A Health Scenario: Things I’m Doing Right vs Things I’m Doing Wrong

Good morning. Wow, 3rd day in a row is it? I’ve been blogging daily. It feels like old times. And I think it’s been a good thing for me.

I want to thank everyone for the nice supportive comments in the last couple of days. I’m fine and will be fine – I think. I am frustrated but the frustration is a good thing as it will bring along change – hopefully. I’m always changing things and still nothing seems to work as far as weight and health numbers. But I’ll tighten the rules and self discipline – which I definitely have the skill set for. I lost weight with Isagenix but that plan is so expensive. But if I can emulate it, that would be good. I DID get tired of shakes every day though so I know I don’t want that.

I need to sit and type out the things that go wrong as far as nutrition and exercise (and sleep) goes and I need to tweak that. Why don’t we just do that now? lol

These AI created pics are so entertaining. Is that a Shoney’s big boy attempt at the left? What is that thing with attenae on the counter? I see some “hot dog wannabes” over there on the left. And is the microwave oven on its side and what is a CIPP – obviously something interesting. And is that a red cup of butter sticks on the left? Entertaining for sure.

What I’m doing wrong for my health

Not necessarily in order of importance but as I think of them. And I may not (probably won’t) think of everything.

• We celebrate too much because we are foodies. A birthday, a holiday, the weekend, because we want Monday to be special, or because the sun simply shined today – is a reason to eat well. Eating well means – good food, any food, and more of it if we deem it necessary. And we deem a lot! lol
• We eat too late. We still carry this on from work days. We still work and have very busy days but we are just doing it at home (or with a family member).
• It’s 5 o’clock happy hour. It’s feels like we are being deprived if we don’t have a glass of wine, beer, or a cocktail (sometimes two) at this hour, which is just after the 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. coffee break BTW.
• We did away with a lot of red meat eating. Then we started to cluck, and I got tired of chicken so we added back in an extra beef night.
• We eat more fish, but after a while you get tired of salmon and a lot of other fish tastes better if fried and that is not good. But OMGosh, Cracker Barrel’s fried catfish is the big catch in our world. A total meal to send you into euphoria, with their hushpuppies, slaw and fried okra…and homemade biscuits – fortunately or unfortunately we asked for that too and if you get that – you must get the jelly. But we did ourselves a favor (really) by not ordering dessert because the jelly biscuit (added butter as well) with the jelly make a great dessert!
• Leaving the house for anything is a given rule of “oh ok I just don’t have time to exercise today” because going to the store, or to take care of a relative, or to run errands simply zaps up the time and space to exercise. I could pick not doing the laundry, not working on a video, or not doing housework but I get those things done. But oh – exercising is the thing that gets booted first always!
• Those darn chocolate covered wafer bars. They are 20g’s of sugar, but me? Naw. I don’t eat both wafers that come in the pack at the same time. I separate it out. One wafer after lunch or midafternoon and the other after dinner – unless of course we are having ice cream in which I’ll postpone it til the next day, unless —–I eat it and then George surprises me by bringing me a bowl of ice cream (he knows I won’t turn it down). And that’s the double whammy. And what time of night would that be? Ummm about 8 or 8:30. And what time is bedtime? About 9:30.
• The salt crunch. I cannot and will not do life without having a salty crunch in my day. I love potato chips but do I eat them? Usually NO! And if I do it has to be baked. I have allowed tortilla chips to remain in my snack basket because of the corn (you know the psyche is soothed if it has a vegetable in it) and I’m afraid of pop corn because of diverticulitis. But week before last I was craving Pringles, a blast from the past. Last week I was craving Cheeto’s. I allowed these diversions in my diet because I rarely have cravings anymore, rarely have a specific appetite calling so I allow it when I do. Sometimes it is an egg and mayo sandwich, sometimes it is a bologna and mayo sandwich. And that takes me to the next thing.
• Mayo. Oh my gosh. If I lived on an island I would have to have refrigeration so I could take my mayo. What is it about mayo. Mayo on sandwiches, mayo in sauces, potato salads, macaroni salads. I’d be far more likely to dip fries in a flavored up mayo sauce than using ketchup but I try not to ever have fries. That is only a splurge I take when I’m starving and running around and find myself making poor eating decisions because I’m in a hurry and haven’t taken time to think it through and I’m always sorry afterward and vow to never do it again, but yet I do because I’m so hungry at the time and I don’t want the other sides they offer.
• Peanut Butter. The real thing. Oh I have the PB powder and can tolerate it on a yogurt parfait, but give me the real thing on a sandwich or cracker. Peanut butter (half sandwich) is my go to when we have to eat before running out the door. A TBS of peanut butter can do for a snack to hold me off til dinner if the hunger pains are starting in.
• Hunger pains. I wouldn’t know a hunger pain from a hair bang. I talk of it. It’s truly been a long time since I’ve truly been hungry because I won’t let myself. I have a fear of being hungry b/c the sugar lows dip and I get nauseated and weak and feel weird. So when I say I’m hungry it’s really just the body telling me I’m about to dip. At that point I need protein or something hearty. And this is a root cause of me overeating because I’m afraid of the dip.
• Sauces. I love sauces. Most all sauces, except for maybe the hot ones. I love all the dressings and dips and life is boring without them.
• Seconds. I often go for it. Especially if it’s spaghetti. Or something really good.
• Pasta. Gosh darn it. Call me Garfield (that cat loved lasagna) but pasta has kept me alive. For years. It’s my great love. Spaghetti, lasagna, pasta salad, ramen noodles, lo mein – call me insane – I love it and could eat it for every meal and sometimes I have. But it plays with your mood, all this starch, and our bodies can’t process it so it goes straight to the hips, thighs, butt, and stomach. And that is probably my number one problem right there. George doesn’t like the healthier pastas as they irritate him and sometimes they do me too so I’m a little confused about what to buy. And have kinda given up and just go for an Italian brand and hope for the best.
• Ice cream. Darn it. Why is all the good food bad and the bad food good? Those free Jeremiah coupons which I was so blessed to be given by my neighbors and my neighbors are so kind and wonderful, and we enjoyed those coupons for free ice cream all during the month of May (maybe April too?). We did away with the Ninja Creamy for a month because we were doing Jeremiah and we were…ahum….cutting back. But now the Ninja Creamy has been whipped out again and the ice cream desserts are back on – here and there. Not every night.
• Overindulgence extravaganza. If we do anything we go all the way with it. If I’m making a yogurt breakfast? It’ll have fruit on it, granola, nuts, all fairly healthy but, maybe a lot of calories. If I’m making a smoothie, it’ll have all the things. If we DID make a healthy ice cream we’d make it better by squeezing chocolate syrup on it. See? We make life better, lol.
• Probably getting too much sodium in a day.
• I don’t like having to keep track of sodium, sugar, and cholesterol on a daily basis, and I really don’t want to have to use an app to track calories. It’s so annoying. I already have enough tracking in my life, lol.
• I forget to take my 3rd set of supplements for the day and then I blow it off to the next day and forget again. It houses the fish oil pill and the apple cider vinegar pill. So that would help my cholesterol if I would just remember it.

Things I’m Doing Right for my Health

• I am doing better about exercising and doing work outs. More than I used to since the first of the year. So naturally disappointed that this has not moved the lbs in a better direction and that it has not mattered much as far as moving the health numbers in a better direction, but at least most of them have held their own instead of getting worse.
• I am better in the last few years at throwing nutrition into the ring and throwing spinach and tomatoes in the eggs, or adding greens and veggies to a meal and eating more fruit. Although sometimes I forget and fall off the wagon, I really try to throw more nutrients at what we eat.
• Supplements may or may not work but the studies show that those who take supplements usually are the ones that have better luck with their health. Don’t ask me to provide the source, it’s hearsay at this point, lol. I heard it on a nutrition filled health show on Netflix, ok?
• I am usually better at choices considering the people around me – not all the time though as sometimes George can be good at being healthy but most of the time I feel I make better choices when eating out than those around me do. I am around heavy people a lot. And those you are around usually help determine your own fate – whether cooking for you or just influencing you.
• We cut back on beef. Even though we may have added another night in, we still have not eaten like we once did. I’m very mindful of it.
• We are trying to eat earlier, but I don’t think it’s working too well. It’s a new thing and not taken hold yet, so ask me about it later.
• Sleep is improving by a few points. I’m getting more 80’s than 70’s now. I’m trying. The cooling blanket is nice and at hotness is not waking me up. The dogs do though. The past few nights I’ve woken up less.
• Ordered some flavored water packets to add some nutrients to my water so I’ll actually drink it. I’ll share this eventually. I ordered new ones and haven’t tried it yet. I ordered some with less sodium.
• I have cut out a lot of fast food in the last 5 years, but sadly didn’t seem to make much difference. It’s true that I will occasionally eat hamburgers and chicken tenders, but I’ve cut way back so…kinda feel like I’ve missed out if it didn’t make a difference but maybe if I hadn’t cut it out for the most part I’d be much bigger than I am now. So who knows.
• I started taking my BP readings twice a week. Maybe I can start seeing trends.

Improvements

Now I’m tired of typing, or maybe I am just tired of thinking about my health and trying to make even more changes. I could make a list here. But we all know what it is don’t we? I need to do better, make better decisions, and make more rules to follow or break – however it turns out.

I guess this is where I need encouragement. Do I need to hire a nutritionist? No I don’t want to spend the money. It probably would help but I have it within me to do it myself. I know what to do, I think. I just don’t always do things like I should. I experience “oh I’ll do better tomorrow” after I eat this ice cream because today’s special – we are happy and therefore we shall eat good food. Maybe that’s why fat and happy go together. Can slim and happy work?

I don’t know, I will keep tightening the rules and will do all the things and try to be better and maybe in six months we’ll see a difference, but you know – we got birthdays, holidays, all the things. How do you ever stop the cycle? Good food, good times!

Yeah I know I can try intermittent fasting again (that may have been the key with Isagenix), I can eat more protein, work on fat, be more persistent with exercise.

I can take all the things that I listed as bad above and improve on those. I can continue doing the things I do right. I can work on making metabolism changes. Tweeking things often can bring change.

I just have to keep trying. Maybe one day we will find the ticket.

I’m avoiding the statins and anything other than BP meds. I just have a strong feeling that it’s just dealing with the symptoms and that it could cause other issues down the road and I don’t want my body being manipulated and changed in that way. I want to do it naturally. And so will look at plant sterol type of things and just keep trying. I feel like these drugs often reduce quality of life – even if they make you live longer. And without fear of being morbid, quite honestly, I’m a Christian and I’d rather have a shorter life on earth and not suffer from Rx meds that make me hurt, give me cancer, give me diarrhea, harm my liver or kidney function, and fake my body into doing things it’s supposed to while making other things go bad. My next life will be without pain and suffering. So why prolong it and not feel good. How many drugs have been pulled or discontinued because it caused cancer? How many people start going downhill because now all their Rx’s are adding up and and they have so many doctors and so many meds and their whole physique is going crazy because of all the complicated drug interactions. I’ve seen my grandparents and parents go through it and I have no desire to. I may end up having to take certain meds at times but I really want to be picky and choosy about it. It’s all so confusing to me.

Ok this has been fun and now I need to get on the move. Mom and I going to eat lunch and she’s getting a Pedi and I am getting nails done. Just a fill in for me and I’ve been doing my own toes the last two times.

Yesterday was quiet. I read more and did less housework, blogged, created my YouTube video and blew off anything other than laundry, ironing, and going through some photos and frames in my office as a part of a storage/photo project. I also watched some shows. I needed the down time I think this week. Tomorrow is packing day for Texas. Friday Mom has a doc appointment in another town so we’ll do that. Saturday George and I have an excursion. Sunday is church / Mom grocery day. And Monday is a down day at home and final packing day and catching up on laundry and housework day for being gone. Tuesday next week I’ll fly out to Dallas!

More later.