Health and Fitness September, 2013

[Harriet]

I made a "green drink" recipe similar to those I've seen touted by the Nutri bullet folks. Used my trusty old Vitamix, which all the sites I've seen say would make the same consistency. I had just been to the healthy grocery for produce, so I may have had too much too choose from!

Basically the Nutri Bullet concept is
one part greens
to one part fruit
and then 1/8th part nuts/seeds
water to cover

Frankly, I threw in some of everything, since I already had scuppernongs, banana and apple slice here. I added some raspberries, blueberries, a small carrot, half a small beet. I used mainly spinach for the greens but had a kale leaf in there and a beet leaf. For the nuts/seeds part , I had some pumpkin seeds, a few cashews. Well, having so many different colors, as you can imagine, I came up with the drink color ... .. brown. (smile - maybe that little beet was over the top) Nobody will drink it but me. They were expecting something like photos they have seen of pretty colored ones.

It's obviously very nutritious, and tastes fine but too sweet. I don't think anyone who has issues with their blood sugar should try Nutri Bullet's half-greens, half-fruits concept for a drink. It's just a little too much natural sugars, I imagine, and needs to be tweaked more than that. And for anyone, it should be drunk slowly, I'm sure. Even in their recipes for their more bitter drink recipes (which they suggest for people who have already been having their kind of drinks for 2 weeks) I could only find 2 recipes without a whole banana in them. And both of those called for 1 cup watermelon. So I know that we're talking a LOT of natural sugars with those recipes.

They offer their complete long recipe book here if anyone is interested, and the juice recipes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd weeks of getting used to their drinks (sweetest in the first week) are on the numbered pages 40 through 47. It's nice they are willing to make that available.

[Ivy]

Hello! I'm eating healthy, walked 30 minutes and did some yoga/stretching. I need to do more yoga/stretching because I'm working in my office chair today and need some longer breaks and shorter periods of time in the office chair, as the work's nearly done.

This winter, I plan:
1- to try Zumba
2- to occasionally do the Wii Fit with DH
3- to occasionally ride my stationary recumbent exercise bike
4- to do more t-tapp workouts
5- to do my Weight Watchers Workout DVD, which has yoga/Pilates on it, some aerobic exercises, some weight/muscle-building exercises and 1 more workout, but silly me. You know how it is. When you get older, the mind goes first and I've forgotten what the last workout was! But it's a delightful DVD, which I got in their At-Home program several years ago. I truly enjoy that DVD.

I have 2 Palates DVD's, too, which I've only tried 1 for a short period, but I'd love to start doing those more regular this fall/winter, too. So good for the CORE.

[Nancy]

I took a 2.5 mi. prayer walk this morning.

[Ivy]

I took a 30-min. cell phone walk while talking to DD this evening. It was great to talk and walk.

[Harriet]

Tried again with the green drink. This time I got it an appetizing green color, at least. (Not THAT green!)

Much less sweet with more of a veggie percentage, so I felt better about the sugars. 1.5 cups spinach, one leaf kale, one stalk celery well chopped, 1/2 small apple, just 1/4 banana this time, 6 raspberries, a few scuppernongs, and some left over plain yogurt, so I was leaving off anything that was particularly dark colored, like the beet and blueberries last time. That's probably why I got a pretty green. I also left off the cashews and pumpkin seed, but I think maybe that really added something, as far as "body". I'll probably add nuts back in, as Nutri bullet folks suggest, or use some avocado, which I've also read is good for texture.

This makes 3 cups of drink, so I've got half of it in the fridge in a glass glass for later, with saran wrap over the top.

Not kidding you, I had to kinda grin and bear the taste, and have a sense of humor about it, so it's a work in progress. (I know it's the kale taste that is jarring, yet it's wholesome so worth continuing to try to find a better taste.) But the point is, I'm having vegetables and some fruit for brunch when I do this. This is a good thing. Better than many choices that would cause weight gain or water retention, getting my veggie/fruit servings in early.

I think if anyone were put off by the foamy-ness on the top of these types of drinks, that could be fixed by drinking with a straw from the bottom first, which would probably be good for the teeth, anyway, considering a possibility of acid-y or staining fruits.

[Harmony]

What is a scuppernong?

I've been reading books. The Thyroid Sourcebook by M. Sara Rosenthal, PhD which is a very good all around book for understanding, and made me feel better about my switch to different medicine.

The Endocrin System by Stephanie Watson & Kelli Miller, found this too technical with graphs and charts and too general, still much information..

Beautiful Bones Without Hormones by Leon Root MD and Betty Kelly Sargent, which I found very helpful.

Chronic Heartburn by Paulo Pacheco MD & Marilyn Olsen. Most helpful information. Reading this, unlike the heartburn diet one Harriet and I read, had a workable solution. I know the other one focused mostly on healing the esophagus, and that is needed at times, but for generally keeping the heartburn at bay this one I just read was most helpful.

The bones book and heartburn one both had diets that were unusable to me because their calorie count was so high I'd have gained weight. My diet is a balancing act right now, as I'm monitoring calories, cholesterol, and acid...but it seems to be working as I'm down 6 lbs since 8/26. I can only hope the cholesterol is coming down, but that also hinges on thyroid numbers...

[Ivy]

I did yoga & stretching this morning to loosen my stiff muscles and bones up. Might do more before bedtime.
I did calf/leg stretches before and after prayer biking 15 min., prayer walking 30 min., and that's it for exercise today. The late evening yoga/stretching will help me sleep better.

[Harriet]

Harmony, a scuppernong is a variety of muscadine grape - not usually cultivated but maybe wild, or like my uncle's, sort of half-wild vines that someone tends a little. Round and copper/amber colored with several large seeds and a thick skin. Very good for you but hard to eat. I think it's wonderful you're reading up on the health concepts. Thanks for the recommendations. I think about you and your tiredness often, and wonder about simple answers. I almost wish a sleep issue would be found, because maybe it would be easy to fix.

Figs - I was discouraged to go to the fig tree and see that some animal, I suppose, has made off with every one of them. Just walked past some beautiful ones in the store because I "knew" there were some at home.

Ya'll may remember that I got a free Shape magazine subscription several months back, through some cereal box-top kind of thing. Anyway, they send an email every month to let subscribers know what's coming up in the next issue. And it turns out the first headline they give for the October issue is "Juicing, the Hottest Diet and Nutrition Craze". LOL So I suppose I've been cutting-edge for a few days? Even though juicing (and extracting, which is, I understand, the right word for using a blender to keep all the fiber) is actually old as the hills, of course, and has come and gone as a "hot craze" 9 or 10 times by now! LOL

I've been re-reading the book Cowinkie recommended again. It's called The 100 by Jorge Cruise, and the concept is that so many ills can be corrected by making 100 the upper limit of sugar calories in any one day. This usually means just one slice of bread a day, much more veggies than fruits, basing a meal on a protein and not looking forward to starches and desserts. I know this is how I need to eat. It would be so good for me. Difficult though.

My blue blocking glasses are on, so if there are errors in the post I'm sorry about that.

[Ivy]

I did yoga/stretching this morning.
Then, I did calf/leg stretching.
Then, I did 30-min. or prayer-biking for 3.1 miles.
Then, I did calf/leg stretching again.

Exercise is being prescribed by my doctor to combat Fibromyalgia pain. His knowledge tells him, (as well as my research) how exercise is good for the muscles of an FM patient because it exercises them, it makes the patient sleep sounder, it is a muscle-healing sleep, and there is less pain, if any, during the day. He knows I do meditative prayers, too, to relax. So I slept great, woke up in less pain, and feel really good today! I hope I can follow-through with this plan daily.

Getting the a.m. shower is most challenging, so I've made a game of it, to try to s2s before my timer for breakfast goes oss, to be fully dressed with hair fixed, etc... Then after breakfast, I start exercise so it's done by 11 a.m. It's working for me and I'm not procrastinating on it anymore. I have good incentive to = less pain.

[Nancy]

Ivy let us know how you like Zumba.