I would look into the autoimmune version of the paleo diet.

It sounds like you are focusing on the lack of weight loss. From my reading, exercise is great for health, but not very helpful for weight loss. Being aerobically fit and fending off osteoporosis are important. If you want more benefits (other than weight loss), here are my suggestions: -Start lifting weights twice a week. Use the heaviest weight you can lift 8-10 times. Do one set of each exercise. (Some research suggests that using one set rather than three gives almost the same benefit, but with a much shorter workout.) Increase the weight once you can do 10 reps of an exercise. If you want to build muscle and look stronger, you need to lift weights. Jogging alone isn't enough. -Once a week add some high intensity interval training (HIIT)/sprints to your workout. Sprinting uses different muscle fibers and biochemical pathways than endurance exercise. It also helps with your endurance exercise. -Don't forget to stretch after working out, to increase flexibility. -Find a sport of activity you love. Jog once a week, sprint once a week, lift weights twice, and just do something you like the other days. -Focus on health, not weight loss. -it might be easier to lift weights for six months and see muscle definition than to loose weight.

Maybe you could start by putting together an online conference?

I think knowing a potential spouse for a few years can reveal a lot of the deceit. I personally believe it is harder to fool people for two years than six months. At our former church, everyone was so obsessed with courtship as a way to eliminate fornication that the dads wanted short courtships. My DH and I were concerned that they'd end up pushing their daughters into marrying men they weren't good matches for (or abusive men) because they didn't have enough time together. One dad gave the young man askingnto court his daughter two months to either propose or break up. It wasn't like they'd grown up together and knew each other very well.

Some schools have a PA program that is an undergraduate degree instead of a graduate degree. Rochester Institute of Technology is one of them.

I can't imagine being expected to consummate a marriage to someone I'm not in love with or attracted to.

I completely support parents who say, "I can afford to help pay for college/vocational training/starting a business, but little Johnny isn't mature enough yet." I would encourage those parents to tell Johnny "You aren't hard-working, mature, or reliable enough for us to invest this much money in you. Get a job and prove yourself for a few years, then we will help pay." My brother threw his college money down the drain. I did well in college. But before going, he already had a history of not doing his homework (or chores) and mediocre grades, whereas I had proven myself responsible. My brother finally got his act together when he decided to get married. It would've been better if he had waited another 5-6 years to start college, after he matured. The answer for him wouldn't have been for my parents to cut him off forever, but to wait to help pay until he finally acted like an adult.

I agree college is not for everyone, and also for parents not to waste their money if their kids are still too immature to go. Perhaps instead of saying "help pay for college" I should have said "help pay for college, vocational school,or money to start a business." My main point is that few students have any skills by high school graduation that would get them a job earning more than $9-10 per hour. For that matter, the 2009 and 2010 college graduates surveyed had a median starting salary of $27,000! Half of all those grads with jobs were earning less than $27,000 per year. Many hadn't found jobs yet. The median starting income had gone down 10% since 2008. I think the real problem is that wages have been stagnant for all but the top few percent of workers for 30-40 years in this country. The middle class is broke and slipping away. They may have more toys and nicer houses, but it's all been with borrowed money. Health care, housing (location dependent), and college are not in line with wages. Retirement is just a dream for many. I want to help my kids try to avoid the financial tailspin I see the country slipping into. If our families and friends hadn't helped financially launch us, we might be part of the $500 per week club (referring to the median weekly pay of workers). Sure, we worked hard, but hard work alone wouldn't have been enough without the college money relatives gave us and a friend apprenticing my DH for almost a year for free when DH needed a career change.

February is a cheaper month, as long as it's not Valentine's day. Lunch buffets are much cheaper than dinner buffets. Instead of a large cake, have a small cake on each table as the centerpiece. Put a little sign with the flavor and your guests will mingle as they try the different flavors. We did this and it was a huge hit. The cakes looked nice, but not "wedding quality," but they actually tasted good. Fake flowers are much cheaper than real ones. We paid $300 to have a charicature artist at the reception. People that didn't like to dance had great fun watching draw their relatives. My most important point, is to make sure that people get enough to eat and have fun. We moved from the northeast where weddings are a big deal to a state where many people think a small salad and one slice of meatless lasagna is enough food. Dancing is also seen as optional. To me, not enough food (and these families could afford it) and no dancing equals boring, and I'm a pretty cheap person myself. eta: The wedding where I went home hungry wasn't advertised as a "light lunch." If it was, We would've eaten ahead of time. We were expecting a full meal, at least a buffet with meat and potatoes. DH also wore a tux was way overdressed. Even the groom was only in a suit. I don't understand weddings around here, at least in that social circle.

This is called a "bounded choice." I first heard the term when reading about cults. Daughter, you want a way to earn money when you grow up? Sure, as long as you pick something you can do part-time from home, without having to pay for college or other training, and that doesn't interfere with homeschooling, having a baby every 18 months, and catering to your husband's every whim. Unfortunately, I know people like this.

I didn't read the article. I hope you are correct about the two budget changes not being related. Still, I'm starting to think that if the NBA or NFL wants to use colleges as training grounds for future pro players, let them pay for the programs. I was reading last week about how many European soccer teams pay for residential academies for promising youth players. The article pointed out how in the US, if you want to get better, you have to pay hundreds or thousands per year to join travel teams for soccer. In Spain and Britain, talented elementary players can be selected for soccer boarding schools which the pro teams run and pay for (okay, well, you go for free if you are a boy. Girls are out of luck). Apparently the teams have started to figure out it's cheaper for them to do this and "grow" their own future players than to have to pay lots of extra money to hire good players from somewhere else. (I'm not sure, but I think going to the academy may obligate you to play for the team for less money, if you get that far.)

I personally wonder how many people that think it "isn't their job" to help pay for college (I'm talking about people who can afford to help at least somewhat, without major sacrifice, but don't want to - not the people that want to but truly can't afford it) hope their kids will receieve grants and scholarships. I wonder why someone like this would want, or perheps even expect, others to help pay for what they themselves are unwilling to pay for. Also, even if a family can't afford thousands per year, surely many could at least save $25 per month. Too often, I think people see the high price tag, and just give up, rather than contributing something.

This is the kind of thing that makes me think it's time for a seperation of "school and sports."

I don't need $100 million to run a company into the ground. I'll do it for only $60,000!

I should add that I do know 3 families that have 5-6000 sq ft houses (with 3-4 kids) that they spent about half a million on. These families are patriarchal, so they will discourage college as a "waste" of money, especially for daughters. To me, their housing sizes are rediculous and they could easily fit in a house half that size and use some of the money to help their kids get started in life.

Well, I think it's good to make a distinction between those who can't help pay for college because of high medical bills and such versus those who plan poorly or spend too much on expensive houses (or cars) when they could get more reasonably priced housing in safe areas. While I don't think college is necessary for everyone, I do think parents should work hard to make sure their kids can fend for themselves whether through going to college, go to trade school, or getting an apprencticeship. Now if a child is lazy, I understand parents not wanting to spend the money until he or she matures. But I do think we do many kids a disservice if we just expect them to make it out of high school without help. Reading the book "Outliers" really opened my eyes to the reality of how often the "self-made man" wasn't really self-made, but rather hardworking AND lucky. If Bill Gates had lived a few towns over, he may have eventually gotten into computers, but probably wouldn't be a billionaire.

For some reason, I am dragging my feet on teaching my six-year-old spelling. I think it might be about the only academic subject I'm not enthusiastic about teaching. I have AAS, but can't seem to get myself to use it. Are there any good spelling computer games I could have him use to get started?

I should add that he can read Magic Tree House books pretty well. He needs more practice with multi-syllable words, which I thought PP didn't cover enough of.

We'll be done with Phonics Pathways in a month or so. I haven't started spelling yet, but I know I need to. As far as phonics, does anyone have any suggestions for what to do next other than Webster's Speller?

Here is Robb Wolf's Food Matrix. It's intended to help plan a main course, so fruit isn't listed.

The stuff in the carton is really a beverage made of watered down coconut milk, sometimes a sweeteners, and other flavorings. To make smoothies, I dump a whole can of regular coconut milk (not "light" or from a carton), a few cups of frozen fruit, almond extract, and vanilla in the blender. It makes about 3-4 cups, and we each get 1/4 of it. It is very filling. If you want to cook with it, to make Thai food or something like that, you need the canned coconut milk. The same goes for making ice cream.

What do you mean you can't "follow" a regular cookbook? Do you know how to measure ingredients? Do you know how to chop, slice, and dice? Or is it that you don't know what the terms mean?

Today is day 27. I lowered the thyroid dose about six days ago and immediately started sleeping better.

Try having him wear orange safety glasses for a few hours before bed. Blue light makes the pineal gland think it is daytime (blue sky) and time to shut down melatonin. Lack of blue light simuates sunset and evening. There are expensive glasses out there for this but I wear these $8 Uvex safety glasses from Amazon. I've been using them for a week and they seem to be helping. I still take a low dose of melatonin, hot bath, and other supplements to help me sleep, but the glasses seem to be helping me get sleepy at a more consistent time.

I've been gluten and dairy-free for years. Now I'm also grain, legume, and sweetener-free, as well. When some of my friends had to go gluten-free, I told them to expect a mourning period of a year or more. They might think they are used to it after a few months, but then a string of holidays or weddings where they can't each much will come and make them feel deprived. I think the psychological adjustment is left out and catches people off guard. If you know to expect it, then it will be easier to not give up. Eventually, after a few years, you probably won't even miss the old foods, and if you cheat, may find that what you used to love will taste disgusting.