I am happy to come back to this blog after being away for many years. It is fun looking back at what I wrote when I started this site. My children, who are now entering their teens were little, and my thoughts about diet and exercise were a bit different. Luckily they haven’t changed that much. In fact I am relearning many points that I discovered all those years back.

Fitness has always been fascinating for me. I love learning about healthy ways to eat and exercise. I want to fuel my body so I can be as healthy as I can and feel good as long as I can. Now I am in my later 40s and my body is definitely different than it was 10 years ago. As I age there are certains things I have to keep in mind that I didn’t before.

When I exercise, for example, I must be careful that I don’t lift too much weight. My ligaments and joints are not able to handle the stress they use to. I have also had a few injuries so taking good care of myself is important. Instead of free weights or machines I may use just my body weight for a particular exercise. Continuing to move is the most important. Just because a part of your body is injured that doesn’t mean you stop moving it. Do what you can and it should slowly improve.

The biggest surprise however is my diet. My body seems more sensitive to certain foods. Years ago I could eat a whole plate of pasta and now I only eat pasta every now and then. If I serve spaghetti for dinner, I will have the meatballs and sauce over veggies instead of pasta. If we have tacos I will have the meat in a salad instead of in a tortilla. As we age, especially for women it is more difficult to metabolize carbs. I have had to get creative to feel good and on track with my health plan.

Having never been a big drinker I have also found that drinking just a little alcohol effects me more than before. Now if I have even one drink in an evening I will feel it the next day. My body feels stiff and I will sometimes get headaches or stomach aches. Wine and beer have the biggest effects. I haven’t had a beer in over a year. If I drink I will usually have a little vodka or tequila and mix it with a Zevia soda.

Last winter I really started to feel awful. Like I mentioned I had aches and pains and knew I needed to make changes. This was the middle of the pandemic so I’m sure stress had a lot to do with how I felt. I reexamined my lifestyle. Not only how I was eating but was I drinking enough water? Was I getting enough sleep? Do I need to meditate?

When you are sick and tired of feeling sick and tired you are more likely to change. I now make sure I am drinking 8 oz of water per day, trying to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep and I am monitoring my carbs, sugar and alcohol. There is definitely a difference. For a while I had let those things go a bit because I had the idea that if I didn’t care so much it would lessen my stress. However I learned that taking care of myself feels so much better and my stress actually decreases!

Let’s talk more about sugar…