Tag Archives: taking care of yourself

May 30, 2018 · 4:01 pm

Nutrisystem Week 5 Progress Report

Slow, but steady progress in the ‘Getting the Lard Off’ project.

  • Poundage lost through Nutrisystem to date – 9.6 lbs.  Since my heaviest – 22 lbs.
  • Inches lost through Nutrisystem to date – 13.3 inches. Since my lardiest – 29.7 inches.

I’m finding more energy gradually. This helps a lot in my exercise program. Each day I’m doing –

  1. Elliptical trainer
  2. weight exercise for shoulders
  3. over-the-door shoulder pulley
  4. yoga for stretching

FabulousTraveling

Yesterday in particular I felt better than I’ve felt in a long time. I’m having to take less pain medicine for my shoulder muscles. I’m having to do fewer ice and heat sessions. I’m feeling looser with the stretching I’m doing. I’m feeling more energy to do a significant amount of cleaning, gardening, pet care, yard work, etc.

Both my husband and I have lost about 10 lbs since we started Nutrisystem. We both have health issues we monitor quarterly with our primary doctor and blood tests. We’re hoping that the next checkup in August will be a good one – showing distinct improvement. In the meantime, we’re agreed that this is something we really need to do for our long-term health and we’re happy we’ve taken the first step.

 

 

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May 27, 2018 · 11:33 am

Interesting Experiment

Our son lives and works in Thailand. He enjoys discovering new food. (I’m basically discovery-averse when it comes to food. I’m usually much too hungry to ‘risk’ getting something I don’t like, but I’m trying to change my ways.)

A few days ago he mentioned he had walked to town and gotten several mangosteens. He talked about how delicious they were and that they really seemed to ‘agree with him.’

I had never heard of them. I Googled them and found that lots of supplement companies are making products from mangosteens. I found that the actual fruit wasn’t available ( or at least, not that I could find.)

Since they are supposed to be good for ‘whatever ails you,’ and “(1) Increase Energy, (2) Reduce & Diminish Pain, (3) Lose Weight, (4) Fight Heart Disease, (5)Fight Free Radicals, (6) Fight Crohn’s Disease, (7) Fight Hypertension, (8)  Improve Digestion, (9)  Improve Urinary Tract, (10) Improve Oral Hygiene, (11) Ease Asthma, (12) Diabetes, (13) Mental Awareness, (14) Allergies, (15) Fight Infections, (16) Depression, (17) Improve Skin Health, (18)Eye Health, (19) Lower Cholesterol, (20) Kidney Stones” 

AND probably claim to make you look like Julia Roberts – ALWAYS high on my own personal list, I ordered 90 capsules (a one month supply) to see if their claims had any merit in my case.

Our son wrote that he was trying to have some of the actual fruit delivered to us! He said he thought it was shipping out of Florida, so it’s already approved to be brought into the United States and won’t get hung up in customs or any other nasty speed bumps. I can’t wait to try the actual fruit, since my son rarely raves about a food.

If you are in an area where you can buy some, or you try the supplements, we can compare notes!

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May 21, 2018 · 10:33 am

Flex Meals on NutriSystem

Nutrisystem

 

Learning to actually LIVE with a new way of eating is very different than simply grabbing a package and nuking it. My husband and I will finish Month # 1 on Nutrisystem on Thursday.  Part of the program I like is the “Flex Meal” idea, where you learn to eat out plus learn to cook meals incorporating the new things you’re learning so that you can function in the real world.  You have one flex breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack each week, preferably on different days.

“Flex breakfast” –

  • My husband eats his regular cereal with some blackberries and milk.
  • I eat my old low-carb breakfast of 2 thin slices packaged turkey, a hard boiled egg, some shredded cheese, and a bit of butter, nuked.

“Flex lunch” – 

  • This was easy. We use our “Lunch Bunch” on Fridays. My husband has chicken fingers and I have a nice salad built from the salad bar, including hard boiled egg, ham chunks, cucumbers, shredded lettuce, and a sprinkling of cheese shreds, plus one spoon of dressing.

“Flex dinner” –

  • You can see from the chart above we’re supposed to have 1 smartcarb and 2 powerfuels.
  • What we are doing is cook something we’re really missing – but a lot less of it than we used to eat. Last week we got two thin steaks. (This was a big change because we usually get thick ones to grill.) We love baked potatoes with steak. Instead of the two ‘boat-sized’ white baking potatoes we usually get, we got two little-bitty potatoes. My husband was upset, but I asked him to just try it. He asked in a deprived voice, “Can we eat corn?” while gazing longingly at a nice group of ears. I said, “yes,” not really knowing for sure, but knowing that if he feels TOO deprived, he won’t stay on the new eating plan. I convinced him that we would share one ear.
  • I froze one of the steaks and cut the one I was cooking into two pieces. Lean beef is the ‘powerfuel.” I husked the ear of corn (smartcarb) and broke it into two pieces. We each had a little, bitty potato. (a starchy carb). After we ate last night, my husband came over and said, “You always do such a perfect job that I don’t think about saying anything, but the meal tonight was delicious.”  :0)

“Flex Snack” –

  • This is easy. We go bowling with good friends most Monday evenings. Afterwards, we either celebrate our good bowling or commiserate over lousy games by going to Braums in Fort Smith. We each have one scoop of ice cream and savor every bite. (Mine is chocolate.)

The Flex idea allows us to not feel deprived, keep fun social stuff with our friends even though we’re trying to get the lard off, and put the lessons we’re learning to the test while we’re dieting, so it isn’t just a mindless process, learning to eat this way the rest of our lives.  My husband is trying to keep his sugar under control – a HUGE change for him. (He even calls ME ‘Sugar.’) When we started Nutrisystem almost a month ago now, I gave up all added salt. (I used it on everything – even things that were known to be salty.) I’m hoping this will help my blood pressure numbers.

My husband’s weight loss is 5 or 6 pounds, but the biggest thing to me is that his blood sugar numbers are the best they’ve been since we started monitoring them in 2016. I keep a record, and we started with numbers like 353 (which is future amputate your parts territory). Today it was 122. The goal is under 100, but for the first time since we discovered he has Type 2 Diabetes, we feel we might actually get to the goal.

Official end of week 4 report Thursday. Next quarterly monitoring at our primary doc’s – August 6th. (After about 3 months on the program)

Fingers crossed.

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May 10, 2018 · 2:21 pm

Nutrisystem Week 2 – Progress Report

Since starting the ‘Nutrisystem for Fat Ladies’ program two weeks ago, there is less of me!

  • Weight lost:  6.6 lbs*
  • Inches Lost:  5.5 inches*

*(Couple this with what I lost before Nutrisystem – and my total loss since “MY WORST” is 19 lbs and 15.5 inches.)

My husband refuses to do anything but weigh, and he’s lost 3 lbs. He’s drinking stuff during the day, but doesn’t want to even think about drinking 64 oz of water per day. He’ll eat fruit and nuts, but fusses about anything else as his PFs and SCs each day, eating some of what I bring him, but not all. He will eat a salad, but fights other veggies, mostly, so I’m doing veggies and dip for lunch and salad for dinner. He’s on the diabetic program, and his blood sugar readings, which we take twice per week, are the best he’s had since we started monitoring him!

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I’m still feeling a bit obsessed with food, since I’m setting the alarm so I don’t miss one of our ‘feedings’ at the zoo, and am fixing PowerFuels, SmartCarbs and Veggies a good part of each day. I’m still needing to ‘read the list’ of what is good, but I’m getting better at it.  I’m finding it easier to drink the 64 oz of water daily. In-between, I have a cup of coffee in the morning and another during the evening. My body is still trying to get used to the different eating regimen, but I’m gradually feeling more comfortable.

My husband and I are going to sit down together at the computer tomorrow and make final decisions about what will be in our order that will ship soon for month #2. He found he had chosen several things he didn’t care for. I’ve been letting him eat some of my choices to get him through this first month and he wants me to help him choose for next month.

I’m learning some general things on how to eat so that we can keep this weight off as we go and through the rest of our lives:

  • Eating small amounts every 3 hours during the day keeps hunger at bay. The combinations keep your tummy happy and your energy on a steady level – probably keep my husband’s blood sugar from spiking, too.
  • Making sure you get enough protein with meat, dairy and nuts, and good fruit rounds out your nutrition.
  • A little bit of bread goes a long way.
  • Meat is used as a flavoring, rather than the main course.
  • The invention of turkey – as in sausage and patties – cuts way down on calories and tastes good, too.
  • Cutting out fat, salt and sugar is a good thing and quite doable.
  • Drinking lots of water is important
  • Making a point of exercise is important for lots of reasons
  • “What constitutes a Serving” is an eye-opener
  • Learning how to eat when NOT eating Nutrisystem is a life skill important to develop a little bit at a time.

I think the weight loss after week 1 is supposed to average 1 to 2 lbs per week. I would be very happy with that. I want to get the lard off and KEEP it off, becoming healthier in the process.

On to Week 3!

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May 3, 2018 · 9:54 am

Beginning of Week 2 on Nutrisystem

I ate and drank the last of the contents of the ‘Magic Red Box’ (Turbo 13) week on Nutrisystem. By the end of the week, though, due to my not paying enough attention, I guess, I was down to a bar for breakfast, a shake, a bar for lunch, a bar mid afternoon, and a ‘Hearty Beef Stew” that was the size of my eyeball for dinner (plus veggies, of course, and lots and lots of water.

I’m recording everything I eat and drink, plus my daily activities, on NuMi, their tracker, to keep me honest.

I lost almost 5 lbs (4.8) during the week, which is WONDERFUL. I just measured. It shows I’m down a bit more than 4 inches, but measurement is an iffy thing, kind of like interpretation of ‘facts’ you hear on the news, so I’ll believe it more when I measure at the end of week 2.

This morning I dived into the freezer and got the first of my actual ‘choices’ for the first month – a turkey sausage and egg muffin. YUM! I was also supposed to eat a Powerfuel, but I honestly was too full after the muffin and the 16 oz bottle of water, so I put it in the fridge and will plan to eat it later.

This week starts the way we’ll be eating for the foreseeable future. So far, my husband is resisting at least half of the veggies, isn’t trying to drink water (though he drinks unsweetened tea during the day and a sugarless apple cider hot drink) and refused the Powerfuel this morning,  He doesn’t want to talk about NuMi, much less try to keep up with it, so I won’t bug him about that. I’m going to TRY to get him to eat and drink what he’s supposed to on his Diabetic plan, but he’s a big boy and can make his own choices. That said, his blood sugar this morning was the lowest it’s been since we’ve been monitoring it and he has lost 3 lbs. !!!!!!  :0)

I will start trying to do yoga and the elliptical trainer each day now. My husband refuses to ‘exercise,’ but is in much better shape than I, so I will not criticize.

Main feelings of both of us at the beginning of week 2 – 

  • we’re both glad we started the program
  • my husband has found a few food items he wants to change on our order for month # 2, but we’re able to do this whenever we want online. They post a deadline for making changes, so we know when the last day is for changing choices
  • neither of us has been hungry, though occasionally we long for old, bad habits a bit
  • we’re happy that our primary doctor was pleased to hear we had started the program. We have a regular, follow-up appointment in 3 months, and we’re hoping both our weight losses and blood test numbers will be improved.

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April 28, 2018 · 10:03 am

And So It Begins – Getting the Lard Off – Day Three

We started Nutrisystem on Thursday of this week, the 26th. So far I’ve lost 3.6 lbs.

The Nutrisystem people stress that you shouldn’t weigh yourself every day. They suggest once a week. I’ve always weighed myself every day, though, and I need the feedback that I’m going in the right direction, or at least staying reasonably steady. Even though this is just water loss, I feel happy that I have a good start. I have a long way to go, but losing weight is a great thing to be doing with my time each day. :0)

They also stress not to do any exercise the first week. Well, that’s all well and good, but I’m getting lots of exercise getting up to go to the bathroom all day (and many times at night, too.)  Plus, life goes on, and I need to get things accomplished around here; so, no formal exercise until next week, but I HAVE been being active.

Example – since winter FINALLY seems to be over, we took the snow tires off the Honda Ridgeline yesterday and put the regular tires on. This is a laborious project, but after doing it twice a year for several years now, we have it almost down to a science. My husband does the heavy stuff, like getting the tires onto the “wheel studs.” (I just had to ask my husband what was the actual name for those. I hate to call everything ‘thingies.’) I’m a pretty good go-fer – rolling the snow tires out of the way, rolling the regular tire over to my husband, handing him the wheel nuts, bringing him tools, putting things away, etc. It takes us about half an hour now, when the first time it took us twice that.

I also planted a 6-pack of tomato plants and several squares of radishes yesterday. Since we don’t have our irrigation system going yet, later I got a hose hooked up and watered them.  I rolled up our big fireplace rug and stored it under the stairs in a storage place and then vacuumed the living room, foyer, and office. The big thing yesterday was washing the two large dog bed covers, airing out the innards, then putting everything back together.

Add to that setting a timer so that we stay on our program for the day, eating every 3 hours, and you have much of our day yesterday.

My attitude is better since we’re finally on the road again to getting the lard off. I’m hopeful that as the extra weight comes off, we’ll feel better and better.

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April 16, 2018 · 1:22 pm

Healing

GrowingBolder.com via Cathy Ruggiero

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April 12, 2018 · 11:46 am

Ahhhhh!

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I have a massage once a month and today was the day!

My body looks forward to it, gathering up aches, pains, sore spots, strained areas, etc. so that Lynn Moody, my massage therapist, can do her magic and heal me once again.

Sometimes I have a particular area that would appreciate extra consideration. Today it was the back of my neck and across to my shoulders on either side. Sometimes I don’t complain (imagine that!) of anything in particular and Lynn finds spots I didn’t know I had!

We talk a bit, catch up on what’s happening in each other’s lives, and then I concentrate on really relaxing, something I find more difficult as I age. Between the massage once a month and my yoga stretches, I’m getting better at doing this – albeit slowly.

If you consider massage a ‘luxury,’ – okay – it is; but even more than that, it’s taking care of yourself, like trying to eat more healthy foods and exercise. If you’re getting a massage regularly – good for you! If you’re not, please consider starting this. Massage can be done in a chair if that works better for you. The point is to have a knowledgeable, skillful, caring person help you untie your muscles and release all kinds of healing vibrations in your body on a regular basis.

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April 3, 2018 · 11:03 am

Creaky

Healing-Plaza.info

Since I’ve been feeling really creaky lately, I’ve been trying to do a session of “Yoga for Old Broads” each day.

(This is actually “Gentle Yoga” via Sixty & Me  designed for people like me, who always wanted to try yoga but were intimidated, who have health issues, who are 60 and over, etc. This is a pair of DVDs by teacher Cat Kabira, a wonderful lady who makes you feel that whatever you can do to TRY to get into the poses is doing helpful to stretch out your muscles, make you more flexible, feel stronger, and move more easily without nearly as much discomfort.

I actually have the 2 DVD set plus a second one in the same series, with yoga practices for each day of the week.

Right now, since I’ve really been sore and almost POP when I get up or sit down, I’ve been concentrating on just doing some of the poses on my mat by myself, at a really slow speed, just trying to relax into the poses, breathing into them and feeling my muscles finally ‘give.’

If you are also feeling creaky, I encourage you to go to their website and order the set of videos. You’ll be amazed how much better you’ll feel.

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March 14, 2018 · 9:41 am

Open Wide…

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I’m a wuss about going to the dentist.  In fact, for many years my husband or I took our son to the dentist, and my husband went, but I didn’t. Finally my husband got frustrated with me. He got me to go by threatening to NOT wear his motorcycle helmet if I didn’t. Nasty tactic – but effective. I went.

My husband has had to have a LOT of work on his teeth. He learned to avoid really awful problems by going to the dentist religiously, even while in the Marine Corps. There they seem to specialize in people who get the job done, but are not known for their bedside manner or being gentle with their patients. When he got out, he has always searched very carefully to find the best dentist he can.

He had to change when his dentist of many years retired. He asked him who he would recommend – who HE would go to. Dr. Wesley Moore, DDS was the one he recommended. We have gone to him for many years now and felt we were given a gift. Not only is HE a great dentist, he has a very carefully picked staff. Shannon was our hygienist for many years. She got me over my not-being-able-to-sleep the night before jitters and tense appointments by being a very gentle lady sensitive to the needs of her clients. When she heard my mom died of oral cancer and that I’m scared to death I’ll get it, too, she did my cancer exam first so I could relax more for the rest of the cleaning care. Very sadly, she and her husband died in a plane crash last year. We were all devastated.

Alesha was a substitute for both of the hygienists at Dr. Moore’s office. She was still in school to be a hygienist. Dr. Moore was happy with her, and so hired her, working with her so she could finish her certification and work for the clinic at the same time. I think she graduated at the end of December. Our first visit with her was hard. We were full of the loss of Shannon. Alesha knew her, was close to her, and well understood what her clients were feeling. She handled herself very well. Again Dr. Moore has chosen one of the best.

I still don’t like going to the dentist. I determinedly waved at Dr. Moore each time we went, speaking to him, but letting him know I liked him as a person, but didn’t want to EVER need to actually GO to him. Last year I had a tooth go bad suddenly. I’ve never had a cavity, much less had a tooth pulled. I was in terrible pain when I saw him, desperate for relief. He said he had an anesthesia where I was awake and could be cooperative with the procedure, but would take away the pain and I wouldn’t remember any details afterward. HEAVEN! He was right, too. I couldn’t be more grateful.

We go for our semi-annual teeth cleaning this morning. I still don’t want to go, but I didn’t have nightmares last night and didn’t have any trouble falling asleep.  Finding good people on whom you can depend is one of the most wonderful things you can have.

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August 12, 2017 · 9:52 am

Bouncing Back – Getting the Lard Off

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Since I got back on the horse with MyFitnessPal.com and my goal of under 40 carbs and under 1200 calories per day last Saturday, I’ve lost 3 lbs. Total lost is now 23 lbs.  Since MyFitnessPal allows you to ‘play’ with various scenarios of what you’ll eat on a given day, you can work in things that are technically on the ‘not-to-eat’ list. An example:  we found some really nice-looking bicolored corn on the cob. By trying different ideas out, I was able to incorporate an ear of corn into my low carb day! Happily, it was some of the best corn on the cob we’ve ever eaten. Hooray!!!

 

I’m consciously moving more, having physical stuff outside or inside each day to add to my daily steps. I’m now averaging 5,000 steps per day, AND getting outside goals accomplished. On measurements, I’ve lost a total of 15 inches.

 

Ranker

I’ve done yoga sessions on “Joints,” “Neck and Shoulders,” “Lower Back,” “Spinal Health,” “Hips,” “Legs,” and “Balance.” Today I’ll do the last session on the DVD set, “Overall Flow.” I FEEL better. Though I’m a bit sore from stretching in ways I haven’t for too long, I’m feeling looser and a bit more energetic. If I’m tired and sleepy during the afternoon, I take a nap, but I didn’t feel the need for the first time in a long time yesterday.

I’ve had a good starting-over week. I’ve made some progress and feel a difference. I feel more in control of myself.

On with Week 2!

TaoLife.com

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