I was going to visit my parents for all of 24 hours this weekend. I really wished they were into sports as much as I was because the day that I was visiting them was Sunday into Monday. I should get into town just in time for the 1:00 football game to start and since they have satellite I know I’d be able to watch all of the games. I was sure they wouldn’t want to sit and watch football from 1:00pm into the evening like my boyfriend and I always do in the fall during football season. They also weren’t drinkers, which I wasn’t REALLY either, but I definitely enjoyed a few cold beers while watching sports. Luckily, I did have the Fantasy Football application on my smart phone in case my mom wanted to go shopping or run some other kind of errand. Worst case, they had speakers that ran all through their house, so you could hear the television in any room. It would probably annoy them to have football piped into every room, but they’d deal with it just this once!

According to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office, Stacey English likely died of hypothermia.  Autopsy results state that her death was accidental, and the case is now considered closed.

Her mental health was a big part of the discussion in the beginning stages.   Several friends noticed a change in her behavior during the days leading up to her disappearance.  Her medical history and recent changes in her behavior led some to believe that her death may have been drug-related.

From the autopsy results:

“Based on a combination of information sources including the autopsy, the sequence of events and circumstances, toxicology results, medical and mental health records, and statements of witnesses and acquaintances, the most likely cause of Stacey English’s death is cold exposure complicating underlying neurological and psychiatric disorders”  …

So this case is officially closed.  There is no evidence of intentional self-harm or injury.  The family hasn’t gone on record to address these recent developments.

I’m surprised that this case was able to be solved so quickly.  The turnaround time for similar cases just seems longer to me for some reason.

The Jhessye Shockley timeline has continued to evolve in a peculiar way.   We learned that the child hadn’t been attending school for a number of days before she was officially reported as missing.  She was supposedly sick with some sort of communicable disease.  Then the cousin (Lisa Vance) begins to speak publicly about child abuse and how Shockley was treated in the household.  And now the case is over 100 days old, and landfills are being searched for her remains. 

From AZ Family:

The landfill search for the body of Jhessye Shockley, the 5-year-old girl who was reported missing by her mother on Oct. 11, began on Feb. 6 after weeks of planning.

While they have not turned up any significant evidence, police are confident that Jhessye’s body is in the landfill. When they first started, the search teams were getting through 50 tons of trash each day. Now that they’ve settled into the search, they’re up to 100 tons per day.

If you view the Lisa Vance interview, you’ll see that she had reservations of returning Shockley back to the mother’s care following her release from prison.  She doesn’t entirely rule out that the child abuse ever stopped either.

As police continue to rummage through the Butterfield landfill for Jhessye Shockley’s remains and evidence, I have to wonder how a child was placed in the care of someone with a previous criminal history of child torture without the authorities verifying that she was receiving the psychological treatment she needed.

A Baltimore state delegate is proposing that there be a new law in place to improve coordination efforts between advocacy groups, law enforcement agencies and state authorities in missing person cases.  The bill would be called “Phylicia’s Law” and if passed, this would be the first law of this kind named in honor of a minority child.

More on the missing child bill:

The bill, which is still a draft, would require state officials to oversee efforts to find children and ensure that local law enforcement, missing children’s organizations, experts and families work together to find children. It would also have to publish the names and relevant information about missing children and annual statistics.

A plan is needed to make sure every missing child is sought and better oversight and accountability in the process will help improve the process in the future, criminal profiler Pat Brown said.

At least some good can come out of this case.

I’ve heard the rumors about an arrest being made soon, and I certainly hope that they are true …

It’s been an interesting journey so far.  I’ve learned so much about weight loss and eating in the past few weeks.  I’ve experimented with several healthy brands, and I’ve found one cereal that I really liked.  It’s perfect for adults who love the cereal made for kids.

This is it:

It’s the Kashi GOLEAN! Toasted Berry Crumble.  The taste reminds me of the sweet Captain Crunch (berry) variety.   I absolutely love it with vanilla soy milk, and it has to have been one of the best healthier experiments I’ve tried to date.

I chose it because it’s one of the few cereals out there that doesn’t have corn syrup in it.  And since I’m not going to be eating meat for this month, I figured it would be a good way to get some protein.

I’m still getting the hang of this healthy urban lifestyle thing, but it’s starting to really connect with me.

It would be great if they could develop some sort of cereal inspired by “Cocoa Pebbles” or something of a similar texture.

Photo credit: fastweb

The decision to move is a big one.  And the process of preparing for a move can be stressful.  It involves a lot of planning on your end.  There are a few time-saving tips that could help you while in the process of looking for rentals in Calgary.

First, it is important to pin down an area in Calgary that you would like to reside in.  When factoring in things like the commute and the community, consider the types of restaurants and leisure activities you’d like to have access to. 

Second, consider searching for apartments online.  Make sure that when searching for rentals in Calgary, look for websites that breakdown the availability of apartments by region.  To save time, search on a site that groups the apartments by region.  It is much easier to search for apartments exclusively within the region most desirable to you.

Third, remember to create a list of needs and amenities you would like to have in an apartment complex.  Carefully evaluate your needs to ensure that they are reasonable for your budget.  It’s always a good idea to create a chart with a list of amenities and rank them in the order of importance.   This is to prevent you from devoting unnecessary time to researching places that don’t like.

It’s important to consider the types of places you’d be interested in living in before beginning the search for rentals in Calgary.  Next, consider searching online for apartments specific to your region to save time.  Remember to rank the amenities in order of importance to you.  Following these tips will make your move in Calgary much easier.

I don’t understand the concept of going without food for any reason.  I was a part of a spiritual fast once that was supposed to last a full week, and I caved after two days.  I’m a fluffy foodie, and being without food was just awful.  It was my security blanket.  Fast forward to a couple of years later, and here I am on this cleanse.

You mean my immunity and my digestive tract work together?

I started doing a lot of research online about cleansing.  And to my surprise, I discovered that the digestive tract and the immune system are linked.  I didn’t realize that an unhealthy digestive system contributed to a host of health conditions (science was never my thing).  I realized that maybe I should consider a cleanse after taking a serious look at my own health.  Maybe I could actually make it past the two-day mark.

To cleanse or not to cleanse

I decided to go for it.  When I was weighing the benefits of doing a cleanse, I honestly believed at the time  that making it to the three-day mark would be wonderful for my digestive system.  The goal was seven days, but I’d made up my mind that if I could make it through Day 3, I’d just keep it going for an additional four more days.

Made it

And so here I am on Day 8.  I’ve made it to Day 8 and I’m ecstatic.  I’m now seriously looking at doing this for an entire month.  My digestive system never felt so calm.  And I’ve never been so “regular”.   I have to say it was worth it.

Changes …

I have experienced a number of changes in myself so far.

1. My cravings have died down.
2. My skin is starting to improve.
3. My skin is starting to have more elasticity to it.  Several people have told me that I’m glowing.
4. I’m regular.
5. The foods I am restricted to seem to digest more easily.
6. I’m able to function on far fewer calories.

But the journey wasn’t easy.

On this cleanse, I experienced some challenges.  So here are some of the cleansing challenges I experienced on this healthy urban lifestyle journey.

1.  Calories.  It’s really hard to eat when you have no cravings.  There were times where I could have easily eaten a carton of strawberries for the entire day because the desire for food just wasn’t there.
2. Muscle fatigue.  I had established this goal a while back to get to exercising twice a day.  But I know myself well enough to know that if I take a break from working out, I’d surely abandon working out altogether.  And I couldn’t risk it.  So I decided to keep it going during the cleanse.  It has been hard because my thighs would hurt, but I still stuck to it.  A lot of the articles online encourage low impact aerobic activity (great, that’s all I can do), and some even advocated paying careful attention to your body while exercising to avoid overexertion.
3. Back pain.  Caffeine withdrawal and weight together contribute to the back pain.  But the back pain is nothing compared to the headaches.
4. Headaches.  I believe in aspirin.  I take them at the slightest hint of pain, but cleansing took that option off the table.   The headache lasted for about two days, but all of my research tells me that this is normal.  They go away.  Eventually.
5. Fatigue.  I expected it to be difficult given my current state of health.  But I don’t fight the urge to sleep.  When I want to sleep, I do.  I’m learning to trust my body to let it do whatever it wants to.

I’ve learned so much throughout this cleansing process.  I’d love to keep this going for a full month.  I don’t know why I didn’t do this earlier.  Well, yes I do.  I wasn’t ready to do it.  You can try one of those cleanse kits, but I did it with water, raw veggies and fruits, and green tea.

Nature’s Secret 5-Day Fast and Cleanse Kit

Friends and family members mean well.  They stare at the plate as you fix it during the holidays.  They gently offer up suggestions on better meals at restaurants.  And for whatever reason, the fluffy girl won’t lose weight.  So why is it so hard for the person to lose weight?

Do fluffy people know how to lose weight?

Believe it or not, most fluffly people know how to lose weight.  They probably know more about weight loss than people who have never struggled with weight.  They may gravitate toward yo-yo diets or quick fix solutions here and there.  They’ve probably put in some time researching weight loss and read a countless number of articles on fitness and dieting. 

Fluffly people know how to lose weight.  I’ve always known how to do it, but it wasn’t my time, yet.  I wasn’t ready.  And this is the case for most fluffly people.  Fluffy people will lose weight when they’re ready to.  Ultimatums, advice and bringing the subject up over and over again will do nothing.

Making someone lose weight

You can’t make someone lose weight.  You can’t badger a person into doing what’s right.  It’s a personal decision to take your life into your hands and work toward becoming a healthier person.  A healthier urban lifestyle is about the individual weighing the risks of continuously going down a dangerous road.  You can’t make any person lose weight.  The person really does have to want it for herself.

Breakthrough

I’ve experimented here and there with short-term fixes in the past.  They were always effective in helping me shed pounds, but truthfully, I didn’t really want to make the urban lifestyle changes I needed to make.   I woke up one morning and decided that I really could take better care of myself.  And I decided that I was capable of losing it all.  There was no conversation with a loved one to be had.  I just decided that the excess weight was officially in my way.   I wanted more energy and had this growing need to feel better.

The body of Stacey English was discovered in a heavily wooded area by several men looking for scrap metal.  The Fulton County Examiner’s Office confirmed that the body discovered belonged to English on Jan. 25. 

The cause of death could not be determined from the initial testing performed.  Within several weeks, additional test results are expected.  But in many cases, the authorities withhold specific information about how the victim died.

The accounts of several friends, the news of prescription medication, and a previous suicide attempt seem to point to a possible mental health issue as the reason behind her death.  Family and friends of the victim say that they don’t believe that English would intentionally harm herself, so this opens the door to some creative thinking.

The family says that she wouldn’t travel to that side of town unwillingly on her own. 

Could she have been meeting with someone on that side of town?  Is there a new friend or person in her circle that no one knew about?

Was this a possible carjacking that went wrong?  The car was found running, and the body was found elsewhere.

Was this an abduction?  She is an attractive woman, so someone from her complex or people she’d come in contact with as a part of her daily routine could have taken an interest in her.  But then again, so could a stranger.

Was she being harassed or stalked?  Why was she asking people around her if they were Satan?  Something or someone around her caused her to become suspicious of certain people.  Why didn’t she suspect that all the people around her were out to harm her?

Did someone tamper with her medication?  If her medication was ever out of her sight, or if she took it with her regularly, this could be a possibility.  In the wrong mental state, could she have ended up in that type of area?

Did she have an undiagnosed mental condition that the family may not have known about?  I don’t see this one as a real possibility because she appears to have a large circle of people she contacted regularly.

The Stacey English timeline is a peculiar one.  It doesn’t make sense for only a small group of people to be familiar with the “erratic behavior” she exhibited during the days leading up to her disappearance.  It just seems like her parents would have picked up on something.

What do you think?

This is a touchy subject in the world of dating. Women are supposed to be open-minded, and date a man because of what he has to offer.  But at the same time, it may not be the best thing to date someone who isn’t as financially stable as he should be.   Should a woman consider the man’s income as a part of what all a man has to offer?

Short Answer:  Yes.

Considering the income of a prospect is important in all cases.  I don’t see a problem with looking at the man’s income as a part of the total package.  Here are some scenarios in which this would matter most.

1. If a woman is in a delicate financial situation, she isn’t in a place to give money to her man when he needs some.  Knowing that her man makes enough to support his lifestyle would offer her peace of mind.
2. If a woman really believes that the man is supposed to be the breadwinner, she might be uncomfortable dating a man who may not be able to earn at least as much as she does.  If a woman has grown up in that type of household, it would be hard for her to adjust to being with someone who makes less than her.
3. When a woman goes out on a date, she may be open to the idea of “going Dutch” or handling the tip.  But to know that she may be in a place where she’ll have to pay for the meal all the time may be a little hard for her to deal with.

Considering the man’s income as a part of the total package is good in most cases.  Perhaps it’s not the best way to evaluate the character or personality of the man, but it’s a known fact that money is one of the most common reasons for divorce in this nation.  It’s safe to assume that most of these married couples started out with casual dating.