gwennefarrell

Well, after my small anxiety attack on Saturday I seem to have caught up with most things for Christmas. The shopping is pretty much all done and tomorrow afternoon the wrapping station will be set up in the garage. I figure a couple of hours and everything will be all set. That simply leaves doing grocery shopping for the 24th and 25th which I will make sure is all organized. Yep, taking a few minutes to plan it all out worked for me.

Last night was my first Christmas party of the season. It was with a group that I volunteer for and they took us all out for Chinese food. Now there was a lot of food put on our table and on top of that the wine was pretty free flowing. In the next 12 days I have a family holiday dinner party, another volunteer event, a special dinner out with my husband, our annual Christmas Eve open house and of course, Christmas dinner. Boy, that sure adds up to a lot of food and calories.

After last night’s heavy carb dinner at which I may have consumed too much food I can honestly say I did not want to be on the treadmill this morning. However, I reminded myself it is just one step at a time and by the 5 minute mark I started focusing on how I am going to get through the holiday season unscathed. Don’t get me wrong, I do not believe in completely depriving myself for the sake of a few pounds. Rather, I am working on maintaining my workouts without the normal breaks that I have taken in the past couple years. Instead, I am keeping it to status quo.

I admit, it will be a little easier this year simply because of the timing of the dates. For example, Christmas Day is on a Sunday and I don’t workout on Sundays (the same for New Year’s Day). Christmas Eve is a Saturday which is the day I do my lightest workout (only 1 1/2 hours instead of 2 1/2 hours) allowing for lots of time to get the house put together. I already have my workout plans for when we are at the condo for a month which should keep me in a pretty good place. On top of that I will try to watch my food intake especially around dealing with carbs the next few weeks and it is easy to eat healthy in Mexico due to the availability of a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

So I think I am going to survive this holiday season but still be able to enjoy myself. A little planning is helping me find the appropriate balance.

I have a friend whom I jokingly call the angel of death because it seems like every time he calls me it is to let me know that a mutual friend has passed away. It’s almost like we do it in code now as we don’t even really say hello to each other, I just answer the call and he says a name. One time he called me and I answered with please say you are calling to tell me that you love me as I just could not handle losing another friend and he laughed because that actually was why he was calling. Yesterday’s call was to let me know a friend that I have known for over 40 years is in the ICU and unlikely to survive. That’s really not the message I wanted to hear.

When I was working my life was hectic at the best of times. My job was extremely demanding and it was nothing to put in a 60+ hour work week. My record for consecutive days of work with no time off was 49 days. And, there were times when I would be on the road for weeks only coming home with enough time to do laundry and repack. You add to that doing volunteer work and dealing with family health issues and you will understand that I had to be very efficient at everything I did. I became a master at managing my time and sometimes planning my days right down to the minute (I should note, I would do that even when on vacation so that no time was wasted).

I’ve found recently that those important time management skills seem to have disappeared. I know I still keep myself busy but I started noticing that I seem to constantly feel like I am overbooked. Part of it is because I spend up to 2 1/2 hours a day doing workouts. You add to that volunteer work and some work for my business and my time is tapped out. I’m already getting concerned that I am way behind where I normally am in preparation for Christmas. By this point in December I usually have all my shopping done and gifts wrapped. Right now I am trying to figure out when I am going to have enough consecutive hours in a single day to get the shopping done. Wrapping may be sporadic based on having a few minutes to deal with a gift or two. This is starting to get me a bit stressed out as I don’t know how to get it all done.

I have decided to take a big breath and regroup. If I could do all of this while holding down my insane job then surely I can manage it now that I don’t work 12 hours a day. Time to start mentally scheduling my days and keeping my white board to do list up to date. Monday I have a couple hours in the afternoon to get the shopping done which can be accomplished by preparing a list of what I am buying for each person and what stores to shop in. I can use my evenings to do things like gift wrapping and prepping the house for next Sunday’s dinner party. Ok, I’m already starting to feel a little more relaxed and I have more confidence that I can get it all done.

All I needed was to write this blog so that I saw a plan taking place. Hmm, maybe I haven’t lost those time management skills after all, they just needed to be dusted off a little.

Yesterday morning it was weekly coffee with a group of friends. Since it had warmed up a bit and rained, I figured the sidewalks would be pretty clear and as it was only about 2k each way I should do a run. Also, I wanted to put on my winter running clothes so I could look like I really knew what I was doing. So, on went my light fiber running jacket, my running vest, a toque and gloves and of course my running pants. I thought I looked like all those other runners I see out there during the winter. Off I went and it was really a nice little run (I also ran home afterwards). My husband drove to the coffee shop and passed me on the way so when I got to the coffee shop I asked him if I looked like a real runner. His response was no, you looked bloody cold. Really, I wasn’t too cold and enjoyed the run.

I know I have been pretty sweaty lately when I head upstairs after working out in the garage. My husband asked how my workout was and the other day I told him it was easier. He was a bit confused because as he said, I looked like I had done a hard workout. He asked if I meant the workout was getting easier and I laughed. No, it is getting easier to work harder. I had to walk him through what that meant but he seemed pretty happy with my explanation.

Since getting the new treadmill a few weeks ago I have been trying to work harder than I have in the past couple months. I admit it was hard to really push myself on the old treadmill because it was well, old. The display no longer worked and it could sometimes feel a bit rickety. The new one feels very stable and safe. It also tracks everything I do (though I don’t trust the heart rate it counts as I know it is way low based on me checking my pulse directly) including distance, calories and speed. Now that I have my visual of what I am doing I can get myself into better targets. And really, I have been trying to push myself.

I’ve mentioned before that there are various program levels but when I tried to move up to level 4 last week I couldn’t do the full program. I’ve changed that strategy and instead am adjusting level 3 to make it harder each day. That means while I do the run intervals it gives me I also bump up the walking intervals to higher speeds to keep my heart rate in at minimum fat burning zone (trust me when it tries to get me to walk at 2 kph my heart rate gets back into a normal range). I’ve been pretty successful with that strategy this week and am confident I will survive level 4 next week. On top of that, during my ‘manual’ part of the workout I have been doing more running intervals which next week I plan to lengthen. The real indication to me that this is all working is the pace that I managed in my runs yesterday, for casual runs my pace was better than I felt it was.

The bottom line is the new treadmill has made it easier for me to work harder to get myself back to my peak. I’m confident that if I keep up the hard work I will get there within a few months.

Yesterday my husband and I came home to find my sister had been shopping for the dogs. Turns out she managed to find 2 matching ugly Christmas sweaters for them (challenging because 1 is 7lbs and the other 25lbs). Strangely enough the dogs actually seem to like them and didn’t seem to mind that the sweaters jingle when they walk. They actually wore them for several hours yesterday including while out on a walk and looking like they were strutting a bit to show them off. We really need to take a picture of everyone (except of course the cats) wearing their ugly Christmas sweaters.

Yesterday one of the seniors in my walking group had texted to say that she might be late as her husband was in hospital and she wanted to drop in and visit him. They are both in their early eighties and while she is extremely healthy her husband has some health issues. Turns out he has the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). She has no idea how he came down with this or where he would have been exposed. They keep their circle pretty tight and always mask up. Fortunately, she seems to be fine and we are hoping she stays that way.

This got me thinking about everything I see on social media regarding vaccines and masking. Sometimes I see a post from someone advocating either of these and the attacks on them are not only instantaneous but also often full of disinformation and vitriol. I know some of this is caused by information found on the internet but sadly some of it is also via politicians and professionals. I saw a post this weekend about a 6 year old who had died likely from the flu and someone opted to post that it was her father’s fault for having the child vaccinated and that was what had killed them. I don’t understand what kind of person says something like that to a grieving parent but it just makes me more resolved in fighting all these viruses that are going around.

I have never stopped masking. Ok, if I am with a smaller group of people that I know then I won’t wear a mask. But, every store I go into, being someone with a lot of people I don’t know where I can’t practice social distancing or even riding in a cab, I wear a mask. Moreover, I try to make sure that everyone in this household does that same (though I suspect my husband cheats when I am not with him). I have gotten all of my COVID vaccines/boosters as soon as they have been available (had a text when I got up at 5am yesterday saying I could get my 5th shot and by 5:15am I had an appointment booked for noon). I also spend a lot of time washing my hands and always carry Wet Ones wherever I go. And, as I do every year, I got my flu shot before the season even started.

I get that there are people out there that say I should just learn to live with things like COVID but really that is exactly what I have done. When you live with a senior and 2 clinically extremely vulnerable people you learn that any risk you take with these viruses is an amplified risk to them. That alone tells me I need to keep doing everything I can to stay healthy. I don’t just mean taking measures to protect myself from illness, I mean looking after my overall health. Quite frankly why else would I be spending 2 1/2 hours at least 5 days a week keeping myself fit.

So, if you disagree with what I am doing please keep your opinion to yourself. You don’t live in my circumstances nor do you know the research I have done to ensure this household stays as healthy as possible. Besides, COVID is what got me healthy in the first place so I have a lot of respect for it.

Yesterday I got up and dressed to do my workout on the treadmill. I checked the weather and it was cold (felt like -14). I decided I was not going to do that workout because my garage would be freezing. As the day really did not warm up much I decided to take a ‘cold’ day (I really couldn’t call it a snow day as we barely got any snow). There was absolutely no way I intended to torture myself in that kind of cold. I did still manage to do a decent walk with Keeva in the afternoon though apparently it was even too cold for her as she opted to end the walk early and head back home.

I realized it was probably a good plan to scale back a bit yesterday and bring up my readiness score as today I planned to move up to level 4 on my treadmill. I have been doing pretty good at level 3 and if I do level 2 as part of my 2nd workout during the day I find it too easy. It made sense to me that it was time to increase the workout. Since it was not a lot warmer than yesterday morning I dressed to be able to handle the cold layering a vest on top of my light running jacket. I felt pretty good and was ready to get at it.

I will note, I was not able to complete everything in level 4. To put it in perspective, I am now referring to the treadmill as ‘the bitch’. It started out pretty good with a fair amount of running within the first few minutes. I was ok with the 7 1/2 minute run which started out at 6 kph then moved up to 7 kph. The program gave me a small break then hit me with 8 kph for 3 minutes which I didn’t quite do for the full time (though I kept running). After a quick slow down in speed the bitch came back at me with 9 kph at which point I manually dropped the speed to 7 kph because I was done. Holy crap! I was so not prepared for that but I got myself to the end completing the remaining running segments (which didn’t go above 7 kph) followed by a 1/2 hour brisk walk during the last 10 minutes of which I added some extra running.

While I was not happy with the bitch, I felt pretty good with that workout as it had really challenged me. I’m actually excited about trying to master that level by the end of next week. However, when I think about it I realize she will then try to kill me with level 5. Anyone else thinking about my post when I first got this treadmill and I thought I could simply increase the levels every day or so? Yeah, I’m now laughing at me too.

Yet another freezing cold day here in Metro Vancouver and it is supposed to get really cold overnight. To make things even worse they are talking snow tomorrow. I’m not liking the early winter we are experiencing. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing we are less than a month away from heading south to the condo where I am pretty sure we won’t see any snow.

For a good year now my sister and I have been talking about getting a recumbent exercise bike. For me I figured it would be good to have something better to do besides walk on the treadmill when the weather is bad. For my sister it was attractive because of the neuropathy in her legs and even more so now as she continues to recover from the bad break in her leg from last spring. Unfortunately a decent recumbent bike is quite expensive but we have continued watching for one to be on sale. Then last week one of the seniors in my walking group mentioned she had a used recumbent she really wanted to get rid of. She sent me the specs and it was a 2006 model that she wanted to basically give away so I thought I might as well take it and use it until I found a new one that I could afford.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that while the bike was 16 years only it was a top of the line model and had barely been used. It has all sorts of different workouts from interval training and sprinting to heart rate targeted programs. It is relatively comfortable to use and all that is needed is finding a way to set up an iPad holder on it (note, there is no indoor exercise that happens without my iPad). I have a feeling I’ll be using this bike for a long time.

Yesterday I decided it was time to start some cross training. Since I got the new treadmill most days I have been doing 2 hours of walking. I’ve decided that for my 2nd workout each day that I am going to do 30 minutes on the bike then 30 minutes on the treadmill. Yesterday I did a fat burn program on the bike and I quickly realized that I was using my muscles in a totally different way. They complained a bit but not enough to deter me. Today I switched it up to an interval program and tomorrow I plan to try sprinting.

I get the feeling I’m eventually going to be doing 1 hour of walking and 1 hour of biking each day. Cross training might work out well for me.

Well, our house is starting to look like Christmas. We have both of our trees up (we have a small one we set up in the basement and then a large one upstairs). Sunday I managed to decorate the big one while my husband worked on the small one. Usually I won’t do any decorating until Dec 1st but somehow this year it just felt right to get things done early.

Today we will likely get our first real blast of winter. While we have had some cold days, today is the first day it will really snow. They say we could get up to 20 centimeters and while it will probably warm up and start raining early tomorrow morning, there will be all sorts of mayhem happening this afternoon. For us here in the Metro Vancouver region, snow is not really a common thing so when it does snow everything basically grinds to a halt. And while we don’t get a lot of snow, it is still good to be prepared in order to keep everyone safe.

A few years ago we did have some bad snow storms come through. Unfortunately as they were unexpected it caused panic buying of salt and so most stores ran out. It was so bad some of the municipalities were having a tough time getting salt to do the roads. That was a real lesson for us so now as soon as we see salt out in the stores we start buying it. Now you would think that would lead to hoarding but since we share the salt with the entire neighbourhood I would argue that it is not. As soon as cold weather hits we heavily salt all driveways and walkways. Since we have a fairly sloped driveway I also start parking on the street. Our goal is to keep everything as clear as possible to avoid the risk of anyone falling on the snow or ice. We also have begun to get our snowblower checked and ready to go in October so that if it has to go for servicing there is plenty of time to do so. It has already been started up and the lines cleaned so we know it is ready for us and the neighbours.

Finally, it is important to have the right clothing. Yesterday when we left home for the seniors’ walk it was 0 degrees but -5 with the windchill. I made sure to heavily bundle up with a couple layers of clothing, a heavy jacket, gloves, large scarf and what I like to call my super toque. The only thing I realized I missed was better socks which I changed into before I walked the dog later in the day. I won’t say I was overly warm, but at least I wasn’t freezing cold.

I should note, I have a heavy day of volunteering today including walking a senior’s dog. However, I have already reached out to my volunteer organizations to see what to do in inclement weather. The support group that I facilitate this afternoon will be shut down for the day if there are concerns about the weather. As for the dog, there are a couple volunteers right across the street from her apartment that will take care of her if I can’t make it so she will be in good hands.

The important thing is to be prepared and keep yourself safe during the upcoming winter weather.

Today has started well. Back in March we had applied for a renewal of my husband’s Nexus card which was expiring in September. I decided in May to apply for my renewal as well as my card expires in January 2023. By July not only had my renewal been approved but I had my new card. My husband’s however, just kept saying application pending. Then, 2 weeks ago, a US customs agent actually confiscated his card despite the fact that your card was supposed to remain active for up to a year after it expired as long as you had applied for a renewal (he was able to get the card back but hasn’t made any further trips to the US just in case). This morning he got an email saying his status has changed and sure enough, his Nexus has been renewed. What a huge relief.

I have been working hard since I got my new treadmill. I am putting in at least 15 km and over 20k steps most days. I am putting myself through some pretty tough workouts to get the most out of my training. However, I am still carrying those pounds that I gained since my husband came home. This is despite watching what I eat (or so I thought) and working so hard. I just couldn’t figure out where I was going wrong given I had lost so much weight before.

I realized I needed to do something different to try and get things back on track. I’ve often said I don’t believe in diets but rather prefer to look at what I do as a change of lifestyle but I was struggling to find what else I could do. Then I thought of something I had heard of but quite frankly had previously discounted, keeping a food journal. So, this week I started that journal and there were a few results. Firstly, while I thought I had been doing well with the amount I have been eating in reality I was consuming more calories than I thought and my carbs were getting up there. But what really surprised me is by simply writing down what I was eating and when I was eating I became far more conscious of what I was eating. That brought me back to what had been successful in the past, planning ahead for what I would be eating each day and adjusting for things like a high carb meal. I’ve made sure I am being really honest in what I journalize so that I include everything. I have to admit, it has brought me back into focus which I realized had been lacking.

This has only been week 1 so I don’t expect any dramatic changes yet but I think this will be a good thing going forward. I’m hoping a month from now that I will see a difference and if this is successful I’ll continue with the journal. Here’s hoping for some results.

Today I finished the Election Financial Reports for the 2 candidates that I was the financial agent for during the recent local elections. After having to hunt down $0.01 (everything has to balance completely) I am finally satisfied that everything is in perfect order. I have to admit, this has been a lot of work but I know these candidates put a lot of trust on my ability to take care of this for them. As I said to my husband, here’s hoping there are no elections in the near future because I need a break.

Well, I have started to push myself using the new treadmill. Yesterday I started level 3 but realized trying to do 60 minutes really was not a good idea. Instead I decided on 30 minutes of the interval training followed by 30 minutes walking at a good clip. Even at 30 minutes level 3 was pretty tough. Once again a good 1/3 of the workout was pretty intense and I was running at a pace I am not used to. But, I got through it and felt good about the workout. I completed the rest of the day with a couple more hours of walking though I admit it was broken up into several segments throughout the day.

Today I opted to kick it up a notch. I did the same 30 minute workout followed by the 30 minute walk on the treadmill. Then, when I went to do my after lunch walk I instead redid the morning workout and walk. I admit this was really tough especially the high intensity part but you know what, I did it and again felt really good. I’m going to keep this up for the next few days to see how I feel and then possibly Sunday I will move up to level 4. If that seems challenging for me, the after lunch workout will drop back down to level 3 until I figure my stamina is back up to where I want it.

I want to note the reason this is so challenging is the speed at which they have me running. Having said that, I believe by time I get to level 12 I am going to be running at a pace that far exceeds my expectations. I know with patience and determination I will get there.

According to my Fitbit I got in 7 days of exercise last week. As you know I normally take Sunday’s off but I am really enjoying getting to know my new treadmill so I got up early and went for a walk. Then, I decided to walk uptown to meet my family for lunch so 1 1/2 hours of walking. I am experimenting a bit with the treadmill alternating between the pre-set programs and doing manual programs. So far it is going well and today I even did a bit of running and I will say it felt pretty comfortable.

But today I added a new workout to my routine. I received an email from Elderdog yesterday asking for volunteers to walk a dog for an elderly lady. Turns out the client is 88 years old and while her son lives with her, he has mobility issues. The request was for 2 walks a day but they would be split between 2 different volunteers. I opted to do the later afternoon shift and I was quite surprised when they told me it would start effective today.

Now this is an older dog, 12 1/2, so I thought the walking would be pretty slow. Also, they noted she was an Australian Kelpie which I had never heard of. They referred to her as a medium sized dog and said she loved to walk but was a sniffer. I called her owners this afternoon to check to make sure 3:30pm would be a good time and that they had all the necessary supplies including poop bags. I also asked if it was ok if I brought treats for her but assured them that they were the ones my vet recommended so are what we give our dogs. This is a really important point, as someone who had a dog with massive food allergies I learned you NEVER give someone’s dog any food without the owner’s permission as it may cause serious health issues (it used to cost $800 at the vet every time some well meaning friend gave my dog food she was allergic to which was pretty much everything). The owners laughed and said the dog would love that.

I arrived at the appointed time and was greeted by Keeva who looked like a smaller version of a German Sheperd. Keeva had a good sniff of me (no doubt smelling my dogs) and I apparently passed the muster. She then quickly realized that I came with a bag of goodies which definitely met with her approval. Now this is an old dog so I had no expectations of getting in any real workout but boy was I wrong. Keeva is impressively spry and active for a dog her age. She also made it clear to me that she had a route she wanted to walk and I was just tagging along. She also figured out pretty quickly that if my hand went to my pocket that she was about to get a treat. All in all she was a lovely dog to walk and between her walk and how far away I had to park my vehicle I ended up getting in a decent workout.

I think this last workout for the day was the best one I did. Don’t get me wrong, I did a pretty good cardio workout first thing but this one just made me feel good. It wasn’t just about getting my heart rate up, it was also about helping someone who obviously loves their pet and wants to do right by them. I’m looking forward to doing my workout with Keeva again tomorrow.