teddie.bare

Ok, so first day results are super positive. 

When I woke up this morning, I was 1 lb lighter. My stomach was also super noticeably flatter. I didn't have a headache, and there was no bad taste in my mouth. Unbelievably, I didn't have a stomach ache, and my knees don't hurt at all. In fact, nothing hurts. 

I feel amazing.

From ONE DAY of no dairy. I'm really hoping this is going to be a lasting trend, because right now I am in disbelief!

I had to give up most dairy. It is sad, I miss cheese. I have discovered a love for avocadoes though. They sort of fill the need for something creamy and fat.

 

Way to go on the tripod!

It IS sad, but I know it's not the end of the world. It's just the last thing I was holding on to that I really enjoy. I know I'll find joy in other things, I just needed to throw a little pity party. I am eating a giant avocado with my lunch, and I do love them. So I have that going for me

My tripod feels solid, I just need to work on holding it stable. I am going to try to do a tripod style headstand tomorrow where I lift into it, instead of putting my knees on my arms, per Hatter's advice

I think the raw meal protein powder is vegan, if you want to give it a shot. A friend is on an elimination diet and eating pea powder right now, she doesn't recommend it. Too chalky.

Sent from my iPhone while riding a unicorn through the cosmos.

I HATE pea protein powder. I'll give that a try. I have a few options, I just have to find what I can tolerate without gagging. I'm not sure how successful I'll be finding one that isn't pea or nuts (sigh).

I had the most amazing headstand practice at the gym. I didn't want to go. My knees hurt and my tummy is not happy. I told myself I just had to go walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes, because I did NOT get my steps in yesterday (which is uncommon for me). I walked. I managed a little jogging. And then after 20 minutes I decided to up the intensity with a stair stepper. That all went fine. Then it was time for headstand practice. 

On my first forearm stand, I was able to kick up and hold it for a good 2 seconds before my heel touched the wall. That's the first solid kick up I've done. Between my two attempts, I didn't have to hold on the wall at all. I only slightly touched it a couple times. I tried it with my legs open pretty wide, and actually managed to balance even better that way. 

While walking back to the locker room I realized both my knees had stopped hurting. I also felt like a badass. So, another successful gym day <3

It WAS a good doctor's appointment, but not what I was expecting. She does think my inability to lose any more weight is strongly tied into the inflammation (although she's not sure how much more I'm going to lose). She said in my situation, that what I ate was more important than the quantity (smashing those calorie in calorie out stereotypes, one day at a time here).

She wants me to take Turmeric Curcumin (Curcumin is a component of turmeric). She says she sees a HUGE difference - so much that she didn't believe it, and tried other things. She said to take 1-2g a day, depending on where I purchased it. She didn't seem particular about a brand, so I got some 500mg pills on Amazon that I'm going to try. 

You know, I eliminated dairy when I tried to be full paleo before I knew I was insulin resistant, but I gained 17 lbs, and I think the fruit was the problem. Since I didn't see good results not having dairy, I assumed I was ok with it and added it back. There might be more than one thing I'm still sensitive to, but I'm not really eating nightshades right now. I can't have potato, and tomato has way too many carbs. I also hate eggplant, and I quit smoking 5 years ago.

Really and truly, the only thing I eat consistently is dairy. I don't eat breakfast, but I put heavy cream in my coffee. Lunch always contains at least 1/3c cheese. Afternoon snack? At least one string cheese. And then dinner usually has more cheese. There literally isn't anything else I eat on a daily basis, everything else rotates. I don't even have eggs or chicken every day. I do generally have a nut product, so that is my other suspicion, but in my heart i know it's the dairy   I just eat a lot of it because it fits my low carb/high fat macros nicely, and because cheese.

Sunday night I had cheese soup. Monday I had the leftovers for lunch and then a casserole with cheese for dinner. Yesterday I had cheese soup for lunch and then my Blue Apron sandwiches last night were mostly ricotta. Guess what? I've had a stomach ache every morning, and my knees are killing me! I knelt down on something yesterday, and my knee has hurt so bad ever sense. I've never really paid that close of attention to it before.

The book I ordered for the elimination diet will be here tomorrow. Until then, I'm going to follow some protocols i found online.  You're gonna love the wide range of food I can eat (eye roll). I get to eat exactly: fish, turkey, rice, green vegetables, non-citrus fruit.  Hooray </sarcasm>

The protocols I found online want you to do it for 3 weeks. That is so rough right now. I am going on vacation in exactly two weeks. So I'm going to compromise. i'm going to start playing with it, do all my reading and researching, and see what I can do over the next 2 weeks. I'm going to have fun on my vacation, and then when I get back I'll go hardcore. 

Today I managed to pack a totally dairy free lunchbox. I'm having non-dairy creamer in my coffee (I'm going to switch to coconut, but I have to buy supplies this weekend). Coffee could technically be a thing I'm sensitive to, but I'm going to keep it until I get back from vacay and mostly focus on dairy and nuts to the best of my ability. I have tuna and avocado for lunch, strawberries, spinach with oil and vinegar, and pea greens for snacks. I also need to get my protein up, but my only non-whey protein powders are… meh. I am going to try some pumpkin protein with sugar free syrup today in almond milk to see how that goes. It's way more nuts/seeds than I wanted, but I literally don't have another option until I go shopping. 

So, all good things. I actually tell people all the time to try an elimination diet, and here I have to take a dose of my own advice. It'll be good. And I'm sure informative. I just need to get some recipes together. I'm supposed to not really worry about carbs as much for those 3-6 weeks, so that'll be fun at least. I won't go crazy, but man I miss rice. 

Girl you know I'm right in the pits of despair with you on the diet thing. But it'll be worth it, and I know we'd both get a lot of success by just biting the bullet. I am at the 'I DON'T WANNA' phase myself, but I gotta panty-up and get this thing done. 

For me, I have to just decide that NOT having things is more worth it to my long-term goals than having them. I gave up potatoes and carbs and red meat no problem, but I'm having such a hard time getting mentally prepared for the dairy monster. It's not even that I rely on it for anything meaningful, my inner child just feels like she's already given so much up… and now I have to give up more. It's not fair.

and it's not. It's totally not fair. Having to be active and choose healthy things to eat isn't fair. I wish I could be carefree and wild like everyone around me. I'd kill to just not track what I ate… but that's not my future. That's not what is going to help me life a long, healthy, active life. So I'm going to give up what doesn't serve me, for the future me. For my daughter, as an adult. For my grandchildren. I know what is at stake if I don't do it. I just need to cry and scream and get the injustice out of my soul, and then get to work

Sorry you are having to be a pillar this week, but being there for people when they need you is a very important thing. I hope you are at least able to keep your yoga streak going, it's so cool to see you can be so consistent with something. With any luck the food will also be at least mediocre for you. I hate having periods where I feel like I'm not in control of my own life. 

Looking forward to hearing from you when you get back

Oh I so agree with you! Not caring if I'm a good runner has been the best way to become a decent one. I am dreadfully slow. Like, people can walk faster than I run slow. And I have decided I hate most 5k group running events. But I have found a love of HIIT, and Staci got me hooked on 30 sec on/off intervals. So now I run, and then I walk, and then I run… and I'm a good old sweaty mess at the end, but I don't FEEL like I just had to convince myself to run. When I run straight my mind wanders and my body complains and I just never get that rhythm or high that other runners tell me about. So I still to my HIIT and I love it

Glad to see you are working your way back into a routine, even if you don't wanna. I had an unplanned rest day today, and I'm so freaking excited about it. Sometimes (especially on days like today where it's a rainy drizzly mess here) it's nice to just sit around instead of digging for motivation. But also knowing you'll get right back into it is a powerful thing!

Sounds like a great weekend! I am familiar with mass cal prep, and I definitely want to be on your team if it happens! We definitely don't have enough prepared people around, and it's nice seeing someone who understands the importance. 

mmm chocolate covered espresso beans and some tea sound just lovely on this dreary drizzly day. I'm glad you and the dog are getting plenty of exercise I need to get mine out more, we've mostly been playing with her in the yard. I can't wait for more spring-like weather, this damn stuff is for the birds!

Edit: and this one is for Hatter … I was also told my upper body strength is rocking, but it's not proportional to my lower body strength (what!?). I was told to do more squats and lunges. Ugh. We discussed this challenges ago, and I've been working diligently (and stretching), but I'm just not getting the strength gain I expect from my legs. I'll have to maybe do 2x leg days a week? yeah, that sounds like a good time (eye roll). I was also told to do more foam rolling. 

More leg days. probably no dairy. Gonna be a fun summer

Headstand or handstand? For the headstand the best way is to tuck your head and do a forward roll. For handstand the pirouette bail, as Teddie said.

 

 

I actually find it more difficult to lift up from tripod than to go into a headstand directly as it requires more core strength. If you feel in control you could try that.

 

Love your progress vids and enthusiasm!

Oh goodness, I totally missed the context of that question! I assumed she meant HANDstand, but duh, it could mean HEADstand as well. Thank you for the solid advice, I'm working on my tuck and roll. Really, though, once you do it, it's far less scary! You just have to fall gracefully a few times to feel confident about it.

I'll try going directly into a headstand, then. Because lifting up is just not happening for me right now. i'm proud as shit that I can do the tripod in the first place, but it'll be a little while before I can lift out of that bad boy. So thank you for that advice as well. I'll just focus on not having to bail out of a straight up headstand and worry about lifting into it later.

I have news. I am certain that my doctor's recommendations will come as a surprise to exactly no one. They weren't a surprise to me, although for some reason I hadn't applied my own logic to my own life and needed to hear it from an outside source (why the hell do we do that to ourselves, anyhow!?).  

Ok, so I still have massive muscle soreness and am resistant to weight loss. I first got the "you might not ever make it to your goals" speech, which I always pssssshaw off in my head. After we got through the sobering realization of my genetic predispositions, we started talking about my massive amounts of inflammation. All of my indicators are through the roof, and unacceptable for someone my age (sounds great, yay genetics). So it turns out she thinks all of this is interrelated (big surprise). So, I was prescribed a big old heap of "do an elimination diet". GAAAAHHHH. You guys know what this means, right? I can almost guarantee it's going to mean "no more dairy for yooooou." Because honestly, that is the only thing I eat consistently. Boo. 

I can't tell you how sad this makes me. Dairy is literally the only 'fun' thing I have left in my diet. I know that living a long healthy life is way more important than a piece of cheese, but I'm just feeling really defeated. There might be other things that I'll discover, so I ordered the book she recommended… I'll start it either Sunday or Monday (I have to wait 2 days for the book), but I'm going to start doing some reading online now. 

She also recommended a turmeric supplement that she has had great results with to help my inflammation. So I ordered some of that. I'm supposed to double or triple my melatonin to help my sleep issues. 

She also assured me my calories were too low, and my protein needed to be bumped up. I was not surprised, but actually relieved to hear it. I had been scraping by on 1400 calories for a few weeks now (1400 straight, no adjustment for exercise), and it hasn't been pretty. She wants me to do 1900 on exercise days and 1500 on rest days. I'm basically going to do 1500 + fitbit calorie adjustment to see how that goes. Atleast until i get my jawbone that can help me see what my daily overall situation looks like a little better. 

So basically my poor body is just trying to stay alive right now, and my weight loss has become less of a priority. Between functioning on too low calories and fighting massive inflammation, it doesn't know what to do. If I can get those two things situated, I should start losing weight again - at least to the point that my body will let me. I want to lose another 20-25 lb and get to 29% BF to reduce my risk factors. Whether or not that is attainable remains to be seen, but I refuse to give up now <3

Progress Videos:

There are two attempts here. You can see I am trying different ways of kicking up into the headstand - I need to figure out how to nail the balance so I can move away from the wall. Neither worked particularly well The first headstand is really pretty great. I did bump the wall a couple times with my hiney, but overall it's feeling really solid most of the time

This tripod is much less wobbly then last weeks! which is awesome. I'm still pretty messy, but it's getting better. Bonus: my husband started to tease me towards the end, which is why I end up in a giggling mess. Gotta keep it fun, right?

Week 3 Recap:

Baby Room Declutter: Pass.  New bed assembled and installed (see above photographic evidence). Huge win!

3 TRX Workouts:          Pass.  Made it to the gym 5x, 3 of those sessions were TRX.  

Wall Plank Progress:   Pass.   Made my first goal of 60 seconds, so a 10 sec improvement this week! Now to work on it being comfy.

Life improvement:       Pass. I managed to keep out of several fights I really wanted to jump into. That's huge for me. 

Bodpod scan:               N/A

Well I got a big part of my daughter's room done this weekend: the bed.

That's a big deal, and a huge part of what I wanted to get done this challenge. We'll see how it goes getting her to sleep in the. The blanket on the floor is for her dog until I get a pet bed or rug for her.

I also got my wall plank to 60-seconds, woot! I'm working on the videos now

yay for turning the corner, boo for stinky dog gas!   Glad things are improving, that's always such a good feeling!

As a life long hypoglycemic who has now become insulin resistant, the best thing I've ever done is cut the crap from my diet. I do low carb, but more importantly than that I cut out all grains. All. Grains. I don't have near the amount of issues I had before. I don't get cravings. I don't have sugar crashes. I don't get hungry like I used to. Focusing on your diet is by far the most important thing you can do. But you know that For me, it had a huge positive impact on my health. It does get better. Yes, sugar withdraws are pretty darn terrible for a week or two. Yes, it's hard at first and feeling bad makes it worse. Yes, it's totally worth it in the end.

I'm sorry you had a negative day. My husband made my evening bad with his attitude, so I totally get that. I had to really make an effort to change my attitude to a positive one this morning. If he's still grumpy tonight I'm going to banish him to the study. I don't need his negativity dragging down another night.

Lessons Learned:

- Walk the wall

   HAHAHAHA. I'm not strong enough to hold myself up with two hands, what in the world made me think I could pick one of them up? It was almost like my hands were glued to the floor. I was able to kind of scooch them back towards the wall, but there was no 'walking' about it.

- Tripod

   Same issue with lifting up a leg. I tried to just get one knee off an arm. Again, my leg was glued to my arm. I was barely able to pick it up a few millimeters. Rough.

- Arguing

  It's hard not to argue with people who like to pick fights. I have one guy in my office who just LOVES to antagonize me. I managed, but it was hard.

- Listening to strangers

   I'm not sure how I didn't expect this, but feigning interest in what a young soldier has to say gets you (anyone? anyone?) that's right, hit on more. Sigh. While I love attention, today that wasn't what I was going for. And I don't flirt much at work on principle (I'm a manager and you know, work).

Ok, time to head out to pick up my daughter. Interesting lessons.

Question about bailing. Is there a better/best way to bail out of a headstand? I have a hip injury that can torque and mess up my spine so I have that fear of falling thing going on.

I'm still a newb, but from what I understand the Pirouette Bail is THE way to bail out of a handstand. It really just involves a slight turn of your hand and you can safely come down. Here's some info from one of the courses I'm following:

The Pirouette Bail is a safe way of recovering from the feeling that you will fall head over heels.

When you find that you are too overbalanced, you lean all of your weight to one arm - the planted arm.  As you do this, you free your other arm to "stumble" forward.

Unlike a normal gymnastics pirouette (which is a full quarter-turn), the pirouette bail doesn't require you to move your hands very far.  You just need to move them enough to save yourself from falling head over heals.

Once you master the pirouette bail, the worst case scenario turns from "OMG, I am going to fall head-over-heals!" into "Oh, I just need to bail, and I will be safe."

Eventually, it becomes nearly impossible to fall over and hurt yourself.

So, that's what I know. I have not practiced this in any kind of actuality yet. I'll be posting more as I get to that point I can't even kick up into a handstand yet, so I'm seriously just focusing on being able to hold a 60-sec wall plank. That's step one. I just found out by trial and error that I can do a forearm stand and tripod, I'm keeping them in the mix because I'm seeing progress with them and they make me feel like I'm actually getting somewhere. Plus it's another way to work my shoulders and wrists, so that's never a bad thing.

Today I am adding hollow body practice to my routine. We'll see what my lower back thinks about that one. I'll also attempt to walk up/down the wall to work more on my shoulder strength (I normally would do wall planks here, it's to try something different). I have no idea how that's going to go So today I'll do wrist strength, wall walk, tripod, hollow body, forearm stand. Adding in the fun stuff makes me feel like I'm capable of something. Otherwise it's just sets of suck between my TRX rounds (I do my handstand stuff between sets).

Yay for the house! so happy for you guys!! can't wait to see it

and an indoor aerial rig!? oh I love this! Gonna be some epic stuff right there.

So much awesome with you, as always. Yay for perseverance, which you have in spades <3

I suck at keeping up with big threads like this but wanted to pop in and say Hi!

Sorry about having to job search. That is never a good time. I hope it is quick and painless as possible for you! keep trucking, you are doing great

yes! the waste is really a big deal. I'm much taller than you so the 700 calories thing is workable, but I can totally see how it wouldn't work for most dieters. re: the prep - I am the sloppiest and fastest sous chef ever, and I want to assure you that the key to going fast is: a big cutting board, a big sharp knife, and making things all kinds of irregular shapes.

 

1400 calories IS HARD. you're doing amazing. are you jamming as many vegetables into your body as you can as filler? that's what I've always done.

I wish I could always make 700 calorie dinner work, but alas, something has to give. I'm so tired of being hangry in the afternoons. The @#$O)*(& scale was UP this morning, and if I don't lose weight by next Monday I'm going to 1400 calories Net instead of Total, because screw being hangry all the time. If I don't lose weight eating 1400, and I don't lose weight eating 1600+, guess which one I'd rather not be losing weight on

Oh and I suck with a knife. I'm seriously afraid of getting cut and I am SO SLOW. I just can't get over it. I wish I could, but it hasn't happened yet. Even with a big board and a big sharp knife, I get all NOPE about it. (sigh).

I am not jamming vegetables because carbs. I know, counter intuitive. But my insulin is ridiculously out of control for no good reason and I actually have an appt on Tuesday to talk to an internal medicine lady about some of my body crazies. I was eating big huge containers of roasted vegetables, don't get me wrong, but I've cut back some this week. Something isn't working with my body, and I would like to figure out what that is. I'll be honest, my 1400 calories is slipping to 1500 calories some days, but with my fitbit steps alone I'm still at a very decent deficit. My frustration level is a little pegged right now.

ok sorry to hijack. Love you, can't wait to see pics of your glorious bathroom, and YAY for all your running and getting to do things not in the gym! ((HUGS))

Sounds like a very successful trip! that hotel just sounds amazing! I kind of miss the trade show scene, but then I remember how much my feet used to hurt all the time. hehe.

Glad to have you back, hope you get enough rest and are back in bendy business soon!

WEEK TWO DAYS FIVE & SIX & SEVEN

 

Last week did not end up being my 6 day cheese free week to make up for the first week's nuts-ness because I ordered a sandwich somewhere specifically saying no cheese and they gave me cheese anyway. And I'm not the kind of person to waste it.  So I did what the original challenge was but have not made up for it yet.  Maybe this week while I'm alone and on travel all week I can get those 6 days in.

 

My stronglifts are finally starting to get somewhere with my curls and OHPs.  First, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this here before, but my shoulders are DEFINITELY stronger than my biceps.  I have to clean the barbell up to OHP starting position because my arms can't lift it up there. But then I can lift it over my head. I find this weird and totally unbalanced which is why I started doing barbell curls as well (they are one of the offered assistance exercises in the SL app) and I'm starting to feel stronger there too.  I was having trouble getting 50lbs over my head consistantly, but now it's starting to feel easier and as soon as I can do it with real confidence that's the line I'm drawing in the sand to join the gym. 

 

My second crow practice last week wasn't as good as the first, I have crow bruises on my triceps so it was kind of painful haha.  I gave it a rest for a few days and hopefully I can play around with it in the hotel tomorrow night!

One thought that helps me from feeling like I'm not "wasting" food is, "I am not a trash can." Really and truly, you don't need to use your body as a way of disposing of things. If it's not something you planned or wanted, eating it can be worse than just tossing it. Just a thought

I lift pretty much exclusively with dumbbells and kettlebells, so don't be afraid of that. It's frustrating for some things, but totally doable. The hardest for me is heavy squats. There's just no good way to hold the dumbbells when my legs are so much stronger than my arms. If I have 50 lbs in each hand, I can hold it standing fine... but when I start to squat, it wrenches my shoulders back at a really weird angle. I am actually doing TRX squats right now because I got so frustrated with my dumbbell only situation. I needed a break. Same with front squats, I can't get as heavy of dumbbells as I need hauled up to my chest to make it worth while.

I have tripod bruises on my triceps so I totally feel your pain! that is just so weird to get used to. I got the recommendation to really focus on pulling into and up with your pelvis, and that helps a lot. I also try to not put my knee cap on my arms, I try to put the flesh part of my thigh on my poor chicken wing. It seems to help a lot as well

Hope your trip went well! I miss traveling for work

I'm just dropping by for a virtual hug. Hope things are going amazingly for you!

I love that you're loving interactions with other people. love it. it's really good to be a listener!

 

plus I wanted to tell you that your abs are amazing. <3

I have to say, as a "problem area" and something I am very self conscious of, that is literally the first time I've ever heard that my abs are amazing I really need to come to terms with the fact that I will always have a deep belly button. I will admit that I am VERY happy with the progress of my obliques. You can literally see where the fat is shrinking. I just wish it would do it faster

I've never been a good listener, so this is new territory for me. I'm very outgoing, but haven't been as receptive as I need to be. It's a very interesting experiment.

This week is the first part of Section 3. It's so large I'll be splitting it into 2 weeks.

How to win people to your way of thinking

- The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

- Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "you're wrong."

- If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.

- Begin in a friendly way.

- Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.

There is one person in particular who I am having a VERY difficult time applying my new principals to. He is SO easy to criticize and condemn because of his extra shitty personality. I am doing my best, but most of my slips the last few weeks have been directed at him. I am not sure what to do, but I am trying to add some love into my interactions with him. I'm trying to be all about love, but some people still bring out the bull in me.

Totally gave forearm stand a try last night (without the blocks, I don't have any at home) and felt so weak I could hold it only for about 20 seconds after my husband helped my legs up from the plank position I'd got myself into and steadied me. Very unstable after not doing yoga or stands for two months. Your progress encourages me because now I know it's all a process and I will get back to being more stable!

Thank goodness you were able to bail well and prevent injury on your back! To me that is definitely impressive!

- Sent from my magic Navi-powered device!

That's awesome! 20 seconds is still forever when you are upside down! the blocks didn't work for me on the first try. I can FEEL how it's going to help, and I like the soft pressure on my back for the reminder, but when I kick up, it forces me to tweak my back injury too much. I like the theory, and I'll be working on it more. But the gym was PACKED yesterday, and I didn't want to keep falling down like an idiot (I know I shouldn't care, but I was getting frustrated).

Bailing is what gets you over the mental hurtles, I know that. Next I need to learn a hand stand bail to help me kick up more confidently! I should feel good about it in about a month. It's slow annoying practice every single day, but the time flies by and suddenly things are just clicking. It's amazing what consistency and focus will get you

Updates:

Physical:

first the easily measurable one: I head a forearm headstand for 10 seconds! This felt like FOREVER. It was amazing. I figured I have to spread my feet a little more, and then I'm much more stable. Huge amazing wonderful feels. I also held my tripod for 10 seconds until my neck started to ache, so then I got out of it. I also did 30 minutes of HIIT, which I haven't done in a long time. I felt amazing (and sweaty) after.

Life Improvement:

I learned so much last week. The lunch lady ended up pulling me into the kitchen to show me photos of her pit bull mix, Jojo. The tight laced secretary in a high profile office told me all about the water retention in her calves when she sits too much. One of the elliptical regulars has thyroid cancer and had to have it removed recently. It is astounding what people will tell you if you are just willing to listen.

The only weirdness I've found so far is when you are with someone who ALSO is trying to be the listener. This is TMI, but I am polyamorous and recently started casual dating outside my marriage (this is a big change, inspired by ApfelStrudi). Anyhow, one of the guys I see once or so a week is also a big listener. We've found a good balance of taking turns talking about ourselves, which is neat. I wasn't sure how much I was going to talk about this aspect of my life, but what the hell, it's already out there My husband is a painful introvert, and he isn't fulfilling my need to be social. There are tons of things I like to do that he doesn't, and it's nice to have a couple people in my life to do those things with (hiking, dancing, camping, tea houses, etc). So anyhow, lots of learning in my private life right now.

I will be finishing reading Section 3 in my book right now. I will update with the rest of this week's goals this afternoon, but I'm also still practicing everything from the previous two weeks.

Sorry about the tri-tip. I don't eat red meat, but know how sad it is when a good meal doesn't turn out like you want!

At least the dog got a treat

We certainly have lost a lot of our humanity, and it's crazy. I have a friend who is stranded on Mt. Everest after the earth quake right now, and I can't imagine what he is experiencing right now. That area is so poverty stricken and sad to start with, and now they have nothing on top of nothing. My first world problems are nothing compared to that.