I have this idea that I want to inspire other epileptics to greatness and conquering the illness. However, I'm quite the introvert and quite a private person. I'm determined to become more outgoing and productive both in my business and in my personal life. But there is a fear of judgment. I'm a little timid about sharing my story with thousands of people. I created a video to introduce this blog, but I noticed a hole in my shirt and think I'll redo the video in a nicer shirt tomorrow.
The other problem with documenting my experience is that it takes time and dedication. Blogging daily is not an easy thing to do. You have to come up with something interesting to share. Let's face it, for anyone who has tried losing weight, there are many bland, boring points before you see results. I'm trying to get healthy and I can forsee the results taking six months or more. Heck, I've been trying to identify my seizure triggers for the past few years. I've held off on blogging because the things that I tried weren't the cure to my seizures. I didn't want to be recommending something to someone when it didn't necessarily work for me. GAPS diet, Modified Atkins diet, Raw foods diets, acupuncture and chiropractic all made me healthier, but none cured my epilepsy. Sometimes I would have a treatment and have a seizure that day. That made it easy to realize it wasn't the answer.
I'm optimistic and hoping that sharing my story will increase my dedication and improve my results. I've stumbled upon a website that attributes the cause of seizures to hyperventilation. This makes so much sense to me because the doctors would always have me hyperventilate during EEGs to lower my seizure threshold. Of course, they didn't show me the EEG results and tell me that the hyperventilation increased my seizure chances. They told me that the EEGs were normal for someone with epilepsy. Very vague explanation if you ask me. I'm optimistic that eliminating my hyperventilation will eliminate my seizures.
Finally, I'm also sharing my experiences with the outside implications of seizures. This means everything that goes along with them. I've been discriminated against. I've lost jobs. I haven't been able to find work. I've struggled with health insurance and doctors. There are many other things that people with a seizure disorder must deal with that other people simply don't understand. Some of those things, I'd like to forget, but some of them shaped me into who I am. There are other people with epilepsy out there who would probably appreciate knowing that someone else has gone through similar experiences. I do realize that I am opening myself up to criticism and a lot of unsolicited advice, for better or worse.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Telling My Story
As difficult as it is, I have decided to embrace the idea of sharing my story online in order to help my business succeed. Rob Deigh, of Rob Deigh Communications, a public relations company explained that getting into the media helps your company. Right now, my tiny little billing company could use help. I barely have one customer and it isn't enough to get me financially stable. I also have a sales rep who is struggling to make her first sale. It is tricky to ask doctors to change their ways and outsource their billing. I'm impressed by how many appointments my sales rep is actually getting.
This week, I did work on my business. I scheduled a meeting with a financial planner. Financial planners deal with finances and some of them may even have doctors as clients. A referral from a financial planner goes a long way towards closing business. We are meeting next week. Another financial planner/networking guru contacted me and told me that he was going to connect me to some of his doctor friends. That would be fantastic. I'm going to his mind connections networking group on Monday night. I also learned that Bonnie is sending out the cards to doctors and not the postcards. She finds more success doing that, so I changed my send out cards plan to send out three cards a week likes she is doing.
I am toying with the idea of starting my own networking group in Oakton at a time more convenient to my schedule. A lot of these networking groups are located too far for someone who travels by bus. I'm on the outskirts of the suburbs where buses run, but not frequently. It is frustrating to just miss a bus and wait 30 minutes for the next one. My networking group would have to be unique. I'm thinking about incorporating some physical activity and cutting out some of this overeating. As much as I love eating out, I'm getting tired of doing so much of it just to network with other people.
This week, I did work on my business. I scheduled a meeting with a financial planner. Financial planners deal with finances and some of them may even have doctors as clients. A referral from a financial planner goes a long way towards closing business. We are meeting next week. Another financial planner/networking guru contacted me and told me that he was going to connect me to some of his doctor friends. That would be fantastic. I'm going to his mind connections networking group on Monday night. I also learned that Bonnie is sending out the cards to doctors and not the postcards. She finds more success doing that, so I changed my send out cards plan to send out three cards a week likes she is doing.
I am toying with the idea of starting my own networking group in Oakton at a time more convenient to my schedule. A lot of these networking groups are located too far for someone who travels by bus. I'm on the outskirts of the suburbs where buses run, but not frequently. It is frustrating to just miss a bus and wait 30 minutes for the next one. My networking group would have to be unique. I'm thinking about incorporating some physical activity and cutting out some of this overeating. As much as I love eating out, I'm getting tired of doing so much of it just to network with other people.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
My Routines Thus Far
I'm sure everyone is wondering, well how are you doing coming off those seizure medications? Well, I stopped taking the keppra on Tuesday morning. I forgot my pill, but then I realized that I just need to implement the things on http://normalbreathing.com. While I am excited to do this, it is quite scary. I have been doing the breathing exercises for almost three months. I slowly lowered my seizure medication and while I did have a couple seizures, the intensity went down. I recovered after five minutes. The time also went down. The most recent ones were less than twenty seconds. My average seizure usually lasted one minue.
The amazing thing about allowing myself to come off medication is that I now have auras! I start to feel a little funny prior to the seizure. This is a nice warning to go lie down in a safe place. It also gave me an idea of my seizure pattern. I wasn't having daily seizures when I started having them. Increasing the dosage of medication every time that I had a seizure meant that I was very drugged up even on days that I wasn't likely to have a seizure. My doctor was really just guessing at the cause. I have noticed that sometimes I will feel an aura and slow my breathing down. The aura feeling will quickly go away as I slow down the breathing. I have noticed this twice.
I've decided to up my workouts to meet the amount of time needed to oxygenate my blood to match what a 40 second morning CP. That is two hours a day! A morning control pause is how long you can pause your breathing without any stress. I find it very difficult to measure this. I think that perhaps I am measuring it wrong. The Buteyko breathing exercises are something that I try to do, but since I feel like I'm doing them wrong, I ended up buying a BreathSlim breathing exercise device. I also purchased a convenient UltraBreathe device to carry with me in my purse and do whenever I have time. So far, I have worked up to an hour of breathing exercises with the device. It is very comfortable and I do them while watching television. I chose to do them first thing in the morning, since that is when seizures are most likely to occur due to heavy night breathing.
While it is my goal to get a 40 second morning CP, I may be about at 20 seconds at best. I have only been able to increase my workout hours to an hour and a half. I try to walk the dog for about half an hour and do a morning cardio workout at 6am with Gilad on Discovery Fit and Health. I used to be a huge Pilates fan, but I'm trying to maximize oxygenation and have switched to aerobics for that. It is ok. I can feel my lungs getting more powerful.
The amazing thing about allowing myself to come off medication is that I now have auras! I start to feel a little funny prior to the seizure. This is a nice warning to go lie down in a safe place. It also gave me an idea of my seizure pattern. I wasn't having daily seizures when I started having them. Increasing the dosage of medication every time that I had a seizure meant that I was very drugged up even on days that I wasn't likely to have a seizure. My doctor was really just guessing at the cause. I have noticed that sometimes I will feel an aura and slow my breathing down. The aura feeling will quickly go away as I slow down the breathing. I have noticed this twice.
I've decided to up my workouts to meet the amount of time needed to oxygenate my blood to match what a 40 second morning CP. That is two hours a day! A morning control pause is how long you can pause your breathing without any stress. I find it very difficult to measure this. I think that perhaps I am measuring it wrong. The Buteyko breathing exercises are something that I try to do, but since I feel like I'm doing them wrong, I ended up buying a BreathSlim breathing exercise device. I also purchased a convenient UltraBreathe device to carry with me in my purse and do whenever I have time. So far, I have worked up to an hour of breathing exercises with the device. It is very comfortable and I do them while watching television. I chose to do them first thing in the morning, since that is when seizures are most likely to occur due to heavy night breathing.
While it is my goal to get a 40 second morning CP, I may be about at 20 seconds at best. I have only been able to increase my workout hours to an hour and a half. I try to walk the dog for about half an hour and do a morning cardio workout at 6am with Gilad on Discovery Fit and Health. I used to be a huge Pilates fan, but I'm trying to maximize oxygenation and have switched to aerobics for that. It is ok. I can feel my lungs getting more powerful.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Set Back
I went on a date last Friday night and got in a little late. I ate some weird terrible Thai food and didn't sleep well. Unfortunately, in the morning, I had a seizure. I'm pretty sad about it. It means that my driver's license won't be coming for another six months.
The good news is that I can now identify auras. With the low dose of medication, I actually have them and can get to a safe spot during the seizure. This helps tremendously. While I did bite my tongue, I didn't injure myself. I recovered really quickly too.
Having the seizure reinforced in me the determination to get my medical billing business going so that I can work from home. Ideally, I'm looking for small doctor's practices that haven't switched to an EMR, or ones that currently aren't happy with their electronic health records. I will switch them over to the Health Fusion's MediTouch system and save them money when they outsource their billing. This will enable me to earn a living from my home and not worry about having seizures on the job.
I am determined to beat epilepsy though. I still think that the breathing exercises are working. My seizures have been cut back from 1 minute seizures down to 15-20 seconds. That is a pretty big deal. I'm still doing the Breath Slim breathing exercises, but I've added in some aerobics too. I'm working up to two hours of physical activity per day. My birthday is in two weeks. I'm hoping to have increased my control pause to 40 seconds by my birthday. Right now, I'm hovering around 20 seconds. On the website, normalbreathing.com, they indicate that your seizures will go away at 40 seconds. The breathing exercises only get you so far. You need the aerobic exercises.
I'm also hoping that this will eliminate the inflammation in my body and my hair will grow back!
The good news is that I can now identify auras. With the low dose of medication, I actually have them and can get to a safe spot during the seizure. This helps tremendously. While I did bite my tongue, I didn't injure myself. I recovered really quickly too.
Having the seizure reinforced in me the determination to get my medical billing business going so that I can work from home. Ideally, I'm looking for small doctor's practices that haven't switched to an EMR, or ones that currently aren't happy with their electronic health records. I will switch them over to the Health Fusion's MediTouch system and save them money when they outsource their billing. This will enable me to earn a living from my home and not worry about having seizures on the job.
I am determined to beat epilepsy though. I still think that the breathing exercises are working. My seizures have been cut back from 1 minute seizures down to 15-20 seconds. That is a pretty big deal. I'm still doing the Breath Slim breathing exercises, but I've added in some aerobics too. I'm working up to two hours of physical activity per day. My birthday is in two weeks. I'm hoping to have increased my control pause to 40 seconds by my birthday. Right now, I'm hovering around 20 seconds. On the website, normalbreathing.com, they indicate that your seizures will go away at 40 seconds. The breathing exercises only get you so far. You need the aerobic exercises.
I'm also hoping that this will eliminate the inflammation in my body and my hair will grow back!
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Keep On Trucking
Alright, blogging every single day is difficult. It definitely helps you stay on track. Yesterday was Saturday and I was excited to hang out with my friend, Leah. We just caught up at Cafe Rio. Then we went shopping at Ross. I'm never thrilled by what I see at Ross. It isn't laid out very well, which is why the prices are lower, I guess.
I did exercise yesterday and today. Saturday, I did deep lunges, walked the dog and did Pilates. Today, I walked the dog and practiced some of the pole dancing "chair play" routine. Man, my legs are on fire now. I feel great about getting back into shape. I'm not going to weigh myself. I know my pants are still tight and I haven't gotten back to strictly eating healthy, whole foods. Hey, an eight month GAPS diet was hard. I'm just taking a break!
My hair isn't coming back yet. My nails seem to be getting a little stronger. I'm going to keep the BreathSlim exercises up twice a day. It feels better to breath with the diaphragm and I do think that it is helping my epilepsy.
How's the business? Yikes! I still hate networking, but I've requested more people on LinkedIn and even asked some medical professionals to meet with them. I'm posting a sales rep advertisement on Craigslist today. The webinars don't seem to be attracting people at the time that I am able to do them. I also don't think that I'm advertising them very well. I'd love to keep trying, but it is expensive to keep paying for the GoToWebinar service when only one or two people show up.
Unfortunately, my friend in Utah is thinking about keeping his business cash based. He may not become a client. That's ok, I guess. I need to keep talking to doctors in this area. Keep on networking. I'll eventually get there!
I did exercise yesterday and today. Saturday, I did deep lunges, walked the dog and did Pilates. Today, I walked the dog and practiced some of the pole dancing "chair play" routine. Man, my legs are on fire now. I feel great about getting back into shape. I'm not going to weigh myself. I know my pants are still tight and I haven't gotten back to strictly eating healthy, whole foods. Hey, an eight month GAPS diet was hard. I'm just taking a break!
My hair isn't coming back yet. My nails seem to be getting a little stronger. I'm going to keep the BreathSlim exercises up twice a day. It feels better to breath with the diaphragm and I do think that it is helping my epilepsy.
How's the business? Yikes! I still hate networking, but I've requested more people on LinkedIn and even asked some medical professionals to meet with them. I'm posting a sales rep advertisement on Craigslist today. The webinars don't seem to be attracting people at the time that I am able to do them. I also don't think that I'm advertising them very well. I'd love to keep trying, but it is expensive to keep paying for the GoToWebinar service when only one or two people show up.
Unfortunately, my friend in Utah is thinking about keeping his business cash based. He may not become a client. That's ok, I guess. I need to keep talking to doctors in this area. Keep on networking. I'll eventually get there!
Friday, January 11, 2013
More Progress towards being Terrific
Today is Friday. I usually I substitute teach on Friday. That is exactly what I did today. I also decided to try a sales rep for my business again. I'll put an ad on Craigslist tomorrow. See how that goes.
My health was addressed today as well. I walked the dog a mile. I did my Breath Slim exercises today twice. I also did a few Pilates exercises and some deep lunges and overhead lifts while I watched television. Always best to fit in exercises while you are wasting time watching tv.
The weight loss is not coming along so well. I'm still hovering at 146. However, after eating so strictly for eight months, I'm cheating and enjoying breads and fruits. Love it! I can do any diet strictly for a few months, but in the end, I break down and cheat. When I realized that my seizures weren't influenced by a strict whole foods diet or a raw foods diet or the modified Atkins diet, I eased up on my food choices. This may not be the case for everyone, but for me it was. Food was not my trigger.
I made an appointment with my neurologist! It isn't until March 27. I had to wait on the phone for what seemed like forever to get the appointment, but I have one. I plan on asking for an EEG to see what improvement has been made to my brain waves over four months of breathing exercises. Should be interesting!!
I need to focus on planning and networking. Tomorrow, my goal is to make three LinkedIn connections. I will also plan out my week and send out 5-10 introduction requests. Last time my introduction requests resulted in two people telling me they would introduce me. Neither did. I will follow up with those people tomorrow.
My health was addressed today as well. I walked the dog a mile. I did my Breath Slim exercises today twice. I also did a few Pilates exercises and some deep lunges and overhead lifts while I watched television. Always best to fit in exercises while you are wasting time watching tv.
The weight loss is not coming along so well. I'm still hovering at 146. However, after eating so strictly for eight months, I'm cheating and enjoying breads and fruits. Love it! I can do any diet strictly for a few months, but in the end, I break down and cheat. When I realized that my seizures weren't influenced by a strict whole foods diet or a raw foods diet or the modified Atkins diet, I eased up on my food choices. This may not be the case for everyone, but for me it was. Food was not my trigger.
I made an appointment with my neurologist! It isn't until March 27. I had to wait on the phone for what seemed like forever to get the appointment, but I have one. I plan on asking for an EEG to see what improvement has been made to my brain waves over four months of breathing exercises. Should be interesting!!
I need to focus on planning and networking. Tomorrow, my goal is to make three LinkedIn connections. I will also plan out my week and send out 5-10 introduction requests. Last time my introduction requests resulted in two people telling me they would introduce me. Neither did. I will follow up with those people tomorrow.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Ack! Procrastination and Fear Strike Again
Ok. I went to my networking group, but a wave of fear hit me before breakfast. It wasn't an aura exactly. It was uneasiness. I sipped my tea and breathed slowly. After the meeting, I had a hard time focusing on networking. I'm not entirely certain why.
I basically procrastinated the rest of the day. I did make a phone call to a potential client, but they aren't even accepting insurance in their practice yet. Time to move on to the next practice. I'm not terribly discouraged. If they want to stay a cash-based practice, then they really don't need my services.
I networked today with my old gym teacher. I honestly don't think that he was my PE teacher, but he likes to claim I was his student. It was a big gym with lots of kids. I'm not sure that Kevin Ward will get any business out of him or if he'll even talk to Kevin.
I need to plan better. It gets difficult when I get scared about seizures. Seems like things tend to fall apart. But I'm not having them, so that is good.
I basically procrastinated the rest of the day. I did make a phone call to a potential client, but they aren't even accepting insurance in their practice yet. Time to move on to the next practice. I'm not terribly discouraged. If they want to stay a cash-based practice, then they really don't need my services.
I networked today with my old gym teacher. I honestly don't think that he was my PE teacher, but he likes to claim I was his student. It was a big gym with lots of kids. I'm not sure that Kevin Ward will get any business out of him or if he'll even talk to Kevin.
I need to plan better. It gets difficult when I get scared about seizures. Seems like things tend to fall apart. But I'm not having them, so that is good.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Ups and Downs
Today, I started out the day making phone calls to chiropractor offices in the area. I get really discouraged when I do that. However, I found out quite a bit. I discovered that most offices already have electronic health records or are not planning on changing. Actually, I think that the national average is about 50%, so I still have a good chance of selling one.
After my discouraging phone calls, I took the dog on a mile long walk. I did some running and tried to keep my breathing under control. I don't know why, but it seems like I'm not making progress towards increasing my control pause or whatever. I can only run about 25 steps without taking a breath. Optimal health for the steps exercise is 80 or 100. I'm so far from that, but I'll keep trying. The other thing that I did today to work on my health was Pilates From the Inside Out. Yep! I found my favorite Pilates instructor on television and did a workout with her!
Networking really is the way to grow my business. I'm working on networking. I had my assistant send out an update today. I got two responses! I'm so excited about that. I also had two people from my networking group email me and tell me that they would introduce me to a chiropractor. That's so much better than making cold calls. I feel relieved when my networking people touch base with me.
The webinar was a down for me today. Only one person signed up and they didn't attend. I stopped it short. I may try the webinar thing one or two more times, but it is not turning out to be effective right now.
After my discouraging phone calls, I took the dog on a mile long walk. I did some running and tried to keep my breathing under control. I don't know why, but it seems like I'm not making progress towards increasing my control pause or whatever. I can only run about 25 steps without taking a breath. Optimal health for the steps exercise is 80 or 100. I'm so far from that, but I'll keep trying. The other thing that I did today to work on my health was Pilates From the Inside Out. Yep! I found my favorite Pilates instructor on television and did a workout with her!
Networking really is the way to grow my business. I'm working on networking. I had my assistant send out an update today. I got two responses! I'm so excited about that. I also had two people from my networking group email me and tell me that they would introduce me to a chiropractor. That's so much better than making cold calls. I feel relieved when my networking people touch base with me.
The webinar was a down for me today. Only one person signed up and they didn't attend. I stopped it short. I may try the webinar thing one or two more times, but it is not turning out to be effective right now.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
I didn't forget to blog!
Blogging daily can be difficult. Forming the habit is hard because some days you don't feel like you have as much to say. Today is one of those days. I did work on my goals, but in the evening I got sleepy. I watched some television and almost feel asleep without writing anything.
Today was my business coaching day. It is not that convenient to do. I do think that business coaching has been helpful. However, it is in the middle of my Tuesday, so it isn't that convenient. I feel like I have so much advice already that it is difficult to focus on getting more, but I have a few more weeks of coaching.
I requested introductions for chiropractors today. Brandon Gulley emailed me back and told me that he would make an introduction on Thursday. That is an awesome feeling. Additionally, I have two visitors for BNI next week. It feels great to be contributing to the networking group! Givers gain!
I walked 2 miles with the dog for my health today. It feels good to get out and get my legs active again. I did my breathing exercises in the morning. I am going to do them again after I'm done writing this blog. Consistency is the key to making health improvements and I decided the minimum I would do the exercises is 15 minutes two times a day.
How am I doing? Well, I didn't have any episodes where I felt like I was going to have a seizure. I did have a few moments where I lost my train of thought and got a little worried about my seizure condition. I don't know why that happens, but physically it didn't feel like anything bad was going to happen. No hair growth on the radar yet. I'm weighing myself at the end of the week for my own sanity. Frequent weigh-ins have too much fluctuation.
Today was my business coaching day. It is not that convenient to do. I do think that business coaching has been helpful. However, it is in the middle of my Tuesday, so it isn't that convenient. I feel like I have so much advice already that it is difficult to focus on getting more, but I have a few more weeks of coaching.
I requested introductions for chiropractors today. Brandon Gulley emailed me back and told me that he would make an introduction on Thursday. That is an awesome feeling. Additionally, I have two visitors for BNI next week. It feels great to be contributing to the networking group! Givers gain!
I walked 2 miles with the dog for my health today. It feels good to get out and get my legs active again. I did my breathing exercises in the morning. I am going to do them again after I'm done writing this blog. Consistency is the key to making health improvements and I decided the minimum I would do the exercises is 15 minutes two times a day.
How am I doing? Well, I didn't have any episodes where I felt like I was going to have a seizure. I did have a few moments where I lost my train of thought and got a little worried about my seizure condition. I don't know why that happens, but physically it didn't feel like anything bad was going to happen. No hair growth on the radar yet. I'm weighing myself at the end of the week for my own sanity. Frequent weigh-ins have too much fluctuation.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Eat the Elephant...One Bite At A Time
Ok, so in my quest to become terrific, I realize that I'm kind of mundane. Some tasks I repeat over and over. Networking is one of them. It gets less exciting the more that you do it. Another one is LinkedIn. Webinars where almost no one attends, that is kind of crazy to do, but who knows what will come of it.
I am getting better. The more that I force myself to blog, the more that I actually stick to the goals that I set. I'm going to start sharing this blog soon, so other people will hold me accountable.
Today, the only real thing that I did to work on my business was call my old chiropractor, remind his assistant that they need to switch to electronic health records and shoot him an email. I also substituted at LMS so I can pay my virtual assistant. She seems much better at finding interesting, motivational posts than I am. Plus, I have issues with posting things on my wall or other people's wall.
Healthwise, I exercised in the morning with Pilates. I don't know how much I walked today, but I subbed for a PE teacher and at the end of the day, my feet hurt. I did try occasionally doing a few of the breath holding exercises. I get a little discouraged that I can't hold it that long. I know that recording your scores will help you keep better track and improve faster, but I feel like I measure inaccurately. I'm never sure if I'm holding it too long or not long enough.
I did not lose weight. I also did not have any seizure auras. I'm taking the minimal amount of keppra. I still have some pills left. It might be better to get my breathing normal before I completely discontinue the keppra. My hair still isn't growing. That's sad, but I heard that it takes a month to get to the surface of the skin, so I really wasn't expecting growth until February. Hopefully, I'll have some for my birthday!
I am getting better. The more that I force myself to blog, the more that I actually stick to the goals that I set. I'm going to start sharing this blog soon, so other people will hold me accountable.
Today, the only real thing that I did to work on my business was call my old chiropractor, remind his assistant that they need to switch to electronic health records and shoot him an email. I also substituted at LMS so I can pay my virtual assistant. She seems much better at finding interesting, motivational posts than I am. Plus, I have issues with posting things on my wall or other people's wall.
Healthwise, I exercised in the morning with Pilates. I don't know how much I walked today, but I subbed for a PE teacher and at the end of the day, my feet hurt. I did try occasionally doing a few of the breath holding exercises. I get a little discouraged that I can't hold it that long. I know that recording your scores will help you keep better track and improve faster, but I feel like I measure inaccurately. I'm never sure if I'm holding it too long or not long enough.
I did not lose weight. I also did not have any seizure auras. I'm taking the minimal amount of keppra. I still have some pills left. It might be better to get my breathing normal before I completely discontinue the keppra. My hair still isn't growing. That's sad, but I heard that it takes a month to get to the surface of the skin, so I really wasn't expecting growth until February. Hopefully, I'll have some for my birthday!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
More Progress, But Some Derailment
Today was a day of more progress. I had hoped to complete more work on my business, but my laptop has a virus or something that makes it shut down unexpectedly. I'm going to take it for a check up. I have a guy at Staples who will look at it. I am planning on doing that tomorrow though. My folks are pretty religious and don't do business on Sundays. I rely on them for rides because of my seizure disorder.
I did accomplish a few things. I connected someone from BNI with someone in my network! I started using some advanced features on LinkedIn. I completed the powerpoint for my webinar on Wednesday. This webinar has one person signed up for it. I'm going to keep trying the webinars while I can't drive. It may take me some time to get comfortable with them, but at least I'll feel like I'm reaching out to people and establishing credibility.
How's the health? I didn't lose weight. In fact, I gained a pound. I've heard that your weight fluctuates throughout the day and to really see progress, you should weigh yourself once a week. I also may already be at my ideal weight for their amount of physical activity that I'm doing. I also stopped the low carb thing. I did that for six months and went back to eating a wider variety of foods. I missed fruits a lot. I still had seizures on the modified atkins diet, so I reassessed what I was doing. I'm optimistic about the Buteyko breathing exercises, but I can't promote them to other people unless I see results and the verdict is still out on that. I have lots more energy. Since I have increased my food consumption, it is great that my weight has gone down 3 pounds over the last six weeks, but I still notice that it creeps up a little, which could simply be a result of the increased carbs and holiday junk.
I haven't had any seizure activity today! Yesterday, I had what seemed like an aura and I did the BreathSlim exercise for five minutes and it seemed like it went away. It scared me, but the breathing exercises seemed to help quickly, so maybe my epilepsy is related to decreased oxygen in the brain and blood. I'm hoping that increasing the oxygen in my body corrects my health issues. The diets were a lot of work for not many results, and in some cases no results.
I did accomplish a few things. I connected someone from BNI with someone in my network! I started using some advanced features on LinkedIn. I completed the powerpoint for my webinar on Wednesday. This webinar has one person signed up for it. I'm going to keep trying the webinars while I can't drive. It may take me some time to get comfortable with them, but at least I'll feel like I'm reaching out to people and establishing credibility.
How's the health? I didn't lose weight. In fact, I gained a pound. I've heard that your weight fluctuates throughout the day and to really see progress, you should weigh yourself once a week. I also may already be at my ideal weight for their amount of physical activity that I'm doing. I also stopped the low carb thing. I did that for six months and went back to eating a wider variety of foods. I missed fruits a lot. I still had seizures on the modified atkins diet, so I reassessed what I was doing. I'm optimistic about the Buteyko breathing exercises, but I can't promote them to other people unless I see results and the verdict is still out on that. I have lots more energy. Since I have increased my food consumption, it is great that my weight has gone down 3 pounds over the last six weeks, but I still notice that it creeps up a little, which could simply be a result of the increased carbs and holiday junk.
I haven't had any seizure activity today! Yesterday, I had what seemed like an aura and I did the BreathSlim exercise for five minutes and it seemed like it went away. It scared me, but the breathing exercises seemed to help quickly, so maybe my epilepsy is related to decreased oxygen in the brain and blood. I'm hoping that increasing the oxygen in my body corrects my health issues. The diets were a lot of work for not many results, and in some cases no results.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Working on it!
Today, I made some progress with networking. I attended a LinkedIn class today taught by a BNI friend. He's actually a really smart sales person who taught us how to find our target audience on LinkedIn, find out who knows them, ask for introductions, reduce the distance to our geographical area and ask groups to form subgroups. It was amazing! I'm so glad I went. Much of the information I already knew from the LinkedInfluence, but some of it was new to me.
How's my weight loss? Not so great. This morning, I weighed in at half a pound heavier. Weird. I did do my pilates exercises, some deep lunges and took the dog on a mile long walk. Unfortunately, I discovered that my "Step" exercise score was only about 25. That is low. You should be able to walk 100 steps between breaths. At least I'm working toward my goal despite not feeling up to par. I still have a sore throat and a little congestion. Hopefully that will be gone soon.
What's on the agenda for tomorrow? Create the Cash Crunch to Cash Flow Webinar. I'll put together a powerpoint based off information that I learned in my course and from the book.
Make some LinkedIn connections.
Spend an hour planning out my week.
Listen to my motivational tapes. We tend to repeat the behavior patterns that are most strongly programmed in our mind. I'm programming my mind to be successful!
How's my weight loss? Not so great. This morning, I weighed in at half a pound heavier. Weird. I did do my pilates exercises, some deep lunges and took the dog on a mile long walk. Unfortunately, I discovered that my "Step" exercise score was only about 25. That is low. You should be able to walk 100 steps between breaths. At least I'm working toward my goal despite not feeling up to par. I still have a sore throat and a little congestion. Hopefully that will be gone soon.
What's on the agenda for tomorrow? Create the Cash Crunch to Cash Flow Webinar. I'll put together a powerpoint based off information that I learned in my course and from the book.
Make some LinkedIn connections.
Spend an hour planning out my week.
Listen to my motivational tapes. We tend to repeat the behavior patterns that are most strongly programmed in our mind. I'm programming my mind to be successful!
Friday, January 4, 2013
Daily Progress
Ok, I'll admit some days have more progress than others. Today, I was recovering from being sick. I had planned on going to Lanier Middle School for half the day and substituting. It was ok.
For my business, I sent a few emails and connected with a couple people on LinkedIn. I also had some links to my webinar posted on facebook and LinkedIn. I think the title of my next webinar may be kind of weak, but it is a learning process.
Tomorrow is my LinkedIn training with Brandon Gulley. I've had LinkedInfluence online workshop and that was good. I think an in person thing will be a little better because I can ask questions. He will be talking about how to connect with people on LinkedIn. Should be good.
In terms of my weight loss, I'm hanging out at 145.7 today. So, that is a pretty average weight for me. I really just want to lose five pounds so my pants fit better. I'm already pretty thin. I was just a little more in shape when I purchased most of the clothes I own. I didn't walk the dog today. I'm waiting for my cold to clear to do that. I did do the pilates workout and some lunges. I used my BreatheSlim device for fifteen minutes this morning and I plan on using it again for another fifteen minutes. I'm super excited about how much extra energy I have from using the breath training device.
I'm also going to listen to my Think Right program. That helps me stay on track and avoid procrastination. I'm using their sales program, goal setting program and prevent procrastination program. When I consistently listen, my habits do change. Consistency is the key though. It is easy to get off track.
For my business, I sent a few emails and connected with a couple people on LinkedIn. I also had some links to my webinar posted on facebook and LinkedIn. I think the title of my next webinar may be kind of weak, but it is a learning process.
Tomorrow is my LinkedIn training with Brandon Gulley. I've had LinkedInfluence online workshop and that was good. I think an in person thing will be a little better because I can ask questions. He will be talking about how to connect with people on LinkedIn. Should be good.
In terms of my weight loss, I'm hanging out at 145.7 today. So, that is a pretty average weight for me. I really just want to lose five pounds so my pants fit better. I'm already pretty thin. I was just a little more in shape when I purchased most of the clothes I own. I didn't walk the dog today. I'm waiting for my cold to clear to do that. I did do the pilates workout and some lunges. I used my BreatheSlim device for fifteen minutes this morning and I plan on using it again for another fifteen minutes. I'm super excited about how much extra energy I have from using the breath training device.
I'm also going to listen to my Think Right program. That helps me stay on track and avoid procrastination. I'm using their sales program, goal setting program and prevent procrastination program. When I consistently listen, my habits do change. Consistency is the key though. It is easy to get off track.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Making Progress on 2013 Goals!
So, one goal that I had was to blog everyday so that I could see progress, share insight and have forward motion with my business and my health ventures. Today, I am blogging. Hopefully, I will get in the habit and eventually start posting more interesting things that people will actually want to read.
Right now, I must be honest, I'm not thrilled with the URL. I didn't necessarily want to use my name to brand myself. I also wanted to make the blog slightly general. I didn't want to only focus on one health aspect since I have a few and I didn't want it to be an entirely medical billing blog. I added a blog to my medical billing site. I should start to figure out what is going there. But first things first, get in the habit of writing blog posts and think of things that can go in them.
The progress that I made today towards gaining clients was great. I went to two networking events. One of them had the exact people that I needed to meet. At BNI, the person who gave me the referral told me he would talk to his doctor again so I can get in to see his billing person. That's great! It means that the networking is actually working! It's tough to be patient though.
I'm also making some progress on the health front. I weighed myself this morning and I'm down to 145.7! I had gotten up to as much as 150, so my jeans should start fitting much better now. I think I was down at 140 when I bought them, so I still have a few pounds to lose. How did I do it? Well, I'd love to say that it was diet and exercise or the cool breathing device that I got. But over the weekend, I got sick and lost my appetite, so that probably knocked off a pound or two. The rest has been the diet and exercise.
I always like to be certain before I promote something, so before I create any kind of program or course on easy weight loss, I'm going to make sure that it is simple and easy to stick to. I actually increased my carbohydrate count immensely the last few weeks because it has been the winter holidays. Up until the first week in December, I had been on 20 carbs a day doing the modified Atkins diet for seizures. It didn't work in preventing the seizures and I also gained weight because I didn't exercise as much. I'm not going to tell people that they need to do Atkins because it didn't really work for me. I gained pounds!
For tomorrow, I'm going to probably be substitute teaching to earn some spending money. Starting a business, the income doesn't just pour in and sometimes you need part time positions. I actually like substituting for the middle school kids. They are nice. Maybe I'll even let them read this blog.
Right now, I must be honest, I'm not thrilled with the URL. I didn't necessarily want to use my name to brand myself. I also wanted to make the blog slightly general. I didn't want to only focus on one health aspect since I have a few and I didn't want it to be an entirely medical billing blog. I added a blog to my medical billing site. I should start to figure out what is going there. But first things first, get in the habit of writing blog posts and think of things that can go in them.
The progress that I made today towards gaining clients was great. I went to two networking events. One of them had the exact people that I needed to meet. At BNI, the person who gave me the referral told me he would talk to his doctor again so I can get in to see his billing person. That's great! It means that the networking is actually working! It's tough to be patient though.
I'm also making some progress on the health front. I weighed myself this morning and I'm down to 145.7! I had gotten up to as much as 150, so my jeans should start fitting much better now. I think I was down at 140 when I bought them, so I still have a few pounds to lose. How did I do it? Well, I'd love to say that it was diet and exercise or the cool breathing device that I got. But over the weekend, I got sick and lost my appetite, so that probably knocked off a pound or two. The rest has been the diet and exercise.
I always like to be certain before I promote something, so before I create any kind of program or course on easy weight loss, I'm going to make sure that it is simple and easy to stick to. I actually increased my carbohydrate count immensely the last few weeks because it has been the winter holidays. Up until the first week in December, I had been on 20 carbs a day doing the modified Atkins diet for seizures. It didn't work in preventing the seizures and I also gained weight because I didn't exercise as much. I'm not going to tell people that they need to do Atkins because it didn't really work for me. I gained pounds!
For tomorrow, I'm going to probably be substitute teaching to earn some spending money. Starting a business, the income doesn't just pour in and sometimes you need part time positions. I actually like substituting for the middle school kids. They are nice. Maybe I'll even let them read this blog.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
2013 Goals
Hi! My name is Melinda. I'm starting this year out with a blog. With this blog, I'm including some personal goals, some business goals, some business advice and some health tips that I've discovered over the years.
I'm a rather private person and sharing my life online has never been a forte of mine. While I do like writing, sometimes I feel like I'm bragging a little too much online. At other times, I wonder if people read my writing and often I will get tired and neglect it. Procrastination has been a pitfall of mine and that has often led me away from blogging when I started blogs before.
1. Gain three new physicians to bill for in 2013. I need to grow my business this year!
2. Overcome, not simply control my epilepsy. I'm almost medication free and for the most part, I'm not having seizures. This year, I will be seizure free and drug free by July 4, 2013!
3. Become independent and get my own place! I've been staying with the folks while getting my seizures under control.
4. Grow my own hair. Anyone with alopecia universalis knows that this is a huge challenge. Doctors won't ever tell you why you lost your hair in the first place and their solution is steroids that make you fat and pimply. I'm looking for a natural cure!
5. Buy a car. This goal will be for August 2013. I need to make sure I'm seizure free for six months first! Then I need to earn the money for a car.
6. Eliminate my procrastination in 2013.
7. Lose the last five pounds I put on when I was doing Atkins so my pants fit better. I'm actually going to figure out the weight loss plan that will work for me and share it here on this blog. I'm sure there are other people like me who are not yet exercise fanatics.
8. Help 45 doctors with their Accounts Receivable using the automated QuickCollect system.
9. Plan for success! I'm going to become more organized and plan for success every day.
Sharing this with the internet is a huge step forward. I know that there are people out there who can be supportive, but there are also wonderful networking connections that I can make. I'm sure that I will need a realtor when I look for a place, renter's insurance, an auto dealer. Some of these I already know from my BNI group. Some I may meet on LinkedIn.
I'm a rather private person and sharing my life online has never been a forte of mine. While I do like writing, sometimes I feel like I'm bragging a little too much online. At other times, I wonder if people read my writing and often I will get tired and neglect it. Procrastination has been a pitfall of mine and that has often led me away from blogging when I started blogs before.
1. Gain three new physicians to bill for in 2013. I need to grow my business this year!
2. Overcome, not simply control my epilepsy. I'm almost medication free and for the most part, I'm not having seizures. This year, I will be seizure free and drug free by July 4, 2013!
3. Become independent and get my own place! I've been staying with the folks while getting my seizures under control.
4. Grow my own hair. Anyone with alopecia universalis knows that this is a huge challenge. Doctors won't ever tell you why you lost your hair in the first place and their solution is steroids that make you fat and pimply. I'm looking for a natural cure!
5. Buy a car. This goal will be for August 2013. I need to make sure I'm seizure free for six months first! Then I need to earn the money for a car.
6. Eliminate my procrastination in 2013.
7. Lose the last five pounds I put on when I was doing Atkins so my pants fit better. I'm actually going to figure out the weight loss plan that will work for me and share it here on this blog. I'm sure there are other people like me who are not yet exercise fanatics.
8. Help 45 doctors with their Accounts Receivable using the automated QuickCollect system.
9. Plan for success! I'm going to become more organized and plan for success every day.
Sharing this with the internet is a huge step forward. I know that there are people out there who can be supportive, but there are also wonderful networking connections that I can make. I'm sure that I will need a realtor when I look for a place, renter's insurance, an auto dealer. Some of these I already know from my BNI group. Some I may meet on LinkedIn.
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