Well-trained bodies - September

[wintermom]

@Jenny in Florida Glad you aren't flooded out. Hope you stay stafe!

I took the puppy for a long walk this evening, but otherwise no real exercise as it was a very busy work day. Tomorrow I hope to walk with friends. Then I have 4 days of tennis! 

[Harriet Vane]

Such a crazy day. Between appointments and errands I was out quite a bit. I meet on Wednesdays with an ESL conversation partner and on the spur of the moment invited her to come to my house this time. That meant a big tidy up. I am moving carefully these days due to the pinched nerve, so I ended up counting the tidy up as all the effort needed today. I've also done some of the PT basics.

[heartlikealion]

@Jenny in Florida the course I’m focused on the most is the Adobe Illustrator one. 
https://www.udemy.com/course/illustrator-cc-masterclass/

I will probably need to go to the library (not the closest one to my house but another) to access the program for the exercises. So far I’ve been watching and doing the quizzes. I might just buy a one month subscription to have it at home. 

I researched getting the certifications but it is more involved than I thought. $150 per course plus sitting fee ($37) at the college that has the testing facility. On the Udemy quizzes I take sometimes they ask “how do you get to this tool” and I think oh brother I might fumble around looking for it (ones that aren’t easily accessible from the tool bar) but it doesn’t mean I can’t use the program. So now I’m stressed that half the $150 test would be stupid questions and I’d screw up. 

I hope you are safe where you are. 
 

@Harriet Vane what language? Is it their native language? That’s so cool. If it wasn’t a hardship for me to go I wanted to volunteer at a church where they do ESL classes for kids. 

————

Time got away from me this morning and I ended up going straight to the computer to respond to work emails. I didn’t get on the exercise bike til late tonight. I also saw my neighbor outside and we chatted for while so I didn’t come inside til later than I planned. Once I got inside I painted that second coat around the blinds in the kitchen before getting on the bike and watching Udemy stuff. 

[Soror]

@Jenny in Florida thinking of you.

----------------------------

Tuesday-- Upper body strength and pickleball in the afternoon

Wednesday--- lower body strength

Today-- yoga or hiit and pickleball

I've not been getting in walks between busy afternoons/evenings and not great sleep which screws up my morning and leaves no energy for when I do have time. My sleep is improved over last week when it was hormonal disruption plus allergies but the cumulative effect is dragging me down. I hate that the weather is so nice but I feel crappy. Which then makes it harder to eat well.  

/whining off

On the ya side they have started scheduling twice a week pickleball again and at times I should be able to go to. YA! I'll actually be playing 4 times this week --- twice with group and twice with girls. 

Dd finished her tennis season with another win. Now she's decided she's going to do swimming. I'm glad for her putting herself out there and trying new things.  But I'm nervous about the schedule. They have twice a days at least some of the time and a 3-4 month season (no public transportation here-- school is only 15 minutes from my house but the pool nearly 30). It is supposed to be fairly intense whereas our tennis team is fairly laid back. I hope it is a good experience for her. It is so nice they have sports where kids can join without experience and also a wider variety than what I had growing up. I always enjoyed being active but we only had basketball, softball, and cheerleading. Looks like I'll be getting a membership to the pool again and we'll be spending more time there. It's not much more to get a family membership vs the individual one I have to get for dd so I might as well. It is a good thing to have in the winter anyway.

[heartlikealion]

Went for a walk this morning. According to my pedometer I walked 45 min/a little over 5k. 

I found my exercise journal but it wasn't up-to-date. Based on facebook posts in the exercise group and this thread, I can estimate I did phase 2/week 1 and at least 2 exercises from phase 2 week 2. There's an A, B, and C. So I may have left off on B, but I did A this week. I figure if I do 2 more days of phase 2 I might just call it good before moving to phase 3. I'm going to see if I can hang in there. 

Dang job interfering with my exercise lol. 

[Ali in OR]

It was back to school night last night so I was at school for over 12 hours. Teachers are all very tired. There was a 2 hour break between the end of school and the start of parent night but we had lots to do to be ready for today. Anyway, I skipped the dumbbell workout this morning and did Yoga for when you feel dead inside.

[wintermom]

@Soror That's really nice with the pickleball frequency. You should notice huge improvements in your shots, if you haven't already.  I hear ya with adapting to school sports schedules! My ds16 made the senior volleyball team, so the practices and games will require some extra driving. On the plus side - he didn't make the community competitive team, which would have been a TON of driving as well as weekend tournaments. He wasn't too disappointed, as he realized his life would have been crazy busy.

---------------

It looks like my walk with friends will happen this afternoon, and we should get sun and warmish weather! 

I'm also trying to intentionally add in more stretching to my day. I haven't made it to actually taking 20 minutes to focus on a full-body routine yet, though. I'm working up to it! 😅

[Jenny in Florida]

@wintermom and @Soror - Thanks for the good thoughts. We're fine so far, and in theory the worst of it will be passing for us this morning. We have a good-sized water stain on the ceiling in one room, but no other issues we're found yet. Our power flickered a few times last night but never went out for any length of time. On the power/internet front, we're probably not in the clear yet, since flooding in other areas of Central Florida could still make trouble for all of us. So far, though, we're still here and entirely safe.

@heartlikealion I used to teach some introductory classes on Adobe products when I worked at the library. I would imagine they would be tough to really learn without access to the program. When I did the Coursera graphic design certificate this past summer, I was able to pay for just a couple of months of Adobe subscription to get me through the courses. It was well worth it for me. I hope you're enjoying the course, in any case!

[Jenny in Florida]

@Ali in OR - How are your family members faring in the storm? Hope everyone is safe.

 

Given the storm conditions last night, I was not able to get outside to walk. I ended up riding the stationary bike for a little over an hour to clock my steps.

Still storming this morning, so I did a 20-minute walking/cardio video, followed by a 20-minute seated upper body video and then a little over 20 minutes on the stationary bike. It leaves me a lot lighter on steps than I would be after a normal morning walk, but the variety was nice. I'll figure out a way to make up the steps later.

 

Fall Frenzy 2022 Challenge: 346.9 of 600K
Walking Streak: 150 days

[heartlikealion]

@Jenny in Florida I can open his exercise files on my computer using Affinity Designer, but the tools are different so I will probably buy a month of the program. 

Many people have complained in the comment section that his class has the current year but is using an older version. He apparently added some updates at the end of the course, but I don't know how much will be different. Ugh so annoying. I bought the course because it said 2022 but he filmed it with 2018 CC. 

[Harriet Vane]

11 hours ago, heartlikealion said:

@Harriet Vane what language? Is it their native language? That’s so cool. If it wasn’t a hardship for me to go I wanted to volunteer at a church where they do ESL classes for kids. 

My current ESL partner is Mexican, but I have also worked with Thai students quite a bit. I do not speak either Spanish or Thai. 😂 My Mexican conversation partner moved here for her husband's amazing job opportunity (he's a scientist), so she's trying to learn English for day-to-day stuff. I was matched to her through a local organization that I volunteer with. It's worked out beautifully, as she and I get along really well and it quickly became a genuine friendship. 

[73349]

September in review, other than today and tomorrow:

I continued my exercise streak. On eleven days, I surpassed 20 minutes.

I continued using Daily Step Tracker (app) to try to increase my steps per day. I started with an average of 3.2K (week of Aug. 22) and have advanced to 4.3 (last week). I'm at 5.9 for this week so far, but will have fewer daily steps for the rest of the week. On ten days, I surpassed 6k steps, which is what I'd like to work up to doing nearly every day.

Other maintenance: dentist appointment earlier in the month; eye appointment today; Covid bivalent booster tomorrow. My GYN has been pestering via email, but I'm waiting a bit on that one. Every day except one since I started tracking on Sept. 4, I've met my 56-oz. water minimum. I have rainbows posted in my food app 20 days out of 28 possible so far.

Edited September 29, 2022 by 73349

[mommyoffive]

@Soror  I am joining you on the crappy sleep train.  I am really upset by it too.  I am finally at this point where all my kids sleep through the night and now I can't sleep.  I do horribly on bad sleep.

Kudos to your odd on doing tennis and now swimming.  That schedule sounds so hard.  Will you have to do all the driving?  The school doesn't transport them to the pool at all?  I was just talking about the fact that in some areas if you haven't started something by 4 or 5 then you can't get on the team when you are 11 and just want to try something new.  

@Jenny in Florida  I am so glad you survived the storm without much damage. 

 

I am getting in lots of hiking.  I doing the majority of driving for all the kid activities.  If I told you guys how much I am doing I would be so embarrassed.  Anyway the positive of it is that while I am waiting hours and hours for them everyday I hike for 2-3 hours.  I can't go home because the things are to far from our house and some places still have covid regulations so they are not letting parents in.  With all the extra exercise I really wish I could rest well at night.  Sigh.

 

[Jenny in Florida]

28 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

I am getting in lots of hiking.  I doing the majority of driving for all the kid activities.  If I told you guys how much I am doing I would be so embarrassed.  

No need to be embarrassed here (at least not in front of me). There were a few years when my kids were young teens when simply driving them around to activities was more or less the equivalent of a full-time job. We would sometimes pack up and leave as soon as they finished school for the day and not be back home until 10:00pm.

[Soror]

47 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

@Soror  I am joining you on the crappy sleep train.  I am really upset by it too.  I am finally at this point where all my kids sleep through the night and now I can't sleep.  I do horribly on bad sleep.

Kudos to your odd on doing tennis and now swimming.  That schedule sounds so hard.  Will you have to do all the driving?  The school doesn't transport them to the pool at all?  I was just talking about the fact that in some areas if you haven't started something by 4 or 5 then you can't get on the team when you are 11 and just want to try something new.  

@Jenny in Florida  I am so glad you survived the storm without much damage. 

 

I am getting in lots of hiking.  I doing the majority of driving for all the kid activities.  If I told you guys how much I am doing I would be so embarrassed.  Anyway the positive of it is that while I am waiting hours and hours for them everyday I hike for 2-3 hours.  I can't go home because the things are to far from our house and some places still have covid regulations so they are not letting parents in.  With all the extra exercise I really wish I could rest well at night.  Sigh.

 

Welcome!

School transports to meets but not to practices. I'm sure it's NBD for most we just happen to live on the edge of the district and the pool is on the other side (pool is not at school). I should have some help with transportation but how much I don't know. DD started working on finding rides as soon as she started looking into it. She has lots of friends and a growing number are driving. She thinks a neighbor is in swim and could take her some. Dh should be able to do some early morning drop offs on non college days before work then hopefully she can find a ride to the school from the pool. She gets her license in April so just a while longer. Anyway a lot is in the air now. It's annoying but nothing to do but wait for more info and then plan accordingly.

And I sympathize on the sleeping it is so annoying!!!

[Laura Corin]

@Soror @mommyoffive I'm with you on sleep. I was just getting to a solid seven hours when work hit me like a train.  The latest thing was  a new task - scheduling class tests - that had so many variables and interpersonal sensitivities that I just couldn't wrap my head around it. And I was bouncing awake at 4 again thinking about it. 

Anyway. I wrestled it to a standstill today and sent it off for someone more senior to critique, so it's off my plate.  For the first time in days I walked further than my one-mile dog walk. And I had a good yoga session. I am working on one-leg forearm planks and one-leg bridges - trying to inject challenge without increasing practice length or hurting myself. 

I am proud that my eating has been good - lean protein and veg and more veg and fruit. I've been drinking water but need to increase it.

[Harriet Vane]

@Jenny in FloridaI am so glad you made it through the storm in one piece.

 

 

Gyrotonics today, and as always, I thank God for it. I feel so much better after each session. I did two extra sessions this week and will do one extra session next week all in hopes of breaking the gridlock of this pinched nerve. The idea was also to sandwich extra sessions before and after this weekend, when I have to crisscross two states to go to two bridal showers for my soon-to-be daughter-in-law. 

I also forced myself onto the tilt table today and will do some more PT work before I head to bed. 

Tomorrow will be brutal, as I have PT at 7am. My hope is to go early and run on the elliptical first, if they will even let people in that early. 

[hshibley]

I ran 8 miles Wednesday morning and got in a strength workout. Thursday I had an early morning appointment 2 hours away so I ran 3 miles before dinner. I don’t know how people workout in the evening by that time of the day my motivation is gone. 
 

 

[Jenny in Florida]

After being stuck inside most of yesterday thanks to weather and work, I was very low on steps by the evening. I figured the whole concept of meeting my goal for the day was a lost cause, but when the weather was finally better by 8:00-ish, I decided to go for as much of a walk as I could. Since the dog is not a big fan of wind, I left her home. It turned out to be a good thing, because the sidewalks were blocked in a number of places by piles of leaves and fallen branches and similar debris. She would have hated that, especially in the dark.

Without her, though, I made decent time. The storm also cooled things off quite a bit. And it was so nice to be outside in the cool, breezy evening that I ended up walking almost enough to meet that step goal, after all. Then I paced the living room to finish off the day.

Walked (with the dog) this morning for about 4.25K and then headed to the patio for strength and stretching (accompanied by the dog and one cat). 

Assuming the internet holds (it was a little dicey last night), I have quite a bit of schoolwork to finish this weekend. My plan is to try and knock out some of that this evening after work, but I will also work in another walk or two to log the remaining steps.

 

Fall Frenzy 2022 Challenge: 356.5 of 600K
Walking Streak: 151 days

[Ali in OR]

I did the dumbbell workout that I skipped yesterday.

Dh's mom texted yesterday afternoon that they lost power but otherwise were fine. Saw on facebook that his cousin in Tampa evacuated further north. Hopefully dh will be able to do his usual Sunday Skype with his parents and get more info then.

[Soror]

@Harriet Vane so glad to hear you are feeling better

@Jenny in Florida wonderful that you have made it through the worst of it

@Laura Corin sorry to hear work has been hard

@73349 congrats on meeting your goals!

@Ali in OR that sounds like a long and exhausting day--- yoga for feeling dead inside seems like a good fit after that 🙂

@hshibley I agree I have a hard time getting in exercise if I miss it in the morning unless it is a group thing

@heartlikealion you've had a lot going on with moving and jobs, some seasons are just harder than others. And fwiw I don't care to do HIIT that much either. Usually it is once a week--- maybe twice a week. I did 2 weeks I think I did 3 but they were short sessions and that was an anomaly.

@wintermom ya for so many days of tennis! I've noticed huge strides in returns. I keep surprising myself that I'm getting some that are really hard and/or fast. Now I' get so excited I sometimes hit ones that are going out or forget to let it bounce but I had some good shots yesterday. My serves are still hit and miss. Yesterday we were playing in the wind too and I suck at adjusting for that.

This am pickleball with a friend and my younger girls. Friend is new but is doing well. Hoping she's not too frustrated playing with the girls. I had to play with the one lady who was rude to me before. Evidently she's been gone on vaca for a really long time. She's so aggressive and competitive that it makes me nervous and then I don't do as well. Sigh. But I keep showing up and playing. I show up more consistently than just about anyone else there. There was a lady yesterday talking about an indoor place to play in the next town over. She said they are welcoming to everyone. I might look into that when the weather cools down depending on the play schedule local. It would be about 40 min away and the indoor place here is about 25-- at the same place as the pool so maybe I'll be lucky and we'll have some playing when dd is swimming 🙂

And I've got to get me some shoes. The one lady jokingly gave me crap about the ones I wear because I was sliding around the court-- they're technically water shoes. So I wore my old tennis shoes yesterday but my feet ended up hurting. I just hate spending money and have had a hard time finding anything I liked. Guess I'll be looking around again today when I go to town.

Also today--- full body strength training--- 45 minutes

[mommyoffive]

18 hours ago, Jenny in Florida said:

No need to be embarrassed here (at least not in front of me). There were a few years when my kids were young teens when simply driving them around to activities was more or less the equivalent of a full-time job. We would sometimes pack up and leave as soon as they finished school for the day and not be back home until 10:00pm.

Thanks.  Yep, this is exactly my life.  A life I swore I would never do.  Oh how stupid it is to say how you are going to parent before having kids.  🙂  

[Jenny in Florida]

40 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Thanks.  Yep, this is exactly my life.  A life I swore I would never do.  Oh how stupid it is to say how you are going to parent before having kids.  🙂  

If it helps -- I actually miss those days sometimes, because all of that driving gave me so much time to spend with my kids. We sang with the radio, argued about the music on my playlists, discussed what they were doing in their activities, talked about their lives, etc. It was tiring, but also kind of great.

[Harriet Vane]

32 minutes ago, Jenny in Florida said:

If it helps -- I actually miss those days sometimes, because all of that driving gave me so much time to spend with my kids. We sang with the radio, argued about the music on my playlists, discussed what they were doing in their activities, talked about their lives, etc. It was tiring, but also kind of great.

I feel exactly the same. I really miss the discussions and hearing my son singing with the radio. 

[wintermom]

My streak of tennis matches grew when a friend needed another player early this morning - so I ended up playing twice today. 4 hrs of tennis is one day was a little too much, especially with tennis elbow creeping up. I'm playing tomorrow, Sunday and Monday as well, but only once each day. The weather is really nice for outdoor activities, which I want to take advantage of before the snow comes. 

[mommyoffive]

Only walked for 1 hour today while waiting for kids instead of the 2.5 I should have.  Spent the rest of the time reading.

[mommyoffive]

11 hours ago, Jenny in Florida said:

If it helps -- I actually miss those days sometimes, because all of that driving gave me so much time to spend with my kids. We sang with the radio, argued about the music on my playlists, discussed what they were doing in their activities, talked about their lives, etc. It was tiring, but also kind of great.

Yes, I am not a glass half full person, but I have been finding positives in it even for me.  I mean my kids have lots of positives from it.  But I am getting a lot of alone time in silence, tons of outdoor time to walk (which I wouldn't do if I was just at home), pushing myself to be outside in all the weather is making me tougher, seeing lots of beautiful parts of the state and yes all the talk time with the kids.  Obviously, we would spend the entire day together no matter what, but somehow, I think the talks in the car are just easier to have. 

[Harriet Vane]

PT first thing this morning. Since mine was a 7am appointment the elliptical was not available beforehand. I didn’t want to run after the appointment because I wanted to let the MAT adjustments and traction “settle.” I’ll have to plan ahead for the 7am appointments to go run at the gym first, which is right on the way. Even without the elliptical, though, it was a solid workout. I have been weight lifting for years and am pretty strong, so I pushed for heavier weights and a stiffer band to pull.

I also tried harder to get more of a normal day’s work in today. I overdid it and flared up the nerve. I am still glad that I actually accomplished a few things that have been languishing on my to-do list.

[Ali in OR]

Did a stress melt yoga this morning. Have much to do this weekend but I also want some time to just be and not do. We'll see if that works out.

My shoulder has been fine since I no longer write on my smartboard. My set-up with a standing desk and writing on my computer to display on the board is great for both my shoulder and for being able to see the class as I teach (I'm facing them instead of the board). My blood pressure has also been fine pretty much since I bought the home cuff. I know it was high at 2 different doctor appointments this summer. I do wonder if it was higher after Covid and just took awhile to get back to normal. I am eating more plants, but not quite as well as I was before school started.

The latest health worry is that I thought stopping birth control pills at 56 would see me safely in menopause, but apparently I landed in perimenopause. Have had to have a little testing around that but looks like my body thinks it should still be cycling and more frequently than it ever did before. This was a source of too much stress this week but I'm happy that nothing more is needed at this time. I'll check in with the doctor again in 6 months.

And now, time to get caught up on life before the work week starts again...

[Jenny in Florida]

I fit in two walks yesterday after the regular morning routine, one as a late "lunch" break and then another after I finally knocked off work. Between all three walks, I once again exceeded my goal by a good number of steps. That's nice to see, because I was doing that as a matter of course for a while and then dropped back to having to really push just to barely get there. 

Yoga at the lake was cancelled for today because there is a lot of storm-related damage at the preserve, including downed branches and other debris blocking the boardwalk leading to the class location. So, I took the opportunity to head out to a trail and complete the Gnome Roam virtual 5K. I had a route in mind, but ended up having to adjust because of a downed tree. 

No other exercise so far today. I stopped at JoAnn's crafts on the way home to get some fun fabrics to make bandanas I can use to keep my hair out of my face while I'm walking. The way I keep it cut, it's not long enough to tie back, and I get irritable having to constantly tuck it back behind my ear only to have it flop in my face again. Plus, when it's drizzly or humid, my hair expands and gets frizzy and uncontrollable. I've tried headbands, but haven't found one that stays in place. So, we'll try this. (Plus, it allows me to match the bandana to the leggings I buy to match each race theme. I don't do costumes, but this lets me feel like I'm getting in the spirit of the thing without going all out.)

I have a ton of schoolwork to do this weekend, so we'll see how I do with steps and other exercise. One of the reasons I allowed myself the JoAnn's outing today is that I knew I would be distracted by the idea until I gave in and went. The hope is that, now that it's done, I'll be able to focus on getting these assignments completed.

 

Fall Frenzy 2022 Challenge: 367.6 of 600K
Walking Streak: 152 days

[heartlikealion]

@Jenny in Florida I’m glad you’re ok. Wow that’s a huge road block. 

This morning I drove an hour to play pickleball. Got there at 8:30 and played a little over an hour. Met new people.

I wanted to get my ID for the new YMCA membership that took effect today. Same town as the pickleball court. They gave me my keychain with barcode. I tried a couple strength training machines but some are just too hard and 10lbs is the lowest weight. I did 30 min on the treadmill. My foot started bothering me. Stupid arch. 

Two different employees told me different things. One said the indoor pool (at another location) is not open because of repairs. The other lady said it’s definitely open; they have classes. But the therapy pool is closed. I will just call ahead before I try the pool lol I wonder if I can find discounted swim shoes this time of year. 

I thought of stopping at the library on the way home but I’m gross and want to shower. Getting a few items at the store then going home. Steps are over 9k right now. 

[hshibley]

I ran a little over 12 miles this morning with my run group. The weather was gorgeous and it’s always nice running with company. 

[heartlikealion]

I ended up ordering two pairs of swim shoes (one for me, one for dd) in anticipation of next weekend. Hopefully we can go swimming. 

[Laura Corin]

October thread here