The New Regime: Health Matters

This weekend I turned my attention to addressing our family's various health concerns, such as warding off osteoporosis (a special concern for fine-boned women of Northern European ancestry whose grandmother had the disease), heart disease, and cancer, and helping Rachel deal with the physical demands of her crew season. I'm adding Capsicum and Bioflavinoids to our arsenal of Black Cohosh, Gingko Biloba, Hawthorn, Vitamins A,B,C,&D, Calcium, and Magnesium. Eschewing junk food, we're eating fresh fruit with raw seeds (including ground flax seed)and nuts every morning, and going for whole grains, protein and vegies for lunch and dinner, with a few protein snacks in between for Rachel. Power foods we're focusing on include beans, soy, and dark green vegies. Since caffeine and alcohol interfere with calcium metabolism, I've decided to limit both to weekends--because cutting them out entirely would be a real drag. Of course there's also lots of exercise on the agenda as well, but my outdoor walks have been curtailed by our icy weather. Rachel is teaching me new moves from her "Lean" class at the YMCA. I'm trying to visualize myself as a trim, active old lady with some remanent muscle mass, instead of a brittle old pretzel. Jim has never had a broken bone in his life. Rachel ran into a tree last Friday on a fast-moving sled without breaking any bones. Amazing!