trying to start new...

i've been trying to organize many aspects of my life and start this year fresh. today i have been cleaning and de-cluttering my kitchen and basement. there is always so much stuff to do. i was able to exercise this morning so i was happy to get that in.
i weighed 222 lbs. walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes and 364 calories with 112 heart rate.
i ate an apple, a italian submarine sandwich, a bag of salt & vinegar potato chips, and a small bowl of tortellini, kale, & kielbasa soup. i had three yummy eclairs that my brother josh brought over.

at midnight...

it is really hard to exercise. i had a busy day with b leaving to florida and i didn't get to exercise in the morning. the afternoon slipped away and then i had yum yum group where we made soups. the soups were so good and tasty. but by the time i got home it was almost 10:30pm and the exercise demons were in my brain telling me i was too tired to exercise. i kept putting it off and then by 11:45 i decided if i didn't do it now then i would start the bad procrastination cycle all over again. i'll start again on monday, or better yet, i'll start again the first day of february. but i beat off the demons and got on my elliptical machine and did 20 minutes before going to bed.
i ate an apple, banana, an orange, a grilled cheese sandwich, small fries with fry sauce, and two small beef tacquitos. i had a bunch of spoonfuls of soup.

it's goes faster with a friend...

i exercised at a normal hour this morning because b went with me, i talked to angela the whole time and the time went by so fast. it was almost easy.
i stair-stepped for 45 minutes, 450 calories, 91 floors 1.9 miles with my heart rate at 121. today i drank 64 ounces of water and took all my vitamins. i had 2 stuffed shells for lunch and mu shu pork for dinner. i also ate two pieces of bread.

back on the clock...

okay so i'm starting up again! today when the clock went off at 5:00 am, i really didn't want to get up. b was getting ready for basketball and i just laid there. i knew if i had to go get in a zero degree car i would about die, so i told b to start my car, knowing that if he did that i would have to get up and either go turn it off or go to the gym. it was a good plan and worked. i knew if i had to get up anyway and go out i might as well get my butt to the gym. it was so hard. so many excuses went through my mind.

i got on the scale to see where i was at Christmas and i was at 215. not bad, only 4 pounds from where i left off in june. well this morning after a week of eating and gorging in california with the family, when i stepped on the scale i had gained another 10 pounds. so now i'm at 225. i have a lot to lose.

my goal is just to be healthy and i am finally getting all my levels correct. i have actually been working on that this whole last year.

well today at the gym i did 30 minutes on the stair stepper and was beat. i burned 240 calories and only made it to 67 levels. i didn't have much to eat that was fresh and so i went to the grocery store today and got a bunch of fresh stuff for tomorrow.

i drank 64 ounces of water
ate some chipolte tomato soup
phad sii eu, beef, broccoli & noodles
and 1/2 loaf ciabatta bread

many of you are asking...

where is bridgette?

well I've been off with my family in italy.


i tried to blog while i was actually there, but it wasn't meant to be.

access to the internet where we stayed in some places was limited

priority for the single adapter i brought went to charging my 3 batteries to take pictures.

besides all that i was just plain tired every night after packing it all in each day with my fun family.

so here you go...
if you want to follow my days in italy i will be blogging about them one day at a time at my new "want a bite" blog...

i haven't given up this blog...i'm starting back today, in fact i'm supposed to be at the gym right now!

it's all about focus...

and i didn't have any today. i was busy still doing my greenhouse, and it never seems to end.
i need to get back to the gym!
today i ate a banana
some sesame candies
chicken nuggets at wendy's
and phad sii uu for dinner

it's still my birthday...

well it's not, but i'm still celebrating like it is.
no exercise today, and i ate so bad.
didn't do well on my water intake either.
but i did take all my vitamins today.
rueben sandwich
fries & fry sauce
hamburger with tzaziki sauce with no bun
half a hot dog
some chips & bread to dip in the greek dips
1 cookie

my big fat greek birthday...

at my 41st party today we had a feast. since it was my birthday i got to choose so i decided i wanted to try greek. i just ate a little of everything. i think greek food has a bad rap because it isn't prepared right by people. greek food is delicious and healthy if made correctly. we made everything you see here from scratch.
we had...

tzatziki dip

skordalia dip

spicy whipped feta and pepper dip

taramosalata dip

olive crackers (my first ever run at crackers)

spanakopita

orange and olive salad

greek vegetable soup

egg noodles with warm tahini yogurt sauce

grilled hallumi cheese

green beans with tomatoes and olives

constantinople artichokes

baked vegetable terrine

athenian chicken

pastitsio

shrimp with tomatoes and feta

baklava

if you've never tried baklava or want some dip email me we have lots of leftovers.

there is hope...

it was just coincidence that my last post ended on hope street.

it ended because i actually got a wild hair and decided to plant earth boxes two weeks ago. they are pretty cool little boxes but after spending $300 on four boxes, the dirt and plants, the idea of taking daily care of these few plants seemed silly.

if i am going to dedicate time to watering, weeding, planting, etc., i want to maximize my time commitment. so then i got a novel idea and thought... what if i plant a garden in the back of my yard? since i only ever step foot in my backyard about once a year, just to make sure the sprinklers are hitting all the dead spots, i figured why do i care what it looks like. i never go back there anyway so lets just plant a garden where we have our dead grass.

there was not enough room between our house and our retaining wall to plant anything so i decided if people can tier their layers for patio lounging, i could tier my layer for a garden. but that would require moving a lot of dirt, since the hill goes straight up by our house. well if we are going to move that much dirt we might as well maximize the effort...

well, a garden turned into building a greenhouse and after removing 9 huge truckloads of dirt, the earth was moved. so that is what i've been doing for the last two weeks. i am so obsessive compulsive!

i haven't exercised, and frankly, all i've done is focused on understanding and creating the best environment to grow yummy, healthy, delicious food...part of my overall lifestyle change. so i haven't given up!

i weigh about 207 and iwas down to 204 last week. i didn't make my goal of being under 200 for my 41st birthday, but i'm still dedicated to losing at least five more.

there is no hope...

for me to reach my goal of 200 by tomorrow. okay, it was a very ambitious goal. i guess i was just hoping that if the people on biggest loser could take off that much, i could easily do 2.5 lbs. a week. i'm still going to keep walking down this street. i have to keep in perspective that my main objective is to get healthy. but i love watching the pounds come off. this week isn't going to be good. i planted a garden today instead of exercising and tomorrow and friday is women's conference at BYU. so unless i go early to the gym, i'm not going to get my exercise in.

no exercise
32 ounces of water
bowl of yogurt cheerios with 2% milk
large chicken salad with black beans, onion, tomato, and chipolte ranch dressing
masaman curry with 1/4 cup of rice, potatoes and chicken
singapore mai fun 1/2 cup

samples at the grocery store equal...

a sales surge for most people.

but for my family it equals lunch or dinner.
today i noshed my way through the new harmons, hovering around sampling tables waiting for a bite of whatever they were whipping up. grazing in the aisles is so common these days i often wonder if it really pays off.

i remember going to this really deluxe grocery store in connecticut growing up. we were really poor and we would go and eat all the samples. they were so good. so i know they can be a meal if needed. my dad still loves trying every sample. sad but true.

today i swam for 1 hour and 15 minutes

i drank 64 ounces of water
i ate some green curry for lunch with rice
for dinner i had red curry with jasmine rice
1/4 cups of cauliflower with red curry
1/2 cup of phad thai homemade so yummy

i won a new watch...

a polar F55, it is pretty cool. i got it because i won a contest a bunch of friends did for losing weight back in january. i lost the greatest percentage, losing 13% of me. so i bought this watch because i can swim with it on, and that was more important to me than be able to track where i run. i like to swim more than any other type of exercise. oh yeah, i did buy it a month prior to winning, but i knew i would win. i know that sounds presumptuous on my part, but i was able to motivate myself with my watch and that helped me win. so i guess all is well. thanks guys!


for those of you that have never seen these straps, you wear it around your chest and then it tells your watch what your heart is doing. i love how it constantly monitors my heart, keeping me in the right zone for working out and keeping track of my exercise minutes each week. i can download the information to my computer and watch my progress. a valuable tool. i ended up winning $450 so i'm trying to figure out what else i want to get. maybe i'll go gadget shopping at williams-sonoma.

today i drank 60 ounces of water
i swam 30 minutes
i was 207.5 today
i ate hires drive in french fries with fry sauce my favorite, i haven't had fries for so long. they were so good.

bowl of tomato chipotle soup
1 piece of bread
1 piece of steak
1/2 cup green beans
1/2 cup roasted potatoes
1 mini krackel bar
1 meringue cookie

10 pounds equals 1 clothes size...

i never knew that, but julie says that's what weight watchers says.

if you're wondering, no, i'm not buying any new clothes for awhile. sorry, you are going to have to see me with my clothes hanging on my body. it seems silly to go buy new clothes when hopefully in a few months i will be even even 30 pounds lighter.

b was hoping that i would wear some of the clothes that have been accumulating in our 7 closets for the last 10 years. i don't know why, but i have lots of clothes that are really old, that i can't seem to get rid of. some of them i have had since i went to college. okay that is really scary to say. 24 years old????

i know they are just taking up space but really i might wear it sometime. i used to say when i get skinny, but honestly i don't know if i'd ever wear any of them. but i know i especially wouldn't wear them if i can't fit into them, so maybe as i go down is size i can try stuff on and finally part with clothes i will never wear. why do we do this to ourselves?

no exercise today
60 ounces of water

today i ate
lots of chips and 7-layer dip
salt & vinegar potato chips
hamburger no bun with ketchup lettuce & tomato
1/2 a polish hot dog no bun
1/4 reg hot dog no bun
1/4 cup pasta salad
small bite of white cake with pudding
small bite of chocolate pudding cake
small bite of mounds chocolate cake

the problem with setting a particular weight goal...

by a certain date, for me, is that i feel that it demotivates me. it makes me feel like if i know i'm not going to make it, i might as well eat or give up because i'm not going to make it anyway. like trying to get to 200 lbs. by may 1st. i'm trying to justify in my brain how i can trick myself into being able to say that i made it. like i could not eat for a week before and go on a juice fast, or i could take water pills, or laxatives. or i could just lie or whatever justification my brain can come up with, and there are a lot.

so when i get to 200 lbs. on a technicality, who does that benefit? not me. setting a date changes, in my mind the motivation of why i want to lose weight. instead of just trying to loose my 2 pounds a week, i'm thinking about how i can jerry-rig my weight to lose by the correct date, focusing my time and energy on the wrong subject.

45 minutes on the stairmaster
30 minutes swimming
drank 90 ounces
banana
chicken breast with mango salsa
1/4 cup of spaghetti noodles
roasted veggies carrot, broccoli, parsnips, asparagus, zucchini
chips lots of
salsa lots of
one scoop of ice cream with caramel sauce & chocolate sauce

i've realized i like to shop for...

food and not clothes. i don't really care about what i wear. but i do love to find unusual ingredients and like to research them, taste them, and use them in different and new recipes. i like shopping at multi-cultural markets and shopped for lots of food today. mexican, middle eastern, asian, and thai markets are some of my favorites.

swam 30 minutes
run 10 minutes
stairmaster 45 minutes

110 ounces of water
carnitas meat 4 oz.
16 chips & lots salsa
apple
banana
roti bread 1/4 piece
nan bread 1/4 piece
chicken sool 1 bowl chicken & potatoes
1/4 of vegetable samosa
1/4 potato cake
chicken pakor 1 strip

maybe this is what we should do with our waterbottles...

i always thought nalgene water bottles were the safest. the tough nalgene #7 poly carbonate bottles were said to be the best bottles you could store your water in. but now they are found to leech bisphenol A. this is in any plastic with a number 7 in the small triangle. the triangle is a rating system for plastic and #7 was supposed to be the one that never would contaminate anything. this is used a lot in baby bottles and plastic containers for food storage like rubbermaid and others. canada has already banned the product and sale of it. our Federal Government has know about it for years, and we are just becoming aware of it now. you could walk into REI today and still buy the bottles, even though the nalgene website talks about not making the bottles anymore. it is all a money game.



but read about the study which linked the chemical bisphenol A, used to make hard, shatter proof plastics, to precancerous tumors, urinary tract problems and early puberty. the study was performed on rats that were fed or injected with small amounts of the chemical, and although the results are preliminary the group of scientists involved in the study said that possible effects on humans "cannot be dismissed." the National Toxicology Program, who headed the study, is comprised of scientists from many formidable national agencies: the Center for Disease Control, US Food and Drug Administrations, and the US Institutes of Health. agencies not likely to be ignored considering that this study echoes findings made late last summer by the National Institute of Health.

from the martha stewart website:
the importance of water is unquestionable: it is essential to the survival of all of the earth's inhabitants, and yet we waste it. and, according to environmentalist Simran Sethi, it is our negligence that has resulted in the traces of pharmaceuticals being found in our water supply.

in March 2008, the Associated Press released the results of a five-month inquiry. Pharmaceuticals were detected in the drinking-water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas, from Southern California to northern New Jersey to Detroit to Louisville, affecting more than 41 million Americans. the New York State Health Department and the U.S. Geological Survey have tested the source of the New York City's water and found trace concentrations of heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anticonvulsants, mood stabilizers, and tranquilizers. a sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water. antiepileptic and antianxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California. high levels of caffeine were found in Seattle drinking water.

so how are these medications getting into our water supply? anything you put into your body is going to be released when you go to the bathroom. basically, when you flush it down, it comes back around. and it doesn't just impact us; it also impacts wildlife. last year, male fish started hatching eggs in the Potomac River, a water source for the Washington, D.C., area. scientists have yet to determine how these trace amounts of pharmaceuticals affect humans.

medication is found in bottled water, too. Why? because 40 percent of bottled water comes from municipal sources, which means it is basically tap water, and most companies don't test for these trace substances.

simran suggests investing in a good water filter -- she uses the Doulton Countertop Ceramic Filter. you can also use a jug like PUR or Brita, with a carbon filter, but remember that it will not filter out everything. nothing will.

water is life...
i drank 90 ounces today
i swam for 50 minutes, did the stairmaster for 45 minutes and weighed 206.5 today
i had a jazz apple
i had a homemade granola bar
i ate grilled asparagus
25 grilled shrimp no butter
one bite of chicken
lots of grilled mushrooms
grilled cheese halloumi small piece
2 pieces of ciabatta bread
bruschetta 2 pieces
roasted garlic aioli
grilled artichokes
steak salad 2 tiny pieces of steak
green bean salad
2 bites of caprese salad
pineapple grilled 2 rounds
2 bites of ice cream
lets just say lots of food

i can feel...

my mind and my body becoming stronger.

today i hit a new target, 30 lbs gone. to me the biggest secret about weight loss is really putting your mind to it. when i have done that, my body follows. i'm not saying it is easy, but it is just disciplining my mind. now i ask myself do i really want to eat that or do i want to feel guilty about not exercising all day.

its all about mind over matter.

my mind is far more creative than i have given it credit for. it is extremely more powerful than i can imagine.

a deep and true desire which is not contradicted by some other desire of mine held in my mind can be brought into existence very rapidly by my powerful and creative mind.

i could do it just by focusing all my energy and attention on a single goal or at least non-contradictory set of goals.

so like nike says "just do it"
what is holding you back?

"There is nothing I cannot do if I put my mind to it."

today i swam hard for 45 minutes
i ate some bacon off b's breakfast burger
and had 2 bites of hash browns
banana
for lunch i had 8 oz. of grilled steak
orange
kiwi
for dinner huge nachos smothered with cheese and really bad for me
two fish tacos
a small salad with lite balsamic reduction
i drank abaout 40 ounces of water

i've shared my soap...

secret with some of you. my favorite soap ever is
dr. brommer's magical soap
they have been making this soap for five generations about 150 years. the only type i use is the peppermint one. the peppermint essential oil tingles the body and clears the mind. because therapeutically peppermint oil is a mild stimulant it increases vitality and clarity. it is like tea-tree shampoo, but for your body. it makes you tingle all over.

they now sell it at target. i buy it in the big 1/2 gallon size and then just fill my bottles. it is much cheaper that way. try it sometime, if you want to tingle too!



today i drank 90 ounces
i swam for 30 minutes doing 32 laps and did the stairmaster for 45 minutes
i ate green curry and brown rice for lunch with veggies
i ate red curry and jasmine rice for dinner with veggies
i also ate one single reeses peanut butter cup, someone tempted me and i couldn't resist, it was late at night and my mind was confused

i swam 800 yards today...

or 32 laps, which i guess (i don't know all the jargon yet), is an olympic distance. i swam it in 25 minutes and 32 seconds. i don't know if that is good or bad time, but i felt i could have pushed myself harder. since it was my first experience, timing myself, i wanted to make it to the end and not run out of steam. i thought it would take a lot longer, but now that i know it was only about 20 minutes, i'm sure as i get better i can go faster and pace myself properly. it takes me about 29-31 seconds to do a lap. we'll see how i progress.

today i did the stairmaster for 45 minutes
swam for 45 minutes
drank 90 ounces of water
ate a pint of cherry tomatoes
bite of chicken salad
two handfuls of smoked gouda popcorn
green curry with vegetables & tofu and 3/4 cup of rice
18 sweet potato fries with fry dipping sauce

thai style...

today we got together with my family and we always cook something fun. everyone loves to cook except for b and my dad. my brothers, sister, and their spouses all like to cook so b and dad do the dishes and clean up and it works well for everyone. we like to make some new things and some old favorites. everything was so yummy tonight. i at a lot of different things, but not a lot of one thing. it was all pretty authentic thai. we also made green curry with chicken, but i forgot to take a picture of it. but i have leftovers so i can do it tomorrow. the rice pudding had a wonderful texture and taste.

cocount rice pudding with cardamon


pat thai


green papaya salad


pat sii uu


fried rice with hearts of palm


lahb gai


cardamom lassie drink


today i didn't exercise at all
i drank 60 ounces of water, i can feel my lips are so dry
i ate some seaweed and rice chips
i also ate some smoked gouda popcorn about 6 handfuls
i had a few bites of the rice pudding and a few bites of everything above and about 1/2 cup of rice.

no wonder our perception of beauty is distorted...

click here to check out this awesome commercial from the "Dove" campaign for real beauty...
i believe we are feed so many unrealistic images like this throughout all the media.

no wonder why so many teenagers, children and even many of us, struggle to find our real self worth. what are we comparing ourselves to?

today i did the stairmaster for 45 minutes, and then i swam for 75 minutes
i am doing 25 yards in about 30 seconds
90 ounces of water
4 oz. egg salad lite mayo
2 handfuls raisins & honey roasted peanuts
seaweed & salt rice chips 4 servings
1/2 cup steamed zucchini
1 chicken breast
18 chips with hummus
1/8 cup broccoli salad no mayo
1 bite of coconut cupcake

a bad day...

no exercise
90 ounces of water
chocolate graham bunnies
freeze dried apples
chicken artichoke wrap
5 handfuls of oogies smoked gouda popcorn
1/4 cup sugar snap peas
spaghetti squash, what was on that
seared scallop chipolte sauce
portabello & chicken over polenta
bread & pimento dip
lemon snapper with curry, green beans, and basmati rice

i'm having a hard time...

getting back on the wagon...
i fell off in San Fran and i haven't quite made it back on. it's the fact that i need to be on a strict exercise schedule. when i vary my exercise times, it makes it too hard for me to say i'll do it later and then never get to it. just like blogging too. i need to stay on top of it everyday. as far as my weight i am getting closer to back to where i was, at 209. i made eggplant parmesan today and ate way too much. i ate pasta at like 10:00 at night and that was so bad.
but i did workout and swim today for a half an hour.

for breakfast i had an apple
for lunch i had eggplant parmesan sandwich
for another snack i had a handful of goldfish
for a snack i had some granola trail mix
for dinner i had a big piece of eggplant parmesan and a double helping of spaghetti with yummy homemade sauce.

a voice you never hear in hollywood...

finally someone who put into words how i feel!
she was on Oprah last week and i loved what she had to say.


With her natural grey hair and pared-down wardrobe, some may say Jamie Lee Curtis is glamming down—but she doesn't see it that way.

"I never represented glam," she says. "That's the thing, you'll never see me in the front row of a fashion show. I'm uninterested in it. I find it trivial and banal and boring. I find it to be the least interesting thing that a woman can pay attention to, is clothing. I'm so much more interested in what's going on in the world today and what we're thinking and how we're feeling. And so for me, I think glamming down is really diminishing what I'm talking about, which is really paring down the sort of detritus of my life."

Jamie says she is trying to portray a truthful image of herself, both in life and on the cover of AARP The Magazine. "I believe that life is hard," she says. "That we all are going to walk through things that are hard and challenging, and yet advertising wants us to believe that it's all easy. Everything's easy—aging's easy, childrearing's easy, dressing's easy—everything's easy. And I think it's a real disservice to people because I think it feeds you something that's not true."

While Jamie says she finds nothing wrong with corrective surgery, she thinks cosmetic surgery is a shortcut that doesn't fix the problem—and she knows from experience. Jamie says she has had cosmetic surgery on her lower eyelids as well as liposuction. "The fraud is, it doesn't work. It doesn't work because there are complications, and I got them all. It doesn't work because you still look in the mirror and you see the fraud of what you were trying to do."

today i didn't make it to the gym bad!
margarita pizza whole one
green arugula salad
handful of pork rinds
4 oz. carne asada meat
1/2 cup mexican rice
60 ounces of water

i always burped it up...

so i grew up hating to take cod liver oil. it was one of those childhood memories i have trying to gulp it down on the spoon so fast and not smell it cause you would gag.



but i started taking this new kind today, you know, to get all the omega fats i need in my bodies. my new really cool doctor, whom i love, prescribed them for me. i told her about the traumatic recollections of my youth and she said that they just came out with a specially enteric coated capsule so you will never burp them up.


they are by Vital Nutrients, ultra pure fish oil 700mg Omega 3 high potency unflavored. and i must say, they do work. you are supposed to take about 1800 a day which is about 3 capsules.

the description is as follows
Fish oil (Omega-3 Fatty Acids), Fish oil provides a high dose of omega-3 fatty acids in a favorable ratio. Fish oil is vital to the health of organs and tissues, especially the skin. Fatty acids are building blocks for hormones and cell membranes and precursors for the highly active prostaglandins (antiinflammatory substances).

it is good for:
- Inflammation
- Skin conditions (psoriasis, eczema and dermatitis)
- Allergies
- Heart disease
- Hypertension
- Premature aging
- Autoimmune disorders
- Ulcerative colitis
- Neonatal development
- Arthritis
- Immune impairment
- Depression
- Cancer
- PMS
- Reduced sex drive
- Menopause
- Fibrocystic breast disease

A balance of the fatty acids is essential. Allergic eczema is believed by some to be caused by an imbalance of fatty acids in the body (Heinerman, John. Heinerman’s Encyclopedia of Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs. Parker Publishing,West Nyack, NY 1988 p. 134).

Heinerman proposes that allergy relief can be experienced after taking fatty acid
supplements a month before allergy season begins (ibid, p. 184). In fact, Heinerman believes that a host of diseases, including coronary artery disease, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, allergic eczema, cancer, premature aging, chronic inflammation and autoimmune disorders are related to an imbalance of fatty acids in the body (ibid, p. 134).

Balance
Fish oil seems to have many beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system. EPA-DHA (found in fish oil) is converted into the 3-series prostaglandins (antiinflammatory substances). Increased intake of fish oils (as in the Eskimos) has
been shown to decrease risk of atherosclerosis, decrease angina pain and decrease triglyceride levels. Fish oil should not be combined with anticoagulant therapy such as coumadin (unless under the supervision of a physician).

Cardiovascular
The effect of fish oil on ulcerative colitis was investigated in 87 patients. Treatment with fish oil resulted in, "measurable clinical benefit". The researchers suggested that fish oil could be working by a beneficial effect on cytokines, by scavenging free radicals, and by increasing intestinal mucosal surface area.

Additionally, they noted that fish oil is used as a treatment for a variety of chronic inflammatory disorders (NEJM 1996;334:1557-1560). Gastrointestinal Complaints Artificial baby formulas, unlike human milk, do not contain any long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA’s). Arachidonic acid, along with some of the longer chain PUFA's, is an essential requirement for proper brain function, especially in the fetus and newborns. The PUFA’s found in fish oil, such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), are an example of very long chain PUFA’s. Their high degree of unsaturation is needed

Brain/Visual Development for membrane fluidity and are very important for the brain development of a child. Fish oil may very well have an important role to play in reducing the incidence of autoimmune diseases, because it can inhibit the inappropriate expression of certain molecules on the cell surface that are involved with initiating autoimmune disease (MHC class II).

Immune System
Decreased omega-3 fatty acid consumption correlates with increasing rates of depression. Long-chain omega-3 fatty acid deficiency may also contribute to depressive symptoms in alcoholism, multiple sclerosis, and post-partum depression. DHA may prevent the development of depression. [Hibbeln JR, Salem N Jr. Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids and depression: when cholesterol does not satisfy. Am J Clin Nutr. 1995 Jul;62(1):1-9.] Without sufficient dietary intake of DHA, pregnant women become depleted of DHA and may increase their risk of suffering major depressive
symptoms in the postpartum period. Both lower DHA content in mothers' milk and lower seafood consumption are associated with higher rates of postpartum depression [Hibbeln JR. Seafood consumption, the DHA content of mothers'milk and prevalence rates of postpartum depression: a cross-national, ecological analysis. J Affect Disord. 2002
May;69(1-3):15-29.]

Depression
Fish oil is associated with "protection against the promotional effects of animal fat in colorectal (colon/ rectum) and breast carcinogenesis.” (Caygill CP, et al, Fat, fish, fish oil and cancer. Br J Cancer 1996 Jul;74(1):159-64.)

Since fish oil does thin the blood, large doses may increase risk of stroke from hemorrhaging. Fish oil has been used in combination with anticoagulant therapy, however, caution should be employed when larger doses are used. Medicinal amounts of any vitamin, mineral or specialty nutrient should only be taken with the advice of a licensed healthcare professional. If biliary colic (digestive upset) is present, check gallbladder function.

today i did 45 minutes on the stairmaster
i weighed 211
i had 120 ounces of water
took my vitamins
ate some pork rinds 1 cup
ate 1 chicken breast with marsala sauce and mushrooms
zucchini with tomato sauce
fusilli with red sauce 1/4 cup
had lentil and sausage soup
4 pieces of bread with dipping sauce
spiced nuts from tartine
pink grapefruit gelato
citrus gelato
1/4 cup black beans & 12 chips