Health and Fitness January, 2025

[Harriet]

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.

How cheerful is this 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 2015. All tips warmly welcomed!

And be sure to report on your news of 2024 - 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.

[Lady Maverick]

Harriet - THANK YOU for this monthly H&F thread.

A recent goal I decided to try......keep your protein bar longer than your energy bar in Cronometer
I thought it would be relatively easy. HA! I am finding it a bigger challenge than I expected.

[Lady Maverick]

I am keeping my focus on TAKING CARE OF MYSELF

Posting for accountability even though I don't have anything to say.

“Accountability breeds response-ability.” – Stephen Covey

When individuals take responsibility for their actions, they become more capable of responding to challenges and opportunities.

[Twins' Mom]

I need to focus on eating well. I restart workouts next week. Yesterday I let myself get too hungry and while fixing some burgers for us munched on both latkes and fudge. I'm surprised my stomach didn't rebel. Overall I probably was okay, calorie-wise, but not so good on choices.

Trainer always stresses two fruits, two veggies, as a start. One fruit yesterday, two veggies: kale in omelet, and latkes made of potatoes?

[Nancy]

Did my weekly hike got 98% of my steps in rain coming in a few min. perfect timing.
Got the sheets in the dryer for some extra steps on stairs at home -
no need for a stair master!

[Lady Maverick]

I am enjoying calm times to think during this Christmas break. Yes, there is still lots going on in our home but there are more pockets of downtime. ANYway, yesterday I designed an eating plan for myself. It is based on what I was sorta doing but I just firmed it up and gave the mini meals names.

I have 6 times a day to eat/drink. I have tried multiple amounts and times to eat and they all work. I have done one meals a day (OMAD) with long hours of intermittent fasting. That works too and I might return to it someday. But for this season of my life, I am enjoying eating lesser amounts of food multiple times a day.

1st - Coffee & Collagen - 74 calories, 11g protein
2nd - Eggs & Potatoes - 231 calories, 17g protein
3rd - Beans & Greens - 194 calories, 11g protein
4th - Yogurt Protein Drink - 199 calories, 35g protein
5th - Meat & Beets - 282 calories, 24g protein
6th - Fish & Big Green Salad - 206 calories, 24g protein
The calorie and protein amount are variable. I just added them to show myself an estimate of what each meal might be.

Since my primary goal is to max out the vitamin/mineral recommended daily allowance having wide variety of food is needed. These 6 themes help me meet that and also meet my secondary goals (calorie & protein).

If you are a Cronometer user.....I fully implemented the "Repeat Items" feature. After deciding on themes for each of my mini-meals, I used the repeat items feature to log all the food for the day. I intentionally logged the food ingredients with zero amounts/measurements, so the calories/minerals/vitamins aren't added to until I eat & tell Cronometer how much of each food. This automates & speeds up the daily logging of food by 1000%

There is a reason I am not saying anything about getting my steps and exercise in.
It seems I can only focus on one healthy aspect at a time. I consider regular exercise vital to be able to easily move my body and will return to focusing on exercise soon. For now, what foods I eat has a bigger impact on my health, so I am focusing on that.

It feels like I am trying to prop up a 3-legged stool. I am constantly adjusting the 3 legs to keep the stool from collapsing.
Leg #1 - quality & quantity of foods I put into my body
Leg #2 - moving my body - exercise all aspects
Leg #3 - mental. Managing stress level.

[Harriet]

Determining my weight at end 2024/begin 2025 is pretty well impossible since my swing from Dec 12 to Dec 23 was constantly down too fast and then swing up to yesterday by half that as I recuperate. But then today, the IVs I was given yesterday show up as (at least temporary) water weight gain unless some of it holds, and 3 to 4 pounds of that. So, all skewed, right at the year change. Sigh. Chatted with dr briefly about it and she looked back and said that I could decide to go by her office records, that show I lost 3 pounds in 2024, cutting the year off at Dec. 12 record and calling the rest of the year medically induced flux. I'll take that. Lol.

Cathy has created a health and wellness Members Only thread which may be valuable for processing and discussing things we consider private. Check that out.

I have mostly been just dropping info here because I am hanging on so tightly to the temporary nature of my treatments (4.5 months) and the good prognosis, which includes a high probability of no further treatments in my life. Yep, telling ya'll embarrassing things I'm probably going to hide from those IRL besides family. (including hiding with hairpieces, which will last much longer) But I feel comfortable because of the above. A few years in the future, I will probably be fine talking IRL, but not now.

[Nancy]

Walked today between rain pour downs saw 5 deer.
Still working on getting my steps in today. done!
On a break bc phone is charging up now.

[Lady Maverick]

Every bite you take is a choice toward healing or disease.

I read this statement yesterday. It has been rattling around in my thoughts. I asked AI about it and this was summary of its response.

In essence, every meal can be an opportunity to either promote health or contribute to the risk of disease, depending on the choices made. However, this doesn't mean every choice must be perfect; rather, the overall pattern of diet over time is what significantly influences health outcomes.

Every day I try to spend a little time & focus on my health.

[Twins' Mom]

Good advice that it's the overall pattern of choices that affects health. I'm not sure an intentional "bad" choice could even be called a bad choice - we all need variety and a little something else sometimes.

Gym opening put off until 13th, which puts my first workout on 14th now. I will make my step count of 49K steps for the week today, and am increasing to 52500 for next week. That's 7500 steps average daily.

I am mentally waiting until I start working out for the "eating a lot better" motivation. Right now I'm also doing "Dryuary" i.e. Dry January. It's not that I drink a lot of wine or bourbon, it's more a "drying out" after too many holidays and birthdays and parties in December, and a jump start/reset to the year.