Health and Fitness August, 2022

[Harriet]

Each night I said to myself, girl what did you do today. And then got up the next morning and did it all over again.

That was our Harmony, who usually does so well, telling us about one especially stressful month when she didn't! We've all felt like that.

How was your July? Did stress get in your way or did you sidestep it gracefully?

What was helpful, what was a success, what would you like another running start to accomplish?

August is giving us a wonderfully blank slate - how will you write on it?

[Nancy]

Mon. I was up sort of early and walked the ddog before it got hot.
Plus stairs to basement for this and that.

Tues. walked and shopped in person for exercise today.
Wed. & Thurs. I walked early in the a m just after dawn.
Fri. walked but it was a bit later.

[Harriet]

Whenever I'm stressed, I so resemble whatever was happening to Harmony at that time. I'll look around and say, what was I thinking? lol.

But July was better than some months. I had enough days that were sensible that I feel pretty good about it. I continue to write my meals in my planner. There's a differently-colored area to the right of each day that divides into 3 easily. I don't know if this was the idea for the book - it doesn't say.

Waiting until nearly noon to eat has not really been difficult. It's probably made it easier to keep from eating too much. Doesn't always work out with others, though.

Nothing wrong with the toothpaste idea except that I can't always remember to brush earlier - brushing is just too ingrained in my life-long evening routine. Still, I haven't been really bad about eating late anyway. I seem to have a feeling of urgency to get that 3rd meal in about 8, knowing that I'll ruin my whole reason of waiting for breakfast, if I've eaten late the night before.

Ramblin', I wanted to ask you how you feel about the 2 meals a day with 4 hours between, that you had tried. Has that been working out?

[Harmony]

Ok, Harriet, that is funny! I looked around and have no clue when I wrote that or what was going on. I do know the month DH had his ankle redone was particularly stressful, but don't think I posted much in H&F around then. I did find one clue that might be helpful to me...I'd been having trouble getting started on the right track again, and finally did a little mini fast not eating much early on in the day and that helped me jump start into better eating. Maybe I need to try that again?

[Harriet]

oops, that was unthinking of me to leave you bewildered. Should have said August H and F, 2017. I was glancing back to see what was going on with me 5 years previous and was just impressed with how you explained what was going on with you. Hit a nerve, because I feel that way sometimes and I think recently it's common for a lot of folks.

Lately I have been adding veggies to the last couple minutes of noodles boiling, before draining. Broccoli (which isn't in season - but found on sale) does very well and gives a way to include a healthy ingredient. Also chopped up kale went into a spaghetti sauce and HRH liked it fine. When doing this with any cruciferous veggie like broccoli and kale, the first step is to cut up the veggie ahead of time, so it will retain the most nutrition. 30-40 minutes waiting between cut-up and cooking, and it won't lose all the good stuff.

A lot of housework today is what I'm counting on for activity today. Tuesday seems to be my big day for getting genuinely tired, I've noticed. Likely the Wednesday morning trash and recyclable pickup has to do with that. But also for the same reason that people in most jobs say Tuesday is the most productive day. You're "up to speed" after the weekend, I guess.

[Harmony]

I think it's interesting to look back after a while and see what life was like and what were the results. So I looked back at August and then 1 more month before that, July. Not much in H&F that I could discern but PWYC was very telling to me. DH was still working a lot and I was really really busy at that time. I'd had one week visitor which kept me extra busy and extra cooking. I was frustrated that my house was messy with paperwork all over the place I couldn't get to. I was struggling with my ear problems, medicating twice a day, and we had a lot of mechanical problems with our SUV and a truck and I wasn't able to get to the store to buy ear plugs (Dr. said to keep ears dry). My weight was going up, not down, according to my chart I just looked at.

I do best health-wise when things are perking along nicely and not a lot of extra problems (When is life ever that wonderful?) and no extra worries. At that time I was giving up the idea of ever being able to retire.

It's no wonder I have trouble focusing on this. Maybe I should just go away by myself and live at a "fat farm" for a time.

[Harriet]

We purchased a variety pack of 6 Oli pop healthy carbonated drinks in cans. This is continuing our plan to have on hand carbonation, but carbonation we don't crave, so that we don't look forward to it or drink it absentmindedly. The product has been around in other areas, especially west coast, but just hit our nicer groceries here, and only in a few varieties.

So, I have a review from the 3 I've had so far. First, Oli pop is expensive. In theory, the price is temporary, and will go down as the brand sells more and gets ordinary distribution, but it's an important point. Second, wonderful that it has so little sugar, so you don't have to feel quite so worried that you've broken the calorie bank. 3 grams per 12-oz can, (35 calories vs 155 in coca cola). It has prebiotics and fiber from various flowers and roots - about 9 grams fiber each can. Aside from the cost, the fiber is another reason you just want one at a time.

Flavors so far:
Cola - yuck. Between two of us, we still dumped most.
Orange Squeeze - pretty good. I liked it better than HRH did.
Strawberry Vanilla - exceptionally good. Good enough to fool us, I think, if compared blind with a strawberry soda 2-liter from grocery.

We know in advance we won't like Root Beer, so must find someone who does to taste-test for us.

The other two flavors are Ginger Lemon and Cherry Vanila, so we'll see. Ginger Lemon gets high reviews from others online. Obviously, at a high price tag, we're having these as treats only.

We were hoping our variety of 6 would have Grape, which also has high reviews but with the luck of the draw, we didn't get that one.

[Nancy]

I need to remember to cut off cafinne in the pm.
Walked a shorted slower walk today stopped and chatted on the way.
Did some gardening aka weeding today [Sat.].

Stretch yesterday in the am then walked & mowed the yard on Thurs.

Today the dog was not wanting much of a walk so we just went around the block,
and I got my steps in shopping.

It is cooler but will be back up 102* -103* a couple days next week.

[Harriet]

Nancy, the heat is slowing our walking to a stop - whew. (pant, pant)

I was amused at what dd42's younger boys are calling her indoor summer exercise. They will say, "Mom did her steppies today." That is their abbreviation for the 20-minute T-Tapp DVD, Step Away the Inches. I think she tried to tell them a few times and they just remembered "step" and that something had an "I" in it.

I've proved to myself again that I can rein in a weight gain by including sweet potato in my day. If I pop up a few pounds, planning a sweet potato meal will assure me I can ease that off. It's filling and as long as it's not sugared it tends to tamp down the appetite for much more. No water weight gain, but tasty. I do add a bit of the earth balance "butter". It's been worth learning for me, to steam/bake a sweet potato in wax paper in the microwave. I scrub and rinse one, poke with a fork or knife, wrap in wax paper on the diagonal while it's still damp, and crimp or tuck under ends so it steams. You learn to look at one and guess how many minutes it will take.

We've decided we would buy the Oli pop product again if we saw it in stores. On our big grocery trip we did not, though, even though we were at a large, nice store.