Seven Little Things that Make the Most Difference in my Life

I admit to being a bit of a productivity nerd, always reading new books and trying to get some new hack that will actually help me get more stuff done. One recent book suggested a four step process...

First - focus on one Highlight for your day - something that you've wanted/needed or would like to work on - and schedule a 60-90 min chunk of time for that.

Second - when that time comes around, practice Laser focus - turn off your phone, etc - just work on your Highlight.

Third - Reflect on how it all went and repeat.

Except... it is a 4-step process and there's a supporting step that is not part of the work flow... Energize. Basically, you need to keep up your energy otherwise your day is going to tank. They have several ideas for how to energize yourself during the day - everything from snacking to strategic caffeine to naps to good sleep hygiene.

And I thought... yes... this is all so true. I know this soooooo well!!!

1. Prioritize Sleep

I have not been sleeping well lately. I have trouble falling asleep and then I wake up at 3 am. Sometimes I lie there, awake, until it's time to get up at 5 or 5:30. I know that these sleep issues are due to multiple things... watching a movie too late into the evening, being on my phone or the computer in the evening, the cat chirping in my ear and demanding cuddles at 3 am, my partner having coughing fits (allergies)... it really doesn't matter. The upshot is... I drag myself out of bed at 5:30 am and feel horrible.

When I have not slept well, my energy is blipping along at almost 0%. I have no enthusiasm for my projects. I spend my day putting out tiny fires (extremely urgent to me) and start neglecting other things, like eating well.

So I'm focusing on good sleep hygiene as we move into this new year. No TV or computers or phone after 7 pm. I can work on a puzzle, or we can play a game. Maybe I'll write some cards. Any analogue activity is fine... just nothing digital. I'm also starting to have a mug of chamomile tea in the evenings. We have also begun to listen to a sleep meditation just before bed. We could try banishing the cat from the bedroom but that isn't going to happen. 

2. Eat Good Food

I get up early, and head off to Starbucks most mornings. I come home around 8 am and then make breakfast. But... if I go grocery shopping... then the morning gets longer and I might not get home till 9 am or later. At which point I am a raging Hangry (hungry anger). I do try to take a breakfast-on-the-go with me - some yogurt and berries, or a cut-up apple. Because, honestly... if I am running around doing errands... the hangry really wants something... and there is Timmies (toasted bagel with herb and garlic cream cheese) or Starbucks (chocolate brownie warmed-up). And neither of those options is good for me. 

So... we are back to Michael Pollard's book (In Defense of Food). The take-away was... Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants. We do try to follow that. Where I get hung up is on snacks...  I want chocolate! No.... that's not right. I NEED chocolate!!

I have been trying to grab an apple and almonds when the urge strikes... trying to wean myself off of the chocolate. I've also decided to give dark chocolate a try... REAL dark chocolate. My brother-in-law has done this in the past. And when I've visited them, I've tried a piece of  90% dark and almost spit it out!! Soooo bitter and dry and... ick! But... it's an acquired taste. More on this in next week's blog...

3. Drink Water

Ugh. I totally fall down on this. Years ago, a friend (10 years older than me) told me that if she didn't drink enough water, she would get tired and cranky. Yeah-yeah... whatever.

Ah-hem...

It's true. For me! Ugh. I walk by my water bottle in the morning as I head out the door and I think "There it is. I should pick it up. But it's empty. It will take too much time to take it to the sink and fill it with water."

No. Seriously. This went through my head just this morning. The rest of me looks on in amused incredulity... "It would take 10 seconds to fill that water bottle up!" Yeah, whatever. Now I'm at the bottom of the stairs and it would take even LONGER now.

So I head out the door without a water bottle. And regret it later when I am grocery shopping and parched. Yep. Got bit in the ass by my own impatience.

The thing to do is this... maybe... to park downhill. I wrote about this ages ago. Grease the wheels, smooth the trail... park downhill. The thing to do would be to fill my water bottles the night before (I have several). Fill the small one and put it in my office back-pack... the one that I take with me when I head out. Would that not be the thing to do? Yes... it would... wish me luck!

4. Move More, Sit Less

I have one of those fancy Garmin watches that tell me how many steps I've taken, etc. If I sit too long, it will vibrate on my wrist and if I look at the screen, it tells me to "MOVE!". It's a bossy little thing, that watch. Of course, I ignore it.

I already do a 45-60 min pre-lunch walk with my partner. That's good, right? Yep. And more is always better. We are starting to stitch in a pre-dinner walk - just around the neighbourhood. Usually it's because one, or both, of us have not yet reached 10,000 steps. It's a good little incentive and we also visit the mailbox and check if the free newspaper is out yet.

Moving is always good... I need to remember that.

5. Meditate & Breathe

I fell off the meditation bandwagon months ago. To just stop, breathe, focus on nothing but the breath and watch the monkey mind scurry around. Come back to the breath.

When I do meditation, I always feel so much better. I am calmer, clearer... just... better. Why do I not do it? Because it takes too much time. Yep... I mean... if 10 seconds is "too much time", then a 5 minute meditation session is so over-the top "too much time", it doesn't even bear thinking about.

Although, my partner reminded me that... "you can meditate at any time... not just in the morning"... errrr... you mean, instead of being on my phone and scrolling the news?? Whhhhaaaaattttt?? Yeah. What a concept.

What if... when I pick up my phone because I'm bored or avoiding something... I actually stopped and closed my eyes and meditated for a quick minute or two or three... What would happen?

Hmmm... idea percolating here. I could change my lock screen to be a pic that says... Meditate & Feel Better... 

*20 minutes later**

Done!! We'll see if it makes a difference or just becomes part of the scenery...

And... I've also set a timer on the two worst time-sucks on my phone (my boredom soothers) - Facebook app and the Internet app (for checking the news). When the daily time limit is reached... boop... the app is greyed out and I can't click it open!

6. More Analog Face Time - Less Digital Facetime

No, this is not Apple's Facetime... which is not actual face time. I'm talking real, live, analog face time... where you sit down in front of a real person and have a chat or play a game or... whatever. We are social beings. We need inter-personal interactions! And as we all learned during Covid... Zoom calls gave us LOTS of Facetime and interactions but very little face time... and we all felt exhausted after those calls. Digital Facetime is no substitute for analog face time.

Maybe that's why I like sitting in Starbucks and working. I see a lot of real people. I hear murmured conversations. I chat with some of my Starbucks regulars, chat with the baristas... it doesn't take much.

7. Get Outside

This one is huge. To just get outside, breathe some fresh air and interact with nature. Even if it's just in the backyard. Better if it's a walk in the forest. Being out in the forest calms me... energizes me... Soooo... just get outside.

A Plan for the New Year

Yep, it's January 1. A time when a lot of us make the dreaded New Year's Resolutions... Usually they are lofty goals "I am going to go to the gym every day and work out for an hour!". How'd that work for you? They've done studies, and most resolutions are on the trash heap by the time February rolls around.

I'm going to start small... with small steps... chamomile tea at night, dark chocolate and an apple in my office bag, pre-fill my water bottle at night, walk to the mailbox (don't drive), meditate for 5 minutes, play a game, get outside and breathe.

Small steps can make a big difference.

Should I Get an E-Bike?

"Should I get an e-bike?"

This question has been bopping around my head for several years now. Everyday, I watch a neighbour power up our hill, pedaling slowly on his e-bike. I know it's an e-bike because I've pedaled up this same hill and wheezed and plodded and ground along in first gear. Pedaling up the hill is not as easy as the e-bike makes it look.

I have a regular bike. Which, as of this writing... I still haven't taken down to the bike shop to get its tune-up. By this time of year... I would have done that already. But it always seem a less important task than everything else on my list.

And I wonder... if I had an e-bike... would I take it out more? Would I pedal off to Starbucks in the mornings instead of taking the car? How much would that affect our carbon footprint? Would I ride it enough to justify the costs? What if it got stolen?

All of this soul-searching has been triggered by a radio ad which said that the provincial government was offering up to a $1400 rebate on e-bikes that cost at least $2000. Ooohhh... that is almost too good to pass up. The rebate scales down based on your net income but... still...

In previous years, you could only get an e-bike rebate if you brought in your car through the scrap-it program. That seems to be gone... and now you can just get an e-bike rebate without turfing your car. So it is appealing. 

Pros

I think of all the benefits...

• I could go farther than I can on a regular bike
• The hills won't affect me like they do on a regular bike
• It will get me out and about more (theoretically)
• I could even pop down to the grocery store for odds and ends without feeling guilty about using the car
• I could even ride it in the spring and fall when it's inclement weather (neighbour dude does...)
• Good for my health!

Cons

And the negatives...

• How do you maintain an ebike? I have no idea...
• What if the bike seat is just as uncomfortable as my regular bike?
• Where to park it? The garden shed?
• How to charge it? Run an extension cord from the house to the shed?
• How to protect it? Will it be thievable?

I see that the negatives are mostly a list of questions. With a fair degree of uncertainty. That is what holds me back - all of these unknowns. I could find the answers to these questions fairly easily. Friends of ours on Gabriola Island have e-bikes and love them... They will have answers to a lot of these questions.

Regular Bike?

Or... do I just stick with my regular bike? Just bite the bullet and get it tuned up and get a saddle fitting? Presuming that the bike shop does that. Or just do little mini-bike rides until sore bum bones get used to the bike saddle.

Ack. Sometimes I wonder at my indecision. It's annoying! Just choose! Make a damn decision and go for it!

And just an FYI... e-bikes in the local shops are running at around $5000. Eek!!!

Ok... enough wiffle-waffling... I am going to take my regular bike down to the bike shop this afternoon. They are open until 6 pm... so I can walk it down in 30 min and walk back without it. I don't know if it fits into the back of the car but... whatever. I can walk down.

While I'm there, I'll see about the bike saddle and whether they do saddle fittings and figure out if my saddle works for me or if I should buy a new one. Heck... they might look at my bike which is... ooohhh... 30 years old... and decide it really needs to be replaced. WTH... will handle that when it comes to that moment. 

Do you have an e-bike?? How does it work for you???

The Bicycle Lives!!

Yes!! I did it!! I took my bike in to the shop (it fit in the hatchback). Win for me! Now... when I got there, the guy said they were booking for June 22 but... but... they could probably squeeze me in if I just left it there. Yes, please!

And then... less than a week later, I got the phone call that it was ready to pick up. I got a new gear shifter thingie and... I got tested for my sit bones. Which means I bought another bike saddle. They think the one I have is a bit old, worn out and a bit too soft. Your sit bones push down into the softness which then rebounds and pinches the soft tissue which... leads to sore butt.

OK... well... the saddle has a 30 day money back guarantee so I am going to give it a whirl and see how it goes. Apparently, a saddle that is too soft is not a good idea... so that is good to know. 

I am very proud of myself. I actually did it. Something that I have been meaning to do since last year... and the year before. Get the bike tuned up and get a new saddle. I now have no excuse. I can get on my bike and go for a bike ride. And if my butt hurts... then off to the bike shop I go for a new saddle. Fingers crossed that this one is the ticket!

It's always amazing to me how it is these small things... just figuring out if the bike fits into the hatchback... that keep me from doing things. It's a small thing to have a conversation with the bike shop staff and ask about getting my sit bones measured. And yet these small things keep me from doing so many big things

Because now... with a bike that works, I can pedal off to Starbucks in the mornings and:

1. get some exercise
2. reduce my carbon footprint
3. reduce my gasoline ($$) usage
4. get some exercise

It's a win-win-win all the way around. Fingers crossed it actually works!! So... yet another small step that yields big results.

Dusting off the Bicycle

Every spring I think... this will be the year I get back onto my bike! And... for the last few years... that fizzles out very quickly. I'll get back on my bike, go for a few 5-10 minute bike rides and... lose my umph. Part of it is the dreaded "bike butt".

You know what happens... you get on your bike, you feel all pumped and excited. You go for a bike ride, a short one... and all is well. But the next morning... you wake up with the sorest bum bones (the sit bones) in history. The idea of getting on that torture device of a bicycle seat is... like... nooooooo!!! So I'll wait a day or two until the bike butt calms down but... then I'll dread the next session for the next bike butt.

And the bike just stays in the shed. I don't understand it. I used to ride my bike a LOT! I'd ride to Starbucks, I'd ride around town, I'd go on adventures. And then... somewhere around when my Dad died... it just fizzled. Or I'd wait too long. The ideal time to get back onto the bike is in March here... but then it would already be May or June... and I'd figure... "what's the point"... Sigh.

Cause part of it too... if I'm honest... is that I feel like a complete slug when I get back on the bike after the winter. My legs feel like jello and I have no umph for all of the hills. And we have a lot of hills... or gentle gradients. All of them seem to be uphill when I am coming home after a ride and that is just depressing.

Yes, I know that I could get an e-bike... and we have thought about it. But the dreaded bike butt then rears its ugly head. What's the point of spending $3000 on an e-bike if it just gives me bike butt and then I don't ride it?? I need to get over the bike butt hump first.

There are other tips... get a padded bike seat or wear padded bike shorts. But I've ridden this bike, with this saddle for years and always gotten over the bike butt after about a week of riding. My sit bones (which are the ones that get sore) just get used to it!

Every year, I tell myself that this WILL be the year. Last year though... we had the wettest spring on record and that would have been no fun.

But what about this year? It's possible... I am writing this on February 9... so the timing is kind of perfect. And yesterday was a nice sunny day and I saw a tonne of cyclists out there getting their bikes on the road.

I thought about getting mine on the road, but it needs a tune-up. The gear shifters always get out of whack during the winter... so it's time to take it in for a tune-up. Which raises another issue... how to get it to the bike shop... I used to pack it in the back of the 4-Runner but we got rid of that vehicle over a year ago. I don't know if it will now fit into our little hatchback. Which means I'd have to walk it to the bike shop - 45 minutes. And then walk home... or get my partner to pick me up. It's not impossible... but it does raise the friction level for getting this done.

I'm trying to think... when did I last ride my bike? Pre-covid likely... so this is going to take a bit of getting used to but... small steps... that's all I need to remember... just small steps.

Step 1 - See if the bike fits in the hatchback...
    Yes? Then drive it down to the bike shop for a tune-up
    No? Then walk it down to the bike shop.

And I just checked (always good to do that) and the bike shop I normally go to is closed!! But... there is one that is only 30 minutes away from home (walking)... so will try that one.

One small step at a time...

Except... this is getting published in early June and... will I actually get the bike done by then??

Blurt it Out!

NB: I initially wrote this in the middle of the pandemic but it somehow never got published... so I've edited it a bit and republished. It still speaks to me today.

Let's be honest here. After three years of living in a pandemic, we've let things slide a little bit. Or maybe it's just me.

The house is not getting dusted. The floors are not getting vacuumed. And the toilets are only getting cleaned once a week. And let's not even talk about showering... I got out of the habit of showering every day. The only time I'm showering now is when I have a massage or a doctor's appointment or a chiro appointment. Which isn't all that often! I actually lose track of when I last showered or had a bath. It's amazing how a habit can disintegrate so quickly.

The sad thing is... when my Dad was living downstairs (he struggled with dementia), I eventually noticed that he wasn't changing his clothes or showering for weeks at a time. "Dad!! You can't do that!" I didn't understand it at the time... now I totally get it.

One day blends into the next and I think... "I'll [fill in the blank] tomorrow/later/this evening." And somehow it never happens. I can wear the same at-home-t-shirt for a week or more! During the pandemic we just stayed home all the time. We wore the same clothes all the time. We ended up only doing laundry when one of us ran out of underwear, which could take almost two weeks. 

I'm going to guess that we weren't the only household who experienced that. I saw a Hedger Humour cartoon go by during the pandemic and... well... it speaks for itself.

Hedger Humor Cartoon

With no visitors or guests, we were free to leave a puzzle spread over the dining room table for days at a time. We were free to leave socks and slippers strewn around the living room floor. The coffee table was often covered with a jumble of papers including recipes that we wanted to try.

I found all of this disarray (except the puzzles) challenging. You see, I come from a long line of meticulous German Hausfraus (housewives). When I was growing up, we (my mother, sister and I) would always give the house a good clean on Saturday mornings. I was in charge of dusting and vacuuming the living room and my sister was in charge of the toilet and cleaning the bathroom. My Mom would vacuum the kitchen, dining room and hallways and then mop the floors. That was just our routine, our habit. And it stuck. I used to be really good at cleaning the house every Saturday. Although... in hindsight, we likely should have traded off jobs at some point because I still have an aversion to cleaning toilets!

So, I found it a bit challenging during the pandemic. I'd see all the dust and crumbs and grime and start freaking out. "I should be cleaning this!" Someone should be cleaning this... It used to be that the thought that "someone might drop in" would get me cleaning but... during the pandemic that was a very negligible possibility... unless it was our contractor... but he often saw the house at its worst so... eh, what the heck. And for sure, my Mom wasn't going to walk through the door and run her fingers across the buffet... But still, the voice niggled away at me.

During the pandemic, I read a survey from CTV Edmonton which said that people were showering 10% less. I think we showered 50% less and even now... we still aren't back into a daily (or every second day) shower routine. I'm not sure what that says about people... or about us. Sigh...

On the bright side, while some areas of the house were looking decidedly sloppy... er... relaxed... during the pandemic, we did manage to keep up with other things. Dishes still got done, healthy meals got cooked and we still put on deodorant and brushed our teeth twice a day. Oh, and the cat litter box got cleaned out once a day... so we didn't completely lose it. And we went through hand soap at a ridiculous pace! So while the rest of our bodies weren't squeaky clean... our hands definitely were!

Should I mention hair?? And the Covid hair-cuts? My partner gave me 3 or 4 haircuts during the pandemic... some better than others. It got to the point, where I'd not even brush my hair in the morning. I'd just have several days worth of toque-head, ballcap-head and headphone-head. There were even days where I'd do a quick run down to the local grocery store to pick up supplies and... I would do nothing to fix my hair!! But wearing a mask... no one really knew who I was. Right?

I read an article during the pandemic which said, "life is messy right now, and it would make sense that our homes and lives are rather chaotic and messy right now". But that was small comfort to a hausfrau who has always had it together. I remember the first lock down in the spring of 2020. I got a tonne of shit done around the house during that one. I was on a roll. I was checking things off on my to-do list like nobody's business. Handling small maintenance issues, repainting baseboards, etc. But the lockdown the following year... not so much. By then, pandemic fatigue had kicked in and I just gave up on keeping the house together. I could barely keep myself together!

I think the lesson in all of this was for me to let go of the "shoulds" around all of this. I kept thinking that I used to be able to handle everything "before"... but we were not living in "before" times. We were living through a pandemic. Not just any pandemic... a global pandemic... Very few people in living memory (over 104) have lived through a pandemic. And even the oldest person on the earth (118 years old) would have been only 14 at the time of the Spanish flu. This was unprecedented.

And perhaps we needed the lesson. Perhaps we needed to learn that it is OK to cut ourselves some slack. Perhaps a tidy/clean house is not the most important thing in the world. Unless of course, someone in the family got a positive covid test back... in which case, housecleaning shot to the top of the list! But other than that... perhaps we all needed to learn that there are more important things to do than taking care of the house. Perhaps we needed to learn how to take care of ourselves first.

And not by showering regularly. Perhaps rather than dusting and cleaning toilets... we'd do better to meditate and exercise. To get out into nature where our souls derive nourishment. In unprecedented times... perhaps it's time to go back to the basics. What do we need to do to take care of our souls, our spirits, our emotions. Because after three years of this... the evidence is clear... our mental health took a nose dive during all of those lockdowns.

As we come out of it (and I am hoping that finally... we are coming out of it)... we can look around us and choose what is really important. Friends, family, health, well-being, exercise... things that nourish us. The dusting and the toilets can fit into the small little corners our life.

As 2023 began, I made a choice to focus on me... rebuilding a regular exercise routine, reintroducing daily meditation, connecting with friends and family, drinking enough water, eating well. And cutting myself some slack when it comes to the house cleaning.

These are all small things... and yet they aren't. Every drink of water is a small thing... but drinking enough water every day is a huge thing. Every step and walk is a small thing and yet... by the end of the day, 15,000 steps and 8 km of walking is a big thing. Every choice to eat an apple instead of a piece of chocolate is a small thing and yet... at the end of the day, 3 apples and 0 chocolate is a big thing... and at the end of the week... those small steps add up to one huge thing!

The Hidden Link Between Your Gut and Your Waistline

This may seem totally obvious once you read the results of the latest Stanford study but you might also wonder why it took so long!

The reason you are not losing weight while dieting is because... your gut microbiome has a say in the matter. And everyone's biome is different so... the diet that works for one person might be completely useless for the next person. Mind blowing, yes?! Yep. My mind was blown.

Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb

They put some people on low-fat diets and some people on low-carb diets. People who strictly followed either diet lost weight during the short-term (first 6 months). OK. Fine. But here's the kicker... The people who maintained the weight loss for a year ate the SAME number of calories as those who regained weight or who didn't lose weight during the second six months. Well, that sucks. Can you imagine watching your friend eat the same amount of calories as you and they are losing weight while you are gaining weight or plateauing?

That's because some people lost weight better on low-fat diets while others lost weight better on low-carb diets. Why the difference? Why do some people lose weight while others gain weight? Well... turns out it depends on several biomarkers: gut microbiome, proteins made by the body and the levels of exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2). Using those biomarkers, researchers could actually predict, at the start of the study, how successful someone would be at losing weight and keeping it off long-term.

The researchers tracked 609 people over a year. How much they ate, what they ate (mostly healthy minimally processed foods) and how much they exercised. What they found was this... just cutting calories or exercising more was NOT enough to sustain weight loss over a year.

Which makes zero sense... because for years we've been told that weight loss is 80/20 - 80% has to do with what you eat and 20% has to do with exercise. Nope, that little rule of thumb is out the window.

Why some Lose Weight while Others Gain Weight

One of the key pieces of the puzzle was the level of exhaled carbon dioxide. The researchers measured the ratio of how much oxygen is inhaled to how much carbon dioxide is exhaled. They used this as a proxy to determine if the body's primary fuel was carbs or fats. A lower ratio means the body burns fat better... while a higher ratio means it burns carbs better. So people who started the study with a higher ratio lost more weight on a low-carb diet because their body burns carbs better.

Think about it... there you are... munching away on your Keto diet because that's what your workout coach recommended. And he's ripped with muscles everywhere and not an ounce of fat on him. You go to town with the Keto, eating all sorts of high fat foods - bacon, cheese, beef, coconut fat, etc. And you avoid carbs like the plague - no potatoes, no noodles, no beans, no pizza. Let's do it!!!

And yet... after a year of eating on Keto you haven't lost the weight... in fact you've put on MORE weight. Why?? It's because your body burns carbs better. And you've been feeding your body the wrong fuel. It's not a lack of willpower. It's the wrong fuel.

If your body prefers carbs, and you're feeding it fats (or vice versa)... your body is not going to be able to metabolize those calories very well... or burn them off. Makes sense. So much sense.

And it all comes down to the your gut microbiome. Do they like to eat carbs? Or do they prefer fats? Can you just imagine a future in which you go to your doctor, they do some tests and hand you a personalized weight-loss or healthy eating plan? Whoa... 

Which begs the question... how do we find out  which is best for u!!?? Well... here's the thing. There isn't a test right now that will easily tell us what sort of gut microbiome we have rumbling around in our insides. Although... some fitness centres or wellness centres will do the respiratory quotient test for you ($$). It measures the ratio of inhaled oxygen to exhaled carbon dioxide.

In the Meantime...

Sooooo... in the meantime... this is what the researchers recommend:

• eat mostly unprocessed foods (real food - not processed "food")
• eat foods low in refined flours (I'm looking at your bread and noodles)
• eat foods low in refined sugar (sigh... brownies!!)
• eat healthy fats like avocados, olives and nuts (not bacon! or coconut oil!)
• get enough fibre from whole grains and beans (even on a low-fat diet - not all carbs are bad)
• learn to cook and rely less on highly processed foods

Well... that makes sense. It's the same advice as always... eat real food, mostly plants, and not too much. Stay away from processed "food". Stay away from sugar and refined flours. And if you're sticking to some diet plan and not losing weight... or actually putting on weight... maybe low-fat or low-carb is not for you.

Now the researchers also acknowledge that some ethnic and racial groups were underrepresented. Which makes me wonder... are some diets better for some ethnic groups than others? Based on different gut microbiomes? And what about men vs. women? Does that make a difference?

The bottom line is this... the diet that works for one person is not necessarily going to work for you. And yes... while you might be able to lose weight short-term on that Keto diet... if it's not the diet for your guy microbiome, it won't work long-term. That is out of your control.

Once again... back to small steps. It's those small daily choices that we make that help us along.

Read More

SciTech - Summary of the Stanford Study

CTV News - Stanford study identifies what influences weight loss the most

Cell Reports Medicine - the full Stanford report

Intake Health - info on the Respiratory Quotient (ratio of inhaled oxygen to exhaled carbon dioxide)

Cholesterol Metrics

What a difference a year makes... a year of dietary changes, mind you! I had my cholesterol tested at the end of September 2019. I was a happy carnivore and we had been using ghee (clarified butter) and coconut oil in our cooking (at my partner's request). Cause coconut oil and ghee are "good for you". Uh-huh. Not so much.

Here's my numbers from September 2019...

• Cholesterol 7.10 - should be between 2.00-5.19 mmol/l - eek!!!
  
• LDL 4.98 - should be between 1.50-3.40 mmol/l - nooooo!!!
  
• HDL 1.48 - should be greater than 1.19 mmol/l - check!
  

So... while my HDL (good cholesterol) was good... the rest of the numbers were bad. Very bad. LDL cholesterol is the bad cholesterol and it was clearly in trouble. And let's not even talk about the total cholesterol number.

For Americans, who use a mg/dl system (still metric but different than Canada and the UK)...

• Cholesterol 274 mg/dl - less than 200 is good, more than 240 is high
  
• LDL 192 mg/dl - less than 100 is good, more than 160 is high, more than 190 is very high
  
• HDL 57 - more than 60 is ideal, but 40 or more for men and 50 or more for women is acceptable

Sheesh... no wonder my doctor was freaking out and muttering things about statins and what not. Last year, after we got my results, I told him that I wanted to see what I could do with dietary changes and he agreed. He gave me three months... 

But... from September - December, we also went on a modified Keto/Paleo eating plan because a chiropractor (I know, I know!! Face-palm...) told us that it would be good for reducing my partner's inflammation and chronic pain. No carbs or sugars but eat as much meat and fats as you want. I don't even want to think what my numbers would have been in December.

Let's just say... the Keto/Paleo thing did nothing for inflammation and sent my gut into a tailspin. I even went and saw a dietitian at the hospital because my doctor thought I might be having a flare-up of IBS. The dietitian almost squeaked when she learned what we were eating and showed me all sorts of charts about the dangers of coconut oil and ghee. Not to mention the carnivorous diet we were on. Luckily... we were near the end of the grand Keto/Paleo experiment and... went back to normal eating in mid-December.

At the same time, we started reading a book by Dr. Michael Greger - How Not to Diet. We aren't normally diet people but... in trying to get the inflammation and chronic pain under control, we were experimenting with different eating plans. At the end of January 2020, we decided make a lifestyle change and embrace whole-food plant-based eating. No meat, no eggs, no dairy, no fish. No animal products of any sort.

We've been on that now for 10 months or so and I am 16 pounds lighter... and, had my cholesterol tested again in mid-November...

• Cholesterol 4.76 - should be between 2.00-5.19 mmol/l - check!
  
• LDL 3.01 - should be between 1.50-3.40 mmol/l - check!
  
• HDL 1.11 - should be greater than 1.19 mmol/l - hmmm...
  

 And... in the American scale...

• Cholesterol 184 mg/dl - less than 200 is good, more than 240 is high
  
• LDL 116 mg/dl - less than 100 is good, more than 160 is high, more than 190 is very high
  
• HDL 43 - more than 60 is ideal, but 40 or more for men and 50 or more for women is acceptable

My cholesterol metrics from 2014-2020

Right then... doing not too bad for LDL (bad cholesterol) and total cholesterol. The HDL (good cholesterol) is a bit low. I could start eating more good fats - olive oil, ground flax, avocado and... coconut oil.

I can already hear the people saying... "eat coconut oil - it will raise your HDL"! But... take a look at my HDL history... I was eating a tonne of coconut oil from 2018-2019 and... my HDL wasn't much better than in the previous years with no coconut oil. So... I'm not sure that's the solution.

The best way to raise my HDL is apparently high-intensity exercise three times a week. Or I could lose weight. Or I could quite smoking... except I don't smoke... I'm thinking that my HDL number is a reflection of an uptick in a sedentary lifestyle thanks to rainy autumn weather, no gardening activity and generally sitting around in front of the computer.

So, them's my options at this point. In the middle of a pandemic no less... Sigh. I think I see some interval training on beast hill coming up... maybe it's not enough to trudge up the hill once a day (8 minutes)... maybe it's better to go up 2 minutes, down 1 minute... up 2 minutes, down 1 minute... etc. And stutter my way up the hill... It certainly qualifies as high intensity... gasp... wheeze...

Slaying the Beast

Baldwin Street, NZ

No... this ain't no St. George & the Dragon post. Nor the 666 Beast.

Nope... this is something quite concrete and physical... a hill.

Not just any hill, a 26% gradient hill (a 2.6 metre gain in height (rise) over a 10 metre horitzontal distance (run)). Which might not sound bad except consider this... most regular highway hills are 6%. Anything over that gets a warning sign saying "steep hill". And the steepest paved road in the world is Baldwin Street in New Zealand with a gradient of 35%. The steepest driveable hill in San Francisco is 31.52%. Sooo... our little 26% hill is up there.

Runners use it to train on... although the "running" ceases about mid-way up the hill and it becomes more of a walk. Our 12 year old nephew figured he could run up it... nope... We have cyclists who try to bike up it and they too end up dismounting and walking. People will drive their vehicles up the hill to give their engines a work-out... our vehicle can only do it in second gear (yes we have a manual transmission). Suffice to say... it ain't for the faint of heart.

I have an on-again/off-again relationship with this hill. If I don't walk it for a few weeks... I find that it eats me up. I will need to stop once, maybe twice, while hoofing it up... just a bit of a break to catch my breath. I'm proud of myself if I can do it in under 10 minutes. My heart rate is up in the 140s and 150s after climbing his hill...

But... once I've hiked it daily for a couple of weeks... I reach the milestone of being able to complete the hill without a break. Yay! And... I timed myself a few days ago... 7:05 minutes. Not bad, not bad at all. Don't get me wrong, it's still a beast of a hill. Slack off for a day or two and... it's like losing a week of gains. This hill requires a commitment.

I had a friend out from Winnipeg (flat land) who wheezed up the hill with me a few summers ago. The hill looks so innocuous from the bottom and when she sent pictures to her boyfriend, he was like "What's the big deal?". She texted back "You have no idea!" Looks can be deceiving.

Eshima Ohashi bridge - Japan
(with a telephoto lens)

See this picture? Freaky, no? It's a bridge in Japan and it looks seriously steep, doesn't it? But... as they say, looks can be deceiving... It's the Eshima Ohashi bridge and it has a gradient of 6.1% on one side and 5.1% on the other side. That's it... From the side, it looks quite normal. The crazy steep-looking pictures are thanks to photographers using telephoto lenses...

Anyhow... our hill is kind of the reverse... it looks not too bad but... it sucks you in, this hill, and yet... 26% is only 19°.  Which doesn't seem very steep at all. When I worked in forestry, we'd regularly climb 100% (45°) slopes. Sometimes 130%. Anything beyond that and it gets seriously dicey. Back then, I would have considered a 26% slope to be on the low end... as compared to 100% where I'm scrambling up holding onto bushes and shrubs. It's all relative I guess.

But, the thing I've noticed is... if I can slay the beast first thing in the morning, the rest of the day seems to fall into place. In climbing the hill in the mornings, I have, in many ways, gotten the hardest thing out of the way. After beast hill everything else looks small in comparison.

It kind of reminds me of the productivity hack to eat the frog. Not a literal frog, mind you. This is a trick to tackle the item on your to-do list that you shun/avoid/procrastinate.

Maybe it's the biggest or the hardest or the one with the most uncertainty attached to it. It's the thing I don't want to do but that I need to do. If  I can do that one thing first... eat that frog first... well, after that, everything else looks easy.

Oh... and Mark Twain also said... if it's your job to eat two frogs every morning... it's best to start with the biggest one first! Charming.

I need to keep reminding myself of that every day. What is my frog for the day? Other than the hill. Usually it's to get some writing done. And, if I can get some good solid writing done first thing in the morning, well then, the rest of the day falls into place... but if I don't... it seems like everything goes sideways. Which is why I like to have slayed the beast hill first thing in the morning (the biggest frog)... I've at least eaten one frog, and that is certainly better than eating no frogs!

Habits of Caring for Self

"Put your own oxygen mask on first, then help others." I don't know how many times I heard that line while I was caregiving for my Dad. Over and over again... "you have to take care of yourself otherwise you can't care for him". It is so true. And  yet so impossible.

Caregiver Burnout

My Dad had vascular dementia. For anyone who has journeyed with a person stricken by dementia... you know what I mean.

For me, it also wasn't a rewarding experience. It wasn't sunshine and butterflies. My Dad and I had a complex relationship. Growing up, he was never there for us when we were kids. Oh, he was occasionally "there" physically... but he definitely wasn't there emotionally.

I did my best to care for him, but the toll it took on me was huge. I also tried to take care of myself, I really did... but when the phone rang at 7:15 am and it was Home Support (saying they couldn't come) or Dad (all confused because Home Support had come)... meditation got put on the back burner.

It was a slow chipping away at my care for self. It got to the point where I would forget to brush my teeth in the mornings. Do that often enough, and you lose the habit of brushing teeth very quickly! Why is it that bad habits are soooooo easy to form while good habits are NOT?

I'm one of those people who do well with routine. I do best when I have a plan. I'm not one of those loosey-goosey airy-fairy... zodiacal Air signs. I am a serious, down to earth... zodiacal Earth sign. Anchored. Grounded. Solid. But during the whole care-giving experience, I lost that... I became untethered from routine, from what grounded me and floated through my days in an aimless fog.

My partner would ask me: "What do you need to do right now, for you?". And I couldn't answer the question. Not a clue. In hindsight, I can see the signs of caregiver burnout and it was nasty. My partner completely freaked out one evening when she learned that I had no plan for the next day. "What about your routine?!!" I looked at her wearily and admitted, "I don't HAVE a routine!". Sometimes the caregiver needs to be taken care of...

Slowly, I began to build a tiny bit of routine into my life. Get up, go for a quick walk, meditate, breakfast. If phone calls disrupted that... then get back on track after the disruption. It was hit or miss for a while. Cause, somehow, it's darn easy to get off-routine and sooo hard to get on-routine!

That's one thing I've learned... caring for self requires some discipline. It's not going to happen by itself. And it's not just having a bubble bath. It's doing the things that I KNOW ground me but that... somehow... are always the first things to fall by the wayside.

I KNOW that walking in the woods is good for me. It feeds my soul like nothing else and yet... even knowing that. I don't do it. WTF? Here's what goes on in my head:

Me: It's nice out. I should go for a walk in the woods.
Other Me: I don't have enough time.
Me: Of course there's enough time. It doesn't have to be long. 20 minutes even!
Other Me: It's too much work. I'd have to change my pants and put on my boots and drive 3 minutes...
Me: Seriously? Come on, you could take photos of pretty leaves in the sunshine...
Other Me: I'd feel like a slug. I haven't hiked for so long, I'd get out of breath.
Me: Well then, this is a good time to get started!
Other Me: What if the plumber phones or...
Me: Good grief!! That's what cell phones are for!
Other Me: I don't feel like it... I don't want to.... You can't make me...

 And on it goes... until the time really is GONE! And both of me are exhausted...

Here's the thing. I ALWAYS feel better after going for a walk. Always. Without fail. Even if I get out of breath. And yet... there's this hump of inertia that I just can't seem to get over...

Wikipedia - Activation energy with and without
a catalyst

It reminds me of Chemistry 11/12... I remember these charts that involved a catalyst to get over the hump that prevented a chemical reaction from taking place.

The hump is called "Activation Energy". See the black line... it's pretty darn high. But add a catalyst (red line) and it becomes much lower, so it takes less energy to get the reaction going.

That's kind of like me and walking. The Activation Energy is pretty high, and gets higher if I engage in a laborious decision-making process with myself. What could I do to lower the Activation Energy?

One option is to skip the whole decision-making process... and just make the walk part of my routine. It's then non-negotiable and just something that I do... Here's the morning routine I'm working with right now:

• Get dressed
• Brush teeth
• Take vitamins
• Feed cat
• Walk

I actually have a check-list in my day planner because honestly... it's soooo easy to skip some of these. Except for feeding the cat... that really is non-negotiable. The other things are not well-ingrained habits for me and so every evening, I write out the list so it's front and centre for me the next morning. I don't necessarily look at the list because I can remember what comes next. Except... here's the thing... "Feed cat" is not written down and yet it always happens, without fail. Interesting--must reflect on that some more...

Another trick I could use is to lay out my walking clothes in the bathroom the night before. If I lay them out... then it becomes much easier to actually put them on. If I don't put them out, then I automatically get out of bed, grab my regular pants and put them on. Then, if I want to walk, I have added a decision point. "Oh, I've put on my regular pants. I wanted to go for a walk. Ah, it's too much trouble to change pants." Seriously... this is what goes on in my head. I haven't reduced the Activation Energy... I've actually increased it!

Finally, I make the "walk" as tiny as possible... at least while I'm in the house. A 20 minute walk seems overwhelmingly long, so I tell myself: "Just get dressed and go for a 5 minute walk." That's a tiny walk, and I'm more likely to say: "Okkkkaaaayyyyy.... fiiiinnnneeee." Once I'm out the door and walking though, over that Activation Energy hump, I usually go for much longer and 20 minutes becomes a snap. 

The trick is to make going for a walk as dummy-proof as possible with as few decision points as possible. Decisions take energy and increase that Activation Energy. Better to eliminate as many as possible. I don't have to think about what to wear because it's right there waiting for me. I don't have to think about what vitamins to take, because they're already all portioned out in one of those day-of-the-week dispensers. I don't have to think about what to do next... because I have the checklist in my head. I don't have to wrestle with the duration of the walk because it's set up to be small and doable (5 minutes).

Now, if I were to think of any of those things as "optional" then it becomes easy to skip them. Trust me... I know this. We went away for a couple of weeks and when we got back... my morning routine was no longer a habit. For the last month, I've been struggling to get back on track and... while I am always feeding the cat... I am still not going for a morning walk.

It's no wonder. I'm treating it like it's "optional". I'm not laying out my walking clothes the night before. I'm not telling myself "Just 5 minutes". Sooo... this is a bit of an insight for me. I didn't really know how this blog was going to play out, I just started writing. And I've got a clue as to why the morning walk isn't happening. I'm going to take my own advice and put these tips into practice tonight. The morning walk is now non-negotiable. I'm going to lay out my walking clothes in the bathroom tonight... and plan for a 5 minute walk in the morning. These are all Small Steps in moving me in the direction of health and wellness... Wish me luck!