Tarotize: The Menopausal Witch Spread

I've been following Lisa Floyd for awhile now. I think she has solid, insightful advice on oracles and the Tarot, all very healing as well as direct. Not surprisingly, I've been experiencing synchronicities while reading her blog, including this link I found this morning when I went to check:Tarotize: The Menopausal Witch Spread. I haven't tried it yet but am looking forward to what this spread reveals. From her blog:

You call me a witch as if it's a bad thing..."

Writing about my own perimenopausal angst over on the Seer Pathways blog yesterday, I realised that someone needed to make a Tarot Spread about a woman's four ages. Because as my friend, Pip Miller, over at As You Wish, pointed out - the Moon has four phases, not three, and the stage that we enter during perimenopause is neither Mother nor Crone... It's Queen!

There is a Swedish word commonly used about menopausal women: klimakteriehäxa

It literally means menopausal witch and it's used as a put-down (no extra points for guessing that!), adding to the pain of women going through the change. I mean - could we be any more unsupported by society!? We're "past our prime" and have little value now that we can no longer bear children and patriarchy does not mince words on that one!

Beauty is the face of a younger woman. Every magazine cover tells us that much.

Yes, I do believe that menopause is a wake-up call to women who don't believe or are not aware that we still live in patriarchy and that very ancient power structures still determine our value as women. Hence it becomes our task to empower ourselves.

You're Either Too Skinny or Too Fat But You're Never Right...

Between the ages of 21 and now (58) my weight has varied a lot. I've been 100 lbs, I've been 220. Now I'm at an all right weight; my doctor is reasonable (maybe her being female has something to do with that, I don't know) and realizes that a post menopausal woman who's struggled with weight literally her entire life isn't, nor should be, 98 lbs. She'll be satisfied, as will I, if I lose between 15 and 20 pounds. I'm working on it and already have lost a few. I'm not "on a diet" but watch I don't overeat, eat small meals throughout the day, protein, lots of iced drinks and water, of course no sodas. Just basic "works for me" stuff.

So, I've been all these contrasting weights all my life, and no matter what my weight, someone, somewhere, always had a comment to make! Sometimes, even strangers! I was too skinny: what's wrong with me, I need to put on weight, I'd look better and would have boobs if I gained weight, etc. Or, I'm too fat, what's wrong with me, why don't I lose some weight, just use will power, etc.

Weight. Something others feel is perfectly acceptable to comment on, even if they don't know you (though whether they do or not is none of their business.) Weight. Something that is always, always, never good enough. If you were a size 20 and got down to a 12, not good enough. Someone else will come along and tell you, unasked, what they think of your weight. A size 5, too skinny, not good enough.

Now I feel pretty comfortable although I want to lose and that's my own business. I'm not depressed about it or beat myself up. And -- maybe this comes from age -- when someone does make a comment about my weight I say, politely, it's none of their business, and I ask them why they're concerned. That usually shuts them up, after a few stammerings about "just trying to help" and "concerned about your health," etc. Sometimes it's a "Wow, don't be so defensive." Feh. You brought it up.

I just remember that, no matter what weight I or you may be, there's always someone who thinks you're not the right weight. You can't satisfy everyone, and you shouldn't try to satisfy anyone, except yourself. :)

Research: A Tsp. of Aloe Daily Reverses Signs of Skin Aging

Research: A Tsp. of Aloe Daily Reverses Signs of Skin Aging | GreenMedInfo | Blog entry | Natural Medicine | Alternative Medicine | Integrative Medicine | Consumer Advocacy

They say drinking aloe vera juice daily is especially good for banishing wrinkles. I'm on it!

In Pursuit of my Inner Pin-up: What's Wrong With Our Bodies, Anyway?

Great post about the female body image and expectations, then and now:In Pursuit of my Inner Pin-up: What's Wrong With Our Bodies, Anyway?

The plastic surgery a model needs to look like Barbie. - Fashion Beauty on Shine

 One model (who has a great figure, even described by the writer as "Marilyn Monroe like") shows what she's have to do in order to look like the "ideal" Barbie. All these decades later, and Barbie is still a standard, for some: The plastic surgery a model needs to look like Barbie. - Fashion Beauty on Shine

(Speaking of Marilyn Monroe, a few weeks ago Bill Mahr on his show referred to Monroe as a "pie hole." I like Mahr but he has issues, dahlings, with women and weight. . .)

My Fitness Pal

I found a very useful app on iPad today.  You can also use it on any computer by going to myfitnesspal.com.  I think it was especially made for diet dummies like me.  First you answer some questions and it tells you how many calories you can eat per day and how long it will take to lose the amount you want to lose.

You type in your meals, most brand names are in the database so you don't have to check the package for calorie and fat content.  If you make something, like I made my own latte earlier, you can give that a title, fill in calorie content and next time you have the same thing it is easy to find with no need to type it in again.

It also keeps track of your exercise and subtracts calories for it.  For example, we took Pooka for a slow paced 20 minute walk, which according to the site should have burned about 63 calories - I would have never known how many calories that would burn.

Something else I learned - I could have had two glasses of Merlot instead of one Latte.  I would have, if I had any, but since I didn't I settled for the Latte.

According to their calculator I can consume 1200 calories per day and lose two pounds per week.  Though it is only the first day it seems easy enough.  I have eaten less, but I am not hungry.  So far, I have not even eaten half the calories I can have today.  Although, night time is when I tend to "snack" so I will have to watch that carefully.

It will be interesting to see (assuming I can actually stick to it for a week) if I have really lost 2 lbs by the end of my first week.  :-D

Weight Whine

Remember last summer when I was going to lose weight?  I lost a few pounds, gained them back and forgot about my "diet."

I didn't lose any weight over the winter, but I didn't gain any either.  However, I weighed myself the other day and found that somehow over the past few weeks I have gained around 4 lbs!  Staying that same weight was bad enough, but now I am gaining more?

Well, then after thinking about it I realized my eating has been totally out of control lately.  Oh, I blamed it on being busy and so on, but I was eating way more junk food than I normally allow myself.  A couple weeks ago I remember having pizza and a caramel frap (with whipped cream) for lunch.  Not to mention the tons of breakfast burritos and chocolate I have been consuming.  Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking.  There was a time I could eat like that every day and not gain an ounce, but those days have been gone for years now.

Anyhow, I am totally fed up with myself and since that horrible weigh in two days ago I have been eating naturally low fat food that is good for me.  Hopefully I can stick with it this time and throw in some exercise too.

I suppose there is always Weight Watchers.  My niece has lost almost 10 lbs in three weeks with that, but I would like to avoid it if at all possible.

Study: Women with large breasts are smarter - by Terrence Aym - Helium

Study: Women with large breasts are smarter - by Terrence Aym - Helium


Do we even want to go here?

Classic Taylor

"Nobody tells me who to love, or not to love, who to be seen with and who not to be seen with" ~ Elizabeth Taylor

Miscarry? You're a Murder Suspect

Georgia state representative Bobby Franklin has introduced a bill requiring police to treat women who've miscarried as murder suspects:

Franklin wants to create a Uterus Police to investigate miscarriages, and requires that any time a miscarriage occurs, whether in a hospital or without medical assistance, it must be reported and a fetal death certificate issued. If the cause of death is unknown, it must be investigated. If the woman can't tell how it happened, than those Uterus Police can ask family members and friends how it happened. Hospitals are required to keep records of anyone who has a spontaneous abortion and report it.

Joe. My. God.: GEORGIA: Wingnut GOP Rep Wants Police To Investigate All Miscarriages

50 Things to Put You in an Instant Good Mood

50 Things to Put You in an Instant Good Mood: Health & Fitness: glamour.com

Strange Obsessions: Mother Forces 5 yr old to get brows waxed

 This is very sad; an obsessed and clearly disconnected woman forces her five year old daughter to get her brows waxed for an upcoming beauty pageant. This clip is hard to watch; the child is crying and screaming. The mother doesn't care and says "They call them beauty pageants for a reason..." in defense of her actions.

Bran Muffins -- yuk!

Until yesterday I had never tried a bran muffin.  When I was at Trader Joe's I saw some in the baked goods section.  They are suppose to be "good for you" and they looked good (TJ's normally has really good baked goods) so I thought they would be a nice idea for breakfast sometimes and bought 2 package, one blueberry and one mango/blueberry.  I tried a blueberry one last night and it was HORRIBLE!  It was so horrible that even my dog (who will pretty much eat anything) wanted nothing to do with it.  Is it just the particular ones I got or do they all taste that bad?  Are there people that actually like bran muffins or are they something people strictly eat because they are constipated or trying to lose weight?

Maybe Butter isn't as bad as you think

Pass The Butter .. Please.

This is interesting . .. .

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back.

It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow colouring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavourings..

DO YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter?

Read on to the end...gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories.

Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to 5 grams for margarine.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.

Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and
only because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavours of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .

And now, for Margarine..

Very High in Trans fatty acids.

Triples risk of coronary heart disease .
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..

Lowers quality of breast milk.

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact.... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT

These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

You can try this yourself:

Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

Share This With Your Friends.....(If you want to butter them up')!

Chinese Proverb: When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others.
Pass the BUTTER PLEASE

The Shake Weight

That's right, I bought one! And it's great. Silly, but great. I use it in the morning, and work out on the bike/elliptical thing in the evening.

I bought it at Target, which was good; I didn't have to order it and wait, etc. It comes with a short DVD which is easy to follow. Six minutes or so, really, and you can really feel it as you work out with it! It doesn't use batteries or anything; it's just the one weight that you, well, shake.

The advertising proudly announces that the Shake Weight has been featured on the Ellen DeGeneres show. Well, yes, it has, but not exactly what you'd think; this is pretty funny. I love Queen Latifah's handling of the thing:

Still, the thing works, and that's all I care about. I don't feel ripped off or anyting, it's easy to use, and that's what matters to me when it comes to things like this.

Not a resolution, but...

I have now not had a cigarette in 8 hours. I know that doesn't seem like much to non-smokers, but it is to me. It isn't a new years resolution (I hate those) it is a coincidence that it happens to be new years. Last week when we were in Taos Ski Valley, there were very few places we could smoke and all of them were outside where it was freezing. So during that time I got down to about 6 cigarettes per day and it really wasn't that hard or bad. So I have been thinking about that and decided to try to quit once again and just maybe this time I won't fail. Really, you would think that watching my older sister die of lung cancer should be enough to make me quit because it was a really horrible death and not the way I would like to die if there is any way I might prevent it. Not to mention that I am genetically prone to have heart problems, though to my knowledge my heart is in pretty good shape.

However, just to warn you - it is quite likely that I will be posting a lot about food. Yep, even more than I do. As I look back on my vacation status updates at facebook they totally revolved around food because I was hardly smoking and I also am a foodie. :)

Green Living and Clothes Disposal

I do give my unwanted clothes to places like Goodwill, but have to admit I'd never thought beyond the impact of clothing and recylcing, etc. Here's some good info
NRDC: Natural Resources Defense Council site about this topic.

Love Your Thighs

Searching for vintage ads and images for my
Pulp Jello blog (nice plug, huh?) I found a blog I like called Formerly Fun. I really liked this post:
"> Ode to Thighs, with great vintage pics as well as a terrific poem.

The miracle of swimming!

I didn't join a gym (health club or whatever you want to call it) for anything other than hoping to lose a few pounds. Yes, there was that day when I got dressed, looked in the mirror and asked that age old question (to myself), does this make me look fat? Well, immediately I realized that it didn't make me look fat, it merely didn't cover where I am fat well enough.

That was probably 2 years ago. I have quite a lot of exercise equipment here at the house and thought I would quickly work it off. The problem with exercising at home is that there is always something to distract you and keep you from actually doing it. So I ended up doing it for a few minutes, maybe once a week or not at all.

So last Monday, we joined a very nice - I would even say swanky - health club. This health club is right at the base of the mountains, with a beautiful view and a huge outdoor pool. As hot as it has been we were immediately attracted to the outdoor pool. So for the past 3 days I have been swimming. Well, swimming is really an overstatement. I have been paddling around for about an hour a day. Just from 3 days of that (though actually two because I noticed it yesterday) something miraculous happened. No, I didn't lose the extra 10 - 20 lbs. What happened is that the constant pain in my neck, that I have had since a car accident several years ago, has totally disappeared. The pain in my back, that I have had for even more years, has decreased by at least 70%.

Seriously, I have been taking 2 -3 Advil tablets at least 3 times a day for years. The past two days I have taken 1 dose and that was when it was pouring rain and really super humid -- which totally freaks out my back. I can even turn my neck without it sounding like I just poured milk on a bowl of Rice Crispies! Truly, I am amazed!

OK, now if I can just lose a bit of weight I will be even happier. However, even if I don't lose a pound I will be there, paddling around. Exercise really does do a body good!

The Brassage and Breast Cancer

The brassage is promoted as being a benefit to "the girls" and possibly preventing breast cancer. The idea behind this is that toxins become trapped, and that's one cause of cancer. By wearing the brassage, which massages the breasts, toxins are released.

A news clip takes exception to this; they interview promoter Christina Erteszek, daughter of Olga, the famous bra designer. At one point Erteszek becomes upset and walks off the set, but returns later. They show a clip of a woman who had breast cancer ten years ago, who is very angry with the idea of the brassage, saying it "exploits women." Female doctors are also interviewed; one says the brassage is "crazy." The promoters of the brassage insist they don't say it will prevent, or cure, breast cancer, just that it might help keep breasts healthy. Erteszek says, when asked if the bra will prevent breast cancer:

"Yes. Of course." But, she went on, "I say, 'help to prevent.' I'm making no medical claims that it does prevent."

The news clip calls the brassage promoter "angry," (this before she walks off), derides the inventor as not being a "real" doctor but a chiropractor, then moves on to the next clip, which talks about more cancer: young people are getting it, and drinking hot beverages can cause it.

All very interesting in its juxtapositions, and blatant marginalization of anything remotely alternative, such as the idea massaging the body can help rid it of toxins.

My point here isn't whether or not the bra does what it says it does but the slant the media put on this. According to the news clip, the bra is no longer being manufactured. In this context: the juxtapositions, the marginalization, the slant on alternative ideas, no matter how low key, the segue into cancer alarmist "news," the use of women as spokespeople in the appeals to authority,and pointing the finger at money making makes for a Big Pharma, medical infrastructure propaganda campaign; under the guise of being informative and pro-women's health, there seems to be another agenda behind their disingenuousness.