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Operation Banish High Blood Pressure Week One Checkup #health #fitness

Paula — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:50:07 +0000

This is a check in along the way to tackling my high blood pressure issue that developed just this past year. High blood pressure is not something to be taken lightly and out can be deadly. I am committed to fixing the problem as I need to stick around longterm and be healthy for myself and my family. Follow along as I try to change this growing health concern. At the start of 2014, I was busy, getting ready for a major move to our new house, managing multiple accounts and a growing business and parenting some wonderful, but challenging kids. Somehow I still found time to work out on average three times a week. I look back at that and I am amazed and proud but frankly when the move was over and life started to settled down that’s when my exercise habits began to change and I placed work plus kid’s doctor’s and therapy appointments all at the top of the list. Where did that leave me? Well, at the end of 2014 I am less healthy than I was at the start and I have developed high blood pressure which is upsetting. At the end of 2014 I am struggling to get to the gym ever. I am certain I have gained weight from poor eating and sitting at a computer all day every day. I am not happy with that. My goal this year was growth and I have managed to grow and I have met the challenges along the way. But last September the doctor advised me I had high blood pressure. I figured it was a one off. So we just promised to monitor that. We trudged along and I travelled increasingly more often and kept up with demand at my business Thrifty Mom Media social media consulting. October passed and after a major trip with World Vision Canada I still had high blood pressure. Then two weeks ago when we got our flu shots the high blood pressure reading was indeed still there. It was higher than ever. So three months and no change. That meant it was now on me to change it. But how? The last 10 days I have tried to change my habits. I mentioned that back here in a post about what I needed to do to fix this high blood pressure issue. So this is my first check in. I need you to hold me accountable for what I say I will do to fix this. If I strive for a healthy lifestyle here, it’s because I have a family that needs. In fact, my Crohn’s Disease, an inflammatory bowel disease, will remind me fast if I am losing control of diet and exercise. My stomach tells me what I am doing wrong by giving me extreme abdominal pain at times. Trust me, I do what I can to avoid that. Check in every ten days: First check in – I started chronicling my diet intake daily. Food journals are challenging for me, but I found a great app on the phone (My Fitness Pal) that keeps me motivated to eat better. I have stopped using salt. Because honestly there’s enough salt in food to begin with. I have dramatically cut processed foods out. That said I permit myself deli meats occasionally. And I allowed a family celebration at a restaurant this weekend because I need to have some breaks and incentives to do well the rest of the week. I am monitoring bread because it seems to be high in sodium. Note that I am reading labels a lot more and I am shocked at what salt is added to and what it’s not added to. Dairy seems to be pretty good. Fruits and vegetables are great of course (but because of the Crohn’s I have always been limited in what I can eat for vegetables so I need some help in that department.) The goal here has to be to add smoothies regularly. I ate a banana raw the first day I revamped my diet and I was not well. The gut pain from a raw banana was excruciating for me. My Fitness Pal app is working well for me. I don’t hate logging my food and exercise in there. Buying all of my food raw and making meals with my Hamilton Beach crockpot is working, I think. EXERCISE: I exercised a couple of times and I walked daily, but it’s not even close to enough and I know it. My goal was three times a week and I am only making it into the gym once a week. That has to change. I am going to cut myself some slack here and also remind me that I am doing well with walking. Even when it is freezing out I always walk 1.5 ams every single day. The tool I love that helps me with this is my Misfit Shine. It is an exercise and sleep tracker that I wear on my arm every single day and it tells me when I hit my exercise goals so I kind of love that it motivates me. I have had this since the summer and I know I walk more because of it. Also it’s waterproof so it stays on all the time and I can swim with it on to. Awesome little gadget. Last night I went to bed at 11 p.m. and the night before that I went at 10 p.m. so I am getting a bit better. One of the kids is almost done her group therapy work so that will create a morning free again and less stress for me and more opportunity to workout. Thank goodness. Her therapy and doctor’s appointments are really hard to manage. I cut my caffeine dramatically in the last ten days also. Now, I am drinking only two cups of coffee every morning. That is it. I am super proud of that because I am a coffee-a-holic. Instead, I opt for water and herbal tea. Yeah me! Here is what I pledged to tackle when I started this journey December 1. 1. Low sodium diet. 2. Watch weight and maybe drop 5 to 10 pounds. 3. Increase physical activity. Exercise more. 4. Monitor and fix stress in my life. 5. Get better at taking breaks. Stop working 15 hour days. 6. Less caffeine. (It’s hard to say cut back on caffeine because I think you all know I love my coffee.) 7. Food journal. I started one today after I tweeted that I have high blood pressure. 8. More yummy home cooked items. 9. Oh yeah and that estrogen I take because I was prescribed it when I had a hysterectomy has now been reevaluated. Cut in half and the goal will be to taper off I think. But I will do that with doctor’s help. So to recap I am doing well on 1, 6,7, 8 and 9. I need to do better on 2,3, 4 and 5. I am pleased with the work I have done on my diet and I will work hard on some of the other points this next ten days ( but as we head right into Christmas that will be challenging.) This post is not sponsored but it contains one affiliate link. Have you ever had high blood pressure? What did you change and how did it work? Do you have any tools that help you stay healthy?

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Operation Banish High Blood Pressure

Paula — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 02:42:43 +0000

It’s time for fresh starts. December 1st. What could be a better time? I’m not waiting for New Year’s resolutions this year because I need to tackle this new health challenge head on. I have high blood pressure and it’s not going away. It started in September and I assumed it was because I was hyper about taking a trip with World Vision Canada and I assumed that the high reading was a one off. But in October it was high again and then this past weekend when we went for flu shots it was astronomical. So it’s time to kick it to the curb. First here’s a bit about me. I am in my 40s. I don’t like to share my age and that’s my own little vanity but the reality is that I am 45 and at a point where health doesn’t improve without Herculean efforts to change something. Metabolism is such a fickle thing. She was my friend for most of my life and then I turned 40 and she started vanishing, taking long holidays even. Now I have to kick her to wake her up and that’s on a good day. On a bad day, well she’s still in bed at 3 p.m., and I’ve been up for a good nine hours by then. Weight loss is harder after 40. That’s reality. I’m not that worried about shedding a few pounds. I have typically been slender because I also have Crohn’s Disease, an incurable inflammatory bowel disease that means wild swings in weight and then periods of time with severe stomach pain which usually keeps you from eating. I have traditionally never had issue losing weight. In fact, I have had trouble keeping weight on, so weight loss is a strange concept for me. But I have gained some this past two years since I started my own business. Business is good, great even, but I am sedentary for long periods. I work for long hours on my computer. I have ended up with blogger butt. In fact most days, I blog and run my consulting business on an 8 a.m. to 11 p.m schedule. That’s stressful and I eat poorly sometimes when I work long hours like this. So I know I have some changes to make. I need to eat lunch again. Dumbest thing in the world – I work right twenty feet from my kitchen, but still I rarely break to eat it and then I am ravenous by dinner. And there are a few other things I know need to change. I also know this past year with both of my kids needing extreme increases in therapy appointments and educational meetings and so forth that this been incredibly hard on my health. I know and can feel the stress that never goes away when you parent kids with special needs. It is chronically exhausting and it damages your health. But that has got to slow soon. We’ve been doing intensive therapy for anxiety for one of the kids which ironically is making me sick. If it helps her, and we get through this period of time, by 2015 she might be better able to manage her anxiety symptoms. That’s the goal. Then my schedule will lighten a bit. I lose a day a week to their appointments right now. This isn’t a rant but a fact. And I am fully aware I can’t save anyone if I don’t apply my oxygen mask first. I started reading about high blood pressure immediately this weekend and I am ready to make the changes I need to in order to fix this because I plan to be here for a long time writing and, you know, parenting my kids. So here’s what I have to do. (I started today. See the picture above – that’s me being really happy to be planking): 1. Low sodium diet. 2. Watch weight and maybe drop 5 to 10 pounds. 3. Increase physical activity. Exercise more. 4. Monitor and fix stress in my life. 5. Get better at taking breaks. Stop working 15 hour days. 6. Monitor caffeine. (It’s hard to say cut back on caffeine because I think you all know I love my coffee.) 7. Food journal. I started one today after I tweeted that I have high blood pressure. 8. Less packaged food and more yummy home cooked items. 9. Oh yeah and that estrogen I take because I was prescribed it when I had a hysterectomy has now been reevaluated. Cut in half and the goal will be to taper off I think. But I will do that with doctor’s help. I can do this! I hope. Have you ever had high blood pressure? What did you change and how did it work?

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Weight Watchers Salted Caramel Brownie Bliss

Paula — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 07:21:39 +0000

I am all out of these scrumptious Weight Watchers Salted Caramel Brownie Bliss treats. Which is a total drag, because this will eventually impact my bottom line. (Pun fully intended) See I blog, as you might be aware, and that means endless periods of writing and staring at computer while sitting on my derriere. I love what I do. It combines writing, marketing and being creative with generating real results for clients and consulting with other clients through my social media consulting business Thrifty Mom Media. I really enjoy what I do, but working at home is hard on your body in some ways. For instance, I eat worse when I am working at home. Sometimes husband actually texts me from work to say – Hey go eat lunch. It makes no sense, I know. Eating habits should be better based on the fact that I work twenty feet from my kitchen, right? But they aren’t and when I want to grab something I reach for it quickly. Often that means grabbing a cookie, a coffee, some crackers, maybe a hunk of cheese, even sometimes jelly beans. EEP! I am almost 100 % certain that my butt has been the part of my body that has suffered the most due to my blogging. Blogger butt is in fact a very real and tragic consequence of working at my computer. Much like office butt. But Weight Watchers has some beautiful and delicious health conscious little treats for people like me. One of those treats is their new Salted Caramel Brownie Bliss. I mean, hello, salted caramel. YUM! I met some representatives of the Weight Watchers brand at Mom 2.0 this past May. One of the most interesting conferences I attended this year was Mom 2.0 in Atlanta, Georgia. It was an impressive lineup of topics, guest speakers and fantastic brands. Plus I shared a room with a couple of my favourite bloggers on the planet so the journey was well worth it. One of the brands that I connected with during the conference was Weight Watchers. They had regular room drops of their brownies. There are some mint flavoured brownies and triple chocolate brownies in the Brownie Bliss line. So every night we had a package of either Mint Chocolate Brownie Bliss or Triple Chocolate Brownie Bliss dropped off. I sampled them immediately, in the interest of doing my job of course. These Weight Watchers brownies are extremely tasty, fresh and bite-sized. I might not reach for them instead of a brownie or cupcake kind of thing, but I would definitely replace the chocolate I snack on with these. They are so moist and tasty, that you are pretty well tricked into feeling like you are eating something small from the bakery, or the chocolate shop. I loved the Mint Chocolate Brownie Bliss treats. They taste a bit like Girl Guide cookies, but whereas you might try to eat the entire box of Girl Guide cookies you can stop at one (maybe two) here. The best part of these Weight Watchers Salted Carmel Brownie Bliss treats though is that they don’t taste like they are low in calories. They taste rich and satisfying like the best chocolates or baked goods. Don’t believe me? Then go buy some and try them yourself. Or watch this: http://www.tastingisbelievingchallenge.com/weightwatchers/tastechallenge/video These Weight Watchers Salted Caramel Brownie Bliss snacks are 90 calories each and made with real caramel. They taste great and are 2 points on the Weight Watchers program. You can find them http://www.weightwatchers.com/shop/categoryshowcase.aspx?pageid=1080651&navid=Sponsor. I received some product in order to facilitate this post. My opinion is all my own.

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Hands Off My Child’s Weight – For The Last Time

Paula — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:06:00 +0000

A lot of people followed my story of scales in schools. Last Friday I posted about my daughter, 10, in grade five and an insensitive assignment in which a scale was in her class and kids were weighed. My daughter went first. She was picked to go first and comments were made by others about her size and weight. She came home very upset. Anyways part of my weekend was then spent trying to fix that problem and get to the root of what happened. The issue was resolved yesterday morning when the teacher, whom I believe to be a very good teacher, finally connected with me and we agreed the weight portion of the assignment should be dropped. For the record I also believe my daughter’s school to be a very good school. If I did not, she wouldn’t be there. I felt the resolution was fair on this particular issue of weight and inappropriate assignments. I also had been trying to get the principal on this issue and that was as far as it went.I didn’t start hounding the superintendent of schools or trustees or any of that. Although many of you did think that was the route to take. The issue for my child’s class was resolved. (As well worth noting is that the teacher did provide me a way to reach him outside of class if I have a concern – that was one of my concerns because frankly my child was truly not wanting to return to school. So very kind that the teacher took that step.) It was meant to be a math assignment and he wanted hard data for them to compare. It was also meant to be privately written in the individual books. I still believe private, public or somewhere in between in a class with 27 kids there is no way to keep all your stuff private from others. My daughter was clear that comments were made – not by the teacher- but by others about her size and the teacher confirmed that yesterday. The teacher also said the boys who made the comments were disciplined. I still say it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. There are hundreds of other ways to do that assignment. Weigh backpacks. Measure feet. The post last weekend sparked a lot of outrage on twitter, facebook and various other social media sites. Some people were advocating that I remove my child from the school. Some were really mad at the teacher. Some disagreed. Many were upset for my daughter, as was I. Some people forwarded the posts to a radio station and yesterday morning 570 NEWS called me for an interview. So I did it the interview for several reasons: Teachers should think through assignments before they dish them out. Weight doesn’t belong in the classroom.We are all growing strong kids and hopefully healthy kids. There is no reason for an assignment to make a kid feel crappy. Bullying is an epidemic and really, we should be looking at many supportive ways of systemically changing that. Bullies don’t need extra ammunition. And the flip side of that is stressed out, anxious, scared, nervous worried kids don’t learn. They are too busy sitting in the classroom feeling as if they need to be in survival mode. Schools should be safe places first and foremost, above all else. I still see this whole thing as part of a bigger issue. You may disagree. I respect other opinions. I think boards and even government ministries need to look at insensitive assignments that make kids feel stressed out over differences. Our differences make us unique and stronger, but they also give other kids something to target. [tweetthis]I still think schools sometimes need to rethink incentive assignments like this one. [/tweetthis] That assignment that you gave out about eye colour and genetics just reminded Troy that he is being raised by his grandmother not his mom and dad. The baby picture you asked every student to bring in reminded Jim that he doesn’t have one because he was in four foster homes before he turned five and the pix were lost. Even Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards – which we love getting – should be thought about hard. There are many kids these days living with just Dad or two Dads, two Moms, or in foster care. I can guarantee that many of those kids already feel more stressed out and self conscious around the time of those celebrations. Family trees. Heritage assignments. Time lines. Think them through. Change them, drop them, provide other options. Anyways for now our issue with this weight assignment is resolved. Thanks for all your brilliant comments, ideas, suggestions. Can you think of any school assignments that you feel should be changed, rethought or taken off the curriculum in schools?

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