Sugarless Chocolate Milk?

Sorry I sort of fell off of the blogosphere (can I say that?  I think my blog might be too small...), we had two conventions in a row.  Granted I only attended one, but I did show my art in the other.  Maybe I'll write about them later, but I have a specific topic I've been itching to type out on my mind.

Today I want to write about thyroid health.  Specifically hypothyroidism - what I have - but I think that most of what I have to say could be applied to hyperthyroidism as well.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, I am only sharing my experience.

In the beginning of August I went for a physical, just to make sure everything was in working order.  I guess they do blood work now as a matter of course; maybe they've been doing blood work as a matter of course for a long time, but I'm not one to go to the doctor unless something is wrong and I can't seem to fix it so I'm a bit out of the loop.  At any rate my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) came back at 10.45 or something, over 10 is the main point.  That's pretty high.  In fact, the doctor at the practice I visit has set 10 as the medicating cut off meaning that anything 10 or over gets a prescription.
I found this out when I received my labs in the mail a few days after I had my blood drawn.  At the top of the results was a curt note to me saying, "Jennifer, you are hypothyroid and need to take supplements.  One a day. Dr. _____"
Of course I rebelled, after having a good cry over it and calling hubby.

When I find out there's something wrong with me I generally take to the interwebs.  What I found was a general consensus that TSH alone isn't an accurate test if you're looking to find the root cause.  It works perfectly if you're looking for an allopathic solution (is that an oxymoron?) but I am not, so I decided to try and treat with diet.  A month later my TSH was down to about 6 and I was told to come back in two months to test again to make sure I was actually helping it and the decrease wasn't some sort of fluke.

You should know that a couple of things influenced my decision to attempt treating with diet.  First, I recently had a baby and there is a thing called postpartum thyroiditis.  Mostly it manifests as hyperthyroidism first followed by a month or two of hypothyroidism.  The majority of women are euthyroid within three months of being hypothyroid, some women need lifelong medication.  Second, I can be a stubborn little shit and I am pretty well like an ox about not putting chemicals into my body anymore.  It gets ridiculous sometimes, but that's another story.

So what am I doing?
I am essentially being paleo.  I am avoiding gluten, soy and white sugar like the plague and there is a list of veggies and fruits that are goitrogenic (meaning they promote thyroid inflammation/suppress normal thyroid function).  The list is as follows:

• cruciferous veggies which include broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussles sprouts, etc.
• peaches
• pears
• strawberries
• peanuts

I'm sure there are more, but those are the specific ones I'm avoiding.
I'm also steering clear of caffeine and alcohol.

I drink a glass of lemon water every day.  I'm not sure of the science behind this, but it seems to help.
I eat a spoonful of organic coconut oil (extra virgin) every couple of hours.  I think I'm taking close to 1/4 cup a day because I also put it into my hot drinks and cook with it.  I can't tell you how much this is helping.  If I start to feel icky, I'll take a spoonful and 20 minutes or so later I'm feeling normal again.
I eat a lot of yoghurt (Icelandic cream-Skyr which I make myself because otherwise I would break bank eating as much as I do) and cottage cheese with berries and ground flax seed.
I'm taking a women's multi (one-a-day) and an occasional cod liver oil depending on how much fish I consume that week.  I was taking a thyroid strength, but my body decided against that after a week or two.  I'm going to try an adrenal support supplement and see how that goes, I'll let you know.

To sum it up, these are the most important things I've found to do:

1. Do not eat gluten.  I felt it needed to be bold because holy crap gluten is so mean to your thyroid.
2. No refined sugar.  Again, sugar is evil.  I sneak in some maple syrup once in a while (the real stuff) and I seem to do fine, but granulated sugar is a no-no.
3. Try to avoid fluoridated water.  Seriously.
4. Try to avoid goitrogens when possible.  I read that the food loses some of it's goitrogenic properties on being cooked, but I've still been moderating my consumption.
5. Eat lots of good fats, like coconut oil.  Lots of coconut oil.  I mean it.
6. Probiotics are your friend (p.s. Goodbelly, you suck for adding gluten to your drinks)
7. Try supplements or, barring vitamins, add salt to your food.  Just in case of iodine deficiency.
8. Omega-3 is awesome, eat it somehow (flax, eggs, fish, supplements)
9. Brown rice wins over white rice.  Always

Things I've learned while being stubborn about dietary restrictions:

1. Food tastes awesome without sugar.  I've made a totally paleo cobbler a couple times now and it's amazing.
2. Coconut butter is a thing and you should try it.
3. I feel the difference when I eat gluten.  Not just wheat, I can't eat oatmeal unless it's specifically gluten free now...

A lot of people would say that my diet is crazy, that I'm depriving myself somehow.  I don't feel deprived.  I love dessert and I still eat it regularly, just sans sugar and most grains which does not make it any less tasty or satisfying.  In fact, dessert without processed sugars is more satisfying.  I'll share some recipes in a few days.


I'm going to leave off with a recipe I just discovered for sugarless chocolate milk.  I drink this before bed sometimes and it's amazing!

6 oz whole milk (I use organic, non-homogenized)
1 spoon coconut oil
2 spoons cocoa powder

pour ingredients into a blender and blend for 15-30 seconds.  Pour and enjoy.
This creates an interesting froth on top which is also delicious.  This is for a pretty dark chocolate milk, the measurements aren't exact, just make it how you like!

Huffery-snuffery Heathen Chinese.

I have come to the conclusion that there is a language barrier present between pro-life and pro-choice people.  I think that this is intentional: when someone says that abortion is killing babies - which when you come right down to it, that's what it actually is - someone else is very quick to respond that abortion is, in fact, only killing fetuses.  Why?  Because if abortion kills fetuses rather than babies it's okay.  It's a form of denial that a lot of people (including myself) sort of cling to; if you use a different word, somehow the act has become less brutal.

I'm not going to bother explaining exactly how an abortion works.  Mainly because I don't particularly feel like upsetting myself right this second.  Lets just say that it makes calling our society "civilized" a stretch.

To say that you are pro-choice because a woman shouldn't have to experience the "negative" consequences of her actions (barring incest and rape, as those are not the fault of the woman) is to say that murder is an acceptable response to the normal product of sex.
Maybe that was harsh, but I can't think of a better way to phrase it.

Here is where the language barrier springs up again: sex.
Society has taken sex and removed children from it.  What was largely stressed during sex ed when I was in school was to wear protection to avoid sexually transmitted infections.  There wasn't much about children or abstinence.  Sure, it was mentioned, but with the assumption that we were going to engage in sexual activity anyway so we should be taught how to do it safely.  There's nothing wrong with that because people do need that information, however, I think it would benefit everyone involved if it was stressed that the main byproduct of being sexually active is the chance of creating life.
We have created a dichotomy where there should be unison.

So when you say to someone who is pro-choice that instead of abortion being legal people should be more responsible with their bodies the point is missed.  Not only is it not very fun to be more responsible with your body, it's somehow become an attack on women's rights.  Because we have stripped the meaning from sex.  Now, I'm not saying that sex is limited to the production of children.  Far from it; sex is a wonderful bonding experience, not to mention it's lots of fun.  What I am saying is the idea of sexual responsibility is lost because we've removed part of the meaning of sex.

I suppose another thing this issue broaches is our society's view (fear) of childbirth and being pregnant in general.  Maybe not society as a whole but media for sure, which I think says something about society.
If birth was not demonized the way mainstream media tends to demonize it, maybe being pregnant wouldn't seem so terrible as to warrant killing the growing baby.  But it's not viewed as killing the growing baby because most women are not informed about exactly how a baby grows.  Abortion terminology is very clinical and removed; I would argue intentionally.  We don't want to know the truth.

~~~

Here's a point to ponder, though: if the pro-choice slogan is, "my body, my choice" are all pro-choice people then against circumcision or piercing a baby girl's ears?
If the answer to that question is "no," I wonder if they're aware of exactly how much doublethink is happening in their mind.

Image found here.

Cloth Everything! Except at Night.

I'm the kind of person who scrapes every last bit of peanut butter from the jar I possibly can (and then endeavors to wash all the remaining stuff off for recycling): I don't like to waste things.  While this weirdness is strongest with foodstuffs I try not to waste material goods as well.
That is why I'm trying to cloth diaper.

I say "trying" because I'm still not using cloth at night.  The only reason for this is that I like sleep more than I hate wasting.  I'm not sure I'm up for the commitment of changing the little one's diaper every two hours through the night; he doesn't even wake up that often.  And when he does, I can just roll over and feed him.  Sometimes I wake up and he's latched already, which amazes me since I feel like I'm still learning how to breastfeed.

At any rate.  I like cloth diapering a lot.  The only thing about it is I'm afraid of the pins.  I know you can use the covers as a way to secure the diaper, thus making pins obsolete, but I like the extra security that pins provide for the diaper itself.  With pins, I know the diaper is going to stay put.
So what that meant was I tried not using pins and I didn't like it.
Since I am a total noob at cloth diapering, I looked up a video on youtube:

Then I promptly ordered a Snappi.  I'm still waiting for it to arrive, and I can't wait!
Yep, I feel like a total loser now; I'm excited about a diapering tool.

I've learned through doing that cloth diapering is really not as hard as I thought it would be.  Or as difficult as people talk it up to be.  It even taught me something about my laundry machine: how to use the prewash option.  I'd never used it before, so I actually had to bust out the manual and look up how to activate the thing.


Another thing to consider making cloth: nursing pads.  I go through a lot of these right now, so the cost would be tremendous for me if I used disposable.  I did try some disposables that we got on accident (the packaging was not immediately helpful in discerning re-usable vs. disposable) and I found that the wee one would not latch until I cleaned my nipple off.  So I had my mom take them back and K-Mart actually refunded her (which was super awesome!).  She brought home some cloth ones by the same company - who knew Philips electronics made nursing pads, btw.
Cloth nursing pads are more comfortable and they don't leave any weird residue that baby can taste.  Also, they are saving me a ton of money right now.


I also ordered some cloth pads for postpartum bleeding.
I have always hated disposable pads.  Even pantyliners.  They never stay in one place and I always end up with a sticky paper wedgie an hour or less after putting one on.  I'd been thinking about "going green" with my period stuff ever since reading Dyno-Mom's post about it, I'd just been lazy about actually doing it.  So I finally ordered some and I am super impressed.  I will never use a disposable again and I'm planning on never using tampons either.
These are super comfy and, again, it's easier to do the maintenance than everyone thinks it is.


So the moral of the story - for me - is to try things for myself before being discouraged.  Also a determined stubborn streak is helpful if you should fail once or twice at the get-go...like I did with cloth diapers (hence the youtube video).

Book Reviews

While this little one sleeps so much I figured I'd work on the book reviews I'd mentioned earlier.  These aren't going to be terribly in depth because there are so many and because I'm kinda lazy.  So, here they are.

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth - Henci Goer
What I liked:
 This book contains in depth descriptions of the practices you might encounter when having a hospital birth.  The information is unbiased and informative rather than fear based.  When I finished I felt as if I'd learned something rather than feeling like everything in the world could go wrong with my birth.
What I disliked:
Some of the information is out of date (episiotomy rates) and there's not much mention of why women should decline Cytotec (Misoprostol) as an induction agent.
Was it helpful for me?
Yes.
Should you read it?
Absolutely, particularly if you're going to be having a hospital birth because I feel that you should be informed about procedures by someone who is not affiliated with a for-profit hospital/practice.

Special Delivery - Rahima Baldwin Dancy
What I liked:
 The author does a good job explaining her point of view (homebirth is best) in such a way that does not lambast the opposing viewpoint.  There is some information about potential complications, how to handle them, and when transferring care to a hospital would be necessary.
What I disliked:
When I finished it, nothing; but after reading others I realized it was not quite as comprehensive as I had thought.  However, the information I found in other books was generally minor things.
Was it helpful for me?
Yes.  It was ridiculously hard for me to find information about complications specifically related to homebirth that wasn't extremely biased toward the medical industry.  Also, it helped calm some of my worries.
Should you read it?
Yes.  Even if you're not considering a homebirth you might find it calming to read a book about birth outside of a medical setting.

Homebirth - Sheila Kitzinger
 What I liked:
Generally the same things about the above book apply to this one.  This book was more informative and less personal, but had the same general information.
What I disliked:
Uh...
Was it helpful for me?
Yes, it helped calm my mind even more.
Should you read it?
Yes.  Especially if you're planning a homebirth.

The Pregnancy Book - William Sears, M.D., and Martha Sears, R.N.
 What I liked:
It is sectioned by month and has information about how you might be feeling, concerns you might have, and how baby is developing in each section.  Some of it was helpful and some of it was redundant for me.
What I disliked:
I can't really put my finger on it, but some of the stuff I read in it was off-putting.  You can definitely tell it's written by a medical professional.
Was it helpful for me?
Kind of, but by the time I got to it I had read almost all of the information elsewhere so most of it was review.
Should you read it?
Eh.  If you have a choice of this book or What to Expect When You're Expecting, please read this one.  Otherwise my recommendation goes either way, I don't feel like it's a must read, but it also has a bit of helpful info.

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth - Ina May Gaskin
 What I liked:
 The beginning of this book is stories from women about birth.  There are good stories and bad stories.  The second half is full of information about birth (home or otherwise) and has some helpful things in it.
What I disliked:
The stories were making me cry because I was reading it while in the later half of pregnancy and I was more emotional in the later trimesters.
Was it helpful for me?
Yes.  The stories - while they did make me cry - gave me some confidence in my own ability to achieve the task in front of me.  And the information was helpful, though redundant because of the other books.
Should you read it?
I think so.

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding - La Leche League (Seventh Revised Edition)
What I liked:
This book is super helpful.  There's sections about the various breastfeeding complications and how to correct them.
What I disliked:
It was nice to read descriptions of proper latch technique and how to hand express your milk, but the best way for me to learn that is by seeing/doing or with hands on instruction.
Was it helpful for me?
Yes.
Should you read it?
Absolutely.  The eighth edition is now out and I hear that it's better than the seventh (and I hear it's not as good).  I can say that the seventh was super helpful for me.

Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding - Ina May Gaskin
What I liked:
It has some really interesting anecdotal chapters as well as the information it contains.
What I disliked:
Hrm...
Was it helpful for me?
It was more interesting than helpful, but that's only because I read The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding first.
Should you read it?
Absolutely.  It is a great supplemental book to the one above.  If you have to choose which to read, however, I would opt for The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and maybe pick this one up later if you can.

What to Expect When You're Expecting - Arlene (Afterword by), and Hathaway, Sandee (Afterword by), and Murko Eisenberg
What I liked:
...
What I disliked:
This book assumes no other birthing options except hospitalization.  There's even a whole page devoted to instructing you to lay flat on your back and put your legs up if you're not going to make it to the hospital to have your baby.
Was it helpful for me?
No: it actually freaked me out.  This is the only book that mentions Deep Vein Thrombosis as a pregnancy symptom and at the time my right leg hurt when I got up from sitting down for along periods of time.  I spent a good part of my day worrying that I had DVT and that I'd need to go on blood thinners.
Should you read it?
The one I read was the original apparently, so I can't speak for the new editions, but I would strongly advise against reading this book.  It might just freak you out even though it contains the same information the other books do.  Just the way it's written is sort of alarmist.


So that's it.  I think these are pretty accurate.  It has been a while since I read all of these so I may have mixed up one or two of them (which was missing info, or book structure) but I'm pretty sure I've remembered them correctly.

Also, when I comment on whether or not the book was helpful I am referring to whether it helped prepare me for the birth process as a new momma - someone who had no idea what to expect.  The reason I left it until after little Oliver was born is because had I reviewed them before, I would have been talking out of my bum.  I didn't know if they were helpful for me until after I experienced birth for myself.

Early Arrival!

Oliver Charles arrived two weeks early on August 21st at 11:30 p.m..  He was 7lbs 15oz.

Everything went pretty well.  Labor is intense; it was and wasn't what I was expecting.  I thought I had bad gas when I woke up at four that morning and I ended up calling into work thinking I'd be okay to go in the next day after some rest.  In a couple of hours I woke hubby up and asked him to run to Kings and grab some gas relief meds.  After taking those and waiting for an hour or two with no result I texted my sister-in-law asking if labor could resemble gas, then decided to call the midwife.  She thought maybe I was just rumbling, getting ready for the real thing so we decided to check back later.  My sister-in-law called me back an hour or so later and said the same thing so I just sat tight, riding the waves of contractions as best I could.
I spent a lot of time in the bath.  My water/gas bills might be up a bit this month from reheating bath water, lol.
Our midwife kept checking in every hour or two (depending on how I said I was doing) and since things were progressing pretty steadily her assistant (apprentice?  I dunno what to call her) came over to check on my progress; seeing if my water broke, how I was doing otherwise, etc.  My water hadn't broken yet but contractions were getting more intense.
Sometime around dinner time I stopped being able to have conversations with hubby.  I spent most of my time trying to relax, which is more difficult than the books make it sound.  They all say to breathe through contractions and that does help a little bit, but if you can't relax while you're breathing it's pretty useless.  Breathing slow and deep (belly breathing) is the best kind of breathing but it was hard for me because extending my abdominal muscles hurt if I breathed in low enough.
The fight or flight part of my brain was really not helpful with the whole relaxing thing.  At all.  I was tensing with the pain, which would make it worse (slightly) then somewhere in the back of my mind the words, "I can't" would get sent out in various forms.  It took a lot of concentration to say, "I can" but it helped a lot on my exhales to say what it was I wanted to do.  For instance I might say, "relaxing," or "opening," or "letting the baby out."  For a little bit I was visualizing a flower opening in the sun.  And then I had to choose between visualization and relaxation.  I did keep saying the things I wanted to do, sort of like a mantra and it helped most of the time.  Sometimes the pain freaked me out just enough that I'd need something like rescue remedy to help calm down.
When it got dark the contractions were pretty much right next to each other, but by then our midwife had come.  She came in the door and said, "you're a rock-star," to which I replied, "I don't feel like a rock-star!"  She just laughed a bit I think.
Somewhere between then and pushing I ended up back in the bathroom.  For maybe an hour - keeping track of time was not a thing for me at this point - our midwife rubbed something on my back (probably arnica oil) which felt amazing.  She gave instructions on how to stand; I had been leaning over the sink marching on the balls of my feet and when she saw me doing this she told me to plant my feet and bend my knees a little.  I never would have thought of doing that myself, but it helped a lot.
Somewhere between that and pushing I ended up on my hands and knees hugging the toilet.  I don't remember how I got there or why I did it, but I have never loved a toilet so much in my life.
I think I pushed like that - leaning back and down while I bore down - for an hour?  I'm not really sure how long it took.  All I'm sure of is by that time I was exhausted because I hadn't eaten enough, or slept enough throughout the day, and the toilet lid was cold and awesome support for between contractions/pushing.  It also made a good sort of bar for me to pull on for support while I was kind of kneeling during contractions.
I didn't like the pushing stage because I always thought I was farther along than I actually was.  I think a lot of that had to do with how tired I was; I was dozing a bit between pushes at that point.  It didn't seem like it lasted very long, though, before his head was out and then his body.  There is nothing in the world that is similar to that sensation and I'm not even going to try and describe it, because I'm pretty sure it's impossible.  There is no preparing someone for that through words.
Once he was out I had pretty much no strength left so hubby, our midwife, and her assistant guided me backwards to lean against hubby's legs and the tub to hold the baby.  Then it was up into the birthing chair to deliver the placenta.
Delivering the placenta freaked me out and I'm not sure why.  For whatever reason I was afraid to push it out, but everything went fine.
I got light-headed from the blood loss, so we employed an oxygen mask for a bit while I tried to recharge with cheese and goodbelly.
I did tear, but nothing major.

We nursed and did all the newborn stuff like weighing and Apgar scores and such.  Hubby got the first pee right on his shirt before Oliver was diapered and swaddled.
Our midwife and her assistant sang a wonderful song after giving a few instructions and then we went to bed.  I think that was around 4 a.m.  So twenty-four hours of sleeplessness later, we had ourselves a beautiful baby boy.

He sleeps a lot, so resting right now is easy, but I'm expecting that to change soon.

So that's my poorly written account of how birth was for me.  I don't bite, so please ask anything if you'd like.

So I just wanted to say - ooh Shiney!

I've been a total slacker the last few weeks with this blog.  Not only can I not think of what to write about, I usually place things like cleaning the kitchen or weeding the garden (slowly turning into harvesting the garden!) higher up on my priority list.  I seem to recall saying something about not having very much energy, and that's still true, so until I get the nesting burst you're supposed to get before baby, rationing my energy will have to continue.
I miss writing these to be honest.  It's sort of therapeutic in the same way cleaning the kitchen or weeding the garden is therapeutic for me.
Anyhow..

Because my mother-in-law rocks.

The baby shower was pretty awesome.  Awesome cake and awesome people.  A lot of people, I was surprised at how many people were there.
One of the games was to draw on a blank onesie with fabric markers and pictured is the one my mother-in-law did.  She's an amazing artist!  I took this one to work with me and showed it to the customers I actually have conversations with; everyone loved it and wanted to know where I got it so they could get one too.
I'm really excited for this onesie.
There were so many onesies, I maybe have too many...if that's possible.  We got some more from one of hubby's coworkers.  They are freaking adorable.  They're green and they all have cute little caterpillars on them.  The set came with a zip up hoodie that has caterpillar antennae and a smiley face on the hood, and a plush caterpillar rattling toy.  I think they might be my favorite set of store-bought onesies we got.  Probably because they're not yellow.  I do love yellow, but I tend to favor colors on the cooler end of the spectrum like gray and purple.

I feel very lucky to be a part of this family, and to be building my own family.  By some wild stroke of luck (or providence) I'm married to the man of my dreams, and we're having a baby soon!  I can be a stay at home mom (unless finances don't permit) and my parents are practically gifting us a wonderful house.
I'm not sure how all of this happened, but I am certainly grateful for it.  Thinking about it makes the days I'm having a hard time physically - and these are growing in number as of late - a little easier to manage.

I'm going through this phase now, and I'm going to place the blame entirely on being pregnant, where I don't want to do anything but be near hubby.  It doesn't even matter if we're doing something together, just being in the vicinity of him is all I really want.
I feel like a kid who needs her safety blanket with her at all times.

To jump to another totally unrelated topic:
I'm going to be writing about the birth of our baby.  I feel like there needs to be more positive stories out there about birth.  Granted, this is assuming nothing goes wrong, but even if something does I'll still write about it.  I want to help people understand that birth is not an illness; you don't need to be afraid of it.  There are a lot of alarmists out there, and plenty of stories of gloom and doom.  I'm hoping to be able to add to the stories that are positive and loving.
That's not to say I'm not scared.  Indeed, I'm scared shitless (right after I said you shouldn't be afraid) and I think that being scared is normal if the fear is not unhealthy.  But whatever you do, don't let people fearmonger you.  They'll try, some without even realizing what they're doing, but always remember that birth has been happening for ages and that it's a natural part of being a woman.  Chances are you won't need all the high-tech equipment, but it's nice to know it's there, just in case.

Also:
Do not read What to Expect When You're Expecting.  Just.  Don't.
I will explain why when I do my list of reviews of pregnancy books, which I plan on doing after the birth.

Nipplephobia

Potentially offensive content ahead.

 Definition: irrational fear, fascination, attraction, repulsion, guilt, and confusion provoked by seeing an adult female nipple (or even the illusion that one is seeing one).  (266)

I'll be the first to say that I love the female figure.  We're so curvy and that makes us pleasant to look at (for me).  An essential part of the female figure is breasts, big or small.  They are an important part of being a woman and raising a child.

I've always seen breasts in a sexual way; they're fun to look at, to touch.  For this reason breastfeeding raises awkward feelings.  Here is this part of me that I've been practically trained to view as a sexual thing, and I'm supposed to use it to nurture my baby.  I don't know about you, but I don't view feeding a child as sexual, and I sometimes have trouble imagining exactly how breastfeeding is going to make me feel.
I am the product of what Ina May Gaskin calls American Puritanism.  I tend to agree with her terminology (though I couldn't find on which page of the book she states this) and I continue to be amazed at people who react in such a volatile way to mothers who breastfeed their children outside of the home, or at all.  On some level I can understand: breastfeeding is a rare thing to see in our society.  We've been trained to view it as indecent, something you should only do in private.  I had an emotional reaction to it myself when I first saw a friend feed her baby.  I can't recall having seen it prior to that, although I feel like I must have come across it somewhere and just forgotten.  The point is, seeing it made me feel awkward, and I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself.  If it produced this (pretty strong) reaction in me, I can only imagine what someone else would think/feel given similar circumstances.
Now I see breastfeeding on a regular basis and my emotional weirdness is falling away.  A lot of this is because I'm very soon going to be doing the same thing so my awkwardness is replaced with curiosity.  Even so, some of the stigma around breasts remains in me and I'm left to wonder if my open fondness of them is a subconscious cover-up of a deeper discomfort surrounding breasts as a food source.  It makes sense I suppose.

Image found on page 259, or here.

I think that this kind of view is rather ridiculous.  To be put on edge, or even angered, by such a vital natural function can only be a product of some kind of conditioning.  I might argue that the infant formula industry started it (because I'm on a huge anti-corporation kick right now) but that would be false, unless infant formula dates back to the Civil War period (258). 
In 1910 the pictured device was patented which, frankly, looks to be stupidly uncomfortable not to mention unsanitary.  Apparently we'll go to an awful lot of trouble to make sure we aren't being "indecent." 
According to Wikipedia the first commercial infant formula was introduced in 1912, so I can't blame aggressive marketing for the breastfeeding stigma that exists so prevalently in our society.  The pictured product says that it existed long before commercial industry started manufacturing formula.

This stigma is so ingrained in us that we were the only country to vote against the WHO/UNICEF Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes which recommended that member governments restrict the advertising and sales promotions of breast-milk substitutes as a "minimum requirement" to protecting infant health. (249)  Effectively we decided that infant formula companies are more important to us than the health of our children and, one might argue, the self-esteem of our women.

The whole reason Nipplephobia irritates me so much is because it promotes the view that our bodies are not good enough.  We, as women, are flawed and we need the help of corporations and the medical industry to even function.


All citations are from Chapter 15 of Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding by Ina May Gaskin.

Because My Brain is on Vacation...

So I've reached a stage in pregnancy where several things have happened.

1. I want everyone else I know in a stable relationship to have a baby too. 
   I find myself thinking/saying things like, "Bob and Jane should have a baby!"  I don't tell this to the actual people I'm talking about, because I know how annoying that can be, I say this to other friends of mine who are pregnant and happen to know the couple or usually to hubby.  His response is generally appropriate: smile and nod with a small laugh.
2. My thoughts are rarely organized, regardless of how much energy I have. 
   My energy is a precious resource currently, but even at my best my thoughts are generally disjointed.  I have more trouble finding appropriate words and finishing sentences.  I had this trouble before, but it's now multiplied by...say...twenty.  My grammar and vocabulary have taken a pretty severe beating in the last few weeks.
3. I am simultaneously super excited and terrified of bringing this little one into the world.
   This manifests in days, or even hours, where my opinion changes from, "I can totally do this," to, "I totally can't do this."  I'm pretty good at reasoning with myself when in the negative frame of mind, but I can't always bring myself out of being afraid of birth.  My overall attitude is not one of fear, but I have little bouts of, "oh crap, what have I gotten myself into?"
4. I am hot.  All. The. Time.
   If I had any advice for women ever it would be to conceive around July or August so that you're big and hot in the winter/spring rather than the entire summer.
5. I find that I've become a little indignant about certain things.
   One of these things is the guy who wanted to tell me how anti-feminine Catholicism is.  Pardon me, but I'm calling bull shit.  If anyone is anti-feminine it's the medical industry.  Maybe I'll delve into that one a little more in a later entry.
   Another is people who are child-less that know exactly how you should raise your child, and exactly what to do while you're pregnant, and exactly how (and where) you should birth your baby.  It's irritating.  Wait, you've no experience with this at all and you want to tell me how to do it?  yep, that makes sense.

I still don't like people I don't know commenting about how big my belly is, or how cute a pregnant lady I am.  This is akin to the people who would say things like, "I wish I had your figure" in a clothing store.  I understand these are intended to be compliments, but I really dislike having attention drawn to me, let alone to a specific thing about me.  These comments are okay when someone I know is saying them, it's only when people I've never seen in my life say it that it irks me.
Anyway, I just have to deal because it comes with being pregnant.

"Your Body is Incapable."

So I've been thinking (uh-oh).  All of this reading about pregnancy, babies, birth, and a woman's right to choose (elective cesarean) sort of makes me wonder where the feminist movement stands on this issue.  How do women like Erica Jong feel about birth?  I'd venture a guess and say she's all for medicated birth and whatnot (pain/suffering is bad and should be avoided at all costs).  But she doesn't make up the entirety of the feminist movement.  As this article states, there are women on both sides of the fence.

Because of my difference of opinion with Erica Jong (and my heated response to her article) I've lost a progressive friend, so having a conversation about this with someone who is on that particular side of the fence with other things is a little less feasible for me.  I don't have a lot of friends who seem so decidedly on one side or the other, and talking about this to someone who is undecided isn't helpful in figuring out how one side thinks of something.
The questions this raises are a whole other bag of tricks.

I wouldn't call myself regressive per se, but some of the staunchly progressive ideas out there raise more concern in me than hope.  It is my opinion that the mechanization of birth is terrible in several ways.  Yes, hospital technology and medicine in general are great, for those who need it.  But the obstetric model of care - that a woman's body is inherently flawed and cannot handle childbirth (something it was designed to do) without the aide of technology - is something I have issues with.  This makes me think of a certain gentleman's opinion that Catholicism taught the very thing obstetrics teaches to it's practitioners.  How, then, do you explain a backwards view of women seeming to be present in our forward-moving medical society?
I suggest that if we were as progressive as pro-choice people want, we would not have women writing about how home birth is something only narcissistic power-hungry women do - because everyone knows that medicine is God and there is no way that an informed woman can safely birth her baby without obstetric intervention (pitocin, epidural, etc).
What I would love to know is how pro-choice people feel about women having the right to choose where they have children.  Given that pro-choice is obliviously medical, I'd wager that they are against assisted home birth, free-standing birth centers and midwifery in general.  But I could be wrong.

As a small side note, the woman behind the above link (Skeptical OB) is getting her information from somewhere that is completely different from everything I've read, and studies I have looked at for myself (also what I've read about the history of obstetrics taking over birthing).  I haven't found any citations on her entries, but I also haven't read a terribly large amount of her blog.  It gets tiring to be told over and over that I need technological intervention, that I cannot survive without it, and that attempting to do so (even if I am informed) makes me nothing short of an idiot.  These aren't her exact words, but the tone I get from her articles gives me that impression.  It's all very fear-based, and I don't trust fear-based information.

So those are my musings, regurgitated because I sat down to stare at the blank new entry box and wondered for a good amount of time what in the world I was going to write about.

I do want to say that I am not against hospital birth.  I am against pressuring mothers into procedures they do not need (episiotomy) for the sake of obstetric convenience.
Hospital birth is a great thing for those mothers who do need it.

Books!

Recently I've read:
Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis
The Ghost - Danielle Steel
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis
Perelandra - C.S. Lewis
That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis
The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
Rant - Chuck Palahniuk
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding - La Leche League
The Magicians Nephew - C.S. Lewis
The Code of the Woosters - P.G. Wodehouse
Special Delivery - Rahima Baldwin Dancy

Currently I'm reading:
The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth - Henci Goer

I have in my possession these books to read next:
The Pregnancy Book - William Sears, M.D., and Martha Sears, R.N.
Homebirth - Sheila Kitzinger
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality, and the Catholic Church - Uta Ranke-Heimann
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis

Books on my "to acquire soon" list:
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth - Ina May Gaskin
The Baby Book - William Sears M.D.
The next book club book (I don't have the list handy)
A Cooperative Method of Natural Birth Control - Margaret Nofzinger
Pregnant Feelings: Developing Trust in Birth - Rahima Baldwin Dancy, Terra Palmarini

Books of the above lists I recommend:
 Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis.  A retelling of a myth I'd never heard before.  I got very involved with the characters and though it was not necessarily an easy read, it was a pleasurable one.
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis.  The first in his science fiction series.

Perelandra - C.S. Lewis.  Second in the science fiction trilogy.  I think this one is my favorite. 
That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis.  Final book of the science fiction trilogy.  It starts very slowly, but it's very worth slugging through the beginning bits. 
The Magicians Nephew - C.S. Lewis.  First of the Narnia series.  It was quite interesting to read, as I thought The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was first.

The Code of the Woosters - P.G. Wodehouse.  Very amusing.  I think it's book three of a series.  I'm going to have to get my hands on more of this series.  I liked this one a lot.

The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster.  A good book for kids I think.

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding - La Leche League.  This book contains very good information on breastfeeding including advice for potential complications.

Special Delivery - Rahima Baldwin Dancy.  Very good, slightly bias book about home/hospital birth.  It outlines the potential complications one can run into while birthing and steps to take if they happen.  This book also has sections in it addressed to the husband/partner that I think might prove helpful to a father who is uncertain about birth.

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth - Henci Goer.  I haven't finished this one yet, but I like it so far.  It's a collection of information regarding the procedures they do in the medical world of birth.  The author herself holds a bias - she says so in the introduction  - but she still presents the information in a fair manner.  I'd say that anyone looking to make an informed decision (regardless of location of birth) should read this book as it contains information you don't necessarily find easily on your own.  The only thing I'd say against it is she hasn't yet explained that women should refuse Misoprostol (Cytotec) because it poses a fairly significant risk to mother and baby if used for induction of labor.

~~~

There you have it.  That was what occupied my time at work during May (and maybe a bit of April).

A Shift in the Tide.

On being pregnant:

I used to say things like, "by the time I'm pregnant, birth will be pain-free!"  I was definitely a fan of medicine's version of childbirth.  But that was before I really gave it any thought, or looked into it at all.
Medicine is fantastic for the women who really need it; women are saved pretty regularly by hospital staff for various reasons.  However, the interventions these women need are not the interventions all women need.  There should not be a standard of care where you receive the one thing that has been proven to work regardless of your actually needing it.
Hey, hospitals need to cover their ass.  They could get sued.

I digress.

My original intent is to write about what I thought before and what I think now, because what you think before you live something is not necessarily what you think after or during.
As with my opinion on abortion, my opinion of birth is much different now.
I believe that birth can (and should) be a positive experience for mother and baby.  There are risks to the birth I am choosing to try to have, but there are also risks in choosing a hospital birth.  Birth is not risk free, no matter what you choose.
I will be the first to admit that birth terrifies me somewhat.  I think it's mostly the unknown that scares me.  Every birth is different, someone's story about when they gave birth will be different than what I have to say, so the question remains: what will it be like?  I am intimidated by not knowing what to expect (other than pain).  I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in feeling this way among first-time mothers, which is why hospital birth is so appealing to women - there's a certain sense of safety associated with being in a hospital at a time of potential medical crisis.  And yes, there are benefits to being in a hospital if something does go wrong.

People tend to assume that I have just up and decided to have my baby at home.  With this assumption comes the inevitable, "don't you know that birth is dangerous!?"
Yes, I do know this.  I have made this decision based on the information I have acquired and I really believe it to be the best choice for me.  It is by no means the best choice for everyone, and I have neither said this nor meant to imply it.  It is, I believe, the best choice for me.
In talking to these same people I often find that they base their opinions on an article they read in a magazine, or some form of media coverage of something.  And they are adamant that what they think is the only right way to think.
Some of them have never had children.
Some of them will never have children.
These two latter groups I try to take in stride, as they are usually the most vehement backers of hospital birth.  There is nothing to be done but smile and nod at them, because they will never listen to why I made this decision (and continue to research it).  They only want to tell me how stupid and selfish I am for making it.  One blogger (who happens to be an O.B.) called the home birth "movement" narcissistic.  The people I talk to in person are generally of a similar mindset.
As I said earlier: there is no middle ground.

The above is what bothers me most.  I shall call it "the great divide."  People must have their opinions and your opinion is only okay if it matches their own.  Never-mind being open minded about things, or at the very least receptive.
I understand why people are shocked when I say I'm going to try to have my baby at home.  I know that it's not how the majority would do it.  And I know there is a lot of media available against it.  And of course I know the risks involved with it (they are not as terrible as one is led to believe, but they are still present).  I feel, sometimes, that my understanding is like banging my head against a brick wall.  It doesn't matter that I understand these things, all that matters is that I see the error in my own judgement and the terrible mistake I'm about to make.
Dealing with it is even more difficult when it's coming from people who aren't pregnant and potentially never will be.  I'm glad they are concerned for my well-being, but I would appreciate if they gave me credit for the information I've gathered.  I'm doing my best to make an educated decision, and that does include looking at the situation from all of the angles I can perceive.  So in a way these people are helping me, just not in the manner they had in mind.  Still, I'm not really a fan of being given a rather loud version of the cold shoulder.

When I speak with someone who has a different opinion I try to figure out where the opinion came from.  What information led them here?  I tend to work under the assumption that they had some sort of logical thought process behind it (which is not always the case).
I was one such person in my days of, "just give me pain killers," and my pro-choice opinions.  I now understand what I had to overlook to hold those opinions.  For me, it's a damned lot to overlook.

Being pregnant is a life-altering journey.  It certainly has changed my mind about a number of things and solidified my pro-life stance quite a bit just from what I've learned about Baby's development.  It has also opened my mind to things I'd never thought of, and would never have thought of if I was not pregnant.

I suppose what I'm driving at here is that opinions are all well and good, until you're actually living the situation you've formed your opinion about.
Experience can change a lot about a person, not the least of which being their worldview.

Breastfeeding.

 I'm nervous about actually breastfeeding.  Questions like, "what does it feel like?" pop up in my head a lot.  Or, "won't it be awkward?"
Then I start doubting myself.  Maybe I won't be able to do it right.  What if there are serious problems?  What if I just can't handle it?

So I picked up a book my coworker recommended to me:
I'm currently reading The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.  This is a great book, and I think I'm going to recommend it to everyone who asks.  It's full of helpful tips and advice.  I'm only about halfway through, but I'd still recommend you pick it up if only to read the first half of it.  It really has eased some of my odd discomfort surrounding the whole topic (there's that stigma popping up).

I do all my reading at work, so a lot more people know I'm preggers now.  They see the book and they ask, "so, is there a reason you're reading that?"  One woman told me to read What to Expect When You're Expecting.
Okay...
Our midwife actually told me not to bother with that book because it was fear-based (like the majority of super public pregnancy/birth stuff).  This lady told me to read it if I was into the "whole natural parenting...thing."  So now I might meander through Barnes and Noble to flip through the book to see what it actually is.
I'm leaning more towards the midwife's opinion about it, though.  Mostly because the woman who recommended the book works for Health One.

At any rate, I just finished a section of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding about returning to work after Baby is born.  You can totally breastfeed while you're working.  It apparently makes for a much happier baby and momma.
All the people who poo-poo the idea of breastfeeding while working should read this section.

What I'm gathering from the book is that breastfeeding is truly easier than formula feeding.  Especially if you like to travel.

The main message is "Breast is Best."
I tend to agree.

But I also understand that there are circumstances in which a woman can truly not breastfeed.  This doesn't make her any less of a mother.
Life happens, things go wrong.

~~~

I'm going to try my very best to give this baby everything she/he needs and deserves.  I don't know what that is yet, but I'm determined to try my hardest.

More Parenting Redundancy.

I am far from perfect.

I make the same mistakes everyone else makes, and I am about to embark on the great experiment that is parenting.  I don't know what I'm doing, or how to avoid the landmines that are surely embedded in the safest looking parts of the road, but I can guess.  That's really all life is; a series of educated guesses.
I can employ my logic and my intuition - though the two seem to fight more often than not - or I can use the great power of Ignorance: choosing to believe whatever I read first.

The latter option is easiest.

So, for a totally ungraceful transition: I read the Times article everyone is so frenzied over.

"Have you seen the Times cover picture!?"

GASP!  It's so dirty!

I heard about the cover from the security guard at work, and from a few others.  Generally they said something very close to the above statement and expressed their shock over the inappropriate nature of the image.

Here's my problem with it: that lady is very smug.
It's like she's looking at you and saying, "look what I can do.  And I'm better than you for it."

The actual article was well-rounded in my opinion.  Towards the end it turned into a short biography of Dr. Sears, the man who wrote the book about attachment parenting that gets so much praise and hatred.
I laughed, and I was genuinely interested in what it had to say.  Nothing in it was really bias as far as I gathered; the author did a fairly good job of presenting the piece from a neutral angle.  I enjoyed it mostly for this because it's hard to find in a magazine.

What I really gathered from the article is that Attachment Parenting is certainly synonymous with Natural Parenting, and in my view, Logical Parenting.  I will one day read the book Dr. Sears wrote (when I get my hands on it) to see what all the hubbub is about because, right now, I just don't see it.

It serves as a sort of looking glass into the polarization of the parenting/birth debate.  There is one side or the other, I have met no middle ground.  And I cannot seem to have a conversation with someone opposed to home birth or natural parenting (things like co-sleeping, breast-feeding, and baby-carrying) without leaving it frustrated.
Why are these things bad?  I just don't get it.
I'm not saying that anyone is to blame for these unsatisfactory conversations - surely the blame is equally distributed if we must play the game - but it would be nice to understand why people consider these things wrong.
Drinking breast milk is no stranger than drinking cow's milk, or goat's milk.  In fact, it's probably less strange to have a gallon of breast milk in your fridge, if you really think about it.  There's a stigma here, and it's very strong.  I write about it being less strange to pour breast milk on your cereal (a friend of mine's ex-husband used to do this) but the honest truth is that I do think it's kinda weird.  The question is why is cow's breast milk any less weird?

I digress.

The point here is that it's kind of silly to not have a middle ground.  We could probably learn something from each-other if we could communicate more effectively.

As a side note.
If you're not easily offended, watch this.  It's hilarious.

~~~

Sorry for the small hiatus.  I caught a cold/sinus infection last week and subsequently had the motivation to do nothing but sleep and stay on the couch.
Being pregnant and sick is only conducive to apathy.

Also, it sucks.

The Benefits of Home Birth...and such.

So, I'm still discovering new things about the different kinds of birth you can have, but here's what I've got so far:

Hospitals tend to end up in cascading interventions that usually benefit the doctor, not the mother.  They will tell you all sorts of things to manipulate you into doing what they want, and you don't know whether these things they say are true. 
When they take your baby away "to run tests" the nurses could very well just be bottle feeding him/her regardless of your consent: you don't know what's happening once your baby is removed.
I'm of the opinion that they take your baby far too quickly, and most of the time they cut the chord too soon.
As a side note: everything the OB/GYN office gives me to take home has some advertisement for chord blood banking.  This seems like an expensive bonfire to me, although I could see the possible benefits.

I don't know anything about birthing centers as of yet.

Home birth seems to be the way to go if you are low-risk.  Natural birth is ideal, regardless of location, but at home you can at least be more comfortable with your surroundings, and you won't have a bunch of medical staff pressuring you about pitosin.
Additionally, your baby is not removed immediately so you can nurse as soon as baby is ready.
Home birth also opens up options for things like lotus birth (where you don't cut/tie the chord until the placenta falls off on it's own) and water birth.
It really just seems like being at home is the best way to go, if you can.

According to The Business of Being Born America has the highest infant/mother mortality rate during childbirth of all the industrialized countries.  Why?  Because midwives didn't integrate into hospitals.  In fact, the hospitals launched an intensive smear campaign against midwives claiming the method of birth was unsafe.  In reality, it was safer than the hospital.

Yes, things do go wrong during childbirth.  But things go wrong in every day life as well.

Hubby raises a good point when I complain about all the unsolicited advice/admonishments I receive at work:
Most of these people are likely to be pro-choice.  This translates to the saying, "it's my body," so what do they care what I do with my body?

That brings me to what people have said to me.

• A friend of mine sent me a URL to a site all about how dangerous home birth is.  I appreciate the concern; I'll take it with all the stories I read/hear about hospital shenanigans.
• The first thing that was said to me was, "I gotta fatten you up!" followed a bit later by, "oh, you're pregnant you can eat crap now."
• I shouldn't be lifting anything, regardless of weight.
• I shouldn't eat/drink unpasteurized stuff, or anything raw for that matter.
• Don't touch the litter box.
•  "You painted!?  You can't be painting!"  Sure I can, I have an enormous window in the room that needed paint on a total of two walls.  It's not like I shut myself into an unventilated room and sat in there with wet paint for five hours.
• Sit down, lay down, or otherwise be inactive.
• No alcohol, even just a sip is terrible for the baby.
• Co-sleeping is dangerous.  You could suffocate/crush your baby.  Your baby could fall off the bed and die.
• Home birth is dangerous.  You could die.
• "I have so many baby clothes!  Let me know what you're having."  We're not finding out, sorry.
• Dangle your wedding band over your belly: if it goes in circles, your baby is a girl; side to side, your baby is a boy.
  I did this out of sheer amusement.  The ring did nothing, so does that mean our baby is undecided?

I think that's it.


In regards to my last post:
It's interesting to see the great divide between modern mothers and natural mothers.  There is little to no middle ground and there's no possible way of having a decent discussion about it with a lot of people.  It's an emotional topic, so people tend to react emotionally which generally shuts down rational thinking.
I see this a lot, working in the HCA corporate building.  There are a few people into living naturally, but most of them are convinced that hospital birth is the only way to go because home birth is apparently for heathens who don't value life.  I call these people hypocrites because it's very likely they're fine with abortion.

Why People Think I'm Crazy.

Because I'm crazy.

By society's standards I am, anyway.

I have always wanted to be a stay at home mom (SaHM) - since I can remember anyway.  The idea of the traditional family structure appeals to me.
Recently (within the past few years) I have lost faith in the public school system, deciding to home-school.  Homeschooling is a very much misunderstood endeavor, and I think I could be justified in looking to the government for the reason why.  The same reason I can look at the government for the reason people have a stigma about home births.
I want to avoid a hospital birth if I can.  I don't want the pressures of vaccinations, epidurals, pitocin, or which birthing position.  Lying down while you have a baby is the worst position you could probably be in.  Work with gravity, not against it.
I became Catholic: I joined an organization that appears to be against everything society is for.

Now, I'm pursuing healthy food.
People think I'm crazy for not using microwaves.  I've somehow gained a healthy (or unhealthy, depending on who you are) mistrust of microwaves over the last four years or so.  There was not one in my old apartment and there is not one on the counters of my current kitchen.  I have kept the microwave my old roommates left and stored it under the stairs for visiting guests who stay a while and absolutely cannot live without it.  I do understand why people think I'm odd for refusing to have a microwave.
People think I'm crazy for turning down fast food.  A friend of mine brings me things from out and about occasionally.  Last week she brought me Del Taco and Arby's.  I ate them, because I always feel guilty when people give me food and I will eat it rather than waste their money.  But dayumn.  I broke out like nothing else and felt pretty miserable the rest of the week after the fish sandwich.  This week she offered me a hot fudge sundae from McDonald's.  I declined and she got fussy saying it was only frozen yogurt (I'd like to know exactly what's in their "vanilla reduced fat ice cream").  A lot of the time people get angry with me for saying I prefer real food to fast food.  I'm sorry, but if eating better food makes me feel better, I'm going to do it.  Whether or not you think I'm being "too healthy."

The point is that some people just don't believe that eating better makes you feel better.  They say things like, "I feel fine now, so there must not be anything wrong with it," but if you've ever tried an organic chicken over a "regular" one you know the difference.
On a similar note; tomatoes are proof that agribusiness fails.  I hate tomatoes, at least I thought I did.  But organic or home-grown tomatoes are sweet and juicy and generally delicious.
Eating healthy is not only better for you, but you end up with food that has a richer, more satisfying flavor.  The chemical shortcuts they take to mass-produce food (which is a necessary evil at this point) cut from the quality of the product.  Not to mention what they do to the earth itself.

But the price!
Oh, how do I budget for organic food?  How, with so little money!?
It's not easy; there are sacrifices that need to be made (like that jar of Nutella that looks so delicious sitting in the baking aisle).  In the end you have to make the commitment to your body before you start comparing prices.
Actually, it's just better not to compare prices and be a sale shark.  If you compare prices, you will always second-guess your purchase.  At least if you're a cheap-skate like me.


So, here is some advice from one crazy to another potential crazy:
Make the commitment to yourself first.  If you're going to embark on the journey into the whole food diet, you'll need that extra willpower of, "this will be worth it in the end."

Like the Jamba Juice cup says:
Your body is a temple...

I want Jamba Juice now.....curse me!