Social Security Victory

[susandennis]

I logged on this morning to discover that the bank information for my Social Security direct deposit had been changed. The last our digits now match my account number AND it says Scheduled Update 8/03. Yesterday they were the wrong digits and the update date was 9/03. So progress. In the right direction.

Tomorrow or Thursday I will call again to make sure that on 8/3 the "update" is updating to correct info and to see if we can find my missing July payment.

But, in general, I'm feeling better about the whole festuche. It could have been so much worse.

And in other good news, I got an email from one of the contractors about my shower and it's better news that I expected. The contractor sounds very willing and says that he works through a designer who lives here in the building and he copied the designer. So that answers/solves several issues for me all at once. Whew.

Christian has lived here for nearly as long as I have. We are not best buds but are friendly. I've been in his unit and we do NOT share the same design style but whatever. He's been in the game forever and he knows this building and how to play the HOA game (he was a board president for a couple of years) and the last time saw him, it was to do him a favor for which he was very grateful. So good good good good.

He can plan the shower, help me make the decisions - storage, no storage, curtain, door, etc. and direct the contractor who clearly likes working with him. Whew!!! This may yet come to pass!

On the not good news side, my walk this morning was horrible. My body ached and I had no breath. I finally made it the entire mile but it was torture. I'm just not moving enough. That has to change, today.

Tangentially, (whoa, I can't believe I spelled that correctly first time out! go me! my body's dead but the brain is still cookin!) I am toying with the idea of moving my meals around. I have no interest in healthy eating. I eat what tastes good to me and I plan on continuing that. But I'm thinking of changing the when I eat.

I grew up with breakfast = eggs,etc. lunch = sandwich or something light dinner = big old hot meal with dessert. I know several of my LJ friends have a bigger lunch and little or no dinner and that's what I'd like to shoot for. Just swap lunch and dinner or just have dinner at noon and snacks in the evening.

My reason for not doing it is social and habitual and mental. Changing a habit of 70 years is a little daunting. But, doable. Going out with friends dinner would be in the evening and lunch will be regular lunch. But, who the fuck is going out any time soon anyway??? By the time I get my routine changed, making an exception will be a no brainer. (Also my Mariners tickets include a lavish buffet meal before all games which are usually in the evening - so dinner but, again, there will be none of that this year.)

It seams counter intuitive to be cooking a hot meal in the middle of the day in Summer but, I eat dinner early anyway and it's just as hot then. And, except for a freezer of meals that need to be eaten hot, who says a dinner has to be hot. Maybe as I eat up my current stash, I'll change what I eat anyway. Mainly I think I'd feel more comfortable not having a big meal at night. And maybe even eat less over all.

I think the thing to do... the thing I'm going to do... is just start with a big lunch. Today. So, dinner at mid-day today. And then well see how things shake out at dinner time but I'm guessing that will be the easy part. Lately I've been starving at lunch time and eating dinner mainly because it was time.

Tomorrow is house cleaning day but the house is pretty tidy already so no prep needed. I have a zoom meeting today with the data folks at UW. I even have some prep I need to do for that. Otherwise, the usual.

I have my watch set to ping me if I have not completed 250 steps in any given hour. I am spectacularly good at ignoring those pings. Starting today, I am not going to ignore. When I get the buzz, I'm going to move. If only to walk from one end of the house to the other and do a couple of arm things. I am going to atrophy if I don't do something. Today's the day to start. You heard it here first.

Comments

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”

― Adelle Davis

Raise your hand if you remember Adelle Davis. Now raise the other one. Back down. Again. Down.... now walk around the room.

[susandennis]

now walk around the room

my watch says it isn't time yet.

[mairi-dubh.livejournal.com]

*raises hand high*
I remember Adelle Davis, in fact still swear by her "Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit."
And I faintly sneer when some "new study" announces something researches discovered back before I was born and which she cited, and all the young whippersnappers are jumping on the brand new bandwagon. Excited as they may be, the information isn't new to a lot of us.

Unless, of course, I missed the point of your comment (which I realize wasn't directed to me)...?

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

No, you got it EXACTLY. Back in the days of Merv Griffin I watched a lot of daytime TV. Adelle Davis was a frequent guest so I heard a lot of her theories when I was maybe 10 years old. I felt the same way as you when hearing the latest research on this or that type of food or how to eat. NOT NEW. (similar with Dean Ornish, btw, he gets little credit for his heart diet research and advice).

She did have some funny ideas like eating molasses every day (not that I have a problem with that... just maybe not as well supported scientifically as most of her ideas). But she was a pioneer of health who has been forgotten.

[mairi-dubh.livejournal.com]

Iirc, it wasn't simply molasses, but blackstrap molasses, specifically, and it was for its high iron content and...B vitamins content, was it?

I remember hearing a bit about Dean Ornish, but not reading him. It had taken me years, literally years, to read through Ms. Davis's "Let's Eat Right To Keep Fit" and make sense of it, and I think that with all the cross-referencing I had to do within that fabulous volume, I must have covered it six times in just less than as many years.
By then, I didn't want to rock my boat with any more information to be learned and absorbed, and a loony neighbor who wasn't endearingly loony, if you get my drift, was prattling about Dean Ornish and confusing him with Orson Bean and coming up with some very strange ideas, many of which he might have made up in his own head without any input from any nutritionists, medical doctors, or actors.
It put me off, and I stayed with what I already knew and believed I understood.
Point? Point is, no disrespect to Dr. Ornish intended, and now I'll have to watch for a book or several of his at the library book sale if they ever figure out a way to open that up again safely.

Indulge me for the moment, if you would. Is Dr. Ornish's heart diet and information or nutritional philosophy much in line with Dr.s Fuhrmann, Hyman, Amen?

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, blackstrap molasses... and, yeah, iron and B. And a great way to get it.

Ornish is essentially vegetarian (before it was cool) with some fish oil supplements and such. I grew up on steak and ribs and have never changed other than to add some salmon so I'm way far away from him. He was entirely focused on rolling back heart disease, dissolving plaque, that kind of stuff.

I read the first chapter or so of an early book of his and skimmed the rest and figured out what he was selling.

My take on Dr. Ornish was:

1 - He is correct and I celebrate his approach.
2 - I'd rather die earlier on my diet than live forever on his.

Funny thing is we are the same age. He's a month older than me.

And as a truly weird segue I just found out that Orson Bean died just last February, hit by two cars while crossing Venice BLVD on his way to a play. I also watched him on Merv Griffen.

[susandennis]

I did not know that about Orson Bean! Shocked that he was still alive in Feb. Had he only hung on til March, the play would have been canceled and he could have died of Covid-19. Tomaaato, tomahto, I guess.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

If he'd only have delayed to March. Yup.

[mairi-dubh.livejournal.com]

I've long held that the main thing is to avoid refined foods, and that the principle threat to health, if we had to name just one, is sugar.
Back when I was a kid, a clinical pathologist (in the family) who was doing research into diverticulosis and diverticulitis said---at that time---that those conditions weren't found in Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Asians following their traditional diets (or, presumably, as close to as they could manage) and that stuff like cornbread and watermelon or loads of greens (roughage---our great-grandmothers knew their stuff) and so on aren't bad things. His observation: "A white man's [western civ.] diet will kill you." Within the family, however, we've followed a western, white man's diet---but a much older version of it, one our grandmothers or great-grandmothers would recall having eaten when they were children.
Further studies (by others) indicate that one's diet must provide everything the body needs and nothing it doesn't or which can and does mess things up.

The point here being that you might live at least as long as Dr. Ornish does.

So sorry to learn about Orson Bean! Always enjoyed his work.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

I remember her very well! Let's Eat Right To Keep Fit was huge in the seventies and she was way ahead of her time about nutrition despite a few wacky ideas like megadoses of Vitamin A. It's just as true now as it was then that doctors only get like half a day on nutrition during their training. Dean Ornish is out of fashion now because of the current emphasis on fat, but I ate Ornishly for years and still do with the addition of olive oil (and cheese, obviously). Lucky for me I actually enjoy that diet - I wouldn't do it otherwise.

[hopefulspirit.livejournal.com]

It sounds like your shower plan is off to a good start! When will they actually start the project? I hope it isn't too much of a pain for you.

I think my watch lets me know when I need to stand up or move around, but I get other random notifications on it that sound or feel similar so I tend to ignore mine too. I need to stop that.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the new meal plan! Makes a lot of sense with your early schedule not to be eating a big meal at night. And the shower is sounding good too. I don't recall my mother's being an enormous drama, so nuts to whoever it was that put you off.

[opakele.livejournal.com]

I have been walking my Hill of Doom and 4.8 miles (after I survive the H'oD) 3-4 times a week for three months-ish, now.

The first time I climbed that hill and almost died, that voice in my head said, 'girl, you get COVID you are dead.' It scared me enough that I've kept going.

I find it ironic the only way I can walk any decent distance is to get up a big fucking hill. I have good days and I have horrible days, still. Walking first thing in the morning has been a real challenge. My head needs to drain or something and trying to get up that hill is hard...some days I waltz to the top and do a dance, but not always.

Sometimes I think that overcoming my dread and fear of that hill is more important that getting my ass up and over.

Keep challenging yourself.

[susandennis]

5 miles up a hill? i get out of breath even typing the word hill!!

But, I really have no problem getting up and out the door and once out there, might as well do the walk! So, yeah, I hate it but I won't stop... until I can get in a freakin pool!

[opakele.livejournal.com]

The Hill of Doom is the first 1/4 mile. I am so serious. After that, there are a few climbs, but not like the first 1/4 mile.

Ironically, I have found a few more hills closer to home and on good days do those at the end of my walk.

It varies. Some days are easy, some days are hard.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

In the long-ago days when I used to bicycle three times a week for exercise, I had several routes that I rotated among that were at least partially loops, and I got to make choices about which direction to go, deciding in some cases whether it was better to go up a short steep hill and then down for a longer, gentler stretch, or vice versa. (I usually opted fo the former, although whether there was an intersection at the bottom of a hill that would make me stop and lose all the momentum gained by the downhill was also a factor.)

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I find if I eat a big lunch my body expects a big dinner as well!

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

I am a big believer in eating when you are hungry, so lunch is often my main meal of the day.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Off your topics, but I thought you might be interested. OUT Magazine has a story on Summer, Biggie's Vet tech, who was killed ... Such a sad unnecessary death.

[susandennis]

Thank you.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Of course.