New Mental Health Law

Kathleen Sebelius announces new mental health parity requirements for health insurers

I have always said that if you want to curb mass shooting in the world the first thing to do it address mental health.  Look at almost every single mass shooting and there is usually someone with a mental illness behind the trigger.

Many of these people are either on the wrong meds, off their current meds or have no meds at all due to having no insurance. Hopefully with the Affordable Healthcare Act this will change.

My own experience was that before I had health insurance I had no access to meds let alone a diagnosis to get the meds.  I have been depressed at least since middle school.  My depression and anxiety grew worse and worse as time went on.  I did have medical coverage while on active duty in the Air Force but the stigma of mental illness was too great for me to take that chance of being kicked out, as if being gay weren't enough.

Years and years of not being diagnosed or treated for my mental illness caused strains at work, with my family and in my personal relationships.  I wasn't the person I should have been or the person I wanted to be.  I honestly feel that if I were diagnosed at a younger age things may be different for me.

Not that I'm not happy now but I feel a little "behind." I'm 43 and I feel that I should be more successful and fulfilled in my professional career.  Because of the bad choices I made in my 20's and I would even go as far as to say back as a teenager, I would be in different circumstances.  I am unfulfilled and I only wish for a time machine to go back to my teenaged self and slip him an Adderall.

Now I am playing catch-up.  I'm trying to make up for lost time and try to do all the things I never did and start working on things I want to do before I get too old to do them.



One last thing.  I'm so tired of "Obama Haters" who hate him so much that they will do anything to stop the Affordable Healthcare Act.  The fact that we had senate hearings to explain why too many people logging onto a website made it crash is beyond infantile and quite reprehensible.   If you are going to go so far as to say new healthcare legislation isn't going to work because the website sucks then please do some research to see what other websites failed during massive use.

7-Most-Stunning-Website-Failures-of-2011

Organic green eggs and ham, scammed I am.

Today Washington is voting on I-522, which would require the labeling of certain foods and seeds containing genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

I voted no. 

I have my reasons for voting no.  

First off if it doesn't say "organic" on it and it's processed, assume it has GMO's. There is no need to spend extra money to label it so.  I have always assumed that if it's processed than it's probably not good for you.  

Second, I know from personal experience that most "organic" food is NOT organic.  It's impossible to grow that much food without using pesticides.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture only states the pesticides cannot be derived from unnatural sources.  Just because you don't use a Monsanto Pesticide doesn't mean you're organic. It just means you can charge double for your product.

I read this great article by Jared Mehre and he sites many studies that claim to say what I have said all along about organic food... that's it's a scam.  Here is a link to the article itself.

organic food the big scam

Basically studies have shown that organic food is no more nutritious than traditionally grown food. 

I understand that it does taste different but other than that, there is no difference.  

I liken this whole organic food debate to the Gluten-Free scam.  The only people who benefit from Gluten-Free are people who physically can not tolerate gluten, people who have Crohn's Disease for instance.  People with normal digestive function get no benefit what so ever from eating gluten-free food.  

People say "oh I feel so much better when I eat gluten-free." Yes you do.  It's because you're no longer eating crap that gluten is in like bread, cookies, baked goods.  If you stop eating crap, you feel better.

I love going into Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.  I like going in not for the "organic" food but they carry all kinds of items that you don't find in major box grocery stores.  

Easy Shopping Rule of Thumb: when you grocery shop, only shop the outside walls.  The isles are full of crap.  The walls are where the fruits, vegetables, dairy and meats are.  Everything in the middle is processed.  If you care about that stuff than that's the best thing for you.  

So if you really think you need "organic" food, go ahead and spend the extra money for it.  It's not anymore nutritious for you but at least you're keeping Whole Foods in the black.

Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

It's been a long time since I last posted.  I've so busy and now I understand how hard it is for bloggers to keep up on their blogs. I've had a cervical spine fusion that has hampered me from going to the gym as often as I'd like.  I'm still working on finding something I can do without injuring myself.

I just had two weeks of training for my new job.  I had to go to New Jersey and push through a very very stressful two weeks.  I had no time to workout.  I ate like shit and I gained alot of weight.  To top it off I got sick like I always do at the end of a training session.

I was home for about 5 days after training when we decided to go to London for 6 days.  Yes I flew while sick.  Yes I become more sick while in London.  Yes I now have bronchitis.

Every time I come back from trips to Europe I always go through a phase where I think I need to really slim down.  I think I'm in pretty good shape until I go to Europe.  The English are all so thin and wear the most stylish clothes.  All really well designed clothes are made for rail thin people.  For once I would love to be able to go into Banana Republic or J.Crew and wear anything they sell.  Their clothes are cut european slim fit.

Piccadilly Circus

One thing to remember as well is that all Europeans smoke.  They smoke and they walk every where. Their Tube system is amazing.  No one really needs a car if they live in London proper.  Other than smoking and walking I counted only 3 McDonald's restaurants in the whole city.  Other than that I say NO fast food.  I did see tons of little shopping markets with fresh fruits, vegetables and homemade sandwiches.







The English eat a light breakfast, stop on their way to work, walking to work, and pick up a sandwich  at a corner market and then shop for fresh food on their way home. The French do this as well.  I know that smoking has alot to do with it as well.  Smoking keeps you thin.  However, I'm not about to take that up.





I'm very very eager to get back into the gym.  I will be getting back into Yoga and spin classes soon.
We also have something called TRX.  It's a workout with straps and you use only bodyweight.  I think that might be the next new thing I try.

Anyway I'm on my sick bed.  I'm watching lots of American Horror Story and Walking Dead.  Resting up to his the ground running at the gym.