Journey into Abstinence : Protein Shakes & Healthy Snacks

I am so excited to present these great shakes to my blog followers! 

Are your kids starving when they come home from school? 

Do they need some pre-practice or post-game nutrition? 

Do they need a healthy pick-me-up?

Do they grab sugary cereals when they wake up in the morning?

Better yet, are you looking for an easy way to get more healthy proteins into them (without adding on the sugar or unhealthy calories)?

Why give them processed, unhealthy snacks?

I definitely have something for you!

You need to try Arbonne's excellent protein powder!

It tastes great, mixes easily, comes in vanilla or chocolate and provides 20 g of protein per serving!

Arbonne Essentials are plant- powered nutrition! (Pea protein)

This stuff will support your health and is vegan and gluten-free certified!

Our protein is good for your whole family and good for you!

Ask me how you can earn amazing discounts on our excellent products.

I love the way Arbonne looks on me!

Email me, ArbonneBeth59@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter, @ArbonneBeth

Hugs everyone!

Beth 💋

A Simpler Time

I have been thinking quite a bit of what it was like when I was younger and didn't have to worry about adult responsibilities. When the biggest decision was whether to play Chinese jump-rope or hopscotch. Should we make chalk drawings or go on a walk to the "Grove", our local shopping locale.  What memories. Special, care- free days. Sundays spent with family not surfing unless you lived in California. Nothing was open on those Sunday afternoons; just Sunday School and dinner at 3 and then Lassie and Wonderful World of Disney. Safe sex was when you didn't get caught by your parents. Nobody came out of the closet unless they were searching for a lost shoe. No MasterCard or Visa, but my mom had a charge-a-plate. Discover was reserved for the Scouts and 4H clubs.

I miss those days. I see my grand-kids on crazy, dizzying schedules. How do we tell them to slow down, watch that sunrise/sunset. Yes, stop and smell the flowers and look for ladybugs. Spend a pleasant afternoon lying on your back and imagine the shapes the clouds are making and collect the lightening bugs on a summer night. What happened to Red Rover, Kick the Can, Freeze or Flashlight Tag  and Red Light/ Green Light? These are not replaced by Wii or Xbox. I have come to enjoy hearing the basketballs pounding the pavement and even the occasional wiffle hitting the siding.

I hope I never really grow up inside, my inner child. I want to remember all the great theme songs to those TV shows we knew by heart: Gilligan's Island, the Partridge Family, The Monkees. Black and white and only 4 channels to choose from. No remote control, that is what we kids were there for, to turn the huge knob and try to fine tune with the larger plastic wheel behind it. Remember the small dot left behind when it turned off? And how many out there stayed to watch how long it took to disappear? 

I will take my magic mirror now and look for my friends out there...I see Kathy and Nancy and Sandy and Karen and Marge and Chris and Cindy. And so many more who shared these great moments with me. Cherish these memories and pass them along to your kids and grand-kids when they come along. See you out on the lawn on our backs looking at the clouds. I think I see a camel, no its an elephant, nope, a dragon. Well, you get the idea!

A very good friend of mine sent me the following email:

Long ago and far away, in a land that time forgot,
Before the days of Dylan, or the dawn of Camelot.
There lived a race of innocents, and they were you and me,

For Ike was in the White House in that land where we were born,
Where navels were for oranges, and Peyton Place was porn.

We learned to gut a muffler, we washed our hair at dawn,
We spread our crinolines to dry in circles on the lawn..

We longed for love and romance, and waited for our Prince,
And Eddie Fisher married Liz , and no one's seen him since.

We danced to 'Little Darlin,' and sang to 'Stagger Lee'
And cried for Buddy Holly in the Land That Made Me, Me.

Only girls wore earrings then, and 3 was one too many,
And only boys wore flat-top cuts, except for Jean McKinney.

And only in our wildest dreams did we expect to see
A boy named George with Lipstick, in the Land That Made Me, Me.

We fell for Frankie Avalon, Annette was oh, so nice,
And when they made a movie, they never made it twice..

We didn't have a Star Trek Five, or Psycho Two and Three,
Or Rocky-Rambo Twenty in the Land That Made Me, Me.

Miss Kitty had a heart of gold, and Chester had a limp,
And Reagan was a Democrat whose co-star was a chimp.

We had a Mr. Wizard, but not a Mr. T,
And Oprah couldn't talk yet, in the Land That Made Me, Me.
We had our share of heroes, we never thought they'd go,
At least not Bobby Darin, or Marilyn Monroe.

For youth was still eternal, and life was yet to be,
And Elvis was forever in the Land That Made Me, Me.

We'd never seen the rock band that was Grateful to be Dead,
And Airplanes weren't named Jefferson , and Zeppelins were not Led.

And Beatles lived in gardens then, and Monkees lived in trees,
Madonna was Mary in the Land That Made Me, Me.

We'd never heard of microwaves, or telephones in cars,
And babies might be bottle-fed, but they were not grown in jars.

And pumping iron got wrinkles out, and 'gay' meant fancy-free,
And dorms were never co-ed in the Land That Made Me, Me.

We hadn't seen enough of jets to talk about the lag,
And microchips were what was left at the bottom of the bag.

And hardware was a box of nails, and bytes came from a flea,
And rocket ships were fiction in the Land That Made Me, Me.

Buicks came with portholes, and side shows came with freaks,
And bathing suits came big enough to cover both your cheeks.

And Coke came just in bottles, and skirts below the knee,
And Castro came to power near the Land That Made Me, Me.

We had no Crest with fluoride, we had no Hill Street Blues,
We had no patterned pantyhose or Lipton herbal tea
Or prime-time ads for those dysfunctions in the Land That Made Me, Me.

There were no golden arches, no Perrier to chill,
And fish were not called Wanda, and cats were not called Bill..

And middle-aged was 35 and old was fifty-three,
And ancient were our parents in the Land That Made Me, Me.

But all things have a season, or so we've heard them say,
And now instead of Maybelline we swear by Retin-A.
They send us invitations to join AARP,
We've come a long way, baby, from the Land That Made Me, Me.

So now we face a brave new world in slightly larger jeans,
And wonder why they're using smaller print in magazines..
And we tell our children's children of the way it used to be,
Long ago and far away in the Land That Made Me, Me.

If you didn't grow up in the fifties,
you missed the greatest time in history. 

Pinkwashing is Year Round

Susan G. Komen for the Cure makes mockery of self with KFC pinkwashing campaign (opinion):

'via Blog this'

The above referenced article really points out the dichotomy of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. On one hand they want to get people to donate money to their Fund. On the other hand, they have almost any company endorse as long as they are willing to add pink to their printing press. Yes, it is as simple as all that. PINK, Pink, Pink. It is virtually all year round now, not just in October.

Also, another article I found (http://www.naturalnews.com/Komen_for_the_cure.html), links The Big K with Planned Parenthood. I am not seeing a relationship here. Why are they donating funds to them? I am not going to get into a debate on birth control, womens' rights, pro-life or pro-choice here. My point is that these funds, according to the Big K, are going to pay for mammograms and health checks for women. The basis for the donation deals with the reduced incidence of breast cancer when a pregnancy is carried to term. Turn the statistic around! Can it not be said that abortion is contributing to breast cancer? This is an argument that never should have been entered into by the two organizations.

I also found that in 2010, KFC was selling Buckets for a Cure, resplendent in their pinkness. You need to read the journalist's point of view. I agree with him that it seems that Big K is encouraging the consumer to eat the KFC fried chicken. Now, let us review this! What covers the chicken? White flour, salt and MSG along with the secret seasonings. The first three ingredients are quite harmful. As a matter of fact, MSG is a known carcinogen. Eating this fried food leads to obesity (not that I am one to talk, being seriously overweight) and that is proven to lead to increases risk of breast cancer as well as others. Frying at a high heat produces

acrylamides, toxic chemical by-products of cooking that are believed by manyhealthexperts to promote cancer (http://www.naturalnews.com/acrylami...). One scientific study, for example, demonstrated thateatingacrylamides boosts kidney cancer rates by 59 percent. Acrylamides are also linked to ovarian cancer. {Thursday, April 22. 2010, Mike Adams}

P. F. Louis writes in this article about where Big K's money goes (http://www.naturalnews.com/033783_Komen_for_the_Cure_pinkwashing.html) that the former CEO of Big K received $500,000 per year. Nancy Brinker, founder, has stepped in to take over but there are no figures pertaining to her salary. In the 2009/2010 fiscal year, they handed out teh following:

$141 million for education, $47 million for health screening, and $75 million for research. Fundraising costs and affiliate expenses were approximately $60 million with general administrative costs at $37 million.

Do not get excited about these monies. Not once has anyone been educated correctly about nutrition and what foods to avoid to help prevent breast cancer. There are doctors in this country and abroad who are working on drugs to help treat breast cancer but they have not received any funds. What about the thousands and thousands of metastatic patients out there? Any money going to help them? I have seen any reports on that front. Let us not forget the men who have breast cancer. My father died from breast cancer and the males who have a family history are not exempt. Big K does not recognize them to the best of my knowledge. It is only PINK!

Big K has been raising money since before 1982. Why, in all these years, have they not found the ever elusive cure? Of course not. Think of the corporate executives in the pharmaceutical industry, the chemotherapy producers and the radiation technology suppliers. They would be standing in the unemployment line right next to the mets patient who cannot hold a job longer than the respite in between chemo and radiation. 


Off to go fight other windmills kids! Sancho, saddle my horse and give me my lance and helmet. What color shall we use for the ribbons? Certainly not PINK!


Love and hugs,
Beth


P.S. Thank you to 

When "Thank you" is Just Not Enough

Today marks the very first Annual National Previvor* Day, in the middle of National HBOC (Heriditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer)Week. Due to the efforts of Sue Friedman, Executive Director of FORCE and Representative Wasserman Schultz, H. Res 1522 was passed UNANIMOUSLY in Congress. Cancer does not recognize party lines, race, creed, nationality or sexual preference. I am proud of our politicians that they threw aside biases and voted to approve this very special milestone.

*Previvor (according to Wikipedia)

A cancer previvor is a person who is not diagnosed with cancer, but has a survived the predisposition, or higher risk, of cancer due to a certain genetic mutation.[1] As such, this is the first generation in human history who, armed with information about a predisposition to a cancer after opting in to DNA testing, can make informed choices prior to cancer diagnosis.

Like many others in my sphere of influence, I witnessed first-hand the toll cancer takes on a loved one. My father passed away from Breast Cancer in 1989 after a 5 year battle. In 1996, I found out I carried the BRCA2 Genetic Mutation. This meant I had a predisposition to both Breast and Ovarian Cancers in addition to my strong family history. In 2002, I had my first of many surgeries to remove my ovaries, ending one stage of my womanhood. Being 42 I was not in favor of more children but I still felt that tug of never being able to have more and having that choice stripped away from me in deference to avoiding Ovarian Cancer and reducing my Breast Cancer risk by half.

By 2006, I had had several scares and a multitude of mammograms, biopsies, MRi's, ultrasounds and my stress level was at an all-time high. Having never had cancer, I felt out of place in the survivor support groups both in person and on the Internet. My fiancé convinced me to seek another opinion and I went to an oncologist for help. I was put on Tamoxofin as a prophylactic measure. This was met with mostly contempt from survivors along with comments such as, "You don't know what it is like to be a survivor", "How can you even begin to compare your life with ours". I was in tears because I had nowhere to turn for help.

I began investigating the Internet with a ferocity. I discovered FORCE, Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (www.facingourrisk.org) and found a home! I was in tears again but these were happy tears! They got me! I was not the only one out there. I heard discussions about genetic testing, prophylactic surgeries, reconstruction (or not), talking to family members and an overall feeling of belonging. In 2007, with love, support and information from my family, friends and my FORCE Family, I had the next of a series of surgeries to have my breasts removed and reconstructed. I encountered many speed bumps along the way. When someone would tell me I was "mutilating" my body, I had FORCE to turn to. In 2008, I attended my very first JoiningFORCEs Conference in Tampa, FL. This was followed by the next one held in Orlando, FL. Each trip, I learned more and more and brought back more to share with my fellow BRCA community in Philadelphia.

In the words of Dr. Friedman in her recent blog entry,

An estimated 750,000 people—about .2% of the entire U.S. population—carry a BRCA mutation. Not a large group compared to our overall population, yet we shoulder about 10-14% of the breast and ovarian cancer burden, and our cancer risk is some of the highest known to science.

. I am part of that percentage.

The importance of the HBOC Week and Previvor Day cannot be felt as poignant as it is with those of us in the BRCA community. This will help pave the way for more research and hopefully, a way to reduce and maybe even eradicate Breast and Ovarian Cancers in, perhaps, my child's lifetime. FORCE has brought an empowerment and sense of belonging to me more than any other group could possibly have done. Out of this has sprung a wonderful new book, released during HBOC Week, Previvors: Facing the Breast Cancer Gene and Making Life-Changing Decisions by Dina Roth Port, a FORCE member.


We have also been fortunate to have a view from another FORCE member and friend, Diane Tropea Greene, Apron Strings: Inhereting Courage, Wisdom and . . . Breast Cancer. This chronicles a family of sisters and their journey through their family's ordeal with cancers.
Apron Strings: Inheriting Courage, Wisdom and . . . Breast Cancer

My friend and film-maker/researcher, Joanna Rudnick, was prompted to make a documentary following her family and her own search for answers to make an informed decision after learning she carried the genetic mutation. Her film, In the Family, is incisive and educational in a grounded way. I have since become good friends with one of the FORCE women in the film and glad we met 3 years ago!


I am having trouble typing through the tears forming. Had I never found out about my mutation I carry, my surgeon was almost certain I would have had a bout with Breast Cancer at some point. It was a matter of when, not if. As a matter of fact, they did discover a stage zero DCIS in my pathology. A Bilateral Prophylactic Mastectomy would have been the treatment for me and that is exactly what I had done. I am here, defying my risk of 85-90%, seeing my child grow up to become a man and graduate next year from high school. This year, we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary, and I never would have gotten here if not for him. I am happy to be able to celebrate this momentous occasion of HBOC Week with my fellow FORCE Members and look forward to many, many more!

Love and hugs,
Beth

Book Review: "Apron Strings: Inheriting Courage, Wisdom and . . .Breast Cancer"

I have been very fortunate to have met brave people. Those that have battled Cancer are among the most brave of all. The first who comes to mind is of course my Father. In his mid-fifties, he must have known the lumo he found on his breast was Cancer. It was ignored as was my Father's way with anything that foreshadowed a problem. After he went through a battery of tests, his worst fear was confirmed, it was Breast Cancer. He went in for a mastectomy and endured 5 years of weekly chemotherapy and various procedures meant to end the Beast, Breast Cancer.

I was very proud of my Father. He never really complained. And because of our family history of Breast Cancer, we participated in the 1st of many tests for the BRCA gene mutation. My Mom was able to get the frozen section of his pathology and it was tested as well. My results as well as Dad's came back BRCA2+. The ensuing genetic counseling helped prepare me for a course of action.



In the interim, I researched the Internet and discovered FORCE, Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (www.facingourrisk.org). Through this wonderful organization devoted to families with history of Breast and Ovarian Cancers, I also found a new friend, Diane Tropea Greene.

Diane had written a book, "Apron Strings: Inheriting Courage, Wisdom and ... Breast Cancer". I looked in the local book stores and couldn't find it. While Diane and I emailed and talked over the phone, we got to know each other. She also sent me a signed copy of her book. She also came to the Joining FORCES Annual Conference with one of her sisters. I recommended the book to everyone who I came in contact with at the Conference as well as back home.

Diane writes:

Apron Strings: Inheriting Courage, Wisdom and... Breast Cancer is my family’s story of hope and survival against seemingly insurmountable odds. It is written, in part, to honor the memory of family members who so bravely faced their cancer with courage, grace and dignity. It is because of their strength that my generation had the perseverance to delve into our past and make tough and inconceivable choices, to emerge victorious. Their defeat has enabled our victory.

The book starts out at a family member's funeral, just one of many that have dealt with cancer. Diane herself is also a Breast Cancer survivor and the journey leads her to Genetic Testing. She discovers she too carries the BRCA gene mutation. This can and does often lead to an increased risk of not only Breast Cancer but also Ovarian, Pancreatic, Melanoma and Colon Cancer among others. The risk of the average woman is 8-12% over her lifetime. If a man or a woman carry the BRCA muation, it can increase their risk up to 90% or higher. This is another kind of journey that Diane, her sisters and other family members have chosen to take to reduce their risk.

At times very sad but alternately funny, Diane recants a true-life story of one extended family's ordeal with Cancer and how they are handling it. How do they tell the various cousins about the testing results? how can they try to halt Cancer's path in their family? And what of the next generation of children already getting to the age they might want to be tested.

I applaud Diane for being able to get the word out about Breast Cancer and beating the odds!