I am having more than a few problems trying to find the balance of a mom who works fulltime, volunteers, studies (or tries), and a daughter of an elderly mother who needs more care. Ugh, it makes me tired just reading it.

After much soul searching I decided to leave my husband's business in July. I was feeling stressed working with my husband for more than 16 years and totally bored with my duties. My husband and I have totally different points of view in how to run businesses. My husband wants growth for the sake of growth, I want businesses in which I participate to have controlled growth with the best use of personal talents. When my husband starting going in 14 different directions and not using his skills and talents to their best advantages, I decided it was time to hang up my hat.

I had quite a bit of fallout, but I was able to get a new job as a VP Operations with a polyurethane factory. The upside is the hours are incredibly flexible, the downside is I am dealing with employees who need quite a bit of "fixing." Because the whole factory needs to be fixed from the foundation up, I end up forgetting to eat at lunch, with the end result being a horrible, ugly, cortisol belly that is growing by the day.



Theoretically speaking, as the reductionist/diet gurus would say it is simple, lower calories should equal less weight.

Not in my case!!!! The more I stress myself (SNPS from an a Father), the rounder the belly. I keep thinking I was born in the wrong century, I would have been perfect in a time and place where feasting and famine were the norm. I would have survived the famines with no problem!!!!

I have made a discovery about my thyroid and coffee. I have had a love affair with coffee since I was 4 years old and gave up milk. I found out on a trip to my German grandparents house that milk made my throw up but the coffee my Oma gave to me settled my stomach made me feel calm and happy. From the age of 4 until I was around 26, I self medicated with coffee to keep me happy. When I was 26, I was diagnosed with severe migraines and the first cut was coffee, but coffee seems to reenter my life when I get stressed out.

Hence, this summer I started up with my drug of choice and made the shocking discovery that coffee made my thyroid hurt and bulge slightly and my ear canals would swell and hurt!!!! The minute I stop the half cup in the morning is the minute my thyroid stops aching...who would have thought!!! I am painfully letting go of the caffeine habit and replacing it with green tea. Not quite as satisfying at coffee but an absolutely necessary choice.