Health and Fitness June, 2023

[Harriet]

In what Health and Fitness area or goal are you Medal-ing lately?

Twins' has a recent loss of 10 pounds.

And Ramblin' actually has a recent Medal. 3rd place in her age group in a 5K the other day.

There are plenty of NSVs - non-scale victories - that we love to achieve. And plenty of non-actual-medal victories!

What makes you feel victorious in June? If you put a figurative medal
^\/^
✯

around your neck, what are the words it would say? What victories are you closing in on, or which do you see a path toward?

Wishing everyone winning attitudes and confidence for the month!

[Nancy]

My habit this month and the past couple of weeks is to take my supplements daily vits. gummies when these are done, will be my reward.
I walked this morning, that gave me half of my steps for the day.

I need to take my vits.
I have walked.
Slept well good sleep is a gift!

[Harriet]

My medal would be in "Record-Keeping" lately, I think, and "Improving". I'm still not fully up to speed on exercise - better on nutrition but not as ideal as I used to be, only because of adding sweets for no apparent reason (peer pressure!). Drinking water is a fight with my remembering muscle, and at least I usually win. But on all of it, I'm keeping watch with my planner and habit-tracker, telling myself the truth!

Some research on "superfoods" nutrition powders for shakes/smoothie bases has finished up here. Dd43 started it, and first found K'Cha va. She did not care for the price and pretty soon decided it was a gift to me during my recuperation. Also, she didn't like the vanilla flavor (chocolate was fine to her). Then she tried Vita Hustle, giving me one bag to try and keeping one for herself (all chocolate, lol). She is sticking with VH, feeling much better about the price. Even though it has remarkable nutrition, when all of my VH ran out, I opted to purchase the even more nutritious K'Cha va again after all. I only use one scoop of these, not the 2 they recommend, because I put so many other ingredients in to make a full meal of it anyway, so the price doesn't bug me as much. Also, I really wanted to buy the healthiest one because I'm giving half to dd24. She is racing through her days, sometimes has nothing to eat until lunch, so I'm hoping this will help her.

Several in the village have chatted about sleep issues. Ya'll may remember that we go back and forth in my house about having a tv in the bedroom. HRH has some tinnitus (ear ringing), very common, and likes tv in the room. I like a little background noise but not the flashing, changing screen, and HRH says my sound machine doesn't give enough variety of sound to help him. Lately I found youtube long-playing videos of rain falling and that seems to be a compromise for both of us. Favorites have rain with fireplace crackling (not thunder, not crickets) with a somewhat dark screen picture with minimal visual change. HRH laughs that he can awaken worried about all the rainy weather we've been having lately, but he's just kidding, I think.

[Nancy]

I just woke up @ 5:30 went outside coffee in hand and walked around my back yard did three laps pulled 5 weeds. Doing this helps me get a good start to my day and I know I have already accomplished some thing. I had great bs and took my morning piil. Vits are next. Feeling better and glad for that told dsis and dd about remembering vits instead of just hit or miss with them. B vits. help with mood and mental awareness a bit plus!

Got in over 3,000 steps by 8:00 a.m. having my cranberry juice now.

[Twins' Mom]

I know my higher weight this a.m. is from the food I've been eating the last few days. I have two days to eat better, then we're off again. Hoping I can eat better on this next trip. My fingers feel achy and swollen.

[Nancy]

Slept in got my vits. & Rx taken.
Took my walk.Got over 10,000 steps in!
Wed. walked.

[Harmony]

With all my health issues today, and my loud ears, I also had bathroom issues. Suspect it is the beans and more beans I put into the very delicious chili I made for us. I can't seem to catch a break today. TV always helped me and I no longer have a TV in my room... and I suspect one reason I stay up so late is if I'm really really tired I am able to go to sleep before my ears annoy me to the point of having to get up and go into the family room. The flashing light changes from the TV never bothered me at all. However, since I've been so long without it at night, I noticed that the lightning woke me the other night, so maybe it would now. I do have a radio in there, perhaps I could try some quiet music. The pressure in my ears today had me not hearing so well to the point of asking DH if I could borrow one of his hearing aids for a bit. No, I didn't but I was thinking about it!

I really would like to just be able to go to bed and sleep without needing noise at night. I've gotten used to having no light in the room, even no little night light. I did get used to that ok. Some people like a fan at night, that little noise helps them...unfortunately, our new fan we put in a year or so ago has quit working. Added to the list of things not working around here.

[Harriet]

Tinnitus sleep-help videos -
These are certainly not every night for us, but sometimes helpful. For HRH, "rain and fireplace" seems to be a phrase that leads to those that can "mask" his particular tinnitus. When I choose, I'm looking for a screen image that's relatively dark with almost no movement, and an audio with no sudden sounds like thunder, no worrying sounds like howling wind. Also, a long enough play time to have a reasonable sleep - there are nice ones that only run 3 hours but that's not as helpful. Two youtube "channels" that have met some of my criteria and have been around long enough to have a lot of satisfied viewers commenting are:

White Noise Tranquility (one is "Comfortable Treehouse with Rain & Fireplace Sounds")

and

Cozy Rain (one is "Cozy Hut Ambience - Gentle Night Rain & Fireplace")

There are also some that actually have "Tinnitus" in the titles, but so far haven't been quite right for him. As I understand it, people can have different needs. We know we could black the screen at the tv itself, we just never have.

He thinks he sleeps longer with them, and wonders whether that is good for him or not. I personally think it couldn't hurt. He is dead-set against sleeping pills of any kind because he always seems to react much more to meds than others do.

[Ramblinrose]

Signed up for my Diet Bet again yesterday. Need to loose 8 lbs in a month to win. Think that's more than doable. Got in 12K steps yesterday. My daily goal is 10K.

I have Tinnitus as well. Have had it for years. Mine's an EEEEE sound or sometimes like crickets screeching in my ear and sometimes its both. If I'm doing something quite like writing here or reading a book, its very noticeable, but I've learned to ignore it. However it does get bothersome at times when I watch TV. I use close captioning all the time now and that helps.

I need a cold dark room for sleeping. Every night I lower the thermostat down 4*. I also require a heavy blanket to sleep well. The light from the moon sometime sneaks in in between my blinds, and the light switches in the bathroom and toilet closet have night light in them. And there are two large windows at the top of shower, so when there is a full moon, it's light shines in there as well. I usually just shut the bathroom door. However when there is a full moon, its light sometimes comes through parts of my blinds. I have a great eye mask which I use if the moon light wakes me up.

I can't sleep with those noise sounds...doesn't matter what they are. Sometimes I listen to old time radio stories with my ear phones and some times I just listen to pod casts. I seldom fall asleep while listening to them, but once they are over I can go to sleep. I use generic Unisom type OTC sleeping pills. I have to be very careful about my sleep and guard it the best I can.

The only trigger I have ever been able to attach to my migraines is my sleep. So I do what I can to make good sleep happens. I usually head to bed around 9, and read till I get really tired which is about 10. If I fall asleep watching tv or even reading, once I wake up, I'm awake for hours.

[Ramblinrose]

Stayed on my eating plan
Got in 11.5 K steps
Drank my water
Increased my protein