Yet again this morning I nearly got mowed down in an intersection. Some guy just rolled right on through the stop sign despite me being in the intersection. Now ironically later on while it had become lighter out and I was walking on the promenade a lady stopped me to say how no one could possibly miss me with the clothing I was wearing. You see, I had on my bright yellow reflective running jacket and a bright orange reflective toque. And yet, that fellow couldn’t see me at a well lit intersection. Hmm, I hope that extra 3 seconds he gained was worth it.
I have to give the instructors at my fitness centre credit. Please remember that I go there 6 days each week for some sort of fitness class. I do strength and mobility, bootcamp, circuit and whatever else they have on offer. I admit a lot of the exercises are the same. For example, bicep curls happen in pretty much every class. Some sort of tricep kick back will happen and I know that every time we are doing some form of a sit up. But you know, these ladies are so good at mixing it all up and keeping it interesting.
For example, strength and mobility yesterday was all Halloween themed. It was also a lot of fun because you got to work with a partner. I really liked the ‘pumpkin toss’ where we had to throw a medicine ball at each other. Today it was 10/31 (you know, Oct 31st for Halloween). There were 10 exercises and in each one you had to do 31 reps. Yes, that meant I did 31 consecutive burpees as well as 31 consecutive pushups. I have to say I thought it was a lot of fun.
The one thing I can always say is these classes are interesting. I think that is really important because I know if they become routine and boring I likely would stop attending. Instead I enter the fitness centre each day anxious to look at the white board to see what is in store for me. I am really excited that next Tuesday the instructor has told us she is really changing things up so I can’t wait to take that class.
So to all of them, thanks for keeping it interesting.
So yesterday I was at the gym and decided that if I really am back to being committed to my health and fitness then it is time to toss away my fears and get to work. It started with doing snatches which is where you bend down with a heavy weight and pull it up along the front of the body and using power from you legs you ‘snatch’ it up in the air until your arm is straight. Despite just having come off more than six weeks of only using 10lb weights I thought screw it and grabbed a 20lb weight. Then it was time to do burpees (too difficult to explain so if you don’t know what they are please google them). Usually I do these using a bench so that I am not going right down to the ground but I reminded myself commitment time and so for the first time I did full on burpees! Actually I did 21 of them. The only thing that had been holding me back was fear of failure, guess that is no longer and issue.
Today was the caregivers’ support group that I help facilitate. It was quite a rough one today as one of the participants is going through a really tough time. It was so obvious that they are more than just anxious, they are under a huge amount of stress. Of course the group immediately tried to support this person in any way they could and we are looking at finding some resources so that they get some more help.
One of the topics that came up as part of the discussion was how stress doesn’t just impact you mind but also your body. I know I did post about this quite a while ago but I think it is worth mentioning again. I can remember before I became educated about stress thinking like many of my co-workers, that if someone went off on ‘stress’ leave they must be faking it or that they were weak. Now to those I kind of comments I say BS!!!! I worked extremely hard to rebrand the notion of ‘stress’ leave to what it actually is, sick leave due to stress related illness. Trust me it was an uphill battle to convince people that stress can be a physical illness and regardless about what you think about someone it is very real. I truly hope with some of the courses I facilitated that I was able to remove some of the stigma around this illness and I know I have continued to work on the perspective of people who still look at this type of sick leave with distain.
Here is the reality, stress manifests itself in many different ways. In one of the courses I used to facilitate we would post a large outline of a body on the wall. We would then give participants coloured stickers and ask them to place them on the body in places they feel impacted when they are under stress. It was quite eye opening for many of them to see that stress is felt all over the body whether that be in tense/sore muscles, headaches, nerve pain or even nausea. Very few people in those courses really talked about stress in terms of mental impact (though that is of course also true) but rather they realized it can absolutely be a physical illness.
6 years ago when I was going through a very difficult time in my life dealing with both my siblings in ICU’s in critical condition, a friend convinced me to go see a doctor to make sure I was ok. The doctor ran a bunch of blood work and even ordered an ECG. While I acknowledge that this was also how I was diagnosed as diabetic what truly frightened me was all sorts of other abnormal results. Fortunately this doctor had known me and my family for years so when we went through the results he calmly explained to me the ones that were likely being impacted my the massive amount of stress that I was under. Apparently he was right since 3 months later everything but my blood glucose was back to normal.
The bottom line is stress will take a serious toll on your body. I realize that my method of obsessive walking may not be for everyone but there are other things you can do to manage your own stress. Really, you can exercise, read a book, listen to music, talk to a friend, hell some people tell me they find cooking lowers their stress. But find something that we allow you mind and body to turn away from your stress even for a short period. The results are so worth it.
This past week at 2 gym classes it has been brutal on my abs. We have done some pretty intense ab workouts and I have really been feeling it. So today, the instructor decided to torture me (ok, I acknowledge she had no idea my abs were sore). At the end of the class she had us do a new form of Bring Sally Up, you laid on the mat and every time they said bring Sally up you had to raise your legs then for bring Sally down you did leg drops (bring you legs down but you don’t let your feet hit the floor). Of course while doing this you have to maintain you core which means keeping your back flat on the ground. By the end of that exercise my abs were absolutely on fire! Good thing I am not doing a class tomorrow.
I was listening to the weather forecast for the weekend and realized there was very little chance that I would be out walking 1st thing this morning (read 5am). I kept my fingers crossed but when I got up at 4am I could hear the rain pounding down. Damn, I thought, I’m going to have to hit the treadmill. Now we had prepared for this because our garage is in a bit of mess right now owing partly because of stuff loaned to our recent election campaign that has not been properly put away yet. As well, all the cushions off of patio furniture were on the treadmill (because I really do prefer it to be a storage space). I had also asked my husband to set up our ExPat TV box on the TV in the garage so that I could watch something good while walking on the treadmill.
Why do I hate the treadmill so much? Because it is boring! I so much prefer being outdoors, taking in the sights and listening to a good book. There is nothing better than walking along our promenade people, dog and various bird watching while I am getting my steps in. On the treadmill you are just plodding along in place with nothing in your view changing. Ok, it helps if I can find a good distraction on the TV but unfortunately my husband forgot to hook up the ExPat TV and our Ruko on that TV decided not to work. My only option was to listen to a book and sadly the one I currently have on the go is really not that interesting. On top of all of that the treadmill only likes doing one hour at a time so I couldn’t get my 2 hour walk in before the gym. Dammit, I hate that thing.
Things were looking up by time I got home from the fitness centre, it had stopped raining so I got in an hour walk outdoors which made me happy. But here’s the reality, it is that time of year when the weather is turning south which means I am just going to have to be prepared to reorganize my schedule to get 2 hours in on the treadmill if necessary. Not ideal but as much as I hate that thing it will help me keep going until the end of December when I go back to Mexico. It’s only for a couple months and I will whenever possible get my walks in outdoors.
So, I’ve got it in my head that I am back on the dreaded treadmill if need be. Hopefully that need won’t be too much.
Sorry I have missed the last two posts. Saturday it was because we were having a bit of a get together in our condo (the original pool party plan got scrapped due to the rain) so had to get ready. Tuesday was because when we got home I realized how behind I was in absolutely everything so spent the day dealing with everything from the election campaign, my brother’s estate and a ton of personal mail. However, I am now obviously back at it.
This morning when I went out for my walk I had to put on layers of clothing. The temperature was only 5 Celsius which is about 20 degrees less than what it was when I did my walk Monday morning in Mexico. But, I bundled up and out I went. Yes, it was chilly but I am determined to bring my commitment back to what is was before June. This week it is fitness classes with at least 2 1/2 hours of walking each day (with the exception of Sunday but I likely will do at least 2 hours of walking). I also have committed to going back to being conscious of what I am eating and recording and calculating everything.
While we were in Mexico I realized how far off track I had gotten. First, far too much alcohol and I admit it had been like that since I lost my brother. That is not how I want to be so now it on the occasional day I will have some alcohol. Second, what I was eating got back to some pretty bad old habits especially with eating things like junk and especially chips. Don’t get me wrong, when in Mexico I try to make us good, healthy meals and I take advantage of the fresh fruits and vegetables it was just that it was easy to snack on a bag of chips instead of the low calorie popcorn I have down there. I realized all of this while I was at the condo because my clothes started to get tight and once home I put on a pair of jeans and really didn’t like how the felt.
But why now, what has changed that has made me renew my commitment to being healthy and fit (ok, I’m still pretty fit). I acknowledge mentally I needed to do some recovery and while I still grieve every day for my brother, I feel I have gotten strong enough to stop letting that grief take over my life. I’m going back to trying to let my walks clear my head and lift me up (feeding the cats at the condo helped with that). I’ve got so much that is coming up and is going to keep me busy which I know with someone like me that really helps And mostly, I am going to go back to focusing on me.
So, I am committed once again (though my husband will tell you I need to be committed). I am at the point where I am craving feeling good about myself like I was back in the spring. I know I can get there because I have done it before.
Last night we joined some friends for dinner at one of our favourite restaurants. Wednesday they offer 2 for 1 drinks so often a group from our complex will get together for food and drinks. We left the condo at about 4:30pm to walk to the restaurant and condo kitty figured it must be dinner time but I felt it was too early. We got back at about 7:15pm and she was furious!! She chewed me out the entire time I was prepping her dinner and once she was finished eating she sat glaring at me. Fortunatelly this morning she seems to have forgiven me.
Monday night while I was trying to sleep I realized my right shoulder was a bit painful. I thought that odd because I hadn’t done anything to it and I had 3 days off from the fitness centre (while here I don’t do classes on weekends and Monday was a holiday so no classes). Tuesday I logged on for the strength and mobility class but dropped out after about 35 minutes because my shoulder was really starting to hurt. I tried again yesterday but there were technical issues so I couldn’t get on but I realized this was a good thing because my shoulder just got worse as the day progressed.
Yesterday I started applying my anti-inflammatory cream but it didn’t seem to be helping. I started to realize because of the nature of the pain it is likely a herniated disc as I have been through this before though not since I lost the weight and got fit. This was pretty much confirmed last night when I could barely sleep because laying down caused the pain to get even worse. This morning I still did a walk but canceled my fitness class.
I recognize that it is time for a bit of a break. Having been through this before I know I can make it even worse if I try to push things. As well, if it isn’t better by time I get home I’ll head to the doctor for some x-rays as well as likely a CT scan. I’ll probably end up back at the chiropractor and physio to try and get the disc to reabsorb.
The important thing is I recognize that taking a break to avoid making this worse is the best thing I can do. I know it is unlikely I did anything to cause this, it stems from my spinal stenosis. But, since I want to stay on my path I need to keep this in check until it is resolved. And so I will take the next week off to see how it goes and then reach out to my instructors for modifications for any and all shoulder work for the next little while. If that still aggravates things then it will be a longer break from the fitness centre than planned. All of that is ok because instead of making it up with extra walking (owing to the ongoing ankle issue) I will add an hour on the recumbent bike each day.
As Saturday we will be starting to prep to go home, I will not be posting on Saturday but will provide you with an update on Tuesday.
Yesterday I was sitting on my back patio reading old posts on FB which I know I shouldn’t do. Of course I start reading the ones from when my brother died and I start crying (grief is such a hard thing to deal with). My husband joined me on the deck and asked what was wrong so I explained it to him. A few minutes later he goes into the condo and comes out with 1) dominoes 2) chips 3) beers. Ok, the chips were not the best thing because I ate a bunch of them. However, the dominoes were a good thing because it wasn’t long until we were into a cutthroat game, calling each other names (in good fun) and having a great time. It was the best diversion he could have given to me.
I seem to have now have a new group of strangers on X (you know through the algorithms) and they are all on a health and fitness journey. There’s a young fellow from the UK who is overweight and started running this year to help raise awareness for mental health (something he struggles with). He recently ran his 1st marathon and is proud of how much weight he has lost to date. There is another fellow in the Southern States who is quite obese but alternates walking and swimming as his exercise choices. He berates himself if he has a slip in missing a day but has done great in terms of increasing his stamina and losing weight since he start his journey in July. There are several others that I have been watching as well.
But I don’t just read their posts, I comment. These comments are always supportive and I tell them they can do this. The fellow from the states is trying to get himself to the point where next year he can walk a 1/2 marathon so every time he posts an improvement I cheer him on. I also try to lift him up when something happens and he can’t get a workout in (he is also caretaker for a very ill mother). Despite the fact he gets thousands of comments he always likes my responses. I do the same for the young man in the UK and I kept telling him I couldn’t wait to see the posts about completing the marathon. I have now joined a group on X for people on a health and fitness journey so that I can broaden the number of people I am encouraging.
Why is this important? Because this journey is hard and people on it need all the support they can get. I know because every time I reached a milestone and posted it the comments from my friends helped keep me going. As well, being positive with others just simply makes me feel good. I have been down this path and I know what words helped lift me up when I was struggling. I also know the words that encouraged me to move even further when I posted my about my changing weight (and at that time my wardrobe). I figure it made such a difference to me that the best thing I can do is pay it forward.
Finally I do this so that I get something positive out of X. There is so much negativity on all social media right now that if I intend to keep using it I need to make sure it is for a good reason. I encourage all of you to find some strangers that you can support, it will be so fulfilling.
Yesterday I bought some special treats for the condo kitty who now feels absolutely comfortable coming into our place and roaming around. As a matter of fact she demands her food to be put out immediately upon her arrival. It’s quite amazing how far she has come in the past 5 weeks. And let me tell you, she absolutely loves the new treats. She literally eats the treats and then screams at me for more. However, I ration the treats to ensure she is eating some proper kitty food as well. Not to worry, when we leave others in our building have committed to looking after her.
This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving. Tomorrow night my husband and I will be enjoying a slightly not traditional dinner in that we will be cooking a chicken instead of turkey (while we can get a turkey here there is no real point for just the 2 of us) but will be doing mashed potatoes which we haven’t had since we got here. I’ve struggled a bit this year to come up with things to be thankful for. This is of course because my world was up ended with the death of my brother. It is actually why I didn’t post yesterday, I just couldn’t think of how I could be thankful when my loss just 4 short months ago nearly destroyed me.
But then yesterday afternoon happened. Friends picked us up and took us to a local beach club for happy hour. We were then joined by several other friends and met a new couple. I sat there looking at the table and realized I do have a lot to be thankful for. My husband and I don’t have a lot of friends but the ones we have are all amazing both here and at home. This includes the amazing neighbours at home who have over the past few years become very close to us. These people in both countries are the ones that stood with us as we tried to get through a very difficult time in our lives. All of them did it without question, they just felt it was the right thing.
So, I’m thankful for all of them. I am also thankful for my husband for being my rock over the past few months and who is also the one who doesn’t try and stop me from my crazy exercise schedule. I am thankful for my sister and everything she does for us. I am thankful for my beloved pets both at home and here and recognizing the healing qualities that they bring to our lives. I am thankful for the organizations that allow me to give back to my community. I am thankful for all of the activists in my life who continue to fight to make our world a better place.
I guess I actually do have a lot to be thankful for. I hope all of you find a few minutes today to reflect on the positive things in your life that makes you thankful.
Today is the start of advance voting for our Provincial election which will be held on October 19th. Since my husband and I left September 7th we were fortunate enough to have time to order and complete mail in ballots. That in itself was a bit challenging because they could not be received by Elections BC before September 21st when the election period started. So, we made arrangements for the ballots to be put in the mail on the 21st ensuring they wouldn’t arrive too early. I strongly encourage everyone in BC to make sure you vote regardless of which party you support.
I mentioned in my last post that I had skipped walking that day because of the weather though I did still do my fitness class. I know from past experience that it can become all too easy to fall into the trap of getting out of a routine and then struggling to get back to it. Yes I know taking a day or two off really isn’t a big deal but for me I need to keep focused on my fitness routine otherwise I know it will be too easy to backslide.
Yesterday I woke up via my Alexa alarm at my usual 4am. There is something a bit funky about this Alexa as she says she is telling me the weather in Playa del Carmen when in reality she is giving me the weather from White Rock (trust me I know the current temperature here was not 5 Celsius this morning). However, yesterday my husband happened to be awake when the alarm went off so he asked her for the weather here and it was like 26 degrees. Damn I said, I’m going to have to go for my walk. As much as I wanted to just turn over and go back to sleep I got up and was on the road by 5:20am.
I know I have to stay focused on my workout routine because while I am at the condo I tend to let my eating habits go a bit off track. I absolutely confess to overindulging in both food and alcohol and the way my shorts are fitting right now tells me some work will need to be done when I get home. I know the only way I can mitigate the damage is by continuing to put as much effort as possible into exercising. Quite frankly I am proud of the fact that I workout 2.5 hours pretty much every day while I am here.
And so I will keep being focused so that I can enjoy some fun but not have to purchase new clothing when I go home. I also can honestly say that knowing that if I don’t at least walk each day could mean the kitties in the complex might not get fed and that alone helps motivate me.
I woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of a raging thunderstorm. It sounded like the thunder clouds were directly over our building and some of the thunder actually seemed to shake our condo. It was so loud I wasn’t able to get back to sleep until the clouds had moved on. This should have been my clue to turn the alarm off and just stay in bed.
I got up at my normal time and the wind was just howling. Once I was dressed and ready to go I took a peek outside and the wind was gusting like crazy. Now you should picture that hurricane Milton is forming and will be hitting Florida tomorrow night. The fear is it will become a category 5 hurricane which will be catastrophic. Fortunately Milton will not directly hit us but like hurricane Helene it will have a major impact on our weather not just bringing the wind but likely some intense rain. And so I decided walking in wind gusting 60 kph would not be in my best interest (my husband would later ask why I didn’t go back to bed but really by time I made this decision I was fully awake).
To be honest it is not walking in the wind that was concerning. I have walked in some pretty good windstorms at home and honestly since the weather here is still quite warm it would be far more pleasant than doing a walk in a windstorm in October along my beloved beach. But I decided to be realistic and step back for maybe a couple days. We are surrounded by jungle here and some of that jungle is still suffering from months of lack of rain. That means when a windstorm comes through a lot of debris gets strewn all over the road and sometimes it can even cause some of the trees in our complex to topple. The other danger is that I go out a good hour before the sun is up so there is a risk of a power outage which of course would take out all of the street lights. I don’t thinking walking in a windstorm in when it is pitch black out would be in the best of my interests.
Because I didn’t do my walk did not mean I didn’t do my normal online workout. I will admit I did think about just taking the day for about 2 seconds but I decided I couldn’t justify no working out. At the end of the workout I was really glad I had done it because it was quite brutal for a strength workout and it made me feel good.
The bottom line is sometimes I just have to be realistic when it comes to my obsession with walking. There is no reason I should put myself into a dangerous situation just to be able to give myself a pat on the back if I get through it. Instead I am going to pat myself on the back for doing 75 pushups today, that should be more than enough to help keep me in shape for a potential couple days without walking.
Well I’m excited. We have a contractor starting work on our condo!!! Nearly 3 years ago all of our closets were destroyed by termites because the person responsible for maintaining the condo fell down on the job when it came to fumigation. While he had replaced the built in closets in the bedrooms, we have been patiently waiting for the walk-in closet to be rebuilt. I finally gave up and decided we would pay for it to be done ourselves but when I asked for a quote what he came back with was outrageous. We had a contractor recommended to us so he priced out rebuilding the closet, installing a fan on our deck, shoring up our dining table, installing towel racks and putting in a custom screen door at the entrance of the condo. His quote for all of this came in $3,000 less than the previous quote for just the closet! The work is starting today and I can’t wait for it to be all finished.
I have been pretty diligent about wearing my ankle brace even while here in Mexico. To be clear, this is not one of those slip on sleeve type braces, this is a semi-rigid type and it was quiet expensive. It has a hard shell that covers my Achilles tendon all the way up to the start of my calf muscle. It is then secured by an overlapping strap at the top and then 2 wrap around straps that go over my foot and ankle (ok, I get this might be difficult to picture without seeing it). The point of this brace is to provide absolute stability to my ankle to hopefully allow for healing and to ensure I don’t twist it in any way.
I promised my physiotherapist that I would wear this brace as much as possible. To me that means whenever I do my morning walks as well as my online workouts. It also means that if we are going out anywhere that has uneven roads/sidewalks that the brace is on. This even includes if I go to a beach club because of walking in the sand.
If you have never worn an ankle brace you probably have no idea as to how crappy it is. First of all, I never realized how flexible you ankle is in terms of, in particular, working out. There are now several moves that are very difficult because of that joint being held in place. Secondly, it tends to rub against my skin which initially caused blisters. I resolved this by now wearing a sock that comes up to mid shin whenever I have the brace on (by the way, I don’t wear crew socks normally). And finally especially here in Mexico, wearing that brace and 2 socks (the aforementioned crew sock as well as my normal compression walking sock) it is extremely hot! When I finally take the brace off after all my workouts in the morning trust me those socks are soaked with sweat.
But you know what? I will keep wearing this brace because maybe it will help me avoid having surgery. I really want to make sure that my ankle is healing and that it is not at risk of my damage. Yes it sucks and is not very attractive but if this is what it takes to be able to keep going I will continue to wear it as long as I need to.
gwennefarrell 