My guess would be that all that repetitive bending down, lifting and looking down while picking up sticks was the cause of the noticeable pain. The upper back pain could also have been building up from using a computer more during these lockdown weeks. I've been experiencing neck and upper back pain, and have received treatment from a dr and physiotherapist (massage therapist as well). Ibuprophin or Naproxin (NSAID) is good for pain relief, as well as heat. You can use a heating pad or soak in a warm bath. Gentle stretching and eventually gentle massage will help relieve pain as well. If your upper back pain persists, you can do specific stretches and strengthening exercises. You can PM me if you wish. Hope you're feeling better soon! Yard work can be really hard on the body! I did my own yard work yesterday and my neck is sore.

It's sunny and chilly outside today. The crazy wind has finally gone down, though, so I will try to get out on my bike. I need to check out some of my favourite wooded areas and see if they have dried out. I'll also do some raking and yard work, a short dog walk with the dog (his sore paw is looking great!), and my push-ups and yoga. I missed putting my caramel popcorn into 'ration baggies' and ate the entire bag yesterday. Oops. I guess I need to get the snacks into baggies immediately upon opening the package. 🙄

Brava, brave woman facing the dreaded scale! 😉 I do it almost every morning to help keep me on track. When I reach a certain number I snap into action. This usually means cutting back on snacks. Your exercise and food plans sound wonderful!! I love the name 'body combat.' I picture lots of kicking and punching. 😄

I find the whole 'porridge vs pudding' topic fascinating. What is a pudding in the UK? What makes it different than porridge? Is it always a dessert? What is its consistency? I've eaten Christmas Pudding, and it was a lot more solid than I would have expected. Delicious, though! From my Canadian experience, porridge is a cooked breakfast food. There are very few different kinds (i.e., oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, and I used to be forced to eat this disgusting "Sunny Boy" porridge as a kid). Pudding is a sweet dessert, usually served cold, and there are lots of different kinds (i.e., chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch, rice, tapioca, etc.). Thanks for being our UK expert!! 😉

Welcome! We are mostly doing whatever types of exercise we can access; both in our homes and outside. Keeping things simple. I don't think anyone has all that much home gym equipment, but we're helping to keep each other motivated and entertained. 😉

@Laura Corin Love the coo photos!! The wee one would look just like a giant furry dog if its ears flopped down more. Re: oats - do you eat your morning oatmeal dry, or do you add some kind of cold or hot liquid? In Denmark and Germany, I've eaten dry rolled oats with raisins and nuts (the mixture is called muesli) cold with milk. In Norway they cook the oats and call it oatmeal porridge (havregrøt), and it's a popular breakfast food (along with bread and cheese). Rice porridge/pudding, is a dinner food for Saturdays, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, and sour cream porridge served hot was a special breakfast treat. I loved them all! But the most decadent was the left over rice pudding/porridge, cold, with added whipped cream, topped with fruit sauce or caramel. This was a special Sunday dinner dessert called riskrem (Rice Cream?)Yummy! Canada is pretty boring with its porridge in comparison. We have oatmeal porridge and cream of wheat. Muesli and granola are also rolled oat-based breakfast cereals usually served with milk or yogurt. Our rice pudding is usually a dessert and it's served cold. I got in a couple walks, yoga, push-ups and raking today. I feel pretty much back to normal. Maybe my body just needed a rest day? Who knows. 😉

I seem to be back in the land of the living today. I had some weird lightheadedness all day yesterday. I did manage to get in my morning exercises and push-ups, but then I needed to lay down for the remainder of the day. It was a good day to skip the outdoor walk, as it was snowing, cold and really windy. My daily outdoor walking streak is over, sadly, but I will get back to my routine today, I hope. 🙂

Thanks for including the recipe! It was really interesting reading about the history and culture around oatcakes. I thought I was eating oatmeal, but it appears I was wrong. I eat rolled oats. I love red squirrels. They seem to have more character than grey squirrels. But that 'character' can have its annoying side. My dd used to volunteer at a wildlife rehab centre, and the reds were escape artists from the cages. They needed a cage within a cage to contain them because they are so fast. 😅

Rock picking is grueling work! Way to go on all the activity yesterday and today!! I just googled 'hollow body hold' as I was envisioning some kind of wild yoga pose. 😄 In our martial arts school, we used to call them 'banana' and the opposite was 'superman.'' We would roll on the floor mats going from 'superman' to 'banana.'

I went for 2 really nice walks, and did my morning exercises and push-ups. No bike ride, as it was cold and I preferred to walk. I also did some raking in the backyard and I'll get in my relaxation yoga at bedtime.

I didn't accomplish much yesterday. One walk with dd, which was heartbreaking as our dog watched us leave from the front window. I couldn't do that to him again. 🙁 I hope his paw is back to normal really soon. It is improving, thank goodness. I did more yoga yesterday, and more eating. 😋 I hate it when it rains all day. Fortunately the scale says I stayed the same weight! I was fully expecting it to jump 5 lbs. I'm going to try and go for a nice long bike ride today. I haven't rode in many days.

We've had similar weather, that seems to change drastically within minutes. Fortunately, today is sunny! I don't know exactly how warm it is, though. 😉 Motivating myself to do much of anything these days is getting harder and harder. Glad your Fitbit is helping to keep you accountable!

It's raining here today, but I'll still get out for a couple walks. I'll keep up with my regular stretch, strength and push-up exercises as well.

Great job getting the painting nearly done. Better to have more paint than too little for outdoor surfaces, where the sun and rain will still be working away despite the lockdown. Enjoy your bucket-carry work-outs! 5 gal buckets are pretty huge. The minestrone soup sounds delicious! I'll have to try making some. My family aren't much into soup, so I usually end up eating it all myself. I love soup, though. 😊

Our golf courses are all closed, but I don't think they'd be open now anyway. Congratulations on the side crow!! The garden video sounds like an excellent idea! I hope the sale goes through.

Great job figuring out how vital the head position is to balance! The head weighs so much more than we expect. Keeping my head forward really helped my balance in so many things, like ice skating, gymnastics, and various martial arts movements. Quick question sort of exercise related; are all the golf courses closed in your area? I was wondering whether they would allow individuals to play, or whether they shut everything down because of social distancing and it being a non-essential activity. I'm sure that there are many sad golfers waiting for the chance to get out and play.

It was a pretty full day. Went for 2 walks through the neighbourhood, walking through as many wooded areas as possible. Enjoyed seeing and/or hearing the various birds, ducks, geese and squirrels. I missed my furry walking buddy, though. I hope his limp disappears quickly and he can join me again soon for our walks. I also did some more trim painting, furniture moving, vacuuming and other house chores. I did my morning stretches, strength and push-up routine. I'll go do a little night time relaxing yoga.

I have some Jamie Oliver knives I bought at the grocery store in a promotion. They weren't expensive and I really like them. I even have a Jamie Oliver cookbook, which has some really great recipes. In the book I have, there is no special veggie chopping required or even recommended. The recipes are all meant to be easy for people of any skill/experience level to achieve success. I've watched several different TV series of Jamie Oliver, and I like his message that cooking your own health and delicious food doesn't have to be difficult and doesn't require a lot of expensive tools or ingredients. If you feel like you could benefit from new knives, then go for it. I sliced myself plenty with my Jamie Oliver knives until I got way more respectful of their sharpness. They have dulled down a lot over the years, and I don't sharpen them.

Yes, the balance point would be key. What do you do if you start tipping over and fall on your face? Ouch! 😄

@IvyInFlorida What an amazing roller coaster ride you've been on. So happy you are feeling better physically, and that all is well with the baby. Thanks for posting the photo!! @FarmingMomma That is a lot of mama cows! Hope all is going well with all the mamas and the calves. How long will you keep the calves? The exercise program does sound really fun. It's awesome your ds is doing it, too! @soror Great job with all your painting!! It is so satisfying to see the finish line. We ran out of paint and our Home Depot isn't selling tinted paint right now. So we are in holding pattern for painting and moving on to the basement renos and the backyard. @Laura Corin All the best mastering the side crow pose. I had to look it up on-line and it looks pretty challenging. I could see where having short, light-weight legs would be an advantage. Something like a puppet body would work. 😄 I had a great 2 hour walk with the dog and a friend yesterday. It really tired me out, and I didn't end up doing dog walk #2. That was a good thing, though, as the dog was limping last night. He's a little better this morning. I'm not sure if it was the walk or his giant leap out of the car afterwards. He jumps like a deer. So I will have to rest him for a few days, which he won't like much. Otherwise, I'm trucking along with the push-ups, restorative yoga, and my personally developed 'Rationed Snacks Weight Maintenance Program.' It is inspired by packed lunches, where you can't keep eating because the baggies are empty. The tough part is trying to forget that there is actually more food in the cupboard right beside the computer. 😂

If you had included wiping the kitchen counter, that would have been my first priority. That's not 'dusting' though, right? There's never enough time for dust to be noticed under all the other stuff left there with 3 teen boys and a husband around all day everyday! 😉

Wow! That is amazing news!! So happy for you all. 😊

I just successfully completed 40 push-ups!! One set of 30 + one set of 10, with a little stretch break between. It felt pretty good. My neck has been quite sore. It could have started with my ceiling painting, and not helped by me trying the 'bridge' pose. I think it just caused too much tension in the muscles. I've been using a heating pad and it helps a lot. I'm going for another walk with a friend this afternoon. We're walking on a trail that used to be a railroad track, so it's nice and wide and easy to maintain our correct distance. 😉

Happy Birthday to your dd!!! Teen-ager at last! 😊 Enjoy your yoga and push-ups!

I just watched a really nice interview of the family telling about making the video. What a sweet family!