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I am 19 I turn 20 in a few months, I am about 60 pounds over the weight limit for my height, I have started working with a dietician, and a personal trainer. My goal is to be down 80 pounds and to enlist by January 1, 2014.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
What to Order This Week: Starbucks
Looking for something fresh, light and flavorful that you can grab on-the-go? Well, the Starbucks' new Summer Lunch items are just that. Beginning April 30, this new selection of salad bowls and deli sandwiches will be the perfect quick lunch options. Oh, and did I mention each of the Bowls have less than 450 calories a piece?! (Score!) Now you'll have no excuse to order that high-fat Frapp. (Well, you know, unless you had a really bad day...)
Here's the scrumptious salad bowl line-up:
Chicken and Greens Caesar Salad Bowl: A familiar favorite, Caesar salad, is made over with a healthful twist of fresh kale and the addition of roasted tomatoes, all topped with grilled chicken. (With dressing: 340 calories, 25g fat, 19g protein)Zesty Chicken and Black Bean Salad Bowl: A blend of grilled chicken, black beans, roasted corn, jicama, tomatoes, feta, spring greens and protein-rich quinoa is topped with a mild chile vinaigrette. (With dressing: 360 calories, 15g fat, 19g protein)Hearty Veggie and Brown Rice Salad Bowl: Roasted butternut squash and beets are tossed with sliced kale and red cabbage, steamed broccoli florets, garden peas and all topped with a lemony tahini dressing. (With dressing: 430 calories, 22g fat, 10g protein)And if you need something to wash it all down with, you may want to try one of Starbucks Refreshers. Made with green coffee extract and fresh fruit juices, these drinks are the perfect lunchtime pick-me-up. A tall Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher has just 60 calories, while the Cool Lime flavor comes in at just 40 calories for a tall. Stay tuned later this summer for the debut of the Valencia Orange flavor. Starbucks, anyone?
What are you ordering at Starbucks? Tweet me at @sarahjaneRD and @SELFmagazine!
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Image Credit: Meredith Jenks
"25 POUNDS IN 100 DAYS" challenge!
At my heaviest I weighed 235 lbs. That was January 2012. Since that time, I've lost almost 30 lbs, gained it back in a pregnancy, and lost a few more since baby has been born (7 weeks ago).
My goal after pregnancy was to get down to at least 200 by this weekend.
This morning's weight: 200.2.
New goal! 25 pounds in 100 days. Trying to get down to 175 by September 23rd. Roughly 1.8 lbs per week.
I'll be checking in weekly. Feel free to join in!
FDA Approves 'Abuse-Deterrent' Label for New Oxycontin
Latest formulation is tougher to crush and dissolve, making illicit use more difficult
By EJ Mundell
HealthDay ReporterTUESDAY, April 16 (HealthDay News) -- In an effort to help curb the epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said it is approving new labeling for a reformulated version of Oxycontin that its maker claims will be harder to abuse.
The agency also noted that the original form of the powerful painkiller has been withdrawn from the market because it is easier to abuse than the newer formulation.
"Accordingly, the agency will not accept or approve any abbreviated new drug applications (generics) that rely upon the approval of original OxyContin," the FDA added in a news release issued late Tuesday.
Prescription painkiller abuse continues to be a major problem across the United States. According to a report issued in January by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), some 22 million Americans -- 2 percent of the population -- have misused prescription painkillers since 2002.
Oxycontin (oxycodone hydrochloride controlled-release) already has Schedule II status as a potentially harmful and restricted-access narcotic, based on an FDA review. In January, an agency advisory panel voted to move other hydrocodone-containing painkillers such as Vicodin and Percocet to the same status.
One other way to rein in rampant abuse of precription narcotics is to develop formulations that are more difficult to break down and abuse.
The original form of Oxycontin, first approved in 1995, "was abused, often following manipulation intended to defeat its extended-release properties," the FDA explained. "Such manipulation causes the drug to be released more rapidly, which increases the risk of serious adverse events, including overdose and death."
The new, "abuse-deterrent" version was approved in 2010 after being developed by maker Purdue Pharma, and the company stopped shipments of the older version of Oxycontin to pharmacies in August of that year.
The new version is "more difficult to crush, break or dissolve," the FDA said, and it forms a thick, sticky gel that resists being used as an injection. It is also more difficult to manipulate the drug so it can be snorted, the agency said.
"The reformulated product also may reduce incidents of therapeutic misuse, such as crushing the product to sprinkle it onto food or to administer it through a gastric tube," the agency noted.
"The development of abuse-deterrent opioid analgesics is a public health priority for the FDA," Dr. Douglas Throckmorton, deputy director for regulatory programs in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in the agency's news release. "While both original and reformulated OxyContin are subject to abuse and misuse, the FDA has determined that reformulated OxyContin can be expected to make abuse by injection difficult and expected to reduce abuse by snorting compared to original OxyContin."
The FDA notes that postmarketing studies looking at the abuse potential of the new formulation are ongoing.
The 'Learning Curve' of Living With Asperger's
By Lisa EspositoHealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, April 18 (HealthDay News) -- Asperger's syndrome is disappearing as an official diagnosis, but people who live with its symptoms will continue to struggle.
"I would say that Asperger's is sort of like 'autism light,'" said Liane Holliday Willey, senior editor of the Autism Spectrum Quarterly. "Our verbal skills tend to be more developed, and we have less moments of going inward. We don't present as obvious, so we kind of fly under the radar."
"But our [lack of] ability to read your mind or read your motives is a big red flag," she said. "And that's what gets us hurt physically and emotionally and career-wise."
Holliday Willey, 53, has written books on life with Asperger's and serves as an autism consultant in Grand Rapids, Mich.
"I've had very bad things happen because I couldn't read perspectives," she said. "I'm pretty smart, and I'm educated and you'd meet me at the mall and think, 'There's a quirky girl.' You'd never have any idea how much of a struggle this all is for me."
Certain situations can be too much, Holliday Willey said.
"When I sit down to take a test, to interact with a human, to be on my own without support -- all of these groovy strategies I've created over these past 50 years can disappear pretty quickly," she said. "So I can kind of go back to a more obvious state of autism."
"Now I can take a minute to go reboot my hard drive and figure out how to behave, until it gets to the point where I'm just emotionally tired and I make my exit," she said.
Brian King, a relationship coach for people on the autism spectrum, was diagnosed with Asperger's in 2007.
"I've learned a lot of strategies that allow me to manage," said King, who lives in Illinois. "And if by virtue of those strategies I'm able to manage life more effectively, am I by any means beyond the Asperger's? No way."
He said children with Asperger's need a lot more than just traditional talk therapy.
"You need to work with this child's entire support system -- parents, siblings, educators -- to give this kid the best chance to succeed," King said. "People on the spectrum are unique in the way they're challenged and the way they need to be approached and to learn the skills they need to succeed in life. The learning curve can be huge."
Eric Lipshaw, a 21-year-old student at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., found out he had Asperger's at age 7.
"Obviously it made things harder with friendships over the years," Lipshaw said. "Social cues, and I was oversensitive to noises and smells. I remember often in elementary and middle school I'd spend almost an hour or two a week in the [nurse's] office. I'd get terrible headaches from the fluorescent light bulbs cycling.
"I was stuck, I was rigid, I absolutely despised changes in schedule," Lipshaw said. "I was pretty much bullied my entire high school career."
"My parents worked their [rear ends] off -- and I'll love them forever for it -- to make sure I was as well-adjusted as I could be," he said.
Today "nobody would realize I'm anything but a little eccentric until I disclose to them that I have Asperger's," said Lipshaw, who has a campus radio show and hopes to work as an on-air radio talent after graduation.
Decades ago, Karen Rodman married a man who "I knew all along was intelligent, a musician, quiet -- but I did not understand to what extent [he had problems]."
It wasn't until many years later that she realized his issues went far beyond being what she called "ornery." The local medical community was no help, Rodman said.
Eventually, as she was contemplating divorce, the marriage counselor pulled her aside. "She told me that she thought my husband had Asperger's syndrome and Tourette's [syndrome]," Rodman said.
Rodman had never heard of Asperger's. She spent the next weekend in book stores reading anything she could find on autism and Asperger's.
"Light bulbs over my head the more I read," she said. "My husband had been living a lifetime with two neurological-biological-developmental disabilities -- and no one knew it except his family, behind closed doors." She boils down her existence as a "neurotypical" -- a term for someone not on the autism spectrum -- spouse to one word: lonely.
In 1997, Rodman founded the international support group Families of Adults Affected by Asperger's Syndrome.
Holliday Willey's father also had Asperger's for most of his life, but only discovered that as an older man.
"My father was 75 when he was diagnosed," she said. "At that point, he said, 'Now I understand why I was bullied. Now I understand why I was never promoted to management.' He was a brilliant engineer. But he didn't have that social communication, that nonverbal communication, those sensory problems adjusted for."
Her mother -- the neurotypical in the family -- had a lot to deal with, Holliday Willey said.
"My mom was under the impression that I didn't like her, didn't love her, didn't respect her. I didn't hug her," she said. "Now that she knows it was not her -- it was our neural wiring -- she'll say, 'Give me a hug if you hate it or not; it's for me.' So I'll hug her and go, 'Eww, that's enough, let go,' and she'll tease me about it."
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Liane Holliday Willey, senior editor, Autism Spectrum Quarterly, and autism consultant, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Brian R. King, L.C.S.W., relationship coach, Illinois; Eric Lipshaw, college student, Oakland University, Rochester, Mich.; Karen Rodman, president and founder, Families of Adults Affected with Asperger's Syndrome
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Even 'Hands-Free' Devices Unsafe While Driving: Report
They cause mental distraction that can lead to crashes, experts warn
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, June 12 (HealthDay News) -- Drivers who think hands-free devices for talking or texting are safer than handheld cellphones are mistaken, a new report suggests.
Instead, devices such as speech-based technologies in cars can overload drivers, taking their attention from the road and making an accident more likely, experts say.
"Hands-free is not risk-free, even though three out of four motorists believe it is," said Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. "We know now that devices like voice-detect or voice-to-email systems can create substantial mental distractions, which can lead to degradation of driving performance."
Each day in the United States, more than nine people are killed and more than 1,000 are injured in crashes that involve a distracted driver, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Brains aren't wired to multi-task, Kissinger said. "It's virtually impossible for the brain to do two complex things at the same time," he said.
Multi-tasking can lead to "inattention blindness," he said, which occurs when people are concentrating on one thing and don't see other things going on around them.
"You can literally look at something and not see it," he said. "We have seen that situation occur in the real world. We have seen people being engrossed in a cellphone conversation and run right through a red light and afterwards don't even remember seeing the red light."
Released Wednesday, the new report was prepared for AAA by researchers from the department of psychology at the University of Utah.
They tested drivers in a variety of ways with a range of distractions including listening to the radio, conversing with a passenger, talking on handheld phones and using hands-free devices. The researchers looked at reaction time, both in lab simulators and on the road, Kissinger said.
The researchers found that reaction time slows and brain function is compromised as mental workload and distractions increase. Drivers check the road less and miss cues that can result in not seeing things right in front of them, such as stop signs and pedestrians.
Behaviors like listening to the radio were a very mild mental distraction, which researchers classified as a level-one distraction, Kissinger said. Voice-activated technology, however, was very distracting at level three, which is considered the highest risk.
Another expert said inattentive driving existed before the era of electronic devices -- hands-free or otherwise.
"Distracted driving is a big problem on the road, but it has always been a big problem, even before cellphones and other electronic devices came along," said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "Even so, researchers expected to see a wave of crashes as electronic devices proliferated, but the opposite is happening on the road: Police-reported crashes have been on the decline."
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