Hey Pony Girl,
I see you there struggling with daily rituals when you are existing under a Stay at Home order during the day due to Covid-19 and a curfew at night due to urban violence. Perhaps you are fighting the migraines and endometrial pain of peri-menopause on top of everything else but are hesitant to see your doctor during a pandemic or perhaps the two-dimensional chats just aren’t working for you. You’re choking down an “Active 50+” Trader Joes multi-vitamin hoping that will keep you level.
Let’s start easy and make sure that on the basest level we are doing what we can to keep self-care and self-health up. I’m dedicating the blog for now to this mission. In future posts we will look at individual vitamins and nutritional and dental products that are necessary for us now in our 40s and 50s, especially now that we are under added stress. Let’s really identify what we need so we aren’t wasting money on supplements we don’t need and maximizing our time in a store or pharmacy to purchase what will really be of benefit.
First up, H2O.
So our bodies are mostly water, somewhere between 60-75 percent. Muscle can be up to 70 percent water and fat doesn’t have much. Water is necessary for transport of vital nutrients and digestion. It also regulates heat loss.
Did you know that even while you are Sheltering in Place you are losing about 84 ounces of water each day? About 1.5 liters are lost every day through urine and the rest are lost through sweat, bowel movements, and breathing. This is why you often hear about drinking 8 glasses of water each day.
One of the easiest ways to check if you are adequately hydrated is just to look at the color of your urine in the morning. If it looks like “pale lemonade” you are in good shape. When it looks darker, or more concentrated. your body is struggling.
Fruits and vegetables are about 70 percent water so you can add these in to your intake quotient as well.
If you are exercising strenuously at home with an exercise bike such as Peloton or outside in a socially distant way, it will also be of benefit to you to weigh yourself before and after exercise. If you are suddenly one pound less after an hour of exercise, you know that can’t all be fat, sorry! Weight loss just doesn’t work that way. Make sure you replenish yourself with what you’ve lost, i.e. 16 oz of water…
Stay Gold!
Lady GenX