Jujubee’s Blog

I was just doing some research on certain bowel and gastrointestinal problems to try to find out what’s up with mine. I don’t really know what to do, since I eat a pretty healthy diet with enough fiber. After a lot of reading, my self-diagnosis would be…… IBS.

Here are the symptoms of IBS:

abdominal pain or discomfort -> I don’t feel any pain but I sometime have discomfort after eating.

diarrhea and/or constipation -> I think I have mostly the latter, and rarely the former.

urgency for bowel movements -> I remember feeling that way before, like I really gotta go and probably can’t hold it in much longer. Ironically, this was during a time when I felt I had healthy (left feeling empty) bowel movements.

feeling of incomplete evacuation -> yes, most times I feel this way. In my mind, this means constipation.

bloating -> I guess I would say frequently but some of the times, it’s caused by being on my period (usually the first day).

gastroesophageal reflux -> I used to have this frequently, but now I think I’m mostly free of this. Just occasional burping after eating.

headache -> I rarely get headaches, so this is not one of my symptoms.

backache -> I don’t feel any backaches either. Thank goodness I guess.

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I’ve been trying to change what I eat to improve my digestion. So far, I’m eating less carbs, taking Psyllium husks for fiber, eating less processed foods. Next on my diet modifcations is a near-complete removal of milk and milk products. I say ‘near’ because it will be hard for me to give up entirely on chocolate and cheese. Cheese is easier to cut back on though. However I can for sure give up my lactose free milk that I have with cereal in the morning. I can just replace it with soy milk. Or if I get sick of it quickly, I can just have some kind of oat bran toast with jam or butter.

When I think about my future, I always imagine what it would be like to be raising kids (after marriage). I’m looking forward to being married and having children. BUT, I don’t really want it to come too soon. There are still some things I want to do before I start a family. I’ll write about it in another post. I still can’t help but feel a little bit of envy whenever I’m around my cousins’ kids. Of course, I can’t compare a few hours with the kids to being with them all the time like the mothers. I wonder if I’ll be a good mother. Of course, I want to be! I’m probably going to be reading a lot of parenting books when I’m actually pregnant. I’m the type that does a lot of research before something big (like when I was repairing my car myself). And I’ll probably be one of those moms that takes millions of pictures and does a lot of scrapbooking. I love to scrapbook, and in the digital scrapbooking community, I’ve noticed that mothers represent like 95% of all scrapbookers. I just made up the percentage but it’s probably close. Also, it’s probably due to the fact that not a lot of young people scrap.

Once, my sister told me she thinks I’ll be a bad parent. It was the most offensive thing she’s said to me. We had a fight over this. Anyway, I’d like to fully doubt her words but part of me is afraid that it might be true. Either way, I know I will try my best, so I shouldn’t worry so much. All of this baby talk is guess work anyway. I will enjoy my children-free time as long as I have it.

Today, while I was a Rite Aid, I bought the Cherry Passion tic tacs. It’s the one that has red and yellow tic tacs. I also have the orange flavor and the mint flavor already. I’m looking for the cinnamon-flavored ones. I don’t know why I like them so much all of a sudden.

Facts about tic tacs:

Originally produced in 1969.

The sell packs of individually wrapped mints designed for candy bowls.

The have tic tacs that are 30% bigger.

Tic tacs are #1 in the U.S. breath mint category.

There used to be a Orange & Grape combination but the red dye in the grape was a suspected carcinogen, so the orange tic tacs continued on their own.

Nutrition of 1 tic tac – Energy 8.5 KJ (2 Kcal), Protein 0g, Carbohydrate 0.5g, Fat 0g.

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/

Word of the Day for Thursday August 21, 2008

From dictionary.com:

“juju: 1. An object superstitiously believed to embody magical powers. 2. The power associated with a juju”

It was nice and cool today. The down side to that is that there were more tennis players wanting the public courts. We didn’t have to wait too long though. I was a bit frustrated with the way I was playing. It’s just one of those days where nothing seems to be going right.

After tennis, Joseph and I had dinner at Momoyama Sushi restaurant. It’s our second time there. I had a Phillidelphia roll, Joseph had a Momoyama roll. Both were good, and we were stuffed.

Last night I started reading Iris Johansen’s “Quicksand”. I know… FINALLY, right? I have no idea why I waited so long! It came out like 3 months ago. Usually I’m so quick to order the book. Anyway, it’s really good. I always get sucked in. I’m already more than halfway through and I’ll probably finish tonight. I can’t wait to read what happens!

It’s official! Nadal is number 1 today. They even have a 10 sec intro for him at the ATP website. It’s probably just for today. If Federer makes a come-back, I hope he doesn’t do it for a while haha. I want Nadal to enjoy the #1 position for a while.

Way to go, Nadal! I think they said this was the first time that someone ranked above 5 has won the gold. I guess usually some unknowns or low-ranked players win the gold. Maybe it’s all the Olympic hype that makes this not the usual tennis tournament. Anyway, Nadal had a lot of energy to spare when he denied Gonzalez the gold. In my opinion, this was a boring match to watch… I had expected more. This is the result of Gonzalez making it to the finals by luck of the draw. Nadal never lost serve. Well I guess it’s good that it was an easy win.

Yay, Nadal has defeated Djokovic in the semifinals 6-4 1-6 6-4. Next he will be playing for the gold medal. I can’t wait to watch the match tomorrow! Blake has a chance for the bronze, so BEST OF LUCK BLAKE! He did a good job stealing the spotlight from Federer… not usually an easy thing to do.

Joseph and I had Crepes A-Go Go for dinner. My crepe was more like a breakfast crepe (eggs, chedder cheese, smoked turkey) but it was tasty. After that, we went to Gelato place. I got a half nutella and half strawberry gelato. I like both flavors but I would have to say that the strawberry wins by a big margin. It tasted fresh and amazingly strawberry.

I was just watching NEWS (Japanese pop group) 07-08 Concert Tour DVD and one thing I thought was funny and creative was: one fan wore a big Mickey Mouse glove! Most of them would wave glow sticks or fans (with their favorite member’s face on it). The Mickey Mouse glove was creative and it really stood out when the camera did a scan of the audience.

OMG – Blake beat Federer 6-4 7-6(2) in the Olympic Quarterfinals! I can’t believe it because I thought this would be an easy win for Federer. I mean Federer beat Blake in all of the prior 8 matches they’ve had against each other… so yeah, I can’t believe it! It’s sad… it looked like Federer had some tears as he waved to everyone and left the court. I’m sad that Federer is out now, but I’m impressed with Blake. What a surprise! Yay for America!!

Woohoo! What a fun concert! I have been a fan of Glay’s for a long time now and I can’t believe it was them right in front of me! Since it was at the Fillmore, we were pretty close, and it was such a good deal. Thanks for performing here, Glay! I only knew how to sing some of them, so I did sing along for those. Also, the Fillmore staff gave us Glay posters at the end. Yay!

From wiki: “In 2008, to celebrate their 20th anniversary, GLAY will perform for the first time in the Unites States. The band will play three concerts: at The Fillmore, in San Francisco, on August 12, and at the House of Blues, in Los Angeles, on August 15 and 16.”

At the end of the concert, before the encore, they took a picture of Glay + audience in the background. I wonder if the picture will circulate around the internet somehow, like if it was published in some Japanese magazine. I hope so. I really want to see it. I cannot be seen in the picture because everyone stretched to their tallest height haha, but I tried. ^_^

I like how they tried to speak English to us. Teru said he practiced English for a week. How cute! I think the fact that they kept switching between English and Japanese, made it difficult for us to understand. It was like, “which language are they speaking in?” The accoustic quality wasn’t excellent either so noise interference made it harder. Still it’s so nice that they put the effort. They looked excited to be here in the US.. so I hope they have a good experience here!

On the bart ride back, this lady across from me was reading Iris Johansen’s “Quicksand”. I so wanted to say something to her but she was so focused on it, it would be rude of me.

Again: Thank you, GLAY!!!