But let’s go back further than that.  There’s one particular thing I can point to in my past and say, “Holy shit! ADHD is responsible for that.”

High School

We’re going back to the late 80s, a time when ADHD was barely known to the medical community and basically not at all to the population at large. When I was in ninth grade, they put me in Advanced English. I tested that I belonged in there. I had the ability to do advanced-level work. The reality though was a major struggle to produce a C on the report card.

Tenth grade. They put me right back in Advanced English, despite my prior grade. Results? The same.

Naturally, this created strife not just between me and my teachers, but also me and my parents. Everybody knew I was capable. How did they know I was capable?  Because when I DID do the work, I was doing A level quality. Why did I keep getting a C on the report cards? Because those A’s were offset by F’s and zeros for failing to complete or even do other assignments.  I got through tenth grade with another C. But once again they put me in Advanced English for 11th grade. And, of course, it’s the same damn thing, if not worse.

But finally, my eleventh-grade teacher had the smarts to look beyond the stupid standardized tests, beyond the fact that I was capable, and look at the situation and say, “No. Put her in average English.” Now, remember: this had nothing to do with ADHD. It wasn’t a part of the conversation. No one knew it should have been. My teacher was simply putting me in an educational environment where I could finally succeed.  An environment where the demand was more on the level of what everyone though matched my motivation level.

And holy cow. What do you think happened? I got a fucking A.

In hindsight (I’m not going to say how many years later) I can now see that ADHD prevented me from focusing long enough to complete what an advanced level assignment was looking for.

There are so many flavors of ADHD. Impatience is a common facet of ADHD. Some of us are very impatient. I didn’t have the patience and self-discipline to do what was required for these deeper projects and assignments.

There’s a difference between feeling impatient and being impatient when you’re ADHD. A non-ADHD person will feel impatient but be able to hang in there. An ADHD person will not only feel impatient; they’ll also mentally check out of the task at hand. When this happens, nothing gets done. ADHD people can tend to either get distracted and move on to something else, or they just plain freeze up. Thus the F’s and zeros.

Some of it is avoidance, a coping mechanism. But to the rest of the world, they interpret this behavior differently. People around me said, “Well, she’s just not interested in doing the work.” That was kind of true but the reality was I felt overwhelmed. So. Very. Overwhelmed.

Hearing that pushed me into a numb state to the point I feared having to repeat eleventh grade English in summer school. I wasn’t like the smart kids. There was something wrong with me. Why couldn’t I be like the smart kids?

Those thoughts still haunt me to this day.

The Bomb

Fast forward to early 2019 and my eldest daughter was struggling. The initial reach for help was NOT for ADHD, and not even for me.  

I have a teenage female in my household. You understand what that entails… She really is a carbon copy of me, much to her dismay. But she’ll appreciate that eventually.

Still, she struggles with anxiety and one day she asked for a therapist before we could verbalize that she was going to start seeing one. That was like hallelujah, she thought this was her idea. She had no clue we’d already lined somebody up.

We originally lined up a therapist because her teen angst went beyond normal to the point where she was bullying her little sister not only with words, but also physically. After two appointments, the therapist wanted a session with me. I’m thinking, “Okay, sure. This lady wants to get the adult perspective of the household because the teenager is going to present one side of the story.” So I’m thinking I’m going to go into this and finally hear the teenage point of view. I’m going to hear about how my daughter thinks her living situation is awful, she should be taken away, etc. Typical teen stuff.

Before the appointment, I took pictures of the teenager’s bedroom. I took pictures of the bathroom and the dining room table where she does her homework. I got to the appointment, talked about behaviors and showed her the pictures. Let my daughter complain about how “awful” her life and parents were. I was on a mission to help her find the normal I never could.

The aha moment for the therapist was showing her my daughter’s room. Yes, you can have teenagers with messy rooms, but this was something different. My daughter asked for a dresser because the one she had was teeny tiny. We bought her a six-drawer dresser with tons of space. A year later, it is still sitting there with only socks in one of the drawers.

She is incapable of sorting her clothes and putting her clothes away on her own. It requires too much, so she shuts down. (Remember the impatience mentioned above?)

The therapist’s face lights up. You could almost see the lightbulb above her head pop out of nowhere, as she says, “Your daughter has ADHD.”

My jaw hit the floor. “What do you mean? My kid gets straight As. I know my ten-year-old has it. That kid struggles like crazy in school. What do you mean my teenager has it?”

She explained that anxiety was a very common symptom for females with ADHD, and this was probably the root of it.

We went through the conversation and the therapist asked me questions about the whole household, the whole environment, and everyone else in the picture. I described similar stuff going on with everyone in the rest of the house. And there it was.  The second lightbulb above her head.

“Holy cow. You live in a household where all four of you have ADHD!”

I was just… stunned. Absolutely stunned. My mind was blown. But holy crap, she was right.

The Truth Sinks In

I reeled for two weeks, going through what’s commonly known as the stages of grief. There was a lot of back-and-forth between disbelief and denial. I felt depressed, disappointed, and the very, very dangerous thoughts surrounding, “What if we had found this out sooner?”

You can’t play the “what if?” game. That just leads to bad places. I’ve tried to take more of a perspective of knowledge is power. Now I know something gigantic about myself, my husband, and my two kids. This explains so much of the household dynamic. It explains the root of all of the friction.

My husband is still mildly in denial, coming down kicking and screaming. He does not want to take ownership of this, but his argument is constantly losing ground. He’ll get there one day.

Just this past weekend, for the first time, he wrote himself a list of tasks he was going to accomplish and he did not let himself do anything else until he accomplished those three tasks. He wrote them on the bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker. For the first time in probably his entire life, he got everything done he set out to do.

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you adapt and overcome.

This is something personal that I’m living through right now, this great life enlightenment. It explains so much of my past and present.  When it comes to adjusting to healthy coping skills, I’ve learned that I don’t so much need a method that works with my brain so much that I need a method that works with my flavor of ADHD. I need a method that breaks down giant tasks into manageable steps. And it is that very lesson that I hope to apply in order to finally finish writing a novel that I started over 3 years ago.

Anyway, as I said, I have a love of almost all things Christmas.  My house is decked out pretty much right after Halloween.  (Go ahead and send the hate mail all you Thanksgiving lovers.  I know where the delete button is.  Just kidding!  Not really.)  I’ve lost count of how many trees I have ranging from 9’ tall to 2 inches short.  All with different color schemes or themes.

I love it year round. The music on my phone is at least 1/3 Christmas music, if not more.  And I do not skip those songs when they come up in a random shuffle.  It can be 100 degrees in the middle of summer and I’m singing along. (Remember those Ella Fitzgerald songs I sing while mowing the lawn?) I have a tree in my yard that has white lights on it plugged into a timer to light up at night all year long.  So when a plant I had in a pot near my front door didn’t survive the summer this year, I knew exactly what I wanted to put in that pot.

A quick trip to Lowe’s for a few little flowers for the fall, and one very special plant later,  meet George…

Yes, I named it George.  (I have a Bird of Paradise plant inside that I named Pary.  We name our vehicles too.  But that’s probably worth a whole separate blog post, so I’ll save those details.)

But here’s where it gets funny.  I sent the picture of George to my BFF and here’s the conversation that followed…

Me: I just bought another Christmas tree!  WITH HUBBY!

Her: Well that’s a first.  That’s awesome.

Her: Cute tree. Where did you find it?

Me: Lowe’s. You KNOW I’m going to put lights on it.  

Me: It WANTS lights.  It told me so itself.  

Her: Yup

Me: I named it George.  

Her: Looks more like an Enrique

Me: Think so?  Hmmmm

Her: Enrique would love lights.

Me: I think you’re right

Her: Not sure about George

Me: I like that.  Enrique.  

Me: Yeah.  Enrique wants lights.

Her: He’s got a little spice to him.

Me: You get me.

Her: LOL

So, yeah, George is now Enrique.  And soon he will have his requested lights.  #LoveAmazon

And while typing this very blog post, that same BFF (she works at the mall) sent me the following picture and message...

Yeah, I'll keep her.

What is your favorite holiday?  Do you go all out?

You know the girl I’m talking about.  That one that turned out to not really be a friend.  The girl that was only friends with someone because of who that someone was dating.  Remember that girl from your days in high school?  When she had the opportunity to stab someone in the back, to get what she wanted, she took it.  Friends were pawns to her.  It was all an elaborate game that she fully intended to win.

What was her name?

(Does anyone else hear Madonna singing in their head from the title of this post?  Just me?  Ok.)

Writing a blog post is possibly one of the more grueling tasks for me.  As you may remember from my introductory post, I don’t think of myself as a writer.  Yes, I know, I’m writing a novel.  But I don’t think of that as writing.  That’s more like getting stories out of my head.  Writing a blog though, now that is writing.  And I draw a blank more often than not on what to write.  

I thought about why people write blogs and decided that one big reason is to teach.  An individual (or team of individuals) who are skilled at something want to teach others about that skill. Or they want to educate on a topic. I have some very talented friends in that category.  I learn something new from them on a daily basis.  But what do I have to teach?  As it relates to writing my novels, I would say nothing.  I am a Grade A novice.  A beginner.  Student.  #Newbie

I can direct you to the masters I am learning from, many of which are with WANA.  And you will find me sitting there, at their feet, soaking it all in.

One thing in particular that I learned from this crew is the importance of blogging for an author/writer.  I won’t reveal any spoilers here except to say: It’s important!  You can take the class to learn just how important it is, and why.  So, with a bit of a grumble, and a heavy dose of caffeine (or in some cases, chocolate) I will write blog posts.  But I don’t have to like it!

And while I'm writing those blog posts, here are some of the things I will wish I was doing instead, in no particular order.

1. I think this is obvious: Work on my novel!  Yeah.  This is precious time in an already busy schedule that could be spent working on the novel that I gave myself until the end of THIS MONTH to have the first draft completed. Gah!  And I have this one thing that carries across at least three books tying together half a dozen characters spanning like 16 years in story time and I promise it will blow your mind!  You're going to be like, “No way!!  It's that thing! Heather was right! Mind blown!” *deep breath*

2. Play games on my phone.  A neighbor sucked me into a new game in a recent moment of weakness on my part.  Town-something.  You know the game.  Start with one cow, grow your farm to an empire, and attempt to take over the world!  These game developers are very skilled at writing the programs for these games to be addictive.  I’m thinking about my strawberry patch at this very moment while I’m typing away.  Must. Resist.  (I bet the programmers could write a blog about how to write games that suck people in.)

3. Spend time with that very friend who got me hooked on the phone game.  She is one of my best friends, and I can never get enough time with her.  Any friends would make this cut, but especially her. She makes me laugh so hard.

4. Nap!  It’s fall.  Cooler temperatures, colorful leaves drifting down from the trees on gentle breezes.  That’s perfect for snuggling under the duvet and drifting off for a little while. Oh, let's just be honest here. I don't care what season it is. I don't get enough sleep all year long. Naps are good regardless of the season.

5. Watch tv.  I don’t watch much tv anymore.  It’s just fallen down on the priority list so low that I couldn’t tell you the last thing I watched.  Oh, wait!  I can!  Once in awhile, I will have a bunch of tasks to do that don't require full attention. Like paying bills for example. So I do it in front of the tv. Last time I did that, I watched a couple episodes of Marvel Defenders on Netflix. And I want to see more.  Is Jessica Jones in or not?? Don't tell me!!

6. Cook.  This is probably pretty popular for a lot of people.  I like cooking. When I have the time.  And the more challenging, the better.  I mean, food is critical to life.  So that actually should take priority over blogging, right?

7. Gardening and yard work.  I'm not growing my own food beyond a few potted herbs and a pepper plant given to me by a friend back in the spring. (I got 1 pepper from it.  Not very rewarding for the time and water invested.) But I have some flowers that I give attention to on occasion. I also enjoy mowing the grass. It's an uninterrupted hour plus with my earbuds singing along with everything from Beastie Boys to Ella Fitzgerald, and a whole lot in between there. And no one can hear me over the roar of the mower. Win-win!  Oh and don't get me started on my love affair with the chain saw. That's probably another blog post all by itself.

8. Cleaning the kitchen. Or any room for that matter. I don't keep many things out on my kitchen countertops. But it is a landing zone for things like mail, magazines, school papers that need attention, lunch bags, soda cans needing to be rinsed for recycling, dirty dishes people are too lazy to put directly into the dishwasher… You see where this ends up. So when I stop and clear all of that away, putting everything where it truly belongs, I have this kitchen that looks like something from a model home. (Granted, it's a model home that's nearly 20 years old and in need of updating. But that will be a future string of blogs: Renovating My Kitchen.). That clean kitchen, though it may only last a couple minutes before someone comes along and lands something on the counter again, gives me peace.

9. Sewing. Yes, you read that right. It's not a typo. I like sewing. I have some very basic skills with hand sewing and using my grandmother’s sewing machine to make simple things like curtain panels. I'm no Susie Homemaker. I mean, it's not like I'm sewing clothes for my family or… Oh. Wait. I did make a skirt for one of the kids for a middle school dance once. Including a zipper. And then with the leftover fabric, I made a matching skirt for a stuffed animal.  Oh, um, yeah. Moving along…

10. Shopping!!!  What girl doesn't love shopping?  I don't go shopping just for the sake of shopping. I'm a list girl. I'm constantly telling Siri to add things to the shopping list. And what do list people like to do?  They like to cross things off those lists!  Ahhhh. Bliss.

So today you got a little more inside peek into my personality. And I got a blog written!  Look at that!  

What would be one of your 10 things you would rather do instead of a dreaded but necessary task?

Seriously?  It was Labor Day on Monday?  

I should be happy to have had Monday off.  The proverbial Monday drama has no hold.  Tuesday just doesn’t pull it off the same way Monday does.  It lacks that grating edge that Monday wields so well.  However, I feel like I got ripped off.

For those that follow, I made a loose promise to try to start on the Whole30 program, or at least get the distractions out of the way over the weekend.  Especially since there was an extra day.  Well, as you probably guessed, it didn’t happen.  Here’s a glimpse into what seems to be the norm in my household...

On Friday, I got a text message from Hubby.  “Boss gave me tickets to a football game for tomorrow. Noon game.”  Well, when the boss gives you tickets, you go.  

For a 12:00 game, we needed to leave the house by 10:00 to allow for travel, traffic, and navigating an unfamiliar college campus for parking.  The game was not a blowout, so of course, we stayed to the very end.  There went our Saturday.  (Said boss was already inquiring how we enjoyed the game by 8:00 am Tuesday morning.)  

Sunday morning brought something new to me: waking up with a nausea-inducing sinus headache.  Wow, I’ve never experienced that before.  I’ve had classic migraines on occasion since I was a pre-teen.  But this was different.  Daaaaamn.  Took me down for nearly the entire day.

Monday?  Well, Monday was crazy rush trying to do what should have happened on Sunday.  Cleaning up the house because we had people coming over!!  Yeah, remember how that goes?  2:00 pm was the deadline.  Snacks went from homemade to store bought in a blink.  And pizza ended up being ordered instead of grilling burgers and hot dogs since the propane tank for the grill was empty and the place where we refill was closed for Labor Day.  

But guess what?  Everyone had a blast, enjoyed themselves, and didn’t care that there might have been a stack of mail on the kitchen counter that didn’t get scooped up before they arrived.  They didn’t care that we had pizza or store bought snacks.  It was just a fun time with friends we love.

So I guess I really didn’t get ripped off, did I?  I have fond memories of planning a vacation with friends we adore.  Yeah, I’m still working on loads of laundry I would have done over the weekend, but no one is going out of the house in dirty underwear. (Or, at least it’s not my fault if they are.)

So, I will say that I will try again.  Eventually, I’ll get on board.  In the meantime, I’m going to make a wish for a sexy file boy to randomly show up when I clap my hands (I can’t snap) to take care of all the paperwork that makes it into my house demanding attention so I can sit back with a yummy drink, typing away, but watching over the top of my laptop with one eye.   

What is a project you’ve been wanting to get to, but just haven’t yet?  And, can someone explain to me how it now Friday morning?  

I never started.

So here’s one of my challenges:  So many things in life keep bumping other things down on the priority list.  Clean laundry?  Yeah, that’s important.  Friends coming over?  Quick, hide all the clutter.  (Yes, I’m keeping it real here.)  Late notice for the electric bill?  I bet the original was in that pile of clutter I hid when we had people coming over last week. *Sigh*

Other tasks get in the way, some growing exponentially, and the next thing I know, a month has slipped by, and I have less energy and less room in my clothes than I did 30 days ago.  *Double sigh*

There were even moments when I sat down with the Whole30 book and made out a meal/grocery plan, along with an action plan to make it happen.  And that’s where it ended.  *embarrassed sigh*

We are coming up on a long weekend here in the good old USofA.  I’m not going to sit here and promise that I’ll get things under control.  Heck, world peace might be an easier task.  But I can promise I will make some extra effort to think about what really should be a priority, and what is something I’m doing just for a distraction from the overwhelming pile of papers on my desk.  (Anyone seen the water bill?)

What is something you’ve been procrastinating, or maybe just haven’t gotten up in rank on the priority list?

I sat for a good 30 minutes this afternoon, trying to think of any gifts I received from boys during high school.  Or even college.  The only gift, for any occasion, that I could remember, was in high school.  It was a rose on Valentine's Day that was actually a pair of silk undies. And the guy and I weren't even together anymore; I had recently broken up with him.  It struck me as tacky and awkward.  Was that supposed to get me back? Talk about one track mind. Knowing where his locker was, I simply returned the "rose" without a word.  

So here I am this afternoon with Sarah and Andrew.  Sarah has a flashback to her senior year of high school.  It's her 18th birthday.  Her boyfriend (also a senior) cooks dinner for her.  Roses on the table, candles, soft music in the background.  But what did her boyfriend give her for her 18th birthday present?  

He hands her a box beautifully wrapped with shiny, white paper and a black satin ribbon wrapped around it, tied up in a bow. Sarah looks up at him with shy eyes and a blush. He smiles back at her and gives a silent nod toward the box.  She gently tugs on one loose end of the ribbon, feeling the soft satin between her fingers.  The ribbon is silent as the bow slides apart, falls from the box, and drapes over her hand.  He leans over and sweetly kisses her cheek as he pulls the ribbon away so that she can turn the box to remove the paper.  

She carefully slides her fingers under the corners of the paper, pulling it open, unfolding, to reveal the white box underneath.  The paper falls to the floor at her feet, making a gently rustling noise as it hits the carpet.  She lifts open the box and …

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?  (Insert my husband quoting Brad Pitt in the movie Se7en.  A 90’s movie I haven’t seen.)

So I draw a blank.  (Is that writer's block?)  I have no idea what Sarah’s high school boyfriend gives her for her 18th birthday.  Give me your ideas here.  I’ll pick one to use, and give you a mention in the book credits!

My husband:  I’m going to look up the movie Lost Boys.  Someone mentioned it, and I haven’t seen it in a long time.  Want to watch it with me?

Me (fully knowing the reaction I’m about to get): I’ve never seen that.

Him: Are you f*&%ing kidding me?

That’s a common conversation with my husband.  Also with my best friend. (She recently declared an 80’s weekend to fix some of this.)  Simply change out the movie title to some other classic 80’s or 90’s movie.  I’ll take full responsibility for movies of the 90’s that I missed.  I just had different priorities then.  But the 80’s?  Well...

The 80’s was a significant decade of my youth.  (You can try to ballpark my age from that statement. I’m not actually trying to hide it.)  It was also a decade where I was still a kid under my parents’ roof, and therefore their rule.  And here’s where you get a glimpse of my youth.

I was raised in a very sheltered, arguably overprotective, household.  (An author friend of mine advised me to stop using the word “very”, but it really needs to be included in that sentence. She would probably tell me to stop using “really” as well.  See my intro post.)

It was a devoutly religious household, which in itself is not bad. I still cling to many of the core beliefs I was raised on. But I found it to be suffocating being expected to fit into a specific mold.  The focus was narrow, and at times, judgemental. I see this so clearly in hindsight, and it makes me sad.  

Until we get to the end of the 80’s, my parents still had almost total control over what I saw in theaters.  When I was 16, my mom still didn’t want me seeing PG-13 movies.  I didn’t have my driver's license until I was almost 17, so they still had some control. (Yeah, you’re narrowing down my age now, aren’t you?) Inevitably, life moved on, and I was left to play catch up.  

A simple Google search for “iconic movies of the 80’s” will produce a nice little scrolling bar of movies considered to be, well, iconic for that decade.  Here’s the Google list, in whatever order they came up with.  And my status.

• Back To The Future - Yeah, I saw this in the theater.  Plus the sequels.  Multiple times.

• Aliens - Nope.  Not really into anything scary anyway.  Hubby says the first one is legitimately scary.

• Ghostbusters - Saw this in the theater, but I think my mom regretted it.

• The Breakfast Club - Didn’t get to see this until years later on VHS at a friend’s house.

• ET - My mom didn’t want to take me to see this until a friend explained to her what it actually was.  Then she took me to see it in the theater.

• Empire Strikes Back - I remember seeing this in the theater

• Gremlins - I still haven’t seen this to this day

• Ferris Bueller's Day Off - My older brother rented this on VHS for me one day, years later, when I was home sick.

• Goonies - I’m pretty sure I saw this in the theater.

• Raiders of the Lost Ark - I saw this in the theater.

• Terminator - I still have not seen this to this day or any of the series.

• Die Hard - I still have not seen this to this day, or any of the series.

• Princess Bride - I saw this on VHS at a friend’s house years later

• Airplane - I still have not seen this to this day

• Shining - Nope.  And really not interested (Again with the scary movies.)

• Sixteen Candles - It was years later when I saw this on video at a friend’s house.

• Nightmare on Elm Street - A guy made me watch this on VHS on a date at his house.  I found it dumb.

• Beverly Hills Cop - Nope.  Haven’t seen it. Has sequels, too, right?

• Blade Runner - Haven’t seen this either.

• A Christmas Story - Similar to Nightmare on Elm Street, but a different boyfriend.  Also found it dumb.

• Stand By Me - Haven’t seen it.

• Who Framed Roger Rabbit - Now, this I saw about 4 or 5 times in the theater.

• Top Gun - Didn’t see this until it was out on video and I was at a friend’s house.

• Full Metal Jacket - Nope.

• Return of the Jedi - I saw this in the theater.

• Raging Bull - I hadn’t even heard of this.

• The Thing - Horror movie, right?  Nope.  Not my thing.

• Big Trouble in Little China - I saw this many years later with my husband

• Mad Max 2 - Nope.  And I haven’t seen the first one either.

• Fast Times at Ridgemont High - Nope.

• Blues Brothers - My husband had to show me this many years later.

• Platoon - Nope, but I’m really not interested.  Should I be?

• NeverEnding Story - Yeah, I saw this in the theater.

• First Blood - Nope.  And not exactly interested.

• Weird Science - I saw this many years later on video or perhaps on tv one weekend.  TBS anyone?

• Caddyshack - I don’t remember if I saw this in the theater or not, but I do remember it being a movie I saw at a young age.  Probably to my mother’s regret.  But I cherish this one.

• Indiana Jones - I’ve seen all of these in the theater

• Batman (1989) - I’m pretty sure I have not seen this still today. But I’m not certain. Let’s just say I have not.

• Beetlejuice - Nope.  Still haven’t seen it.

• American Werewolf in London - I remember my older brother watching this on tv once when I was just kind of passing through the family room.

• Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure - Saw this in the theater.  A couple times.  Sadly.

• Labyrinth - Another one I saw many years later with my husband.

• Karate Kid - Saw all of this series in the theater, and multiple times on video.  Except the Hilary Swank one; I just wasn’t that interested. I also saw the 2010 one, which I enjoyed.

• Do the Right Thing - Nope.  

• Blue Velvet - Wait.  That’s not some old black and white movie with Elizabeth Taylor and a horse?

• Just One of the Guys - I suspect my husband added this to the list during blog post editing.  Nope, I haven’t seen it.

• Poltergeist - Scary.  No thank you.

• Coming To America - This is one of those movies I saw years later at a friend’s house.

• Heathers - I don’t think I saw this in the theater, but I did see it.  I was majorly crushing on Christian Slater.  (Gleaming the Cube anyone?) So I actually still own the VHS for this.  (But I don’t have a VCR.  Lol)  I still use the phrase “Greetings and salutations” to this day.

• Escape from New York - Never even heard of this. Husband comment: UGH!

We can cover a lot by saying I didn’t see anything with Patrick Swayze, Eddie Murphy, or the Coreys (Haim and Feldman).  My familiarity of film stars was limited to what I heard at school and what I found in Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, and Bop purchases at the end of the decade.

How does your status compare?  Have you seen most of these?  Was it in the theater?  Or did you have to go to a friend’s house to see it later on video like I did?

Tell me what movies from the 80’s are missing from this list while I go see if I can finally read the Sweet Valley High books on Kindle.

Additional Disclaimer: I will not get into a debate about health and nutrition and fad diets.  I am faced with a potentially permanent health change that I’m working around.  Now, on to the good stuff...

At my age (have you narrowed down my age yet?), I’m starting to notice changes in my health that are just normal.  And sad.  

Since January this year, I have developed severe lactose intolerance.  It started out with eating an abundance of chocolate mousse that someone else made one evening, and I ended up on the bathroom floor hugging the trash can by midnight that night.  Could have been anything I ate, or I might have picked up a 24-hour thing, right?  (Not because I overindulged.  No way. Couldn’t be that.)

About a month later, I had a bowl of ice cream before bed.  Same brand and flavor I’ve had many times before.  Again, I ended up on the bathroom floor making friends with the trash can by midnight.  Hmmm.  That’s odd.  A bowl of cereal before bed.  Same result.  Now I’m paying attention to the similarities.  

I stop consuming dairy when it’s in large quantities such as the bowl of ice cream or cereal. Still consuming small quantities.  A cheese stick here or there.  A splash of milk in my morning coffee. Cheese on a salad.

Eventually, the cheese sticks start making me nauseous within 30 minutes.  My morning coffee starts making me nauseous.  Just the aroma of parmesan cheese on a Caesar salad is an offensive smell for the first time.  

I start using coconut milk in my coffee and it no longer makes me sick.  I cut out dairy everywhere.  Then in a weak moment one evening, I order pizza for dinner with friends.  I down 2 slices without thinking and within the hour the queasiness starts.  And again, I spend some time on the bathroom floor with my new BFF, Blanca.  (She’s a white, plastic trash can.) Seriously?  I can’t have pizza anymore?  *sigh*  Pizza never smelled so good until I couldn’t have it.

It was surprising how much dairy was in my diet.  I couldn’t put cheese on my scrambled eggs anymore.  A slice of provolone on a nice ham and turkey sandwich.  A cup of yogurt with fresh cut up fruit.  Cheese and sour cream on my blessed tacos!  (That might hurt the worst.  I love tacos.)  Oh, and queso dip!  That stuff comes right from Mt Olympus!  

Ok.  I’m rambling.  Get to the point.

So in a bit of a rebellion, I started eating things I would not normally eat.  I started carbing up on comfort foods.  Pancakes regularly instead of once in awhile.  Donuts just because they were on clearance at the grocery store at the end of the day.  My sweet tooth went insane! And I gained about 15 pounds, couldn’t fit into some of my favorite clothes and felt generally miserable.

That’s the point where I decided I wanted to make a change.  A reboot so to speak.  I’ve tried changing my eating habits in the past.  Sometimes with success.  Low carb, high protein, and high fat was one I did well previously.  But that wasn’t going to work so well now that I couldn’t have the dairy I was used to consuming in large quantities with that plan.  Enter Whole30.  

I had heard about it more than a year ago on a podcast.  And what I heard was positive.  So I went to buy the original book and have been reading through it for a few weeks now.  (I went to Amazon.  Neither Amazon nor Whole30 have anything to do with me writing this.  This post is all me.  Links are just to make sure you see exactly what I am referring to.)

I will be implementing the Whole30 plan starting the second week of August.  Thirty days. Planned out food choices. And I’ll tell you all about it.  Right here.  Weekly updates, if not more often.  I’ll tell you what I’m eating, and how I’m feeling.  (I’m really looking forward to the stage they refer to as “Tiger blood”, days 16-27.)  

So stay tuned to find out if I kill anyone off besides a book character in the stage they call “Kill all the things”, days 4 to 5.  

Does anyone want to do this with me?

What have you tried in the past that has worked for you?

     As a child, my hundreds of stuffed animals each had their own name and unique personality. Some were funny, some serious. Some were very intelligent - as much as I knew for my age - and some were still learning. (We played school a lot.)

     My point in telling you this is that I have stories to share. I still have that very active imagination that can hear a song for example, and see a whole adventure unfold right before my eyes. (Songs do inspire many of my stories).  But I do not have formal training in composition, sentence structure, paragraph structure, and the apparently controversial Oxford comma. (I just learned about that this week.)

     So I ask you to be patient and forgiving if I make typos, mistakes, or just ramble on a bit here. In return, you'll get the inside scoop on me. I'll even let you play a part in contributing to my books on occasion. At least one of your ideas will go into each book and I'll mention you in my notes!

    So thanks for following along on this adventure!