I’ve always been interested in taking care of my teeth, and recently in these times it seems that most people agree with me. I had braces when I was younger so that I could fix a few crooked teeth, and then I’ve been going to the dentist twice a year since I had them removed. I’ve never had professional whitening done, but I’ve done a lot of the strips you can buy and I have used several different whitening tooth brushes. I am happy with my teeth, but I just want to make sure they are healthy and will stay that way for a long, long time. I remember being little and hating taking care of my teeth. I hated the way tooth paste tasted, I didn’t like the way floss felt in between my teeth, and going to the dentist was terrifying for me. When I got braces I went all through the process and hated it in the beginning but then I noticed all the changes and how they actually looked better, so I enjoyed having them in the end. I think it’s an important thing to teach your kids when they are younger, though I don’t really agree that it matter a whole lot when they are younger on their baby teeth. A lot of people say they took care of them and still had cavities, while I feel I didn’t take very good care of them and I have never had one. But, to get started on the good habits has to be important for later in life. I hope my teeth stay healthy forever!

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Everyone says that smoking is harmful to your child while in the gestation process. What happens however when you cannot stop smoking and your pregnancy doesn’t make you sick enough to quit what do you do? Studies have shown that when you try to stop smoking during pregnancy and you try and quit cold turkey that your baby goes through harder with drawls than the mother. It has shown that as the mother goes through with drawls the baby goes through with drawls at the same time but because the mother is going through with drawls the baby goes through double with drawls. Some people consider this more deadly than just smoking to begin with. My doctor has said that when a mother puts herself through with drawls she puts her child in shock bad enough that the baby could possibly have heart failure; this causes the baby to die inside the womb. So I ask myself what is really the worst thing for your child stopping smoking or not stopping. This is an issue that every mother that smokes has to decide for herself whether or not she needs to quit smoking. I personally could not stop smoking during my pregnancy. My doctor didn’t like it but didn’t see an issue with it after he started explaining the issue that could even happen when you try and quit smoking. Many American mothers’ get ugly looks and even talked about in circles of friends but until they have to endure what can actually happen there is no reason to judge.

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So my entire life, all the way up to the ripe age of 23, I have hated coffee. I vowed to myself that I would never have a coffee pot, and would never be on of those people that needed the drink to wake up and get on with my day. But, I can’t say there’s really anything wrong with it. There are pros and cons to drinking coffee, just like most things in life that you can consume, but I think it’s just a personal decision. I just don’t want to get addicted to something and need it everyday, and when I can’t have it I get annoyed. When I do drink coffee, I feel more alert, it helps me focus on what I’m doing, I feel warmer, and it really is just easier to wake up. If I only have it on certain occasions, I can feel these altered characteristics very distinctly. I think if I started to have it all the time I wouldn’t get the same feeling, and that it would just become a necessity instead of a small, rare luxury. Drinking coffee can mess with your digestive system because of the amount of caffeine, it can stain your teeth, and most people don’t just drink it straight and black, so all the creamer and sugar you add into it makes it pretty unhealthy. If you go to Starbucks to get your fix, the amount of sugar they use can make some of those drinks can take up half of your daily caloric need. So, I will sit on my line in the middle for now, coffee is okay but I still do not need it.

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I’m sure everyone knows about the health benefits salmon which contains high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. However, there are other types of meats that are just as healthy and contain as much or more omega-3 and do not have the potential to contain heavy metals such as mercury. No one wants mercury poisoning. Grass-fed ruminants such as cow, bison, and venison are actually quite lean and health protein sources. The problem is that it is very difficult to find free-range, grass fed meats. Farm raised beef that was fed mainly soy and grain have a higher omega-6 (unhealthy) omega-3(healthy!) ratio. Likewise, farm raised salmon can be chalk full of that nasty omega-6 fatty acids also. Meet from animals that are allowed to graze naturally contains higher levels of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) which has been shown to help burn fat and build lean muscle over time. The same goes for poultry. What the animal consumes has a direct impact on the health of whatever or whoever consumes it. There are websites and stores out there that cater to those who prefer free-range meat products. Just because Wal Mart is easy and convenient, doesn’t mean it’s our only option. We end up eating whatever our food ate so we may want to put a little extra time and effort into choosing which meats we eat and feed people. If you wouldn’t eat dog food, don’t eat a steak that chowed down on it before it became a steak. It only makes sense

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I have always hated treadmills. The infamous “runners high” is something I have never experienced in my life. The only time I run is when I’m playing a game and I don’t have to just sit there and think about the fact that I am running. My sister likes to run in marathons and do three day walks for breast cancer, and I can’t even standing running around the block. It’s not that I can’t do it, it’s just that I don’t want or like to do it. So, I am going to set a goal for myself. I want to experience this runner’s high. I want to run and run and run until I feel good. I started yesterday with it, and I lasted a mile and a half before I was bored. I wasn’t having a hard time, I wasn’t incredibly tired, I was just so bored that I wanted to do something else. Most of the treadmills have TV’s on them, so I think that with the help of a TV show that I don’t want to miss I’ll be able to just keep going. Or, if I could read while I was running, but I’m pretty sure I would fall off. But, now that I have a goal, I think I will eventually get to it. I just need to add on length each time I run, and make myself beat it every time I go in there, and eventually it has to happen. Maybe I’ll hit that point and decide that I love to run, and I’ll keep doing it!

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I think one of the most fun and best work outs around is boxing. Even the different variations of the work out, such as kick boxing, self defense, and so on, are good works outs too. At Texas Tech is was required to take two personal fitness and wellness classes, and I chose Self Defense as one of mine. During that semester, I only went once a week and it felt like I was in extremely good shape just from that one work out a week. I was as flexible as I had been since cheerleading in high school, and just felt good. I can’t say that I think I can defend myself against a man trying to attack me with out a weapon, but I do feel like I learned more and would have a better understanding of the situation if I was placed in one. I have also always enjoyed boxing. I love the speed bag, it is a great work out and helps in hand eye coordination. Hitting the heavy bags gives an amazing stress relief and really tones your arms. Jumping rope is a really good cardio work out that’s also fun. The only issue with all of this for me is that now I don’t have a rec membership, and the only place in Lubbock that has all of this equipment charges over 80 dollars a month for a membership. I really miss these work outs and I can’t wait to be able to buy the equipment myself when I have a place to put it. One day I will be able to again!

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I have only watched Dancing With The Stars a few times, I don’t even know what nights it comes on or who is on the show anymore. I do know that when I worked as an operator for the deaf it was one of the most popular shows ever, and that when it was on they were always on the phone talking their friends to talk about what was going on and who was going to stay or go home. But, what I do always hear about when ever I catch them talking about it on TV is how much weight the people lose when they get on the show. I know that the dancers are already in really good shape, and then they bring on a bunch of celebrities to dance with them. They go through a bunch of training and weeks of practice to get ready to perform each week, and all of them get into really good shape. They always show the before and after photos of the celebrities that have lost the most weight on the show. I love to dance, and I know that it’s an awesome work out. I wish that each week I had to meet up with someone all the time and have them teach me a new dance. It doesn’t ever feel like a work out when you are learning something new like that, I just don’t have a partner or someone who knows how to dance like that to meet with me! I should sign up for a dance class!

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On E! they have been showing this show called the Top Celebrity Body Slim Downs. It just makes me feel bad for these people. Most of them didn’t even gain that much weight, but just being placed in the public eye makes it seem like a huge deal. They showed Jessica Simpson on here, and I never felt that she was over weight. She may have lost her perfect body for a little while just like anyone else does, but she had to deal with people taking pictures of her and calling her fat all the time. It would be so hard to have someone constantly critiquing me and my body. Sometimes I just don’t feel like I look my best, and if I had someone who would check that out and then post it in a magazine I would be traumatized. It’s no wonder that there are so many celebrities out there with eating disorders, I would rather work my ass off and not eat what I want than being put in a magazine and made fun of all the time. Being a “real” person is so much easier. If I decide I don’t want to work out every single day for awhile and just take a break, I can just do that and no one will even make a comment. In their lives, they have people out there who live off of taking unflattering pictures of them. I would lose my mind! Thank God for my privacy and normalcy!

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It’s always been said that women should begin getting their mammograms once they are forty and make sure that they are getting them once a year. By doing this, women are able to have the screenings help in detecting abnormalities and catch if anything is wrong before it might be too late. I can assume that this screening costs a bit of money, but I don’t think that really matters when it comes to saving someone’s life. This standard has been set for years by doctors and professionals all around. So, the sudden change of heart from experts saying that women should wait until they are 50 is surprising. These “experts” are claiming at not enough lives are saved by requiring the mammogram, so we shouldn’t deal with them. Do you think the women out there who got their tests done when they were 40 and found cancer agree? How can someone say that a few lives saved aren’t enough? It’s just people being stingy with money, as usual. Women who get the tests and face the common false-positive screening end up costing their insurance a lot of money in other screenings, biopsies, etc., and they don’t want to “waste their money” anymore. Ugh, people are sick. I guess some lives just aren’t worth that much when saving money comes into the picture.

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When I was good about going to the gym, I was always interested in trying the classes they had available. Some of them were pretty worthless in my opinion, while others really made me push myself harder in my work out. Yoga just isn’t for me. I can understand if someone is pregnant or cooling down after a real work out, but it just doesn’t do anything for me. At the rec in Lubbock, they offer a really intense ab class that only last 20 minutes. It’s really tough and once you’re done with the 20 minutes you can really feel that it’s paying off. It sucks while you’re doing it, but since it’s crammed into such a short time it isn’t hard to make yourself go and just get it over with. I’ve taken those boot camp classes and I don’t care for them. They are really hard, and most of the time I feel like I need to sit down or I’ll pass out and don’t get the chance to. I also took a Zumba class. It was probably the most fun and best work out I had had in a long time. It’s an hour long, and all you’re doing is dancing and following the teacher. You’re covered in sweat before 20 minutes is up, but it’s so fun you don’t even notice. That has been my favorite way to work out because I love to dance. I think the best way to know what class you’ll like is to take as many as you can and decide for yourself!

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