The Outspoken Mom Blog

Day 6 and random life things.

Good Afternoon Everyone!

Ok, wow, I made it to Day 6 of the Master Cleanse!  Who knew?

So, I am still on it, still doing great and still full of energy.  I played soccer last night and the only issue I had was I had to pee during the 1st half other than that, my energy level was high and normal and all good.

Wow, I am really impressed with this cleanse!  I can't believe it and I am just floored by it.  Last night instead of doing the salt water flush because I got home from soccer so late, I did a cup of Smooth Move tea instead.  Ok, the name just cracks me up...anyone else think that is really funny?

I also started one of the July books for book club last night too as I laid in bed sipping my Smooth Move tea.  Our book club is reading a book by Laura Flynn called, "Swallow the Ocean".  It is really so far a good book.  It seems to be interesting as it is a true story, which I like, about a mother who is slipping into schizophrenia in front of her 3 daughters.  It is listed as a memoir, which I don't normally like, so we will see if it turns out good or not.

As I read books from our book club, I do list them on the blog site and rate them so, if ever you are looking for something to read, please check out that list.  I am not sure I will read the other book for July book club.  I can't remember who wrote it but, it is called "Austenland".  I had no clue what it was about but, after reading the back cover, YUCK, no thanks.  It is some dumb book about a woman obsessed with Jane Austen and her books and wondering if she will ever meet her own Mr. Darby from Pride and Prejudice.  What?!  She is hoping her fantasy Austenland will bring her a man or something like that.  Ick, gag.  SO not my type of book.  My husband laughed when I read the back cover to him.  To me it sounds like a romance book that some high school girl would read....love you girls in my book club but, icky on the book :-)

Ok back to the cleanse for a little bit.  I am really still wanting to eat.  However, not the humongous amounts I used to eat or the crap either.  I have not craved sugar or candy or anything since the cleanse started.  I really just miss eating with my children.  Steve and I were talking this morning and I told him I would probably continue drinking this lemonade deal as a meal replacement.  He said he read that a lot of people do that after their cleanse.  So, my thought is after Monday when we end the cleanse, I will probably go back to eating breakfast and dinner which are two of the main meals in our family and we eat them together.  Then, for lunch I will just have my 'lemonade' instead of a meal.  I don't really like lunch all that much anyway as it is mostly a sandwich meal and since I don't eat wheat...who cares if you don't eat at that meal?!

We also got another good piece of advice on eating which made a lot of sense to me, might not to you but, here goes anyway.  A business contact of Steve's was telling him that when he lost all of his weight, he started thinking of food very differently especially his meals.  He said to think of your stomach like your gas tank on your car.  Instead of every time it gets a little low and then filling it up all the way full, let it get empty and then only put $3-5 worth of 'gas' in it at a time. (I told Steve there is a BIG difference between $3-5 worth of gas in our convertible vs our Yukon...I told him I didn't think I could live on $3-5 worth of 'gas' in the Yukon but, definitely that much in the convertible.  See...$25 fills our convertible, it takes $75 to fill the truck)

So, you let yourself get hungry before you actually eat something but, then you only put enough food into your stomach to get it off of empty.  You never want your stomach to be 'full'.  I like that analogy.  Steve and I were giggling when he told me about it because we both are the type of people that like to feel like Thanksgiving everyday.  We like that over stuffed feeling people normally get just once a year at Thanksgiving....that is why it is one of our favorite holidays!

So, I will now start thinking of my stomach as a gas tank and only put $3-5 worth of 'gas' into it when it is empty.  That to me means ordering the 1/2 salad instead of the full, eating off the appetizer menu instead of the full dinner menu and sharing dishes with my hubby.  It is going to take a lot of retraining as me just typing this I am protesting sharing anything when it comes to food!  Isn't that pathetic?!

After the cleanse I am also going to live by the rule I used to have for years and for some reason gave up on.  But, the rule is to always drink, at least, one full glass of water before eating anything.  Did you know that most of the time when you think you are hungry your body is really just thirsty?  So, if you drink a glass of plain old water first, your hunger might just go away.

This is the hardest part of any life change....actually changing your life.  It is easy to diet, it is easy to cleanse, those are only temporary!  But, to actually make a change in your life, that is difficult and requires a lot of changing the way you think about things.  I am a gorger, it will be difficult to believe I can live on small portions and be happy but, I can and I will.

Blessings to you all and please continue to cover me in prayer!  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!

-Liza

Super Bowl commercials and good books

Good Afternoon everyone!

So, how great was the Super Bowl last night?!   I do have to apologize to all of the Arizona fans though.  I am a jinx.  Always have been, I am sorry.

I couldn't handle watching the game anymore because I felt like Arizona was losing because I was cheering for them so, I left the game and went upstairs to put 3 of my children to bed.  I stayed upstairs until my hubby ran upstairs and told me I HAD to come down.  For Arizona had gotten a safety and were just about to score.

I was very excited and ran downstairs just in time to see the amazing run by Fitzgerald.  Well, I should have left after wards and I am sorry I continued to watch and cheer. 

Now, my husband doesn't believe me about me being a jinx however, for all of you from Minnesota....how often has Minnesota been in the playoffs and gone to the Super Bowl?  Yep. 

Seriously, I think my hubby is finally starting to believe me.  As last night he admitted, he doesn't believe I am a jinx however, it is a bit freaky how often a team I am cheering for falls apart when I am watching and does so well when I am not.

So, I guess I should probably apologize to all the Vikings Fans out there too.  As I bleed purple and gold and gosh darn if our boys can't pull it together!

So anyway.  I do have to say the commercials were some of the best I have seen in a long time.  I am a HUGE Super Bowl commercial person.  I will say though, some flopped BIG time.  I LOVE Budweiser and they usually have pretty good commercials but, the one last night about the two horses being in love and running away together, that was dumber than dumb.

I also wasn't too impressed with GoDaddy's commercials however, I bet it got A LOT of people to their website!  So, from a marketing stand point, I think they blew everyone else out of the water however, from a parental stand point...I had to send my son out of the room every time one of their commercials came on!

How about that great Bud Light commercial with Conan?  Wow, was that funny.  Also, I LOVED the 1 second High Life commercial, I think more companies should do stuff like that.

We really liked the 3D commercial for the new movie coming out from Pixar....can't remember the name but, cool commercial.  OH, the Sobe water commercial in 3D after wards was really funny too.

I think Pepsi blew Coke out of the water with their great commercials!  However, one Coke commercial rocked....the Coke Zero one...that was super funny.

What were your faves?

I also finished my book club book and am about 1/2 done with my Bible Study for tomorrow so, I feel like I am on task there.  Now, if only my house were in order again...Blech.

I will say, I highly recommend the book, "Beneath the Marble Sky"  great book.  It was hard to read at the same time doing Bible Studies though because I was finding myself mixing up the two.  Oh yes, I am very capable of that!  In the book they had very strong religious beliefs and it was set around the time of the Taj Mahal and they were Muslim, seriously, hard to read while reading the Bible too.

But, a good love story based on fact but, fiction about the building of the Taj Mahal and the family and empire around it.  So, check it out if you can.

Our next book is Revolutionary Road which is also a movie right now.  I wanted to see that movie before we picked out the book but, now I can't until I read the book and that is our Feb/Mar book.

Anyone have any other really good book ideas for our next books for book club?  At our next meeting in a couple weeks we will pick out another book and I would love to suggest something!

Oh, I need to go, my daughter is just about to get off the bus. 

Blessings to you all,

Liza

Book Club and it's stresses.

Good morning everyone!

So my baby...well, my 5 year old baby, is sick again today.  It makes me so sad because she is the one who just sits there looking so sad and her eyes are constantly watering as she is trying to hold back tears.  It breaks my heart when she gets sick.  She is carrying her little bowl around and laying on the couch when she doesn't feel like she is going to throw up.  She hasn't eaten anything in over 24 hours, oh my poor baby!

We are taking her in this morning to see if she has the flu.  Hopefully the doctor will take the focus off of me not giving her a flu shot and be able to keep it on my sick 5 year old.

So, last night was my first book club.  YES, I just started a Bible Study for the first time on Tuesday and now I am in a book club for the first time too, all in one week.  Let me tell you, I probably should have been in a book club years ago.  I just sat on the couch and listened to all the ladies discuss all these authors and books and realized, I had never heard of one.  Seriously, they had read them all!  So, I started making jokes when I noticed a title that had also become a movie.  Seriously, unless some of these books hadn't become a movie, I wouldn't have heard of ONE!

I was thinking back, when does reading begin?  Like reading for pleasure, I guess it really never happened for me.  Or actually, I do go in spurts.  I am one of those people though that will never go out of my comfort zone with anything, including reading.  If I haven't heard a bunch about something or whatever, I won't do it.

I do remember when I was growing up LOVING the V.C. Andrews books and how I would get a new one and I would read it in a day or less.  However, I think my deal with reading is I get too involved with characters and the books really start to blur reality for me.

I am really big into Nelson Demille, he by far is my favorite author however, he only comes out with a new book every other year.  HELLO?!  Doesn't he know I read his new books in a couple days?!  I have yet to get his newest book.  I asked for it for Christmas but, alas, no one gave it to me :-(

I have also discovered as I have gotten older, I really only like reading Hardcovers.  The paperbacks always are flimsy and the ink seems to get on my fingers a lot more, sort of like a newspaper.  I know, I am weird, you are just figuring this out now?!

So, we picked out, actually, they picked out our first and 2nd books.  The first one is something about a marble ceiling or something and the other one is something about revolutionary or something.

Oh yes, I really tried to listen, I really tried.  I couldn't do it.  Once I realized how behind and really how little reading I do and how these books all sounded like one chick flick after the other, I spaced out.  I am really trying to become sort of, 'one of the moms'.  Hard to explain but, I really am not involved in a lot of activities with other women.  I never really have been.  I have always stayed away or on the outer fringes of groups and such. 

As I am starting this Bible Study and this book club, I am really trying to expand my world and get out there more but, wow, this is going to take a lot of energy and time for me.  I am not organized, and I am not very good socially.  So, these two things are really going to test my skills in both areas far more than they have been tested in a long time.

I know that my children will be better for having a mother who is more well rounded (and not just in the hips!) and is able to have friends and social groups.  However, after last night, I am not sure if I am that woman!  Don't get me wrong, our book club is only once a month, I definitely will continue with the book club however, the social part of it all, might be too much to handle for me. 

As I sat there last night, listening to one woman after another after another talk and discuss things I had no clue about and then, people I didn't know, places I wasn't sure about and such, I realized, that isn't me at all!

I don't know a lot of people and I don't know a lot about things however, I am very happy and I love my life and my family so, I feel that is ok.  I will say it, I felt very uneducated last night.  VERY!  I don't like that feeling.  I haven't felt it in a long time but, I did last night.  I also felt way in over my head socially as they continued to bring up more and more people that are going to be joining this book club.  How on earth do you type a scream?!!! 

So, I am being tested, I am being pulled, and I feel doubt sinking in.  I know I am smart, I know I am educated, I know I have friends, and I know well, no, I still know I am not good socially.  However, I guess this is one of those teaching moments.  I guess it is true that life is always a lesson.  You always have something to learn and you can never know enough or too much.

Ok, I get that.  I think some of my stress also comes from the family side too.  All of a sudden I am doing something not only on Wednesday nights(soccer) but, now one Thursday a month I am doing something else in the evening.  This is going to cause some strive down the road, I know it.  It already started last night because the baby was up a lot while I was gone and Steve needs to go to bed early since he gets up so early.

Or, is this just another excuse?  Is this just another way that Satan is trying to keep me out of the word and trying to turn me from God and his people?  Or is this just my own insecurities rising up?

Whatever the case, I am stressed today, very stressed however, I can do it, I know once I pick up that book and read it and get going into this club, I can do it.  I also know that my stress level and anxiety level will be high with each group until I get more comfortable with some of the ladies I don't know.  Come on Liza!  You know 3 other ladies in there, get over yourself!

Anyway, I need to focus on my 5 year old and I need to do all my daily things, laundry, cleaning, and I need to find some time to study for Tuesday.

Blessings to you all,

-The basketcase :-)  Liza

My references

By the way, I need to give credit where credit is due....I am not the genius researcher behind all of the Christmas information....I am getting these things from a book called The Adventure of Christmas by Lisa Whelchel (yes Blair from Facts of Life)  It is a great book.  Another great book on finding family traditions for all year round not just Christmas is Creating Family Traditions by Gloria Gaither and Shirley Dobson. 

I love that book too, it talks about creating traditions for everything from starting school to the 4th of July to New Year's to Family Reunions.

I hope you will check out these great books.

-Liza