I've spent the majority of the day studying Nutrition. I say studying loosely. What I've really been doing is studying the mechanics and science of nutrition and memorizing the rest. I don't hold with what the FDA and the USDA shove down the pipes as "nutrition". I'm tired of the food pyramid changing to correspond to whatever lobby group has paid the govt. the most money. Don't misunderstand me. I love farmers and ranchers. I wholeheartedly promote the practice of buying from local farmers and ranchers. My husbands family raise black Angus cattle. Someday my husband dreams of owning his own farm/ranch (a hobby to be sure, with maybe a little profit from local sales) I don't condone big business agriculture, genetic tampering with animals or plants, or a govt that's in bed with pharmaceutical companies pushing food down our throats that is contributing to heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer. The govt brushes over the importance of exercise as a legal disclaimer and tells us we need to eat more carbs and if our cholesterol or sugar is high we can take Lipitor or Glucophage. I'm not a carb hater. The human brain's preferred source of energy is glucose. The human brain. Not the rest of the body. The rest of the body prefers protein as it's primary source of energy. I favor a controlled carbohydrate diet. Not a no-carb diet. Not a steak, eggs, cheese, and bacon diet. My diet consists of quality carbohydrates from a variety of raw or steamed veggies, lean proteins, and an assortment of seeds, nuts, some milk products, and berries. That's a controlled/low -carb diet folks! Seriously. Read the science. It's out there in real medical journals. Peer -reviewed medical journals. Doctors are wising up. It's a slow change, but it's coming. The doctor I work for has been prescribing this diet for over forty years. It's been used to get patients healthy for at least a hundred years. I can't make this stuff up, it's true. Do you want to know the roots associated with what ails Americans today? We're lazy, we smoke, we eat crap, we want convenience and we think taking a pill or having gastric bypass is easier, and...we watch entirely too much stinking television. I've fallen victim to these vices too. I was a healthy weight in 1999 when I became pregnant with my first child. I was running 3 - 5 miles a day, but that was the only healthy thing I did. I also smoked a pack a day, drank a lot, did drugs, had promiscuous sex, ate junk food if I remembered to eat at all...the list goes on. I was messed up! Then I was blessed with another chance. My pregnancy gave me a chance to changes my ways. I quit smoking. I didn't drink. That was it. I ate like it was going out of style and I ate junk food. I quit running too. I gained 100lbs. I went from a 10 to a 26. My weight led to complications in my pregnancy. I was already destined to have preeclampsia, but my excess weight gain also added hypertension to that. Now preeclampsia is already a disease of hypertension, add an extra 100 lbs and things don't look good at all. I was forced to go into the hospital two weeks early b/c my blood pressure was 210/100. My son was delivered via c-section without any further complications (I've left out a whole bunch). I went home and dealt with the backlash for the next six months. After awhile I was determined to get back in shape. My son was almost three and I was steadily losing weight and running again. Then I got pregnant again. This time was better. I ate better. I tried to exercise. It was great for awhile. Then the preeclampsia hit again and I had to rest. It was hard but everything turned out ok. I managed to only gain 30lbs this time. My boys are 8 and 4 now and I've just now begun to seriously address the weight gain. My goals for 2008 are clear and concise. I won't list them b/c they are of a more personal nature than I am comfortable journaling about at this time. Perhaps later after a few have been cemented and I'm in a more secure place emotionally. Let's just say that two years ago I was doing really well and had lost fifty of those pounds. I've since gained 25 back. I'm still 25 ahead but it's going to take some time to recoup those.