Always, Alli

A few weeks ago I was given a list of books from HarperCollins to pick from and review on my blog. I could have passed on the list, but I saw the title Tao of Fertility and replied, “I would love to review this book, since fertility is a subject near and dear to my heart.” Or some such nonsense.

The book arrived and I started reading it with a kind of hard heart, not really wanting to open my heart to the subject matter at hand. With our background of infertility, I wasn’t ready to read a “to do list” of things I wasn’t really used to. And as is the formula for infertility books, I wasn’t really ready to read the happy success stories of infertile couples. Or maybe I was just hormotional.

Since I was just reading the book to review, not to make major life changes, I dug in.

Dr. Daoshing Ni (Dr. Dao) practices traditional Chinese medicine and has earned renown as an expert in fertility. He comes from generations of Taoists, the basis for his methods in traditional Chinese medicine. His approach to fertility isn’t just clinical, but also deals with the mind and soul.

The beginning of the book was enlightening just in the area of Chinese medicine, a topic I never really looked into. I knew what acupuncture was, but never had it really explained. I read about herbs, acupuncture, exercise, and just preparing your self for a journey into wellness. And it made me want to take the fifty steps out my back door to see the Chinese Medicine doctor in the building behind my house.

(Yes, there is a young man who practices Chinese Medicine in the building behind my house. I keep wondering if this book was pointing me toward something.)

Section two goes more in depth with discussing a plan for fertility; include diet changes and self acupressure. It was well laid out and I feel like I could take ownership of this direction for fertility. One of the biggest pluses for this book is the real idea that I could do something to take charge of my fertility. In section one, Dr. Dao mentions how in China, patients have their own medical records, and patients are partners with their doctors. I have never really felt like a partner with any of my doctors.

I was inspired by the third section. It discussed specific fertility problems and focused on case studies of women who had them. Dr. Dao explained his method of assistance, and the women added their voices to the experience. I was really impressed with how Dr. Dao’s Chinese Medicine worked hand in hand with the Western medicine.

When we were dealing with the emotional rollercoaster of trying to get pregnant, I had to throw all fertility books out. They were all driving me crazy, giving me the same information in different sentences and paragraphs, but never really helping me.

My heart was hard when I started reading the book, but my heart was softened by the last page. I really believe I read something different, and I could take a more active role in trying to achieve a healthy pregnancy. I would recommend this book to anyone trying to find more answers to fertility questions.

You can learn more about Dr. Dao and the Tao of Fertilty at the Tao of Wellness website.

Technorati Tags: Dr. Dao, Daoshing Ni, traditional Chinese medicine, fertility, Tao of Fertility

Disclaimer: The product I am about to rave and gush over was given to me with no expectation that I blog about it. But really, how could I not? It just isn’t who I am!

On Thursday, the mail man gave me a sweet present: a new CamelBak water bottle.

If you recall, I once decided to go BPA free with the plastics I use. This meant a really difficult decision to throw away my precious CamelBak water bottle. I linked to a website I really respect when it comes to information about companies who are BPA free. And if you check out the comments on my post, you will notice they left me a very nice comment:

Great blogging research! We gave you a hat tip for the planned Camelbak transition of their Bite Valve bottle, which we hadn’t noticed ourselves.

I thanked them for the “hat tip” (link back to my post) and had a warm and fuzzy feeling for the rest of the day.

Then a few days later, I received an email from Jeremiah stating CamelBak wanted to send them some of the new BPA free water bottles and send me one. I was no longer warm and fuzzy, I was over the moon!

Of course I sent them my mailing address and of course I haunted my mailbox looking for something from CamelBak. And then on Friday, there it was.

It came with the bite valve I really like and has been my constant companion. I am better hydrated since first filling it up, and I feel great knowing I am not ingesting a chemical that could potentially harm my reproductive hormones.

And it helps that it is a product I really, really like.

Technorati Tags: BPA free, CamelBak, water bottle

And parts of Kentucky.

While on the road yeasterday, somewhere in the middle of Kentucky, I started sneezing and the skin around my eyes itched so badly I wanted to remove them from my face. When we got to my mom’s house, my throat started itching and feeling like it was coated in baby powder.

Last year I was suffering in a similar way, complete with losing my voice every evening after a pollen-filled day of playing and running around. I thought I had been fortunate this spring since I hadn’t really had bad reactions to the blooming trees and flowers. And then I decided to take a road trip to Ohio!

This morning we went outside to pick up sticks and I immediately started with the sneezing and itchy eyes. It didn’t help that Fuller was shoving flowers into my face so I could sniff them. I found the allergy medicine, and decided in order to really enjoy my vacation, it will not be leaving my side.

Technorati Tags: seasonal allergies, pollen, allergy symptoms

I went to Weight Watchers this morning and was thrilled to have lost my PMS weight. I gained 2 pounds the week before and I lost 2.4 pounds this week. It gave me a better outlook for this upcoming week.

When we have our meeting, after everyone has done their weigh-in, the first thing our leader asks about is any non-scale victories. These would be little hurdles we have overcome or something that clicked to help us in our weightloss goal.

For me, this week I put on a pair of shorts that were too tight last summer and now they fit me perfectly. I don’t usually hold on to clothes that don’t fit me (we just don’t have that kind of space), but when I grabbed these shorts on Thursday I wasn’t expecting them to fit well. I expected to struggle to button them and to feel tightness around my lower abdomen. It was amazing for me to wear them and feel comfortable!

I still have a long way to go. In fact I have told myself I am not allowed any pedicures or eyebrow waxing until I get my weight below 200. I better be well beyond that goal by July, when I have a wedding to go to and expect to be pretty from head to toe. Honestly, I’ll probably be getting my first pedicure by the middle of May. But since I am craving one now, I figured it would be a good reward to keep me on track.

Next week I travel to Ohio, so unless I go to a meeting there, I won’t be weighing in for two weeks. Let’s see what amazing things I can do in two weeks!

Technorati Tags: weight watchers, rewards, non-scale victories

Yesterday morning I was making waffles while the Today Show family kept me company. Matt Lauer started talking about plastic bottles and how they could be harming you. I thought the segment would be about reusing the plastic bottles bottled water comes in. I had heard a while back how it was bad to keep using those bottles over and over since they were not meant for more than one use.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered they were actually attacking my precious CamelBak water bottle. Actually they were attacking my new water bottle, since my first CamelBak was lost forever at Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

The woman at the beginning of the segment mentions filling her bottle up five times a day, and she is holding a CamelBak. I felt sorry for her CamelBak, she seemed to love hers as much as I love mine.

I was frustrated with the segment which told us plastic is labeled with a number (1 to 7) and it really only focused on 1 and 7. And it then turned into number 7 bashing because 7 is where you will find the chemical bisphenol-A (aka BPA), a chemical which will effect your hormones, specifically those found in our reproduction organs.

That is what caused my ears perked up.

I remembered a blog post (I actually put it on my del.icio.us list) about BPA free kids sippy cups/ bottles. Z Recommends has been following this problem and creating reports (this is the most recent version of their report), speaking with companies (I was really impressed with their discussion with Tupperware), and making a really comprehensive list of companies who are BPA-free.

Back to my water bottle- I was really, really sad. I stewed about it for most of the day, and finally had a moment to go to the actual CamelBak website to see if they even had a response to the issue. And how excited was I to see their front page touting their new BPA-free Better Bottle? It is made from a new Tritan material, which is free of bisphenol-A. I was a bit miffed to see it has the classic cap, since one of the reasons I love CamelBak is the bite and sip valve. But after digging a little deeper (or just clicking the FAQs) I read:

Our CamelBak Better Bottle with Bite Valve will transition to this new material in Spring 2008 while our Classic Cap version will only be made from Tritan.

I found it a bit odd that the Today Show didn’t mention there are companies working toward BPA-free products. The segment showed people with CamelBak bottles, but specifically said Nalgene when doing the Q&A at the end of the segment. According to Z Recommends, Nalgene falls under the Poor category, where poor is defined

Companies rated “Poor” demonstrate an unwillingness to acknowledge the legitimacy of consumers’ concerns about Bisphenol-A and/or offer few or no BPA-free products.

After looking at the Nalgene website, they also offer a bottle made from Tritan, and a few other BPA-free options, but their front page condemns the Today show segment, saying BPA is safe.

I’m waiting for the followup segment on today’s Today Show for more information, (and to see if Nalgene went in front of the cameras). But for now, I’m throwing away my CamelBak (SOB!) and heading to Rock Creek to see if they have the Better Bottles made from Tritan. I would rather be on the cautious side of this debate, since reproductive hormones are an integral part of Fuller actually getting a brother or sister. And if If I spill on myself, I’ll be even more happy when the bite valves made from Tritan come on the market.

Technorati Tags: CamelBak, BPA-free, Today Show, anti-BPA, bisphenol-A, number 7 plastic, plastic water bottles

I feel greatly blessed for the time I have been able to be a stay at home mom and really don’t like to think much about the time l was a working mom. It was really dark for me, and in order to stand ground until the situation could be adjusted, I was in therapy. I was fortunate I had a circle of support from lots of different areas- family, church, and friends. I was guided by a friend to a woman who helped steady me until I started staying home.

Not everyone may think they have the support from family or friends. But there are plenty of ways to find the help you need. You could blog! (Insert smiley face here.) Or you could turn to a service like GoodTherapy.com to find someone to give counseling.

For someone looking for help, Good Therapy can help find a therapist. Counselors and therapists are listed in the directory after they pay a fee and show their therapy philosophy falls with in the good therapy model. The website boasts having over 1200 therapists in their directory. I searched in my area, an only one therapist came up as a return (within 50 miles). So I plan on alerting my friend who helped me and let her know about this service.

I have to say again how blessed I was to have friends to help me. But seeing a service like this makes me think other people who don’t know where to turn may be able to find help they need.

Technorati Tags: good therapy, counseling directory, therapist services

I don’t normally deprive myself of coffee on purpose. I might not make it until I have been up for a few hours, but I’ve never gone longer than four hours after waking up without coffee. (And yes, I did drink coffee while I was pregnant and breastfeeding. I’m not going to stop drinking coffee any time soon.)

This morning however, I woke up at 5 am. I didn’t get any coffee until about 2:45.

I didn’t want to deprive myself of a car nap on the way to Atlanta, and I knew even a small amount of coffee would hinder that. And once we got to our hotel, I didn’t have immediate access to coffee. We weren’t able check in immediately so we walked around Decatur for a little bit, finding the MARTA station, and then looking for a coffee shop. The little independent ones we passed on our way were too far to walk. And by the time we were able to check into our rooms, I didn’t have time to make coffee.

I was developing a doozie of a caffiene headache and it was interfering with my ability to talk and organize. I had to return to the hotel room for forgotten things, and I still didn’t get everything I needed. When Damon brought me a Starbucks coffee (proudly served at the Georgia Dome) it brought me round to feeling right.

As we walked back to the hotel around 10:30, the joke was on me. There was a Starbucks right across the street from the MARTA station. Right where we walked this morning.

Tomorrow, I know I’ll be able to think straight again.

Technorati Tags: coffee, caffeine headache

The other day I enjoyed such a lovely walk to the grocery store and back. 3 miles of walking. I loved it.

Grace asked why I was taking pictures of butter and my friend Deb has put them to use: she has lost 68 sticks of butter! Since Deb is a visual person, and too shy to take a picture herself, I did it for her.

I went to Weight Watcher’s today and was thrilled with one pound gone. So if I took my own picture, total I have lost 12 boxes of butter.

I have a tricky week ahead of me, since our family will be traveling. We will spend four days at basketball games, so most of our food options will be food from the Georgia Dome. Overpriced hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, nachos (my favorite) and fries are mostly my options. I am counting on the many miles of walking to help battle the unhealthy nature of the beast.

And afterwards, I hope I lose at least two more boxes of butter. A loss is a loss!

Technorati Tags: visual, fried wiki, Georgia dome, weight watchers

Saturday I went to my first Weight Watcher’s meeting in three weeks. I missed two weeks because of travel and one week because of flu. I was worried I would have to pay the registration fee again, but my leader just had me pay two weeks and I was good to stand on the scale.

The funny thing about this meeting is we were only weighed, given a recipe (Cindy gives us one every week), and sent on our way. Poor Cindy had no voice, so there was no way she could lead a meeting. It was nice to see we now have a receptionist who helps Cindy. I don’t know her name, but she lost her weight via Weight Watchers and going to the same meetings we go to now.

I was thrilled that even being gone for three weeks I still lost almost 4 pounds. I think it was all the walking I did at Disney. Or the flu our family suffered for two weeks. Either way, a loss is a loss.

Over all, I have lost over 11 pounds since I started. I’m thrilled to say that. To me, 11 pounds is a big deal. I did it through more activity and better eating. I didn’t resort to diet pills like Orovo, alli, or hoodia (though I was sorely tempted).

I still have a long way to go to reach my goal, but I’m working toward it!

Technorati Tags: health wise wednesday, weight watchers

I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon to deal with what I fear is an ear infection. The great thing about me is anitbiotics really work quickly on me. I hope it kicks out whatever else is in my system dragging me down. I hate the way I have energy for about 10 minutes and then I’m on a downward spiral to “needing a break” for the next 30 minutes.

As of this minute I am still planning on my trip to Florida, which involves flying in an airplane. And it leaves tomorrow morning. So along with doctor’s appointments (Fuller gets to go to one too), I need to get into the attic and find Florida appropriate attire. And I have to pack. And I need to do a little house work so I don’t overwhelm my guys while I am gone. (The freezer is stacked with pizza though.)

This illness isn’t the end of my world, I just need for the illness to end.