Live Tweeting TONIGHT! Steven Berlin Johnson's talk on New Media

I'll be live tweeting from tonight's Columbia University lecture with Steven Berlin Johnson. I'm hoping he can shed some light on exactly where all these media companies think they can provide such great content when they're not hiring people to make it.

I'll post my thoughts here after the talk.

Until then, why not check out a great movie for Earth Day? Disney is releasing "Oceans" today in theaters across the country. Go out and feel small for a moment and take in the beauty of our planet!

Liz Mayo's Dreams - Jon Hamm in Paris

Here's another short regular series where I will try to recall the wacky dreams I've had. Some will amuse, some will horrify. Be warned!

This might be one of the best dreams I've ever had. I dreamed that was in Paris interviewing Jon Hamm.


Yes, this Jon Hamm.

But for some reason, he had a child, and I was interviewing him for a parenting website. This wasn't that far into the future, either.


This makes me think two things:

1- I am maybe working a little too hard on the job hunt, because I was dreaming about working for a website that I had applied to that day.

2- I just predicted that Jon Hamm is having a kid.

I think I'm going to go for #1 on this one.

The Detox with Liz Mayo: Episode #2 (video)

Enjoy the latest episode of The Detox with Liz Mayo - The Workout. Watch as I sweat my face off and look ridiculous. To be clear, this is not a drug detox - it's a food detox designed to help me lose weight and get in shape. Learn more about me at http://elizabethmayo.net/

My Detox Pilot

I just realized I only posted this on Facebook and not on my blog.

Want to watch something funny? Here is the "pilot" for the detox mini-series I was planning on making...before we had some unexpected family emergencies that wrecked my plans. WARNING there are a LOT of chins in this video...chins that I no longer have.

Conversations At Elizabeth Mayo

This is a new regular post where I relate the random conversations that people will start with me on any given day. It might be my friendly looking face, or it might be that I have "good" timing. Either way, it results in some amazing stories.

Date: Tuesday, March 16th, around 11AM
Location: Al Oerter Recreational Center at Flushing Meadow-Corona Park

I was getting a late morning workout in, and noticed an older-looking woman, with frizzy red hair, glasses and a sherbet-orange shirt, having trouble with the exercise bike. "How do you get this started?" she asked me. I happily showed her how to work the screen. She calmly and happily rode the stationary bike, as though she were riding through the chalk land in "Mary Poppins."

About 15 minutes later, I jumped off the bike to get on the ACE trainer (the one that feels like you're cross country skiing and pushing your legs through taffy). I no longer feel content to burn just 150 calories in 30 minutes - now it's more like 350 in 30 minutes. As usual, there was a line for the machines, so I waited near the electronic scale.

Frizzy sherbet lady decided to weigh herself at this moment. "How do you turn this on?" she asked me. I pointed her towards the power button.

She weighs herself. She sighs. She stares at the numbers a bit longer, then steps off. Turning off the scale, she shakes her hands and walks over to me. After a pause, an adjustment of her glasses and a look like she was searching for the right words, she unloads.

"You know, a few months ago I got a cortisone shot in my hip. But then it got infected so I had to be hospitalized for five weeks. While I was in the hospital, I barely ate a thing and after I got out, I lost over 25 pounds. I was thrilled. I even went out and bought this sexy black dress because I thought it might stay off. You know, I've never been a very small girl. I like to say I'm very Rubenesque, you know?"

"Yes, I know from Rubenesque," I said.

"But it was nice to have that weight off me. I've never really exercised much, but I was always pretty cute and had cute dresses. But wow, to lose 25 lbs in a few weeks was like a jumpstart."

"You probably lost too much muscle in the hospital," I offered.

"Now its a few months later and I've gained back 15 pounds. I just thought I'd come here to work it all back off you know? I spent all that money on a dress and I have to fit into it."

"Well, then it's a good thing you're here. You can do it. Just keep exercising," I said, knowing deep down that her age and her body type were all working against her. But every girl, no matter what the age, needs to hold on to hope that they'll fit into that hot black dress one day.

By then, my machine opened up and we exchanged good lucks.

I am still regularly amazed at what information people will offer up to me on any given day.

Detox Recap: Fiber, Family Emergencies and a Freakout-Free 30th

A HA! You thought that maybe since I haven't been blogging recently that I fell off the detox horse. Well, you'd be wrong.

Friday Feb. 26th, 2010, marked a month of being on the detox. Now nearly March 17th, and I'm still going.

Here's a quick recap of where I've been for the last month and a half:
* I left one freelance job to start another.
* My father-in-law was hospitalized for a serious infection, requiring an emergency trip to Miami. All is fine now.
* My father was hospitalized for a few days here in the city. All is fine now.
* I finally hit the big 3oth birthday.

For old Liz, just one of these things within a month would have been enough to send me straight to the combination Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins to concoct a donut sundae with 7 different ice cream flavors and bacon on top. But all four of these things happened within four weeks while I was trying to make a drastic lifestyle change. It could have been a recipe for disaster.

But it wasn't. Thanks to supportive friends and an awesome husband, I've stuck to the detox and have reaped the results. In almost two months, I've lost 21 lbs, 3" off my waist and 1" off my hips. My closet is now full of clothes that are getting too big for me...or rather, I'm getting too small for. My husband shrieks "ooo, girl you getting skinny" every time he hugs me. My grocery trips are now reserved for frozen fruit and vegetable purchases...not Tostitos and ice cream (can you tell what my downfall is?). I take at least 15 vitamins and supplements a day and I exercise as close to 7 days a week as I can. All in all, it's been a huge change from my old lifestyle and an even bigger success.

There have been "transgressions" - but those were planned in advance and under control. But I have to say, I've had no slips, no binges and no regret. I can look at something and say I want it...in the way I would want Clive Owen...but not actually go through with shoving it in my face hole. Though I have to be honest - there was one time when I was going to stay with my dad in the hospital and I wanted some chocolate munchkins in a bad way. Thankfully, Jean, Teresa, Katie, Robin and Alex ("the group) reminded me of the work I'd done. Munchkins avoided.

As happy as I am, this is just the beginning. I'm going to be doing this "detox" for the rest of my life.

Why am I still calling it a detox? The term is not descriptive of the diet; I can eat just about everything (including all the fiber you could dream of) except the big no-no's like alcohol, caffeine, dairy, wheat/gluten, sugar, salt and unsanctioned (meaning not organic and hormone-free) meat.

I'm calling it a detox because this process is detoxing me from 29 years of unhealthy living. If it took me this long to get to the point I was at, it's going to take a VERY long time to get this lifestyle change to become second nature. And I'm OK with that.

In the blogs to come, I'll continue to talk about the detox, and point you to some interesting obesity/diet/detox articles that I come across. As a journalist with some knack for spotting trends, I can tell you that I think we're on the cusp of some big diet and detox stories -- the biggest being that people are finally going to get fed up and do exactly what I just did, en masse.

Going forward, I'll probably also talk a lot more about my exercise efforts (I haven't jogged since high school, but I'm doing it now) and trends in that world, too.

And hey, look at that. I turned 30 in the middle of all this. The big motivator to make this huge change ended up being ushered in quietly - exactly how I wanted it. The next 10 years are going to be healthy and awesome.

Thanks to everyone who read this blog and supported me. It's helped IMMENSELY. If anyone thinks they can make this change without help, they're crazier than Rielle Hunter. It's much appreciated.

Day 3-7 recap

This one is going to be relatively short, as I don't have a ton of time.

The rest of the detox week went really well. I woke up with energy for the first time in my life. I was doing yoga every day for 45 minutes, and my refrigerator overflowed with vegetables I would have never purchased ever in my life.

On day 7, I developed a cold. At first I thought it might have been part of the detox, but now I'm realizing it's just a full-on virus. Blerg. I have to say I was tempted to start eating the comfort foods that I would have eaten when I was sick...crackers (gluten-free), juice, hard candies, etc. I was also very tempted to take all the cold and flu medication I had in my cabinet, but I resisted. I knew I would have been flying from the chemicals, and my symptoms weren't bad enough to undo all the hard work I'd done so far.

And then this morning, we got a call that a close family member is in the hospital many states away.

So hopefully you'll hear some more from me over the next few days, but if not you know that it's because of a family emergency.

One thing I did learn from this? You don't have to give up your lifestyle habits just because things get in the way of your plan. I'm still staying away from sugar and I'm still sticking to the detox box regardless of what is going on. And if I have to pack all my hippie powders and vitamins and take them wherever we travel, so be it!

More to come. Until then, love, luck and sugar-free lollipops to all.

Why They Tell You Not To Watch TV On a Detox

Because this is all you see.

OK maybe you don't see some of those things on TV. But the sheer amount of food ads on these days is mindboggling. Would I have noticed this before the detox? Not likely. Am I going to stop buying into this empty marketing and unhealthy eating? Sure am.

Day 2 recap

Well, this day was neither good or bad, but I did finally try vegetable juice. Let's just say, it was a non-starter.

The day started off well. I got up around 7am and got to writing right away. I did laundry in the freezing cold and listened to some more of Pandora's Spa Music Channel. But then I got tired. Really tired. Couldn't move from the couch tired.

I tried to get off my butt and use the Jack Lalaane juicer for the first time. The setup was a breeze, but clearly I pulled too many veggies because the juice ended up filling three small glasses.

The recipe from the detox box only said this: carrots, beets, celery, leafy greens, parsley, cilantro, ginger. It didn't give amounts. So I guessed, and guessed in very wrong amounts. I put in WAY too much celery and cilantro. Once I was ready to drink the stuff, that was the first time I thought "what the hell am I doing?" It was awful. Beyond awful. Vegetable juice already tastes heinous without some tomato but to have that pinchy, tangy aftertaste from the parsley and cilantro was just a slap in the face. At least I know for next time.

Ialso spent part of the day reading Dr. Hyman's blog posts on The Huffington Post. What he says just rings unmistakably true to me. From the gluten allergy to his work in Haiti - he is just awesome. Thank god for dr. hyman because I would not be making these changes now if he wasn't doing his work.

I'm also trying to pretend that I'm not coated in jetfuel every day, thanks to my good friends at LaGuardia airport. Lately, they've been flying so low to the house that I have to look out the window to see if it's going to land on my front yard. I get points for trying, right? Even though I'm trying to get all the toxins out of my life (even getting non-toxic dish soap) I can't help but be bothered every time I hear those jet engines.

Hey, at least I haven't given up yet.

Testing out Twitterfeed.com

Let's see if this sucker really does blast my blog post out to Twitter and Facebook!

Detox: Day 1 recap

Wow...day 1 done and it flew by! Amazing how easy this whole program is...well, relatively easy. There are a few things I'm having a really hard time with, namely getting down the psyllium fiber and the buffered ascorbic acid. They taste awful and have triggered the gag reflex more than once. I've decided to change up my method a bit...instead of 8 oz of water with 2 teaspoons at a time, I'm going to go for 4 oz of water and one teaspoon. The fiber in particular turns super nasty and gelatinous within a matter of minutes, so 3 minutes after it's mixed it looks like brown floating snot. Exactly - gross.

One thing I'm worried about is the lack of trips to the loo. Sure there's a lot of liquid going through me, but there isn't much of anything else if you know what i mean. This makes me nervous for the rest of the weekend!

I've also revised the length of time I'll be on this detox. I'm going to shoot for 3 weeks, since this detox has the option to go this long. But if I get really fed up and desperate for an orange slice I'm going to make it two weeks. I'm not giving up early but the limited foods on this diet are starting to get a little unnerving.

More coming soon!

Why Detox? The Story of a Convoluted Breakup

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I say that not in a cliche or insincere way, but a very literal and personally explosive way. I've decided to do a detox. Not a Master Cleanse crazy detox, but a healthy and reasonable detox.

When I tell this to people, there are two questions I get right off the bat.

1- Which detox are you doing?

That one is easy. I'm doing Dr. Mark Hyman's Detox Box (click on the image to buy it from Amazon). Dr. Hyman was the former co-medical director at the Canyon Ranch in Lenox, MA, a place I've dreamed of visiting for years. It's the gold standard of health spas. If you are willing to fork over the $5,000 fee for a week, you'll be treated to regular massages, yoga classes, hikes and the healthiest meal plan of your life. Sounds dreamy, right?

Without getting too boring, this detox box focuses around resetting the flora and fauna in your gut and eliminating any possible allergens. Though the meal plan is limited, I am able to eat lots of fruits and veggies and even a little bit of fish. This is by no means a starvation plan. It's a "learn how to eat normally" plan.

2- Why in the world would you go on a detox?

This answer gets complicated. Three parts more complicated.

First it comes down to this: I'm a food slut.

There was no price too low or no food too nasty for me to say no to infiltrating my body. What? I can order two everything bagels with scallion cream cheese for the price of one? Sure! That 1 lb bag of peanut butter M&Ms wants to be eaten all in one day or, nay, one sitting? Go on and jump down my throat, boys!

That is how I ended up seriously overweight.

Not TLC special programming overweight, but I'm at a weight that I never thought I'd see again. I said again because I've been on this weight roller coaster my whole life. The last time I went to Weight Watchers and lost more than 40 lbs. with my awesome, sexy husband, I promised that I would never see that weight again. As of last week, I was within 15 lbs of it.

I now weigh ..... AHA! Caught you. You didn't think I would let that slip this early, would you?

Weird Al Yankovic - I'm Fat
Uploaded by Usher1985. - Click for more funny videos.

So that's a large part of it. This detox, I'm hoping, will help me lose a little bit of weight while I learn to eat how humans are meant to eat--nothing from a box, nothing coated in sugar and certainly nothing that can be ordered by phone or internet.

Here's the next part. I am nearing the age of motivation: the big 3-0. Blerg. The age when health problems become nearly irreversible. And both sides of my family have every disease you've ever heard of related to unhealthy living: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, gout. You name it, and my fat butt has the potential to get it.

Plus, there's the sociological pressure of 30. I can hear it now. "Oh, quit your whining. 30 isn't bad at all." That's where you'd be wrong.

Though my circumstances are better than most, I'm approaching 30 in a body and in a life I'm not happy with. I'm overweight (have i made that clear yet?), I don't have a full-time job (though I'm always looking! check me out at elizabethmayo.net) and I'm still living under my parents' roof...technically (more on that in another post).

I am completely grateful for everything I have; my wonderful husband, my flexible and understanding freelance jobs and my incredibly understanding parents that have supported me through a lot. But I am not in control of my destiny right now, and I hate that with a bile-y vengeance.

I think the detox will help me with all of that. My brain says, if I can get control over the one thing that I haven't had control over for my entire life, then maybe everything else will fall into place. I've come up with worse logic for dumber stuff in the past. Maybe if I sleep for two weeks straight, I'll stay UP for two weeks straight!

Here's the last part. You may remember my gluten epiphany.

Over the last 6 months, the connection between anything made with wheat and my obliterated immune system had been proven beyond a doubt. It took a 2-week elimination diet to figure it out. If I eat gluten now, I get serious side effects ranging from mud butt to nearly instant congestion. After so many years in our relationship, my body decided to break up with gluten.

It was my first breakup with a food, and my brain had no control over what my body demanded. Sure, I'd decided not to date certain shellfish foods and any item I had a "consistency issue" with (bananas, avocado for a while, any unidentifiable meat) was off the table. But gluten was the one who comforted me when I was sad, celebrated with me when I was happy and fought on my side in every argument.

Gluten was my true love.

Or so I thought, until it beat me up every time I ate it.

Once I eliminated the glutes from my life, I thought Hey, this is it! I'm going to lose a ton of weight! Not so fast. My weight didn't budge. This was not the best breakup of all time, where I would get skinny and be ready for the next food obsession that came my way.

I assumed I had to have other food allergies. The detox diet was the best idea I could come up with to figure out exactly which ones. Plus, paying for an allergist on my health plan is simply not an option!

If I haven't bored you to tears (or at least dried your eyesockets out with all the screen staring you've done to read this post), I hope you'll come along on the ride with me. I'll be writing regularly about this, and I hope to be posting some video blogs as well just to break things up. Aside from wanting to lose weight, be healthier and get my life back on track, I'm hoping that my detox experience will inspire others to do whatever they really need to do to change their lives for the better.

VIVA LA BODY REVOLUTION!

Going Blue Collar—Mayo's Adventures in Construction Management

Next week, one of my nightmares is coming true. I'm going to be working for my parents's construction company.


Shocking, but not necessarily a bad thing.

For those of you who don't know, my parents run JR Construction Corp and are exclusively contracted to work for Columbia University. Much of my childhood was spent on Columbia's campus, lugging compound cans, sweeping and generally following my dad.

After high school, I focused on a career in media because I wanted nothing to do with this construction career. "Construction isn't for girls," my mom would say. I didn't need any convincing—my plan was to go to college, get my English and Journalism degree, and live in TV land.

Like so much in life, things didn't go according to plan. TV was exhausting, and then I was laid off from my web job earlier this year. All this did teach me a lot, especially that manual labor isn't so scary or so gender-specific. When my apartment had to be renovated, I was happy to pick up a drill and learn how to reinforce sub-floor. I lugged drop cloths with a smile, and hauled cans of garbage with a skip in my step. If I was going to be kicked out of one field and thrown into another, at least I could try to put on a happy face about it.

So from Thursday to Wednesday, I'll be an official construction job manager while my parents jet off to Spain. I'm going to wear the company jacket, put the walkie-talkie hook on my jeans and get some dust in my hair. I'm going to practice my Spanish with my dad's employees and do my darnedest not to get any parking ticket.

This, my friends, should be funny.

A Face That Makes You Want to Talk to It—Or At Least Ask It for Directions

Look at this face.

Sure, I'm generally cheery, friendly and nice to be around. I may look like I at least believe some of the stuff that erupts out of my mouth.

But there's one thing I can't figure out.

I can't see where on my face that it says "ASK ME ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING, AND PLEASE SHARE YOUR LIFE STORY WITH ME AT THE VERY INSTANT THAT WE MEET."


Don't get me wrong. I do NOT wish that I looked like a ripe old hag (though if you asked my husband on the wrong day...he'd say I play the part quite well). I am guessing this invisible-but-somehow-detectable neon sign on my face has been there forever, but it hasn't been so obvious as it has been these past few weeks.

Every day—without fail—I am asked for directions. Doesn't matter if I'm a block away from my house or 150 miles outside the city. It's not like I travel to tourist traps daily, and it's not like I don't get lost. But for some reason, people think I have the answer. The people asking me these questions range from born-and-raised New Yawkers to travelers just passing through town.

Friday night, I was getting off the 1 train at Canal Street. "Hey, hey, psst psst, you...," the guy barked at me. I tried to ignore it, especially since I'll be damned if I'm going to be "psst psst" at. I'm a lady. Why is "excuse me, miss" so hard?

"Hey hey, do you know where Broadway and Church are at?"

"I'm not sure, unfortunately. Let me get out my map."

"A map?" he balks. "What, you not from here?"

So this thing that can't even cordially address me for help is judging me because I need a map of Chinatown? Why did I even bother to help?

"I am, excuse you, but I'm not Rain Man and I don't have every street in the five boroughs memorized. What, are YOU not from here?"

And before he said the words, I knew what the answer would be: "Yeah I'm from here but not this area. I'm from Brooklyn."

Wonderful. I guess that can be everyone's excuse for being rude and having a bad sense of direction.

I pointed out in my trusty Manhattan Diary 2009 that Broadway and Church don't in fact meet, but he and his lady companion should start walking west on Canal. She seemed to have a clue, though she didn't say a word in this entire exchange. Yes, you can assume that he couldn't tell which direction west was, but I proceeded to my destination anyway.

Jump to Saturday morning, as I'm on my way to meet a pregnant friend to go shopping for baby shower gifts. Not half a block out of my house and I get hailed down again. "Hey you...," again with the rude salutation, but I ignore it because it's a woman with a baby. Pregnancy brain is just about the only valid excuse for starting a conversation so rudely.

"I've seen you around the neighborhood and I like your purse," she said.

"Thank you," I said. "It's so nice to talk to someone who speaks English in this neighborhood."

OK, maybe this one was my fault. By being friendly and trying to talk about the neighborhood with this woman, I opened the floodgates. In 15 minutes, I ended up learning her entire life story and part of her medical history. I won't go into details here, but let's just say I learned things that took me 10+ years to learn from other friends. She was super nice, but I was not prepared to learn about this woman's reproductive system, racial views and economic status while I was running to go buy booger suckers and nipple pads at Buy Buy Baby. The conversation ended amicably (somehow with me agreeing to start a campaign for racial sensitivity in the neighborhood) and we exchanged numbers.

I am not a misanthrope (well, not in the Larry David sense), but I do wish that I didn't appear to have SUCH an open invitation for dialogue on my face. If that were the case, then maybe I'd finally make it to my intended destination on time or get all that writing done on the subway. Until then, I'll just settle for not being mocked for using a map.

WNBC's Sue Simmons likes a liquid lunch...just like the rest of us

Maybe it's all the "Mad Men" I've been watching lately. Maybe it's the fact that I completely understand a working girl's need for a stiff one (a DRINK people...get your minds out of the gutter) during the work day. But this story about WNBC anchor Sue Simmons makes me giddy.

LX New York asked the local news legend if she would get loose after a newscast. Not only did she admit to going clubbing between shows, but she also said she used to drink. This is now the headline on Huffingtonpost.com.

Are we so sure she stopped?

This is a woman who cursed on live TV (no doubt at some stagehand who had put too many olives in her 6:05pm martini) and still kept her job. Here's the video to remind you:


This is a woman who also spent a few years with America's favorite curmudgeon, Jack Cafferty. Now, I worked with Jack Cafferty for a few years and though he's actually a very nice man in real life, he is occasionally prickly...to put it nicely.


This is also a woman who has fallen off her anchor chair...


And a woman who regularly does an impression of Punxsutawney Phil every year...


Is anyone surprised at this point that this woman likes her special sauce?

As much as I rip on news outlets focusing on the dumb stories I actually find this one amusing for one reason: It shows that news people are human. Not only human, but also sometimes not-so-great humans who need a drink like everyone else to erase the emotional sludge that accumulates from working a day job.

And if you work in local news for most of your life—-reporting on murders, rapes, fires, break-ins and car chases for 90% of your career—-there's a good chance that you just don't give a frack anymore. And that's OK.

So the next time you see Anderson Cooper or your local newsman, hand them a bottle of vodka. At least the execs won't smell it.

A Whole New World

This is a new person. A new Elizabeth/Liz/Mayo or however you know me by. This is a person who will be blogging regularly, eating better, exercising, job hunting and writing. This is someone who has a clean refrigerator and enough underwear and socks to last TWO FULL WEEKS without doing laundry. That's right, I said it. I'm going to be doing a complete 180 from my current existence and actually DO everything I keep saying I'm going to do. I am no longer content with pointing fingers in your face. I'm actually going to poke my own face and get busy.

I'll even make it a point of not boring you to death with every minute detail of my life. Ok that's a lie, because the narcissist that I am thinks my life is interesting.

So I'm about to get all Aladdin on you. Enjoy.

Mayo's Spread: Gluten is my Bitch

After the intense health battle I've had over the last six months, I've done something somewhat drastic to my diet.

I've eliminated gluten.

You may be wondering why changing my diet would have such a direct effect on my health. Let me explain.

Once I caught whooping cough from a friend's child, my closest lady friends raised the alarm. This was the 4th infection requiring antibiotics and the 6th major illness since getting laid off in January.

The illnesses went as follows:
1- Flu in February
2- Cold in February
3- Throat infection in March
4- UTI in April
5- Throat infection in June
6- Whooping Cough in July

It's not like I went around licking door handles or eating on public toilets after I was laid off. Aside from some stress, most everything else was normal. Now, when you put all my illnesses in a list like that it's pretty depressing, right? Even if you weren't a doctor you'd have to stop and think...maybe there's something going on here to make a seemingly healthy 29-year-old so prone to infections?

I took matters into my own hands and played Dr. Mayo. I may not be related to anyone who founded the Mayo Clinic, but that doesn't mean I can't use my crack research skills and pretend. I've seen enough "Mystery Diagnosis" and been to enough doctors in my life to know how to do this!

My research started with a condition I already have: Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. It's not just hypothyroidism, where the thyroid gland fails to produce the proper hormones to keep your body working. It's an autoimmune condition, where my body literally attacks my thyroid thinking it's a foreign object that must be destroyed. I can't tell if that means my body is self-hating or racist.

In the past, I'd read that many people were having trouble on synthetic thyroid replacements, specifically levothyroxine, the only pill I'd been on since being diagnosed in 2004. I asked my doctor to put me on a natural thyroid pill, known as Armour Thyroid, and at a higher dosage. It's made from powdered pig thyroid, which is kind of gross, but if it works I'm AOK with it. Thankfully, my doc made the switch quickly and I started about two weeks after coming down with the whoop.

I kept digging deeper and found a site that said a very high number of Hashimoto's patients tend to have underlying Celiac's Disease (a genetic condition that prohibits your body from digesting gluten, the protein in wheat that makes your pasta chewy) or gluten intolerance (when your body, over time, can't properly digest gluten). Then I focused my research on this Hashimoto-gluten connection and as I read the symptoms, I realized that I'd found a possible answer to my immune dysfunction.

The argument goes that one is likely a precursor of the other, and each can trigger an autoimmune reaction in the body. So if my body is too busy fighting my thyroid and any wheat/gluten particle in my diet, then it doesn't have any firepower left to protect me from things like whooping cough, throat infections or the dreaded swine flu that is expected to blow up this fall.

Now afraid that any slice of bread, cookie or pasta could literally kill me, I've elimiated it from my diet in the hopes of noticing a difference.

It's been about 10 days on a gluten-free (GF) diet, and there are a few things I've noticed so far:

1- I have really random cravings for wheat items. I'm assuming this is part of the withdrawal process. Three days into the GF diet, I had a wicked migraine that led to vomiting. And as it was happening, my body kept telling me "you need crackers." WTF? I just puked and you want me to eat the thing that could be killing me? I could only guess that my body was freaking out at the lack of wheat in my body. Then the other day, I had a really bad craving for donuts after seeing a Dunkin' commercial. Like, a violent, I'll-tip-cars-and-punch-old-ladies-for-a-bite craving. Now I know how heroin addicts feel in rehab. I had to stay strong.

2-*WARNING THIS IS GOING TO GET GROSS*
I have no gas. Pre-GF diet, I could rival ANYONE in a farting contest. Like, killing plants and choking babies fart contest. It got to the point that I thought my husband was ready to ask for a separation. Since going on the GF diet, my gas has almost been reduced to zero. That's enough of a change for me to keep going. And my husband is thrilled.

3- I have more energy for the first time in months, if not years, and my insomnia is waning. I'm not back to normal, but I'm definitely able to stay awake longer during the day and sleep longer during the night. This could be due to the fact that I changed my thyroid medicine, but I'm also guessing it's because my body isn't so tired having to fight off the gluten all day. I remember noticing that everytime I had pasta or a sandwich for lunch at work, I would want to pass out right afterwards. Now I have a meal and I feel the same energy level before as I do after.

4- I've lost some weight. In this short period of time, I've lost about 5 lbs. Even the old soccer player guy living across the street stopped me the other day to say he's noticed I've lost weight. Major plus.

It is early on in the process and my symptoms aren't gone, but this is an interesting start. I'm not saying I have Celiac's, but I'm pretty certain I do have gluten intolerance. And though many sites suggest getting checked out by doctors before starting a GF diet, I'm not going to be doing that. I don't have insurance right now, and the last thing I want is to have a "disease" listed on my medical chart for health insurance companies to pounce on once I do have coverage again. Plus, if the only treatment is to go on a GF diet, then why am I going to be hundreds of dollars for testing?

All this research has been very interesting, I must say. It seems that possibly millions of people around world have a problem with wheat and gluten, and many don't know about it. A recent Reuters report said that cases of Celiacs are up dramatically, according to Mayo Clinic research (HA! Mayo's know their stuff). Even more interesting is that this increase in gluten sensitivity isn't just happening in the U.S.—it's going on around the world, regardless of income level or race.

If you want my opinion (you're on my blog so you're going to get it), I think gluten intolerance is WAY more widespread than people think, and it may be an underlying cause of the obesity epidemic. Researchers are finding that many people with Celiacs or gluten intolerance are overweight, where previously it was thought that weight loss and malnutrition were the only indicators. All this "you're eating for emotional reasons" bullcrap is really masking that our bodies have a chemical dependence on these highly processed foods (even though it's killing us) and turning them down is really difficult. Once you realize how many foods have wheat and gluten—from salad dressings to beer to barbecue sauce to cookies to vitamins—this theory might not sound so crazy.

If you want to read more about living gluten free, gluten intolerance or Celiac's, here are some sites you can visit.

www.gluten.net
glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com
holdthegluten.net

And please share your thoughts! Do you think you have gluten intolerance? Do you think my theory is full o poop?

The Daily WTF: Why Liz Mayo Hasn't Posted in Months

Wow...that last post was depressing. It turns out my health didn't improve much from then. Long story short, I was quite sick and it sucked. I'm much better now so ON WITH THE SHOW!

One thing I did do while not blogging was visit a shooting range. This is a WTF if I ever wrote one. My brother, sister, sister's boyfriend, a bunch of other people and I went to take a training course with some dude who I would swear had PTSD. He said he had Kelly Osbourne in the same shooting range and she wanted him to have her target after it was all done. I don't think I believe him.

Here's some photos to entertain you all. Thankfully, no one got hurt. I promise there will be more posts here soon.

The Daily WTF: Why the Flu Sucks

This is what happens when you get the version of the flu that is going around NYC. You feel compelled to make pathetic faces and put on any ridiculous accessory that you find in your sister's room.

I'm back...starting to feel closer to normal than I have in a long time, but still feeling like a 17-year-old since I'm living in my parents' house. The repairs to our new place should only take two more weeks, and then I'll be blogging LIVE from FLUSHING! WOOT WOOT.

Until then, I'm going to hope and pray that the FDIC really did insure my account at Citibank. The fact that the company is tanking fast, and Dick Parsons is now in charge (you know, that guy who screwed up Time Warner and invested in another company that I worked for that is near failure and shall remain nameless) makes me think the number on my statement might be imaginary.

I'm wondering when we're going to see a run on the banks like in "Mary Poppins"? I actually went looking for this video and found the whole song in that scene, and it's pretty prophetic. Watch it below.

The Daily WTF: Mayo has Flu

I know I keep making promises to you lovely people, then breaking them.

I am sorry.

I have this freaky-mutated-awful-gross-painful flu that is going around NYC, and I have barely had the strength to get out of bed, much less entertain you all.

Things will get back to normal soon. I hope?