Category Archives: Health

Sep28

Monday Update: Farewell Fake Nails Edition

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Monday Update: Farewell Fake Nails Edition

Hellooo everyone and happy Monday! I hope all of you had a wonderful and relaxing weekend! So something kind of crazy happened this weekend that is so out of character for me that I have a hard time believing it myself…I took my acrylic nails off. Those of you who are familiar with my blog will know that I am (was) simply obsessed with my longer than life talon-esque fake nails, but something happened this weekend that just made me snap. Check out the story behind my breaking point and then we can mourn in my loss together:

On Saturday everything was running smoothly. I had a great few days with my boyfriend that I returned home from in the morning and my mom and I had a lovely shopping outing in the evening. But then…then a tragedy happened. As I was sitting on my bedroom floor scrolling through Facebook on my iPod something inside of me made me get up from my laziness to go downstairs and work on homework. I reached my hand back onto my bed to hoist myself up and then CRACK, the acrylic on my left hand middle finger broke clean in two.

“Well shit,” I thought to myself, “what am I going to do now”? It was too late for my salon to be open and it’s closed all day on Sundays (the following day). Then all kinds of thoughts began swarming in my head. Should I hold out until Monday and get it fixed? Should I bite the bullet and go to a different salon tomorrow? And then I began to inspect my natural nail that was visible from my unfortunate uh-oh. My nail was brittle, cracking, and dry as a bone. Honestly, I wasn’t surprised…I haven’t worn my nails natural since November of 2014 but I had no idea that they were that bad.

Upon further inspection of my nails, I decided that they desperately needed some TLC. After I made this realization I took a deep breath and began to gather the supplies needed to take my claws off at home – because after I thought about it, I refused to pay ten to fifteen dollars for something I could do from the comfort of my own bathroom. I grabbed a glass bowl big enough to fit both of my hands in, acetone nail polish remover, and nail clippers then I headed into the loo to take care of business.

I sat my sweet ass on the floor of the throne room and got to work by clipping my acrylics down to the nub. This was painful physically and emotionally. My clippers are obvs not salon quality so I had to apply hella pressure to get my nails declawed. With every snap crackle pop of the acrylic being cut off my heart sank deeper into my butt….But finally, the deed was done. I filled my bowl with the nail polish remover, pulled myself together, and descended downstairs to watch Arrested Development as my nails soaked off.

After my TV time, my nails were loose enough that I could pry them off and just like that, my acrylics were gone. I stared down at my bare hands and looked at them as if I were seeing them for the first time. “Jesus Christ…What did I just do?” I continued to gaze down at my nails with a critical eye and all I could see were stubby fingers and the most unhealthy nails ever and I seriously could have cried. After a “you’re a strong independent woman who don’t need no nails” pep talk, I did what had to be done…Apply enough lotion to fill up a bathtub onto my hands, put some socks on over them, and walk around my house performing sock puppet theater. #Ihatemyself

The next few days without my nails were weird, to say the least. Texting on my phone and typing on the computer without hearing my claws clacking away felt foreign and strange. Running my hands through my hair without feeling my talons grazing my scalp felt uncomfortable. Even scratching an itch with my bare nails felt unfamiliar. I was so lost…and then I got used to it.

I took my acrylics off for a reason, which was to get my natural nails healthy and damnit, that’s what I’m gonna do. It will definitely take some time to grow accustomed to life without my long fake nails, but that’s okay. It’s going to save me money to not have to get my nails filled every month and most importantly it’s going to get my real nails back to normal, which is something I’m taking very seriously. #gosarahgo

So there you have it, this week’s Monday Update: Farewell Fake Nails Edition! Have any of you lovelies had an experience similar to mine after taking off their acrylics or another beauty staple you use? What are some tips that you have for healthy natural nails? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Sep17

Wednesday Fun!

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Wednesday Fun!

Howdy everyone and happy Thursday! I had such a fun filled busy day yesterday and I just had to tell you guys all about it! The day started out rocky but ended strong, so check out this track that will make sense to you by the end of the post and let’s discuss:

All of Tuesday, yesterday, and today I’ve had the unfortunate health issue of conjunctivitis in both of my eyes. It’s been a pain in the ass and it hurts like the dickens. On Tuesday night when I was with my boyfriend I finally decided to take my contacts out, which should have been done at the first signs of redness. I guess better late than never though, considering both of my eyes were blood red and I looked like the spawn of Satan once I realized it was time for the contacts to go. I was hesitant to take them out though because my plan was to drive from his home in Canton to school in Cleveland the following morning and my eyesight isn’t the best. #dangertomyself #andothers

I woke up Wednesday morning with my eyes crusted shut completely, which was a lot of fun! After getting myself ready for school, I deemed my vision safe enough to drive as long as I took it nice and slow. I left my man’s house early so I would have time for a leisurely drive as well as stop home to grab my back up glasses before school. I made my pit stop home, grabbed the dorkiest glasses ever, and headed to Tri-C for my French class. The worst part about wearing my glasses aside from how much I hate them is the fact that I wasn’t able to wear sunglasses during my drive. My face was crumpled into a permanent squinting position which I’m pretty sure gave me premature wrinkling. #SHAMEFUL

I rolled into my French class looking nerdy chic (I hope) but was then struck with the fear of “oh shit, I hope people don’t think I’m stoned”, compliments of my blood shot eyes. Throughout my class I was SO paranoid that I might as well have indulged in a pre-lecture hit of cannabis. “Does she think I’m high? Does he think I’m blitzed? DOES MY BELOVED PROFESSOR THINK I’M STONED?!” A gazillion thoughts of my classmate’s possible judgement were swarming through my head at a rapid speed BUT I still managed to kick major derriere in my class! #OUI 😉

After a semi stressful but nothing that I can’t handle afternoon, it was time for Sister Date Night!! Kristen and I had a sexy evening of dinner and a movie planned and it was so much fun!! I picked her up in the Little Red Love Machine for some fine dining at Taco Bell and a showing of Sinister 2. My sister and I were starving and were so happy to be in the comforting atmosphere of TBell for some binge eating. We shoveled burritos, chalupas, and tacos down our gullets until we fell into the “too full to move” food coma. It. Was. WONDERFUL!

We slowly made our way back to my whip and collapsed into the seats. We unbuttoned our pants to ease the bloating, got ourselves together, and headed to the theater for some scary movie shenanigans. We arrived at the Regal Cinemas and purchased our tickets only to find out that we were eligible for a free popcorn thanks to my Regal Crown Club rewards card. “More food!!!” We got our popcorn from the concession stand and answered with an enthusiastic “YES” when we were asked if we wanted butter on our popcorn. Who doesn’t want butter on their popcorn? Seriously. If it were up to me, I would be able to go behind the concessions counter to pump my own butter just to make sure that each individual piece of popcorn was drenched in sweet, caloric, buttery goodness. #delish

Kristen and I entered our designated theater with our hands full of popcorn and purses full of pop brought from home. As we walked further into the room we saw that we were the only people there! It was so great! Throughout our showing of Sinister 2 we were able to swear, scream, and make off color comments to our hearts content. My personal favorite was when I dared my sister to go pee in a corner…I promise you she didn’t! #pinkieswear

ANYWAYS, the Sinister sequel was scary as fuckkk. I’m a big fan of the first movie, despite how scary I find it and the second one was just as good/terrifying! Kristen and I spent a significant amount of time with our hands covering our eyes and screaming “OH SHIT” at a hefty portion of the film. We had such a blast even though we were so scared! Kristen kept pestering me to spend the night at her apartment and I kept begging her to stay the night at home. We’re basically the two biggest twenty-something babies ever. #noshame #adultbabies

During our drive home, when we weren’t trying to bribe each other into staying the night, Kristen played DJ with my iPod. We jammed to TLC and Britney Spears but the most memorable song she played was “Epiphany” from Sweeney Todd, hence why I posted it at the beginning of the post. Kristen and I love that movie so much and “Epiphany” is our all time favorite song from it. We played it at full volume with our windows down all while singing very poorly. I couldn’t stop laughing for the duration of the song and was almost in tears by the time we were stopped at a red light with good ol’ Sweeney Todd blasting through my speakers. #howaboutashave?

We couldn’t decide where to stay the night at so we went our separate ways to sleep all by our lonesome. All night I was petrified about the evil Bagul lurking in my room or dreams, but I promised myself that if he made an appearance that I would deliver a swift punch right in his suck hole. KA POW! Lucky for me, Bagul must have heard my threats, so I was okay for the night – however, I woke up halfway through my slumber because I had to go to the bathroom and I REFUSED to leave the safety of my blanket fort. I am so thankful that I didn’t wet the bed once I fell back asleep and I woke up refreshed and ready to take on a day of homework! #blessed

meeeee

^^^ I feel like I haven’t posted a pic of myself in a while, so there you go!

So there you have it, a long post about some Wednesday Fun! I had a fabulous Hump Day and I hope all of you are having a great week! What is everyone up to this upcoming weekend? Any big plans? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Sep3

Sick & Miserable

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Sick & Miserable

Hiiii everyone and happy Thursday! I’ve got some bad news for all of you…I’m SICK AND MISERABLE!!! It all started last week when my boyfriend had a sore throat, which he promptly gave to me, which I gave to my sister, which she gave back to me two days ago. Fuck me, right? BUT WAIT, there’s more!!!! Within five minutes of being outside Wednesday afternoon, I accumulated an unknown amount of mosquito bites and they itch like the dickens! Let’s break down my sickness for you so you can all feel sorry for me: 😉 ❤

  • Sore throat (It hurts to swallow and feels like it’s bleeding…yum!)
  • Body aches
  • Hot/cold flashes
  • Upset stomach
  • Headache
  • Hella mosquito bites

So needless to say, I feel like I’m dying. Due to my death warmed up condition, I might be MIA for a day or two until I recover. Until then, I urge you to browse through the archives of http://www.lifewithlilred.com! With close to four hundred posts to peruse through, there is sure to be a little something something for everyone. So give me a like, follow, share, comment, and get well wishes and I will be back with you all very soon!

^^^ This Dead Kevin video basically sums up how I’m feeling…minus the herpes.

Lil Red is Sick & Miserable and needs all of your help now more than ever! What are some natural remedies to my ailments that you swear by? Who else is feeling under the weather? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Apr6

Monday Update: nfnjngvhtfsuj Edition -__-

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Monday Update: nfnjngvhtfsuj Edition -__-

Heyy everyone and happy Monday! I hope all of you who celebrated had a wonderful Easter yesterday or just had a great normal day….I know I didn’t. -__- Here’s my current tale of woe that left me feeling horrible AND incapable of even coming up with a comprehensive title for this post:

SO, as you guys know, I was really sick last week with the flu. It was awful, miserable, and every other bad adjective that I can think of. I had gone to the doctor, and he said not much could be done as far as medication goes to help get rid of my problem, but he did prescribe me some antibiotics to help ease some of my symptoms like my cough. I had started taking the antibiotics the following day and the day after, and I couldn’t notice a significant difference. But at that point, I was already starting to feel better on my own. By Friday, I was feeling well enough to be out and about, so like a fucking goon I thought that meant that I could stop taking my antibiotics. I mean, I was feeling better and they weren’t really helping any to begin with, so certainly that’s okay right? WRONG. Little did I know, you’re not supposed to stop taking the antibiotics until your prescription is completely done for risk of secondary infections. And naturally…this bitch got a secondary infection. I started feeling a little less than 100% on Saturday night, but I thought that I was just tired. Wrong, again. By the time I woke up on Sunday morning, I was in a right state of god awful. I was sweaty, dizzy, and out of breath even though I didn’t do anything but wake my sorry ass up. My body ached, my cough was coming back, and I was so upset I could have started crying. When I went downstairs to tell my mom the latest sucky news in the shit show that is my life, she immediately asked me if I was still taking my antibiotics. My mom is a doctor, and when I told her no she almost had a cow. “Didn’t I teach you better” and blah, blah, blah. So that’s when I learned that it’s a big no no to not take your meds! So for all of Sunday, I was stuck in bed feeling a hot ass wreck. Honestly, I felt more sick on Sunday than I did at any point during my stint with the flu. I was SO dizzy and clammy. It was weird because I was also hungry ALL the time yesterday. I had no appetite but I was so starving and even when I would eat, I was still hungry after. So I’m not really sure what that side effect means, but I don’t plan on Googleing it because I’ll probably convince myself that I’m dying. Anyways, here I am now, feeling better than yesterday but still not great by any means. I still have the aches and the sweats, so I guess today is another day of binge watching season two of Orange Is The New Black. I’m just so annoyed because this second sickness stint is completely and totally my fault, and now all there’s left for me to do is just wait to feel better again like I did before. #FML :(((

sickoo

^^Basically me in a nut shell.

So here I am again a week later from my first Monday Update about being sick, writing another Monday Update about being sick. Worst. Week. Ever. I hope all of you are having a better day than mine! How was your Easter? Did you do anything special to celebrate. I wanna live vicariously through you (lol), so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Apr1

Hump Day Update: STILL Sick Edition -___-

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Hump Day Update: STILL Sick Edition -___-

Howdy gang and happy Hump Day! Guess what?! I’m STILL sick. Fml, fml, FML. I’m going on day four of misery so let me bring you up to speed with what’s been going on these past few days in the wonderful (and by wonderful I mean god awful) world of Lil Red.

Monday: In continuation of my last post, I went to the doctor on Monday afternoon and I was diagnosed with the flu. I was actually pretty disappointed about that. I wish that I had strep so I could get some antibiotics to cure it and be on my merry way. Unfortunately with the flu there’s not much you can do other than wait it out. The only good thing about going to see the doctor, was that the doc seeing me was a TOTAL babe. My only regret is that I didn’t look better for him. Quite frankly, he’s lucky I even put a bra on to go see him – but that’s neither here nor there. Anyways, SHAZAM and hubba hubba, because Mr. Doctor was looking mighty fine! I felt like death, but his staggering good looks gave me a glimmer of hope that everything would be okay. #hotfordoctor SO YEAH, Monday I was miserable and yada yada yada. I had really bad night sweats Monday night. I mean really bad. Like a body shaped pool of sweat on my sheets bad. Like my sleep shirt and skin were drenched in sweat bad. It was wicked gross, but I felt really skinny when I woke up so that was a plus I suppose. Ha!

Tuesday: Tuesday morning is when I have to be in Cleveland for class, and of course that didn’t happen which I was actually really mad about. I never thought I’d live to see the day that I was mad about not being able to go to school! I set my alarm to wake me up so I had time to get ready just in case by some miracle I felt better, but it took one minute of me being awake to decide to go back to bed. Tuesday I didn’t do much other than lay in bed and watch TV. (The 19 Kids and Counting wedding episode for Jessa was on and it was so cute!!) I was extremely achey all day and if I was out of bed for too long I started feeling dizzy. My chest has been hurting pretty bad these past few days as well from constantly coughing up a storm. I slept okay on Tuesday night, only waking up twice to cough for fifteen minutes straight and then pass out again. Like Monday night, I had really bad night sweats again. Lol it grosses me out because I’m the farthest thing away from a sweaty person and my sicko night sweats have been the most I’ve sweat in my entire life. Because girls don’t sweat, they glisten. 😉

dandy!

Hump Day: Still sick. Still miserable. What else is new? I’m hoping that today is the day I can rest up and kick this flu in the ass for good because I NEED to get to school tomorrow. I have a quiz in math to take and I’d prefer to be somewhat healthy when I’m driving to Cleveland and sitting in a classroom for two hours. Ugh. -___-

Well guys I’m off to get some homework done and some Netflix watched so I will talk to you all later! Hopefully on the next post I’ll be a healthy woman! What are some home remedies for the flu that you swear by? I’m up for any suggestions, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -A still sick and still miserable Sarah

PS: Welcome to April! What April Fools pranks are you pulling today??

Mar30

Monday Update: Sick Edition :(

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Monday Update: Sick Edition :(

Whatup guys and happy Monday! Unfortunately, it’s not a very happy day for me because I’ve been sick all weekend and am just as sick today. 😦 Here’s a brief outline of how my sickness escalated from Friday until now:

Friday: My throat was sort of scratchy, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.

Saturday: My “sort of” scratchy throat turned into a full on sore throat with a nice wet cough to go along with it. My nose was sort of stuffy but I could still breathe out of it. I had a lot of trouble sleeping on Saturday night as well. I woke up multiple times in the night and had difficulty falling asleep afterwards.

Sunday: May god have mercy on my soul. Sunday was a big pain in my ass. Everything that was wrong from my body aches, to my cough, sore throat, and stuffy nose seemed to intensify by a million. My cough was frequent and it hurt my whole body and my nose felt completely clogged up which turned me into a mouth breather. Sexy 😉 I had an even more difficult time sleeping Sunday night because all of my symptoms were so much worse. It felt impossible to get comfortable enough to sleep again every time I woke up. Despite these difficulties I was able to sleep in longer on Monday morning.

Monday: What do you know? I’m still sick. -_- I slept more last night than I did on any other weekend day, but I still feel really tired. My nose is starting to run instead of just being stuffy, and it’s SO difficult trying to blow your nose with five nose piercings. I feel hungry but I have absolutely no appetite. Nothing but ice cream sounds good right now, and naturally there’s no ice cream in the house. Fml. I’m so achey and my throat burns every time I cough. The only thing that makes my sore throat feel better is when I’m drinking something really cold. Once my dad gets home from work I think I’ll be going to the doctors and then hopefully to Wendy’s afterwards to get a Frosty. Yummmmm

I really hope that I can get rid of most of my nasty symptoms today with some R&R, vitamins, and medicine because I have too much to do to be sick any longer. I absolutely need to go to my math class tomorrow morning because we’re going to be reviewing for a quiz on Thursday and I really need the additional practice with my teacher. I had to cancel two important plans today as well which I’m pretty pissed about. I promised my best friend Kate that I would go to her focus group she was holding for her marketing class to help spice things up. AND there was gonna be free Papa John’s pizza, which I was really looking forward to. Lol, nothing motivates me more than food! I was also supposed to have an American Horror Story night with my stud, but unfortunately neither of these are going to happen because I can barely get out of bed. Of course I’m sick when I actually have plans. -___- The only good thing about today is that there’s a new episode of The Following on tonight. Thank god, because I need something to look forward to today while I’m moping around on my death bed.

WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Does anyone have any home remedies that they swear by to help ease cold and flu symptoms? I’ll take any help I can get, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -A very sick, miserable, mopey, whiney, achey Sarah 😦

Dec21

Bad Day :(

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Bad Day :(

Fair warning to any one reading this: This blog posts contains self harm references – if that makes you uncomfortable, feel free not to read. -Sarah

Lil Red had a bad day yesterday. Like a really bad day. I should have been happy….my brother finally arrived home from Madison, Wisconsin for the holidays and I was with my beau in the evening. That sounds like a perfect day to me! Unfortunately it didn’t play out like that. I was still feeling pretty under the weather yesterday from going through cigarette withdrawals and honestly I was just down right depressed. Not only were the withdrawals making me more upset than usual, but I was also out of my antidepressants for the past week, which are supposed to be taken daily. To go into further detail, it felt like getting thunder stormed on while already being soaking wet. I cut for the first time since I quit over a year ago yesterday night – and believe me I’m not happy about it. I’m not sure what made yesterday the day that I cracked. I’m not sure if it was just the shitty day in itself that I was having or if it was a pile up of stressers from the entire week. Let me say a little bit more about that, but not too much because I don’t really want my business from my work all out on the internet. Long story short, I felt that I was being harassed at my current now previous job because I quit. In the midst of one of my withdrawal crying fits at home I cracked and told my mom about it, and she straight up told me not to go back there anymore…so that’s what I did. Anyways, yesterday should have been a good day, like I said. I was at a get together with the boy and some people who attended our old high school. I really should have thought it through more before I drove over there though because high school wasn’t the best time of my life. Being surrounded by those people again made me feel like such a loser. Here all these kids are, at great colleges and working and being awesome…and here I am – freshly unemployed, attending a not so impressive school, and feeling low as can be. After about a half hour in that misery, I left the gathering with the excuse that my brother just arrived home. I know that I should be thinking more positively about myself, and I am proud of myself for attending a college in general, but it’s so hard to remain in good spirits when you feel like you’re doing absolutely nothing compared to some of the people who are the exact same age as you. So, I get home and I was so happy to see my brother, and my family had a really nice evening together. But even after that I couldn’t shake this overwhelming feeling of worthlessness. I was crying in hysterics in my bedroom and ALL I wanted to do at this point was cut or make myself throw up…since I didn’t have any food in my stomach, cutting was the go to option. I went into the bathroom, locked the door, and did the deed. In that ten minute span, I turned back into the depressed cutter of seven years and counting, which made me feel even worse because it was such a huge step backwards. I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t feel better afterwards though, which really frightens me. I’m really hoping that this is just a minor misstep in the grand scheme of things. And now that I have my antidepressants back to give me an extra little boost in the morning, fingers crossed that my spirits will be lifted.

I’ve been super tore up and upset about this, but I know I can’t be too hard on myself or it’s just going to make things worse. In fact, I feel better already writing about it, and since this is my online journal, why not write it out on this? Now I just need to take a deep breath, shake it off, and keep moving forward.

Thank you so much for letting me vent on here, like I said – I feel better already. Please note that if you feel the need to comment on this and you have nothing nice to say, it will be deleted in a heart beat. You’ve been warned! What are you guys up to today? I think I’m going to go figure skating for the first time since I quit skating competitively about four years ago, so that should be fun!! My family might decorate our Christmas tree tonight too – we’re obviously running pretty late on that!! Have a great Sunday! -Sarah

^^^^ I had to!

Dec19

Mystery Solved!!!!

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Mystery Solved!!!!

So Lil Red had been feeling under the weather since Sunday. My sister was sick with probably a mild flu and I’m sure that she handed it on to me. #bitter Since Sunday I’ve been absolutely miserable. I’ve been achey, tired, dizzy, hot and cold, nauseous, no appetite, and when I do eat I can’t taste anything. From Sunday till Wednesday I went with the safe assumption that I just have the flu. BUT today my perspective changed when I realized that I haven’t smoked a cigarette since Saturday night. I’m 100% sure that I’m experiencing withdrawal symptoms from not smoking. It all makes so much sense. I googled the symptoms of cigarette withdrawal and it added up perfectly. The website that I was on, http://www.quitsmokingsupport.com/withdrawal1.htm shined a light on the reasons why I’ve been feeling completely awful. Every symptom that I’ve been feeling, they seemed to have an answer for. Like dizziness for example was explained by the body getting extra oxygen now that ciggie smoke isn’t being inhaled. Not only have I been feeling physically shitty, but I haven’t been feeling too hot mentally either. This week I’ve been so depressed. I’ve thought extensively about self harm which I haven’t done in over a year now, I’ve been irritable, lonely, and just straight up angry. As I continued to read through the quitsmokingsupport website, I was able to check off all of these emotions one by one on the list of symptoms. I’ll tell you what guys…this fucking sucks. Pardon my French, but seriously. I finally can understand now why people go back to smoking after a week or two of not doing it, because the withdrawal that I’m feeling is absolute torture. This entire week I’ve been bed ridden because it hurts to move. I’ve had crying fits for no reason whatsoever and I’ve been the biggest bitch in the world to my family. Quite frankly, I’m not sure how I’m going to not smoke once I feel good enough to leave the house. Now that I know that I’m feeling sick because of not smoking, it makes me want to go outside and light a cigarette up in the hopes of feeling better. Oh what a tangled web we weave. 😦

Does anyone have any suggestions on what they did to make their withdrawal symptoms more tolerable when they quit smoking? I’ve been taking aspirin through out the day to try and ease the aches and it hasn’t helped at all. I’ve also been drinking a lot of water and eating more than usual. I’ve been feeling SO hungry all the time these past few days, but I still can’t taste anything that I’ve been eating. If you have any tips or home remedies that were helpful to you, please let me know!!

How long did it take for your withdrawal symptoms to end? How long have you been a non smoker for and do you still crave cigarettes now? Please leave me a comment and let’s chat – I need all the help that I can get! Happy Friday! -Sarah

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