Welcome to Wellness Reimagined, a monthly link-up focused on health and wellness in 2025. This series aims to support participants in maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle, staying on track, and creating space for reflection, planning, and realignment with our individual goals and intentions.
Planning
Although, by personality, I seem suited to journal entries, list-making and checklists, I’ve never been this type of planner—at least not on a daily basis. Years of creating written lesson plans as a teacher might have squashed this out of me. Thus, I’m delighted to take part in this link-up to help keep better track of my overall wellness intentions.
January Focus
I plan to keep my posts simple, focusing on one or two areas of wellness each month, eventually touching on the broader areas of physical, nutritional, emotional, mental, intellectual, spiritual, social, community, financial, environmental, time and technological wellness. For January, I’m starting with physical fitness, nutrition and social, with a touch of emotional/mental/spiritual and financial wellness. My goals for the month have been slightly delayed because I did not return home from holiday visits until earlier this week.
Physical/Emotional Fitness
My usual fitness routine (slightly derailed by the holiday) is listed below. Being home for just a few days, I am already feeling more on track. Early in my retirement, I began with a simple 10-minute daily mat workout, and have steadily built up from there.
1. Short Morning/Evening Meditation – Meditation didn’t come naturally to me. But, when I started inserting just a short practice to the beginning and end of my day, I eventually began to greatly look forward to these quiet times. And it was all much easier than I had imagined.
2. Daily Morning Mat Workout – A mixture of stretching, strength, cardio and balance for approximately 45 minutes. Some of my favourite Youtube workouts include:Body Project, MadFit and Senior Shape.
3. Weekly Gentle Yoga Class:- A 60-minute, in-person session at my local studio that my husband and I attend together.
4. Weekly Online Strength-Cardio Workout with a Friend: I always enjoy exercising more when I work out with friends. Research consistently highlights social integration as the top factor for longevity. Currently, my workout partner and I use this workout: YouTube Link.
5. Daily Workout Check-In: I participate in the Women Living Well After 50 Exercise Challenge, a Facebook group where members commit to 30 minutes of exercise daily (with a weekly rest day) and share their progress. It’s low-pressure, a great community and highly motivating.
6. Daily 5 km+ Walk or Hike: My walking routine has fallen far behind—possibly due to winter, the layers of clothing now needed, being out of sync, or a packed schedule. But I do have a twice weekly, 5km walking group with my dog-walking buddies (who allow me to join in if I bring dog treats). 😀 This group has been a lifesaver for me getting a few extra steps in. It’s also a wonderful social connection.
Nutrition
I recently saw a video where CHATGPT was successfully used to create a 5-day meal plan, 3 meals per day, 45 grams of protein per day, for $100. Intrigued, I decided to try it.
I asked ChatGPT to design a budget-friendly, healthy five-day meal plan with three meals daily, avoiding ultra-processed foods. The plan included prices, key nutritional values, a shopping list, and basic recipes. It was delivered promptly and accurately. The initial plan featured pork, overnight oats, and a smoothie bowl, which I requested be swapped out. The revisions were immediate and better matched our eating tastes.
Here’s a sample from Day 1:
- Breakfast: Classic Oatmeal with Fresh Fruit.
- Lunch: Lentil and Vegetable Soup.
- Dinner: Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans.
Below are quick snaps of our dinners from Day 1 – 4 (we didn’t always eat the dishes in the order given). All meals were easy to prepare, and met Richard’s approval. Was the plan perfect? Not entirely, but it was a huge step in the right direction, and I’m quite satisfied so far. If giving ChatGPT a try in this way, don’t be afraid to ask for revisions until you have a meal plan that suits you perfectly. And double check the shopping list given against the recipes to ensure you have all ingredients, in the correct amounts that you will need. Also, the recipes given are quite basic. If you like more detail in your recipes, you could specify that on the chat.
Other dinners included Vegetable and Tofu Stir-Fry, Salmon and Roasted Vegetables, Vegetable Lentil Curry, and Whole Grain Spaghetti with Vegetables in Marinara Sauce. ChatGPT estimated that groceries for this plan (15 meals for two people) would cost $200 at Vancouver Island prices. With store discounts, shopping on Senior’s Day, and my pantry staples, my total cost was $158 CAD (averaging out to $5.26 per person, per meal….and actually a bit less as we usually had leftovers and often used those for lunch the next day).
Will I use CHATGPT for all my meal planning going forward? Probably not. But I will continue to play around with it as I have found this exercise to be very useful in keeping me on track with my healthy eating goals and saving both time and money.
Over to You
How has your January been going? Do you have any health/fitness/wellness stories or tips to share? My cohosts and I would love to hear from you.
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