The Paryl Project

[ParylPanda]

August is not really starting in the way that I had hoped.

Exercise is off the table at least until the end of the week.

I’m mostly just hiding from my thoughts at the moment. Not that I really know how to put them in words.

Thankful for a good friend that keeps checking in on me - it helps, even when I struggle to find the words to talk about it.

 

For this week, I’ll just stick to my non-fitness goals - 16/8 IF (to be increased again once I’m no longer on pain meds) and no liquid sugar. 
 

I also have one about not spending unnecessarily - though, it’s not very well defined. 

[.TIFF]

Having to rest when we don't want to is the worst.  I hope you are on the mend and back at it when your body is ready!  Glad you have some support, that is always a really big help.  You have the right mindset, focus on what can be done and don't beat yourself up over what can't  

[ParylPanda]

Let’s see how a few hours without painkillers/muscle relaxants go today

[ParylPanda]

So tired of being mentally and physically broken

[ParylPanda]

[ParylPanda]

Back to work today - yesterday was the first day in a while without pain meds - I'm cautiously optimistic at the moment - I think a few hours sitting in my chair will give me a better view on how it is really going.

 

Of course, eating to match my mood didn't exactly turn out well - up about 1.2kg from the last weigh-in. 

 

Holding off on making solid plans for the rest of the month - need to see how today turns out, but tentatively, I'll just start with walking and possibly some stretching next week.

Will get there slowly but surely.

 

HT to @GoldenTongue whose support was invaluable this past week.

[ParylPanda]

I’m not entirely sure what to say.

 

the original “joint” injury seems to be mostly better - didn’t bother me much yesterday, but is painful this morning - I just don’t know if it is because I was walking more or sitting the whole day.

 

my back muscles however were angry af with me and the longer I was sitting the worse it got.

 

glad it’s a long weekend

[ParylPanda]

Feeling rather discouraged at the moment. Yesterday was painful. Seems one day of being active completely negated the week of rest.

 

i don’t know what to do anymore. 

[GoldenTongue]

I'm sorry you're feeling so dispirited, I wish I could offer more than best wishes for a rapid recovery, but it seems like you may need to work with a physio, or get assistance more structured than what you can find here.

[ParylPanda]

Working on a  bit of a reboot at the moment.

 

Back is slowly getting better - walking seems to not aggravate it, so planning on doing some of that this week. 

Hesitant to get started on exercises at this point. 

I'm hoping that working on a reboot plan (ofc, part of me wants to add an epic side story and the like) will help with actually getting back to exercising rather than giving up.

 

Doing well on the No liquid Sugar challenge - 25 days completed yesterday, so 25% there. 

I even skipped getting a milkshake at my favourite restaurant - I could have gotten it since I planned for the occasional break when eating out, but there is  a part of me that wants to see if I can make it the full 100 days.

[Elastigirl]

Sorry it's been so tough for you. Back pain is miserable.  Woot for doing so well on the no liquid sugar challenge!! The habits you are building with that are fantastic. Since you are needing to go slow on the exercising, it's a great idea to focus on what you can control, which is your eating habits.

[ParylPanda]

Haven't gotten too far with reboot plans. Did spend some time on introspection and thinking through various areas and that will form the basis of what I am doing.

 

I have a standing desk arriving today which will hopefully help with some of the back spasms that I'm experiencing. 

 

I'm finding myself somewhere between frustrated and angry with how little progress I have been able to make. And the fact that I've been using my injury as an excuse to eat badly. 

 

So, taking a stand this week and improving my eating - no more eating like I'm feeling. I'm also getting back to meeting my steps goal - reducing it from where I was, because the previous goal included warm=up walks and exercise, which I'm not doing at the moment.  

I'm thinking 1500 steps for this week (doesn't sound like much, I know, but it is a start).

 

Stretching, especially my back needs to be prioritised as well. By the end of the day, I am in agony, so need to focus on that a bit more as well.

 

 

Most of all, I need to not reach a point of giving up. I can feel the tendrils of despair reaching out. 

[ParylPanda]

Loving the standing desk. So much fidgeting that I can do!

Including standing on one leg.

 

My lower back wasn't too happy with the set-up and is more grumpy again - if nothing else, at least now I know that not starting working out again was the right call. 

The strange thing is that ever since I got back to work after injuring my back, my lats do not like this sitting thing. The further the day goes, the tighter (and more painful) they become. 

And it feels like keeping good posture makes it become worse - maybe it's just and adjustment to good posture and muscles that are used to bad posture protesting at having to change? I hope so.

 

I try to be conscious of moving and doing some stretches as I stand/walk. but so far it doesn't feel like it is helping much.

 

I'm feeling satisfied with m walking for the week - started with a goal of 1600 steps on Monday and managed more than 2300 - here, I do however have a suspicion that my watch may have counted cutting chicken and veggies as steps.

Yesterday I upped my goal to 1800 and since it was sunny, supplemented with walks in my back yard around the trampoline - again just over 2100 steps.

 

Found an interesting-ish way to keep myself motivated/on tack with steps using a Google Sheet and the current time - taking the time from 6am to 6pm and dividing the number of steps needed by 12. This tells me how many steps to aim for per hour and also tells me for each top of the hour how many steps I should have completed.

It's fun for now. 

I'm a little unsure what I will do today with the rain.

 

Something else that seems so silly, but has had such a huge impact - I tend to wear my slippers all day since they're nice and warm - wonderful benefit of working from home. Of course, I don't really want to go outside in them. So, starting this week, I'm putting proper shoes on first thing in the morning. Suddenly I walk more. 

[ParylPanda]

Feeling a bit torn today.

 

Steps have been going well, eating has been decent, still loving the standing desk, but I think I may have been enjoying the standing desk a bit much.

 

Lower back has been rather grumpy since last night. Feeling worse than it has been in a while. i don't think I have re-injured it, but definitely aggravated the injury a bit. No more fun standing positions lol.

 

See how it goes today. I want to get back to working out - have found some interesting programs for working up to 200 squats and 100 pushups that I want to try. 

 

[ParylPanda]

I forgot to put my shoes on first thing yesterday. Combined with a rather painful back, I didn't make my steps  yesterday. 

Struggling a bit with posture during the day and keep slumping and sitting skew in an attempt to relieve some muscle tension.

 

There is good news though - the scale tells me that I am down 3.4kg since my last weigh-in two weeks ago. I'm a bit surprised, yet pleased. I don't quite remember last week, but having had a good week nutrition-wise this past week (3 days total with no sweets!),  I am quite happy to see it being effective. 

 

In other news, a goal that I want to start working on (and probably will if I  can determine that it doesn't put too much pressure on my back), is to get to a point where I can do a resting squat with my feet flat on the floor. Pretty sure ankle mobility and possibly tightness in my calf muscles are part of what is preventing it. 

Eventually, I want to do the challenge of a 30 minute resting squat every day for 30 days, but for now I'll do assisted squats and ankle mobility to work on getting more depth in my squat.

[ParylPanda]

Right, so resting squats are a big NO at the moment. 

I need to get back to the doctor soon - I was intending on going this morning, but overslept after a double dose of pain meds last night.

 

It's not all doom and gloom though - I've been keeping up with my steps - upped it to 2000 from Monday and consistently getting more. 

Did my planning for September goals and need to post that soon-ish. 

Keeping up with the no liquid sugar - 39 days now

On day 4 of no sweets - slowly increasing it each time lol - this one is more for fun than anything else - just to see how far I can push myself.  In general, if I can stick to one small sweet snack before I stop eating for the evening, I'm happy to keep it as part of my daily diet. Sometimes it is just good to reset the palate.

 

Will be interesting to see what the scale says tomorrow - I've been decently behaving with food and throwing in a 2-3 x 24h fasts these past two weeks.

[Elastigirl]

Woot for the weight loss and keeping up with the step goals! Hope the back feels better soon.

[ParylPanda]

Finally made it back to the doctor - different one from last time, but she also feels that my back pain is muscular - she did send me for xrays at least to make sure that there is nothing going on around my spine.

Those apparently show some narrowing which means degeneration, but she doesn't seem to think that it could be responsible for the problem - for now she has given me a new course of meds and after seeing how they work, we will figure out next steps - quite possibly seeing a physiotherapist.

 

I think that if I am still in discomfort, I'll definitely push for that - not only to help with the healing, but also for help on which exercises I can and can't do. 

 

Scale told me last week that I'm down 1.2kg, I managed to get my steps in every day (loving the new spreadsheet, it helps encourage me) and even managed to get plenty of steps this weekend thanks to it being unexpectedly busy. 

 

It seems like I'm having to make peace with being constrained for the next while. It is not ideal, but I'll just have to do what I can and for the rest live vicariously through @GoldenTonguewho is doing some interesting stuff. 

 

Today is day 45 without liquid sugar - I even managed to resist the Butterbeer-like drinks that we found over the weekend - I might have one on my birthday in about 10 days, but there is also a part of me that wants to see if I can make it the full 100 days. 

We will see.

[Elastigirl]

Woohoo 45 days without liquid sugar!

[ParylPanda]

August Review

I ended up not really having any tangible goals to reach for August, but it does feel like I have achieved a few things

• Weight loss of 4.6 kg
• Setting a daily step goal and making a conscious effort to meet it
  • Week days are going well, even on high pain days
  • Weekends are still something to work on for those days where we have no plans
  • Since I started tracking on 15 August, I've done a total of 37 604 steps
• No liquid sugar (incl fake sugar) - almost halfway through the 100 days
• 5 day streak of no sweets

All in all, yes, I wish that I could have been working out and building strength, and it does take a bit of energy to not let myself slip into despair and give up, but for the moment, I'm managing. 

[ParylPanda]

September

I had actually written a whole long thing where I was thinking through September goals, but I'll stick to the short version here. 

I recently read this quote by Ido Portal and it really struck a chord:

Quote

"Your body will become better at what you do or don't do

If you aren't moving, your body will become better at not moving,

if you move, your body will allow more movement"

 

I may not be able to work-out as I would like to, but I can still keep moving. 

 

Fitness/Physical Goals:

1. Increase daily step goal to 2 500 steps 
2. Walk a total of 80 000 steps in September
3. Lose 4.6kg - down to 75kg
4. Focus on correct seated posture during the day 

Mental Health:

1. Journaling with purpose
2. Learn to knit socks

Nutrition:

1. Another 30 days of no liquid sugar
2. Find and try 2 new recipes
3. Figure out lunch

[ParylPanda]

01 September

 

• Daily step goal 2 200
• Day total: 2 456
• Month total: 2456

 

Learn to knit socks:

I've never been much of a knitter - crochet is more my style, but, I figured that it is worth a try.

First time working with double pointed needles and first time working with more than 2 - it has been...interesting. 

I finally managed to get past casting on and dividing the stitches between the needles - an extra row on each needle!

 

I am finding it so difficult to juggle the needles though - this was a few minutes later:

 

It is fun though - a little frustrating, but in a good way - an elf will be freed!

 

On another note, I have signed up for the free 5 day walking challenge - starts next week - I'm not seeing myself doing a lot of additional steps given that it is painful to walk at the moment, but hopefully it will be fun as part of a community. 

[Elastigirl]

I signed up for the  5 day walking too. I hope you are able to walk some next week. Walking helps my back, but I know that's not true or everyone.

[ParylPanda]

24 minutes ago, Elastigirl said:

I signed up for the  5 day walking too. I hope you are able to walk some next week. Walking helps my back, but I know that's not true or everyone.

I'm not entirely sure how walking is affecting my back to be honest - it's been so much worse this week - which could either be because of all the extra walking over the weekend or because of a rather painful rollercoaster thing that my daughter convinced us to go on. I'm guessing that it is more likely that it is the bumping and shaking of the rollercoaster, so trying to keep up with the walking. If the new anti-inflammatory  meds are going to work, they should be kicking in in the next day or two. 

 

Looking forward to seeing you at the challenge!

 

 

 

[ParylPanda]

02 September

• Daily step goal 2 200
• Day total: 2 369
• Month total: 4 825

 

03 September

• Daily step goal 2 200
• Day total: 3 484
• Month total: 8 309

 

04 September

 

• Daily step goal 2 200
• Day total: 3 274
• Month total: 11 583

 

Happy to have made my steps over the weekend, despite it been quite wet and cold. First time that I got my steps over the weekend by walking just to get my steps. 

Yesterday marked the halfway point for my No liquid sugar challenge - 50 days to go!