Unproductive or not?

Today, I gave up on plans to go cross-country skiing and spent most of the day in bed finishing The Hunger Games trilogy. It's something I've been putting off for a couple of months, and I always find a good reason to do something more "productive."

"I have to paint the bathroom."

"There's Christmas shopping to do."

"I need to clean out my closet."

It feels like I've been going non-stop for months. Even the Christmas holiday was an exercise in constant motion. I try to maintain work and life balance, but there's always something to do. I came back from a week off work feeling like I hadn't had any time off. And to make matters worse, I'm so distracted by all the things I should be doing that I have trouble focusing when I read a book. So finishing a book takes a while, and I seem to find reasons not to read.

But today? Edmonton received a great snow dump this weekend. The snow is fresh and almost 30 cm deep (that's over a foot for the non-metric) and the weather is -16 degrees Celsius. It's a little too deep and kind of cold for cross country skiing. Also, my once-a-week meds have 12-hour side effects that are pretty much like being hella-drunk: dizziness, balance issues & nausea. So naturally, I took them last night and forgot how I'd feel this morning.

That makes it a stay-home day. Now, the house could use a good post-Christmas scrubbing, and I'm still cleaning out my closets for the clothing drive I'm running at work. Since Ukrainian Christmas is over, I should probably take down the Christmas tree.

But I woke up to the bright post-snowfall sunlight streaming into my bedroom window. My hon was already up and playing Call of Duty downstairs. So instead of rushing to get the day going, I said screw it and stayed in bed all morning and most of the afternoon, and read until the daylight started to fade. Like most Sundays, I wasn't hungry in the morning. Let's face it: I eat plenty as a middle-income Canadian, so skipping one meal won't be the end of the world.

And when I was done? My side effects had passed. I came downstairs and made a really tasty meal of leek soup and pan-fried pork loin and finished it off with a homemade latte. I'd finished the book series I've been really excited to finish. And I felt more relaxed than I have in months. One day did more to relax me than a whole week away from work.

It would be easy to dismiss today as an unproductive day. Oxford Dictionary defines unproductive as "(of an activity or period) not achieving much; not very useful." I could have been doing a lot of things. Instead, I see today as productive by just giving me time to breath and accomplish one of those "less important" things on my to do list that's been nagging at me.

By bringing down my stress levels, today was definitely useful.

Hypothyroidism - Gears Grinding to a Halt

Wow. I have a medical reason for being a fat, lazy slob. Cool!

I just had an appointment with my doctor to follow up on some blood work. It was part of my annual physical, but I put it off for months because I have a thing about needles. He wanted to test my thyroid hormone levels because I had put on weight over a year that hadn't come off and my Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) symptoms have been stronger this year. I just have no energy and I'm more sluggish than usual. He wanted to check if I have diabetes or an iron deficiency.

I was nervous for the last week after booking my appointment, mainly because my doctor's schedule was so open and I'm used to booking appointments farther out. Usually, I need to book at least a week in advance, but the receptionist sounded like I could come in the following day. That didn't work with my schedule, but I kept thinking, 'What's wrong that he can see me right away? He never sees me right away!' I joked about it with Sweetie last night, telling myself "It's not a tumor." Okay, so I can be fatalistic.

When I went in, My test results showed that my cholesterol is a little bit high, but marginally, so adjusting my diet will fix it. My blood, blood sugar and iron levels are all good. Then he dropped the sluggish bomb.

He confirmed that I have hypothyroidism. My thyroid is producing about half the thyroid hormones I need to run my metabolism properly.

Now for the crazy part. I'm looking up hypothyroidism online, and I discover the following symptoms. Look at how many I have (in green):

• Dry, thick skin (check - most of my skin's not thick, but it's been super-dry for about four years)
• Hair thinning
• Painful muscles and joints (check - my shoulder has been giving me pain for about two years)
• Depression (CHECK- that's a big 10-4, buddy! Four years ago I had my worst bout of SAD in two decades and I still haven't recovered fully. It's been pissing me off because it's supposed to lessen as you age.)
• Memory problems (check - I have horrible short-term memory, and it's seemed worse in recent years)
• Constipation
• Goitre
• Heavy, irregular or prolonged menstrual periods
• Low body temperature (below 97.8°F first thing in the morning) (check - I've been checking my basal temperature daily for 6 months)
• Low blood pressure (check - it runs in my family)
• Puffy eyes
• Slow pulse
• Reduced libido (check - for the last few years)
• Fatigue (check - tired when I wake up, drained when I go to sleep, too tired to sleep)
• Chronic sinus infections (check - my whole life)
• Headaches (check - in the last few years I've had fairly regular headaches, but it was problems with my bite/teeth)
• Sweating abnormalities
• Heat and/or cold intolerance (check - I'm a bit of an iceberg)
• Irritability (Shut Up! I mean, check)
• Fluid retention
• Anxiety/panic attacks (check)
• Frequent colds and sore throats (I get sore throats all the time, but only for a day or so)
• Lightheadedness (check - all the time)
• Ringing in the ears (check)
• Decreased concentration (...what? Oh, check.)
• Slow wound healing (check - it takes months for the red spots from even the tiniest sores to heal. Ingrown hairs are the bane of my existence right now.)
• Easy bruising (So my Sweetie says... Not like that!)
• Unhealthy, dry, brittle or ridged nails (check - I've always had a couple of nails with ridges, but the last five years they've gotten worse and more nails have them.)
• Acid Indigestion (check - doctor told me it was acid reflux)
• Cold hands or feet (check - my feet are always freezing cold, but I try to ignore it until I touch other skin to them)
• Inappropriate weight gain (check - no, I won't say how much. Not a lot, but enough for my doctor to wonder)
• Hypoglycemia (sorta check - my baseline blood glucose is normal, but if I go too long between meals, I get extremely irritable and lightheaded)
• Falling asleep during the day
• Itching (check - comes with dry skin, right?)
• High cholesterol (check - Dude!)
• Loss of outside portion of eyebrows (although mine are thinner than they used to be...)

This blew my mind. Most of the oddball things that are wrong with my health are symptoms of low thyroid function! This sounds like a laundry list of woes, but if you think about how much your endocrine system controls your body, it makes sense that systems all over would be affected. The human body is wild.

This is good news because it's a relatively easy fix. From the western medicine side, I can just take a synthetic thyroid supplement, just like taking extra vitamins. He wrote me a prescription for SynThroid and told me that it will take about two weeks to feel the effect, so by Christmas I should be a ball of energy. He also told me to book a six-month follow up. More needles. Great.

I'm not taking this lying down though. A bit of research revealed that from the holistic side, I can take iodine, selenium, and add coconut oil to my diet.

It turns out that too much polyunsaturated fat can inhibit tissue response to thyroid hormones. Coconut oil is a saturated fat, and it promotes increased metabolism. Coconut oil will not cure a sluggish thyroid, but it's like adding high octane fuel to your engine - it improves performance (metabolism). Crazy, huh? That might explain why I ate like a pig in the Dominican Republic and didn't gain a single pound. Lots of pina coladas.

Health Bites: Pepsi To Post Aquafina Is Tap Water

It's about time! PepsiCo, manufacturers of Aquafina, are considering finally printing on their labels that the contents are plain old tap water.

Yes, for those of you who didn't notice that the label doesn't say spring water, that's because it's not. Don't feel too bad about it. This deception by omission is also used by Coca-Cola too with Dasani. Better yet, they are often tap water that's been bottled far from the city or town where they are sold. So, your bottled water purity depending on how well the city where it's bottled cleans their water, and how long it sits out in trucks traveling the hot sun transporting to you. Makes you not want to spend $2 per bottle though, doesn't it?

I used to be a bottled water drinker, and I especially loved to drink spring water. I was willing to pay a lot for water from exotic places like France and Fiji. However, I also really liked a bottled spring water from a local company. I chose to drink bottled water partly for the clean taste, but also the convenience, especially when traveling.

There were two main reasons I switched from drinking bottled water. First, I read articles that pointed out that spring water that wasn't any cleaner than my local water. I found out that Edmonton tap water has been consistently rated as some of the cleanest water in the world. The techniques they use to purify the water, before and after it's used, make it cleaner when it is returned to the river where we draw it.

I have an uncle who works for EPCOR at the main water treatment plant. He's told me about the process for cleaning water, and more importantly, the maintenance of the plants. It's incredible to hear about the tiny values that they consider to be unacceptable contamination.

Second, I read things about the whole BPA scare that didn't scare me, but did make me think about what I'm putting in my body. I don't see a reason to put something that's supposed to be good for you but contains an X-factor that they don't fully understand yet.

Keeping in mind that tap water, which we take for granted in Canada and waste in ridiculous amounts, is not free. We pay for it every month, just like we pay for gas or electricity. Basically, it boils down to me being cheap and not agreeing with paying extra for something that is provided to me at such a low cost.

Now, I try to drink only tap water or filtered tap water from a SIGG bottle I carry with me (light blue Power Grip Sports Bottle pictured), or hot drinks from a stainless steel coffee mug I keep in the car. At work I use my trusty Pisces mug that's been with me since college.

I use a Brita water filter on the advice of my naturopath, but I don't have a problem drinking unfiltered Edmonton tap water. I find the water here to be very sweet, and its rare that we have any aftertaste. In my house we have two filters: Sweetie likes cold water, but I like it room temperature.

I admit that I'm not a total purist when I travel, because I believe in the adage that you won't get an upset stomach if you don't drink local tap water when you travel. I eat the local fruit, but I only drink bottled water.

What do you use to hold your drinks? Do you filter your water?

Calling All Canucks: Vitamin D Drive

Check it out! February is Vitamin D month, and GrassrootsHealth in the US setting up a campaign to solve vitamin D deficiency. Daction is a program to generate awareness of the problem and testing. The program will involve testing twice a year over five years to study the effects of Vitamin D levels on the body.

Okay, so I've been accused of being a bit of an earth muffin. But I'm a big believer in the effect of what you ingest affects your overall health. I include vitamin D supplements in my personal battle with seasonal affective disorder.

Vitamin D is the fat-soluble one called the "sunshine vitamin" because it's produced by your body when UV rays contact the skin, and it's not commonly found in foods naturally.

I'm fair-skinned, so my daily use of an SPF 8 reduces vitamin D absorption by 95%, and since I live in Edmonton, there's not enough UVB here for me from October to mid-March. Interestingly, that's when my SAD hits and recedes every year.

There are several diseases which have strong links to vitamin D deficiency. Rickets is the original deficiency disease, but a lack of vitamin D increases risk for high blood pressure, chronic muscle pain, osteoporosis, periodontal disease, type 1 diabetes, cancer, tuberculosis and some autoimmune diseases.

Oxford University released a study this week showing that a form of vitamin D triggers an immune system gene linked to multiple sclerosis. This is especially important to me because a dear friend was recently diagnosed with MS.

Think this doesn't affect you? 97 percent of Canadians are vitamin D deficient at some point in the year, according to University of Calgary research.

The cost to join the Daction project is USD30.00, which includes a health survey and at-home vitamin D blood spot test. The test results will be shipped directly to you, and you are able to make our own changes. This is a really reasonable cost for a five-year program that could make such a big difference to your life. It's a great chance to see what changing your vitamin intake can do to improve your health.

What can you do? "Participate in the study, get tested, get your serum levels to the 40-60 ng/ml range and learn all you can about Vitamin D," said Dr. Vieth of the GrassrootsHealth sponsored testing.

Remember to take your vitamin D supplement with a calcium or magnesium supplement for maximum absorption. Don't worry about overdosing on it; toxicity requires taking more than 100 times the RDA amount for months.

Please join the campaign and tell at least two friends about it.

Props to BodyBeautiful.ca for sending out a call to action for Canadians to join the campaign!

Product Lust: Molten Magic Heat Packs

Wow, where did the time go? Three weeks vanished in a blur of moving school and offices.

I thought I'd show you one of my favourite items that I keep beside the bed. Molten Magic Heat Packs are reusable exothermic heating pads that are safe to apply directly to skin and have been a treasure for me over the years. I bought a pair of the small ones ($8) at the Klondike Days Exposition two years ago, and last year I bought two more in the medium size ($10 each).

These pads work by encasing a metal activator disc and a sodium acetate solution in a high-grade vinyl pouch. The metal disc is "popped", and the metal reacts with the liquid solution, heating to 54 degrees Celsius (130 degrees Fahrenheit). This is very warm; almost too hot to stand against your skin, but not quite. The heating effect lasts for 20-30 minutes, and they are recharged by simmering in boiling water for 5-10 minutes.

The small packs are perfect as handwarmers in cold weather. All sizes of packs are great for theraputic use too. I use them at night when my back feels stiff, and they are perfect for placing on your tummy to deal with menstrual cramps.

I find that they recharge quickly, and I recommend buying them in pairs. That way, when you have used one and are charging it, you can use the other. I also use them while they are cooling down after I boil them, so I get double the heating effect.



They are available at local fairs, keep an eye out for them!

Easy, Now: De-Stressing Tips for Work and School

I've been really stressed at work for the last week or so. I've had additional duties at work assigned to me for an undetermined amount of time to assist another department. I'm still enrolled in two courses of night school, and my annual bout of SAD just kicked in, so I'm feeling pretty overloaded right now.

There are lots of things you can do to keep your stress from overpowering your life. I'm doing what I can to keep my mood up. Here are 10 of my tips:

1) Take daily vitamin supplements to keep my B-complex, C, D, magnesium, iron, calcium, zinc and potassium levels up. Deficiencies in these vitamins and minerals have strong links to depression.

2) Eat lunch away from the office at least three times a week. It doesn't mean eating out; I bring a sandwich or a salad. When I get bogged down in work, it's easy to feel chained to the desk. This gives me a chance to breathe and regroup.

3) Don't skip meals. This is one I struggle with because I tend to skip breakfast. Right now, I make sure I eat breakfast, whether it's a bowl of oatmeal or a breakfast bar.

4) Do stretches at work. I make a point of joining the office in the morning stretching sessions which are part of my company's health & wellness program. This allows me a chance to relax in case I was stressing out on the drive to work. It also gives me a chance to have a laugh with the people I work with, since these are light-hearted sessions.

5) If you have to vent, do it before you get home. Don't vent work-stress once you finish the drive from work. I try to say something good about my day once I get home, so I'm not focusing on the negative parts of my day.

6) Treat yourself once a week. When I can't afford something big like a spa treatment or a shopping spree, I give myself a pedicure or take a relaxation bath.

7) Stop for two minutes to laugh and smile. Smiling is proven as a weird biofeedback thing to improve your mood. An eight-hour work day has 480 minutes; laugh for two of them. I set an alarm, but I take two minutes in my busy workday to joke with a friend.

8) Use a massage tool. You don't need to be a pro. Throw it in a desk drawer and use it on your back or calf muscles while you're on the phone. I found a great body massager at Winners for $8 that is double-sided and feels great.

9) Make a list of the tasks you want to get done for the day, and mark them off when you are done. A five minute list lets me see my accomplishments for the day so I don't feel like I didn't getting anything done.

10) When you are feeling overloaded, talk to someone. Try to talk to your supervisor. You don't need to feel like you are whining if you say what parts are dragging you down, and it gives everyone a chance to evaluate the workload. If you can't talk to your supervisor, ask your HR department if your company has an employee assistance program. Companies put these in place to help, not to judge. I used my company EFAP program to get help with treatment for depression one winter when my SAD was out of control.

When it feels like the world is weighing on your shoulders, just remember to breathe. It's important to think about how things will change from day to day. Stress can produce results, so work through it, and try not to be negative to the people around you. Tomorrow is full of possibilities, and things can improve.

If you can't say something nice, say nothing. Negative attitudes at work are contagious. Apart from spreading the cranky around, you may cross the wrong person. As Sigourney Weaver's character said in Working Girl, "Today's junior prick is tomorrow's senior partner."

Product Review: Nature's Essence Cold Sore Relief

I'm hideous!

I had a cold sore pop up on Thanksgiving Monday on my lower lip. I only get one or two cold sores a year, either on my right lower lip or midway up my right upper lip. The stupid things drive me nuts because I already have a bad habit of chewing my lips when they are chapped

Cold sores make me lick and chew my lips even more, which leads to the scab getting white, puffy and irritated. Next thing you know, the scab comes off and then the healing takes that much longer, which means that much longer before I can wear pretty lip gloss and lipstick again!

I've been trying not to think about it all week, but I thought I'd share my treatments with you since I've been fixing these little suckers for 20+ years.

Okay, first I'll give you the ugly medical facts and statistics, courtesy of coldsores.ca:

• Cold sores are a cluster of blisters on or around your lips and mouth, and (rarely) on or inside the nose, chin and cheeks. They often appear at the corners of the mouth. They are caused by the herpes simplex virus (mouth virus is HSV-1, genital is HSV-2). You can spread infections to other areas of your body (eyes, fingers, genitals).
  
• 30-60% of children under 10 years old get infected with HSV-1, usually from family members. By age 50, 80-90% of us are infected.
• Some people never show symptoms.
  
• Often you are infected as a child; some children experience symptoms in their throat.
• Once you are infected, it never leaves you.
• When dormant, it hides in your central nervous system. When it activates, it erupts from the nerves in the skin.
  
• Breakouts are often preceded by prodromal symptoms: tingling, itching, redness or burning.
• Stress, sun exposure, menstruation or fever can cause an outbreak.
• You can transmit the virus when you don't have an outbreak (asymptomatic shedding).
• Cold sores usually reappear in the same location.
  

My Mom has always told me to try prescription medication for them, but since they're kind of mild, I usually just use over-the-counter medications to treat the cold sore and a lip moisturizer I dispose of when I heal. I have tried nearly every cold sore treatment on the market since I was a teenager, whether it was a liquid or a gel. I've also tried the home remedies: lemon juice and salt paste was the best tasting, but didn't work better than anything else.

My favourite cold sore treatment is Nature's Essence Cold Sore Relief, and it rocks hard. This little 4ml potion is made from essential oils including Tea Tree, Geranium, Bergamot, Eucalyptus, Chamomile and Lavender. These essential oils combine anti-viral, analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Most importantly, it keeps the cold sore moist without being too wet. This is really important because if the sore gets too wet, it gets mushy; but if it dries out, it tends to crack, which also takes longer to heal.

As soon as I feel that familiar tingling, I apply Nature's Essence like mad on the first day (several times an hour), and it keeps the site from filling with liquid into a big blister. This is the first treatment I've ever used that consistently keeps the blister from popping up. Every day after, I keep using it to heal the sore fast and keep it moist enough to avoid cracking.

I'm still not brave enough to take pictures of myself for this blog, but on Wednesday a girl at work did a double-take when I told her I had a cold sore. She hadn't noticed it was there. I'm already at the healing stage, and the inflammation is almost gone.

Pink Bites: One A Day Women's Make Up Call

If you're like me, even if you try to eat healthy, you fall into the trap that "I'm not doing enough" and take vitamins. I do because I don't always eat as healthy as I want to, so I take vitamin and herbal supplements. My mom's advice was always to take a multivitamin because usually the balance of vitamins is good and it's more of a no-brainer.

One of the multivitamins I've gone back to over and over again is One A Day. The balance of vitamins is good, I trust the quality of the products and I like that they add other things to the mixture for specific needs, like men's formulas and supplements for people over 50.

In honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, One A Day is doing a lot. First, they are donating $200,000 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation's mission is to achieve prevention and a cure for breast cancer in our lifetime. To learn more click here: www.bcrfcure.org.

Also, how would you like to get a phone call from a celebrity? One A Day Wake Up Call lets you send a call from Ellen Degeneres to someone you love reminding them about their breast health. To test this out, I sent a message to myself through email (you can also send it to a phone number). This was a very cute message from Ellen, funny without being too glib, and was a strong, yet positive, message about women's breast health.

I think this is a great way to remind your friends and family about their own health. Send a phone message to someone you love and remind them to take their health seriously.

Pink Bites: Aveda Hand Relief

During the month of October, the first 100 guests that mention sweetspot.ca at participating Aveda Experience Centres in Canada will receive a complimentary purse size sample of Aveda Hand Relief.

For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Aveda is launching a limited edition pink ribbon Hand Relief.

It has an herbal fragrance that I love, and it's thick and rich. The Hub doesn't have this on his luv list, because he describes it as "stinky and greasy." I wouldn't go that far, but it does take a little while to really soak into your skin, but when it does it feels wonderful.