Health and Fitness January, 2023

[Harriet]

How cheerful is this - a full year of possibilities spreading out in front of us!?!? It's gotta make you smile! Just think of the goals that could be reached, the new healthy habits that could be formed in 3 months... ... 6 months... ... 365 days!

Tell us here about your goals, ideas, plans or resolutions for 2023. All tips warmly welcomed!

And be sure to report on your news of 2022 - progress made, proactive health measures taken, milestones reached. And if you had frustrations, this is the place to tell that, too, because we all understand.

We chat here about all aspects of health, with an eye to building strength for the calling of Homemaker. Taking care of ourselves is vital, but it also means a better chance at taking care of those around us. We hope you will join us.

"Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health, and is as friendly to the mind as to the body." - Addison

“Cheerfulness is the very flower of health.” - Japanese Proverb

"Number one, like yourself.
Number two, you have to eat healthy.
And number three, you've got to squeeze your buns.
That's my formula."
- Richard Simmons

[Nancy]

Good news so far this week I have gotten my move it goal goal of the outer circle done on my app. 120 calories burned more than 6,000 steps.

Raked leaves yesterday for exercise.
Today I have bagged some up 15 min. counts for stretching plus adds variety!
I have walked over 5,00 steps need more activity to get to my goal today but I am at my goal for today.

bs was up in ack - land this morning having a V-8 now. It is noon.
Still doing I.F. [Int fasting.]

I have added veg. to the game hen in the crock pot for meals later on today.
Kitchen smells wonderful today!

CI Mon.
did some yard work and walked the ddog and took stuff to the basement for my activities
today got my goal closed the ring in my phone app. equal to 2.3 mi.
My jeans [stretchy ones] are looser.
This week.
Got my steps in Tues.& Wed. and Thursday today got 10,000 steps in this does not happen very often.
Glad for one good thing today. Got my steps in today yea!

[Twins' Mom]

LOL, Richard Simmons! What a blast from the past!

I need to formulate a more specific goal other than to "get into better shape and lose weight." I have set up an assessment on Wednesday with a medical trainer at the place my friend V goes to. Medically supervised, they also offer PT, and focus on core strength and balance for older adults. I can workout with or without a trainer, but not sure yet whether I'll opt for trainer once a week or twice a week. I'd like to start slow and not overgoal and miss out.

Dfriend M has lost twenty or thirty pounds on Noom.

[LadyMaverick]

I'm doing some review of 2022 and see a mixture of success and need-a-different-plan efforts.

At the end of November, I started doing the hourly 250 steps goal and it made a dramatic difference in my daily steps. Instead of 4-6K steps a day my average jumped up over 8K. Here is a chart showing my 2021 and 2022 average daily steps. One tiny little habit made this big of a change!

I'm going to try adding in an extra 2k steps each day while observing sunrise and sunset. I am hopeful this will bump my daily step count over 10k each day with minimum effort and a big enjoyment factor.

I am pleased with my current eating pattern. I am learning what works for my body. I like having small frequent meals (about every 2 hours). I am never hangry and it seems like I am eating all the time. I have 5 mini meals about 100 calories each and then I meal with 300-500 calories. I always make sure I eat over 80g of protein a day. I keep my eating window about 10 hours (8am - 6pm) so I fast about 14 hours a day with no effort.

I signed up for another class that starts January 7th to learn how my body responds to different foods. This class is heavy on tracking nutrients, macros, and my blood sugar response to them. This will be the second time I've done this 30-day course. There is a lot to learn so I want to go through it again. The last time I went through this course I learned how to drop my waking blood glucose by 30 points. This time I am hoping to drop it another 10 points into normal levels. This is done without any medication, exercise or trickery. It is all about learning how different food and eating patterns affect your unique body. I find this process astonishing and a bit frustrating why the main stream medical professionals don't offer similar information.

[Twins' Mom]

That is a dramatic difference in steps, LadyM. Nice going! And you're so analytical and good with the record keeping. I hesitate to do WW or Noom because I don't like the recordkeeping - or maybe it's recording all the stuff I eat or whatever. I've been successful in the past doing WW on my own and recording. What is it that stops me now?

I think ddog will make a difference in my walking. Even a walk morning and evening around the circle adds on almost 2K steps for me.

[Twins' Mom]

I certainly am getting more steps these days. Had 9100 yesterday, so far 7K today. Start workouts next Tuesday at gym with trainer.

[Harriet]

LadyM, Nancy and Twins', ya'll are powerhouses on your steps! Impressive.

I've graduated from being allowed just range-of-motion building, and am getting in some T-Tapp each evening.

Finally, the blood work on B-12, D and magnesium came back. I was low-ish on D, which I can attribute somewhat to being restricted from any at all by surgeon for a month, just as winter showed up. But that couldn't be the whole story. I'm upping that to 4,000 IU for a while, at least, possibly until someone tests me again and tells me I'm good. I want 50 and am down to 36. Will be finding a lawn lounge chair for April.

The B-12 didn't seem to be affected, remaining at 800 pg/ml for years now. My dosage for myself is just the regular 5,000 mg per week, 2 of the 2,500 tablets under the tongue twice a week.

First time being tested for magnesium, I'm high within the 1.6 to 2.5 range, which is not surprising with all the beans and grains I put away. But dr says I'm not all that high for what she expects. "We like over 2.2" she says, and I'm at 2.3. So, an interesting balance for her patients, lol, to hover in that little space, because some sites actually call 2.6 too high.

Good news is that the R doctor tells me "the science just isn't clear" so they (R drs) have stopped recommending that patients avoid D and some other supplements, and now recommend no changes to diet at all, either. They don't approve actual supplements of C, A, E, Zinc or Turmeric, but whatever you get in diet, that's fine. (Now, this is for my area of body - I realize it might be different for someone else, but this was on a page of info in the packets ready for everybody.) What a welcome difference from the way it was for my dmother about 2008-09, who had one dr telling her to increase D and the R dr telling her no.

Dr doesn't believe my smoothies could possibly have all that much vitamin C anyway. I may put the ingredients of one into Cronometer and print out for him.

[Harmony]

Harriet, what kind of Dr. do you have that talks to you so much about natural nutrition? I've never had a dr. help me much with any of that. Last dr. told me she's a fan of keto (when I talked to her about weight loss). Then almost in the same breath she looked at cholesterol numbers (they want it to an insanely low number these days) and she writes on the lab sheet PLANT BASED DIET. Ok, in what world is Keto plant based?

The Dr. I had before her told me she didn't believe in diets........

This current dr. did tell me about taking calcium and strontium for my bones but never told me they don't play well with each other and I had to separate the times I took them. And I got the information about taking K2 with my D3 to keep the calcium going to my bones instead of to my arteries to harden them from a Dr. I listen to on Y Tube. I had to figure out what form of calcium to take from articles because some cause constipation, which the dr. knows is a problem here. No Dr. told me to take CoQ10 with my statin because that usually causes a deficiency. The pharmacist alerted me to that.

Really, our health is totally up to us most times and this is just a good example of all that. You are extremely lucky to have someone in your court helping.

[Twins' Mom]

I think most doctors just aren't concerned or particularly well informed about nutrition, Harmony. It's not what they learn in med school, either.

I exceeded my step goal this week (42K steps for the week) and increased it slightly. I'm working up. I have two workouts scheduled this week also.

I've eaten better most of the week. Dry January going well too.

Physically I feel pretty well.

[Nancy]

I am trying to decide on my plan of action this week.
Not going to be fasting as much as I use diff. insulin when I get it and start it.
The church is doing a Jan. fast me nope just finish up mine.

Needing some rest days and time to regroup.
I did get my steps in yesterday barely did the gazelle in the evening after dinner to finish up those.

Today not as many as some days. We have rain in our forecast but it has not shown up yet.

Pea soup is my veg. today.