Calling all healthy people

Here's the deal. I am sick of being sick all the time. I am so unhealthy right now and I need help figuring out how to get my body back where it needs to be. The way Jordan and I are living right now is obviously not working, so I'm coming to you guys for help.

I'm in my last semester of college, taking 12 regular hours and 3 online independent study hours. I have a very demanding job that takes soooooooooo much of my time and energy. On top of all that, I'm struggling to figure out the housewife thing. I'm not a natually domestic person. I hate to clean and with my busy schedule it is hard for me to get into the routine of keeping the apartment tidy, and cleaning really stresses me out.

The kitchen is the one place I don't get stressed (well most of the time anyway). I'm getting better at creating menus two weeks at a time, so I can buy all the ingredients I need, to minimize our grocery bills and the junk food we eat during the week. I try to cook with fresh, healthy ingredients. 

So you see the general picture. The stress from going to school full time and working so much has just beaten down my immune system. I have been sick more days in the past month than I can count. My job isn't one where I can call in sick very often, especially when I'm sick on the weekends, like today. Migraines rule lately, along with colds and digestive issues that really hinder my ability to go about my day. As much as I would love to go to the gym every day, it's just not an option, and by the time I get home at night, I'm exhausted. I do ride horses once a week, but it's not enough. I've gained 15-20 pounds in the past year, and I just feel disgusting.

Help me please! Any suggestions on ways to motivate myself to exercise, vitamins you take that make you feel great, tips on how to keep my apartment less of a mess, anything would be amazing. I've gotta figure something out or I'm never going to make it until graduation. I'm losing the battle with stress, and I know I have much less crises than a lot of other families do right now. Thanks guys!

Product Review: Tylenol Severe Allergy

We recently adopted an adorable kitten named Keira. She's lived with us for 2.5 days now and we are smitten. She is gorgeous, active, and so lovey. She loves us as much as we love her! Take a look:
Isn't she beautiful???

The problem? I'm severely allergic. I have been since childhood, though when my family adopted LC way back when, then Smokey and Boo, I gradually got used to having cats in the house. Then came college, and I moved away from home and have lost that immunity. Not only that, but it is hayfever season and my allergies were already going nuts. needless to say, Saturday was miserable. So I went to the store and scoured the allergy aisle. I used to use Claritan during the day, and Benedryl at night. However, Claritan didn't do the job on it's own, and the Benedryl made me feel like death (not to mention the drunken effects immediately after I take it). I did pick up some Claritan during the day, but for night I grabbed Tylenol Severe Allergy. After the trouble with Nana, I've been trying to use Tylenol more often, since it's easier on the stomach, but I was pretty skeptical about the allergy use.

Picture from here.

I took it right before bed last night. Wow. I didn't feel drunk at all. Nor did I wake up feeling like a grizzly coming out of hibernation. I actually felt pretty good. My throat was a little dry, my nose a little clogged, but compared to the miserable hacking mess I've been, I felt amazing! This product works. It does say that it will cause severe drowsiness on the box, so I would be cautious about using it during the day, but paired with a nondrowsy formula for daytime, this keeps my allergies from reeking havoc at night!

Queston of the Day

What is your "embarrassing" cooking (or food-related) story?


I almost burned the house down! I had bronchitis and was on some serious medication. I was hungry but was running low on groceries. I couldn't go to the store, because it wasn't safe for me to drive. Somehow though, I felt it safe to operate the stove, and decided to make a grilled cheese sandwich because I always have bread, butter, and cheese. The first side cooked perfectly, I flipped it over....and woke up to all of the smoke detectors buzzing! I completely blacked out! Needless to say, the second side was inediblely black. My roommates took my keys away for the next few days, and wouldn't let me cook anything.

What is your story?

Cure for Cancer AND the Energy Crisis

I had to share this video with you guys. This is pretty awesome. I won't waste time explaining it. Just watch the video.

A Crackpipe for Coffee Addicts

It must be a sad sad day when you can't find a coffee shop on every corner to get a shot of espresso. I mean really. Not only is this invention a little pathetic, they even made it look like drug paraphernalia.

I heart Coffee, and you should too

"(WebMD) The caffeine in three daily cups of coffee or tea may help older women preserve their memory, a new French study shows.

Researchers included Karen Ritchie, PhD, of the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Montpellier, France.

Ritchie's team studied some 7,000 men and women aged 65 and older (average age: 74) in three French cities: Bordeaux, Dijon, and Montpellier.

When the study started, participants reported how many daily cups of tea and coffee they drank. They also noted all of their medications, since some drugs contain caffeine. Few drank colas or cocoa, which also contain caffeine.

Participants took several tests of their mental skills, including a memory test based on a list of words. They repeated those tests two years later and again four years after the study began.

Women who reported drinking at least three cups of coffee or tea per day at the study's start showed less of a drop in their test scores during the study, compared with women who reported consuming at most one daily cup of tea or coffee.

The biggest benefit was seen in the women's verbal memory.

It didn't matter if the women favored coffee or tea. That finding suggests that the caffeine was what mattered most, according to the researchers.

But caffeine didn't seem to affect women's risk of developing dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. The study may have been too short to show such a benefit, the researchers note.

What about men? The data show no caffeine benefits in men's test scores over the years. Women may be more sensitive to caffeine's effects, according to Ritchie and colleagues.

Caffeine consumption may merely be a marker of other health habits that
affect memory. Ritchie's team considered that possibility. The study's results didn't change.

Still, observational studies such as this one don't prove cause and effect. That is, the researchers didn't directly test caffeine to see whether it helps save women's memory."



Hitti, Miranda. "Caffeine May Help Women's Memory." 6 Aug 2007. CBS.com. 8 Aug 2007. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/06/health/webmd/main3139469.shtml?source=RSSattr=Health_3139469

This is for all those people who don't believe me when I say ICY HOT is dangerous.

A budding teenage athlete has died after 'overdosing' on a common topical muscle cream.

The medical examiner announced on Thursday that the 17-year-old track star, Arielle Newman of Castleton Corners, N.Y., died from a toxic dose of sports cream, the Staten Island Advance reported.

Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's officer told the Advance that the Notre Dame Academy track star's blood contained lethal amounts of methyl salicylate, the active ingredient found in muscle rubs such as BenGay and Icy Hot.

Borakove said the petite girl used the topical medication excessively, allowing the poisons to accumulate in her body over an undetermined amount of time.

Newman was found dead in her home on April 3. The initial autopsy was inconclusive, which led to speculation her death was linked to a party she had attended the night before.

"I am glad this shows (Arielle) didn't die of her own doing. But this is a tragedy that could have been avoided," her mother, Alice Newman told the Advance.

Methyl salicylate, also known as oil of wintergreen, can be toxic if overused, but deaths from topical application are extremely rare.

Borakove said this was the first case she had come across in 20 years at the medical examiner's office.

Poisoning from swallowing the substance is more likely, but death from ingesting it is still very uncommon. Just one teaspoon of pure methyl salicylate can be fatal if swallowed by a child.

"Even though this is an extremely rare case, it points to the danger of over-the-counter products, whatever the case may be," said Dr. Manny Alvarez, the managing health editor of FOXNews.com. "Everyone needs to pay attention to over the counter products, even the products that seem safe can be deadly if used improperly."

"Teen Dies from Muscle Cream Overdose." 08 June 2007. FoxNews.com 08 June 2007. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,279482,00.html

Only a Joke?

Or a cover up for the negative publicity??? People also published an article similar to the IMDB one I posted earlier today. Here is what has replaced it this afternoon:

Still proving George Bernard Shaw's observation that England and America are two countries divided by a common language, it now appears that Keith Richards's startling remark about having snorted his father's ashes was lost in the translation.

According to Richards's manager, Jane Rose, in an e-mail message to MTV News, Richards's comment about his sniffing his dad's cremated ashes – after he first mixed them with cocaine – was "said in jest. ... Can't believe anyone took [it] seriously."

Added Bernard Doherty of LD Communications, which represents the Rolling Stones: "It was an off-the-cuff remark, a joke, and it is not true. File under April Fool's joke," the Associated Press reports.

As was quoted by the British music magazine NME, and picked up widely around the world, the Rolling Stones guitarist, 63, said of father Burt, who died at 84 in 2002, "He was cremated, and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared."

This is disgusting.

Rolling Stones star Keith Richards has stunned fans by revealing he once snorted his father's ashes, mixed with cocaine. The 63-year-old guitarist, who has long been associated with all manner of substance abuse, has told Britain's Nme his most bizarre drug-taking session came after his father Bert died in 2002. He says, "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared. It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive." Richards accepts he should be one of rock's casualties - but luck and an amazing constitution has kept him alive. He adds, "I've no pretensions about immortality. I'm the same as everyone... just kind of lucky. I was number one on the 'Who's likely to die' list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list."

Article found here.