So sorry to hear about Caroline. I hope she's feeling better.

Carol, since it seems you hold my getting into the TM in your hands, all I can say is I will NOT be prepared for a run, just for recording your crazy antics. And I will be making videos... I'm really looking forward to meeting all of you in May.

Looked like everybody had a great time at the conference. Thanks Carol, Kim and John for posting pics on your FB pages.

Well made it home safe and sound.

Kim, Caroline and Carol you all looked great this weekend, Kim sorry I missed you last night to say goodby.

Carol - Hope Caroline is recovering, Zena had the migraine plague, it's tough.

Arturo - was great hanging out with ya looking forward to Oct in Vegas. Gonna be a great time.

Pretty tired so I'll wrap up my Paleo fx experience tomorrow. Short version it was Great!

So sad I missed some of the presentations on Sunday at PaeloF(x). Saturday was great in the stuff I saw or participated in. Next year I will arrive on time and stay through Sunday presentations. I love learning and attending seminars. Left kinda sad I wasn't able to talk to Robb Wolf. I thought his presentations was powerful- both in delivery and concept. As I walked around the airport on Sunday, I looked up and saw him standing by himself. Amazingly when I introduced myself, he goes "Kim, of course, we've tweeted and emailed" back and forth for awhile. Had a nice chat about his work and the new novelty theory.

Kelly, Agree with John on you can eat well in most any restaurant, just key on proteins and veggies. Don't be afraid to ask them to swap out the starch or other side for veggies. The big thing on eating out you can't control so much is the use of vegetable oils. I can't change that about the average restaurant, and don't overly stress about it (tho I usually carry olive oil and just use that on my salads versus using a dressing made with canola or soybean oils) I can definitely tell the vegetable oils cause inflammation in me, but it is a trade off in traveling. I just make sure I keep sleep, stress and everything else as managed as possible.

John,I realized when I got to the hotel I hadn't said goodbye. Sorry about that. I was both exhausted and over my social limit for the day. Despite appearances I am strongly introverted. Crowds, people etc. while I enjoy drain me terribly. I cope by going off by myself - and know when I've had too much. I sometimes think the reason I enjoy traveling with work so much is the forced alone time of it to recharge.

Heron, wished you coulda made it...but now that I know all you guys do for the fosters and such, understand how difficult both of you leaving would be. I was really impressed with Christine the little I interacted with her...and saw that Arturo spoke with her and AJ quite a bit. So great that you have a partner in Arturo that is like minded.

Carol, so glad I got to meet you face to face! You are so amazing the way you network and interact with folks. Not so natural for me. As to how you look...the fact that you and Caroline are in weight loss challenges is insane. You are both so tiny..esp. if that was you at a "high/out of shape" weight. You really do need to throw that scale away and focus on building lean mass versus losing weight! Really, you are beautiful with a great shape as is. But I'll always push lifting heavy on women....

Kelly, I agree with everybody, no matter where you go, grilled protein and vegetable are common.
And always ask if you are not sure. If its a chain, check out the ingredients on their website..
But yes, I always ask to substitute starch for veggie or tell them not to bring out the bread basket. If you are upfront, and polite about it, most of the time they will be more than happy to accommodate you as opposed to, (and I see it all the time) the person sending the food back AFTER it has arrived because there is something on the plate that they can't have or don't want. Had they ask beforehand the restaurant wouldn't have to throw away perfectly good food.

Happy Tuesday Folks! Another Great Day lies before us full of possibilities.

Kim - I'm with you on Sunday at Paleo, Missed some good ones but Dan's travel on Monday meant we had to get moving. Left at 0500 and got home at 1100 pm. (2300) . Glad we did though since the Weather on Mon was pretty bad all along our route. Cool Beans on the chat with Robb Wolf, the man is brilliant and approachable like a next door neighbor.

Heron - You were missed many times this weekend but yep the fosters gotta have what they gotta have. Been there with Children so 'unnerstan' . So looking forward to Vegas and meeting you.

Kelly - Glad to help.

This was an very interesting weekend for me in the Internal Pscy Ops arena. Through my Adult Life my issues with weight have been about a number or body comp numbers in particular. Paleo Fx kind of opened up a different perspective for me. Up until I quit smoking my weight was about the same as my son Daniels is now. pretty happy with it at my age. I quit smoking in part because I wanted to present the healthiest appearance, and not only to you my friends but to the Paleo community I would meet. Instead I gain 30lbs in a couple weeks and look like a pregnant guy from the side. Not happy about that but in a Spock like way consider it 'very interesting' that some one with a well controlled diet and exercise program is still going to encounter this. In a 'Kirk' like way very G*& D@*& frustrated that a years worth of weight and body comp work from the last 4 years went down the tubes so fast.
I guess were I'm going with this is even when we only have ourselves to please, we may find it impossible to do. So Carol and Caroline just wanted to pass along you both look great at current body comp. The 20-30 min to move may be difficult to find but you are gonna feel sooooo much better if you do.

All righty then have a great day folks.

Carol - in the words of Mark.... Gotta get his house sold first lol. Would love to meet you all. Soon as we can!

Ever have one of those days? The ones where ya wanna scream, pull your hair out and run away as fast as ya can?! I had one of those today. Wanted my lunch time walk to get lunch. Instead had a showing. Didn't get lunch til 2:30. No walk for me at that point (I do realize that I walk 3 times a day so missing one won't kill me lol). Got home from work to realize I left my cell at the office! Tomorrow will be better God willing lol or else I need to do hobby therapy

Happy Wednesday Folks! Hope all is well with all of you. Back to work today. Hrv is green flagging and now the number with the flag is single digits so today is and 8. So gonna go and lift heavy in the garage, since I haven't done so this week yet.

Kelly - Bummer on the wonky day, shake it off and move out smartly for another iteration of fun. If you're gonna do some hobby therapy make sure its only paper targets eh? Dittos on Carols Sentiment about hooking up with you guys. Would be a blast.


Carol - Have some fun re-bonding with kiddo's while your hubby gets a 'working' rest. Once the boys were 7-8 Zena would get an external rest/retreat after I returned from deployments, generally for a week or so. Was always a great time for me showing the lads how 'guys' did stuff. While that may not be a factor for you, re-enforcing the momma bond presents a lot more chances to smile.

All Righty then folks the day lies before us, the opportunities to excel are everywhere, get some!

Kelly: Yep those days everybody has that What can you do.. Shrug.. When I start feeling more annoyed than I should, I always tell myself "first world problem" Having no clean water or food now that's a problem.. LOL

Carol, I can't wait to meet you and everybody either !! Yay! Jen, you coming? Air B and B and VRBO is cheap in Vegas and yep like John said, enjoy your alone time with the boys. they might get to the phase where they don't want to seen with their mom.

Just finish my body IO assessment form. Extremely extensive.. One of the requirement is you have to include a picture (you don't have to show your face but I really didn't care about that ) boy, a picture is very very motivating.. Now whenever I want to give in to certain thing I just have to look at the picture. LOL I don't have any body image issue, I don't think I look huge. I'm just looking kind of "soft" . Yes I see stretch marks and cellulite.. Eh, not a big thing. I've had stretch marks ever since I was 12 when I hit puberty, as for cellulite, that's genetics. When I was at my fittest, I still have cellulite, granted, not as much as I do now, but it was there.

I got my DNA results back from 23andme. Yay! and I am only 49% Chinese LOL Now, being a Chinese this percentage came as a surprise. I know I'm not 100% Chinese but I was guessing 60-75%. My mom is technically Chinese on paper, but her people are aboriginals, native to Taiwan, before there was Chinese or Dutch.
In fact all pacific islander can trace their DNA back to my mom's people. Pretty cool huh? Unfortunately 23andme focuses more on health not ancestry. National geography's DNA test focuses on ancestry and can give me more details. I might get the kit later this year. I have SE Asia and Native American in the other percentage.. The native American don't surprise me since the majority of native Americans migrate to the Americas 50-70K years ago.
My whole life people often ask what am I mix with? I get Hawaiian a lot . Well, now I know!
I also did the prometheus DNA analysis that go through you raw DNA data and tell you what those means.. SUPER interesting!! Going to watch Dr Patrick's video about using the data to tailor the diet that works with your genes. For a total of $105 you can know so much about your DNA makeup. Well worth it!
John, Kim, you guys like data, are you guys interested in this kind of data? None of my friends want to do the DNA test because they'd rather not know...

Heron, I've been going back and forth on 23and Me. Want to do... one of those really interesting things that those around me think are insane. I have hesitated because I thought they could no longer provide interpretations for the results. Did you get raw data and use another service to read/interpret, or am I wrong that they don't do that. Anything interesting from a health perspective.

Home from class. One night in own bed then off again. This time Louisville . Hubby biz trip. KY Derby. I love this trip. Need to unpack, do laundry repack my fancy clothes and hats (the hats require a second suitcase). Oh and clean house. Its kinda a disaster and Mom arrives in morning to house sit the kiddo, house and pets.

Lol the day got worse in that a co worker passed away suddenly last night. As a result today started rough. But by 3 I was off work, talking to mark and getting a new range bag. My little man (he calls me grandma) played with me tonight too. So it has been an awesome day and tomorrow shall be better!

Hey everybody. It's Thursday and the end of the work week for me. Next week starts some trips to meet some awesometastic folks. Let's see, Kim will be in my neck of the woods (well, an hourish away) next week. Then Carol and John will be playing Tough Mudder, along with some folks I know from YouTube (oh, I am soooooo ready to give Nick some flack - hehehe). I sure hope I don't have to do much work. Taking pictures and recording video is hard. Then a trip over the Memorial Day weekend to visit some more awesome peeps from YouTube as well as Sandi, the owner of Offhand Gear (creator of the NORB).

I'm really hoping that getting away from home a bit more often will help my mood and motivation.

I'm going to try a Whole30 with Carol. I need something to challenge me again. Having no challenge or accountability is really hurting me. So we'll see how that goes. Heron sent me some information to look over as well. Thank you again for that. I just found out that the studio where I was planning to restart my Pilates journey has closed. So now I have to find somewhere else.

Ok, enough of my rambling. Have a great Thursday everybody.

Happy Friday Folks!

Hi Kim, Oh I envy you! When does a girl get to wear pretty dress and gorgeous hats in the U.S except for the KY Derby? LOL And yes, hats have always had their own suitcases.
Yes, you get the raw data and a company prometheaus analyze the data and compiled it to a relatively user friendly report. It cost $5 and 10-20min and super simple procedure. Watch those videos that I included and you might change your mind on it If you don't want to know certain things then don't look for that gene. Unfortunately the gene that tells you if you are best suited to eat low carb is the same gene that tells you your chances of Alzheimer and dementia and I know some people don't want to know that. For me, I had a lot of "AHA" moments, I have ADHD and I have the gene for it, I have a lot of undesirable traits that I have the gene for, not that its an excuse but it helps someone like me to not be too hard on myself and understand that those traits encoded in me and I can't change them but knowing it, help me better understand myself and find workarounds to certain issues. Also I have certain gene with high frequency to not respond to certain drugs, which made sense because it the past there was some dosage issues that my doctor had difficulties with.
Our body is extremely complex and it constantly converting what it absorbs to what our body needs. For example if you have genes that can't convert certain types of Vitamin efficiently, wouldn't you want to know so you can remedy that by taking extra supplements?
Example: excerpt from Dr Patrick:

Phosphatidylcholine/Choline and PEMT
Phosphatidylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (PEMT) catalyzes the synthesis of phosphatidylcholine and, thus, choline in the liver. In addition to the important role phosphatidylcholine plays in cell membranes (particularly in neurons), it also is important in the liver. Phosphatidylcholine is required for the liver to secrete triglycerides into very low density lipoproteins (VLDL cholesterol). Decreased phosphatidylcholine can lead to decreased fat removal from the liver and, consequently, fatty liver.

The following polymorphism is associated with reduced liver phosphatidylcholine production:

rs7946 (A or A;A)

Having one A is associated with reduced PEMT function and is more pronounced if homozygous (A;A).

There is another common polymorphism in the PEMT gene; however, this specific polymorphism is not genotyped by 23andMe. PEMT is activated by estrogen but 44% of women have a polymorphism that makes PEMT unresponsive to estrogen. Remember, since PEMT makes phosphatidylcholine this means that premenopausal women are some what protected from low phosphatidylcholine due to low dietary intake. Postmenopausal women must increase their dietary intake of choline or phosphatidylcholine. For the 44% of women that have this polymorphism, the gene is unable to respond to estrogen, and thus, require a much higher dietary intake of choline or phosphatidylcholine. Reference

The following is the non-estrogen responsive polymorphism in the PEMT gene:

rs12325817 (C;G or C;C)

Those are simple fixes that can potentially improve the quality of your life drastically. All these vitamins and enzymes plays a key role in repairing and turning on and off our DNA (epigenetics) For example even if one inherit certain cancer gene, with the right nutrition and supplement one can turn the genes that helps fend off cancer. And once our genes is turn on off, we can potentially pass on those traits to our offsrpings!! So even if you come from a long line of diabetics or heart disease, you can potentially change your odds. How cool is science right now?!! And just a tad scary/sci fi. We are not that far off to engineering "perfect humans" LOL To top it off a small team of endocrinologist has recently discovered a small cluster of population in Ecuador that may very well be immune to cancer and diabetes !!! Its called the Laron Syndrome. It's a rare form of dwarfism but in a nutshell their growth hormones receptors that tells cells divide and multiply is damaged hence their dwarfism but that also means that cancer cell cannot divide and multiply! What more interesting is that they trace their ancestors to be of Spain descendants and first cousins! Ha!
Ok I shall stop now. I am geeking out on Science and starting to digress.
Here are the YouTube Links . They are extremely educational but in a digestable way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVV2RFEiqN4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvNLNl7oJnM
This is a podcast on Jimmy Moore's show featuring Dr Steven Gundry, in it he covers the part about the low carb gene an MANY MANY good nuggets. For those of you who are into paleo or low carb or just general health. This is a good one!!

Oaks Day. Somehow I got zero full outfit pics. It was a dress with a jacket. Will try to do better today. Oaks women traditionally wear some pink. Today at Derby I'll be in black & white. And Heron is so right, tons of fun to dress up in a fancy hat for the day!