I am having a bit of a problem with the new health care laws.
Honestly, when I first heard about ObamaCare I though it was a great idea. Affordable health care for everyone! Yeah!
...I think I and the government have a little bit of a different of opinion on the word "affordable".
For starters, what the heck is up with the website? It sucks! I would expect more from a site like that. Secondly, apparently the website couldn't figure out my stuff because it told me I need to call this 1-800 number to get my quote. Who has time for 1-800 numbers? Also, if the website is so crappy, I'm gonna be even more apprehensive about calling because I can only imagine the lengthy wait times. Thirdly, my account has now been blocked "due to multiple access attempts" um, I'm sorry that I have SO many username/password combinations that I can't possibly remember them all. 3 attempts and then your account is locked "forever" is pretty extreme if you ask me. Because I have tried to log on several times since I was given the message to call a 1-800 number to see if maybe the website had fixed its issues and maybe I didn't have to call anymore. But nooooo, instead of the problem being fixed, I'm blocked. Thanks Obama! (That last was a reference to Jenna Marbles 'thanks obama' youtube video. here's the link, because she's hilarious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkQxHlr2fXM ENJOY! But for reals, I think this one is actually Obama's problem.
Since I can't access the ObamaCare-sanctioned website, I decided to look into private health insurance sites. Now I'm really upset. You're telling me you want me to pay $165 a month for "just in case" insurance? Oh yeah, and then there's a $500+ deductible. Uhhh...no. I was more looking for like a $50 a month plan. You know, since I haven't been to the doctor in over 6 years, have no preexisting health conditions, am a young (23 year old) non-smoker, who is actively NOT trying to get pregnant. (I threw in that last one because I feel like if someone is on birth control they should get an extra discount since there is almost no chance of becoming pregnant and incurring the related doctor visit costs.) I also exercise regularly, eat healthy, (healthily? healthfully? sp?) and am not obese.
To further rant, the "crappy insurance" (because $165 is so cheap it covers almost nothing) wouldn't cover dental, doctor visits, or prescription meds. Basically everything is coming out of my pocket, unless something totally catastrophic happened like an extended hospital stay or major surgery, only then would I really NEED insurance so I wouldn't be left with crippling debt. I don't see anything like that happening anytime soon. I would like just in case insurance, but I feel like it shouldn't cost that much money.
In my opinion, I have a much higher chance of getting in a car wreck than needing to seek medical attention for some reason. My full-coverage car insurance is only $77 a month, and that's with 2 speeding tickets on my record. But you want me to pay $165 a month for something I haven't had to use in 6 years. NO THANKS! I know there are slightly better rates on the ObamaCare website wahealthplanfinder.org If I remember correctly the least expensive plan was $120 with a $5,000 deductible. Don't quote me on that, I am going off of memory here from a few months ago when I first checked. I am not paying that! Especially not the first year when the penalty fee is less than $100. I will just pay that for now. When it goes up? We'll see then. Hopefully whoever our new president is next term can iron out some of these kinks in the system.
By the way, I feel extremely under-informed on this topic, and I hate spouting out random, wrong, facts. So I welcome feedback on this topic (all topics I post about, but I am particularly interested in learning more about this one). So please let me know if I am missing something, or if you just want to discuss this subject further.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Low Carb Diet
Oh hey,
I'm back again, so soon!
Today I am going to go into detail about the diet I've been on, the pros and cons, my overall feelings about it...and so on and so forth. Just a disclaimer, if you don't want to hear about it, stop reading now!
For those of you still reading, yesterday officially marked 4 weeks of being on my low carb diet.
I have lost a total of 5 pounds, 2 inches off my waist, and 2 from my band size. Whoo-hoo!!
On the first week, I lost about 3 pounds. Everything I read warned about this: if you don't stay very hydrated during this diet you are going to lose water weight. So that happened. Then the next week I lost another 2 pounds. Going great! The third week I....gained 3 pounds? Not really sure what happened there, but I am pretty sure it had something to do with the 3 days of binge drinking I went on. (Week three was my last week before I started school aka my last week of freedom.) To punish myself, I did not go wild on cheat day. I had a sandwich, that was all the cheating I was allowed. Cuz let's be honest, 3 days of being drunk is pretty cheating, even if I was drinking whiskey diets the whole time that have no carbs, alcohol is not a part of this diet! Anyways, week four I lost those 3 pounds again. Bringing my total to 5 pounds.
It was REALLY hard to weigh myself only once a week. I know your weight fluctuates through the day and you should weigh yourself at the same time of day for an accurate account of weight loss which I did for my weekly weigh-ins! Especially the first week (after the initial carb cravings died down) I didn't feel like I was on a diet at ALL. I mean, who eats steak and eggs when they're on a diet?
Speaking of those cravings. Those cravings sucked. The first day was kind of whatever...I'm sure I've gone one day in my life before with just a few carbs, so no big deal. Day two my body was like, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO ME? I ate until my stomache hurt because I felt so hungry. That's when it dawned on me that maybe part of my over-eating problem before the diet was due to the fact that I ate when I was hungry. And half the time it probably wasn't hunger, just carb cravings. The third day I was fantasizing about eating an entire loaf of bread. Just the bread. All of it. The fourth day was actually not so bad, but all I wanted to eat all day was a goddamn sammich. And then that was about it! Getting through those first 3 days was the worst part of the whole diet. Now, I rarely have carb cravings (except for the day before cheat day when I start compiling a massive cheat menu)!
I wanted to talk about the effects this diet had on me as far as hunger though. I've always HATED girls who are all like "I forgot to eat today...and yesterday..." seriously? go eff yourself. I've eaten 5 times today and I'm still hungry! So, not to be that girl, but I sometimes forget to eat on this diet. My meals are very filling. I don't even have the urge to snack most of the time! Now I know that sounds great and all, but it turns out when you forget to eat and then go out drinking there can be rather disastrous results. I am not going to go into detail because honestly I'm embarrassed I was such an idiot not to think about eating before drinking, but I ended up blacking out on day three of my binge drinking (remember, I mentioned it, during week three of the diet, the week I gained 3 pounds back). Just to be clear, I do NOT enjoy drinking to the point of not remembering the night. I have a lot of friends who do, but I can't stand it at all. If I'm out with my friends having a good time, why would I want to not remember the night? I love my memories! So, definitely didn't mean to do that. I'm guessing the black out was a result of A. not eating a lot that day. (it was my day off, I wasn't on my work schedule to remind me, plus I didn't do ANYTHING all day prior to drinking so my body hadn't needed anything to give itself energy. and B. the fact that I am a beer drinker! Love my beer (blue moon is soooooo good). But, since beer is basically all carbs, for this diet I have switched to hard alcohol only. And I also forgot that would get me drunker than beer. So I was drinking normal beer amounts and BAM! Suddenly my night was gone. (I got home safe and sound, no worries, one of my roomies came and picked me up. I remembered who to call at least!)
So I guess my point is, you really shouldn't drink on this diet. I already knew that, but when I'm already giving up SO many guilty pleasures right now between working full time, and taking a full load of classes, AND being on a breadless diet, I didn't want to give up one more thing. So I decided drinking could stay. Although that has now been revised to "drinking can stay, but only one night a week, and if I am in a safe place and have a ride home and do not drink heavily!" That should cover it, right? It has to.
So I'm thinking I will stay on this diet a while longer, but with a few changes to what I am eating. Currently I am eating just a ton of meat. (I have one salad a day, don't freak out like my sister Hannah did when she came to visit.) Yes, I just ate steak and eggs for breakfast. But I'm going to have salad for lunch! Salad with pepperoni in it...or ground beef...and then I'll have bacon-wrapped meatloaf for dinner.
Yeah, that completely stays within the confines of a low carb, high protein diet, but I'm not too sure how healthy it is for someone like me who has massive health issues running in the family. So I am going to commit to this diet for another 4 weeks, but trying to get most of my protein from vegetables and chicken, turkey, and lean beef. No more bacon. (Or at least not as much)
I don't know what to call this diet. I called the last one "the opposite of vegan" diet. This one can be the healthy protein diet? I dunno, we'll work on the name later.
That's about all I've got for tonight. Homework time!
I'm back again, so soon!
Today I am going to go into detail about the diet I've been on, the pros and cons, my overall feelings about it...and so on and so forth. Just a disclaimer, if you don't want to hear about it, stop reading now!
For those of you still reading, yesterday officially marked 4 weeks of being on my low carb diet.
I have lost a total of 5 pounds, 2 inches off my waist, and 2 from my band size. Whoo-hoo!!
On the first week, I lost about 3 pounds. Everything I read warned about this: if you don't stay very hydrated during this diet you are going to lose water weight. So that happened. Then the next week I lost another 2 pounds. Going great! The third week I....gained 3 pounds? Not really sure what happened there, but I am pretty sure it had something to do with the 3 days of binge drinking I went on. (Week three was my last week before I started school aka my last week of freedom.) To punish myself, I did not go wild on cheat day. I had a sandwich, that was all the cheating I was allowed. Cuz let's be honest, 3 days of being drunk is pretty cheating, even if I was drinking whiskey diets the whole time that have no carbs, alcohol is not a part of this diet! Anyways, week four I lost those 3 pounds again. Bringing my total to 5 pounds.
It was REALLY hard to weigh myself only once a week. I know your weight fluctuates through the day and you should weigh yourself at the same time of day for an accurate account of weight loss which I did for my weekly weigh-ins! Especially the first week (after the initial carb cravings died down) I didn't feel like I was on a diet at ALL. I mean, who eats steak and eggs when they're on a diet?
Speaking of those cravings. Those cravings sucked. The first day was kind of whatever...I'm sure I've gone one day in my life before with just a few carbs, so no big deal. Day two my body was like, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO ME? I ate until my stomache hurt because I felt so hungry. That's when it dawned on me that maybe part of my over-eating problem before the diet was due to the fact that I ate when I was hungry. And half the time it probably wasn't hunger, just carb cravings. The third day I was fantasizing about eating an entire loaf of bread. Just the bread. All of it. The fourth day was actually not so bad, but all I wanted to eat all day was a goddamn sammich. And then that was about it! Getting through those first 3 days was the worst part of the whole diet. Now, I rarely have carb cravings (except for the day before cheat day when I start compiling a massive cheat menu)!
I wanted to talk about the effects this diet had on me as far as hunger though. I've always HATED girls who are all like "I forgot to eat today...and yesterday..." seriously? go eff yourself. I've eaten 5 times today and I'm still hungry! So, not to be that girl, but I sometimes forget to eat on this diet. My meals are very filling. I don't even have the urge to snack most of the time! Now I know that sounds great and all, but it turns out when you forget to eat and then go out drinking there can be rather disastrous results. I am not going to go into detail because honestly I'm embarrassed I was such an idiot not to think about eating before drinking, but I ended up blacking out on day three of my binge drinking (remember, I mentioned it, during week three of the diet, the week I gained 3 pounds back). Just to be clear, I do NOT enjoy drinking to the point of not remembering the night. I have a lot of friends who do, but I can't stand it at all. If I'm out with my friends having a good time, why would I want to not remember the night? I love my memories! So, definitely didn't mean to do that. I'm guessing the black out was a result of A. not eating a lot that day. (it was my day off, I wasn't on my work schedule to remind me, plus I didn't do ANYTHING all day prior to drinking so my body hadn't needed anything to give itself energy. and B. the fact that I am a beer drinker! Love my beer (blue moon is soooooo good). But, since beer is basically all carbs, for this diet I have switched to hard alcohol only. And I also forgot that would get me drunker than beer. So I was drinking normal beer amounts and BAM! Suddenly my night was gone. (I got home safe and sound, no worries, one of my roomies came and picked me up. I remembered who to call at least!)
So I guess my point is, you really shouldn't drink on this diet. I already knew that, but when I'm already giving up SO many guilty pleasures right now between working full time, and taking a full load of classes, AND being on a breadless diet, I didn't want to give up one more thing. So I decided drinking could stay. Although that has now been revised to "drinking can stay, but only one night a week, and if I am in a safe place and have a ride home and do not drink heavily!" That should cover it, right? It has to.
So I'm thinking I will stay on this diet a while longer, but with a few changes to what I am eating. Currently I am eating just a ton of meat. (I have one salad a day, don't freak out like my sister Hannah did when she came to visit.) Yes, I just ate steak and eggs for breakfast. But I'm going to have salad for lunch! Salad with pepperoni in it...or ground beef...and then I'll have bacon-wrapped meatloaf for dinner.
Yeah, that completely stays within the confines of a low carb, high protein diet, but I'm not too sure how healthy it is for someone like me who has massive health issues running in the family. So I am going to commit to this diet for another 4 weeks, but trying to get most of my protein from vegetables and chicken, turkey, and lean beef. No more bacon. (Or at least not as much)
I don't know what to call this diet. I called the last one "the opposite of vegan" diet. This one can be the healthy protein diet? I dunno, we'll work on the name later.
That's about all I've got for tonight. Homework time!
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Happy New Year!!
To my dearest blogger friends whom I have so severely neglected...my bad!
I would use the excuse "I've been busy" but I have come to absolutely HATE that statement, and I will tell you exactly why right. now.
Have you ever had a friend say they were too busy to hang out...and then they check themselves in later at a movie with their boyfriend? Annoying, right? But we can hardly blame them, their love life is their priority.
Ah...see what I just did there? No?
I obnoxiously pointed out that we as humans are rarely "too busy" to to do something. "I'm too busy" should probably be re-phrased as "I have more important things to do". Not like that is a bad thing, I just don't like blame being put on busyness. Call it how it is!
I am one of the biggest hypocrites for writing this rant right now. I have used the busy excuse for all of my adult life (cuz, let's face it, I was never busy...more like bored to tears...as a home-schooled child). Maybe that's why I always choose to live a hectic life. I hate feeling lonely and ignored probably just as much as the next person, but since its selfish me, I feel like I hate the feeling more than anyone else in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. How do you avoid being lonely? By being to busy to hang out anyways! Ha! Now what?!
Problem is, I grew out of that lonely stage. I now have a great life and am surrounded by awesome friends. But I still have this urge to make myself as inaccessible as possible...why? That is something I have decided to work on this year. (Not for the next 6 months or so though of course, the next 6 months are dedicated to getting some schooling/bill paying out of the way!)
Sigh. Someday...someday I will be more of a normal human being. (Is anyone exactly sure what being normal is anymore? Let me know...)
I was going to write about school, or my diet, or work, but I feel like that's all I ever write/talk about and quite frankly, even I am sick of hearing myself go on about these things.
I want at least 1 more week on my diet before I can make an informed blog post about it. 1 more week will be my 1 month mark, which is the length of diet I committed too, at which point I will decide what I think about it/if I would like to continue it. Btw...I actually stuck with something for a month! Well, 4 weeks. My life revolves around weeks (thank you Pizza Pipeline) so it's hard for me to think in any other format now. Anyways, the point is, I can do it!
OH YEAH! That's really the point I wanted to make here...(I forgot, I got carried away with my rant).
I got so used to using the "busy" excuse with my relationships that without even realizing it, I started using it on myself. I don't make home-cooked meals because I don't have time. I don't go to sleep on time because I'm too busy doing anything else. I turned myself into a lazy undisciplined ass! And now I'm dealing with it.
The biggest thing this diet has taught me is that I have control over my own body. I know you guys are saying "well duh" right now, but let me continue. Low carb dieting means I can eat basically nothing, anywhere. Definitely not any fast food or pizza at work. So without even thinking about it, I bought a weeks worth of meat and prepared it when I started dieting. It wasn't until I was shopping for the second week that it hit me...wait a minute...I DON'T HAVE TIME TO COOK! Silly me, what was I thinking? Apparently all this time I could have simply made cooking a priority and therefore had time to cook. Mind = blown. And then all the other things I could have made a priority came rushing to me over the last couple weeks...You mean I could make sleep a priority? Stop watching my shows and just go to sleep? You mean to tell me I could make my relationships a priority over work? (Now that is a hard one...I am a very dedicated worker.) But seriously, it makes my head hurt to recall how many times I chose furthering my management career over a relationship (romantic or friend). Not that all the guys deserved me to be giving 100% (I used to date a lot of douche bags) but there were one or two guys along the way that I actually really cared about, and I know cared about me, and I did not give them the priority in my life that they deserved.
I have no regrets, life would be pretty boring if we were born with all the wisdom in the world. I get it, we have to live life and learn. But man, I wish I wasn't such a slow learner!
The good news is, I'm way smarter now. Exponentially so. So...there.
P.S. I just spent 3 hours on homework, and now another 20 minutes on this post so I am now commanding my body to go to sleep! Because it's my body and I do what I want with it even when it doesn't want to.
Finally figuring out how to be in charge feels good :)
I would use the excuse "I've been busy" but I have come to absolutely HATE that statement, and I will tell you exactly why right. now.
Have you ever had a friend say they were too busy to hang out...and then they check themselves in later at a movie with their boyfriend? Annoying, right? But we can hardly blame them, their love life is their priority.
Ah...see what I just did there? No?
I obnoxiously pointed out that we as humans are rarely "too busy" to to do something. "I'm too busy" should probably be re-phrased as "I have more important things to do". Not like that is a bad thing, I just don't like blame being put on busyness. Call it how it is!
I am one of the biggest hypocrites for writing this rant right now. I have used the busy excuse for all of my adult life (cuz, let's face it, I was never busy...more like bored to tears...as a home-schooled child). Maybe that's why I always choose to live a hectic life. I hate feeling lonely and ignored probably just as much as the next person, but since its selfish me, I feel like I hate the feeling more than anyone else in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. How do you avoid being lonely? By being to busy to hang out anyways! Ha! Now what?!
Problem is, I grew out of that lonely stage. I now have a great life and am surrounded by awesome friends. But I still have this urge to make myself as inaccessible as possible...why? That is something I have decided to work on this year. (Not for the next 6 months or so though of course, the next 6 months are dedicated to getting some schooling/bill paying out of the way!)
Sigh. Someday...someday I will be more of a normal human being. (Is anyone exactly sure what being normal is anymore? Let me know...)
I was going to write about school, or my diet, or work, but I feel like that's all I ever write/talk about and quite frankly, even I am sick of hearing myself go on about these things.
I want at least 1 more week on my diet before I can make an informed blog post about it. 1 more week will be my 1 month mark, which is the length of diet I committed too, at which point I will decide what I think about it/if I would like to continue it. Btw...I actually stuck with something for a month! Well, 4 weeks. My life revolves around weeks (thank you Pizza Pipeline) so it's hard for me to think in any other format now. Anyways, the point is, I can do it!
OH YEAH! That's really the point I wanted to make here...(I forgot, I got carried away with my rant).
I got so used to using the "busy" excuse with my relationships that without even realizing it, I started using it on myself. I don't make home-cooked meals because I don't have time. I don't go to sleep on time because I'm too busy doing anything else. I turned myself into a lazy undisciplined ass! And now I'm dealing with it.
The biggest thing this diet has taught me is that I have control over my own body. I know you guys are saying "well duh" right now, but let me continue. Low carb dieting means I can eat basically nothing, anywhere. Definitely not any fast food or pizza at work. So without even thinking about it, I bought a weeks worth of meat and prepared it when I started dieting. It wasn't until I was shopping for the second week that it hit me...wait a minute...I DON'T HAVE TIME TO COOK! Silly me, what was I thinking? Apparently all this time I could have simply made cooking a priority and therefore had time to cook. Mind = blown. And then all the other things I could have made a priority came rushing to me over the last couple weeks...You mean I could make sleep a priority? Stop watching my shows and just go to sleep? You mean to tell me I could make my relationships a priority over work? (Now that is a hard one...I am a very dedicated worker.) But seriously, it makes my head hurt to recall how many times I chose furthering my management career over a relationship (romantic or friend). Not that all the guys deserved me to be giving 100% (I used to date a lot of douche bags) but there were one or two guys along the way that I actually really cared about, and I know cared about me, and I did not give them the priority in my life that they deserved.
I have no regrets, life would be pretty boring if we were born with all the wisdom in the world. I get it, we have to live life and learn. But man, I wish I wasn't such a slow learner!
The good news is, I'm way smarter now. Exponentially so. So...there.
P.S. I just spent 3 hours on homework, and now another 20 minutes on this post so I am now commanding my body to go to sleep! Because it's my body and I do what I want with it even when it doesn't want to.
Finally figuring out how to be in charge feels good :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)