Allow Myself to Introduce... myself....

Well Heeeelllllooooooo!!!!

(Said in loud, bellowing, Jerry Seinfeld voice... you know, the one where the whole episode he does the voice that he thinks his girlfriend's stomach would sound like?? You don't know? OK, never mind.)



Ok, I'm gonna give this another shot. I loved blogging. Loved it. But it takes time! And I know all you mothers of small children with busy schedules are like, what?? You don't have time?? Are you crazy? Well, no. I'm not crazy and yes. I don't have time for everything. Who does?

Lately I have taken up digital scrapbooking due to some not-so-gentle prodding by my sisters and mom. They have a vested interest in this hobby since they run a pretty successful online-scrapping business found at www.weedsandwildflowersdesign.com. You can find it here. So that has consumed a lot of my computer time. And everyone knows that when one thing gets added to your plate, something else falls off. Well, for the past 6 months, that was blogging. And since I'm blogging today guess what doesn't get done? My hair? Maybe. The clean dishes put away? Hmmm, maybe. Some digital scrapping? Definitely. Ah well, such is life.

So, what shall the topic of my big triumphant return to blogging be about? An update of the last 6 months?? Nope. Too much work. Let's pick up right at today and go on from there. Updating the events of my last few months is too time consuming and is one of the reasons why I have avoided blogging for so long!

Oh, but yes, we did go to Australia. And YES, it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Pictures have been posted on my facebook page for months so if you're not my FB friend I guess you'll just have to miss out on the pictures of Heaven-on-Earth-white-sandy-beaches-clear-blue-water-incredible-food-etc.-etc.-etc. Moving on.

So, another thing that many of my friends and family already know is that I have been dealing with a little health issue for almost two years now, of which I'm not really gonna go into too many details about. Don't worry, it's nothing life-threatening and I think I'll probably make it. If you really wanna know what it is, just ask. Seriously. It's not embarrassing or anything, but still not something I want to post for the whole world to see. So. I have been playing around with different doctors and different treatments for a couple years now and each new avenue leads to something else. One doctor leads to the referral of another. Every. Single. Time. It's crazy because it just keeps getting more and more specialized with every referral. I mean, if you had hiccups for a week, I bet 7 referrals later you'd find yourself at a doctor who specializes in pre-menopausal-female-lung-abnoralities-who-were-born-in-the-month-of-July-and-like-to-sleep-in-a-curled-fetal-position. Trust me. There's a doctor for that.

Since it's no secret that I love to work out and watch what I eat in the form of tracking calories, my most recent doctor-specialist sent me to a nutritionist just to make sure I was getting sufficient dietary intake and that I wasn't overdoing the workouts while underdoing the eating. And although the nutritionist determined that I was definitely eating enough (duh! I love food too much to restrict it that much!) she concluded that I also ate too much junk. Oops. And that I should actually lose a few pounds. Of fat. Yikes.

AND NOW, THIS BRINGS ME TO THE TOPIC OF TODAY'S POST!!! FINALLY!!

Drum roll please................................................................................................................................


AMY'S NEW DIET. DOCTOR'S ORDERS.

I've been getting lots of questions from people about what this lady said I should be doing. Well, she definitely did a number on my diet, that's for sure. And I'm going to be following this strictly for one month to see how things feel. She even banned some of the things I thought were "healthy"!!

Goodbye Lean Cuisines. Goodbye Clif Bars. I will surely miss you. And goodbye Kashi-Go Lean! Crunch.... hello Kashi-Go Lean! (I will miss you "Crunch"!) Yes, those are two seperate cereals.

Oh, and goodbye calorie counting, hello portion counting!

This way of eating is very close to a South Beach Diet-esque approach, and even similar to the new and improved Atkins Diet. Very low grains, and absolutely under no circumstances would you allow simple carbs! No, no, no. No! Guess what that means? NO SUGAR!! No sugary snacks, no junky chocolate, no ice cream, no cookies, no brownies. No, no, no. No! Again.

She thinks my body is pretty intolerant to grains and starches in high amounts. And I'll admit. I was eating lots of cereal, pretzels, crackers, breads, granola bars, trail mixes, and ummmmm... sugars. So this is sure to do a number on the ol' system.

Wow, this post is getting really long. Is anyone reading anymore? Maybe I will stop here and then post what the diet even consists of later. What I CAN eat. Etc. Etc. Yup. I'll do that. Leave ya'll in suspense! How much fun is that??