Can't disagree

Randomly came across the website Hangover Sucks which sells some sort of lozenge for hangovers. The product comes in Ginger, Lime, and Raspberry. Ginger does help soothe a upset stomach - think Gingerale - but I don't know if the bite of the other two flavors would be particularly welcoming for the slightly queasy.

I have never tried hangover cures. Part of this is simply because my hangovers tend to consist of a headache, which is cured by a series of painkillers. But who knows, maybe this stuff actually works. If I were to try something like this, I feel that Nurse Noni has won me over, simply with the name of the product...

More Resolutions

New Year's resolutions are silly, I know. People make a number declarations about how they will quit smoking, join a gym, and eat healthier. Others will read the classics, cut down on tv, or start hiking. A month later, old habits return and gyms make out by taking in new memberships but don't have to worry about dealing with an increase of visitors to the facilities. Wait, now that I think about it, many people make a resolution to join a gym, they don't often specify that they will ever step into it afterward, so I guess that means they went through with their plans. Just a thought.

Please don't read this as me saying that I am above making resolutions, I made two on my blog on January 1st and since then have added a few more as ways to improve my quality of life. I am a realist in the sense that I know putting join a gym on the list is a silly way for me to throw away money, but I will look into either another social sport to play, I'm looking your way broomball and touch football, or a dance class. Maybe if I find a really good deal I could find myself frequenting a pilates or yoga studio.

One of my new resolutions that I have found easy to implement and is already providing me with amazing results is cleaning for 15 minutes each day. I had read about a resolution like this before, in fact, I might mentioned this idea at least 2 other times in the blog - clearly it didn't stick. For the last few days I have gone home and done a 15 minute clean. I think I am able to get more done in that quarter of an hour than I do when I try cleaning for an hour because I knew that it would be over soon and I wanted to be productive.

If you tend to let your apartment/house/condo get messy and then feel overwhelmed at the idea of tidying up, this process is totally for you. :) I'll spare you the rest of my resolutions because A) that can be boring to read and B) in case they don't stick you won't know I failed.

A Greater Power Doesn't Want Me to Diet

After chowing down Thanksgiving weekend, I thought it might be in my best interest to go on a diet until the Santa Speedo Run. The run is on December 11th and I would rather look as fit as possible when running around Boston in a bathing suit. Last night I made a declarative statement on twitter that it would be salad and pilates for the next two weeks. I find that if I don't let a large group know about my intentions, I don't go through with them.

After tweeting, I went the Exercise TV section of my On Demand and found a 21 minute pilates workout. Did the whole thing, felt good, felt positive. My plan began to form. Salads and some pasta for lunch/dinner, maybe some oatmeal for breakfast. Maybe I should do a second workout in the morning. You know, start the day off properly, helping me get some bounce in my step.

Well, all of this has gone up in smoke. Why? Because while I was shopping around the grocery today, after picking out THREE different types of lettuce, I came across this:


You're seeing this right. Cabot is making a Smoky Bacon Cheddar Cheese. And a block of it is sitting in my fridge as we speak. I haven't cut open the packaging yet, but I can't imagine I will make it through another day. Bacon and cheddar cheese can't be good for my diet. A beach body in December is pretty unrealistic, I mean, I can barely handle one during the summer.

Diet Salt?

To help prevent stress in my life, I want to start getting up at 6 am, rather than 7:15, so I can get a small workout done in my living room before work. To get to this point, I am slowly getting myself accumulated to waking up earlier. Right now my alarm goes off at 6:30. Since this doesn't give me enough time to wake up enough to function and follow direction, I am just enjoying the morning at a slower pace.

Part of my morning now allows for me to eat breakfast at home, rather than at my desk, while watching some early morning tv. Occasionally when I turn on the set an infomercial is playing. I love these ads as the host is always so over the top. Recently, I saw a new one for a product that I can only describe as "diet salt".

Sensa is a weight loss product that you simply shake onto your meal and then you are done. The ad says no drugs or pills, but I have to think that Sensa falls under one of those two categories. Just because it is a powder doesn't prevent it from being a drug. I mean, if this powder rule is true, Lindsay Lohan should be allowed out of rehab!

Cough cough hack

Know what stops a blogger in her tracks?

Lots of work + lots of school + one hell of a cold.

I thought I was going to continue posting on fairly regularly basis even with the new time suck known as night school. What I didn't plan for was one major virus that attacked my sinuses and took no prisoners. Last week I took 2 sick days in a row. TWO IN A ROW. I think I have only ever taken 2 vacation days in a row once in the 4+ years I have been employed. I have class on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and decided to sleep the 48 hours between classes.

This week is my first quiz and I need to concentrate on the principles of economic theory. There are a few posts in the work, and maybe if all things go as planned, I can write up a few of them on Friday.

PS Emergen-c is a life saver. I totally recommend you start drinking it this winter if you never have, even if it vitamin c boosting powers aren't real, the drinks really help you get hydrated which is never a bad thing when your nose drips out of control.

Summer Resolutions

This past weekend QVC had Christmas in July - my mom's a fan. Which made me think about if we can have Christmas in July, why not New Year's Eve. Ok, so the countdown to midnight would be pretty anti-climatic, but honestly what makes July 1st 12:01 am so special? My thought was now that we are half way through the year, I have new resolutions in mind that I would like to declare out loud so that I can feel the public pressure of following through with them.

1. Wash my dishes every day

Basically I have found that I go days without washing my dishes. This normally doesn't get too bad, but when I don't do them for a few days and then go away for the week - eeeeep is my sink funky.

2. Strengthen my core

A friend sent me the link for Two Hundred Situps. It is a perfect solution to my dilemma of what to do. In terms of finding the time, why not jump onto my floor while I watch all my trash tv. Think about it, between The Real Housewives, Bethanny's Getting Married, Bridezillas, and Teen Mom (who am I kidding, I will so watch season 2 of the Jersey Shore) I have have hours each week that I can devote to a strong midsection.

I am not deluded to think I can have rock hard abs or some crazy lady six-pack. But I do want to feel tone and get rid of that pouch that shows up when I eat too many potato chips.

If I can think of any other resolutions, I will let you know. But really, I think anything more than two is just being way too ambitious about changing my lifestyle. :)

Best Female Commercial Ever

Studying for the GMATs is exhausting. I have given up happy hours and going out with friends after work. Basically I want to avoid headaches the morning after and would like to increase my chances of a decent night's sleep. But to be perfectly honest, I have no attention span when it comes to studying and require either small breaks every half hour, or longer breaks every hour. The longest time I have gone sitting and studying for this test is when I take a practice test for 3 hours straight.

What do I do during these study breaks? I watch trashy tv. I tend to fast-foward through commercials, but this one makes me laugh every time I see it. I don't know if I really think the commercial is funny, or if I think it is funny because when I first saw it, I happened to be menstruating. (tmi, sorry)




I am happy to see a commercial about women's menstruation that doesn't glorify this monthly nuisance. Maybe some day our culture will become comfortable enough with the woman's body to allow for "vagina" to be said in the ad!

Soothing? Not to my tastebuds

Finally getting over this cold. I have to get up early tomorrow to get my brakes fixed because I have to work in Worcester at night. DC is supposed to get tons of snow and so far Boston sounds like it is in the clear but just in case we do end up getting some, I'd rather be able to actually stop when I hit the brake pedal on the Mass Pike than not. Thus 7:30 am wake up call it is. My body has slowly been recovering since Monday. My sneezing has slowed down and I have definitely been going through fewer tissues per hour.

At this point I think I am ready to sleep through the night without a shot of NyQuil before hitting the bed. While I find that the medicine is a God send with providing me the ability to sleep through the night, it honestly couldn't be less pleasant to taste. The advertisements state that its is a soothing. I would love to know who agrees. Every night I want to gag after I swallow (that's what she said). I don't even know what flavor that is supposed to be. It is just revolting.

I have to say as much as I love the quality of sleep I get from taking the NyQuil, I hate having to consume it. Getting healthy not only is a plus because that means I will stop sneezing but I will also get to end my dependency on the green sauce. NyQuil do you think you could try to create something that is a little less revolting? I would really appreciate it - and I think the rest of America would too.

Exercise Illiterate

Umm, I can't wait to find out what this exercise is, or how it helps me.

I was in Dick's Sporting Goods on Saturday afternoon. I have been well aware of the fact that while I look like I might be considered "in shape", I am very much just skinny fat. My muscles are consistently tight which causes them to cramp up and me scream - in public. Over the course of the last few months I have been saying over and over again that I would start up yoga again and regular stretching. So far, nothing. I'm done with excuses, I need to get on this before my body curls up onto itself. It could happen, I think.

Anyway, back to me being in the sporting goods store, I decided to take this opportunity to look through the fitness section. Here I found those big fun balls that are used for stretching or sit ups or something but quickly realized that as much as I have wanted one of those, all I really need at this moment are some of those stretch bands. I found a set of three that were not on sale, but honestly, I can spare the $20 to get myself loosened up.

I went to start my new life. A life that would consist of crunches, push ups, squats, and stretching (for flexibility) and I got stumped when I went to leave the starting gate. To start my session, I figured I would break out the new bands and go with the flexibility stretches. The box tells me that they are three different resistance levels, but doesn't bother to tell me which is which. I mean they are different colors, how hard would it have been to say red = easy, blue = medium, green = hard. I tested them out and think that the red is the easy one but I am not completely sure.

Just now, I thought to see if I could tell visually if there was a thickness difference. I am going to keep red as the easy and move blue to hard, but green could be the easy one too...I am just going to go with my gut.

On top of not knowing what the levels are, I also don't understand what the clip is for that is found in this kit. There is a great chart that shows me movements I could try, unfortunately they don't include what the clip is for, or explain how I would secure it to the door way. My thought was to tie it to the handle, but I feel that is probably wrong.

I think I am going to have to do some research tomorrow to find out exactly how to use these gigantic rubber bands. Baby steps? At least I own them now.

Sleep happens.

I had every intention to enjoy the first night of kickball playoffs for the fall season at Samba's last night. My team wasn't scheduled to play until Wednesday, but friends had games the first night and I wanted to celebrate their probable win with flip cup. Work had been rather stressful and I came home with a killer tension headache. I tried laying on the couch in silence, eating food, taking pills and nothing was helping me out. So I thought, power nap was the way to right myself. There was no way I was going to stay in when dancing and beer games were just a few blocks away.

I made the decision to nap at 7:30 pm, thinking that I would wake up around 8:30 and be ready to run down by 9. Definitely woke up at midnight. Damn.

The fun was over and even though I had hoped to do some cleaning after partying, it just seemed silly at this point. Thus I opted to simply brushed my teeth, get into bed, fall right back to sleep, and wake up at 7:30 when my alarm went off. It seems rather obvious that my body was in need of some serious sleep. I am fairly certain I have at most gotten 7 hours of rest on any given night in the last few weeks and honestly, there has been some tossing and turning.

Living alone means being the only one to clean and cook, it also makes me feel the need to go out or visit with friends at least 5 nights a week. There is no way I am becoming a recluse or something like that. Add on a new part-time job, searching for a new job and everything else in my life and well, sleep takes a back seat.

Fortunately for me, boston.com has my back. They recently posted a brochure (?) or article, I am not sure what you would call this exactly, about how to properly nap. I knew attempting an hour nap was a bad idea, and this just proves it. One must either keep the nap under 45 minutes or go at least 1.5 hours. The 60 minute mark puts you in an awkward point in your sleep cycle to wake up during.

I'm glad to see that my 30 minute lunch naps are a perfectly fine and helpful idea. There are times that I just feel so sluggish and in need of a boost. Those days I turn to my spare chair in my office and power nap away half of my lunch hour. It always works.

The 12 hours of sleep has made me question my lifestyle. I'm compromising, I am going to try and hit 7 hours each night whenever possible. But I'm not promising anything.

Bunkering Down with Comfort Food

Winter is storming Boston. The temperature is dropping crazy fast and because of this I am skipping kickball and instead cooking for one of my best friends from college. I find that cooking for one is pretty much impossible if you want a really hearty meal, so I try and find a guest so that I am not eating the same thing for 4 days straight.

Tonight's menu is baked mac & cheese, green beans (made like last time), fresh fruit with chocolate fondue and mulled spiced rum cider. Lots and lots of warmth.

I usually I use elbows for the mac & cheese but forgot to purchase the pasta when I was at the store yesterday so I went with cellentani. I feel like it was a succes. This was the first time I have made the dish since probably March or so, and I am glad that rues are so simple make (equal parts flour and butter) otherwise this could have been disastrous.

It took us a while to finish off everything, but by the end we were very full and very satisfied and enjoyed watching the latest episode of Top Chef sans commercials thanks to the DVR.

Food is really powerful stuff. Cooking dinner by myself in the apartment was so relaxing and calming after a frustrating afternoon in the office. Eating made me even more happy and content. The stress just melted away, and know why? Food helps with stress. In particular complex carbs and milk sooth the jitters. I found a list of stress reducing foods on webmd today. Those foods will be finding a home in my fridge and then my belly soon!

Mmmmm Fried...

I very much enjoy fried chicken and love fried snickers. Fried onion rings and fried calamari are some of the best appetizers to start a meal. Fried breading just makes any food taste better.

If I am honest with myself, I would say that I would to own a deep fryer. I would eat veggies more frequently if they were covered in fried goodness. Oh my mouth is salivating as I type this...

I never would have thought to deep fry BUTTER. Of course the guy who invented this is from Texas. He fries a number of items including PB&J and cookie dough. The cookie dough does sound rather intriguing.

It is like I have a Home Gym now.

Going to the gym has been something that I have have been avoiding since I started to play kickball. Because clearly, kickball for 45 minutes, once a week, for a season is a major workout - I guess one could argue that if you include my walk to the field it almost is...

But back to the point, lately I have considered the fact that my metabolism will soon start to call it quits on me, and I should get in the practice of sweating to the oldies and what not. With my life changing decision to live on my own, I got caught up in the notion to also start going to the gym, eat more healthy, get a cat, etc. Very New Year's Eve of me! At this point, I have not followed through on any of those plans. But I have good reason for not signing up for the gym.


What is the reason, you ask?

I get a workout every time I go home.

(Side Note: Don't worry, I have no intention to ever look like her--->)

I have to climb up one steep hill to get to my street every day when I return from work or errands. Then I have to climb to the second floor, which doesn't sound like much, but I have to climb to the entrance way too! Additionally, when I do laundry that is a whole other set of stairs. Laundry is in the basement level and it is not easy to maneuver down the twisting spiral back steps with heaps of dirty clothing. Granted I should probably do my laundry a little more often, but then I would have less to carry but that also results with more trips up and down the stairs. Oh life...

In addition to laundry, I have been a moving machine attempting to get my place in shape. Carrying all sorts of furniture upstairs and assembling bookcase after bookcase. I really need to consider downsizing my library.... But all of this has caused so many bruises to pop up on my arms, legs and torso!

But yeah, the last time I was this consistently sore and tired I was rowing crew for HC. Chew on that for bit.

I am fairly certain I will have a fine set of legs and butt to match with all of this climbing that is in my future. Glad I get to save that monthly gym membership money - I need it, FOR RENT!

WebMD you are really not helping

A friend tweeted an article that was recently posted about how swearing can help alleviate pain. While reading the page, I saw on the side a link to an article about the 7 pains you shouldn't ignore.

I figured I should read it, maybe it would help me control the whole hypochondria thing. Yeah, this article couldn't be less helpful. Why you ask? Let me list the seven pains for you really quickly

1. Worst Headache of Your Life
2. Pain or Discomfort in your Chest, Throat, Jaw, Shoulder, Arm or Abdomen
3. Pain in Lower Back or Between Shoulder Blades
4. Severe Abdomen Pain
5. Calf Pain
6. Buring Feet or Legs
7. Vague, Combined, or Medically Unexplained Pains

Is there any pain that couldn't be put under one of these categories? Number seven is just so helpful! They may as well have titled this article "Panic About Anything".

Bucket flowing over

One time in college, I was participating in a group exercise where two words were read aloud and assigned to either side of the room. You were to walk over to the half that you felt best described yourself. This was to help you self-realize and allow your peers to get to know more about you. Some hippie liberal shit :P The one set that surprised most of my friends was introvert/extrovert as I considered (and still consider) myself an introvert.

The question that I find most relevant to today would be the "are you an umbrella or bucket?" I would say I am a bucket. To catch you up to speed, an umbrella is a person who reacts to each individual issue (drop of water), while a bucket take on more and more and eventually will overflow. Up until recently I would say I was 100% a bucket. Now, either I have switched (which I don't really think has happened) or my life has gotten a little out of hand and the bucket just fills more frequently.

I'm thinking that there are just a few aspects of my life that I need to find a way to finally be in control of and maybe things will balance out. It seems like I am breaking more frequently then ever before. Then again, it is a more stressful time for most of my friends as well, with the economy (duh) and layoffs. The bright side is that I still have PHENOMENAL days - like this past Saturday - and have so many amazing people in my life that make the bad days/eggs more bearable.

Until my life evens out more, I will probably continue to shop and eat away my frustrations. Today, I bought pizza, ruffles, french onion dip and half baked ben and jerry's. All of this waited for me at the house was a bottle of wine.

I think I will start up yoga in the morning again. That plus the crunches I was doing, well at two days before I got sick, will hopefully up my endorphins. Happy people don't kill their husbands :)

Mute.

My cold and I have been in quite a battle. Every time I think I may be winning, it comes down and whoops my ass. Saturday I had a ton of fun - which will be recapped shortly - and I was sure that I would be taught a lesson this morning when I woke up.

As I arose from bed, I didn't feel any soreness in my throat and I could breath easily out of my nose. (I didn't even use the Nyquil last night) I was feeling like maybe things were looking up. So I let out a sigh, and no sound came out. I then tried to speak. NOTHING. The last few days my voice has been a little husky. By the end of Saturday's festivities many people noted that I had definitely dropped a few octaves, but at least I was making words. Well, I guess I should take that back, giving the cabbie my address took every ounce of strength that I had left at 1:30 am. But I thought it was just from belting along with everyone at kareoke.

Yeah, no.

Honestly, I couldn't say anything for most of today. One of my roomates tried to say good morning to me and I tried to say something back, thinking I had just gotten out of the shower, maybe my vocal box would have warmed up. I opened my mouth and no words came out. She was a little shocked, as was I....

I really wanted a coffee and I had to take a deep breath and use every bit of vocal power I had to ask for a "medium iced coffee, milk and sugar". To be sure that the guy heard me and didn't attempt to make me repeat my order I also leaned as far as I could over the counter and got inside his personal space bubble.

I was hoping to get lunch with a friend, but was kind of glad she was hanging out with her bf as I realized I would be the worst dining companion ever - or maybe the best for someone that never shuts up...but that is not the kind of person this particular friend is, so it would have been weird. Instead, I spent the afternoon wandering around with my headphones and book. It was actually a really relaxing afternoon, it has just been painfully awkward when someone attempts to ask me something.

Just now the roommate I saw this morning heard me "talking" to our upstairs neighbor, and exclaimed "you can almost talk now!". I am almost back to where I ended Saturday night, which is pretty bad.

I ask that you keep your fingers crossed for me as I do have to answer phones at work, and funny enough, you need a voice to do that. Eeeeep.

Nyquil, you are a GOD

My cold is not getting in the way of my life. Problem is that I need to find a way to get healthy quick as I quickly learned Thursday that just willing myself better is not working. After getting sent home from work in the afternoon I first took a 3 hour nap. This nap was then followed by a trip to the grocery store to stock up on chicken soup, vitamin C filled foodstuffs and other comfort foods. I nestled myself on the couch and watched a bit of tv and ate some rice. (don't worry my stomach was fine, this was a throat and congestion type sickness, but rice is really comforting to me)

Anywho, I realized I should get ready for bed again and attempt to get as much sleep as possible. To get good sleep requires drugs. Since I had just run out of tissues I walked over to Walgreen's to get some cold reinforcements. That's when I saw the Nyquil. I was talking to my mum on the phone and she told me that I had to buy it. I had a little arguement with her about how bad that stuff tastes. But she won with the point that if I really wanted to go out and party it up with friends all weekend, I needed my sleep and Nyquil would give it to me. Moms are just so smart -- I brought some home.

As soon as I got home down went 30 ml of green ass-awful medicine. Really, I can take most shots without a grimace. Nyquil causes me to somewhat gag and cough immediately. But I licked that plastic top clean, and off to bed I went.

11 hours later I awoke slightly refreshed and feeling I was on the way to recovery. I went to work Friday and was pretty much functional. Sadly, I did have to take a taxi home around 11:45 from the double birthday festivities, but I did make a good run of it. Downed somemore Nyquil slept another 10.5 hours and now I have a nice little Saturday planned. :)

Thank you Nyquil. Without you I would probably be in a pretty bad state. I really appreciate that you can just knock me out!

Oh good, Another Health Concern

Mayfair was this past Sunday. May Day is normally celebrated on May 1st, but when Harvard gets involved it becomes May 3rd.

The May Fair has tons of vendors and stands throughout the square. There were at least four different massage and/or chiropractic offices offering free consultations and whatnot. I stopped at the first as I like to check out my spine whenever I can to make sure it is still straight. (Had some scoliosis as a child - I was informed I growing too fast...) Well the doctor I got stuck with decided he was going to try and enlighten me about what was wrong with me physically. He was pointing out various quirks to my posture which he provided explanations for and supplemental each point with telling me how he could fix it. Now, I am sure he is often right in his analysis, but I think having one leg longer than the other and a turned in hip are beyond his specialty...

I will give the man credit by informing me that my head likes to sit too far forward on my neck. He claimed that this means that my head feels an extra 30 pounds on my spine. (I really didn't want to believe this, but looked up "forward head posture" and he was right --- he did neglect to point out it is extremely common in adults)

While I have no plans on going to this particular practice - the people working the booth made me feel creeped out. I do think I may have to invest some time in getting an alignment or massage in the next few weeks. The free 5 minute massage I got from another group was just so magical :)

Swine Flu

The last few days I have seen more articles, tweets, and statuses regarding the Swine Flu in the US. I realized I have been in such a news bubble lately and needed to find out exactly what was going on with pigs in the US. I found an article on news.com that was relatively useful in giving me the basics of this outbreak.

There was one segment in this article that particularly caught my attention...

Major diseases throughout history

Swine flu, 2009, has killed 86 people and affected possibly 1400 others in Mexico since April 13. There are 20 confirmed cases in five US states and suspected cases in Canada and France, and 10 people have tested positive for influenza A in New Zealand.

Avian flu, 1997, killed at least 200 people in Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Romania, China, Russia and Turkey and millions of poultry in Asia, Europe and Africa. The death of a Chinese woman from this virus was recorded earlier this year.

SARS, 2003, the World Health Organisation reported 8098 infected cases and 774 deaths from SARS, which was first reported in China then spread to more than two dozen countries in the US, Europe and Asia. There was one confirmed case in Australia.

Asian flu, 1957, killed one million people around the world and was thought to have started in China.

Spanish flu pandemic, 1918, led to the deaths of between 20 to 100 million people worldwide and was thought to have originated in the US, spreading as far as the remote Pacific Islands.

Black Death plague, 1340s, killed 75 million people worldwide and was thought to have begun in Asia, spreading to Europe and North Africa.

I am all for interesting facts about history, but I feel like this list is somewhat arbitrary and missing some centralization. At first I thought it was a list of diseases that cross-species but AIDS/HIV did not make the cut. Then I thought it was animal flus, as AIDS/HIV is not a flu, but the Spanish flu was listed. The number of deaths range from 87 to 75 million...I just wish this list was slightly more cohesive. I like statistics but I also like themes.

At least now after reading the FAQ article I feel like I know what is going on.

UPDATE: Totally just checked my work email...There is one in there letting me know of resources available to me if I think I have caught Swine Flu. Not even kidding.

But is it strong enough for me?

A good deodorant is hard to find. Women's deodorant commercials often claim to work wonderfully and have stupid catch phrases like" strong enough for a man, but made for a woman". Yeah, that is a bunch of bull. Maybe my friends and I are just particularly sweaty individuals but we all have come to an agreement that most women's deodorants just don't work well enough. Even the perscription strength stuff seems to fall a little short.

I recently had a revelation and decide to switch to using men's deodorant. If the whole if it is strong enough for a man, I hope it is strong enough for me! So far, I have found that not only do they work better, but they also smell better. I don't particularly like smelling like baby powder or bathroom air freshner, thank you very much. It isn't like I feel like I now smell like a man either, I think I just smell clean.

For the record, Speedstick is excellent. I recently tried Right Guard, not such a big fan - doesn't keep you as dry -and think I should probably make the switch back. Yes that this is a bit of a TMI but I figured it was important to share my findings.