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.
In my last post I noted that I intended to run at least 5 days a week regardless of the weather. Well yesterday when I went to do my run it was raining and quite frankly Wednesday is when I get together with my coffee group and I didn’t want to show up soaked. I opted to run on the hated treadmill and actually used it as an opportunity to push myself a bit. Today I checked the weather app and it said it would remain cloudy for the rest of the day, it lied. I was about 40 minutes into my run when it started to rain. I finished the run and started my 5km walk despite the fact I was already getting cold and I was wet. I could have called home for someone to rescue me but I decided I need to do this so for a total of 1 hour and 50 minutes my workouts were in the rain. Gotta admit felt pretty proud of myself when I was done (though I also felt pretty cold).
I have been thinking lately that it is time to challenge myself and to stop being convinced that I am going to fail. To be honest I think my only failure will be if I don’t try. So where is this coming from? Well, I started thinking about what I have accomplished. Let’s leave aside the fact that at 56 years old I ran my first (and probably last) 1/2 marathon. I lost so much weight and kept most of it off that I no longer take any medications and my diabetes is in remission. This week alone I have done 3 6km runs and walked up Oxford Hill 3 times with the goal of doing each at least 5 times per week. Yesterday I deadlifted 72lbs which is more than 1/2 my body weight. Yes, these may all be considered challenging myself but I feel I am holding back.
As I have mentioned, when I was in Mexico I did online workouts with my fitness centre. Doing those meant no one could really see me. To me that meant I could try to improve on some things and if I wasn’t successful no one would ever know but me. So I worked on a couple things. Firstly I focused on taking my lunges to a much lower level. I was always nervous about this in class because I sometimes lose my balance on my bad leg. But you know what, I found that I can absolutely lunge much deeper than I had been doing. Secondly is I realized that my core has gotten so strong that I should be able to do full sit ups something that even in high school was a struggle for me. Well guess what, I am now doing those as well.
And so I started thinking, it is time to challenge myself every time I am at the fitness centre doing a class. No more using the weights that I know I can do but bumping them up another notch each and every time. I know there may be times when I have to back down a bit but that is ok. I proved it to myself yesterday doing those deadlifts in which we were doing 3 sets of 6-8 reps. I sucked it up and did 8 reps for the first 2 sets and when I got to rep 6 on the last set I thought about stopping but nope, I did 8 reps that round as well.
From now on I am going to ask my trainers to push me and not let those afraid voices in my head stop me from challenging myself. I’ve come this far but I know this journey is going to take me even further.
So I am back to hitting the workouts hard, well at least yesterday I did. I realized that since it was a holiday there was no bootcamp (when you are retired you tend to forget about most holidays) but I decided I could make that up. And so off for a 6km run followed by an hour long walk including a trek up the dreaded Oxford Hill. After a break for coffee it was off for a walk with the seniors walking group. There were only 2 participants yesterday and both bailed after only about a 1/2 hour (including my husband). I continued on for another hour and was really happy with the amount of time I ran/walked as well as my mileage and calorie burn. Today was not so good though bootcamp was pretty brutal. Then it was a meeting that lasted far longer than it should have and by time I got home this afternoon the remainder of my motivation was gone. No problem, I’ll make up for it tomorrow.
I mentioned that I have decided to focus on building up my running distance again. I am determined to get myself back to easily doing a 10km (words that still sound strange in my head). I am also hoping that if I work hard enough at my endurance when I get to Mexico the end for April I can do at least a 5km run each day. To accomplish this I know I am going to have to suck it up and run even in bad weather meaning rain and cold are not going to stop me (hmm, that maybe optimistic) and I my goal will be Oxford Hill at least 5 times a week. I’m pretty motivated right now that I can do this and I am going to build on my enthusiasm.
Part of what is working for me is dressing in very bright, colourful workout clothes. This past Christmas my family helped by buying me some awesome workout pants. Trust me when I say you just can’t help being happy wearing them. Just to give you an example, on yesterday’s run/walks I was wearing variegated workout pants with lots of pink, a pink workout shirt, pink runners, a pink toque (with a reflective band of course) and pink gloves. Of course my running jacket is neon yellow so that added a whole different aspect to colour coordination. Yep, you would have been challenged not to see me coming.
I really don’t care if my colours match or not. Seriously, this is a workout not a fashion show. What I care about is ensuring I am safe with reflective clothing and moreover that being bright and colourful makes me happy and motivated. I have several variations of the workout clothes (though not the running jacket and I may need to work on that) including several of the reflective toques. I’ve already picked out tomorrow’s clothes and trust me they are as bright and colourful as today’s.
So be bright and colourful or anything else that motivates you to keep moving.
The family decided to go out for lunch today. My husband suggested that he walk with me as that is what I had planned to do. I knew it was a 1/2 hour walk but he insisted on leaving an hour before we were due at the restaurant. Ok I thought, we’ll walk for an hour. Turns out he had no intention of walking any extra distance so I went off on my own for the last 1/2 hour. After lunch he decided to walk home but not with me. Apparently I walk too fast for him! Having said that, he has walked every day this week and I am proud of him.
As I mentioned a week ago I was heading off to Harrison Hot Springs to facilitate a labour course. Now to explain Harrison, the days tend to be long for the facilitators in terms of things like daily course prep. Moreover, the food there is amazing and trust me when I say there is plenty of it. I decided to let myself go a bit and enjoy the food (and beverages) knowing that I had some big changes coming (more on that at the end of the blog).
I wanted to make sure I got at least some days with workouts in. This was a bit challenging because the gym didn’t open to 6:30am (too late for an early morning workout), there wasn’t really time at lunch to do much and there was only a short period of time between the end of classes and dinner. And so 3 days while I was up there I did a 5km run at 5:30am. What I found surprising is I haven’t been running a lot lately but these runs really were not that difficult. I would have done at least one more but the temperature that early in the morning was pretty cold and made far worse by significant wind (Wednesday when I ran I had tears streaming down my face).
After the success of those runs I have decided I need to build back up. The last 10km I did was in the summer and I want to put that back into a weekly event whenever I am working out here (there is no way that when I go to Mexico in May that I will be running). So, I have come up with a plan to build myself back up to being comfortable doing a 10km. I don’t think it will be all that difficult because I know I am pretty fit and have a lot of endurance. I am starting my training on Monday and it will also include walking up the dreaded Oxford hill at least 4 times a week. Pretty sure it won’t be long until I am back at long runs every Saturday.
Tomorrow my husband, sister and I are starting Dry February. Ok, I know it will already be Feb 18th but we have done this for several years we just opted to delay it this year because of Mexico and Harrison. This means for the next 4 weeks (ending Mar 16th which works in recognizing not so much St Patrick’s Day but the anniversary of my beloved father-in-law’s death) we will be completely alcohol free. I am more than confident that the few pounds I gained between Mexico and Harrison will easily be dropped between the running and lack of alcohol.
One last thing, Dry February is a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society. My sister and I do this each year to help raise funds in memory of our Mom who had stage 4 breast cancer when she died, for our Uncle who not long after Mom passed away from leukemia and for our Granny who was a skin cancer survivor. So if you are so inclined please consider making a donation to the CCS this month to try and help find a cure for this horrible disease.
gwennefarrell 