Yesterday- full-body strength + mobility- 9 mile hike/walk Today- mobility + walk - I think that's it for today.

I'm sad to hear this. Prayers of comfort for their family.

I hit 100 hours today (plus another 1.5). 10% down🥳

I was about to say something similar. Of course, it isn't all choices. It is some luck and some good fortune as well health, FOO, capabilities, timing etc. However, with the people making comments it is not ones that truly can't afford it it's ones that choose not to but don't own that. That's why I mentioned the fact the most vocal critic was one that was spending all sorts of money, on different things. With dh's coworkers that he is with the most he's on the bottom salary wise because his lack of degree.

How insensitive! Good for you for standing up for yourself. Yes, I say that all the time with budgeting I don't have enough to spend on all the things so I pick and choose and prioritize. --------------------------------- Dh had an aha moment when his Dad passed IRT travel. His Dad had always wanted to see the Grand Canyon but for whatever reason it never happened. Dh would have liked to take him but of course, when things get to that point travel is difficult and MIL would have thrown a fit. 6 months or so after his Dad passed I told dh we needed to finally do a trip overseas. We really wanted to when we were around our 5th anniversary but I got pregnant and we played it safe and put aside cash. Another time we could have but again played it safe and conservative and didn't. I said it's time. For months he didn't believe me that we could pull it off. I researched and planned and schemed and finally got him to believe me and he joined in on the planning. Then a couple of years after that I told him that I wanted to take all the kids. Again he didn't believe me but we pulled it off. I only have regrets about the trips we didn't take, not of the ones we did.

Well played ! True, true! Enjoy your trip! I love spreadsheets but alas dh is not a fan 🙂 I still use them for goals but we use YNAB for budgeting. My parents get anxious about travel but are supportive. I'd say transportation is a need but a new car is not a need. For some, they find it a worthwhile use of their money and get great enjoyment out of it. Dh and I are not those people! This is my mil. When her brother and wife went on a 3-month trip she was very sour about it and made so many comments. The fact is she has much more money than they do but chooses not to spend it on travel. I can't ever figure her out.

Musings on peoples comments and reactions... rant and maybe a JAWM... people spend their money how they want and live with the choices! Dh and I have a 2 week vaca to Scotland planned for May. It is our 25th anniversary year and he's graduating college. Woot! The things some people say is ... something. Oh, you must be rich. I could never afford that. Then there are the comments that imply that we are being frivolous. Ironically the guy who would give dh the most grief about how lucky he was had 2 new cars and upgraded his house twice within a few years time and was also bragging about his spendy meals out. Now, if we wanted all of those things we couldn't afford trips. It's just different priorities and preferences. I don't care for a big, fancy house. That's just more to clean. I have never bought a new car and don't want one. I replaced my 17 year old van 2 years ago with a 4 year old car- the cost difference between the car I bought and a new car was enough to send my family of 6 to Europe for 3 weeks. I know that becasue with used prices up I considered a new one but I couldn't bring myself to spend that much and kept shopping until I found one for a price I wanted to pay. To plenty of people that would be silly as a car is something you drive every day. I thought after the fact I should have went for one even older and done another trip 🙂 I just find it a bit funny that if we bought new cars or a bigger house or upgraded my furniture (all of mine was bought used except my Ikea living room set and department store recliner) it would seen as perfectly normal thing to do but instead spending money on trips and its frivolous. Then when dh tells them how we cheaply vacation(no checked bags, cooking most of our meals, laundering our clothes etc) they say oh we couldn't do that either. To us seeing places is worth doing it on the cheap as we have limited funds. I use credit card rewards to make those stretch even further.

Oh no! Do you have moleskin there? Here's hoping it is healed before your trip. It sounds like you've got your money's worth out of those boots. ----------------------------- Weekly wrap-up: 18 hrs exercise (no wonder I was absolutely starving by Friday!); average- 17,5xx steps per day- low of 12k and high of 25k Outside time- I think around 10? I was very busy and the weather was a bit icky so not as much. 3 full body strength sessions; mobility of some sort every day - 30 min session on 2 days- at least 10 minutes on strength days pickleball- 3 times- 2.5 hours; 1 + hour, 1.5 hr

We had one like this until we accidentally killed it. I can't remember exactly how. Maybe dropped it one too many times. Now we have some generic one I got at a yard sale for $5 that I already had on hand. It sounds slightly different. Dh swore he was going to replace it with one like our old model but we adjusted. We use brown noise from an app on our phone when traveling but I don't like it as much. It sounds a bit hollow. I don't mind a fan in the summer but I can't stand one if it's cool at all, even if it's not blowing on me.

No walk yesterday but I did get 1.5 hours of pickleball outside. I ended the day with 2.5 hours outside time and right at 12,000 steps Today: Longer mobility (30 minutes) in the am and a short session in the evening + a morning walk We've got a cold front coming with possible winter weather so that's probably it for today.

Some days are like that! Im not a fan of walking with the cold wind blowing in my face! _------____ 30 minutes of mobility yesterday 3 mile am walk+ 4 mile hike in the evening for Vday- an easy pace for both. Today's plan is strength, mobility and walk. Pickleball this afternoon.

🤔 I was out of it it when I first started on gabapentin. I felt like I adjusted to it after a little while but now that I've been off it awhile I feel a lot more with it and have way more energy. I feel like myself again. Now, I'm wondering if I wasn't as adjusted to it as I thought??? Now I'm just dealing with stupid hormones and a bit of residual issues with my hip.

I'm not an expert but I'd say if you can't do the stretches your mobility is not what it needs to be. The lady I recommended has one video with alternatives that could be helpful and often mentions modifications in other videos: ID also say that the reason you are hearing different recommendations is that we're all different but these things are interrelated. Most of us sit too much causing tightnes and weaknesses in various areas. As women it is also common for us to have weak core from pregnancy. However, we all have different mechanics and lifestyles. When I started having sciatica issues hamstring stretches and rest are what PT recommended. This was pretty well worthless to me, if anything it set me back. I needed stretching in my hip flexors primarily and slow walking. My core is not too bad as I've done a lot of targeted work on DR and building strength so id say it's not a primary issue for me but I continue to work on building this strength. Ideally if you try PT you have one that can pinpoint your particular issues and target your therapy effectively. I recently read Built to Move Built to Move: The Ten Essential Habits to Help You Move Freely and Live Fully https://a.co/d/3QYbZJa I found it helpful, especially for assessment. He has a lot of descriptions of modifications for no matter your level. I got it from the library ILL. Sorry for the multiple links I can't get rid of them!

Yesterday - ended with 21k steps and 2.5 hours outside strength training and mobility 40 minutes total and more mobility before bed 2 mile walk in the am and about 2.5 in the evening 1 hour + pickleball- Today - longer mobility + foam rolling session and some walking I've found that it's not just tightness in my right hip flexor but also the IT band. Foam rolling is helping that. Im doing some rolling on the hip flexor but it responds to the stretching better.

Our anniversary is actually in July but our last 2 big trips we did in May because it is cheaper to travel. I say celebrate it whenever works best for your schedule.

We've done something biggish every 5 year anniversary except our 15th. Our 5th we got remarried in the Catholic Church (we are converts). On our 10th we did a 10-mile hike with the kiddos in tow. On our 20th we did a 1.5 week vacation to London, Rome, and Ireland. This year for our 25th we have planned a trip to Scotland. Last year we did an overnight to a city about 3 hours away. We used reward points and kept it on the cheap. My go-to cheaper date night is to buy something fancy, cook it ourselves, and send the kids away.

I feel your pain. It stinks! Yes, feeling good is a great motivation. Great job on the walks and hike. _----------- I did mobility work and then 2.5 hours of pickleball. Only 15 minutes outside and a bit if walking since weather was icky. In other good news Im not completely terrible at pickleball now. I have been the worst player every time I go (even if there were newbies. Most would give up if they have my lack of athleticism!)since I started but yesterday I was better than a couple! I can hang in there ok with most of the players now. I'm not as good but can return a lot more shots than I could and it's pretty rare I fumble a serve. I'm also not letting the nerves get to me as bad. Since I'm able to run again I sprint after balls when they go off. I got my heart rate up plenty and ended the day with 18+k steps. Today; Full body strength and mobility I think I can get in pickleball too and will probably get at least one walk.

I don't recall what model I had. I finally donated them a few months back.

Good info about stretching. However, my experience with Brooks is that the toe box was very narrow and they did hurt my feet and I have a narrow foot. Maybe other models are better? I have some New Balance they aren't tight on my toes but not good for walking because the design of the heel makes them slip, which leads to poor mechanics. They are fine for short distances but not longer walks.

Id add that if you go to a zero drop you will probably need to ease into them. You can find lots of info about this. I wore zero drop for years then wore regular shoes and now am back to zero drop Altras. I love the Altras. So much room for my toes! In addition I'd put a plug in for mobility work. Nearly a year into my terrible sciatica I discovered that stretching out the opposite side hip flexor makes a huge difference in how my body feels. I do this every day and usually add on various other mobility moves, especially focused on my hips. Nourish, Move, Love has a few different ones that I like- the newer ones are the best but all our good.

I had planned to do some cooking classes last year but I ended up getting a job and that got pushed aside. We don't have any in-person here so I'd started to pursue some online options but didn't find any that I loved. I was last considering Master Class as they have several sessions from different chefs. While dh thinks I'm some chef I know that I have so much to learn and would love to increase my skill and competency.

I did not do any HIIT Saturday but I did get in some mobility and a walk with dh ending with a bit over 14k steps for the day. Yesterday morning I did full body strength (40 min) a longer walk (6ish miles) and a shorter walk (1.5 ish) along with mobility work (before my workout and in the evening). I ended yesterday with 25k steps and dh had 30k. He finally got in his Fitbit (health promotion at work he ordered it in December) and he's enjoying watching his steps and heart points rack up. He had to go to work yesterday so was ahead of me when we started our walks. He fell out of the habit of walking with me for a week or two due to weather and homework but we've got back with it this week. We're both anxious to get our endurance up ahead of our Scotland vaca as we have lots and lots of hikes planned. I don't think any of them will be too difficult but doing them back to back will tax us more than we are used to right now. I finally got dh agree to order some trail runners. He's been wearing some cheapo shoes or his heavy waterproof boots and he feels a lot of foot fatigue when we get in more steps. Ladies!!! I did a couple of sprints UPHILL yesterday! You know I couldn't even run at all for a long time and my speed uphills has been slightly faster than a turtle. I'm still not at 100% but closer all the time. I'm just so excited to be able to be more active. This last year has been hard. I know I whined terribly about it. Dh told me yesterday that he is going to miss me being injured as he was working hard to keep up with me. (I did ask him if he wanted me to slow down but as we were in a bit of a rush to finish our walk he did not). We tried a different route yesterday from the house. I've only walked a small portion of it before and dh hadn't been on it in 30 years. It had a section with some pretty steep hills so it was a good training and one we will repeat. I'm not sleeping well at all. (thus why I'm posting in the middle of the night!). I'm not 100% sure why. Ever changing hormones? Increased exercise----> increased cortisol? I'm not eating enough for increased activity? I'm working on increasing my intake to match my activity level without going too crazy. It's a WIP. Who knows. Also, I don't think we will do the mountain 'race' we had planned in May. It is only 3 days before we leave for vaca. Dd1 has prom that day and it costs $300. We had planned to use some Christmas money to fund it but are both upgrading some hiking gear instead. I really like the idea of doing it but it doesn't make sense on a practical level.

Urgh! It's miserable when you take something to help with pain and then end up incapacitated. Great job on the exercise! I'm glad to hear you're able to do more. I'm happy to hear you're feeling better. I've been trying to make sure I do my mobility work while I watch tv. I need to throw some balance work in too, thanks for the idea.

We've had some good weather too. I've got in some pickleball last week but it was inside. I'm hoping we have some outside play time coming up!

This week for me: 3 x strength training 40 minutes (warm up and cool down included) 2x pickleball- a bit over an hour each time Mobility every day Step goals- 6/7 (technically I haven't met my goal yet today but I will) I'm not sure how many walks. My watch says I'm at 10.5 hours of exercise this week and I still have today left. My average step count has been 14,000 this week but I had one day with just 6500 steps, one with 19,000, another 27000, and the rest around 10,000. On Tuesday I had 3 walks, an hour of pickleball, and 40 minutes of strength training. I ended the day with 19,000 steps and the next day I felt pretty tired so I only had 6500. Yesterday I had 3 walks but just mobilty in the am and no pickleball so I'm not as fatigued today. I'm just getting back to a heavier exercise schedule and I'm still adjusting. I want to add in some higher-intensity cardio one day a week. I'm thinking I'll try just 10-15 minutes to start since I've not really done that since my injury a year ago. Today's plans- walks at some point?? dh and I are supposed to walk later and dd2 says she wants to walk- maybe a short HIIT session? Trying to muster the motivation- it's just 10 minutes, right? Mobility