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Sore Loser Dad Goes on “Bullying” Rampage Against Aledo Coach
Bullying is real and I hate it, probably more than most people but the word bullying is getting thrown around with no weight and it’s pissing me off. This week the Aledo Texas high school coach Tim Buchanan benched his starters after only 21 plays, kept to a conservative ground game and even allowed the clock to run uninterrupted after halftime to show mercy to the winded Western Hills High School. Still, his Bearcats won 91-0; a complete blowout but not a surprise to anyone who is familiar with the undefeated Aledo High School Football team. Football is serious business in Texas. I thought everyone knew that. Now, Coach Buchanan is facing formal accusations of bullying from a parent of the opposing team! Sounds like sour grapes to me.
Apparently, this Western Hills High School dad doesn’t understand the concept of bullying. Sure, losing is hard to swallow; a shutout even harder but that’s life. We don’t always win. Somebody has to lose if someone else wins. Isn’t that part of the allure of winning; to be the best not the same as everyone else? We’ve coddled our children for so long with non-competitive games and hug it out losses that when someone actually has to lose and it doesn’t feel good, all of the sudden people are throwing tantrums; parents and children alike.
In the complaint, the dad argues that the Aledo coaching staff should have taken steps to end the game quickly and spare the feelings of the Western Hills players. Huh? What’s going to happen to these children when they go into the harsh real world where no one gives a damn about your “feelings”. This father thinks the coach bullied his team by letting his players continue to play. The Western Hills dad said that Aledo wasn’t easing up. They were not. Referees and coaches from both teams agree that Coach Buchanan took steps to contain the score; he played his third string players on the field more than the starters, allowed the clock to run when it normally stopped and was not playing his players tot heir optimum ability. He showed mercy. Should he have just stopped the game and walked off the field because they felt sorry for the losing team? Wouldn’t that have been more insulting? Do we want to teach our children that they can’t do their best or be proud of their accomplishments because someone else’s feelings might get hurt? No!
I understand being upset that you lost and believe me I can imagine that being the losing team in a blowout is embarrassing and not necessarily a boost for your ego but when you’re in the real world, you don’t get ahead and succeed in life by people feeling sorry for you and giving you an easy out. You succeed in life by working hard and keeping at it. When you win you graciously celebrate and when you lose you do that graciously to because nobody respects a sore loser or a cocky winner. We need to let our kids lose once in awhile to appreciate the wins and to learn that they will bounce back. Losing isn’t the end of the world; no matter how shitty it may make you feel at the time.
But accusing a coach for bullying because his team won even after he did all he could to not widen the gap, with the exception of telling his team to throw the game, is straight throwing a tantrum. According to Robyn Silverman on GMA, here is what constitutes bullying:
- An aggressive attack; be it physical, emotional or social.
- An uneven balance of power; for example older/younger or bigger/smaller.
- Consistent; done more than once over a prolonged period of time.
- Deliberate; done with the intention to hurt or harm.
These criteria need to be met to use the term bullying. Stop throwing it around every time you don’t like the outcome of a situation. There are plenty of children who are suffering from real bullying; the kind that scars you and makes you feel alone and alienated with no where to turn. Losing a football game is not one of those situations.
Parents, be an example to your children. If they lose teach them to do it graciously and with resilience. Let them know it will all be all right. If they win, teach them to do it with grace and compassion. Don’t teach them to place blame and be sore losers. And please stop throwing around the word bullying to describe every time you don’t like what someone else is doing.
Do you think this was bullying?

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2013/10/23
Kindergarten Jitters
There is officially 14 days until the first day of kindergarten for my oldest, Bella. I knew it was coming… but I forgot how quickly. I don’t know why I was surprised their entire lives thus far have been a wonderful and crazy whirlwind. I’m just along for the ride and hanging on for dear life most days but enjoying every single second of it.I was so wrapped up in prepping her for the actual education that she needed before entering school that I never took into consideration what I was going to feel like when the time actually came to let her go to that first day of school. Not that that’s what is important ( well, it is a little to me..hell, a lot).
My 2 little Goofballs! God how I Love ’em!
Anyways, I was picking up some uniforms for her and she had to try them on. My daughters have their Daddy’s height and its legs for days, so to be safe we must try everything on. After all, I can’t send her to her first day at Catholic school looking like a little tartlet. She’s trying on the uniforms in the changing room. We are all crammed into one of those family changing rooms. You know the ones.As her goof ball little sister, runs around screaming at the very top of her lungs in the highest, most annoying little chipmunk voice you’ve ever heard pass human lips: “Mommy, it stinks. Somebody Faaaahhhhted!” I’m trying to get her to lower it all down an octave( or three) totally engrossed in trying to put out the Gabi fire of 2010.
Meanwhile, Bella ( ever turning into such a big and independent little girl) gets her outfit on and calls out to me, in her still very heavily babified voice(my bestie calls them her 2 little kitties ( meow, meow, meow, meow, meow) “How does this look Mommy?” As I raise my head up to look at her, my eyes meet hers, she is completing a spin ( ever the spinning ballerina) and then it hit me. Right there. Like a ton of bricks….My baby is starting kindergarten in less than a month. I was a little in shock, and a little bit teary eyed, a little bit proud, and a lot sad. It feels like the beginning of the end….of her childhood. What a place to have an A-HA moment. Now, I am in a mad dash to enjoy every single day left with my babies before school starts. I just want to linger here in preschool/toddler land for a bit more and soak it all up ,like the last glimpses of the summer sun.
I am so dreading the first day, like most of you can imagine.
2010/08/05
Things to Do in One Night in Sterling Virginia
We’re headed to Cape Hatteras for our end of the summer road trip but tonight we’re in Sterling Virginia. We love to travel and there is nothing like one last getaway before school and routines go back into effect. The sad story of it is that our girls are at the age where they really have no free time throughout the school year for travel.
We still travel but it is always at the expense of something else. For us to get away, they have to miss something. Give up something. Forfeit something. That’s mostly been okay. I think it’s good to teach kids about making choices and letting them know that we can’t always get what we want and most of the things worth having come at a sacrifice, a cost.
This year, the wiggle room for sacrifice is even slimmer. This year, we have confirmation and we’re planning for travel over breaks and we’re preparing for high school and possibly a move. There are a lot of balls in the air so this trip, the four of us, the calm before the storm that is our day to day lives is so special.
Tomorrow we head over to Reston, Virginia to pick up an RV that we will be driving to Cape Hatteras, NC. Not going to lie, the Outer Banks have been on my travel bucket list for many years. We used to live in North Carolina in our 20’s but we were so busy with work and life, we just never made the time to go. We kept thinking, we can go at any time. We live so close. But before we knew it, we didn’t live there anymore. So we’re all very excited about this opportunity to not only go on an adventure someplace that we’ve always wanted to go but to be able to do it the week before school starts back. One last taste of salty air and ocean breezes before the minutia and obligations take over.
Tonight we find ourselves in Sterling, Virginia a quaint, charming, beautiful city about 40 minutes west of Washington D.C. which just so happens to be one of my happy places. By degree, I am a political scientist and all things about politics and history make me ecstatic. D.C. makes me absolutely giddy with delight.
We pick up the RV in the morning and with a 6-hour drive ahead of us to the Cape, I thought Sterling would be the perfect setting for a relaxing night. I used up some points and we are staying at the Hyatt Place at Dulles. Just like last month, when we stayed at the Hyatt Regency, the service is consistently awesome. After a long day of being trapped in the car, it was a welcome relief to be greeted by friendly faces and a room pristine and stocked with the foam pillows that I requested ( allergies to feather pillows make travel a challenge at times).
The room was a very nice size with a separate sitting area big enough to accommodate all 4 of us on a sectional. We unloaded our belongings and set out to find food. We found Mission BBQ and OMG, am I glad we did. The food was delicious and the staff was awesome. Our server was so helpful with picking out sauces to top our BBQs. There were like 8 choices and he even let us taste test them. His recommendations were spot on by the way. The food was melt in your mouth delicious.
Then, after an hour or so of just relaxing (as God intended vacations to be), we decided to go find something sweet and explore the area. That’s when we found Abbott’s frozen custard located in the cutest little shopping center and fell in love. I had the strawberry cream cheese and chocolate almond and it was divine.
I’m convinced I may need to revisit living in Virginia. I’ve never been to Sterling before but we lived in the Richmond area and we loved it. Sterling feels like Matthews NC and Washington D.C. had a beautiful baby and I want to live here.
It was just supposed to be a stop along the way but I’ve got to say, Sterling Virginia, I think I love you.
2018/08/01
Dear America
This is an open letter to my dear America. I hope someone is reading and sharing and spreading humanity and kindness faster than the cancer of racism that is devouring the insides of our country. It is destroying us.
I just dropped the girls off at their first day of school and as I pulled away, I started crying. I was completely overwhelmed by a horrible feeling I know all too well. There was a lump in my throat and a knot in my stomach and it wasn’t the typical first day of school mommy blues that we all get but it was definitely not new.
It’s the same feeling that I’ve felt every day that I’ve sent my husband off to work since 9/11. It’s the same terrible, sick feeling that I’ve felt every morning at drop off since Sandy Hook. It’s the same fear I have every single time I’ve gotten on a plane knowing there’s a risk. Not because of heights or claustrophobia but because I know that we live in a world where extremists armed with hatred who think they are doing what’s best for them, are fearless and willing to die for their hate like the racists who descended upon Charlottesville, Virginia this past weekend armed with tiki torches and hearts full of hate.
I spent the past weekend camping in Michigan; one last getaway before the craziness of school scoops us all up and we can’t see past the minutia. We’re about to be swallowed up whole so I wanted a few days of unplugged togetherness, with the people who really matter to me in this world, my children.
Unfortunately, I still needed to be tethered to the real world because of work. I didn’t engage because I wanted to focus on what was right in front of me; what truly matters. I am trying to be present but I see it all happening, this train wreck at 100 miles an hour. Our country is careening out of control and our leader doesn’t know how and doesn’t seem willing to get us back on track.
Dear America,
I kept quiet and let my thoughts settle into coherent actions. But I’m tired of the burden of being a person who always does something. I’m exhausted of telling friends what they already know. I am sick to death of listening while the Internet feigns outrage and shock. I can’t keep giving people who believe themselves to be good, decent Americans permission to keep engaging in the same insanity.
See something. Do nothing. See it on the Internet. Feign outrage. Share a petition on social. Talk to your like-minded friends about the horror and pat yourselves on the back for recognizing that this is, in fact, horrible. 2 days later, forget about it. Forgive the aggressor. Accept the unacceptable as status quo. Move on to the next “cause”. Do nothing.
The time for placing blame has passed, it is now time to take accountability. Complacency is not an option. It never should have been, where human beings were involved. Action is the only acceptable reaction.
We shouldn’t be feigning outrage and shock. We should be genuinely outraged, shocked and pissed off. We should be moved to our feet by our hearts and our minds. We can no longer sit down while the aggressors mow through those of us who dare to stand up for the collective us. America, the home of the brave.
It’s scary standing up. Those who love you most will tell you to sit down because they are afraid of the danger it brings to do the right thing. Standing up begs to be knocked down but we must get back up. We must endure for if we do not take a stand, we will all be mowed down and our land of the free will not be so free.
Dear America,
I am not blaming you for any choice or vote you cast up until this moment. You know what you did. Your choice is only for you to learn to live with. No one dared believe just how much hatred could breed when given the right growing conditions. But we knew. It has spread across this country like a plague and it is killing all of us.
What I am begging you to do today is to forget about who you voted for or party lines and think about your family, your future and the country that you love so much. The time to dig in has passed. We need to work together as Americans to fix what is broken.
I don’t want to weep when I drop my children off at school because I know that we live in a country currently fueled by hatred. I know there are so many good people in this country. Decent human beings who love their families, their neighbors and their country. The bad apples are in the minority. But they are eating at this country like cancer. Their movement is spreading because it is not being treated. Racism is a cancer that needs to be eradicated.
Dear America,
Stand up. Say something. Do something. Be something. Racism, bigotry, and hatred cannot be tolerated. We need a zero tolerance and we can’t forget. Embrace your outrage. Flame it’s embers and let it fuel you to do the right thing; to stand up to those who would tell us that any human is less than another. Forget what is politically correct and do what is right.
What are you doing? How are you stopping the hate? How are you putting love and kindness into the world? How are you standing up for what is right in the face of what is terrifying?
What action are you taking for your dear America?
2017/08/14
Men Can Experience the Contractions of Labor with the Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulator
I was listening to the radio on the way to drop off this morning and the DJ’s on the Bert Show were talking about two Dutch TV hosts, Dennis Storm and Valerio Zeno who decided to undergo electro-stimulations (they simulate contractions) for their show, “Guinea Pigs.” using a neuromuscular electrical stimulator. That piqued my interest but then they went on to say that they were going to do the same; live streaming on Ustream from their studio, I did what any woman who has experienced transition labor without a damn epidural would do, I raced home to watch. Men can experience the contractions of labor.
Even though it wasn’t as intense as real child labor, I think they got the picture. Growing little people and giving birth is not for the faint of heart. When will men realize that women, even though we are referred to as the weaker sex and may be smaller than men, we are built tough? We make hard decisions because we have to. We sacrifice our lives and ourselves, not because it’s easier for us but because we know it has to be done. We choose to do the right thing not because it’s easy but in spite of how hard it is; like giving birth.
READ ALSO: What giving Birth Feels Like
Men usually have more physical strength than women but we have a mind over matter mentality that is unparalleled. We have a way of seeing our way through to the other side. We have a quiet inner peace that gives us the strength to carry on when most others would quit.
I watched the video and it was funny to see how they reacted to the simulated contractions. But going through an entire 5 minutes of childbirth can never prepare anyone for what giving birth is really like.
READ ALSO: The Day I became a Mother
Giving birth is a full-body experience. It is physical, mental and spiritual. When I gave birth, I was in so much pain that it was all I could do to stay focused on the task at hand. About 5 hours into it, I wanted, with all that I was, to quit the whole thing. The pain was immeasurable. I didn’t have the benefit of my labor originating from a mechanism that I could control. There was no on/off switch and there was certainly no guaranteed 20 second rest period in between contractions and there was no promise that the pain of the contraction would only last 15 seconds. During the transition labor of my first birth, my contractions were so closely staggered that they felt constant.
I, honestly, thought I was going to die. There was no laughing. There was only quiet prayers for the pain to stop by any means possible. Either the baby needed to come out so the pain would stop or I was going to throw myself out of a window. I couldn’t have taken it much longer than I did. After the first one, I was not sure that I would ever have another baby. I was afraid. I was terrified. But I did.
READ ALSO: That One Time I went into Heat at Panda Express
This neuromuscular electrical stimulator is great to perhaps give men a glimpse into what labor contractions feel like but they can not replicate the state of mind that women experience when giving birth. It is a simultaneous end and beginning. The end of who we were and the birth of who we will become. The birth of our own child. There is nothing like the experience in the world and no two experiences are alike, even in the same woman.
Birth is messy. It is an out of body experience. It transcends space and time and in the end, you know that you did something completely amazing. You brought a miracle to life. You witnessed it’s creation and now you have the privilege of loving that child and raising it to be the change you want to see in the world. It is life-changing. It’s so much deeper than just learning the boundaries of your pain threshold, which is what the neuromuscular electrical stimulator has reduced the experience to.
Would you want your husband to experience the Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulator while you were in labor?
2013/02/19
Easter ~ is Religion for the Weak?
I read a post the other day called Easter Week for Stoics. I read it with a completely open heart and mind. In fact, I like the writer’s perspective most of the time. We have a lot in common. This post, however, just didn’t sit right with me because while I feel everyone can celebrate Easter week as they like, something about it felt “don’t judge me because I don’t cry when I’m “supposed” to but I might be judging you for crying” post. I’m not sure that’s how she meant it to come across but that is how it read, to me.
I feel like we live in a world where it’s not always “cool” to be openly Christian. If you share a religious quote, obviously you are zealot and you don’t vaccinate or believe in doctors and if you are Catholic, you drive a minivan and have 20 kids because you don’t believe in birth control. Sometimes, being religious is seen as a weakness by those who are not. I mean honestly, being openly religious sometimes feels like telling people that you still believe in Santa and then dropping the mike and running away. Some people just get that blank stare on their face, like you just farted.
I am Catholic and for me The Passion of the Christ was more than just a movie. While we are very prone to following liturgical calendars and celebrating in a very organized way (my own husband makes refers to mass as his Sunday calisthenics and is not above referring to it as the cult of Christianity), I have never felt emotionally manipulated. I have free will. Just because our mass is regimented and organized, it does not make our response to the word any less spontaneous. Just because we don’t dance in the aisles, speak in tongues or handle snakes does not make my faith any less true or authentic. We just choose to worship differently.
I am not one of those stuffy people who attends mass to prove to others that I am dedicated nor am I someone who only attends mass on Easter and Christmas. God is with me every single day and has been since I was a small child. My faith permeates everything I do and I don’t have to prove it to anyone. I go to church because being there makes me feel at peace with the world; it makes me feel safe. It is my quiet sanctuary. That is the relationship that I have with my faith. I do not judge others for their perspective and I never mock what I don’t understand.
I don’t believe you have to be in church every Sunday to have a relationship with God and I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to have faith. My belief is that faith is something you learn as a child and becomes a trusted part of who you are as an adult. I don’t know how I would have survived some of the hard times in my life if I didn’t have a higher being to hand my worry off to or believe that my God can do anything. My faith gives me hope.
In our house, Easter has always been about more than bunnies, candy and a pretty new spring dress.
I appreciate Christ’s sacrifice. I believe in it. I embrace it. I am humbled by it. I am grateful for my faith. I want to pass that on to my daughters. I’m raising them to believe in God, to believe in human compassion, kindness and forgiveness and to not sit in judgment of others. I want them to be tolerant, to love their fellow man (& woman) and to do these things every day not just on Sunday or just because they are supposed to. Most importantly, I want them to be good people by anyone’s standards even if it’s not the cool thing to do. I want them to make the right choices because they believe in them despite what others might think.
When I touched that wooden Jesus on the cross on Good Friday, I said a prayer for the world and myself to be better. I unexpectedly began to weep because my heart was so heavy in reaction to Mary helplessly watching her son be crucified. As a mother, there is nothing I can fathom to make it hurt less, even if it were to save all of mankind. I crossed myself, touched the wooden hand of Jesus and wept for his mother; wept for every mother and father.
I’ve never been one to do things simply because I was supposed to or because everyone else was doing it. My parents had the “if all your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you?” conversation very early on with me and my answer has been “no” ever since. My relationship with God is personal. It is intimate. I believe that God knows what is in our hearts without us ever shedding a tear or speaking a word but if I want to sob uncontrollably or sit stoically quiet, I’d prefer no one judge me.
Crying on command may be something that some people do as proof to their congregation or maybe they are genuinely having a moment of religious reconciliation. I don’t know. I don’t know their heart. The one thing I do know is that it is not my place to judge anyone for anything, ever though I know we all have but I am trying to be less cynical.
We all celebrate Easter (or we don’t) in our own way and that’s all right too because, in the end, you can only be who you are and you can only believe what you do. I guess the only thing that really bothered me about the post was not that she didn’t cry but that I felt she was judging those who did.
How did you celebrate your Easter?
2014/04/21
How Unplugging and Listening will make You a Better Parent to your Teenager
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Disclosure: This post is made possible with support from the Center for Parent and Teen Communication, part of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. All opinions about How unplugging and listening will make you a better parent to your teenager are my own.
Parenting teenagers is exciting and challenging in big and little ways, unlike any other stage. It’s sprinting towards the parenting finish line before our children go off independently in the world to chase their own dreams. The Center for Parent and Teen Communication helps parents raise teens prepared to thrive. Adolescence is a time of opportunity, and parents matter more than ever. They strive to ensure every caring adult has the knowledge and skills to promote positive youth development and foster strong family connections. To get great tips and videos for communicating with your teens sign up for CPTC’s 100-word, daily parenting tip newsletter.
The secret to success when raising teens is communicating openly and good listening skills. As a mom of teen girls, often, I feel like I need to provide all the answers to their problems. I swoop in like Wonder Woman and want to fix everything. Soon, they’ll need to be able to confidently navigate the world on their own. For that to happen, I need to step back, be still, breathe and listen with empathy. I need to unplug, be present, and give my girls my full attention. Most importantly they need to feel heard, understood, seen, and loved unconditionally.
How unplugging and listening will make you a better parent to your teenager.
That’s the video that resonates the most with me. You should watch the animations. They’re short and you might pick up a tip or two you’d never thought of before. Which one is your favorite and why?
2021/03/05
How to Be a Better, More Inspired Parent
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
One of the most important facts you’ll ever learn when you become an adult is that parenting is tough and you should really think about it before you embark on that journey. You think adulting is hard? Parenting is adulting X infinity with so much love and stress that you seldom can decipher where you end and your child begins. They say the army is the toughest job that you’ll ever love. I call bullsh*t. Being a parent is the hardest job but also the most rewarding and best thing that you will ever do in your life…if parenting is for you. Just keep in mind, that its not for everyone and that’s okay.
Whether your child is 3 or 13, raising children never seems to get easier, but the problems do change. For example, you know that your three-year-old may be acting up and screaming all day long, but at least they’re in your house and you know where they are.
Your 13 year old may not act up or scream, sometimes, but they’ll be out with their friends and you can’t always monitor them so it’s a different level of worry. Empowering yourself as a parent is not the easiest thing to do, because the days can feel so repetitive sometimes. You say the same things, and you act the same way, and you manage the same problems. Sometimes it feels like you’re starring in your very own Groundhog Day parenting edition. The good news is that there are ways to empower yourself as a parent and feel more inspired. Blogs like mine and others like Everyday Power can offer parents real relatable advice from other parents who’ve been where you are. It’s not always easy to be a better parent, and parents are constantly striving to do better than they did the day before. There is a massive amount of guilt that most parents carry especially when it comes to disciplining their children or having to say no because they have to work.
Parenting challenges never seem to end, but there are lots of things that you can do to be a better parent. Here are some of those things.
Listen
One of the most important things that you can do for your children’s to listen to them when they talk. If you listen to the little things, they will want to tell you the big things, and children shouldn’t be seen and not heard, they should be seen and heard. Being their sounding board even for the most mundane things to you, is important because those mundane things could be the most important thing in their day. When you listen to your children you can build their independence, and you are giving your time and a listening ear to hear what it is they have to say. Children are fun, insightful and curious, and even though it can be relentless to hear so much noise all day long it’s not always a good thing to say no to listening.
Don’t compare your children
It’s the hardest thing to do as well as a parent, is not to compare them. When your older child starts talking at 18 months old but your youngest is still mute by the age of five, it can be very difficult to compare them. But children are like apples and oranges, very different but just as sweet. The trick is recognizing the moments when your actions and your reactions can help your child to learn and grow, and while it’s nice to instill good manners and good habits into your children you have to remember that these are children. Their brains are not yet developed cognitively to consider the world the way adults do, and that can be a frustration at times, but it’s also a blessing. Who wants to believe in the world being a dangerous place when you can just believe in Father Christmas and the tooth fairy?
Actions speak louder than words
When it comes to parenting there is no truer phrase. children learn from what they see, so you are actually children teaching your children something every minute of every day. It’s not always easy as a grown up to model good behavior that you want to see in children, but if you are looking to ensure that you are teaching your children good traits and good manners, then you must do it yourself. Being respectful, saying please and thank you, being open and honest, showing love to your friends and family, your children are going to see all of this and they’re going to mimic that behavior.
Be okay with mistakes
To be a better parent you need to make sure that you are OK with your children making mistakes. That means that when they forget themselves, you need to gently remind them of their manners or the way they speak to other people. When you see that your children are building towers and they knock them down, it’s OK. Don’t avoid the crash. Don’t avoid your child falling over if all they’re going to get is a grazed knee and a bruised ego. Nice to prevent accidents, but it’s not going to help them. children need to learn mistakes and make those mistakes in one piece and be free to do so because then they can learn from them. If you keep rescuing your children they are never going to learn. This kind of mistake can help your children to understand cause and effect, but it’s so much healthier to allow your children to learn from those mistakes and grow as individuals.
2023/01/12
The ALS #IceBucketChallenge Controversy
Seems like everyone’s doing the ALS #IceBucketChallenge.
Well, not quite everyone. Not the Catholic Church, not anymore. Not since someone discovered that people acting like goofballs to raise awareness for a very important cause is something “bad”.
Full Disclosure: If you’ve been a reader here for any amount of time, you’ve probably already surmised that I’m a very liberal Catholic. Yes, we do exist!
Okay, let me be totally honest, I’ve got to tread lightly here but I want to write this post. Recently, “a friend” (let’s say his name rhymes with “the principal”) was nominated for the #icebucketchallenge by 3 kindergarteners. If you knew this guy, you’d know that he’s is a genuinely good guy. He mentioned that he’d been trying to decide whether or not he would take part in the ALS ice bucket challenge. In fact, he was rallying to get a couple priests to do the challenge with him to help garner more attention for the cause until he received a “concerned citizen” note that informed him that he shouldn’t do it because the ALSA uses embryonic stem research. (Cue pitchforks and angry parent mob).
She was not so subtly warning him that participating in the ALS #Icebucketchallenge would put him in direct contradiction to the church’s position on abortion. (Cue disapproving look and shunning). Obviously, this was her “Christian duty”, seeing as his everlasting soul was in peril. Sorry kids. No dunking the principal in ice water to help the sinners at ALSA. (I hope you are reading this in sarcasm font and know that I am being facetious.)
I know many people who have done it. A few of my brothers and sisters (yes, I told you we’re Catholic. Keep up) have even done it. We are big into raising awareness of important causes. I understand my religion’s stance on embryonic stem cell research but before we through the baby out with the ice water people should know that you can tell the ALSA where to spend your contribution. You can specify that you don’t want to contribute to embryonic stem research or you can donate to the ALS Foundation, which helps people living with the disease by providing supplies or the John Paul II Medical Research foundation, which concentrates on medical research using adult stem cells and other alternatives to embryonic stem cells.
He closed the letter by saying that he WILL be accepting the challenge from the 3 kindergarteners and donating to a Diocesan approved ALS charity because the idea of finding a cure for ALS is noble.
No matter what you think about the ALS #icebucketchallenge ( which to be honest I thought was kind of ridiculous until I saw the above video) but now am forced to defend it because I always thought being a “good person” was about tolerance and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Seems like some people think their morals put them on a higher horse than the rest of us. Can’t we all just help those in need?
What do you think about the #Icebucketchallenge ?
2014/08/26
What is Intermittent Fasting and Why does Crescendo Fasting Work
Have you ever wondered what is intermittent fasting and why does crescendo fasting work best for women? I never had until a friend of mine lost 80 pounds doing intermittent fasting. Then I got interested, really interested because 80 pounds is a lot of weight and I need to lose at least 100 pounds to be near my goal weight.
I currently weight 254 pounds. Yep. I just said that out loud. Close your jaw. I know it’s shocking. It’s the heaviest I’ve ever been in my entire life and it’s freaking me out. I keep having nightmares that I’m being featured on my 600 lb. life. My goal weight is 137 pounds but for starters, I’d just like to get below 200 pounds.
READ ALSO: Why worrying about being skinny is stupid
So intermittent fasting and more specifically, crescendo fasting, is just exactly what it sounds like; fasting intermittently. I’ve done some research and there are several ways to do this but since I was anorexic for a good portion of my teens and twenties, I’ve decided that I should do the least drastic of all the choices; crescendo fasting. Maybe I shouldn’t even be considering intermittent fasting or crescendo fasting since for me restriction is a slippery slope. But I’ve got to try something and crescendo fasting seems reasonable and it’s better hormonally for women.
Being that have to keep a close eye on my hormones and am of the perimenopausal age range ( anywhere between 35 to 50 is perimenopausal) doing anything that could throw my hormones out of whack sounds like a pretty terrible idea. After my experience of juicing, I have learned to listen to my body. Nobody wants manic Debi making an appearance anytime soon and even less so, irritable Debi.
From all those years of anorexic restricting, my metabolism is the worst and since I can’t restrict the way my mind wants to, I’ve just been eating all the food with wild abandon. It’s not like I sit around binge eating (I never was one for binge eating) but I’m an emotional eater. My problem is I live in extremes; eat whatever I want to whenever I want to or don’t eat at all. Exercise incessantly or not at all. I need to find a compromise and a happy medium.
I saw a lot of my friends were trying something new and I started researching to answer the questions what is Intermittent fasting and why does crescendo fasting work best for women?
Currently, I eat whatever I want. Though, honestly, I hate eating. I love food but it gives me nothing but guilt. Yes, I have a love-hate relationship with food. Yes, I have been to a therapist this is how I can identify all of this.
I haven’t been able to exercise properly lately because I’ve been perpetually injured for the past couple of years and that makes even normal movement painful. I want to use this intermittent crescendo fasting as a way to reboot my metabolism; my life. I need to regain some control. I don’t want to weigh 103 pounds like I used to. My goal is 137 pounds but I’d be perfectly happy with 153 pounds (because it’s 100 pounds less than I am today and it’s in my healthy range). Honestly, today, I’d be thrilled to see it get to 199 pounds.
READ ALSO: Tips for raising healthy daughters
I’m not searching for perfection. I’m searching for less weight on my knees. Shopping off the rack and clothes fitting me right. I want to look nice in the clothing that I like. Be able to sit Indian style on the floor and not cry from the weight on my tailbone. Fall and not break something because there is so much weight on every impact. Feel good when I look in the mirror. To not jiggle when I walk. I want to not feel like my center of gravity is going to make me topple in heels. Be able to dance and not worry about if anything is hanging out. Get out of my head because what my body looks like shouldn’t make me take pause but mostly, I want to be healthy. My goal is to be around to dance at my daughters’ wedding receptions and run around the yard with my grandchildren someday without getting winded.
I know that many of you may be shaking your heads thinking, this sounds like a bad idea. Maybe it is but I have checked with my doctor and it’s not like I’m going days on end without eating because there are other versions of intermittent fasting where people go 24 or 48 hours without eating anything at all. I know that would be a bad idea for me. I get hangry and I turn mean but also, as a former anorexic, I know this would be too comfortable for me and I don’t ever want to go down that road again.
What is Intermittent fasting? Why does Crescendo fasting work best for women?
Rules of Crescendo Fasting:
1. Fast on 2–3 nonconsecutive days per week (e.g. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday)
2. On fasting days, do yoga or light cardio.
3. Ideally, fast for 12–16 hours.
4. Eat normally on your strength training/intense exercise days.
5. Drink plenty of water. (Tea and coffee are okay, too, as long as there is no added milk or sweetener)
6. After two weeks, feel free to add one more day of fasting.
I started today along with logging everything I eat and how much. I’ll keep you all posted on my crescendo fasting journey. We’ll give it a try and see if it bears results and I’ll check in once a week on here and let you know how it’s going, what I’ve lost and how I’m feeling.
Update: Fell off the wagon with some traveling. Restarting this journey when 5/16/2018. Updates will follow.
Now that you know the answer to the questions; what is Intermittent fasting? Why does Crescendo fasting work best for women? Will you consider this healthy lifestyle?
2018/03/15