Health and Fitness, May, 2019

[Harriet]

Finding this very encouraging quote from Okay in 2014 inspired me today:

I am so very grateful for this thread. Reading your triumphs, methods, struggles helps me in ways that are hard to put into words. I think about you many times during the day.

This is a true thing!

I honestly believe I have stopped many foolish "treats" partway to my lips in "What Would H & F Posters Do?" moments. Seriously! (and they weren't real treats anyway) And I know I have trudged off to exercise when I didn't quite feel like it, so that I could chat here knowing I'd done it! lol! (always happy afterward, not remembering the trudging because I'd feel better)

And I have to keep up here, you know? I mean, who can miss the next news about whether Dee makes her step goal? (She's becoming the energizer bunny, I think.)

To quote the famous line from comedian Steve Smith ("Red Green"),

"Remember, we're pullin’ for ya! We’re all in this together!"

[Nancy]

I did 30 min. On stat bike this morning. Then did some gardening after getting groceries. Counting that for my exercise.

[Harriet]

April was a mixed bag. Had the surprise of a weight change upward, which got my attention, so I really started watching the sodium, which is what I suspected. I had a great week from about 14th to 20th (posted about here) and my weight responded right away. Good news. Then the week of Easter Sunday into the long med stuff day away from home happened. A lot went wrong that week. I truly felt like I was recovering for a day or two at the end of that week. Btw, we did take some food from home with us that day and it helped somewhat.

Today was a perfect 24-checkmark day, though. I woke up ready to exercise and followed that up with a right-on-target breakfast. So that's a good start for the first day of the month.

[RunKitty]

That was a great start to your month, Harriet!! For me, a good start to the day is essential. My run needs to come first and then a breakfast shake which includes fruit, greens and flax seed. By the time breakfast is over, I have nine of the 24 points for the day.

I had a weird experience last month. For some reason, I was craving a grilled cheese sandwich. I don't think I had eaten one in a couple of years. My dh made me one and it was delicious, but afterward I felt soooo tired. The feeling didn't go away until the middle of the next day when I deciderd to do some extra exercise and even some weights. I'm just not used to that amount of animal fat, I guess.

My son-in-law, who is from the UK, mentioned to my daughter that he noticed that Americans put a lot of cheese on lots of things. Since then, I've used cheese more as a condiment, and actually skip it most of the time. Less is better. I could actually give it up entirely with no problem. Still using yogurt and whey protein though.

Keep us the great work, Harriet and Nancy. Hope to see Dee posting about her steps in here again.

[Nancy]

Did a round of gardening at noon, and at three 25 min. Of shoveling when I dug out a smallish tree.

[Harriet]

Nancy, your home is going to look better while you get in your activity! Double the benefit.

That's great consistency, RunKitty. I knew it was bugging you when weather got in your way this past winter! But you found ways around it. I've got a fruit and greens smoothie favorite I have 3 or 4 times a week. It's funny how you can start thinking of that as a comfort food, lol.

Cheese has such addictive makeup, doesn't it? I wonder whether you just had a trigger that could have been visual or, whether you had a small amount of cheese in another food that made your body start craving with physical memory. It's interesting. I've done the same thing - at times so sure I was past chasing that cheese any more, and then a craving that just wasn't to be denied, lol. That dopamine reward was on the horizon, lol. In US we eat 35 pounds of cheese a year now, average. Used to eat 3.5 pounds 100 years ago, 55,000 calories a year less, so that's gonna take its toll. Dd20 was telling me she's just going to have to quit dairy for her digestion's sake. The older she gets the less she can handle it and ends up ruining her own plans having to deal with discomfort.

[Nancy]

Harriet you are so right. I got 2 compliments on the yard yesterday.
I did a small patch of weeding in the front yard this morning.
Plus two more rounds in the afternoon yea!

[Lynlee]

Years ago I read about an additive in yellow hard cheeses that cause many people problems.
That might be the addictive thing stumbled on by some.
I think it was Annatto that was mentioned. 160b on our list, also often hidden in children's flavoured yoghurts.
There may be another additive that is favoured in US.
Remember MSG is also designed to get at taste buds, and has a heap of aka, some of which are the 'on steroids version' beefed up for 35 times the impact.

the usa list https://www.fedup.com.au/images/stories ... vesUSA.pdf
the list from .au … https://www.fedup.com.au/information/in ... -additives

The list had changed since I looked last. I'm struck by how many numbered fancy names are ok.

[Harriet]

I didn't even think about additives, Lynlee. You really have a point - they could make it very addictive. I was only thinking of cheese being addictive to us because the milk is so condensed. The addictive part of the milk is life-saving for the calf, to keep an easily-confused calf coming back to mother, but when we get the condensed version, it keeps us coming back, too, making cheese the most difficult dairy product to give up. I know it's certainly been true for me.

[Twins' Mom]

This has been a good week, despite the gastric "distress" earlier in the week. I continue to feel a little off, but I've also had to take little extra carbamazepine a couple of times for twinges in my mouth.

I've hit the weekly goal of 50K steps already so whatever I get today is bonus. I'm not going to increase the goal just yet.

The body work on Wed really helped work out the achiness in my back and hips; I set up body work this week also since I had been feeling it so much.

Healthy habits I'm working on:
---checking bp daily
---50K steps for week
---stretching daily