OK, I’ve been relatively pathetic about keeping up with my blog through the holiday season — My only excuse is, it’s the holiday’s and I’ve found that not much will trump that very special time of the year, when people are a bit kinder — family puts all their differences aside — and come together — it’s just no time of year like it… and if I must apologize for not spending much time on my computer because I spent it with the fam … so be it.

So, I was thinking of all the things that I would like to achieve during 2008, then I thought about the very purpose of this blog, yes… it is for me, it’s sorta what’s knockin around in my head at the moment mixed with hopefully useful information, but it’s for also for everyone that will and that will never read this blog - then my thoughts turned to a quote from a movie… for the most part I didn’t find ‘V for Vendetta’ to be the greatest movie in the world, but it had a lovely sub plot, which I’ve noted that many reviewers have picked up — and one of those characters, awaiting an inevitable death, has a line… that just makes you think…

“what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you… I love you. With all my heart, I love you.”

I kept thinking, what a huge leap it is to embrace these sentiments - the idea is so big, but yet so intimate that I have a hard time getting my head around it … so every time, I get down on the world and the insignificant situations I find myself in - I look this quote up… and I’m awestruck.. I wonder are their people in this world with this much selfless-ness — I hope so…
So, here’s what I wish for you for 2008.

Change

For myself I’ve found that change is something I often welcome, but in the same turn fear, I ask for it, but when I get it… somehow I become afraid, I start to add up all the reasons why things should stay as they are… I’ve come to learn that this is a natural reaction for most of us… so my wish for you is that you not only welcome and embrace change, but when change is at your doorstep, when it’s just a matter of opening the door and letting it in… that you open that door, that you don’t let fear beat change back…I wish that for myself, I wish that for you…

Remember to fill 2008 with people, who you can lift up, as well they can also return the favour, remember to fill your life with books and knowledge, seek out the differences in the human experience, instead of turning away from those differences, mocking them and finding them unworthy because of fear… and my first post of 2008, I end with this thought, this grand sentiment… where it’s like I’m reaching out into a vast unknown, not knowing what I might pull back in, reaching for something that is just outside of my grasp… it’s scary, it’s also a tiny moment of liberation, of understanding that maybe I’ve almost got it… got what, you ask… and I say, I don’t know, but it sure feels good.

“what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you… I love you. With all my heart, I love you.”

Happy New Year…

Picture from Flickr 

Martyr of Change

So I’m on Christmas Vacation AND I missed my regularly scheduled Friday post

SORRY, but it is Christmas Vacation — now come on.

Look forward to my special Christmas Eve Edition post — that shall not be outdone by my very very special New Years Eve post –you get the picture.

 Multivitamin Ante Progress Report– At the end of week number two of taking my multivitamin EVERY SINGLE DAY, I’ve found that my overall feeling of well being has leveled… meaning,  I generally feel  as well as I think I can feel, more often — that isn’t to say I have any extra burst of energy - I simply feel that I don’t have peaks and valleys like I was having before starting my daily regimen– AND that’s just in two weeks, with a relatively inexpensive supplement — I have noticed a slight decline in some food cravings I was having, which is a very good thing and it made me get busy researching what vitamins and minerals were missing… it’s good to know that when you constantly crave certain types of food whether they are good for you or not(usually not), that it’s just not something wrong with me AND I’m not pregnant even though that would have been a miracle for real.

Did your mom ever say, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired …mine did, in fact she still does…hmmm.

The major reason why experts feel that you should at least take a multivitamin is that our lifestyles warrant deficiencies… we don’t consume the foods that allow us to get all the nutrients that we need to maintain a certain energy level and that’s where your everyday run of the mill multivitamin comes into existence - so it’s very possible that if you’re feeling exhausted… you’re not getting enough nutrients in your diet and by starting the regimen of a once a day vitamin it could mean an end to coming home and plopping down in front of the TV, because you hardly have the energy to do anything else… yep, that could be it, or not…

What if, it’s not nutrient deficiency?

What if the multivitamin you’ve been taking for three years isn’t working?

What if despite buying all of the supplements and nutrition concoctions you still are sick and tired …?

What then…

Well, it could be many things, it never surprises me to find out the stresses and burdens people are withstanding and how much that effects their lives in terms of health … I’ll touch on this subject many times before this blog goes to blog heaven… because I’m so passionate about wanting to lead a good life and helping others feel that they deserve that wish too … and the beginning of leading that life is realizing that you’re not suppose to be spending most of life hunched over a computer, or in some factory, or behind a counter…

So with the Christmas vacations approaching… let’s talk vacation — ya know, holiday, time off from the grind… yeah, vacaaaa–y

How often do you go on vacation?

On average how many hours a week do you work?

How long on average are your vacations?

All worthy questions for your average everyday working American–

Did you know that half of Americans with vacation days, didn’t even use all of them last year… what’s up with that?

Let me tell you, I use to work in corporate America - and even though today, I have a lot less money.. I MEAN A LOT LESS, I wouldn’t trade all the calls from bill collectors in the world for that job back - If there was ever such a thing as slowly killing yourself, that was it — and the pressure, the guilt to stay and work and eventually lose my vacation days, that was bestowed upon me when I wanted to use just one or two of my days off… no one should have to endure that –

All I have to say is, it’s important to wake up to what is important in life before it’s too late… do you realize America is the ONLY westernized nation that doesn’t require employers to provide a vacation - our labor laws go hand and hand with China along those regards… and we’re not using something that an employer doesn’t even have to provide … are we insane?

America is slowly losing the battle - and we’re constantly driven by the pursuit of money - and everyday I’m more convinced that time spent making money isn’t directly related to the amount of money you make or how comfortable you are in that life –Countries that spend a lot less time working, are starting to pull up beside us, soon they’ll wave and pass on by - they have richer lives because they own a bigger share of their life. We weren’t meant to run around this maze for all our days… we were meant to stop for a bit, look around, smell the roses, enjoy the coffee.

Ya now that movie, with Will Smith… ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ –? Remember, every time he went to his sons daycare he tried to tell the owners that Happyness which was spray painted on the outside wall was spelled with an ‘i’ — It took awhile for me to realize this, but do you know what that meant …?

It means you can spell Happyness, anyway you want to spell it — just as long as you’re the one doing the spelling.

Enjoy your Christmas Vacation America… you deserve it.

Have you ever noticed, how much of a hurry most bloggers are in… they just want to throw up content, crappy be damned… I guess because the people that read blogs have a relatively short attention span AND they have a huge appetite for MORE… MORE … MORE… so sure you’re getting more, but are you getting value. It’s like a big blog buffet, quantity does not necessarily denote quality.

So one of things that I’m working on is patience, enjoying the process, savoring the moment … stopping to smell the roses.

Blogging to me is the episode of ‘Heroes’ or ‘Lost’ or whatever is currently occupying your time on the tube, you wait… maybe not patiently, but what other choice do you have?

So in the interest of patience … AND the fact that IIII want to go to the movies and guess what I recommend the same for you, I say let’s blow this popsicle stand, life is too short to wait on the next post…

To take a line for the movie ‘Dave’

IT’S MONDAY ….:::everybody::: AND [NOBODY] WORKS ON MONDAYS

Take a break my friends … get a cup of tea, go say hi to your neighbors, find yourself alone in the back of a movie theater mid afternoon on a Monday … read your favorite book, just get up from the blinkin’ computer and go…

In general, just chill out …

Multivitamin Progress Report: Day 8 - It’s all good

Ah, it’s that time of year again, time to pull out lights, the trees, the stockings and the cold and flu medication… Because there’s nothing like spending two days in an airport trying to get home for Christmas, only to spend the one day you have left on your holiday vaca… in the bed, waving away various family members, as they attempt to ease your suffering and insure that you don’t spread the nasty bug you brought home, to everyone else.. in this case, Misery has no company, who knew?

So the question is….?

Have you been taking your vitamins?

Well… er… not real.

Ok, ok… does it even make a difference? Well, let’s talk about Vitamin C in particular, because that’s the vitamin we always hear about when we want to combat the common cold. Does taking Vitamin C everyday, presumably you get that dose in your multivitamin, help deter the common cold?

Well according to The Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research … er, probably not… so you can pop Vitamin C all day long, sorry Charlie it appears that you’re not doing yourself much good…

The interesting thing in this study, is that if you’re in extreme physically stressful situations, where the chances of catching a cold might be raised, such as skiing or if you happen to be trekking across the arctic tundra, taking vitamin C might reduce your chances of catching a cold by as much as 50%…

Well, in my humble opinion … as of where I am in my life, that bit of information doesn’t do me a hell of a lot of good… why? Well, I have no plans to visit Antarctica and I spent my one and only ski vacation wondering around sans skis, looking for the bar — in the end, it’s good information to know, just in case… I think I’ll continue taking my Vitamin C all the same…

FIRST 5 DAYS -CHALLENGE MULTIVITAMIN PROGRESS REPORT

Well, I’ve made it through the first 5 days without a problem… in fact I’ve kind of already gotten my multivitamin routine down. So far, I feel the same… I can say that I expected that I was going to feel the same, but my enthusiasm for this project has grown everyday - and even though *hopefully* I will get through this 30 day cycle quite easily, the idea of possibly making these huge changes… and how that can accumulate over a year, if I stick to it, is mind boggling…

Coming this weekend:

The result of my vitamin test — you definitely don’t want to miss that.

If you’ve ever been into the grocery store and walked down the vitamin aisle, you’ll know what I mean when I say… ‘What the….?’ The choices available are overwhelming, so where do you begin? I know… I did what everyone does, look at the shelves and reach for the cheapest bottle you can find… the 1000 pills for 3.99 bottle, right? I never gave it much thought, they’re all round and not particularly interesting.Well, there’s one thing that this blog allows me to do.. and it’s kind of a two sided motivator, to write in this blog I have to read and research what I’m trying to do –and of course, the result is I become more educated and I can at least past some of that on to everyone else –Here’s an article on multivitamins, it attempts to answer what is the best multivitamin, it appears to be fairly unbiased in my humble opinion — although, geared toward women, there is a lot of information in there that goes just as much for men as women, so guys just don’t let anyone catch you reading the Women To Women site, eh?

Here’s something I noted in the youtube video on Vitamin Effectiveness and in the article — can the vitamin that I’m taking get past the digestive system… so in the interest of science I will conduct my own solubility test on the vitamin I am currently taking … stay tuned for the results. Anyone, care to bet whether my vitamin will dissolve in vinegar within 20 minutes…anyone, speak up now?

Another thing of note from the article is this:

• Makes a difference. You are the final test. If the nutritional supplement doesn’t make you feel better within the first 30 days, try another formula. It may not resolve all your symptoms in that time, but you should feel a real improvement.
  

Sooooo, that’s really the big question … do I still feel like I need to take nap(ALL THE TIME) at the end of 30 days or do I notice a change?
Remember: Ultimately, these 30 day change challenges are about endeavoring to change, not necessarily making the change itself, although that’s the icing on the cake - realizing that you want to live life differently, that’s what AnteMel is about — so join me, by subscribing to my feed, … maybe you already take your vitamins, maybe you think this is a bunch of bull and you hope I fall flat on my face … and maybe one day we’ll meet with a change that you can see for yourself…

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao-tzu

I think I’m going to start a ‘Feel Better’ mini blog section, just little life hacks to get over the rough bumps … today was not an easy day and I used this method to as they say… MOVE ON.

Soooo….

Did the dog eat your homework?

Were the elevators broken at work, which would be ok, If your office weren’t on the 21st floor?

Did you forget to put on deodorant and ended up having an ‘air’ about you all day long?

Let’s just sum it up, this day, no matter what happened… opened up a can of whup ass on you…

I’ve go three words for you:

Two Minute Pseudo Shower

Not quite a shower

Not quite a bath -

You’re just in there long enough to sud up, get wet and get out … you jump into your I’m gonna lounge for the rest of the evening, don’t bother me, outfit… and wah-lah, you’ve left all those problems and worries of the day behind.

It’s really a small thing, it isn’t a time consuming thing, it isn’t something that’s all engrossing and I admit sometimes you need all engrossing, but with this method you get a tiny transporter - A segue… a segue from a bad day, into a nice relaxing evening …

Other things that go nicely with this:

A cup of tea

A glass of wine(put away the bottle, I said A GLASS)

A good book

Give it a go and get an almost instant frame of mind change.

It’s the first day, of the rest of my life and my first 30 day change of habit, is….. if you’re wondering what that is, please head right over to my ‘Sweet Lowdown‘ and ‘FAQ’s’ pages to find out…

Multivitamins - for 30 days I will take a vitamin supplement(Multivitamin), strict adherence, if I miss a day, I blow it and I lose my ante, which would be quite sad, since it’s only a dollar -

hm, the announcement was a bit anti-climatic, maybe because I’m the only one standing here with a balloon.

Anyway, somewhere along the line, we grew up and forgot about ‘vitamin time’ when we were kids. When we would run into the kitchen and mom would pass out Fred, Barney and Dino vitamins and we would stand there and chew them into a chalky paste with delight … remember that? What happened to those times?

Well… I guess the days of Flintstone vitamins is over and done with for me, lest I look quite silly popping Flintstone vitamins, now the aim is to fill that vitamin void that some government study claims I’m missing - It’s something that has alluded me in the last 15 or so years, I just don’t take my vitamins… so this is an attempt to get in the habit. Your saying, this is a soft ball change, come on. I definitely picked this challenge, because it seemed like an easy one to start out with and get me on the right track, as I grow into my new blog — but as the days pass, I’ll have to see just how easy it really will be to make that part of my routine…

So questions that I will address during this thirty-days …

Do I actually feel a physical difference after consistently taking a multivitamin?

Which multivitamin do I choose, there like a gazillion of them?

Are vitamins even effective and/or needed?

To start off in style, I bought one of these little thingy-ma-jigs, you can drop your multivitamin in there for each day of the week and assuming you know the days of the week, you just pop the top when it rolls around… if not, when all the little sections are empty, you have to fill it up again … sooo six in one hand, you know the rest…

If you’re interested in following along with me on Change Multivitamin, subscribe to my feed, leave a comment and ante up - as my pothead classmate use to say(too regularly I might add) let’s do it, to it…

A warm up to Monday — I’m so excited about this new phase, this idea, that I thought I would write a warm up, to my big kick off on Monday - I know on Monday, I’ll be the only one on the parade route, the only one with a slurpie and corn dog waiting to see the big show - but it’s just exciting starting off on a new path, even if you’re the only one that knows it…

How do we change?

Even if you want to change, why is it sometimes so hard?

Let’s think about it shall we… take me for instance, I have a Bachelor’s degree and a Graduate degree - I’ve worked in the nations top conservatories, I’ve worked on projects that would eventually be the centerpiece for the Olympic games, I’ve worked with celebrities…

Heck, I know how to operate one of these:

If you don’t know what ‘these’ is, it’s a Neve Libra and I use to joke when I was learning how to use it, that if I figure out how to use this, then surely I can figure out anything … So many of the questions, that conflict with what I know to be true is, how can a person, so smart be stuck and feel powerless in being able to change …?

I think many of our mistakes, when we try to change is the expectation that you should and can do it over night — Now some people have that talent, if they say they’re going to stop smoking, they stop and that’s that … but most of us want the change, but we’re not able to break the back of the routine that won’t let us change … and that’s what my 30 day approach hopes to do… and to be totally honest, you might fail on your first - second- third try, but eventually if you persist you’ll win the race.

Many years ago, I had just gotten my drivers license and they had just started to tighten the seat belt laws - Well, I was the usual bad teenage driver, in fact I was very lucky that I made it out alive… and I never wore a seat belt. One day, for some reason, even though I never wore a seat belt, I got in and thought I would put it on — then went careening into the streets, like I usually did … it was a good thing, because as I sped down the street I noticed a police car stopped in the right lane ahead of me — I didn’t think anything about it, he didn’t have any lights on and their was no indication he would move, but just as I approached on his left bumper he turned into my path and I hit him head on … I remember the feeling of the seat belt snatching me back from the windshield even 17 years later … and the picture of the hood of the car folding like a stack of cards in front of me. After that I never failed to put on my seatbelt again…

And now, it’s such a routine, that I feel naked if for some reason I did not fasten my seatbelt… it has now become such a part of me that I would have a difficult time changing even if I want to because the human mind loves routine. It loves to operate in its comfort zone — it makes us feel all warm and cozy when we are safe and protected by what has always worked, not too well I might add, but it works …

Change happens in a blink of an eye, just like that day seventeen years ago, or it happens so slowly that it’s hard to recall when you were different from what you are now — Just think, if on that day I hadn’t changed my routine, by putting on my seat belt, what might have happened to me?

In the blink of an eye, I was a seatbelt user, but most change we know happens over time, what if we use the 30 day approach and the first thirty days, your only goal is to exercise, once a week, then the second thirty days, your only goal is to exercise twice a week… and you go on like this until you get to the fifth month where your goal is just to continue to exercise four times a week — Just think what the winds of change, can bring you in a year… in two years, if you just take those tiny steps … when you think of it in terms of a lifetime, every thirty days becomes in the blink of an eye…

When you think of it as just a 30 day change and only thirty days, it seems accessible and all of a sudden the change that has eluded you, is just business as usual …