Whole 30 Experience

 

I've been trying to drop a few pound this year. Among other things, in April and May I focused on increasing my protein. I lost a grand total of 2 pounds. I'd heard some good things about the Whole 30 program. It is an elimination diet, to see if there are foods that cause digestive issues, sleep issues, inflammation, etc. You cut out DAIRY, LEGUMES, SUGAR (even natural sweeteners), and WHEAT and GRAINS. Basically you can eat FRUIT, VEGGIES, MEAT, NUTS, and a variety of oils.  After 30 days you start to add in one food group at a time every 2-3 days, and see how each group effects your body. The other rule is to not weigh yourself the whole time.  

I thought maybe Whole30 would give me some discipline and shock my system into change. So on June 1st, I committed to it! It was an interesting experience. I definitely ate more fruits and veggies. I made a variety homemade sauces like BBQ sauce and Teriyaki. I learned about Coconut Aminos and Nutritional Yeast. I ate a lot of Dates. I learned silkened tofu blended with coconut creame and strawberries is not as sweet as they made it sound on the website.  I ate pistachios, cashews, almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, and macadamia nuts. Fruit juice was legal and that was a fun splurge since I normally avoid juice.  I made some pulled pork hash, and meatballs. I ate a lot of eggs and bacon for breakfast. My favorite dessert was thawed frozen mango chunks from Costco! 

Day 9 was the hardest day. I felt hungry all day long and felt like I was eating constantly. But I did not quit. 

The last week I realized that frozen sweet potato fries cooked in the air fryer were legal, that was a yummy addition. Here's one of my favorite meals- cauliflower rice, sweet potato, guac, and crispy baked tofu. 

 The Whole 30 website told me I would have amazing results, that I would feel more energetic, sleep better, my body would feel great, and my cravings would go away 10-14 days.  I don't think I experienced much of the "amazing".  I never got to feeling more energetic. I was HUNGRY ALL THE TIME, even though I was eating or snacking a lot. I felt more emotional.  I missed my favorite foods. I missed yogurt in my smoothies and cheese on my eggs and peanut M&Ms. I never cheated, and I finished the 30 days. 

I was quite pleased on day 30 to see I had dropped an inch in my waist, and inch in hips, and 4.5 pounds!  Hallelujah! I fit into a white skirt that I haven't been able to zip up all the way in the back in a very long time. That was fun. 

I am glad I did it.  I have added in dairy, wheat, and beans back, with no noticeable effects. I haven't gone crazy on my eating, I have this sense of wanting to stay in control. 

As I have thought about my experience, my biggest takeaway is that I can do hard things. It feels empowering to be disciplined and in control. I also realized that perhaps I didn't feel all the AMAZING LIFE CHANGING non-scale results because I already have a lot of healthy habits. 

I am grateful for my body that works so hard for me. I am grateful for yummy food to enjoy in this life. 

Now it's time to focus on loving my body, even if I still think I could drop a few more pounds. 

The World Order is Shifting

The world order is shifting, and it’s terrifying.

                                                                    Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The most narcissistic president in my lifetime is making enemies left and right all around the world. Since coming into office, he has alienated long-held allies like Canada, he has publicly demoralized visitors who come to the White House, and he keeps snuggling up to the Russian dictator PUTIN. All in the name of making America great again.

While I was in Berlin visiting the Jewish Memorial, the Topograohy of Terror Museum on the German Gestapo and Secret police, and exploring the Berlin Bunker learning about the rise and fall of Hitler, three major events happened in the United States that highlight what a dangerous time we are witnessing as Americans.

1.) Immigration officials took a doctoral student, Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish National, off the street. She has been in the US on a student visa. She was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper last year criticizing Tufts University’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,”.  She was taken as she walked along the street in Boston, and the officials were mostly masked. She was 

taken to New Hampshire and then Vermont, she was put on a plane the next day and moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, Louisiana. She hasn't broken any laws, she is here legally. Because she expressed an opinion which our administration doesn't like, she was snatched off the streets and flown out of state. How terrifying! As of April 4, 2025 she is still in Louisiana and her lawyers are trying to get the case moved back to the East Coast. 

https://apnews.com/video/watch-the-moment-officials-detain-turkish-student-rumeysa-ozturk-6d24235307a546fdb495813f890d8c5b

2.) The last week of March, 2025, the US deported 137 men, suspected of being Venezuelan gang members who are murders and rapists, to a jail in El Salvador. I am not opposed to getting rid of honest to goodness murderers and rapists. What I scary about this is that many of men rounded up and sent to El Salvador were flagged as gang members because they looked the part (see below for an article with more info about the tattoos). What about due process? I don't understand the ins and out of the Alien's Act that the White House is claiming give them jurisdiction here, but family members are saying many of the men sent are not related to gangs, and even one man has been identified as being sent by accident. 

"The U.S. has already acknowledged Kilmar Abrego Garcia - a Salvadoran migrant who lived in the U.S legally with a work permit - was deported in error as part of three planeloads of migrants flown out last month over alleged ties to violent gangs...But the administration has argued it has no legal authority to bring him back to the country"

I'm sorry what? The US sent him there by accident, the US is paying El Salvador to keep this man in prison, but can't do anything to bring him back?  A judge is ordering this man to be returned, and  

"In a statement, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Xinis should contact President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador "because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador."

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/31/nx-s1-5345832/advocates-say-flawed-checklist-dhs-venezuelans-for-deportation-under-alien-enemies-act

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-judge-hear-lawsuit-man-deported-el-salvador-error-2025-04-04/

3. Vice President Vance visited Greenland on March 28, 2025. He told Greenland that Denmark hasn't been taking good care of them, and also that the US needs Greenland for security. 

"We need Greenland, very importantly, for international security — we have to have Greenland. It's not a question of 'Do you think we can do without it?' We can't," Trump said Friday. "We're not relying on Denmark or anybody else to take care of that situation." Vance

Vance claimed Greenland would love to be part of the US, polls show differently. 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-vice-president-vance-visit-greenland-island-trump-wants-control-2025-03-28/

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/28/nx-s1-5343555/vance-greenland-visit

So what do these things have to do with my time in Germany? As I walked through several museums in Berlin, time and time again I saw rhetoric used by Hitler and the Nazi party that I am seeing in the United Stakes today. 

Hitler's reason for invading Czechoslovakia and Poland was because he needed it for Germany's security, not because he wanted those countries for himself. It's the same rational Putin is trying to give in taking over Ukraine, Russia needs it for security.  And it is the same rational we will hear from China if they attack Taiwan at some point. 

Here are a few photos I took while at the Topography of Terror Museum.

 "Newspapers censored, opponents threatened, maltreated, publicly humiliated, and arrested." The AP press has been banned from the White House, and the current administration is trying to get rid of NPR and PBS. Trump loves to publicly humiliate anybody who opposes him. 

"There was a desire for something genuinely new: popular rule without parties,

 a popular leader figure". 

I think about the 2024 election, how many Independents and groups normally thought to vote democratic voted for Trump because they believed he would shake things up. 

"oppositional journalists, writers, and artists were terrorized, Jews vilified, and civil servants loyal to the constitution deprived of their posts...they saw Hitler as the guarantor of internal security and order and thus overlooked the fact that the Gestapa established...represented an increasingly powerful special agency whose aim was to control German society"

I think of "immigrants" being vilified. I think of the board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts putting President Trump Board chair so he can have a say in what art is allowed to be expressed. I think of the Smithsonian Museum being targeted now because diversity is anti-American. I think of independent government watchdogs being fired. I think of DOGE slashing government and having access to social security and dismantling institutions that Congress is responsible for. All because we should trust Trump to make the right decisions for us to Make America Great Again. 

More examples of identifying groups that get blamed for pulling us down, calling them criminals, and shipping them off out of society because they don't belong. I think the biggest group being vilified today are immigrants. 

Everything about Trump (his executive orders and history with the courts) shows he thinks he personally and his executive powers can crush judicial and legislative control. 

I was struck by this photo. These "Polish violent criminals" were called criminals simply because they were Polish, in the way, expendable, and didn't have a right to exist simply because Hitler said so. I think of the man sent to El Salvador by accident, he had tattoos and looked the part, so obviously he belonged with the murders and rapists being flow out of the country to a notorious prison. Hitler terrorized Europe, rounded up people on to train cars, sent them off to work camps. Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazi's, and millions more including Roma and Sinti, people with disabilities, Poles, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gay people, and Soviet prisoners of war.

I am not saying that Trump is a Nazi, but he sure does like power and chaos and popularity. He likes dictators, 

"Let me just tell you about world leaders. Viktor Orbán, one of the most respected men—they call him a strongman. He’s a tough person. Smart. Prime minister of Hungary. They said why is the whole world blowing up? Three years ago it wasn’t. Why is it blowing up? He said because you need Trump back as president. They were afraid of him. China was afraid … North Korea was afraid of him … Look, Viktor Orbán said it. He said the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president." Trump Sept 2024

He is not above making enemies if it will give him the upper hand in negotiation. I think he is the most despicable character we have witnessed in American politics in the past 80 years.  I am angry, and I am scared because there is an awful lot going on that feels very ominous and cannot lead to good things for humanity.

The world order is shifting and it's terrifying. 

Forty and Fierce!

This week I turn 40. 

Here I am at 30, and here I am at 40.  

I thought it would be fun to post a few pictures for every year in my 30's... 

30 years old (technically just shy of 30 here) - 2010

30

Winning the Student PTA of the Year award. (I really liked that shirt)

31

32

33 

34

On a patient's Ducati in his garage. 

35

36

37

38

39

Almost 40... 

 

Why I will not say "All Lives Matter"

I've spent a good amount of thought this week trying to wrap my head around the protests and the senseless and tragic deaths of Black people in America. I see my black friends saying, "Black Lives Matter", and I see some of my white friends responding with "All Lives Matter". 

A few months ago I got a speeding ticket. I was going the normal speed limit, in a school zone just before school had let ou,t but within the school zone time. It was my fault, but when the flashing lights of the police car, waiting just 50 feet before the school zone ended, went off I was so annoyed. I went to a patient's home earlier that day and the nurse showed up the same time as me, so I let her stay and went to see another patient first. The ticket occurred as I was driving to that patient for a second time in one day. None of that really matters, what matters is I sat in my car so mad, so annoyed when the officer walked up to my car. I gave quick responses to the officer and was probably not very nice. The point is, I could afford to be somewhat snappy with the police officer, because I am a white female. I never once feared for my safety or for my life. 

I've gathered here a few of the photos I've seen this week that sum up for me just what the message is all about. It's ignorant and condescending for me to say, "But All Lives Matter". While I was running around Lady Bird Lake yesterday I saw a t-shirt that said, "But you didn't die". That was the moment I decided I needed to formulate my thoughts and make then known. 

Black Lives Matter

"It's not an either/or proclamation. When there is a crisis we have always rallied around that particular group. It doesn't discredit or diminish any other group it just brings awareness and support to the group that needs attention."