Plateau

Is it possible to start out on a plateau or is my scale just playing tricks on me? I've started eating less and moving more and still ever other day I've lost or gained the same 5 pounds...which reminds me, I need to take some "before" pics. I've been avoiding salt and caffeine like the plague although I've never had a problem with either one. I've even started forcing myself to eat one square of dark chocolate everyday which has been a real struggle.....NOT! Has anyone else heard about the latest health benefits found in dark chocolates? You can read about it via the link. I'll eat my chocolate until they come out next month and tell everyone that eating dark chocolate causes babies to be born with two heads and pee to turn an unnatural shade of neon purple. I guess on the upside of all this I have been feeling a little better and that's what this whole adventure is all about. I'm learning to read labels and make healthier food choices. I never realized all the crap I was eating and in turn feeding to my kid. Now that's one hell of a wakeup call.

Speaking of wakeup call, and it may be that crazy hippy in me but I've become obsessed with all things green. I'm not talking about the color but the healthy options out there for my family and the environment. Since becoming a mother I worry more about the legacy I will leave behind and the environmental impact I have and how it will affect future generations. It's a lot to think about. I could go on for a loooong time about all that but that's for a different blog. There is a show on the Discovery Health channel called Get Fresh with Sara Snow that I've found really interesting. I don't get that channel at home but I watched it while visiting my parents last week. There were a couple points brought up that have really stuck with me. The first was about how babies nowadays are born with traces of industrial chemicals in their bloodstream. Click here to read about it. Here's a excerpt which pretty much sums it up...for all those non-clickers out there!

In a study spearheaded by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) in collaboration with Commonweal, researchers at two major laboratories found an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants in umbilical cord blood from 10 babies born in August and September of 2004 in U.S. hospitals. Tests revealed a total of 287 chemicals in the group. The umbilical cord blood of these 10 children, collected by Red Cross after the cord was cut, harbored pesticides, consumer product ingredients, and wastes from burning coal, gasoline, and garbage.

Granted the study only tested 10 babies and I didn't see anything about where these babies were from (ie living right beside a coal mine or industrial plant, etc) or if they tested a range of babies in the country, city, etc. I'm sure all that would change study results. The fact that bothers me is that all this pollution is floating around out there even in the food we eat, which the government says is safe, and that it's tainting the bodies of unborn babies. That is just not right and it makes me sick. It honestly makes me want to move to a farm and live self-sufficiently. It really bothers me that the problem feels so huge and I don't see a solution that every man, woman, and child could benefit from.

Another big polluter out there are dead people! Sounds funny doesn't it? Actually it isn't the dead people doing the polluting it's what we do to the dead people before we put them in the ground. From the vaults, to the caskets, to the embalming fluids used the whole process is very bad for the environment, not to mention unnatural. There is a thing out there now called a Green Burial. There are eco-cemeteries that offer environmentally friendly burials. Only non-toxic/eco-friendly embalming fluids, biodegradable caskets, and natural grave markers are used. Markers used could be a big beautiful rock, a tree, etc. creating a living memorial to the person buried beneath. Talk about returning to the earth! I really like this idea a lot. I never even thought about this option or that traditional burials could be so devastating environmentally. Really makes me think...

...boy I sure got off topic, huh? I started out talking about my stubborn first five pounds and end up talking about burying dead people!