gwennefarrell

I know I said that I was going to stay resolute about running/walking regardless of the weather but yesterday was a bit much. I started out for my usual 6.5km run to be followed by a 5km walk. However, yesterday was miserable. I did my usual head down to the beach and by time I started running on the pier it was windy, cold and the rain was coming at me sideways. I finished the run and sheltered in a public washroom while I called my husband to come pick me up. I took off the 1st 2 soaking wet layers of clothing and yes, even the 3rd layer was wet. And yet, I still did that run.

I’ve realized I am at the point in my fitness journey that I need to keep finding new goals to keep me motivated. It is pretty easy when I am in a class as I always have the opportunity to push myself just a bit further (today it was some pretty impressive weighted sit ups and I do mean sit ups not crunches). Sometimes I put some extra effort into cardio. Other times I load up on the weights. Another one is to do the maximum number of reps in the range we are given. I always feel such a such a sense of accomplishment when I challenge myself.

It’s the day to day fitness routine that I am trying to find ways to keep me motivated. I realize that just doing ‘goals’ such as run 10km (yeah, will be doing that again Saturday) or walk so many steps just doesn’t do it for me now. Ok, maybe it is because I have blown past so many goals that I just know I will be successful so it doesn’t really give me that lift I need to do more. I don’t know, maybe it is because I have been doing this for so long I don’t have any new ideas.

Well, I think I have found something. I mentioned that I will be doing the Workout to Conquer Cancer in which I have to work out at least 30 minutes every day in May (please read that as at least 2 hours every day while in Mexico). Again, a bit easy for me. But today my trainer said hey, if I set up a group to do the Grouse Grind in June are you in? HELL YEAH!!!!! I’ve talked before about doing the Grouse Grind but I’ve had some people discourage me and I have never found a way to make it happen. But now, I am excited to check just one more thing off the former short, fat chick list (again, while not fat I am still short).

Yep, 58 years old and looking forward to hiking up a mountain. Every once in a while I question if I have at some point in the last 4 years been abducted by aliens who altered my mind because my former unfit self would never have considered doing anything like this.

If you didn’t see my FB post today, yesterday I went a little over the top in terms of working out. The day started as usual with a bootcamp class followed by a 6.5km run and a 5km walk. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Next was the usual 10km walk, again same as every weekday right now. But then somehow I ramped it up and just kept doing walks. By the end of the day I hit 48k steps, 33km and burned 3,500 calories. I have no idea what made me do that but I did. Today I have ramped down to a 10km run followed by bootcamp and tomorrow I am definitely doing a recovery day (I will do a ‘gentle’ 5km walk). Here’s hoping I can have another day like yesterday next week.

If you recall a few weeks ago I had my annual physical which comes with a full panel of blood/urine tests. Everything came back perfectly normal except my potassium which was high. I had a hard time believing this because I follow a low potassium diet because of my brother, my kidney function is normal and I am extremely fit. My doctor assured me it was highly unlikely that I had high potassium and the negative result could be caused by a corrupted blood sample, being dehydrated due to working out so much, or the lab itself. She gave me a new requisition and suggested I have the test done at the hospital where they have a different testing apparatus. Well, I had the test done on Thursday and lo and behold my potassium levels are normal.

But why is this even important? Potassium does things like moves nutrients into and waste out of your cells as well as it helps your heart function. High potassium can be caused by various health issues such as kidney disease, high blood pressure and diabetic ketoacidosis. It can also be an indication of kidney disease, Addison’s disease as well as Type 1 diabetes. But there is even more. Extreme amounts of potassium can actually cause your heart to stop completely, a problem that my brother lives with.

Having said all of that, low potassium can also cause health issues. Ironically low potassium can apparently be caused by the same things as high potassium. It also comes with the risk of causing heart issues. Moreover, it can make muscles feel weak, twitch, cramp or even become paralyzed.

Because (as I like to refer to myself) I am kind of diabetic (did I mention without medication my blood glucose has now been normal for 3 years?) my doctor has a massive list of blood/urine tests that she does annually. Something I like to do is compare how all of these tests have changed over the past few years. I will admit with the potassium issue cleared up this is the first time since receiving the diabetes diagnosis in 2018 that all of my results have been in the normal range. Ok, I admit some that were out of the appropriate range were really minor and as my doctor likes to tell me when I question them she will let me know if I should be concerned.

I think what I ultimately want to get across in this post is I am fortunately to have a doctor that does things like puts me through a pretty thorough series of blood/urine tests each year. Yes, because I am a bit crazy I obsess over any abnormal results but you know what, those results allow me the ability to, where necessary, make more lifestyle changes to keep myself healthy.

Bootcamp this morning was brutal. The trainer had us doing drop downs which is where you start with a heavy weight for a particular exercise, you do it for 30 seconds with a 10 second rest then repeat with a medium weight then finally a light weight. You finish the set and then repeat 2 more times (there were 6 exercises in total) Trust me, by time you got to the 3rd set you were toast. However, she assured us there would be no cardio as part of this but then as a warm up made us do Thunderstrucks (google it, I’m fit and it is challenging for me). You know it has been a good workout when at the end you think the 2 1/2 minute plank you have to do was the easy part.

I noted in my last post that taking a bit of a break always brings me back even more energized. Last week definitely had that impact on me. I have been pushing myself this week but not in a way that that I feel is detrimental. Instead it is pushing myself to the limit of what I know I can endure. For example, yesterday I got in 41k steps which works out to 29 km. I burned nearly 3,300 calories. And how did I feel, quite frankly, awesome.

Today I have toned it down a bit, only 39k steps or 28 km and right now I am at 2,800 calories which will likely be 3,000+ by the end of the day. I did consider another walk to get me to 40k steps but realized ok, that is just pushing things too far.

I will also say I am running further and faster than I had been. I did a 2nd short run yesterday after my usual Wednesday coffee with friends and realized I ran at my fastest pace for the longest amount of time than I have ever done. And I noticed that each day this week my pace has been slightly higher than the previous day.

I only have one more day of super hard work this week before I scale back on Saturday and Sunday (Saturday is 10 km run and then bootcamp and Sunday is just a 10 km run). My goals for being where I want to be before heading to Mexico are so going to be achieved as I safely continue to push myself as much as I can.

Ok, I learned that leaving my husband for 5 days to look after the cats might not have been the best idea. The young rag is a very dependent cat who wants to cuddle all the time (well, when he is not antagonizing the older rag). Literally this cat will sit in front of you and asked to be picked up and held. Apparently he got none of that while I was gone and so the past couple days he has followed my sister and I around demanding that one of us constantly is holding or petting him.

Last week was the first trip of the season to the trailer and I thought we had everything set up and ready. Turns out we did not. It started with the furnace which somehow seems to be drawing too much power. It would come on for a bit and then shut everything down. We worked around that by layering up and turning on the electric fireplace which trust me only gives enough heat to take the chill off. I also found that water had gotten into my charcoal grill meaning after using it I went to take out the tray full of ashes and it had all turned to a sticky mud. The worst however was that the Keurig no longer worked. I have to admit given that it was 10 years old it had done its job. That has now been replaced by a carafe/single serve machine which works great.

I had mentioned last week that I was going to take a couple days off from my obscene workouts. I also promised myself to eat properly and minimize the wine. Full disclosure here, it all went to hell. I did not do runs Friday and Saturday as I had planned. There was a lot of food eaten over those 5 days with far too many carbs and not enough vegetables (though I note that I did cook some awesome proteins). And the wine, well let’s just say we went through a lot.

Sometimes I have to put things into the proper perspective. I’ve learned in the past that if I give myself permission to do a reset I tend to come back even stronger and more determined. And so I refuse to beat myself up over 5 days over want has been to date a 10 month journey. I really do know that I did not do any real damage during that time and as long as I stick to my overall plan I am still on the right path. Also, it’s not like I did nothing, I had my dog with me so walks had to be done. It was just more like an hour of walking each day not 4-5 hours of bootcamp/running/walking.

Now I am back at it. Yesterday I got in 30k steps and by 9 am today I was at over 18k. While this week is crazy busy for me but I have fully mapped out at least 4 hours of exercise each day as well as planned what I will be eating. I know I only have 23 days until Mexico so I am going to get the most out of them when it comes to my weight and fitness.

In case you didn’t see it I have signed on to a new challenge, workout to conquer cancer. I have committed to working out at least 30 minutes a day for the entire month of May. I admit this is not really that much of a challenge for me except I will be in Mexico. Check out my FB post from yesterday for the link if you are interested in donating to my challenge.

Yesterday after doing a run and a walk I told my husband my butt hurt. Really it was my gluts rebelling a bit from the stair climb on Sunday. I admit my quads and hams were also complaining. Therefore I literally groaned out load at the end of this morning’s class when the trainer started playing Bring Sally Up. Yep, those muscles are feeling it again today.

I got home from class this morning and it was pouring rain. I know I said I was determined not to let the weather stop me from running/walking outside but I thought about the fact that I am heading up to the trailer this afternoon and didn’t want to be packing wet running jackets. And so I hit the dreaded treadmill for first an hour run and then an hour walk. Because I find using the treadmill extremely boring it gives me times to do a lot of thinking. While I was doing that workout knowing the weather at the trailer is going to suck for the next couple days I decided that it is time for a break.

To be clear, I have worked hard the last 7 weeks since I returned from Mexico (where I also worked hard). I did a month without alcohol and really have watched me food. I realized that Sunday was the first day in more than 5 weeks that I hadn’t run (though after the stair challenge I did get in an hour of walking done). I have not eased off and have pushed myself hard every day. And I plan on continuing to do so until we head back to Mexico in a month. Moreover, the fitness plan while at the condo has already been laid out.

Easter weekend has always been the ‘girls’ weekend at the trailer. It started 2 decades ago with me and my Mom. My sister and I decided to continue the tradition after Mom passed and it gives us the opportunity to have some sister time away from my husband and our brother. Thus, tomorrow and Thursday the only workouts I will be doing is to walk my dog (who is starting a bit of her own health and fitness journey). I am going to take 2 days of centering myself and not logging calories and exercise. I have said before, sometimes you just need to step back for a couple days to power yourself back up and that is what I plan to do.

I’ve already decided that I’ll be back to it on Friday with hopefully a 10km run first thing in the morning. I will repeat that on Saturday though will pull it back to my usual 6.5km on Sunday. Doing those runs will help keep my momentum going as I head towards the finish line of my goal weight and fitness level.

Oh, and also I will not be posting a blog until I return next week. Seriously, the priority for the rest of this week is going to be things like watching movies and playing dominoes. I’ll catch you all up next Tuesday.

Happy Easter!

Yesterday my sister and I went into the hot tub. We got in and it was pretty obvious that there was something wrong because it was cold (ok, 90 degrees may not seem cold but it is for a hot tub). We have tried everything to get it to start heating but so far nothing is working. My husband worked with our hot tub dealer today and fingers crossed it will start heating up because after today I really need a good soak.

Today was Climb The Wall day. Yep, I had to walk up 48 flights of stairs as part of a fundraiser. A friend from my fitness centre, who was our team captain, drove me downtown and was right behind me on the climb. I was a little nervous about doing this because quite frankly I am getting old and 48 floors seemed a bit daunting. But you know what, I did it in about 11 minutes and while I acknowledge my thighs were complaining a bit I got through it. I then made my husband take me out for lunch but also walked to the restaurant and back to ensure the 10k steps for the day (there is something seriously wrong with me).

I realized after finishing that I really like having these personal challenges. My husband asked if my walking up Oxford Hill had been helpful to get me to do today’s challenge and I said absolutely. Remember he asked me a few weeks ago exactly what I was training for because of the amount of workout time I was doing and that kind of lead me to this challenge. But it is just so great to accomplish things like this.

So, now what? A friend asked me yesterday if I was going to do the Sun Run but I said no. I have already done a 1/2 marathon so a 10km race wouldn’t mean that much to me. What I want is something like the Climb the Wall, something that is out of the range of what I already do. Something that is just going to keep me super motivated as I have been for the last 8 months.

I’m going to start looking for that challenge. And to be honest I am so determined that whatever it is I will accomplish it. I haven’t said it for a while but remember it is simply one step at a time and you can get there.

So a trainer today asked if we were all die hard morning people since we were at a 5:30am class. I said I don’t know but when we are done I’m going to do a 7km run. After class she approached and asked me if I was training for something. I explained I am just doing whatever I can to lose those pesky 2 pounds. We then got into a conversation about my journey and she stunned me when she told me she thought I must be a marathon runner. Huh? Apparently it is because I am so fit and do crazy things like a 7km run after doing a bootcamp class.

I sometimes look back at the regrets I have in my life. Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely know that I have some amazing things that have happened to me. I had a successful career not just with the Union but also as a financial analyst for BC Hydro. I have made huge differences to my community through my volunteer work. I have had the awesome opportunity to mentor many people. I was lucky enough to leave the cycle of poverty and build a great life for me and my family. All of those things make me proud of where I came from and where I am now.

However, sometimes I look back and think there are things I regret. I have always regretted that my Dad not only didn’t get to see me be the first on either side of the family to get a university degree but also that he never got to meet my husband. I still regret that I opted to go to work instead of spending the day with my Mom when she died. I sometimes regret the fact that there have been times when I should have used my voice but didn’t because of what I thought would be repercussions. I regret not being comfortable hugging my family and friends especially those that I have lost.

I guess selfishly I really regret that I have come through this journey and those that meant the most to me never got to see this change. Not so much with my Dad because he passed away before I ever became obese. But I think of people like my friend Dorothy who got so offended when I told her my doctor said my back pain was from being fat and lazy (ok, those were not exactly his exact words but were certainly what they sounded like to me). I remember my friend Scott just weeks before he passed away telling me I needed to slow down and think about my health. I think of my friend Gord and how if he saw me now he would be cheekily teasing me about my vanity.

I write this and realize the biggest regret would be my Mom not seeing this amazing change in me. She always worried about me and the stress I put on myself. I think if she was still here she would be my biggest champion and would be cheering me on every step of the way.

But you know what, I’m ok with all of those regrets because typing this blog I just went through some great memories. Every person I just touched on had an incredible impact on my life. Now I kinda think those regrets might not be a bad thing, they help me to remember some pretty special people that I called my family and friends.

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.