Welcome to Gaia! ::

Couple more things to add:

1.) I've just started having frequent and sharp pains near my left ovary. gonk I'm sure it'll subside soon, but I wonder what causes that? And it reminded me of this I wanted to share:

2.) My middle school/high school School Nurse passed away a week ago. She was so kind and helpful and a great shoulder to turn to for many people I knew. She became ill several weeks ago, and was ill for 7 weeks, my mom says. She was admitted to the hospital, diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, and died 2 weeks later. cry It just hit me how suddenly something like this can appear, and how quickly it can kill.

3.) This is not as related, but I wondered what you all thought about including mental health in our health journals? Because I remember sometimes there are things we do and accomplish which make us feel good about ourselves and that we want to share that aren't related to working out or eating healthy. I used to swap daily accomplishments with my mom and list things I'd done that day that I was proud of and help reaffirm my self and self worth. I stopped doing that when she added other people to the contact list and turned it into a 'Goals to accomplish for the day' list rather than a list of what she HAD accomplished, because her goals for every day were the same, I only skimmed them after that.

But I just emptied and reloaded the dishwasher, and seeing a clean kitchen and how many dishes I just processed (LOL makes me sound like a computer program) made me feel really good. 4laugh And regarding mental health, sometimes those are the days we feel the worst, when we're down and depressed and feel like we can't handle anything! The Focus Group here is a good doorway for that, so in my opinion, we should be able to post those kind of feelings there OR in our personal threads, whichever. Not that it should have strict rules, being personal journals anyway, but I wanted to bring it up as a thought!

I know eventually I'm going to start talking about mental heath. With me, it's inevitable. As a matter of fact, if people want a glimpse, click on my WWW button

that is very true, i'm always amazed at myself if i manage to do the things that i'd like to get done in a day, instead of sitting on here all day rolleyes

Well I did my Tai-Chi Sunday evening, the last available space of the week. But this week I've been either really depressed or hormonal and have been finding comfort foods in chocolate. neutral Sometimes I'll eat 4 or 5 mini candy bars, even though I know I shouldn't, and once a week Tai-Chi will not compensate for that.

What does evening primrose do/help with? And how do you prepare it?

I've been feeling huge hormonal effects for at least a week now, which is longer than normal. At first, I thought I expected to start on Sunday, then was later and later, but knew I couldn't be pregnant because we'd totally missed my fertile time. Then I rechecked my pocket calendar and realized I wasn't even due until yesterday. And I've still got impending symptoms, but nothing yet. Maybe it's stress. Maybe something else is wrong. Or maybe my prayers are starting to come true that I'll somehow delay my monthly for at least a week and a half so I won't have it RIGHT when we're at the beach for a week in June, or during our long road trip. I've managed never to have it when we're at the beach, but this year, it's due smack dab during the whole beach week.

Last month I had horrible hormonal depression/PMS for 2 1/2 weeks (the week prior, week during, and a few days after.. that's more than half the month!!) but it did get better, thankfully. I wonder how I survived it, but I don't want it repeating itself. I can feel it coming on again and yesterday and today I'm not handling things (like Jade) very well and I feel like I need to escape far far away. neutral At least knowing I'm not acting myself due to hormones helps a little because then I don't begin to hate myself as much or think this is how I always am. (So, uh.. I don't think I will, but warning, if I say something on here that hits a nerve, feel free to shrug it off as temporary hormones and not take anything personally.)

For 2 or 3 summers now, my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law keep wondering why I don't wear a bikini at the beach instead of a one-piece swimsuit. They say I have a nice figure. They keep pressuring me, so this morning I tried on all the old 2-piece swimsuits I have to see how they look. I'm convinced the only reason they think I have a nice figure that would look good in a bikini is because my one-piece swimsuit smooths everything down like a corset. rofl But at least this trying-on-of-swimsuits got me motivated to do some pilates and leg lifts this morning. One piece or two piece, I can't hide the cellulite on the back of my thighs. neutral

Wow, only 2 weeks to get ready for the beach! Some previous years I started working out in October to get ready for July, and still didn't feel like it did enough! Not much time to make a difference, but believe it or not, just the past couples of days of leg lifts and pilates and tai-chi seem to be making me feel more toned, or maybe it's just a mental thing. Well actually, it's just feeling slightly different for the back of my thighs, and I did hear that wherever you tend to gain weight first is the place where it's easiest to lose it, which for me is right there, and wherever you gain it last is where it's hardest to get rid of, which for me is tummy. I think that's right anyway.. maybe I have that backwards, but I know when it starts to stick out on the back of my thighs, I'm not doing so well, but when it slims down again, I'm doing better. And that my tummy bulge never seemed to change no matter how many crunches I used to do..

(I'm kind of tentative saying all this because.. I don't want to cause anger or jealousy that I'm complaining about fat when I know I'm in pretty good shape over all. But everyone has areas to work on, right? confused )

What's a body brush, Poppy?