Cat's Exercise Diary

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well what the heck. That is frustrating. Finding blood in stool and not finding a cause.... not hemorrhoids, not infection. Sheesh!

I'm at least glad for you that you are looking forward to a good workout! That's always a good sign. I get excited about working out too and I'm disappointed when I can't do it.
 
I had a good workout last night. :) It was pouring rain when we were at the gym though so it was more crowded than usual - people couldn't exercise outside so they all went to the gym in the rain I guess. Oh well, I still did everything in the gym I wanted to & didn't have to wait for any machines to open up, so it was fine. I was thinking of doing some yoga tonight, but then I found out my massage therapist is available to give me a massage tonight. That's kind of like a workout in itself - my muscles are usually sore the next day anyway! So I'll have a massage and skip the yoga. And tomorrow I'll feel like I went through a meat tenderizer because of the massage. :p

But I'll pick myself right back up and go to the gym. I read an article recently that said that the best way to get rid of muscle soreness is actually to exercise the sore muscles! And I believe it, I've experienced that for myself. If I'm feeling sore, working out alleviates it. Strange but true! So I'll exercise away the massage soreness tomorrow and then I'll feel better. :p Sort of weird that I have to recover from a massage - maybe my massage therapist is being too rough on me? The massage itself always feels good, it's only the next day that I feel sore.
 
Most people I know really enjoy massages and don't get too sore. I experience a lot of pain with massage but that's because my back is so messed up. I think if you are experiencing pain after a massage your therapist must be pretty rough on you! At least it feels good though. Getting the blood flowing through those muscles is very good for them, releases toxins and oxygenates the muscles for better repair.
 
Cindy, my back is kind of messed up too - not nearly as bad as yours from the sounds of it though - and apparently my neck is pretty screwed up too. So maybe that's contributing to the soreness. I think part of it too is that I'm just not very comfortable lying face-down - it's not super easy on the tummy to be squished onto a massage table, plus my screwy sinuses freak out and try to drain when I'm face-down but it's like they can't drain fully or something. So I am congested and not comfortable during a massage, that doesn't exactly lead to me being relaxed. :p But I do think massages are beneficial so I keep getting them. And it is really nice that our massage therapist is a friend of ours, so he gives us a special rate and makes house calls.

LMV, sorry to have put you off! I think you just need to find the right massage therapist, mine maybe isn't the right one for me but like I said he's a friend, I trust him (I don't know that I'd want a stranger's hands on my body), and he makes house calls so I at least can be comfortable knowing I'm in my own house and basically just hanging out with a friend while he rubs oil on me. :p And it does feel nice during the massage, it's just afterwards that I usually feel like I've been beaten up.
 
Update 6/2/13: I'm feeling good. I didn't have too much pain/soreness from the massage fortunately. Haven't had any more blood in my stool, so hopefully it was just a fluke or a virus or whatever. I lifted weights yesterday and felt good, although the bad hip was acting up a bit afterwards. I did Ride the Drive today, 2 laps, and I did manage to get up that big hill without stopping! The first lap, I tried it, but felt like I was going to pass out so had to stop to catch my breath and have a drink of water. On the 2nd lap, I went slower, and it was tough but I did it the hill without stopping. :) The hip is hurting a little bit again but I think that's because I took a nap when I got home and I was sort of lying on top of the bad hip during my nap.

Oh, I did have some fairly wicked cramps after riding. I think this was because it was really cold out today! It was something like 45 degrees F when I headed out, with strong cold winds. I usually ride in warmer weather and feel fine, I haven't ridden my bike in such cold miserable weather until today. My body doesn't like weird temperature fluctuations, although it typically cramps up in response to really hot humid weather.
 
Cat-a-Tonic said:
Update 6/2/13: I'm feeling good. I didn't have too much pain/soreness from the massage fortunately. Haven't had any more blood in my stool, so hopefully it was just a fluke or a virus or whatever. I lifted weights yesterday and felt good, although the bad hip was acting up a bit afterwards. I did Ride the Drive today, 2 laps, and I did manage to get up that big hill without stopping! The first lap, I tried it, but felt like I was going to pass out so had to stop to catch my breath and have a drink of water. On the 2nd lap, I went slower, and it was tough but I did it the hill without stopping. :) The hip is hurting a little bit again but I think that's because I took a nap when I got home and I was sort of lying on top of the bad hip during my nap.

Oh, I did have some fairly wicked cramps after riding. I think this was because it was really cold out today! It was something like 45 degrees F when I headed out, with strong cold winds. I usually ride in warmer weather and feel fine, I haven't ridden my bike in such cold miserable weather until today. My body doesn't like weird temperature fluctuations, although it typically cramps up in response to really hot humid weather.
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I would have traded weather with you. It was really hot and humid here and I had a race this morning. I get crampy in high heat too, think this is normal for anyone.
 
Hooray, Cat! Sounds like you were able to really get out there during the bike ride, which I know you were hoping for. Darn that hip, I hope it eases up on you and you're able to keep going. This weather we're having in MN/WI sucks! We're about a month behind, my hubs figures. It's only supposed to be in the 50s again tomorrow, and might get to 70 by the weekend but is supposed to rain. Of course! Argh!
 
LMV, I do have other goals. I rode my bike around the smallest lake in my city - there are other, much larger lakes that I'd love to ride around someday. That probably won't happen anytime soon but is something to keep trying for.

Cindy, yeah, we're having cool weather here too, in the 60s all week with rain off and on. My arthritis is still acting up unfortunately. I took 2 Tylenol PM last night to try to get the pain under control and help me sleep, but the pain is still around and I just feel groggy from too much sleep medicine today. I also woke up super nauseous this morning so had to take 2 Zofrans. Not sure where the nausea came from! I'm feeling somewhat better now, I was able to eat some potato chips and have some tea. Going to hit the gym tonight but I'm pretty much running on empty at this point between the nausea, tiredness and joint pain! I think I'm going to go to bed as soon as I get home from the gym, I'm just wiped out today.

Oh, so here's something I'm looking forward to exercise-wise. I was on facebook last night, chatting with an old friend from high school. I haven't seen her in over a decade, she moved down south to Georgia awhile ago. But I guess she really misses Wisconsin and she wants to either take an extended vacation to WI this summer, or maybe even move back here for good. She used to be overweight but she's lost a lot of weight and she really likes to exercise, so we're already talking about going on bike rides together when she comes back to WI. She and I have an interesting history (we went to a concert together many years ago where we met 2 guys, one of whom was cute - we both developed a crush on the cute guy, he liked me better than my friend, and long story short I married him! She was really mad for years about that! But hey, I'm still with hubby and I feel like it all worked out pretty well). She's kind of a flake too, I rememer the last few times we tried to hang out - we made plans, she said she'd pick me up at a certain time, then she wouldn't show up and wouldn't answer her phone. So I'm cautiously optimistic about going on bike rides with my old friend. I feel like we're both adults now (a lot of that stuff happened in college) and I've certainly matured and can forgive & forget, so I'm hopeful that my friend has grown up too and that we can hang out again. Anyway, I'm rambling a lot here. Short version - I'm hoping to go on bike rides with an old friend. :)
 
Workout buddies can be very good - usually not reliable in my experience however. Especially since you mentioned she's a bit of a flake, don't count on her to go with you. Just stick to your own plan IMO.
 
Kel, yeah, I usually work out alone so I'm fine with doing my own thing if my friend flakes out on me. All that stuff I mentioned happened when I was like 18/19, and I'm 33 now, so it's been 15 years and a person can grow & change a lot in that amount of time. So I am hopeful, but I can easily do my own thing if she repeats her old patterns.
 
If you simply want to use this opportunity as a social thing by all means be flexible and accommodate your schedule to hers.

If not, you have the right idea. Training is training, not time to chit chat.
 
Kel, I completely agree - one of my big pet peeves is people at the gym who just stand there and chat forever. Sometimes my hubby comes to the gym with me, but I don't even really consider him to be a workout buddy, because we literally do not talk to each other at all when we're at the gym. I do my thing, he does his thing, we both have headphones on, we meet up when we're done. We usually check in on each other, I look to see how far he is in his workout and we do often stretch & cool down together, but I think we've said like 10 words to each other in the gym at most. He asked me once if I know how to reset an ipod shuffle because his wasn't working and I said no, I don't know. And that was the longest gym conversation we've had! :p So yeah, I can work out with another person there with me but still totally do my own thing, so I'm not too worried about that. I'll give my friend a chance, and I'll work with her schedule (she has a kid so I know she'll need to get a babysitter), but if she impedes my workout then I won't exercise with her again.
 
I am curious, with all the weight gain threads popping up, if you have reached your healthy weight goal? I noticed in your OP you mentioned you lost about 20 lbs at some point.
 
Oh yes, I'm back at a healthy weight now. :) I had lost about 20 lbs from being ill & undiagnosed (and therefore untreated) over the course of about a year. After a year of that, even though I'm still technically undiagnosed, my GI felt it's probably IBD and he put me on Entocort. I was on that for about 7 months and I gained back about 25ish lbs. I'm still in remission and at about the same weight - I was about 136 before I got sick, dropped down to about 115 that first year, and now I'm currently about 139 lbs. The Entocort weight gain was all fat, and most of it came back around my midsection, so working out regularly has turned a lot of that flab into muscle. I still have a little bit of flab on my belly but not too bad.
 
Cat, that's funny. My hubs and I were pretty much the same way when we were at the gym together. I hate the chatterboxes at the gym! He would come by to ask me a question but that was it, he knew how much I hated it. I kind of get "in the zone" when I'm working out and just don't want to be bothered.
 
Yeah, Cindy, I hear you, I totally get in the zone too! I'm a huge introvert, and once my headphones are on, I'm officially in my own little world inside my head and I don't wish to be bothered by the outside world. :p Having someone try to talk to me when I'm in the my own head like that, I either won't hear them or I will get very annoyed. Gym time is me time!

Someone in a different thread said that the gym is like their sanctuary, their safe happy place. I love that analogy and completely agree. Particularly the little gym in the basement of my workplace, because hardly anyone else ever goes there besides me. I can be all alone, crank my music, collect my thoughts, do a great workout, and just basically recharge my batteries. :)
 
that is exactly it! It is like a sanctuary. Now that I have my elliptical in my basement, it's nice to have that quiet room to go to and be alone and work out. Sometimes the dogs come in there and I even tell them to get out if they are getting rowdy!
 
Cindy, I am the same way when I exercise at home - I have my exercise bike in my guest bedroom, and I do not let my dog in the room at all when I'm riding the bike. She likes to sit really close to me, but she ends up getting bonked in the head with the pedals, so I don't let her in the room anymore. She sits right outside the door and sighs sadly and looks at me with very sad eyes the whole time. :p She also tries to sneak out of the house with me when I take my bike out for a ride. And if I'm on the floor stretching/doing yoga, she also tries to sit right next to me and/or will lick me until I pet her, so I kick her out of the room during yoga too! She's a good dog but kind of a pest sometimes.

Update 6/4/13: I'm feeling much better today! I hit the gym last night for weights, that was a really tough workout. I had no energy and was feeling crappy so I really had to dig deep to get through it. After the gym I came home, had an Ensure for dinner, went to bed early, and woke up feeling a lot better. No more nausea, the arthritis pain is still there but is better than it was yesterday, and my energy levels are much improved. I'm going to do yoga tonight since it's supposed to rain (so no bike ride). Weights again tomorrow, hopefully a bike ride on Thurs if the weather is nice. Weights on Friday and hopefully kayaking this weekend (again, totally weather-dependent!). Hubby's birthday is on the 13th so I'm taking a few days off of work next week for that, so hopefully we can go kayaking at least once during my time off too. That's a form of exercise that my dog actually gets to go along for - she loves riding in the kayak and looking at ducks! So my dog and I will both be happy if we get to take the kayak out. :)
 
Hooray! I'm so glad to hear you are finally feeling better. It's about time! Sounds like you have some good times ahead. We're going to try taking our dogs out in the boat this summer and see how they do, they haven't been yet but we think they might like it since they like riding in the car so much. Here's a funny - my dogs wait until I am done on the elliptical and then they come and lick my legs like crazy because I'm all sweaty and salty! I try to get away but with two of them it's a challenge. They really are a couple of funny girls.
 
Cindy, do your dogs like swimming? My dog hates to swim but loves riding in the car - so she loves riding in the kayak too, and there's little risk of her jumping out of the kayak into the water. If she liked water, it might be another story though. But she really loves riding in the boat. It's cute, she likes it so much that if I stop paddling, she'll start nudging me with her nose. She likes to keep moving forward and doesn't want to stop! She's the same way in the car too, if we stop at a red light she starts whining and barking because she wants to go go go. I've actually started saying to her in the car, as I'm slowing down, "Red light, Lily!" And she seems to know that means we have to stop temporarily but that she shouldn't freak out - and she doesn't. I swear, sometimes I think she understands English! :p

She also knows a few other completely silly commands that I've taught her. If I say, "Lily, whisper!" She'll do a very quiet "grrr". And if I say, "Get the kitty", she'll go find the cat and nudge her with her nose. :p She's my first dog and I wasn't sure at first how I would go about teaching her new tricks, but she pretty easily picks up any silly thing I try to teach her.
 
Cat, it sounds like you have a very smart dog there! And entertaining, as well. My girls, Molly and Maia, are quite the characters as well. Molly won't ever lay down when we're traveling in the car, I think because she's afraid she'll miss something. Even if she sits down, if the car slows or stops, she's right up at the window checking everything out. Maia, on the other hand, would rather lay down and snooze until the ride's over.

We've only taken them swimming a couple of times, but they seemed to enjoy it. They only like water if they CHOOSE to go in though! Baths are fun because Molly especially hates going into the water if she didn't want to go, and she doesn't like going out in the rain either much. She's pretty silly!

I think dogs do learn to understand our language. My dogs know "wait" and "treat" and which toy to go get when I tell them, as well as "ride". They are smart creatures!
 
Oh yeah, my dog knows way too many words too. We now have to say we're going to the "bark" because she learned the word "park" and we don't want her to freak out too much on our way over there. :p She knows sit, down (lie down), off (as in, don't jump up on people or furniture), come, wait, spin, roll over, shake, go potty, treat... I'm sure there's more than that. We got her at age 2 and she already knew a lot of the basic commands then so we've mostly been teaching her tricks. She knows a few full sentences too. If I say, "Lily, you have stinky breath!" she'll start woofing and spazzing out. I shush her so she's quiet again, and then I say, "Lily, do you need a breath mint?" And she'll spazz and woof even more until I give her a doggy breath mint. :p She's ridiculous.

Update 6/5/13: I did yoga last night and that went well, and I'm still feeling good today. I've been eating less in the evenings the past couple of days and I think that's contributing to me feeling better - if I eat a heavy dinner, I never feel well. I had an Ensure for dinner 2 nights ago, and a small amount of pasta salad last night, and I woke up the following mornings feeling quite well. So I'm going to try to stick to eating small amounts in the evenings and not have big dinners. I had a science teacher in school many many years ago who said that it's best for the body to have a large breakfast, a medium sized lunch, and a small light dinner. I've never been a breakfast person, but I'm going to try to adapt that lifestyle as best as I can. I know for IBD it's ideal to have 5 or 6 small meals, but I don't have the time or energy to plan or prepare that much. Plus I'm on Delzicol and you're not supposed to eat 1 hour before or 2 hours after taking it, and I take it 3x per day, so that pretty much dictates that my eating schedule cannot be 5 or 6 meals a day! So anyway, I'm rambling again, but I'm going to eat light dinners and try to eat a little more during the day to balance things out.
 
I have been kind of the opposite - not hungry in the morning, eating a few times during the day, eating more later in the day. It's funny how we are all different! I've been a 5-6 small meals a day person for the last few years and that does seem to work well for me, but then again I don't have medication dictating when I can eat!
I'm glad you are finally feeling good. Yay!
 
Update 6/6/13: We hit the gym last night for weights and it went really well. Sometimes I have rough days where all the weights feel heavier, and sometimes I have great days where everything is an absolute breeze and I feel strong and awesome. Last night was one of the latter types, I felt great and my workout, although intense, also felt easy peasy.

The trouble happened though after the gym - hubby and I didn't feel like cooking, so we decided to go to a little cafe near our gym. We go there fairly often after workouts, I know there is safe food there I can eat. But when we got there, they were closed! They apparently just changed their hours and aren't serving dinner on weeknights anymore. Ugh! So we had to try to find another place to eat, and we were starving so we didn't make the best decision. We ended up going out for Mexican food - not safe, I know. Spices, meat, dairy, veggies, corn products - so many trigger foods! I felt mostly okay afterwards, but was burping guacamole for the rest of the evening and felt rather unsettled as I tried to go to sleep. I don't think that dinner sat well with hubby either because he got up really early this morning because he couldn't sleep. I didn't sleep great either. I just said recently that I need to make better choices for dinner, and then I totally did the opposite of that last night! Urgh. Lesson learned. I need to pay more attention to my diet, particularly in the evenings.
 
I love texmex :D Makes me miss living in Houston.

Does guac by itself bother you? I always heard avocados were one of the best things for crohns patients to eat.
 
I do fine with avocado by itself, but with guacamole it seems like they add in things like spices and sometimes raw onions, and stuff like that does upset me. I can do cooked onions, but raw is more problematic. Of course, I have severe GERD too, so sometimes I'll belch whatever I've eaten, even if it was a safe food. I had a tin of sardines for a snack earlier today and have had fishy burps ever since. Back when I was still eating bananas, I would get awful banana vurps that would last all day.

So yeah, when hubby and I make homemade "Mexican" food, we make it safe for me to eat. Goat cheese, ground turkey instead of beef, very mild spices, and avocado instead of guac. Sometimes eating like that at home lets me fool myself into thinking I can eat Mexican food at a restaurant, but really I can't/shouldn't.
 
Poor cat! I'm sorry that happened. I've found it's always a struggle when we're trying to find a place to go out to eat too. Mexican at home is easier because we have so much more control over what we're eating! At least you had a stellar workout and you were able to get back to your beloved weights. :D
 
Hawkeye, I have tried those lactaid dairy digestive enzymes but that's about it. Those work so-so for me - in a flare they do nothing, and in remission they work okayish. I haven't tried any other type of digestive supplement.

Update 6/8/13: I hit the gym last night for weights. I tried the assisted chin-up bar for the first time (I think it's fairly new at my gym, I just noticed it the other day). It was interesting, a little weird. I'm not strong enough yet to do a pull-up on my own so it was nice to have a counterweight to help me along. Today, I was going to ride my bike but ended up doing a lot of gardening instead, which was a workout in itself. Planted some basil, transplanted a bunch of lilies, sawed off more branches from my monster-sized lilac bush. Oh, and walked the dog too, so I've definitely gotten a decent amount of exercise in today. Back at the gym tomorrow for more weights and more chin ups. :)
 
You should try the assisted chin-up machine, LMV! It's a surprisingly good exercise, even with the counterweight. My arms/shoulders are still sore today from it. And it is kind of fun going up and down. :p Although I felt a bit silly doing it (I tried it for the first time last night, as Friday nights are really empty in my gym - I didn't want many people to see me try it the first time in case I messed up or looked stupid!).
 
Cat-a-Tonic said:
Hawkeye, I have tried those lactaid dairy digestive enzymes but that's about it. Those work so-so for me - in a flare they do nothing, and in remission they work okayish. I haven't tried any other type of digestive supplement.
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Thanks. I was looking at some DPP IV enzymes I had left over from when my little guy was having a hard time with formula. Giving probiotics or enzymes some thought as I still have little appetite and am down about 20 lbs since January. Going to the GP on Monday to see if we can figure out what is up.
 
Oh yeah, I have tried probiotics too - they didn't work for me though, they only make me worse. I think I'm in the minority there though, most people seem to do well with probiotics. Good luck on Monday, I know you've had some ongoing issues and I hope you can figure things out!
 
Did you try more than one brand probio Cat? I know they can be a little pricey to be experimenting with but EJ's had good results with Culturelle.
 
Mark, I tried a few kinds. None seemed to do me any good, and the longer I took them, the worse my GERD became. Once I stopped probiotics, my GERD got somewhat better. And if I have dairy + probiotics together, I pass blood - Greek yogurt just kills me!
 
I haven't tried probiotics as a supplement yet. I do get them in the kefir milk I drink daily, and I do notice that my belly is much calmer lately than it has been in a long time. Of course, I've been a good girl with trigger foods too, that can't hurt!

Cat- I'm jealous of your gardening! I have some flowers I need to move from one area to another before they die, but it has literally rained every day of the last seven. The ground is so wet. I'm hoping over the next couple of days it dries out so I can move them. There are a billion hostas taking over where they are and I don't think they'll last much longer.
 
Kel, I did actually try goat yogurt at one point - the taste/smell was too strong for me though, I couldn't get a mouthful down without gagging. I haven't tried kefir because I'm afraid I would end up with the same bleeding issue that I get from Greek yogurt (and I also bleed if I eat cottage cheese multiple days in a row). The risk doesn't seem worth the reward.

Cindy, I have about a zillion hostas too. That awful drought we had last year didn't kill them, so I'm pretty sure at this point that nothing will kill them. I'm not very good with plants so I actually kind of enjoy having things like hostas in the yard because no matter what stupid thing I do, I probably won't kill them. :p Although I heard it's pretty much impossible to kill a fern, but I planted a bunch of ferns along one side of the house, and I guess the drought did kill them because I have no ferns this year. But yeah, I'm awful with plants - I bought a basil plant at the farmer's market on Saturday, and I'm pretty proud that it hasn't died yet. :p Earlier in the year we bought a basil plant, hubby watered it, and it died literally the next day. That's how bad we are with plants!

Update 6/10/13 - It's been raining here a lot too. But there's only a 20% chance of rain today, so I'm hoping the weather holds out so I can go on a bike ride tonight. With the weather being so rainy lately, I've been doing yoga instead of the bike, and I know I need more cardio. Also, I got an odometer for my bike, so I can see how far I'm actually riding. I actually had the odometer hooked up last week, but hubby calibrated it wrong - I think I had ridden about 11 or 12 miles, but the odometer said 18 miles, which I know was wrong. So hubby re-calibrated it, hopefully it's more accurate this time around. Assuming it works properly, I can see how many miles I ride in the real world (I know I can do 12 miles in an hour on the stationary bike, but that's not the same). Then I can start setting goals for myself with how far I want to ride in a day, etc. :)
 
Sounds like you and I have the same problem, keeping plants alive! The only houseplant that I've been able to keep alive is a black shamock. Every other plant I've had died a miserable death, including an aloe vera and a peace lily, both of which are supposed to be pretty difficult to kill. So the hostas are a good thing for me too!

I hope you get a good long bike ride in. It finally warmed up above 70 here so I'm thinking I might take a nice long walk with my sister tonight when I get home, since she's here visiting from Oklahoma.
 
It's funny you mention aloe vera plants, I've got some that seem to be impossible to kill. When we bought our house in 2008, I thought it'd be nice to try having some houseplants. I found 3 aloe vera plants for free on craigslist and took them home. My cat promptly tried to eat them (she ate pieces of them & puked them up all over the place, I found out later that aloe is mildly poisonous to cats which would explain the vomiting). I salvaged what I could from the cat-chewed plants and ended up with 2 of the 3 surviving. I watered them every day for a couple of years and they grew huge. Then I moved them to a different windowsill and I stopped remembering to water them as often. For some reason, that caused them to reproduce, and suddenly I had a bunch of baby aloe plants coming up along with the 2 big ones! I transplanted one and gave the other baby plants away. It now has literally been months since I've watered any of my aloe plants, and they're all still apparently doing just fine. So whether I water them every day or not at all, they just keep thriving somehow. I have no idea how, these plants should have died like 10 times over already. :p

So far so good weather-wise, it's in the mid-70s and a bit cloudy, but it doesn't look like it's going to rain. Not windy out either so it should be great weather for a bike ride (I hate riding into the wind).
 
I do remember that aloes don't like a lot of water. Mine actually broke at the base and never recovered. My black shamrock does better when I just keep the dirt damp and don't overwater as well - right now it's shooting up new plants like crazy!

I hope, Cat, that you were able to get that bike ride in! I was on the elliptical for 1/2 hour this morning and felt like I was going to fall over when I was done. I think it's from the head stuff I've got going on, though, because my belly has actually been fairly quiet lately. Hopefully I'm getting over this flare!
 
Uggh. Well, I did get a nice long bike ride in last night, probably about 14 miles or so (my odometer apparently still isn't calibrated quite correctly as it said I did 20 miles, and I know I didn't do 20 miles!). But I've come to the realization that riding my bike might be doing me more harm than good. I feel terrible today! I felt good, probably from endorphins, after my ride last night. My left knee was hurting, as it usually does after a ride, so I put ice on it. Had a bad attack of diarrhea last night and then slept very poorly. I had a dream that I just kept vomiting and vomiting, then I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep easily and was quite restless all night. The guts are bad today, It's not even 9 AM yet and I've already been to the bathroom 3x with loose stools. And to top it all off, 2 of those 3 bowel movements were bloody.

I am trying to think back to the last time I rode my bike - it was for Ride the Drive, which was on Sunday June 2nd. And I do recall, the next day I felt terrible then too. I wasn't really sure why, but it was only for one day (although I did not pass blood that day). I'm starting to think, maybe riding my bike is just too much for my guts to handle. It's low-impact, yes, but I have to keep my core muscles tight and engaged the whole time I'm riding. I am starting to think, maybe my core just cannot handle being worked like that for that amount of time. The longer the bike ride, the worse I seem to feel the next day. This is the worst I've felt yet, and it was probably my longest ride ever yesterday. I'm seeing a correlation. And I don't feel this way after riding my stationary bike, which makes sense too - I don't have to balance or steer on it, so my core is much more relaxed.

So, long story short, I'm going to take a break from riding my bike (I will still ride the stationary bike sometimes as I have never had an issue with it). If I don't pass any more blood during my hiatus from bike riding, then I will assume that riding my bike was the cause. The doctor never did find the cause of my bleeding during the first round of it - no hemorrhoids and no bacterial infection. I'm not flaring either (no night sweats, I feel bad but not flare bad, no chills, etc). So I'm going to go for now with the theory that riding my bike is causing all this trouble. If I continue to bleed, I'll of course contact my GI right away.

Yeah. So. I'm kind of depressed about this though. I really like riding my bike and I'm going to miss it. I'm trying to tell myself that it's okay, I can still do cardio on my stationary bike, but it's not the same at all. More than anything, I think I'm upset that my body is able to dictate once again what I cannot do, and that's so frustrating. I can push through the knee pain, I can push through feeling exhausted, I can make it up big hills, I can get past almost every hurdle in my path - but I have hit a wall once again with my digestive system. I hate that my body gets to call the shots like this. Blah. Feeling very down!

Going to go lift weights on my lunch break anyway. Not going to let some blood stop me, and I know I can lift weights without my body punishing me. Tempted to do yoga tonight too. I know exercise always makes me feel happier when I'm feeling down, so my instinct is to exercise as much as I can today. Just not on my bike... :(
 
Cat-a-Tonic said:
Cindy, I have about a zillion hostas too.
Click to expand...

Too many deer in our hood for the hostas, we'd have to plant then in the fenced yard. Anything that is not fenced in our neighbourhood pretty much as to be deer resistant. We've had great luck with Russain Sage, Shasta Dasies, Boxwood, Astilbe, Barberry and Karl Forrester (ornamental grass)
 
Update 6/14/13: Sorry for not being on more the last couple of days - took a few days off of work for the hubby's birthday. Anyway, I'm coming to terms with the fact that I am not able to ride my bike right now. I've decided to re-dedicate my efforts to weight lifting, as it is my favorite thing anyway. I went to the gym yesterday and pushed myself harder than usual on the weights, and I felt so great. I always feel good during/after a workout, but I felt so good, like a big smile was on my face the whole time. (On a side note, I'm sure I look creepy when I smile throughout my workout!) I haven't had any more bleeding. I'm going to give it a few months of no bike riding - it's getting hot now anyway so not really ideal bike weather anymore - and will maybe try riding again in the late summer/early fall when the weather gets a little cooler again.
 
I can see you working out with that big smile on your face! How cute. I know the feeling though, sometimes when I'm on the elliptical I just feel so good I smile! Working out is a great feeling. It sucks you have to give up the bike riding, but maybe by fall when it's cooler and more fun to ride you'll be able to get back on. (I hope)

Hopefully your hubby's bday was a lot of fun for both of you. :)
 
Update 6/16/13. Weights yesterday, and we took the kayak out today! I can tell that weightlifting is doing both me and hubby a lot of good, the kayak seemed far less heavy this year than it has in previous years (it's a 2-person kayak and is something like 16 feet long so it's big and unwieldy). We were on the water for about 2 hours and my shoulders & arms are quite tired now! It was really fun though, we went to a local creek that not a lot of other people seem to know about, so it was mostly just us. We brought our dog of course and she had a great time too (she's currently zonked out napping, I guess riding in a boat and looking at ducks is really tiring).
 
Natural, as far as I know. I did some googling but could only come up with this:
http://starkweatherfriends.org/aboutCreek.asp
^That's the creek we paddled today. Yes, as the link says, it's pretty polluted and kind of gross. I think it's probably really difficult to keep an urban creek from getting polluted though. Some major roadways pass over this creek so I think that's a big part of the problem.
 
Update 6/17/13: I'm still feeling good today, so I believe that means my kayak is treating me better than my bike was (so far anyway!). I did have to use my core muscles quite a bit when paddling yesterday so that was a bit worrisome, but so far no symptoms & no blood. I think the issue with my bike was, I had to keep my core muscles tight at all times when on the bike - with the kayak, I really only have to tighten on each dip of the paddle, and I can stop paddling as needed (it's a 2-person kayak, so hubby can paddle while I rest or vice versa). And, I think with my bike, I would sometimes automatically just tighten my abdomen even more when going over bumps which probably only made the problem worse. In the kayak, we paddle on really calm little creeks (we avoid the lakes, too many waves, too much risk of flipping and our kayak is not meant to be flipped). So anyway, I do use my core muscles on the kayak, but not to the point where it makes me pass blood. That's good, although I know I won't be able to take the kayak out nearly as often as I was biking, so still not ideal, but better. No blood is a good thing anyway.

I'm going to the gym in a little bit for weights. The weather is nice today so hopefully the gym will be empty. Hubby is working all this coming weekend so I'm trying to think of fun workouts I can do by myself on the weekend. Kayaking is out - I can't paddle that thing by myself let alone transport it (hubby's car is the one with the roof rack). Biking is of course out too. I'll do weights Sunday, but not sure what to do on Saturday. Has anyone done yoga outside? I usually do yoga in my living room, but I live in a city with a lot of free spirit-types, and I've noticed a lot of people doing yoga outside by the lake. That seems cool in a way, but also kind of horrifying. :p Like, I admire people who do that, but I am not confident enough to do that myself. So I kind of want to do something fitness-related that's fun/different like that, but maybe not that exactly! Anybody have ideas?
 
So you're saying contracting your abdominals causes you to pass blood? That is not normal at all. Do you have blood in your stool after or do you basically just have blood come out by itself?
 
I don't know how or why, it's just my current theory based on what I know so far. It only happens after long bike rides, and it doesn't happen when I ride the stationary bike. The last time it happened, I went on a 15ish mile bike ride in the evening, then came home and felt okay for a bit (due to the endorphins probably) but later in the evening I started having diarrhea and not feeling well. The next morning, I passed blood in my stool 3 separate times. By afternoon I wasn't passing blood anymore and was starting to feel better. That's basically how it happened before as well, it happened shortly after a bike ride, and the blood was in the stool. Bright red blood, always with stool, never coming out by itself. I did see the doctor the first time it happened, and she ruled out bacterial infection (stool samples came back clear) and hemorrhoids (she checked for internal & external, none were found). So it's not like riding my bike is aggravating hemorrhoids or anything like that, there's no obvious cause of bleeding that the doctor could see. It's a mystery for now, and I don't exactly want to cause it to happen again to try to find out more.
 
So when you use weights at the gym you don't have this issue? And you're maintaining a solid abdominal contraction with a normal lordotic arch?
 
Cat, you may have some chronic inflammation in your colon that you are somehow irritating. That's EJ's current problem and the reason he will occasionally pass a little blood.

When was the last time you were scoped?
 
kel said:
So when you use weights at the gym you don't have this issue? And you're maintaining a solid abdominal contraction with a normal lordotic arch?
Click to expand...

I'm not exactly sure what the second sentence means, but no, it never happens when I lift weights. I do try to maintain proper form when lifting if that's what the 2nd sentence is asking. I don't lift particularly heavy weights (I'm a slim female so I lift as heavy as I can, which isn't a whole lot) and I do the weight machines rather than free weights.

Mark, I had an upper endoscopy in November '12 (which found a small hiatal hernia and everything else looked fine), but I haven't had a colonoscopy since April '10. I'm pretty sure I'm still in remission - I haven't had any of the chills, night sweats, all-over joint pains, etc that always seem to accompany my flares. I see my GI again in August and I'm definitely going to talk to him about this bleeding issue then, so we'll see what his thoughts are on the matter. My most recent bloodwork (taken during the first episode of bleeding) was exactly what I expected it to be - almost totally normal, except my sodium was slightly low and my potassium was borderline (that's typical for me). So I don't know. Knowing my GI, he's already seen the report from the other doctor about how I was bleeding and they couldn't find the source, and probably he's already brainstorming some ideas. The good news is, he feels I have IBD and IBS - he feels that since I'm in remission, any symptoms I have now must be IBS. I disagree and feel like IBD can still affect things even though it's not active, maybe I have scar tissue or my gut motility has changed, stuff like that. I'm definitely not normal like I was before I got sick. But at any rate, he can't write off colon/rectal bleeding as being due to IBS, so this will hopefully but the IBS thing to rest anyway.
 
Cindy, according to my calendar it is not a full moon until Sunday. I have no idea why the creeps all congregated in/near the dog park! Maybe there is a weirdo convention in town that I missed hearing about. :p

LMV, admittedly I usually only walk the dog on the weekends. I work a standard Mon-Fri job, so hubby usually walks her during the week (he does a lot of random part-time/freelance type work, so his schedule is much more flexible than mine is). Yesterday evening when I got home, hubby was working on a big freelance project that had him stressed out, and he hadn't walked the dog all day. So I took her out to the park, it sounded nice in theory!
 
I'm sensing some sarcasm, LMV! ;) Yeah, our neighborhood is not the best - we're not rich by any means so we couldn't afford a to buy house in a really nice neighborhood. And actually we really do like our neighbors, but our block is right next to a big park so sometimes weird people hang out there. I think different types of people go to the park in the evenings as opposed to the mornings, too. When I walk the dog on the weekends, I usually walk her in the morning, and there are really nice people who go to the dog park on weekend mornings. I guess the weirdos all come out in the evening!
 
I think you need to get Lily a friend…I'm thinking a big German Shepherd!! Since I know you're not going to get a concealed carry permit:)
 
Cindy, I bought a thing of pepper spray once after a former friend told me she was attacked, but I stopped carrying it after talking with my mom. (Side note - that former friend turned out to be a pathological liar, which is why she's a former friend, and I don't think she was even really attacked.) My mom worked at the post office, and she had all sorts of horror stories that the mail carriers would tell her about pepper spray. The carriers all had to have pepper spray to deter vicious dogs, etc. But very often when the carriers went to use it, either the pepper spray wouldn't work (like it was too old and had dried up or clogged) or they didn't aim it right and hit themselves with it. Too many things can go wrong with pepper spray, and you're really in trouble if you miss your target and hit yourself with it instead!

Mark, your wife's reaction to the flasher is hilarious! I am going to mentally file that one away just in case I ever need to use it myself. :p But uh-oh, am I one of the "nuts on the internet" you're referring to? ;)
 
My boss is a runner, and she carries a can of stuff that is spefically made to repel attacking dogs. I think it was about $8. It doesn't clog up or anything on her. I don't know, she likes it. Hopefully you just don't need to worry about it!
 
Oh FFS. I am just not having a good week. For some reason, I passed a little bit more blood today. It was a VERY small amount, more on the TP than anything, but there was a tiny bit on the poo too, so this is not looking like a fissure. The guts are mildly upset but not as bad as they've been in the previous bleeding incidents. I didn't ride my bike this time so I really don't know what's causing it. I did go to the gym for weights yesterday, but didn't do anything differently. This is so frustrating, I am *not* a bleeder! I've bled out my butt more in the last few weeks than I have in the entire time I've had IBD!

The only thing I can think is, the Delzicol? I switched from Asacol to Delzicol about 3 months ago. I've been doing fine on it - I was feeling crappy before starting Delzicol, as I had tried switching from Asacol to Asacol HD. HD did not work well for me and I kept passing it undigested, so I basically wasn't getting any benefit from it, and I started feeling crappy pretty quickly. My GI switched me from HD to Delzicol and I started feeling better. So I know it's doing me some good - I do see that rectal bleeding is listed as one of the potential side effects though. I don't know. I feel a little dizzy, the guts are a little upset, and I passed a little blood - other than that though I feel fine. I'm not going to call my GI just yet. I see him in early August anyway so I'm going to see what happens in between now and then.

I'm not sure that it's the Delzicol though - how is it that I could be on it for 2ish months and be fine, and then suddenly start bleeding? That doesn't make sense to me. Plus, if my GI takes me off the Delzicol, I'm not sure what I'll do. Since I'm still not fully diagnosed, we aren't totally sure where my IBD is located. I feel like it's in the TI (since when I flare, I get LRQ pains right around where the TI is located) but my GI is leaning towards microscopic colitis, so he feels my illness is in my colon. The other mesalamine drugs don't cover both the colon and the TI, only Asacol HD and Delzicol work specifically on those areas. Pentasa works on the small intestine and the TI - that's the one I'd push for. Lialda works on the colon & rectum, and I know that's what my GI would want to put me on. What if my GI and I can't agree on Lialda vs Pentasa? What if neither of those work though? What if I truly do need something that works on both the colon and the TI?

Argh. I'm just venting some frustrations here and thinking out loud. I don't know what to do, so for now I'm carrying on as if everything is normal. I wish I could just be in total denial about this bleeding issue. Maybe it'll go away on its own before August 7th. Yeah, right...

Edited to add: Maybe I could switch to Apriso. I always forget about that one. I think it works on the colon, not sure about the TI.
 
It might be worth getting a scan, Cat. Could be something has formed (thinking fistula but could be something else) to suddenly cause the bleeding, or your rectal area is now effected?

Or a scope?

Sending hugs your way, I know this isnt fun x x x x x
 
Thank you LMV. :) I don't think it's a fistula, wouldn't that hurt or cause more symptoms besides the ocassional episode of bright red blood? And I don't think my rectum is inflamed, when the bleeding first started I went to a doctor and she did a rectal exam, and she didn't see anything cause for the bleeding (no inflammation, no hemmies, no fissure, etc). She did stool tests too which ruled out bacterial infection, and my bloodwork was normal. I'm guessing that my GI will want to look further for the cause if this continues, so you're probably right, a scope or scan may be in my relatively near future. I guess mainly I'm just scared that if we don't find anything, my GI will pull me off of the Delzicol and won't put me on anything else - it's so hard to convince a doctor that I need IBD meds when I don't have a proper diagnosis! And sometimes I get so tired of fighting and worrying about stuff like that, I think that's one of the worst parts of having an illness. This crap never really ends, even in remission, does it? Oh well.

My joints are acting up so I'm going to go do some yoga in a bit. Hopefully that will cheer me up. I got some new yoga pants today too, they're cute - mostly dark grey with a purple waistband, and they fit really well. Nice soft fabric too, I really like them. Shopping cheers me up almost as much as exercise does. :p Exercise is better and wayyy cheaper though! Ha ha.
 
I don't think a fistula would necessarily hurt. I apparently have complex fistulas which I only found out about after a scan coz of an abscess. So I have felt the complications of them, but not them especially. Doctors seem to think you have to be quite ill to get fistulas but I completely disagree with that. I got mine when I thought I was in remission.

So yeah I completely agree with you, this stuff doesn't go away when you are in remission. It just gives you a chance to pretend your healthy for a while. And I can never get the what if thoughts out of my head either! I feel like I don't want to commit to something in case my illness makes me not do it. To be honest after the last week that I have had I realise how much all of this has effected my confidence too! It never goes away.
 
Honestly, I think I'm the opposite, being ill has given me a confidence boost. I used to be *so* shy and introverted, and yes I still am very introverted, but I'm less meek I guess. I've learned the hard way that I will only get proper treatment from doctors if I specifically tell them what I want and why, and that means talking and being persuasive and even arguing. I'm not good at any of that stuff! But I'm getting better at it the more I do it. And like with that thing earlier this week where some guy at the gym was talking with his friends but then tried to tell me he was using the machine I wanted to use, I shot him a death glare and was prepared to tell him off if that wasn't enough. Me before I got sick, I would have been so meek I probably would have just let him have the machine. Particularly when I'm feeling less than great, I just have such a low tolerance for BS so I actually stand up for myself now rather than letting people walk all over me. So I guess there's one benefit to being ill, it's made me tougher in a lot of ways!

It's pouring rain here and super dark outside with a lot of thunder/lightning - pretty much matches my mood right now. I did yoga last night but avoided doing any type of abdominal exercise. Usually I do the plank for 30 seconds and also the grounded V pose, but I skipped both. Maybe if I'm just super nice to my abdomen for awhile, it'll stop bleeding. I haven't passed any blood since yesterday morning, so that's a good sign anyway. I'm going to go to the little gym today for weights, and I will skip the abdominals machine there too. I'm going to look so weird if I keep this up, muscular arms & legs and a flabby disgusting belly. :p Not that my belly looks toned now, but it's only going to get worse if I neglect it. I don't know what else to do though, so I'll give the belly area a break from exercise for a little while.

I am looking forward to a restful weekend, so that'll be nice. Hubby works all weekend at the costume shop so I'll have a lot of alone time, that'll be nice. I'm hoping to pamper myself a little bit. My gray hairs are starting to make a comeback so I bought a box of hair dye. I have a few sewing projects I'd like to do too. So a low-key, quiet weekend for me, which sounds perfect. :)
 
I might be flaring. I talked to my GI last night and we'll do a flexi-sig soon or I might request a full colonoscopy. My guts are definitely not right, and after 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I woke up exhausted. I'm nauseous and distended, although not really having d. Looser stools yes, but not d, and I've only gone twice so far today (in a bad flare, I'd typically have liquid d anywhere from 10 to 30+ times a day). I haven't had night sweats or chills yet either. Things are definitely not right though. If this is a flare, it's the weirdest flare I've ever had. I'm getting symptoms I've never had before and not having many of my typical symptoms.

My GI called me last night and he said I'm supposed to keep a close eye on my symptoms for the next couple weeks. He also said not to lift anything heavy, no weight lifting. At first I was mad about that, but with how I feel today, it might be the right decision. I feel pretty awful. My body is telling me to rest so I'm going to listen as much as I can. I'm going to do yoga when I can, I think that's the most exercise I can muster. This sucks, but I'm just trying to do what's best for my body, and right now it's saying rest. If this is a flare, I gotta get through it so I can get back to remission and proper exercise, so right now it's about healing from whatever is going on.
 
Thank you. I keep going back and forth between, I think I'm flaring and no I'm not. My mom and brother came over to visit me today and I managed to hide my symptoms from them. My brother is on drugs and is also a huge jerk, and he was in top form today, he showed up high and then when he became more coherent he said some rude things to my mom and they had a big fight. I can feel the stress of that affecting my guts, but overall I feel better now than I did this morning. I was able to eat and walk around a bit. And now I feel like, if I can do all that and deal with my brother's stupid drama, maybe I'm not flaring. I just don't know what to think at all!
 
Yes, nobody's coming over tomorrow and hubby works. I'm just going to lie around and not do much. I might play video games or crochet, but I'm going to rest as much as I can. If I feel okay, I'll try some yoga. :p I just hate not exercising!
 
Hey Cat, I remember at one point your bro was going to move in with you all. Did that ever happen? I'm sorry he still hasn't got his act together! Yeah, you don't need to be around that drama now especially!
 
Quick update: I tried pushups, couldn't get past two without my stomach asking me not to continue. I was able to do some hand weights though (I have a couple of 8 lb dumbbells at home) so I was able to do a quick arm workout without affecting the tummy area too much. I think I might do some yoga tonight... and I kind of want to do yard work too before the next rain storm hits. Like I said earlier, I'm kind of terrible at resting! I played video games for a couple hours, then I started some laundry and now I'm about to head to the grocery store. :p Yes, I'm awful at just letting myself be sick. I'm great at being in denial, and I'm also pretty stellar at getting restless and having cabin fever. And I hate feeling worthless, so I need to do something to make me feel like I have some purpose.

Oh, and to continue on my vent about my stupid brother - my mom left me a voicemail, saying from now on she's either going to visit with him or with me, not both of us together, because "he feels like a third wheel" when she and he and I get together, and she thinks that's why he acts like a *******. Um, no, he acts that way because he's on drugs. Stop allowing and enabling that awful behavior of his and see how fast he changes! But hey, I'm happy to cut him out of my life even more if this means I don't have to see him when my mom is around. He's always been the favorite though and I know my mom can't cut him off or stop him when he's behaving horribly to her. When he was living with me and treating me like dirt, the 3 of us had a huge fight one day and he said he'd just go live in his car. I was happy to let him to - but my mom was like, no, my poor baby can't live in his car! Let the kid face some actual adversity, then maybe he'd grow up. But hey, he's not my kid, what do I know. I guess long story short, the less I see of him, the better, so I guess this is a good thing.
 
It's hard when you love someone but you don't like them Cat! I'm with you though. He's young and needs to get his act together! Tough love is the way to go!!
 
Yeah, too bad nobody else in my family feels like tough love is the way to go with my brother. He's not even all that young, either (I call him a kid because he acts like one). He'll be 27 next month so yeah, it's way past time he started acting like an adult. I'm the older one (it's just the 2 of us, I'm 33) and it was always drilled into my head that I need to be responsible. I always had to do chores, my bro never did. I had to work and save for a year to buy my first car, he was gifted a car when he turned 16. I had to be home by 10 PM when I was a teenager (I recall once staying out till 10:30 and oh did I get in trouble!) but my brother didn't seem to have a curfew. There was lots of stuff like that as we were growing up - like I said, he was the favorite. Spoiling a kid turns them into a rotten adult, that's for sure. And favoring one kid over the other just turns them both bitter against the parents and against each other.

Okay, vent over! So, I'm still not really able to exercise. I went to the grocery store yesterday afternoon and lifted some heavy groceries in & out of the car. That was enough to really make my stomach/abdomen upset, so I did sit down and rest for the remainder of the day. I'm going to try some gentle yoga tonight, and if that goes well, I might try a short easy program on my stationary bike tomorrow night. Baby steps! I haven't passed any blood since Thursday, but things are still definitely not right in my abdomen. It's still a mystery as to what exactly is going on though. I'm just not sure if it's a flare or what!
 
Update 6/25/13: I was planning to do yoga last night, but cardio sounded better so I hit the exercise bike. I took it very easy on myself and did 30 mins of slow riding on one of the lower hill programs (it didn't go above a level 6 - the hill programs I usually do on the stationary bike go up to level 10). I did about 4.5 miles in that time so about 9 mph average - usually I do more like 12 mph average. I know I can't compare a maybe-flare workout to a remission workout though. At any rate, that's what I did, and I actually feel really good today. My legs are sore today which I wasn't expecting - it hasn't been all that long since the last time I worked out! Although it has been a little while since I did the bike, but still, was totally not expecting to have sore legs today. I feel really good though - my stomach has been quiet as a mouse today, my stools are somewhat normal and no blood, and I'm slightly fatigued but only because I stayed up too late last night. Still don't know if this is a flare, because today definitely doesn't feel like it at all! I'm sooo tempted to go lift weights for a little bit, but I'm trying hard to stick to doctor's orders and am also still trying to go easy on myself, so I'm planning to do yoga tonight instead.

I've been trying something new as far as nutrition goes too. I'm attempting to make my own smoothies in the morning. I've been using crushed ice, carrageenan-free almond milk, a bit of honey, a bit of almond butter, a scoop or two of soy "meal replacement drink mix" (it's basically generic carnation instant breakfast I think, but no carrageenan), and a tablespoon of psyllium. Put it all in the blender and make a smoothie. Oh, and I've been trying to add stuff for flavor too - yesterday I added raspberries, today a sprig of mint. I could not taste the raspberries at all yesterday, it just tasted like almond butter - today I did taste the mint but I also tasted the almond butter, and I'm just not sure if they go together. This is all still a work in progress. So anyway, my other problem besides the flavor is that that it's awfully thick, which I think is caused by the psyllium. So I might leave out the psyllium and the almond butter tomorrow and see how that goes. (I'll of course drink the psyllium separately - I cannot go a day without my psyllium.) I'd love to add a banana to my smoothie, but I have such trouble with bananas. I need to think further about what else I could add to a smoothie to make it nutritious and tummy-safe and still taste good.
 
Probiotics are problematic for me too, worse than bananas in terms of the symptoms they cause, so putting yogurt into smoothies is out. I probably could get away with a banana every so often, but I wouldn't even try yogurt, not worth the trouble it'll cause.

I did yoga tonight and I feel good. I'm starting to get desperate to lift weights again though. I really, really want to hit the gym properly! Today's the first day in a little while that I've felt really well though, and I don't totally trust it yet. So still going to continue taking it a bit easy for at least another day or two. If all continues to go well then I'll try an easy weights workout and see how that goes. I know my GI said don't lift anything heavy for 2 weeks, but I just don't know if I can commit to that! It's been like 4 days since I did anything close to a proper weights workout and I'm already chomping at the bit to get back to it. :p
 
Update 6/26/13: I really miss weight-lifting. I'm thinking I'm going to hit the gym on Friday for weights - that'll make it one full week without lifting, and that's going to have to be good enough. My muscles are begging to be put to use and I miss the gym! If I bleed again, well at least I'll have the weekend to recover. I was doing some cleaning the other day and I found a DVD that I thought I had lost (Utada Unplugged!), and I really want to watch it, so I'm going to ride the exercise bike tonight and watch the DVD while I ride. I usually get pretty bored riding to nowhere, but hopefully this will be enough to keep me entertained.

I made a smoothie this morning with crushed ice, soy milk, that meal replacement powder stuff, a banana and a dash of vanilla extract. I purposely left out the almond butter and the psyllium (had the psyllium separately in a glass of water). That was much better, it had the consistency of a proper smoothie. I think the psyllium was making it wayy too thick. It reminded me of the time my hubby tried to make pudding with psyllium in it - it was like, a solid mass glob of pudding. It tasted fine but the consistency was so weird, like eating something that wasn't entirely food. We still joke about how weird that pudding was! So yeah, leaving the psyllium out of the smoothie was definitely the way to go. The banana didn't cause me trouble either which is good. I can usually get away with bananas as long as I don't eat them often, so I won't add a banana to a smoothie again for a little while. I run into problems if I eat bananas every day (it makes my GERD worse), or if I go crazy and eat multiple bananas in the same day then it is awful (pain!!).
 
Update 6/27/13: I rode the exercise bike for 30 mins yesterday. Did about 5.5 miles, so 11 mph average, which is faster than what I was able to do the other day. I did the next level up hill program from what I did the other day, so slightly steeper/more difficult too. I could feel my stomach getting kind of upset with me while I was riding, but afterwards and today it feels fine. So I can push it a little bit and still be okay, this is very promising. Going to do yoga tonight, and planning on lifting weights tomorrow which will be the real test of what my stomach can handle right now. I'll probably avoid the abdominals weight machine just to be safe, but I want to do everything else like I usually do. Arms, shoulders, legs, back, etc. I might try a couple of yoga moves tonight too which mainly incorporate the abdominal muscles and see how that goes - if I can use my abs in yoga, then surely I should be able to lift weights if I'm avoiding the abs machine. Right? I hope so!

I should start doing DVD reviews in this thread. :p Just kidding, but I always find myself bored watching DVDs on the stationary bike. Utada is/was my favorite singer (she quit making music in 2010), and I hadn't watched Utada Unplugged in quite awhile, so I was looking forward to it - but man, it was still boring. She did the Unplugged thing way early in her career, even before she had written Hikari (her biggest hit song), and she hadn't developed a lot of style yet or stage charisma. Watching her later concerts, like her Wild Life concert DVD, she evolved tremendously as a performer and also as a singer/songwriter. Her early stuff was so mainstream pop, but her more recent stuff is more artistic and much better, less radio-friendly but great nonetheless. Anyway, I guess I did do a DVD review after all! :p Long story short, Utada Wild Life > Utada Unplugged. :)
 
Who's Utada??? I swear, you don't listen to a single ramble I write about my favorite music. :p Okay, so, I used to listen to J-pop (Japanese pop), listened to it for like 10 years. Utada Hikaru was always one of my favorite singers. When she quit the business at the end of 2010, suddenly J-pop started sounding stale to me. I couldn't find other artists I liked nearly as much as Utada, she has a specialness that nobody else seems to embody. I grew frustrated at the lack of good J-pop with Utada gone. I had a little K-pop (Korean pop) on my ipod, and I started listening to that more, so now I'm a total K-popper, as you surely already know. :) I like that K-pop has a lot of good dance music that really keeps me going through my workouts.

But Utada's still my favorite and always will be. The thing that really cemented her as being my favorite is, shortly before she quit, she released a song called "Show me love (not a dream)". She sings the refrain in English, and the refrain goes "It's all in my head, it's all in my head." This song came out right around the time that my doctors were finally taking me really seriously and actually treating me for IBD, but up until that point, I had those nagging doubts about maybe my illness is all in my head. Hearing Utada say it, it made me cry. Her song is about her emotional and mental journey to get to the point where she decided it was the right thing to walk away from her music career. She was going on an emotional journey at the same time I was. The song just really affected me and it's still my favorite song. It's not on youtube, but I found a video on a Chinese site - hopefully this works (sometimes I have to refresh it a few times and then it works).

http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/45258598-1463781897.html

Or if you want a happier song, here's something from her Wild Life tour. :) Goodbye Happiness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFkvLN9pt-k

And as I mentioned previously, Hikari is her most famous song. The video, well, it's just her washing the dishes and that's it. But it's a lovely song and it was the theme song for the first Kingdom Hearts video game. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOSNIIx5u_U
 
Update 6/28/13. I did yoga last night and I feel good today. I felt kind of shaky while doing yoga, like my muscles are getting a little weak, but I got through it fine. I did just one yoga move that focuses on the abdominal muscles - the grounded V. That was fine, no pain while doing it and no issues today either. That's very encouraging so I'm giving myself the green light to do weights tonight. I'm still going to avoid the abdominals machines, I know my abs will get somewhat of a workout by me doing the various other machines anyway and I don't want to push things too much just yet. But I'm seriously so excited to go to the gym, I miss it! Cannot wait to actually fully use my muscles again! Yoga and stationary bike are fine but they just aren't enough, I gotta do weights. :)

Edited to add: I forgot to mention, I have lost a little weight this week. My Wii Fit (what I use to do yoga) said I've lost about 3 lbs since last week. I have had some d off and on, and my appetite hasn't been great, so that's not surprising. I'm going to keep an eye on it though. I'm at about 136 lbs now (was 139) so I'm still at a healthy weight, but I don't want to go much lower than this or I'll be underweight again. Still don't know if I'm actually flaring or not, so the weight loss will be an important clue. If it continues, probably flaring. Hopefully it's just a fluke and/or I need to eat a bit more.
 
Update 6/29/30: I did weights at the gym last night and feel good today! Yeah! I avoided anything to do with my abdominals, skipped the abs machines, skipped the lower back machine as I can always feel my abs working hard on that one, and skipped the assisted pull-up bar as I usually feel my abs working on that one too. Did everything else and could feel my stomach getting iffy for a bit, but felt fine afterwards and feel fine today too. This is very good! :D Maybe next time I'm at the gym I'll try the assisted pull-up but will keep skipping the others, to continue easing my way back into the swing of things.

It's raining today so I'm stuck inside, can't walk the dog or do yard work. I think I'll do yoga or maybe the exercise bike. The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow so I'm hoping we'll take the kayak out. The last time I kayaked, my stomach was nice and quiet, so hopefully that trend continues. :)
 
Update 6/30/13: Well, we were hoping to take the kayak out today, but my dog is sick so for now I'm sitting home with a dog who needs to go out to have bloody diarrhea every 20 minutes or so (I can relate, poor thing). I sometimes get like "sympathy nausea" when someone else is sick, so I see my dog puking and pooping blood and it makes me feel a bit unwell myself. So I think kayaking is out, too much time investment and Lily can't come with today. I told hubby we should go to the gym later, so we'll do that instead. That'll take less time than kayaking, so we'll be able to get back to Lily sooner. Poor pooch, back to the vet tomorrow. Not sure how we're going to pay for yet another vet visit.

I didn't exercise at all yesterday either. Couldn't walk the dog due to the rain, and I got really lazy and just sat on the couch most of the day. Pampered myself a bit in the evening (colored my hair, painted my nails). I hate not doing anything, but I know that rest days are okay.
 
Oh Cat! It sounds like you are really having a rough time. I feel bad for missing all you went through last week, I was in Canada with no phone or computer!

So the weight-lifting - is it the core use that you are supposed to avoid? If you lie on the floor and do some weights it might help, to avoid the vertical strain of lifting. I have to do that if I want to do weight work because of my back. It sounds like you are like me; you know what you are not supposed to do, but there is a limit to what you will give up! I hope that both you and the poor pooch are feeling better today. Thinking of you and hoping for the best.
 
Yeah, my GI has cautioned me in the past about using my abdominal muscles too much - he felt my GERD symptoms would improve if I stopped lifting weights. Well, of course it would - I already know that my GERD is at its worst when I'm working out, particularly if I'm doing weights. But weightlifting has given me so many benefits that I feel like the pros outweigh the cons, and my GI knows that too. So, for now I am lifting weights, but avoiding using my abdominals as much as possible for now. It's impossible to avoid using them altogether, but I skip doing the abdominals machines of course, and certain other machines as well. I'm slowly easing into using my abdominals a little more every day, and so far so good there. I haven't passed blood in over a week - a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

I'm still unsure if I'm flaring - my hair is falling out a little bit, my lips are really weird (like semi-numb in the mornings, red all the time, peeling skin in the afternoons) and I'm randomly having some d at times, it doesn't seem to be related to what I eat. I don't know if this is a flare - I know Crohn's can affect the mouth/lips, but I've never had lip involvement before. So is this something new? Or just a really atypical flare? In a typical flare I'd have d like 20+ times a day, and I'm only going 2 or 3 times a day lately. So I really have no idea!

I see the rheumatologist for the first time next week. I'll be interested to see what he has to say about my exercise regimen. Hopefully he gives me the green light to do what I want in the gym - okay, I pretty much do what I want anyway, but I guess I mean that hopefully he'll say that exercise is doing me more good than harm, and that if I'm bleeding then my GI should investigate the cause rather than tell me not to lift weights.

I did hit the gym for weights yesterday and that went so-so. I had very low energy, it was one of those days where I had to fight for every rep, and every weight felt much heavier than usual. I'm not sure why that is, but I got through my workout as best I could. I had to shave off a few reps here and there to do it, which I'm not pleased about. Going to do yoga tonight I think.

Oh, and thank you - my dog is feeling MUCH better today. :) She had a normal, non-diarrhea, non-bloody poo last night, and is totally interested in food again and hasn't vomited any further. I wrote a longer post about my dog in member's only, but basically I was told that a few different things could have caused my dog's illness, including it could have just been a regular old stomach bug. Apparently dogs can get gastroenteritis too just like humans can. If she relapses into bloody stools then I'll get her checked for Giardia, that was the other big possibility. But so far so good - I was thinking we'd have to take her to the vet this morning, but she pretty much bounced back last night and seems like her old self again, so for now we're just keeping an eye on things. That's a big relief. :)
 
It does sound like an odd type of flare, but the blood and diarrhea, and pain.... possible? I haven't heard about the lip thing before. My hair has a tendency to fall out when my body is stressed hormonally.
Hopefully you'll get the go-ahead for weights again next week! Although I suspect you'll continue on with your clandestine weight work anyway..... :D
 
Update 7/2/13: I didn't do yoga yesterday. I didn't do anything. Had a rough day at work and just didn't feel great. Went home, sat on the couch, and didn't leave the couch until it was time for bed. Had a rough episode of d last night and again this morning too. I'm going to go hit the little gym for weights today but am not feeling energetic or excited about it. Sometimes you just have to fake it, so that's what I'll do today. I read an article recently, they studied people who just weren't feeling like working out and put them into 2 groups - the people who didn't go work out, and the people who faked their way through it even though they weren't feeling it at all. The people who worked out anyway got TONS more health benefits than the people who didn't. Which is obvious, but I feel like I need to remind myself of it on days like this. Even if I'm not feeling it, I'm doing myself a world of good by going to the gym anyway. That's all the motivation I need - I may not want to do it, but my body needs it to get healthy. So I'll go and do everything I can.

I'm feeling bummed about my music situation though. (Sorry Dexky, I know I've already been going on and on about this on facebook!) But basically, I *need* good music to get me through a workout. I cannot work out without really good, pumping music to keep me going. And one of my favorite singers was just involved in a huge scandal where he basically proved himself to be a terrible person (K-pop singer named Se7en - I won't go into all the sordid details here or Dexky might kill me :p but in a nutshell, Se7en had to join the Korean army - he left his dorm without permission, went drinking, then went to a brothel - when he got caught on camera, he hit the reporter and tried to break the camera - he's facing a year in jail just for leaving his dorm, not to even mention the other stuff!). So now I just can't listen to Se7en's music anymore, it all sounds so hollow and insincere. I can't separate the music from the singer, that just doesn't work in my brain. So there goes a whole bunch of music that I used to like to listen to, down the tubes. I *hate* that! I usually tweak my workout playlist regularly to keep it fresh, but now I have to take a bunch of songs out? Nooooo, what now? I stopped listening to J-pop because it got stale very quickly with my all-time favorite singer out on a looong hiatus - now I lose one of my favorite K-pop singers to scandal? My workout playlist is suddenly much smaller and that sucks. :(
 
Boo! I'm sad that you're not feeling well.

I guess you have to fake it 'til you make it.... right Cat? :D

I hope the workout goes well and you feel better. And that you find some more good music to work out with!
 
Cat, I read some information about vitamin B6 and it says a B6 deficiency can lead to cracked and sore lips and peeling skin. Something to check out?
 
Hm, interesting about the vit B6! I will definitely get it checked out, just added it to my list of things to ask my GI about - thanks for the info! I just googled and found this: "Major sources of vitamin B6 include cereal grains, legumes, vegetables (carrots, spinach, peas, and potatoes), milk, cheese, eggs, fish, liver, meat, and flour." I eat about half of those - I juice carrots and spinach, I eat a fair amount of eggs and some fish, I definitely eat a lot of flour (bread, pasta), and I'm not sure what they mean by cereal grains but I had a bowl of cereal for dinner last night. I also eat sweet potatoes but not regular potatoes, and I do almond milk & goat cheese - not sure if those count though. And I wonder if I'm just not absorbing enough B6 in this potential flare. This is the link I was looking at:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitamin-b6/NS_patient-b6

Yep, that's right, gotta fake it till I make it! Make what, I'm not sure. :p Make more muscles I guess. Hopefully don't make myself bleed. Now if someone in the K-pop or J-pop world would just make some really awesome compelling new music... :p
 

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