When You’re Afraid to Eat

October 25, 2012 by Featured Author Leave a Comment

I don’t know when it happened.

Somewhere between me being 6 and becoming an adult, the world changed. Somehow, some way, children everywhere started to have allergies. Everyone you talk to tells you how they can’t pack their kids an old fashioned PB & J sandwich for lunch because so many other kids are allergic to peanuts. Parents everywhere have begun worrying about feeding their children nuts or peanut butter. Children are ostracized because they have to sit at the “peanut butter/nut table” at school.

How and when did this all happen? More so, why did this happen?

When I was a little girl, my mother gave me a freshly picked peach. It was beautiful and plump and I was was so excited for this tasty treat…..until about 5 seconds after my first bite. In under a minute, my throat was closing, I was having trouble breathing, and I had hives everywhere. I was so itchy. I knew I didn’t feel right, but I didn’t even know I was supposed to be scared. I couldn’t comprehend what was happening until I was sitting in the doctor’s office being pumped up with Benadryl while seeing the fear in my mother’s eyes. Apparently, my allergy to peaches decided to show its lovely face that day, and it has stuck by my side ever since. After lots of tests, it was learned that I’m severely allergic to nuts. Not peanuts, but tree nuts. (Peanuts grow underground, so they are in the legume family like a bean or a pea.) Because nuts are related to the pit and seeds in many fruits like that killer peach I ate that day, I’ve had to watch every single thing I put in my mouth at every meal thereafter.

If you have food allergies, you know how annoying this can be.

Of course you learn to embrace it because you have no other choice, but it sure can be a nuisance when you’re at a party or a restaurant or when you first start dating someone and they make you fresh chocolate covered strawberries and you start to break out. Or how about when you order Oreo frozen yogurt and you pull an almond out of your mouth and the lady at the counter tells you, “oh, sorry, we use the same scoop on all of the flavors, even the ones with nuts” Believe me, it’s not fun, but you have to learn to adapt to it. It’s a part of who you are after all, and you should love every single part of what makes you different. It’s still irritating though when you eat healthy all week and really want that one cookie, until someone tells you there might be traces of walnuts in it. What a buzz kill.

The worst feeling is being afraid to eat.

It’s terrifying to take a bite of something and worry that you might feel that feeling all over again. Even though you carry your Epi-Pen every where you go, it’s still the scariest sensation in the world. Yes you learn to live with it, but I don’t think the fear is something that will ever 100% go away. Personally, I know if I ate an almond and didn’t have my Epi-Pen, I would go into anaphylactic shock. But what I have taught myself over the past 19 years is that I need to live with it. I need to learn exactly what I can and can’t eat, and hey, if I can’t have that cookie, it’s one less fattening thing I’ll be eating! You have to go to the allergist and figure out exactly what to stay away from and learn how to enjoy the foods you can eat. Take care of yourself, and see if the allergist can check to see if anything has changed. I need to do this soon. It’s one of the ten little things I want to do before I turn 26. Once you’re educated, you’ll feel a little better, but you will always be extra cautious. Keep yourself updated by regularly visiting the FAAN website. Learn all about cross pollination.

If you’re one of the lucky ones who don’t have food allergies, good for you.

You have no idea how fortunate you are. If your kids are allergy free too, count your blessings. I can only imagine how nerve-racking it was for my parents to let me have dinner over friends’ houses. I go back to my previous question though, why are kids all of a sudden being born with these severe allergies? When I was little, I was one of the only ones. It was strange. I always knew I was different from the other kids. I hated having to explain why I couldn’t have the same desserts or candy as everyone else. So, I leave you with one piece of advice. Don’t ever make fun of the people who do have food allergies.

You never know how they feel, and there’s nothing worse than being afraid to eat.

About the author: Holly is a 25 year old writer from New England who is on a journey to a happier and healthier life. She’s a firm believer in loving yourself, being kind to others, learning from mistakes, and letting go of what holds you back from being the best version of yourself. Aside from writing, she enjoys eating healthy, staying fit, traveling to fascinating places, fashion, helping animals, spending time with family and friends, and meeting people that inspire and encourage her. She loves to express her stories, ventures, and feelings through words and photographs. Writing about her life is a beautiful release, and she hopes to enthuse her readers along the way. Learn more about her at www.thecatzmeow.net, or Hollyamber28@gmail.com

Enough is Enough, Quit Dieting!

October 16, 2012 by Featured Author

Enough is enough – quit dieting!

Quit the diets!

Weight watchers, low-carb, vegetarian, detox, Beverly hills diet, cabbage soup diet, grapefruit diet, subway diet, Atkins diet and the list goes on and on.

What is a person that wants to lose weight supposed to do?

Everyone wants the easiest, quickest way to lose the weight. In our society today, we are accustomed to fast results on everything. We have fast food restaurants, fast access internet, up to the minute news and weather and smart phones with everything at your fingertips. So why not the same for you getting rid of that extra bulge around your middle?

I am sorry to inform you, it just doesn’t work that way!

You and I both know that it took some time and overeating to gain the weight, so common sense will tell you that it will take time and perseverance to lose it.

I don’t know about you but over the course of many years, I’ve tried many different types of diets. Some were vaguely successful and some were complete disasters. A few lasted a day or two while others for weeks. The one thing they all had in common is, as soon as I stopped the diet, the weight would magically re-appear.

So how did I lose 40 pounds and keep it off?

I quit dieting.

That’s how!

Below, I’ve listed a few pointers that helped me personally. I lost the weight that I had attempted to lose for years. Some of the following tips I’m sure you’ve heard before. Remember, everyone is different and may be facing some different circumstances, so make sure before beginning any type of lifestyle change – (notice I didn’t say diet) to consult with your physician first.

10 most helpful (healthy lifestyle) tips

1. Get motivated –

Whatever it takes…find something that will motivate, challenge or get you excited about your new healthy lifestyle! Your mindset has got to be in the right place before you can succeed. The motivation will carry you through those moments when you feel like caving in.

My personal tip – I was personally motivated by my “new look” that I had gotten from surgery that corrected a physical abnormality. See my story here. https://thistimeimeanit.com/goals/change-goals/overcoming-obstacles/point-view-overcoming-congential-coloboma/ This gave me the inspiration and fuel I needed to continue on.

2. Eliminate sugar, bread and caffeine.

These foods will make your calorie intake skyrocket. I don’t know about you but I love my snacks and bread. It was very hard to take them out of my life but I wanted to be healthy and look good more than I loved the food. From time to time…allow yourself to have a treat, just remember portion control. You will be surprised that after taking them out of your life, you will crave them less and less.

3. Physical activity.

You MUST move your body…somehow, somewhere, depending on your fitness level. You will need to push yourself past your comfort level each time, little by little at least three times a week. Some ideas for you to think about could be walking, swimming, tennis, dance class, hiking, sports. Just remember…your only limitation is your imagination!

My personal tip – What works for me is bike riding, I love it and I built up my stamina over a period of time. I also joined a zumba class because I love to dance. I’ve never been one to jog or run but the idea of an obstacle course intrigued me, I found a friend to join me in training for the barbarian challenge and it ended up being one of the biggest challenges of my life and I successfully accomplished it!

4. Stay busy.

Begin new projects or discover a new hobby. Do something that excites you, immerse yourself in things that you love to do!

My personal tip – I always loved art but never felt I was good enough. I began taking art classes even though it intimidated me, that is a good thing! Stretch your wings…and step outsideof the box. Do something that you don’t think you can do. I dived into some home projects that I had been putting off and began to write more.

5. Visualize your end result.

We humans have need to have a goal, something that seems real. Maybe an old photo of how you used to look, or a picture of how you want to look. Find inspirational quotes to put on your desk, refrigerator and mirror. Read inspiring stories of others weight loss journeys. Gather information on great new healthy recipes. You have a goal and it is attainable!

My personal tip – The day I lost enough weight the I noticed my clothes were getting to big was all I needed to inspire me to continue on!

6. Drink plenty of water

This is self explanatory.

My personal tip – I like to add some flavor by adding lemon.

7. Download a weight loss website or app on your smart phone.

This will give you moral support from others who are on the same journey as you are and you can also find great recipes, tips and tricks that will help you along the way.

My personal tip – I downloaded “loseit” app on my iPhone. I entered my daily calories and the calories I burned during exercise. I was able to see in chart form how I was doing on a day-to-day basis and it really helped!

8. Don’t starve yourself!

Eat healthy! lots of greens, veggies and lean meat. small portions and keep up with your daily caloric intake. Remember to burn those calories by moving that body!

9. Don’t eat after 7 p.m.

Plan to eat early in the evening. Don’t go to bed with food weighing down in your belly at night.

My personal tip – This was the hardest thing for me to overcome. I love to snack in the evenings while I am relaxing after a long day of work. To get past this, I stopped watching so much television and spent more time doing the projects that I wanted to do.. (See # 4 above).

10. Quit the diet but never quit the healthy lifestyle!

I mean it! If you crash into a brick wall with your new healthy lifestyle or if you get so down and out because you are not seeing any results from all of your hard work…this is when you HAVE to keep going. Tomorrow is a new day, a new opportunity and a new beginning to a new, beautiful healthy YOU!

You have lost the weight, what now?

Maintaining your new body can prove to be just as difficult as losing it. This is why it is so important to look at it as a lifestyle change. You have entered into a new way of eating and taking care of yourself. It is a maintenance plan but it is so worth it.

It took me a year to lose forty plus pounds and now I am in the maintenance phase. I weigh myself regularly to know what I need to do. I give myself a five-pound average up or down before I buckle down seriously. Don’t expect fast easy results but do expect long-lasting results.

I feel better than ever, my clothes fit better and it is actually FUN to go shopping and try on clothes now!

I hope my tips help you into finally accomplishing whatever your goal is in your new healthy lifestyle.

Are you on a weight loss journey now? What tips do you have? Please share!

About the Author: Sherry Cook currently works for Mobile Arc, a non-profit organization that supports individuals with developmental disabilities. She is wrapping up her memoirs and hopes to be in publishing soon. Her desire to tell her story has been nudging its way to the surface for many years. Having undergone personal challenges, living with monocular and low vision, while struggling to “fit in” with society’s version of what is normal. She understands all to well the difficulties life has to offer. Accepting yourself and learning how to overcome is her main platform for her energetic and touching motivational presentations. Her hobbies include painting with acrylics and working on home projects. Sherry can be reached at sherrycook8@gmail.com or http://sherrylcook.com

Find Motivation to Cook at Home

October 13, 2012 by Featured Author Leave a Comment

When faced with the choice of preparing a meal or dialing for take out, too many people opt for the latter because actually cooking something seems like so much effort. We seem as a society to have somehow convinced ourselves that cooking is difficult, not worth our time and only for those who are talented at preparing meals. In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Cooking at home is often quick, easy, cheap and doesn’t require you to know how to flambé anything.

Here are 4 simple things you can do to motivate yourself to turn that oven on and cook something at home.

1. Remind yourself that you’re saving money

If you are not eating at home then you must be ordering in or eating out. Economic times are hard and both of those options are expensive in the long run. Yet the worst part is that you’re paying more for something you could probably cook better yourself. Why pay for a burger that’s mass produced along with 5000 others when you can cook one yourself at home for cheap and it’ll even be tastier? Seems like there’s no excuses to me.

2. Sometimes cooking yourself is actually faster

Many people justify not cooking because eating out or ordering in is faster. When these people picture making a meal they see themselves slaving away at a stove for hours, and therefore understandably choose not to because they are busy and can’t spare the time.

However, their entire belief system about cooking is actually based on a lie: cooking doesn’t really have to take so long. Perhaps in 1850 a dinner might have taken 2 hours to prepare every night, but nowadays you can knock together a delicious meal in a quarter of an hour if you know how. British chef Jamie Oliver specialises in recipes that can be completed in 15 minutes, showing that making your own food doesn’t have to take over your life. Let’s be honest with ourselves: when was the last time you where served in a restaurant or had take-out arrive in less than 15 minutes?

3. Remind yourself that it’s good for you

If you’re eating out or ordering in, chances are you are not eating the most healthy choices on the menu. By cooking your own food you know exactly what is going into the food you eat and you have much more control over making your meals healthier.

The best part about cooking at home is that the easiest things to make are often the cheapest and healthiest choices too. Nothing is more simple to prepare than a salad or a vegetable stir-fry, which coincidentally are two dishes that are packed with nutritional content. Simple.

4. You don’t have to be a master chef

A reason that many people don’t like to cook is that they feel that they are bad at it. They’ll crack a joke or two about it and make it seem cute that they can’t poach an egg, but in reality they’re just putting themselves down and making excuses.

You don’t need to be a master chef to cook at home, because modern conveniences have made it easier than ever to prepare a meal without a misstep. All you have to do is print some recipes from the internet (you can search for particularly cheap or easy ones) and follow what they say. You can often get by without fancier skills (why sauté vegetables when you can put them in the microwave?) and still make a tasty meal.

Don’t let fear of the unknown stop you from cooking. Download a few recipes, buy some cheap ingredients and see what you can do. The more you cook, the more you’ll want to cook and be assured of your own abilities. Once motivated, it really couldn’t be easier to cook at home.

About the Author: Dora Novak is currently experimenting with fast and healthy foods you can cook with microwaves.

Beat the Bullies at Their Own Game

October 12, 2012 by Featured Author

This week, I was interested to see bullying hit the spotlight in a very real sense at the beginning of National Bullying Awareness Month. News anchor Jennifer Livingston from La Crosse, Wisconsin proved that bullying isn’t something that happens only to kids. After receiving an email from a viewer telling her she was a horrible example to young people because of her weight, Livingston responded on air. She let the viewer know that he doesn’t actually know her, or her struggles, and that it isn’t acceptable to bully her.

Livingston pointed out that bullying is a major issue, especially for young people, and that many of them don’t know better than to make fun of people. She also mentions that kids who bully often learn it from their parents, who need to lead with a positive example instead. This October, which is National Bullying Awareness Month, all of us should take the time to consider how our attitudes affect our kids and how we can teach them.

Supporting Kids who are Bullied

I recently had a firsthand experience supporting a bullied child. My younger cousin, who is in middle school, was being made fun of by her peers because she hadn’t used a fancy new tablet before and didn’t know how to navigate it. She only has experience on an older desktop computer, and the kids at school were calling her dumb and making fun of her socioeconomic situation. She came home in tears, and her mom asked me to come hang out with her.

I told her about when I was in school and felt left out because all of my friends were chatting online and my family didn’t even have a computer in the house so I couldn’t join in. Knowing that she wasn’t the only one who was bullied helped her feel supported. I also reminded her that she can spend more time with kids who don’t care what kind of technology she uses. You can use similar strategies with your kids, sympathizing with them and helping them remove themselves from negative situations.

Teaching Your Kids to be Respectful to Everyone

On the flip side, you should also be conscious of whether your child may be a bully. If you find out that your child is making fun of other kids or behaving aggressively toward them, have a stern talk with your child to let him or her know that the behavior is not acceptable. If your child has been bullied in the past, remind him of how hurt he felt when that happened.

One area of particular concern with bullying is online bullying. This was exemplified in the story of the news anchor, who received the hurtful words as an email. As your kids develop an online presence, whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter or just through emails, teach them that the words they say matter. In particular, remind them to not make fun of others, even if they don’t think the kids will see what they’re saying.

Bullying is a huge issue, particularly in school-aged children, and it’s not one you should ignore. Teach your kids to be kind to others, even when they look or act different. Model the behavior yourself so they can learn from you. And when they aren’t bullied, don’t ignore it. This can develop into a serious issue, and it’s your job to support your kids and equip them with strategies to cope and remove themselves from situations in which they are bullied.

Editor’s note: For an additional take on bullying written by Scott, follow this link.

About the author: Danielle, who blogs on behalf of Sears and other prestigious brands, enjoys entertaining and socializing as well as maintaining a healthy lifestyle. She has a weakness for new running socks and old family recipes.

But Today I’ll Smile

October 11, 2012 by Featured Author Leave a Comment

I was stuck inside my house all day Saturday and Sunday because I had the worst migraine ever.

I was irritated that the pain was causing me to stay in my dark bedroom all weekend. Completely overwhelmed, I started to cry which only made the headache worse. I felt like it wasn’t fair because I work hard all week, and like anyone, I want to make the most of my weekends. I wasn’t hungry, I didn’t have the strength to work out, and I couldn’t even stand the mere sound of the TV. I just wanted to feel sorry for myself. I wanted my boyfriend to feel sorry for me and take care of me. I just wanted to feel better. I just wanted to keep crying.

I went to the doctor last night to figure out why I had such a bad headache, and she just told me I have “the same virus that everyone has right now. Take some Advil Cold & Sinus, buy some nasal spray, and it will go away soon.” Not feeling too satisfied, I did what the doctor told me to, and I left. I was still annoyed.

I woke up today still feeling somewhat off, but something had changed.

Maybe it’s because today is my friend Ashley’s 27th birthday, but she’s celebrating in Heaven instead of here on Earth with all her family and friends. Maybe that’s what made me realize how selfish I had been for being so consumed with my lack of a fun weekend. I quickly started feeling lucky that my worst problem was a stupid headache. Maybe it’s because I got a text from my sister saying she’d be home on December 18th for Christmas. Maybe it’s because I woke up warm and tangled up in our beautiful bed, the same bed I didn’t want to spend one more minute in over the weekend. That very same bed felt and looked different this morning. For the past few days, it felt like frustration. This morning, it felt reassuring. There’s comfort in knowing that I have a bed to wake up in and go to sleep in tonight. I felt honored to have an angel in Heaven to say Happy Birthday to. I felt excited that I could start the countdown to when I would see my sister. I felt fortunate that I have a job to go to that provides health insurance which allows me to go to the doctor to find out I have nothing more than some aggravating virus. I felt thankful that I really do have everything I want, and I felt sad for the people who don’t. I felt honestly and truly blessed.

So, yes I cried a lot this weekend, but today, I think I’ll just smile.

« Previous Page