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Category Archives: Life in General
Zicam is your friend during Flu Season!
So Friday I woke up with a blinger of a cold. I have to admit Thursday night I didn’t feel quite myself and so I popped a Zicam tablet before bed. By 4am Friday I was wide awake with a pounding headache, body aches and probably a low grade fever. Popped another Zicam and some Tylenol Cold and went back to bed. Got up around 8am to force myself into the shower to dress and head to the office. By noon I was feeling down right crappy and ate a cup of soup to ward off the chills. Popped another Zicam. At 4pm I was useless – called the boss and said I was going home. Went straight to bed and pretty much slept until about noon time on Saturday. Got up, popped more Zicam…but now I am at least feeling human and can function enough to do some laundry and tidy up the kitchen. The point of this story is the Zicam. I love this stuff. If you use it diligently and take it every four hours, I promise you it will reduce your downtime dramatically…well, okay I guess I can’t promise…but you know what I mean. I works for me. So today (Sunday) I have some head congestion – but no cough to speak of and I feel pretty good. I’m confident that when Monday morning rolls around I will be able to get up and get myself to work without too much effort.
Wikpedia says that studies of zinc in the common cold suffered from methodologic flaws; restricting the analysis to well designed studies, the authors concluded that the therapeutic effectiveness of zinc lozenges has yet to be established. However, the stuff works for me so even though its about $15 for a box of the nasal swabs, I’m willing to make the investment.
It’s a horrible flu season right now and the hallways at Microsoft seem to be laden with the bug – so it’s hard to escape, especially when so many people (like myself) feel compelled to go to work even when you’re sick. Try the Zicam – at the start of even an inkling that you might be coming down with something. Take it every four hours and you will be better before you know it!
Keeping it real.
Hi, and I’m back. Happy New Year! It’s been quite some time since my last post…and I can give you a laundry list of reasons why that is, but I wont…and just leave it at that.
I’m keeping it real this year. This is my motto. No new year resolutions, no promising to hit the gym 3 times a week or tell myself that I am going to get back making my glass beads again even if it kills me. This year, I am keeping it real. To me that means a couple of things. It started with the removal of my acrylic nails. This was s small step, however a tough one for me…as my real nails have not seen the light of day in I can’t tell you how many years. I can’t promise you that I will never put them back on again, but for now, they are gone, and I am living with my God-given finger nails and loving it. Now, about my hair color – not keeping that real. If not for my quarterly sessions with Doreen I would be gray beyond my years, and I’m sorry – I’m just not giving up my honey wheat highlights. What I will give up is Splenda, diet soda and ”lite” versions of anything!
In addition to the physical or tangible aspects of keeping it real, for me there are some psychological sides as well. For example, I have a hard time saying no to people. Keeping it real means thinking first about what saying yes means to me. I am the pleaser-type….meaning I tend to draw a certain amount of satisfaction from making others happy. Unfortunately, this sometimes turns out bad for me in the grander scheme of things. Often times I end up being so over-committed that I resent what I am doing instead of having fun doing it! This year, I vow to be thoughtful about saying “yes”.
Keeping it real also means not fantasizing about having the same waistline and shapely biceps as Kelly Rippa. Let’s face it – I’m not the work out type. I love to cook (with real butter and cream), drink wine, and eat dinner after 8pm at night. All of these things are not conducive to fitting into those size 4 jeans. So, my version of keeping it real is recognizing that yes, I could stand to drop a few pounds – okay maybe more than a few, but be happy in my own curves. I can handle adjusting to having dinner before 8pm each night. I have a desk job that has me sitting 50 hours a week, so I get the fact that I need to get out and move and be active. Maybe this means walking those 18 holes instead of riding in a golf cart. Or, maybe I could park my car in the furthest parking spot away each morning. There are lots of things that I could do increase my activity level without making myself crazy about whether I can get to the gym today…I just need to think about it and decide to say yes….for me.
So there is little glimpse of me and my motto for the new year. What are you doing to keep it real?
