This was not the blog I had intended to write today but I decided I need to celebrate when things are good. Today I had my annual diabetes check up with my doctor. I am diligent about doing this every year and ensuring that I get all the appropriate tests done. This includes things like eyes, mammogram, blood work and this year just for the fun of it the tests included a PAP and a FIT. The problem I have is I obsess over the test results and seriously I analyze every single detail especially if anything is out of line. Fortunately my doctor is well aware of how neurotic I can be about this stuff and knows how to manage my craziness.
There was actually only one test result that was out of whack which is not a bad thing. The doctor told me that my glucose levels are absolutely normal. We talked about my cholesterol level which is in normal range and she said with most diabetics she likes it to be lower but since I am so healthy she is fine with keeping it where it is. I told her I had just submitted my FIT on Friday but she checked and even that came back negative (FIT is a stool screening test that I do to avoid a colonoscopy) so all is good.
The one test that was not quite right was my potassium which came back as slightly higher than normal. Of course I had to research all about this because I just couldn’t understand how you can have high potassium when you follow a low potassium diet. And, usually you see high potassium with kidney disease and my kidney GFR test came back normal. Turns out there are several things that could impact this including the fact that they had to take blood from both arms due to my super skinny veins. The doctor agreed it was highly unlikely that I have high potassium though she felt because of my intense workouts it could be reading high due to dehydration (note to self, more water needs to be incorporated into my diet). She recommended redoing the test but this time through the lab at the hospital which she feels is more reliable.
It was then on to checking my height and weight. I explained to her that I had given up on the goal of returning to 120lbs. I justified it in that when I was previously that weight I was not as muscular as I am now and that my whole body composition has changed. She asked what I thought was a realistic goal for me and I said I would be happy to just keep myself below 130lbs which has me in the middle range for a normal BMI. I then looked down at the scale and saw I actually weigh 122lbs so once again I have underestimated the impact of all my hard work. Pretty sure I can lose those last 2lbs before I head to Mexico in 5 weeks.
Who knew when I started this journey nearly 4 years ago that this would be the result. I have gone from being diabetic, having high blood pressure and taking more medication for cholesterol to being the healthiest ever in my life time. I figure not too bad for an old broad.
My apologies to anyone who has been searching for Thursday’s post. Unfortunately with tax season and financial year end for my clients I have been crazy busy. You add on top of that my other volunteer work and I am completely overwhelmed. I kind of wonder if that is the reason my lower back is bothering me so much, being stressed about trying to get everything done. Fortunately the pain that I am experiencing feels muscular and not nerve related so fairly confident it has nothing to do with my ongoing spinal stenosis. I’ve opted the past few days to drop the walking up Oxford Hill but I am hoping to get back to it on Monday.
Today is day 28 of the alcohol cleanse. That means my husband, sister and I have successfully gone 4 weeks without any alcohol (my husband almost slipped yesterday when he was offered a sample of peanut butter whiskey but fortunately he remembered we still had a couple days to go). I’m pretty proud of all of us for taking on this challenge and sticking with it right to the end.
I admit doing this gets easier each year as they come up with more and more ‘mocktails’. For me being able to enjoy non-alcoholic stout or an alcohol free gin with diet gingerale (which I admit I am having as I type this) has made this quite a simple challenge. Even the mock margaritas that we have tried have grown on us. Moreover, so many of these products are low in both calories and sugar. I will note that they still have some work to do on the wines though as some are very high in sugar and many just taste like grape juice.
This time round I really took advantage of not drinking but seriously upping my training. This week, despite the back, I still managed 4 days at doing 40+k steps. Moreover, the past couple days I have done 10km runs and I look forward to doing another one tomorrow. I’ve noticed the decrease in my resting heart rate as well as my blood pressure. And much to my surprise over the past couple of weeks I have had several days where my Fitbit has ranked my sleep score in the good range.
I’ve decided that I am going to really be cognizant of my alcohol intake going forward. That doesn’t mean I won’t have any but I will be limiting the number of days each week that I will partake. And there are certain times where I know I’ll have a little extra such as the upcoming 5 days at the trailer for Easter but I think that is ok because it is only for a few days. I’ve also decided that for the rest of the year I will do more 4 week periods of cleansing so that I can do more intense training. Yes, it all seems to be about being more healthy than I have ever been.
On a final note, if you haven’t seen my FB post, next Sunday I will be doing the Climb the Wall Challenge. This is where I will be climbing 48 flights of stairs at the Vancouver Sheraton Wall Centre raising funds and awareness for the BC Lung Foundation. Please reach out if you are interested in helping support me in this new challenge.
Somehow today despite being super short on time I have still managed to clock 44k steps today. Seriously, surprised I was able to to that. I got up at the usual time to do bootcamp (which was excellent today) and driving home I realized the run down to the beach was out due to the pouring rain. So, hour run on the treadmill and then got myself changed and ready to go on a tour of Fort Langley which was an excursion my sister had arranged for us. I had some time so before meeting the bus I got in another hour walk. Turns out when we got to Fort Langley the first place we went was to a walking trail and despite the fact the group we were with was quite elderly I hooked up with someone who was also an avid walker so her and I got to do a 4.5 km walk at a pretty good clip. After lunch we got to walk around the town and then when I got home I went out for another 2 1/4 hour walk (including Oxford Hill). Ok, reading all of that maybe it isn’t surprising I got in as many steps as I did today.
Yesterday I was out for my usual morning run followed by my 5 km walk (note as of today I have run every day for the last 13 days and 8 of the 10 previous days). Of course the walk starts out climbing up Oxford Hill then I can carry on with the rest. I got to the 2/3 mark up the hill and all of a sudden I realized I wasn’t even breathing heavy. I thought hey, when did that start happening? Now don’t get me wrong, the muscles in my legs still groan their displeasure at this near daily torture but all of a sudden I realized that my overall fitness level has gone up a notch. This might explain that whole Fitbit telling me my cardio fitness is excellent thing.
But there is something else I realized, I’m not sweating profusely when I workout. To put that in perspective, I have always been a person who sweats a lot. At my worst fitness level I could start sweating just at the thought of moving. Even as I slowly got into better shape that didn’t stop me from being dripping wet at the end of a workout. Now, however, I am in the best shape of my life and somehow that has meant that even during fairly heavy exertion I’m not soaked in sweat. I realized this at bootcamp yesterday when I was working really hard and just had to lightly dab my brow. When the hell did I get to this point? Oh, I will note, I do expect to go back to sweating like crazy when I am in Mexico in May but that will have far more to do with the rampant humidity that I will be having to deal with.
The sudden realization of these improvements had me going wait, what? I guess I just didn’t see these changes to my fitness happening but apparently it has. The good news is the weather is about to really improve so despite my brutal schedule this week I am on track to hit at least 5 days at 40k steps and maybe even push that to 6 days. I can’t believe how much I am currently enjoying pushing myself this hard most days and still finding ways to go even further. Sigh, somehow I turned a corner without realizing it and became a fitness junkie.
Yesterday I decided it really wasn’t raining that badly so I would be good to do my run/walk outdoors. Bad decision! Off I went and after about the first km I realized that it was colder than I had anticipated (there was some wind happening) and while it wasn’t raining hard it was definitely damp out. Still I soldiered on to complete 6.75km before doing my 5km walk which included Oxford Hill. I got home and was rushing to get changed to go to coffee with my retirees group and I ran into all sorts of issue. The main one was that my hands were so cold I could barely move them and it took forever to get them to work enough so that I could button and zip up my jeans. New rule, no more running outside if it is so cold your hands go numb.
Today marks day 21 of the alcohol cleanse meaning I am 3/4 of the way there. Yes, not a drop of alcohol for the last 3 weeks. I must say it has been relatively easy aided by the fact that both my husband and sister are doing this with me. What we have found is a number of awesome non-alcoholic products that have been pretty decent. I admit that the wine we have tried (we have found some that has a reasonable level of sugar) taste closer to grape juice than wine but still gave us the opportunity to enjoy ‘wine’ while hot tubbing. I still really enjoy my Partake stout which with no sugar and only 30 calories is an excellent substitute for proper stout. I think having these options makes taking this break from alcohol a lot easier.
There are definitely benefits in doing this cleanse. I have to acknowledge that I feel like I have a lot more energy. My muscles in the morning don’t feel anywhere near as bogged down and it takes far less time to get them warmed up and moving. I have also noticed a drop in my blood pressure and resting heart rate both of which are good signs. And, according to my Fitbit, my cardio fitness has now moved from the high end of good into the excellent category (though I hate they add the note that it is for a woman of my age like I need to be reminded that I am getting old). The one thing that hasn’t improved much is my sleep which they say gets better when you stop consuming alcohol. Don’t get me wrong, I have had 3 days in the last 21 where my sleep score has been ‘good’. Unfortunately I have had more days where it has been ‘poor’. Seriously, the one thing I truly need as an impact of this cleanse is some good sleep and yet I just can’t do it.
The thing that has impressed me the most is the improvement in my physical endurance. I decided since I wasn’t wasting calories each day on wine that it might be a good time to really up my training (my husband asked me the other day exactly what I was training for and I had no answer for him). I had started to push myself with running more and doing the Oxford climb on a regular basis. This past week I was working hard like I was on steroids and yet at the end of the day did not feel tired. Yesterday, however, was the big push and I truly impressed myself. The stats that came in showed I walked over 47k steps, logged 32.61 km (a little over 20 miles) and burned almost 3,500 calories. Even I admit that this is a lot and it is the hardest I have ever physically worked in a single day. Still, went to bed feeling pretty good and got up this morning without any muscle soreness. I will acknowledge that I toned things down today but have still put in 4 hours of workouts including a 10km run. Note, I planned to do an 8km this morning but while running realized that if I could put in 47k steps in a day then I definitely had the endurance to run 10km and I was right.
I have a challenging week coming up do to many meetings, volunteer work and work for my paying clients. Still my goal is going to be 5 hours of exercise each day many comprised of walking. I plan to push this last week of my alcohol cleanse as far as I can and reap the benefits of having an alcohol free body.
Well yesterday I got to check something off my bucket list that had never been on my bucket list, running in the snow. It was a challenging day yesterday because I had several appointments. Before my 8:15am dentist appointment I did a quick 3 km run followed by a 3 km walk including up Oxford Hill. Then after the appointment I decided a full run was in order so did 6.5 km which is when I ran into snow. Somehow undeterred I kept going. I then had an eye doctor appointment at 1:50pm so did an 1 1/2 hour walk beforehand then after my 2:30pm nail appointment it was a 30 minute walk home. Since it was Wednesday there was also my volunteer dog walking. Just in case you aren’t keeping tabs that worked out to 40k steps and just over 28 km.
For 3 decades I have had some significant fears. All of them started with me falling through a ceiling destroying my right knee. It took 4 surgeries just to get me to the point of reasonably functional and 17 years ago they made it clear I needed a knee replacement due to the massive amount of arthritis I had developed. I know I have mentioned that it has taken a lot of work to finally get to the point that I feel my balance is where it should be but for years I was always concerned someone would knock me over. And when I had my accident the protocol was no high impact on this kind of damaged joint. Add to that I developed a fear of any sort of platform in that I was afraid I would fall through it.
The balance issue was a real concern when I became VP of my Union. You see I had become terrified of being in large crowds. The main reason was that I was afraid someone would bump into me and I would end up on the ground. I was really lucky one of the other Union VP’s knew how much rallies distressed me and so he would always stand by my side making sure I felt safe. It took several years of having him with me all the time before I finally got to the point where I felt comfortable being on my own in large crowds.
The fitness path I am currently on has brought back some of my fears. Yesterday we were supposed to do pull ups and I decided I just couldn’t do them. I had managed to do a full set of these a few weeks ago but they had been mentally difficult for me (physically it was just another exercise). Part of the problem is that 1 of the stations allowed for you to stand squarely on 2 bands however, the others had bands hanging down so getting your feet in and out of them was challenging and I constantly felt I was going to fall. And so when the trainer advised we were doing these pull ups again yesterday I opted instead to do TRX pull ups after explaining why the regular pull ups were a no go for me. However, I got to the 3rd round in this particular set and thought no, you have got to do this. I admit I waited for the station I was more comfortable with but I got it done.
Why would I do that to myself when there was a perfectly acceptable alternative? Because it is time I worked on conquering my fears. Lets be honest, the fact that I have completely gotten over any concerns about high impact ‘ruining’ my knee shows that this just comes down to mentally focusing on what I want to accomplish. In fact I have that little voice in my head now chanting that the next time they put out a step that I am supposed to jump on top of I am going to skip just doing step ups and instead do those jump ups. I am pretty sure once I accomplish that I will have the confidence to do anything.
In the end it is up to me whether I am going to move past these fears or not. I have decided that I truly want to conquer these fears so that nothing is holding me back.
Ok, I am so done with this cold weather. Yesterday my husband got up early in the morning and came back to bed saying it snowed last night. Wait, what???? Dammit, I had planned to do an 8km yesterday. Ended up doing a good run on the treadmill but it wasn’t the same. And, because there was snow on the ground it meant my seniors group couldn’t do the morning walk. This morning it was sunny but once again cold. Fortunately that did not deter me from doing a run and a walk up Oxford Hill but seriously, I need the weather to improve.
I have come to realize I am my own worst enemy. Despite all the work I have done on improving both my physical and mental health I can still easily get bogged down in thinking I can’t do things. I know I said I was going to start challenging myself and I have. I always try for heavier weights now and yes, sometimes I might only get through 1 successful set before having to drop down to something a bit lighter, at least I am trying. But every time a trainer introduces something new that looks challenging I immediately think I can’t do it. I’ve resolved that I need to stop this and just go for it regardless of a successful outcome.
Today was a case in point. The trainer wanted us to do squats with barbells and I thought ok, no way can I do this. Then I realized no one in that room was going to fault me if I tried and had to revert to doing dumbbell squats. And so I gave the barbells a try and yes, I got through the first set so I prove that I could do it. To be honest I didn’t enjoy it so opted in the next 2 sets to use dumbbells but to make up for it I went to even heavier weights than what had been on those barbells.
But really, there is a lot I am doing that I never thought I could. Again today, we were given a burnout exercise to do after one of our rounds. It was doing tricep dips (look it up if you don’t know what those are) which I have become pretty proficient at doing. The trainer gave various modifications and said if you really want to challenge yourself do them with your legs straight out in front of you. I decided to take up that challenge and guess what, I got through that burnout and was pretty proud of myself.
In reflection of how much I under estimate my capabilities I am going to remind myself of what I did yesterday. At the end of our workout the trainer said we would do a plank and I thought no biggie, my best is toughing it out for 90 seconds. But no, she wanted us to hold a plank for a full 2 minutes. She’s a great trainer so told us if we needed to, drop down to your elbows or do the plank on you knees instead of you toes. I got down on that mat and decided this was just going to be mind over matter so I focused on other things and didn’t I manage to hold that plank for the full 2 minutes (I will confess the last 15 seconds pretty much my whole body was shaking with exertion) and not once did I drop to my elbows or knees.
Time to kick that voice telling me I am not strong enough or fit enough out of my head and just get on with it. I am fit, I am strong and most of all I am determined.
Ok, the weather really needs to start cooperating with me. Seriously I am getting tired of doing runs/walks in the freezing cold. Yesterday for my 2nd walk there was massive wind and walking westbound I was heading right into it. Then it shifted directions so that walking eastbound it was the same thing. Then this morning it was not just freezing cold but also pouring rain. Even though I had planned to do an 8 km run this morning I opted for the treadmill. Strangely enough I actually managed to do 9 km!
I’ve realized it is time for me to start checking my expectations to determine if they are realistic. Yesterday I was doing my 5th walk up Oxford Hill for the week (note my goal was to do it 5 times and today I did it for the 6th time this week) and I thought after doing this for 2 consecutive weeks that it should be getting easier but sadly it wasn’t. I thought maybe I am expecting too much out of working so hard. Then on a later walk I was heading home and was walking up Stayte Hill which is no where near as long or steep but is still a pretty good climb when I realized how easy it was. In fact, my pace had not changed from walking on the flat areas. Hmm, maybe the expectation shouldn’t be immediate results doing Oxford but rather the overall improvement which is already there.
The next big one is my weight. I had expected that after the past 2 weeks of super hard work that the pounds I had gained over the 7 weeks I was away would be gone, they are not. As a matter of fact my weight is higher than I anticipated though I know if I keep working as hard as I am right now I am bound to lose some pounds. However, I gave myself a reality check in that I don’t think I am going to get back to 120lbs. Don’t get me wrong, it will not be because of lack of trying but rather my body has so significantly changed. Now I am really buff meaning all of that fat has turned to muscle and I know that the same mass of muscle weighs more than the same mass of fat. I’ve adjusted my goal to be 125lbs which I am already close to but I know that I will still be at the clothing size I was before. I should note when I told my sister my current weight she refused to believe me saying I look far thinner than that.
It’s ok to adjust your expectations especially when you realize that the goals you set are not going to be achievable. Don’t set yourself up to fail, instead be realistic in how you can achieve success.
A few blogs ago I talked about not allowing the weather to stop me from meeting my goals. Hmm, I am now reconsidering that decision. Yesterday I went out for my 2nd walk and since the first one had been on the treadmill I was determined to do it outside. It was raining a little but I figured it should be fine. It was not fine!!!!! About 10 minutes in the skies opened up and the wind went crazy. The end result was an hour later I got home freezing cold and soaking wet. Sigh, strangely I would do it again.
Today is my day for starting a month of taking care of my health. Yes, some of it is uncomfortable but it has to be done. We are starting today with my PAP test which I have done every 3 years without exception. I admit, it is not the most pleasant of experiences but I know testing is extremely important in detecting cervical cancer. And then for reasons that even I don’t understand, I also booked my mammogram for today. I have a screening mammogram done every year (this year it is quite late because of 1) a backlog and 2) my last appointment being canceled due to lack of staff) because of my Mom having breast cancer. Again, not a fun thing to have done but it is so important in the early detection of breast cancer.
Oh, but there is more. Next week I have an appointment with the dentist followed by an eye exam. The eye exam is particularly important because it can detect such things as glaucoma and retinopathy in diabetics. Despite my ongoing control over my glucose levels I still have to have my eyes tested every year. We then move on to my annual blood/urine screening and just to make things even more fun it is time for a stool sample test (note, I will gladly (almost) do this test as opposed to a colonoscopy). Finally once all the tests are done I have my annual physical which is also necessary when you are diabetic even if you are like me and are considered in remission.
To me it is more important to get out in front of any potential health issue than procrastinating because the testing causes discomfort. Yes the next few weeks will suck because of all of this but hopefully in the end I get a clean bill of health due to all the hard work I have put in getting myself healthy and fit.
After bootcamp this morning I got home and had a serious thought about what I was going to do for my next workout because it was freezing cold! While I was tempted to scale things back a bit I resolutely put on a couple layers and headed out for a run. At about the 5km mark I finally felt I was warmed up though I was sure my face was so frozen it was going to drop off. I kept going and then did my 5km walk (including Oxford Hill). I felt pretty good about pushing through the cold weather and later in the day managed to walk to a community centre where I do volunteer work and then walk back home despite the fact that it was snowing. Ok, determination is absolutely in place.
I noticed a few changes that seem to be happening with me. I’m going to start with how I am dressing. During the holiday season I got a bit lax and was back to dressing mainly in sweatpants all day. Of course then I went to Mexico where it was ultra casual most days. Now I am back and decided I need to return to dressing properly each day. By that I mean no comfy sweatpants everyday but instead pull something decent out of the closet and put it on. I admit that it is usually jeans but hey, the past couple days it was actually skinny jeans which while a bit snug fit better than expected. I consider this an important thing to do each day to keep myself normalized.
Next is the fact that since I wrote that blog last week about challenging myself I have really done so. For example, today we had to do push presses with bar bells. I picked the heaviest set but noticed after 2 of 3 rounds that there was a set I could use on the next set that was slightly lighter. Yet, I got to that last set and just picked up the heavy set and pushed through it. The past couple days I have done not only my class but also a run and some serious walking (though weather dependent tomorrow I may take a recovery day and scale back a bit and not do 3 hours of walking). I want to keep challenging myself in some way every day while I sprint my way to peak fitness.
And then it is how I look. I have mentioned several times about how toned I am. I realized yesterday that I am now getting beyond toned and can refer especially regarding my arms to my muscles being sculpted. Sometimes I see myself in the mirror and can’t believe how muscular I have become. Those muscles don’t just appear when I am using weights, they are now pretty evident with every movement that I make. I am pretty sure that there is very little fat left on this body other than my tummy (though I acknowledge that one is tough to determine because of having some excess skin there). I wonder how everything will look if I keep doing what I am doing now.
Finally is the running. I said to my husband yesterday that after 3 years I am starting to enjoy running. I know, for 3 years I have said I don’t like doing it but I have to as part of my fitness. Lately because I have focused on getting a fair amount of runs in I have started using that time to not only clear my head but also to map out my day. I take the opportunity to bring my expectations of myself into check and lighten any burdens I might be carrying. The end result has been that I feel really good at the end of the run and quite frankly energized as well which gives me the strength to get on with the day.
Those are a lot of changes that have happened in the past 2 months, I really didn’t expect so many of them. Here’s hoping that this huge sense of motivation that I have right now stays with me as I literally run down the path of this journey.
Yesterday I had once again overbooked myself. Normally on Fridays I do my bootcamp then hit the road for 2 hours of walking. I usually take the earbuds for my phone so that on my way home I can start calling my seniors. However, yesterday I had a Zoom meeting from 9am-3pm so I was absolutely crunched for time. I asked my sister if she could cover my seniors (she has done this for me before) and she agreed to help out. I came home from bootcamp, did a quick rehydrate and rest then hit the road. I managed to be home by 8:45am giving me just enough time to change and log on to the meeting. This is only going to get worse as tax season is starting and I am already dealing with 2 clients.
I set myself some pretty significant goals this week because as you may remember I have decided to challenge myself. The goals were 5 days doing at least a 6km run, 5 days of at least a 5km walk which would include Oxford Hill and 6 days of fitness class. Yes, this may look pretty optimistic but somehow I managed to pull it off. This even included a couple runs in the rain and cold but what the hell, I am feeling so good it just makes me determined. What motivates me even more is the fact that I did it so I know I can keep doing it.
Now it is time to set goals for next week. You know I suddenly realized I haven’t done this since I was doing the 6 week challenge last summer but now it just feels right to get back to goal setting. So here is what I plan to do, 6 days of fitness class (this tends to be the easy one since that is what I normally do), 5 days doing at least a 5km walk including Oxford Hill and finally 5 days of running a minimum of 6km with at least 1 8km run. I’m hoping the weather cooperates with all of this but I am going to do my best. I think I might add one more thing to this list, in each fitness class I will use the heaviest weight I can tolerate for at least one exercise per class. I admit, that is the one that scares me the most.
Oh, one last goal that I have achieved. Sunday my husband, sister and I started 4 weeks of being alcohol free. The end of today we will be 1/4 of the way through and I have to say it has been pretty easy even though I miss my wine. A trick we are using is finding some awesome non-alcoholic drinks such as gin, margaritas and beer. I did try a non-alcoholic wine last night (my brother kindly bought if for me thinking I would prefer that to beer) but when I later checked into it the sugar content was way higher than I like so nixing that going forward. After this 1st week I am confident this is another goal that I will achieve and in the meantime it is really helping me push forward on my fitness.
gwennefarrell 