Author Archives: Manda

It’s been awhile since my last blog post. There really isn’t a good reason for why I haven’t blog much this past year. It’s just that I seemed to have lost my blogging mojo. Years ago, I would post regularly, but as I have gotten older, I find that it’s getting harder and harder to make time to post. I always say that this month will be different, that I will post more, but it never happens. So I’m not going to make any promises, I’m just going to go with the flow and if I feel like blogging, great! If not, well that’s okay too.

Anyway, I was able to find a home for the white stray kitten (see this post if you don’t know what I’m taking about), but the ginger and tabby kittens are still looking for their “furever” home. I have been trying to talk Mike into letting me keep the tabby kitten since that’s the one he likes the best, but so far it’s a no go.

Here in a week, we will be going to Tsubasacon! This will be mine and Raven’s third time attending and Mike’s second. Raven’s boyfriend is going as well. My cosplay isn’t even close to being done, but that’s because it was a last minute idea that I came up with last week. Mike still has some work to do on his and Raven’s is pretty much done, we just need to dye her hair.

I’m going as Barf from Spaceballs

Mike is going as Pyramid Head from the Silent Hill games/movies

Raven and her boyfriend are going as Columbia and Eddie from Rocky Horror Picture Show

I’m hoping that we can actually pull it all off. Sometimes, the ideas you have in your head don’t turn out as good as you originally thought. For example, I decided to make my version of Barf without the wig or mullet like hair and instead just keep my hair long or in ponytails. We will see how it actually turns out.

At the end of June, Mike and I went to Myrtle Beach for a week. Raven didn’t want to go (she said her vacation was having the house to herself for the week) so she stayed home and took care of the cats. To say I was nervous about being away from her and the cats for a week is a bit of an understatement. I called her daily and texted her several times throughout the day for the entire week. I think she got a little perturbed about how many times I was bothering her. If that is how I act when I’m away from her for a mere 7 days, how am I going to handle it when she goes off to college in about a month?

Anywho, despite the worrying about Raven and the cats, I had a great time. Spent the week swimming in the pool, playing in the ocean, walking along the beach, shopping and eating way to much!

We, well mostly I, have already decided that if we take a vacation to the beach again next year, Raven and the cats are coming with us.

So, on to the pictures. Click on the thumbnail to view larger size.

And finally, two videos of sharks at Ripley’s Aquarium.

Tomorrow is the end of week two on the Whole30 diet and, despite the temptations, we’re doing pretty darn good. The hardest part is grocery shopping. We have to check labels because you wouldn’t believe the things that they sneak sugar into. Some of the fresh chicken breasts in the meat department even have sugar added to it. Like what? Why the hell does fresh chicken breasts need sugar? It’s a pain in the ass. Most prepackaged items have unnecessary sugar, corn syrup, dextrose or any of the other 50+ names manufacturers use to hide added sugar. It’s astonishing and more than a bit scary. I mean, if I have a candy bar or a piece of cake, I know I’m consuming an abundance of sugar. But sugar in taco seasoning!? And on that note, I’m looking forward to watching the documentary Fed Up, which is about added sugar in processed foods.

Anyway, because we’re at the halfway mark, I went ahead and weighed myself. And I lost 4 more pounds! That’s a total of 6 pounds in 2 weeks. So, I am pretty happy about that. Two more weeks to go and then we can, if desired, start to reintroduce foods back into our diet. I think, however, that, after this month, we are going to maintain some portion of the Whole30 diet. That doesn’t mean I won’t eat candy, cookies, ice cream, cake, excreta because there is no way I can not have those things for the rest of my life. But I think we will contain to pay attention to labels, try to avoid added sugars and limit the amount of “junk” we eat.

So, tomorrow makes a week of us being on the Whole30 plan and it’s going OK. There are, of course, things I miss. Like cheese on my burgers. If you know me, you know that my number one food of choice is cheeseburgers. When we go out to eat, I will order a cheeseburger 99-percent of the time. I just love them. But since dairy is not allowed on the Whole30 plan, my burgers are cheese-less, which sucks a little. But hey, at least I get to eat burgers.

I also miss my water enhancer that I add to my water. Since January 2014, I switched to drinking water most of the time. Every once in awhile, I would have a cup of apple juice or something like that, but water was my drink of choice. And I would add a few squirts of black raspberry tea water enhancer, which has sucralose in it. But since this diet says No! to sugar and artificial sweeteners, I have to give up water enhancer up for the month.

Miniature Reese’s cups is another weakness of mine that I am craving like crazy. The regular size Reese’s cups and the Reese’s cup minis I couldn’t care less about. The either have too much peanut butter or too much chocolate to peanut butter ratio. But the Reese’s miniatures have the perfect amount of peanut butter to chocolate and they taste so damn good.

But besides those three items, I think I’m doing pretty good. One thing I did do that was a big No-No was stepping on the scale. With the Whole30, you’re not supposed to weigh yourself for the entire time you are on the program. But, if you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know the mental struggle I have with not stepping on the scale. I get anxious if I don’t know how much a weigh. So, on Wednesday morning, I stepped on the scale. And I had lost 2 pounds! Now, I know how weight works. And I know it fluctuates like crazy from day to day. But to say I was happy to see a loss, no matter how small, on the scale is a bit of an understatement. I was ecstatic! Two pounds in five days is pretty darn good. This plan, however, is not supposed to be about weight loss. It’s more about detoxing so-called “bad” food out of your body and hopefully learning how to eat to live and not live to eat.