Health and Fitness January, 2024

[Harriet]

It's mid month - well, maybe tomorrow.

At physical in December, I pretty much took the doctor's two recommendations to heart and made them RESOLUTIONS: Increase the number of days I exercise, and reverse a recent trend inching my blood sugar up.

Mid-month exercise report - About 3 of my days were recuperation for a backache. It's a big pitfall for me to do too much and stress my back, so I've got to watch that. I want to exercise more often, not exercise (or even do housework) to the point I have to recuperate from it.

But I have 9 out of 15 days with an exercise checkmark on the habit tracker. 5 of those have been arms workouts. I want to do extra concentration on my arms during the first half of this year and perhaps have more confidence if I decide on a very short-sleeved choice for the wedding. 50 years ago, when I was a June bride, the air was crisp. More recently, we have hot, humid Junes.

Tonight, I just finished a 30-minute workout on the second half of T-tapp Total, so lunges, balance. And yes, I'm giving myself stars, lol.

Food/drink plans that are working:

The herbal tea when I feel a craving is working out well. It's been a welcome treat that slows me down and makes me think about brewing and drinking it slowly since it's hot. So, after that time has passed, I've forgotten other temptations. The one we have here was expensive so I'm trying to decide if it is worth another purchase. I wonder if other brands with other blends would be as pleasant to me now that I'm used to this one, hmmmm.

Having a big salad each day that I do not have a smoothie is another winning strategy for me. I draw either a tumbler shape or bowl shape on my planner to give myself credit. In general, I have a smoothie every third morning, but that gets switched around some if we have an early morning appt, etc.

This is the first evening in a while that I haven't had a small sweet potato. Since I'd had a large russet potato today, I thought it would be a little much. But I still really like the way the sweet potatoes have been filling me up.

[Nancy]

I have gotten my steps in today {Mon.} doing this and that inside mostly. Some outside to start rigs up take out the trash. March in place and a bit of dancing in the living room added for a bit of a change up. The cold weather is getting old as my son said.

[Harriet]

I have been pouting because with January going so well, I pulled a muscle almost exactly a week ago (19th) and it was a doozy. So forward progress on more consistent exercise ended. At that point I had 13 out of 19 days with an exercise checkmark, just about ideal. HRH is convinced that the extreme cold made this worse, one way or another. That may be true - don't know. I have been taking Excedrin (I can't take Ibuprofen, so the aspirin/acetaminophen mix is wise for me) just one tablet at a time, never more than 2 in one day.

I plan to get back to just a walking workout tomorrow and then ease into more. So, if I can keep myself in check and not do too much, this month should still be a success.

I was able to do more work at counter height today, both cooking and sewing.

It's funny that weight just stalled where it was, too, probably because I've had to be still. But I haven't done a bad job of eating, so I haven't really gone backward.

HRH had bought a big cantaloupe, and that has been comforting, even though completely out of season. I knew without much movement I needed water-filled fruit if possible. Another funny thing about that is that it is what I always recommend for chickens who are feeling poorly, lol.

Tomorrow is also the first webinar, and I'm ready for it since I've already been on Zoom once this month.

This didn't turn out to be accurate because I was misdiagnosing myself, and none of the optimistic predictions were right after all. Oh, well, onward and upward into February. (posted Feb 2)

[Nancy]

I have had wt. go in the wrong direction this winter.
knee strain did not help, I did keep up with exercise not as much how ever.
shorter walks some on stat bike, shoveling snow too.
ice and snow walks were good fun some were brief as well.
Today it's 49* F. for our hi temp. it's 48* now and I've done two walks with ddoggo.
Got my ex. goal met and made up for one I missed so that feels good.

[Nancy]

Bonus exercise activity today after I did my walk and got the gravel swept back on my drive way off the neighbors pavement
after a friend plowed me out. when we had the snow earlier this mo. It was good for my arms!