Today we are heading downtown for our weekly restaurant treat. We are trying a restaurant that we found on our last trip but didn’t have a chance to try. First however will be a quick trip to 5th avenue looking to replace my missing Day of the Dead dress. For the life of me I just can’t figure out how I lost that dress.
But today I am feeling pretty good. Because of the timing I don’t do bootcamp on Saturdays while I am here (the class is at 10:30am which is far too late into my day). Instead I opted for a long walk which I haven’t done in 2 weeks now. Starting out my ankle was a bit sore but then it seems to be that way at the beginning of each walk. It wasn’t until about 3/4 of the way into the walk that it started twinging a bit but even that was fairly minor. The swelling has gone down and in general it feels pretty good even after a 10 km walk. Tomorrow I am only doing 5 km and if the ankle is willing I will start to slowly increase my higher impact exercises. Makes me happy that I have been giving it the chance to heal but I know if I keep my patience in check I’ll be back to full force in the near future.
While knowing I am healing is great (the dermatitis and heat rash are also clearing up nicely) that isn’t what has put me in my happy place. Rather, it is coming home with both pockets pretty empty of treats. I’ve posted before that while I am down here I carry both cat and dog treats in my pockets to hand out throughout the complex. The cat treats are the most important as there are a number of feral cats around here and I want to make sure that they have food (note the cat treats are actually Whiskas cat food). All of the dogs that I provide treats to are out on a walk with their owners (and I always ask when I meet a new dog if I can give them a treat) so I know they have a home.
What really has thrilled me the past couple days are the dogs and cats that recognize me from our last trip. The first was a yellow lab who saw me a good block away and started dragging her owner towards me. She did that lab wiggle where their entire bodies are shaking and had a huge grin on her face. Of course she got extra treats because I adore her. Today it was a miniature schnauzer who is not the best behaved dog but he saw me and came screeching over (his owner is not good at keeping him on a leash). Even though he had 2 treats he tried to steal the one I was giving to his Yorkie friend.
My favourite though is a white and orange cat. I walk by her house twice when I do a 5 km walk and of course since it was a 10 km today it was four times. I haven’t seen her all week and was afraid something had happened to her but today she came running at me and immediately dropped to the ground for a tummy rub. She patiently waited for me to come back each time then greeted me with meows and leg rubs. I also suspect she has told all the other cats in the area that I was back with my treats because I went through more cat food on my walk today than I ever have.
And so that is my happy place, out for a long walk petting and feeding cats and dogs. While it doesn’t make up for missing my pets at home, it still put a smile on my face when I got back to the condo and showed my husband my pockets were pretty much empty. When you find your happy place, it is no longer working out, it’s just enjoying life.
So if you are on a health and fitness journey, find your happy place. It will just make your journey so much easier and enjoyable.
I am so happy! The remote for our a/c unit in the living area of the condo died meaning no a/c. This is particularly problematic when I am doing my online workouts. The past 2 days by time I finished those workouts there was not a single spot on my body that wasn’t covered in sweat. Yesterday our neighbours took us to Home Depot where we were able to buy universal a/c remotes (we got a 2nd one because there has always only been 1 remote for the 2 bedrooms which causes issue when we have guests). Took some time to get them programmed but they are now working! Because of the cost of electricity here we agreed that the main a/c unit will only be turned on when I do my workouts but it will make my life so much better.
We have done well setting up my online classes for when we are down here. However, there are often challenges. Because I don’t like the idea of doing workout classes on my iPad we have a webcam and Mac Mini attached to our 55 inch TV. Using a big screen TV to me makes it feel like I am more a part of the classes. While we have fibre optic wifi it still can go a bit funky so sometimes I am disconnected then reconnected to the class. Fortunately if I miss anything the instructors always have their iPads pointed at the class during sets so I can usually figure what I need to do.
Today things went frustratingly south. We have had to reposition my workout space because of some issues that have developed with our tiled flooring. That also meant having to adjust the webcam but my husband is usually well equipped with gadgets so he put together a tripod to hold the webcam. However, the Mac Mini was cranky today and wouldn’t log me on to Zoom. Eventually when it hadn’t connected by 10 minutes into the class I decided to give up for today and we will try again tomorrow.
But that doesn’t stop me from getting in at least 2 hours of working out. I had already done a 1 hour morning walk (and ran into my favourite neighbourhood dog who got treats from me) so already 1/2 way to the daily goal. We are heading to a beach club later this morning and I thought well it’s about a 20 minute walk each way so if I do that I just have to find 20 more minutes and I am good. So, out came the mat and weights and I put in 25 minutes of strength training. Only 35 minutes to go and mission accomplished for the day.
I am refusing to let anything stop me from working out every day the month of May as I have started the Workout to Conquer Cancer challenge (at least 30 minutes working out every day in May). I will always have a backup plan in case technology isn’t working in my favour. I am well aware that even with good wifi in Mexico it can be unstable so alternates need to be in my back pocket.
My ankle isn’t holding me back so neither will technology. I will meet my goals even if I can’t do bootcamp classes or run. There is always something else I can do to maintain my fitness and quite frankly raise money for an awesome cause.
I decided to join the online strength class this morning. No, the ankle is still not where I need it to be but I figured the strength class would be a good test for what I can tolerate. While there was the occasional twinging going on it wasn’t too bad and I admit I felt so much better for working out. Next I’m going to try a gentle walk for up to an hour. I am keeping things on the light side until the swelling has completely gone but if I can do some walking this week without irritating my ankle I will be happy.
I confess that I am a bit obsessed with X (formerly known as Twitter). I tend to focus on politics both in Canada and in the USA and can often be heard shouting at my iPad screen. As things like wars have been added to the mix I started following what I call happy posts, usually involving Corgis but also other animals. These help me look at posts that aren’t quite so disturbing as some that I see.
The other day I was scrolling through X and a post popped up with a picture of a large woman who appeared to be a nurse taking care of a patient. The poster said the following ‘any person who looks like this has no business giving health advice or medical care of any kind’. WTF!!! Who the hell does this person think they are. Publicly body shaming anyone is NEVER acceptable! The poster has no idea about this persons life or what lead to her size. As someone who was obese I didn’t need others to shame me, I could do enough of that on my own. So let’s push it to a whole new level and get the world to comment on someone’s size. Please tell me how we got to a society that people think this is ok.
It made me question where did kindness go? Why couldn’t the poster look at that picture and see what I saw, a dedicated health care worker taking care of her patient. Why couldn’t they be thankful that a caring person was looking after someone’s parent, grandparent, sibling, child or friend? To me that is what the picture was about not the size of the care giver. I’m glad I have not developed so much cynicism in my heart that I can’t still look for the good in people.
The post made me think of my brother’s wound care nurse who is a sweet Jamaican lady. She also happens to be quite large but neither my brother nor I care about that. You see my brother just spent nearly a year with her being treated for a diabetic ulcer. I was very concerned about coming to the condo for 7 weeks and another one happening or the one being treated still needing work. This lovely lady heard my concern and sent a huge amount of medical supplies for us to bring with us just in case. She also made sure my brother fully understood what he is to look for on his foot and how to immediately treat it. That is kindness and caring and has absolutely nothing to do with her size.
For the poster here’s something for you to think about, there is a shortage of health care workers across the globe including North America. Do you really believe your post helps recruit and retain these workers?
And so I say we all focus on finding the kindness in this mixed up world, look for the good and don’t criticize people based on their looks. Funny, I find that when I do this the world looks a little better even if it is only for a short time.
Well we successfully made it to our condo in Playa del Carmen. Yesterday was the usual big shopping day where we stocked up on essentials (note beer and tequila are essentials) and got more than enough food to last for a couple weeks. I am hoping for a trip to Costco next week to get some real milk and then we will be all set. I’m already planning the meals for the week and while I try to keep them as healthy as possible I know there will be some a little off my usual diet but that is ok.
I am still dealing with the ankle issue though it would probably heal faster if I stayed off it more (walking through large airports and then a couple hours shopping yesterday didn’t help). I have convinced myself that today and tomorrow I really need to just give in and enjoy some down time. As a matter of fact after doing some meal prep I plan on spending the rest of the day just laying by the pool. Any of you who know me realize that this is actually going to be a major task for me. I’m not good at doing nothing but I am going to give it all my best effort.
I do admit that when I try to take some down time I start to feel really guilty. I know there has to be things I need to do. For example, it is just after 8am here and I have already been doing some things around the condo (I even hemmed some shorts, ok by hemming I mean used sewing tape and an iron). Next I’ll be on to making egg salad and chicken salad for lunches for the next few days. But then I am going to work really hard on doing nothing. I’m working at getting my head wrapped around the fact that by doing nothing I am giving my body time to heal. If I let myself heal then I can get back to my exercise routine. I am going to try an online bootcamp class Monday (I can modify the higher impact exercises to protect my ankle) and then I will do a good workout in the pool. Hopefully I can get back to my usual level but you know what, I will be happy with just keeping moving the best I can.
And so I am going to do everything I can to enjoy the down time over the next couple days. I’m in a beautiful location with great weather, who could ask for more.
My sister and I have decided that we need to go back to doing family fun days which we did with our brother during the pandemic. Now we will also include my husband which makes it a bit more challenging because he does not necessarily like the same things that we think are fun. We started this past Saturday with my sister and I going out for lunch and to see Legally Blonde The Musical performed by a community theatre group. It was absolutely fabulous and it was a great time. While my husband, brother and I are heading to Mexico for 7 weeks, I have committed to one day a week when we return we will pick something off our extensive list of fun things and make sure we do it.
Yesterday things went a little south for me. I got home from bootcamp and realized my left ankle was a bit sore. Cognizant of the fact Mexico is only a few days away I decided not to do a run but instead do a long walk. About 6.5km into the walk I felt a pop in my ankle and then shooting pain. Oh, oh, I thought, this can’t be good. Realizing I was not going to be able to walk home I called my husband to come pick me up.
This is where I have to do some heavy mental deep breaths. My head immediately went to oh no, I am not going to be able to workout, the world is coming to an end. I tried to convince myself that if I just stayed off it for a day all would be ok. Seriously? By the end of the day I realized this was not going to happen so I canceled this morning’s bootcamp and slept in. While it is slightly less swollen today it is still sore and thus another day of not working out. I am applying my prescription anti-inflammatory cream and I have some that I will be taking to Mexico with me.
It is hard for me to have to stop exercising all of a sudden especially when I had been pushing myself hard these past few weeks but I am being realistic. I highly doubt I will be able to do much this week other than walk through the airports. But really, is that going to significantly impact me? No it is not. If the ankle isn’t feeling completely healed by next week (and I do mean completely healed) I’ve already got a plan in place. While my original plan was running, bootcamp and walking for a total of 3 hours each weekday (I drop the bootcamp on weekends) I will be able to do a couple hours of ‘aquafit’ in the pool each day. I then can spend some time using my weights and doing some core exercises. Using the pool should allow me to get in some good cardio without adding extra pressure on my ankle. I think if I can pull it off it will be a good alternative.
The important thing is that I have realized I need this recovery time. I don’t know how I hurt my ankle (I suspect it might have been when I tripped over a branch when walking on a path on Sunday) but I do know that if I want to be able to continue to keep myself fit then I need to give that ankle all the recovery time it needs. And so I think I have now given myself permission to do so without feeling guilty. Instead I am going to enjoy a couple days of not getting up at 4:15am. Besides, stepping back from 4-5 hours of workouts each day frees up more time for me to prep for Mexico.
As Thursday is our travel day I will not be posting again until Saturday. Hopefully by then I will have a positive update on my ankle.
Yesterday I wore a pair of my new runners all day. By the end of the day I had walked 41k steps and run/walked 28 km. I have to say they are so much more comfortable than my previous runners. Tomorrow I will start breaking in the 2nd pair which I hope is just as comfortable though they should be since they are the exact same runners. I now kind of regret that I tolerated the old ones for so long. I had to laugh though, the company from whom I purchased the runners sent me an email with a receipt telling me the runners should be good until April 2025. I don’t think they get that I put 120+ km on them every week.
Today was Circuit Saturday at my bootcamp class. The trainer had set up 10 stations where you would perform an exercise before moving on to the next station. One of the exercises was a ball pushup for which you do a pushup with 1 hand on a medicine ball then push the ball over and do a pushup with the other hand on the ball. When the trainer demonstrated this exercise she did the pushups from her knees (as did all of the other participants). The problem is I can’t kneel so that kind of pushup for me is out. I spoke to the trainer and told her that I was concerned about this station because I would be doing a full pushup from my toes which is what I do now (as opposed to doing a pushup at a bench). She suggested I give it a try but maybe widen my stance a little. Guess what? Not only was I doing a full pushup with one hand on the medicine ball but it wasn’t overly challenging.
I then did some reflection as to what I am actually able to do without modification in the circuit that had been set up. I did have to modify the step ups as you are supposed to step up onto the bench but my right knee simply doesn’t bend far enough to allow that so I use a lower platform. Everything else in that room I could fully do. On top of that I am challenging myself more. When doing the push press I chose the heaviest bar to use. For the tricep dips I put my legs straight and go almost completely down to the floor making it much more difficult. Doing the Romanian twists (you are on your butt on the floor leaning back slightly and have you legs bent in front of you and holding a weight you twist side to side) I bump it up a level by taking my feet off the floor causing my core to have to kick into overdrive.
I decided as I left the class that I have got to stop underestimating myself. Maybe it is because of so many years of thinking my injured knee could only hold me back. Or perhaps it is because for a very long time I was made to feel I was inept. Whatever has been causing me to not have faith in my capabilities has got to go. I am strong, fit and healthy! While there are always going to be things that I simply cannot physically do, I think there are far more that I can do and until I know otherwise I am going to try all new exercises without instantly thinking that I can’t do it.
The time to stop underestimating myself starts now. Having said that, when I looked at my stats for yesterday I realized at 41k steps I was about 7.5k under my best day ever and that best day had me at about 48k. So new challenge, sometime in the month of June I am going to pick a day where I don’t have anything else planned and I am going to get in 50k steps. No question that this goal is not underestimating what I can do.
I was going to write an entirely different introduction to today’s post but I am just so excited. I went to a local footwear store (the kind that make orthotics) because I just couldn’t wear my NB running shoes any more. It wasn’t so much because they were worn, though they were getting there, but rather I have disliked them since I started wearing them. This is the 3rd different style of NB running shoes that I have tried and while I wasn’t a big fan of the first 2 styles these were the worst. However, because of the cost of them I was reluctant to swap them for new pairs until they were wearing out. The only reason I stuck with that brand was because it was recommended by my podiatrist. Today they gave me a wide size of Brooks (they were originally my favourite brand before the podiatrist got involved) and I almost heard angels singing when I put my feet in them. I can’t wait to break them in so I can take them for a run.
I have been really trying to push myself in my fitness classes these past few weeks and it has been paying off. Tuesday it appears I have finally mastered a single leg deadlift which when I started doing them I thought would never happen. Today I was doing full on pushups, you know on my toes not on my knees. I had been doing them against the bench all this time because I can’t drop to my knees to do them but today I figured let’s go for and I can actually do full on pushups. I was actually pretty proud of myself.
Yesterday though I really put myself to work. This included trying to deadlift about 100lbs. I was able to do it for 2 sets before I realized my back was starting to twinge so I dialed down a bit. But still, 2 sets were accomplished. It was in fact a brutal workout yesterday but that’s ok, I want to keep moving forward.
But then I tried to get out of bed this morning and went oh, oh. This is the first time that I have really felt the results of a workout. Don’t get me wrong, my muscles are often doing some complaining to me about working them too hard but today was more than usual (my lower back was sore but it was very obvious to me it was muscular and not due to a nerve issue). And so, despite being able to do full on pushups and having to do the Thunderstruck cardio I opted to just scale back a bit. My shoulders and upper body in particular were struggling so sometimes I dropped down to lower weights than I would normally do but that is ok, at least I tried.
It is alright to realize your limitations and let your body recover a little. The thought in my head was it’s only 7 days until Mexico, don’t screw things up. Does that mean I will back off for the next week? Hell no, I just will let my body tell me when It is ok to go above and beyond what it wants to do.
I’m not sure what happened this morning but somehow I increased my running pace. I normally have a fairly consistent pace but today it was one of the fastest paces ever (note, fast for me but still slow for normal runners). I don’t know if it was because I was cold or the fact that I was often running against the wind and felt I had to push hard but somehow I got good results. Let’s see what happens on my run tomorrow.
I have started to panic. I have a lot of things to get done before heading off to the condo for nearly 7 weeks. Yesterday I realized that tomorrow I had meetings for 3 different volunteer groups, I had a tax client to meet with, walking the senior’s dog and somehow finding at least 4 hours for workouts. I thought ok, now I have to cut at least 1 thing out of the day or I am not going to get it all done. I opted to back out of one of the meetings though I found out this morning that particular meeting was canceled. Gives me back 1 1/2 hours but that isn’t quite as much as I would like.
I drive my husband crazy because I am a planner. I like to schedule what I am doing each day even on weekends or when we are in Mexico. I have learned that this really has helped me in my weight loss and fitness journey as I plan what my meals will look like and how I can eat at fairly regular intervals. When we are in Mexico timing and scheduling meals becomes even more important because we freeze most of our proteins to prevent them from going bad. And, while it drives my husband crazy trust me he would never make sure all the details are covered though he just expects everything to magically be in place.
So, deep breath, I can get everything done. I still have prep work to do for the trip (7 weeks is a long time). On top of that we have some preplanned family events this week that I just don’t want to get rid of. I still have some taxes to do and there is always volunteer work going on. The one thing I certainly won’t skip will be my workouts. I know if I just stick to the plan I will get it all done and then be able to enjoy myself while I am away.
One thing though, when I put things in my calendar I usually set an alert for the day before the event. Last night a reminder popped up that tonight we are going to a wine tasting event. Yes, we both had forgotten about it but it was something nice to look forward to today.
I’ve come to realize that I have become a fitness addict. It started when I commented to my husband that I now actually enjoy running (he believes that was an indication that I have truly lost my mind). Then the other day the trainer had us doing a plank hold (note a year ago I doubt I could do a plank for more than 15 seconds). I was disappointed when it was over because we only had to do it for 2 minutes and I wanted more. Last week I was teamed up with 2 much younger women and when we were doing a squat hold one of them picked up a 25lb weight the other a 30lb weight leaving me, the old lady, the 35lb weight but I still managed to get through it and was pretty proud of being able to out do both of them. Oh, how far I have come.
When I was obese (and I fully acknowledge I was obese) I never really thought of myself as fat. Yes, I knew I was overweight but I was always surprised when I saw a picture of myself by how big I actually was. Reflecting I realized that it was a really strange mindset. I knew how much I weighed and I knew what size clothing I wore but there just seemed to be some line in my brain that I couldn’t cross to acknowledge I was obese and quite frankly on a very dangerous path health wise. It wasn’t until I had lost about 60lbs that I could finally accept how overweight I actually was.
Now it seems to be the opposite. Twice yesterday I had someone tell me that I look fabulous and how proud they are of what I have done. Strangely when I look in the mirror I still see myself as big. Again, I know how much I weigh (an absolutely normal BMI), I wear 12 dress sizes smaller than what I used to and I am so toned my muscles show every time I move. But still I feel I am big. Trust me, when I try on new clothing in a size 6 I always think it looks far too small for me to wear (recently I got new shorts for the summer and I was terrified looking at them before putting them on but they fit perfectly). I’m just not sure that I will ever shake that image of myself.
The other day my husband and I were showing the ladies in my walking group before pictures and they were all stunned. They know I have lost weight over the past year but they struggled to believe what I looked like before I started this journey nearly 4 years ago. I have to admit, so was I. But I think I have got to move forward and remined myself I am not a fat chick anymore. Holding on to that can only limit my expectations of myself. I started the other day when we were told to grab the heaviest dumb bells we thought we could hold and while normally I would grab a set of 20lbs this time I told myself I could do a 30lb set because that total of 60lbs was less than all of the weight I have lost so my body used to be able to carry it, why can’t I now do it for the sake of an exercise. Turns out I was right and I could hold that kind of weight.
I think tomorrow I am going to start the day doing a 10km run and the mantra in my head needs to be I am a healthy, strong and motivated woman who will no longer think of herself in terms of her size.
When I walk down at the beach each morning I see an older man who is swimming in the ocean. Now you have to imagine how cold the Pacific ocean is this time of year. However, he swims every day regardless of the outside temperature. Then today as I was just heading off the beach I see a younger man in shorts with no shirt carrying a beach towel running towards the beach. I am sorry, I have done a lot of things out of my comfort zone in order to get fit but I’m drawing the line at the thought of swimming in that freezing water.
I know my title seems a little odd since I go to the ‘gym’ 6 days a week. But really, it is not a gym rather it is more of a fitness centre. There is no cardio equipment or weight machines at this place. Instead, there are dumb bells, kettle bells, medicine balls, exercise balls, resistant bands etc. Quite frankly this is more than enough to get in a good workout. As for cardio, they have a range of exercises that the trainers use to get that heartrate up. Several of those exercises I couldn’t do when I first started at the fitness centre 10 months ago, now that I am in great shape I do it all. I don’t miss the true gym experience in any way, as a matter of fact I much prefer these types of bootcamp and strength workouts.
I started thinking about how I don’t need a gym and all the extra fitness equipment yesterday. You see I had to take my brother to his new specialists yesterday and I knew I was going to lose at least 3 hours out of my day which stressed me out because I wouldn’t make my daily goals (trust me when I say things like this really get to me). Then while I was sitting waiting for my brother I thought huh, this is a pretty long hallway I bet I can get in a bunch of steps. And so that is what I did, simply briskly walking back and forth along that hallway until I got in the workout I wanted. Ok, so maybe the patients waiting in the hallway as well as the staff thought I was nuts but oh well, it made me feel better to move.
Remember, when I started this journey originally I lost the weight mainly by walking. I didn’t need a gym or fancy equipment to help get me healthy and the same holds true now. I’ve only got 2 weeks until I am back at the condo and I have even less access to equipment there (i.e. there is no treadmill and my heaviest set of weights are only 10 lbs) but I am determined to come home after 7 weeks just as fit as I am today.
So do the gym if that is what you need but remember, you can take this journey without it.
gwennefarrell 