Educating the Wheelers

Last week I checked my weight and I was shocked. In two months I had gained a massive five pounds! I was horrified!

I hate being overweight and I had stubbornly ignored the remarks of my friends when they had commented on me adding weight after I started my new job. As it is, I thought that my friends were just making jokes and teasing me due to the nature of my new job. I recently got a job as a cashier at a fast food restaurant.

I had never been overweight in my life and I had never thought that I would see the day when I would gain excessive weight. I thought being overweight was beyond me. I had even had funny ideas that fat people could feel their weight. Maybe that is why I was reluctant to accept that I had gained weight. I thought that if I got fat I would feel myself bulge or something.

The weight check had been a true shocker, I had to double check just to be sure that the weighing scale was not faulty and that my eyes were not playing tricks on me. I finally confirmed the weighing scale’s declaration when I went and stood before my full size mirror and carefully analyzed my image. As a guy who is not particularly concerned about looks, I would normally give my mirror a mere glance mostly to check the state of my hair, this time I gave the mirror all my attention. The bulge on my midsection was quite obvious.

It is obvious that the food that I have been munching on at the fast food outlet was responsible for my getting fat. My job is as a cashier and one of the benefits of my job is that there are some of the products we sell that I can have a daily free supply of. These includes soft drinks, French fries, and my favorite; Beef burgers!

I do not have a big appetite and I do not eat much. This has been one of the reasons I have always been slim. Even now I do not eat a lot. In fact, I have not changed any of my eating habits apart from eating different types of food. The difference is that, now I am increasingly feeding on junk foods.

The fact that I am seated for most of the day makes it even worse. The heavy cholesterol and bad calories that I continuously eat up are not used up but are stocked up in my body as fat. The short walk home is insignificant exercise for the day.

I have to make extreme changes to my eating habits. I have to stop eating the junk food freely supplied at my work place and I have to find healthier foods. I am thinking of investing in a calorie watch that will help me manage my calorie intake. To reduce the already accumulated fat, I also need to do some physical exercises. I am thinking of every day going for a jog early in the morning before coming to work.

My grandparents are well into their seventies although many people who are not aware of this would argue and say that they are much younger than this. My parents are still quite active and they still manage to go about their activities without a problem. However, some onsets of arthritis are manifesting themselves in both of them. My grandfather who has started experiencing some pains in his leg joints. My grandmother has some pains in her hands.

The major reason that has seen my grandparents outlive many of their age mates and have better health than people their age is the fact that they have always tried to eat healthy and have healthy lifestyles.

This is largely due to my grandmother having been a nurse for all her active working years until she retired.

Being a nurse, and having embraced her profession with passion, my grandmother had extended her nursing expertise into all her ways of life. Her home has always been spick and span. Even today, she is very particular about the cleanliness of her home. Although she cannot do the cleaning herself, she still demands hospital like standards in cleanliness.

When it came to food, my grandma fed my mother and her siblings with diets that were unique from what other parents were feeding their children, my mother and her siblings would often complain with the often bland tasting foods.

Two weeks from now my grandparents will be celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary. We want to reward them with something special. Among the gifts we have decided to buy for them, we agreed that we have to buy them some kitchenware. I have been tasked with deciding what to buy.

I am thinking that buying the best immersion blender ideal for the aged would be good present for them. Stand-on-table blenders, such as the one’s they use are not very convenient when one wants to beat/ blend some light soup, yoghurt, or smoothie. They are also not very easy to clean. My grandparent would find an immersion blender very easy to use.

For my grandfather, I am thinking of buying him a wine cooler. He is an occasional drinker. He likes to have some of his favorite wine when he is reading or when he goes into the outdoors to relax with grandma. They are particular fond of visiting the beach where they can enjoy the sun and take in the view of the ocean.

My grandparents’ impact has been greatly felt in the family. The important teachings on healthy living that they instilled on our parents have been handed down and we, as the grandchildren, can also enjoy the benefits.

My desire is to grow into an old age having a healthy body. My mother has taught me how to eat healthy and live healthy but the example set by my grandparents are my strongest motivation. In an age where no care is given to the needs of the physical body, where people die prematurely due to health related complications, I want to stand out by living a long healthy life. My desire is to instill the same values to my children.

My family’s eating appetite is growing bigger, this is because my kids are growing bigger. They are now entering their teens. My first born son is now fifteen, my second born, my daughter is thirteen, and she is followed closely by my second born son who is just turning twelve. My last born daughter is nine years old.

With my kids growing up, I have realized a major change in their eating habits. All the kids apart from my last born daughter have recently developed a huge appetite. Any food that I cook is summarily cleared unlike in the past when there would be lots of left overs. Nowadays, the fridge is repeatedly raided and I can hardly keep up with the demand.

Having been raised by a mum who was strict on feeding us on healthy foods, I am also quite particular on what my children eat. Unlike many parents, I do not load my fridge or pantry with loads of snacks that the children can have whenever they are hungry. I believe in having healthy foods. As such, whenever hunger strikes between meals, I like my children having light foods such as smoothies, yoghurt, whole meal bread, fruits, or fruit juice.

Having a steady supply of these healthy options is however not easy, and I understand why many parents succumb to allowing their children to feed on junk. Since I am determined not to follow this trend, I decided to take on another strategy.

Since I cannot keep up with my children’s ravenous appetite by always having these healthy snacks, I decided to instead be cooking lots of food for meal time. This would ensure that the kids would be well filled in one sitting. With a big meal, there would also be left over food that can be stored in the fridge and whenever one was hungry, it would be easy to warm the food and eat.

To do this, I have to invest in larger cooking appliances. My old pressure cooker has a limited capacity.

Shopping has never been one of my strong points and I am always lost whenever I am presented with many options to choose from when shopping. Luckily there are many online reviews for kitchen appliances where I can read and effectively choose the best pressure cooker for me.

Apart from getting a larger pressure cooker, I am thinking that some of my electrical appliances are too outdated. From what I see in online reviews for kitchen appliances, there are some more modern appliances that provide many advantages as compared to the older models such as the ones in my kitchen.

For example, instead of sticking to my old cooking pans, maybe I could invest in an electric skillet. An electric skillet would provide the advantages of cooking faster and saving energy. An electric skillet also has the advantage of enabling one to cook in a precise manner. One can automatically control the heat and the time duration for cooking. It is easier to cook using an electric skillet and even my children would find it easy to use and they can prepare meals by themselves.

As a fitness trainer, I have to lead my trainees by example. I have to be extremely fit to be able to coach my classes. My work is done by practically demonstrating and taking my trainees through various work out routines. This is my full time job. In a day, I might have up to four sessions and in each session I have to give my best. As such, in very simple terms, I have to be four times as fit as my students to be able to effectively coach during the four sessions in a day.

Since acquiring a good physique is one of the top priorities for most people who come to my gym, I have to maintain my body in top shape. This has been one of my biggest challenges in this job.

I had always been fit and acrobatic since my childhood days. I had decided to have a career related to this advantages that I was naturally endowed with. When I was finally training to be a fitness specialist, I had been hit with the realization that to be a good fitness coach, a fit, well-built physique was important. Unfortunately I was quite slender.

My teacher had advised me that I would need to build more mass. This meant building up more muscle. To do this, I had to do lots of weight lifting.

I remember that I had to intensively lift weights to work out different muscles in my body for four straight months before I was finally satisfied with the results. And I must say the results were astonishing. Every time I would meet someone whom I had not met for some time, they would be amazed at the changes in my body.

To achieve this rapid increase in muscle, I had to pay great attention to my diet. I had to eat healthy carbohydrates that would give me lots of energy and I had to make sure that these carbohydrates did not have bad calories that could get me fat. I also ensured that my diet consisted of a lot of protein which was essential for the building of muscle. It is during this time that I started taking whey protein powders.

At first I had not liked them very much due to the taste but I had later been introduced by a friend to some sweetened whey protein powders that were much more pleasant and manageable.

Even after acquiring the muscled physique, I have still continued with the weight lifting workouts and eating healthy. In my gym, I have a small kitchenette where I prepare most of my food. I rarely buy readymade food. Most of the eateries, especially fast food outlets have food made to be tasty but food that is not necessarily healthy.

I have an espresso machine that I use to make my coffee and thus I avoid all commercial soft drinks and beverages. I also have a blender which I use to make smoothies that are a good source of vitamins and beverages. I also have a small electric skillet which I occasionally use to make vegetable stews and to sometimes boil rice.

Ever since I was a teenager, I have struggled with a weight problem. I was not very fat but I hated my protruding belly and my love handles. I wanted to be as shapely as some of the other girls in school. Not that there weren’t other bigger girls, but as you know with girls, we always want to be the best.

My appetite did not help my desire for a slim physique. Ever since I was a kid I had however had a healthy appetite and so I did not understand why suddenly my waistline was bulging out of control. I however had a clue. When I was younger, I had been under the strict care of my parents who were very much against eating unhealthy foods. So no matter how much food we ate as youngsters it was not unhealthy food and most of it would be used up by the body or it would harmlessly pass through the body without accumulating as fat.

As a teenager however, I had more freedom to indulge in junk foods, I especially loved burgers, pizzas, French fries, cakes and chocolates. Whenever I needed a drink, sodas were my number one choice. These foods were quite instrumental to my bulging waistline.

Not that I was not physically active. In fact, the bulge would have been much more pronounced had I not been such an active basketball player. I was a reserve in our college team.

The bulge however quickly intensified when I left college and I stopped being physically active. My eating habits did not however change.

My rapidly increasing body weight worried me a great deal and I decided to put a halt to it. First I decided that I would put a check to eating chunk foods. I studied about healthy eating and adopted the lifestyle of eating foods that helped in weight control such as hummus. I also started eating foods which would help me in suppressing my appetite. This included foods such as apple cider vinegar.

Maintaining this lifestyle of eating a healthy diet that most of the time included bland vegetables was quite boring. The only times I enjoyed was when I ate fruits that would at least satisfy my sweet tooth.

Due to my craving for fatty or sugary foods, I often found myself reverting to them especially when I was in the company of friends, such as in the office. As such, I decided that to fight my weight I would need to do more.

I decided to start working out. Since I could no longer go back to basketball due to lack of time, I decided to enroll in a gym. In the gym I would do all kinds of cardio vascular exercises to burn up my extra calories. I also bought the best shoes for weightlifting to help me in the weight lifting routines. I had learnt that muscles help in burning calories faster. A little muscle would also go a long way in improving my physical appearance

When I was about to become a mother for the first time, I realized that my life was suddenly going to change a big deal. I realized that I would undergo a non-reversible change in my life. The changes were in almost all aspects of my life. From my body, my thinking, and the way I did things. What I had not really anticipated for so much were the changes that would occur in my house.

I had been married to my husband for two years and we had lived all along in the apartment we had moved into once we got married. It was a two bedroomed apartment that we had liked for its spacious rooms and kitchen. I had also liked the way light streamed into the bedroom and into the living room.

When I was pregnant with my son, I however realized that I had not carefully thought about children when choosing the house. Luckily, the house did not have any hazards that could affect small children. My only problem was with the furniture arrangements. I had to make major changes to our bedroom to accommodate my newborn’s cot.

When it came to the kitchen, I realized that I had bought much of the kitchenware with only my husband and myself in mind. I had not considered the needs of an infant child.

For example, little kiddies do not eat solid food, they have to have special liquid food made for them. This requires a blender. I did not have a single blender in the house. My husband and I were not very enthusiastic about blended foods such as smoothies so I had not had any reason to think of a blender before. Now I had to get one.

Since I did not know anything about blenders, I went into the internet and started reading articles on how to make food for an infant child. I realized that a smoothie maker would be ideal to make the baby’s food. I read several smoothie maker reviews and finally found one that I believed would be ideal for me.

Since by then I was quite pregnant, my husband decided to do the shopping for me. I told him the name of the exact smoothie maker I wanted and told him of some of the outlets where he could find it.

As he was shopping, my husband stumbled across an ice-cream maker. My husband and I are both quite fond of ice-cream. We had however never thought about homemade ice cream. My husband thought that since I would be spending a lot of time at home, I could as well be making some homemade ice-cream. Since he had no clue about the type of ice-cream maker to buy, he decided not to buy one immediately. He asked me to first go over some of the ice cream maker reviews on the net and see which ice cream maker would be ideal for us. Since I love ice cream so much, that evening I was ready with an answer.

When I had stayed for seven months without getting a job after college, I became quite desperate. I was heartbroken since I had not quickly gotten a job as I had imagined. Many of my colleagues who we had graduated together with had already started working in one capacity or the other.

I had sent several applications requesting for a working position as a chef. This is the only profession that I loved and it is what I had studied for in college. It was a profession that I had a lot of passion for. I had built the passion for cooking ever since I was a little girl. My mother, who loved me dearly as her only child, always wanted to be with me. She would strive to spend every minute she could with me whenever she was not at work.

As such, she would always encourage me to stay with her when she was cooking in the kitchen. When I grew older and she started giving small cooking tasks, I had immediately fallen in love with the art.

My mother did not have to encourage me to come to the kitchen any more. Instead she now had to restrain me from spending too much time in the kitchen.

In school I was a great cookery student and I passed highly. This was one of the reasons I could not really understand why I was not being called up for any of the places I applied for a position. I however secretly new that I had been too choosy in my job applications. I had only sent applications to big hotels and restaurants that were around our locality. I did not want to work far from home where I would be far from my mother. Maybe the hotels and restaurants around simply did not have any vacancies.

Since there was no small eatery around our home area, I thought about renting a premise and starting my own diner that would keep me occupied until there was a vacancy for me. The idea sounded very good to me and my mom was also quite excited about it. With her help I opened a small homely diner.

I started by making all the common dishes that I knew most of the people were likely to prefer. I especially made food that students in the music college nearby would want. Within a few days after opening the diner, I started receiving some customers. I realized that most of the orders were for rice. I had to get a faster rice cooker. From a cuckoo rice cooker review on the internet, I saw that this would be the ideal rice cooker for me.

The flow of customers promised to increase and I saw that my small dinner with its handful of seats would be insufficient. Since there was some space at the front lawn of the premise, I decided to pitch an umbrella tent where I put extra tables and chairs. Since I also realized that the workload would increase, I decided to invest in a programmable pressure cooker that would make it easier to cook with as I tended to other duties such as dish washing.

Shopping is an art that needs a lot of patience. Shopping is not simply going into a shop and picking an item and walking out. Proper shopping involves carefully choosing an item by comparing it to various other similar items.

For example, when you want to buy a shoe, there are several things you need to consider. First of all the obvious thing to look for is for shoes that can fit you, shoes your size. The next thing you look at could be they type of shoe you want. There are many types of shoes ranging from flip flops, running shoes, high heels, and many other kinds. After this, you might need to consider the color of the shoe. This is usually in reference to what clothes you want to wear the shoe with. Another thing you might want to look at is how comfortable the shoe is for you. Finally you need to consider the price. Is the shoe within your budget?

Many times when shopping for an item in a big store where they have enough varieties, you might be able to carry out all the above steps under one roof. However, many times you have to do the comparing by visiting several different shops. This is where patience and determination is called upon. It is especially important to shop through several shops if you want to get the best bargain in terms of price.

Common items that need thorough shopping skills are kitchen appliances. If you want to buy a kitchen appliance you first need to know what you want to use it for. It is usually best if the person shopping for kitchenware is someone who is well acquainted with the kitchen. Do not send your husband to go buy kitchen ware for you; that is unless of course he is well acquainted with what goes on in the kitchen.

The person buying the kitchen ware needs to be aware of the uses for the item he/ she is buying. For example, if you need a rice cooker, you need to be aware of what type of rice cooker you want since there are several in the market. For instance, do you want an electric rice maker or one that is heated externally? You also need to consider the capacity of food you need the cooker to cook at a go. It would be unfortunate if you will have to use your cooker twice to get enough for your family.

You also need to consider where you are going to store the item. Does your kitchen have enough room for use and storage of the appliance? It is also important to consider the ease of use. Do not buy an appliance that you will always struggle to use or you will always have to refer to the manual when using. You also need to consider how easy the appliance is to wash. Kitchen ware needs constant cleaning and the easier the item is to clean the better.

You also need to consider the price of the appliance. You need to shop for an item that is within your budget. While looking at the price you also need to consider the durability of the appliance and the warranty conditions, if any.

Nursing school may be tough but in the end it will be worth it for you and your family. You will be able to provide for your family and build a future for them. You will spend long hours in school and long hours at work. But if you are truly devoted to your craft you will focus on keeping it going strong. Even though nursing school can be a struggle for some, many excel in it. Keep reading to learn more about nursing school and the opportunities that await you.

Benefits of Nursing School & Becoming a Nurse

LPN’s are able to enter into professional careers much faster than people who choose many other job paths. Many facilities offer tuition reimbursement for LPN’s who want to further their careers. A good salary may be earned while obtaining more education.

Many health care employers offer well rounded, substantial, benefit packages which LPN’s may take advantage of. Most facilities and agencies offer health, and life insurance. Some offer short and long term disability packages. Paid sick leave, vacation time, and personal leave is offered by most health care employers. Some employers offer discounted gym and day care facility opportunities. Employers may offer discounts for community services, uniforms, and retirement plans. The dollar amount of a benefit package may add thousands of dollars to a compensation plan for LPN’s.

LPN’s are able to choose work schedules which meet their needs. When my children were little, I worked the night shift so that I could be home and available when the children got home from school. Few careers offer the flexibility to work part time and per diem. Nursing is one of the few professions which consistently offer benefits packages to part time employees.

Being nurses, we may choose to work in a great variety of settings. Some of us provide home health care. Others work in doctor’s offices, hospitals, or extended care facilities. We work with people of all ages. Our tasks vary greatly as well. We may focus on disease prevention and health care promotion, or rehabilitation. We are fortunate to have so many career options. If we tire of one type of nursing, we have the opportunity to choose vastly different opportunities to explore.

Conclusion

The benefits of nursing are much more than the personal, strictly job related career benefits. We are privileged people who have the opportunity to comfort people; whether their distress is physical, emotional, mental or spiritual. As nurses, we share humanity’s most intimate moments. It may be in the form of assisting young parents to care with a child with special health needs, or participating in a bedside vigil with the family of a dying patient.

If you want to become a nurse practitioner you are going to have to work long hours for your degree and for your career. While the cost may seem overwhelming, there is a lot of financial aid available for students who are interested in nursing. Pursuing a career is never easy, especially with a career such as nursing. That is why you need to be aware of ahead of time of the challenges and perks that lie ahead. Learn more about how to become a nurse practitioner.

Nurse Practitioner

In order to become a nurse practitioner you must first obtain a Bachelor’s degree. Students on a path to becoming a nurse practitioner will need to earn a bachelor’s degree to qualify for necessary graduate study. Completion of a bachelor’s degree program prepares students to meet state requirements for licensure as a registered nurse (RN). Common areas studied in undergraduate nursing programs include pharmacology, anatomy and physiology, pediatric nursing and community health. In the clinical experience part of the program, students will have the opportunity to practice skills learned in the classroom under the guidance of their instructor.

You must then become a registered nurse. Every state requires a practicing nurse to first pass the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). Additional licensing and registration requirements, which typically include background checks and fingerprinting may be required at the state level. Before candidates can pursue a graduate degree or advanced nursing licensure, an RN license is required.

Registered nurses with a bachelor’s degree who are interested in becoming nurse practitioners can qualify for the position by earning a master’s or doctoral degree in nursing. Many nurse practitioners specialize in a specific area of medicine, such as pediatrics or family medicine during their graduate study. These programs typically take 2 to 3 years to complete and require students to take courses, seminars and lectures in addition to completing a clinical residency. Common courses may include healthcare management, pathophysiology and advanced pharmacology.

Most states require additional licensure to work as an advanced practice nurse. Advanced practice nurses operate in one of four roles: nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, nurse midwife or clinical nurse specialist. Licensing is regulated by individual states, and requirements vary. However, all NPs must first be licensed RNs with a master’s degree in one of the four advanced practice specialties. Some states mandate extra exams and professional experience. Many states require continuing education classes or maintenance of a national certification to renew a license.

Conclusion

Becoming a nurse practitioner will not be easy and you have many steps to take to get there. Take your time so you do not stumble along the way.