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Moving the body
I had been exercising kind of regularly when we got the puppies but that kind of stopped once they were in the house. Their pen/crates/other stuff rather took over the games room space where the Xbox and tv are and shifting things around was a rather major undertaking. But I stopped using that excuse a couple of weeks ago and spent half an hour clearing the space, rolling up the cheap piece of linoleum and vacuuming the carpet. This endeavor was made easier by the fact that we extended the space they inhabit as they both could easily jump the pen.
So once I got a bit of a workout making space for a workout, I decided to use the Dance Central program for the first day and that went pretty well. I found I was a bit rusty on some of the movements but improved with a bit of practice. The second day I went back to the Your Shape Evolution program and ended up quite sore for a couple days afterwards. The same thing happened when I first used this program and it put me off returning to it for quite a while. I do find once I have used it once or twice that I am much better unless I overdo my workout.
I have discovered there are quite a few different workouts available on this program although I don’t think it caters to the overweight and extremely unfit users all that well. I am sure many would be totally put off continuing the program after a single workout. Before I got too far into it, I set up the program to connect with my Ubisoft Uplay account so that I can track information from my computer. What’s offered is still rather basic but I’m hoping this will be extended over time. I discovered a new version of this program is being released which includes warm up and cool down routines. I’ve noticed that none of the programs I’ve used so far have included this part of a workout so it’s about time this was included. How irresponsible to do a workout program and leave out some of the most important parts.
I’ve been using the program 3-4 times a week for a couple of weeks now and have started to notice some changes. The workouts I’ve been doing have focused a lot on abdominal and lower body with lots of squat exercises. I usually find the squat exercises really aggravate my knee problems but have gotten through this without any major dramas so far. I’ve already noticed that some of my muscles are getting stronger, which always feels like an accomplishment.
One really good result of the little bit of exercise has been a reduction in my fasting blood glucose levels over the past week. This has been the usual result with exercise most of the time I’ve been checking but I found they weren’t coming down very well earlier this year, whether I was getting regular exercise or not.
Aside from this exercise, the Scientist, his mum and I have been taking a tai chi class at the beach for the past term. The Scientist learned some tai chi when we were in Canada a decade ago but hadn’t returned to practice until now. It’s been an interesting experience to be learning this so far as it’s not something that can be rushed. We learned one move each week for the first eight weeks and the past two weeks have been consolidation of what we learned. But I am still rather unsure of myself and seriously considering repeating the first level of classes next term if I’m still struggling once we start back in a few weeks. I’m hoping practice will get me over a lot of the difficulties I’m having as starting right at the beginning is likely to be quite frustrating.
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Go Red for Women update
I should be going off to bed but I’m going to write something since it’s been so long. I last posted about the Go Red for Women heart health challenge so I will follow up from that for now. It’s now the eleventh of the month and I’ve been exercising nearly every day so far. I missed one day and on another I only just managed to fulfill the thirty minutes of the challenge by walking when we were out earlier in the week. I wasn’t feeling well that day so I feel that I was doing well to get that far.
So far, most of the exercise has been indoors, using programs on the Kinect, which was a birthday present. I should backtrack a bit and say that when I first got the Kinect, it didn’t work particularly well on our tv in the living room as it’s such a small space. What eventuated was we got a new tv and moved the old one into our games room and the Xbox is now connected there, which allows the living room to be more lived in, so to speak. The games room isn’t that big but it’s far more spacious and the Kinect works quite well in the space.
One of the programs I bought was Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. A while back we bought a version of this for the Wii and it was a disaster to use. There was the space problem but it was really not geared towards the less fit or beginners. This program, however, does a far better job. It does have some problems with providing the right excercise, but it’s a vast improvement over the previous one. For one thing, it’s mostly doable at the lower end of the scale. I will say, however, that it’s a good idea to try out little bits of it at a time. When I first used it, I tried out several short routines and ended up sore and uncomfortable for so many days that it was about a month before I willed myself to try it again. I’m glad I did return to it because I think I’ve got a better handle on what I can manage each day.
Another program I bought is Dance Central, which is a pretty odd choice for anyone who knows me that well. I don’t tend to like dancing and I’m fairly klutzy. But I read that this program is good about showing you how to do the moves by breaking it down into smaller bits and providing opportunities to practice and get it right. There was a demo on the Kinect Adventures disk that came with the Kinect and it seemed like it might be useful as an exercise tool. So far, I am making some progress. The first song is a Lady Gaga song, which drives me a bit batty…but I’m kind of used to it now, at least while I’m using the program. It’s taken a while but I’ve managed to get through all three levels of the song and I’m pretty competent on the hard level. It’s a rather startling feat since I honestly didn’t think I’d ever conquer some of the moves. Anyway, once I got to the medium level I added a second song that I didn’t know at all and dislike far more than the Gaga song. I’ve kind of got used to that one too…can’t say I’d ever be happy to hear it on the radio. A few days ago I added the third song and I seem to be progressing a bit more quickly.
I knew dancing to be a very good exercise but I am finding this out first-hand as I practice the different dances. Even when I am using the break it down mode, my heart gets pumping and I work up a sweat. I find that mode is good for warming up and also serves to remind me of the moves I need to use for the full song. I have been in a habit of doing this program for a little while, then moving on to the Your Shape program. Today I think I might have gone just a bit overboard by trying out an interval training program which lasted twenty minutes. I’d already worked out for quite a while and was pretty sore by the end of it.
A third Kinect program I bought was the Sports program, which I am not using for exercise at the moment. It’s fun for playing with the family but I find some of the activities are a bit harsh on my feet so don’t want to depend on it for regular exercise.
The challenge goes for ten weeks so I am hoping I will be able to stick to some regular exercise in that time. And hopefully I will manage to avoid injury that creates stumbling blocks in my efforts to be fit again.
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Different sort of challenge
I signed up a couple days ago to be part of the Go Red for Women heart challenge sponsored by the Australian Heart Association. I don’t seem to be able to maintain the better eating and exercise habits so I’m hoping this will help keep me motivated for a bit longer. It starts on the first of next month but I’m not necessarily waiting to start working a bit harder on my goals. I’m mostly looking just to improve my fitness and my eating habits since experience has shown the body shape and size will adjust quite easily with those changes in place. It’s possibly a bit risky with the seasonal change towards wet weather ahead but I’m planning on using walking as my main form of exercise. And just maybe I will get my bike into a shop and get it serviced so I can feel safe while riding again.
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Uncategorized
Overdoing it
After almost three weeks of inactivity, I finally resumed my exercise routine yesterday. I’d really planned on going out for walks while I was supposed to be taking it easy. Somehow, that didn’t happen and now the temperatures have soared into triple digits on the Fahrenheit scale. Inside our house is not that much better at the moment, with the humidity from the evaporative system being double and triple what is outside. Despite the failings of our cooling system, I went ahead and did a workout with the Gold’s gym program on the Wii.
There had been no specific instructions regarding resumption of exercise after surgery, aside from avoiding any activity that hurts and, of course, the limit on heavy lifting/work. I did make an assumption that I should avoid abdominal exercise until it’s okay to resume the heavy lifting. I started out with a couple of beginner level warm up routines that run for about six minutes each. I was surprised at how alien it felt to be exercising even though it’s just been a few weeks. When I restarted the exercise in November, I remember feeling how easy it had been to slip back into the intermediate exercises I’d abandoned months before. This time, my body felt really awkward and clumsy. I also found that I was struggling with basic movements that I’d done so well just weeks ago. The next routine was a longer, two part program but still at beginner level. I improved a bit on my movement this time and started to get my heart working a bit. It felt okay at this point so I decided I’d work on the beginner ducking routine which was another two-parter that ran for about fifteen minutes. This is where I started to flag and the ducking movement didn’t feel so great once I’d done it a few times. I’m sure part of the problem is I’d not used those muscles for a while but I also think it was too soon to be doing that kind of movement. I did finish the routine but I was only half-hearted in my effort by the the time the second half began and was very ready to be done with it when I did finish. This morning, unsurprisingly, my legs and bottom were really sore when I got out of bed.
I’m about to go back for more exercise today but will be avoiding the ducking routines or anything more difficult until I’m further along in my healing. Or at least until I can discuss this with the surgeon at my follow-up appointment next Thursday.
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Walking
My gallstones have forced me to improve my eating habits and I’ve managed to lose three kilograms in two weeks. I’ve just started seeing my clothes becoming looser on me and I’m hoping to get back into the size 14 clothes I bought a couple of years ago. I’ve been a lot slower to get going with any exercise program. I was going to do some exercise using the Wii and one of our programs but the Wii fit board was out of power and by the time that was sorted out, it was close to dinner time. After dinner I went out for a walk instead.
Walking really is the best exercise for me but I do have one tiny problem. I go out and I find myself wandering along and it’s well over an hour later that I find my way back home. By this time it’s usually dark or nearly so. My feet are sore and it will put me off walking for several days. Tonight I started out like usual with no particular route in mind. But at some point I decided where I was headed and which route I would take to return. There was a slight temptation to keep going further but I managed to stick to my plan once it was made. It probably helped that I had some upper abdominal pains starting around the time I might have strayed. The last thing I needed was to be stuck a long walk from home with severe pains. Anyway, I made it home just under an hour from when I left, which was just about right. And happily, my blood glucose level was a fairly low 4.7 when I checked it two hours after my meal. All in all it was a successful walk.
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Exercise
I’ve been trying to get back into some regular exercise but it just isn’t happening like I’d like. In the past week, I’ve managed some sort of exercise on three days. I walked earlier in the week and then again yesterday. Today I rode my bike for the first time since my minor accident in February. The delay in riding my bike hasn’t been intentional but pretty much a matter of procrastination. I’d intended to take it to the shop to have it checked out and have yet to do that. I rode it today anyway because my left foot was hurting from my walk and I was determined to get outside and do something. Unfortunately, I got home and within an hour I started feeling twinges of pain in my left calf muscle. It’s just a tiny pain but it feels much like the pain I’ve had in the right calf muscle before. It wasn’t a particularly hard ride…about 15-20 minutes each way to a local shopping center. Anyway, it’s very frustrating again. It was a bit cool tonight so my guess is that my muscle didn’t warm up properly…which means I probably should have opted for something warmer than the shorts.
On a more positive note, I also started doing some abdominal exercises on my own today. I’d been doing some of them on the Wii programs but had to stop because they were getting too hard too quickly. I had been really pleased at my accomplishments earlier in the year so hopefully I will get back to where I was before and continue. I’m mostly doing bicycle crunches, modified push ups, and plank exercises to start and managed at least ten minutes today.
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Viscious cycle of injury
A few weeks ago, I managed to injure myself in the form of a mild calf strain after several weeks of exercise. I dropped my exercise back to just walking for most of the past couple weeks. I also cut the number of sessions back so that I had more rest between sessions. After taking it easy on the exercise for a couple weeks, it was much better and seemed to be pretty close to being healed as of Friday. At least, I felt it was just about healed because I no longer experiencing any pain.
I guess I was wrong though. Friday afternoon, I had an earache and had gone to lie down after taking an ibuprofen. After I’d been resting a while, there was a knock at the door so I rushed to get to the door. That’s when I felt another popping sensation on the back of my leg and had to hobble, or perhaps hop, my way to the door before the person left. Turns out it was the delivery of the board games I’d ordered a couple days earlier. I signed for the package, then had to hobble back to the bedroom where I could collapse.
This business of injuries is very frustrating. When I exercise, I try to take care by warming up and cooling down. And yet, I seem to struggle with minor injuries. Sigh…
I felt a bit more mobile today so thought I might try to go for a walk this evening. The weather has cooled down enough that it’s quite pleasant in the evening. I had to put that idea out of mind because I am simply not up to it. The Scientist had already expressed doubt as to whether it was very advisable this morning, but I found out the hard way after a trip into Perth. Lego Lover and I had met up with a friend and her young son for lunch at Annalakshmi (a vegetarian Indian restaurant in Perth where you pay what you want). The area was a bit of a mess because they are setting up for the Perth International Arts Festival and streets were blocked off in various places so that regular parking wasn’t possible. I was driving down past one parking area and the road was blocked, well past the entrance to the paid parking lot, so that cars had to make U-turns to get out of there as it had stopped where the exit to the parking lot came out. Anyway, I ended up going back in the opposite direction to find free parking and we had to walk a fair ways to get to our destination. Every time I tried to hurry to cross a road I’d end up in pain from straining the muscle further. The walk back was much easier because we weren’t in such a hurry to be anywhere and could take advantage of benches and rest occasionally as we walked alongside the Swan River. I think I’d had enough exercise for one day by the time we reached our car. In hindsight, it would have been worthwhile to pay the parking fees and limit myself to a shorter walk.
I’m contemplating seeing a physio to help figure out a better plan before I do any further damage. And this time I might actually do it…
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It was bound to happen
I”ve been keeping a decent exercise regime for the past six weeks and feeling pretty good about my fitness. I’m doing exercises I never thought I’d be able to do (even when I was a decent size and younger) and I’m getting fit again. The health benefits are the bonus right now. So I was going through one of my Wii fitness programs and had to do some jumping jacks. I still don’t care for jumping exercises but I’ve been getting through the lot of them when they come up. I had done a few of them when they started becoming rather painful in my right calf…the pain that had been lingering for a week or more obviously was catching up. I had to skip a few of the exercises after that but finished a decent routine. This was on Monday so I opted to rest on Tuesday after three days of workouts. Wednesday I was at the pool and did my water walking and pseudo swimming laps again. I didn’t feel quite as satisfied but I did get some decent exercise.Yesterday I went out for a bike ride, under the assumption I’d be using different muscles. That went well enough…
So late last night I stepped outside to dump the tea leaves in the tea maker and made a sudden rush to get back inside. And that’s when I felt the pop in my right calf along with some pain. It did ease after a little while but obviously I’ve torn something. So now I’ve got the dilemma of how to get a good workout without exacerbating the injury.
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Yet another Wii fitness program
After the fiasco with the My Shape program last week, I might well have been put off buying any more programs. But Kmart was selling something called New U under the Fitness First label that included a choice of dumbbells or a step frame to use with the Wii Fit board. I found the reviews were mostly positive for this one so I decided to take a chance. I’m very glad I did because this is one is proving quite good so far.
As with most, you make a profile to start out. The program gets brownie points for having options on units of measurement and it’s ability to weigh the player. Another big plus for me is the option as to which hand to hold the Wii remote. I am left-handed and find it easier to hold and control from that hand. Although other programs have had options for handedness, inevitably the main remote ends up in the right hand for some activities or exercises. The program also does a food intake profile of sorts. It asks which foods you eat (not a particularly big list but includes opt-outs for dairy, gluten, meat, etc.) and offers menu options for your diet. I probably won’t use this much since it’s not practical for the whole family but I suspect it would suit many single people living alone.The profile also provides options for the goals you have in your fitness routine. You choose one primary and one secondary goal. I think I chose weight loss first and reducing tummy second.
The fitness part of the program has numerous options for fitness routines. I started out on the main fitness routine and it was relatively short and simple, but did provide a very brief workout. Before each new exercise is a tutorial and information on which equipment you should use. There is a circle that changes color during the exercise to assess how well you are doing it. It seems to rate aspects such as timing and effort (not really quite sure what that is supposed to indicate). Sometimes I find this isn’t quite reflective of what’s happening but it is somewhat useful of progress. After each exercise, a screen appears showing how well you have done in various areas and then awards points and, if you have done really well, stars. Each day you have a different routine and it seems to build on the previous routines quite nicely. So far there have only been eight exercises for the routine each day. You can also look at the routine for the next day too, which is probably good for those who don’t like surprises. :)
Because these routines aren’t quite enough for me yet, I’ve been playing around with some other options in the program called challenges. Challenge options are: dance, cardio, boxing, football (soccer) and army. I tried out the cardio the first day and failed most of the exercises. One of them was a three point press up which I couldn’t do. If you are having a lot of trouble (in this or the regular routine) you are given a choice of continuing, skipping the exercise or quitting the whole routine. I ended up skipping this one but managed to complete the other exercises. The next time I used this, I did the army routine which is essentially a 14 minute jog plus crunches that seemed to go on forever. Surprisingly I did finish the jog but my timing didn’t remain steady in the last few minutes so I failed it. I was pleased, though, to finish and then complete the excruciating crunches. There is also an express workout option that has a cut down version of the main workout plus mini workouts for three times of day. It all seems quite flexible.
It’s still early days but I really like this program so far.
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Uncategorized
Exercise and injury
I’ve not written much about my exercise in recent months, mostly because I mostly fell off the exercise wagon and my body is showing the effects of the neglect. At the same time, my eating habits have been poor. It’s been like a war between me and carbohydrates. They carbs have been slowly overtaking other foods in my daily intake until I was back to eating patterns I had before I was diagnosed with diabetes. I’m trying to turn it all around and seem to be making a better effort than I’ve done most of the year.
So I’ve been getting more regular exercise and I’ve tried to mix it up a bit. But I’ve mostly been relying on the Wii Fit Plus program as the core of that program. So with my increased exercise comes the inevitable injury. Actually, I don’t know that it’s an injury but my left ankle/heel started bothering me at least a week ago. It’s at its worst when I first start walking and often gets better with use. Now if I had been sensible, I would have chosen exercises that don’t have much impact on the feet. I’d been working on the cycling activity (which requires you to walk on the Wii Fit board) and the jogging program (which just uses the remote) for a few weeks now and recently have been doing cycling, jogging and hula hoop to get a good aerobic workout. Yesterday I push a bit harder and longer, which partially felt good but then it didn’t so much. I’ve been limping off and on today, but hopefully will be able to handle a bit of exercise tomorrow.
It’s funny because when we first got the program a year and a half ago, I struggled to do even the shortest jog. I was literally ready to drop by the end of it. And I was reasonably fit when I started doing the jogging exercises. I finally gained a bit of stamina earlier this year…but then I dropped out of doing much exercise for several months. Wii Fit Plus has another similar jogging activity but it changes the path for each jog. I’ve now built up to about a ten minute jog in the program, which is pretty amazing after struggling for so long. Actually, the super hula hoop exercise is another one where I’ve developed much more stamina.
I didn’t do any exercise today but plan to work on the cardio workout tomorrow which relies less on the feet than the Wii fit one.