Spoonie fitness

[flailing]

Hi folks,

My Main Quest is to become more fit; which is to say I want to:

• Lose 3.5 inches from my waist at the end of 6 weeks
• Walk at least 75,000 steps each week (I have a Fitbit which tracks for me)
• Bike 30+ minutes three times per week

The reason why I I want to become more fit/active, in short, is because I miss it a lot. I played a lot of sports until the end of high school where I was hit with a chronic illness that made life really tough. Once the illness absolved itself some, I developed severe osteoarthritis, which resulted in 3 major surgeries in 3.5 years. Now that I'm "recovered" from the most-recent surgery (a total wrist fusion in November) I want to start doing at least some of the stuff I used to. I also know that I need physical activity as part of my well-being: I'm working on my PhD exercise helps me sleep better and contributes to stress relief.   

But there is the caveat: even though I'm "healed" and the surgery was considered a success, I'm still in some level of pain all the time. Some days are worse than others ( = I need narcotics to "function"), but there are days when doing "normal" everyday adult things are really tough: as much as I want to do things my body cannot. I am what you call a spoonie. There are also a lot of activities I cannot do because either it requires wrist movement (lots of yoga and body weight exercises) or my wrist/arm needs to bear weight (which causes pain). I have a follow-up with my surgeon in early May to figure out my "next steps," but I am still figuring out what I can and cannot do, which changes on a day-to-day basis (weather/pressure changes impact my pain levels, as does my activities in the previous days, the amount of sleep I get, and things I'm still figuring out).  

Despite the caveat, I want to be healthier, and I want to survive grad school. I'm just not sure how much I will be able to accomplish. Thus, the motivation for my second challenge, is that every day is a fight. 

I will calculate how well I did (or didn't) at the end of each week, and post the result on Sunday. 

Beginning Stats:
Weight: 179.8lbs

Waist: 38 inches
Week of April 6-13 I walked 86,477 steps

Week of April 6-13 I biked 0 times (I was moving places...and yeah).

I wanted to add as well that my Life Quest is to be done my conference paper (being presented on June 1) by May 25th.  
I want an initial draft written by April 27th, a second draft written by May 11th and then the last draft by the 25th.  
 

[Nanners]

Hi there! Welcome to the battle field!

 

Have you ever noticed that the most bad ass people are the ones who have had to overcome huge obstacles to get where they are? You certainly have a lot of obstacles in your way, but that just means that in the end you will be 10x as strong as anyone else because you've had to work that much harder for it. Maybe one day you'll be one of those people that everyone looks at in awe of just how much you haven't let circumstances stop you. 

 

I hope we get to watch you get there. Can't wait to see you progress on this journey!

 

You got this!

[flailing]

Thanks so much for your support, Nanners!

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Sunday update! It's only been three days since I started the challenge, but, Sunday is update day. 
 

Main Quest
Weight: 179.8 lbs (no change)

Waist: 36 inches (2 inches lost; 57.14% of overall goal achieved). Menstruation makes me bloated, and I attribute that to at least a portion of the loss. 

Week of April 13-19 I walked 86,143 steps - 114.86% of goal achieved 

Week of April 13-19 I biked 0 times - 0% of my weekly goal achieved. The temperature and weather has been changing pretty rapidly and as a result my pain levels have been pretty high. For me, anything over 5/10 is high; I considered fracturing my wrist a 4-4.5/10 to give you an idea of what my pain scale is. I didn't want - and it's probably not the best idea - to bike while on narcotics. Hopefully things will be better weather-wise this week!

Life Quest
Have not started working on my paper yet. Still getting myself settled from the move, and working on an article I have to submit by May 1st. After today (cleaning day - finishing up at the old place and regular weekly cleaning of the new) I will be able to get to work. 

[flailing]

This week has been...something. 

Monday I went and bought groceries (1.4km/1mi in each direction). The way back was significantly harder as I had added 53lbs of food. That's a workout, right?

Tuesday I biked for 30 minutes, then while doing so nearly knocked over a lamp, so I stopped. Felt pretty good but concerned my new arrangement might be dangerous because of said lamp. 

Yesterday/Wednesday was...interesting. The temperature was 20C/68F in the afternoon, but dropped to around 3C/37F in the evening. I think by my 11pm walk home the temperature was close to 0C/32F. My body is not happy right now as a result. To add insult to injury, about two weeks ago now I guess I dropped a can of pop on my left foot, and it’s still painful to the touch (but didn’t bruise or swell). I can still walk on it and I'm otherwise not in pain. After I got home last night I gave myself a charlie horse on that side. So my ankle feels like its sprained, in terms of pain level (which could also be from the weather), but I'm not swollen or red,  My calf muscle is really tight as well, so I am skipping biking for today because I don't want to piss my body off any more than I already have. 

*sigh*

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Sunday update!

 

Main Quest
Weight: 178.2 lbs (1.6 lbs lost)

Waist: 36.5 inches (up 0.5 inches from last week; 1.5 inches lost overall). 

Week of April 19-26 I walked 54,427 steps = 72.6% of my weekly goal achieved.

Week of April 19-26 I biked 2 times for a total of 57 minutes - 63.3% of my weekly goal achieved. I missed biking on Thursday because of the weather/my being in pain. 

Life Quest
I still have not started working on my paper. I have a submission due on Friday to a journal that I'm sending out for edits tonight. While it's been looked at I can start on the conference paper.  

In sum, I feel kind of shitty about my progress this week. Between being in pain, having GERD issues which are making me feel ill and causing sleep issues, and the weather it's been a tough week. Luckily the temperature is going up again (a little more gradually, thankfully) so hopefully that will help!? 

[FlamePrincess]

I'm a spoonie too

 

I hope you don't mind if I follow your challenge, I'm looking forward to seeing you progress. 

[flailing]

FINALLY ANOTHER SPOONIE!!!!!! <3

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EVERYTHING WAS GOING WELL UNTIL THURSDAY.

Even with needing to spend a lot of hours at my text writing and editing to get my article submission in, I was still able to bike and do a fair amount of walking each day.

 

On Thursday afternoon I was working on finishing up a craft while getting laundry done and I cut off a pretty good chunk of skin on my finger. I lost a decent quantity of blood fairly quickly, which sent me into (mild) shock, and as a result I fainted on the way to the bathroom trying to get something to stuff into the wound. On the way to the ground I must have hit my back on the bathroom door knob, as there is a pretty decent bruise there now and I'm quite sore. I went to emerg and got all patched up and am now on the road to recovery.

My finger is, justifiably, throbbing as wounds tend to do, and sore to the touch (like putting on clothing hurts), so I more or less can't use my hand at the moment between the pain and keeping the dressings dry.  

I thought it a good idea to skip biking Saturday, but it was too miserable weather-wise (rapid changes in temperature [0C/32F - 13C/55.4F], humidity [it rained twice], and pressure) for me to go for a walk, and which I expect contributed later to spoonie pain problems (my joints hurt) in the evening.  

Main Quest
Weight: 180.6 (up 2.4lbs total; 0.8lbs since last week) 

Waist: Don't know. Can't measure right now. 

Week of April 26-May 2  I walked 64,773 steps - 86.4% of my weekly goal achieved 

Week of April 26-May 2 I biked 2 times for a total of 68 minutes - 75.6%  of my weekly goal achieved. 

Life Quest

My article was completed and submitted on Wednesday, so I was able to get about 600 words of the conference paper written yesterday. 

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Weight: 182.4 (up 2.6 lbs total; 1.8lbs since last week) 

Waist: 36.75 (up 0.25 inches from two weeks ago, lost 1.25 inches total

Week of May 3-10  I walked 42,243 steps - 56.3% of my weekly goal achieved 

Week of May 3-10 I biked 0 times completing 0% of my weekly goal achieved

So last week sucked for exercise because it snowed: Tuesday overnight into Wednesday afternoon I got about 3 inches of snow, and as a result my body was very unhappy. 

[flailing]

Main Quest
Weight: 183.2 (up 0.8lbs from last week; up 3.4 lbs total) 

Waist: 35" (down 1.75" with 3" lost since week one)

Week of May 11-16  I walked 67,549 steps -  90.1% of my weekly goal achieved 

Week of May 3-10 I biked 3 times (25 minutes, 35 minutes, and 20 minutes) completing 83.3% of my weekly goal 

Can someone please explain how I'm gaining weight but losing inches? I'm eating better (more fruits and veggies, more plant-based protein [opposed to probably-not-enough protein]), and try to be active as much as my body can tolerate it. 

Life Quest
I decided to forego a conference paper length paper and write for publication and candidacy instead. I've written 20 pages, with the intent of finishing the draft of that paper for next Sunday.