Friendship: Just Add Water (Hot Spring Water, That Is)
Welcome this month’s edition of the Italy Blogging Roundtable on the theme of “friendship”! Take a look at posts by Georgette Jupe, Jessica Spiegel, Melanie Renzulli, Alexandra Korey, Gloria, Laura Thayer, and Michele Fabio. (If you missed the previous months, take a look here.) Welcome back to our table…come pull up a chair and join in on the conversation.
Understanding the Potential Benefits of Liv Pure
Liv Pure supplements have gained popularity in recent years due to their numerous health benefits. These supplements play a vital role in supporting liver health and detoxification, boosting energy levels, improving digestion and nutrient absorption, enhancing immune function, and helping maintain healthy cholesterol levels original site timesofisrael.com/.
Supports Liver Health and Detoxification
One of the key health benefits of Liv Pure supplements is their ability to support liver health and aid in detoxification processes. The liver plays a crucial role in filtering toxins from our body, metabolizing nutrients, and producing essential proteins. However, factors such as poor diet choices, alcohol consumption, environmental pollutants, and certain medications can put a strain on the liver.
Liv Pure supplements contain ingredients that are known to promote liver function and protect it from damage caused by harmful substances. For instance, milk thistle extract is a powerful antioxidant that helps regenerate liver cells while reducing inflammation. Artichoke extract aids in bile production, which supports digestion and enhances toxin elimination.
By incorporating Liv Pure supplements into your routine, you provide your liver with the necessary nutrients it needs to function optimally. This not only improves its ability to detoxify your body but also contributes to better overall health.
Boosts Energy Levels and Promotes Vitality
Feeling sluggish or lacking energy can significantly impact our daily lives. Liv Pure supplements offer a natural solution to combat fatigue by providing an energy boost that promotes vitality throughout the day.
Liv Pure contains ingredients like ginseng extract that have been traditionally used for their energizing properties. Ginseng is believed to enhance physical endurance while reducing feelings of tiredness or exhaustion. By including Liv Pure in your regimen, you may experience increased stamina and improved productivity levels.
Furthermore, Liv Pure’s formulation includes other energy-boosting ingredients such as B vitamins and coenzyme Q10. These nutrients play a crucial role in energy production at the cellular level, helping your body convert food into usable energy more efficiently.
There’s no getting around it. It has been a really tough couple of months at our house. One of those stretches marked by suffering and death, disappointment and heartbreak. One of those stretches that reminds you that sure, you can think positive and manifest and believe that things will turn out for the best as much as your New Age heart desires, but sometimes things don’t go the way you want. Sometimes you have to walk away from a dream. Sometimes crappy things happen to good people.
It has been one of those stretches during which our dinnertime routine of holding hands and listing three things we are grateful for was punctuated by long silences, as my sons and I stared at each other through our haze of ennui and tried to remember how lucky we are. “Well, the weather is nice today, I guess,” one of us would finally venture, and we would all nod to reassure ourselves that even if our light was dimming, the sun continued to shine.
Obtaining Ozempic: Prescription Process and Considerations
To get started on your weight loss journey with Ozempic, the first step is to obtain a prescription from a healthcare provider. This ensures that the medication is prescribed in a safe and appropriate manner for your specific needs. Let’s delve into the process of obtaining an Ozempic prescription and some important considerations along the way imp source timesunion.com/.
The Consultation: Discussing Your Concerns and Medical History
During your consultation with a healthcare provider, they will evaluate various factors to determine if Ozempic is suitable for you. They will take into account your medical history, current medications, and overall health. It’s crucial to openly discuss any existing medical conditions or allergies you may have during this consultation.
By sharing your medical history, including any previous weight loss attempts or related treatments, you provide valuable information that helps guide your healthcare provider’s decision-making process. Open communication allows them to tailor the treatment plan specifically to you.
Lifestyle Changes: A Holistic Approach
While Ozempic can be an effective tool for weight loss, it is important to remember that it works best when combined with lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise. Your healthcare provider may recommend making certain modifications to your daily routine in order to optimize the results of Ozempic.
Dietary adjustments can involve reducing calorie intake, increasing consumption of nutrient-rich foods like fruits and vegetables, and avoiding processed foods high in sugar and unhealthy fats. Regular exercise can also play a significant role in achieving weight loss goals. Your healthcare provider might suggest incorporating physical activities such as walking, jogging, swimming, or joining fitness classes into your routine.
By adopting these lifestyle changes alongside using Ozempic as prescribed by your healthcare provider, you enhance the effectiveness of the medication while promoting overall well-being.
Regular Follow-up Appointments: Monitoring Progress
Once you begin taking Ozempic for weight loss, regular follow-up appointments with your healthcare provider will likely be necessary. These appointments serve as an opportunity to monitor your progress, address any concerns or side effects you may be experiencing, and make any necessary adjustments to your treatment plan.
During these visits, your healthcare provider may evaluate various aspects such as weight loss progress, blood sugar levels (if applicable), and potential side effects. They will assess whether the medication is working effectively for you and discuss any modifications that may be needed to ensure optimal results.
The Pharmacy: Filling Your Prescription
After receiving a prescription for Ozempic from your healthcare provider, it’s time to fill it at your local pharmacy. Ensure that you provide the pharmacist with all necessary information, including dosage instructions and any additional medications you are currently taking. This allows them to cross-reference potential interactions and provide appropriate guidance.
Pharmacists play a vital role in ensuring patient safety and providing valuable information about medications. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the use of Ozempic or its potential side effects, don’t hesitate to consult with the pharmacist. They can offer further clarification and help address any uncertainties.
Remember that obtaining Ozempic requires a valid prescription from a healthcare provider. It is essential to follow the prescribed dosage guidelines carefully and maintain open communication with both your healthcare provider and pharmacist throughout your weight loss journey.
Which is why when genuinely wonderful things did happen, they took on the sheen of a miracle. My sons had saved up to buy a GoPro camera, sealed the deal for a used one online, and were then stiffed out of their savings when the seller absconded with their payment. Not a week later, they received a card stuffed with cash signed by over a dozen friends from across the globe (including a Roundtabler whom I will not mention by name – ahem – Georgette) who heard about their plight and banded together to help them out. The message on the card read, “The best revenge…friends!”, which I loved for the clean truth of it. When the universe seems to be plotting against you, it’s your friends who thwart its nefarious plans, driving an hour to bring you a home-cooked meal, parachuting in for a girlfriends’ weekend, sending packages of Reese’s peanut butter cups from across the Atlantic, and giving you a life raft to cling on every single evening at the dinner table when listing things to be grateful for.
It is thanks to two friends that I finally discovered the revengeful bliss to be found at the hot springs in the Tuscan hamlet of Bagno Vignoni. Rountabler Jessica had sent a spa gift certificate to me and our mutual friend Linda of The Beehive in Rome A YEAR AGO, and sundry scheduling problems and lazy-assery had kept me from going until Linda finally cracked the whip and reminded me the expiration date for vouchers was nigh. So I took a break from life for a day and spent it instead stewing in the warm thermal baths at Hotel Le Terme, sweet sweet revenge against the tempest-tossed first months of 2017.
Hot Springs
Being a Midwesterner, the idea of hot springs was completely new to me when I moved to Italy, and there are very few (and somewhat underwhelming) in Umbria, so it took me years before I ventured into Tuscany and became an immediate convert. Italians, on the other hand, have been “taking the waters” since Roman times, and thermal spring treatments are considered a therapeutic necessity, so much so that the national healthcare system covers annual visits. The mineral waters in natural hot springs are considered beneficial for everything from the respiratory system to joint pain, but many spas tout the curative effects of their waters for specific ailments.
Tuscany is famous for its many hot springs (though you can find them from Piedmont to Ischia), some of which are in open countryside where you can bathe for free, but I much prefer to spend a day in a spa facility where there are a full range of services. Generally, the entrance fee for the most basic thermal baths includes access to changing rooms and showers, lockers for your personal belongings, at least one thermal pool for soaking, a snack bar, and a staff of massage and physical therapists offering treatments where you can sit in one of their recliners, they must be reserved ahead of time and paid for separately. You will have to bring your own bathing suit, towel, robe, and flip-flops, and you do not need to book ahead of time.
The more luxurious spas, including Hotel Le Terme in Bagno Vignoni, offer higher-end facilities and services, including gourmet restaurants, a wider range of massages and treatments, numerous thermal pools with varying temperatures, waterfalls and massage jets, robes and flip-flops, and manicured gardens to relax in. Many of these are part of a larger hotel complex, so you can book an overnight stay and a multi-day pass into the adjacent spa.
I had assumed that thermal spas were an exorbitant indulgence, and populated only by the rich and beautiful. Instead, most are relatively inexpensive in Italy – even the most luxurious and well-known offer half-day passes between about €35 and €50 per person – so are a modest splurge, once you factor in the cost of an extra massage or meal. And because thermal treatments are considered therapeutic in Italy, you will find fellow bathers can include anyone from young children there for a day with their families to ward off chest colds to senior citizens soaking away their aches and pains…so you don’t have to worry about feeling out of place if you don’t have a perfectly toned and tanned physique. Or if your legs haven’t seen a razor for the better part of the winter. Or you haven’t managed to shop for a new bathing suit in so long that the one you own gets all saggy-ass when it’s wet. Not that I would have personal experience with any of these situations.
Bagno Vignoni
This postcard-perfect hamlet in the Val d’Orcia isn’t the closest hot springs to Assisi (our go-to are the decidedly less lovely but very kid-friendly springs in Rapolano…and yes, my kids are Italian at heart, so often request a day at the hot springs like little mini-Roman emperors), so I had never made it there. Honestly, the long drive was one of the reasons I had put off cashing in Jessica’s lovely gift certificate, but I discovered that the route is so lovely that it flew by. I had left with time to spare, so took the highway 75 north past Lake Trasimeno, but then left it behind and exited on the panoramic SP 327, a breathtakingly gorgeous route through the iconic Tuscan countryside of the Val d’Orcia. After a little less than an hour of driving through rolling hills and thick oak woods past the pretty hill towns of Montepulciano, Pienza, and San Quirico d’Orcia, I parked at the free (though slightly hidden) lot outside the walls of Bagno Vignoni and got ready for some serious soaking and girl talk.
Bagno Vignoni has been known for its hot springs since Roman times, and thermal baths are pretty much the only thing going on in this tiny and picturesque hamlet. In lieu of a main square, there is a large rectangular pool of thermal waters (which is no longer used for bathing), around which are a number of quaint restaurants with outdoor tables, a few tasteful Tuscan souvenir shops, and – oddly – one of the best tiny bookstores I’ve ever visited in Italy. In the valley beneath the town, you can soak for free in the Parco dei Mulini springs, but if you want to channel the elegance of illustrious visitors to Bagno Vignoni over the centuries like Pope Pius II and Lorenzo the Magnificent, book in at one of the spas in and around town.
We were there on a blustery, rainy day at the end of April, so the covered pools and internal steam room and bath at Hotel Le Terme were perfect for us. Otherwise, the nearby Hotel Posta Marcucci has recently renovated their spa, which now includes a large outdoor pool and surrounding garden overlooking the Val d’Orcia countryside. For a real treat, book in at the five-star Adler Resort just outside of town, one of the most famous spas in Tuscany.
After our morning soaking and chatting, we took a walk around the center – which is so tiny that in five minutes you have seen it all – and stopped for a delicious Tuscan lunch at Il Loggiato just below the Librorcia bookstore. And suddenly it was afternoon, time to head home and pick up where I left off, but this time feeling a hundred kilos lighter, feeling pampered, feeling loved. Feeling the sweet satisfaction of the best revenge…friends!
Read the posts, leave comments, share them with your friends – and tune in next month for another Italy Blogging Roundtable topic!
- Italy Explained – Italian Terms of Endearment
- Ciao Amalfi –
- At Home in Tuscany – “Friendship” (or family?) in small communities
- Girl in Florence – Friendship and One Week in Croatia
