Do it for the Cookies!

I use to see the Blood Services truck driving by me and always think "wow, there must be a lot of blood in this truck" I would always shiver and quench at the thought of even seeing blood. Just going for a blood test alone needed some serious preparation. 

Then it suddenly hit me! What if I donated blood? What is more important, my fear of needles and blood or potentially saving someones life? I thought long and hard and by coincidence, I was at the mall and the blood donation clinic was there. Without giving it a second thought, I immediately went to the registration desk and registered to donate. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. 

As I approached the nurse she asked me some personal questions and pricked my finger. She could tell that I was nervous and scared and was slightly hesitant in allowing me to donate. However, she allowed me to donate anyways.

Once I got to the final stage, I lay down on the bed waiting to finally donate my blood. I looked away,  as the nurse stuck the needle in my arm and told me to relax and squeeze my hand. She also put a paper towel on my arm so that I don't see the needle. 

My First Blood Donation

Ten minutes later, I was done; it was that fast! I had my cookies and my juice and sat with a veteran who has donated blood over 300 times in his life. During my conversation with him, he explained to me that each blood donation that you make saves three lives. 

I realized the importance of donating blood. It's not about the acknowledgment you may get, it's not about conquering your fears, it's not about you at all. It's about saving a life. 

It's only 1 hour every 56 days. That's 1 HOUR out of 1344 HOURS!

The ten minutes of pain that you may endure will save someone who has been living their whole life in pain. In the time it takes for your to check your Facebook, you could save a life. 

Think about how many people will have a smile on their face simply because of your blood. There are the three people whose life you have saved, and their friends and their families whose lives have been blessed, and all this simply because you donated your blood. It is the best and most rewarding feeling in the world. 

So, why is donating important to me? I donate because I want to. I love donating blood because it's my way of giving back, there's nothing better that I can do for myself and others than give back. I donate because I care about people in pain. It's important for me to donate because it makes me happy to know that a part of me will give someone the gift of life. I donate because a part of me will make someone happy.  

                                          

                    Don't forget, after every donation you get FREE COOKIES! 

Food Worth Dying For

I recently came upon this video that I simply had to share with everyone. The Heart Attack Grill is one of the most unhealthy food establishments I have ever heard of. This establishment is a hospital theme restaurant that refer to their waitresses as "nurses", take orders "prescriptions" from the customers "patients" A tag is placed on the patient's wrist showing their orders. The manager, known as "Dr. Jon", examines each patient with a stethoscope before and after their meal.
The menu consists of four types of cheese burgers; "Single," "Double," "Triple" and "Quadruple Bypass hamburger (named after the Heart Bypass Surgery). These burgers range anywhere from 0.5 to 2 lb of beef (up to 8000 calories) and all you can eat fries.
To make matters worst, they do not have any diet beverages and their French Fries are deep fried in 100% lard. The hamburger buns are also toasted with a lard spread. They have no lettuce in their hamburgers because lettuce is considered healthy. Their milkshakes consist of milk, chocolate and butter.
If you are able to eat an entire Triple Bypass or Quadruple Bypass, you get a final check up by the Doctor and then transported from your seat to your car seat in a wheelchair by one of the nurses.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about this restaurant is the fact that the owner of The Heart Attack Grill  was originally a nutritionist! Another shocking fact is that customers over 350 lb (160 kg) can eat for free and have unlimited burgers as long as they can prove their weight by weighing themselves with a "doctor" or "nurse" before each burger.

I wasn't too sure of what to think when I saw this video, I was speechless and shocked at the amount of success this restaurant has. Looking at the burger, it doesn't even look appetizing - it just looks absolutely disgusting. The message alone that this restaurant sends out encourages people to live an extremely unhealthy lifestyle and to live for the moment that really and truly won't last. According to Jon Basso (owner of the establishment) you only live once so you should live each day at a time. I agree with this statement to some extent. I agree that we should live each day like it's your last try new things and new adventures, live for the moment. However, I do not encourage 'living for the moment' when it becomes a risk for your health. No matter how amazing the food is, the taste is only temporary,the calories will last. It is a matter of smart thinking, do the things you wish to do but within reason. If you are extremely over weight, you already have several health conditions that you need to take care of. Harming your body further is the last thing you want to do. This is literally food worth dying for, and this was the case for the spokesman of The Heart Attack Grill who died at the age of 29 on March 1, 2011 weighing in at a whopping 575 lb!