Category Archives: health

A Lush Affair

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(weheartit)

I have to admit, I am obsessed with Lush products. Any chance I get to enter a Lush store I take without a second thought. This can be rare as all of the locations closest to me are an hour drive away. (Four locations, too! It drives me nuts!). I could order projects online, and I have, but it’s nothing like the Lush experience. Lush has a very distinct smell. It’s made up of all of the bath bombs, soaps and other products inside the store and it’s unavoidable when you’re inside. It’s likely an associate will ask if you’ve been in Lush before and offer you a hand treatment. Take her up on that offer! It’s like a one hand/arm “facial” for free!

The associates are extremely knowledgeable about their products which is really awesome, the only negative part is they can sometimes be kind of pushy about sales. I tend to keep to myself  and only ask a question if I really need an opinion, but there have been times when an associate recognised me at a different store than I used to see her at (mind you, I go to Lush less than once a month, probably six times a year if I’m lucky). That happened to be a day that a Twilight movie was in theaters and the Lush associates were offering the use of their glittery massage bar (you can sample any thing you’d like) to, you know, “Vampire-ize” yourself.


(weheartit)

I first stumbled upon Lush when I was visiting Seattle. I left the store with a delicious tasting lip gloss, some hand cream and a new love.

Here are my five favorite Lush products:
Buffy keeps my skin soft and exfoliated. My only complaint is that it doesn’t last very long!
Ocean Salt is another amazing exfoliater. It smells slightly like a Margarita and tastes like salt. I put it on my face in the shower, put on conditioner and whatever else and rinse it off. It makes my face smooth but dry so the next few things are important…
Eau Roma Water is a toner that removes excess cleanser. I use it at night to gently clean make up off (it doesn’t work on the hardcore eye makeup but that’s what Babyface is for)
Celestial is a gentle facial moisturizer that’s calming and good for sensitive skin. It’s not too heavy but on a hot day I find it doesn’t absorb into my face very well.
Lemony Flutter is a cuticle cream but you can use it for anything. There’s juice from NINE lemons packed into that baby and it smells yummy! I use it to moisturize my nails after I take off nail polish, to help un-chap lips in the winter and to nourish dry elbows and feet.


(weheartit)
Other products I want to try:
mask of magnamity
jackie oates  “for a porcelain finish”
dirty shaving cream
twilight bath bomb
sweet lips scrub

Have you ever been to Lush? What are your favorite products?

To Do In June

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Looking for something to do in the month of June? I have two suggestions for you.

Why not try out 30 Days of Creativity? It’s aim is to challenge you to do something creative for thirty whole days in a row. I plan to write every day. Creating sentences like only I know how! … or something like that. Hope for more blog posts.

Want a real challenge? Join Spoonful of Sugar-Free’s Sugar-Free Challenge. Eliminate sugars, hidden sugars and artificial sweeteners from your diet for the first ten days in June. I’m already anxious just thinking about it. But that’s a good thing. It means I need to detox. I’ll write more about this soon… assuming that I actually complete it. (I’ve tried before… I’ll try again…).

One Day Without Shoes

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If you could go all of today without shoes, I urge you to do it.

Why, you ask? Because all over the world there are children and adults who can’t afford shoes. There are people living everywhere who are forced to walk on the hot earth, step on broken glass and sharp rocks because they have no other choice.

One Day Without Shoes is a movement that Toms Shoes advocates. It’s purpose is to make people aware of other peoples’ suffering. By going a whole day without shoes, you can explain the Toms’ mission to others. And by going a whole day without shoes, you can experience what it might be like for someone else. You can walk a mile in someone elses’ lack of shoes.

I haven’t done One Day Without Shoes, and I’ll readily admit that. Most work environments don’t allow it for obvious health reasons. But I’m still willing to spread the word. For two years when Hanson toured they took a one mile walk with their fans before each show. They were barefoot almost every single time. They encouraged their fans to walk barefoot, too, to experience what it is that others endure on a day to day basis.


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If you can’t go barefoot, why not instead buy a pair of Toms Shoes? Every pair that is bought, one is donated to someone without. They’ve done shoe drops in different countries, delivering shoes to children who’ve never had one single pair.

These facts are taken straight from the Toms Shoes website.

*A leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted diseases, which can penetrate the skin through bare feet. Wearing shoes can help prevent these diseases, and the long-term physical and cognitive harm they cause.

* Wearing shoes also prevents feet from getting cuts and sores. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected.

* Many times children can’t attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don’t have shoes, they don’t go to school. If they don’t receive an education, they don’t have the opportunity to realize their potential.

I hope you have an amazing day, shoeless or not. Because if you’re reading this, it’s likely you have the opportunity to wear shoes. You probably have more than one pair.

Breakfast Woes

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I’m almost twenty-six years old and somehow I have yet to manage finding the perfect breakfast. Seriously. When I worked closing shifts in past jobs, or when I was unemployed, I didn’t wake up in time for breakfast. When I was in high school and before I recall eating cereal (and being starving approximately ten minutes later).

This morning I mixed milk with a chocolate Weight Watchers shake mix. It tastes delicious, but the milk is making me feel sick (a random onset of lactose intolerance, anyone?). I tend to stop at Dunkin’ Donuts for bagels with cream cheese, but admittingly that leads to me eating an entire muffin or donut soon after. And being hungry within a couple hours. (Because I’m eating all shit, I know that). I’ve tried eating only fruit. I’ve tried cereal (it was somewhat a success with Grapenuts, but my mom stopped buying them because I was eating them…? and also I need something I don’t have to eat at my house because I don’t always have time).

When I first got to Italy, I had fresh squeezed orange juice and yogurt in the mornings. It didn’t take long before I was eating pastries, though. My favourite were the ones with chocolate in the middle. When I was in Rome I ate cannolis for breakfast one morning (cannolis are harder to find in Northern Italy where I mostly stayed). It was delicious and satisfying. And for some reason I don’t recall being hungry an hour after.

The biggest problem I have with breakfasts is being hungry an hour or so later. And it’s not just that I feel like little hungry, it’s that all of a sudden I need another meal.

The only time I don’t feel that way is if I eat an egg sandwich (it has to be a sandwich, eggs on their own don’t do anything else). But really I’m not a huge fan of eggs. And eating them on bagels from Dunkin’ Donuts is a little too much.

For a while I was eating greek yogurt with nuts and sometimes chocolate chips. I seem to remember that doing the job, but I can’t seem to remember why I stopped eating it.

So on to trying something new tomorrow, though I have no idea what as of right now. Maybe some more yogurt. I love Chobani.

What do you eat for breakfast?

A Living with Sleep Apnea update

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(I promise not to make this blog into everything about sleep apnea all the time, blah blah blah. But I think it’s an important problem to talk about, not only because it’s rather common but also because it’s not really talked about.)
 
I got a new mask yesterday. It’s “for women” or whatever (which means that it comes with a pink strap and is probably a little more petite) and has nasal pillows instead of a face mask. The nasal pillows blow air right up into my nose. It’s a very strange feeling, and my nose feels kind of strange this morning, like something was trying to stretch it last night.
 
I woke up at 2:30am sweating a lot and wide awake. I had to get up, get some water and find ways to make myself cooler. I had to turn the television back on. (Ten minutes later my mom came into my room, closed my door then went into the living room to watch TV for herself. At 2:30am! A little early…) I had to listen to myself breathing, the sounds were elevated to an unusual level. That’s something I need to get used to. I spent the summer drowning the breathing sounds out with a fan, but it would be much easier if I was just used to that sound by now. Or in the near future…
 
This morning when my alarm clock went off, however, I bolted right out of bed. It took me a few minutes to stop the feeling as if I was suffocating (when I’m aware of my breathing, I am much more apt to feel like I’m suffocating if I can’t breathe through my mouth properly). I ripped the mask off, stumbled to reach the button to turn the machine off then tried to reach my cell phone to turn the alarm off without falling off the bed. But overall, as of right this very minute, I feel a lot less sleepy. So here’s to hoping that feeling will remain.
 
<3. Melanie.Kristy

How Do You Relax?

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This morning (okay so almost afternoon) I feel completely incapable of freeing my mind, clearing whatever is going on inside there and actually thinking of something new.  So what I want to know today is, what do you do to wind down?

I was doing yoga.  It was working effectively but it’s hard work to do yoga to wind down, and though I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, it just makes it a little harder for me to force myself to go that way.

I always think that reading and laying down or watching TV or a movie will help. It doesn’t. I think that might have to do with the fact that sometimes in attempt to feel relaxed, I ignore other things that I should be doing (listing those books on Amazon, putting my clothes away, etc.) and the reminder is there all the while I’m trying to relax. (So in theory I should DO those things then try to relax? Yeah, I know.) I walk sometimes but that doesn’t seem to do the trick. So I’m just wondering what your tricks are.

More often lately I’ve been very aware of my shoulders and how I hold them. I tend to tense them without even realizing it, even while I’m trying to sleep my shoulders “fall” very close to my ears. I feel better as soon as I realize my posture and try to straighten and losing my shoulders. There’s no need to sit or lay or walk around like I’m carrying the whole world up there. Cliche or not. Sometimes I feel like I’m carrying everyone elses’ worlds, too.

But anyway. I need more yoga. What else?

<3.Melanie.Kristy

Did You Eat Your Vegetables Today?

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(*Or since it’s early in the AM, yesterday?)

My mom’s a huge fan of making a big deal when she doesn’t see me eating enough vegetables during my dinner. Last night I had microwave vegetable Samosas (which are, like they say, filled with vegetables… or if you want to be technical, peas and potatoes) for dinner out of laziness and the pure desire to fill my mouth with an easy Indian inspired appetizer.

After asking what was inside the Samosas, my mom tried to emphasize there were no vegetables (um what are peas? I had to show her one, I don’t think she heard me the first time…) and jokingly ask if they were 5 servings of vegetables inside. Um, no, clearly there aren’t.

“Do you eat five serves of vegetables a day?”

I know that eating fruits and vegetables is ideal. I know they’ve bumped up the serving suggestions from 3-5 servings to 5-9. I know that. Every day I struggle to remember (and pretend to want to eat) vegetables and fruit instead of a bag of Baked Lays that seems like it’ll satiate my hunger (and salt cravings) better than a handful of baby carrots. Even in spite of all of this, when asked a direct question that challenges my eating habits (especially when this comes from my mother) my natural response is,

“I don’t know ANYONE, except you, who eats that many in a day.”

So why is she challenging me to be the exception? Why isn’t she giving my brother a hard time? She claims she “can’t be responsible” for him, as if she can be more responsible for  for me? My dad doesn’t eat five servings, and she is the one who usually feeds him. Why pick on me?

The truth is, I don’t want to eat all of those fruits and vegetables because I am told that I need to. (If I’m going to eat them, it’s because I want to, not because anyone else wants me to).  I don’t want to be told that I need to do anything. Maybe it’s because I never had some stupid rebel stage in high school, but it never fails to aggravate me when anyone attempts to remind me what I *need* to do.

Do you eat 5-9 servings of  fruits and vegetables a day? What about THREE servings? Some days I can do that like cake. Other days, well hey, they just seem to slip by.

<3.Melanie.Terrill

Dealing With Sleep Apnea Part 2: CPAP Therapy.

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If you didn’t read my first post on my diagnosis (and leading up to it), you might want to do so here.

It took one more sleep study and an infinite amount of weeks (okay so really about another month after the second sleep study) to start CPAP Therapy. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. In short it’s a mask attached to a machine by a nose. The machine blows filtered air through the nose, opening my airways while I’m asleep. Normally with obstructive sleep apnea, apneas occur because while you sleep the muscles in your throat and tongue relax. With some people they relax enough to close off most of the airway in your throat. Sometimes this is also due to excess weight around your neck. Sometimes there are other reasons.

I was fitted for a mask and left to my own devices to get used to this new addition to my night time face. I spent nights waking up and throwing the mask off, I tried to figure out how to breathe so it didn’t feel like I was suffocating, some mornings I’d wake up without a mask and I’d have no recollection of taking the mask off.

My very first thoughts regarding this entire thing was: How fucking embarrassing. & I’m never going to be able to travel again. & How am I ever going to spend the night with… anyone, really? I don’t want anyone sleeping over while I have to wear this.

Every night is a struggle. I have to talk myself into getting up to fill the little humidifier part with distilled water. I have to wear my hair in a pony tail just to keep the back strap from sliding off my head. I have to move around while I concentrate on breathing. Air leaks into my eyes or my lips. If I don’t have a fan on, I can hear the leaking sound. I can’t sleep, it’s too close to my face. There have been a few nights that I’ve woken up because: I turned too much in my sleep and the machine fell off the side table, there’s air in my eyes, maybe I forgot how to breath, water (!!!) is hitting the mask and making a clicking sound, I am just not comfortable.

My mask is not the best mask for me. I’m working on trying to get a new one. But each mask is going to be a new adventure. Nights upon nights of trials until it fits correctly. Every three months I can get a new one. That’s another few days of adjusting. And who knows that I’m going to do when I have a cold? Go without, as my sleep specialist suggested.

I’m still tired. But seriously, I am one million percent LESS tired than I was before. I know what awake actually is. I am more aware. I don’t wake up refreshed and ready to start the day. But it’s likely that I never will. I’m just not a morning person. There have been a few times recently that I took the mask off in the middle of the night. Last week one night I was too hot to keep it on (how that happens in the end of September when there is no heat in my house, and it doesn’t happen in the middle of the summer I’m not sure…). I spent the entire next day in a daze.

It’s very obvious that I do need to continue with CPAP therapy, possibly for the rest of my life. ( I guess it depends on who you ask, my general practitioner said “hopefully not too long” but she also never got the reports from the sleep specialist about any of this).  I’m not quite ready to accept that, and this is evident during the nights when I can’t sleep because air is loudly blowing in my face and I just don’t want to contort my neck so the mask hits the pillow just right.

<3Melanie.Terrill

Dealing With Sleep Apnea Part 1: Diagnosis

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I’ve always had sleep problems. Up until a few months ago I was tired all of the time. I drove around like a zombie trying to stay awake while I navigated my way to work. I spaced out and nearly fell asleep during slow times at work. I couldn’t get out of bed until I literally had just enough time to dress and run out the door. In high school I danced for at least three hours a week, I rode my bike everywhere (until I got a driver’s licence, that is) and still wanted to sleep through everything. In college during my freshman year I danced up to fourteen hours a week, and I worked out. I was still exhausted. And gaining weight. This past year I started waking up three or four times a night and my arms were asleep.

I don’t know why it took this long to say something, probably because of my increasing frustration with doctors (though that’s a story for a different day) and also due to my impatience. I don’t want to wait however many months to be tested and retested and maybe something might get figured out…

But anyway, back in March during the second half of a physical (for some reason I had the first half in November… I’m not sure why it worked out that way) I mentioned that I am constantly tired. All of the time. Some days I wake up feeling as I never even slept. My doctor’s suggestion? Exercise. Sure, okay, I’m open to trying that. I didn’t tell her that I danced my way through high school and college and was always tired then. I just agreed and started going to the gym to walk for a half hour after work. The only problem was, this exhausted me so much that by the time I got home I was so tired I could barely move. I quickly gave up exercise and told her, no it’s not working. She said my thyroid levels were okay, so we’re on to the next step —  she ordered a sleep study for possible sleep apnea.

I had to wait over a month for this sleep study, something that makes me infinitely frustrated with our health care. I’m grate that I have insurance, that I can afford to work on my health as I may, but it’s still frustrating that I can go for so long without real answers. Every night slept without treating sleep apnea is another night closer to heart disease, another night taking away from the restoration that happens during sleep and another high contributing to my slightly high blood pressure. After one terrible night sleep hooked up to wires and laying on a lumpy, hard mattress there is a diagnosis: severe sleep apnea. For me this means I stop breathing on average of fifty-one times per hour for up to fourteen seconds during each “apnea” (which, for me, is a combination of partial stops and complete stops).

Can you imagine the horror and relief? I simultaneously learned that I am not crazy for being tired all of the time, it’s not in my head at all and also that I have a severe issue that’s been seriously neglected.

Now I’m going to come right out and say that yes, I am overweight. And yes I know that in itself is a serious issue that cannot be neglected. It’s a serious issue that I deal with every single day.  And it may have some contributions to my sleep apnea. I only say may, because of a couple things. First off, my first sleep technician told me that sleep apnea can be the cause of weight gain. But not even that, I asked the sleep specialist who gave me my diagnosis if with weight loss I could make sleep apnea go away and she told me that, though weight loss could help, since I have severe apnea it probably won’t go away with weight loss. That made me rethink a lot of things about my life in general.

About a month ago my mom told me that I always snored, even when I was very little. Could this have been a slight indication of sleep issues right then? The sleep specialist told me that I have narrow passage ways, which does not help my situation. Right now I feel as if I’m a little doomed. I think it’s clear from my experiences that I’ve been struggling with this for a lot longer than I was aware of. It makes me wonder if things would be different right now if I had known for longer. I feel like I’ve wasted all of these years feeling depressed and just so damn tired, and there could have been so much other things I could be doing for myself and for others if I had been properly treated.

Does anyone else reading have sleep apnea? Have you gone through similar experiences and diagnosis for that or anything else, really? Tell me your story :)

More thoughts in my next post about Dealing With Sleep Apnea Part 2; CPAP Therapy.

<3. Melanie.Kristy

Thoughts on Makeup

Posted in health, self confidence, Uncategorized by
So Rabbit Write is participating in her own No Makeup Week this week. When I read the first post where she initially mentioned it I thought, “Hey I should do that, too.” I’m always up for a challange, and it’s more fun to experience a challange in the blog world with other bloggers. Even if they don’t know about your experiences.

This challange, however, fizzled very very quickly. In a matter of seconds after my initial thought. Not because I feel it impossible to not wear make up for a week. It’s actually quite the oppisite. Sure, I love lining my eyes in black or brown and brushing mascara against my lashes. I enjoy taking the time to powder mineral foundation over my skin, paint my lips in gloss and admire myself in the mirror on the way to work. But I don’t wear makeup every day. In fact, I don’t wear makeup often enough to even consider “going without” because, really, I am without.

In middle school I played with makeup, but I was always that girl who liked to try to look good in black lipstick or blue mascara. I wore a lot of glitter. I wasn’t making myself up to mask my imperfections. I used colours and glitter to stand out. I only wore black lipstick once or twice to school. It was actually in high school. I loved the goth look, but I could never pull it over. I could never pull off any look that wasn’t purely “myself.” That look did involve glitter. It involved wanting to wear wings to school and using bright colours to accent myself.

I enjoy the lipstick and powder, and I tend to buy countless amounts of shadows and nail polish for a person who barely uses it. I didn’t even know how to make my shadow stick for more than five minutes until a couple months ago. When I asked.

I guess I never got into the habit of making myself look “good”. I only straighten my hair when I have the time or energy in the morning. I can leave the house without mascara and that’s important to me. Because who is telling me that I don’t look good if my hair isn’t perfectly styled all of the time? Why should I even listen to myself when I have less than perfect skin all of the time? I shouldn’t. Because I’m beautiful right now with nothing more than moisturizer on. And you are, too. You shouldn’t believe it any other way.

We’ve learned to live in a world where most girls feel like they need to wear make up. Upon mentioning to my friend Kate that I was writing this post, she replied, “I hate not wearing makeup.” She said that it’s less the actual makeup that she hates not wearing, but her foundation, powder, etc. that makes her skin look even. It makes her feel more confident. Sure we can admire even skin tones, wonder how so-and-so got her skin to look so pristine, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. But knowing that it’s not real, recognising that we are admiring an illusion, takes away from the effect.

How often do you wear make up? Could you go without for a week? Longer?