Search the Community

So in less than a year and a half, I've lost 2 of my uncles and my grandmother. Both of my uncles were on my mom's side, and both were in their early 50s. Both died of heart issues. I'm going to operate under the assumption that there's a little bit of genetic predisposition there! (Even though their father is about to turn 90...) I don't know much about heart health and I feel the need to learn. So for this challenge, I'm going to learn and share something new about heart health, especially preventative measures, each week. Just one new thing each week. I think that's totally doable and beneficial for me. I also took a heart risk assessment a few months ago at an EMS conference. The only risk factor was my weight. I scored really well on everything else. Because this is the only knowledge I have (for now!) and I'm already trying to lose weight, I need to focus on it harder and do better. I have been hitting my macro goal almost every day and haven't had any fat loss. I'm going to track everything religiously and stick to the macs as much as possible for 2 more weeks. If I still feel like my ship is sinking, I'm going to rethink things. Maybe drop my calories or cut down on some carbs. My great-great grandma, my great grandma, and my grandma all suffered from Alzheimer's before they died. I have a Lumosity account. I originally got it to help me with delaying Alzheimer's. I haven't been using it much lately. I need to go back to using it at least 3x a week this challenge. I've also read research that learning new things helps slow the progress. So I think I'm going to work on learning guitar. At least 1 online lesson a week 20 minutes at least. I need to think some more. I've felt very negative and kinda down on myself lately. I feel stressed & closed in. I know part of it is that my house needs cleaning, but I'm never home. The workouts from my online fitness class that I have done have been too hard. I have to modify or bring down at least half the exercises every time, either because I can't do them or because of my tailbone. It's getting really frustrating. I have been sick, both my stomach and some kind of congestion crap. Between the coughing and the stomach issues, on top of work and life, I feel exhausted. So part of my challenge may be to clean house and take care of me for a little bit. I did some more thinking! I am going to limit myself to 2 episodes on Netflix a day on days that I work. If I'm home, 3-4 episodes or 2 & a movie a day if I'm off. I used to never watch it and now I even work out & eat in front of it. I did some serious thinking on it, and I developed that habit this winter. I was really lonely and so I'd put on series I'd seen before just for the noise. Self care got me thinking: "how do i do that?" I'm spending most of my time working, doing a workout that makes me feel stupid, or traveling. 1. I can change my attitude about the workout. 2. Structure my time at home a little better. 3. Stay home more. I think I'm going to work on structuring my time at home better. It used to be fairly routine. I came home from work, ate a snack, made dinner, cleaned some, went for a run/workout, showered, then ate dinner. But when I had to quit running and working out for a while, I got all thrown out of whack.