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End of the line
Over a decade ago, the Scientist was diagnosed with sleep apnea and was fitted out with a mask and a CPAP machine. While he’s had to replace masks a few times, the machine itself has lasted this entire time. Until now, that is…over the past week or so, it has taken a bit of work to get it going and last night all attempts at operating it failed. I think most CPAPs only last about five years on average so he got good value from the machine. The Scientist didn’t get a good sleep last night and I must admit it was a bit less than optimal for me. I’ve been rather accustomed to the white noise for the machine and it was so very quiet last night. It was also unusual not to have that draft of air from the mask. I guess it’s a bit like when city people go from the noise of the city to the quiet of some isolated place. Â I’m hopeful the Scientist will be able to get another machine today but the sticky part is Game Fanatic has an appointment this afternoon. We will see what happens…
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Up late
Despite my efforts, I don’t seem to be able to get to bed very early these days. I’ve just spent a bit of time going through some of my recent photos to weed out bad ones and do a bit of work on some others. I also managed to upload some to Flickr today. I have quite a few more to upload but I’m still getting my head around the interface for uploads on Photoshop Elements (plus editing details on the website). Those will have to wait until I get the motivation to get more done. It was a bit tricky working without the right mouse button. I have a trackball that does work fully but it’s so uncomfortable that I am avoiding it and just using the broken trackball for what it can do.
I got to the gym this evening after procrastinating for quite a long time. It was probably a good idea since I think I hate a few too many air fried chips for dinner. I did my whole workout on the spin bike by doing the video class and then adding extra time to it. I had to take it easy through the workout as my knees were both sore from something stupid I did yesterday. I was walking the dogs and thought I’d try to run/jog a bit with them as I realised I can now run a short distance if required. I only jogged 20-30 seconds but both my knees were feeling wobbly afterwards. I think I’ll just avoid the jog/run thing altogether except for emergencies.
I think it’s time to end this nothing post and get myself to bed.
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Flashback to my youth
As I’m now 48 years old, I know that menopause is likely in the relatively near future. If I am lucky/unlucky (depending on how you look at it) it may still be another five or six years. At the moment, my cycles are still relatively regular. Some cycles are shorter and some are longer but they still average out. Hot flashes haven’t entered the equation yet so I wonder if I might be lucky enough to avoid them. Mood changes haven’t been a big issue, cyclically. At least not like they were in my younger days. I used to have a lot of mood swings premenstrually and that hasn’t happened that much in recent years. In fact it often surprises me when it does. I think the Scientist is grateful for that improvement. Â During my teens I had some pretty bad dysmenorrhea for several years, enough that I was put onto motrin, which was prescription-only at the time. I think this got better into my 20s and was reasonably bearable after having kids. Most of the time I can manage quite well so long as I medicate before pain becomes too bad and even some of the worst months are nothing compared to what I used to experience.
I had forgotten how bad the cramps were in the early days. I mean, I have forgotten how really bad it felt. I don’t think I’ve had pain like that in 30 years. Yesterday my period started and I took my usual pain medications at the first signs of cramps. When I got up this morning I felt quite fine and continued the same until early afternoon when that old familiar feeling hit me like a brick. I medicated a bit too late and it didn’t break the pain at all and I had to take an extra tablet and wait to see what effect that had. The medication eventually did kick in hours later but what a shock to have those early days brought back to me so vividly.
Which brings me back to this menopause that my body is moving towards year by year. My theory is this is part of that process and I might expect more of the same in future cycles. I think it might be a good idea to stock up on medication for the future so as not to be left unprepared.
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Desk chairs
Just over a year ago when I had my knee surgery, the Scientist bought a cheap plastic garden chair for me to use in the shower. I only needed it for a few weeks and expected to move it outside afterwards. About the same time, the old desk chair that was handed down to Games Lover from me a few years ago finally broke in a way that couldn’t be repaired. I’d only recently replaced my own desk chair with one from a chain office supply store but gave that to Game Fanatic and used the garden chair as a temporary fix until we could buy another one for me. Months later I was still using the garden chair and had an accident where it tipped back while I was sitting down and I landed on it, causing some muscle pains that still recur regularly. I continued to use that garden chair and Game Fanatic started to wear down my old (new) chair. The truth was he was too heavy for it so it was bound to break. I need to sit on it last night to do something on his computer and realised the claims he was making of it breaking were getting quite serious.
Today we went out in search of a new chair for him. We started at the same chain store we bought my last chair from and found little of interest. He wanted a cloth upholstery and I wanted to avoid vinyl…They did have a leather chair but it was quite expensive. I recalled seeing an office furniture store somewhere nearby and finally visited it. We found several potential chairs and they were more reasonably priced than expected. Game Fanatic chose a chair and I tried it out. I liked it so well that I bought two, in different colors. The hope is for both chairs to last a few years instead of falling apart so easily as some of the recent ones. It feels weird to sit in a proper chair after all this time but I like the new feeling and I think my body will be happy for it too.
This afternoon I gave Game Fanatic a hair cut. I don’t think it’s been cut in over a year and it was quite long and straggly. While I’m no good at cutting hair, it does look a lot better now and the once hidden face can be seen. Our next goal is to persuade him to either shave or at least trim his facial hair as it’s making his face look rather top heavy after losing all the hair on his head.
And tonight I went to tai chi class and finished the last of the jade lady moves that plagued me several levels ago. We learned them the first time in level three and in level six we do them again in the opposite direction. I think I’m doing okay with them this time. This is the first of several moves that are mirrored from moves in earlier levels. I was rather nervous about doing them before but I think I’m feeling more confident now and now am getting nervous about moving to the advanced class next term…also a bit excited though. :D
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Fitness update
It’s now been nearly eight months since I started going to the gym and I’ve lost just under 9kgs now. It’s certainly not going quickly but at least it is shifting. It’s funny that I bought a pair of 3/4 length black denim pants last month to wear to the Neil Finn/Paul Kelly concert and it is already getting rather loose around my waist. I think I may find it more difficult with the cooler weather as almost all my clothes for winter are larger sized…I am going to try to manage with only a few new additions as I don’t want to invest too much in clothes I plan not to fit next winter.
The exercise is mostly going okay although I seem to have a bit of an injury to my calf muscles at the moment. Yesterday I was using the glutes machine (you stand over the machine and push back a pedal with one of your feet to lift the weight) and was finding it quite uncomfortable to do the weight I’ve been using for a while. My calf muscles were a bit sore beforehand but I suspect this might have pushed me over the edge. The unfortunate part is I have a tai chi workshop in the morning and I’m worried it’s going to be painful to work on the moves I need to focus on. It isn’t painful with every step so I’m hopeful resting today will allow me to feel okay in the morning.
I’m continuing to mix up my workouts every so often to keep from getting bored with exercise and it seems to work for the most part. I backed off from rowing workouts due because it almost always exacerbate my shoulder pains. But i tried it out again a couple days ago and it felt pretty good. I probably just need to keep the times shorter than I’d been doing to keep on track. I also tried out a step class I hadn’t done before and it was mostly okay. I didn’t stick it out for the full class because I got rather mentally exhausted trying to keep up with the choreography but will go back to it at some point to try again. I also tried a bit of a boxing class yesterday just to see if I could do it…again it was a matter of the moves overwhelming me so I quite after about ten minutes. I had tried a shorter class before but didn’t find it gave me much of a workout…this one seems like it might do a lot better if I can learn enough to get through the class. I’ve found the classes can be a sort of challenge to overcome so taking little steps will hopefully allow me to reach my goal.
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Random stuff
I’m due to donate blood again tomorrow with a full blood donation. It actually seems a long time now since my plasma donation in February, which seems to be a good thing, I think. Maybe I will increase my plasma donations since I am feeling okay about it. I did manage to get through gym workouts yesterday (just) and today (comfortably) so I will be taking tomorrow off while I give blood. I’ve also decided to do cardio workouts only for a few days to give my body a bit more time to recover from all the new workouts I’ve been trying.
My tai chi class finished for this term this evening and I will be on to level six next term. As I was telling the Scientist, it feels really great to feel up to speed on the moves at the end of term for a change. Usually it takes until well into the following term before I start to get a real handle on new moves. Next term will be mostly moves I know but will be done on the opposite side. I imagine this will be a big challenge for me, particularly because there are a lot more moves to work on each week this time. But there are a few new moves to look forward to and at the end of next term I’ll be done with level six…which means I will know all the moves in the tai chi set (108 ). I went to re-enroll for next term online and my usual location says it’s sold out of spaces. I find this rather difficult to believe as there aren’t that many people attending regularly right now so surely there is still space. I also wanted to do a workshop focusing on level four and that wasn’t available at all in my choices. I sent an email to the owner and she has already replied saying she was going to rectify the problems and to try again tomorrow.
There are appointments to take Game Fanatic to this week on two afternoons. We see his clinical psychologist on Wednesday and it’s on to the psychiatrist he saw last month to continue the assessment for autism. I was a bit perplexed last time we saw the clinical psych as he seemed concerned about fitting GF into the current criteria for autism due to the fact he had no language delays. The language criteria in place currently does not require a delay but does require one or two other criteria to be met. Lego Lover was diagnosed without a language delay so I don’t see the issue. Apparently the new criteria, which goes into effect with the new DSM V next month, isn’t a problem for diagnosis…Since it’s likely to take that long to reach the conclusion of this process, I suppose it doesn’t matter in the long run.
We seem to be in a bit of an autumn heatwave right now. Today the temperature unexpectedly reached 37.6 locally which is somewhere close to the 100F. Apparently the heat will continue through the week. Just when we thought the new air conditioner will start being run less regularly, we are getting a full test of it’s ability to cool the house in summer conditions. Not to mention higher electricity bills…
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Past the one year mark
It seems like such a long time ago now but on Thursday, it was a year ago that I had my knee surgery. My knee isn’t totally healed yet but I suppose it’s starting to get close to its maximum. I believe it could take a few months still to reach that point but if I’ve kept patience (sometimes) over the last year, I surely could stick with it a few months longer. One of the odd things I’ve noticed lately is that it’s as likely to be my right knee causing me trouble as my left…which probably is a decent indicator of improvement…assuming that’s it’s not my right knee getting worse…but I’m sure my left knee is improving.
I thought I’d have more to say about this anniversary of sorts but I don’t. At the moment my whole body is sore. I’ve been trying some different workouts at the gym the past few days and my body isn’t too happy about it. I’m due to donate blood on Tuesday and I planned to switch my break day from Monday to Tuesday. It seems possible my body is going to tell me otherwise…Hopefully it will all feel better in the morning and I will just it easy for a few days instead of trying too many new things and working more muscles that have been dormant. Honestly I had no idea there were so many different muscles that could be worked, especially on the bikes.
It’s midnight and I’m rambling so might leave it there. Just didn’t want to forget to make not of this milestone.
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Fitness update
The gym continues to be a regular part of daily life. I missed a day a couple weeks ago when we went to Fremantle and walked everywhere but otherwise I’m there six days a week still. The Scientist has now lost about 23 kgs overall so only has a few more kilos to go before he reaches his goal. I’ve told him he needs to find some better fitting clothes as the ones he’s wearing tend to look way too baggy. My weight has gone down a little bit and it seems maybe this might become a sort of regular thing although it’s mostly tiny amounts. Overall I’m down about 6.5 kgs so I’m getting there slowly.
It’s now been eleven months since my knee surgery and my knee still isn’t at the best level I’d expect it to be as yet. I will say that the knee isn’t giving way as regularly as it once did but it often feels like it might at any time. This surely is an improvement and it gives me hope that there will be a time when it doesn’t do this any more. Meanwhile my right knee is showing more obvious issues with the continued exercise and it seems possible I will need to have it fixed at some point in the future. I hope to avoid that for at least a year or two as I’d like to be totally recovered with my left knee and also be at my ideal weight before going through this again.
I believe some of the recent improvement must be due to changes in my exercise routines. I try to change things around a lot so I don’t get into too much of a rut. Sometimes the changes are kind of forced because my shoulder/knees/back will start hurting and so I avoid exercise that aggravates that and try something different. A few weeks ago I started doing a muscle conditioning routine called Kinetics on the Fitness on Request program. The first class was 35 minutes long and included heaps of lunges and squats, exercises that I really hate and find painful. After the first class I was terribly sore for a couple of days but I did go back and tried again. I’ve since tried all the available classes, including a 50 minute class and I can sort of do most of the routine now although I still find some of the exercises quite hard to do. What I realised just this afternoon was that all those squats and lunges must be paying off because I can do a lot more without as much pain as when I started. This shift seems to have just occurred because I’ve been struggling away with them every time and wondering whether it was going to be worth all the effort…It felt like a big accomplishment. The classes also include quite a lot of abdominal work and I’ve found those muscles are a lot stronger already. My tummy doesn’t pooch out quite as much as it used to. I remember after Game Fanatic was born the midwife told me I need to tighten my abdominal muscles to get rid of the post-pregnancy pooch. I guess I had to wait until he was all grown up to get onto that issue. :D
I’ve also been doing a lot of the spin bike classes and my stamina and endurance are getting a lot better. I recently tried doing a class that includes a time trial of twenty minutes which is quite tough as it involves four periods of five minutes riding in the same position with a few seconds of break meant to allow time to check heart rate in between sessions. I’ve also noticed my legs are getting a lot stronger and I suspect if I were to get my bike serviced I might find I am considerably improved in my cycling than I was a couple of years ago. (Bike is not being used since I fell off it two or three years ago. Not afraid to ride but it didn’t feel like it was riding properly and I keep procrastinating about getting it fixed.)
I also tried out a new bike today which is an Upright Expresso bike. It looks like this and allows you to compete online and record your results with an Expresso account. I tried it out today and it was a lot of fun but hard work. Unfortunately it’s not currently connected to the internet so I wasn’t able to use the online features.
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Not much weight loss but…
It’s now been about five and a half months of exercise/improved diet/etc and my weight loss as of this weekend was again about 5 kilograms. The scales don’t tell the full story though. I went to put on a pair of shorts that were a bit tight several months ago and they are now so loose I cannot wear them as they’d surely fall off after a few steps. I think this might be due to stronger abdominal muscles as my tummy isn’t pooching so much as it has (since Game Fanatic was born, I think!).  I can now also fit into a pair of size 14 workout pants that I bought for $5 several months ago when I discovered the discount on the size 16 ones I had purchased.  They are a bit snug but I think they may fit comfortably in another month or two. Meanwhile my original workout pants are starting to look really baggy…they are comfortable but I imagine it won’t be long until they are too loose to keep wearing. Hopefully that will happen before they fall apart due to constant use. I’ve also noticed a few of my shirts are looking really loose now.  The only tightness is around the sleeves but that would be due to the muscle that has built up in my upper arms.
This is what I have to remember when the scales don’t tell me a nice story. :D
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Not sore
I woke up this morning and noticed immediately I didn’t feel that sore any more. Today was a cardio day for me so I started out with rowing and had to stop after a couple minutes as it felt like I had one of those grass seeds (like the ones that give Maromi so much trouble) inside my exercise shorts. Except it wasn’t a grass seed but a spider that had obviously got stuck and bit me in its efforts to get out. I knocked it on the floor and it disappeared before I found something to pick it up with. It didn’t look like any spider that I know to be particularly dangerous so I wasn’t too worried but did tell the Scientist and did keep an eye on it. It swelled a bit like a mosquito bite and turned a bit red but otherwise wasn’t bothersome. I went back to my rowing and then tried the Kinetics workout again. This time I made it through to the end and I felt okay afterwards. Of course, I won’t know for sure if it’s going to be okay until I’ve had another night’s sleep. I still have to take the dogs for a walk this evening so might have an idea of how it feels then.