This is why I’m voting for Barack Obama

Barack Obama: ‘A More Perfect Union’ (Full Speech)

I am glad that Obama spoke about the issue of race. His speech is incredibly eloquent and powerful. We are at a critical time in our nation to show the world that we are more than our past and that we are finally ready to truly embrace the notion that “all people are created equally.”

We have a major problem with racism in America, and it is finally time to examine our values on the issue and begin to deal with the notion of White privilege that is still at work in our country.

My hope is that we look beyond gender and race and vote for the best person for the job. A person who can help us move forward and evolve as a nation. To me the only choice in our next leader is Barack Obama.

I have the audacity to hope; maybe you do, too. Yes we can!

Yes We Can Obama Song by will.i.am

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No more butts…soon

Yesterday BFF and I attended our first Freedom from Tobacco class through Kaiser.  The class meets once a week for 7 weeks, an hour and a half each session.

I’ve been thinking a lot about quitting smoking, even though I really do love it.  I know how gross it is, and how bad it is for me, but it’s been hard for me to think about quitting because I have a huge fear of failure.  I haven’t truly attempted to quit because I don’t want to fail and go back to smoking.  Then recently, I thought to myself, “why am I going to continue to smoke when I’m trying so hard to lose weight and lead a much healthier lifestyle?”  It makes no sense to finally get down to my goal weight (when that happens someday) and build up my physical health only to continue to weaken it through smoking. Plus, smoking stinks, it’s expensive, and I hate that I feel so like an outcast because I smoke.

So, when BFF mentioned that she had signed up for this support group, I decided to join it, too.

I really enjoyed the class, the teacher, and the other participants in the group.  The philosophy is to take baby steps towards quitting, which begins with doing some exercises in a book they give us that help to determine why we smoke, when we smoke, and how we feel about smoking.  This week’s homework is to do a few worksheets in the book that help identify the way we smoke and to try to stop smoking in the car.  For me, smoking in the car is a huge habit, because it’s my opportunity to smoke on the way to or on the way home from school.  Since I don’t smoke all day at school, it’s hard for me to imagine giving this up, but I guess it is the first step towards quitting for good.

Eventually, we will be given Wellbutrin and the patch to assist us in quitting.  Next week we’re going to be filling out some forms so that the doctor can determine the correct dosage of the individual prescriptions.

We found out, as well, that our quit day is January 29th.  I like the fact that we’ll have 3 more classes before we actually quit.  I’ll be taking Wellbutrin for a week before attempting to quit, so that should help me become more successful.  After the quit date, we have 3 more sessions for support and guidance.

One of my mom’s good friends quit smoking by using this program, so I am very hopeful that I’ll be successful as well.  My main concern about quitting is that I’ll gain weight.  Hopefully I’ll have laid the groundwork to quit without too much trouble, and if I can keep my weight loss goals in mind while I’m swearing off cigs, I hope I’ll be able to do it without too much of an increased appetite.

Wish me luck!

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