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How to Zip your Coat with One Hand


It's That Time of Year



It's almost that time of year again, fall; the season that doesn't seem to be able to make up its mind on whether it wants to be warm or cold. As we transition from summer to winter; it becomes colder, we began retrieving our winter clothing from the back of our closets, and we begin shopping for a new coat that is both stylish and warm. The thing is though, is that you can choose the most stylish, comfy, and warm coat in the store, but unless you zip it up, it's not going to do you much good during a cold snap or winter weather. In this blog, I am going to teach you how to zip your coat with one hand.

Methods to Zipping your Coat for Children and Teens with Disabilities







When I was younger, zipping my coat was one of those tasks that were hard for me. What normally takes people roughly ten to fifteen seconds to zip their coat would take me five minutes to line up the zipper, hold it still, and grabbing the little metal piece of the zipper to pull up one to zip my coat. Each time I tried to zip my own coat, it would either not line up right, the zipper would get stuck, or I would start getting frustrated with the multiple failed attempts and end up having mom or dad zip my coat for me.

As I started getting a little older, my parents found a few different ways that I could easily zip my own coat with one hand. Some of the ways include;

  • Zipper pulls
  • Key chains
By using these types of products; not only did it make it easier to zip my coat up, but it also added some cute personality to my coat on those cold and sometimes snowy days.

Other Neat Products for All Ages

As our society becomes more and more advanced, they have come out with new and improved ways to zip your coat with one hand. When I did some research on the different ideas they came out with and was really impressed by the level of creativity they put into each product. Some of these products include, but aren't limited too;

 I am just going to put it out there, I think this is one of the coolest inventions I have ever seen and to be honest, I want one of these jackets. With a wide style of coats, sweatshirts, and vests for all ages it helps make zipping your coat a lot easier. When I watched the video of this product, it described it as a zipper that automatically aligns when its two magnets on the base of the zipper clicks together from the side















































































A Method I Found that best Works for Me 

Over the years, I played around with different methods to see which one would help me the most as an adult. For me, out of all the methods, I have tried I would say the easiest way for me to zip my coat as an adult would be to push my zipper up against my leg. By doing this, it helps me keep the two parts of the zipper lined up; so I can connect them together, hold the two pieces together with one of my fingers, and then pull up on the zipper to zip my coat.  



With these helpful tips; you can stay warm, comfy, and stylish while gaining independence being able to zip your own coat with one hand.

Losing Weight with Disabilities

 

On average,45 million people according to the Boston Medical Center go on a diet and are trying to lose weight each year. That is a lot of people trying to become the healthiest version of themself.  Don't you think? The sad part is that about 2/3 of the population that live in America are either overweight or obese. Over time, a person's weight can start to cause problems on their health which can include mental, physical, and even spiritual problems. As research on the topic continues to grow, there have been many different ways that people can lose weight which includes; diets, exercise, pills, and a number of other things, but which method(s) are the best ones to use when trying to lose weight with a disability?

In this blog, I am going to share my weight loss journey, what I recommend, and provide you with some ways that will help you lose weight while becoming the best version of yourself.

My Weightloss Journey

I was never really the type of person who thought about my weight very often; at least not on a conscious level. I walked around town feeling confident in what I was wearing, loved how my body looked, and had tons of energy to do the activities I loved to do with ease. I wore a size 12 and loved what my body let me do on a daily basis, but that turned around as I got older.

My weight loss journey, I would describe as a rollercoaster with a bunch of hills. I started it when I was about 15 after I dislocated my knee just rolling over on the trampoline without even jumping, having knee surgery not long after to reconstruct my knee and to put screws in to hold my knee in place since it kept popping out of place after it took the doctors two attempts to relocate it after I dislocated the first time, and on top of that, the times I went clothing shopping for school I gained so much weight that when I found something I liked, they didn't have my size. After a while, my energy level started dropping to the point that activities that were normally really easy for me began to get harder, I felt tired all the time, and felt a lot older than I really was at the time. At one point, when I weighed myself to get an idea of what my weight was, I ended up gaining so much weight that I weighed 204lbs. From this point, I decided something needed to change and searched online to see what different methods there was for weight loss.

For many years I tried doing diets, taking pills, and exercise, but I would either get too tired with how strick the diet was, forget to take the pills, or I wouldn't take the time in my day to consistently exercise throughout the week. Nothing I tried seem to work and each time I checked the scale to see what my weight was, it would go down a pound and then it would go back up. This happened several times and after a while, I got so discouraged that I gave up on trying to lose weight altogether.

More recently though, my mom and I were at a loss with why I wasn't losing weight considering how active I was, the fact that I didn't eat tons of food, and wasn't really into snacking on junk food, from there we decided to get me tested to see if I had a thyroid problem. That same day I got the test done, the test results came back saying I had hyperthyroidism, and the doctor got me on a medication that I take once a day to help my thyroid. Unlike the previous attempts of trying to lose weight, I was more serious about losing weight and came up with a daily routine that will help me lose weight and become the healthiest version of myself.

My Daily Routine 

  • 7:30- Eat Breakfast 
  • 8:00- Do a Reiki self- treatment  while listening to calming music with a timer every 3 minutes
  • 9:00- Do a meditation on how I can be the healthiest version of myself today
  • 10:00- Go for at least an hour walk 
  • 12:00- Eat lunch
  • 1:00- Do self-care activity ( for me, I either read or go for another walk)
  • 3:00- Work on Alyssa-bilities blog
  • 4:00 to 8:00- Family time and dinner
  • 8:15- Do a Reiki self-treatment 
  • 9:00- Do nightly meditation
  • 10:00-Bedtime

What I Realized

During the years as I tried many different methods of losing weight, I realized two things;
  1. You have to be mentally ready before being physically motivated 
  2. If you make working out fun. You will be more likely to stick to it.
When looking back at my previous attempts of losing weight I realized that yes my body was ready to lose weight and to be healthier, but my mind wasn't quite motivated enough to take the necessary steps I knew I needed to take in order to be the healthiest version of my self. Which is why doing diets, exercise, and taking pills were so hard for me. This more recent attempt though I tried new methods, a new way of eating, and found a variety of ways to make losing weight more fun and achievable.

What I Recommend

Losing weight is not easy. If anything it is one of the most challenging tasks to accomplish, in my opinion. Don't you think? When a person is trying to lose weight they put in all this time and effort to try these different methods just for your weight to bounce up or down and then having to deal with stubborn fat that doesn't seem to budge. The thing is with weight loss is that it is not just something you work hard towards, accomplish what you want, and stop it all together hoping that all your work will just stick. Weight loss is more of taking the different steps to develop a new and healthy lifestyle change. As I continue my weight loss journey I have gotten a bunch of helpful advice from family members, other blog sites, reading other people's weight loss stories, and from many news articles on different ways to make losing weight something you can stick with while having fun. Some of the things I recommend doing that have helped me include;
  • Using a smart goals template- This method helped me a lot as the first step on my weight loss journey because it helped me organize my goal, is holding me accountable, and it gives me something to look at to keep me motivated to keep going to reach my goal.



  • Ditch the scale

When I first started my weight loss journey, I got on the scale at least once a week to see if my weight went down, but what I noticed was that my weight would fluctuate down and I would get excited, then my weight would climb back up, leaving me feeling discouraged. It was a vicious cycle that was not doing me any good, so I decided to say good-bye to the altogether. I didn't throw it away at all, but I decided that I would get on once a month if that and not touch it for the rest of the time. Instead, I resorted to other ways to help me keep track of my weight loss progress by paying attention to how my body looked in the mirror and how to lose my clothing felt.

  • Water is your friend

The tricky thing about going on a diet is that they restrict you from a lot of different foods, and yes by going on a diet you can lose weight, but as soon as you achieve your goal weight in which you stop the diet then you end up gaining all that weight back when you start bringing back in the foods you ate before the diet. This is the main reason why I never followed through with dieting. What I try to do on a daily basis is to drink a big glass of water( about 8 ounces) or a full bottle of water 30 minutes before a meal. By doing this, it helps control your hunger so when it is meal time you eat a small portion of food.

  • Exercise at your own pace
Have you ever heard the saying " slow and steady, wins the race"? I find this so true in many different situations, but I find it to apply really well when it comes to weight loss. At the start of my journey, I started slowly walking at a regular pace around my neighborhood for 15 minutes, then increased it to 30 minutes, and increased the time by 15 minutes each time up to 60+ minutes until I can walk each of those times easily. From there, I started adding inclines, did some HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) which is where a person walks for a certain amount of time and then run for a certain amount of time, but I modified it to do a slow walk for a certain amount of time and then switched to a speed walk, following this pattern throughout my workout. The biggest thing to remember is that starting out slow and working your way up is a lot safer than pushing yourself too far and risk injuring yourself.

Another thing I loved to do that was a great workout was taking a Zumba class with my mom. We went 2-3 times a week and had a total blast as we giggled, sweated, and tried to figure out the moves to each song while looking like total dorks in the back of the class. When finding a workout routine, I highly recommend doing something that involves having fun. For me, as many of you already know I love getting out in nature and moving, so going for walks and taking a Zumba class is the perfect type of activity to do because they are fun and you don't even realize that you are working out while doing them.

Exercises you can do with a disability

All over the internet, there are many different exercise videos, dance videos, and programs for all levels. I knew that there were a lot of videos, but I didn't realize how many they had with modifications for people with disabilities. 

Floor Exercises


Chair Exercises 

With the right mindset, the right exercises, and the will power to stay motivated can make losing weight a much easier task to accomplish. I am still working on my weight loss journey and intend to accomplish my goal of weighing 160lbs.  By taking the necessary steps, you can start the journey to the healthiest version of yourself today.

Traveling With Disabilities


Did you know that getting out in nature actually can prevent or treat a wide range of health problems? I didn't know this, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Being in nature is relaxing, helps reduce things like anxiety or stress, and overall raises your vibration. With this being said, what's a better way to get out in nature than disconnect from your everyday life and taking a vacation to one of the many beautiful destinations the world has to offer. Each year, about 1.4 billion people travel around the world for work, to visit family, or to explore the vast landscape that they have never been to before, but how do you travel with disabilities?

In this blog, I am going to talk about my travel experience, the challenges of traveling with a disability, how to solve those problems, and a traveling with disabilities checklist.

My Traveling Experience

When I was younger I used to get massive migraines; the ones that spread all over your head, make your head pound with the smallest noises, bring tears to your eyes, and leaves you laying in the darkest room you can find for hours. I got these migraines when I was in the sun for too long, got overheated with different activities, and even when we would fly on a plane due to the change in elevation. So, basically, if I didn't take frequent brakes, stay in the shade as much as possible, and stay out of the sky, then I would get a massive migraine.

This made traveling a little interesting, but not impossible. Until I was older and the migraines went away, my family would drive to every destination we wanted to go to each summer. My parents would stay up late packing for whatever trip we were going on, go to bed, wake up super early in the morning, loaded our suitcases in the minivan, got my sister and me in the car, and drove 28+ hours driving straight through with my mom and dad taking turns driving while the other one slept. The things parents do for their children. We did this for many years by driving back and forth to visit family in Virginia, going to Disney World, and heading west to California to go to Disney Land.

Once I got older my parents revisited the flying idea when they surprised me with a family trip to Jamaica for my 16th birthday. At first, I didn't even know we were going to Jamaica, my parents told me that we were going to spend my birthday with our family in Virginia. They set up the trip, my sister knew about the trip, my teachers at school knew, and even the fortune cookies I got with my meals at Panda Express kept saying that I was going on a vacation, talked about a beach, and said I would be going to this place soon. I have no clue how I didn't figure it out sooner. My parents even asked me if I wanted to take my snorkeling mask and I said "yes" not giving it a second thought that there are no places to snorkel in Virginia. We flew from Denver to Texas and the whole time we were on the flight I thought we were going to Virginia until we landed, got off the plane, and was halfway to our next flight when my mom stopped and said "we are not going to spend your birthday in Virginia," there was a moment of silence as I looked at her. Then she continued in an excited voice;" we are going to Jamaica!"  My jaw dropped as I felt the feeling of happiness, excitement, and surprised flooding through my body. We continued walking through the airport and boarded our flight.

With both of the flights to and from Jamaica, I had no problems with migraines.

Challenges with Traveling with a Disability


Luckily for my family, all the times that we have traveled everything went smoothly and we always had a fun time; with only one instance that we had to take my sister to the hospital due to some kidney problems. With some research though, I was able to find you guy a list of some of the most common challenges that you might encounter when traveling with a disability.

  • Getting assistance from public places if you need it
  • Finding places that are handicap friendly
  • Finding activities to do with disabilities
  • Not having enough of the medication that the person with disabilities take
  • Not having your own doctors there to help you in health emergencies 

These are just a few of the many challenges that you may encounter when traveling with disabilities or someone with a disability.

How to Solve these Challenges

When you travel, your focus should be on having fun; not worrying about trying to solve problems while on vacation.  The fact is though, that challenges will come up maybe not every time, but they will show up sooner or later. With that being said there are a few different ways you can solve these problems.


  • Call or find a customer service person for the airport, hotel, or the places you go for different activities.
  • Find an alternative activity when you cant do the same activity as everyone else
During our trip to Jamaica, we did an activity where we were going to hike up a waterfall, but when our guide had us line up and hold hands to go up the waterfall was too challenging for me. I would get pulled forward as the line of people went up the steep hill and then I would be pulled backward by people trying to get up the rocks. It was just a stressful situation and wasn't very fun for me, so my mom grabbed me out of line and played on the beach while my dad and sister continued up the waterfall. As my mom and I walked along the beach we came across a paved walkway that went up right alongside the waterfall to where we could see the people hiking the waterfall and still be able to enjoy the activity in a safer way.
  • Ask your doctor if you can get refills on your pills early ( if you take any) so you have enough for the length of time you are on vacation.
  • Have a doctor's note and phone number on hand

Traveling with Disabilities Checklist

Call Ahead

When planning a trip that involves traveling with someone who has disabilities, it is a good idea to call the airport, hotel, and any other places that you will be visiting for different activities while on your trip, so they can have time to accommodate the person with the disability and provide them with assistance if needed.

Be Specific and Clear

When talking to a place either on the phone or in-person be specific and clear when explaining the disability and what you need while on your trip, so they can help you properly.

Make an appointment with your doctor 

Before going on a trip it is a good idea to make an appointment to check and see if they think it is a good idea to travel. During this appointment, you can get a doctor's note stating the condition,medications, potential complications, special needs, and other pertinent information along with a phone number to get a hold of your doctor while you travel. 

Bring Extra Medications

When packing for a trip it is a good idea to make sure you have enough meds to last the length of your trip. If you don't have enough, ask your doctor if you can fill your perception early, so you can pick it up before your trip.

Get Places Early

For me, I rather be someplace early and wait than being late then ending up having to rush around and have unnecessary stress. Plus with a disability, it is nice to be able to go at your own paise because it is safer, you can watch your surrounding better, find where you are going easier, and you can just focus on having fun.

For extra resources on how to make traveling with disability stress-free, simple, and enjoyable check out this website.

Traveling can be a lot of fun for the whole family with the right resources, planning, and knowing that you will be taken care of where ever your adventure takes you.

Nothing Is Impossible






 I love learning about mindfulness and mindset for so many reasons, but the biggest one is because it can easily be influenced by the words we speak each and every day. Everything we do in our day to day life is based on choices and that goes along with the situations we speak into our life. Think about it for a moment, if a person said"I am poor and can't afford anything" then what types of situations is he bringing into his life? More debt and hardship.

  If he changed around his words and said: "I know that I found myself in this situation that I don't like, but if I work hard, be smart with my money, and save it, I will have an abundance of money for all my needs and wants." In the example, I gave you, the man changed the way he talked about his situation and can now work on believing that he too can have an abundance of money; which then will send a message to the universe telling them that he is willing to work towards changing his situation. The universe will then, send along situations of abundance, prosperity, freedom, and happiness into his life. 

 As I continue on this journey of personal development I am starting to realize that changing the way you say something not only can affect financial situations, but it can affect small ones like doing an activity. In this blog, I am going to share how saying things in a certain way has impacted my life, ways to change your mindset from negative thinking to positive thinking, and provide you with one of the many activities that I can do with one hand.

How Changing The Way I Speak In Situations Impacted My Life



One of the biggest things I can't stand is when people make excuses for why they can't do something, why they did something a certain way that didn't work out, and why they are in the situation they are in. To me, it is a sign that they don't trust or believe in themself enough to tell themself the truth, to do a certain activity, or even take responsibility for their actions, whatever the situation may be at the time. I very well could have used my disabilities as an excuse for many different situations I have been in, but that is nowhere close to the type of person I am. Instead, I am the type of person that doesn't make excuses in any situation I find myself in, I always tell the truth to myself and others, and I try new things all the time with a growth mindset. As a little kid, when I was in Elementary and Middle school was when changing around the way I said things really came into play. You see, I absolutely loved school, but I struggled very hard when it came to math. I would work with my teachers, do practice worksheets, and even did Khan Academy for a while, but nothing would stick. I remember sitting down with my mom to work on math lessons and end up crying and saying "I can't do it" because I didn't understand what my mom was trying to teach me. Then, at the beginning of 8th grade when we went in for back to school night I met the teacher who got me thinking in a totally different way. As the year went on, I still struggled with math, but it wasn't until one open office hour session when I sat down with her to work on a math assignment that we were working on in class when my eyes started tearing up right in front of her and I said yet again " I can't do it, I don't understand." She looked at me and said " you can do it, you just don't understand yet" and we kept working on the assignment taking it one problem after another. What she told me that day stuck with me ever since and I continued to repeat the words she told me, kept practicing, and started getting better math grades. By the end of my 8th-grade year, not only did I pass the class with a B+, gained my love for math, and overcame my biggest struggle; but I was surprised at the continuation ceremony when my math teacher picked me out of my whole 8th-grade class to be math student of the year. 

Ways To Change The Way You Speak




Our mind is more powerful than we think. It is awesome how just with our minds we can do things like manifest different situations into our life, heal ourselves, and even have fun playing different mind games using our intuition. With this being said though how can you change your thinking pattern from negative to positive? Some of the things you can do include;
  • Say three positive things about each negative thought
When we first started learning about mindfulness and mindset this was a big way that helped us identify when we were speaking negatively about something and then we would say three positive things about that situation to get rid of the negativity. This was a really good and effective way for my family to start speaking positively.
  • Repeat a positive statement in your head multiple times
This was very helpful for me when I used to repeat the words that my math teacher told me. By constantly doing this when I worked on a challenging assignment helped me think positively, stay focused, and get the assignment done.


You Can Do Anything You Put Your Mind To...


Everyone has a motto, a sort of sentence or phrase that they live by, something that they turn to when they need guidance. For me,  my motto has been " if you say you can't, then you won't; but if you say you can, then you will. The chose is yours." I have no clue who wrote this or how I heard of it, but it has been my motto since I was a little girl. 


This is going to sound weird, but one of my top favorite activities is doing yard work. Recently my family and I landscaped our whole backyard which included several hours of pulling up weeds, moving yard furniture around, moving rocks out of the yard, laying down landscaping fabric, shoveling a wagon full of p gravel, wheeling it into the back yard, shoveling it out of the wagon, spreading it out, and repeating the process until we were finished with the pile of p gravel, then repeating the same process with two piles of mulch as we did with the p gravel. It was hard work, but you know what it was fun, challenging, gave us exercise, and turned out very pretty. While we were working on the yard, I started off by just holding down corners of the landscaping fabric and flattening the mulch down along both sides where the grass came up to the mulch on one side and the rocks that were put in by the builder to help with draining came up to the mulch on the other side. It was helpful to my parents and I was happy to help in that way, but it wasn't exactly the challenging type of work where you get a workout with moving from side to side as you do with moving rocks or bending over while moving around to pick up weeds that I really love to do. A little later in the day, after my dad brought back another wagon full of mulch and dumped it out of the wagon, so they could begin to spread it out, I took it upon myself to do some harder work. I looked at the empty wagon, then at the gate leading into the front yard, then back at the wagon again and said: "I can go shovel another load of mulch out of the truck while you guys are spreading it out." There was a moment of silence and then my mom looked up at me and asked "are you sure you can do it?" I looked at her with total confidence and said" I can do it" and picked up the handle to the wagon. Once I got the wagon lined up behind the bed of the truck, I picked up the shovel and began shoveling mulch from the back of the truck to the wagon. It was so much fun and it was the type of challenging work that I love doing. After filling the wagon up with mulch, I put down the shovel, picked up the handle to the wagon, and wheeled it into the back yard to get dumped. I repeated this process a few more loads feeling super happy being able to do something that got me working hard, gave me good exercise, and most of all closer to nature. At one point while I was deeply enjoying my shoveling duties, I didn't even realize my dad came back upfront until I heard a clicking sound and looked up to find him taking pictures of me. I continued working to finish the load I was on while my dad did his thing and took the load into the backyard where my mom was working on leveling the mulch out across the landscaping fabric. In the video, I am going to share with you, thanks to my dad who secretly took it while he was taking pictures😉, shows me finishing up one of the many loads that I shoveled all by my self. Out of all the videos I have done for you guys, this one is my favorite because it really captures a moment that shows what you can do when you put your mind to it, even when you have disabilities.



To Conclude



The mind is very powerful. The way you think, the way you act, and the way you speak really do have an impact on how you live your life. As you go out into the world this week, I want you to know that you are wonderful, smart, talented, and by believing in yourself; you can do more than you think in this world.