Seasons Greeting 🎄

It’s been a while, but with holidays here (or around the corner) I thought this would be as good a time as any to check back in.

I’ve had a pretty good year and I hope the same goes for everyone out here in Jet Pack land.

To catch up…  I am mostly on track with my health and wellness journey.  Fitness wise, I have managed to stay consistent with my workouts – aerobics six mornings a week and light weights Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.   Health wise, I have been pretty decent.  Despite my chronic issues with asthma, COPD, and bronchiectasis, I have avoided any major flare-ups and ZERO rounds of antibiotics or oral steroids this year!  I do use my three inhalers – two regularly and one as required, but they are just  for maintenance and prevention purposes.   Recently, I went for my COVID, extra strength flu, and pneumonia vaccines.  Unless I get hit by a bus, I should be good for another year. 👍

The one area that I have struggled with has been my diet/nutrition.  Last May (2023), I realized that yeast was causing my severe digestive issues that had been giving me grief for years.  Avoiding yeast wasn’t too painful – except for breakfast, which APPARENTLY sets the tone for the rest of one’s day. 

At first I did fairly well, eating bacon and eggs, potato cakes and the like for breakfast.  That got tiresome to deal with, so I switched to fresh fruit – which was fine for a while until I realized (remembered) that I don’t much care for fresh fruit. 😧 So.. I started mixing it up with waffles (and syrup), pre-sweetened cereal, crumpets (and jam), grapefruit (with sugar) or store bought muffins (basically sugar held together with a bit of bran or a couple of blueberries). 

As the weeks went by, the insidious “sugar creep” kicked in.  Ultimately, I would have my sugary breakfast, followed by a sweet  midmorning snack, lunch (with dessert), a sweet afternoon snack, happy hour consisting of a  mixed cocktail or a can of Pepsi or root beer, supper (with desert), followed by ice cream (with butterscotch AND chocolate sauce), and finally a bedtime snack of caramel corn.   It wasn’t that I would snarf down an entire cake in one sitting –  I was just indulging in bits and bowls of sugar  ALL DAY.

Obviously, that could and did not last.  A few weeks in and feeling miserable, I reviewed my diet and realized things had to change. 

I circled back to the traditional breakfast of eggs and bacon/sausages/ham and potato cakes.  Pretty much salt and saturated fats! 

About this time, I met with a nurse practitioner who sent me for a complete blood work up.  Surprisingly, my tests came back with a few borderline issues – glucose, salt, cholesterol…  My nurse practitioner set me up with a dietician.    She gave me some helpful advice for getting my diet (and bloodwork) back in order. 

The best advice I got for tracking cholesterol intake was to check nutritional value labels on food and choose food products with less than 15% DV saturated fat per serving.    ONE sausage patty contains 26% and I  occasionally (frequently)  indulge in two at one sitting. 🙄

If I haven’t lost you yet, this has led me to make a commitment to getting a better handle on my diet.  I decided the best way for me to do that,  is to keep a food diary for the next year.  AND to keep me accountable,  I  have decided to share said diary with anyone out there who chooses to  (or inadvertently)  reads my blog in 2025. 

Bottom line, you should be seeing more of me in the upcoming months.  

In the meantime, MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!  All the best to you and yours this holiday season and throughout 2025!