About Me – Physical Health – Nutrition Journaling and Lifestyle

As my health is a major focus of this blog, I thought it might be helpful to provide you insight to what I do for my physical health and why I do it.  Diet, nutrition, exercise and general physical health topics are covered.  An overview, so if you don’t want to dig through the site looking for gold nuggets, you can harvest the information here, directly from the mine.

I follow an intermittent fasting plan.  Depending on the week, it’s 18/6 or 20/4.  Every few weeks, I ‘ll knock out a 24 hour fast, if it works with my daily schedule.  Cravings matter a great deal with the eating plan I have chosen, mantras, distraction and hyper-focus on my goals help, depending on the day.  I have been intermittent fasting for a few years now.  When I keep on the plan, it does work with CICO (calories in, calories out) as an effective weight loss tandem. 

Primarily for health reasons (fussy kidneys), I follow the D.A.S.H./MIND/Mediterranean hybrid nutrition plan.  High blood pressure can have a negative impact not only on the vascular system, but my kidneys as well.  It is to my benefit to keep my B.P. within normal limits, just under 120/80 for my body. Even a slightly above normal blood pressure is worth addressing as it is likely to worsen as I age, therefore attention must be paid.  For a short period of time, I was on a weak B.P. medication to help lower my numbers.  Talk about a surprise, I think I am pretty young!  Never too old to take of of myself, clearly.  A little too much sloth and gluttony, clearly again.  Within a few months of changing my eating patterns, my BP dropped close enough to normal levels to ditch the BP medication and continue working on my health by staying on track with my dietary changes.  My kidney numbers rose, also a good change.  I watch my eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) number carefully.  The eGFR is one measure of kidney health, evaluated via blood test.

Why Do I Like My Diet Choice?

I find it easier to follow than other eating plans. I enjoy eating pasta and bread. I personally think limiting fruits and veggies to certain types is a terrible idea; I want to be able to eat them all. I have always looked for ways to increase my fiber consumption. Fruits and veggies are a significant component of the high fiber diet I prefer.

Red meats are expensive. While I can’t see myself going full vegetarian, I was ready to significantly reduce the burden on my wallet, daily calorie count and health by cutting my consumption of red meats. Hence I did so.  It’s been a couple of years and I am happy I made the change.

Can You Explain Differences Between the Three Diet Types?

D.A.S.H. – Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

·  Lowers sodium intake to 1,500-2,300mg a day

·  Focus is vegetables, fruits and healthy whole grains

·  Limits saturated fats, as you find in red meats and full fat dairy

·  Restricts butter (the component of the diet I find most challenging)

·  Primary focus is improvement of vascular health/blood pressure

MIND – Mediterranean-D.A.S.H. Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay

·  Limits fruits that are not berries, encourages high berry consumption

·  High in leafy greensand non-starchy vegetables

·  Try to eat nuts almost every day

·  Is less specific than the D.A.S.H. diet

·  Try to eat more fish, beans, legumes

·  Poultry is ok with limits, no red meat is advised

·  Olive oil is the primary oil used

·  Primary focus is improving brain health and preventing dementia

Mediterranean  – The healthiest components of the diet consumed by peoples living in countries along the Mediterranean sea.

·  Fatty fish, olive oil and nuts are best sources of fat

·  Primarily plant based diet. Red meat not forbidden, but discouraged

·  No limits on type of fruits and veggies.

·  Your plate should be primarily vegetables, fruit and whole grains.

·  Primary focus is to reduce strokes and heart failure

As you can see, there isn’t too much difference between the three diet plans. My weakness is butter, and all three limit or forbid butter completely. All three limit or forbid red meat, which I have adapted to well. All three focus on increasing your consumption of whole grains, vegetables and fruit, yet differ in which fruits and veggies are ok. In an interesting quirk my kidneys produce stones when I get too big-ass-salad crazy, so the MIND diet is limiting for me in that regard. Otherwise, my diet is very high in high fiber food. I enjoy oatmeal, wild rice and a tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat bread. I have some go-to recipes for every crop in my garden. One of my “challenges” which honestly shouldn’t be as it’s not a challenge at all, is to start and end each meal day with a serving of fruit or vegetable. I genuinely enjoy most fruits and veggies and try to meet my personal goal of seven servings a day.

Contrary to popular belief, the Med diet doesn’t want you to drink red wine every day. Alcohol, red wine in particular if you have to drink at all, should be consumed in moderation.

Why not KETO?

My kidneys do NOT like a lot of animal proteins. I tried keto a few times, but always felt terrible and wasn’t seeing results, even when avoiding the obvious bad-for-ya foods like bacon. I track my weight loss and so many additional factors you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. In any case, my macro tracking confirmed keto does not work for me. I don’t hate keto. I do not even doubt it works for some people. The only people in the my-diet-is-better fight I do not like is anyone who 1. insists their diet is right for every body and 2. tells someone what they should do diet wise.  I won’t do either.

What About Exercise? Yes, is good.  I wear a Garmin tracker.  The features I use the most are the step tracker, calories burned and the clock.  In the summer, I have a goal of 10k steps and meet that goal easily.  I enjoy taking a walk most days, with or without the pup.  Walking and yardwork/gardening keep me outside and moving.  In the winter, I try to take walks, but with so many neighbors who like ice and snow on their sidewalks, I often don’t venture out.  I knocked myself out once slipping on ice, and ever since I just avoid it beyond the daily puppy walk.  I will exercise with apps, youtube videos and sometimes pop in my old Tae-Bo work-outs.  On youtube I follow Paula B, as it’s low impact and she gets my heart-rate sky high.  I enjoy yoga, body-weight exercises and HIIT.   I can Tree Pose for hours.

A last note about my health.  CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease) is often underdiagnosed. As are other maladies related to nutrition. If you have tried keto, or heck, haven’t tried keto and feel like crap, go to a licensed medical professional and get some bloodwork done. Actually, if you feel great but want to change your diet, go get some bloodwork done and have a conversation with your doctor first.  Same for embarking on an exercise plan.  Ask your doctor.

Please, for the love of all that is holy and unholy,

do NOT take action on nutrition or health advice from me or any other stranger on the internet.

Please confer with a professional who can discuss with you personally the best options for YOUR body and health.

I provide information and links to give you the background of my personal experience. You should confer with a nutrition and/or medical professional before undertaking anything I have done, should you wish to pursue. I went to my doctor and created a plan based on my bloodwork, I suggest the same for you.

SOURCES https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/dash-diet/art-20048456 https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/improve-brain-health-with-the-mind-diet/art-20454746 https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/mediterranean-diet/art-20047801 https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/Dash_Diet

My thoughts on my personal mental health are published elsewhere.  Godspeed and Good Health ya’ll!

~C.Elisabeth