We Have A Winner!

WHAT A MONTH! What an inspiring group of people to travel with down this road to healthier habits. I wish every one of you could win the gift card.

However, one name has been drawn and it is: JOOLZMAC!!

Joolz, congratulations to you! Please email me at robynnsravings at gmail dot com to tell me how to contact you. I will be sending this directly to you through Amazon.

(I’m sure they would have thrown this party in your honor!)

I can’t wait to interview Joolzmac and find out about her month, her challenges, her successes, and her tips.

Don’t forget, tomorrow we start our 30 Day Throw Down! exercise focus. That will look different for each one of us. Mine might be aerobic crying fits while I MAKE myself do what I need to but we’re in this together. I won’t fail you!

Be sure to enter the drawings for October by signing up to follow, if you don’t already, and sending me a comment saying you’re joining or you’re continuing. Yay for ALL of us!

Copyright 2009

Yep…..Almost

If you’ve been part of the 30 Day Throw Down! and you signed up to follow, you are entered in the drawing for the $100 Amazon Gift Card. The drawing is TOMORROW! The winner will be announced by 6:00p.m., PST. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, the 30 Day Throw Down! is about creating new habits that optimize health and, depending on how you’re fitting it into your life and working it, weight loss, too.

The program is designed to work in one-month increments for a year. Our first month focused on “throwing down” fast food and highly processed foods while reaching for REAL and WHOLE food. We have tried to make organic and locally grown choices, when possible. We will continue to leave the food behind that robs us of health and bring our new habits into our next 30 Day period. If you weren’t perfect through the first month (and who WAS? – we are all about changes and progress, NOT perfection!) you’re one of us and I encourage you to CONTINUE!

You have friends and fellow strugglers who want to jump into healthier ways of living rather than being the proverbial frog who is slowly boiled alive. Remember him? He starts off in a pan of cold water and slowly, tiny bit by tiny bit, the water is heated almost imperceptibly until it’s boiling and too late for the frog who never jumped out. We’re jumpin’ out – together!

If you weren’t ready or able to join us the first month, start with us on October 1st. I encourage you to begin with the basic first month of leaving fast-food and highly processed foods behind (you can access the archives at the 30 Day Throw Down! blog for good information and support). Since this will always run in one-month increments you can work with us from the beginning knowing we’re continuing to focus on that area, too. And although each month will feature posts about what we’re currently working on, food posts will be a consistent part because we eat every day, several times a day. We make choices about our health whenever we reach for food.

October will add the element of movement and exercise. Fall is in the air in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern. What better time to get outdoors and enjoy the weather? You can do both 30 Day periods together if you’re just joining us, but the philosophy of this program is to take one area of focus at a time and slowly add to it, in 30 Day (or one month) increments. This optimizes your chances of success. When we start with drastic changes everywhere, we rarely stay with it for long. Ask yourself how many weight loss programs you’ve started and stopped even though you KNEW at the beginning, this was IT? History and research show it rarely works. The 30 Day Throw Down! is a completely different approach. We slowly build in great habits while we work together, encouraging one another. And there is no weekly fee or pre-packaged food to buy because this isn’t a fad diet or a fast fix. This is a grass-roots way to add healthy changes to your life. It’s about getting back to basics. Check it out at 30 Day Throw Down!

In addition to community support, we will also have a drawing or two each month. October will feature dinner at Chipotle as well as book giveaways starting with Real Food and Real Food for Mother And Baby, both by Nina Planck, who has graciously and generously donated books to the cause. Chipotle has also donated meals to support our efforts here. If you don’t know, Chipotle offers a healthy menu of food from sustainable sources and animals raised in natural and humane environments. They are committed to doing business in a way that optimizes our food choices and actually nourishes us instead of simply filling our stomachs. They have restaurants in many locations (including one opening in London) but if they aren’t in your area and you happen to win, pop the certificate into a card and send it as a gift to someone you love (or who you’re hoping will love YOU!) :)

Congratulations to everyone who made the decision this month to optimize your health now and in the future. A gift certificate is great but health is better and lasts longer. We all win by taking care of the body God gave us. I thank you for jumping in with me for this first 30 Days! Let’s keep going and encouraging each other.

Now let’s eat. For REAL!

Copyright 2009

Irony

Having posted my Observational Twitter yesterday, and not happily anticipating a haircut that was WAY overdue because of a less-than-favorable outcome last time, my daughter called and asked me if I wanted to go for drop-in hair cuts last night. I had been at a funeral earlier in the day and spent the afternoon with my mother and stepfather at the hospital. (He has been ill for years and took a turn for the worse.) I was in need of a dose of joy. Did I need a drop-in hair cut? Do I dare after what I just wrote?

All I have to say is, "Chim, my little hair dresser? I love you. What a great job you did. I actually felt GORGEOUS when I left. (Of course, Cinderella woke up this morning but the Ball was fun while it lasted!) And I had a date night with my daughter who IS actually still gorgeous this morning. And we talked and lingered and life was rich, even after a haircut. Maybe, even because of it.

Dinner with your daughter on a coupon? Affordable

Drop-in styling salon? Inexpensive

Sitting at dinner with someone you adore and both of you basking in the glow of a hair cut gone right? Priceless.


Copyright 2009

Observational Twitter 22

Famous Quote:

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." ~from The Mourning Bride (1697) by William Congreve

Obscure Quote:

"Scorned is child's play compared to the fury of a woman with a bad haircut." ~Robynn

Copyright 2009

Crabby Tales From The Crypt(ic)

I’m sick of sick people.

I see them when I look in the mirror. They are in my bed. They are whining, clingy, needy, lazy, pathetic, dejected, and smelly. And that’s just me.

Grizzly is far worse…….no, really. He missed all of last week except Monday (I mean, I did too unless you count cooking and waiting on people and cleaning.) He tried to go to work Friday but didn’t make it and came home. He was a positive invalid all weekend. He tried to go to work on Monday but came home again in dire straits. The stomach portion of this virus attacked him within an hour of reporting for work. He is better this afternoon and evening. And I think he plans on going to work tomorrow. Please, Lord, let him be WELL.

Surely it must be. I cannot live in this frat house a moment longer. I can barely write or educate my child. I can’t keep anything cleaned up or put away. Forget laundry. I’m wearing my underwear inside out. Shoot, I'm wearing his underwear inside out. I'm the lone cook and bottle washer. Bo is gone for all intents and purposes except on weekends, The Wild Man is only now making his full recovery, and I am possibly, this evening, finally feeling as though I might be able to stop the barking seal imitation. Though a lot of good it’s done me. No one has even thrown me a fish. That might be too much like cooking!

Do I sound testy to you?

I am desperate for cleanliness. I am insane with the sound of opening and closing drawers, refrigerator doors, pantries, cupboards, laptops, and vitamin bottles. EVERY DRAWER IN MY HOUSE SQUEAKS ON ITS RUNNERS and has for YEARS. (Oh my good glory. The junk drawer just opened and closed for the 780th time since I’ve been writing.) And no one gets anything out and puts it away. NO ONE.

(I’m running away to wherever this chick is. Scoot over, Betty, and pass the “Lucosade,” if that’s what we’re calling it. And by the way, how’d you get THIS gig? I need lessons.)

Perhaps I should mention that I’m also worried I might be a vampire.

No, I have no taste for blood. But I also have no reflection. I couldn’t have. I don’t see Grizzly hovering by my side of the bed asking about my health, offering water, feeling my head, imploring me to eat well, to rest. I’m positive that must be due to my invisibility. Nothing else would make the least sense. A lone flower would change my life. One cup of soup that I didn’t prepare myself might send me into paroxysms of rapture Scarlett O’Hara couldn’t have adequately dramatized.

Oh, yes. I know I’m having a pity party. It’s the only socializing I’m up to. But don’t worry. I’ll do all the work and clean up after myself. It’s what I do!

Copyright 2009

Drop in to 30 Day Throw Down! and get your answers about raw milk, soy milk, and REAL FOOD.

The Feverish Mind

Sickness gave me time to gaze out the window.

Summer’s Tantrum

Summer has been a petulant child
refusing to loose its grip on the heat
of scorching sun.
It bullies the breeze and keeps billowy clouds hiding
in mountain shadows.

Summer will not let Autumn play.

But today, watching green leaves bounce in the wake
of a stealthy gust
I witness the Relentless lift its head
draw breath
and heave a sullen sigh.

Promised glimmers of hue and glow are heralded
on the stage of memory.
A timid cloud scurries across the sky and
escorts me toward my seat
to watch the scene unfold.

Autumn will have her way.

~Robynn (Copyright 2009)

Painting by John Everett Millais

1829-1896

New Post at 30 Day Throw Down! Please drop in and join us. I'm actually still a humor writer over there. But then, I presume a great deal.

A Father's Heart

As I bark and cough at the monitor I’m gazing into, I find myself deplorably lacking in humor. I also apologize for not visiting around. I know you will understand when I tell you we are laid up and laid out. I hope I can at least offer a breath of inspiration. Be glad I'm not there to breathe anything else on you.

The father in this video is beyond my realm of personal experience or comprehension. He is the polar opposite of what I witnessed. The same is true for some of you, I know. I’ve read the posts and felt the pain you have endured. Others of you will recognize this dad in a heartbeat because you have (or had) one with the same heart, or you ARE a dad who loves at this level. I can’t tell you what happiness and hope that gives me. I smile with each story of love, humor, and sacrifice. So, you’ll forgive me if I steer you to this meaningful piece while I go toast it with a nod to my cough medicine.

Dick Hoyt is a shining example of what it means to have the heart of Christ. The media never fail to portray Christians in an unfavorable light and frankly, we sometimes do a pretty good job shooting ourselves – or others - in the foot. But the real thing? A person with a true heart for God and people? Now that is a lovely thing to look upon.

An excerpt from an article about this father/son team has this to say, “When asked if he has questioned God why his son has had to undergo such difficulties, Dick is philosophical. ‘We don’t know why,’ he says. ‘We didn’t dwell on why. I believe God has used Rick to help others. He’s been a pioneer. Any time someone wants to try something new, they go to Rick because he’s got the patience and personality to handle everything. He understands their frustrations and hopes.” To read the full article go here: http://www.southerngospel.com/Family/Parenting/1271755/

Copyright 2009