The Michigan Health Plan

[Fierce Critter]

The seemingly many posts on weight/diet/etc. lately got me thinking about sharing my own recent experiences with that sort of thing.

Since returning to Michigan, I have lost 10 lbs. That's what it was a week ago, when I had been back 3 weeks. I've said before that my eating habits aren't my problem - I don't eat enough. It's activity level. Which fell to 0 pretty much while depressed & isolated in NC.

Now that I'm back and living in Wyandotte, I've been on a bike for the first time in over 3-1/2 years. Gone to the park a couple times and parked my bike & walked the boardwalk on the river. Gone into town to do business, etc. Oh, and dancing at CC doesn't hurt either.

I'm feeling more energized, more motivated. Though for some reason, I'm finding it very, very difficult to get myself out of bed. I get up at 6:00 with Jon to make him breakfast & lunch, then stay up until about 8:00 watching the news. Go back to bed, and ordinarily, I get up again about 11:00. I'm having trouble convincing myself that staying in bed and trying to sleep until 1:00 or later is a BAD thing.

Granted, I stay up until about 2:00 a.m. and have always been a night owl, so things do balance out. But I think I should work on this "problem" anyway.

I feel so much better overall. Even my mind feels more clear. Not like I'm in some kind of thick fog. I think I was more depressed than I even realized in NC.

Ahh, Michigan. You do me well. :grin

[kellygrrrrrl]

I LOOOOOVE Michigan. I will never leave you Michigan.

We have everything we need here.

This is the best state in the country. (Maybe a bit expensive - But that is the price you pay to live in such a beautiful, fun, Wonderful state.)

What more can you ask for. Beautiful landscape, we get to expirience ALL of the seasons and what is has to bring ie Fall Colors, Snow, Beautiful green springs, and nice summers, We have the lakes, clean fresh water, awsome people, the auto industry, fun city....etc...I could go on and on.

I left MI for Florida a few years back......I came RUNNIN back.

I also find that A LOT of people who leave usually come back, even if it is years later. They come back!

I love you Michigan!

[Lilith]

I am glad to see tha change of Location has done you good. I know it must be soooo refreshing for you.

Lilith

[The Void]

I fell in love with Michigan when I first came there.

I've been back many, many times, it is interesting, not like other midwest states from what I hear of other midwestern states. *lol*

Right now I'm still an east coast girl at the moment...we'll see.

Glad you're feeling better and just have a minor obstacle to figure out before everything is sunny in MI. :grin

[Steven]

I LOOOOOVE Michigan.  I will never leave you Michigan. 

We have everything we need here. 

This is the best state in the country.  (Maybe a bit expensive - But that is the price you pay to live in such a beautiful, fun, Wonderful state.)

What more can you ask for.  Beautiful landscape, we get to expirience ALL of the seasons and what is has to bring ie Fall Colors, Snow, Beautiful green springs, and nice summers, We have the lakes, clean fresh water, awsome people, the auto industry, fun city....etc...I could go on and on.

I left MI for Florida a few years back......I came RUNNIN back.

I also find that  A LOT of people who leave usually come back, even if it is years later.  They come back!

I love you Michigan!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree 100%.

I've been coming here from Los Angeles for 20 years.

Now I live here. I love it here. I'd rather raise kids here anyday than in LA or any part of Cali.

[gothicmom]

I'm happy to see that you are doing well.

[Marblez]

I have a sleep disorder and have been forced to pay attention to the benefits of a healthy sleep pattern. I will suggest that the fact that your sleep is broken is likely a part of your problem.

Your body sleeps in stages and gets the peak amount of rest in only some of the stages. By waking for 2 hours in the literal middle of your sleep cycle, you are forcing your body to start over from scratch. This may not allow your body and mind the benefifts of the later, more restful stages of sleep. Having slept from 8 to 11, your body will tell you that you have only had 3 hours of sleep and you will not want to get out of bed. This is as opposed to the 7 it would have had if it had been continuous from 2 to 9 - without actually sleeping any longer.

Suggestions:

Going to sleep earlier (easier said than done, I know) will allow you both a longer continuous sleep AND will have the definite added benefit of more time, although unconscious, curling up next to your husband.

or

Premake the lunch the night before and/or request that Jon take care of his breakfast.

[Marblez]

Completely unrelated to sleep - an active body has more nutritional needs than a sedentary one. Make sure your eating habits adjust.

And I am glad you are feeling better in general. Losing weight is a good thing, isn't it?

[Draco1958]

Wish I had the motivation to get off my butt like Fierce. Trying to work things out so I can get my weights set up and buy a bike for exercise. I'm in Lincoln Park, Wyandotte is just across the street from me. Wyandotte has a nice riverfront park and downtown area. Once I get a bike, I'm gonna ride down to the river and walk the boardwalk. The view is beautiful and it's a great place to play and get exercise.

[Fierce Critter]

Wish I had the motivation to get off my butt like Fierce.  Trying to work things out so I can get my weights set up and buy a bike for exercise.  I'm in Lincoln Park, Wyandotte is just across the street from me.  Wyandotte has a nice riverfront park and downtown area.  Once I get a bike, I'm gonna ride down to the river and walk the boardwalk.  The view is beautiful and it's a great place to play and get exercise.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try yard sales for bikes. And curbside on trash days. You won't necessarily find the nicest bike, but you may get lucky. When we lived here in Wyandotte before, I got a beautiful Raleigh mountain bike from the trash and the only thing wrong with it was they'd misaligned the brake cables. A 5-minute re-connection job and I had a practically new adult bike that served me well and looked damned good, too.

Dancing helps, too. I was afraid that my first time back on the dancefloor at CC after not dancing for 3-1/2 years, I'd end up with my calves & knees giving out and me end up flat on the floor (this has happened before...)

Luckily, that hasn't happened. I'm managing to keep dancing, and I do a lot of deep knee bends in some of the typical moves I do over and over.

But today, after a really good amount of dancing last night, I felt the pain. I'd been walking fine today, but then knocked a box of jewelry findings off my bedside table, and when I knelt down to pick them up, I about screamed it hurt so bad in my knees.

Yeah, gotta keep the moving going, and I should get used to it again. But unfortunately, I am prone to calf cramps when my activity level is increased, and that has unhappily returned. I go to stretch in bed, and have to catch myself and bed my knees quickly when I feel the charley horse start to grip my muscle.

We have the potential to buy a house outside of Wyandotte, but we think we're going to pass up the opportunity and keep renting here until we can save a down-payment to buy here. Could take a couple years, but Wyandotte is so good for us. I bike EVERYWHERE. Especially to the post office to ship out eBay items. Fantastically, we picked up an actual bike trailer at a yard sale for $5.00 that I can hook up to my bike to use to tow the boxes of auction items I need to ship at the post office about 12 blocks away.

I just don't get the same opportunity in other downriver cities. Renting sucks in many ways, but overall, we think we're better off here.

[Vater Araignee]

Renting sucks in many ways, but overall, we think we're better off here.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Whats the average rent around there?

In livingston co. your lucky to pay $700 per month.

Belated Hazaa(or however u spiel it) for your feeling better.

[Fierce Critter]

As for the comments about Michigan, you KNOW I agree.

Living in NC for 3-1/2 years was hell in so many ways for both of us, and moreso myself.

And we'd looked forward to moving out of state. Oh, so many things we now realize we took for granted.

Michigan - and in particular, Detroit - may not have the nightlife or other benefits of a REALLY big metropolitan area like New York or L.A. But it has SO many other things close at hand, there's just a richness of diversity you sometimes don't realize is bountiful here.

I used to think things were SO far away here. After living in NC where it was 12 miles to the nearest grocery store and a ride into the city was 30 miles one way, what formerly seemed far away is laughingly close.

4 hours to Traverse City - where you've got hills, orchards, wineries, Lake Michigan, beautiful arts & crafts. 6 hours to the U.P. for even more pristine, woodland beauty. Museums galore here in Detroit, and just a few miles away in Toledo, Ohio. Bookstores within 3 miles, some open until 11:00 p.m. A full-time goth/alternative club and not a sports bar that has "goth nights" on Tuesdays. Decent clothing stores for plus sizes. Thrift stores galore.

I could go on. We're both still overwhelmed by how much we took for granted all we had at our disposal here. We'll never leave again. Never. We lost 3-1/2 years of our lives we can never reclaim. If it weren't for the wonderful pets we adopted from NC and the work experience that got Jon the great job he has now, we'd about want to shoot ourselves for not having come back sooner.

[Fierce Critter]

Whats the average rent around there?

In livingston co. your lucky to pay $700 per month.

Belated Hazaa(or however u spiel it) for your feeling better.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We're paying $525 for a 1-bedroom loft apartment in this house:

The apartment consists of the front of 3 units. We have a decent sized living room that's unseparated from a kitchen area (great counter & cabinet space) and eat-in dining area. You go upstairs to a big bedroom with slanted ceilings and a bathroom, with a huge walk-in closet.

Water is included. Tons of basement space for storage and whatever else we want to use it for, and free washer & dryer.

The center unit we hear is very small. It's $450 a month. Not sure about the rear unit for size.

Prices run anywhere from $400 and up here. Depends on how close to the city of Ecorse it is (the closer the cheaper), how big, etc.

Jon works in Madison Heights off 9-mile and John R. We can't afford to live on that side of town.

To get a moderate house here, we'll have to save about $20,000 for a down payment on a $100,000 house. That's to get something on the moderate end of things. It's not cheap here, but it's a city unlike many others in this area. Wyandotte has their own water, electric & cable. I often joke that in event of apocalypse, a giant impenetrable dome will rise out of the ground and cover the city, cutting us off from the devestation outside.