Health and Fitness Archives - Making Money Dance

I got sick and May and June 2024 Expense

July 18, 2024 No Comments

I’m not burying the lead here. I got sick which lasted all June and early July. The illness and the busyness of summer means that I didn’t get the chance to write. I spent a lot of my time in our bedroom or our couch last June. I’m thankful that I have an energy now and feel somewhat normal.

The month of May was spent getting back to our routine. It was the last full month of school for the kids. They also of course got some nasty virus, but they ended the month with just a little cold. My kindergartner had an art program in his school, run by the PTA and I volunteered for that. It was a great program. I’m really glad that our local school have a good PTA events.

We also went to birthday parties, and celebrated Mr. MMD’s birthday. The boys got him some sunglasses that we got from our neighborhood garage sale. For Mr. MMD’s birthday, we went to Chipotle, which is an upgrade from the previous year’s Taco Bell Celebration. We then top it off by going to Menchies for some frozen yogurt. Our May ended with a Spring Kindergarten concert and trip to the movies to watch Garfield with our Campfire friends. I finally used the Fandango gift certificate that my sister gave me last Christmas. Movie tickets prices are nuts these days.

I experienced some flu like symptoms early June and some fatigue, which lasted for almost a week, and then I experienced some joint pain and rashes. I went to urgent care twice this month and have seen a doctor twice. Apparently, I got the 5th disease. This is very common for kids and is consider a minor disease. AHP showed a slap cheek the day after I went to urgent care and his pediatrician diagnosed it based on my symptoms. I had multiple blood drawn because the doctors thought that it was some kind of auto immune disease. Good thing that my second blood test showed the 5th disease infection with my other inflammatory marker back to normal. I was still able to chaperone MBP’s class to his school field trip, attended a minor league baseball game for his school, planned and celebrated MBP’s 7th birthday party and attended both kids “graduation”. We have 1 more year of preschool for AHP and MBP will start 1st grade this September. Time is flying by so fast. Days are long but years is like a blink of an eye. I teared up on both graduation days. I’m definitely very thankful that we have the time to be with the kids day to day.

Just the day after the kids last day of school, my in-laws arrived for their yearly summer visits. They came while I’m sick so it was nice to have some help with the kids during the start of their Summer break. I was still able to go out with them and took the kids to some outings. There were visits to Chuck E Cheese, bowling, Super Jumps and neighborhood playgrounds. Our neighborhood had an annual Luau event and it was a good afternoon. We also went to the annual Rhubarb fest and had our annual Rhubarb Pie.

Mr. MMD and my father in-law also started on our built ins in the playroom. It was our most used room so I was worried that it will be out of commissioned for a long time. Mr. MMD worked really hard and it was built in just 2 weeks. We even had the carpets steamed. It was great and definitely more functional.

^{Still needed some paint, but almost complete}

Onwards to our spending. We spent $13,288 for the month of May and June. Wowza! We had a surprisingly low expenses from the last 4 months of the year so it is not surprising that it is this high. We also had some annual expenses that happened during these months. So let’s take a look

Category	Amount
property tax	3,149.80
Home Improvement	1,605.23
Insurance	1,420.56
Groceries	1,393.35
Home Maintenance	1,076.60
Utilities	693.23
Education	677.00
Healthcare/Medical	667.73
General Merchandise	623.27
Kids Activities	403.96
Automotive	201.00
Charitable Giving	200.00
Entertainment	199.63
HOA	168.00
Gifts	164.22
Restaurants	163.57
Clothing/Shoes	124.30
Gasoline/Fuel	110.00
Pets/Pet Care	82.54
Travel	53.78
Mobile Phone	29.12
Internet	28.07
Alcohol	20.35
Business Miscellaneous	17.88
Dues & Subscriptions	15.30

Property Tax – $3,149.8

This is our first installment of our annual property tax for our house. Our state tax is based on the value of our home and it just so happen that we live in a HCOL area. We have the smallest and cheapest house in our block. Our second installment is due in October.

Home Improvement – $1,605.23

We bought 2 cabinets for our built ins and of course the materials and equipments to make it. There will be some more items this July as we finished the project.

Home Insurance – $1,420.56

This is for our annual home insurance. It just keeps on going up.

Groceries – $1,393

A typical groceries for 2 months. We also discovered an Indian grocery store and managed to get our spices cheaper. We typically order it from Amazon for twice the price. This is actually lower since my in-laws paid for our groceries when they were here. I don’t think twice on spendin

Home Maintenance – $1,076

We bought 2 appliances. Mr. MMD bought a Sebo Felix Vacuum from a local store and it cost us $769.6. We’ve been using our Dyson for more than 7 years now and it never does a great job on getting our dog’s hair. I can definitely noticed the difference using Sebo. It is pricey but hopefully should last us another 7 years. We also bought an air purifier from Costco. We had a year with some haze and smoke due to fire and we want to be more prepared for that in case it happen again this year.

Utilities – $360.98

These are for 2 months of water, sewer, electric and natural gas and 1 month of garbage. Our electric should be higher in the coming months as I switch our heat pump to cool. We’ve been using our A/C this time. I’m researching on steps to move to induction oven and hopefully get it converted before the year ends.

Education – $677

Two months of AHP’s preschool tuition. We have a break for the summer, but then, MBP are enrolled on camps, but those are on kids activities.

Healthcare/ Medical – $667

Our health insurance and co-payments. The big one is my allergy test that was not covered by insurance, followed by co payments from doctor visits and payment for some lab test. I’m hoping that we can get reimbursement from the lab payments as well.

General Merchandise – $623

Our catch all items coming from Amazon, Walmart and other items. It would be interesting to see the total amount we spent on these items by year ends.

Kids Activities – $403

Basketball camp for MBP and Tee-ball for both MBP and AHP. Mr. MMD is coaching their teams and it is so fun to watch, but also exhausting.

Automotive – $201

We got a ticket for speeding on a school zone. Apparently Mr. MMD is going over 20 MPH while the school zone light is flashing. The camera caught it and the city sent us a $200 bill. I didn’t bother contesting it. I paid online with a $1 fee to pay electronically.

Charitable Giving – $200

Entertainment – $199

Popcorn for movies. Mr. MMD also took MBP to watch the Storms Game. He also went to a woodworking workshop.

HOA – $168

2 months of our HOA bill.

Restaurants – $163

Wow — we actually ate out. This is for our dinner out at Chipotle for Mr. MMD’s birthday. He also met up with a friend in Seattle for brunch. I attended my first FI meetup as well. We also took the kids to Menchies, McDonalds and Wendys. We are loosening up on this spending. It’s good. We just discovered a good Indian restaurant close to us and I would definitely visit again.

Clothing/Shoes – $124

I bought some items from REI, but ended up returning it. I also got the boys some down jackets from eBay. Mr. MMD bought some new pants from GAP and I got MBP and AHP some clothes at Goodwill. MBP is getting into all kinds of sports and wanted some jerseys. I found a Golden State Warrior Jersey, a Washington football shirt for $3.99. I also got the boys some shirts for 4th of July.

Gas – $110

Four trips to Costco for gas.

Pets – $82.54

We got our furbaby her food from Chewy.

Travel – $53

I got AHP a Kindercone Sleeping bag from REI. I purchased a gift card from Raise to stack up some discounts.

Mobile Phone – $29

We are still using Xfinity Mobile.

Internet – $28

This is for 2 months of internet.

Alcohol – $20

Mr. MMD met up with a friend for drinks.

Dues and Subscription – $15

Two months of Amazon Prime.

Gifts – $164

We got $150 of Amazon Gift Card as gifts for the kids teachers. The rest are for birthday parties.

Misc – $17.88

Annual renewal of this domain and a $5 annual fee for a meet up group.

We had one of our worst months this year, health wise. I was overwhelmed and cried, but it also made me appreciate the good days and the life that we have. We are lucky and I’m grateful that I have the time to recover at home with my family.

Health and Fitness

The Post Baby Weight Loss Challenge – Month 4

October 11, 2020 No Comments

I completed the 4th month of my post baby weight loss challenge. My weight goal is 105 lbs, by the end of September. Did I reach it? No. I failed on this one. I am 106.2 by September 26. The lowest I’m at was 106 lbs.

I am 1 lb off my goal weight. It is disappointing to miss this goal even by just a pound. I was on a good start when I started this self impose challenge, but went array for the month of September.

What Happened?

First, the fire happened. We were 5 miles from the evacuation zone where the fire was. We still left our house and stayed at my parents for 3 nights. I ate all the home cook meals without necessarily tracking the ingredients or the amount I’m eating.

Second, I stopped going to the gym. I was hitting my limit on strength training. I have a hard time getting motivated because I was not moving up on weights.

Third, I stopped tracking my weight and my food intake. This seems to be the key. It started when we left the house, but ultimately continued on through the month. I felt that I lost the battle in September and just sort of gave up. I ate more Costco size Ruffles and some more Chocolate Covered Raisins! I gained more weight and now a t 108 lbs. Ouch. I also stopped tracking my weight consistently.

What happens now?

Well, it is easy to blame the fire on this one, but ultimately, I am the one responsible on that weight gain. I went back on eating mindlessly. Snacks are the killer. I am actually pretty good on portioning meals, but awful when it comes to snacks, which tends to have more calories.

I know the main problem – snacking. It will be so easy to complete this challenge if I eliminate snacking, but I know that it is not going to be sustainable. I eat when I’m bored, or if I’m just seating in front of the TV. Ultimately, I need to find something to do. What a great problem to have during retirement, right?

The 2020 goal

We went back to the gym this week. I started tracking my weight again. I want to end 2020 with some win on this weighing 105 lbs by Dec 31st. At the same time, I want to find a more sustainable way to maintain the weight. It is hard I’m hopeful.

Health and Fitness

The Post Baby Weight Loss Challenge – Month 3 update

August 30, 2020 No Comments

I completed the third month of my post baby weight loss challenge. My weight goal is 105 lbs. I am 107.6 lbs after completing the third month.

Here are the numbers. I weigh 111.6 lbs on July 26 and I weigh 107.6 lbs on August 26. I lost 4 lbs this month and lost 17 lbs since I started tracking my diet. My goal is to reach 105 lbs by the end of September, 7 months after I gave birth.

It is harder every month. This month, I threw half a bag of Ruffles and a whole jar of Nutella. I asked my husband to buy me some Ruffles from Costco, thinking that I can control myself. I ate a quarter of it in one seating and another quarter the next day. I didn’t feel good that night, but I just can’t stop eating. It was bad, that I threw it out. Then I switch to Nutella. I knew that Nutella is mostly sugar. 2 tablespoon of Nutella is 200 calories. I even started researching for Nutella alternatives. I found some recipes but haven’t tried it. I am surprised that I am still losing weight. I go over the calorie suggestions most days because of added snacks.

Plant Based Diet

We continue to eat mostly plant based/whole food meals. We have 14 favorite meals after a month of starting the diet. We have some favorites and some not so good ones. We’re still not vegan but limit our meat intake once or twice a week. I still consume some form of dairy for snacks (like chocolate covered raisins) and cheese (like pizza). It was easy for me to give up meat, especially beef. I think we’re getting the groove of this diet and I am happy with our progress. For those that want to give this a try, I recommend watching Gamechangers. It is a documentary from Netflix interviewing athletes that are on a vegan diet. You’ll be surprise that Arnold Schwarnegger is in it.

Strength Training

This is still going. I am hitting a plateau on weights on some exercises. I can now lift 65lbs on squats and on the “real bar”. I’m pretty happy with that because I look legit with the full size weights on the bar.

Last Stretch

I am going on my last month. It is so easy to stop at this weight, but I want to reach the goal I set. Wish me luck!

Health and Fitness

The Post Baby Weight Loss Challenge – Month 2 update

August 4, 2020 No Comments

July 26 was officially my second month of tracking my weight. I’m still on the right track, but I can tell that I have more days of giving in to cravings. I have a hard time saying no to sweets.

Ube Halaya – one of the many sweets that is hard to resist

First the numbers. I weigh 116.8 lbs on June 26. I weigh 111.6 lbs on July 26. I lost 5.2 lbs. I’m losing about a pound a week. Today, I weigh 110.6 lbs. I’ve been skipping breakfast for 2 months now. My first meal is lunch and for the past week, I’m typically not even hungry at that time. The hard part is snacking especially late night snacking.

Plant Based Diet

My husband and I watched a couple of documentaries on Netflix. One is Forks Over Knives. After watching it, we decided to try a plant based diet for majority of our meals. We’re not vegan. We are just replacing majority of our meals with a plant based recipe. Our lunch and dinner usually have meats in it about 98% of the time. We decided to have one meat day a week and come up with some recipe that are “vegan”. We are not very strict and we are still using what we have. For example, we have quite a bit of chicken broth and we uses that instead of vegetable broth if a recipe calls for it. So far we’re almost 2 weeks in it and we’re finding some really good recipes and some bad ones. Our goal is to continue this on for at least 3 months, in time for my husbands annual exam. He wants to see if it will change his cholesterol level. I also want to schedule my annual exam at that time.

Strength Training

We continue to lift weights about 3 times a week. At some point, I really want to add some cardio, but it takes time. I still want to see a pelvic floor PT before doing any ab work out, but that might need to wait until we’re done with this pandemic. I’m hoping that our local PT clinic will bring back the woman’s health PT. She was furloughed because of the pandemic.

Continuing On

My goal is to reach 105 lbs by the end of September. It’s starting to get harder. I have more days that I’m above my calorie intake and I’m definitely slacking more on tracking my diet. I feel good overall. I can fit on my clothes now pre pregnancy, but I still want to lose that 5 lbs – I’m almost there! Wish me luck!

Health and Fitness

The Post Baby Weight Loss Challenge – Month 1

July 12, 2020 No Comments

Last May, I seriously started tracking my weight. I was on my highest weight post baby #2 and I know that I’m ready to lose the baby weight I gained since baby #1. I added another 25 lbs while I was pregnant with baby #2. I lost 10 lbs about a month after giving birth.

Exercise

My husband and I started going to our home gym (set up by my husband) once AHP was sleep trained at about 10 weeks. It was my first time weight training and I have to start from 0 lbs, just using my body weight in the beginning. I’m also not doing any abs work out until I can see a pelvic floor physical therapist. Unfortunately, the women’s health PT was furloughed at our local ATI branch so I still haven’t seen one. By end of May, I started tracking my weight and my diet.

Tracking my diet

I was eating mindlessly and the pandemic didn’t help. I also have sweet tooth, and have an obsession with Nutella. It just hit me one day, after seeing a photo with my newborn that I didn’t like what I see. It also gives me a chance to be in control again with my own body or at least to feel that it’s mine shared of course with AHP, while I’m nursing.

Picking an App – Noom vs My Fitness Pal

I saw an Ad about Noom and started reading some reviews online. It seems that users were pretty happy with it and saw great results. At the same time, there’s a lot of comparison about Noom and MyFitnessPal. I downloaded both. I paid $1 to use Noom for 2 weeks while MyFitnessPal is free. On May 26, I had my first weigh in at 124.6 lbs. This is about 19 lbs heavier pre-pregnancy. Noom projected that I will be on my goal weight by September. I liked Noom in the beginning. Noom gives you article to read everyday as a form of motivation. As it advertised, it is all about psychology. Every item has a check mark. There are about 7 – 8 things you have to do for the day. You will also have access to a community and a coach after a free trial. MyFitnessPal has a premium version which you have to pay for. I only uses the free app. In my opinion MyFitnessPal has a better user interface and more food recipe on their database. It also has some exercises and articles that you can read on your own.

After about a week of tracking my food intake and my weight, I decided to use MyFitnessPal instead of Noom. Reading articles from Noom just didn’t work for me. On June 26, I’m at 116.8 lbs, losing 7.8 lbs in one month.

Using MyFitnessPal

It’s pretty straight forward. You put in your weight, height, age and your goal weight. You are then allowed to have a certain calories per day and you are supposed to track what you eat. Mine was set to 1230 calories. Since I’m nursing, I allow myself to go more than 1230 and consume about 300 to 500 calories. 1230 calories is not a lot, so I need to budget what I eat. At this point, I am really glad that I’m nursing so I can eat more.

In addition to counting calories, I also start intermittent fasting or really skipping breakfast. This is easy for me since I sleep during AHP’s first nap. I have coffee during the day and my first meal is usually around 11:30. In the beginning, I was really strict and I tried to consume just 1,230 calories, but I did get hungry and realize that I need to eat more since I’m still nursing and burning a lot of calories. I lost 3 lbs on that first week, which is probably not healthy. Right now, I’m losing about 1 – 1.5 lbs a week and I’m pretty happy with that.

Eating Right

I also learned more about nutrition. Obviously, I know that fruits and veggies are good for you but I never looked at the nutrients of foods that I eat. As I said, I like sweet A LOT. Knowing that 1 serving of Nutella or about 2 tablespoons are 200 calories, not to mention another 110 calories from the bread really put it in perspective. I am eating 310 calories of mostly sugar. I realized that I like rice a lot, but can cut it down and be satisfied with 2/3 of a cup. I went back on eating more fruits for dessert and been enjoying more cantaloupe, mangoes and apples. I have harder days. After 2 weeks, we celebrated MBP’s birthday, I devoured cupcakes and tons of Filipino food. There are days that I will still mindlessly eat once the kids are in bed, while I’m watching some TV. This is hard and I never thought that I will have a problem losing weight. In fact, growing up, I have a problem gaining weight. I tried to keep myself occupied and for the month, I listed some things that I want to do that will keep me busy.

Keeping track of weight

I weigh myself every morning, before I start my day. Weight fluctuates during the day and I’m usually lighter in the morning. This week, I fluctuate between 114.5 ~ 113.6 lbs. It’s annoying when I move up from the previous day since I like looking at the downward graph. I have to remind myself that I should really look at the trend on a weekly basis.

Goal

My end goal is to be at 105 lbs. I’ve been on this weight for a good 17 years before pregnancy. At the same time, I also want to build some muscles. I’d like to be on my ideal weight by the end of September, keep it and stay healthy.

Watch out for progress!!

Health and Fitness, Healthcare

The Cost of a NICU stay

November 18, 2019 No Comments

November is prematurity awareness month. According to March For Dimes “the preterm birth rate in the United States has worsened for a third year, rising to 9.93 percent in 2017. Premature birth and its complications are the largest contributors to infant death in this country and globally.”

MBP was born prematurely at 28 weeks and 5 days. Every parent will never forget the day that their kid was born. I will never forget that day and the 74 days in NICU after that.

I’m not going to discuss the emotional trauma that every parent that step in the NICU get – that warrants an entire separate post. I’m going to discussed about the financial implication of a NICU stay.

Direct Medical Cost

We were fortunate to have a great insurance that covered the entire cost of MBP’s stay and the post care that he needed a year after. In WA state, a child is eligible of medicaid regardless of parent’s income if his/her hospital stay exceeds 30 consecutive days. MBP received Medicaid as a secondary insurance. That said, the payment billed on Medicaid is very minimal since I reached my deductible when I gave birth.

The total claims for MBP’s first year of medical expenses is $1,050,098.31. Yes, IT IS OVER A MILLION. It is not a typo. His primary insurance paid $352,293.52 and Medicaid paid $693.89. These are for 195 total claims that was processed.

Insurance gets massive discounts on these claims. This is the time that I’m so grateful to my former employer for providing good health coverage. My insurance even called me after MBP was discharged just to check on him and ensure that we are getting the care we needed.

Indirect Expenses

There are other costs associated to NICU stay other than the actual medical expenses. Funny that we actually spent more on them than the direct medical expenses.

Lodging – Some families don’t live close to the hospital. We were lucky to live in a state that has a Level 4 NICU. I was lucky to deliver my kid in the same hospital and don’t need to fly him from other states. I know other families that have to deal with it.
Transportation – We paid $200/month for monthly parking. The hospital is close to downtown Seattle. When you’re dealing with a NICU stay, finding parking is the least you care about. We were also in an out during the day, delivering the milk that I pumped. We paid $600 in total since MBP was in the NICU for 2.5 months. It’s funny that we pay more for parking than the actual medical cost since it was covered by Medicaid.
Food / Eating out – I didn’t even track this, but I know we had a lot of take outs. I went back to work a couple of weeks after giving birth to save my maternity leave once MBP is discharge. There’s just no time to prep food, between pumping, working, driving in and out of the hospital and a lot and lots and lots of crying.

Healthcare is Important for Early Retiree

We can talk about probability. Statistically, 90% of pregnant women will have a full term pregnancy. They will never have to worry about the high cost of a NICU stay. But if you’re one of the minority group in the 10%, you are out of luck. I talked about Medicaid kicking in after 30 days. Some parents in the hospital actually wants this to happen just so they can afford healthcare. The claims of MBP’s first 30 days, just for the hospital stay is abut $200K. My overall out of pocket expense was $4k at the time and I paid less than that because MBP’s secondary insurance kicked in.