Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Off-Topic Tuesday: Green Tea and Summer Weather

It’s very hot here in Southern Ontario today.  I don’t know why after 48 years on this planet it still surprises me how it can be relatively cool one day and then very hot the next in springtime.  Today it went up to 30˚C/86˚F, but with the humidity it felt like 35˚C/95˚F.  It was a drastic change from the much cooler days we’ve experienced lately.  And there hasn’t been a cloud in the sky to give any relief from the hot sun.  It’s going to get even hotter in the next couple of days.

I’ve never been a fan of hot and humid weather, but I find that as I’m approaching the change of life, it’s even more intolerable.  I am so happy that we have air conditioning.  Fortunately, we tested our A/C in early spring on one very warm day, only to find that it wasn’t working, so we had it repaired and ready for days like today.  I would have been most upset to have been without A/C today.  Hot flashes are bad enough without outside influences affecting my sleep.

I’m sipping on a cup of cool green tea.  I used to drink green tea, but I forgot about it for a while.  I was reminded recently of the purported health benefits of drinking it, so I’m drinking 4 or 5 cups of it a day.  I wonder if the benefits are really what we’re being told, or if this is just another myth that will be busted in a few years.

In any case, I enjoy the taste, and it’s a very pleasant alternative to drinking plain water.  I like to drink the recommended amounts of water every day, as hydration is very important for migraineurs, but plain water can be very  boring.  Green tea is an acceptable liquid for hydration.

Nothing new to report on the exercise front.  I’m still doing battle with migraines.  One day it will subside, only to be replaced with a new one.  I am hoping very much that there will be a new breakthrough in migraine research soon.

I don’t mean to offend anyone, but I’m sure I will with this statement.  Most migraine sufferers are women, and I truly believe that if most were men, there would have been more medical advancement by now.  None of the migraine specific drugs work for me, and I know that they don’t work for many others.

I am happy to report though that I’ve lost four pounds.  It’s not much, but it’s a start. I still have a good 15 pounds to lose in order to stop looking as though I’m a few months pregnant.  I’ve mentioned before that 90% of my excess weight goes on my tummy and it really is true.  I’m not going to try to fool myself.  Losing that 15 pounds is not going to be easy at my age, and unless and until I start getting more exercise, it won’t go anywhere.  I hope by next week at this time to be able to report that I’ve at least made a start on a doable exercise routine. There; I’ve put it in print.

Yesterday was Victoria Day here in Canada, so a long weekend for most people here.  I hope that all of my Canadian friends had a wonderful May 2/4 weekend.

I’m trying to work on some new (to me) hairstyles, and I’m happy that my hair is getting long enough again to do some old favourites.  It’s going to be a few months before I can try some of the styles I really want to do.  I’ve seen some lovely ones, but my length isn’t there yet.  In the meantime, I’m enjoying being able to do a Figure 8 again, which up until a couple of weeks ago, my hair was too short to do.  My hair is thicker now than it has ever been before at this length, so it’s taking longer for me to be able to do certain styles that I used to be able to do at this stage of growth.

I’ll be posting another hairstyle tutorial by the end of the week.

Thank you everyone for reading. I do wish you all a wonderful week and I send love to all.

3 comments:

  1. The heat is hard to tolerate even for a younger woman like me. It came on so suddenly!
    Congratulations on losing four lbs, that's awesome.

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  2. Congratulations on the weight loss, every little bit helps. The heat doesn't seem to bother me as much as it used to. Maybe menopause has something to do with that, I don't know.

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  3. I have to agree that not much has helped me with migraines when they get to that stage either. I eat scads of aspirin (it seems that if I take at least 5 at a time when the headache gets that bad, that it does help more than the prescriptions I've taken). The aspirin is super bad for you in those amounts; I have aspirin induced ulcers and my kidney function is measuring way low. But Imitrex and Midrin never helped. Going to the ER, they usually would give me something that starts with a D (I'm drawing a blank all of sudden) that did nothing. Once they gave me a big narcotic starting with an 'm' (sheesh, I can't think of that either for some reason...a big one used for pain). That didn't help either, though it did help me to sleep which always helps when I have a migraine. I often use ice on my head and that helps a wee bit too. Miserable, aren't they?

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