Fifty-something and feeling it...

[Elastigirl]

That doesn't sound like a lazy week at all. Sounds like you made time both for rest  and to get a few necessary things accomplished.

 

Take out-

Not sure where you live, we have Panerra here, which is a sandwich and salad place. I really like their salads. Most salads from take out I don't like because they are just mainly lettuce. But Panerra has lots of meat and other veggies. 

Other than that, I don't necessarily try and have it be super healthy. I try and keep it to once a week. Sometimes, if I have a salad or veggies at home, I will eat that along with to fill me up.  

Mainly, I just try and slow down and enjoy it. It's a treat to have take out. So, I just enjoy it, slow down and taste the flavors, and try and stop when I am full

[BodhiBuilder]

32 minutes ago, Elastigirl said:

That doesn't sound like a lazy week at all. Sounds like you made time both for rest  and to get a few necessary things accomplished.

 

Take out-

Not sure where you live, we have Panerra here, which is a sandwich and salad place. I really like their salads. Most salads from take out I don't like because they are just mainly lettuce. But Panerra has lots of meat and other veggies. 

Other than that, I don't necessarily try and have it be super healthy. I try and keep it to once a week. Sometimes, if I have a salad or veggies at home, I will eat that along with to fill me up.  

Mainly, I just try and slow down and enjoy it. It's a treat to have take out. So, I just enjoy it, slow down and taste the flavors, and try and stop when I am full

 

Thank you so much for that reminder to slow down and enjoy it, stop when full. Of course I'm not doing this at all.  We do have Panerra here. I live in a huge metro area (Twin Citites), so there are numerous ways to level-up my takeout. I need to raise my standards!

[BodhiBuilder]

Been suffering some knee pain this week, beyond the usual. I don't recall a particular moment of injury, so I'm not sure what's going on. 

 

Tuesday and Wednesday, I was feeling some weird pangs of pain when just walking around doing the normal things. Then Wednesday night I woke up with a lot of pain and hobbled around yesterday, trying to get an appointment at the VA. 

 

A friend of mine recommended using a TENS device on my knee and I remembered I have one. So I did two 30-minute treatments yesterday.

 

And miraculously I woke up feeling much less pain than yesterday. Going to do more treatments today and make a list of other body parts I can work on - because if this really works, it might change everything. 

Anyone else have any experience with TENS?

 

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/15840-transcutaneous-electrical-nerve-stimulation-tens

[suzyQlou]

Hmmm.  I have experience with knee pain, but not with TENS.  Thanks for the heads up.  I will ask my doctor about it the next time my arthritis flares up enough to land me at the doctor's office.  Hope it continued to help you!

[BodhiBuilder]

Ok.

Things have regressed. I guess the issue with my knee sort of threw me off and I haven't found my way back to the flow with daily habits and workouts. I need to take this weekend to press the restart button.

 

I think one of my biggest barriers is pain. I've tried a lot of different types of exercise in my life and no matter what I do, I always feel worse afterward. People tend to say that exercise makes them feel better, but this isn't my experience at all. Even a fifteen minute walk on the treadmill makes me want to crawl into bed. So I tend to just clench my jaw and push through whatever I'm doing - yoga, kettlebells, weight training, walking, circuits. I end up in a lot of pain and no wonder I don't want to do it again tomorrow.

And when I'm busy and in pain, I eat terribly. I know what the right thing to do is. It's just very difficult to sustain a lifestyle that lacks any comfort or ease. 

 

Sorry - this is a huge downer post today. Let's see what I can do this weekend and I'll get back to you.

[suzyQlou]

One of the things I like about these forums is that we talk about both ups and downs.  So many places online or IRL we only hear about the good that everyone else is doing all the time.  No wonder we never measure up!

 

So, when we hear "people" saying that exercise makes them feel better, I think that's just a small part of the story.

[BodhiBuilder]

So, I've stopped pouting and did some thinking this weekend.

 

I think I need to regress the workouts more than I thought. I have to find a routine of moving my body that I will continue to do, even if it's really short or really easy. And I need to trust that it's worthwhile to just create a sustainable practice for now, to get my brain and body on the same sheet of music. I need to accept that it might be a while before I can increase the intensity like I use to be able to do. And pain is the indicator that I need to ease back. 

 

I have access to some pretty simple and easy workouts - about 20 minutes long, a variety of cardio, bodyweight, yoga and core. I'll give them a whirl for four weeks, aiming for consistency over intensity. I might log my level of pain each day (1-10 scale) to practice paying attention to it and responding.

 

I also have a meal plan mapped out for the next ten days or so. Not counting calories, but focusing on whole foods, a balance of protein, plants and healthy fats. 

 

It's the busiest time of year for my role at work, so I suppose that's a good thing. Life will have lots of structure and little room for improvising. 

[BodhiBuilder]

Been down with lots of knee pain (both knees!) and a sinus infection (typical wintertime thing for me). So I've been mostly trying to focus on getting good sleep and eating by design. 

 

I'm currently getting food from Hungry Root each week which is encouraging me to cook more. 

 

For workouts this week, I'm gathering up some movements that are gentle on my knees but still give me a moderately intense workout. That's not always easy - legs are sort of integral to everything, aren't they?

 

Here's a bunch of movements I've come up with so far:

• KB swings - 2 handed, 1 handed, figure 8s
• Clean&Press or straight push press
• Deadlift - straight leg, single leg
• Pushup or bench press
• Farmer's or suitcase carries
• Bent row or TRX row
• Upright row & lateral raise
• KB Halo & Curl/Press/Tricep Ext
• Pallof press & band chop
• Crunches, bicycle crunches & superman
• Some timed intervals on the bike if my knees can take it
• Mobility movements from ROMWOD excluding kneeling

Something a little like this - https://1drv.ms/b/s!AkXyub4uNBG-91c_meMNsa8eo0mq?e=SfovLi

 

[BodhiBuilder]

Felt it was time to do a little deep dive into what I'm eating. I'm not a big fan of tracking everything I'm eating - examining the what, when, how of every bite makes me feel like I'm definitely dieting. But I also understand that I can't change what I don't know needs changing. I'd love to figure out how to eating intuitively - but I haven't been successful with that so far.

 

So routinely, about 75% of my food is basically the same every day. My biggest meal is lunch (the other 25%) and that's where I try to get the most variety.  I wanted to look closely at that 75% to see how it was adding up, in terms of calories and macros. And it's no surprise that calories and carbs are on the high side. This is just where I gravitate. If I want to lose weight, I don't have as much room as I'd like for lunch after eating everything else.

 

But instead of cutting things out, I'm simply going to eat a little less of those foods where the carbs are - beans, granola, higher glycemic fruits, for example. It's not overall portion control, but targeted where some control can make the biggest difference. This way, I can continue eating what I like - just a little less. The small changes add up to significant differences over the course of a week. And I won't feel so much like I'm depriving myself. 

 

In the end, I can give myself a fair 'allowance' or target for lunches. Everything else can be more automatic and routine. 

 

Also, why do I have the need to put cheese on absolutely everything??

[suzyQlou]

CHEESE!  I love cheese.  Like you said...on everything!

 

You have a great way of breaking foods down into the automatic vs variety categories.  It makes it easier to see patterns and find ways to tweak what you eat.  

[BodhiBuilder]

Ok. I'm officially over winter. Who else is ready for spring?

 

So I wish I had something new to report but things are very boring here. Food is boring. Workouts are boring. I'm totally understimulated and tired all the time. I need sun, fresh air, conversation with real, live humans. 

 

Looks like we have one more week of temps below freezing and then....a little warmup! It will be nearly 40 degrees. And those of us in Minnesota will be looking for our flip flops, dusting off our golf clubs, forcing spring to burst forth through pure will. 

 

Of course, we won't have a real spring until April and probably not without a bonus snowstorm thrown in just for fun. 

 

Next couple of weeks is going to be interesting at my house. If all goes as planned, I'm having the upstairs bedrooms' plaster restored. Very messy. And I'll be following up with new texture and paint. Lots of moving of furniture and messes to clean up. It's long overdue and I'm hoping it will make time fly. 

 

My new favorite in the kitchen is kohlrabi. I'm grating it up and cooking it like hashbrowns on the stovetop. Tossing it with a little marinara makes a nice sub for spaghetti noodles. Crushing on Beyond Meatballs also. And trying to ease up on the granola, which has become my new constant craving. 

 

Not feeling very good about my fitness habits right now. So I'll spare you the details. Someday I'm going to find my workout mojo again. 

[Elastigirl]

I really like Kohlrabit.I like how it can be cooked  or eaten raw. I've never done the hashbrown things though. I actually have had great success at growing it in my garden. My friend from Czech grew it in her garden, they it a lot of it in Czech, and the climate is similar. So, I tried it, and found it easy to grow  where I live.

 

I find that home improvement projects make the time pass quickly.

[BodhiBuilder]

Did a curiosity weigh-in this morning and found I'm five pounds down since the beginning of February. What does this tell me?

 

• The dietary changes I've made are working. And they are sustainable, something I can keep doing without suffering.
• I don't have to workout like a maniac, because I've been slacking.
• I think I'm getting better quality sleep since changing my pillows and mattress topper. 
• I think I might have significantly less stress/anxiety since the inauguration.

[BodhiBuilder]

Hey friends!

Sorry I haven't posted here in a little while. I'm in the deep end of some home renovations, and it's been a bit of a disruption, as you might have guessed.

But I will say that moving furniture and painting is quite a workout!

I have BR2 plaster repairs underway and should be finished by end of day tomorrow. It will take me another week or so to finish up the painting (trim and walls) and move everything back into place. My dining room is currently my office and crafting area, and two bedrooms worth of furniture is sort of jenga-d into one small room with a narrow hole for me to find a way to bed at night.

I also thought it would be fun to take a mixed media art class. It just started and I'm making a terrible mess of things already. Prepare for a series of bad art projects to hit my Instagram in the coming weeks. lol

 

With all this going on, I'm trying hard to stay committed to cooking my meals instead of getting takeout. Yet, some days, I just CAN'T stand in front of a stove when I've been on my feet all day. I really appreciate that there's a deli a few blocks from my house, happy to make me some real food when I need it.

It's getting very close to 'open window' season here. The cat is very excited to reunite with the squirrels and songbirds through the screen.