Health and Fitness December, 2013

[Nancy]

For some change today's ex. Is snow removal.

[Harriet]

I am weird enough to be Thrilled to get to read everyone's smart goals and plans. Re-reading, actually.

Nancy is probably our champ of exercise variety, although Harmony and Kathryn's bicycling is huge variety IMO - I would never do that.

Boredom in exercise - this is a very real, potential obstacle. It has been discussed often on the T-Tapp boards, first because there are plenty of no-nonsense people there who don't mind facing up to obstacles, but also because T-Tapp videos REALLY, REALLY do not include entertainment. The videos are sticklers for low-impact. Movements are tight and controlled. You never use anything but your own body, it's isometric, so there's no equipment or weights to switch. Well, once she does use a small towel - wow, excitement, lol. There is zero music, and Teresa will even reassure viewers that there won't be any music to distract from the form tips - she gives form reminders non-stop, often in cadence. On a few basic or instructional videos, there are groups of people, but for most, it's just Teresa, serious, calm.

What is "Interesting"? - Once, I tried to express on that board why I keep doing T-Tapp, even when I can't convince myself - much less others - that it's "interesting". Their board is much too busy for me to find that again, probably. But the gist of it was that I don't T-Tapp because it's interesting. I T-Tapp because it makes ME more interesting. The greater strength or stamina keeps me able to do more things, and they are interesting. The inch loss and better posture interests me, in the hopes I can wear clothes I'm interested in, not clothes I have to settle for. The mind-body connection and complicated sequencing helps keep me mentally sharper, I think - studies seem to show that - so I can move on, after exercise, to what I'm interested in doing, and have a sense of competency. Also, there's what I call an "Amazon Woman" phenomenon, in which you feel that if you can do that video, you can do anything.

When to exercise - I'd typed the above, but it didn't post then traveled out with HRH. We listened to this on a radio program as we drove, and I found it on the net to post for us. 8 reasons to exercise first thing in the morning.

Fascinating and wise, but there are a couple problems with this. First, it would work for a video-exerciser like me in theory, but would not work for Nancy and OKay, who thrive on variety or scenery. Second, like Emptynester and I have talked about here previously, it doesn't take into account morning stiffness, which exists for most people to some degree, for those over 40 specifically because of arthritis whether they know it or not. One reason I have to take morning stiffness very seriously is that if I'm going to do T-Tapp, the form is very important and I won't have good form if I am less flexible - I literally won't hang over as far from the waist, for instance. Otherwise, first thing in the morning is an ideal, and I try to get in exercise sometime during my mornings. This usually means after the school run, hopefully before eating.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Grumble, grumble.

I'm now getting enough rest. I woke up at 6:07 today. But dh was still asleep so I snuggled up against him and listened to my radio on headphones until he turned on the main radio around 6:30. Dozed until 6:55 but then grabbed my tablet and ds had post 80 pictures on Fb so went through those. Pulled away from dh and got out of bed to exercise but didn't get to it until at least 7:26 and there's been a number of setbacks and restarts. I only have 8 more minutes and won't get a mile in on the treadmill. I did do 2 songs (about 8 minutes) on the bike first (physio requires 5 minutes and I'm only doing it for physio reasons.

Today I put on the heart rate monitor and I'm no where near where I need to be to burn fat. Because of the knees I can't push myself so I need to figure out what I'm going to do about that.

Did some knee physio last night because I was sore and I'm sore walking today (another reason to cut it off sooner rather than pushing through.) I think I've learned with the knees there is no point in pushing through the pain, they just get worse and then I can't even do regular things like move around the house.

So I'm walking a tight-rope right now - trying to get moving regularly and trying to keep my knees from getting worse. On the ship dh will expect me to do stairs all the time and we live on the bottom deck so there are a lot of stairs (and 20 per deck, not 10.) At this point stair remain my number one priority so strengthening knees is higher priority than heart rate.

[OKay]

SODIUM! It's abundance is my current struggle to understand where It is coming from and develop solutions. The last couple of days I have almost double my daily sodium goal to stay under (2000mg). I don't want to go so far over because I suspect that is where the rollar coast weight loss/gain is coming from. I don't mind going over my daily sodium goal a little, but I'm seeing a trend that is headed the wrong way.

I have been using more mustard than normal as I'm using it to reduce the amount of mayo & ketchup. I didn't realize mustard would quickly drive the sodium intake up! Yesterday I went to grocery store and looked at every bottle/brand of mustard trying to find one with minimum of sodium. I came home with honey/mustard bottle which I will use as a lower sodium temporary solution until I can solve this. I am hopeful a trip to the Health food store will result in better options. Otherwise I might be force to make mustard from scratch. Hum.....wonder how hard that is to do? The internet recipes look simple enough and that would allow me to control the sodium. hum....

[Harmony]

Mustard seed ground up with vinegar...is that close to what mustard is made of? Interesting to me that my sodium level on recent blood work has me at the very bottom of the normal range. I don't limit my sodium, except that not eating junk food automatically lowers your sodium. I don't eat lots of lunch meat, hams, though I do eat mustard and when I've made some I eat sauerkraut every day. So really I don't think it's the amount of sodium in, it's the way in which your body uses it. I do have some water retention, but not all the time, and not bad...

Exercise is my nemesis right now. Is that the right word? I haven't been well enough for so long to do a regular exercise program. I'm only now getting to be active regularly around the house without having to rest between chores. It's clear to me how old people go downhill so fast. First they don't feel well, and can't be active, then they get stiffer and less active, then....it's a slippery slope which I am currently fighting. The flu/ear infections have set me back tremendously. Helping DH out in a gentle wind yesterday stirred up all the symptoms and medicine I took last night made me shaky today big-time...so one step forward, 2 steps back...

I've been up and down like a yo-yo while getting over this last stuff. I've seemed to level out and I continue to eat sparingly and hopefully the downward trend continues. I'm pleased that I look better in the mirror and clothes are more comfortable. That's motivating to me. One favorite pair of slacks is in the too big pile now.

[Nancy]

I made several trips up and down the stairs this morning
And I did thirty min. on the gazelle so far today.

[Ivy]

I ate healthy all day, but didn't exercise other than housework a little bit and laundry. I was busy crocheting for most of the day.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Knees kept me from exercising yesterday. They are better today but I'm afraid of doing anything. I will, just not yet (still in pj's.)

I'm concerned about dh, his brain isn't working properly again.

I've had to put a calendar in the bathroom so he'll know when to shower but that doesn't even work because he can't keep track of the day of the week. He can't remember to do simple things and I have to double check all those. I can't, however, double check his work. Ironically, he set a timer for the call from the neurologist but when it went off he had no idea what the time was for. Luckily, I had overheard the phone conversation setting it up and asked about that, and he was clued into the purpose of the timer just moments before the phone rang. He's not considered bad enough to qualify for testing under universal health coverage so we are spending the $$$$ to do that in March privately so we have a base-line. Honestly, he can't remember to flush the toilet or the day of the week so you'd think that would qualify.

He also wants to give away a lot of money. Not just the 10% we tithe but he wants to sell the house for only about 80 - 90% of what it is worth since it our friends buying it, and to give the majority of the income from the finders fee for the Canadian government project to an older person whose been working with dh on the project. That person is in bad financial shape, but partly due to his own carelessness and mind going but isn't our responsibility in any way imaginable except he is a fellow human being. It is dh's reputation and planning that got the meeting that might lead to the big pay-off. This guy helped dh with some of the grunt work but at most he should get 50% yet dh is happy to give all the income away. He feels it is good 'karma.' I keep thinking if you are going to give away $$$$ perhaps privileged white men with a house over their head and successful children shouldn't be at the top of the list - perhaps struggling poor seniors, or people struggling in other countries due to strife would be better choices.

As for the house, I'm willing to let it go for less than full market because I won't have to pay a real estate broker or prep the house for sale. Those savings of $$$$ plus the value of time and effort saved I'm happy to pass along to the buyers but not any extra.

It is one thing to be generous (taking our senior friend on the train to Toronto for the baseball game and overnight in a hotel cost us a few hundred dollars) but it is another to be giving away tens of thousands of dollars or more. He keeps thinking we have enough but the way he is spending money, we won't. I had to point out to him that our retirement plan is based on conservative spending and on assets that we can't just give away. He thinks I'm being too tight but we are still only in our early 50's and need to plan for at least 20 more years (30+ in my case but at least a decade of that in a nursing home due to Alzheimers.) I agree that due to family history we need to live as much as possible now because our senior years will not be the same as many of the seniors we know (we have terrible genes.) But we need to have money left for the bad end that is likely.

[Nancy]

I am on the ex. Bike now doing my miles on it.

[Harriet]

Kathryn, I didn't post about all you had brought up right away, but I have been thinking. You know me well enough that the direction in which I am thinking will not surprise you. I am going to say, research this. You are so bright - both of you are so bright. There's a lot of info out there that says memory loss is not a given, and can be addressed/changed.

Just one expert - You wouldn't be going any farther afield than a doctor/biochemist you already find interesting, Barry Sears, to find brief, documented bottom lines on memory protection/improvement and brain health. At suggestion of my doctor, I've read an early Zone diet book of Sears' and Toxic Fat (2008). When I get time, I'd like to read his AgeFree (2010), also Anti-Inflamation and the 2009 Omega Rx. Of Sears' healthy-brain internet articles I've seen, this one on CBN is the clearest, almost a "How-To", point by point (most info taken from the book, Omega Rx, 2009). For a really in-depth scientific article, though hard to read, this one in Psychology Today 2012 has all the cited works, etc. And of course being published in such a highly respected magazine so recently is very telling about the respect Sears' commands.

Again, that's just one expert. Doesn't even touch on the big difference supplementation with B vitamins is proven to make, or how using coconut oil instead of corn oils improves brain function. Wild blueberries guard against Alzheimer's, according to some studies. There's just a lot of encouraging information to learn.