Morning glories!
Welcome to “Wellness Wednesday, 04.2018”. These monthly link-ups created by my friend Natalie at Natalie the Explorer are coming so fast. Was so hopeful back in January when I made my list of wellness goals for the year. But two weeks after the first wellness post, I broke my foot. And my wellness journey took a new direction.
Ten days ago, my foot was still bothering me a great deal. In fact, when I packed for week-long trip to east Texas last week, I threw my orthopedic shoe into my suitcase. Averaged over 10K steps a day while I was gone. Yet, somehow, my foot feels better! I think I am finally healing. So, once again, as was the case in last month’s post, I don’t have a lot of progress to report on many of my wellness goals. I am hopeful, however, that this time next month I will have made lots of headway.
Today we are also talking about our favorite natural wellness tips. I do have a couple of those to share. But before we get to that, let’s just give my wellness goals the once-over real quick.
Wellness Goals Update
Rating my progress by category below on a scale of 1-5.
EXERCISE – 3
Up 1 point from last month. In general, I have been moving more. Worked out in some form or fashion 13 days in March. That’s good, right?
DIET – 4
I have done fairly well on all of these activities. While PC has been in Germany, I’ve been preparing Weight Watcher friendly meals for myself and limiting sweets and alcohol. Did a little backsliding while I was out of town but back at it again this week.
STAYING WELL – 2
Let’s just say I am applying sunscreen everyday. Looking into purchasing a water flosser. Any suggestions?
MENTAL WELLNESS – 2
My ‘mental’ still hasn’t been too ‘well’. Nor have I been very peaceful. My oldest daughter had to move into a hotel when her house sold. Her new house will be ready in a few more weeks. So I have been concerned about Brennyn and Cady. My youngest daughter Lauren has undergone a number of tests trying to identify a health concern she’s had for a long time. She goes to the doctor on Thursday for what we hope will be some answers and direction for treatment. I have been worried about her. And then my PC has been gone for six weeks. Life at home has been lonely.
SPIRITUAL WELLNESS – 3
Another category where I made small improvements. Blessed by quiet, devotional time 15 days in March. Worked several puzzles. Didn’t work on my story a single time. But wrote 17 blog posts.
RELATIONSHIP WELLNESS – 2
Actually went backwards in this category. I was doing really well at unplugging by 9:00 pm but with PC gone, my laptop has been my best bud. Need to get back to unplugging. And he will finally be home on Saturday night so we can work on the other 2 activities that fall under this heading!
Still plenty of room for improvement.
Fav Natural Wellness Tips
Aside from taking vitamins and drinking plenty of water, there are a few other things I have begun doing in hopes of improving my overall health.
- Trading sea salt for regular table salt. The chemical make-up and nutritional value of the two salts are very similar and both contain similar amounts of sodium. But table salt is more heavily processed to remove minerals and often contains an additive to prevent clumping. My daughter has begun using Nu-Salt, a sodium-free salt alternative. I am thinking of trying it.
- Applying coconut oil on my face at night. A few months ago, I developed a small, red, patchy area on my face between my nose and the corner of my mouth. I used antibiotic cream on it with no improvement. Then tried an anti-fungal ointment also with no change. Decided that maybe I was scrubbing my face too aggressively so discontinued using a facial scrub and started applying coconut oil to my complexion before bed. Within a day or two the irritation and redness was gone. Who knew that it has antibiotic and anti-fungal properties, and provides sunburn protection equivalent to a SPF4 sunscreen, promotes collagen formation, and minimizes wrinkles. Smells good, too!
- Using Thieves essential oil blend in a diffuser at night. It’s no surprise that the desert air in El Paso is extremely dusty and dry. I add 4-5 drops of Thieves into the water in my humidifying diffuser to boost our immune system and to fight off sinus infections and colds. Bonus: the spicy clover-rosemary scent has a calming effect that encourages a good night’s sleep.
Hope this post will inspire you to try these inexpensive wellness tips or seek out some of your own.
Your Turn
Have struggled throughout this post and others earlier this week to type the letter R. You might remember a few months back, my space bar and letter O were on the fritz. Andmysentenceslkedaltlikethis. Remember? Well, now, unless I go back and correct them, my sentences are looking strange again. For example, the sentence above that begins with You; it looked like this: You might emembe a few months back, my space ba and lette O wee on the fitz … until I fixed all the missing Rs. So fustating.
Do you have any favorite natural wellness tips you can suggest for me? Please share in a comment below. I am thinking of looking into a Himalayan salt lamp for beside the bed and would like to try red light therapy. Do you gals know anything about either of those products?
Have a wellness post to share? Link-up with us below.
Mark your calendars for next month’s “Wellness Wednesday” post when we will update (I can only hope there’s something to update) our goals and share skin and beauty tips. Ooops, maybe I should have saved my coconut oil bit for May? Oh, well.
Thanks for coming by, sweet friends. Wishing you healthy days!
Hugs and kisses,
Sue from Sizzling Towards 60 & Beyond
What a great idea to score yourself Leslie! It really keeps you accountable doesn’t it? I might try that myself. So glad your foot is healing and you can kick off the boot! Thanks for the link up for Wellness Wednesday and look forward to next months!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Hey, Sue! My hubs arrives home tonight, will be so glad to have him back and hopefully, return to our routine of gym, and healthier eating. Hope by next Wellness Wednesday, I can bump up my ratings a notch or two, with progress on my goals.
Natalie
Congrats on your successes to date, Leslie! I haven’t tried the Himalayan salt lamp or red light therapy. I prefer free or low cost and natural ways to maintain our wellness. Thanks for organizing the link up codes for us.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Hey, Natalie! Agreed that free or low cost and natural ways of maintaining health are the best. I have read about spas offering red light therapy. Would like to try it somewhere to see what I think. My daughter is being diagnosed with some serious health issues and the red light therapy sounds like something that might benefit her. Wish there was a way to try it before committing to purchasing a lamp.
Em
Hi, Leslie!
See what happens when you commit to a list? You break something!
Keep moving on your foot…I am reminded every day that I broke my knee, but the more I use it the better it feels.
I think it’s great that you’ve set these wellness goals… it’s definitely something I should consider…(though I do use a Fitbit to help remind me to move etc).
So impressed with your blogging commitment! I’m battling keyboard and trackpad mutiny…so I understand your frustration and am in even more awe of your determination!
I hope things continue to move forward in a positive way for Lauren…I’m sure that’s stressful for all of you.
Happy reunion weekend for you and PC…I think that spice up the love life goal may take care of itself 🤣!
🤭😘
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Hey, Em! Aren’t these keyboard issues just so frustrating? I guess I am going to have to finally break down and buy another new laptop. Maybe I am too hard on them? Or maybe I just use them too much? But these sticking keys are making me crazy. (However, as I type this right now, my keyboard is being quite cooperative!). Have you tried having your keyboard replace? I did that about six months ago and it did make a huge difference but now I seem to be back where I started, or heading that way.
Have totally forgotten my foot this week as the worries and concerns for my daughter have taken precedence over everything else. That tells me that my foot must be pretty well healed. Thank goodness. Ready to move beyond that chapter.
Picking up PC tonight!! Thank you for your vote of confidence that we will get to work on my spicing up the love life goal! I sure hope so. I have missed his hugs and snuggles. It has been a long six weeks apart.
Off to clean house. XO
Tamara / My Retirement Project
Hi Leslie, I do so appreciate reading that others, not just me, experience forward progress in a non-linear fashion! Meaning, sometimes we have to fall back before we can move forward again. Such is life it appears!
Re: Spiritual Wellness. I want to share with you that as a result of how you’ve shared about your morning devotional time, I’ve begun doing same with a series of books and readings that I find to be tremendously uplifting, and it has been really lovely. So thank you so much for that, and I mean this most sincerely.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Oh, Tamara! What a very touching message. I am so glad you have found benefit to starting your day with some quiet time. Would love to know more about the books you are using. I have kind of struggled through the devotional I am using now. It is not really my cup of tea in that it is very preachy and feels at times, judgmental or condemning of the reader. I have a new workbook that I have had to adjust to using, too. But like it better now than I did early on. Always looking for new tools to use during this special time of the time.
Thank you so much for this very dear note. Tucking it away for safekeeping. XO