Again, my morning started too early. I was not able to get a weight reading. However, it is the start of a new month, a new beginning, and a new me.
My husband is sleeping away in the other bedroom. I am eating a banana and drinking some V8, wondering if it would be worth my while to go back to bed or to start writing for the month.
My eyes are a touch sore. However, they can see okay. I think I will write. I just looked over the praise for Quiet by Susan Cain. It is tempting to read the whole book. However, I think I already know my value as an introverted person, so I will not interrupt my other reading with it right now. If you are introverted and have any doubt of your value, consider reading it.
My husband is now up early too. He said he is grateful for the company.
morning comments, feelings, ideas, moods, and empowering questions:
I am happy with the way that I am! How can I stay in my calorie budget today?
mood and energy:
0-100
comments
mood:
55
I am up too early. I will need a nap later on.
energy:
75
I am feeling fairly energetic, but I wish I was sleeping.
accomplishments:
accomplishment
reason it is important
next action(s)
1
I scored JV Life Tracker for every day since January 14, 2019.
my consistency, authenticity, important goals
Continue on!
2
I got two walks yesterday for a total of 4.33 miles.
endurance, weight loss
Continue on!
3
I posted a blog entry last night for yesterday rather than waiting until this morning. That keeps me a day ahead.
writing, timeliness
Continue on!
4
I recorded a meditation yesterday that my readers may love.
speaking, sharing
Record and share other things!
5
I had a devotional with my husband 18 of 28 days in February.
sharing spirituality
Continue on!
I have already eaten enough for breakfast, and it is only 4:06 AM. How can I stay in my calorie budget today?
Exercising will help. Exercise is sometimes a mild appetite suppressant. Maybe I will do a walk three times today instead of twice. I took my thyroid medication, which will support my metabolism.
Morning Routine
Gradually, I am establishing a morning routine with the help of Goalscape. Goalscape permits me to check off the activities in my routine, add and subtract activities, and re-order them to suit my needs. I can even add links and notes to my goals. I am making progress so far. I am arriving at ‘Strength Training’. I probably should skip a day, but in the past I have failed at establishing every-other-day routines, so I will just do half as many reps today and call it good. Giving strength training some attention every day is an attempt to establish a routine that will become a habit.
It is now time to do a walk in the hallway. It is 4:52 AM. I should either do that or go back to bed.
Motivate yourself; derive energy from your plans, but do not force yourself to follow them when you just cannot. Transformation is about loving rather than forcing yourself into things. There will be days that your body will totally rebel from the concept of following any plan. Do not beat yourself up. Be kind and gentle with yourself. Practice loads of self-compassion. You cannot fly until you have developed wings. If you skip entire sub-routines in a day, the sky will not fall in. If you do your activities out of order, it is okay. Gradually things will come more automatically, but if they do not, keep referring to your plans, revising them, and starting over if needed.
We do not want to become slaves to our plans. I think I will go walking later, even though I am at the point in my routine where it is time to go. Why? Maybe it has something to do with it being 5:05 AM in the morning.
What To Do Instead
The other alternative, go back to bed, is a good one, but I will likely not be able to sleep. I could try sleeping. The questions is: will I feel bad about myself if I cannot get back to sleep? Sometimes, trying to sleep when I cannot is a downer.
There. I had some protein. That deli ham was tasty. My breakfast was very weak in protein. It is still not congruent with my plan of 50% fat, 30% carbs, 20% protein though.
Let me re-visit the possibility of going out for a walk. Maybe later? I was going to show you my excellent ability to self-motivate. The truth? I am human.
Walking
Do you think I should have walked in the hallway instead? I will soon. It is 6:01 AM. I had 46 grams of spinach to top off breakfast. My protein and carbs are still not balanced, but they are getting closer.
I am getting ready to go: sweat pants, sweater, vest, socks, walking shoes, pedometer.
I walked 1.30 miles. That is not far. I could go out longer, but I am feeling kind of fatigued. Maybe I will lie down.
Sleep
I did, but did not sleep.
I tried again and did sleep. It is now 11:20 AM. I could consider my insomnia a symptom of bipolar, but insomnia can happen to anyone. If it is truly a bipolar symptom, it will go on and on until I have a manic breakdown. So far I am okay.
My free but valuable ebook Joyful Vibrance: Transform Your Body Image, Energy, and Mood! talks about the importance of good sleep, especially for your energy and mood. In The Telomere Effect, Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel emphasize that sleep lengthens your telomeres, and long telomeres are associated with longevity. Telomeres are like caps on the end of shoelaces, where shoelaces are like your strands of DNA. Telomeres protect the strands from unraveling. The value of sleep can hardly be over-emphasized.
Afternoon
Nausea
I had some nausea today. I wonder if it is the same low-sodium symptom I had last year. I have been cutting back on sodium the last few days, and may have gone too far. However, what is the right level of sodium intake for me? When I am drinking at least six liters of water a day, I must be losing a lot of sodium. Even at that level of water intake, I am thirsty all the time from my medication. It is often so bad I can hardly talk.
I just found out that drinking six liters in a short period of time could kill me from hyponatremia. I need to drink less water, take in more sodium, or both. This article did not say how much more sodium I need. The symptoms of hyponatremia (low sodium) include headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, frequent urination, elevated blood pressure, double vision, and mental disorientation, and it can be deadly.
What is the right sodium intake level for me? I doubt my doctor or health coach would know the answer to that question. Cronometer does not know the answer. I know that just changing my level of sodium intake when taking lithium can be a problem. Let me look at my sodium intake graph in Cronometer. My sodium intake has been lower, but not really low, for the past four days. Before that, for the past four weeks, it has averaged between 3,000 and 4,000 milligrams daily, with seven days lower than 3,000 and only one day more than 4,000 mg.
The average sodium intake for the past four weeks is 3062 mg. I have been free of nausea symptoms for at least the past four weeks until today, (as far as I can remember). Yesterday and the day before, my intakes were 2494 mg and 2367 mg respectively. The day before that was as low as 2079 mg. Those may be pretty good numbers generally, but they are probably not for me.
Maybe I should set my range to 2750-3250 mg. Is that too narrow of a range to target? Of course, I like a nutritional challenge. However, I need a target of some kind. What is the right target? Keeping my sodium intake constant would be best, according to the instructions that come with my medication. The default numbers for sodium in Cronometer are very low: 1300-2300 mg. They may be appropriate for someone who drinks two liters of water a day, but not for me.
This is definitely a puzzle, but I am probably the only one in possession of the data to solve it. I kind of have to track my symptoms with my data and pick the numbers that have good symptoms. I do not have a lot of symptom tracking going on in Cronometer, except my weight and now my blood pressure. I am starting to track my mood and energy in my blog. I entered my mood as ‘55’ this morning, lower than normal. I wonder if that portended the nausea I had later today.
Potassium is also important. For the past four weeks, I have been getting enough potassium. One reason so many people have trouble with sodium is that their potassium levels are weak. I could look at the ratio of those two numbers. I do not think Cronometer has a chart that shows those ratios over time. That would be a nice enhancement to the app.
Evening
My husband served me some Progresso Italian Wedding Soup in bed this afternoon. Getting that salt did its magic, and I was able to get out of bed. I was able to go through a week’s worth of mail, clean the kitchen, get dinner, and play Yahtzee with my husband this evening. Now he is watching TV, and I am writing some more. The nausea is gone.
I am going to experiment with a daily sodium intake of 2750-3250 mg. It seems like that is enough to kill me, but if I do not take in enough sodium, that will kill me. Even if it does not kill me, I could have nausea, and nausea is a very unpleasant symptom.
Evening Prayer
Evening Prayer
Dear Lord,
I am so grateful I feel better tonight. I ate outside my calorie budget, but less than my “burned” amount.
Lord, I am so grateful for my husband. He took care of me today.
I am grateful to Cronometer for helping me fit together my sodium intake puzzle. Sodium has been vilified; some people forget it is an absolutely essential nutrient. How many people are vigilantly following their doctor’s orders and getting sick in the process or at least living sub-optimally?
Recently I believed I was getting too much sodium, but I was free of symptoms.
Lord, help me to use wisdom in this and many other things. My husband was so relieved when I revived today, without the need for a doctor or medicine. The “medicine” was already in the cupboard.
Lord, I feel so privileged, so blessed. Help me with the tasks on my plate right now. Help me to get to them.
Perhaps I can use some of Richard Bandler’s Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to help me “get to” things. I have his book, Get The Life You Want in Utah. Maybe I can recall his NLP visualization techniques well enough to make them work for me.
Amen.
Saturday Morning
Morning Prayer
Lord, another beautiful day is about to dawn. Bless me and my readers with success, health, and happiness. Help us all to sort through current nutritional “wisdom” and hype to find what works for our bodies. Help us to minimize the medications we require and to accompany the medications we need with the appropriate diet and exercise.
Lord, we thank You for Your balancing hand.
“Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?” (Isaiah 40:12 KJV)
Lord, You have measured everything for our good. Even our so-called flaws are there on purpose, for our good. Help me and my readers to measure out for ourselves the balancing amount of each kind of food and drink.
Help us to use our resources in a measured way that will enrich our lives, free us from debt, and benefit others.
Lord, help us to develop our talents that we may be like the faithful servant with ten talents. Let us invest our time and money wisely. Let us be aware of our calorie budgets and choose calorie sources with optimal nutrition.
Lord, remind us to be grateful for the riches the earth yields us, especially for those things that nourish our bodies and give us life.
