My doctor said I had IBS, but that wasn’t what was really wrong with me

Tags

IBS, lactose intolerance, Milk Allergy

When I was a little girl, maybe as young as 10 years old I began having “stomach problems”. After lots and lots of tests, the doctor determined I needed more fiber in my diet. I would have to pour a spoonful of some sort of sawdust like substance on my fiber rich cereal each morning.

As an adult I never really got better. I wouldn’t have problems all the time but every once in a while things would flare up and I would begin to suffer again.

I was told as an adult I needed more protein in my diet and with a diet high in red meats, I absolutely didn’t get better. In fact, if anything it made me want to avoid red meats all together.

Eventually I was told I had IBS, which is short of irritable bowel syndrome – this was in my late 20s, or early 30s. My grandmother had IBS so apparently I did too.

If you look at the list of symptoms for IBS you would have agreed with the doctor too. I had pain, in my abdomen. The cramping and discomfort varied but at times it was horrible. I had excessive gas, and at times urgent need to defecate.

But despite being able to check off all the little symptom boxes for IBS that isn’t what I have. My doctors were wrong. All of them.

My little sister had a daughter who at a young age began to have similar symptoms to me. Only after all these years, medical testing had advanced and without much effort they were able to figure out her problem, she had some sort of milk allergy.

As we learned to pay attention to what she ate, I learned to watch my own food. I think I first noticed it when I went to Taco bell. Afterwards I had what I began to call episodes.

The one day I was at a Mexican restaurant and had the chips and queso. Again, another episode.

In time I figured out that any time I had cheese, milk and even butter, I would have an episode. After decades of suffering and misdiagnosis by countless doctors, I learned the one very simple truth, my body can’t tolerate dairy. I have to avoid it if I don’t want to get sick.

I had to get REALLY bad before things got better for me but now I know what causes my problems and I know not only to avoid all sorts of dairy but that if I still have occasional pains, I go on a very bland diet for a few days, maybe even a full week and I’m all good.

So before you get on tons of meds to treat your IBS, make sure in fact you do have IBS. Make sure it’s not something as simple as being lactose intolerance or a milk allergy.

 

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Should you really not wash your hair?

Tags

Hair, Shampoo, Washing Hair

There have been a lot of confusing information out there about washing your hair.

I’ve decided to do some extensive research into the subject matter and find out what the answer really is.

So should you wash your hair daily? The answer is it turns out is no. Your hair will be healthier if you wash your hair only every two or three days.

I have a friend who has very long hair. In fact her hair is more than 4 feet long. It’s so long she can’t even wash it herself. So once a week she goes to the salon and has it washed for her.

Washing your hair every day removes the natural oils and proteins, which will cause your hair to dry out. Dry brittle hair leads to breakage down the entire strand.

Beyond washing your hair only two times a week, my friend with the really long hair also suggests doing a monthly deep conditioning. When you wash your hair, put in your conditioner but don’t rinse it out. Now wrap your hair in a warm towel and leave it on for 30 minutes.

 

Let’s talk about Coconut Oil

Tags

Coconut Oil

It’s seems that not a week can pass that I don’t hear someone talking, no make that raving about coconut oil.

Just this week a good friend of mine tweeted that she was going to give it a try for her dry hair and another friend from high school posted on Facebook how she uses it for a moisturizer and saves $100 a month and has better results.

So I decided to do my research. According to a bazillion different articles on the internet, coconut is the answer to any and every problem you can think of.

Dry hair, dry skin, dry and cracked lips, dandruff both both humans and dogs. It can reduce the signs of scars and stretch marks.

I could go on and on but I think you get the point. Coconut oil is fabulous. The only problem is, I’m not a fan of coconuts. I really don’t like the taste or the smell. That is honestly what has always held me back. Until now …

But I gave in and decided I would give it a try anyway. I have two specific problems … first of all, a few years ago my forehead of all places started itching. It was oddly dry. I never really had an issue with dry skin on my face before but for some reason my forehead decided to get weird as I aged.

The next problem I have is my hair. About a year ago I cut all my hair off. I had such a serious problem with dry and damaged hair in the back that it would get all twisted and knotted up when I slept.

My solution – cut it all off! Yes, I know never cut your hair when you are PMSing. Lesson learned!

But the benefit of this insane act is that now my hair would grow in all healthy and wonderful, right?

Wrong!

While that was true for the rest of my hair, since I don’t use a blow dryer or anything like that on my hair. For some reason, the very back of my hair was still having problems. It was growing back like the rest, only the damage from before was still there. It was still extremely dry and unlike the rest of my hair.

Everyone in the world I spoke to about this suggested … you guessed it … coconut oil.

So hell, I did it. I purchased a jar of coconut oil from my local grocery store. I made sure that what I was buying was pure. In other words, the only ingredient should be coconut oil. You want to make sure you get 100% pure coconut oil.

Much to my surprise, when I opened the jar it wasn’t a liquid. Turns out coconut oil is a solid that melts extremely quickly with even the slightest heat. In fact, if you were to scoop a little bit out with your fingers, just the head of your own body would melt it into a liquid state.

I started with my forehead. I scooped some out with my fingers and rubbed it in. The first thing I realized is that I didn’t really even notice the smell. That made me happy. I really wasn’t a fan of coconut. It reminded me of those cheap tanning stuff.

It felt soothing and so I decided to just keep going and rub it all over my face and my lips. I don’t know why, but I did.

Next I took a bigger scoop, again still using my hand. As I rubbed my fingers together it melted and I put it in my hair, specifically the back part of my hair that was so dry and icky.

It soaked up the first application rather quickly. So I took another scoop and did it again. By the time 15 minutes had passed, my hair was completely dry, as if I hadn’t put anything on it.

I decided to give it another try, only this time put it in my entire hair.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect some magical fix in just one application. I really was just experimenting.

So I used about three scoops with my hands and rubbed it all over my hair, making sure to massage it into the scalp as suggested by one of the zillion other articles I read about using coconut oil on your hair.

When I was done and I was sure my hair was thoroughly saturated, I took one more scoop and again rubbed it into the worst part of my hair in the back.

I then left it on all night.

When I woke up the next morning I wasn’t sure what to expect. When I took a shower, I had to wash it twice, but when it was all said and done I was very happy with the results, even after just one day.

The part of my hair that was normal, the non weird dry patch, was shiny and smooth. I had never had any conditioner that gave it that look.

The back of my hair, the problem area, was still not perfect – but I didn’t expect a one day, one application cure. But it was noticeably improved. I think in time if I continue to apply the coconut oil on my hair every day or at least a few times a week, I may very well solve that problem.

Now as for my skin. I didn’t think I noticed a difference. That was until I went to put my makeup on the next morning. Right away I noticed a difference. My liquid base went on smoother than before and it was at that point, I was hooked.

I got what my friend was saying about using coconut oil on her face as a moisturizer. Even with just a single application, one day of using it, I noticed a real result.

I hate to say it, but I’m hooked!

Fad or not, I don’t care. I love coconut oil.

 

Is there such a thing as big boned?

Tags

Big Boned, Cartman, Fat Shaming, Is big boned a thing?, JJ Watt, Michelin man, Nicole Arbour, Paris Hilton, South Park

Recently Nicole Arbour released a video making fun of fat people.

In the nearly six-minute video, she claims that “fat-shaming is not a thing. Fat people made that up.”

She admits to knowing that her video will offend some people and then says, “What are you gonna do about it? What are you gonna do?” she asked in the beginning of her video. “You gonna chase me? Really? I can get away from you by walking at a reasonable pace.”

Another thing she mentions is that “big boned is not a thing. There are no fucking skeletons that look like the Michelin man.”

And while that little factoid may be true, (about the Michelin man), there is such a thing as being big boned. In fact there is such a thing as having small bones.

Let me give you a very simple example that anyone could wrap their head around. Look at the picture of these two dogs. Do you really think that their skeletons have the exact same bone size? Of course not. One has tiny bones, the other has big bones. It’s just how it works.

Now let’s talk about all those human skeletons we always see. They do in fact all look exactly the same. There is a reason for that, which is because they aren’t real bones. These are typically mass produced from a cast. They aren’t real bones, they are some sort of plaster. Long story short, they all look the same, because they are mass produced to look the same, for the purpose of commercial distribution.

In reality, every person is different. Do you think JJ Watt who stands something like 6 foot 5 inches tall and weighs like 255 pounds, has the same bone size as say, Paris Hilton who is 5 foot 8 inches tall and weighs only 115 pounds?

I mean come on, the answer to that should be obvious. But just in case it’s not, let’s find out from a doctor – a real doctor!

Claudette Lajam, M.D., assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at NYU Langone Hospital for Joint Diseases and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says … 

Within the range of normal, some people’s bones have a bigger circumference than others’ relative to their respective heights. These people are, indeed, bigger boned. There’s a quick test to determine if you have a small, medium or large frame.

All you have to do is measure your wrist. For women between 5’ 2” and 5’ 5”, a circumference of 6.25” to 6.5” is considered medium. Anything below that is small; above that is large. For shorter women, the medium range is 5.5” to 5.57”, and for taller women, it’s 6.25” to 6.5”. 

So there you have it. While the fat on your body doesn’t really have anything to do with being “big boned”, there are in fact people who are big boned, while others have small bones.

This is of course, despite what Cartman from South Park may try and tell you … your bone size has nothing to do with how fat you are.

 

People come in all shapes and sizes and so do bones. So to say fat people made that up is just stupid. If you line up 10 women who are all exactly 5 foot tall, every single one of them will have different bone sizes.

 

How to clean your ears

Tags

Clean Your Ears, Cotton Swabs, How to clean your ears, Hydrogen Peroxide, Q-Tips

Growing up my  mother always cleaned my ears with Q-tips or more accurately, the off brand cotton swaps she picked up at the dollar store. 🙂

But today everyone is going on and on about how bad it is to do that. Basically they say that you should only use q-tips to clean your outer ear and never put a q-tip inside your ear. These experts claim it could do real damage.

I’m not a doctor so I don’t really know if that’s true but it’s all you seem to hear anymore so then that leaves us with the question …. how do you clean your ears if you can’t use a q-tip or cotton swab?

Turns out the solution is simple and brilliant. What you will need is a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a towel.

Pour one cap full of hydrogen peroxide in your left ear. It will immediately start popping as it clears out the buildup of wax in your ear. Eventually the popping will slow down — This might however take up to a full minute.

Now take your towel and lay it across the pillow on your bed. Lay down on your bed on your left side. You will want to remain lying on your side for about two minutes. This will allow proper drainage of all the liquid out of your ears.

After about 60 seconds it will slow down. Don’t get up just yet, even if you are sure the popping has stopped. Stay there another 60 seconds and you’ll find a few more bubbles pop as some of the further down liquid drains out.

Now go back into the bathroom and pour one cap full of hydrogen peroxide in your right ear.  Again stand there for at least 60 seconds as the hydrogen peroxide does its thing with the wax in your ear.

Now go back to your bed and lay down on your bed on your right side. Again stay there for about two minutes.

So there you have it. Now you have perfectly clean ears without using a q-tip. Congrats!

 

Make Your Own Wild Strawberry Lip Gloss

Tags

Crystal Light, DIY, DIY Lip Gloss, Homemade Lip Gloss, Lip Gloss, Makeup, Wild Strawberry

A couple of years ago I made a post about how to make your own lip gloss.

Well now I have a variation on that old recipe that you might like! Anyone who knows me, knows I’m addicted to Crystal Light smoothies so when I came across this recipe for lip gloss using crystal light, I had to share it with you!

First gather what you need …

• A Packet of Crystal Light Wild Strawberry
• Vaseline
• A lip gloss container

Any small jar with a lid will work but you can also get specific lip gloss containers at Amazon. You can get 50 of them for $10. You can also get them at any craft store.

Put one cup of Vaseline into a small microwavable bowl and heat it for about 30 to 45 seconds. This will make it easier to stir. You don’t want to heat it for to long because if you do, it will turn it into liquid. All you are looking to do is simply soften it, not liquefy it.

Now open you package of Crystal Light and pour it into the bowl of heated Vaseline and stir it well.

Now put the mixture into your lip gloss containers and enjoy!

I should note that this works with all flavors of Crystal Light but the two best flavors are the Wild Strawberry and the Pomegranate.

 

 

A not so secret tip for getting out of that Obamacare tax penalty

Tags

Credit Report, Exemption, Hardship Exemption, Obamacare, Tax Penalty

So you didn’t get health insurance before the deadline and now you have to not only wait another yet but also face the penalty which you thought was only $95 but turns out was significantly higher.

If you are like me, you assumed it was just cheaper to pay the $95 than to actually bother with getting insurance. What I didn’t know what that it wasn’t just $95. It’s $95 per person or 1% of your household income (whichever is greater). So that means if you and your husband made $55,000 last year you are both facing a $550 penalty and if you kids without insurance, you can add in penalties for each of them as well (half of whatever yours is).

The real kicker is, this is something you have to pay, not something you can just deduct from your anticipated refund. Because apparently without paying this penalty, you won’t be getting a refund.

But don’t panic, there are options. In fact there are a couple of things you can do to get out of it legally but the easiest one is simply stop paying a utility bill for a month or two or three.  Don’t go crazy and spend that money because once you get your shut-off notice you will want to pay that bill off right away … I mean it’s no fun without water or electricity.

In the end what you want is that shut-off notice because that qualifies you for that exemption from that Obamacare tax penalty.

Now just remember that some utility companies do report the late payment to your credit agency so you might incur a minor temporary hit on your score but not all of them do. In my case, I know my water company doesn’t so for me, that would be the best option. If you are concerned about that, easy way to find out, use a site like Credit Karma and run your report, find out if they are reporting that way.

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Under certain circumstances, you won’t have to make the individual responsibility payment. This is called an “exemption.”  If you have any of the circumstances below that affect your ability to purchase health insurance coverage, you may qualify for a “hardship” exemption:

1. You were homeless.
2. You were evicted in the past 6 months or were facing eviction or foreclosure.
3. You received a shut-off notice from a utility company.
4. You recently experienced domestic violence.
5. You recently experienced the death of a close family member.
6. You experienced a fire, flood, or other natural or human-caused disaster that caused substantial damage to your property.
7. You filed for bankruptcy in the last 6 months.
8. You had medical expenses you couldn’t pay in the last 24 months.
9. You experienced unexpected increases in necessary expenses due to caring for an ill, disabled, or aging family member.
10. You expect to claim a child as a tax dependent who’s been denied coverage in Medicaid and CHIP, and another person is required by court order to give medical support to the child. In this case, you do not have the pay the penalty for the child.
11. As a result of an eligibility appeals decision, you’re eligible for enrollment in a qualified health plan (QHP) through the Marketplace, lower costs on your monthly premiums, or cost-sharing reductions for a time period when you weren’t enrolled in a QHP through the Marketplace.
12. You were determined ineligible for Medicaid because your state didn’t expand eligibility for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
13. Your individual insurance plan was cancelled and you believe other Marketplace plans are unaffordable.
14. You experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance.

Make Your Own Lip Gloss

Tags

DIY Lip Gloss, Flavored Lip Gloss, Kool-Aid, Lip Gloss, Make Your Own Lip Gloss, Vaseline

Flavored lip gloss is expensive but if you are like me and L-O-V-E cherry flavored lip gloss then you don’t care … you just have to have it. That’s why when I found this recipie for DIY Kool-Aid Lip Gloss I was like OH YEAH!!

First gather what you need …

• Kool-Aid packets (I like cherry but grape, strawberry and other flavors work, just pick what you like best)
• Vaseline
• A container to store your new flavored lip gloss — any small jar will work really but if you don’t have anything at home you can get something perfect at any craft supply store. Just remember to pick something with a lid.

Directions on how to make it …

Put one cup of Vaseline into a small microwavable bowl.

Heat it for about 30 to 45 seconds, making it easier to stir. Be careful not to heat it to for long – you don’t want it to turn into liquid. The Vaseline in the very bottom may liquefy, but the key is to just get it warm enough to stir.

Next sprinkle your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid into the bowl of heated Vaseline and stir well.

Now put it into your container, and enjoy!

How to fix your cracked lips

Tags

Cracked Lips, Dry Lips, Honey, Lip balm, Olive Oil

My niece and I have one thing in common, we always seem to have cracked lips.

We had heard two things and thought we would try them out.

Everyone always tells us to drink more water, that dehydration is a big part of why our lips are cracked. Okay got it. Drink more water. But what else can we do?

She heard that you can try putting honey on your lips and I had heard you can try putting olive oil. So we decided to give it a 5 day test. She would apply honey every day for five days and I would apply olive oil.

To be as fair as possible we came up with a schedule so that we both did it the same way and the same amount of times.

We would each apply our ingredient (her the honey me the olive oil) three times a day, no more, no less. I was going to apply mine at 8 am, noon and 8 pm. She was going to do hers around the same times.

We also both agreed with the water thing that we would each make sure that during the 5 day period we would each drink exactly 5 bottles of water per day. This way we would know our water intake was similar.

So this wasn’t exactly a scientific expedition but in the end, we still wanted to try and exact as we could.

So did either work?

The honey didn’t. Her cracked lips were worse. She attributes that to the fact that she was to tempted to lick the honey from her lips and the more she licks, the worse her cracked lips got.

I however wasn’t tempted to lick my lips with the olive oil and maybe that is why it worked. My cracked lips were completely gone at the end of the 5 days.

Later on my niece decided to try olive oil herself, applying it to her lips 3 times a day, and that combined with the extra water intake seemed to work for her as well.

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Set Your Fitness Goals and Actually Stick to Them!

Tags

Fitness, Gym, Health, Physical exercise, Working Out

I’ve really been lazy this summer when it comes to working out. I hate to admit that but it’s true. So now I’ve decided to get back into it and to share my journey with you.

Starting or getting back to a workout routine involves more than simply scheduling your exercises and joining a gym. As a matter of fact, it’s totally possible to join a gym and never really go, even as those monthly payments appear on your bank statement. I understand this because I’ve done that a couple of times in my life. Sticking to your goals demands a couple of mental tricks to help keep you going, centered and motivated.

Momentum is a central part of uniform exercise. It’s normal to have those weeks when everything goes correctly: You do all your exercises, eat like a health nut and begin to think, ‘I can totally do this!’

Then ‘it’ materializes. ‘It’ may be a vacation, an illness…something that throws you off your game. Getting back is constantly tough, partly as you’ve lost that momentum. We already realize that an object at rest tends to remain at rest, so getting going again is the only way to get your momentum moving.

Rather than caring about making up for lost time with intense exercises, center on simply getting some exercise time in. Plan your exercises for the week and call yourself successful simply for turning up.
Purchase yourself a little something like a new pair of running shoes or an exceptional pair of shorts to wear to the gym. If you’re having hassles getting back to it, get a new outfit or download a few new songs to your MP3 player so you’ve something to look forward to.

Make an appointment to exercise with an acquaintance or call your gym and arrange a free consultation with a personal trainer. Even if you don’t sign on, getting back into the exercise environment may be just what you need.

If the thought of coming back to boring gym exercises makes you want to die, do something completely different. Sign on for a local belly dance class or check into that new yoga studio. A switch of scenery and a brand new activity may refresh and rejuvenate you.

Imagine this: you’re at a party and you’ve promised yourself you won’t scarf down the buffet like a famished maniac. Then you see a huge platter of the prettiest cheese you’ve ever came across. Many hours later, feeling your cheese hangover start, you vow to make up for it tomorrow with a long workout.

There are some issues with this approach–first, you can’t undo what you consumed the night before and, secondly, killing yourself with an exercise isn’t a good answer as it makes you hate exercise even more.

If you’re busy living in yesterday’s mistakes, many of your decisions will be founded on guilt and shame instead of what you really want and need to accomplish to achieve your goals. Real change comes from day-to-day choices and becoming mindful and basing your choices on what you need now rather than what you did or didn’t do yesterday, will make your exercise life much more passable.