Enjoy the Holidays fare without doing yourself in.

For people living with a chronic illness, the holidays or special time. It means you've made it through another year. But every year we get to look forward to being around incredible holiday meals be it Thanksgiving Christmas and in some cases new years.
Unless you been specifically told not to eat a certain item by your doctor it's okay to indulge in these meals  just remember moderation is the key. You can have that big spoonful of mashed potatoes, but don't put any extra butter on it and stay away from extra salt. Enjoy the gravy on the turkey,  it is only once a year.

If you're lucky enough to have somebody cooking your food who is carbohydrate conscious, you might find wild rice pilaf, plain baked sweet potatoes or roasted sweet potatoes on the table. These items are on the low glycemic index for carbohydrates and are much better for you then mashed potatoes and white rice.

For those of you dealing with kidney failure,  you still have to watch your phosphorus, potassium, and sodium. If your like me, you can look online and see what exactly is in what....or you can go to a GREAT website called myfitnesspal. This is a free calorie counting website that has the nutritional breakdown of just about everything you could possibly think of. Even fast food restaurants. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

If you're on a liquid restriction make sure that on these holidays the liquids you take in, you enjoy and remember, a glass of red wine is not always a bad thing.

Just remember the holidays are about being with family and friends, and for those of us living with or surviving with chronic illness, it's a day to celebrate surviving another year. So go ahead and satisfy your taste buds. Enjoy..... it is a celebration after all.

Happy Holidays!

Red

Water please....

Most people think being a flight attendant is an incredibly glamorous job.


I mean how hard can it be. You show up for work, you get on an airplane, you say hello to people as they get on and off the airplane, you serve them a Coke or Pepsi during the flight and then you stay overnight in some fabulous city around the world. What most people don't realize is that unless you are incredibly senior with your company, you are most likely doing multiple flights a day, and your layovers are usually less than 11 hours.
Some of the hotels we stay in are barely a step up from Motel with even less availability of healthy food nearby. Combine that with the fact that every year you fly puts two on your body, is it any wonder that flight attendants have the highest instance of kidney failure in any one industry?

My doctor pointed out to me a long time ago, flight attendants do not get enough rest, do not take enough water, and more often than not don't have time to go to the bathroom during a flight. The latter in itself can cause urea backup which can be harmful to the kidneys and liver.


So what's the lesson to be learned here? You don't have to be a flight attendant to drink enough water, and when you need to go....... Go! Your kidneys will thank you later.

Happy Holiday Travels.....Bring lots of Water!

Red

World Aids Day 2010

Today is December 1, 2010 today is world AIDS Day. I'm a man living with HIV and I am lucky enough to be healthy enough to only be living with HIV. Many others out there around the world are not as fortunate as I am. They lack the medicine necessary to keep the virus at bay. In some cases they lack the simple availability of a condom.

Just yesterday an old friend of mine started up a conversation with," would you mind if I asked you a question?" the conversation that followed was a question-and-answer of some of the most basic questions about HIV. I happily answered my friends questions and in my opinion there is one less person out there among the thousands who are afraid of people with HIV.

Today is world AIDS Day. It is a day that we as human beings can come together and stand up in the fight against AIDS.

Part of that fight includes education.

Here is a link to web M.D. which has fantastic questions and answers about HIV
http://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/guide/hiv-aids-overview-facts

here is a link to POZ magazine. there are lots of great articles about those of us surviving with HIV.
http://www.poz.com/

and here's the link for FACING AIDS, our government World Aids Day website.

http://www.aids.gov/facingaids/

Do yourself and those you love a favor.....go to these websites and learn the facts for yourself. Then stand up with the rest of us who are HIV+ and make world AIDS Day........ every day!

Red