Health Supplement Update

Eleven days ago I began a regimen of health supplements in an effort to get control over my body and hopefully FEEL BETTER. I also cut out all diet soft drinks after nearly 30 years of consuming them.

The decision to nix diet sodas caused a bit of a setback. Although I never felt that I was over-consuming, drinking about 1-2 cans a day, it was slowly dawning on me that maybe this stuff was causing some of my problems. The more I read about saccharin and other artificial sweeteners, the more concerned I became about their effects.

Let me tell you that these evil, manufactured sugars did not want to go quietly into the night. Last week I experienced migraines so fierce, I thought I would need hospitalization. Accompanying those debilitating headaches was nausea. I kept telling myself: "You're stronger than these chemicals! Don't let them beat you!"

It was full-on war.

So I persevered, continuing to take my Valvoline...er...flax oil, vitamins, herbal teas, and eat sensibly. Guess what? I've noticed the last few days I haven't been as hungry. I can actually be satisfied with less food. Before embarking on this journey, I thought I might really have a tapeworm because I was hungry and craving foods all the frickin' frackin' time. I would eat and eat and never be satisfied.

Not only is my appetite under control, my memory has improved. The cobwebs in my brain have been brushed away, leaving me with clearer thinking. Speaking of brushing, my hair has never looked better. My acid reflux has calmed down. My energy hasn't been at this level since...well, I don't really remember when I felt this energized. Seriously. I am BLOWN AWAY by these results.

I know the supplements are helping me too, so I don't want to take away their role in this, but I think the biggest culprit was the diet soft drinks! I found this article today on mudphudder's blog and it was quite an eye opener. All this time I thought I was saving myself precious calories when all I was doing was confusing my body into thinking it was getting something sweet when it wasn't. Apparently, the body will rebel when constantly getting mixed signals. Excerpt:

When people eat sweet foods, the sweet taste signals an impending high-calorie bolus to the body, which registers caloric fulfillment of energy needs and also induces metabolic changes for use of the incoming energy. With use of these low-calorie sweeteners, these natural responses are disrupted because the body can no longer trust a sweet taste to indicate a high-calorie intake. After a while, the body can no longer accurately gauge daily caloric intake, causing a rise in appetite while burning fewer calories.

My poor body must've stopped trusting me! I hope after 30 years of this abuse that it can find a way to forgive me. And heal.

Elm Fork Nature Preserve

It was hot as Hades, but under the canopy of trees it wasn't too bad. The trails were padded with a nice cushiony mulch that felt good under foot. We were hoping to see some wildlife - there were, after all, signs every so often warning of poisonous snakes - but it was probably too hot. My compadres:

Well Oiled Machine

This week I have devoted some of my free time to researching Hypothyroidism and Auto Immune diseases in order to get a handle on my health. I learned that prescription medication alone may not alleviate the symptoms - which in my case it certainly hasn't - and is, in all probability, only masking the root of the problem. The last several years I have not taken care of myself properly and now my body is letting me know by raging a full scale attack - ON ITSELF. My diet has been crap and virtually no exercise to speak of. I've got to do something.

So I decided to add herbal supplements to the mix. I'm starting out small so as not to overwhelm the ol' bod, but so far I am pleasantly surprised at the results. This is my new arsenal:

Let's start with flax oil. I have it sitting in the fridge next to the bottled water so that I will remember to take it. Not only does it look like something that should go in my car engine, it is how I imagine a tablespoon of Valvoline might taste. I'm supposed to ingest 1-3 tablespoons per day. Right now I can barely get one down. And my lips feel oily afterwards.

My next dose was the B-complex in liquid form. You have to put it under your tongue and leave it there for 30 seconds. They might as well have said 30 minutes. It's the longest 30 seconds you will ever endure. I'd almost rather walk over hot coals for 30 seconds, but that won't help my thyroid.

Then I made myself a steaming cup of Yerba Mate tea. Have you ever tasted dirt? Maybe as a kid? I played quite a bit in the dirt as a child and I think I remember this same taste in my mouth at the end of the day. But you know what? I drank it all because I'm finally wearing my big girl panties and realize that this is good for me.

Thankfully, the primrose oil came in gel caps. The other supplements I decided to nix in favor of an organic multi-vitamin made especially for women. This vitamin had many of the supplements I was going to purchase separately such as D, Selenium, and Calcium.

Last night after the tasty trio of flax, Yerba Mate, and B-complex, I felt good enough to take the dogs for a walk. And this morning, I ingested the same cocktail again, along with the multi-vitamin, and now I'm going to clean the bathrooms.

Except for my mouth tasting like it just had an oil change, I feel great! I am worried, however, that Double D will mistake me for his Honda.

Google Garble

Last week I received my Google Voice invite. It's a really cool service that basically allows me to choose a personal phone number from a list of available numbers. With this new number, I can control where I receive calls, whether land line, work and/or cell. Simply tie your numbers to it, set up a contact list, and personalize where you want the calls to go.

There is a "send to voice mail" option for those annoying souls that always seem to call at the wrong time. Beautiful, right? For close family and friends, you can instruct calls to go to your work and cell. If someone leaves a message, you can listen in on the message while the person is leaving it and decide if you want to accept the call at any time during the message. Read more here.

But the COOLEST thing about Google Voice is the voice mail transcription. This cutting edge technology will send a text to your phone with a brief snippet of the voice mail, an email to your gmail account along with transcription, and also to the Google Voice account with the transcribed text and the actual recording.

I've had the number about a week only giving it to Jay, and that was simply because it came up in an email conversation. As much as I think this is the coolest thing I've seen in a while, I wasn't quite ready to send out the mass email to have everyone change my number. I was just getting my toes wet - you know - testing the water. Well, my daughter found out that Jay had my new number, so she called it tonight and left a voice mail asking me to explain why Jay had the number and she didn't. When I got the alert, this is what the transcription said:

hello apparently danny hi it's your new google order number but you're all in order to not you know i thought that was a bit of a travis he and if you gimme a call back and hopefully we can rectify that situation alright bye

When I read that I thought, 'now what kind of yay-hoo is leaving me cryptic messages on an otherwise boring Thursday evening?' When I clicked play and heard my daughter's playful voice, I fell out of my chair laughing. I laughed so hard, the dogs almost went into orbit, having never seen me laugh so hard. Here is what she really said:

SO, apparently, JAY has your new Google Voice number, but your OWN DAUGHTER does not (laughter). So, I thought that was a bit of a travesty. Give me a call back and hopefully we can rectify this situation (more laughter).

In conclusion, I highly recommend signing up for this service purely for entertainment value if nothing else. I told my daughter that whenever I'm feeling blue, I'm going to ask her to leave me a voice mail on Google Voice. Seriously, GO GET your Google Voice number!

Happy Birthday, My First Born!!

When I was 19 years old, I became a mother for the first time. I remember reading all the baby books and feeling like this was a role I was ready for. After 26 hours of labor, my boy arrived, healthy and well. Relief. One prayer answered. Hours later the nurse placed him in my arms for the first time. An intense feeling of fear came over me and I gently handed him back to the nurse in tears. It wasn't that I didn't love him. Quite the opposite. I loved him so much that I was afraid. What if I dropped him? What if I let him down? Well, I did make many mistakes over the years, but once I overcame that initial fear, I loved being a mom.

He's my most resilient, stubborn child. At age 3 he decided he no longer needed me to tuck him in and kiss him goodnight. I was heartbroken, but I gave him that space. If I had that moment back again, I would kiss him and tuck him in anyway.