Cat's Exercise Diary

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I'm still somewhat headachey but better than yesterday. I've been taking claritin as a trial to see if it helps my bladder issues (so far so good there) but I think it's messing with my sinuses as I've been blowing my nose more and having more nosebleeds than usual, and my headaches usually start in the sinus area too and this one is no exception. So I think this headache is maybe because of the claritin? I don't know. I'm sure I've taken claritin in the past and I don't recall having issues with it, so maybe it's just the cold & dry winter air screwing with my sinuses (I often get nosebleeds in winter because of the dry air) and it just coincidentally happened at the same time that I started taking claritin daily?

My guts aren't super happy with me today either, probably because I ate poorly yesterday. I'm getting back on track today with my diet. My department is having an xmas luncheon today at work, and for my lunch I've ordered baked salmon and rice which is very safe for me. I'm also planning ahead for some meals to keep myself on track. It's supposed to be quite snowy all weekend, so the other day I took a whole turkey out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw - I'm planning to roast that either tomorrow or Saturday, then we can have turkey leftovers to get us through the snowstorm. Yum!

Exercise-wise, I just don't feel up to it today. Between the headache and my guts, plus the fact that I'm exhausted (I tried going to bed a half hour earlier than normal last night, but instead of getting more sleep, I lay awake for an hour - ugh!), I just don't feel up to exercising, not even walking, today. I'm hoping tomorrow is better. Saturday, the snow is supposed to start in the early afternoon, so I'm tentatively planning to get Lily out for a nice long walk in the morning before the snowstorm hits. And I'm sure I'll be shoveling and cleaning the cars off once the snow is (at least temporarily) over with. It's supposed to snow from Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning, take a bit of a break, then start snowing again Sunday mid-afternoon. So there'll be a few hours there of no snow where I can get out and clear off the first round of snow, before the second round starts. So yeah, with all of that, I'll definitely get some exercise in this weekend!
 
I'm feeling a little better as the day has gone on. I just got back from the work luncheon, it was actually a fun time. We had a white elephant gift exchange which was really fun. I managed to eat my salmon and I feel okay-ish. At any rate, I don't feel any worse than I did before eating, so I guess that's success. I was able to eat without making myself feel worse. And I had a fun time and had some laughs and mentally feel better than I did this morning.

I'm becoming slightly more ambitious, too. Looking at the weather reports, I feel like I want to do as much as possible outside the house on Saturday morning before the snow hits. I'm now toying with the idea of going to visit my grandma on Saturday morning. I could get there around 10 AM, visit with her briefly, give her a small xmas tree and some small ornaments that I got for her, and the DVD that I made for her. Lunch at her facility is served at 11 AM, so I'd leave shortly before then so that she could sit down to her lunch. Short visits with her are best anyway, so that'd be an ideal time to leave. It's about a 45 or 50 minute drive to get home, so I'd get home before noon - the snow is supposed to start at some point between noon and 3 PM on Saturday. So I wouldn't be driving in snow which is good. And if the snow holds off just a bit, I could quickly walk Lily once I got home. Then I could settle in for the rest of the afternoon and watch the snow and do some sewing and wrap more gifts, etc.

So, that's the current plan. Zip over to my grandma's and have a visit with her, zip home and walk Lily, then have a more relaxing time for the rest of the weekend and stay in while the snow flies. Once again hubby has been wanting to go to the Chicago suburbs on Sunday to do shopping, but once again the weather is almost certainly going to stop us from doing that (it stopped us from going to Chicago last weekend, it's stopping us this coming weekend, and it sounds like it may even stop us the following weekend - there's a lot of snow in the forecast all of a sudden, it is going to hit us every weekend it seems!).
 
Well, I had a rough evening yesterday. All day I was sort of wondering if I was developing a yeast infection (pred can cause those), and by evening I knew it to be true. So I went to the pharmacy and got some yeast infection medicine. They have different time spans for treatment - you can get a 7 day course, 5 days, 3 days, or even 1 day. Since I'm getting an IUD inserted on Monday, I opted for the 1 day treatment course.

In the past I'd only done the 5-day courses (I think that was all they had when I was younger?) and I don't recall those being painful at all. Well, the 1-day course apparently is stronger, and it burned a lot. My lady parts have sort of been weeping blood today, although I do feel much better now - it's not burning anymore and the infection does seem to have gone. Still, in the future, I think I'll opt for more days!

Today I am very tired. I kept waking up, couldn't stay asleep, and when I was asleep I had bad dreams. I dreamt that an acquaintance of mine was trying to assault me and I only had a pair of scissors to defend myself. Then I woke up again. When I fell back asleep, I dreamt that my dog ran away and I couldn't find her and I was so sad and worried. So after that, when I woke up, I just stayed awake - couldn't take any more bad dreams!

Today has made a turn for the better, though. I got a call from my GI's nurse, saying that the LDN prescription has been sent over to the compounding pharmacy!!! :D Finally! I can't make it there after work as they close shortly after I leave work and the pharmacy is on the far opposite side of town from where I work, so I couldn't make it in time. I am going there first thing tomorrow morning. (I'll call them this afternoon just to make sure everything is all ready to go.) I'm so excited for LDN! Tomorrow is going to be a good day. :)

But on the subject of bad dreams, apparently people have some very weird dreams and interrupted sleep their first week or so of taking LDN. So I guess I better get used to bad dreams and not sleeping well because it's going to happen some more! But it should only be for a week or so, I can deal with that.
 
What an awful night you had Cat,I hope you get a better sleep tonight.
Good news that your LDN is ready.I hope it does what you want it to.Fingers x'd.
 
Thanks Carol! My LDN prescription finally going through, that more than makes up for a crappy night. My mood is so much improved now.

I did some reading, and it sounds like I should take my LDN at bedtime. So the plan is that I will pick it up tomorrow and will take it for the first time at bedtime tomorrow. So on Sunday I should maybe have some inkling of an idea of how it's going. I know it can take weeks or even months to kick in, so probably I won't feel much different by Sunday. I'm down to 10 mg of pred, so my hope is that as I'm coming off of pred, LDN kicks in fully (and has at least started kicking in before then so that it helps me get off of pred). And from there I hopefully have a nice long remission (that would be so nice!). My longest remission in the past was about 2 years, from spring 2011 - spring 2013, and those were wonderful years. I exercised so much, I kayaked, I rode my bike, I lifted weights, I took Lily on lots of long walks. I really want to get back to that! I want to be able to exercise often and intensely! I want to go on adventures and travel as well! Lasting, stable remission is my goal and I'm going to fight like heck to get there. I really hope LDN is the key to that goal. It's certainly made me feel energized, like I have a good weapon in the fight now.
 
Cat-a-Tonic said:
Well, I had a rough evening yesterday. All day I was sort of wondering if I was developing a yeast infection (pred can cause those), and by evening I knew it to be true. So I went to the pharmacy and got some yeast infection medicine. They have different time spans for treatment - you can get a 7 day course, 5 days, 3 days, or even 1 day. Since I'm getting an IUD inserted on Monday, I opted for the 1 day treatment course.

In the past I'd only done the 5-day courses (I think that was all they had when I was younger?) and I don't recall those being painful at all. Well, the 1-day course apparently is stronger, and it burned a lot. My lady parts have sort of been weeping blood today, although I do feel much better now - it's not burning anymore and the infection does seem to have gone. Still, in the future, I think I'll opt for more days!
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That's been my experience, as well, with the 1-day treatments. They are much too strong. In fact, I used one at night one time that had Tioconazole as the active ingredient instead of the usual Miconazole and woke up with swelling and pain in a very sensitive place. I had to call-off work and make an emergency appointment with my OB/Gyn who said it caused a severe rash and he applied lidocaine to the affected areas because it was too painful for me to even sit normally. Not fun at all! I'm also allergic to white petroleum - I get contact dermatitis from it - but regular petroleum doesn't seem to do any harm. White petroleum was in the treatment and caused even more problems (that's before I knew I was allergic). :(
 
Oh my, that sounds horrible! My experience fortunately hasn't been that bad - there definitely was a lot of burning last night at bedtime after I inserted the medicine, but it gradually eased up over the course of maybe an hour or so. And I can sit just fine today and I don't think there's any swelling or anything like that. There might still be an ever so slight burning feeling left over, but that isn't surprising because I'm also still bleeding ever so slightly (just the faintest light pink tint when I wipe, it's hardly anything at all). I just need things down there to be okay by Monday afternoon as that's when I get the IUD put in, which is why I initially had thought the 1-day treatment would be best - it didn't occur to me until I actually put the medicine in that I realized, duh, it's going to be very harsh and strong because it has to do everything in one day as opposed to multiple. I do think I'll be fine by Monday, but I've also learned my lesson and will never do the 1-day treatment again! Fortunately I don't seem to get yeast infections very often - in the past I've only ever gotten them when on certain antibiotics, and this one was caused by pred, so I only seem to get them from certain meds. Fun times when you have to take meds for your side effects from meds. :p
 
I hope your plan to see your Gran and walk Lily go as hoped.But like I said earlier, don't push yourself.We must take notice when our bodies are trying to tell us something,and not do what we "think" we should be doing.Enjoy your day.
 
Fortunately the day went well and (almost) everything went to plan. I got my LDN, I then proceeded to laugh-cry in my car for about half of the drive to my grandma's (I really, really, really wanted to try LDN and I fought hard to get my doc to prescribe it to me, so to finally have it in hand, my emotions just sort of all came out at once in a big mess, ha ha).

I made it to my grandma's just fine and we had a lovely visit. I brought her the DVD with my grandpa on it, and at first all she could say was, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." Then later she started saying, "It's like you dug him up and brought him back to me!" Which was pretty macabre of a thought in my opinion! It didn't help that she then kept repeating that phrase. She was very happy though, happy to see me and happy to have that DVD (which I'm sure she's already forgotten about, but oh well).

After that I went to the grocery store, which was kind of crazy. Very busy - with the impending snowstorm, apparently everybody in town decided to do their grocery shopping today. So long lines and big crowds and general craziness there.

Then, and this is the part that really didn't go to plan - I came home and was going to cook a whole turkey. I had put a frozen turkey in the fridge days ago to let it thaw, but when I took it out of the packaging - still frozen solid. Ugh, oh no! I cannot cook a frozen turkey, I don't know how or even if that's advisable. Sooo, no turkey dinner for me tonight and I'm a bit grumpy about that. Hubby is off work tomorrow so I'm going to assign him to deal with the stupid frozen turkey. I wash my hands of it.

I did walk Lily after that. It was very cold but she of course loved it. The snow started just as we were leaving the dog park, so that was good timing. The snow is coming down now so we're hunkered in for the evening. If it's really snowy tomorrow, I might get my snowshoes out for a bit. And of course will shovel too.
 
LDN went fine, I didn't have vivid dreams and don't really feel any different. I know it takes awhile to kick in so I wasn't expecting it to do a whole lot on the first day anyway, so this is fine.

Hubby put the turkey in the slow cooker, so we'll see if that works. He's just going to cook the stupid thing all day, so we're planning to have it for dinner. Cooking it for 10 hours!

It's still snowing! We probably already got 5 or 6 inches of snow and they're predicting 7-10 inches of snow total by the time this snowstorm ends. I think I pinched a nerve in my neck/shoulderblade area, I've had some neck & shoulder pain yesterday and today. Hubby has had similar pain lately, so we're going to have a rough time when it comes to shoveling. I don't think I'm going to get my snowshoes out, as I need to save my energy for shoveling (and for recovering from shoveling).
 
Yesterday I shoveled and ran around in the snow a bit with Lily. Did not go snowshoeing but was very active around the house. I did a lot of sewing (got all my fabric cut and pinned, and sewed 3 of the 6 Bambi pillowcases - going to try to sew the rest tonight so I can get them mailed out to my cousins). I also wrapped almost all of the xmas gifts that I had sitting by my treadmill - just a few more gifts to finish up making (making a pillow for my youngest niece) and then everything will be done as far as xmas gifts! And I can access my treadmill again which is really nice. I also did a bunch of stuff like cleaning, baking banana bread, vacuuming, etc. It was a very busy day, especially considering that I was hunkered down inside at home all day due to the snow!

LDN still going fine, I've had zero side effects and I think I'm starting to see some benefit? At any rate, I haven't gotten worse and no side effects, so I'd say it's going fine so far. It's only been 2 days so still too early to really see any benefits anyway.

Today I get my IUD inserted, so I'm guessing I'm going to be resting with my heating pad for much of the evening (hopefully things will be okay enough that I can still sew). Any future walking/exercising for the next little while is going to be dependent on how crampy my lady parts are. I was told to expect very bad cramping for the first 20-30 minutes or so, and from there it should hopefully get much less crampy, but that I should expect intermittent cramping for the next few months. Sooo, we'll see how much and how intense of cramping my body throws my way. It is important to me to get this IUD - with those horrible men coming in to office soon, I want to make sure I get my birth control all set for as long as their administration might last - so in the long-term, the cramping will be well worth it. But for now, it might suck a little bit. We'll see! I've got tylenol and bentyl (I know that's for gut cramps, but it seems to help with menstrual cramps as well, and I can't take anything like ibuprofen so I'm going to give bentyl a try) and I have my microwaveable heating pad. Hopefully everything will go okay today! If all goes well then I'll start up with my walking again soon - going to have to be indoors on a treadmill, though, because the weather is supposed to become extremely cold this week.
 
At least you'll know where the cramps are coming from,and of course you may not get any trouble at all.It's probably worse case scenario.I'm waiting for the weather forecast to see if we can get out on the bikes tomorrow.Hope so.We don't have snow yet,but it has turned colder,which is OK as long as there's no wind.
 
We've gotten snow every weekend with more in the forecast for this coming Friday and Saturday. It is pretty but I'm sure I'll be sick of it very soon! I am hoping though that the cold and snow means that the outdoor ice rinks will be opening in my city in the near future. I love getting out for some ice skating even though I'm not very good at it (I can skate forwards and usually not fall, but I cannot do anything remotely fancy, just moving forward and staying upright is my main goal when skating, ha ha).

A couple of hours to go until I get my IUD put in. I'm not too worried. With all the invasive stuff I've been through lately, even with the cramping I think this will be not too bad. I mean, I don't have to drink prep nor contrast, so right there it's already better than the last few medical things I've had done. :p And it sounds like I won't have a period anymore, since the IUD is hormonal, so right there I'm already fairly excited about that prospect. No babies and no periods, that makes me happy! :)
 
IUD insertion went fine. Cramping wasn't as bad as I was led to believe - I did spend Monday evening with my heating pad on, but the cramping was totally tolerable. It was nothing compared to my IBD flare cramps. And I've felt fine since then, no bleeding since Monday and only the occasional cramp here and there but it's momentary and tolerable. So that's been fine overall, not a big deal.

LDN is going fine - the last 2 nights I did have some trouble sleeping, so that side effect has started. I've read that poor quality sleep usually only lasts about a week when first starting LDN, so fairly soon I should be able to get better sleep again.

I haven't done any exercise lately, not even walking. Monday was my IUD insertion, and yesterday our furnace broke and we were dealing with that nonsense (it's fortunately fixed now). It's been very bitterly cold outside so walking outdoors is not happening right now. We're supposed to get more snow on Friday/Saturday, so possibly Saturday I'll take Lily out and I'll go snowshoeing while she romps in the snow. Sunday hubby and I plan to deep clean our house. We're hosting my parents and brother on xmas, so I want to scrub and clean a lot of the house, particularly the kitchen and bathroom. So that will sort of be like exercise, it'll definitely be a very active day.
 
Glad the IUD went well and you're not suffering to much.It's a good job done and worth any little niggles.We decided to stop at one child and hubby had a vasectomy at 25 bless him.It wasn't my idea at all.Men are real babies,well mine is,so I was quite surprised.We even went private.I had a walk into town this morning,came back and did hubby's lunch then had a really enjoyable time on the bikes.It's still v. mild here but wet underfoot.
I'm sure your parents won't be giving you're home an inspection at xmas,but I like to have things done,then I can enjoy being lazy for a week or two.As to your sleeping problems re: LDN.....are you still taking Ami.? I sleep like a baby on just one a night.It's made a huge difference for me as I'm a really light sleeper usually.If the doc. took me off it I would have to fight him.hahaha.
 
Yes, I take 25 mg amitriptyline every night. It usually helps me sleep, but it doesn't always work 100% for that (I take it for migraine prevention - a higher dose would probably help me sleep better, but on anything higher than 25 mg, my migraines come back/get worse). I do have some OTC sleep aid tablets that I might try one of tonight - I don't like taking those things, but on rare occasion I do give in and have one when I really need to sleep.

That's great that you've still got mild weather and can go for a bike ride! Not a chance here, it's way too cold for that now. I'm just hoping it warms up a bit so that I could go snowshoeing without completely freezing.
 
Have just noticed my clean black trousers are absolutely covered in mud at the back.It's a good job I didn't go to the shops AFTER my bike ride.It wouldn't occur to my other half to tell me.I only take 10mg of Ami.,any more gives me dreams and restlessness.It's supposed to work in conjunction with Tramadol for my back pain.I used to use OTC sleep aids before that.They worked v.well for me.I hate not sleeping.
 
I never have clean black pants - I wash them, fold them, put them away, later I put them on, and somehow magically they have accumulated pet hair. :p I swear black pants are like a pet hair magnet! I never notice it as much on other color clothes, but on black I always see the pet hair. Oh well.

You wear trousers on bike rides? Is that not uncomfortable? I always wear workout capris/leggings when I go on bike rides, if I have to look nice for some reason then I'll wear a skirt over leggings, but I don't think I could do a bike ride in trousers!

I just looked at the weather report and I'm discouraged. Although we're getting another 10ish inches of snow on Friday/Saturday, I won't be able to snowshoe. The bitter cold temperatures are continuing, ugh. There's a high temp of -6 degrees F on Sunday. (That's about -21 C according to google - very cold, and that's the high temp, so that's the warmest it'll be that day - brr!) That's too cold. So I guess I'll hunker down in the house, again. Will definitely get on my treadmill though! It's finally clear of gifts!
 
My pants are pull ons but quite smart.I had been to the shops earlier and never thought to change.I have worn jeans on the bike,accidentaly,and that's a definite NO-NO.I plan to get some leggings for next summer.Our weather is still mild but cloudy,it might reach 15c at the weekend.We are going up the coast with the bikes tomorrow.But I won't be wearing black pants.
 
I'm jealous of your weather, 15 C is almost 60 F which is springtime weather! That sounds perfect for a bike ride, so I hope you get to have a nice ride and enjoy that balmy weather. Here it's once again -6 (-21 C). Brr! Although I did see that my local outdoor ice skating rink is now open. It's currently a bit too cold to skate, when it's this cold I lose feeling in my legs when I'm outside and will likely fall. But next week it's supposed to warm up a bit, into the 20s F, so I could totally go ice skating then. I'm excited about that prospect! I love ice skating! :)

Oh I agree, jeans are definitely not happening on a bike ride, that sounds like the worst! I don't think I'd get very far on a bike in jeans, that would be way too uncomfortable. My backside has already been through enough, ha ha. ;)

This morning hubby and I were admiring the fact that our treadmill is now accessible again. We didn't actually walk on it, but we admired it. :p I'll walk on it this weekend for sure.
 
Gosh, well, I've been active at work today! I'm sweating, like I have noticeable pit stains on my shirt (yes, I put deodorant on this morning!). We've been ordering a bunch of items at work that we'll be giving away to customers throughout next year, so right now a LOT of stuff is being delivered and we have to store it in some way that's organized. So I've spent a big chunk of the morning organizing things, moving boxes around, etc. And I feel pretty good now! It feels like I had a mini-workout. I really need to start working out properly again. I keep telling myself I will when I'm a little bit more well, when I've tapered down on pred a bit more, when I've been on LDN for longer. But frankly, I'm sick of waiting. I'm going to start working out again!
 
Cat.you may as well wait until after the festivities.But a walk on the treadmill wouldn't hurt if you really must.Of course,when you put things off it's so much harder to get motivated again.But I have faith in you because I know you WANT to do it.That makes a huge difference.
 
I've been wanting to get back into properly working out for awhile now - basically since this flare began. I'm sort of always motivated! I love fitness! I hate not working out at all or not working out the way I want to (frequently, intensely, with heavy weights). I've always had the motivation, I just wasn't physically well enough but I think I might be now. I know I should ease back into it, so I'm going to start by just doing a few exercises with lighter weights, and gradually up the weight and intensity etc. I don't want to wait for the holidays to be over, I want to get a jump-start on things now. (I also don't want to be mistaken for a New Year's resolutioner - I sort of loathe those people, they get all gung-ho to exercise starting on January 1st, and by January 5th or so they've already quit, but before quitting they hogged every piece of equipment in the gym while taking selfies, ugh.)

I'm going to take things slow & easy. Last time I went to the gym, I injured myself (I was doing lunges and I felt something go "pop!" in my left foot just behind the big toe - turns out I gave myself turf toe, which has mostly healed now but still gives me a little bit of pain at times.) I will be careful not to injure myself this time. I have a home gym so I'm going to start there - I have dumbbells and a barbell and a weight bench, so I can do a lot from home. I just want to do a few things and see how my body responds. If it goes well then I'll continue from there.
 
I did it, I worked out at home yesterday, and I feel mostly good today (I do have a throbbing headache, but that's because there's a big snowstorm moving in - aside from the headache I feel fine). I walked on the treadmill to warm up, then did some weights - nothing too heavy nor strenuous, mostly barbell with a bit of dumbbells. And then I did some nice stretches at the end. It felt really good! I haven't lost much strength which is very good.

I think I'm going to try to lift weights again on Sunday. Tomorrow I will likely be shoveling snow at some point - we're supposed to get up to 10 inches of snow between this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon. Hubby works tomorrow, so I'll probably end up shoveling by myself. That will be a good workout, I don't think I'll need to do anything else besides that! :p

I am still pretty tired today. I took another OTC sleep aid, but it didn't help as much this time. I still woke up a few times during the night, and once again I woke up at 5 AM and couldn't get back to sleep - for some reason, my brain on LDN feels that 5 AM is the proper time to wake up (my alarm goes off at 6, so that's an hour of sleep that I'm missing out on every day now). It's been only 6 days though that I've been on LDN, so I'm sure in a few more days once I've adapted to it, then I'll be sleeping better. That's what I've read and that's what they told me at the compounding pharmacy. So hopefully just a few more days of waking up at 5!
 
We had a really good couple of hours on the bikes today.Had to stop a few time to visit the loo,but there are a few at the coast so no problem.WWe came across a path we hadn't used before,but we had an idea where it would take us.It was only about 18ins wide and I'm not very good on narrow paths,but it widened out after about half a mile.Then we came across what can only be described as a swamp.Impossible to cycle through.Go back or push on ? We pushed on and pushed the bikes.What a mess I was in.hahaha.I wear very light weight soft ankle boots and the mud was almost over the tops.Pants were a mess too,and the bikes of course.But it was good fun and we had a laugh.Have cleaned my boots and am about to have a bath then put a wash on.Glad you managed to do some exercise.I,like you always feel so much better afterwards.(and smug)
 
I don't know if smug is the word I'd use, but I do feel much more self-confident after a workout. Usually I feel like I am not very good looking and am a bit chubby, but after a workout I feel like I'm hot stuff and skinny. :p And yes, I feel very good as well after a workout, both mentally and physically. I feel satisfied, I think that's the best word to describe it. My mind and body are at ease after a workout, it's like every part of me becomes content for a little while.

Oh yuck, there's no way I would have gone through that mud, you are braver than I am! Enjoy your bath, you've earned it!
 
I ended up not exercising over the weekend except to shovel snow (which is sort of a workout in itself). I got the news on Saturday that my grandma had almost died - she was found pulseless, not breathing, but then she took a breath on her own and came back to life. She's alive and apparently okay for the time being, but that's terrifying that I almost lost her. So I ended up crying a lot this weekend and worrying. And eating ice cream. I know, that's not good. (And isn't allowed on my low-FODMAP diet either.)

I know that the cure for stress and sadness is exercise - I always feel better, less stressed and happier after a workout. So today I'm getting right back to it. I'm going to go down to the little gym in the basement at work and do a lunch hour workout. I'm back to eating healthier today as well - I have fruit (banana and tangerine) and oatmeal with blueberries for my snacks, and for lunch I packed baked fish (red snapper) and white rice. Dinner will also be fish, hubby is going to make smelt. So yeah, I'm getting back on track diet-wise and fitness-wise. I won't let a couple of sad/bad days deter me from my fitness goals.

I know that fitness also requires planning, so I'm planning my workouts for this week. Tomorrow I might take a walk - the weather is supposed to get up to 30 F, which is much warmer than it's been (it's been like -25 with the wind chills, so 30 degrees above zero sounds tropical in comparison). Wednesday I plan to do another weights workout. Thursday maybe another walk or maybe a rest day, depending on the weather and how I'm feeling. Friday I have the day off of work and I have to do a few errands, but once my errands are done I plan to lift weights again, probably in my home gym. Or I could also go to the big paid membership gym that I belong to and lift weights there - it's nice having several gyms to choose from!
 
Glad you're back on track Cat.We've been cycling at the coast today.It was quite cold,but ok when we got going.Kept away from "MUD" today though.
 
Glad you kept out of the mud this time! I get a chill just thinking about cycling in winter, though. Brr! It sounds very cold to me although we are still in a cold snap at the moment here. I have seen some people here in my city who are very stubborn about bicycling even in the coldest/snowiest weather - I saw at least 3 cyclists this morning on my drive to work, in the snow and the cold (it was -8 degrees F and that's not even factoring in the wind chill!). Hopefully your weather is a little warmer than ours!

I just got back from my workout a little while ago and I feel good. It feels great to be working out again! And I'm feeling good physically, although I'm not quite where I want to be mentally. I'm not back into the gym mindset yet. Like, I knew I wanted to work out today. But I forgot to pack extra Ranitidine with my lunch - I always need to take reflux meds before a workout, so I don't know why I neglected my Ranitidine like that - my brain just wasn't thinking "gym" I guess. Fortunately I did have extra in my purse that I put there in case of reflux emergency. I'm going to make sure to pack extra from now on. Also, I didn't shave my legs! :p That's silly, I know, but I felt a bit self-conscious about it. I used to always remember to shave my legs if there was even a 1% chance that I'd be doing a workout in the near future. So I need to remember to do things like that now that I'm starting to work out again. I'm just not quite in the right mindset yet. Working out, especially with a chronic illness, requires certain things to be planned/done ahead of time, and I'm just not there yet. The unshaven legs thing was silly, but I really do need ranitidine or I cannot work out, I will vomit, my GERD is too severe to go without it. So yeah, forgetting that was just a symptom of me not being in the right mindset yet. I need to work on thinking like an athlete again and remember to do the things I need to do to work out.
 
You've had a lot to deal with lately,so don't beat yourself up.But I know what you mean.I'm particular about stuff like that,and it spoils things for me when I forget.But I expect there will be lots of hairy legs in the cold weather hahaha. No bikes today.It's sunny but cold and breezy,so off to the supermarket for a last shop before things get mad.
 
I hope the supermarket wasn't too busy, and that you can get back on your bike again soon.

Ah, well, the best laid plans... I'm coming down with a cold. So no working out for me for a little while. I woke up this morning feeling run-down and with a sore throat, and as the morning has gone on, I've also felt a bit sniffly and my voice is just starting to get scratchy and I'm coughing a little bit too. I can tell it's a cold because my guts are also unsettled - when my immune system turns on to fight a cold/virus, it always attacks my guts a little bit too, it's like a mini-flare. So it's not just that I'm tired and sniffly, it's definitely a cold. Ugh, no fun. Oh well.

Sooo, scratch all my fitness plans that I had laid out! I'll be resting and having soup and tea and orange juice instead. I'll get back to the gym once this cold is out of my system.
 
That's a shame Cat,just when you were getting in the groove again.
But it's sensible to take it easy when you're feeling icky.You may as well leave it until after the hols.Your body is not in the same frame as your mind and is telling you so.Take heed.
Got the shopping plus, a few calorie laden treats,so that's me done for now. I might have to peddle extra hard to work them off.
 
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Yeah, I know from experience that I cannot exercise with a cold, I just end up in coughing fits and getting nothing accomplished and feeling more exhausted. I need to wait until this runs its course and gets out of my system first.

Yum yum, calorie-laden treats are the best! :D I'm going to go to the grocery store at some point this week and pick up some chocolate treats since I'm not feeling up to baking xmas cookies.
 
Have just noticed I put an extra "body" in my last post,Have amended it,but oh,if only.

Haven't opened any treats yet.....this girl has a will power of iron.
 
I bought an exorbitant amount of dark chocolate peanut butter cups at the store yesterday. :p I wanted to fill my candy dish, because we're hosting my parents on xmas, and I know my mother loves chocolate as much as I do. So I bought a LOT of peanut butter cups. Like, probably wayyy too much. (Just kidding, there's no such thing when it comes to chocolate!)

I'm continuing to rest. My cold isn't too bad, but it's just bad enough that I know it's there. I know I couldn't do a workout like this. So I'm resting. I do have to go through some boxes that were delivered to work and sort out their contents and put the boxes in the appropriate spot, so that will be a little bit of exertion, but it can't be helped. I'm just going to take it slow with the boxes and not do too much too quickly.
 
I love Reese's Peanut butter cups too.It annoys me that I have to peel the paper cups off.I bought some "cupfree"ones, but they're tiny and I have to eat four at a time to make up for it.
 
These are ones I got at a store here called Trader Joe's (not sure if you have that chain in the UK?). They're not Reese's, they're TJ's store brand. They're dark chocolate instead of milk - I'm allowed dark but supposed to limit milk on my low-FODMAP diet. I love dark chocolate though so that's no problem. They're really yummy! Like, I had to stop myself from scarfing a lot of them. Fortunately (?) my GERD gets riled up quickly by chocolate and peanut butter, so I have to limit myself to only having 2 or 3 maximum per day.
 
Cat-a-tonic
Enjoy life brand makes choc free of milk and all other top 8 allergens
They have chips, bars and chunks for baking

https://enjoylifefoods.com

Hershey"'s has a simply syrup that is mainly sugar and cocoa to use as well


Nana cream is an ice cream with many flavors that is free of milk and most things not allowed on the fodmap diet
https://nanacreme.com
Diaya has "cheese" pizzas and "cheese cake" etc that is milk free

Pm me if there is a specific holiday treat you are looking to replace
I have been cooking for ds food allergies and gastroparesis and Crohns for a very long time

Another one if you don't like to bake is Katz 's

Their stuff including choc covered chocolate cupcakes is dairy and wheat free
 
Thanks! I've looked at the Daiya brand of pizzas, but I can't have them - they have either onion or garlic or both, and I'm not supposed to have any onion nor garlic on low-FODMAP. So that's out. I do make my own belly-safe pizza at home sometimes, using rice flour in the crust, and tomato slices instead of tomato sauce, and goat cheese (doesn't affect my lactose intolerance and is low-FODMAP friendly). I'll have a look at the other things you mentioned, thanks for the links!
 
Ds likes follow your heart cheese
Check out king Arthur's gluten free pizza crust mix
Not bad if you add extra flour
 
I need to stop at the health food store soon for some more psyllium, so I will look for those brands when I'm there. Thanks again for the suggestions!

Carol, I was bad. :p I exerted myself. At work, we're doing this big project where basically we're ordering a ton of stuff (trinket-type items) that have our company's logo on them, to give away to our customers. I've been put in charge of this project and I've been ordering thousands upon thousands of items. We need to organize and store these items once they come in, so that's also my job now. I've been receiving and moving big boxes of stuff almost every day. Today I was organizing our storage area in the basement at work and I had to move at least 20 or 25 large boxes. I'm definitely tired now and a bit sweaty, and my nose was dripping like crazy. But my coughing and other symptoms haven't increased, in fact I don't think I coughed at all the whole time. That's encouraging - it hasn't been a very bad cold, and I don't think I made it any worse by exerting myself. I promise I will rest the rest of the day. Tomorrow, though, I will probably have to deal with more big boxes. If my cold is not any worse and/or is getting better tomorrow, I think I might try a workout on Friday. I won't push myself, I'll keep it simple and relatively easy. But I think I can do it!
 
There's not much you can do when there's work to be done.At least you've got time off for the weekend and will be able to snuggle in after the festivities.It's bright and sunny 7c.so we're going cycling soon.It might be our last chance as the forecast isn't good for the weekend.Last week I read that a cold glass of water first thing,kick starts the digestion etc.So I have been doing that while waiting for the kettle to boil for the tea,and I have noticed the difference.Then I read hot water and a slice of lemon has all sorts of benefits,so started that today.It might just be that I'm having an easy time lately,but it can't do any harm.
 
Well, I have a short bit of time to snuggle in before the festivities, but not really after. Friday I'm off of work and have to run some errands (I have to get Lily's nails trimmed at the dog groomer - she's too squirmy for me to trim them myself - and I have to pick up a lamb roast from the butcher shop) and clean my house a bit. That's my "rest" day. Saturday we're going to my in-laws' house, Sunday my parents and brother are coming over, and Monday I'm going to my aunt's house. It's 3 straight days of xmas for me, I'm slightly dreading it as it already sounds exhausting. And then Tuesday I'm back at work already. I'm much more looking forward to New Year's - I get a few days off then as well (Friday I work a half day, then I'll be off Sat, Sun, and Mon). We don't go out or anything for New Year's, so I'll get to stay in and relax then. But not so much for xmas!

I've read that as well, about drinking a big glass of water. I do drink a lot of water when I first wake up, as I take a bunch of pills first thing in the morning (Lialda, Nexium, pred, and claritin, plus a few supplements). So I do end up drinking a fair bit of water just to get all those pills down. My guts have been very quiet since I've been on LDN - lately I'm having about 2 bowel movements per day, one in the morning and one in the evening, perfectly formed and firm. I'm sure that's due more to LDN than to drinking water, but surely the water isn't hurting anything and may be helping too.
 
Let's try this again since the forum has been a glitchy mess lately. It ate my last few posts that I tried to post.

The short update is, I caught yet another cold at xmas thanks to my nieces & nephews. This is a pretty bad cold, too, so no exercise for a little while longer. I plan to spend my long New Year weekend sewing and crocheting and resting. Will get back to fitness once I'm over this cold! This is 2 colds in 2 weeks, very annoying.
 
I hope your cold (s) didn't spoil your xmas.That's the trouble with little ones,if they've got something,they insist on sharing hahaha.Had a bike ride yesterday.Lots of frost where the sun doesn't reach,so kept on the sunny side of the path.The trouble with that is,the sun is very low in the sky,so I had to wear my baseball cap pulled well down.We made the mistake of ending up at the coast again.Too many people,too much traffic,utter madness.
A lot of ignorant people too.Although we were on a dual pedestrian/cycle path,and I always rang my bell,would they move ? would they hell !!! But at least we got some air and exercise.I had to get a script for the cystitis after all.I hope the tabs don't affect my tum adversely because I've been doing OK lately.I hope your sniffles clear up soon.
 
No, the cold didn't spoil my xmas. I was exposed to the cold germs on the 24th when I saw my nieces & nephews, but I didn't come down with cold symptoms until the morning of the 27th, right as I was headed back to work. Ugh. So it's been a bit of a rough work week, I did call in sick one day but the rest of the week I've been snorking and hacking and sniffling away at my desk. I think I'm getting better, though. I now can sometimes breathe through one of my nostrils. :p

I've experienced that on bike paths here as well, people blocking the full width of the path and won't move out of the way. There have been times where I've had to ride up on the grass just to get around stupid people who won't move. I previously didn't have a bell on my road bike, but I've recently bought a bell for it, so maybe that'll help. Probably not though if your bell didn't help!

Sorry to hear about the cystitis - I presume you're taking antibiotics for it now? Whenever I get a UTI, I'm always told to take good-quality probiotics to try to replenish what the antibiotics destroy. That does seem to help, I think. But yeah, antibiotics are never easy on me regardless, so I know how you feel. Hopefully it's just a short course of them and you can be done with this soon.

Speaking of meds, I'm increasing my dose of LDN as of tomorrow night. :) I'm going up to 4.5 mg, which is the ideal recommended dose for IBD. Up until now I've been taking 2 mg as my GI wanted to start me at a very low dose to make sure I did well on that before moving me up to the 4.5 mg. All has gone well on 2 mg, so hopefully I'll also do really well on 4.5 mg.
 
I still have a bit of a lingering cold, but it's nice weather this morning and Lily needs a walk, so I'm going to try to walk her shortly. Hopefully that will go well. 4.5 mg of LDN is going fine so far. My guts are very quiet, extremely quiet! I've had no cramping, no urgency, very little frequency (at most I'm going twice per day, I might need to up my soluble fiber intake a bit), no pain, etc. I think that once I'm finally over this cold, I might be feeling almost normal! Which seems very odd to me. :p I don't trust it! Normal isn't normal for me. But maybe this really is me getting into remission. Maybe LDN really is my miracle drug!
 
I did walk Lily yesterday. I don't think it made my cold any worse, so that's good. I'm planning on a lunch hour walk today as the weather is fairly nice today but is supposed to be quite cold for the rest of this week after today. This might be my only chance to get outdoors for a bit, so I'm taking that opportunity. I still have some slight cold symptoms, mainly a bit of sinus congestion, but the cold is definitely on its way out. Hopefully in a few more days, I'll be able to start working out properly again.

I was thinking about going ice skating, but my local outdoor rink is closed due to weather (it rained yesterday which apparently messed up the ice too much). And I can't snowshoe either as the rain has melted a lot of the snow, too. Hmph!

Meds-wise, still doing mostly fine. I was planning to taper my pred down this morning but I forgot. :p So I'll taper down tomorrow morning instead. I'm on 9 mg and I'll be going down to 8 mg. LDN 4.5 mg is going fine, I didn't sleep very well last night which I expected, so tonight I'll take an OTC sleep aid.
 
It's a struggle to make plans for out door exercise at this time of year.Hubs went out cycling alone today and almost got blown off his bike,so I'm glad I didn't go.I got some anti-bi's on Friday,just three days worth.I was hesitant but felt I needed something.Took the last one yesterday but there's been no improvement really.I get the urge to go,but it takes ages for the stream to get going.I'm drinking lots of water.I looked it up on the web and apparently Amitriptilyne can be to blame.So although I only take one at night I'm going to stop for a few days to see if it makes a difference.I will miss it though,as I sleep really well while on it.I might take an OTC in it's place.
 
That's interesting about amitriptyline! I have bladder issues and am on ami as well, but I think my bladder issues are separate and not caused by ami (I've been on ami for about 5 or 6 years now, but my UTI issues go back 15+ years to when I was in college, and honestly I've had bladder issues my whole life - I was a bedwetter up until about age 12). I've been taking a generic claritin every day as I read somewhere that that could help with bladder urgency & frequency, and sure enough, it does seem to be helping. LDN might be helping my bladder as well, I'm not totally sure if it's that or the claritin or both.

My GI once tried switching me from amitriptyline to nortriptyline as he thought it'd help my migraine & gut issues, but I hated not being able to sleep well on it, so I went right back to ami after a short time. I hope you can sleep okay without ami! While my body adjusts to this new dose of LDN, I need ami AND an OTC sleep aid, ugh.

It definitely is difficult to make outdoor fitness plans this time of year, and the weather sure isn't helping. It's been more rainy than snowy lately! For a short time we had a decent snow pack, but now it's mostly melted with lots of grass peeking out in spots. Lily isn't happy because she loves snow, the more the better as far as she's concerned. And I like snowshoeing, but I haven't had a chance to get my snowshoes out once yet this year. There's no snow in the forecast, either, but there is more rain, ugh. Yesterday when we walked Lily, the dog park was about half mud and half ice (or "mice" as hubby dubbed it). I'd rather there be snow than mud/ice! It makes for difficult walking/hiking, and obviously no snowshoeing and no ice skating. So, for now I'm sticking to paved paths for my walks until conditions change.

We're planning more indoor workouts, too. I now have everything set up in order to do some boxing - I have my heavy punching bag hung up from a rafter in the basement, and I have my boxing gloves. Hubby wanted to try it as well so I've just ordered him some boxing gloves online too. And we have the treadmill and a stationary bike, as well as lots of weight equipment at home. So once I'm over this cold, I will be making use of a lot of that equipment.
 
I'm having a lazy day today, mainly because I'm quite tired. I'm currently adjusting to my new dose of LDN and not sleeping well/having odd dreams. I still have a lingering cold, too - I've probably gone through about a thousand kleenex in the past couple of weeks. :p

I'm also a bit depressed because of our incoming president-elect (I still don't like saying his name). I know that fitness helps when I'm depressed, so I'm starting to make plans for that. I'm taking off of work on inauguration day and I'm going to stay off the computer and not watch TV except for netflix that day. I don't want to see, hear or even think about that awful man. If the weather is nice that day, I'm going to run away for a few hours and do a lot of walking in the woods with Lily. I'm going to do as much self-care as I can that day, which for me means exercising and getting out in nature.

And if the weather is bad that day, you'd better believe I'm going to be using my punching bag. :) If I can't get out in nature, then I will almost certainly feel the need to hit something!
 
I think most people share your feeling about him,Cat.It's minus 2c here so far to cold for cycling,especially at my age !!! Going to town for a hair cut.
 
Ha ha, It's about 2 degrees F here (very cold, and it's well below zero with the wind chill) yet I still saw one person riding a bicycle as I was driving to work! I guess for a very crazy few it's still bicycling weather. :p Not for me though!

You'd honestly be surprised, some people here like the president-elect. My brother is one of those people, my brother voted for the guy. I know I've complained about my brother before. I just don't understand him at all. He and I are about as different as two people can be. I know he's intelligent (he lacks common sense but he has a high IQ), so I really don't understand his views or why he voted the way he did. (I don't understand why anybody voted for that horrible man!)

Fitness-wise, I think I'm ready to jump back into things. I still have a slight bit of a cold, but it's mostly just mild sinus congestion at this point. I read somewhere some advice about working out with a cold - it said that if you have symptoms below the neck, like chest congestion or coughing, then it's best to rest. But if your symptoms are only above the neck, like sinus congestion, then it's probably okay to exercise as long as you don't push yourself too hard. So, I'm taking that advice and am going to try a workout today. Obviously I won't overdo things, but I do want to get back into it. I slept well last night and I have pretty good energy levels today, and I think I can do it!

I'm motivated, too. Yesterday I got a new gym bag, so I took everything out of my old gym bag and organized my new gym bag. That led to me also organizing ALL my workout clothes (and there are a lot of them!) and getting rid of a few that are old or no longer fit, etc. It was nice seeing what I've got, I have a lot of really cute workout clothes that I want to wear! But obviously I have to work out to wear them, so that makes me really want to go to the gym a lot. :)
 
Oh,I'm way too old for "cute" work out gear now.I am quite annoyed though, because I had a couple of pairs of leggings in the back of the cupboard from my fitness class days,and I thought I'd sort them out for the bike.Of course they've gone.I must have donated them to the charity shop.I do send a lot of stuff there.Never mind,I will buy some new.I'm looking forward to rolling them up to my knees in the summer.I've got loads of nice t-shirts too.It's funny,but by the autumn I look forward to warm sweaters and coats,now I'm looking longingly at my summer stuff....sigh !!!
 
Leggings are very popular right now! You should be able to find some cute ones. Although there are also very ugly ones out there. My sister-in-law gave me what might be the world's ugliest pair of leggings for xmas. :p The pattern on them is very bright orange and yellow geometric shapes. Orange and yellow aren't exactly my colors though! I've only worn those leggings in the house to sleep in, I will never wear those outside of my house. They're very comfortable but extremely hideous, ha ha.

I did recently buy myself a very cute pair of leggings. They have an outer space/galaxy type print on them, so they're mostly black but with smatterings of stars and galaxies. MUCH cuter than the hideous orange and yellow monstrosity. :p I also got some pink fleece leggings for walking Lily in cold weather. Leggings are definitely easy and comfy, although I do like to wear either a skirt or a longer shirt with them so that people don't see the shape of my backside!

Mostly though I wear black workout capris to the gym. I like capris, because I tend to get very warm during workouts, so long pants are usually a bit too warm, but I don't like shorts because nobody needs to see my thigh cellulite. So capris are a good compromise, and I only have to shave my legs below the knees to wear them. :)

I tend to do that as well, look fondly through my summer clothes during winter and vice versa. Although I am an addict of coats and jackets at any time of year. I just got myself a new winter coat, it's very high quality and seems brand new. I got it for $7 at the thrift store, score! It's slightly too big on me, but you know me and sewing. I'm going to do a few tweaks to make it fit me better - moving over the buttons and removing the shoulder pads, mainly. So, as if I didn't already have enough sewing projects to do, I gave myself another one. Ha ha. Good thing I got my new sewing machine!

Oh, and seriously, you're never too old for cute workout wear! Although it is easy to overdo it. There was a lady who frequented my gym for awhile, she was maybe in her 50s/60s? She would always come to the gym immaculately dressed. Her outfits were just the tip of the iceberg - she'd of course show up in a spiffy matching outfit and perfectly white shoes that never saw a speck of dirt, but she'd also be in full makeup AND jewelry! Seriously, she always wore large gold dangly hoop earrings. In my experience, most women who go to the gym in full makeup, they aren't there to work out but rather to be seen and/or to pick up guys. I have to give this lady credit, though, she actually did work out rather than just sit around taking selfies or whatever, she was a serious exerciser. So you apparently can rock a cute look in the gym even when you're an older gal, but for me I'll be skipping the makeup and jewelry. :p
 
I put make on EVERY day.I always wake with sticky out hair so have to damp it down and blow dry it.I then put on pencil liner,blusher and pale lippy.That's it.No foundation or eye shadow,so I did do my fitness classes wearing make up of sorts.I love perfume too.
Yellow and orange are not my colours either,or purple or irridescant green.My fave colours are black and navy blue,with maybe a touch of colour to brighten it up.I have loads of coloured scarves,too many,but I know I've mentioned that before.So it will be black and navy leggings.Once we get Jan.& Feb.over with we can start looking forward to Spring....bring it on !!!
 
I had a pretty good workout yesterday. My stamina is still quite low, I struggled to do 5 minutes on the stationary bike as a warm-up. 2 minutes in and I was ready to quit! I made myself do 5 minutes but it was a challenge. I know I just need to keep working at it and my stamina will return, but in the meantime it's a bit frustrating and embarrassing.

My GERD was a bit active during my workout. I belched a fair bit, which is an indicator for me that my GERD is not super happy. I also had an acidy taste in my mouth towards the end of the workout. I'm a bit surprised, as I did take my pre-workout reflux meds. I always take 300 mg ranitidine and a handful of Tums before hitting the gym, and that's what I took yesterday. I think pred might be affecting my GERD, though. When I was on higher doses of pred - 20 mg and above - I had horrendous heartburn regularly. I'm down to 8 mg pred, and no longer experiencing heartburn, but that's not to say that it isn't affecting my GERD still. So I will make sure to be mindful of my GERD in future workouts.

I'm hoping I can do a workout tomorrow. I injured myself yesterday. I'm such a klutz, I was going to bed last night but I guess I walked wrong and smacked my toes into the leg of my dresser. And I smacked them really hard! There's still pain today, it's pain in my 3rd and 4th toes on the right foot and the pain sort of goes up into the foot bones. I'm not sure if I broke something, I don't think so, but I'm not entirely sure. I can walk reasonably well but the pain is still there. I'm just going to keep an eye on things for now I guess. I've broken a toe before (also due to klutziness!) so I know what to do if a toe is broken. I just hope I didn't break a bone in the foot itself, as I don't know what to do for that. Ugh! Hopefully it's just really badly bruised and that's the reason for the pain.
 
Didn't you hurt your toe at the back end of last year Cat ? I agree with your klutz theory hahaha.But I'm not going to rub it in 'cos I could be me next.
I don't know much about Gerd.,just occasional indigestion,thankfully.Is it usual for exercise to bring it on ? Strange.
 
I did hurt my toe last year - my big toe on the left foot. I had been feeling a bit better so I had gone to the gym, was just doing some bodyweight exercises at that point. I was doing lunges, and I felt a "pop!" in my left foot just behind the big toe. Turns out it was "turf toe" and is treated very similarly to a broken toe (tape the big toe to the second toe and try not to move it, wear hard-soled shoes, etc). It still causes a slight bit of pain here and there, but I'd say it's probably 95% better at this point.

Yes, I'm quite good at injuring myself. :p This latest injury is in my right foot, so it's the other foot now, not the same one that had turf toe. I think the pain has lessened a bit as the day has gone on, so hopefully this means nothing is broken.

When I did break my toe, that was back in college. I had a baby cockatiel and he was sitting on my shoulder (I had an apartment, didn't ever live in a dorm). My baby bird couldn't fly, he did have his flight feathers but his wings were trimmed. I also wasn't wearing shoes, just sock feet. All these details are important, I promise. I went to the freezer to get something out to make for dinner, and as I opened the freezer door, a can of frozen concentrated orange juice fell out. I could see that it was going to land on my foot, and I had a split second to make a decision - I could quickly jump back, out of the way, but the baby bird on my shoulder would likely fall off of me and get injured. So the choice was, injure myself or injure my bird. I chose to injure myself. The can of OJ landed right on the joint of my big toe and I heard and felt it snap. Very painful! And I guess not totally attributable to klutziness, but it is an odd story, to say that I broke my toe because of orange juice and a baby bird. :p

As for GERD, I have both a severe case of GERD (it scored a 95 out of a possible 100 in terms of how severe it is when I had a pH impedance test), and I have a hiatal hernia. The hiatal hernia means that the valve between my stomach & esophagus doesn't fully close, so stomach acid/contents can essentially come up my throat whenever they feel like doing so. My worst non-dietary GERD triggers are bending over/lying down, and using my abdominal muscles. So, in the gym, even if I'm not specifically doing ab work, I'm still using my ab muscles a fair bit, and that's pushing stomach contents up my esophagus. So basically I expect to reflux somewhat at every workout, and I take reflux meds prior to working out to try to counteract at least some of it. It's not ideal but it's workable. But, my reflux did seem worse than usual at yesterday's workout. More belching than usual, and I usually don't get an acidy taste in my mouth like I did yesterday. I only drink water, no food and nothing but water, for 2 hours prior to every workout, so that should dilute my stomach acid somewhat, and the reflux meds should in theory do the rest. But I guess pred is still making my stomach a bit too acidy. I can't wait to finally be off of pred!
 
I probably should elaborate more. Here's how bad my GERD is in terms of what the pH impedance test recorded - it's a 24 hour test with an NG tube in, the NG tube has sensors that check for things like how acidy my reflux is, how high in the throat my reflux gets, how many episodes I have, etc.

So, in 24 hours, I had 48 separate episodes of reflux. The longest single episode was over 5 hours long. When I'm sleeping, I reflux more often than not. Exactly half - 24 - of my reflux episodes reached the top of my throat. Those are the numbers that I can remember, it was a few years ago that I had that test.

So yeah, they take the data from the test and give you a score for how severe your GERD is. Zero would be you have no reflux whatsoever, you're fine. And 100 is the worst possible reflux ever. I scored a 95. That's one test that you do not want to ace, but I did. So I'll be on both PPIs (Nexium) and ranitidine probably for life, or at least for the foreseeable future. There is a surgical fix for the hiatal hernia, but I don't think that'll fix the GERD itself, just one symptom of the GERD, plus I've heard horror stories of the surgery going very wrong and people ending up feeling way worse afterwards. So I don't want to have the surgery. I'll wait for better treatments to come along.
 
Another quick update: I've been walking around a fair bit all afternoon, and my foot/toes are feeling better and better the more I walk. So definitely not a break then. Phew!

So, I'm still planning to do a workout tomorrow then since my foot & toes seem okay. I'm going to work out at home late morning/early afternoon before I head out to visit my grandma. Then I'll have a late lunch with my dad and brother (they're going to visit her too). I like having a plan for the day, particularly when it comes to my workouts - as I said in my posts above, because of my GERD, I need to only drink water and have no food for 2 hours prior to exercising. So I do need to plan ahead!
 
I did! Unfortunately I wasn't feeling great - stupidly had salad with dinner on Friday night and paid for it last night and this morning. I seem to be able to get away with salad about 50% of the time, so it's a real gamble, and it didn't pay off. Ugh. So I didn't end up working out before my visit. Hopefully tomorrow!
 
So, yesterday was... interesting. I was definitely active!

Hubby and I were doing some remodeling in our house. We have 3 bedrooms and it's just the 2 of us, so the smallest bedroom is my craft/sewing room, and we were remodeling in there. Adding in a countertop to put my sewing machines on and moving things around, adding some modular storage, etc. So that by itself was a workout.

Lily also needed a walk, so I took her out on the bike path and back. It was very cold out. When I got back home, I realized that my fitbit was missing! Oh no! I figured I must have lost it on our walk. So, out we went again for a 2nd walk in the bitter cold. I did not find my fitbit. Looked everywhere that we had walked - it was a clip on fitbit in a bright blue case, so it should have been easy to spot, but I didn't find it anywhere. I also searched everywhere at home and in the car, but couldn't find it. I think I must have lost it when we were out in the morning buying supplies to do the remodel. We stopped at at least 3 different stores so I must have lost it somewhere then.

Sadly I think it's gone forever at this point. I ordered myself a new fitbit online, and this time I'm ordering the wristband style instead of the clip, as I think that'll be less easy to lose. It'll arrive tomorrow, fortunately. In the meantime, I feel like I've lost a limb - I'm a big data and spreadsheets type of person, I like to know my metrics, and I feel adrift without my fitbit telling me my data! And I know my data would be good because of the two walks yesterday and all the activity with the remodel! Ugh. I just feel off today, not knowing my numbers is driving me crazy!

The remodel itself went pretty well. At one point a shelf fell on my head and I now have a big bruise and a bump behind my ear (it was totally my fault, my natural klutziness at work yet again). Other than that, things went fine, and the room looks much nicer and more organized now.

Guts-wise I'm mostly fine. I'm still getting an occasional cramp here and there, I'm still not quite back to where I was before I stupidly ate salad, but I'm getting there. I'm obviously well enough to take 2 walks, so I'm okay enough to work out. I didn't lift weights yesterday due to all the other activity I was doing. And today I don't think I will lift weights either - the weather is looking pretty ideal for ice skating. Upper 20s F so the ice won't be melty but it's also not as bitterly cold as it's been. My local ice rink is open and I got my skates out of the closet, so I'm ready to do some skating! Tomorrow it's supposed to warm up and rain, so that sounds like a good day to stay in and do some weight lifting, so that's the plan.
 
Well,that was a productive weekend,shame about your Fitbit though.We managed a longish ride this afternoon.It was a wet morning,so I did some laundry the went shopping.The sun was out when we got back,so Les got the bikes out while I put the shopping away.The weather is going to worsen as the week progresses,so I'm glad I made the effort.
 
It sounds like our week is going to worsen weather-wise, too. Snow is in the forecast for later this afternoon, rain tomorrow, and then apparently more snow Wed & Thurs. Then more bitter cold and more snow. :p Today is apparently the one good day to get out and skate! Although I did go ice skating during a snowstorm once last year and it was actually very beautiful, and with just a dusting of snow on the outdoor ice rink, it didn't pose a problem skating-wise. So it's possible I'll be able to get out again this week and skate, depends on how much snow we get.

I'm glad you were able to get out on a bike ride while the weather was still nice! It's been so cold here - it's been below zero temps lately, just bitterly cold. Yesterday it warmed up to about 12 F which is still quite cold, and a brisk wind too, I was freezing after 2 walks with Lily! You know when it's so cold out that you lose feeling in your legs? I definitely had that happen yesterday! Today it's something like 26 F so I should be able to retain feeling in my legs, which is good because I don't want to fall while ice skating.
 
So my grandma almost died, again, today. She stopped breathing and turned grey. Somehow she started breathing on her own again after about 45 seconds, according to my dad. Last month she did something very similar, no pulse and not breathing and turned grey. She has a DNR order so the nursing staff in her facility couldn't perform CPR on her. The ambulance was called and the EMTs showed up, and one of the EMTs literally just yelled at her to wake up - and she did. I don't know how many times a person can technically be dead and come back, but my grandma seems to be going for a record. It's extremely scary and worrying, and I know that one of these times, she won't come back from it. I don't think she's going to be around for much longer, and I hate that. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

My dad messaged me to tell me about her latest "incident" about a half hour before I was going to go ice skating. So I was sort of an emotional mess, but I know that exercise really helps me mentally, so I sort of forced myself to go ice skating anyway even though I really didn't want to in that moment. It was hard, but I went to the outdoor ice rink and I put on my skates and I made myself get on the ice and I kept forcing myself to move forward on the ice. Gradually it did get easier, and by the end of my lunch hour, I felt mentally and emotionally a lot better. I'm still worried about my grandma, but I no longer feel like bursting into tears and/or curling up into a ball underneath my desk. (Okay, I slightly do, but it's no longer an overwhelming urge.)

I tried to channel the awesomeness of my mom's friend when I was ice skating. My mom's best friend from when she was a kid, she's a very cool lady indeed. I've looked up to her my whole life, she's a strong single woman who doesn't need no man (apparently several men have proposed to her and she turned them all down), she's very cool and confident and independent. And a few years back, she was talking to my mom about how, when she was younger, she used to go ice skating on her lunch hour, in a skirt. :p I feel like that's such a cool thing to do - she was having adventuresome lunch hours rather than just being boring and sitting around and eating lunch. And in a skirt no less! I like having adventuresome lunch hours too. So, I made sure to wear a skirt today (along with warm fleece-lined leggings, I'm not crazy!) and I went ice skating on my lunch hour in her honor. Hopefully I'm even half as cool as my mom's friend.
 
Oh,goodness me Cat.I'm glad gran pulled herself round,bless her.Her Guardian Angel must have given her a little poke again.Good for you for going ahead with your skating plan.Worrying isn't going to help things and I know how much better you felt after making the effort.RESPECT !!!
 
Thanks Carol. It was really worrying last month when it first happened, but for that to happen twice, it's absolutely terrifying. And I've been told it's not a matter of if, but when, it happens again. I think her body is trying to shut down. I mean, a person's heart and breathing don't just stop for no reason - she's 84 and she has Alzheimer's and I think she's getting ready to die. I'm not ready for her to go, I just lost my grandpa in May and I'm not ready to lose my only remaining grandparent. But I recognize that I don't have a say in this. All I can do is go visit her as often as I can while she's still here, and practice as much self-care as I can. A big part of that is fitness, so I'm going to get myself to the gym as often as possible.

Today's fitness plan is weights. I have a GP appointment this afternoon, so a lunch hour workout can't happen today. I plan to go home after my GP appointment and lift weights in my home gym. I have a barbell, dumbbells, a weight bench, a balance board, kettlebells, etc. I have enough equipment at home for a really decent workout.

Tomorrow's plan could go either way, depending on what the weather does. There's a chance of rain/snow in the forecast in the afternoon. So if it's not raining/snowing, I think I will go to the forest path and take a walk through the woods on my lunch break. If it is raining/snowing, I'll work on my cardio in the gym in the basement of my workplace. Walking on the treadmill alternating with riding the stationary bike.
 
I lifted weights yesterday. I had a bit of a delay - received my new fitbit in the mail (I lost my old fitbit so I upgraded to a newer model) and wanted to set it up first before my workout. So that took a little bit of time to set it up, but I'm glad I did - I was able to have a good workout and get my numbers from the workout. :)

I managed to do 10 minutes on the stationary bike as my warm-up. Once again, I felt exhausted only a couple minutes in, and wanted to quit, but pushed myself to keep going. And once I got past 5 minutes in, it felt much easier, and then getting to 10 minutes was no problem. So it seems like my stamina will return pretty quickly if I just make myself stick with it.

I lifted weights and felt quite good doing that. Once again, though, my reflux was a bit too active for my liking. I've been taking 1 ranitidine (300 mg) and 4 Tums before working out, so I think I'm going to increase the amount of Tums next time I lift weights. Hopefully that will help.

Today's plan is still on - either walk in the forest or walk indoors if the weather doesn't behave. Tomorrow I plan to lift weights again. I haven't planned beyond that just yet.
 
I feel like I am taking it easy. :p I'm not lifting as heavy nor as intensely as I had been in the past (prior to my flare that started in July). I am pretty much over the cold, and my guts are mostly quiet, so I feel okay enough to do some sort of exercise most days. I will take rest days here and there, I know that those are important to let my muscles and body heal and recover.

But I also do want to work out as much as I reasonably can right now. That's my buffer against depression and negative emotions. I am depressed about my grandma's situation and also stressed about work stuff (very busy & stressful right now), so I feel like exercise is my medicine, it's my anti-depressant. If I have a workout planned for the day, I find that I look forward to it all day long. :) And then feel better after I've done it.
 
I got my new fitbit yesterday and I'm not sure I like it. It seems to count too many steps! Like, when I'm washing & drying my hands, it'll tack on an extra 50 to 100 steps. I'm not walking, I'm just washing my hands! I emailed the manufacturer to see what they have to say about this. I just want it to be accurate! It might be worse to have inaccurate numbers than to have no numbers. It's driving me slightly nuts!

Edit: I found a possible workaround. In the fitbit help section, it says that if you select to wear it on your non-dominant hand, it's more sensitive to movement (and might add extra steps in). But if you select that you wear it on your non-dominant hand, it's less sensitive to movement and might even leave off a few steps. So I'm trying that.
 
Well good luck with that Cat.Being the age that I am I tend to swerve techno stuff.I'm quite intelligent, but I feel things are going too fast and I don't need it.I've used a pedometer and we had a thing on the bikes that told us distance,speed etc.but it got wet and we haven't replaced it.And of course,who hasn't got a sat-nav ? Hubby has often had a few choice words with "her".
 
Some fitbits are pretty basic and really only track steps like a pedometer would. My old fitbit, the one I lost, was fairly basic. It tracked my steps and also counted how many flights of stairs I walked up, which was a neat feature. We put that to good use in Japan - we walked all of Fushimi Inari, which is the shrine in Kyoto that has 10,000 orange torii gates. What they don't tell you is that when you walk all of Fushimi Inari, you're walking to the top of a small mountain and back down again. It looked flat on the map, but it was definitely steep in real life! It felt like we just went up, up, up. After that walk, my fitbit said we walked up the equivalent of about 70 flights of stairs. So that was cool to know, to put a number to how far up we walked.

My new fitbit is more fancy. It tracks my heart rate and can supposedly recognize various different types of exercise, like if I'm lifting weights, or bicycling, it supposedly can tell what I'm doing. I'm skeptical of how accurate that might be, so I manually tell it when I'm lifting weights or whatever. It did automatically recognize that I took a walk yesterday, but considering that it's really just a fancy pedometer, that's not surprising. :p

I'm going to the gym in a little while to do a weights session, so we'll see what my fitbit has to say about that. Tomorrow, I don't have a workout planned, but I do have to help a co-worker with some things. We ordered a whole bunch of stuff for work, so we have hundreds of boxes now. And the boxes were all labeled and organized by me, but now we have to start taking things out of the boxes and sending them out. So I'll be lifting and moving boxes around tomorrow.

The tentative plan for Saturday is getting a bit full at the moment - ideally, I'd like to get up, eat a mid-morning snack, walk the dog, lift weights, then go visit my grandma. That might be too much all at once, though. It'll depend on how I'm feeling and how energetic I am that day. I'm definitely going to visit my grandma, as she's on borrowed time and my priority is to see her as often as I can while she's still around. But something else might get dropped off the agenda if I'm not feeling up to both walking the dog and lifting weights.

Sunday, I think will be a rest day. I haven't had a rest day yet this week. I may walk Lily if the weather is nice, but other than that I won't do anything active. My Green Bay Packers are in the playoffs, and they play on Sunday afternoon, so during the game I will be on the couch glued to the game. :)

Monday I have the day off of work for the holiday (MLK Jr Day). Hubby is also off that day. I'm hoping I can get him to work out with me - he usually hates going to the gym, but sometimes I can drag him along for a workout, and he always thanks me afterwards. I haven't been to the big paid membership gym in months, and although I'm guessing it'll be still quite busy with New Year's resolutioners, I'd still love to go to that gym. It's huge and has tons of equipment and I can always get a really good, full workout there. (Well, as long as resolutioners aren't hogging any of the machines!) So maybe we'll go there. If not, I'll work out at home again.

I don't have plans past that except for a tentative idea for next week Friday. That's inauguration day, and I feel like I should treat it like a national day of mourning. I'm not going to be online at all that day and no TV except for Netflix. I refuse to give that horrible man even one iota of attention that day. My hope is that the weather is decent that day - if so, I'm going to take Lily and go off into the woods for as long as I can. Just get away from everyone and everything. Hubby is off of work as well so maybe I can convince him to go hiking with me. And when I'm not hiking, I'll do whatever else I can at home that involves no TV and no internet and avoiding people. Sewing, crocheting, listening to records (yes, I have records and a record player, and sometimes when I'm in a certain mood I'll dig them out and listen to them).
 
I just got back from the gym. I had a really great workout! No stamina issues at all today - I easily did my warm-up on the stationary bike and felt like I could do more, at no point did I feel winded or like I wanted to quit. I also took a couple more Tums than usual, and I had a few belches, but no other reflux symptoms at all. No acidy taste in my mouth like I'd had the past couple of weights workouts. Progress! :) I feel really good, very pleased with my workout.
 
I did help my co-worker with boxes today and got a bit sweaty doing so, I think that counts as doing a workout. My co-worker recently had surgery and she's not supposed to lift heavy things, so I did most of the lifting and moving of the boxes.

Will see what I'm capable of doing tomorrow. I might just be crazy enough to do everything in the plan - walk Lily, lift weights, then go visit my grandma. I'm feeling pretty well today, so if I'm feeling like this tomorrow, I think I can do it all. And will then of course take it easier on Sunday!
 
Well done that girl,BUT don't over do it !!! It's good that you're doing so well but watch out for "The Wall".My plans for today are very simple.Having coloured my hair (hubby hasn't noticed yet) what's new hahaha,prep'd lunch and done the floors,we're going to walk down to the Saturday market,through the park over the road,then back along the river.Then I'm going to slob out with my book.It's very cold 2c,but sunny and still.Not a bike day though.Sun's too low in the sky.
 
I think I'm okay enough to do the full plan today. I got up, made myself eat a light breakfast (I'm usually not a breakfast person at all, it tends to make me nauseous to eat too early in the day, but I want to get an early-ish workout in before I go visit my grandma, so I needed to eat at a certain time so that I can work out 2 hours afterwards). Fortunately breakfast went fine, just the slightest bit of nausea but nothing bad. I'm planning to walk Lily shortly and then come home and lift weights, then zip over to where my grandma lives and have a nice visit with her.

Part of me is slightly dreading visiting with my grandma. I know she doesn't have much time left, and I'm sort of scared that this will be my last time seeing her. That's a scary and sad thought. But hopefully my workout will somewhat insulate me from those emotions - exercise usually helps me feel so much better mentally & emotionally, at least in the short-term, which is another big part of why I want to work out right before I go to see her!

Hah, I haven't colored my hair in a bit, but my hubby never notices either. He doesn't notice when I get a hair cut, or when I get new glasses, or anything really. :p I probably could get a tattoo on my face and he wouldn't notice it, ha ha.
 
Men in general are funny creatures eh? I take great pleasure in telling him "weeks ago"
when he does eventually notice stuff.I don't take offence 'cos I know he's not alone.They're in a world of their own most of the time.
I hope your visit with Gran goes as you want it too.You really need to stop torturing yourself about what will be.It's natural to worry but it won't change anything.Hugs.
 
I did everything in the plan! I walked Lily - it was cold out but not bitterly cold, and the sun was shining and melting some of the ice. The dog park was very icy, I had to walk carefully in some spots because it was so slippery. Then I lifted weights when I got home. That felt great, I felt really good afterwards. Got in my car and headed to visit my grandma. I know she doesn't mean to do it, but she's very draining sometimes. When I have to repeat the same thing to her 27 times (not even really an exaggeration), it is draining to me. I still like seeing her, of course, but I feel like I need a rest break after that. So I felt great on the way to grandma's and drained and a bit sad on the way home. Sad because her dementia is getting worse and obviously her physical health is failing too, I know she won't be around much longer.

Well, I tried to make her happy in the time she has left. I mentioned previously that I was bringing her a pashmina scarf because she liked mine so much. Mine was blue, and I thought that pink was her favorite color so I got her a pink one. Well, she said at our visit today that blue is her favorite color. I guess I was wrong about pink! So I ended up just giving her both scarves (they weren't expensive). And because she's my grandma, she insisted on paying me for both. :p That's one of the things I had to tell her 27 times, she wrote me a check for the scarves and then the rest of our visit she kept asking if she paid me and if she gave me enough money and how much money did she give me and was that REALLY enough because those scarves must cost more than $10 apiece and I kept saying, yes, you paid me, yes, you paid me enough, please put your checkbook away, you already wrote me a check, yes, they really were $10 (and pulling up the link on my phone to show her how much they cost). So that was draining. But hopefully she is happy.
 
Ah,bless her.And you sweetheart.I'm like you and not religious,but I can see the goodness in people,and you've got it in spades.Glad you're work outs are going to plan.
 
Thank you, Carol. :) I do feel slightly bad because I won't be able to visit my grandma again for at least a couple more weeks. This coming Saturday, there's a women's march in my city (it's a sister march to the big one in Washington DC, which is of course to protest those horrible men coming into office). So I'd like to participate in that. And the following Saturday, I'm going eagle-watching and wine tasting with my parents and brother - there's a spot here where bald eagles congregate each January, and there's a winery right near there, so we do that every January. So my Saturdays are a bit busy for the next couple weeks!

Fitness-wise, I've been doing well. I walked Lily on Saturday and Sunday. Monday, it was a day off of work because of the holiday, but we got a bad ice storm so everything was very icy and we didn't leave the house at all that day. Saturday and Monday I did weights workouts at home. Sunday I only walked Lily and that was it, although the football game did get my heart rate up! My team, the Green Bay Packers, are in the playoffs, and they were playing the Dallas Cowboys, who were ranked as the #1 team this year. It was a very close game which was won by the Packers in the last seconds of the game. So we're going on to the next game in the playoffs, and if we win that one, then the Packers go to the superbowl! So I'm sure that this coming Sunday's game is going to be very stressful as well!

Today's a rest day - it's still too icy out to walk Lily, and I lifted weights yesterday, so I can't lift again today (I need at least one day in between weights workouts so that I don't injure myself). I might take a brief walk on my treadmill if I'm feeling antsy, but other than that, no workouts planned today. Tomorrow, I'm going to head to the little gym in the basement of my workplace on my lunch hour for another weights workout. Thursday, it's supposed to be quite warm out for this time of year - upper 40s F! So if it's not raining that day, I think I'll take a walk on the paved path through the woods. Friday, I am off of work and that's inauguration day, so I'm hoping to get out into the woods for some proper hiking. They are predicting rain for that day, though, so the backup plan is to do a weights workout at home. And then Saturday is the women's march - it's looking again like it will be upper 40s F, so if it's not raining I plan to ride my bike downtown and then participate in the march and then ride home. Sunday, I'd love to go to the big paid membership gym and do a nice long workout prior to watching the football game. So that's my tentative fitness plans for the week.
 
Looks like another busy weekend for you Cat,and interesting.If you get on the march I'll be right beside you and wine tasting and eagle watching,well,what's not to like.We're busy redecorating the kitchen,but after a mornings painting and clearing up managed an hour or two on the bikes.It's a lot warmer than last week,9c,but over cast so no low sun burning the eyeballs out.Going to get some leggings tomorrow while they're in stock,after a mornings wallpapering.I'd rather go eagle watching.Enjoy the rest of your day.It's 7pm here and PJs are on.
 
Carol, sounds like your weather is very similar to what ours is about to be - I googled, and 9 c is about 48 F, which is what it's going to be on Thursday through at least Sunday. So yeah, it is going to be bicycling weather, which I cannot believe because it is January in Wisconsin so it is supposed to be frigid and snowy! Not warmish and rainy. It's been a really odd winter here, weather-wise. Not that I'm complaining about upper 40s F, mind you. I'm looking forward to getting on my bike and riding down to the women's march! Although the eagle-watching may be sort of a bust because of the weather. The eagles like it when it's very cold, then they tend to congregate in one spot along a river to do their fishing (because typically the other parts of the river are frozen over, but the spot near a dam is always open). If it's warmer, then the eagles have their choice of where to go fishing and don't need to all congregate near that one spot. So it's actually a bad thing for eagle-watching, though I am still likely to see a few (on warm years like this, I'll probably see maybe 5-10 tops, and on a very cold year we sometimes see 40+ eagles). Oh well, we can still go to the wine tasting! ;) That's always good no matter what the weather is like.
 
I got 2 pairs of leggings,1 black and 1 navy blue.I wear a lot of those colours (UK spell.) and I like to be co-ordinated.Black trousers,top,shoes etc.even my underwear is matched.(in case you were wondering hahaha)I have never,to my knowledge worn mis-matched bra & pants.Got the wallpapering finished in the kitchen so might get out on the bikes tomorrow.I envy your eagle adventure.We only have wild Golden and Sea Eagles in Scotland.Plenty of hawks and falcons and kites in the countryside though,if you actively look for them.
 
I love buying new workout clothes. :) I am not nearly as color-coordinated as you, though! Usually it's black or grey workout capris and a brightly colored top. I seem to own a lot of bright pink workout tops. My workout shoes have bright pink shoelaces, so I guess I'm color-coordinated there. :p It's completely accidental coordination though! As for underwear, ha ha, no comment! As long as it doesn't have stains/holes then I'm good, hah.

As for birds of prey, we get a lot of hawks here in the city, mostly red-tailed hawks. They're quite common here. Bald eagles we typically only see in January, although rarely we do see them at other times of year. They seem to like to go further north in the summers, and only come down here in the dead of winter to fish and roost for a short time. So as a result, eagle-watching in January has become very popular in this area! There are even bus tours that go to the best spots. We won't go on the bus, we already know where the best spots are and can drive to them all ourselves.

The latest weather report is saying that it's going to be 53 degrees F on Saturday! That's springtime weather, not January weather. But hey, I'll take it. Should be very nice weather for bicycling downtown and participating in the women's march.

I'm heading down to the little gym shortly to lift weights. I just re-vamped my workout playlist, I took out some music that was sounding stale and I added in some fresh new music. So that should keep me pumped up in the gym, I love it when I can add new music to my workout mix, it really invigorates me. Unfortunately, 2 of my favorite music groups are basically done now (one broke up permanently, the other just began what will be a very long hiatus) so now I'm going to have to seek out some new groups/singers to listen to!
 
Just got back from the gym a little while ago. I definitely was not color-coordinated today! Black workout capris, blue workout top, and orange socks. :p Oops, ha ha. Didn't feel like digging through my gym bag looking for coordinating socks. I did have a good workout and that's the important thing. The new music kept me going. I do feel quite tired now though! And even though I didn't do any abdominal exercises, my ab muscles feel quite tired now. It feels like I did about 200 crunches but I didn't do any. I think that's just an IBD thing? I try to go easy on my abdominal area but it likes to yell at me a bit anyway. Oh well. It's not pain or anything, it's just sort of a general muscle fatigue feeling.
 
It looks like a walk is not happening today, rain in the forecast yet again. That's okay, because I remembered that today is one of my favorite days - it's $2 pants day! There's a cute little upscale thrift shop in town, and they run different sales every Thursday. The $2 pants sale is my favorite. I've gotten some brand-new, designer pants there. So I'm going bargain hunting instead of forest walking today. :)

I won't be online at all tomorrow - no TV and no internet for me, I don't want to give any attention to that horrible man. And Saturday I'll be at the march, protesting the horrible man. So I'll probably be back online Sunday or Monday.
 
That horrible man will be on our TV at 4pm tomorrow,but I won't be watching.Trouble is it will be on all the news progs.and in all the papers so there'll be no escaping it for weeks to come.As to my colour co-ordination,Ha !! it's not a virtue,I've got nothing better to think about and I can be very particular about silly things.Luckily my typical untidy hubby stops me getting out of line.And I do wear colourful tops and scarves with my dark basics.
 
I know I can't avoid the horrible man altogether, but it feels like the right thing to do to avoid him tomorrow. The only TV/internet I'm allowing myself tomorrow is Netflix, and even then obviously nothing political. I don't subscribe to any newspapers, and I won't even turn on my computer tomorrow. I'm taking the day off from work, and hopefully will go hiking if the weather behaves (it's looking iffy right now).
 
Our daily paper has him on the front page today.I don't think he's well supported here,people are just interested / concerned what it will mean for you,us,and the world in general.
Was planning a ride today but I'm not having a good start to the day,hopefully by lunchtime.
 
He's honestly terrifying. I just read that there's now some bill that congress introduced that would remove the US from the UN??!! Um, what! Every day is now like a nightmare!

I didn't go hiking and I didn't go to the march. It was too rainy to go hiking on Friday, so I stayed in. And then on Saturday morning, I just couldn't stop crying. I had felt this impending sense of doom all day on Friday, and on Saturday I woke up and remembered that we have a new president, and I just couldn't stop the tears. I could not pull myself together and I just wanted to be alone, so I stayed home from the march.

Today I'm trying to be a functional person again and that involves forcing myself to go to the gym. I still feel somewhat weepy, but better than I was yesterday. I'm planning to go to the big paid membership gym around lunchtime, then watch my Packers play and hopefully win - if they win then they go to the Superbowl, so that would be one good thing out of this miserable weekend.

I think I mentioned that one of my favorite music groups broke up recently. Well, 3 of the 4 members got back together in secret to record a goodbye song. I've been listening to it on repeat all weekend and that hasn't exactly helped me to stop crying. It's a sad song. It's a pretty song, too, though. You can turn on English captions to understand what they're saying. The phrase they keep repeating - "Annyeong, annyeong" - means "goodbye" (can also mean hello) in Korean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEkLHC7l25w
 
I did go to the big paid membership gym yesterday. That gym has a ton of equipment, so as a result I tend to have a longer and more strenuous workout when I go there. Translation: I'm sore today! :p My body isn't used to doing so much in the gym. It's a good thing, though. It makes me want to go back and go regularly so that my body adjusts and so that I get better workouts more regularly.

Hubby is a gym fail, though. I can't seem to get him to go to that gym with me anymore. He's been working as a chef, meaning long hours on his feet, and he's exhausted when he gets home from work and the last thing he wants to do is work out. He has lost weight since becoming a chef, just because he's on his feet so much and so busy & active at work. But, he's not gaining muscle, he's just lost some weight. It's not necessarily a healthy thing, you know? And fitness is all about health, at least for me it is. But I can't convince him to go with me to the gym anymore. I used to be able to drag him along - he never wanted to go, but in the past he'd go as long as I was going, although he wasn't happy about going. And after we were done working out, he'd always thank me and say that he did feel better after a workout, so I know he was getting something beneficial from going to the gym. He's just too tired now though I guess. Hmph. He told me that he's fine with us canceling his gym membership and upgrading mine. I might do that, with the upgraded membership then I could bring him with me as a guest if he decided he does want to go to the gym.

At least he's been using the punching bag at home. He told me he wanted his own set of boxing gloves (I guess he didn't want to wear mine, as they're pink!). So I got him his own pair (not pink, red) and he's been using that more than I have. So that's good, at any rate.

Today's plans are to go for a walk on the forest path. I'm so sore from yesterday's workout, but I think a walk will do me good and loosen things up a bit. Tomorrow I'd like to go to the gym again, will probably go to the little gym at work on my lunch hour. Wednesday I have a dentist appointment so no workout that lunch hour, and it'll probably end up being a rest day which is fine. Thurs I have stuff going on at work at odd hours, but I'm hoping to head to the big paid membership gym after work that day for a longer workout in the evening. Friday, not sure yet. The weather has been above freezing so the outdoor ice rinks have all melted & closed temporarily. But, the weather is supposed to get colder and snowier later in the week, so I'm hoping that I might be able to ice skate by Friday. It doesn't sound like there will be enough snow to go snowshoeing, but maybe I can skate. If it's still too warm then I'll probably just take another walk. Saturday is the eagle-watching and wine-tasting day, but I'm hoping to sneak in a workout in the evening that day. If I can't fit it in, then I'll go to the gym on Sunday instead. Those are my tentative plans for the week.
 
I think it's better to do an extensive workout every other day.I used to do Mon.morn,tues eve.and thurs.pm.Just do something gentle on the other days.
It's no good trying to encourage hubby if he's not keen,he works long and hard so it's not as though he's a couch potato and he does make an effort to do his own thing.It's nice to do things together though.We've been busy finishing off the painting etc.so haven't done much else.Hope to get out on little blackie tomorrow or Wednesday.
 
I agree, from everything I've read, rest days are necessary and there needs to be at least a day in between weight lifting sessions. Some people get around this by doing legs one day, arms the next, back the next, and so on. I'm not a fan of that, I like to go all out and do a whole body weights workout and then either have a rest day or a gentle exercise day such as walking the next day to let my body recover from doing weights. So I try to do weights every other day with either rest or something else on the days I'm not lifting.

The thing is, hubby pretty much is a couch potato when he's not working. He spends most of his evenings parked in front of the TV and/or computer. I get that he's tired, but I'm tired too - I work full-time myself, plus he's healthy while I'm still clawing my way towards remission. Yes, my job mainly involves sitting at a desk, while his job involves being on his feet all day, so I'm sure he is physically tired at the end of the day. It's just not healthy, though. He's only lost weight because he's eating less, and what he does eat seems to be food at his restaurant, which is not healthy food - it's all high fat, fried foods. (The restaurant is a brewpub so they serve what I'd call upscale bar food - like, instead of just french fries, they serve poutine, and they serve a lot of hamburgers with fancy toppings, many fried appetizers, etc.) It's not healthy. Maybe I'm a bit skewed in my view, because at this point I've pretty much come to view weight loss as unhealthy - when I'm at my sickest is when I lose weight, and when I'm getting healthy again is when I gain, and maybe I project that onto others as well. Maybe it's just my perspective. But I do feel like he needs to make fitness more of a priority than it is. I guess he's the only one who can decide that for himself, though.

I'm still going to cancel his gym membership and upgrade mine, though. The big paid membership gym is a chain, and my current membership allows me to only go to my "home" location and not other locations within the chain. But if I upgrade, I can go to other locations too. My "home" location is near my house, but there's another one not far from my work, and one in the city where my parents live, etc. I would have more workout options if I upgraded, so I'm going to (it'll be the same cost for one upgraded membership as it is for my and hubby's basic memberships, so win-win!).
 
I had my walk on the forest path, it was mostly nice. The paved part of the path was fine. I went a bit further today, there's a point where the paved path turns into a gravel path and that part has been icy for awhile now so I've avoided it up for the most part. Today it was more slushy than icy and I was wearing my boots, so I wandered down it for a bit. And I stumbled onto something odd! Well into the woods, fairly far from houses or roads, right in the middle of the path, was a large... thing. It was like a giant ball made from ice and snow and gravel and mud, I think. Like the base of a huge snowman but also containing a lot of gravel and mud. It was gigantic and just sitting smack dab in the middle of the path. I presume either teenagers or gigantic dung beetles made it. :p I took a photo of it (I always bring my camera on walks just in case) because it was so odd!

My favorite singer and one of my personal heroes is Utada Hikaru, and awhile back she had temporarily walked away from her music career because she had no independence. She was super sheltered by her record agency from her teen years onward, and by the time she was nearly 30, she realized she really had no idea how to be an adult or how to do a lot of normal things. She was talking in an interview about how the straw that broke the camel's back was that she had gone on vacation. She went out to the countryside, and she had no idea what to do while she was out there. So she asked some people, and she was told that it's nice to take a walk in the country. So every day, she took a walk, and every day she had a new experience on her walks, it was like a new adventure every day. She had never done that before, she had never just gone for a walk before, and she said that it was such a simple thing that most people take for granted, but for her it was something new and it showed her that she had to learn what other things there were to being an adult and to go out and have other adventures and become an independent adult. So I always think of Utada when I walk (and usually listen to her music on my ipod too), but I especially think of her when I see odd things on my walks like that giant slush-mud-gravel ball! I think she'd be proud of me and my little adventure today, ha ha. :)

She has a song called "Nijikan dake no vacance" which means "A 2-hour vacation". I love that thought - just get away for a couple of hours, away from humanity, go out into the woods for a long walk. A couple hours (or even one hour) is all you really need to refresh yourself and your mind. I try to go on a nijikan dake no vacance whenever I get the chance.
 

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