Tag: back pain

AVON by Tabitha Vavrick

On By Michel McDonaldIn AVONLeave a comment

avon

Do you remember when the AVON lady came to your home with a giant case filled with AVON products?  “DING DONG, AVON CALLING!” was the slogan back then.  Well, although the AVON lady no longer comes door-to-door, you can still enjoy her products via their website.

If you don’t already have an AVON representative, please consider my cousin Tabitha Vavrick.  You might think that AVON must be really expensive, and why should you buy from a website when you can go to your local grocery or drug store, Target or Wal-Mart, well, these are good products and they are cheaper than you might expect.

The huge 24 fl oz bottles of bubble bath in the back are typically $8, but they are almost always on sale, or they have a buy 2 for $10 deal.  That’s the deal I got with this order.  The 3rd one you see is from a previous order, the 2nd one that came with that is currently on the side of the bathtub.

Those 5 fl oz bottles of shower gel that you see are typically about $6.  I know, shocking considering how small they are right?  But get this, I almost always get them on sale for $1.89.  You have to admit that that is a really good price.

Those little 1.7 fl oz bottles of deodorant are typically $1.25 each, but I almost always get them on sale for only .99.  I mean you can’t beat that price.

I haven’t taken a bath since I was 9 years old when I was told that I was too old to take a bath.  I can’t tell you how much I have missed just sitting in the bathtub soaking in the hot water and relaxing my really tense back muscles.  My back pain is from my spinal disease, but sometimes the muscles attribute to some of the pain, and the hot water really helps.

One bottle of bubble bath might last me more than a month and the body wash, believe it or not lasts a few weeks.  You really don’t need that much.  Just squeeze a little bit into your shower sponge and start washing and you will see that it has enough soap to clean your entire body.

The reason I like to buy those deodorants is not just the price, but also because I am so sick of using a “manly” stick.  It’s dry and it rubs and pulls my hair and it just doesn’t feel good.  These roll-on deodorants are wet, but they dry really fast.  They don’t just make them for women, they make them for men too.  In fact, they have a whole section just for men, so I tell you men, don’t be afraid to buy some AVON for yourselves.  Don’t you deserve it too?

Just to note, the total price of all of the products you see in the image, with the exception of one of the bottles of bubble bath, was $21.31 with shipping being $3 and tax $1.82 for a grand total of $26.13.  They almost always have a free shipping coupon code when you buy $30 worth, so if you spend a little more than I did you could get all this and more shipped to your house for free via UPS.

So remember Tabitha Vavrick the next time you are ready to buy some makeup, skin care, bath & body, perfumes and hair care.  They make great gifts too.

My Weight Loss Journey – Week 2

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, Exercise, Health, Products I Like, WeightLeave a comment

On January 5th, 2013, I was looking through the Google Play app store on my Android phone for an app to help me lose weight.  I had downloaded a few apps that would help record my walking and bike rides with GPS and would tell me everything my bicycle computer tells me and more, but they didn’t help me record my eating habits or tell me what to eat.  The front page of the app store had a featured app called Noom Coach.  I downloaded it and checked it out and it was way more than I was expecting in an app.  I had the free version with limitations and after only a few days decided that I had to purchase the pro version.  Yes, I was that confident in this app after only a few days.

I am only in my 2nd week with this app and I have already lost 8.4lbs.  I only expected to lose 2lbs a week, so this is quite surprising that I have lost more than double my goal each week.  Then again the first week or two are the easiest, I won’t count my chickens until the 3rd or 4th week.

week 2-1week 2-2

I am over 100lbs overweight and my goal is to just get down to 200lbs which means losing 63lbs.  I have tried to set goals to lose all of the weight before and becoming disappointed when it failed because my goal was set too high.  I have been told to set smaller goals because you reach smaller goals faster.  When the small goal is finished, then I can set another small goal.  Although, setting my goal for more than half of what I need to lose is not quite a small goal, I think that I can reach it because this app is motivating me to.  If it doesn’t then I will adjust my goal to make it easier.

We haven’t been exercising as much as we should.  I could give 2 excuses as to why, but what’s the point?  I mean, I hate to make excuses for why I can’t do something because excuses are why I fail.  These are good ones though.  It’s cold outside and we both have bad backs and it hurts to walk.  There, I said it.  The cold part is a BS excuse, but the back pain is legitimate.  With that said, we have been walking 2 or 3 days a week for maybe 1 mile or more each time.

Arctic Cooling P311 Bluetooth Sports Headset I have way more weight to lose than my partner does.  I was at 263lbs and he was around 200, so I have to do double the work which is why I bought myself a new pair of Arctic Cooling P311 Bluetooth Headset for Sports from Amazon for my HTC One V android phone so that I can ride my bicycle when it starts to get warm outside.  I can keep my phone in my camelbak which will have the Noom app recording my exercise while letting me listen to my music, and the bluetooth will allow me to accept phone calls at the push of a button on the headphones.  Although I’m not sure if it will accept the call automatically or if I have to push the button, I will find out soon enough.  I thought I read in a review that it automatically shuts off the music when a call comes in and resumes when you hang up.

The headphones that I bought aren’t the best, I mean, they didn’t get the best reviews, but they were $30 which is way more than I could afford.  The headphones that are in the $60’s-$100’s range are the best, so I am getting what I paid for.  I saw in one video review that the mic sucks for taking calls while you are on your bike or walking, but are amazing indoors.  I don’t really have much of a choice in the matter, so it’s the best I can do with what money I have available to me.  But it has been my experience that people who do reviews are spoiled with the more expensive products they test, so to them it might be a horrible pair of headphones, but perhaps it will be fine for me.  I can say that because my phone got horrible reviews and it’s way better than they gave it credit for.

Cycling seems to be the best exercise for me because I am sitting which doesn’t hurt my back.  Walking is fine if I walk 1 or 2 miles, but I can ride 23 miles a day on my bicycle which means I can burn more than a quarter of my days meals on the bicycle which will help me lose more weight and will get me to my goal faster.  Not that I want or need to rush anything, but it will help.  It’s too cold now, so I will get to it when it starts warming up in the Spring.  I bought the headphones now so that I could afford to fix my bike next month.  I can’t afford to do both in the same month.  I would also like to buy some bicycle shorts and a bicycle shirt to make riding more comfortable.

I am finally eating healthy and enjoying it.  We have been buying the Weight Watchers frozen dinners at Food Maxx for $1.88 each with a $2 coupon for 10, so we’re saving money on that.  We’re also eating more fruits and vegetables than before, which is a very good thing.  I don’t drink soda (diet or otherwise) very often, so that’s not an issue.  The fruit seems to satisfy my sweet tooth, for now.  I have been looking up recipes for cookies that use bananas and apples so that I can make a very low calorie sweet treat without compromising our diet.  I found a good banana oatmeal cookie recipe that uses applesauce in place of sugar, they even tell you how to make it with real apples.  I think I might try to make those today for our late night snack.  I also bought some bottles of Slim Fast specifically for when we have a chocolate craving, but I have a feeling those won’t last the week.

I know that 8.4lbs isn’t a lot to be blogging about so soon, but it’s a good start and I feel confident that I will keep it up this time.  I will keep this blog updated on my progress every week when I do my weigh-ins too.  Not that anyone really cares, but it will help me to talk about it, even if I am just talking to myself.

Wait 24 hours before hitting the panic button

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog1 Comment

HPNX1994

Imagine walking to the grocery store with really bad back pain just to buy 1 gallon of milk so you can make dinner.  You get there and you are heading to the check stand and you reach into your back pocket only to discover that it’s empty.  Just before panic sets in, you try the other pocket, then the front pockets and then check your jacket pockets.  Nothing.  You forgot your wallet!  *FACEPALM*

You sort of laugh it off, but you text your loved one at home asking them to grab your wallet and bring it to the store, but when they arrive, they didn’t bring your wallet.  When you get back to the house with groceries already paid for, you go check your desk where you thought it was, but it’s not there.  You look everywhere and panic sets in.

That happened to me last night.  I was in complete panic.  Even though I added the milk to the dinner and turned the stove back on, dinner was the last thing on my mind, in fact, I had lost my appetite.  I ransacked the whole house 20 times.  I checked the bank website and of course nothing had happened, but in my panic I called them to have them block my debit card so it can’t be used and issued me a new card which cost $5.

Even though I knew it wasn’t in there, I checked the car at least 3 or 4 times.  I checked the trash cans, I even looked in the freezer and the refrigerator… just in case.

When I woke up this morning, naturally I had to search the entire house again, and then again every hour.  I knew that someone else had it and that I would never see it again, but I still had hope that I’d still find it in the house somewhere.

I was in the living room less than 24 hours after I lost my wallet standing behind a chair and I moved my foot toward the chair and stepped on something soft.  At first I thought the dog had an accident, so I moved my foot away and looked and saw what looked exactly like my wallet.  At first I was thinking that perhaps it was wishful thinking.  I focused my eyes a bit more and the image of my wallet was still there, so I reached down and picked it up and holy crap, it was my wallet!  I found my wallet!

So, I guess I had reacted way too soon because now I can’t pay for anything until my new debit card comes.  I can write checks, but I really don’t like to do that because if you aren’t careful, they will become like rubber.

It’s awesome that I found my wallet, but I just wish that I had kept an eye on my bank account before calling them to cancel my card to issue me a new one.  If I really did lose my wallet outside, then someone would buy something and if that happened then naturally I would call them and cancel my debit card.  I don’t know, I guess it was a “better safe than sorry” thing.  Now I’m sorry that I was so safe lol.

This wallet is a bit immature for me.  I bought it at the 2012 Bakersfield Gay Pride festival for $5.  I bought it because it reminded me of my vans that I had when I was 15 years old.  It even has velcro lol.  It has a chain on it, but I took it off because of how cheap it is.  When I finally found it, I put the chain back on and clipped it to the belt loop of my pants so that the next time I take off my pants, the wallet won’t fly out of the pocket and this won’t happen again.

The good part of all of this is that I saved $30 because I won’t have to go to the DMV to get a new ID card.  It also saves me from worrying about identity theft because my ID card has my name and address and my insurance card has my social security number on it.  My identity has been stolen before and I would hate to go through that again.

A huge sigh of relief!

Back Pain

On By Michel McDonaldIn HealthLeave a comment

Well apparently this back pain is a bit more severe than I thought.  I just called the chiropractors office that I used to go to in 2005 and had to leave a message so I hope they get it by tonight so I can make an appointment to hopefully come in tomorrow morning.  I have a doctor’s appointment with the neurologist for my carpel tunnel syndrome near where they used to be but they aren’t too far from there so I will be able to walk there from my neurologist.

I was thinking of bringing my bike with me but I don’t have the proper locks and I’m afraid that my new seat and/or my wheels will get stolen.  I don’t have the money to buy 2 new locks/chains so I’m screwed and have to walk there from the bus stop in pain lol.  Maybe I can think of something though, we have some padlocks that maybe I can borrow from what they are locking and look for some chain that I can use.  Now that I think about it I’m going to start looking for those so I can at least chain up my seat for now.  I really don’t feel like walking all that way tomorrow especially with this back pain.