juliebarkley

In the long-term, I've had the inklings of a project where I write a database for my recipes to make finding exactly what I want easy, and/or set up a yearly schedule of sorts to eliminate decision-making altogether. This will absolutely not help me in the now. So in the realistic shorter term, point taken. I should find something that I can run to that's easy that I can just buy from a store and stockpile. Like bagels piled up with cream cheese. Or perogies. Or what I had last night in the end: fried eggs and toast. Welcome aboard! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramadan habits: A little less good today. I was out twice, so I missed some triggers that were time-sensitive, and my phone also hit low battery at an inopportune time. (And today's khutba was boring and kinda sucky.) Still, an effort was made. Eating/drinking: I think I will give the eating part of this a pass for today and just focus on finishing my bottle of water (since I did not quite manage that yesterday). I am stuffed from my regular supper still. Recipe claimed it serves two when served alone. I don't know who these "two" are, but I served three including a teenage boy, and we still had trouble finishing. Exercise: New exercises gotten at the appointment today, and more progress, woo! Everything has been a bit achy in the sudden movements though, so I'm not going to risk aggravating it today. My legs got another long walk in today, so I'm not completely slacking. Reading/posting: Yup yup. Just the one, which is not enough to keep up, but at least there was one. It's enough to tick the box for this challenge. Today was the day I finally decided to get my out-of-date-by-two-months health card renewed, so I trekked down to the ServiceOntario. It is starting to feel springy - birds singing, bare patches of ground, the remaining snow developing that granular texture that means it's melting for good, and warm enough for one coat down from winter coat. No green leaf buds yet that I've noticed, but it won't be long! (And they may already be there; I should pay more attention next walk.)

Seconding. It touches on a bunch of foundations stuff that sounds easy but isn't. Rest up, bathe in the sunshine, and enjoy the heck out of those kitty cuddles. *insert every cat gif ever*

The group that showed up was definitely more non-local than before - probably 2/3 non-local. There are still in-person events of some description - I saw one advertised on their Facebook group - but possibly no longer the services themselves. There are both gains and losses in that. You didn't need to! The content was very front-loaded, then moved into special cases as the book progressed. Did you find what you read useful at all? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramadan habits: I am happy with how this is going still. Eating/drinking: Not yet. Honestly I don't know what to eat and don't really want to either cook or eat despite needing to, which is always a sucky situation. And a high risk for not eating. Exercise: I did not get physio done yesterday, which means it must be done today. I had a very long walk today which set my leg muscles a-twitching, so though I likely won't get to more exercise, I'm okay with that. But I want it to change tomorrow. Reading/posting: I did! I read the first post of every challenge that has been posted so far, which I always try to do (but is more than I've done for a couple of rounds now), opened tabs for the ones I want to take a fuller look at, and replied to one. I really need to get started a little earlier in the day on some of these. (My Blackguard just got access to both Telepathy and enough SP to cast more than the two spells I've been abusing, including a most murderous Werewolf form, and the urge to do "just one more level" has been hard to resist. 😅)

Me too! Perhaps I'll mention if I stumble across anything particularly interesting then. It used to be a Zoom livestream of a live meetup, but this time it was purely virtual over Zoom. It's a small group that was using rented space, so perhaps they've lost access to that space, or just got used to being virtual during Covid, I'm not sure. They did have a lot more out-of-town people than they used to as well - someone was trying to join from Cuba, even though Cuba has blocked Zoom! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramadan habits: continuing well, woo! Eating/drinking: Ooh, I have not yet. Ate too many chips. 😅 I did have my water though. Exercise: Did not do this either. Reading/posting: Bleh. So I still have some work to do, it seems. Bad habits borne of laziness are hard to break.

Your spelling is perfect. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramadan habits: good start! Made it to virtual mosque for the first time in I don't know how long. It's still not exactly the perfect fit for me as a community, but it's way better than nothing. I'll check out another that I know of to see if it's a better fit, though I'm guessing no. Ah well, you work with what you have. The prayer habit I built has just clicked amazingly well; I'm very pleased. The others need a bit of tweaking on the habit end of things. Eating/drinking: I had my extra meal, and most of a bottle of water. Exercise: Did my physio very late. Did not do anything else though. Reading/posting: As you can probably tell my the date of this post, no, I did not. I spent a goodly chunk of my day yesterday going through a list of charities (still working on that shortcuts-to-make-donations-easier thing). My giant list of all of the international effective and Charity Navigator Top 100 has now been whittled down to exactly the number I wanted, with some spares as backups for the next time I spot check the list (mostly my spares just have a bit more money in cash reserves right now, so they don't need mine as badly). I'm feeling really good about this project, and I should be able to finish the shortcut-making part today.

Hooray for spring! This challenge month overlaps almost perfects with Ramadan, which has just begun, so I am going to be building habits based on that. I don't want to fill up my chat with religious stuff though, because I have no desire to proselytize anyone and it's not exciting stuff to anyone else. So I'm just going to call the new habits (reading, prayer, lectures, and so on) "daily Ramadan habits" and try my best to hit them. I'm using the Tiny Habits method to build these habits, and I've already got one that just feels perfect. The one goal I'm going to pull out separately is eating/drinking. I need to make sure that I eat enough, because I often don't at the best of times and now I'm on a reduced eating schedule. So at least one extra meal after supper, preferably high-calorie, and at least one bottle of water drunk. Should be easy, but it is important so it must get done. Physio exercises continue, but I need more. More strength; so weak. I am going to aim to do one session of GMB per day (I have several programs, so alternating for rest days or to compensate for a soreness should be easy), then check this goal in a week or two to see if there are any issues. I do best when I post here every day and put some time into reading others' challenges and supporting them too. So, post every day, read something, however little, every day, and try to post. My other stuff is a bigger priority, but I'm going to try to try. That's everything! Happy spring, and happy challenging!

Physio done. All of my plans for today were cancelled, so perhaps I can motivate myself to plan my new challenge early!

Physio done. Also a lot of pushups. I've been going through my library books again, and every time I have to get a new book, then again when I put it in either the keep or discard pile, that's more pushups. One of the books is an exercise book, so though I cannot do everything in their recommended first week progression (because I cannot hang from a bar), I will pull some from that book tomorrow. Excite! Challenge is almost over, eh? I have been very boring; my apologies. I have also been exceedingly bad at making it out of my own challenge and even posting in my own. Next challenge, must have a goal around this. It is becoming a bad habit.

I've been good about the physio and bad about the exercising. In my defence, the dumbbells which I would like to use live in my son's space, and that has not been readily available for a few days. But I could have done other things and didn't, so it's a limited defence.

The exercise portion hasn't happened the last couple of days, but the more important physio bit has. I have transitioned to full pushups on the ground though, so at least I'm getting that.

Dumbbell curls went well. New physio exercises are good. I was achy enough this morning though that I had to use the pain relief cream, so I shall not do exercise today (just the physio ones). It probably wasn't the dumbbell curls, probably just adjusting to the new exercises, but either way, just in case. Tomorrow.

Visited the physio today and got almost all new exercises. Progress is good. Also got the okay for doing some stuff to build my arm strength back up, as long as 1) I don't do two days in a row, 2) it fits in the pain boundaries I was given, and 3) I never skip mobility to do strength instead, and it doesn't interfere. So tomorrow, I look through this challenge and set up something. And tonight, I will start simple and do 3x10 dumbbell curls. I'm excited!

Physio done yesterday, not yet today. No other exercises done though. I am honestly not sure what is left to do that falls in the questionable zone that I haven't already tried. I went back to try the Bear to see if I could maybe do it now that I've had some improvement on overhead reach, but still no. Physio is tomorrow, and if he is okay with me working on some strength while also working on mobility, I'm going to transition the experimental part of the challenge into something more exercise-oriented.

Thank you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Physio exercises done yesterday and today. Other exercises not done yesterday. Today, I tried the easy plank variations here. All the planks that kept a nice straight vertical were totally fine. Rocking plank was fine, which I was a little surprised by. Shoulder touch plank was only fine if I let my body rock from side to side, which it explicitly says not to do. If I kept tighter, it was no longer possible and felt unsafe. Side plank on the affected side was not possible either, due to a combination of pain and muscle weakness. I really need to get some little circuit going with the information I have gathered thus far. I'm running out of ideas for exercises to try, and the weaknesses I'm exposing are not thrilling me. I'll talk to the physio first to make sure there are no issues, but this is lighting a bit of a fire to regain my lost strength.

It's the elbow position. I can't put my hands on my hips because I can't rotate my elbow out that way. Pushing the dumbbells together forces you to point your elbows out rather than keeping them more tucked at the side. You asked this question just as I was trying to come up with my movement experiment today, so I did three pushup variants - regular, wide grip, and diamond grip. See below for the results! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Physio is not yet done. The pain is now back to what was normal baseline before, so I think the rest yesterday was the right thing to do. Experimental movement was the pushups as suggested by @Jarric. Wide grip pushups: Big no. Lots of pain going down, and was not able to push back up due to both pain and weakness. Normal pushups: These were fine from a pain point of view, but are really showing me how much weaker I have gotten in the last few months. Diamond grip pushups: Fine from a pain point of view (although they angle the elbows out, they point more towards the back, which does not hurt). Could not push all the way up though. Again, so weak. I was very happy today, happier than for a long time. I got a comment at work that I seemed back to my normal self, and that it was nice to see as they had been worried about me. I also got called "winsome", which was sweet. (And also taught me the meaning of the word "winsome" 😅.)

The pain buildup was getting to be a bit much, my physio appointment was cancelled, and I have a long shift with (often) a lot of lifting tomorrow, so I decided to take a rest day to let the soreness and swelling come down. I may do some of the physio exercises later. The ambient pain is noticeably better today, so I think it did the trick.

Flexibility is not the issue. I've just always found yoga to be very boring. Perhaps I've not found the right yoga. Tai chi has interested me ever since my first encounter with it back in university. I keep meaning to come back to it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Physio exercises not yet done. I purposely did not do any early in the day to give myself a little rest. The guidelines for exercises is to stay below a 4 on the pain scale and not do anything that hurts more the next day. But the new exercises go from zero to more-than-4 on the pain scale with no in-between, and it has hurt more in the morning every single day since my last session. So hopefully a small rest will help with that. For exercise movements, I googled "upper body exercises", and got a whole bunch of things that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt I cannot do. I picked a page that had a bunch of dumbbell exercises and tried the few I had a chance at with my smallest weights (5lbs). Dumbbell curls: I can feel it a little, but it's fine. It's also noticeably harder with the affected arm, so it might not be a bad thing to do. Lift arms out to horizontal at sides: didn't even get halfway up. Big nope. Lie on ground and press each arm straight up: 100% fine. Easy. Lie on ground, press both dumbbells together in centre, and press straight up: No. Couldn't lower it to chest, couldn't quite press up all the way. It's the elbow position - I can't bring it forward enough. Amazing how such a small change from the former exercise makes such a big difference.

Never been anything else! How long have you known me again? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Physio done. Might need to drop to one set tomorrow just to give it some rest-and-heal time. Shuffle dance was the movement of the day. I remember the basics but suck at them, but I could do it without issue. I'm wondering if I should change the second part of this challenge. Now that I am not getting sharp, crippling pains from fast motion or random movements and have a little bit better range of motion, I think the only things I really can't do are reaching up or reaching down, with or without weight. And anything that makes my elbows rotate outward. Or reach behind my back. (Which ends up being rather a lot of positions, now that I think about it.) Hmm. Maybe I should try yoga positions or something. If only I liked yoga. Or just focus better on exercises with a strong upper-body component.

Physio told me that I had made more progress than he was expecting, so that was good news. It's accurate! At least two of us do then! Assassin = bodyweight exercises to me. I've been pleasantly surprised at how many I can do now that balance-maintaining is no longer a pain issue. Happy to have you! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stepped away for a little bit there. Sorry. Physio exercises have been good. Didn't get any in on the day of the appointment because I had zero time to myself that day, but I did have the appointment, so I'm counting it. A couple of new exercises added in are really painful though. There is whimpering. Trying new movements has fallen by the wayside this week. I just sort of forgot when I wasn't coming here. (Which I why I should show up every day.) Tuesday would have been impossible, but for the other days I have no excuse. Back on the wagon today.

On track to do three sets of physio exercises for the first time! First real appointment is tomorrow, and I have a couple of questions to ask the physio. Hopefully I get some new exercises to play with. Movement for the day was hollow body hold. I was really not sure about this one, but it is 100% fine. Other than the fact that I shake like a jalopy on a washboard road while holding it, that is. I also got up out of my chair like a million times today, so I did a whole bunch of wall pushups. I should really make them a little more challenging. Tried two off the floor as well. I could do them, barely. I have lost so much strength.

I think rows are just a step too far. I tried a door frame row and surprisingly I could do it, but it's not at all comfortable. Plus I've always had trouble with door rows because my hands are not big enough to grip the frame securely - I have to hook my fingertips around the trim and hope for the best. Stop injuring your shoulder! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yesterday I did only one set of physio exercises, but I did do that one. My movement was the door frame rows I mentioned above, and glute bridges. Those were a little sketchy when first putting my arms in position, but turned out to be fine. I can't bend around to put my hands near my ears for the more advanced bridges, but I can at least elevate my feet for this one without issue.

I feel like the first couple of days had a big jump in progress (maybe knocked something loose?), and since then it has been slower. But it does feel like progress. Thank you muchly! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Physio exercises done. There is one exercise which I could barely do at all while at the physio office, but which I now seem to be able to do almost as well as in my non-problem arm. I don't know if this is poor technique or big improvement on my part. I've also had to modify the behind-the-back exercises, as it seems too easy with straight arms. With bent, it's still plenty hard. Movement today was playing around with balancing. I had a memorable jolt of pain/collapsing moment on New Year's Eve when trying to see in the new year "on the right foot", ie. balancing on one foot. Suffice to say, balancing then was tricky due to the pain of sudden arm movements needed to correct. When I tried it today though, there was some pain at the extremes, but nothing that would actually throw my balance. That makes me feel a lot safer doing more active movements. So that is good too. Ultrasound on my shoulder came back with a note that my supraspinatus tendon is impinged and there is mild tenosynovitis. I do not know if this means that the frozen shoulder diagnosis is incorrect, or if this is an extra bit to add on to that. I'll pass it on to my physio; he'll know what to do with the info. Hopefully the exercises I've been doing are fine with that issue too. At least there was no sign of arthritis!

I did my physio exercises twice yesterday, and tried out pushups. I have been doing pushups while my shoulder was in the worst phase of pain, proper pushups from the ground even, but I think I should only do elevated ones at the moment. The physio exercises are adding a low level of pain to a muscle that is quite necessary for pushups, and I'd like to not make them more painful than need be. Physio for today will be done after this post. For movement, I tried out some different kinds of hamstring stretches. I can do a stretch where I put my hands on the front of my stomach near my hips and lean to one side or the other (can't put my hands on my hips yet). I can also to reach-for-toe type stretches from a sitting position, because I simply can't reach far enough to come anywhere near the top of my shoulder range. Reaching for my toes from standing though produced a sharp enough pain that I'm not eager to do it again.

How do you do a row with no weight? You have to hold something, right? I was only using a 5lb. weight, and it was only about 5 reps before I could feel it building up. It also felt like it was angering a nerve a little, and I have had issues with my cubital nerve in both arms. That's the funny bone nerve. I do want to avoid setting that off, because it makes me lose my grip and drop what I am holding. It's part of the path, and therefore productive pain. That makes it easier to bear. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Physio exercises haven't happened yet. They will after this post. What I did yesterday did not seem to be overdoing anything as I did not wake up in pain (yay!). And I'm pretty sure there was WAY more mobility than at the physio on Monday. That shouldn't be after such a short time, so it could be a fluke. But as I relaxed after the overdoing exercises there were some weird shifting/crunching moments, so maybe something did actually shift too. Time will tell. For movement today, I tried the three GMB animal movements: bear, frog, and crab. I could not get into bear; my arms cannot reach that far over my head. I may try it again later though. Frog was a really good one actually. My ability to squat is obviously not affected, and I have no difficulty reaching straight arms to the floor in front of me. The little bit of hop pushed at the top of my range just a little bit before backing off, and with adjustments I could really control how much it nudged the edge of that range of motion. The diagonal variants were not as useful as I had thought they would be, but are very doable nonetheless. Surprisingly, I could get into and very carefully and ungracefully move in crab. Pain in the shoulder did not feel like the major restriction - it was actually pain in the opposite wrist and just general weakness. Probably a useful movement to build some arm strength back. I did not feel totally in control though, so I would have to exercise care and moderation.