I found out last week that I’m insulin-resistant. Basically, I have too much insulin coursing through me body. We need a certain amount to help regulate glucose, which supplies our body with the energy it needs. But an oversupply of insulin can lead to all kinds of problems: heart attacks, obesity, hypertension, stroke and the mother of all problems – diabetes. (Forgive me if I sound so Health 101. It can get pretty confusing and I still have a lot to learn!)

All my life, I’ve gravitated toward breads and pastries and sweet things. I was always thin – my nickname in high school was “Olive Oil – and never had to worry about controlling how much of this great-tasting bad stuff I was eating. Well, I’m here to tell you that it eventually catches up to you. I have simply worn out my pancreas with one too many Krispy Kremes, apparently.

What signaled this problem for my doctor were two things: No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t lose even five pounds. And, around 4:00, I would be so tired, that after pulling into my garage from picking up kids at school, I would stay in there and nap for half an hour. Odd behavior, don’t you think?

So now I have to pay very close attention to what I eat. I am choosing foods from the low-glycemic-diet index. And you know what’s interesting? I am eating foods that everyone should be eating, anyway: lean protein, eggs, veggies, beans, most fruits, low-fat dairy products, nuts and the only bread low enough on the index to be acceptable is pumpernickel. That’s OK. I like toasted pumpernickel with peanut butter. I can do that. (I will miss sourdough, though!) Best of all, I can have low-fat ice cream, my saving grace.

There must be something to this because after just 4 days of eating this way, I jumped on the scale and was down 2.5 pounds! It turns out that the motivation I needed all this time to lose weight wasn’t to look good in a bathing suit come summertime, but rather, to live long enough to see my children grow up.

So long, sugar!

    I’d like to officially go on record as the only person in this country who saw “Juno” and didn’t like it. More to the point, I think it was irresponsible filmmaking. This movie sends the wrong message to teens: That it's OK to get pregnant at 16, it's not the end of the world, your parents and friends will rally behind you, you can squeeze out this "thing" (which is how she refers to it), easily find an adoptive parent and then go back to being a teen. And if you're lucky, you may even get to attend the prom and make-out with the guy who got you pregnant to begin with.

    My 14-year-old daughter saw it with her friends more than a month ago, and had I seen this movie before her, I wouldn’t have let her go. She kept telling me, “Mom, it’s awesome! You’re going to love it!” Well, I didn’t love it and I am very upset that whoever rated this movie thought it was OK for a 14-year-old to see it.

    “Juno” is very whimsical and that’s precisely what’s wrong with it: There’s nothing whimsical about teen pregnancy. It starts out as a cartoon and then dissolves to real life as Juno walks into a pharmacy to take a pregnancy test for the third time. Juno, is very likeable. She’s smart, sassy, witty, precocious, courageous, free-spirited and COOL – all the qualities any teen would love to possess as they desperately search for their own identities. Not only do you like Juno, but you want to be like her. Except for the fact that she seduced a boy friend of hers, had unprotected sex and is now pregnant at 16.

    She treats her pregnancy like it’s a 9-month cold she will soon recover from.
The entire situation is handled so nonchalantly, like “Juno’s pregnant. Oh,
well . . . “ After what should have been a tearful, harrowing, life-altering moment – telling her parents she was pregnant – she and her best friend casually walk upstairs to her room, probably to listen to CDs or talk about boys. Oh, well . . .

    I’m sure “Juno” will win an Oscar for something. In the coming weeks, publicity will mount and we’ll hear more about this “darling” movie. If you have a teen, use this as an opportunity to talk about teen pregnancy and all its ramifications, and that unlike the story of Juno and Jamie Lynn Spears, getting pregnant at 16 is anything but a whimsical fairy-tale.

    I realize this blog entry comes in a little late, the day after Valentine’s Day. But the thing is, if you love someone, you don’t need Hallmark to tell you that on such-and-such day, you have to send roses to that person. Or make them a nice dinner. Or write them a poem. Or buy them flavored massage oil (not sure where that one came from). Romance is usually best when it’s spontaneous, not calendared. Don’t you agree?

    My observation of Valentine’s Day is that it is a day fraught with a lot of obligation and anxiety. Men feel obligated to do SOMETHING, buy their women SOMETHING. Take them to dinner SOMEWHERE. Yesterday in Rite Aid, I saw a handful of men pillaging the Valentine’s Day section, frantically grabbing teddy bears and boxes of chocolate and M & M’s tubes – whatever was pink and red and had a heart on it. It was comical. In fact, a recent survey conducted by TeamDating.com said that 95% of men say Valentine’s Day is their least favorite holiday and 80% of men don’t even remember what they gave their women the previous year. That same TeamDating survey said that 99% of single and married women confirm that the worst mistake a man can make is doing exactly what they did the Valentine’s Day before.

    As for the anxiety part of this day, women have a hold on that. We anxiously await the arrival of our “surprise” dozen roses at work, living proof that we are loved and have rich lives beyond our cubicle walls. We’re hopeful all morning, listening for doors to open and hurried, delivery-man-type footsteps to come our way. And we even come back from lunch, still hopeful, fully expecting those roses to be on our desks with a card declaring the sender’s forever love. By 4:00, when the roses haven’t arrived, we start that emotional spiral into disappointment, rejection, hurt and then downright anger. “Well, we’ll just see how romantic I feel tonight!”

    So, guys . . . if you blew it this year and forgot to send roses or the guy ahead of you at Rite Aid snagged the last cuddly teddy bear, here’s something to think about next year. That is, if you get another chance with her:

    The TeamDating survey asked women to rank their Top 5 favorite Valentine’s Day gifts:

1. A picnic dinner at a location new to the women
2. Breakfast in bed that morning
3. Flowers sent to their office or place of business
4. Dinner at a restaurant they’ve never been to
5. A romantic, home-cooked dinner.


    Of course, you don’t have to wait until next year to do any of these things, because we women are happy to be romanced any day, every day.<

    It doesn’t get any more exciting than this: Today is National Pancake Day. I’m not really sure how that got pushed through Congress. (They must have been hungry for business that day. Get it?) But today, February 12th, is the official day to pay tribute to that golden-stacked breakfast favorite – with dripping, melted butter and maple syrup oozing down the side.

    My children and I have decided to pay our homage to pancakes by having breakfast for dinner tonight. We’ll have pancakes and all the trimmings: scrambled eggs, bacon and orange juice. Pure soul food. The ideal meal before “American Idol.”

    If you can’t let today go by without indulging in pancakes, I suggest a trip to IHOP, where they will be serving up a FREE short stack (three hotcakes) all day, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. All they ask in return is that you consider making a donation to local children’s hospitals through Children’s Miracle Network.

    You hungry? Go get ‘em!

    Don’t let anyone tell you differently -- advertising works. After seeing hundreds of commercials for NutriSystem over the years, the weight-loss plan with the “glycemic advantage” (whatever that means!), I decided to bite. I’d like to drop about 10 pounds before warmer weather forces me out of my sweats and into something more skin-baring, and I thought, “Why not give it a try? It worked for Sally and Judy and Denise and John and Marie Osmond and all those formerly fat people who have paraded through my living room between episodes of ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ Why wouldn’t it work for me, too?” Besides, the food looked pretty good on TV.

    So I bought a month’s supply of the stuff. I was excited about starting this diet. I’ve tried Weight Watchers and the South Beach Diet before, with minimal success. I think the most I ever lost was 7 pounds. But it was excruciating, and I felt so deprived. I had a good feeling about NutriSystem, though. This would be the magic bullet.

    My 30-day food supply arrived in a giant box and I eagerly tore into it, half-expecting the aroma of delectable dishes to come jumping out. My heart sank. All those steaming-hot plates of yummy food you see on TV start out in boxes, lots of boxes. Cup O’ Noodle-type boxes that I had to clear out an entire cupboard to store. It sounded good on the outside: Chicken and Pasta in Cacciatore Sauce, Cajun-Style Sausage With Brown Rice, Cheese Ravioli With Basil Tomato Sauce, even desserts like Peanut Butter Cookies and Blueberry Lemon Bars. Yum! But shouldn’t all this great food at least be refrigerated?

    I looked on the ingredient labels and saw high, triple-digit sodium numbers, which scared me. I eyed “dextrose” and lots of other “oses” and realized that this wasn’t real food. This was highly processed, freeze-dried CRAP! The kind of meals-ready-to-eat that they serve the military on the battle lines and astronauts in space. I quickly looked on the return label of the box, fully expecting to see “NASA” written on it.

    But, I‘m a trooper, and so many people swear by NutriSystem, I decided to give it a try, anyway. I warmed up my box of Beef Stroganoff for dinner, and an hour later, I swear, my heart was racing. It could have been stress, though. So in the morning, I thought I’d give the Scrambled Eggs With Cheddar Cheese a try. It started out as a cup of yellow powder, which should have been my first clue. And after 40 seconds in the microwave, my breakfast was nothing but a gooey, yellow clump. Are you kidding? Was I really supposed to put this in my mouth, let alone, digest it?

    I ran out to the trash to retrieve the box all that processed junk came in, packed it up and drove it to the UPS store. It was the best $30 I have ever spent sending NutriSystem back to Cape Canaveral, or wherever it came from.

    Later that day, craving REAL, three-dimensional food, with color and a scent, I went to Trader Joe’s and stocked up on the good stuff. I have decided that the best diet is to eat good food in smaller portions, drink more water, cut WAY down on sugar and get a lot more exercise. That’s my diet plan, and I’m going to try to stick to it.

    I’m dying to know . . . has anyone tried NutriSystem and actually enjoyed it?? If so, are you out of your mind???