How an iPod Touch is changing my life….

On my 30th birthday my sisters, brother in law, aunt and mom all pitched to get me an iPod Touch and it’s changing my life.  I constantly have internal battles with myself on what I did prior to the “technology” era.  At times I find myself rushing home to go back on the computer instead of the gym.  I often think, “I should try to give up the computer for a couple a weeks and see how productive I could be.”  I never end up staying away from it, but I’ve been able to cut down on computer time.  You would think the iPod Touch would be another distraction; however it’s one of the best inventions of our generation and here is why:

Don’t want to be called “Pee-Pants?” Try Kegel Exercises.

A Kegel Exercise is the contracting and relaxing of muscles that form part of the pelvic floor.  I found out about these when I was about 18 years old and to be honest, I had a “WTF?” moment.  It was kind of like, “You can exercise your pum pum…say what??”

Turns out it was the truth and all women should do these to prevent pelvic organ prolapse ( a condition that sometimes results in urine leakage & uncomfortable pelvice pressure), combat urinary problems, & improve your sex life.   After researching the internet for the best explanation of these, I found the Mayo-Clinic website was really informative to share below:

• Find the right muscles. Insert a finger inside your vagina and try to squeeze the surrounding muscles. You should feel your vagina tighten and your pelvic floor move upward. Then relax your muscles and feel your pelvic floor return to the starting position. You can also try to stop the flow of urine when you urinate. If you succeed, you’ve got the basic move. Don’t make a habit of starting and stopping your urine stream, though. Doing Kegel exercises with a full bladder or while emptying your bladder can actually weaken the muscles, as well as lead to incomplete emptying of the bladder — which increases the risk of a urinary tract infection. ( Click HERE for Diagram of find the right muscle)
• Perfect your technique. Once you’ve identified your pelvic floor muscles, empty your bladder and sit or lie down. Contract your pelvic floor muscles, hold the contraction for five seconds, then relax for five seconds. Try it four or five times in a row. Work up to keeping the muscles contracted for 10 seconds at a time, relaxing for 10 seconds between contractions
• Maintain your focus. For best results, focus on tightening only your pelvic floor muscles. Be careful not to flex the muscles in your abdomen, thighs or buttocks. Avoid holding your breath. Instead, breathe freely during the exercises.
• Repeat three times a day. Aim for at least three sets of 10 repetitions a day. You might make a practice of fitting in a set every time you do a routine task, such as checking email, commuting to work, preparing meals or watching TV

No age is too late to start these. Talk to your doctor if you have any trouble, your doctor can walk you through the right way to do the Kegel Excercises.

Hey! Hey! Hey! Zumba!

8 months after having my 1st child, I am actually at the same weight I was when I was 8 months pregnant. I wish the lbs. would’ve melted off right after having my baby girl, but I actually ended up gaining more weight after Reese Marie was born.  It has been a constant struggle to eat right and work out.  I am sick of the same old 30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes on the treadmill and it wasn’t doing anything!! My friend a co-blogger on this site: Fabiola introduced me to Zumba at our gym: XSport Fitness in Arlington Heights.  Zumba is a high impact, intense cardio 1 hour workout that burns calories like crazy.  It is the best cardio workout I have done in a long time and the weight I gained during pregnancy is finally starting to shed.  While Zumba is high impact it is the most fun exercise I have tried in a long time. The word Zumba actually translate in Spanish to: “to move fast and have fun” I strongly urge you to visit your local gym/fitness center to see if they offer this class. You can also check out the official Zumba webpage for more information.  I love, love, love this class and I can’t wait to post my results on my weight loss goal of 50lbs!!

Pum Pum Cleanliness..

So we already went over pum pum maintenance back in February, sorry I left ya’ll hanging this long!  Hopefully your pum pum is maintained, but much more important then maintenance is the cleanliness of your pum pum!

This is no joke people and I guess no one really talks about it; however a guy friend of mine (we’ll call him John to protect his identity), told me about an ex of his that had a stinky pum pum.  I know it sounds terrible and disturbing, but John being the forward man he is went out and bought his women powders, soaps and douches to help solve the problem.   Did they help??  The answer is “NO” they didn’t help per John.  What could it be then??  Lets take a look at a couple things every woman should & should NOT be doing to avoid such a dreadful condition of pum pum stink.

Sweating..its the “pits”

I’ve always wanted to lend advice about my profuse sweating for girls (or guys for that matter) with the same problem. When I was in jr. high and high school, I thought I was a FREAK. I would sweat profusely out of my arm pits no matter what deodorant I tried, how many times I showered or what tricks I read about. The good thing was that it never smelled, it was just sweat. Still, it was a REAL inconvenience and embarrassing. As I got older, I finally accepted it and saw a dermatologist.

It turned out I had a condition called hyperhidrosis. That is a just a fancy word for profuse sweating. In my case it was only my arm pits that I was sweating from, but people suffer this in their hands, feet, and groin area as well. My doctor made me feel a lot better about this situation and said that Hyperhidrosis is a VERY common problem. He said that 1 in 4 people are