Tag: stress management

Daily Food Diary –  Day 185 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness

This is Day 185 of posting  my Daily Food Diary (without one miss). 🤗💪

This month, I am focussing on collagen in our diet and in our lifestyle. 

A healthy diet, adequate exercise, and collagen supplements can help us to keep our collagen levels up even as we age.   Unfortunately, stress produces cortisol which slows down collagen production and weakens the collagen in our bodies.

So, stress management becomes an important part of increasing and maintaining our collagen levels. 

For Dan and I, going out and walking our dog Molly is an important part of our stress management.   Last night, Dan decided we should switch things up by getting up at 6 AM this morning and heading straight out for a walk in the country.  (Go Dan! 💞) What could be a better (de-stressing) way to start our day!   Walking together with Molly, in the fresh air, surrounded by the beauty of nature  as far as the eye could see just sounded too perfect!

We were up at 5:50 A.M. – no coffee, breakfast, no vitamins or inhalers.  We got up, got dressed, and got ready to head out.

Molly was beside herself with excitement!
After driving MANY miles (on gravel roads that somehow devolved into whatever this was),  we found the exact location we were looking for.   WE HAVE ARRIVED!
This looked like a promising spot to head out for our little hike.
A picturesque little pool of water that turned out to be the breeding ground for countless  bloodsucking insects that were intent on crawling into my eyes and ears. 😝
We soldiered on checking out the thick foliage, finding a few flat rocks for our pond, and discovering a stretch of gorgeous pink, wild roses.   Pink roses have always had a special significance for Dan and I. 

I failed to get pictures of the wild roses.  By this point I had packed away my phone so I could use both hands to fight off those vicious little bastards from the watering hole.

And, we decided it was time to abruptly  head  home when a friendly young man pulled up in his halfton to advise us that his rifle club,  gathering along the valley,  were preparing to start shooting in our direction.  😳😯🤷

Fortunately, it was a short drive home.  And fortunately there is nothing more relaxing and good for dropping cortisol levels and maintaining collagen levels than returning home.  👍

Daily Food Diary – Day 185

Breakfast:

(1) c Coffee (2)

(2) granola bar with nuts (160)

Lunch:

(1) c spaghetti with meat sauce (287)

(10) Doritos (140)

(1) serving rhubarb torte (286)

Snacks:

(48) oz water

(1) gin & tonic (130)

Supper:

Large dinner salad – lettuce, radishes, green onions, cucumber, tomatoes, red pepper, sunflower seeds, fried dried onions, French salad dressing.  (356)

(2) chicken drumsticks (which contain significantly more collagen than breast meat) (152)

Total Net Calories: 1191

Net calorie goal: 1229 – 1191 = 38 under 👍

* Highlighted food items contain significant amounts of collagen or significantly aid in the natural production of collagen.

Daily Food Diary –  Day 98 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness

This is my 98th day of posting my Daily Food Diary.   That is a full 14 weeks.  🙌  It is a pretty solid habit by now.  One that I should be able to easily maintain,  moving forward. 😃

Staying committed to living  a healthy active lifestyle can be reasonably easy, if we build solid habits along the way.

Building good habits has been relatively easy when it comes to diet, activity, and developing  healthy sleep conditions.

Building good habits to develop stress management has been more difficult for me.  Chronic lung issues cause stress and stress exasperates lung issues.  (I think that is  true of any chronic health issues,  whether the issues are breathing difficulties, pain, heart palpitations…)

Fortunately, I have developed one habit that has helped me with healthy stress management.

Over a year ago, I started listening to You Tube meditations when I go to bed.  I have found countless guided meditations, nature meditations, musical meditations, etc.   The biggest issue I had was falling asleep wearing ear buds –  never ended well!

Fortunately my daughter, suggested trying  a soft sleep headphones product.  That was a gamechanger for me!

I didn’t put in a link as I use the Canadian Amazon site.  These are relatively inexpensive – about ($30. CDN) and well worth the price from my experience.

Daily Food Diary – Day 98

Breakfast:

(1) c coffee (2) (4.7)

(1) Bran Muffin (148) (264) (14)

(2) tsp butter (69) (63.3)

Lunch:

(3) oz Ground turkey (126) (49.3)

(1/4) taco seasoning (3) (93.3)

Snacks:

(40) oz water

(1) c licorice tea

(1/6) c dill pickle peanuts (149) (193) (1)

(1/6) c bbq corn nuts (115) (170) (.5)

Supper:

(2) chicken drumsticks w/seasoning & baked w/ olive oil   (231) (291)

(4) onion rings (180) (480)

(1) c green beans w/butter & pepper (78)

(7) oz French fries (280) (397)

(3) Mozza sticks (156) (246) (1)

Total Net Calories: 1320

Calorie goal: 1269 – 1320 = 50 over 😳

Total Sodium: 2251.6 mg

Daily sodium goal: 1500 to 2300 mg 👍

Total Processed sugar:  16.5 grams

Daily processed sugar goal: < 25 grams 👍

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

Daily Food Diary – Day 93 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness

It has been 93 days since I began posting my Daily Food Diary.   Diet is only one aspect of the health and wellness lifestyle that I am working to adopt.

Any healthy lifestyle includes diet, activity, fresh air, sleep, and stress management.  When one is working to manage chronic health issues, every one of these is crucial.

Since my less than memorable appointment with the surgeon who is going to do my hernia repair, stress management has been something I have been focussing  on.   The wait time for hernia surgeries runs about 8 weeks, but  it has been six weeks since my appointment, so it is time to get serious about this. My stress levels are better than they have ever been, but there are two major issues to deal with here – my discomfort with anything medical and the fact that stress triggers my asthma.  🤦

Several months ago, I bought myself  soft sleep headphones.  Normally, I go to bed listening to guided sleep meditations or soothing music.  Lately, I have been checking out more direct anti anxiety videos on You Tube.

I have been listening to this one for the past couple of nights.   To be honest, I had to listen to it sitting on my yoga ball yesterday, because it sounded interesting AND I would never have known  listening to it in bed.  I put on my headphones, turn on any form of meditation – guided, music, or nature sounds – and I am out cold. 😴

If you should  decide to listen to it, I suggest avoiding driving while you do so. 

One other thing…I may be partial to this video because the final words of advice reminded me so much of my father.  Whether it was something he deliberately did, or just who he was, my father lived by a personal code that saw him through every challenging situation in his life.   Regardless of anything or anyone else, my father was a man of strength, dignity, integrity, and peace.  💞

Food Diary:

Breakfast:

(1) c coffee (2) (4.7 mg)

(2) eggs (160) (440 mg)

(2) oz ham (110) (640 mg) (2 g)

(1/4) c green onions (10)

(5) asparagus spears (16)  (10.5 mg)

(1) tsp olive oil  (40)

Snacks:

(34) oz water

(1) c Cinnamon Tea

(14) multigrain crackers (140) (110 mg)

(6) mini Easter eggs (85) (10 mg) (14 grams)

Supper:

Chicken Salad:

(7) oz skinless chicken thighs w/ salt free seasoning (228) (175mg)

(1) c lettuce (6)

(1/2) tomato (11) (3.1 mg)

(2) radishes (3) (7 mg)

(5) slices cucumber (4) (.7 mg)

(1/4) c green onion (10)

(1) tbsp sunflower seeds (50) (34.6 mg)

(3) tbsp crispy fried onions (60) (90 mg)

(2) tbsp PC Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing (100) (210 mg) (6 grams)

(2) scoops Vanilla Ice Cream (183) (33.2 mg) (14.1 g)

(1) tbsp PC Caramel Syrup (70) (55 mg) (8 g)

(1) tbsp PC Chocolate syrup (33) (22.2 mg) (5.9 g)

(5) pecan halves (33)

Total Net Calories: 1251

Daily calorie goal: 1269 – 1251 = 18 under👍

Total Sodium: 1848.7 mg 👍

Daily goal sodium: 1509 to 2300 mg

Total Processed Sugar:  50 grams 🤦

Daily goal processed sugar: 25 grams

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