Health and Fitness May, 2022

[Harriet]

It's May Mulligan Month!

Twins' Mom recently offered us a "Mulligan" in our PWYC thread - a "do-over" that might be needed. Maybe when awkwardly chucking a golf ball into a pond, (or perhaps the path of an alligator who loves the pond).

For one reason or another, we sometimes just need to take that shot again!

A few unlikely situations came up for us in April, like moving to a new house (hurray!), having your sister come to have fun (hurray!), dealing with shingles ( no comment).

May Day has arrived and when we all come in from dancing around the pole,
(what? I'm talking about childhood and ribbons. None of that other stuff, now)
we can have our May Mulligan Month and enjoy chat about our Health and Fitness!

[Twins' Mom]

LOL, Harriet!

I'm trying to get my step count back up. Last week I ended up averaging 7700 steps daily because I was so busy doing spring cleaning and getting ready for company. This week I'm setting my goal as 42K for the week - that's only 6K daily. The week before, my goal was 5500 daily and I missed it, but not by much. So I'm counting last week as the aberration it was and trying to stay on track. I don't know what I'll do about 10 days of vacation. I know I'M NOT GETTING UP AT THE CRACK OF DAWN to walk with dh.

[Harriet]

Twins', if your steps were purposeful in carrying things, etc., you may have gotten in as much exercise as you wanted, though?

My back flare-up seems to be over, although I can't just test it without a reminder. Moved two soggy/heavy plant containers today and I knew it. But generally, much better.

I was so grateful during that time for a plain-jane meal or two, most especially morning cereal in almond milk with fruit cut up over it.

HRH's vitamin D levels are down. Hmmm... .. He was more faithful than I in getting that capsule of 2,000 or more in every day through cool months. So he's trying to get outside more purposefully and taking some additional. Makes me think he's not assimilating it well. There's a lot to point to D as quite important for those of us with autoimmune stuff going on, anything from asthma to thyroid, and of course he has an auto-immune kidney concern always in the back of our minds. So I want him tested again soon.

His eye bothers him in bright sunshine, since it will never dilate and un-dilate normally after all that's happened to it in 4 operations. But there are ways around that.

[LadyMaverick]

I just wrote out my health goals for the next 7 days -

** Fast 20+ hours a day.
** Eating window 3-7pm. Eat whatever sounds good as much as I want. Stop eating when I get full. I am leaning toward OMAD (One Meal A Day) but I'm not ready to commit to OMAD so I will keep my 4-hour eating window even if I only use the first 30 minutes.
** Walk four miles (8K steps)

[Harriet]

Best wishes on your plan, LadyM. Is it no big change to eat at 3 and then have a snack at 6:30, or is it definitely better to have a large and more leisurely meal that's the only one that day? Are you still getting plenty of strawberries each day from your garden?

Noticed today I'm able to lift my planters when needed, so my back must be much better. I always, always grasp, with bent knees, take the time to look directly ahead, and then lift.

I felt a sore throat when awakening one day but I'm thinking I may have been lying on my back and breathing through my mouth! Hmmm ... .. could it have been something that simple? Anyway, I made myself a smoothie with very nutritious ingredients and doubled up on supplementing garlic, turmeric and D. Felt better later that day so I'd say the likely thing is that I was just so very tired I didn't realize I was breathing in a way to hurt my throat. (Lately there have been times I just fall into the bed zonked.) If not, at least I'm sure I did everything I could.

[LadyMaverick]

I have been busy testing, tweaking, and documenting my efforts to improve my health and fitness. When something doesn't work then I change it. When something is working then I try to repeat it and be patient with the process.

Yes, to the continuing success of fresh strawberries from the garden. This is year #2 of growing strawberries so I am in learning mode. I am pleased with the results, but I recognize that I have much to learn. I am harvesting a dozen or so strawberries daily. Someday they are all eaten fresh and other days I wash/slice/freeze them.

My current health/fitness efforts =
** Daily goal of walking 4 miles (8k steps)

** I am 24 days into doing 40 day challenge of Intermittent fasting. My current time of eating is around 1pm - 5pm. It is a learning process and being tweaked almost daily. It is slowly shifting to earlier eating time. I am almost shocked that I don't have the desire to eat late at night.

** I am on 5th day of doing 40 day challenge of the 0123 Strategy. Zero sugar. One big salad. Two cups of cooked vegetables. Three hours before bedtime stop eating.

** I am reading and studying the documentation about DDF. Data Driven Fasting is about Optimizing Nutrition. It is about learning how your body responds to different eating times, foods, etc. It can be very deep if you want to go into tracking the nutrition/vitamins/minerals from each food you eat and comparing it to what your body needs. I haven't committed to doing DDF program but I am intrigued enough to spend several hours reading and studying their documents. I am dipping my toe in the water (so to speak) by following step 1 of the DDF program. I am on day #3 of testing my blood sugar several times a day and letting the results guide my eating window and food choices. Will I continue it? I don't know.

I am seeing remarkable results from this effort, so I am motivated to continue.

[Ramblinrose]

Well, I'm back in the saddle once again. Need to because I am running out of clothes to wear.

My gazelle is finally set up and that be a great help. that way instead of sitting while I watch the morning news and such I can get my steps in.

Also going to eat two meals a day with a 4 hour window. Doing the same stuff as always with the excepting of a daily cup of fruit and either my wasa or melba toast crackers. Still no starch... like potatoes or rice... No sugar and occasional low fat cottage cheese as well as skim milk.

Trying to stay between 1200-1400 calories by altering the count every other day.

When I think about it, this is the way I ate when I was growing up.

[Harriet]

Those sites are interesting LadyM. Nutrition on our minds when we plan to eat means a lot.

I thought of the BGS for "big green salad" yesterday as I made ours. I like to do this about every other day. It is generally about half a Romaine base, and half 2 or 3 other greens plus sprouts. One fruit (strawberries or orange bits is the most likely for our taste). I did add raw sunflower seeds yesterday, but if I'm using a homemade dressing I don't do that because it will probably have seeds or nuts whirred into it and just a little of those go a long way. (I would use little tomatoes for the fruit, but HRH truly does not like them. ) A final ingredient I often like is drained small green peas, if I am missing a bean serving otherwise. Again, HRH does not care for them in a salad so I top my own with those, not his. I like a variety of dressings with a favorite of sweet-onion type. He chooses vinaigrette every time.

We have one grand who loves blueberries as the fruit sprinkled on salads. We encourage that heartily, but do not partake, lol.

Some other grands make the (true) criticism that big salads take a long time to eat. To me, that is a plus because it gives me a chance to sit and enjoy. Maybe youth doesn't see it that way.