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Tuesday, May 05, 2015

More Reviews Are Coming (promise)

Sorry that I've been slacking off on the reviews lately. I'm really trying to get back in the groove with the blogs. There are a couple of reviews coming up on this one, and I have been posting a bit on This Woman Child, but it's hard to keep up with anything when I feel so wiped out.

Image result for fatigue
Yeah, yeah, yawn...
The water challenge is helping. Matter of fact, I no longer consider it a temporary challenge but as an addition to my lifestyle. Not that hard to drink the water now that I have set a do-able daily goal (6 of my 18-ounce bottles) that helps with my digestion as well as keeping me hydrated.

Lazy Blogger
Don't nominate me yet!
(source)
My problem right now is fatigue. I've been so exhausted the last couple of days that I forgot to take my weekly medicine - which is kind of a big deal... My sister Mike used to remind me to take the med, but since she's been gone, I've either been too sick with colds to take it, or I've just forgotten. But mostly just fatigued. Ugh.


The other problem is that I just can't always focus as well as I'd like to. Good days, bad days. I'm sure stress doesn't help.

ANYWAY...
I have some reviews coming up very soon.The one I'm most excited about has to do with feet! Yes, me and these dawgs of mine are going to be trying out another product. Can't wait to see how it works and share the news with you.

The other product is one that you'll be interested in if you are as into using natural oils as I am. It's not an oil, but it's going to help me use the ones I already have.

Then there is a product I got to try out with my phone. ~sigh~ The problem with having a good (i.e.: expensive) phone is that I have to do all that I can to make it last several years. By the way, the phone accessory that I will be reviewing via Tomoson is not so much for protection as it is for style. Never fear, though, I will be reviewing an accessory that is for protecting the phone. Good news for owners of the Galaxy Note 4 because I haven't seen many good cases for that model yet.

Anyway, this is just a post to update you on the product reviews that are coming shortly. Also, I am going to start reviewing products on my other blog. These will be items and services that might interest anyone with Christian faith.

So, new stuff coming in the next week or so. Hold tight!

Peace
--Free

Monday, May 04, 2015

Day 3 of the Water Challenge

Image result for rushing to the bathroomSooo.... I didn't quite make my water limit today. I just realized that Sundays will need to be a 40 or 60 ounce day of the week. (Do you know how distracting it is to the service for someone to jump and make a bathroom dash every 20 minutes? Do you?)


Anyway, I did great the first 2 days of the challenge, and I will be back on the jug tomorrow. As for how I'm doing, I can tell you that, if I wanted to activate my bowels, I could have skipped that Miracle Tea and gone straight for the water. Water is truly a lubricant. Truly. Trust me.

My skin feels good. I can tell the most difference in my hands and face. My torso and feet still need the extra moisture provided with my oils. I guess it's going to take some time to fully hydrate my body completely.

Here's an interesting observation I made today. I had just an 18 ounce bottle when I woke up, then I sipped my way through another 12 ounces during church. Afterwards, I hit the library and chugged about 16 ounces while I was there.

46 ounces of water would have been a lot for me last week. I guess after doing all the extra water for 2 days, my body was starting to like it. I was so thirsty when I got home that I downed a couple of glasses standing right at the kitchen sink. I haven't had such a craving for water since I lived in Arizona.

Apparently, it's water that does a body good...



Before starting this challenge, there were days I was doing great to get more than 20 ounces of plain water. I think my body was so used to being deprived that it was a bit spoiled by 2 days of the water challenge. Weird, right? Or maybe not.

When I tried to check whether or not my reaction was normal, I ran across lots of comments like this one at the top of this page.

Huh.

Maybe it's just that, since I am drinking more water, I'm not craving (or getting) as much fluid from other sources. I notice I'm drinking less coffee and I am eating less. Because of these changes, I'm probably not getting as much fluid overall. I have a theory that water is far more hydrating that coffee teas and juices.

Whatever the case, I can definitely make two claims from my experience so far:

  1. It's getting easier to drink more and more of my gallon jug
  2. Parts of my skin is a lot less dry
I've heard from friends that, eventually, I will even stop having to pee as much. I'm not sure how that works. Water in, water out, right? 

I have another theory. This one is about the claims that drinking more water will aid in weight loss. I hear that the weight loss is because you eat less food/have less cravings when you drink more water. I don't think that's it. I believe it's because all the water improves your digestion and, um. waste flow. Seriously. Also, the water flushes out a lot of the salt, and doesn't salt cause a lot of water retention? If I'm flushing out the salt with all the water I'm drinking, then I am retaining less of the wat-

Oh wait. Now I have confused myself!

No, no. I am onto something. You can use water to fight water retention. Whew! Good.

Image result for drinking water reduces water retention
(source)
Nice to know more about how drinking water helps with the weight loss.  Even better to know what it does for the cardiovascular system...



So, yeah, this water challenge is good for me so far. I'm going to check some other sites to see how other challengers  are doing with their chugging.

Peace
--Free

Saturday, May 02, 2015

Water Challenge

I started the Water Challenge yesterday. With some modifications.

The challenge is to drink a gallon of water each day for a month. Sorry, but I got halfway through my gallon by lunchtime and knew that it wasn't even feasible for me to do an entire gallon each day - unless I cut out all other fluid sources (coffee, fruit, veggies, etc). I will be shooting for a minimum of 100 ounces each day.

Because I know that it's beneficial to ones health (and vanity) to drink more water, I am sticking to the challenge, but I modified the amount. Not by much, but...

First, because it makes my brain hurt, let's get some math and recommendations out of the way:
Most recommendations I've heard of all my life are to drink 8 glasses (or cups) of water each day. So, I decided that my minimum target should be those 8 glasses (8 ounces each) of water each day - or 64 ounces. Like I mentioned, I am going to aim for 100 ounces per day, but I'm okay with 80.

Of course, we can find lots of benefits to drinking more water - or, I should say, enough water. I have to tell you that, even after just one day of drinking close to 100 ounces, I noticed one major difference: my hands didn't go bone dry in between moisturizing. Here are some other effects of getting enough water:

Even though there are lots of benefits to drinking water, I do hope people doing these water challenges realize there are also some risks to overdoing it:
  • People with certain medical conditions/treatments have to watch fluid intake (dialysis patients, for example)
  • There is such a thing as water intoxication.
  • And, on a common sense level, don't let water replace intake of proper nutrition
  • Always check with your doctor before making any drastic changes - even drinking lots of water for a challenge
I don't think I am going to have to worry about overhydration. I made it halfway through the day and realized why my pedometer app was sending me kudos for almost doubling my daily step level. I made so many trips to the bathroom that I was getting plenty of exercise. That made me want to laugh, but I was in the middle of the grocery store and too far from a bathroom to get into a giggle fit.

Lots of people are talking about drinking more water. I like this idea -

(source)

This is what my gallon jug looked like a couple hours before I went to bed last night (or attempted to) -

sigh...
Yeah. Then, after that, I still managed to put down another 16 ounces or so. It took me three tries to actually settle down and sleep. The first time, I was back up every twenty minutes or so, trotting to the bathroom.  (And I found this both high-larious and useful!!!)

This is what I'm using to drink from. 


It's an 18 ounce bottle that I picked up at Walmart for around $1.08. I feel like I can drain it pretty quick without feeling like I've got a ton of water to drink. It's a good way to pace my intake.

Today, I am going to try to get the first 80 ounces down before 6 or 7 pm. That way, I might be able to get a no-trot night of sleep before church tomorrow. 

I'm thinking that I might ought to mark my gallon jug the way some people are doing - 

Love this one the best
(source)

I love it! Looks so much better than what I did to mine this morning...

a little uninspiring :-(


Yeah. I'm going to be re-doing my bottle! LOL

Anyway, I'll be letting you know how the whole thing goes. If nothing else, I will lost a few pounds from all the extra walking to the bathroom!

Image result for have to pee
yeah, that's me on the left

Peace
--Free

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Decorative Dietary Fiber? Yep.

A few years back, when I first started juicing, I ran across an unusual piece of fruit. Tried it, loved it, but didn't get any photos.

Yesterday, I found the fruit at my local grocery store. Yay!

This is the dragon fruit. Or the pitaya.


Top: fruit has been removed
Bottom: Fruit still in the rind
When I was adding my own photos for this post, I found this one online.

Image result for serve dragon fruit
Notice that mine didn't have this color of meat inside. Huh.
Now I want to find a piece of fruit with that deeper color of meat. Pretty. By the way, the source for that photo has an awesome smoothie recipe!

Other than being so very, very pretty, it's got a lot of dietary and tasty benefits:

  • High in fiber
  • Low in calories
  • Low in cholesterol 
  • Very "meaty" 
  • Good source of antioxidants
  • Pleasant taste (sort of like a blander kiwi fruit)
Here is a link to more info about and benefits of the fruit. I didn't even know about the fats and Vitamin C until I saw this page. 

If you are thinking of trying it, these links could be useful:
So, there are a lot of ways to use this fruit. I kind of wish I could just shellac the shell and use it as decoration! 

Of course, it's kind of pricey. Everything tends to be more expensive up here, but I'm always surprised at the close to $9.00/lb price for this fruit. Thankfully, one piece is enough for at least 2  or 3 uses in juicing.

The advantage to this being such a pretty piece of fruit is that the shell can be used when serving it. 

(source)
(source)
If anyone has any other recipes, let me know.

Peace
--Free

Monday, April 27, 2015

**App REVIEW** DocuSign

This is a very cool app. It's not something that everyone can use but, for those who can, it's kind of awesome.

It's called DocuSign

DocuSign - Sign & Send Docs - screenshot

Image result for print fax scanHave you ever had someone use email to send you documents that need to be signed and returned? I have. While I do have use of a printer/fax machine, I share it with others. Sometimes, I am not at home and don't have access to the machine. These are all good reasons for having the DocuSign app.

Even when you have access to a printer or fax, the bothersome part about emailed documents is the, well, bother. You have to print out the doc, fill it out and sign it, and you're still not done. You have to scan it to mail it back, or (and this is a real pain), fax it or snail-mail it back to the other person.

Tiresome.

The DocuSign app saves you time and bother. Once you set it up. And once you get the hang of using it.

'Setting it up' means creating your signature and saving it to the app. That's actually a pretty easy process. 'Getting the hang of it' requires a little bit of patience.

The first time I tried it out, I found that it was simple to attach my signature.  For filling out the other parts of the document, I had to get used to aligning the text boxes correctly. That wasn't awfully hard except when the text box would disappear as I entered information. Of course, I would open a new text box and carry on.

When I completed my first document and saved it, all was fine. Until I reviewed my work and saw that the text boxes that I thought had disappeared, um, hadn't. They were just scattered around the page of the document in random places.

I figured out the problem - that I had somehow misaligned the text boxes out of my view when I was creating them - but I haven't figured out how to fix it. As far as I can tell, there is no way to edit a saved document.

I'm not saying there isn't a way to edit a saved document, but that I haven't figured out how to do that.

Still, this is an awesome app. Now that I have a better grasp of using the text boxes, I won't have as many errors. Even if I do have to scrap a document in the app and start over, that's better than the print/fax/scan option I'd be stuck with otherwise.


Once you complete a document (fill it out and/or sign it), you can then send it back via email. I'm still playing around with the app, so any nitpicking might be premature. It might help if I go and take a closer look at the Demo showing how it works, right?  Any app is subject to user skill...

So, to summarize my experience with DocuSign -

PROS:

  • Saves time (once you get the hang of using it)
  • Saves money (on printing, faxing, or scanning)
  • Allows users to respond more quickly with signing on the go
  • ISO compliant to security standards
  • Complies with the eSign Act (basically, your signature this way is legal)
CONS:
  • Bit of a learning curve in using
  • Can't upload documents to the app via Dropbox
  • Editing feature is either hidden or unavailable
This app is not without flaws and doesn't do everything that everyone might want it to, but it is FREE, so how much can you complain about anything it lacks? 

I gave this one 5 of 5 stars. 

Peace
--Free