Mid-Summer Update

I'm starting a new workout program called Morning Meltdown 100. Program name being slightly hilarious; ya'll can put "Morning" in the title, but morning workouts will still not be happening :)

Anyway, as is the usual with these plans, it wants you to write down all kinds of goals before you start. It includes a book to do this, as well as to track your workouts. It's a really beautiful looking, hardcover book. I don't want to write in it. Also, I'm kind of over the grand, intention setting thing at the start of new plans. Basically this popped up as a new Beach Body On Demand program; it looked like one that I might like, so I signed up for it, and then found myself added to a challenge group. I have no quibble with that really, it is kind of cool sometimes to follow along with others as you make your way through a new plan. But I still don't want to write in the pretty book (side note: the book that came with the 2B Mindset plan is probably one of the better books I've seen for this kind of thing; it looked and felt like a workbook, so I did not mind at all writing in it).

I've kind of gone off track there. I don't want to write in the book. But there are a couple of things I do want to make note of.

• Haven't followed a regular workout plan since finishing Lift4. Late spring and early summer have been taken up with gardening. I'm okay with that.
• At the end of Lift 4, and in early stages of gardening, I was feeling a lot of achy joints - hands and wrists, notably, but to a certain extent all over. I was blaming the weights, as I was going heavy, and in the past I have found that hard on my hands. And then, as I spent a few weeks lugging around giant bags of garden soil, and was feeling it pretty much all over, I blamed that.
• Eventually, I started wondering if I'm developing arthritis?
• Also, my hands were swelling to the point that I couldn't wear my usual rings. 
• My weight went up a few pounds, and was not budging, no matter what I did.
• I was also taking a Keratin supplement at that point because my nails were mush and nothing else seemed to be working.
• I stopped the Keratin, and the swelling is gone from my hands, and the new pounds seem to be going away.
• My joints have been somewhat less achy, though I am finding more than ever that I feel stiff if I sit around too long, and when I first wake up in the morning.
• My heels, particularly the left, have been very tender. Again, seems to be worse if I have not been up moving around; gets better once I do start walking around; gets worse if I do a lot of walking around.
• Lower back as also bothering me for a while, but seems better now.
• I have been vigilant about walking and moving around more, even if I have not been following any kind of exercise plan.
• Oh, in case you are wondering, my nails are in much better shape, so I suppose the keratin did work. 

So that is where I am right now. Where do I want to go?

• This exercise plan has you doing 100 days of short workouts. Short workouts are good. I'm only in the prep phase, but 20 - 30 minutes is the promise. 
• I will be on vacation for 10 days, starting Aug 9, and I'm not packing dumbbells, so I will be taking a break early on.
• I'm not going to kill myself over this, I will be happy to stick to the plan as well as I am able, and hopefully keep the extra walking as well.
• At the end of it, I would like to be feeling good. Moving easy. 
• Building some more strength/stamina, losing a few more of those pounds would be a bonus.
• I do think am feeling better now that I was; maybe that's because it's finally summer and sunny (spring was really late, cold, and rainy this year); maybe it's the extra walking, and mostly eating well. 
• Not that I haven't been feeling tired, and overwhelmed with everything that I want/need to keep up with, but it's been better.
• Stronger. Better. That's the goal.

This was all very off the cuff, without a whole lot of thinking it out. I think I'll leave it there.

The Stress of De-Stressing

I felt good about actually completing (in my fashion) the Lift4 program. I was thinking I'd take a break from that, go back to Pump for a bit (change things up); garden season is coming up which gets me outside working around the yard.

I did one Pump workout. I have been out working on getting the garden ready a few times, but not as much as I'd like. The weather, after an all too brief warm and sunny stretch, has gone back to cold, gloomy rainy. Feeling tired and my time is being taken up by other things.

I've been grinding my teeth in my sleep. Waking up with headaches, and sore jaw. I started wearing my bite plate again on Monday night, which helps somewhat. Yesterday I noticed I was doing it during the day, while awake; an this on a day off from work.

I'm assuming this is stress, as that is the usual reason, but I'm not sure where the stress is coming from exactly. Over the past few years, it's been work; I was unhappy and frustrated with things for a long time. It has settled this last year though; not necessarily that things have gotten better, but I've made a sort of peace with it, I think. We'll see how long that lasts.

I think it's just that I've got too much going on lately, and I feel like there isn't time for everything I want/need to do. Or just not enough time to myself, plain and simple. I don't know. Which is weird in a way; there is only the two of us, plus cats. But there is only so much free time; that time has to be split up between chores that need to be done, and things I want to do, and I only have so much energy.

Last weekend Sunday was going to be my day to be productive and get stuff done. But on the day, it was like I had so much stuff to do, that I was paralyzed by it all; just could not figure out where to start, so really didn't accomplish much of anything.

I need to prioritize?

I need more energy, and I need it to stop raining, and I need the sun to come out.

I need to say no to some things.

Maybe I have no idea.

I need there to be less clutter in the house so it's not so hard to deal with anything.

I need the Husband to help out more.

I need to set limits on some things.

I need a nap?

Annual Check In: Count down to 50

Happy birthday to me. 49. Huh.

So I thought I would do a bit of a check in. Blogging seems to be something I don't get to much anymore. I miss the old days where there were lots of bloggers, writing about similar things. Facebook, etc., is just not the same. But it certainly takes a lot of time, and as the years go by it seems we have less and less of that - or I do, anyway.

My recent blogging had been fairly repetitive; exhausted, busy, exhausted, exhausted, busy...I finally went to the doctor in January, and he gave me antibiotics. I waited a couple of weeks to be sure, then made an appointment to go back, and then he gave me corticosteriods. That just felt like a miracle. I had forgotten what it was like to feel good. I felt like a whole new person. My mom and my husband both said I shouldn't have waited so long, which is probably true, but I think it built up gradually. I kept waited to catch up and feel rested, to get some energy back, for allergy season to be over, for the cold to go away...It's like I forgot what it was like to feel good.

I still don't know what was wrong with me. I worry that if it was something in my environment, it will come back. But for now, it is good to feel normal again. I still get tired, but a chance to rest puts me to right again.

I completed a new 8 week exercise problem. It took me longer than 8 weeks, mind you, because life is still busier that I want it to be, but I managed to do it. It was a lifting + HIIT program. To be honest my intervals were more likely moderate most of the time. I definitely modified. I am keeping things low impact; I think my knees will never be the same and I don't want to aggravate anything. I am also finding that a lot of the up and down stuff like burpees and squat thrusts can make me dizzy, so I'm pretty much avoiding them for now. Honestly, I figure if I'm moving, I'm good. Just as long as I'm doing something.

I joined a FB sketching club group. They meet at the library twice a month on Sunday afternoons. When I joined, I was really thinking that I was interested in going, but it hasn't worked out; weekends seem to be so busy lately. On the rare occasion where I have a quiet weekend, I don't want to go anywhere. But the group has been doing monthly sketch challenges, which has got me doing more at home. In particular, April was birds. I didn't manage to get every day, but I did a lot. May is going to be animals. Trying to stick with it. One of those things that I have been wanting to learn/get better at for years. The hardest part always seems to be getting started. Having jumped that hurdle, I just need to keep going, yes?


And of course I got interrupted/busy/didn't finish. Publishing as is.