Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Back in November my friend started having health issues and the doctors ended up putting her on a special diet thinking she was allergic to certain things and since then she has lost 35 pounds!   I was so excited for her when she wrote it on her FB page today as I remember how I felt when I had lost that much weight.  People always assume that you must of done diet pills or a quick trim fast cleanse, but it is possible to lose the weight the cheaper way by just watching what you eat (don’t have those 2nd’s and 3rd) and just going outside and enjoying the outdoors by walking, bike riding, playing tag with the kids.

Is it just me or does it seem like everyone now a days pops pills?  While it might not be pain pills or pills that lower their cholesterol they might be popping pills like vitamins or other supplements. 

Yesterday in the news they started talking about how some fish oil pills are now considered unsafe.   Here people had been digesting them thinking they were suppose to be making themselves better to find out instead they were doing the opposite.  I’ll never forget asking our pediatrician about giving our kids vitamins.  According to him as long as our kids ate a well balanced diet, they wouldn’t need to take vitamins, which was ok for me as I think who knows what exactly is in those pills. 

Then I wonder if they find things unsafe in fish oil pills, how are we to know what could be in something like diet pills.  Could there be just as as bad stuff in them and if so what would the diet pill side effects be?   So before you pop that next pill, it might be best to do a little more research about them.

I think every one of us has a scar somewhere on ourselves, just that some of us (me included) have scars that are a little worse than others.  I’m not sure about you, but there are a lot of days where I wish we had enough money where I could see a dermatologist to have them take a look at mine to see if there is anything they could at getting rid of them.    I just can’t imagine what it would be like to be able to walk around in public with shorts on for as now I am so uncomfortable about them that the only time I wear shorts are when I’m at home and I know no one is coming over. 

I’ve seen products at the store for acne scars removal and always wonder is a scar a scar? Would those products work on any kind of scar? I’m sure it wouldn’t work on mine as mine are raised (that’s why I think I would have to go to a dermatologist) but how awesome would it be if it indeed would work!

Most people in west Michigan already knows that Meijer has free antibiotics at their pharmacy, but I didn’t know if you knew that starting June 1st 2008 they also have free prenatal vitamins! 

I keep thinking how wonderful it is that Meijer does this as prenatal vitamins play an important role in healthy pregnancies and healthy babies.   So now there is no excuse for soon to be mother’s in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky (that are near a Meijer) to not be taking prenatal vitamins when they are pregnant.

Let me just say I’m so proud of all my facebook friends who set a goal this year of loosing weight as I swear every one of them are still updating their facebook pages letting us know how they are working out (Cardio, weight training), what they are using (Treadmill, Elliptical or dip machine) and to top it off, they also have been excited telling us how much they have lost! I have one friend who has lost 14 pounds this year so far!! (Way to go Heather!)

Reading all their posts gets me motivated as I keep thinking if they can do it, so can I! So far I’ve only lost 5 lbs this year, but that’s with me not trying hard and not doing the exercising I should.  My goal is when we get back from our vacation to haul out the treadmill and start working out again on that.  After all it worked a year or two ago, I’m sure it will this year too!

It seems like every day my Dad ends up having a really bad headache.  I know this was going on back when he was working (he retired 8 year ago.. I can’t believe it’s been 8 years already!) and we thought maybe it was just stress from work.  But since it continued after he retired we knew that wasn’t the case.  He went to the doctor and they did do a scan (don’t remember if it was a cat scan or MRI) and thankfully they didn’t see any cancer and the doctor said that he has arthritis in his neck which is causing the headaches. 

That’s where I wish there was something I could do to get rid of it for him so he could go headache free for while.  I found a psoriatic arthritis treatment, but first off I don’t know if that’s the kind of arthritis he has.  (Honestly I didn’t know there were certain kinds)  Plus after reading the warnings on it I’m thinking maybe he would be better to have the headaches.  Of course who am I to say since I’m not living with them every day.

Guess I’ll just keep searching and praying I can find something all natural that will help him.

I’m quite impressed!  It always seems like the first two weeks of the new year everyone always talks about going to the gym and loosing weight, then after the first two weeks you never hear about it anymore and instead you hear things like women asking if there is any fat burner for women that actually works. 

What I am impressed about is the girls on my Momma board and friends on facebook that are still going strong on wanting to loose weight so they are still going to they gym doing their cardio and lifting their weights!  I love reading their weigh ins saying they lost some more poundage that will NEVER be back on!  I hope for them that is truly the case as I had said that before and it snuck back on, plus some. 

While I’m not going to the gyms, I am trying to watch what I eat and just by doing that I have lost a few pounds.  Now we shall see what happens after this weekend since I’m heading to Vegas.  Will I lose more thanks to all the walking we will be doing?  Or will I gain due to the food we will be eating?  All I know is I want to continue to eat in moderation as I would love to come back with either a couple pounds lost or at least maintained!  Wish me luck!

Today has already been quite the busy day. This morning I ended up taking the kids to the dentist today to have some cavities filled and then afterwards we went to Meijer & JcPenny’s to return some clothes I had bought myself the day prior. While trying the clothes on at the store I thought they looked good, to get them home and try them on for Paul and deciding they didn’t look so good after all.

The return went great at Meijer as we were in and out. Then we went to Woodland Mall and went to return the shirt there and that went good, but then I thought maybe I should see if they have any swimsuits out for me and/or clothes for the kids. Yes, the swimsuits are out, but Kevin just about had to pick me up off the floor when I saw the price on them! Yes, they were having a sale.. buy one get one 1/2 off, but I don’t need two suits, I only need one! So needless to say (which was probably a good thing) I didn’t have to try any on.

Then off to the kids sections we went. I didn’t find anything for Katie, but I did end up finding Kevin a couple long sleeved shirts and a package of underwear and ended up getting them all for $15.25 which I didn’t think was bad since I ended up saving $33.60!

After finding the deals we ended up stopping for lunch and got home to where Paul was sitting here with a headache. It’s amazing how he got the quiet house and I was the one with the noisy kids, yet he had the headache. He said he already popped some aspirin and I think it started going away because before long I was starting to get one as well. (Gotta love it when you share headaches)

Thankfully my headache never got to bad as I didn’t have to take any aspirin, but I couldn’t help and think of my friends that are always getting migraine headaches. I’m one of the lucky ones who have never experienced one and by the sounds of things I’m extremely lucky not to of, but I always wonder if there is some kind of migraine treatment that would help them where they no longer would get them and could just “enjoy” the occasional headache now and then. Have you ever done any kind of migraine treatments? If so, did it work?

All I can say is our Thanksgiving of 2009 was so not what we expected.  Usually my extended family will meet over at my aunts house for a potluck dinner.  I always bring the snicker salad and this year I also was going to make some meatballs.  Unfortunately due to the illness in our house earlier in the week I had decided we wouldn’t be attending the Thanksgiving dinner just in case we were still contagious even though I didn’t think we were, but I would rather be safe than sorry.

So for our small Thanksgiving meal here at home we decided we would have Venison wraps, snicker salad (hey.. I had the stuff to make it, I might as well right?) Sweet potatoes, corn and apple pie for dessert.  Things were going great… Paul made up the venison wraps while the kids & I organized the living room as we would be putting our Christmas tree up later that night.  Since it was getting closer to lunch time Paul thought he would start grilling the wraps and outside he went.  Then not that long afterwards he came back inside with excruciating pain.  He kept saying something wasn’t right and had a sharp pain on his left side.   At that point he was knealing by the couch, but before long he was on the floor moaning really loud. 

I asked if I should be taking him to the ER (I know he has a low pain tollerance so I wasn’t quite sure how bad it truly was) and he said not yet.  Well, a few minutes later he told me to call someone to come here so they could watch the kids.  I knew my parents would be over at my aunts house (10 minutes away) so I called them to see if my Dad could come over and watch the kids so I could take Paul in. 

My Dad hurried over and Paul and I jumped in our car and off we went.  Thankfully the hospital is only 10-15 minutes away from our house and when we arrived Paul walked to the ER door, but as we were at the window signing in he ended up falling to the floor in pain where the receptionist started hitting the button under her desk to get a nurse out there ASAP.   We (the nurse and I)  got him in a wheel chair and off we went to the ER room and as soon as we got in the room, the ER doctor walked in and told the nurse he would put the IV in if she would go get the pain meds.   

The pain meds weren’t working fast enough for Paul and he was still moaning when they wheeled him away to get a cat scan to verify what they were thinking (as we were) that he was dealing with Kidney stones.   As I sat in the little room I realized one thing I should of done before my Dad came over was put the book I was reading in the car.  It would of been a perfect time to get caught up on my reading.  ~wink~    I lucked out though as there were some  magazines in the hall so I grabbed the AARP and really, it wasn’t as bad as what I thought it was going to be.

Before long Paul was wheeled back and I could tell the pain meds had kicked in as he looked so relaxed as if he could fall asleep.  What a difference 5-10 minutes could make!  Needless to say we sat around waiting for the results and when they came back we found out that yes he did have a 2mm size kidney stone that was about to drop in his bladder.   Since he had to urinate before we could leave (they wanted to make sure he didn’t also have an infection) we were stuck there for awhile yet. 

We finally we able to leave and were given 3 different prescriptions that we needed to get filled.  Of course with it being a holiday we had no clue what would be open so the nurse looked it up on their list and supposedly the Meijer pharmacy by our house was suppose to be open until 6pm, which gave me time to drop off Paul, go inside to Thank my Dad for watching the kids and then head out with 1-2 hours to spare!  So that’s what I did and after I found a nice close parking spot and started walking towards the store I could see that the pharmacy looked quite dark and when I got to the door there was a sign saying they were open, but until 2pm.. not 6pm!  So I went across the street to Wal-greens to find out their pharmacy was also closed, but there was one about 20 minutes away that was open, so off I went.  You could tell they were probably the only pharmacy open in town as they were quite busy and I didn’t end up getting home until 6pm, but after we ate and before Paul decided to hit the hay I did talk him into bringing our Christmas tree up from downstairs and the kids & I spent the night decorating it! 

As you can see, it was quite a crazy day for me (along with the days & week before) so needless to say you will now understand why I might end up talking about how excited I am for this upcoming Saturday when I get to go to Birch Run with a couple friends and will even be spending the night!   Let alone when it gets closer to my Las Vegas & orlando vacations!!   Needless to say I can’t wait for next year as I have a feeling at least the beginning of it will be the year of travel for me!

I know most of us want to lose weight not just we will look and feel better, but did you know that you can actually save money as well?   If you don’t believe me, just ask your insurance agent and ask them who gets better life insurance rates.    People who are at the healthy weight or over weight.  When we signed up for life insurance I’ll never forget our agent told us then that if we lost weight and I got back down to 130 lbs (that’s what I was in High School!) that our rates would drop!  I’ll never forget that so in case you do have a life insurance policy and you did end up losing weight and are at where you are suppose to be… call your insurance agent as you should end up saving some money on your life insurance policy!