Not fully functional

That’s kind of how I am feeling today but I know it will pass. The past few days I have had to really push to do exercise and I must admit I didn’t feel better afterwards either. I got a new workout routine on Monday, having gone a full eight weeks going to the gym already. This one uses the machines less and requires more abdominal work, which I hope will improve my core muscle groups, which have been really weak since having kids. I’ve noticed my foot/toes are handling activity a lot better now than they did before. The exception is when I am doing yoga moves that require me to be on my toes. I suspect that may just be painful activity when the toes are stretched like that. Anyway, I have started walking a lot more than I have been and have even gone on short hikes in the hills, which I hope to continue through the warmer months.

I had a bunch of blood tests recently and went for a follow-up to discover I have low iron stores. There’s been a gradual decline over the past couple of years. My last test was borderline normal but it dropped quite a bit over three months. Since I am post-menopausal, the usual reasons don’t apply so I’m going in to have a gastroscopy and colonoscopy later this month to check for any internal issues. It’s been several years since my first colonoscopy so I guess that’s okay. Not looking forward to the prep for it, of course. I have been put on iron supplements but they are wreaking havoc with my digestive system. I am trying to eat more red meat but it’s a struggle since I don’t have much appetite for it on a regular basis. I came up with the idea of having small amounts more often and seeing if that works for me. I will also see about switching to a gentler iron supplement since I am not even taking the current one daily and I am having a lot of issues. Tonight I made a stir fry with potatoes, green beans, mushrooms, and a spinach/kale mix along with some stir fry beef and that worked okay for me.

I’ve been feeling what I call draggy the past few days. I’m not sure if that’s due to low iron or something else since I wasn’t feeling like that much before I was told about the iron deficiency. I also learned that I shouldn’t have iron and calcium together either as it affect iron absorption.

My liver tests haven’t been consistent lately so I also had an ultrasound which I imagine will show fatty liver disease, which was there before. I’m hoping it’s not so bad as the last one in 2016. I’m due to have repeat blood tests plus a panel of liver and celiac and other tests at the end of the month so it will be interesting to see how things go. I did find that after two months of exercise I had not only gained weight but my muscle mass hadn’t changed at all. I am sure I have more muscle in some areas so it doesn’t make much sense to me. I’m not that fussed about the slight weight increase and it actually has dropped in the past few days.

After a pretty mild October, we’re getting some warmer weather now but it’s not constant. We go to eat at the food trucks on Monday nights and it’s not been all that comfortable since the first week when we had some lovely warm weather. We even missed a couple of weeks, one of them due to wet and chilly weather. Tomorrow’s forecast is quite positive so I am looking forward to it.

A Lego store opened in Perth about ten days ago so we had to make a first visit. I was expecting really long lines and big crowds but it turned out to be reasonable when we went. But there wasn’t a lot of merchandise still available by the time we got in on day four. We only had to wait for about 15-20 minutes to get in and it was fine in-store. It was worse finding parking at the shopping center, which has mostly doubled in size very recently. I found I didn’t recognise much there and it took a while to find the area of the original structure. I suspect we’ll be visiting there more often once the excitement over new stores dies down (lots of new shops just opened, enough that there was an electronic sign advising there was an “event” ahead on the road.)

I had been considering an upgrade to my Apple watch but finally decided to wait another year. My watch is working fine and although there are features I’d like, I don’t know if it’s enough to upgrade yet. Assuming the iPhone gets a couple of features I want next year, I will update both watch and phone.

Our state finally has a plan for opening up to the world set so I have a more likely chance of going home for a visit next year. No definite dates but our premier is waiting for vaccination rates to reach 90% before we open up properly. Once that happens, I think it might be doable, if things like travel insurance will provide sufficient coverage. I’d really like to get home to see my family, especially my dad. He’s doing okay but has had a couple of scares lately and his blood pressure is definitely not under control.

There’s surely some other stuff I meant to write about but I can’t recall all of it lately. So hopefully I will update again soon.