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6 Questions To Ask Your Doctor/Pharmacist

January 28, 2015
6 Questions To Ask Your Doctor/Pharmacist

This week is National Drug Facts Week (January 26th-February 1st) and the American Recall Center (a website that provides drug and medical device recall information) helped inspire me to ‘shatter the myths about pharmaceuticals’. As you all know, this perfectly fits my mission of ‘helping to reveal the facts’.

Let me preface this with saying that I am in no way against pharmaceuticals, when used properly and in the right dosage. However, the danger comes when pharmaceuticals are used incorrectly, and a major cause of this is because many people are not given the correct facts or have not discussed their medication with their doctor or pharmacist.

Why Communication is Vital

I took a fascinating class last summer (as per the requirements to get my master’s degree) called Health Communication. It really opened my eyes to the importance of communication between a patient and their caregiver. You would be surprised at the amount of people who do not speak up or ask questions despite being confused or not understanding what their doctor has said. Furthermore, many patients may choose not to ask questions or feel like they have a choice regarding the treatment that has been prescribed to them. This is in spite of the fact that doctors cannot treat patients without their consent nor are patients required to follow their advice if they feel at all uneasy or worried.

Take the example of the drug Xarelto, which is a blood thinner that can have some severe side effects. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has actually challenged Johnson & Johnson over their claims and advertising of Xarelto as they found that they did not provide sufficient warning to consumers regarding the drug’s side effects.

Don’t Be Scared to ASK

This is such a relevant point. Your doctor, pharmacist and any health professional are there to help you and you should never feel scared or nervous to ask them to clarify or explain anything you do not understand, or want more information about. You could do a lot of harm to yourself from failing to ask questions or to make your voice heard. Just take a look at these interesting statistics.

6 Questions To Ask Your Doctor/Pharmacist

6 Questions To Ask Your Doctor/Pharmacist

Some pretty crazy statistics, huh?

6 Questions To Ask Your Doctor/Pharmacist

Education is paramount to keeping yourself safe and to reaping the benefits from your visit to your doctor or pharmacist. Educate yourself on what drugs and medical devices have been recalled, and make sure to always ask your doctor or pharmacist anything you are unclear on. Here are 6 questions to ask your doctor/pharmacist:

  • How will this product help me and relieve my symptoms?
  • Are there any adverse side effects of this product that could affect me?
  • When was this product released?
  • Has this product received a positive reception or have you heard anything negative regarding it?
  • How many (pills, capsules, etc) do I take, and how many time a day do I take this product?
  • What do I do if I forget to take the recommended dosage?

I highly recommend checking out the American Recall Center’s website (www.recallcenter.com) as they have so much useful information regarding pharmaceuticals (not sponsored, I just admire their values and mission).

Honestly yours,
Alice

Thank you for always supporting me! For more Honestly Fitness, check out my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest.

Featured image from http://www.centerforprevention.org

Health

How To Get Into A Healthy Eating Routine

January 23, 2015

Recently, I was asked about how to get into a regular healthy eating routine. It was such a simple question yet it threw me off guard because I realized that I wasn’t really sure how to answer it! I am so glad I was asked it as this is a perfect topic for a blog post and I am sure it may help you out, as a beginner in your healthy and active lifestyle or even as a ‘seasoned professional’ 😛

 The First Step – Plan

The first step with any routine is planning. Get a journal, piece of paper or even just your phone and write about what your plan is and some small goals. For example: I want to get into a routine of eating healthy and nutritious foods by including more leafy greens into my diet. Now, write down a meal plan with enough meals to cover you for five days. This gives you leeway to hang out and eat with friends. Take a look at a sample meal plan I have done by clicking here.

The Second Step – Buy

Now that you have written some goals and a meal plan, it is time to buy the food needed to bring this healthy eating routine to fruition! Everyone’s meal plans will be different and ergo, everyone’s grocery list will be different. The graphic below is a shopping list to accompany the meal plan I discussed about in the first step. Do NOT feel obligated to use this grocery list as everyone’s needs are different. It is simply a guide and something I use to help me.

Healthy Grocery list

The Third Step – Do

By ‘do’, I mean actually make the meals! Trust me, cooking is not difficult and you can only get better with practice. If you are busy and strapped for time, I suggest meal prepping the Sunday before the week starts. For me, my lunches and dinners are so quick that the only things I usually have to assemble are the meats that go into my lunches and some breakfasts’ such as overnight oats.

The Fourth Step – Keep Motivated

A downfall for many people (including myself) is a lack of motivation. This could happen for any number of reasons, such as not seeing results as quickly as you had hoped, feeling stressed out, and etc. For me personally, I find that using Instagram is a huge motivator not only because of the amazing and inspiration accounts you can find there, but because the health and fitness community on Instagram is so kind and supportive. Progress photos are also a great tool to keeping motivated as it can really open your eyes to how far you have actually come.

Good Luck!

I hope this post will help you slowly ease into a healthy eating routine or help motivate those who have been on their healthy lifestyle for a while. Sometimes it is useful to go back to basics and to re-evaluate your goals and intentions because … people change! I used to be all about getting skinny, getting to 110 pounds and whatnot, so my ‘healthy meals’ looked really different (basically all low-carb and unsustainable). My goals now are to reduce my overall body fat, to get strong and to feel confident in a bikini. My meals are balanced and full of carbohydrates, fats and proteins as well as the occasional treat to keep me from binging.

What are your healthy eating goals? How can I help you achieve them?

Honestly yours,
Alice

Thank you for always supporting me! For more Honestly Fitness, check out my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest.

Health, Healthy on the cheap

Healthy on the Cheap: Part II

January 20, 2015
Healthy on the Cheap: Part II

After the success of my first ‘Healthy on the Cheap‘ post, I have made a part II to add to the series! The last post focused on strategies you can do to help reduce costs associated with a healthy and active lifestyle, and on what foods you should buy that are both healthy and cheap. This post will focus on tips for shopping smart to keep your overall grocery expenses low.

Healthy on the Cheap: Part II

Healthy on the Cheap: Part II

Shop Smart

  1.  Keep an eye out for discounts – I used to get tons of flyers for discounts happening at my local supermarkets and would always throw them away until one day I noticed that Sprouts Farmer’s Market were having a ‘buy 3 for $1’ on Hass Avocados! Ever since then I have paid attention to any specials supermarkets are having.
  2. Make a grocery list! You would be surprised at how many silly things you purchase if you don’t stick to a list. I am not saying you will be 100% perfect with a list (I always sneak some Harmless Harvest coconut water in hehe), but it helps. A lot.
  3. Try and cut down on buying tea and coffee when out and about. I used to buy loads, but cut down to buying 1 latte or mocha every other day or so, and by making my own tea at home. Try filling a glass water bottle with green tea and half a lemon, sliced. It is delicious!
  4. Stick to a regular routine at the supermarket. By this, I mean start at the produce section and load up there, then move onto dairy, grains, and finally meat. By the time you get to meat (which is by far my most expensive purchase), your shopping basket will be pretty full and it will make you think more carefully about how much meat you need to buy.
  5. NEVER ever shop when hungry! Okay, so I still make this mistake from time to time but I am much more aware of this now. You’d be amazed by all the random c*** you will throw into your shopping cart when you are hungry. Suddenly everything looks good; “Ooh, $10 bag of caramel clusters, sounds good!” haha.
  6. Load up on in-season produce. Produce that is in season tends to be cheaper and fresher. Some examples of produce currently in season are artichokes, broccoli, winter squash, and arugula.
  7. Visit a farmer’s market. This isn’t something I do often but is something I will be trying to do more because farmer’s markets tend to have produce and fruits that are cheaper than they are in supermarkets. And usually fresher too!
  8. Don’t be afraid to buy frozen food. Frozen berries for example tend to be frozen at their peak nutritional state and are much cheaper than fresh berries. If you are on a budget, I highly recommend investing in certain kinds of frozen produce. I always have frozen berries, corn and green beans in the freezer.
  9. Get your supermarket’s rewards card. If you shop at a supermarket frequently, chances are that they will have some sort of rewards card. I have one for my local supermarket (Safeway) and it has helped me save quite a lot of money and cash in on special deals.

These 9 tips are what I try to follow to help me shop smart and allow me to eat a variety of healthy foods despite my measly student budget (bet everyone in university can relate lol). I would absolutely love to hear what you do to shop smart or if you already do one of the above tips.

What is your favorite winter produce? Mine are definitely winter squash, especially now I bought a spiralizer!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Thank you for always supporting me! For more Honestly Fitness, check out my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest.