Page 31 of 65

Keep It Moving with Juel Fitzgerald

October 13, 2020 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Episode 68

In episode 68, Jill and Chris talk with Juel Fitzgerald about staying healthy, walking and her new book, “Lives of a Gem: God’s Treasured Possession.”

This is the 3rd time we’ve talked with Juel on this podcast and we continue to be inspired by her grit, determination, and outlook on life. In episode 8, she was walking marathons and we followed up with her in episode #24 when she walked several half marathons.

We discuss:

Overcoming asthma and allergies
Dealing with hospitalizations and medications
Motivation and how she keeps it moving
How she wrote her book – phases and characteristics of life issues
Publishing a book during the pandemic

Her book can be purchased on Barnes and Noble, Amazon or directly from Juel at her website JuelsCreations.com

“I want to KEEP IT MOVING because when I’m in my 80’s, I’m still moving.”

She says that “Doing races is not what I do anymore, but if a race came up that was really different… I’m just walking for health now, just like I did when I first lost the weight.”

Cabbage, Potato, and Sausage Soup in the Instant Pot

October 8, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

It’s fall once again and my heart turns to soups, including my recipe for a Cabbage, Potato, and Sausage Soup and I’m using the Instant Pot for this.

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can make this just as easily on the stove. I wanted to see how the cabbage and potato would work in the Instant Pot and it turned out great.

In all of the recipes in Becoming Elli, you can count on there being a lot of recipes that include cabbage. I’m not sure why that is. I posted my basic cabbage soup recipe a while ago.

Ingredients

1/2 Tbsp. avocado oil
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
About 1 lb of baby red potatoes, cut in half or quarters depending on the size
1/2 of large onion, diced
1 or 2 cloves of minced garlic
About 1/2 head of cabbage, chopped into small pieces
1 package of turkey kielbasa (13 Oz), sliced
2 cups of baby spinach
4 cups of chicken broth
2 cups of water
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, optional

Instructions

Turn the Instant Pot on to Sauté. Add the oil and let it heat.

Add the carrots, celery, and onion to the pot and stir frequently for about 5 or 6 minutes.

Stir in the sliced kielbasa and sauté for a few more minutes.

Add the minced garlic and sauté for a minute or two longer.

Turn sauté off.

Add broth, cabbage, and potatoes to the Instant Pot.

Stir in salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper.

Set your Instant Pot to Soup, make sure the steam vent is set to pressurized and cook for about 30 minutes.

I usually let the steam release naturally but that’s not necessary if you’re in a hurry. When you’re ready, remove the lid.

Add the spinach and stir until it’s wilted.

Notes:

I used turkey kielbasa because that’s what I had on hand. I think chicken sausage would be great in this, as would traditional pork kielbasa. Really, any sausage will do. Use a vegan sausage if you are avoiding meat. I think you’ll want something in the sausage family for this soup. Otherwise, it’s just not cabbage, potato, and sausage soup.

You can add other vegetables to this. I think green beans would be a good addition.

I added the spinach at the end because it adds a lovely bright green color to the soup but you wouldn’t need to. If you want to add kale or a different green, remember that most cook longer than spinach so you would probably want to add the greens into the pot to cook with the other vegetables.

I used baby red potatoes but you can use any potato you want. Also, I always leave the skin on when I add potatoes to soup but that’s optional. I think even sweet potatoes would be good though it would change the flavor a bit.

The Fun of Fall Biking

October 3, 2020 / Chris Brown / 3 Comments

With the change of seasons here in Northeast Ohio I am missing the sun of summer, but I have to admit that I am really enjoying the fun of fall biking.

The weather is a bit more brisk in the morning, the haze of summer is gone and I don’t get overheated. The fall leaves are just starting to change.

After consistently riding almost every weekend of the summer, I feel strong. This was a record breaking summer since I started riding my bike again and tracking it in Strava. Due to the corona virus pandemic, I severely limited gatherings with my friends. This meant that I didn’t get together with alot of friends and I’ve really missed doing the very fun, long long bike rides with them.

The good news is that I’ve been more consistent on my riding than any other year. I’ve loved doing the Kent Loop, a 22 mile ride and have been riding it almost every weekend.

Fun of Fall Biking Compared to Other Years
The 2020 year started off great, but this is definitely a different vibe for staying fit and strong for me. My normal is off. So far in my 2020 season, I’ve only ridden 353 miles over 20 rides (averaging 17 miles a ride.) My totals for the 9 years that I’ve been riding are 5657 miles over 269 rides. If I take out 2020 numbers, I usually average 663 miles a year. So while the riding mileage is about half as many miles and the number of rides this year is about a third less, considering 2020, I’m still proud of myself for getting out there.

At the end of summer I usually start to feel like it is time to make new goals (I think because of school starting and new weather patterns), so this week I’m planning to figure out a new work out plan. It won’t be long before my bike will need to get put away for the cold weather!

Do you find that the fall brings out a change in your exercise patterns? How has 2020 changed your “usual” routines for staying fit and strong?

The Motivation of a Race

October 1, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

There’s a lot of motivation in signing up for a race, at least for me. I’m much more likely to really follow a training plan if I have something on the calendar.

This year has not been a good one for racing. I think 2020 will be known as the year of no races, among other things.

Buckeye Half Marathon and 10K

I noticed the Buckeye Half Marathon and 10K is still scheduled. It hasn’t been cancelled yet. Of course, it’s quite possible that it will be cancelled but as of right now, it’s still a possibility.

I have a several year history with this race. The first year, I registered for a half marathon and then ended up getting my sciatic injury that took me out for quite a while. I did not run that race. Last year I ran the 10K and enjoyed it. I’m never a fast runner but I still like to race and I managed to complete it successfully.

I made a commitment to run the 10K in this year’s race. So now I must train for running a 10K. I’ve only been running about a 5K distance this summer. Time to increase the distance!

Instead of just going out for a run, I now am thinking about how many times a week I run and what distance I need to be running. See how a race can motivate you? At least for me, I become much more organized about my training.

The Motivation of Race Goals

You know how we’re always advised to have multiple goals? Here are my goals for this race:

Run it faster than I ran it in 2019
Run it at the same speed as 2019
Complete the training and race injury free.

I had to go look up my results for the 2019 race. I ran it in 1:17:29.0 which wasn’t incredibly fast. Hopefully my A goal is achievable. I went back and read my race recap from last year and I was looking forward to racing in 2020. Well, that sure didn’t happen but I’m hoping that this race will happen and that I can run it.

Do you have anything on the calendar that’s motivating you? Let me know.

How Many Steps Do I Take in a Year?

September 24, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 3 Comments

Someone recently asked me how many steps do I take in a year. Apparently I don’t think big enough because I’ve never set an annual goal for myself. I have tinkered with a daily goal of steps and I have had weekly goals but I’ve never set an annual goal. My daily goal is set currently at 10,000 . I’ve changed that number in the past but I just leave it as is now.

The question about an annual goal made me curious about what I’ve done in the past so I logged into the Fitbit dashboard and got some numbers. This was a lot easier to do on my laptop. Using the Fitbit app on my phone was more difficult to get the totals. If you want to check this out, I suggest you use the web version of Fitbit.

I remember Chris sharing her Fitbit data a few years ago. It’s always interesting to look at those totals.

How Many Steps in a Year

Here’s a breakdown of my totals per year for as long as I’ve been wearing a Fitbit.

Year	Steps	Floors	Miles	Calories
2020 (Jan – Aug)	2,753,992	4030	1,227.36	561,806
2019	3,688,570	4274	1,649.06	812,909
2018	4,341,364	6801	1,913.71	896,669
2017	4,662,734	5635	2,118.93	910,336
2016	4,824,029	6836	2,182.38	868,856
2015	4,253,875	7124	1,971.57	810,115
2014	3,071,844	5713	1,365.49	778,890
2013 (Mar – Dec)	2,505,079	4481	1,101.9	731,658
Totals	30,101,487	44894	13,530.4	6,371,242

This is interesting. I had a drop in steps in 2019. Basically that was the year that I moved out of my much larger house that also had stairs in it. That might be enough to account for the drop in steps.

My highest number of steps occurred in 2016. I was running a lot then and it’s also the year that my weight was the lowest.

I have four months left in 2020 to get over 900,000 steps to beat last year’s steps. Although I never set a yearly goal, this has now become one. I just want to beat last year’s total.

My complete total for the past seven years is over 30 million steps. Doesn’t that seem like a lot? I can’t quite comprehend that many steps! I guess you just break it down until you get back to 10,000 steps per day. Actually, I did some very rough calculations to figure out averages and it comes out to approximately 11,000 per day since 2013. I feel great about that!

If you have Fitbit data, feel free to share it with me. I’d love to hear what you have done.

Chemical Free Body with Tim James

September 22, 2020 / Chris Brown / 4 Comments

Episode 67, Chemical Free Body with Tim James, of the Fit Strong Women Over 50 podcast

Chemical Free Body with Tim James

In episode 67, Jill and Chris spoke with Tim James about what he has discovered about health.

After Tim James suffered from multiple health issues, including rectal bleeding, two separate skin issues, chronic acid indigestion and surgery to remove one of his organs due to serious digestive issues, Tim knew something had to change. It was only after the untimely death of his younger brother that he finally decided to take action.

Feeling charged with a duty to help others, he started sharing his knowledge with anyone that would listen. This led him to producing his own chemical-free food products, becoming a health coach, and putting out a podcast, Health Hero Show with Tim James.

Tim told the story of his own health recovery and then talked about a variety of ways to improve our health. He is convinced that we need to remove chemicals and impurities from our bodies to achieve real health. He discussed the importance of:

Eating lots of vegetables, mainly raw
Drinking purified water to reduce inflammation
Chewing your food until it is liquefied
Getting plenty of sleep
Practicing deep breathing before eating to start the “rest & digest” mode.

He believes in eating more plants – the fresher the better. Tim says he mainly eats raw foods. He cooks only about 10 to 20 percent of his food.

Tim also discusses why he avoids meat and dairy and why it’s important to remove toxins from our bodies.

He said that it is important to love yourself the way you are right now. Being fit and healthy is a lot more fun than not being fit and healthy. The combination of oxygen, pure water and movement helps to pump your lymphatic system, an essential part of having a chemical free body.

References

Tim talked about a lot of different studies and researchers. Here are links to some of what he discussed and the researchers he referenced:

Hippocrates Health Institute
Forks over knives
China Study by T. Colin Campbell
Dr. Michael Gregor His YouTube video is Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death
Dr. Gabriel Cousens
Dr. Howell Food Enzymes for Health & Longevity
Danoucha Reynon, Water Woman

Fiber and Flavor in My Favorite Salad

September 19, 2020 / Chris Brown / 2 Comments

Regular readers know how much I love this salad. Perhaps you have developed a favorite go-to salad much like my perfect no panic potluck salad.

One reason I love this salad it that it doesn’t spoil quickly because the dressing is olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice. Another reason is that you can easily up the protein by adding beans and tuna. I usually add dill and basil to the dressing and toss. It’s great if you make it the day ahead because the flavor gets into all the veggies and really tastes great.

Of course the taste is something I really love. This time of year adding fresh veggies right out of the garden makes it especially appealing. Cucumbers, tomatoes, and fresh squash or zucchini are such delights.

The big a$$ salad by Pam Sherman is another favorite of mine, but when I don’t have time, I’ll use Heather Lentz’s trick of 3 cups of cut up peppers, carrots and celery for a snack.

What’s your fiber and flavor favorite?

First Time Swimming Since the Pandemic Shutdown

September 17, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 2 Comments

Yesterday was my first time swimming since we all went into seclusion due to the Covid-19 pandemic. My gym reopened about two months ago and I rejoined a few weeks later.

A pleasant feature for me is that not many people have returned to the gym so it’s always quiet. The pool area was no exception. This time there were two people in the therapy pool and one other person in the lap pool. I had no problem snagging a lane.

The five-lane pool was reduced to three lanes. Every other lane was closed to enable social distancing. The only thing that felt strange was wearing a mask from the locker room to the pool. (Right now, due to state regulations in Ohio, we have to wear a mask everywhere in the gym except in the pool.) When I went to return to the locker room, my mask was wet so I was glad I was jumping right into the shower to rinse off. Fortunately, I had a dry mask tucked away in my purse so I was able to leave wearing a dry mask.

First Time Swimming

For the first time swimming in several months, I think I did well. I swam for about 30 minutes and took a few breaks. I’ve never been a strong swimmer and I didn’t want to overdo it on my first time back. I just concentrated on my stroke and breathing.

It felt good to swim. I enjoyed it. Swimming is definitely a full-body workout. I could feel my muscles working in ways they haven’t worked in a while.

I think swimming might be a good way to do some active meditation. There’s no social interaction while swimming. Just time to think, count my strokes, and concentrate on my breath.

Have you been swimming lately? Is your pool open?

Tuna and Sardine Salad

September 10, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 6 Comments

I never really thought I’d be writing a post about tuna and sardine salad.

The mind is a funny thing. I wanted to make lunch the other day and I thought I’d make my standard salad for lunch. I like to add protein to my salad. Usually I have some cooked chicken in the refrigerator just ready to be chopped up and added to my salad. This day, however, I was out of chicken because I used all of it in my Easy Coconut Red Curry Chicken. I was back to rummaging around in my pantry where I found a can of tuna and thought, no, that’s not what I want. A can of sardines was lurking behind the tuna. I remembered that I should definitely try to eat more sardines but didn’t really feel like making my standard sardine salad.

I wondered, “what if I mix a can of tuna with a can of sardines?” What could I do with that? I thought of adding some mayonnaise and some mustard. Wait a minute, I basically just thought of making regular old tuna salad and adding a can of sardines to it. What a radical thought! Later, I googled tuna and sardines and it turns out I’m not the first person to think of it but I guess that just proves it was a good idea.

Here’s the basic recipe that I came up with. Of course you could add whatever else you think would be good. Probably some onion would be a nice addition. I didn’t have any. How does that happen? I always have onion in the house but my trips to the grocery store don’t happen as often as they could, I guess.

Tuna and Sardine Salad

This was really good. Combining the two fish worked out really well. The two flavors definitely complemented each other.

Ingredients for Tuna Sardine Salad

1 can each of tuna and sardines

1 stalk of celery diced finely

1/2 cup of mayonnaise (start with less and add until it’s the level of creaminess you prefer.)

Juice of half a lemon

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard or whatever mustard you have on hand.

Directions for Tuna Sardine Salad

Drain the cans of fish and then mixed them in a mixing bowl. Break the tuna apart and mash the sardines.

Stir in the celery.

Add the mayonnaise, lemon juice, and mustard. Mix well.

Serve immediately or refrigerate.

Notes:

I ate the tuna and sardine salad on top of a bed of greens. It would also be good as a sandwich or as a dip for crackers. I bet you could make an awesome tuna (and sardine!) melt too.

I used regular mayonnaise but if you follow a particular way of eating, any kind of mayo will do. Vegan mayo or mayo made with avocado oil would be fine.

Add in other crunchy vegetables if you have them.

This was a delicious way to eat both tuna and sardines.

The Power of Affirmations with Christine Phillips

September 8, 2020 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

Episode 66 of the Fit Strong Women Over 50 podcast

In episode 66, Jill and Chris talk with Christine Phillips about the power of affirmations.

Christine Phillips is an Assistant Professor in Sport and Exercise Studies at Cuyahoga Community College with a masters degree in exercise science. She is a PhD candidate for a doctor of philosophy in Health Psychology.

Christine is a certified health and wellness specialist. She’s also a certified yoga teacher and group exercise instructor… plus she a grandmother of three and then somehow finds the time to ride her bike. (She’s already ridden more than 2,000 miles in 2020.)

We discuss:

How to phrase an affirmation
Why losing weight doesn’t work
How she used affirmations and visualization to finish a 110 mile bike ride feeling strong and energized
If we are not ready and willing to change, they won’t work. You have to be willing to change, to be open and healing.
By using affirmations and visualizations you become more aware of the end result and notice tools around you that will help you achieve the end result.
You have to be in the mindset to believe it.

Some sample affirmations:
“I am getting better… more and more every day”
“I am releasing the weight that doesn’t serve me anymore.”
“I am eating healthier everyday.I have right to be here.”
“I am sharing my gifts with the world.”

Here is the link if you are interested in supporting Christine’s PanOhio Hope Ride for Cancer.