The Core

I started this core plan diet through weight watchers with my roommate this week. You can eat as much as you want, but you can only eat things on this core foods list. As you could probably guess, core foods are very natural, non processed items.....items we eat sometimes, but not most times. You can eat fruit, vegetables, most lean meats, fat free dairy, and a whole list of things I have never heard of much less eaten. We went grocery shopping and it was not easy. The hardest part for me was the cereal isle. You turn the corner on the cereal isle and before you is a mile long sea of choices that could leave your head swimming if you were incredibly indecisive. I love cereal; i get this from my mom. We could eat cereal every meal of the day. But of this mile long sea of cereal, do you know how many choices you have on the core plan? 2....I found two. If it wasn't bad enough that you can only have one bowl of cereal a day...there are really only 2 choices. Shredded Mini-wheats with no frosting and no sugar and Kashi puffed 7 grain wheat. Now I was optimistic that with a banana and a positive attitude these choice cereals might not be that bad.....I was wrong. The mini wheats tasted a little less like hay only after adding Splenda. The Kashi....well lets just say there may not be enough Splenda in the world to make that taste good.
Lets just face it, you can't beat Frosted Flakes, Honey Bunches of Oats, Lucky Charms, Special K fruit and yogurt, Cocoa Krispies and any other childhood favorite. So, enjoy your cereal this morning and be thankful.

I am not an Oprah follower, as I know many are. She is famed and revered by so many people and now her new reality show The Big Give has gained her an even larger viewing, if that was even possible. I have watched the show twice and I have found it really cool to watch these people giving to total strangers. Something happens in the human heart when we do what the Scriptures have told us to do, even if we are unaware that they have said so. Last night on the show each contestant was given $100,000 in Miami, Florida. They had 24 hours to give it all away and they couldn't give away any cash, they couldn't give any one person more than $500 and they could not spend more than $10,000 in one place. Only one of them was able to spend all of the money in that amount of time. Some of them had some really creative ideas. The roadblock for many of them was not knowing the area and where to go in that small amount of time. So my roommate and I started talking...if that challenge was given to us, but we were allowed to do it here in Fort Worth, what would we do? Where would we go? How would we give what we had been given? I can't stop thinking about ideas. What would I do if I had those parameters and that much money to give? Here are some thoughts...
1. I would find an apartment building in a very low income area and pay the next months rent for all units up to my limit
2. I would go the Beautiful Feet Ministries and figure out their needs and help them out. Purchase coats from Burlington Coat Factory to take
3. I would find a day care center in a low income area and pay peoples child care for the next 2 months.
4. I would go to Petco and purchase dog and cat supplies and deliver them to the Humane Society of North Texas here in Fort Worth as well as paying for all the heart worm treatments needed for all dogs currently there.
5. I would try to find a nice restaurant that would allow me to bring in people from a homeless shelter or woman's center to eat a nice meal.
6. I would find a local college or university (maybe lower income) and give the school $10,000 dollars to offer 20 $500 dollar scholarships to students in desperate need.
7. A random shopping spree in a grocery store or a target.
8. One girl on the show bought all the flowers from a local seller and gave them out on the street...it was really neat.
9. One lady paid for people's gas at a gas station

These are just a few things I thought of and saw on the show. If you have any ideas let me know. What would you do? How would you give?

My Mom came to visit!!!

My Mom , My roommate and Me!This is my Mom!

We went to Sprinkles in Dallas and ate yummy cupcakes!

This is at the Sixth floor museum in Dallas, where JFK was shot.

This man is the oldest employee in Britain at 101 years of age! He is training to be the oldest ever marathon runner. CRAZY! He completed a half marathon recently in a little over 5 hours. I am ashamed of my self and my out-of-shape status when I view something like this.
So this should be motivation for us all...not only should this make us get out and work out, it should let us know that anybody....anybody can run a marathon, with a little determination!