Health and Fitness September, 2021

[Harriet]

Happy September!

Back in 2008, the "news" came out that less than 10 percent of Americans were getting the recommended 5 fruits and vegetables per day. Although we're doing a little better now (here's an "infographic": ), the facts we've learned about our need for fresh produce have changed! (Accck! Goalposts moved!) We now know we need lots more, so these statistics aren't quite as positive, are they? lol

The American Heart Association now joins lots of other health agencies in recommending 5 vegetables and 4 fruits per day (with a juice being okay for one of those and maybe a dried fruit sometimes). The apple, by the way (thinking of September tradition for some of us), is one of those that can help reduce LDL. (it's the peel, btw, that does the most!)

What benefits has it given to your household to add an additional piece of fruit or veg to your days?

An odd answer from me:
my kitchen looks more welcoming with a bowl of fruit out. Maybe even prettier. (Do RED apples equal appetizing view, maybe?)

[DeeClutter]

I did learn something new at Cardiac rehab today. I knew (and have mentioned here before) that exercise raises the amount of calories burned per hour for a few hours. What I didn't know was that exercise causes blood pressure to be lower for 12 hours after exercise. Just a little tidbit, good to know.

Now if I can just figure out how to keep my blood sugar in check and still be able to lose weight. Dietician thinks the reason I haven't been able to lose weight was my body was always trying to keep my BS raised enough for my body's needs. And I was consuming too many calories just to keep it up somewhere it needed to be. Even so it never seemed I was eating very much. Now that my med has been cut again (not taking the night glipizide any more). For the most part that seems to be cutting out my middle of the night "lows". I've had just one night that it was 70 at 11pm -too low. Another aside of that is that I seem to be sleeping so much better than I have in ages.

[Harmony]

Dee, that's interesting information. Good to know. Harriet, yikes, I'm not eating anywhere near that. I always figured fruit raises one's BS and I'd rather eat veggies than fruit anyway. I always have a couple servings of veggies with dinner... and most days that's all. Need to rethink. Do pickles count as veggies (cucumbers)? Well, lately with all the green peppers, we've gotten more..

Just thought about the days I make salad. I put lots of raw veggies in that and we eat that for a couple days.. so maybe not as bad as I think.

[DeeClutter]

I'm terrible at eating enough fruits (almost non-existent) and vegetables. Think I'm lucky if we have 1 vegetable a day. Maybe I'll start by adding in V-8 and apples.

[LadyMaverick]

Doing a little review and analysis of my health effort for August. I'm a spreadsheet gal so everything is all about the numbers. -
** 31 days completed! I weighed myself and the food I ate every day.
** 2.6 pounds were lost in August. It took me an average of 8.1 days to lose a pound. I averaged .86 lbs loss a week
** 628 was the number of foods/drinks I logged during August. I logged everything except an occasional single bite of a dish I cooked but wasn't eating.
** 1174 was my average daily calories
** 37% protein - 28% carbs - 35% fat were my average macros for the month

I haven't thought of needing to count the number of vegetables I eat on a daily basis but that seems unnecessary for the way I eat. On most days I eat a huge green salad with multiple vegetables and I also have stir-fry, soup with multiple vegetables, salsa, and/or mirepoix. WAG is over a dozen helpings of vegetables on a daily basis.

I need to work on eating more fruit. I eat blueberries, strawberries, and/or dark cherries most every day mixed in with plain greek yogurt. I keep fresh fruit on hand for DH and the kids. We currently have bananas, peaches, and apples on hand but the thought of eating them makes my stomach turn.

My current treat each day is pebble ice with Propel. When diet cokes stopped tasting good to me I replaced them with an electrolyte drink. So far I am enjoying it!

I continue to be frustrated with the slow weight loss. I know. I know. Everyone says it is better to lose it slowly.....but I want to do it fast and get it done. I have a fast rabbit mental desire while being stuck in a slow loss turtle body......

[LadyMaverick]

Harriet - Thank you for the encouragement to eat more fruit.

I ate a peach yesterday and didn't hate it. In fact, it was tasty and enjoyable.

>>>>after thinking about this <<<<<

I realized I am tracking my foods but I don't have a count of how many servings of vegetables and fruit that I am eating. I am just assuming it is enough. It was easy to add a couple columns and formulas to the spreadsheet I use to track my food. Ta-DA! Now I can easily see how many servings of vegetables & fruits that I am eating each day.

What gets measured gets managed gets done?

[DeeClutter]

What gets measured gets managed gets done?

Love it, Lady M! I know when I jot down EVERYTHING I CONSUME, I do much better. Need to write that in big letters -right in front of me!

I do finally seem to be losing weight just a little at a time, but that's the way it should be, right? This is ever since my Dr cut out my dinner time Glipizide. So now I'm only taking 5mg in the morning. This morning my BS was 105 and that's the highest it's been in a week & a half. Usually in the 80's which is acceptable. I'll see what my weight is at rehab today. I'm looking forward to hopefully hitting a new low there.

I changed my 4-month appointment with my Primary. It was set for next Thursday. We had set that date as I thought I was leaving October 2nd (and that was only 3+ months). But now I'm not leaving until the 17th so we set it for October 8th. We wanted enough time between that (my flu shot) and departure for me to have any reaction.

EDITING: I did hit a new low at rehab. Made me very happy!

[Twins' Mom]

This was a very carb heavy trip and even if my weight didn't shoot up, I feel like my waistline did. My weight is still in the same range, I'd like to lose the 10 lbs I've gained. I feel a lot like Dee - after I had the issues with insulin resistance I don't dare not keep my fuel up.

I really must get started walking again. I usually do record what I eat for breakfast, but come lunch, I feel like I need to grab something fast so I can get back to what I enjoy doing. So I usually wait too long and don't eat well at lunchtime, leaving me starving later in the day.

[LadyMaverick]

I'm taking a moment to stop & review my food log to observe what changes happened when I made a conscious effort to count vegetables and fruit.

Last week I ate an average of 6 vegetables and 4 fruit a day.

Eating more fruit destroyed my 20 grams of sugar a day goal. Eating more fruit made my daily sugar average shoot up to 59 grams.
Ditto on the carbs. Eating more fruit doubled my daily carbs.

The weight-loss trend was not affected. I lost .6 pounds last week which is about the same dreadfully slow pace I've been doing.

Calories stayed the same range - I averaged 1088 calories a day last week.

So what changed? What did I learn from this experience?
Focusing on eating more fruit means that I eat fewer vegetables. For example, I found myself eating a peach instead of a cucumber.

Overall I think it has been a good experience because it increases the variety of food I eat.

[DeeClutter]

Trying a 'new' method for my food log. I'll see in a week or so how this is working for me. Using a spread sheet to do it this time.