Health and Fitness, May, 2011

[Harriet]

There was a :LOT of new emphasis on health for us in the five pages of our April thread, and lots of knowledge! Check it out for inspriration!! Just SOME of our topics were:

Aquacise
Treadmill workouts
Proactive medical tests (yay!)
New walking shoes
Yoga
Counting starch grams
Swimming suit season
Bike riding
Giving up colas
Zumba
Avoiding sodium nitrites (Alzheimers link)
Brief exercise for alertness
Juicing
Morning routines

Congratulations to Kathryn, who has reached 15 pounds weight loss this year.

[Nancy]

Walking, gardening mowing and using wts. will be some of my exercise goals this month.
Harriet I gave up Crisco {transfat} and now use butter.

[Harriet]

The Crisco to grease the drive of the juicer was just absent! I thought I still had some in the house, but didn't - I usually use butter for general needs, too, Nancy, and I guess it's just too long since I used anything else, it was gone. The juicer instructions say you absolutely positively can't use butter/margarine. So I was disappointed. But hoo-ray, I read further and they said Olive Oil would be okay. I had that!!!

So this morning dd12 and I made a fun concoction of basically 4 large carrots, 2 small apples and 4 large kale leaves (we forgot the celery). She added 2 small slices of her ddad's cantaloupe and the partial bag of peaches that I had mistakenly "unfrozen" yesterday, so it was a bit sweeter than necessary. It was absolutely delish, though! She had hers in an odd pedestal glass we have, to make it festive. HRH is absolute in his continuing refusal to touch it! Sigh. Dd says she'd like it more if it was "less carrot-y" and that is because I forgot the stalk of celery, which I remember is supposed to be the best anecdote for mineral-y tasting carrot juice.

The best moment for me was the moment as I was rinsing the parts and I faced the cutter that slips onto the drive. When we'd gotten the juicer out the other day, we had to work like Trojans to get it off of there. So I was afraid the same thing would happen again and I'd have to admit maybe the juicer was on it's last legs. But, VOILA! It slipped right off for cleaning, just like it always used to, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years ago! So I must give a hearty recommendation to the Champion juicer company. They told me it would be money well spent, all those years ago. Also the motor is just as quiet as ever.

I was a little frustrated with the chickens who did not recognize the leftover pulp as the tasty food I know chickens always like. They were completely suspicious! Next time I'll feed them small bits through the fence like it's a treat and they'll get the idea.

Pretty soon the new Earth Fare grocery store opens. It will become the closest grocery to my house. I am hoping the convenience of that and the slight gasoline savings will offset the greater expense there, because I'm sure they will have a large variety of organic produce.

[Nancy]

Harriet glad you had olive oil!
Such lucky chickens you have there getting treat food.

I mowed this weekend and pruned roses, we too the two younger grand children to the park yesterday so counting that for weekend exercise! Trying to get an arm work out in some form or other at least every other day now.

Mon. did an arm work out.
Tues. did arm work out and a brisk walk for part of my exercise stopped and chatted with a neighbor gal then resumed my walk and finished but at a slightly slower pace. It was a lovely evening.
Wed. my exercise was an arm work out, walking with arm wts. for half of it too, and
I spaded up the small garden spot we have. Lovely day here. {No breakfast today.}
Walked with dgkids in the field and did some more yard work.
Thurs. Walked with dgd in the stroller yesterday; highlight was seeing a new black baby calf.

[Harriet]

Nancy, your arms are going to look so toned for summer!

Was decluttering and found notes from reading a mag in dr's office that I had written down to report here :

"Australian researchers found that after 20 minutes of gum chewing, alertness went up by almost 19 percent. Chewing gum also lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol by 16 percent according to the study."

Pretty good for a 5-cent investment.

I've made juice two more times, always good. Bought carrots in bulk the next time and HRH laughed.

Exercised for 15 mins this a.m. and had fruit smoothie, then veggie omelet later. Why can't I be this smart in the afternoons/evenings?

Emailed HRH the link to "One pill quick fix"3-part video clip about importance of good Vit D levels. He, of course, still on prescription dosing indefinitely. In the 2nd part is the map (across North America at least) showing the line between adequate and non-adequate sunlight.

[Nancy]

Harriet I sure hope so that is my goal!

Tweaking Breakfast;
1 egg onion two slices chopped and scrambled with 1 T. salsa. No cheese.
I'll try this with egg beaters next time. I remembered that I've done some think similar to this with grated summer squash so will do that. I can cut my egg consumption down by only having one and doing that eod {every other day} or like hubby does only once a week like on Sunday.

I've had my walk today plus vacuuming.

[Harriet]

I had a fruit smoothie and later an omelet with green pepper and onion. Very sorry supper was pizza, but it couldn't be helped. I had had some ice cream midday and that was supposed to be my whole splurge.

On Dr Oz today they recommended several things that won't work when dealing with AR. Coffee good for gall bladder - well, I shouldn't have it. Quickly chugging cold coffee immediately before lying down for nap so it will kick in in about 20 minutes and for a few hours following the nap - well, that is awful for even mild AR sufferers for several reasons! Fruit smoothie an hour or two after supper - ouch, just shoot me! LOL

Rachael Ray was on and says she is definitely doing the 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of arising thing recently to control her weight. Gee, I still don't see how that can work. One egg only has 6 grams. She said her favorite was lentils with egg. So that would require 2/3 cup of lentils unless she's having more than one egg. Dr Oz asked her about gas, lol. What bugs me is that that just doesn't sound appetizing. Basically beans for breakfast. Have to think about it.

The recent program about "forks over knives" was interesting - animal protein causes cancer cells to grow but plant protein doesn't.

[Nancy]

Having crackin' oat bran for breakfast today no milk again w/ my Cocoa - coffee .

Yesterday I walked the hill and my other route had a low so tweaking my insulin dose.
Also got some weeding done on the side yard.

Back from my walk one hr. today pushing dgd in the stroller going to count that for my arm work out today too.

[Nancy]

Did an hour long walk pushing stroller this morning.
Pulled some weeds and did some other yard work in the afternoon.

[Nancy]

Product Review
At the store I grabbed the wrong flavor of crystal lite
came home to discover that the green tea peach mango was
in the bag instead of the citrus splash. We love the
critus splash, the green tea peach mango has excellent
flavor but does not mix well so we will not be getting
that again they need to reformulate the product.

Don't forget to drink your water!

Back from my walk split it into two sessions today, did my arm work out with out wts. too.
Had my fruit today I've decided I'm not going to eliminate whole food groups from my diet
like carbs. fruit, or dairy it's just not healthy and I feel better with a healthier diet well duh!