Bye-Yum-Pum-Pum

 "If a girl wants to be popular now-a-days, there's one thing she absolutely needs to know..... Bye-yum-pum-pum."

This past weekend, my husband and I went to a fundraiser for a dear friend who is doing a mission trip to Africa in February.  She is part of a belly dance troup her in Salt Lake so all of her friends got together for a GREAT performance!  It was 18+ due to numerous burlesque acts and even a pole-dance routine.  (My husband had no idea he would see so many boobs when I told him we were going to a "fundraiser".... clever pasties) ;)

Anyways, it was an honor being around so many women who are truly comfortable with their bodies in all shapes and sizes.  I loved seeing all their outfits, accessories, make-up and hairstyles! I am a performer at heart and miss the days of practicing something until the big unveiling!  The nervousness and excitement all focusing on that one event.  It was a celebration of what it means to be a woman.... and more importantly - what it means to feel like a beautiful woman. 

It got me thinking about how much I love to be girly!  I often feel I was born in the wrong decade! I want dresses, heels, fancy hats! I dance from decade to decade in my style choices and often get discouraged at how little I find.

I want the 20's flirty flair .....

via

I want the 30's feminine sophistication .....

via

I want the 40's  glamorous sensibility ..... 

I want the 50's classic idealism .....

via

I want the 60's expressive rebellion  ....

I have always been a dress girl.  I buried it for a couple of years but it sprouted back like a giant weed.... too ingrained to let go.   When I was  a couple feet high, I used to refuse to leave the store or buy any clothes unless I could try them on and check out their "spin quality."  I would stand in front of the mirror and just spin..... making sure the dress created a perfect circle outward without inhibiting the spin.   This wasn't just any test, this was THE test for every dress.  I hear that my niece has inherited this trait at the young age of 3.... :)

I tend to wear dresses a lot lately and I hate always feeling overdressed for everything.  But I don't hate it enough not to wear them.  I will continue my search and will hopefully have more dresses ready to go before it snows.  

With that being said, I will leave you with one of my favorite scenes from a movie I watched religiously as a child.  Please try to at least make it to 1:35 where it really gets started :)










And, no joking aside..... I danced around my room with a blanket for years doing my own Bye-Yum-Pum-Pum routine...

"For when you're oh so mysteri-o-so, the men will grow so entranced with you. As you secretly conceal the tingly way you feel when you're dancing to Bye-yum-pum-pum."

Eat to Live

"Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food."

-Hippocrates

Well... I have been working on this post for at least a month as a response to all the people who keep asking me how my diet changes have been going and what I think about them.  I had paragraphs and paragraphs out the wazoo.  Then I woke up this morning and decided to delete it all.

Crazy? Maybe.  Freeing? Without a doubt!

I have had so much stress about this post and I think it boils down to that I just don't like to write about food.  I laid out in great detail the ins and outs of animal protein and its dangerously acidic nature, etc.  But let me tell you.... I decided to get rid of it.  I'm not here to preach to you about why my diet is the best or outline all the research backing it up.  I'm here to tell you what works for me.  So, without further ado, here is my food update:

Background:
I have had stomach problems since I was an infant.  (As in, my mom texted me last week saying she found some of the antibiotics they gave me that expired in 1983.  That's right folks, I have been on meds for my stomach issues since before I was even ONE year old.)

After trying everything from digestive enzymes to meds to allergy/disease tests, nothing seemed to help... if it worked for a day I was thrilled... but I wanted something that LASTED.  After having an allergy test and finding out I was "allergic" to 2 whole pages of food (yes TWO pages of ingredients/foods/essentials) and having tests run on my gallbladder, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I kept hearing a lot of buzz on the internet about a book and decided to order it off the internet.  Half way through the book, I turned to my husband.... gave him a helpless look and slammed my head down on the table.  The book was the wake up call I needed!  Our health is our OWN decision... sure we can blame our genes... but the food/products we ingest actually manipulate and CHANGE our genes.  That's right.... FOOD CHANGES OUR GENES.  It can turn certain genes off and others on .... and let me just tell you, That is NOT a Good Thing.  

The book described my ailments to annoying detail and I realized that I could change my health.  SO.... that moment, I made a decision.  To Take Control.  No Excuses or Half-Assing Stuff.  I started focusing on the alkaline or acidic nature of my foods and started eating the things that I should eat rather than the things that I was in a habit of eating.

The book focuses on balancing the pH levels in the body.  When our bodies are more acidic, it promotes inflammation and disease.  So, I cut out the two most acidic foods (meat and dairy).  Cut them out COMPLETELY cold-turkey.  *besides one rough night after Kenny Chesney when I needed food BAD and all we had was taquitos... one too many beers will do that to you.   Fail.

I know what you're thinking... isn't beer acidic?  Why yes, but moderation people. moderation. We all have our vices.  Moving on....

5 Month Update:
It's been about five and half months.  How am I feeling?  SPECTACULAR.  You're looking at a girl who used to puke up food from once a week to every day.  When I first moved to Utah it got so bad that I threw up 5 times a day.  I would just sit in the bathroom and cry because I couldn't keep anything down.  We're talking actual meals in the toilet instead of digested food.  TMI?! Probably.  But it was that bad. I still eat fish about twice a week.  But mostly veggies, beans, grains and the occasional soy product. (Trying to get rid of soy but baby steps...)

NOW?... I have gotten sick twice!  TWICE!  in 5 months!  Well, that's just a gosh darn record right there! And a helluva one too :)  No more puking in my lap while driving or making sure my car was with me 24/7 so I could have an escape route at parties.... NONE OF THAT!  Oh glorious release!  

And... as a nice little added cherry to this sweet deal, I have lost weight! Who would have thought.  My body has DEFINITELY changed.  My stomach is almost back to where it was when I graduated college 5 years ago.  My husband was so impressed with how I've seemed to tone up that he is trying my nutritional change to see if it makes him feel better too.

If I went to the gym more than 4 times a month, I'd probably see better results. But hey, I went 2x last week and 2x this week... definitely getting better on the whole gym thing.  My goal is to make it a weekly thing and get 3-4 visits a week.... we'll see how that works out.

Well regardless, that's my update :)  If anyone is interested in learning a little bit about the changes and how they affect the body, I recommend watching "Forks Over Knives" on Netflix.  It's a great documentary I watched last night that happens to outline the information about the diet changes I adopted.  It also discusses one of the most comprehensive population studies for nutrition which is really interesting information.

I promise next time to write about something fun and not food related :)

Sooner Born and Sooner Bred

Well friends, it's officially gameday!  And you know what that means... flags attached to windows flying south on 35, a sea of crimson and cream, tailgating, beer drinking, and just a heck of a time!  I LOVE GAMEDAY!  

It reminds me of when I realized what it means to be a Sooner.  A life long commitment to a group of people that you love and adore based on mutual respect for something bigger than an individual, a title, or a team.... it's a way of life in the bible belt, it's an identity. 

I remember waking up in my sorority house, squealing with excitement as we all rush to get ready, trying to decide which OU shirt/dress/accessory we should wear for the first game of the season.... walking on over to the Delt, Fiji or Beta house for some pre-drinks with the guys....

Then entering Tailgate Territory...  Kegs, couches, grills, and tv's.  Spread up and down Lindsay Street.  It was always so fun to go from tailgate to tailgate, mingling with students, alums and fans in general.  The time would come when we would mosey on over to the stadium to stake our claim in the student section.  A sea of crimson, cream and greek letters... standing on top of the seats for the entirety of the game.

The moment the new Intro Video is played for the first time and silence descends on a sold-out stadium of over 82,000 fans.  The moment the Drum Major does his infamous walk across the field.... The moment the Ruf/Neks shoot their shotguns and the moment our stadium sings our chant as one voice.  





These are the moments I miss most about not living in Oklahoma.   Without fail since I moved to Utah, I have cried every year for the first home game, OU/TX and OU/OSU.  Whether at home, in my car or in public.  It'll just hit me... and I'll cry.  I thought this year I would make it.  But no, I cried when my mom told me they were leaving to head to their tailgate.  

I miss the enthusiasm, the excitement and the sheer nature of what it means to be a Sooner.  They don't understand in Utah and tend to trash talk to me the majority of the time.  Their teams are meek so I guess I can't blame them for not understanding what it means to have the greatest college football team of all time.  Sometimes I wish I could just keep a card with this information on it to pass out at said shit-talking...

Record book

• Oklahoma has the most 10+ win seasons (32) and 11+ win seasons (20) of any program, as well as the fewest losing seasons (12) of any program.
• Oklahoma has been ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll (97 weeks)and No. 1 in the Top 5 (371 weeks) more than any team.
• In the "modern era", which is post-World War II, Oklahoma has the most wins with 567, and the highest winning percentage (.763) in the country (through 2011 Fiesta Bowl).
• Oklahoma has the most wins and best winning percentage in college football over the last 75 years (1935-current).
• Oklahoma is the only school to have played in all five BCS bowl games (Fiesta, Orange, Rose, Sugar and BCS Championship).
• Oklahoma is the only school to have four coaches with at least 100 wins each (Stoops, Switzer, Wilkinson, Owen).
• Oklahoma has had at least one first team all-conference player in 95 of the 96 seasons it has played in a conference.
• Most modern era NCAA-recognized titles with 16.
• Oklahoma holds the NCAA record for most consecutive victories with 47-straight (1953-1957).
• Oklahoma holds the NCAA record for most consecutive games without a defeat (48).
• Oklahoma has scored more points than any team in college football history with 31,436 (through the 2011 Fiesta Bowl).
• No program has more unanimous All-Americans than Oklahoma. OU and Notre Dame have 31 all-time.
• ESPN ranked Oklahoma as the most prestigious college football program overall since the advent of the AP Poll in 1936.
• Oklahoma had an NCAA-record 768 rushing yards in 1988 against Kansas State.
• Most weeks ranked No. 1 in the BCS with 20 weeks (through 2010 season).
• Most weeks ranked in top 5 in the BCS with 46 (through 2010 season).
• Oklahoma has the most rushing yards in a season with 5,635 in 1971, which was 470 yards per game (12 games)
• Oklahoma holds the NCAA record for the most points scored in a single season with 702 points through 12 games in the 2008 season (58.5 points per game).
• Oklahoma holds the record for scoring 60 or more points for five consecutive games^[48]
• Oklahoma holds the record for most lopsided instate rivalry with a record of 82-16-7 (as of the end of the 2010 regular season) over Big 12 Conference opponent Oklahoma State. In fact the rivalry is so lopsided that Oklahoma has shut out Oklahoma State more times (28 - not including 0-0 ties) than Oklahoma State has won against Oklahoma with the Sooners winning the last 8 games in a row.
• In the 2010 NFL Draft, Oklahoma became the only school in the history of the NFL Draft to have three players selected in the first four picks of the draft.^[49]

Oklahoma Pride.... doesn't even begin to say how much I love this team.

I was lucky to get students tickets every year in college, now I have two seats in my name waiting for me to come back to a game.  I hope to make it one year soon. 

via OU Athletic Department

Here's to a fantastic season!   Boomer Sooner! Go OU!