Health – Ink, Yarn & Beer

OT

Off topic? Old Toad? Only Today?

No, Occupational Therapy. Gentler than physical therapy and aimed at a somewhat different clientele perhaps, I had my first of many sessions to come. Being immobilized for 6 weeks for a fractured left humerus, it is time to get back to my former self as much as possible. Going very slowly, in part because of my own fear and in part because of the long period of non-movement, we have begun with very simple exercises to get joint mobility back right now.

I am doing shoulder, elbow, and wrist exercises. I hurt! I am using my sling for support when I think I need it, and using my fingers to do more and more. I know the process will be slow and tedious, but time is all it takes, along with a bit of grit. I am still typing one-handed, but I hope to begin to change that soon!

Quarantine!

We are not there yet, but could be. We are now under national, state, and county emergency declarations. Local schools are closed. The grocery stores are swamped. We have essentials, and we have TP! Our freezer is full of veggies, fruit, meat, and film. We have electricity and running water. We have yarn. We have fabric. We have art supplies. We have a neighborhood where the houses – and thus the people – are more than 6 feet apart, so we can go for a walk or out on a hike. We have computers, board games, dogs, and Netflix. We have old DVDs. We have a garage full of stuff to be cleaned out or worked on. Housework, too.

I think we can stay fairly well amused in face of these emergencies. While it may seem I am making light of the situation, which has been poorly handled in a country our size and will most likely result in unnecessary deaths and debt, it really is important to think of the “what if” situation. For instance, toilet paper is being bought up in alarming rates.

I heard from a woman in line at the market that her son in Japan cannot find it anywhere. So what do you use? Google it and you can get some answers.

As well, people with kiddies (and adults) in diapers are being told to make sure they have enough on hand. That makes sense – but when the disposable supply is low or gone? Cloth is your friend, then. I remember all too well the diaper pails and the washing of diapers, sometimes by hand if the electricity failed, on a washboard. And the smell of ammonia. Modern conveniences, when they disappear, have alternatives.

So far, where I live, there are about 4 cases in the county. However, schools are closed, and other public places. My husband can work from home quite easily. The last true emergency I can think of is when we entered WW2. We will learn from this situation, but there may be a high cost because of those who have destroyed government resources for such times.

Why Write?

The benefits of writing . . . .

I think most people who write with any degree of seriousness or purpose are well aware of the benefits of writing. Even more so, there are benefits of writing with a pen or pencil, rather than sitting at a keyboard. There are lot of articles and studies which show there are benefits – psychological, physical, emotional, and health – that are produced in writing.

The Huffington Post had this article about writing concerning some ways in which writing can transform your health:

Writing by hand can help you learn better.
Expressing emotions through words may speed healing
It could help the way cancer patients think about their disease
Consider it a fundamental part of your gratitude practice
Writing down what you’re thankful for could help you sleep better
It make your mind and body better

Jordan B. Peterson and Raymond Mar have produced a lovely document in pdf entitled The Benefits of Writing. What is especially enriching – if you like research – are their cited works at the end of their article.

Another article discusses five benefits of writing everyday. These include waking up your brain, stream of consciousness purging, recalling dreams, vocabulary maintenance and expansion, and evening contemplation and relaxation. Writing about traumatic experiences helps, too, especially if you express things you have never expressed before. Stepping back from an experience can be done with writing, and change your perspective; writing also can trigger dopamine! Much of who we are is chemical, mysterious, and still unknown, but we do know a few things! There are definite health benefits to writing expressively.

A return to writing, with a raison d’etre . . . .

For many years, I kept a journal. It was really a way to whine, and at one point, after 50 volumes, I was ashamed of my whining. There was no purpose, and it had become an addiction in a negative sense – I would write about problems, feel better after the writing, but not do anything to change a direction or attitude. I think it made me more passive and less purposeful. I’ve shredded and burned those journals.

Today, I find myself not really happy about my life as there is so little mental and emotional room for creativity. I get up, go to work, come home, clean up, go to bed and return to the pattern the next day. Half of my life is shot on a weekly basis – 10 and 11 hour days are draining. Mere existence is a waste of appreciation for the life I have been given, doing a job that has increasingly lost value and meaning. I plod on as retirement is in the near horizon.

As that horizon approaches, I know I must change my outlook on my remaining time and tune into that core value for my own sense of well-being: creativity. Years ago I gave up painting and artwork as I searched and searched for the answer to a seemingly unanswerable question: what is the purpose and meaning of art? After years, the answer was clear: it means what it means to me.

Pretty simple, huh? But in those intervening years, I stopped. I lost – and can never regain – 30 years of productivity, of creativity, of growth and exploration. I did pick up the pen, to whine, but not produce.

So now, I am journalling again, but with a purpose. I am choosing something to write about, to explore, to consider, to see how something fits into my life or can benefit me – and in turn, benefit those I love. I am working on short stories, writing about ideas, and being creative in the blotches of time my work schedule permits. (I am also practicing for my retirement!)

Leaving the meetup group was a good thing – a good trigger for regrouping my perspectives. What was a traumatic, negative experience helped me realize and focus on what I already knew. So, thanks to the geezer and needy group leader, I am more focused, and a lot happier as a result!

Red Whine

A Tale of BP, Wine, and Food

Red Wine

As I mentioned awhile ago, issues with BP have arisen. I always had low blood pressure, around 105 / 65, so when it started going up, I was in denial. However, it kept going up – and down – and up – and down. Finally, the diagnosis was “labile hypertension” which can be difficult to treat with medication. So, no treatment. My last visit to the doc ended with a threat of medication…but the fact is, I get “white coat syndrome” these days when BP is mentioned. Everything skyrockets – my BP, and my heart rate. At that visit, BP was 130 / 96 (not good) and my pulse was 98 (very not good). I argued that it was only in his office that everything went nuts. A deal was struck: record your BP and pulse 3 times a day, and I will see you in month.

Ha! I’ll show him.

Well, even though I am running, and can do 2 miles nonstop after a month, the BP is still up. Systolic (upper number) doesn’t go over 140, and the diastolic (lower number) hovers between 80 to 90. Not seriously bad.

“Get into the Mediterranean diet,” he says. “This means drink red wine.”

I am not a fan of wine, but like Scotch so much more. But, orders are orders, and . . . I begin to drink 5 oz. of red wine at night. More alcohol in 4 days than I drink in 6 months. My scotch intake is minimal, like once a month. The day I begin the red wine, the BP takes a serious drop, running as low as 113 / 76 and a pulse as low as 66 with occasional moments of stress bringing it up to 88. Running pulse is toward 160 at the high end, with a rate of about 84 a couple of minutes after resting. Pretty good recovery rate.

I’m sold. And, I find I am liking red wine. The current bottle is a 2011 Syrah from California. 1 drink left. Oh, dear, I am running out of medicine!!

So, now I drink wine. I can handle it, but am amused at how lazy it makes me – really, I get so tipsy! My husband says it is because I don’t drink, and need more practice.

Tracking It

The Mediterranean Diet can be found online in varied formats. For me, it really is not a difficult thing to do as there are really no major dietary changes necessary. The biggest shift is less meat, but I can live with that. I like fish, so I eat that, and try to have tofu once a week. More fruits and vegetables are easy to do. What I have given up is sugar, but I do eat dark chocolate. I really do not miss it, but know that if I give in and eat some cookie or a sweet, I’m hooked back on the worst drug in the food world. That is my nemesis.

One thing, though, I find a big help is to keep track of what I eat. I like FitDay.com, which comes with a lot of good things, although their food database is not as good as Fatsecrets.com. But, I prefer FitDay as there are not forums and emails from the site – they leave me alone! I can create custom foods, too, and record a lot of different things.

Tracking my food is not rocket science, and I refuse to get specific about weights and amounts. What I do watch, though, is the daily carbohydrate totals, and work to keep it below 100 g., and the fat to 25-35% of the daily calorie total. Many foods have fat, so I do watch what I add to my diet, but fat is also necessary for good health. I don’t eat butter anymore, nor am I using low fat dairy products – all nonfat. So, I have given up my beloved St. Benoit yogurt and turned to the nonfat Greek yogurt at Trader Joe’s. It is thick, which is what I like, not thin and runny, which is what regular nonfat yogurt can be unless gelatin has been added. I seldom eat bread, but prefer grains. Oatmeal and quinoa are my favorites. I also eat nuts. And I eat little, if any, cheese.

An average daily caloric intake is about 1200 calories, which, for me, is fine. I’ve also lost about 9 lbs. over the past several weeks, and it goes up when I eat salty foods, but has been going down regularly, and holding steady, too, which indicates a metabolic adjustment.

Altogether, life changes are occurring, and certainly ones which are improving my heatlh, my outlook, my activity levels. Most importantly, they are ones which are quite easy to live with and readily incorporate themselves into my life in general, and ones which are easy to become habitual.

Trying to Turn the Tides of Time

Change!

I am not getting younger, have some labile blood pressure problems, and have been out of shape for a long time. Where I live, there is not a decent health club within a reasonable distance (for me, that is about 3 miles! I hate driving places!). I’ve been here 7 years, and have become increasingly more blobbish in my life style. And I have become fatter and fatter. Typical of most people my age! And, perhaps, being American. Add to this, I injured a knee several years ago when running because my running partner was a ditz, didn’t stay on her half of the path, saw something, and ran right into me to go see it. That stopped my running altogether. I tried doing things like running in place, but that really was bad, on both knees.

About a month ago, I decided I was just tired of it all, and with a new running partner, set off. We were both in awful shape, and huffed and puffed and managed to run a teensy fraction of .6 miles. Still, we did it. And we continued to do it every other day, and one day on the weekend, in the morning. Last Saturday we ran our usual route, through an oak grove on a dirt trail, with an elevation shift of about 100 feet, most of it in one spot, up a steepish hill, and did it twice. 1.2 miles! We stopped in between, but the fact is, we did it. And, this morning, in a different area of town, still under the oaks on a dirt trail, we did 1.7 miles nonstop. Very slow pace – 3.17 mph for me – but it was nonstop. And, when I took my pulse after about a 5 minute rest, it was 60-64. That is good!

In addition to getting exercise, I am also really looking at what I eat. Overall, my diet is healthy, except if I get a cookie in my hand. Sugar gets me every time. I eat vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, but I also eat a fair amount of red meat, although I seldom grab anything to eat I have not made myself. Checking labels is something I do religiously, especially for salt.

The fact is, I eat a lot of carbs, and a lot of fat. Carbs add to the weight, and fat clogs the arteries. I am trying to shift my diet to one which is more plant-based, meaning adding beans, such as tofu or, today, cooking up a mess-of-beans in the pot. Things which do have fat are focused on the healthy fats, such as in fish, nuts, and olive oil. I am keeping red meat to once a week. Eggs vary in amount during the week because most mornings I dislike the smell too early in the day. Snacks are dark chocolate or nuts or seeds or fruit. I am shifting, I hope, from half-and-half in my coffee to a soy creamer, but that will have to be one that tastes good, and may be hard to find. At least I am not using the pure cream I used so long!

So, a few recipes have been found that I like. One is a simple smoothie, which is great for an easy afternoon snack: one banana, 1 c. of almond milk (the 60 calorie variety) and a splash of vanilla extract. Today, I am cooking up some dried beans, and after soaking them overnight, I am cooking them with onion, pepper, jalapeno, and multiple herbs and spices.

The final thing, I weigh myself daily, and log my foods. I use FitDay, which I have used for years, and it continues to offer a lot, is easy to use, and more than anything, I am comfortable with it. I also am recording my blood pressure, which does not thrill me, but it has to be done because it bounces all over the place, both systolic and diastolic. In general, though, the diastolic (lower number) doing pretty good, and the same with the systolic, but I have had some extremes in the past few days – 150/80, and 128/96. One day I had 119/78.

Yes, I want to lose weight, but I also want that blood pressure to become more consistent, and better blood work. It is taking time, but after just a month, I can see some pretty good changes. I ain’t no spring chicken, but don’t want my clockwork sprung and not working!