I saw this and had to share!

For the past few weeks I have gone a little daft on coke. The thing is, at work they supply us with drinks:

• Coke.
• Fanta.
• Lift - fizzy apple drink.
• Sweetened apple and orange juice.
• Apollinaris fizzy water.
• Vio still water (made by Apollinaris).

We used to get Volvic still water and this fizzy water called Ambassador, but due to costs they turned to slightly cheaper versions in the Apollinaris brands. I have tried to drink both waters, but to be blunt: they taste like toilet water. There just is a taste to it that makes it almost impossible to drink, even when it’s mixed with apple or orange.

So I resorted to drinking Coke all the time for a good few weeks. I have to admit that I drank a lot and I started to feel bad for it. Always needing to use the toilet and feeling bloated and horrible. I also thought I would end up having diabetes cause of the sugar overload, but I was not continuing to find out.

About a week ago I said “no” - No to Coke and No to fizzy ‘bad for you’ drinks.

I have forced myself to try and drink the Apollinaris water and so far, it’s working. But what has alarmed me are the after effects. I have lost a little weight, I am a little more grumpy than I used to be, I am actually openly thinking about Coke, like it was a light addiction and my energy is super low, like I need sugar.

I’ll be honest, if a supposedly “soft” drink has this kinda effect on your body, then it should never be up for sale. But then you wonder.

What about Diet Coke or Coke Zero. No sugar, right?

They use a chemical called “Phenylalanine” as part of the sweetener. Now this is an amino acid and is in fact an essential part of your diet. But this stuff taken in large doses in excess of 5,000 mg a day is dangerous. Here is a short list of what this can do to you:

• Nerve damage.
• Nausea, heartburn and headaches.
• Phenylalanine is a neurotoxin and excites the neurons in the brain to the point of cellular death.
• Emotional and behavioral disorders.
• Hypertension and/or migraine headaches.
• Extreme thirst.
• Weight gain.

Now, just before I tell you the rest, you gotta know what the symptoms of phenylalanine deficiency are:

• Apathy
• Confusion
• Decreased alertness
• Lack of energy
• Loss of muscle
• Lowered appetite
• Memory troubles
• Stunted growth
• Weakness

It makes you feel like it’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. Well, phenylalanine is found in high protein foods like milk, meats and nuts - also, you can get it from bananas and asparagus, to name a few. These are obviously healthy foods and should be a part of your normal diet. But when I consider my intake of phenylalanine through non natural sources, then I get worried that I could be getting way too much.

Let’s say my normal intake would be a glass of milk, a pack of nuts and a banana. I will feel fine for the day. But what happens when I drink a liter of diet Coke and chew some gum? I am over the limit. Now, I might not have enough phenylalanine in my system to kill brain cells, but then how do I know what this crap is doing to me?

Then I think back to the story of the woman who died in her apartment. They had to have a wall removed to get her out. It was discovered that she drank liters and liters of diet Coke, constantly chewed gum and all sorts of other stuff. I know it would have been a heart attack and her weight that killed her, but you can’t help but wonder if certain chemicals in the Coke contributed to her frame of mind, making her look for more comfort food.

Often I hear fit and healthy people say “once you get fit and healthy, it’s easy to stay that way”, maybe that’s partly because they don’t have these or other chemicals in unhealthy foods pulling at them any more.

However, I also think back to the girl in a radio competition, wanting to win a Wii. She was to drink a load of water and hold in her bodily functions for as long as possible. The woman died of water poisoning!

Can too much of a presumably safe and good thing kill you? I guess so! As always, moderation seems key.

Hey there guys!

Phew, I am back and I am here to explain what happened.

I took some blogging time out to figure out some job issues I was having. I hate my current employment and decided that I should go look for something new.

Well, I applied and got a couple of interviews booked. I can’t tell you how nervous I was when it got to sitting down and talking with the interviewers, but let’s say on the outside at least I kept my cool.

The interviews went pretty well, to be honest. I thought I answered everything truthfully and correctly. Even the last guy that interviewed me said that he liked me and would like to offer me a position - if one were available.

I can’t possibly understand that I go to an interview (hold it, 2 interviews) and I am told “hey you’re cool, but we got you to take holidays and dress up for nothing, cause we don’t have anything here for ya”.

The first company said that although they had the position available which I actually applied for, they thought I was underqualified - fair enough. But then to offer me a freelance position was really insulting, considering the job I applied for was full time and could have paid well. I have to care for my child somehow, something as unstable as freelance work just won’t cut it.

The interview at the second company went really well. I was in there for about an hour, talking about what I have done, where I have been and, more importantly, where I would like to go. Hell, we even chit chatted about cameras and Edinburgh, so it was a friendly interview. But it came to it that the company isn’t sure about whether to have the department which I would join in house or outsourced. As I said before, he said he liked me and if the company decided on the in house option, they would give me a call and get me in for another talk (I would assume it would be a refresher interview and an offer of a job). I would know by February at the latest. Somehow I feel that I would be forgotten by then. Oh well!

So, the day after my hour of wasted time it’s back to work for me. Back to being stuck in an uncreative, soulless job. Things have to change soon!

Our neighbours have been treated to an extra dose of daily screams lately - courtesy of the Munchkin. Whenever she’s lying on her belly, she pulls her legs towards her belly, pushes her little butt up in the air and sort of pushes or slides forward a tiny bit. This technique does not yet quite seem to yield the required results, so our Munchkin gets annoyed quickly and voices her displeasure. I know this is all part of the learning process, but I still find it a bit sad that she’s trying so hard and not quite managing to get anywhere. Anyway, I am assuming she will get a handle on the crawling business soon enough. Which reminds me that we need to start baby proofing the apartment - a tremendously tedious task in our tiny and cluttered living space.

Tomorrow we’ll have our U5 examination (the six to seven months general examination). I’m always a bit anxious before these appointments, feeling like a test could potentially be failed - can Munchkin do everything she’s supposed to be doing at her age? Is she properly developed? She’s also supposed to get the next round of shots in the course of this appointment, but I am not so sure it’s going to happen. Her temperature has been relatively high for the last few weeks and we haven’t really been able determine the cause of that. The last doctor we went to said it’s possible that she just generally has a higher core temperature, but he said it needed to be checked out - as soon as she’ll have a temperature of over 38 degrees Celsius for three days in a row, we’ll be back at his practice to check her blood and urine.

By the end of her sixth month, Munchkin will try solid food for the first time. I really want to cook for her myself - I think parsnips will be the veg of choice. I am reading a very good book on baby nutrition and hope I’ll do everything right in that department. I might be overthinking things sometimes, but I’d rather be overly obsessing about these things than to make the wrong decisions right from the start.

Geez, time is flying by so incredibly fast - I can’t believe our Munchkin is six months old already! Next year in August, she will be attending a creche, a situation I am very much struggling with. If money did not dictate my decision there, I would not yet give my little girl into childcare. I just can’t imagine not to have my Munchkin around me all the time - ever since she was born, she’s been with me. The Laddie has taken her for a walk without me once or twice so far and I could never fully relax when he did. I just really want to be with her, no matter how stressful things can be sometimes. Soon enough, she won’t want to be around me all the time, so while I can, I must take advantage of the fact that so far she can’t even crawl away from me and my hugs, cuddles and kisses.

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Berlin is getting ready for the Christmas season. Christmas, people!! Time flies when you’re having…well, no time for anything, really. It looks like this year will be the first Christmas that we will actually be spending in Berlin - I am always extremely excited about this time of year, but now that we have our Munchkin around I just want things to be perfect. I truly hope I can spare our daughter the constant bickering and negative feelings that have been associated with this festive season in my family for decades. I will not have Christmas spoiled for her. I just can’t stand the thought of my little girl being just as disappointed and heartbroken as I have been many a time in my childhood and even in recent years.

Anyway, things are still in desperate need of some sort of organization around here. My To Do list has gotten so long over the past five months or so that I just feel overwhelmed to even think about it. So baby steps it is - my first task will be to sift through all my lists and general paperwork. I need to have an idea of what exactly needs to be done, so I can prioritize. I’ve come to realize that I need a clear plan of action and certain time frames in which to do things. For example, household tasks used to barely ever get done any more, cause I just felt overwhelmed. I’d start cleaning and clearing everywhere at once and never had the time to finish anything, because eventually the Munchkin would demand attention. When I’d get back to cleaning, my routine would be all messed up and I never really had anything done to my satisfaction, so at some point I just started procrastinating - thereby obviously not achieving anything whatsoever. Apparently this kind of situation can only continue for so long before you drown in your own mess. So last week, I started taking on one task for the duration of 30 minutes every evening. It actually works out fine: whatever I don’t get done in those 30 minutes, I will do the next day. I don’t feel like I have to do everything all at once - et voilà, we’re slowly getting somewhere.

Speaking of getting somewhere, I very much need to get to bed at the moment. Sleep well!

As you have no doubt been able to deduce from our lack of posts, we have not yet organized ourselves any better since our last blogging appearance. I seriously don’t know when, if ever, we will get back to any sort of routine in our daily life. Things like that today aren’t as important as they used to seem, though - it’s just so amazing to see our Munchkin grow and learn more every day. She will be 5 months and 3 weeks old tomorrow and she’s SO adorable! She rolls from her belly onto her back and the other way round now, she smiles a lot and even sometimes graciously bestows a laugh upon her humble parents. Here are some new pictures for you!

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Apart from our Munchkin, things around here still are a mess, to be frank. The Laddie and I are struggling in many areas and can’t seem to clear our heads quite long enough to sort anything out properly. Something has to change, as we both very clearly feel the strain of it all take its toll on our happiness and general wellbeing. First things first, though - the Munchkin and I are battling a viral infection. I am worried about my baby girl, as she hasn’t been quite well for a little while now. I’ll go and take her to the doc again as soon as possible. Also, I will definetely try to get back to blogging on a hopefully regular basis. I hope you’re all doing good out there!