Bryan’s Mind

Antonella and I decided, in light of the hyperactivity problems we experienced, to modify our diet to remove the following items:
1. High Fructose corn syrup (HFCS). This causes obesity and several metabolic problems, especially diabetes.
2. Dairy. This is largely in part to Sophia’s allergy to dairy. Of course, we will still have the occasional cheese, but for the most part, we have switched to almond and soy milks. It is interesting to see how some things labeled ‘non-dairy’ have dairy in them.
3. Food colorings. We have seen several articles on negative effects of food coloring (www.feingold.com). There are ways to color stuff naturally, and we found some gummy vitamins that do so. Particularly, we try to avoid Red #40, Yellow #5 and #6, and Blue #1 and #2.
4. Partially hydrogenated anything. This is trans-fat, which I don’t consider a good ingredient.
5. Aspartame. (Nutra-sweet)
6. Monsodium glutamate (MSG). Flavor enhancer.

Foods that we had to totally remove that I will miss: Twizzlers, Pop Tarts, almost all soft drinks (save some microbrewed root beers), almost all cereal. Basically, our rule of thumb is to shop the wall of the store, not the aisles.

It is amazing that some things are not available without some of these bad things. For instance, Welch’s makes some 100% fruit juice gummy candy without HFCS, but then color it with the offending dyes.

I think that it is sad how most of the food in the grocery store is junk.

General

The geography/foliage is thus:
Northeast…red clay and pine trees. Could be Alabama or Georgia. Not much going on.
Baton Rouge: Pretty big city, but didn’t take long to traverse it. LSU is there, so we can only assume it is full of twits.
Central: West of Baton Rouge, and east of Lafayette: swamp. They boast the biggest river swamp. The bridge goes almost the whole distance between the two cities. There was a nice rest area/visitor’s center on the west end. Could faintly hear banjos.
Between Lafayette and Lake Charles: porn shops and farms. Almost as many of each. Lots of billboards for Casinos.
Lake Charles: Looked nice from a distance. Nothing but oil refineries once you get closer.

Travel

I was a little befuddled about this myself: should the plural be ‘mutexes’ or ‘mutices?’ Since mutex is an contraction of ‘mutual exclusion,’ and not some Greek-rooted word, such as index, the simple answer is…

Mutexes.

Travel

I added a new category, “Wordplay.” Sometimes, I come across something that seems odd about the language. Sometimes, it is just a mildly amusing or perplexing observation. Anyway, this is where I am putting all of these. Feel free to chime in.

General

If you really wanted to go to an appointment, but missed it, are you disappointed whether you feel negatively or not?

Wordplay

An argument can be made that HFCS (High-fructose corn syrup) is one of the leading causes of adult-onset diabetes and obesity. Of course, this is teh interwebs, so I will just aver that with no substantiation whatsoever. (You can look it up.)

I could go on about the apathy of these companies trying to save a couple of cents to sweeten their products (most of which are consumed by children) and what not. But where does it all come from?

I found out the other day: I was looking at a 12-pack of [Name redacted] Birch Beer that followed an “Old Pennsylvania Amish Recipe.” And there it was: High Fructose Corn Syrup. I now know where it came from–The Amish. And they all look so innocent in those wide-brimmed hats and suspenders… the shame!

General

Antonella and I have noticed a correlation between Sophia’s hyperactivity and her consumption of dairy products. For instance, last night we gave her a bit of an ice cream sandwich before bed and she flipped out and started running up and down the hallway and bouncing around like she had just awakened.

Today, I did a search to try to find the link between the two and found a substantial number of sites. Some even tried to explain the correlation and why it causes hyperactivity; however, I am always reluctant to take what I read on the web at face value. However, there were many of these articles that I would call “well-researched,” citing books and medical journals, and there were many testimonials.

Additionally, dairy/gluten may be the culprit; however we can pretty much rule that out based upon her lack of reaction after eating wheat products (pasta is a daily staple around our house).

I do not understand why I was not made aware of this sooner. It seriously makes me doubt the quality of the pediatric care she is receiving. And to think of the sleep I could have gotten over the past 2-1/2 years if I only knew this. Of course, there were signs even at birth, as she would break out in a rash if she had regular cow’s milk. We would give her formula and/or lactaid to help curb this, but her sleeplessness could have been caused by dairy all along.

General

I have noticed some things as of late:
1. My extremely busy schedule does not allow for much blogging.
2. Little slices of time add up to a lot pretty quickly.
3. I did not factor in the “pucker factor” into my stress load. That is, under normal circumstances, having a lot to do is not bad, as long as you fudge-factor-in some slack in case things go all SNAFU on you. (Said in Keanu Reeves’ voice): “I know SNAFU!” The problem is most of the endured stress is not short term. I will have to come up with a better coping mechanism than what I currently have, and of course, better time management to help avoid it at all costs.

Travel

I have been exceedingly lazy as of late, and I have been doing the old Facebook.  It is a nice networking tool, but some of the applications can be time consuming and/or addicting.  As a result, I have neglected updating the old blog. 

Some nice news:  we are expecting our second bambino!  The due date is July 5th, which ties in really well with our July supermonth  (my birthday, our anniversary, and Sophia’s birthday are all in July (2nd, 3rd, and 16th, respectively)).  We are currently in our 11th week of gestation. 

We have no idea what the gender is yet, of course.  We may or may not have names picked out, but we are not going to reveal the name until after the baby is born.  Since this one is our final issue, we are going to pick out a good one, don’t you worry.

Travel

Well, being that it is the holiday season, it is generally busy for everyone; however, we seem to find ways to make it excruciatingly so.  About a week before Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law was visiting from Florence, Italy.  Even after our warnings, as well as those of my wife’s parents, I don’t think she was prepared to live the rural life.  I mean, it isn’t like we have to get up at four A.M. to go slop the hogs or something–we usually sleep in til about 4:30.  No, really:  we don’t have hogs. 

Her lack of fluency in English kept her from venturing out on her own, and with our daughter around, it was difficult for my wife to get out and about with her.  So, I had to spend all of my free time trying to entertain.  On the weekend, we went someplace every day:  Alexandria, Georgetown, DC, Baltimore, Annapolis, et al.  We always enjoy getting out, but it was with a Russian-roulette styling.  That is, we would ask her where she wanted to go and she would say, “It doesn’t matter,” but then if she didn’t enjoy it, then she would get testy with Antonella the following day.  In fact, there were a couple of times early on where she asked me to take her to the airport to try to change her ticket. 

Well, she stayed the expected duration and I think she got to see some interesting places and things.  For the most part, we enjoyed her company; nonetheless, I feel as if it is a burden lifted for her being gone.  Now don’t get me wrong:  I like Laura.  It is these month-long visits that just wear me down. 

Hopefully, next year it will just be Antonella, Sophia, New Baby, and me all gathered around the fireplace in our holiday sweaters and sipping egg nog.

Travel