It’s official, 2018 has been one of the most challenging years of my life.
There are people in the world who inspire us to do better and be better. Two of those people are Jeanette Jenkins and Octavia Spencer. Apparently chemo treatment number 3 is not working for my husband and we will start a 4th type of chemo next week.
Update: Chemo #4 has failed and now we are waiting to see what happens next. No matter how hard we get hit, we keep getting up! #ArmyStrong #teamoctaviaspencer
Dear Mr. Mauldin, Mr. Darrow, and Ms. Popp-Hellebuyck
My name is Heather Ross and my husband is Lt. Colonel Gary Ross. We are an active duty military family temporarily staying at the Residence Inn in Denver while my husband receives cancer treatment at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute. When we got here and met with the Oncologist he said that we would be here for a minimum of 6 months or longer; pending the outcome of his chemo treatment. So naturally we wan
ted to get a comfortable La-Z-Boy recliner to provide comfort to him while he recovers from his surgery and upcoming treatments. When we arrived at your store #216 (with our service dog Lucy in tow) we met your associate, Kate and she knew exactly what we wanted. The prices were so good, we ended up purchasing TWO of your recliners!
We explained to Kate that Gary would be having surgery early Wednesday morning (Sept 5th) and that’s why we would like to have the chairs in place prior to that procedure. She said she couldn’t make any promises but would see what she could do.
Tuesday afternoon Kate called and said that due to the Labor Day holiday she couldn’t get a driver to deliver until Wednesday. We explained that we wouldn’t be home all day on Wednesday because of Gary’s surgery but that evening would be okay. She asked if she could call us back after looking at the schedule. We said absolutely and then never heard back from her.
We were sitting in our hotel room having dinner when there was a knock at the door. There standing with recliner #1 was Kate. She had a huge smile on her face and she said that she was delivering our two recliners. We stood there in shock as she rolled the recliner right into the room, put it all together and explained how it worked. My husband is very limited in moving items but we offered to help and she said absolutely not. She went downstairs and in a few minutes she was back at the door with recliner #2.
Again, she rolled it right in and set it up for us. I couldn’t fully express my gratitude because I didn’t want to start “ugly” crying. Cause let’s be honest, once the “ugly” cry happens it’s a hot mess for a solid two hours.
We were floored by Kate’s KINDNESS and her amazing CUSTOMER SERVICE. Amazing customer service and kindness are not often highlighted or appreciated as it should be. In a world of constant bickering and people being mean, when we have something GOOD happen it NEEDS to be celebrated and acknowledged. So please know as a caregiver, Kate is truly a hero and as a military spouse I don’t use that word lightly.
Thank you Kate and La-Z-Boy for allowing my husband the opportunity to come home from surgery and relax comfortably. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making this incredibly difficult time a lot less stressful.
Customers for life and HUGE fans of Kate! 🙂
Gary and Heather Ross
(The picture attached is Gary in his Ted2 outfit in his new recliner. Hey-whatever makes him happy, right?)
I wanted to live dangerously this weekend so I decided to try a healthy option of ice cream. The last time I tried an ice cream that was “sugar free” I came close to blowing a hole through my toilet. All I could remember was how my bowels boxed my colon for about three days.
As I started down the ice cream aisle I found a brand called Enlightened. This ice cream claimed their pints were high in protein and high fiber with low sugar and low fat. What the hell?! I bought two.
I’m proud to say that I made it through the weekend without any explosions from ANY location. To be honest, this ice cream is fantastic! The mint taste compares to the mint chocolate chip at Baskin Robbins. The only difference is after eating THIS ice cream I don’t want to punch myself in the face.
Guilt free ice cream is a dream come true. So stop dreaming friends! Get Enlightened about eating good for you ice cream. (See what I did there?)
BTW: I am not getting paid for this. Although I should! 😂🙌🏼👊🏼
By now you have probably guessed that my weight loss journey has taken a back seat.
Why you ask?
Life.
I could list a million reasons why I haven’t “hit my goal weight” or ran a flippin’ marathon and slapped one of those pretentious 26.2 stickers on the back of my car to show everyone: Look at me, I got my fat ass up off the couch and ran a marathon.
Truth is… I don’t give two shits about running marathons or hitting my goal weight. I’m just trying to survive.
While there are fabulous “Soccer Mom’s” out there… I have to admit that I am one badass “Chemo Mom”. Okay, so I’m driving my husband to and from his chemo appointments, but to be fair he does act like an overgrown teenager all the time at times. (Sorry, honey)
After my husband’s recent diagnosis with Waldenstrom Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma all he wanted was Cracker Jacks. So I was off to find some Cracker Jacks for him and an extremely large bottle of wine for me. The first grocery store was fresh out of CJ’s, so I paid for my groceries and went to the CVS down the street.
As I walked up and down each aisle I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. I wasn’t going to cry. I’m an Army wife and by God I am going to find the damn Cracker Jacks!
I found the peanuts and popcorn section right next to the big red “OUT OF STOCK” sticker under the empty shelf where the Cracker Jacks should have been.
Cue the water works. I sobbed and sobbed over the fact that my husband was going to be dealing with this cancer. I sobbed because I couldn’t find the one thing he wanted at that moment. So I drove to every damn grocery store in Seal Beach until I found the Cracker effing Jacks at Ralph’s. I bought all of them on the rack. Every…single…package.
So we adjust our crowns, take stock of all of the POSITIVE things in our life — like having an amazing medical team at Chao Cancer Center at UC Irvine and we move on with life like a boss. A boss with a shit ton of Cracker Jacks and an oversized empty bottle of wine.
Note: To all the people out there who actually raise little humans, work jobs and maintain your sanity…I bow down to you!
For the longest time I would put other people before myself. I would feel enormous guilt if I wanted to do something for me. After years of counseling I realized that being SELFISH is absolutely OKAY! I’ve heard it before time and time again that I needed to “take care of myself first” but every time I would start, I would feel like I was being selfish. Finally my heart caught up with my brain and now it’s easier to say “no” or opt out of things if they don’t bring me joy or fulfill whatever need it is that I’m longing for.
If you’re in a place where you want to do something that makes you happy, but you are hesitant for whatever reason…go for it! You may feel like you’re being “selfish” but that means you’re doing something right!
When I started eating better I would always grab the mixed salad in the clear containers. No matter how much I would rinse it off, and pat it dry with a paper towel, the salad always felt slimy when I ate it.
A few days ago I was surfing the web and I saw the Taylor Farms “Fresh Handcrafted Salads” on an Instagram post. So I thought what the heck, and purchased a few varieties. I can tell you that hands down this is the BEST salad I’ve ever purchased from the grocery store. You can use the dressing and toppings that come with it or use your own dressing. I add a diced chicken breast and the taste is unbeatable!
It’s one thing to WANT to lose weight, but if you’re eating food that tastes gross or slimy, its only natural to NOT want to eat it. If you’re on the fence, please give this product a try and let me know what you think.
Mayo Clinic launches a revolutionary new alternative to the BMI
The body mass index has been used by the medical community to identify whether someone is the right weight. It’s calculated by dividing your weight by the square of your height. But it’s actually a very archaic system, devised by a Belgian astronomer in the mid-1800s. It showed up in a medical journal in 1972 and has been used ever since. But it is generally considered too broad a measure to accurately identify optimal weight or body fat content.
Mayo Clinic has just launched a new way to measure weight called the Body Volume Indicator, designed to more precisely estimate weight distribution and fat around organs by dividing total volume with abdominal volume. A 3D measurement company called Select Research has developed an iPad app, BVI Pro, that will calculate a person’s BVI with a quick scan. Mayo Clinic is first introducing this new measurement to members of the medical, clinical, and fitness communities, but it hopes that this will eventually become a standard for measuring body mass by 2020, supplementing the BMI.
Yep, it’s that time again when we see these little jerks kiddos at the grocery store entrance selling boxes of Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs, etc. Sure, for most of the people who don’t gain weight just by walking through the frozen foods section, a little Girl Scout table at the front entrance of a grocery store is no big deal.
However, for those of us who see those little minty nuggets of goodness from the parking lot, all we can think of is the delicious taste of the first Thin Mint to hit our lips. Let’s face it, there is NOTHING thin about these mints. N-O-T-H-I-N-G!
As to not get sucked in to the Girl Scout abyss, I prepare ahead of time. I turn off my cell phone so it doesn’t make any noise and I put my car keys in my purse. I lock the car and I head towards the entrance. With the cell phone to my ear, I start talking to myself about anything that may sound important. I usually go with, “The files have been in the office for three weeks.” I say it loud enough so the girls who have locked their eyes on me realize that I am in the middle of a conversation and will not interrupt me to ask if I want to buy their cookies.
The same goes for leaving the grocery store, because yes… they will lock eyes on you again as you leave the check out stand and wait to pounce as you are quickly walking by. Unless, of course, you are on a cell phone talking about the files that have been left at the office.
There you go friends!
1- Turn your cell phone off
2- Place phone to ear
3- Talk about something important as you walk by the Girl Scout table
4- You have successfully bypassed another diet roadblock
You’re welcome!
In this section of Seattle Organic Restaurants I’m going to talk about hams of canned food. No logical, reasonable person would suggest that canned foods and canned fruits and vegetables are as good or better than fresh foods, vegetables, and fruits. It is obvious that fresh is good and retains most of its nutrients. This much, almost no one argues with. But the big question is how bad canned products are, really? Well the answer might surprise you or not.
The most worrisome of all, among canned foods that can harm you, is plastic contaminants in our canned goods. Most canned food these days have a plastic coating inside the can to supposedly keep the food, vegetables, and fruits – fresh. Well, it may keep them more fresh that otherwise without it being stored up inside a metal object, but this comes at the expense of harming you. The inner plastic lining is poisonous at small measures, although FDA tells us that the small amounts should not worry us too much. Well this plastic coating is Bisphenol or BPA for short and it is harmful, first because humans are not suppose to eat plastic material made from crude oil and second because FDA should be honest and tell people the truth rather than serve the interests of big corporations that give it large sums of money through back channel donations and hidden funds through partner organizations.
BPA kills rats in laboratories even at smaller portions, like 1,000 times less than what an average American consumes per meal. I hope soon FDA would do a U-turn on this and come clean and tell people about the harm to humans caused by BPA like they do periodically about drugs which they have claimed for decades to be safe, only to tell us now that they were not safe. I just hope it does not take decades before they try to protect the public against BPA. BPA is a toxic chemical that causes hormone imbalances and wide variety of health issues ranging from hypertension, aggression, obesity to cancer and heart disease. Based on FDA 17% of the American diet comes from canned foods yet there are no regulation or safety standards regarding the amount of BPA in canned foods. A study by Environmental Working Group shows that more than 50% of cans with brand names have toxic BPA in them.
Imported Canned Food is even worse than American Canned Food. In many countries where canned food is cheaper than Europe, Canada and USA, American food corporations are more and more importing to make higher profits, the canned food is even less nutritious than their counterparts in Europe and North America. First the foods are picked when they are not ripe and have 80% less nutrients than a fully ripe fruits and vegetables. Second, the facilities are not as hygienic and inspected on a regular basis as their counterparts in Europe and North America and hence have the cause of a few incidences of outbreaks in the last 20 years, like the famous incident regarding canned green beans from Brazil or the salmonella outbreak from sprouts from Columbia. Less than 2% of canned foods are inspected by FDA or Home Land security or any other organization (e.g. EPA for environmental monitoring). So I would avoid canned food if at all possible. Instead I would recommend, at the least, try glass jars instead of cans for stored foods.
Just as Aluminum pots and pans leak, so do aluminum cans. In fact, what most people are unaware of is that most often foods are put into aluminum cans, then seals, and then cooked, supposedly retain the freshness. Well, it will certainly retain the aluminum free radicals hanging around after heating and contaminating the contents.
Over a period of time Aluminum accumulation in body can cause memory problem like Alzheimer’s. More than 5,000 million pounds of aluminum is used every year for making food cans. Aluminum cans have several advantages for the producer including light weight, compact packaging and lower price. Most canned foods like soups, vegetables, chicken or beef broth and tomato sauces are made of aluminum because it’s more economical.
Some believe that the plastic lining of the aluminum cans are supposed to prevent corrosion and contaminating food with aluminum. But the reality is that most of the time these plastic liners can’t completely protect food against aluminum since cans leak aluminum when heated and while they are sealed – they will contaminate food.
The lovely, no so friendly, preservatives. They are referred to in a dozen different names, and every few months, a new name is established for the same few ingredients that are mixed up to come up with friendly-sounding names. But, the fact is that if it smells like manure, looks like manure, tastes like manure – it is most certainly manure.
These preservatives are kept in state of non-compounding to other molecules with the, yes you guessed it, SALT. Extensive amount of sodium (salt) is used to keep the preservatives in canned food from rotting so that it can keep the food from rotting. Lovely. FDA responds to all this by simply issued a statement, “… there has been no proof that these preservatives would cause major damage to human cells or that they are harmful to mass public”. My interpretation of this is this, “… these preservatives are not drastically harmful towards healthy people, but they may be harmful to pregnant women, babies, children, elderly, or anyone that is suffering from a chronic disease”. That’s just my interpretation.
Let’s be honest with ourselves and admit that if the fruits and vegetables and other ingredients are of high quality, they will be sold fresh and for the highest price possible for a maximum of profit by the distributors.
Now if the quality of the ingredients are not that great or the fruits and vegetables look old and stale or not so healthy, then they will be hidden from the eyes of supermarket shoppers and be forced into a can along with other such low quality food, cooked up in a mass oven while still inside the can and then shipped all over the world and sold may be one or two years later from when they were picked and were prepared. Don’t expect the ingredients inside your canned foods to be of high quality. If you do, then you could buy the London Bridge and thinking that it is the Tower of London Bridge – and the two cannot be more different than one another.
The reality is that your can of pinto beans, tuna or vegetable juice could put your health at risk. 17% of the American diet comes from canned food, is it worth it to contaminate your daily grains, protein or vegetables with aluminum and BPA? FDA has approved aluminum food packaging but as explained there is health risk associated with canned food.
Completely eliminate canned foods and if you are looking for your favorite tomato sauce use the ones in glass jars. Don’t consume vegetables or grains in cans, simply buy fresh ones. The risk of developing many chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, nervous system disorder and Alzheimer’s goes down by consuming fresh foods that do not have any packaging.
This is Lucy (Lou-C) and she is the newest addition to our family. You may be wondering how does THIS have anything to do with eating healthy? Well, the truth is she brings us so much joy and happiness. Which is something that everyone needs in their life no matter how much weight you need to lose.
Additionally, if my personal health wasn’t enough to motivate me to get out and walk, the look she gives me when she grabs her leash and runs for the door is more than enough motivation.
Here she is in her 1st Halloween costume. 🙂
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