StaywellMA

For Valentine's day I completed the Black Girls Run virtual 2 mile race on the treadmill at my local YMCA.I wasnt looking forward to this challenge because I hate running indoors. Its mentally decapitating for me. I am an avid outdoor runner. So, to endure the task, I decided to set the treadmill on a sprint interval training mode. This is better than running at zero percent incline because it doesn't accurately reflect outdoor terrain for completing races. Since my body requires 1 mile of running to "warm" up, the first 30 mins where just running at a 2% incline. After warm up, my 45 minutes workout consisted of 2 minutes speed work at a speed of 5mph at 5% incline followed by a 2 mins slow pace at 3.5 mph with 3 % incline. Interval incline training not only takes the boredom out of running indoors but can greatly improve your speed. The next time you run a treadmill, resist the urge to leave it at a zero incline and challenge yourself to a higher level.  H...

The past couple of months, my health equilibrium has been very unbalanced. I wasn't presenting with any symptoms BUT as someone who is very in tune with her body, I knew something wasn't right. A doctor's visit confirmed that I had somehow managed to gain 30 pounds. #UNACCEPTABLE My initial thought was pregnancy but that didn't seem to be the case as the results came back negative. I decided to follow up the screening with a blood test. Most health insurance cover standard blood tests in the same manner health screening for preventive  medicine are covered. For the blood tests, I did everything that my insurance will allow without any additional payments on my part. You can also speak with your health care provider to see  if they can frame a test as a "preventive medicine" so that you don't get billed for it. I did so for my thyroid blood test which was not medically necessary but I requested it for my own personal knowledge. Here are the blood ( ...