Are you looking for support on your health and fitness journey? If you are, then this thread is for you.

There are no expectations in this forum. Post as often as you like. Post anything that you feel is relevant to your own personal health and fitness goal. Here are some ideas:

• Monthly health and fitness goal
• Daily health and fitness goal
• Progress (or setbacks) in reaching your goal
• Personal stories about why you are joining this topic
• Healthy recipes that you feel others will enjoy
• Links to articles or books that you feel others would find helpful
• Food Choices (healthy or unhealthy)

Remember, your health and fitness journey is your own. There is no one program, method, or philosophy that is right for everyone. This thread is for support only.

I'm here.  This is going to be an all day rain. Meggie won't be getting her walk outside today.  I tossed some brussels sprouts into the crock pot with the chicken. It already smells great. I'll have that for supper. For lunch Ill have my usual Grerk yogurt. I know there's some carbs there but its all the calcium I get now and its good to keep it up

I made ham and cheese egg muffins for lunch and for the next couple of days.

Got word today that the new doctor that originally denied me getting the pain meds did go ahead and order me a 15 day supply. So that makes me feel better about her. I'll see her on the 10th.

Your supper sounds good Teri.

Love fresh starts! Only one short walk today, but that is because I worked a seven-hour shift.

Let's see what happens in June!

You did good Margaret.

Happy June everyone. Hope this is a good start to the month for you. I weighed this morning and I was back up to 242.5. But I still had a 4 lb loss in May, so it's better than a gain. Hopefully I'll do a little better this month. Would love to get back into the 230's without yo-yo-ing back into the 240's. See how it goes.

Can't seem to find a food plan I can stick with long term, so just trying to eat smaller amounts and hope for the best. Between my knee and my lower back, I'm not getting much exercise done. When that bad cyst slips out of place it makes walking pretty difficult. End up walking bent over to lessen the pain. Right now I'm having a flare-up but it's been manageable as long as I don't try to do much. Hopefully it'll slip back into place soon. Not sure why it slipped out this time. May have just moved wrong while asleep. It's happened before. This is day 3.

Do ya'll have any specific goals for June? Mine is to get into the 230's without yo=yo-ing back into the 240's. I do find I do a lot better if I don't have crackers in the apt. so once I use up what I currently have, I won't buy more for awhile. I seem to over indulge when I have crackers and peanut butter in the apt. I can make a peanut butter sandwich with no problem, but the peanut butter and crackers are as bad for me as if I were eating potato chips. I can't just eat one. I want to eat a whole sleeve with peanut butter. Just too many calories and way too much sodium.

This grocery month I plan to stock up on the canned greens I had planned to get in May but then didn't do. Also some in frozen section. I love the turnip, mustard, and collard greens as well as cooked cabbage. All are very low in calories but so good. And I plan to get canned beans and peas, potatoes, carrots, etc. I think this month I'll do without most meats except tuna, other than the little that's in those "complete" single serve meals. I still have quite a few of those in the cabinets. They're pretty good too. I will still keep plenty of eggs on hand as they are a staple for me and you can eat them so many different ways. I'm still not interested in doing any "real" cooking so having the canned goods make it easy to just nuke to warm up. I'll see how it all works out this month.

Well, sadly, the scale said 254 this morning!

But I had been giving myself a pass on a lot...saying to myself,  I'll do better in June!

Now it is June! I went to Aldi's after church and stocked up on rice and oatmeal. I already have eggs.

i know I don't do well when I focus on too many things, so I have made priority goals for this month:

1) Get back to watching the sodium! Keep track! Doing this automatically cuts out a lot of calories for me, so I made this the goal. I'm trying for 1200 mg per day average. If I stay under 1000, great, if I get to 1500, that's ok occasionally.

2) Do the RespErate every day.

3) keep with the walking goal. I'm going to jump in the program at 2 walks of at least 10 minutes and 1 walk of at least 5 minutes. I was supposed to add the third walk earlier, but instead I got the two walks from 5 up to 10 last week.

i have a lot of other things I probably should do but I know that if I set too many goals I will do them all for a few days and then drop them, so I'm going with these three for health.

You can do it Margaret.  Your goals sound very doable. We both can reach our goals if we push hard enough. I've really got to watch my sodium more.

I decided some things simply had to go this morning. The crackers and peanut butter went into the trash. Just doesn't help me having them in the apt.

Just got to stop buying them.

Decided this month I'm definitely going to eat a lot less meat and have more veggies (canned or frozen), along with more fruit. I love the little cutie mandarin oranges, and I love bananas, so will be eating more of those this month. And I want the dark greens as well as cabbage. I will add a few  pre-made salads to the list. They sell the single size pre-made salads at my grocery store and those work great for me. I'm hoping by eating less meat and more veggies the weight will come off a little faster and it'll help my blood pressure as well.

Decided to go ahead and get my groceries for the month, this morning, since I had to pick up my pain meds at the store's pharmacy. Got the canned goods I wanted as well as a few frozen foods and the fruits. Didn't get the premade salads but I'll go pick up one on days I want them. That way they'll be fresh. Only meat I got was the canned tuna. I want to see how a mostly vegetarian diet works for me. I still have plenty of eggs on hand but I did pick up some of the packaged hard boiled eggs for an easy snack or even a meal. I shouldn't need to go anywhere now until my doctor's appt. on the 10th, unless I go see my friend Phyllis.

Not much to say at the moment.  Trying to be more focussed and mindful as I go through the day. Write more later.

Hope everythings ok Teri.

More or less. Same old struggle with portion control. I went through my cupboards again and pulled out stuff to take to the food pantry so at least I'm not wasting more food. Pesto, granola, chick peas, noodles...food is getting old. If I've had these things in the cupboard several months, I'm not going to use it. The weather will be very nice starting tomorrow. More sunshine which is good.

What a long day I had. (Today, 6/2)

(6/1) Yesterday I had 1360 mg sodium, well, close. I had to guess at a few things so I tried to guess high. And as I expected, cutting sodium did cause some water loss, so the scale said 251.2 this morning. Yay!

But I only got one walk in because I was trying to get time in on a craft project, and I did not get the RespErate done.

(6/2) Today I did my shift at the thrift store, which means I was on my feet 4 hours, so then when I went outside I found it was over 90 degrees, so no walk. Also no time to pack lunch, so I stopped at a convenience store where I knew I could get hard boiled eggs, and those are low sodium. Time to go count up the sodium for the day.

Sometimes I too will buy hardboiled eggs at the convenience store if I want to avoid carbs if I need to eat.

Hopefully this month will be better for us all. I'm 240.9 this morning.

Had boiled eggs for supper tonight. An easy meal for me. It was pouring down rain and I didn't feel like trying to fix anything so the eggs made a perfect meal for me.

Another stormy afternoon and evening. But it's going to get a little better over the next couple of days. Going to get some of the Sahara dust and that makes the climate a little drier. But it'll only be here a couple days then the afternoon storms start back.

 Haven't done a lot today. Went to library this morning and post office, then went by Sav a Lot and picked up a couple extra things. Came back home and watched movies most of the day. Now laying in bed, about to read for awhile before calling it a night.

Hot and humid here but I managed to dig a spot and plant some dahlia bulbs and nasturtium seeds. Meggie played out on her cable in the yard. A good day.

Those will brighten up the space once they bloom and will smell nice too.

I have no plans for the day. My knee/calf area is bothering me a good bit this morning. Walking to the mailbox and back will be about all the exercise I'll get. If you think distance to and from mailbox, you can figure about 2 city blocks. Takes me about 10 minutes on a good day walking. There's a small incline I have to go up going and then down it coming back and that pulls on the bad calf muscle. Using the cane and wearing the stretchy brace helps though.

Todays weight is 241.4. Yo-yo-ing once again.

I'm donating blood for the Red Cross today.

Good for you Teri. I wasn't able to do that for a number of years due to anemia, but I could now since I haven't had anemia in 3 years.

I'm still managing the sodium, but I am allowing a few sugary things that have low sodium, so that won't help the weight. This is helping my budget, since it basically cuts out all eating out. Oh, except I just thought of the one Chinese place I know that will just steam everything with no added salt on request. I should go there soon! But it is time-consuming to cook and shop so that I keep the sodium where it should be.

and I have not been doing the RespErate, so that goal is not close.

The walking is not consistent, as I do it some days and not others, but overall more in June than before. I did get up today and get in a walk before work.

scale said 249.8 this morning, so technically under 250, but I'm not sure yet that I am there for good!
 

I'm still managing the sodium, but I am allowing a few sugary things that have low sodium, so that won't help the weight. This is helping my budget, since it basically cuts out all eating out. Oh, except I just thought of the one Chinese place I know that will just steam everything with no added salt on request. I should go there soon! But it is time-consuming to cook and shop so that I keep the sodium where it should be.

and I have not been doing the RespErate, so that goal is not close.

The walking is not consistent, as I do it some days and not others, but overall more in June than before. I did get up today and get in a walk before work.

scale said 249.8 this morning, so technically under 250, but I'm not sure yet that I am there for good!
 

You'll get there Margaret. I don't know which bothers me more, sodium or sugar. I know sodium makes me bloat but sugar makes me want even more. And it doesn't have to be things like cookies or candy. It can be carbs that break down like sugar does. And trying to cut something out completely just makes me want it that much more.

I'm still having some issues with my left leg as well as the slipped disk in my lower back, so walking any distance is out of the question. Just the walk to the mailbox and back will make it hurt worse to the point I get very little done later on or the next day. I'm going to talk to this new doctor Tuesday and try to get some answers.

I wasn't able to donate blood. Now instead of finger sticks to measure hemoglobin, they use the scanning device on your thumb. I understand why they switched to it because who likes to have finger sticks. But it measures low, therefore my hemoglobin measured low, despite my eating more protein for two days prior (with weight gain.) I'm done with it! The next time I get a phone call begging me to donate I'll tell them how I feel about the new device. My hemoglobin has never been 11. Ever!!!! Yet its below their required level. I refuse to eat the amount of protein that may (or may not) give me the level of hemoglobin they want. I also refuse to take iron supplements just so I can donate blood.

The rest of my morning was just as frustrating. I went to both Lowes and Home Depot looking to order a water softener. Neither big box store offers installment!!!!  So if I want a new water softener, I'll have to find a plumber to install. I wanted to use Lowes so I could put it all on the Lowes card.  I can't put a plumber on the Lowes card so its going to wait until I get my share of Dad's trailer sale. Whenever that will be! I don't dare tick off my brother by asking him when the heck is he going to settle that account!  Phew! Sorry! Guess I need to take a deep breath!

On a more positive note, I bought chicken drumsticks on sale, baked them all up with sugar free BBQ sauce.  Packaged the drums in individual baggies  and put them in the freezer. I can take one baggie out every day to thaw.  These drumsticks are huge! By freezing them this way I won't be tempted to eat 2 of these if they're just in the frig. That's the idea, anyway.

Sorry to hear you couldn't donate Teri. I didn't know they had started checking hemoglobin levels that way. I've never been checked before giving blood anyway but it has been a lot of years for me. I just knew when I became anemic I couldn't donate. I was anemic over 10 years. After Bob passes I put myself on a vitamin regiment and within 6 months I was no longer anemic. I did take iron pills for 2 years. Now I take a multivitamin for women over 50 that has iron in it. That seems to keep it where it should be. I also take D3, B-12, and potassium. Doctor had me on calcium too but I found if I take 2 of the multivitamins instead of one it gives me the needed amount of calcium, plus it gives me more in the iron.

That's bad about Lowe's not installing the water softener. I thought they did for an additional fee.

That's a good deal on the drumsticks. I know usually you can get a big bag of them at Walmarts. I used to do that for Bob and he'd grill them then I'd bag them up for different meals. I don't eat drumsticks myself. I prefer the breast so we'd get both and then make individual baggie meals for us. Saved a lot of cooking time.

Today I'm 239.8. Hoping I can keep it under 240 here on out. I get so frustrated when it goes back into the 240's. It's time to stay in the 230's for awhile.