Posts Tagged ‘wellness’
Posted by terrepruitt on July 6, 2010
Throughout my day I come across a lot of things I would like to post about, but not all of them are in keeping with or even CLOSE to in keeping with health and wellness. I know I stretch sometimes, but I always write about something I have learned or something that interests me.
I just happened upon that tonight. This might not be suitable for everyone and it certainly won’t interest everyone.
I have long wanted to donate my body to science. When I am done with it I have always hoped it could help people. I watched a special tonight that really amazed and interested me and really helped confirmed that donation is a great thing. I was of the belief that it would go as a whole to a medical school, but now-a-days with so much surgery being done laparoscopically the need to practice on real tissue has greatly increased. So an entire body is not always needed.
I understand that this might be against some people’s religion or beliefs which is understandable. But if not, it might be something to consider. Even though I cannot dwell on the actual details, I love to focus on what a donation can mean: saving a life or improving the quality of one. To me that is a tremendous gift.
There is a company here in the United States* that will take a body at no cost to the family. For a lot of people not having the cost of a funeral or anything could be a very big relief. Plus the body can be used for great things.
Body parts can be used in medical studies, in transplantations, in medical products. We could keep on giving.
All of the information on this show** was amazingly fascinating to me, but I have a feeling that not many here would care for the details. I will say that due to all of the medical advances there is an increase in demand by as much as 50% per year. With this huge increase in demand for tissue the black market is getting larger. Since only 1% of Americans donate, it is still very profitable for thieves to steal and sell. It is awful to think that some people are profiting from stealing someone’s body. And on top of that, if they are doing it so dishonestly they COULD be doing it with potentially diseased tissue. This TV program hinted that if more people were to donate through legitimate sources it might help make it less profitable for the shady ones and there for less worth the risk.
Did you know:
—Bone graphs from one person could go on to help 80 people. (That is EIGHTY people that could live a better life because ONE person decided to be generous with something they are no longer using.)
—In Britain it was illegal to practice medicine on a cadaver until 2006.
—Organs need to be retrieved while the heart is still beating, but tissue can be retrieve up to 24 hours after death.
—They can use an achilles tendon to replace a ruptured knee ligament.
—Tissue transplant includes bones, tendons, and skin.
—Donated human tissue can be used in Medical Science, Education, bio products.
*Anatomy Gifts Registry (AGR) – Tissue Broker
**The show I watched was first aired in 2008, I just watched it July, 6, 2010. All the information in this post is from the show.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: AGR, cadaver donation, donate body to science, donated human tissue for use in Medical Science and Education., Donation, funeral, health, Laparoscopic surgery, Medical Science, Tissue Broker, tissue donation, transplant, wellness | 16 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 5, 2010
I have a friend and it seems that one out of every three conversations we have we end up talking about cat poop. Now, for some that might seem odd, but let me point out, if you are a parent, there has been a time when you have talked about your baby’s diaper contents. I remember one conversation where I was subjected to size, shape, guestimated weight, and yes, above all color. So, parents talk about their baby’s waste. Since cats have odd behavior even when they are healthy and “normal” one of the primary ways to detect and keep track of the health of a cat is by their waste.
Things change for cats when there is an adjustment to their diet or whatever and my friend is in the middle of a food transition for her cats. It just follows that if you talk about what goes in, you end up on what comes out.
Now, I apologize if this is just too gross of a subject for you. This might not be “appropriate for a health and wellness blog” and it might not a pleasant topic, but the more I looked for information regarding it the more I realized that people at least need to know what the possibilities might be so that they can decide for themselves, so hence, I am posting about cat poop.
I knew that pregnant women should not be in charge of changing a litter box. The threat comes from handling the cats waste, but . . . just to be safe most women just avoid the process all together. For most women it is roughly just a nine month vacation from having litter box duty. But I bet, even though you have a new baby yet to be born to think about you probably are having conversations with the fill in litter-box-changer in regards to the cat habits. Making sure everything is normal (again . . . that is how we gauge the health of the cats.) Honestly it is not an examination, but somewhat of an unconscious review as we are scooping and cleaning.
Anyway, what I didn’t know is that you should NOT be flushing your cats poop. Even without the litter. So all of the stuff that says you can . . .INCLUDING the EPA information . . . you might want to think twice. Research is proving that the eggs from the Toxoplasma gondii that causes Toxoplasmosis might survive up to a year even after having gone through water treatment. This is the disease that can be fatal to infants and why pregnant women shouldn’t deal with the cat’s little box.
The eggs don’t die upon treatment and they get sent out to see where our sea life eats it. And while I don’t see that this has a direct affect on us as humans the fact that our otter population has gone from 15,000 to 2,500 and a large percentage of dead otters have been found with the parasite in them, just gives you another thing to think about. Since in the grand view of things it all affects us.
Not ALL cats even have this parasite. I was just surprised by the idea that flushing cats’ waste is not good since I had always thought that flush it was fine it was the LITTER that was the concern, but apparently not. As with a lot of things it could have just changed since the population of humans has grown so has to populations of house cat. Flushing is an easy way to dispose so more people might do it than have done it in the past and with all of the products that are out there that say it is fine, it is just interesting to know that it might be affecting our sea life. Of course putting it in a plastic bag and putting it in the garbage that goes to a landfill is not necessarily the best way to deal with it either, but it is the alternative that was have at the moment. Now at least you can have a little bit more information and make a choice.
So, since this is my blog, I like to share things I learn. The things I learn might not always DIRECTLY relate to health and fitness, but I have said, “In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.” I guess you could say I was inspired.
Posted in Cats | Tagged: cat poop, EPA, fitness, health, inspired, litter box, otters, pregnant women, sea life, Toxoplasma gondii, Toxoplasmosis, wellness | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 29, 2010
Sodalite – From the things I have read the main thing sodalite is believed to do is bring calm, inner peace, and balance. I have often seen it associated with helping make clear and rational decisions. (Which I would imagine would be easier if your mind was calm and you had inner peace, so those two things seem like they would go together.) In addition to clear and rational thinking, some information states it helps with creative thought too. I have also seen that it helps with inflammation which goes along with the information I have seen that says it assist with immune systems. (Because inflammation is part of that system.)
Moonstone – I see that this stone is said to also bring calm. Most information states, “Moonstone is a stone of inner growth and strength.” Also, it is said to stimulate balance of hormones. (Which we must remember is necessary in males as well as females.) Several things say it is a stone of protection and that it is a healing stone.
This is stuff that interests me. At one time I thought it was pretty (what I call) woo-woo, but then when I start looking into Nia I started seeing things a little differently. When I first discovered Nia I bought the book (The Nia Technique Book). As I started reading it I thought it was too “woo-woo”, but then they related it to science and it made sense. Then I started thinking that there had to be things on this earth that we were given before we had science that could assist with our health and wellness. So I thought, “Why not energies in a stone?” So, I am just interested in this. I feel more comfortable when I read the information out there (and there is so much out there) and it states basically the same information. Then I feel like at least everyone is on the same page.
I was interested in some of the properties these two stones were said to have. I have not listed them all but just some. I have a few in the house. Not sure they are doing any good, but they are pretty.
Do you think stones have energies? Do you think stones have healing properties?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: Amazon, healing properties, healing stone, health, inner peace, Moonstone, moonstone healing properties, Nia, Nia energy, Nia Technique, Nia Technique Book, Sodalite, sodalite healing properties, stone energies, wellness | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 27, 2010
My husband broke a vase last night. As he first starts to read this he probably won’t be too happy because this post might appear to be about him and this blog was not supposed to be about us, it is supposed to be about Nia, and health, fitness, and nutrition. I have noticed that my posts that are strictly about exercises and working out don’t get as much traffic as the ones that are about life’s situations. There are so many sites and blogs about ways to exercise and workouts to do, so I am thinking I will do more posts about situations that connect to health and wellness, like this one. It is not about my husband, but about me and how I feel I have progressed to assist with my own wellness.
Used to be a broken vase would greatly upset me, but I think of myself as getting better with stuff like that. He was in a hurry and was doing something nice for me (very nice*) and he accidentally knocked a vase down. Oh well. I sighed. I was sad for a moment. He even said, “Vases are like that, ya know? They break.” Which is true and truly funny at the same time. But for me, just going on with the evening is different than I used to be about a decade ago. I am a “stuff” person so I used to lament over broken things. Sometimes I do a little still, but I am learning—still.
I was wondering what to write today when I was rushing around trying to bake some banana bread for a friend who donated to my MS Walk. Guess what I did? I broke a vase. I laughed. Then I was sad. But then I was happy because, “Vases are like that, ya know? They break.”
I know that often times it is so much healthier to let things go, but honestly it is not always easy. Once upon a time I would have been so upset about the vase last night that I would have allowed it to ruin the evening. Because accidents seem to happen when people are rushed (see the first sentence in this paragraph). If I would have had a fit last night I would have ruined the evening AND had a totally impossible time dealing with the vase I broke today. It would have been, “What? It’s not ok for my hubby to break a vase, but when I do it, oh well?” Yeah, right. And we were both trying to do something for someone else.
So . . . . sigh. I feel so much better that I had a nice evening last night with my hubby. I will also be able to have a nice evening tonight too because he will just be able to tease me about breaking a vase, but I won’t be apologize because I was a jerk when he broke one. So instead of getting upset (over something that really is not worth getting upset over) I let it go which actually helped me health-wise because I didn’t have a ball of anger inside. That helped keep the evening open so that we could have a nice evening. I am not worrying about how I am going to explain to him that I can break a vase and he can’t.
Being able to let things go and just move on away from it is a good thing sometimes. Because really in life vases ARE like that, ya know? They DO break.
*This is what my husband was doing when the vase broke. He had gone outside in our yard and cut some flowers for me. Usually he just gives them to me to put in vases, but I was busy cooking so he was being super nice and putting them in vases too. Sometimes life it like that too, homegrown freshcut flowers brought to you by your love.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: fitness, health, letting go, Nia, Nia exercise, Nia fitness, Nia wellness, Nia workout, nutrition, vases, wellness | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on February 13, 2010
We have a certain expectation of things in the United States. We have the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) that regulates Biologics, Cosmetics, Drugs, Foods (except meat and poultry), Medical Devices, and Veterinary Products so we expect a level of safety. Did you know that supplements are NOT required to be tested and/or approved by the FDA? There are NO “clinical trials” or safety inspection administered by the FDA that a supplement is required to pass. Most supplements aren’t even required to be so much as registered.
An Act was signed into law back in 1984 by President Clinton, the Dietary Supplemental Health and Education Act (DSHEA) that makes the supplement manufacture responsible for self regulation. The supplement manufacture is to make sure the product is safe and pure, with NO policing. No one checks on them. This is a $27 Billion business (it could be more that figure is the only one I could find and it is from 2007–three years old).
There are rules about the labeling and so they are “supposed” to be truthful in their labeling. The FDA steps in where there is a problem (as in reported deaths or mass illnesses), but there is no testing done by the FDA to ensure anything about the supplement before it is marketed and used by the public.
I just find that so amazing. I wanted to share it with you because even though I know this, I still forget. I would think that if you are concerned enough about your health and wellness that you want to take a supplement, I would check with your doctor to see if you really even need to be taking a supplement. They are expensive and you might be getting all the nutrition you need from your diet. That is actually the best way, but I understand that it not always possible. I would advise people to be careful. I would suggest that one way to be careful would be to buy supplements that are manufactured by trusted companies. I like to think that a well known, well trusted company is going to produce a safe quality product.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: diet, dietary supplements, FDA, health, nutrition, nutrition supplement, President Clinton, supplements, wellness | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 17, 2009
As you know I post about things other than health, wellness, exercise, and working out. I do try to post helpful things.
Recently we got a box of wrapping paper down and I opened it up and there was a pile of folded kind of crumpled paper. I pulled it out and set it aside. I figured that I saved it to use to re-use for wrapping. But it was so crumbled I didn’t have the heart to try to deal with it at that moment. So as I was wrapping over the next couple of days it dawned on me what that pile of paper really was for—-packing. A couple of years ago I started saving paper that had been used. If it was pretty or I really liked it I save it.
I use my shredder to shred the wrapping paper. When I use those handy gift bags I use the paper shredded instead of using tissue paper. I also use shredding wrapping paper when I am shipping packages (usually in addition to another recycled packing product). I really like this idea of re-using the paper. Other paper that works is the paper that is too small to use to actually wrap a gift. It all looks really pretty and festive once it is shredded. It works really great when you have two sided paper.
I love wrapping paper, but I think it is a huge waste, so if I can re-use something I love it. I save bows to re-use them. Drives my husband crazy It used to drive my husband crazy, but I save them and re-use them. Please don’t be offended if you ever receive a gift from me with a bow taped on the package. That actually means that I recued that bow from being thrown away then loveing stored it and saved it until it had the perfect recepient.
I also don’t usually write on the gift bag or put the stick name tag directly on it. I usually stick the tag on the shredded paper or stick it to itself over the cord/handle of the bag. That way the recipient can use the bag again.
Sometimes these bags can become family traditions. You can use a gift special back to swap back and forth. For years my family had a bag going back and forth. It was a sea of white cartoon rabbits with one rabbit dressed in red and white. It lasted a long time, but eventually it tore and we moved on, but it was fun while it lasted.
Bags, tissue, bows, and shredding aren’t meant to last forever, but if they get more than one use, that is a great thing.
If you really want to be resourceful and “green” you could always give one of those reusable grocery bags as the gift bag, “wrap” the gift it that!
Do you have any wrapping re-use ideas? What works out for you and your family?
Posted in Helpful Hints | Tagged: exercise, family tradition, gift bags, green, health, recycle, recycling, shredded paper, wellness, workout, wrapping paper | 13 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 9, 2009
Ok, now say it out loud. Say it again, but this time listen. Ahhh. Funny, huh? Well not too long ago I was at my first Tweetup—oh yeah, when Twitterers meet in person— at the Red Rock Café in Mountain View and I was hungry. It was after my Wednesday morning Nia class and I hadn’t had my coffee and I needed my lunch. So in addition to my latte and sandwich I got a biscotti. Ya know, you’ve seen them in those huge glass canister. This one was called Chocolate Maniac which I thought was odd because it was blonde and sitting right next to ones that were clearly ALL chocolate. I had too much to carry so I stuck it in my pocket and forgot about it.
Later, near the end of the Tweetup I put my hand in my pocket and was shocked by the feel of plastic, then I remembered it was biscotti. I decided to eat it on the way home. Not the best choice, I’ll tell ya. I should have waited, it so deserved to be savored and not gobbled up between stop lights. It was what I think of as a “normal” flavored biscotti, but had a layer of chocolate on it. But it wasn’t “normal” it was REALLY good. A LIGHT crispy nutty cookie with a thick layer of gooey—but not so gooey as to interfere with my driving—yummy chocolate. After it was gone I was sad because it was gone. I looked at the ingredients and I realized why it was so good. There was nothing in it I could not pronounce. It just had good old fashioned baking ingredients it in. I read the company name and then proceeded through the intersection because the light had just turned green. As I was driving it dawned on me–Naughty Biscotti. How funny. How cute. How silly. How yummy. AND they are local. In Santa Clara. How nice. I like to support local business, so when they are as good as Naughty Biscotti—I am there. I hope you will try some.
http://www.naughtybiscotti.com/ *
Remember, my blog, my rules, this isn’t related to Nia, working out, personal training, health, wellness , or fitness, but, I said that I was the one that would decide upon what fell into that realm. And this could be stretched into an eating-a-treat-with-all-natural-ingredients-is-more-healthful-than-chemicals kind of thing, yes? Get Naughty. Tee hee!
*As of 06.06.20 – this site appears to not exist. Sorry.
Posted in Food | Tagged: Bay Area Tweetup, biscotti, Chocolate, cookie, fitness, health, Mountain View, Naughty, Naughty biscotti, Nia, Nia class, nutty, personal training, San Jose Fitness, San Jose Nia, San Jose Tweetup, savored, Tweetup, wellness, Working Out | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 4, 2009
I believe one of the most useful tools in the quest for health and wellness is the food diary. There are many ways you can keep track of what you eat (and drink). Remember that unless it is water, it counts for something. Sometimes we are not very conscious of what we are eating. Especially if we are busy or it is a habit, for example you cut the crust off of the sandwich for the kids and automatically eat it. That counts. Bites of things count. If you don’t eat the whole dish of ice cream but you have a few bites that counts.
So, you need to decide what your goal is, then you can decide how you want to keep track. You can simply write down everything you eat or you can keep track of what you eat AND how much. You can include calories, you can include amount of fat, you can include amount of protein. Your goal will assist you in deciding how much information you want to keep track of.
Now-a-days there are hundreds of options to keep track of what you ingest. There are online food diaries, or digital diaries, if you have an iPhone there are numerous applications that can help you. Food Diaries (of food logs) run from really easy to difficult. It depends on what you want to keep track of. I used to use one that I really liked because it was simply. But they changed it and made it difficult, so I am not going to even bother mentioning it here. There are plenty of free ones out there so you don’t need to pay a sign-up fee or a monthly fee. Once you decide what you want to keep track of I am sure you can find one that will do exactly that. You might want to keep in mind a few things, even if you don’t want to keep track of a certain thing now you might want to in the future so it might be nice if the one you use can keep track of multiple things (vitamins, minerals, etc.). It is really important to use one that allows you to customize your food. I found that most of the ones I looked at have a ton of Fast Food already programmed in, but I don’t eat fast food, so I had to input most of my food, then once I did that I could just click on the custom entry whenever I ate it.
Try it. Even if at first you just write down what you eat. It is a GREAT tool. Try it and you will see.
Posted in Food | Tagged: 408 area code, Coffee, Food Diaries, food journal, food log, food logs, health, Help You, helpyouwell.com, http://www.HelpYouWell.com, Terre, tools for health, Water, wellness, www.HelpYouWell.com | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 4, 2009
Ok, so here again I can blame my husband. I am here blogging and it is all his fault. He has been telling me for a while that I should write a blog. I keep thinking, “What for? What do I have to say? Who would listen to me?” Then I start talking about something and my husband looks at me and says, “See? You could blog about that.”
But I still keep thinking “Who would read it? What do I write about? When do I write? I’m not an ‘expert’! Blogs are are for experts to talk. ” But then I find myself reading blogs and getting interested and going back for more. Some of the most interesting ones aren’t written by “experts”. They are just normal everyday people sharing information, talking out loud. I figure I can do that.
My name is Terre Pruitt. I am a Certified Nia White Belt and a Licensed Nia Teacher. I am also a certified Personal Trainer with the National Council on Strength and Fitness, and a Certified PiYo Instructor. I am interested in getting people to move their bodies and keeping them moving to ensure their present good quality of life or make it even better. I also have some strong opinions on other things related to that.
So . . . .I intend to keep my blogs somewhat in the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like. Although, since it is my blog, I get to make the rules as to the clarity of that realm. In other words, I might stray from that area a bit, from time to time. Also, since I have already blamed my husband for unleashing me on the world, and therefore somewhat introduced him, he might be chiming in from time to time. Say . . . one day when I run out of something to say, like that will ever happen.
Until next time, My Lovelies . . . . .
Posted in Legal and stuff | Tagged: blogging, Certified Nia White Belt, expert, fitness, health, husband, Licensed Nia Teacher, Nia, Personal Trainer, PiYo Instructor, realm, Terre Pruitt, wellness, Yoga/PiYo/Pilates | 4 Comments »
Terre Pruitt's Blog 