Norwex February Specials ~ Still Clearing the Air

In my mission to spread the Heart Health message, I still believe removing unnecessary potentially dangerous chemicals from your home environment is the best way to create a safe haven for your health so I'm still clearing the air with Norwex!  I no longer have my website, but accept orders via email.

February Specials ~ Join my Kind Cleaning With Norwex Facebook group for an even better deal on these ;)

Every Pet Owner Needs “Pet Perfect!”

We have had a muddy Spring this January!  Thankfully my Pet towel cleans Otis off before he even enters the house.  Unlike the picture, I wrap the towel under him and get all the muck off, then get his legs and paws.  So gentle and removes everything this crazy weather has brought: mud, snow, ice and the dreaded ice melt pellets/salt.  I can use it over and over before having to wash it too - it holds a lot and has BacLock which causes the towel to neutralize any bacteria and prevent it from coming off.

The “Magnetic Duo!” makes a great gift or 2^nd Cleaning set for your Home

My magnetic EnviroCloth hangs out on the side of my fridge – easy to grab at a moment’s notice when flour has spilled onto the floor, the ketchup bottle topples over or chocolate fingers just closed the fridge door!  Teachers love these to hang on their white boards too, they stay handy and clean that board like nobody’s business.

Hold a small party at your home or an on-line party and you could earn some of the Host Rewards listed.  Norwex solves so many problems: glass cooktop gunk, mirror/window spots, dust everywhere, fingerprints/Sharpie on the wall!  I could go on and on – the point is the products sell themselves because they are solutions to pesky home cleaning issues.  More importantly they allow your home to be clean and germ-free without harmful asthma inducing chemicals.  Email me for more information if interested.

Doctor Visit Hacks for Women

In the past I'd arrive to the tiny cold exam room and be told to put on 2 sheets of paper.  One was supposed to be a top and the other was supposed to wrap around like a sarong. Exit nurse - Engage butterfingers as I attempt to unfold the "top" without tearing it. If I managed to get both pieces positioned on my body I would then try to scoot up to the exam table and hear the inevitable rip.  Then I would have to sit with arms fully engaged holding the paper over myself.  I'm not extremely shy, but it's cold and the lights are very bright!

Now I bring my own gown. I keep an old nursing gown for this purpose.  It scrunches small enough to be tossed in my purse.  I think a short cotton robe would be even better (opening in front.)  I still take the sarong-paper sheet for a little extra coverage.  I can pretend I have a blanket draping over my legs.

Prep work: most of us figure out after several years that they will ask the first day of our last cycle, so make sure to have that date in your mind.  I spent years mumbling days before the nurse would point to a calendar as if that would help my temporary mental incompetence.

As I've aged from taking 0 meds and 0 vitamins, they now ask those questions.  And they want to know exact milligrams!  This one I've solved easily by taking a photo of my vitamins (thankfully, no regular meds yet!) before I leave.  I can just pull up the picture on my phone and read it off to them.

My visit today is done and I get to do this again with my GP in 2 weeks.  The good part is I showed a weight loss this year and proudly showed off my Better Homes & Gardens article!

Spreading Heart Health Awareness ~ Better Homes & Gardens Article

My 15 minutes of fame have arrived!  There’s a piece about me in the February 2017 edition of Better Homes & Gardens magazine.  I’m sure it will be a small snippet – the only questions are how small? And which picture was chosen, if any?

(Literally as I was typing, my sister called to say she received her February BH&G and I am in it!)

Back in October I was so motivated by the #GoRedGetFit group on Facebook that I changed the focus of my blog (KindCleaning.Blogspot.com) to identify my heart healthy motivation and goals. Read about it here: http://kindcleaning.blogspot.com/2016/10/gored-getfit-why-its-my-new-catchphrase.html.  

A couple of days later someone from the American Heart Association posted on the board about contacting women who were beginning to get healthy and finding out their “why” for a magazine article.  I was one of the first few to respond with a link to my blog.

Pretty quickly I was emailed by the AHA person and then connected with the writer.  We emailed and had a telephone interview.  I had to send her a handful of photos of myself.

Since my interview I’ve continued to spread the news about Heart Disease with daily exercise Facebook updates accompanied with some Heart Facts; I’ve arranged for both schools my children attend to participate in the Wear Red for Women’s Heart Health Day on February 3^rd; and I’ve taken the advice offered by the panel.  The writer has stayed in touch along the way.  Go buy the magazine!

And I'm actually looking forward to visiting my doctors this month.  Not the exam part, but I know they will see a weight loss and hopefully improved blood pressure.  Coincidentally I visit my Primary Care Physician on February 3rd!  So I'll be wearing Red and handing out stickers and flyers to everyone I meet.

January: The Month of New Diets and Resolutions

On the eve of my 51^st birthday I’ve become quite reflective. What have I done in life? Am I where I should be? Do I have unattained goals that need attention?  Yikes, I think this is where Mid-life crises begin! I’m not interested in spending money foolishly or destroying my family.  My mid-life crisis will result in a whole new me! (Well, I’m still Carol, just healthier and more active!)

Fortunately I can feel a metamorphosis happening. In September, through a sudden loss, I made the mental-physical connections needed to embark on a healthier lifestyle. Different from the 2,452 other times I began a diet, health regimen, exercise program, etc., this time took hold like none before. I’m doing things entirely out of character for me.  For example I used to wonder what the heck people did to stay at the gym for longer than an hour (and WHY?  Didn’t they have other things to do?) This morning an hour flew by and I had more I wanted to do at the gym!  I MADE myself leave though because, yes, I do have other things to do.  And I did all that on just one cup of coffee!  Some other changes:

•          I only baked one batch of cookies over the holidays
•          I allowed myself some sweets on Christmas Eve/Christmas and New Year’s Eve but didn’t gorge on them.  By Christmas night, my body was looking forward to NOT having sugar the next day.
•          I spent hours at ski lodges and did NOT buy anything but coffee from the heavily scented (fatty, sugary) concessions.  One day was particularly hard and I felt the $3 coffee that tasted like sludge was overpriced: until I realized it prevented me from buying a large chocolate chip cookie and decided that was the best $3 I spent.

While celebrating my successes, I will be honest also: I DID eat sweets on other days; particularly the first week of January was tough for me.  When everyone else was ultra-motivated to begin a health program, I had just made it through the holidays on a motivation high so just couldn’t jump any higher which resulted in some lapses.

Goals Review of December = Accomplishments:

•          Exercise 5x/week : elevating my heart rate to 120-150 for 30 minutes
•          Reduce sugar: I’ve worked sweets out of my daily routine
•          Completed that first 5K (which for me, was a tool to get me running)
•          Bought some more tools for success: Passion Planner, Arbonne Protein Shake Mix, work-out clothing
•         Recorded my workouts on FB – for inspiration to others, encouragement to me and accountability.
•          Tracked food 3 days/week
•          I went skiing twice: multiple runs on green and blue trails!  The funny thing is: this activity did NOT get my HR up to Target Zone.  It elevated to about 50% of max HR.

Goals for January:

•          Two exercise events on the same day  3x/week (Balance Board, Running, Gym)
•          30 mins. HR exercise 6x/week
•          Track food 5 days/week or more
•          Keep calorie count near target of 1850/day
•          Continue to forgive lapses and forge ahead, showing kindness to myself as I would to others.

Some books I’ve been reading for inspiration that you may find interesting:

The End of Overeating (click here)

This book puts into context ideas I’ve always known on the surface.  Basically that we (as a society) have become cunningly manipulated into eating more sugar and high fat foods.  It shows how far we have come from what our bodies were intended to eat. It aligns with the current trends of Paleo, Mediterranean Diet, etc. – but is more bare bones and succinct than a “trend.”

No Need for Speed (click here)

This author speaks to the runner that I am. Yes, he says I’m a runner even if I run the same way he began: Wogging = half waddling + half jogging.  His crutch was cigarettes, mine is that ½ tsp. of sugar that I need in my coffee.  We are not perfect, but we’re working hard and accomplishing goals.

December 2016 Healthy Heart Goals & Updates

• Duration – 10/12 weeks
• Weight lost – 8.6 lbs.
• Heart rate change – went from average ambient of 90 to 76
• Distance – have increased from 1.0-1.5 miles to 2.25+ 5 days/week
• Diet – continued struggles with sugar, but I’m eating much less of it!  My body is learning to compensate.

Time for an update on my healthy heart goals.  My ‘why’ was in early September and by Oct. 4 I was tracking my walk/runs so that is why my start date is not firm.

The weight lost is less than 1 lb./week – but it is in the right direction!  I’ve always dreamed of quick weight loss, but it’s just not reality for me and that’s OK.  There are so many non-scale victories: clothing is starting to feel less snug, my face seems to be losing a little pudge.

Heart Rate change is my proudest accomplishment!  The ambient heart rate is your normal working (but not pushing) heart rate.  For me it is when I’m driving or doing non-stressful chores: dish washing, folding laundry, etc.  My resting heart rate, the one you take when you are just awake or actually resting, has been as low as 58 now.  When I began I didn’t really know the difference between ambient and resting so didn’t notice it.  When I run, I used hang out  in the 150s (with a high of even 170) now I’m generally in the 120s (with a high of 154 – which is right at my 85% of maximum).  I know my heart is becoming more efficient!

Here's more info. on finding your target Heart Rate from the AHA

Distance – I’m proud to be able to do a 3 mile walk/run without hyper-ventilating or tiring myself out.  I’ve experienced sore legs, sore knees, and have altered as I go to prevent injury.  This means I’m not running as much as I would like.  I achieved a point of 75% running (at 2 miles) but found that to continue increasing stamina I needed to fall back to walking more and running about 30%.  I hope to increase this as I lose weight (which will reduce knee stress).

Diet – when I’m off the sugar I feel much better!  But it is so, so hard.  I’ve had 2 relapses.  The first one lasted about 10 days.  Although I was picking up a few sweets, I never went hog-wild.  The second time is right now and I’m about 4 days into it – trying to regain control every day.  Again – no binging has occurred.  This is a milestone for me.  In the years of dieting I’ve endured I would always binge once I broke a diet.  My body is learning to compensate.  Which means, when I eat more at one point in the day, I naturally don’t eat as much later to compensate for the calories I consumed.  This is the way our bodies are born to handle calories! My system has been so off, for so many years, that it feels wonderful to finally be achieving a type of balance. I've also stopped adding salt when cooking, whether it's in the recipe or not!

Goals for the next month:

• ·         Continue to elevate my heart rate at least 5x/week.  
• ·         Continue to reduce sugar.
• ·         Record my food at least 3 days a week.  I’ve not been recording so baby steps are needed (calorie max should be 1850)
• ·         13,000 steps daily are a minimum (including my run)
• ·         Find a new 5K or Heart Health event to join in Spring.

Send the Verbal Vulgarity to the Vomitory

One of my best friends refers to me as her “classy friend” because I don’t swear.  I’ll take the compliment and admit that it’s true: I don’t swear.  But I’m pretty sure my standard wardrobe of jeans and sweatshirts disqualifies me from the Classy Clique.

As a teenager I tried swearing.  It was fun; it was exciting to keep my private language away from my mother; it was a rite of passage that made me feel included in the group.  It also ate away at my naturally positive thoughts.  Using curses aloud eventually crept into my self-talk.  I realized within a couple of years the negative effect these words had on my psyche and decided one year to stop. It was one my few New Year’s Resolutions that stuck.

Years later, I’m well into middle age and have noticed a rising use of swearing among adults in general that just wasn’t heard 10 years ago.  Do these adults think they are teenagers and need to rebel by using a secret language?  More likely they seem to use swears as a way to flaunt their adulthood. “I’m an adult and can do what I want!” – but, that actually sounds exactly like an 18 or 19 year old.

In my opinion, swearing is crass and vulgar.  Almost every swear I can think of connotes something negative.  For example, “asshole” connotes someone’s rectum. Not a pleasant visual.  If instead of using asshole, I say “the DMV worker was such a jolt headed bum-bailey” it insults the worker, gets my point across but doesn’t create an unflattering visual. It’s actually fun to say: bum-bailey, bum bailey, bum bailey!  The more negative words you use, the more negative attitude you create for yourself.  But substitutes can actually be fun: Oh fiddlesticks! Don’t be a nincompoop! Gee-whillikers that was fun.

Alas, in the era of easy offense, I mean absolutely no denigration to those who swear.  Language is used to communicate and if you get your point across, then your language is successful despite word selection or pronunciation.

I personally choose to avoid cursing myself and the proliferation of making swear words acceptable.  When you share a post on Facebook from a page called “You Can’t Make This Shit Up” – I hit ‘hide post’ followed by ‘see less from You Can’t Make This Shit Up’ and finally ‘hide all from You Can’t Make This Shit Up.”  I realize I’m incredibly literal, but do you get that using the term “Food Porn” is normalizing “porn” (pornography) as something acceptable?  Yes, I’ve digressed but that little tidbit won’t fit into a blog on another topic either.

Shakespeare offers some great alternatives to curses:

This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet

… a most toad spotted traitor

…brazen faced varlet

You egg, you fry of treachery

Why, thou clay brained guts, thou knotty pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow catch

Choices abound when looking for a substitute.  Turn to the Old Bard, make something up … fitzdookie!  Or, maybe there IS a word in English that will work, expand your vocablulary!  This actually has the exact opposite effect of swearing.  You LEARN a new word and force your brain to create a new synapse – pop!

Cantankerous ~ bamboozle ~ cockamamie ~ discombobulate ~ flummox ~ gobbledygook ~ mollycoddle ~ shenanigan ~ snollygoster ~ widdershins

Make Over time on the Blog

My new passion – heart health! – is taking over my Blog!  Please still visit my Norwex website: www.CarolDavis.Norwex.biz for your healthy cleaning supplies and join Kind Cleaning with Norwex, my Facebook Private Group for specials.  However, I’ve decided to redirect the focus of my blog to correlate with my new passion to get hearth healthy.

In mid-September I began running.  Now although I have to tell myself that I’m “running,” it’s mostly walking at this point and when I do “run” I probably look like I’m in slow motion.  By October 1 I had acquired a new scale and took a starting weight.  I’ve lost about 5 lbs. in my first month.  My weight fluctuates greatly day to day so I’m really trying not to get too hung up on the numbers.  My clothes feel better and in general I feel better. More importantly my resting heart rate has decreased, my distance/stamina has improved and my breathing issues are getting better. When I began running I was plagued with hyper-ventilating.  I’ve either managed to know when to slow down or I’m just breathing in a better rhythm, so I’m not scaring myself anymore.

Let’s talk about Facebook likes.  As may or may not be apparent, I’m a reluctant poster to the social media giant.  Initially I posted different things: recipes, kid photos, motivation for myself, probably even the dreaded daily to do lists. When I began teaching I decided I needed to maintain more privacy.  Then joining Norwex, I wanted to use the platform to promote my business so I started posting more.  During this time one of my old ebay-mom friends started posting her daily workouts.  The posts were repetitive, but they were better than chain-spam-swear word memes that I see so many of.  Her consistency caused me to take notice and gave me motivation as I began many Monday morning diets, work out regimes, etc. I had always been leery to post about my weight struggle because I’ve tried so many times and failed.  After my “Aha” moment – which the #GoRedGetFit squad calls #YourWhy, I knew it was time to jump in and share my journey and struggles.  At this point it is no longer about weight, but about health and living the rest of my life!

My daily walk/run’s began showing up daily on your feed and you hit “like.” I really was doing this to keep myself accountable so was surprised that every day my posts were getting so many likes.  Finally a friend commented that I was motivating her!  Yay!  Just as my friend had done for me. I’ve also had 2 of my friends start posting their walk/runs and I see what a supportive group of friends I’ve acquired in my 50 years on earth.

Let’s join together to work towards Heart Health awareness.  (and below the "Cancer" figure includes ALL types of Cancer)