I love how you struggle through something and then you find a solution. Back when I had my hysterectomy, Buster’s job didn’t offer health insurance and I didn’t qualify for Medicaid. So, we paid a large sum of money (over $10,000) for my surgery, and it would have been more if the Dr. and Hospital hadn’t deducted some form the amount do to some complications during the surgery.
Anyway, now I hear about this HSA (health savings account). The idea is, you purchase a high-deductible insurance plan (HDHP) that gives you a low-cost premium. Then you put some or even all the money you save on premiums into a tax-free health savings account in your own name. The money you put in is yours, not an insurance company’s. This is also good for you come tax time because, an HSA’s above-the-line deductibility REDUCES your adjusted gross income, effectively reducing your tax burden each year.
When a health problem comes along, you simply use your HSA to pay any qualified expenses that your high-deductible insurance doesn’t cover. The money is withdrawn tax-free and making payment couldn’t be easier, you just hand the provider your HSA debit card.
Most covered expenses include dental bills, over-the-counter medicines, prescription drugs, eye care, hearing aids, and many other health-related items and services that the HDHP doesn’t pay. And, if you don’t use all the money you put in, you can either use it later on in life for long-term care or medicare deductibles or you can withdraw it from the account (there is a penalty if you are under 65, though).
My friends dad had to have surgery on his rotator cuff (shoulder) a while back. He was in so much pain before the surgery, he couldn’t lift his arm above his waist!! That’s a lot of pain!! And he also suffers from Post-Polio syndrome (he had polio as a child), which can be very painful. But this man is one of the hardest working men I know!!
He works at a truck parts factory, I think. I’m not sure if they actually make parts or if they just fix them, but what he does is hard work. He has to pull parts down off of high shelves and lift heavy truck and car parts. It’s a hard job, my peeps!!
Anyway, they had to fight and fight to get the companies disability claims department to finally decide they would pay for his surgery. I don’t know if they thought they should have their own disability insurance or what. And it isn’t easy for some people to prove that their injuries are work related, either. This man works on Church buses and friends cars and all that, so he technically could have injured himself somewhere other than work, but goodness!!! Pulling parts and working on heavy equipment for 20+ years sure can’t be easy on a body!!
It would seem to me that his place of work would want to take better care of their employees, to keep them in good shape so they can do their jobs and do them well!!
Actually, it’s not really a whole day late…it’s only 12:04 AM Wednesday morning….SORRY TAYLOR!!!
So anyway, here is my Fat Tuesday post…
Has anyone heard about the HCG Hormone Diet??? I have heard several people singing it’s praises, and seen the weight loss for myself. A friend of mine has used the liquid form (you place drops of the hormone under your tongue) twice and lost over 20 pounds!!
I guess you do a few things (actually QUITE a few) in phase 1 that makes the weight loss you achieve in later phases easier and more permanent. Then you actually take the hormones and follow a very strict 500 calorie-a-day diet. I guess it’s fairly inexpensive (when it comes to the cost of diet programs) and not harmful at all. It works by targeting “abnormal” fat cells (the kind our bodies store in our bellies, hips and thighs, that we really don’t need) and burns those first as energy therefore boosting your bodies metabolism. This gets rid of the unwanted fat and gives you more energy to burn fat you still take in and build muscle.
It all sounds a little too good to be true to me, but I don’t know much about it and I can’t argue with how great my friend looks!! And she said nothing about weird side affects and or problems with the diet or the hormones….anyone know anything about this?? Care to share your opinion??
Buster and I moved into a house last year that is 1/3 the size of our previous house. Needless to say we are having quite a time finding room for all our things. One thing we really don’t want to get rid of , but may not have a choice about is books. We had an extra room in our old house where we kept all the books on bookshelves. We no longer have an extra room for ANYTHING!!
Some of our books are probably worth some money if we can find the right venue to sell them. I recently found out you can sell used books online!! The best part of that is, that you can recoup most of your money when you sell them that way, and you can sell your books night or day, every day since it’s online and always “open”. You can even sell your used textbooks, which is good for those who can’t afford new or just don’t want to pay full price for them!!
Though you wouldn’t know it looking at my menu plan for the week, I am actually trying to get my family to eat better!! I am cooking up at camp this week and not just for us, so to try new things would be difficult. Anyways, I am trying to get Buster to “diet”. That is like trying to tie down and elephant with thread!! Not that my husband is in any way like an elephant….let me continue before I get myself in trouble…..
My point is, it is hard to get my husband to diet!!! =) I did get him into the habit of taking multivitamins for men for a while, though. I don’t really know how much good they did him with the way he ate, but I guess they didn’t do him any harm!! Since I do not do all the grocery shopping, it’s hard to keep only healthy stuff in the house. And then there is my teenage daughter who does not in any way shape or form need to LOSE.ANY.WEIGHT. In fact, she could stand to gain some, probably. And she does love potato chips in a big way!! She is always asking me to buy them, but then they are here and since I.LOVE.THEM.I.EAT.THEM!!!
today i write for me….not because i have a deadline or a certain meme i want to link up with, but for me. this week i haven’t joined in on the weekly memes i usually do and i did that on purpose. i needed a break, i needed to be free from my “obligations”, if you will. and before i get comments and e-mails saying i don’t have to link up every week….i know that, really i do…but today i blog because i want to, because i need to, for myself…
i find that blogging gets my thoughts out of my head where they can be dangerous and gloomy and threatening and it puts them out somewhere where i can look at them in a different way and deal with them in a healthier way….it kind of separates them from me. it probably doesn’t make sense to some, but it works for me!! =)
believe it or not, and some of you will not, and that’s OK. but, believe it or not, i have a good heart (as good as a sinful, but saved by grace, human being can have anyway). i think all people should be treated equally, regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, wealth and anything else that can separate one group of people from another. that’s not to say i agree with everything a particular group does or doesn’t do, but they should be treated with respect and dignity. they should be prayed for and loved just like anyone else.
i try my very hardest to find the good in everyone, no matter how long or hard i have to look. and up until recently, i thought that everyone possessed at least some good in them. i felt that God makes people and God would never make something that didn’t have at least some redeeming value in it, right? i have recently realized that some people have taken the good God gave them and either destroyed it completely or buried it so deep that it can’t get out anymore. i have found that some people have let the devil take over their lives and given him the place that God should have had. they lie, steal, cheat, manipulate, cast blame, and just in general are not nice people. they are selfish and bitter and lash out to hurt others. and as a part of that, they don’t see this in themselves but seem to project it onto others and claim to see it in their lives. it is so very sad to me that they can’t even see that they are like this. the devil has tricked them into thinking they are right and anyone who isn’t like them is wrong or bad.
people who “suffer” in this way often blame it on something that happened to them in their childhood and/or a condition they have. someone molested them or beat them or hurt them in some other way. or they suffer from a mental disorder. that is a cop-out!! i can say that because i had a very tough childhood and i am also diagnosed with and documented to have bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder (among other things). my parents were separated and/or divorced either just before i was born or just after, i am not sure which but i know they were not together when i was taken from my mother at 18 months old for neglect because then i was placed in my father’s care for several years after that and was taken from him for physical and sexual abuse. from there i went to a “foster” home and the woman who took care of me there ended up adopting me. at 17 i left home after enduring years and years of physical and emotional abuse.
i am NOT in a any way shape or form saying i was a perfect child or teen(or that i am perfect now, for that matter, because i wasn’t, am not,and never will be while i am here on this earth)!!! i was naughty just like everyone else. and because of everything i went through as a child, i did have a lot of issues to deal with through counseling and therapy and such. and i did have to have therapy and medications and counseling and things like that for the “mental issues” i have. and yes, i got rude with my parents just like EVERY child does at one time or another. i didn’t do what i was told to do from time to time, just like EVERY other child does!! i lied to my parents occasionally, just like EVERY other child does (for the most part). i am ashamed to say it, but i did have a problem with stealing as a child and a teen but i have admitted it, repented and asked for forgiveness for it, which is all i can do now. BUT, considering where i came from and what i went through, it could have been a lot worse. i didn’t drink and party and and sleep around and do drugs, or any of those kinds of things. although, i did not have a good grasp on the difference between right and wrong, lies and truth, good and bad. i had been taught by example that lies were OK, that in a lot of cases bad was good and wrong was right. and i thought that the way i was brought up was normal. it was hard to keep everything straight.
then through some good relationships i slowly learned that lying is wrong and that i don’t have to lie to make and keep friends, in fact that is a good way to LOSE friends!! i learned that lesson the hard way in high school, unfortunately. but i learned it nonetheless. and i am so thankful i did, because now i have so many healthy relationships. i learned that there are people who will love me unconditionally, faults and all. that i don’t have to be perfect to be loved. i learned that everything good in my life comes from God and that He has allowed everything that has happened for a reason. i have learned that God doesn’t make mistakes and He is always in control, even though i may not always understand. i learned that with God’s help i can be different than those that hurt me, so i don’t have to repeat that cycle. i learned that i can forgive those who hurt me and not let that hurt and pain define who i am. i can CHOOSE to let my past hurt me and prevent me from doing God’s will for my life by being bitter and mad and depressed and feeling sorry for myself or i can allow God’s love and grace to wash all that away and I can live my life for Him. that is what i choose!! because being bitter and depressed and feeling sorry for myself only hurts me, it only makes my life miserable, and it gives satan reason to rejoice because i can’t effectively live my life for God if i live that way! and personally, i don’t want to give satan glory, i want to give God glory!!!
thanks for stopping by, sorry you didn’t find my “normal” posts this week about random things like weight loss and recipes, but fear not, i will likely be back in the swing of things next week!! thanks for “listening” to my ramblings. please vote on my new poll and let me know what you think…
It has been my experience that you don’t get permanent results as often with quick weight loss, as opposed to weight loss over a longer period of time. By that, I mean that the longer it takes t lose the weight, the longer it stays off. As least that is what I hear most often. And also that has been true for me, for the most part.
Someone asked me what my feelings are on the importance of being happy and healthy or skinny or both. And if I feel you have to be skinny to be healthy. Not necessarily is my answer. I feel that you can be “skinny” and not healthy or “fat” and unhealthy. Healthy doesn’t mean you have to be a tooth pick. I think someone who is 10 pounds over their “ideal” weight can actually be healthier than someone who is their “ideal” weight.
Of course it depends on the person, too. MY goal for this next year is to eat things I know are healthy for me (fruit, vegetables, lean meat, more fresh food/less processed, and whole grains) and to get more exercise (walking, gardening, jogging, jumping on my trampoline). And if I don’t lose a lot of weight even though I do all these things, then I will at least be healthier!!! Healthy is what is important to me!!
Due to some stress going on my life right now, I feel the need for EASY….I am feeling quite down and have no desire to do ANYTHING I don’t have to!! Having the hubby pick up something simple for the next few nights. Maybe frozen pizzas, Banquet Chicken, frozen lasagna, who knows what….hope everyone has a fabulous week!! I don’t ask for this often but please keep me in your prayers…
So what is there left to say about finding diet pills that work, you ask? I really don’t know. I guess there is a huge market for diet pills these days. I personally have only tried one diet pill. It was one made specifically for women and their weight loss needs. Specifically water retention. That was one of the main areas the pill worked on. Not sure what the others were, but these pills targeted like 6 main causes of weight gain or lack of weight loss that plague women. I did not see results, but I also didn’t take them faithfully and I am the type that if I don’t see results right away, I give up!!
Seems I have found the miracle cure for acne! LOL OK, OK, it’s not a miracle cure, just a really good treatment for blackheads, which by the way are the cause of most acne problems. They are very hard to get rid of because they are so deeply embedded in the skin.
I found a great product that uses 33 of natural but powerful powerful acne fighters. Millions of people have gotten get rid of ALL of their acne already! It seeps down into your pores to kill acne where it starts, at the blackhead. It’s also a great exfoliant of those gross, dead skin cells. It’s ingredients also renew and rejuvenate the skin in general.
My friends call me Jo...I am a thirty-something wife to Buster. He is the second-best thing that ever happened to me. The first was my salvation at 11 years old. I am a mother of three. Pumpkin_Seed is 13 (going on 25 lol). She is beautiful, opinionated, head-strong, smart and loves God. My son, Lil' Buster went to heaven when he was 10 (car accident in 2004). He was all boy but adorable, tender-hearted and loved God. And one sweet baby we never got to meet is waiting for us in heaven with Lil' Buster.
A few words to describe me: Christian. Bipolar. Passionate. Determined. Thankful. I am so thankful for my Father up above who leads and guides me through this sin-sick world. I am just trying to live a life pleasing to Him. My blog is a mix of the inner most workings of my Bipolar mind, recipes, random stuff and a few reviews thrown in.
