Category: Uncategorized

Daily Food Diary – Day 21 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness, Uncategorized

It is Day 21 of my Daily Food Diary.  Three weeks since I began recording my intake and sharing it here on JetPack. 😊 (I cannot begin to express my appreciation for those who have checked in and especially those of you who have been regular visitors to my blog.  Your support and encouragement goes a long way to keeping me on track!)

My diet still needs improvements,  but daily tracking has already helped me to up my water intake substantially in the past few days.  This has had two major positives for me. 

Number 1 – My between meal snacking has decreased naturally and easily.

Number 2 – My sinuses have improved significantly, which in turn is beginning to improve my sleep and my lung function.

The best thing about building healthy habits is how easily one good thing leads to another. 🤗

Our cold weather snap broke yesterday, so with the our sun shining and feeling good, I went outside to feed the squirrels.   I also took Molly’s new Frisbee to play fetch with her.  Molly does not play fetch particularly well but I did get fresh air and a bit of exercise (fetching Molly’s Frisbee) in addition to my regular morning workout. I’ll take that as a win!

An older pic of Molly heading outside not to play fetch.

Food Diary – Day 21

(1) c coffee

(1 1/2) Cinnamon swirl pancake with cream cheese icing and maple syrup

(1 1/2) slices of thin sliced bacon

(12) oz water

(12) oz water

(1) c tea

(12) oz water

(12) oz carbonated water

(1) pork chop

(1 1/2) c Sidekicks Herb and Butter noodles

(1 1/2) c Brussel sprouts with butter, salt, and pepper

(12) oz water

(1) c tea

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day! 💗☺️

Daily Food Diary – Day 18 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness, Uncategorized

It has been eighteen days since I began my daily food diary – recording everything that I eat and drink and sharing it here on JetPack.

It soon became obvious that hydration was an area that needed some work, so I have spent the past week focussing on drinking more water than I typically do. 

In a few days, I was noticing benefits – clearer sinuses, smoother skin, less cravings  for between meal snacks, and more.  I know from taking up regular exercise, meditating, and working on my diet, that it will only get better.

I have learned more about myself and proper self-care in the past three years than I have in my lifetime.  I have recognized benefits that I never imagined possible – at least not for me. And definitely not in my sixties! 

My one regret has been that I did not get my 💩 together sooner. 

Recently, I read an article where people like me were referred to as ‘LATE BLOOMERS’.  At first I was offended and trotted out my lame old excuses.  I grew up before the Internet and all of the information readily available to younger people now, I was always sickly and wimpy – I didn’t know anything else was possible, I was busy taking care of other people!

Then I started thinking about it.  We have a large yard and garden.   In the spring and summer and into the fall, we have an abundance of flowers.  I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate them all.

But late in the season, when the weather has turned cold and our yard becomes a wasteland of Saskatchewan greige, the flowers long gone,  there is always that one intrepid little petunia blossom that opens up to brighten my day.

That ‘late bloomer’ is special.  I will make a dozen trips out of my way to pay it a visit and appreciate its beauty and resilience, before it fades away.  I realized that being a late bloomer isn’t a bad thing.

People notice late bloomers – and that’s a good thing, especially for later boomers like me who have special people in their lives – people like grandchildren.  They are aware of  my efforts to get fit and healthy, they see the results, and hopefully they are inspired to follow my lead,  sooner than later, because they deserve to bloom for a lifetime.

Food Diary – Day 18

(1) c coffee

(1) 2 egg omelet with back bacon, mushrooms, onion, and cheese pan fried with olive oil

(12) oz water

(12) oz water

(1) c tea

(12) oz water

(12) oz carbonated water

(1) tortilla wrap with filling of ground beef, onion, mushroom, spinach, red pepper, garlic, salsa, and cheese

(1) handful of Touch of Lime tortilla chips

(12) oz water

Total 60 ounces of water! 🎉

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day! 💞🌞

Daily Food Diary – Day 16 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness, Uncategorized

Day sixteen of 365.  I am still here, although I am running late for the 2nd day in a row. 

Yesterday, I was late to the party because I had had a rough night sleep and just finally fell asleep when I should have been getting up. 

Last night, I slept like a rock for a solid ten hours. 🤦

I’m up already!  Ok, maybe finally? I love the housecoat Dan got me for Christmas.  ❤️

Another day this week to focus on drinking water.  Proper hydration is so important to everyone, but I am noticing more and more how important it is for those of us with chronic health issues.

For myself, with multiple respiratory issues, proper hydration is key to dealing with mucus.  The good news is – water works! I have been gradually upping my water intake this week and my sinuses are so much better! I usually sleep well,  with  occasional wakeups due to coughing fits, most often triggered by post nasal drip.   Last night, no coughing – nothing!

My sister Lorraine commented on my post yesterday (as anonymous).  She noted that one of the rules for organ transplants (hers was kidney) is proper hydration – two litres a day of water, and double that if you have an alcoholic drink.

Speaking of kidneys, I have had previous issues with kidney stones – for which plenty of water is advised.

This morning, my daughter Jen sent me an interesting post on  Instagram, from an account dedicated to those who have EDS (Ehlers Danlos Syndrome – a genetic collagen disorder).   https://www.instagram.com/share/p/BAMZdhiVBc

This post notes that not only is proper hydration important but so is sodium, potassium, and magnesium to support cellular hydration, fluid balance, and nerve transmission.

One thing that I have learned the hard way, is that while medical intervention is available during a chronic health crisis, one has to be proactive in maintaining one’s health and controlling one’s flare ups between the crises.   Adequate hydration is one such proactive measure that is necessary.

Daily Food Diary – Day 16

(1) c coffee

(3) crumpets with butter and jam

(12) oz water

(12) oz water

(1) c tea

(1 1/2) sm bowls chips and sm crackers

(12) oz water

(1) lg taco salad – lettuce, spinach, baked chicken, onions, radishes, cucumber, red pepper, olives, shredded cheddar cheese, dried fried onions, Salsa salad dressing and a few Hint of Lime tortilla chips

(12) oz carbonated water

(1) chocolate

(12) ounces of water

Total water : 60 OUNCES 🎉

That’s it for today! Take care and have a great day! 😊❤️

Daily Food Diary – Day 11 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness, Uncategorized

It is only eleven days since I started my food diary, so I can’t give this exercise total (or possibly any) credit but this week I realized that I do need to work on a wardrobe makeover. 

For the most part, what I wear isn’t a huge issue as I spend most of my time in our house or yard.   There are however, times when I venture out into the world and my clothing choices are getting pretty slim – or more accurately saggy.

It’s a start – fleece lined leggings and hooded casual top.  Both are medium and I should probably have ordered small, but they work.

Food Diary – Day 11

(1) c coffee

(1) oriental pear

(1/2) c raspberries

(2) sq dark chocolate

(1/4) c mixed nuts

(1) c tea

(3) c chicken fried rice w/vegetables ***

(12) oz carbonated water

(1) sm piece of DQ ice cream cake (from Genie’s Christmas Eve birthday.

(1) c tea

(10) Blue Diamond Almond Thin crackers (14.4 calories per cracker. Little to no taste)

*** Dan made supper last night because I was feeling off and achy for whatever reason.  He did a great job of it, as usual, and today I am feeling fine.

Take care and have a great day! 😊❤️

Daily Food Diary – Day 10 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness, Uncategorized

Good Saturday morning, because paying attention to what I eat is a seven day a week exercise.   ☺️

As always, today’s food diary entry is  for yesterday – Friday January 10th.  Friday used to be the worst day of the week for my diet.  That was my food reward day for making it to the end of the work week.   Donut breakfast, fast food lunch (KFC was my favourite), happy hour after work and date night supper out  when Dan was off (some unhealthy prepackaged meal when he wasn’t).   I am surprised I survived as long as I did with all of that salt, sugar, and yeast. 

My diet is still far from perfect, but I am becoming more aware of what I eat and  I am making some improvements – specifically snacking less, especially in the evening.  It’s not that I don’t want to snack all evening.  I just get cringy thinking about writing it all down and posting it for everyone to see. 🙄

Hopefully by the end of this  year,  those evening snack cravings will be long gone.

Food Diary – Day 10

(1) c coffee

(1) large Baking Powder biscuit Denver sandwich

(3) 8 oz  glasses of water

(1) small Bowl BBQ potato chips

(2) c leftover spaghetti with meat sauce and shredded cheese

(2) c raw vegetables – broccoli, red pepper, cucumber, and radishes with Dilly Dip

(12) oz carbonated water

(1) c tea

That’s it for today.  Dan is gone to drive his girl Maddy to work and time for me to get my morning aerobics done while he is gone.

Genie, Rory, Grandma/Me, Maddy
Maddy now – those (almost 15) years went by way to fast!

Take care and have a great day! 💞🌞

Morning sunshine to break through our cloudy skies and another foot of fresh snow.

Daily Food Diary – Day 9 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness, Uncategorized

Yesterday I wrote about how much accountability helps me to accomplish anything I set out to do.  Today I am going to touch on a couple of things that help me to accomplish nothing!

TRYING – As soon as I set out to try anything I have set a clear path to failure.  Back in the day (pre 2010) I tried to quit smoking.  At least a dozen times  I tried and every time I failed. 😯 In 2010, I decided to quit smoking.  I haven’t touched a cigarette since.  🤗

Result driven goals –  Over the years I have started out on numerous fitness and/or diet  programs.  They all started and ended the same way.  I set out with a goal to lose weight (10, 20, 30 pounds – whatever).  I would start with determination and go hard!  A couple of weeks later, with no results to show for my efforts, I would go harder.  A month later, little to no closer to my goal, I would admit defeat and give up.  When I started working out three years ago, I had no such goals in mind.   I decided to become more physically active because I had to  build up some strength and stamina.  I was a fat and flabby 160  pounds, but that was the least of my problems.   If I lost a few pounds and toned up a bit that would be great, but it was not something I was dwelling on.  Today, I weigh 132 pounds and I am relatively toned.  There is still room for improvement – at least 12 pounds of improvement, but that is not my motivation for moving forward.  It is all about doing what I have to do to  improve and  maintain my levels of health and fitness. And it works! 👍

Food Diary – Day 9

(1) c coffee

(1) Apple

(1) Square dark chocolate (with all the flavor of a tar roofing shingle – but lacking the delightful texture)

(1) Bowl of beef, vegetable, barley soup – the last of  a large pot made a few days ago

(5) Soda crackers

(8) oz water

(1) c tea

(1) Maraschino cherry chocolate

(1) Amazing salad with lettuce, Cajun roast pork loin, cucumber, red pepper, green onions, cauliflower, radishes, green olives, sunflower seeds, French’s Crispy Fried Onions (in lieu of croutons), and French salad dressing

(12) oz carbonated water

(1) sm ginger cookie

(1) sm peanut butter cookie

Take care and have a great day! 💞🌞

Daily Food Diary – Day 4 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness, Uncategorized

I’m just burning through this challenge.  I’m already at Day Four and I haven’t had a miss yet! 🤗

We are still huddled down in our extreme  cold spell, so Dan and I spent a good part of the day in the kitchen yesterday whipping up some comfort food to take the chill off.

Dan chopped and I cooked for a pot of Beef, Vegetable, and Barley soup.
I mixed and Dan formed a tray of Baking Powder Biscuits.  The big ones are for yeastless breakfast sandwiches in the days to come.

Food Diary – Day Four

(1) c coffee

(23) mini wheats

(1/4) c 2% milk

(8) oz water

(1) Apple

(2) Bowls of Beef/Vegetable/Barley soup **

(2) Baking Powder/Cheese Biscuits – made with butter and served likewise

(12) oz carbonated water

(1) cookie

** Soup was made with beef broth, beef, barley, onion, leek, carrots, celery, mushrooms, cabbage,  baby Bok Choy and a dash of salt, pepper, and ground hot peppers.

Fun fact… Barley is one of the best foods to eat when dealing with high cholesterol.   Butter is not.  But butter tastes better. 🙂

That’s it for today.  Take care and have a great day! 🤗💞

Is anyone else ready for birthday and barbecue season?  ( Genie & Prim)

Happy New Year  2025!

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness, Uncategorized

A new year has arrived and with it a chance to recommit to a life where health of body, mind, and soul is a priority. 👍

This year, February 14th will mark THREE years since I began my journey to health and fitness.  It has been all good, and amazingly,  I am still discovering benefits that I would never have imagined.   This past year, I have remained relatively healthy – no significant flare ups of my asthma, COPD, or bronchiectasis.  I have discovered an impressive amount of strength and stamina in my day to day life and in working with my husband to complete a number of projects around our home.  AND.. Most of all, I have noticed a marked improvement to my emotional health and wellbeing.  A lifetime of struggling with anxiety and grief is melting away to be replaced by feelings of peace, contentment, and well-being.   🤗

This year, I will mark my 70th birthday at the end of July.   I look forward to celebrating this auspicious milestone with hope, enthusiasm, and anticipation for what lies ahead.  I am excited knowing that I can and will keep doing what I am doing to maintain my quality of life throughout my seventies and beyond.  It is so worth the effort!

This year, I intend to  maintain the positive health and fitness habits that I have built over the past three years.   I also intend to create and maintain a NEW HABIT to better manage my daily food intake.  It’s not that I eat poorly.   It’s just that I discovered this year how easily poor eating habits can creep into my life.   I need to pay more attention to  what I am, or am not, feeding my body.   SO …this year  I am going to keep a food diary and  share my daily entries here on Jetpack.    Over the past three years, the best thing I have discovered is that I can build good habits as easily as bad ones so I know that I can do this!

I don’t have a diary entry to post this morning so am sharing a photo of the ham, cheese, mushroom, and onion omelet Dan whipped up to start my year off on a nutritious note. 👍🌹

And with a photo showing where I am now.

And a few photos showing why I seldom share photos of myself….

This one!
And this one…
And obviously this one… 🤦

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎉💞🤗

69th Update!

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2024, Uncategorized

This is it folks – I turned sixty nine years old yesterday.   In one short year,  I am going to hit my seventies and I am going in as prepared as I can be,  for whatever lies ahead!

This is what I am starting with.
From where I was last year…
And the year before…
And this one was taken in late 2019, four months before I retired.  I felt every bit as terrible as I looked. (Even Cason seems concerned. 🙄)

Anyway, you get the idea.  I’m not (just) getting older.   I am getting better.   I have put in the work and I am feeling infinitely better – body, mind, and soul.

The first step I took to better health was to retire.  I needed to remove myself from a toxic environment and spend some time resting and healing.    That helped, but by February of 2022 I realized that I needed to do more – way more.

I gradually became more active and ultimately started doing morning aerobics on a regular basis.  Eventually, I added evening  strength training with lightweight dumbbells.   When I struggled with physical setbacks last year, I stepped back on the aerobics and weights and stepped up on  reading and meditation.

So far, this year has been full steam ahead.  I have upped the morning aerobics and added back the weights on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons.  This week, I bumped up the weights to ten pounders, thanks to my birthday present from Dan.

I have continued meditating daily as part of my late evening/bedtime routine. 

Last night, I added a new habit to my health and wellness journey.  For the first time EVER I started ‘journaling’ before I start my meditation.  I have often read that journaling is very therapeutic and offers many benefits for mental and emotional health.   This seems as good a time as ever to give it a shot and I am super excited to see how it goes for me. 👍

As much as I have worked hard to get where I am, and am determined to work even harder moving forward… I have hardly done it alone!  I cannot be more grateful for all of the support and encouragement I have received since I began this health and wellness journey.   To everyone – my husband Dan, my family, my friends (online and and off), my online family (Dwight, Jackie, & Barb) THANK YOU!   Without you, I would not be where I am today, living my life as I am, and totally excited about my future. ☺️

The orchid Dan gave me for Valentine’s Day.    ‘THEY‘ said it would only bloom once a year – but look at it now.   Just like ‘THEY’ said it’s all downhill after 40.   😂

Take care and have a great day! 💞🌞

Family, Fitness & Health, and Molly’s New Pal

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2024, family, Health and Fitness, Uncategorized

I don’t have much to say on any front but I do have a few updates to share.

First off, today is our granddaughter Prim’s birthday – which, as always,  comes the day after our granddaughter (Prim’s sister) Maddy’s birthday. 

Prim (12) and Maddy (14)

We had a joint birthday party on Saturday with Make Your Own Pizza Subs and birthday cake provided by their Mom. (my daughter Jennifer)

Sibling love – Rory, Maddy, Genie, & Prim 💞

Second…  Molly has a new friend, as Jennifer now has her dog Sasha.  Molly and Sasha get along just fine.  Molly and I went for a short walk with Maddy and Sasha yesterday.  Sasha was a little stressed at being in a new area but when it would get too much, she would get as close to Molly as she could and Molly would lean protectively towards her.  It was cute and more than a little touching.

This was the first time Molly met Sasha – early last spring. 💞

Finally, I am on top of my daily workouts.  I am ready to move up to my new eight pound weights in a few days.  I am feeling well.   I continue to work on my sinuses by using my neti pot in the evening, meditating before bed,  and sitting up and sleeping braced up with pillows.  It is amazing what a difference it has all made.  My entire upper respiratory system has improved significantly! Finally! 😊

That is it for now.  All in all, things are good.  I cannot wait to get out and work in the yard, see the grass and trees turn green, the flowers bloom, the squirrels scamper and the hear the  birdies sing. 

The parks and paths will soon be calling me!

Take care and have a great day. 💞🌞