I used to run 30-day challenges on Facebook. The first one that was literally life-changing was a 30-day no-added-sugar challenge. What does that mean? For a month, 29 people opted into no food or drinks with added sugar. White sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, cane sugar, powdered sugar. Doesn’t matter. But that also includes corn … Read more
Won’t hurt yours, either! When I made the ice cream restriction, it wasn’t my whole diet I was worried about. No major health issues—that happened later. No guilt. I just realized that eating ice cream in large servings multiple times on most days of the week year round was not a good habit and I … Read more
We’ve been duped. We’ve been trained to believe that we’re not clean unless the cleaner is bubbly. We’ve been trained to believe that we need a different type of cleaner for every surface in our homes. We’ve been trained to believe that we need a lot of it in order for it to be effective. … Read more
I have a large contingent of musicians and music teachers in my social circle. One of them posted this on Facebook: I have a student who has repeatedly suggested that I’m good at playing instruments simply because it comes easy for me … I finally told her, “I’m good at instruments because I’ve been practicing them … Read more
When I graduated from college in 1999, I was pretty heavy — over 200 pounds on my 5-foot-4-inch frame. Near the end of my first year living on my own, I decided that something needed to change, so I made a new rule: I will eat ice cream no more than once per day. If … Read more
The short version: my goal is to help people be educated so they can make decisions in an informed way. I am not trying to scare people or to be a downer, though I acknowledge that these days, most of the news is bad news. The fact is that in a capitalistic society, the main … Read more
The Kid was in a bad mood this weekend. Easy to inadvertently poke without any discernible reason. Sunday night, after another large incident over a benign thing, the three of us sat down and had a conversation to try to figure out what was actually going on. Turns out, he had read something in one … Read more
June 15, 2000 Dear 35-year-old Heat, I’ve finally admitted to myself something that I’ve been denying or avoiding for a long time: I’m fat, and I’m rapidly getting fatter. I’m 70 pounds heavier than I was when I graduated high school just 7 years ago. I could blame it on genetics, Heat. Mom is fat. … Read more
The Kid has been very interested in astronomy off and on. He’s “on” right now, wants to be an astronaut engineer when he grows up (his definition of that varies), reads about space, watches videos about space. Right now, space is where it’s at. Coincidentally, right now, Jupiter is visible to the naked eye. And … Read more
A few years ago, I bought a course by Brené Brown through Udemy. The course is no longer available for purchase, but I still have access to it and go through part or all of it from time to time. At one point, she said (paraphrased), “85% of adults interviewed remember something so shaming from … Read more