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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.
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Still coughing but…
That’s about all that’s left of the crud going through our house for a while last month. Interesting is that Lego Lover had the shortest version of bug and is probably the most recovered even now. Most of the coughing is currently done by Game Fanatic and me…we seem to be the ones who get the long-lasting cough these days.
My cough comes and goes and is often triggered by cold foods and spicy foods and sometimes warm foods and sometimes cold air…fun. It won’t last forever but it’s aggravating.
Anyway, I am getting more regular exercise again. After my pool exercise last week I took another break and then restarted exercise again. This week when I was at the pool I was fine with the deep breaths so I figure my lungs or something was still healing the week before. I was in the pool twice this week and both times I felt pretty good afterwards. The other days I’ve been walking or using the spin bike. Tomorrow I’m kind of hoping it’s sunny enough to ride my bike. A bonus would be if it’s not too windy also. I didn’t do as much exercise today because my knees were bothering me a bit. Not painful but a bit sore after walking around in Fremantle for while today. So I didn’t end of burning off as many calories but I am going to try to not obsess about doing a minimum each day just yet.
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Health and fitness
I’m pleased to share that I’ve made it to one of my longer term goals on my fitness and weight loss journey. I started back in August, I think, and I’ve lost just over seven kilograms which is pretty significant. I am not rushing the progress and trying not to get too tied to rigid routines because that seems to cause my downfall most of the time. My biggest improvements have been in my diet because I’ve been able to restrain myself from overdoing it a lot better lately than in the past few years.
My exercise has also been going pretty well too. I’ve been mostly cycling and walking for exercise up until now. I find I have a lot more stamina for climbing hills doing either and I can sort of keep up with the Scientist when walking with him. He walks really fast so I am still slow next to him even at my fittest….so he slows down for me and I speed up for him as much as possible.
I notice a couple weeks ago that I have a lot of sagginess in my arms so that motivated me to finally get on to doing some strength work after all this time. It’s still early days on this (only done it twice) but I started out using the Wii U Fit for some cardio work and then moved on to various other exercises including some using light weights. I’m mostly using a .5 kg dumbbell and it’s sad to see how even that is a bit of a strain after a couple of sets. Hopefully I will sort that out soon and be a bit more balanced overall.
My clothing size has definitely dropped in this time. I still need the same size tops but I can see it won’t be long until I move to the next size down. I’m just rather top-heavy so the fit isn’t quite right yet. On the other hand, the shorts I’ve been wearing have been just about sliding over my hips with almost no movement so I went out and got a couple pairs of shorts that are one size down. I do have some smaller ones here but I haven’t gotten down far enough to wear those yet.
I did have a couple instances in the last couple of months that seriously could have derailed my efforts. On one occasion I started out fine and I even felt as though I was exerting little effort for the first fifteen minutes. But then my heart started racing while climbing a hill and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to come down until I completely stopped riding when I stopped at some markets about half an hour from home (by bike). I walked around there and got a drink and then bought another drink along the way. I had made the mistake of forgetting to take water but that shouldn’t have caused the problem. Anyway, I started to feel better so decided to carry on with my ride and went to another suburb where I was again struggling with racing heart and struggle to get to the shopping centre there to get more fluids. I did feel a bit better but not particularly great to ride home. Fortunately the most direct way is a mostly downhill ride so I was able to coast most of the way and then go slowly the rest of the way home. I’m not quite sure why I had such a bad time of on that day because I didn’t feel unwell before I went out and I did feel unwell for a day or two afterwards.
Interesting thing is the next ride was totally opposite and was a good experience all around. It took me a few days before I tried to cycle again so it was a relief that it went so well that time.
Last weekend I bought an Apple watch, in part so that it would be easier to look at my stats while riding or walking instead of constantly looking at my phone. I’ve used it for cycling twice and it worked really well except for the fact the app I use somehow switched my activity to walking. I was able to change this before I stopped the app and it seems like it shows cycling as it should. I think this happened when the activity tracker accidentally started on the phone, which sent it to the watch, where something must have moved the digital crown and changed the activity there…and that made the change on the phone…sigh…will just have to be careful in the future about that. I don’t think there’d have been an issue had the app not started by accident.
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Walk in the park
Like most Wednesdays, I went for an hour walk in a park near where G (the guy I am a carer for) lives. I was a bit unsure whether it was a good idea to risk a walk because we’d had rain from mid-morning onwards. In the end it was just fine and no further rain reached me at all. I managed to go pretty fast today, with my first lap (kilometre) at 10.5 minutes and another of the laps was under ten minutes. The only time my laps went too long were when I stopped to take photos so I was keeping a good pace today.
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Bicycle
Two or three weeks ago, I discovered the chain on my bike had completely dried out and was showing signs of rust. It was a particularly wet winter this year so I guess that may have contributed also. My bicycle is over ten years old and it rides reasonably well but it does squeak a lot, even after it’s been serviced. It’s also showing signs of rust on the body. Not terrible shape but could be better.
This bike wasn’t all that expensive although it wasn’t a cheap one either. I started to consider the value of a getting a new bike versus the cost of service and repairs. I have been looking around at the costs of bicycles lately and the first thing I discovered is the price hasn’t gone up as much as I expected. Also there are lot more casual bikes available and those are pretty much the same price as what I have. The only drawback I’ve found is they don’t have that many gears, seven being the highest on the ones I’ve seen. While I have never used all 21 gears on my current one, I do often use the second set of seven. But then I haven’t used them all that much lately. I probably could get by with the limited gears and I’d gain a rack on the back for storing packages plus a basket at the front. I have a basket already but it doesn’t hold all that much, which makes the idea of cycling to the shops less practical if I can only carry limited amounts of goods. This option really expands the amount of shopping I can bring back. Not to mention it allows more space if I take my camera along for the ride.
I found a model that I like quite a bit so my plan is to put aside money over the next few months and buy it once I’ve reached my goal. Meanwhile I have taken my bike to a local, independently run shop for a service and to see if the chain needs to be replaced. It’s interesting that this small shop charges a far more reasonable price than any of the bigger stores around. I rode the bike to the shop yesterday and walked back. It took me about 45 minutes to walk less than three kilometres which was pretty slow for me. A kilometre is usually about 11,5 minutes to start with and often goes down to 10 minutes when I’ve built up to a good pace.
On Sunday, I managed to walk 12 kms in just over two hours, which was a pretty good time for that distance. Also, it’s quite a bit longer than my usual walk. I normally walk from 6-8 kms at most so this was a bit of a stretch. My feet were pretty sore after that walk and my body was till a bit achy yesterday when I cycled, walked and then did 90 minutes of tai chi and tai chi fan. Some of my muscles were really feeling it when I got home last night.
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Fitness reboot
During the last quarter of last year, I really slacked off on the exercise and, subsequently, on a reasonable diet. I’d probably been drifting in this direction before but once my iron levels became low, I used it too much as an excuse to avoid exercise. It’s a domino effect when it happens and by the end of the year, I had become fairly unfit and all the improvements accumulated over a couple of years seemed to be undone.
In December I was quite conscious of the need to get going again but the holiday season makes it really difficult. I decided to wait until after the holiday period and start anew. I’d already had the experience of really struggling to keep up with the Scientist when we were out and about. He does walk pretty quickly but I used to be able to almost keep up. : ) At this point I was absolutely exhausted within a short time. Anyway, about week to ten days into the year, I finally got back into some serious exercise. I started out with a target of doing exercise 3-4 times a week and increased the number of days to five once I regained a bit of fitness.
Several weeks later and I am not quite back to my former fitness but I am pretty close and I am back to riding the bike and getting out and about on foot in the area. Last week I stopped in at the shop where I bought the bike over a decade ago and bought a new seat and drink holder. The old seat was in pretty bad shape and I finished many rides with more discomfort than I felt was absolutely necessary. Yesterday I returned for the bike to be serviced and to get tires and brake pads replaced. I’m happy to report I picked it up today and it was riding so much better.
It also helped a bit with my confidence while riding. As much as I enjoy cycling, I’ve always been a bit too nervous to ride properly on the road very much and tend to stick to dual use paths most of the time. This just makes it feel more secure while riding…mainly less likely to fly over the handlebars or fall on the road or anything like that.
I was also pleased when riding my bike to the shop yesterday that I can again climb certain hills without having to dismount and walk the bike uphill. The fitness is coming back and I just need to stick to my routines and keep an eye on my eating.
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Getting fitter
It’s been three weeks since our gym memberships expired and I’m pretty happy with our current situation. While a member of the gym I felt obligated to go there and do exercise there instead of something I might prefer at home. This means I have more time for taking the dogs for walks, riding my bike (one I get it serviced) and mixing up my exercise while at home.
I’ve now used the treadmill three times and feel a lot more comfortable with it. The first time it felt so different from the ones at the gym and I felt really awkward on it. But now I seem to have a better feel for it and I’m more used to the controls. I’ve even tried running/jogging on it for short periods of time. I’d been doing a job on the Wii Fit program so the Scientist suggested I would find it better on the treadmill. It is easier on the joints as it has considerable cushioning with several springs on each side. Far easier than jogging in place on the solid floor. The hardest part of the jogging is trying to get going. I don’t feel I can go directly from walking fast to a jog so have to put the speed up a bit and go fast before slowing it down to a better speed. I don’t know if I will do that much jogging as it’s still a bit rough on my knees. Perhaps when I’ve lost a bit more weight.
I’ve also been using the spin bike more. I find it is better to use it for shorter periods of time right now but I’m hoping to build up stamina. My biggest thing is trying to get the seats and handlebars in the right spot as it’s quite uncomfortable to go too long with things in the wrong place.
I’m using the Wii Fit program on the Wii U once or twice a week right now. It’s not something I would depend on for a proper exercise session but it is a bit of a change of pace and it is a way for me to challenge myself against previous records. On my iPad I have an app that has exercise programs. It’s pretty basic in some ways but does include a sort of video showing how to do the exercise. Not a great one but it’s something helpful. I’m currently focusing on the abdominal muscles as they are again pretty weak. I am also looking at some online yoga and pilates programs and see if anything there might be useful.
Meanwhile, I seem to be back on the path to losing some weight while I’m staying pretty fit. I’m pretty close to dropping from the obese to the overweight category. I did this a few years ago within far less time but managed to injure myself so frequently that I didn’t keep on it and regained all I lost. Hopefully going so slowly will mean I can stick to this for the long term.
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Happy 2014!
I have been missing in action for the past several weeks. I’m here but for some reason I’m at a loss of what to write quite a lot of the time.
We’re just getting through the last month of summer here and it’s been fairly mild for the last couple of weeks. Not to say we haven’t had some hot days but nothing extreme like has occurred in many of the eastern parts of the country and none of the nasty floods that have hit the north of our state. I wouldn’t mind, however, having a small share of the rain from the north. After such a wet late winter, it’s been almost completely dry here since the end of October, I think, perhaps a bit earlier.
January wasn’t a great month for us. The year started off well enough but there were a couple of things happening, family-wise, that left January a rather negative month. I can just hope the year improves from this point.
At the end of the month, our gym membership contracts will run out and we are cancelling our membership with the club. Not that we are unhappy there, but the Scientist reached his goal months ago and I have started to lose much interest in going. My aim at the beginning was to go at least twice a week and aside from a couple weeks at Christmas, I have more than stuck to that for the better part of the eighteen months. Now I am more interested in doing exercise outside the gym like just walking or dog walks, cycling, etc. We also now have a spin cycle and a treadmill in the house, so should be set for even the winter and the really hot days left in the season.
Speaking of the gym, I am still working on my weight and fitness levels. I think the fitness is still pretty good but the weight stalled for quite a while and I have had to overcome some of the psychological aspects of that before getting going again. I also had some shoulder bursitis and tendinitis issues that I couldn’t quite get sorted with physiotherapy alone and had a steroid injection just before Christmas. With further physio, some of the shoulder issues have improved enough so I just need to make sure I don’t overdo any particular type of exercise again. Anyway, after some ups and downs, I think I am back on track for the moment.
I saw my new immunologist for the second time on Saturday. She had requested I have certain blood tests done and the results were back well before the appointment. They also sent copies directly to me. Overall, the results were all fine but I can’t help but be a bit pedantic about one thing that showed up. I’ve been getting a high titer ANA back every test since the first one back in 2004. This time was no different but there was a completely different sort of pattern to the ones that have appeared before. It was a different lab so my feeling is it was misread. My doctor wasn’t bothered about, didn’t really seem to know the pattern differences either. My usual pattern is rare but associated with Sjögren’s syndrome (which I have) and also autoimmune liver disease. Because of the pattern, previous doctors were keeping watch for a couple of liver-related antigens in blood work. These never were positive in the past but one associated with autoimmune hepatitis did come back a weak positive this time, which is rather funny, I think. At the moment, it isn’t so much of an issue due to it being weak-positive but mostly due to the fact almost all my liver functions tests came back in normal range. Only my albumin was slightly low…so also isn’t an issue at this point. At the moment, I will just go back for yearly reviews as I’ve done since my symptoms haven’t been anything major as yet.
Today I went in for a whole blood donation and was asked to give plasma instead. I was a bit surprised since it’s been so long since they’ve requested whole blood. Plus I thought they really wanted it this time as I got more reminders than usual. I’ve become acquainted with some of the staff at the center since I began donating, to the point that some of the staff skip quite a few of the questions. But the last couple of times, I have gotten new people and they have gotten into detail on some questions. Strangely it came out today that nobody thought to note down the Sjögren’s syndrome on my records before. The lady that interviewed me had never even heard of it so then went on to check it was okay to donate. Which it was.
Our board games have sat rather untouched the past two months. At first, Lego Lover wasn’t interested in playing but then we missed it one weekend or another and just haven’t got back to it. Meanwhile, we’ve had a few more games arrive lately so we need to get back into it.
There are probably some other things I need to update but honestly can’t think of anything now. I just wanted to get back into it keeping track of things a bit more before more time passed.
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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.