Mens Sana In Corpore Sano

[Kobnach]

I tend to live in my head and work with my head, with my body just acting as a vehicle. It's past time that I pay some attention to body as well as mind.

 

Main Quest: Stop making myself sick.

 

In particular, to improve my diet and fitness to the point where they aren't providing me with risk factors. Getting off the statins would be great too.

 

From where I sit, this amounts to "core fitness", 10K steps/5 miles walked per day (average), at least 5 servings of fruits/veggies per day, serious reduction in consumption of foods with ingredients from a chemistry lab, and a reasonable limit on consumption of caffeine and sugar (excluding fruit).

 

This isn't going to happen in 6 weeks. I tried a 6000 steps per day goal for the holiday mini-challenge, and it's been a battle even though I've been on vacation for most of this time. As for eating sanely, I think I managed 2 servings of fruit and/or veggies per day on average. And all I did for "core fitness" was my once a week appointment with my trainer. And that's when I had unusual amounts of free time.

 

Missions:

 

1. Maintain 6000 steps walked per day average, measured weekly, increasing towards 10K if possible. Measure this using my Fitbit Force, which is generous, not my Basis band, which is stingy.

 

Running rather than walking is allowed, but discouraged - my knees won't thank me.

 

[Edit: as of Feb 1, I'm increasing this target to 7K steps, to discourage myself from stopping at 6K when I haven't taken an evening walk. I've managed 7K every week so far, so this is partly just recognizing reality, plus moving the target closer to my longer term goal.]

 

2. Maintain a minimum of 2 servings of fruits/veggies per day, and try for an average of 3.

 

3. Core Fitness: Hamstring stretches twice daily and step-ups daily. If this goes well, consider adding exercises for shoulders.

 

Side/Life Quest:

 

Am I supposed to have one at this stage of newbitude?

 

[update: Apparently it's optional at this stage. I think I'll skip it, as I suspect that I've just put enough on my plate.]

 

Role Play:

 

I'm clearly a dark elf (for my build, and my nocturnal habits), with most of my points in Int.

 

Mission #1 seems to be Sta (or Con), #2 seems to be Wis, and #3 looks like Str.

[Kobnach]

Accountability:

 

                      ---averages----

                     fruit/veg  steps  hamstring   step ups

Jan 6-12         2.86*     8561  0.85**         every day

Jan 13-19       3.57      8542  2                 every day

Jan 20-26       3.4        7575  2***             every day***

Jan 27-Feb 2  3.1       7999   2                 every day

Feb 3-9           3.7       8081   2                every day

Feb 10-16       2.8       8446   2****          every day

 

 

* 1 fruit short of a successful average. All days met minimum.

** Missed 3 days due to injury. Failed on doing substitutes.

*** 2 sick days, where step ups and 1 set of hamstring stretches were not in fact done; granting self a free pass for that due to illness.

**** 1 day missed due to difficult schedule - early morning start, and not home till midnight.

[Edigo]

you don't need a life quest at this point, but you can have one if you like. As long as you believe you can do everything. The main goal is to finish your first challenge by not setting the goals too high. Good luck on your goals !

[Kobnach]

Modified my core fitness goal mission on the advice of my core fitness instructor.

 

@Edigo Thank you for the advice and encouragement. We have a geography in common - kind of - I was born in Montreal, though now living in the US. And I like your moderate style in goals. Also nice to see someone else not trying to lose weight - my Mom struggled with underweight for years, and the only problem I see with my weight now is the proportion of muscle in it.

[Everstorm]

Thought I'd drop in to see how the walking is coming.  Your goals sound very reasonable, building on the success of the mini challenge.  Don't try to do all the things!  Good luck!

[Grizzy]

Hi! I like your goals, they seem like a good start to a great year! Good luck!

[Ambee]

Good luck! Maintaining what you've already achieved is a great starting point; you can build on it gradually at your own pace, that way.

[Kobnach]

So, I started a couple of days early. Today, on the first real day of the challenge, I ache. I think it's the stretches - who'd have thought simply stretching could do that to me.

[Everstorm]

Ruh-roh.  And what do you do for DOMS from stretching?  Stretch more?  Probably best to take a nice long walk.  

[Kobnach]

Ruh-roh.  And what do you do for DOMS from stretching?  Stretch more?  Probably best to take a nice long walk.  

Beats me. But maybe it's something else; I've also been taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and doing taller than usual step-ups. Neither of those are new, exactly - but perhaps the combination is new.

[Rossimelons]

Muscle soreness sucks but at least it means you're working something new.  Keep it up!!

[Beaucastle]

You can do this!!

[Kobnach]

I'm not sure whether to pat myself on the back or sigh disgustedly after my first day.

 

The good: I did everything on my list, and did especially well on vegetables. And when I got home from work (at 8 PM) and looked at the list of things I still needed to get done before bedtime, I prioritized the challenge near the top. Moreover, when I dragged myself out for my last few hundred steps, I instead took my standard evening walk of about 2K steps. Best of all, I enjoyed it, and it helped me unwind after my work day.

 

The bad: I feel like crud. Yesterday it was DOMS, followed by an attack of IBS. Today it's just generic exhaustion and bleah. Getting out of bed was a challenge. I fear I'm catching the creeping crud - my housemate's been unwell for a couple of days, and while I'm generally less vulnerable to whatever cold/flu is going around, I fear that this time I'm catching it too.

 

What I want to do right now is go straight back to bed. What I'm going to do is walk the canine chaos committee, and see if that plus a shower makes me feel human. And I'm going to do my morning stretches - right now while I think of them. And then I'm going to drag myself to work, since while I may be sickening, I'm not sick yet.

 

[Everstorm]

Being sick sucks.  Use good judgement whether to rest or push on.  It's okay to take a time out if you need to.

 

Under the circumstances, however, you were amazing on day one!

[Kobnach]

Yesterday I had a second cup of green tea, figuring I needed it to function sanely at work. And after that I felt fine - not sick apparantly. I did enough walking during the day that I didn't absolutely need my evening walk, as I already had 6K steps - decided not to do it (to save time for other things) even though I wanted to - it was what my body felt ready for. And then I went to bed at a sane hour - early by my standards.

 

So this morning I'm feeling self congratulatory - and decide to fix the dresser in my bedroom. In particular, to get the drawers back into it. Very light dresser, with very light drawers. And on the second one - ouch! My back is NOT happy with me. It feels like I have a muscle spasm at the top of my hips. This kind of thing has happened before, and it usually goes away in a day or two. Or I wind up seeing my cheiropractor(sp?) - a nice lady who started me on my fitness quest when she told me I'd be seeing less of her if I were to take a core fitness class.

 

Not sure how much of my exercise routine I can or should do today. But experience tells me I need to walk to help this heal - which I'll do as soon as I can get out of the house.

[WndrGrl]

I've found that an ice pack is what helps me the most with muscle spasms. I hope you're feeling better.

[Beaucastle]

I had a very bad back injury years and years ago I found doing the yoga pose Happy Baby  (lie on your back clasping big toe with feet in the air, while wiggling SLOWLY around) helps a great deal. 

 

Hope you feel better soon.

[Kobnach]

Looking decent for the week so far, though not perfect. Caffeine is high, and sleep low - but those aren't part of the current challenge, though I'm tracking them as advance prep. for possible inclusion in a future challenge. Walking is great, vegetables adequate (for the challenge, not for the eventual goal). Where I'm struggling is core fitness.

 

My weekly workout (with trainer) didn't happen, due to the trainer's illness. And I fubar'd my back (in a fairly mild way) on Wednesday. Those both go in the general category of "life happens". The problem is that substitute exercises didn't happen, except on Wednesday itself. I _did_ do the part of my tiny core exercise routine that wasn't contra-indicated.

 

My back is close to recovered - I can tell because the discomfort is moving around a lot, not staying in a particular place, which always happens near the end of one of these injuries. I'd hoped yesterday that I'd be over enough to exercise - gently - today - but today I'm not sure. So I guess I'll substitute an exercise for arms/shoulders, involving lifting dumbells while lying on my back, that I was given as a push-up substitute last time I messed up my back. It was the other exercise I'd considered as part of my challenge, but only wanted to pick two. (Its also an easier way to build pushup muscles, for those of us who fail at pushups.) One problem - I need heavier dumbbells for it. Will use what I have unless I can find time (and back strength) to get some larger ones. And either go back to the hamstring stretch when the back's at 100%, or alllow myself to pick 2 of 3 exercises on a daily basis.

[Everstorm]

If you can lay on your back, maybe you could try this hamstring stretch in a doorway.

 

Otherwise, though good job keeping up with walking and veggies in spite of life happening.

[Kobnach]

If you can lay on your back, maybe you could try this hamstring stretch in a doorway.

 

 

 

That looks good. I'll try it and see how it feels. Thanks a bunch.

[Kobnach]

Summary after 1st week:

(1) Walking - exceeded requirements by more than 1/3. Met desired weekly average *every day*, even the night I played bridge.

(2) Food - met the minimum daily, but one serving short of the desired average. Will try to make that up next week.

(3) Core:

  (3a) did the step ups religiously, and generally at a higher count and difficulty level than committed. (I have a choice of step heights, and count.)

  (3b) messed up my back, missed 3 days of hamstring stretches, and totally failed at doing alternate stretches for 2 of those days.

[Beaucastle]

Solid start.  Don't get discouraged, but do listen to your body.  Pushing an injury would derail the entire rest of your time.  (*exit Capt Obvious*)  

[Kobnach]

Thanks for the encouragement.

 

The back's recovered, or at least back to normal.

 

This week's demon seems to be an overwhelming desire to sleep ;-)

 

I find myself already planning the next challenge, which is a little premature. By the looks of it, hot spots for the next challenge will be eating (again) and sleeping. Walking looks likely to be an established habit by then, unless I too often succumb to the "already 6K steps today; let's skip the evening walk" like I did last night - in retrospect, while I didn't need the steps, I did need the reinforcement of the habit. (Tonight, with fitbit reading 59??, I went for my standard evening walk, which is why the fitbit now reads 8553 steps. It wasn't entirely welcome, but I did it anyway.)

[Everstorm]

So glad to hear your back is recovered.

 

This week has been a sleepy one for me, too.  And I have also been guilty of thinking ahead to next challenge.  I think that's just the anticlimax of week two.

[Beaucastle]

Hibernation weather... thats what I blame wanting to crawl into my nice comfy bed with a good book the minute it gets dark.