ab moves (short video)

I told you all I was going to start putting a lot of focus on diet and exercise.  I came across this great little video (very quick) of a few ab exercises you can do from home.

I’m all for, fast exercises that do the trick, so I thought I would share.

If you are having a lot of back pain during your 2 wk hell time this may bother you some, however, if you can do a little and more during your good times, you will benefit.

Watch the video.

Energy & Weight Loss Connection~ Article

I know I harp on everyone about how important exercise is in addition to getting good sleep, taking your vitamins, living a stress free life, and more.

Believe me, having 4 kids makes it difficult for me to keep up with it all too, especially the sleep. :) So, when I’m screaming it from the rooftops at you, it’s a reminder to me too.

PMDD is not a disorder that you can just pop a pill and instantly you’re cured. As a matter of fact, as most of you already know, there isn’t a cure. This is why I am constantly sharing how important it is to take care of yourself. All we can do is learn how to manage PMDD, and even if you have surgery like I did to alleviate PMDD, you are still going to most likely take HRT (hormone replacement). This still means healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle are going to play a huge role in your life.

Example: when your body isn’t making estrogen it’s important to do some sort of strength training in addition to your cardio. You need to keep your bones strong to prevent bone loss and osteoporosis.

I found an article here that discusses why Energy & Weight Loss go together and how to optimize both.  I don’t know about you, but I’m always looking for healthy ways to get more energy (without caffeine craziness) and with summertime weather here, ways to lose weight and tone up.

Jayson over at Prograde Nutrition states:

Your level of energy every day is determined by how much ATP your mitochondria create so that the proper enzymes can be activated to make our bodies move and function properly.  This can effect your healthy weight loss since you may not have the energy to commit 100% to your exercise for calorie burning workouts.

Continue reading here

Stay tuned for more articles, tips and tricks – I’m learning to exercise more, eat right (w/o getting bored w/ recipes) and take care of myself right along with you.

Stef Prose, PMDD Advocate & Coach

Exercise w/o pain

While there aren’t any books on PMDD and exercise, I was catching up over at fibrohaven.com, they were talking about a Yoga for Fibromyalgia book.

For anyone that doesn’t know what fibromyalgia is, here is the wiki definition:

“is a medical disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain and allodynia, a heightened and painful response to pressure.^[1] Fibromyalgia symptoms are not restricted to pain, leading to the use of the alternative term fibromyalgia syndrome for the condition. Other core symptoms include debilitating fatigue, sleep disturbance, and joint stiffness. Some patients^[2] may also report difficulty with swallowing,^[3] bowel and bladder abnormalities,^[4] numbness and tingling,^[5] and cognitive dysfunction.^[6] Fibromyalgia is frequently comorbid with psychiatric conditions such as depression and anxiety and stress-related disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder.^[7][8] Not all people with fibromyalgia experience all associated symptoms.^[9] Fibromyalgia is estimated to affect 2-4% of the population,^[7] with a female to male incidence ratio of approximately 9:1.^[10]“

Yes, PMDD and fibromyalgia are so different, however, there are a couple of things that are similiar and stop us from exercising.  Exhaustion, depression & pain.  So, for anyone struggling with working in an exercise routine during their 1-2 week hell time, or for that matter- any time, this type of yoga for fibromyalgia would be perfect.

Fibrohaven has broken down the book into different categories and explains why it is excellent for anyone with fibromyalgia.  Check it out, I think you will agree that this would also be an incredible book & workout program for any Woman living w/ PMDD.

Read about yoga for Fibromyalgia here.

You can find the book here, along w/ a couple of others.

Stepping up the Game~ Accountability

OK ladies,

As I said above, I am stepping up the game here at Redefining Life w/ PMDD Network~! I am adding an accountability section, and YES! I expect everyone to participate. :)
You will benefit from this if you do, I promise.

I have said it over and over again, you can NOT just pop some magic pill to cure PMDD, there isn’t a pill and there isn’t a ‘cure’ though some have had incredible results from a hysterectomy, others not so much.

You MUST take care of yourself and while it may not seem ‘fair’, it is what it is.  We need exercise daily, if not daily then start with 3x/week, adequate amount of sleep, healthy diet, vitamins & for some medication.

I am adding a daily and a weekly accountability section, under the healthier living category.  If it’s too hard for you to remember what you did, how long and when, print a calendar and mark it.

Goal: Workout at least 3x/week, post what you did (no matter how small), how long you did the activity, and when.

I WILL be keeping a printed chart of this to make it easier for me to keep up with all of you, individually.  I mean business here, ladies. :)

Again, doesn’t matter how big or small the physical activity is, it’s about getting up off that couch and doing it.  I will also be posting ideas for anyone that needs a little help along the way.

C’mon ladies, let’s give that PMDD a punch in the face!

Reply to this if you plan on joining in the fun!

Women & Health~ The healers, Article

I know in my household I am the one that makes doctors/dentists appointments, not for just myself and my 4 kiddos, but also my husband.  Not just appointments, but if any meds are needed, I distribute, if follow ups are demanded, I make sure they are met.

I make sure my husband gets in for a yearly check up, just like me- Oh yeah, he’s so lucky, isn’t he! :)

This is a great article about how Women are the healers, the one’s that keep the family (& a lot of the times relatives), healthy.
I’m proud to be one that watches over my family and their health.

Make sure you are watching over your family and make sure you are teaching them healthy habits now.

Lady Madonna
By Jeffrey Kluger Thursday, Apr. 15, 201
www.time.com

A sudden interruption turned what started as a routine press conference into a revealing anthropological dance. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was addressing the media when NBC newscaster Chuck Todd loudly sneezed — a scary sound in a crowded room during the H1N1 flu pandemic one day last September.

“Bless you,” Sebelius said. Then she did a double take and widened her eyes in reproach, an expression anyone who ever had a teacher or a mother recognizes — and fears. Todd had sneezed into his hand rather than using the approved into-the-elbow method for limiting flu transmission. “What is that about?” Sebelius asked sternly and then demonstrated the proper technique. “We’ll have to get Elmo to give Chuck a special briefing,” she added, a reference to a Sesame Street ad that shows kids how to sneeze hygienically.

The Cabinet Secretary was kidding — mostly — but Todd’s red face and uneasy squirming looked awfully real. And while the newsman might have reacted the same way if he’d been called out by Mike Leavitt or Tommy Thompson or any of the other male HHS Secretaries who came before Sebelius, it’s hard to picture. For humans, there has always been something about a health message coming from a woman that gives it special authority. The father may traditionally have been the head of the home — and the family doctor may traditionally have been male — but it was the mother who saw to it that the kids got vaccinated, Grandma made it to her heart specialist and Dad stayed on his blood-pressure meds. And while much about family life has changed over the decades, that part hasn’t.

Women make the primary health care decisions in two-thirds of American households. They account for 80 cents out of every dollar spent in drugstores and are likelier than men to choose the family’s health insurance. Even when both parents work, wives shoulder 75% of domestic responsibilities, including making the kids’ doctor appointments and getting them there on time. “Women are the main brokers of health care in the United States,” says Dr. William Norcross, a family physician and faculty member at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. “This has long been the case and is probably true elsewhere in the world too.”

It is, and the rule is not limited to mothers. In the 1990s, when Nepalese children faced an epidemic of vitamin-A deficiency, which can be deadly, and health experts needed someone to help distribute supplements, they recruited the nation’s grandmothers, knowing they had both the time to get the pills out and the moral authority to make sure kids took them. By 2005, 48,000 grandmothers were distributing vitamin A to 3.5 million kids.

“Global development agencies are cuing into this kind of thing too,” says anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy of the University of California at Davis. “When you give resources or money to women, more winds up in children’s health. When you give it to men, it’s likelier to wind up going for things like tobacco.”

There are a lot of variables that explain the mom-as-health-czar phenomenon. As with so many things, it begins with evolution, but it doesn’t stop there. Females of nearly all species expend far more time and energy producing young than males do and are thus far more motivated to protect that investment. “I could count on two hands the number of species in which males are primary caregivers,” says Hrdy.

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