The 2016 Healthy Habits Thread

[magpie]

I've only been home two days, but I've done both my exercises both days and rested every day as well. Going home was definitely the right decision because since I reduced my activity I haven't been so dizzy that I've fallen and my knees haven't buckled. I should probably be drinking more water though. But I am taking such good care of myself (in comparison)!

 

[Hawthorne]

In the few weeks (month?) since I've changed my diet and started working out more regularly, I've managed to put on ~2 lbs which is great.

And I'm actually not being sarcastic since my goal is to gain and maintain 13 more between now and New Years 2017.

 

[Bush]

Actually

The Keep:Webmuskie's Guide to Being an Effective Quest Healer - Habitica Wiki - Wikia

During a quest, your own health bar will let you know when someone has missed a daily. If at all possible, a healer should keep a web browser open to the HabitRPG tasks page during a quest, and refresh it frequently. If your own HP bar goes down you should immediately cast as many blessings as you need to bring your own HP back to 50. Then check to see that the blessings brought everyone else in the party back to 50 HP, too, by checking the profile of each party member. If anyone has not been fully healed, cast another blessing.

jfc I cannot do this

 

[kyuuei]

^ Don't worry, leveling up also heals and healing potions are not very expensive. As long as you're working hard on your own character and your own goals, taking some hits from the party really will not affect you that drastically.

Also, cheers to whomever got that Dirty Dish quest! As soon as it popped up I was like, "HOW DID IT KNOW!?!!"

As for me? It is amazing how something so simple can motivate you. Finding my favorite cereal here in AVL for cheap means I am enjoying it each breakfast... Bananas, an orange, a big green smoothie with dates, mango, yogurt, strawberry, and spinach, and a bowl of Love Grown flakes. <3 <3 <3

And.. as for being out of work right now? It is going to get fixed eventually, there's nothing I can do from here, and I might have some opportunities to fix the days I have missed--WITH some increased pay. So, I'm pretty confident I will make up the work time, and so I am going to enjoy this time that I have now.

Also, we got new pillows to sleep on and I'm not going to lie, I was a total stupid-head for not getting better sleeping gear sooner. We've been talking about our mattress sucking for a while now, and I'm thinking Purple might be the way to go for a new one. I have slept without nearly as many kinks in my neck upon waking with these new pillows and they were not even that expensive. <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-0hecDc82s Ive been doing these stretches each morning as well. They really hit just the spots that are super tight on me.

 

[Ivy]

What pillows did you get? I get the worst neck-ache in bed and I thought my pillows were fairly nice. (They're very firm though, maybe that's just not good for me.)

 

[kyuuei]

So, I cooked some "use up all the veggies" chili tonight. Go to make the corn bread -- No eggs. Shit. Look everywhere anyways. Look online--applesauce will do! No apple sauce. Bananas will do, but might give the recipe a slight banana flavor--Oh well I say! Throw the banana-water in and bake.

It was a sriracha corn bread mix, plus banana. It made for a spicy banana-bread flavor. It was ... Reeeaally odd at first. But, actually, it's really fucking amazing. Both for breakfast tomorrow AND for in my chili (I don't use rice, I crumble up corn bread into chili). The chili was a basic catch-all recipe: Leftover scallion ends, 1/4th a cabbage, 4 bell peppers, 1/2 an onion, some leftover "mexican blend" veggie chop, shiitake mushrooms, 1/4th bar of chili-infused chocolate, etc. etc. All just chopped suuuuper fine and thrown into 1 lb of lean pork sausage, vegetable stock, and a big sachet of TJ Texas Chili Mix.

Top with fage plain yogurt, shredded 1000 day old gouda, and pickled jalapenos. Hell yes. The banana? Actually works REALLY well with it all.

What pillows did you get? I get the worst neck-ache in bed and I thought my pillows were fairly nice. (They're very firm though, maybe that's just not good for me.)

SertaRest® Gel-Memory Foam Standard Pillow, 2-Pack | Big Lots I Beliiieeeve these are what we got... the price is exact. You only need one of them though for a side sleeper, they aren't QUITE tall enough on their own.. but a flat, old, junk pillow to make a spacer + this = heaven for me lately.

 

[Ivy]

My first goal for the new year was to update all my doctor visits and such.

• Got a teeth cleaning and was told to buy a Sonicare (anybody tried it? not sure I want to pay that much for a toothbrush.)
• Went to the doctor to get my annual bloodwork done and I am once again grateful for relative good health.
  • My cholesterol levels are all at the "optimal/ideal" range again, and certainly not because I avoid eating cholesterol. Probably not because of anything else I did either so I'm not bragging, but I was pleased.
  • BP was 116/65, and we talked about taking me off one of my BP meds if I lose any more weight. (Most likely the Prinzide- the other one is a beta blocker that is also for my arrythmia so I may be on that one long-term.)
  • We also talked about weaning off my antidepressant, which I'm going to do a trial of. She said exercise would help make the difference so I'm adding a day to my routine to try to head off any side effects and offset the lack of an SSRI, which has been immensely helpful but I don't want to be on it forever. (It'll always be in my back pocket as a tool I can use, though.)
• Made an appointment with the cardiologist to check up on my arrhythmia. Will update when I've been.
• Made an appointment with the neurologist to repeat my sleep study to see if I need a CPAP. I went two years ago and found out I had mild apnea, then lost my insurance so I wasn't able to follow up. I hoped losing weight would do the trick but according to people who sleep near me, it hasn't. Will update when I've been to that, too.

Update time!

• I didn't end up getting a Sonicare- I got some softer scrubby toothbrushes on Amazon and have been using those with the small round strokes the hygienist recommended, and I feel like it's doing the trick.
• We didn't end up dropping any of my BP meds since I'm not having symptoms of low BP, but it's still an option in case I develop any symptoms.
• I'm about 2/3 of the way through weaning myself off my antidepressant, and so far, so good. I haven't felt any side effects that I know of.
• I've been to the cardiologist. I'm wearing a Zio patch, a 2-week heart monitor, to check and see if my arrhythmia has changed or worsened at all. (Or gotten better!) I put a picture of the Zio patch at the bottom of this post, because it's pretty cool. Last time I had wires and leads and an old-school cell phone that I had to use to record events. This time I don't have to do anything, except press the Zio when I want to mark a time to make sure they look at it.
• I've also been to the neurologist, and she said I didn't need to repeat the sleep study- we could just pretend I didn't wait two years to follow up, and go ahead with the second study with CPAP to see if it improved things for me. That's scheduled for early May but I'm also on a waitlist for cancellations/no-shows. But I have to wait until my 2 weeks with the Zio patch is over since they'll have to attach a heart monitor to me during the sleep study, and one of the leads has to go where the Zio patch is now.

 

[rmrf]

So two weeks of being a non-smoker. Vapes really do work, have no tobacco cravings and not even using the vape much. Even though I was a smoker since age 15, if I give up now (age 20) then it's likely my body will be able to recover completely.

 

[kyuuei]

I did a great work out last night with a friend and my bf I'm a little sore today, but I really put my heart into it and I'm happy with the results. Working out with people definitely makes me try harder subconsciously.

Still in limbo for work, but any day now I'll be a working machine again. In the meantime, I'm ramping up ideas for my closet functioning well and on how to make a small, tall desk area to function as our hide-away security station and hold items like our printer and scanner, papers, and such.

[/QUOTE]

Amazing what they come up with all the time. New stuff constantly in the medical industry. I just saw a device that will help children with night terrors.. if this was available when my nephew was having them every night it would have saved a lot of headaches.

[QUOTE="CognitiveLiberty, post: 2603639, member: 25594"]So two weeks of being a non-smoker. Vapes really do work, have no tobacco cravings and not even using the vape much. Even though I was a smoker since age 15, if I give up now (age 20) then it's likely my body will be able to recover completely.[/QUOTE]

Great job on that! Best to quit early in life, my father is struggling awfully with it and failing each time he tries. Keep up the good work! It takes 5 years to make something a habit they say...

 

[Ivy]

Sleep study is scheduled for Sunday night! They had a cancellation and said they could work around my Zio.

 

[Bush]

Sleep study is scheduled for Sunday night! They had a cancellation and said they could work around my Zio.

Those are interesting. They hook up a bunch of wires to you and watch you sleep.

My study was inconclusive, but it was a neat experience anyway

 

[Ivy]

Those are interesting. They hook up a bunch of wires to you and watch you sleep.

My study was inconclusive, but it was a neat experience anyway

Yeah, this will be my second one. I didn't hate the first one. I thought it was pretty neat, actually. That was the diagnostic study, and this time, they are putting one of those Darth Vader masks on me to see if it helps.

 

[kyuuei]

Yeah, this will be my second one. I didn't hate the first one. I thought it was pretty neat, actually. That was the diagnostic study, and this time, they are putting one of those Darth Vader masks on me to see if it helps.

Hope it helps! Way to go getting an early opening! I'm pretty much showing up to one of my classes to see if I can get in on a cancellation/no show last minute.

 

[violet_crown]

I was going through my expenses for the past couple of months and realized that I spend an exorbitant amount on food. I decided to sign up for Blue Apron as a way to get my take out habit under control, and also as a general nod to living healthier this year. I'll get my first order in on the 23rd. I am excite.

I also wanted to share a link to a friend's company, Bellabeat. They do wearables for women that monitor activity, stress, sleep patterns, and your menstration cycle, and have a cool app that visualizes the data for you. I feel like it's something [MENTION=4939]kyuuei[/MENTION], [MENTION=4945]EJCC[/MENTION] and [MENTION=2]Ivy[/MENTION] might enjoy. They're also a lot cuter than Fitbits (they're the leaf jewelry the models are wearing):

 

[EJCC]

[MENTION=7254]Wind Up Rex[/MENTION] I just put myself on the mailing list, God help me. I don't need to be spending $150 on anything...

... but it's so pretty and so useful and I just got a giant promotion.

Sigh.


/edit: I freaking love BlueApron. I don't subscribe to it, personally, but I had a potluck/cooking party with some friends where we cooked three BlueApron recipes and shared them between 6-7 people, and all three recipes were great and easy to prepare.

 

[violet_crown]

[MENTION=7254]Wind Up Rex[/MENTION] I just put myself on the mailing list, God help me. I don't need to be spending $150 on anything...

... but it's so pretty and so useful and I just got a giant promotion.

Sigh.

Look, I understand, and I'm not trying to enable you right now, but...

1) If you buy one, you're supporting a female owned startup.
2) Think of how much personal optimization you'd be able to do with all that data.
3) It's kind of like having a real life version of Sailor Moon's locket...or at least that's how I've been thinking about it when fantasizing about owning one. >_>
4) Itemized list.
5) Synergy

I freaking love BlueApron. I don't subscribe to it, personally, but I had a potluck/cooking party with some friends where we cooked three BlueApron recipes and shared them between 6-7 people, and all three recipes were great and easy to prepare.

The menu looks great. I'm really excite.

 

[EJCC]

Look, I understand, and I'm not trying to enable you right now, but...

1) If you buy one, you're supporting a female owned startup.
2) Think of how much personal optimization you'd be able to do with all that data.
3) It's kind of like having a real life version of Sailor Moon's locket...or at least that's how I've been thinking about it when fantasizing about owning one. >_>
4) Itemized list.
5) Synergy

You had me at "itemized list".

 

[Ivy]

I'm sold. I've been looking for a new fitness tracker since I washed my Withings Pulse.

 

[Falcarius]

Falcarius' main healthy habit target for the moment is to go to bed before midnight everyday.

 

[violet_crown]

I'm sold. I've been looking for a new fitness tracker since I washed my Withings Pulse.

"Withings Pulse" is a pretty metal name for a fitness tracker.