Irony at it's Best

Pick up any magazine and you see the subliminal messages that you are only sexy if you are fit, thin and beautiful. Watch television and you will see frequent ads to eat a range of food from healthy snacks to the greasy unhealthy fast food.

Media on the whole pushes society to eat and primarily to eat excess amounts of food that has now led majority of society to be over weight to obese. You go out for food and the portion sizes are doubled if not more than what is recommended. You can’t go to the mall without being assaulted with the smells of mouth-watering food that is high in sugar, salt or carbohydrates.

You see commercials for mindless, convenient eating which sends out subliminal messages to eat at your desks at work, in front of the television, in your car or to grab food on the run. Now, the downfall to all of this is when we do not sit down at a table and focus on the task of eating we tend to be distracted and as a result we usually over eat which builds up a daily calorie intake. We are pushed toward the fast lane, to always be on the go, go, go which leaves not much room to sit back and breathe let alone find time to regularly exercise beyond what is required from us in our daily tasks.

Society has become mindless towards the food that we put in our body. We are constantly moving forward to the next thing on our "To Do" lists and many of us do not take the time to sit back and enjoy a meal with the family or at the table where you are just focusing on that task of fueling our body. Instead we grab and run. Many of us do not take a moment to see where all of our calories are coming from - and the surprise is that majority of that is coming in the form of our fluid intakes. Hello Starbucks, Tim Horton's, Veggie Juices, Smoothies and more. I was shocked that I was easily consuming 1200 calories a day on three Tim Horton’s coffee and in the summer time I load up on my calories when I have my iced tea from Starbucks and that is not including the occasional Slurpee/slushy run on those extra hot days.

The food industry brain washes us with ads and commercials to eat, and eat for the delight, eat for your cravings, eat cause you can. They try to send out messages to eat "healthy" by having this granola bar because it is a good source of fiber but how many of us (in our busy lives) take the time to read all of the nutritional facts on this granola bar? Not many and as a result not many of us realize that this particular granola bar may be high in fiber but it is triple the amount of sugar, double the salt and high in carbohydrates. We take the false advertising as to be the word of GOD and trust that this particular granola bar is healthier and go with the flow just as the food industry wants us too.

The food industry also makes it more difficult for society to afford eating healthy and proper. All the crap/bad food for us is sold cheaper than the fresh produce. Makes on think what is the true priority?

Hmmmmm?

Doctor's Visit

I went to see my family doctor and I was well prepared. I went into the appointment with a list of all my symptoms and questions for my doctor. I left the doctor's office in a daze, frustrated and angry. I felt like she was not listening to what I had to say or considering all of my symptoms to mean more then what she was allowing them to be. She switch my estrogen medication, upped my current anti-depressant and added another anti-depressant to help me sleep.


I felt like she was just over medicating me to mask my symptoms instead of investigating the symptoms to get to the root of the problem. I proceeded to contact HealthLink, the Medication Help Line and decided to go to my favorite walk-in doctor and spoke with him. I am so glad that I did! He agreed with me that I do need an Endocrinologist and that most of my symptoms are a result of a hormonal imbalance. He strongly disagreed with the new anti-depressant prescribed as a sleep aid and he referred me to the top Endocrinologist in the City.


I feel at ease knowing that I now will be seen by a specialist who will take the time and energy to check all of my hormone levels and find the right balance for my body. The idea that soon I might be back to my normal self prior to the surgeries makes me ecstatic at the idea. Maybe once my hormones are balanced I will no longer need anti-depressants and will be able to loose weight properly.


I am trying to be optimistic about it all but at the same time it is hard to get my hopes up just from the past 3.5 years of no success.

Should we Have to Fight for our Health?

I am at my breaking point. I am beyond frustrated at not being able to sleep and/or waking up in the morning in pain from my shoulders up. I have suffered from insomnia since I was 12 years old on and off but I am coming on to at least two years now of getting anywhere from two to five hours sleep a night.


Not being able to sleep is taking it's toll on me mentally and physically. I am positive that it is contributing to my depression, fatigue and lack of desire to work out (which in turn affects my weight loss goals and achievements).

I have made an appointment to see my GP and discuss my insomnia and I am also going to looking into my different options of and/or the need to be on hormone replacement therapy. I find it very difficult to function this way not having any control of my thoughts and feelings. This has only been an issue since my hysterectomy but mainly since the removal of my ovaries.


I do not regret having these procedures as it has improved my physical health and well being. It is nice to live life without pain and major discomfort. But I am greedy! I want my life to go back to the way it was prior to my ailments! I want to live life pain free and in control of my emotions,. Why should I settle for living life in a constant state of BLAH? I want to be able to sleep and not be constantly fatigued. I want to gain back my desire to workout and mainly I want to feel good about myself again.


I do not think that this is too much to ask for - so why am I fighting tooth and nail to have the health care system look into this and rectify the problem? Why has it come down to society having to fight for their health and mental well being?

I am a determined woman by nature - once my mind is set there is no way to make me stray from my path. I will figure this out and I will find a solution! I will be whole again.

The Harsh Truth

My daughter has a lot of pent of anger, frustration and confused feelings towards her absentee father that has re-surfaced after 18 months. She sat down and wrote a very heart wrenching letter to her father and I could not be anymore proud of her as I am at this moment. It took a lot of courage and strength to write what she did.

I just hope that her father will get what she is telling him and that it slaps him hard enough to wake up and see what his actions (or lack there of) is doing to our daughter.

If I was in his shoes I know that I'd be crying and over ridden with guilt with some of the points she made in the letter mainly this:
 

"I don't want to see you because I don't have anything to really say to you because I don't really know about you anymore and you don't know anything about me."

My daughter poored out her heart and layed everything on the line and now everything is in her father's court to rectify and fix. She was spent after she wrote the letter but said she felt better getting most of it off her chest. She did advised that she has more hard feelings that she needs to cope with but has no real way to explain them to anyone.


My heart bleeds for her to know that she is hurting and suffering so much due to one's lack of interest, insight and general care towards her. How could any parent treat a child this way? How could any parent not care to be involved in their child's life?


I guess there will always be some questions that go unanswered in life. We just have to breathe and take small steps to get through it.