what you are doing.




Trying to "get" the buttons that make all the noise.





"Forget the magazine. Look at Meeeeeeee!"





Who can resist that face?

Right now she's asleep in my lap, purring. When she's not in my lap, she's sitting on my shoulder. Yep, you read that right. Sitting on my shoulder. I fear she has some identity issues. She thinks she's a parrot. I keep asking her "Kitty want a cracker?" So far she hasn't managed to squawk out a yes. :0)

Not sure about today...

Hi gang! I have several topics I'd dearly love to cover today, as well as talk about another great prize we are offering this month in the giveaway. Sadly, I'm not too sure how far I'll get. Last night something went wrong with my back/shoulder/neck. I bent down to put something in the cabinet and heard a strange sound come from my shoulder area. The next thing I knew it hurt in my neck and shoulder when I tried to use my arms or move my head. I immediately took ibuprofen to help with pain and inflammation. This has helped me with this in the past. Yeah. Unfortunately I'm not new to this problem, as some of you may remember from my posts here and here back in June. It's the same side and everything, so my rotator cuff is probably out again. I had a disc problem several years ago that required meds and physical therapy. Ever since then I've had these episodes on rare occasion.

So anyway, the ibuprofen isn't helping. I got very little sleep last night because I couldn't get comfortable and it hurt every time I tried to move. Needless to say, sitting at the computer isn't exactly comfortable right now. I don't want to aggravate it so I'm probably going to take it pretty easy today and see how it goes. I may have to get myself to a doctor if I don't start loosening up soon.

Summation: I'll get something up for you all later today if my body will allow me. If you don't hear from me today, it might be Monday before I'm able to do much posting again. I'm sure I'll be fine by then. I usually am better within a few days as long as I don't' push it.

Either way, I'd appreciate prayers for healing.