Find more bodyweight exercises at Greatist.com
I can absolutely CAN fit this in twice a week, right? Odd how I can create a new money saving habit, a new kitchen cleaning habit, and can push myself to run greater & greater distances on the weekends (even every day of a 3-day version), yet I am failing HARD at the mid-week full body workouts at home.
Ah well – March is a new month – let’s do this!
Especially when your boys are willing to spend many hours playing card games with you to break up the time spent reading on your new kindle or in front of the TV:
We’ve had this game for awhile but at first our brains hurt or we were just too tired or something to want to figure it out. But with a long weekend looming for 16 and considering that he was (shock!) feeling a little bored with his Xbox, he brought this out. We’ve since played 6 games, one with 27 and had a damn fun time smack talking and laughing at the whole thing.
Meanwhile, I made the mistake Thursday afternoon of thinking that I could take a walk in the beautiful warm weather we are having. Since that was scarcely 24 hours after my surgery, it was not the best plan. It wasn’t awful, but I did feel some cramping happening as a result so I shut it down completely the rest of the day and on Friday. Saturday I ran some errands with 16 and felt no side effects. Renee checked in to see how I was doing and if I wanted to just walk on the trail while they did our usual longer Sunday run. They had to be out there for 90 minutes. I figured even if I could only stroll for a bit that since it was on my favorite birding trail – especially in the winter – then that would be a great test plus I could enjoy the sunshine.
I strolled for a mile. I mean, really STROLLED. Did stop and try to ID birds from memory. I didn’t carry binoculars or a bird book because I had put on my running shoes and was prepared just in case I felt well enough to pump up the walking pace.
Which, I did, so miles 2 and 3 I sort of started into my previous fitness walking pace of close to 15 min miles. That took a 65 mins and they would still be on the trail for another 25 so I decided to start alternating some light jogging segments with the walking. By the time 90 mins was up I had gone 5.3 miles and felt 100% FINE.
So how about that? I went from doing the K9 5K last weekend under a bit of duress from the fibroid symptoms (36 mins) – evicted the pesky buggers on Wednesday – and then today, a week after the 5k and 3.5 days after surgery – I walked/jogged for 5.3 miles in 90 mins.
I like that kind of recovery a LOT!
Oh, and new habit check in – I added $5 to the total this week so I have $21.55 saved.
After I get into finishing taxes this week I’ll put my mind into coming up with something fitness related. Even though the recovery has been encouraging, I am being honest about my limits to come up with something else until I am totally cleared after the 2 week post-op visit and once the larger tax chore is mostly completed since that will take up time and mental capacity 
No, I didn’t get a dog (oh, how THAT would traumatize my spoiled kitties!!) But, I did borrow a dog to participate in another Just For Fun 5k event – The Petco K9 5K that was held Sunday at the racetrack just by my house. As you can tell from the pictures – it was COLD. We’ve been under frost warnings for the last three night/mornings and they were not kidding about it.
When we met up with Tanja and her dogs, the one I was going to run with – Miles – was just shivering! Eve had to take off her jacket and wrap him up for a bit to get him to stop.
Pre-race photo – Tanja has her ridgeback Sarah. Last year they finished second, this year they were third but with a better time so for Sarah, it was a PR on the course
I was just having fun, not going for speed and once Tanja and Sarah were far enough in front of us that Miles could no longer smell his mom, he stopped running full speed and we settled into a nice trot.
Running with a pack of dogs is hysterical! Here’s a few things you never hear at other race events but which were the most commonly heard things at the K9 5K:
“Heel! Heel!”
“Good dog”
“Oh, whose a good boy?”
“Hey, stop sniffing that butt!”
“Water for you and your dog! Fire hydrants and porta potty’s!”
and my personal favorite made as both a question (because the runners forgot to bring their own):
“Poop bag? Do you have a poop bag?”
And then again at the water stops:
“Poop bags!! Get your poop bags!”
Yeah….I was giggling a lot. There were also the sights and smells of many dogs making use of the poop stops. Weee. Including one larger dog who decided he had to go NOW and that meant cutting across my path dragging his poor unwitting owner into the trees. I managed to keep the rubber side down, but it was a little more treacherous than the usual race courses!
Miles did great – he only tried to veer off a few times and a quick “heel!” got him back on track. I have no idea about our time because I wasn’t participating for that reason. It was just fun.
Oh, and dinner with all the girls later that night topped off with some after dinner drinks? Just added to the fun of the day.
(No one knows why that photo is blurry..ahem)
It was a great way to launch into Eviction Plans, Version 2.0 which will mean shutting down the longer runs/workouts for a couple of weeks. FWIW the fibroids staged a last ditch attack in the middle of everything yesterday but I refused – REFUSED – to let them keep me from doing what I wanted to do.
As of Wednesday they will be gone – gone I say! Gone to where the termites lay.
Bwahahahahahaha!
(Yes, more morbid loony tunes around here – whatever)
Because I sort of forgot that I am not 17, or even 27……and yesterday AFTER a nice 1+ hour trail run and then some serious latte drinking and burrito gulping….Renee, Eve and I were feeling the need to go for a walk to not feel so stuffed. So we walked to the school and park near me where – hey look! There are MONKEY BARS!!
(I swear we didn’t spike our lattes with any booze – really!)
I think it is good that no one thought to take any pictures and that the one video I did take didn’t actually record as I expected (you are so lucky Renee!) because we spent quite a bit of time goofing off doing pull ups and just generally hanging from the bars and rings on the playground. Yeah, we thought were big time gymnasts or crazy cross fit elites or some such. Actually, Renee kind of is pretty good at that and pulled off quite a few hard core pull ups. Way more than I could.
BUT – the thing is that I COULD do some! That is largely thanks to the weight training that I started a couple of years ago so once I realized that I COULD, I had to repeat it right?
Lord…
Lemme just say that around 2am I woke up with a burning pain in my neck and shoulders like no other! It’s taken two 800 mg doses of ibuprofen to calm down the pain to a tolerable level and still I moan if I have to lift my arms even a teensy bit.
This is all my way of saying – hey, wanna come join our crazy group of nut job fitness geeks who think sore muscles are the bomb?
OK, we don’t really think that, but anyone who knows me knows that getting me to graduate from walking to circuit training and then to running was not an easy psychological leap for me.
It took the motivation and then the support of a cool group of people to get me motoring along. It doesn’t matter how far away you are, if you are even remotely interested in getting or keeping fit, please sign up here:
http://my.corporatetriathlete.com/
It’s free and you can drop in and read and post questions in the forum and find people who will be able to answer your questions and help get you motivated. Here’s a snapshot of the topics in there now:
See? Not intimidating at all! It’s really for people who want to get started just moving in general like I did.
And no, you don’t need to make yourself as sore as I did! Also, there is a GREAT link to a cross training video workout (30 mins) that anyone can do at home. That’s in the Cross Training topic. I’ve done it twice now while watching TV and it’s fantastic. I mean, it’s not EASY – but it’s also totally something you can build up to and do.
Meanwhile, I am going to stay away from those damn monkey bars. Evil things.
I do not like limbo.
No, not the dance – I was actually once quite good at that
No, I do not like being “stuck in limbo” as the expression goes.
It is, of course, the lack of control that is quite frustrating.
Before I launch into the complaints – one bit of very good news – 16′s concussion seems to have healed. It was almost like that visit to the neurologist after the MRI was the final corner. He started scoring much lower on his symptoms around the middle of last week and then he went in Saturday specifically to fill in a ’0′. Even though he probably wont play football – the team won Friday night but plays the #2 seed this week and chances of winning are rather low – he at least wants to get back to being able to list weights and run with the team after school and during PE so he will start the “gradual return to activity” process this week. Cognitively he has been 100% symptom free for a couple of weeks now and no further academic support has been needed at all.
Anyway…..
So the house needs to be tented for termites and we are in the process of getting bids. My neighbor doesn’t really care, but since I am borrowing money from the BF to get my side done, that means that he has an interest in which company we choose. Which is good, because he drives a hard bargain and will end up saving money all around for us. But, it’s also nerve wracking because it means more termite company visits and then coordination between all interested parties to choose who we go with and then when it is done.
This is all complicated because I have the cats. I need to find a place to go for 3 days and 2 nights (usually a Wed-Fri). It needs to either be a place where I can relax about leaving the cats for the day while I go to work, OR, it needs to be timed so that if I have to not go into work that it will be OK and that I should have internet access to potentially work from wherever we will be.
Even though I found a fairly close hotel that will allow the cats and is less than $100/night, I am not sure some dumb fool from the hotel wouldn’t go in the room even WITH a DO NOT ENTER order and then the cats would race out. Nor do I want to lock them in a bathroom if I have to leave. Chip is enough of a nutjob to stress himself right back into bladder problems again.
Then there is a GOOD complication, but a complication non the less. 27 got a temp job – yay! It is up near where I work (mostly yay!) BUT…the hours will most likely be really odd because it is a customer support job for a retail vendor that needs folks maning phones during the holiday rush order season (Nov-mid Jan). As an example his first day of training is actually an evening shift 5:30-9:30 on Thursday night this week. Until that is done, he wont know what hours/days he will be working. So neither of us can really go stay those two nights any place too FAR away since we need to share the car. 16 can go to his dad’s but it also means he cannot walk home those 3 days once school is out. He HAS to hang out on campus until his dad can pick him up.
So yeah, timing is going to be stressful and right now I just don’t know how it will all fall into place.
I mean, I know we will make it happen and it will work out, but right now I cannot SEE that for sure, so…limbo.
Same goes with my “female” problems. We know what it is (fibroids) and what to do (outpatient procedure) but I cannot schedule it right now until the termite thing is done. Plus, it will be another lost day at work AND I will need to arrange a driver which is probably easy enough actually once we know 27′s work schedule. If he cannot do it, I am sure that the girls will help out – BUT – limbo!
So, one week later there is still a feeling of apprehension/anticipation over things I cannot entirely control – sorta like the election last week :/
OK, so I am not transitioning DIRECTLY into fluffy fun from yesterday. There’s a transition of sorts.
As I hinted at in my race report, there have been some err….female problems..going on recently as I approach that time in a gal’s life when certain reproductive systems prepare to take a dirt nap
When I went in for my annual appointment with the female lady parts doctor, she surmised that it would be a good idea to check out my uterus via ultrasound for fibroids or other irritations and potentially do what is called a hydro thermal ablation to sort of “cleans things out” and reduce the irritations and thereby reduce the excessive…er…flow. (yes, trying to keep it palatable for the male readers, but you gals know what I’m talking about, right? Right)
Since this is my first ever issue in this regard, and since my kids are older – the only experience I’d had with ultrasounds before was a while pregnant and external only and I did have to prepare in any way.
This morning I learned a little something about myself.
1) Running has definitely made me mentally tougher (hey, I ran that 5k after all these issues which in itself made my doctor laugh at my insanity and toughness). I know this for sure because today I did NOT kick, punch or scream at the ultrasound technician, nor did I allow my bladder to explode as it wanted to while she took what felt like 10 bazillion pictures.
2) Because I do drink water, and a lot of it, every day as my primary source of liquid – I really do NOT need to prepare for an ultrasound by drinking 32oz of liquid a full hour before the procedure. Since I am plenty hydrated as a rule and since my bladder clearly fills up FAST – in the future, I can just drink 24 oz 30 mins before.
Woulda been nice to know #2 ahead of time so that I didn’t have to test the boundaries of #1
The politics part is that the second step of the ultrasound after she took a bazillion photos of my uterus through my overly full bladder and then released me to empty it (best feeling ever!) – part two was a vaginal ultrasound. As soon as she said that I almost involuntarily giggled. Yeah, giggled. You see, being the political geek that I am I had hear a little bit about this procedure this year. Thanks, in large part, to the Governor of Virginia who is now referred to on the left as Governor Ultrasound” (Tried to pass a law mandating a vaginal ultrasound for any woman who wanted to terminate a pregnancy. Also wanted to make her pay for it. Great guy – see yesterday’s post on how I feel about the GOP right now) Also, thanks to that coverage, I knew what the to expect before I even saw the wand that is used. And that thought in my brain which had me sort of laughing at the connection allowed me to relax and get through the second part pretty well. Even though it also seemed to go on forever!
Can you tell I am having so much FUN this “vacation” week?
I am going to share with you some of the best advice I ever learned entirely on my own but which has saved me much insanity and drama:
Never. Ever. NEVER make ANY decisions or act on ANY feelings you might have towards people as the result of middle of the night totally irrational, worst case scenario insomniac thoughts.
NEVER NEVER EVER!
I used to think that those irrational fears that would hit when my brain couldn’t sleep were subconscious issues that I *needed* to solve. That the reason my brain woke me up was so that I could delve into them more deeply.
The trouble is, there are two kinds of sleepless thoughts (at least there are in my own brain YMMV of course).
I am not talking about insomnia that results from being sick or having too much caffeine or even being stressed mentally in any way. I know what that feels like. For me, my brain never really does shut down on those nights and even if I fall asleep, it is barely a fitful toss and turn kind of sleep with vivid dreams and constant flashes of being partially awake. Eventually I simply wake up and the best thing I can do is read myself back to sleep for at least a few hours. In those instances, perhaps trying to snatch at whatever elusive thought or feeling is preventing sleep is good in order to get at the root of the issue.
However, there is another kind of insomnia. It is the one that results when you DID fall asleep. In fact, you fell into that deep REM sleep almost immediately. It was awesome! But then, very soon thereafter, *something* wakes you up. For me, if it happens within an hour of me having just fallen asleep, it is the WORST.
Because you have been ripped out of that deep part of your brain, you struggle to shake off the cobwebs and deal with whatever it is that woke you up.
For me this past Friday it was my phone ringing with 16 calling to let me know he was back at the school after his game and the subsequent team gathering. I had mistakenly thought he would be dropped off directly at home and had even turned off my text message sounds and gone to bed. So, I had to pull myself together and get him. All in all, it was only 15 minutes perhaps between the phone call and then returning back to my bed.
But that was enough to wake up the irrational demons.
The lights hadn’t been out more than 5 minutes and I knew I was in for it. I could feel the grip of foreboding thoughts taking over. But I reminded myself before they washed over everything:
“This means NOTHING. Don’t give in. Let them talk, but don’t give in to the temptation to act to solve the problems the voices will scream about. Wait until the morning and revisit them. Do NOTHING. This means NOTHING.”
In that moment, my brain will take absolutely ANY small irritation from the previous days and spin it into the GREATEST TRAGEDY IN THE WORLD! People who I normally trust explicitly become treacherous crooks. Items that I have annoyingly misplaced because THE MOST IMPORTANT LIFE SAVING ITEMS ON THE PLANET! My kid getting bad grades? HE WILL BE HOMELESS! Someone at work hasn’t answered a lingering question? I WILL LOSE MY JOB! A friend hasn’t returned a message? SHE HATES ME AND THINKS I AM HORRIBLE AND WILL NEVER HANG OUT WITH ME AGAIN!
I mean, clearly my older son STOLE that $10 off coupon from Vons that I absolutely HAD TO HAVE in order to buy groceries, RIGHT?! I’m not kidding, that was the ridiculous example from earlier this year that kept my brain going through all sorts of anger and trust issues and then financial worries and…GAH! Clearly I would lose my HOUSE over this $10 coupon that my son STOLE from my bedroom!!
Yeah, and then the next morning I found it in the bottom of my canvas bag that I take back and forth to work. It had fallen out of the slot in my purse. Imagine that?
But trust me, if I hadn’t stopped myself from getting up that night and marching downstairs and yelling at him since I could hear him still awake in his room…well…talk about making mountains out of molehills and then passing that on and hurting someone else unnecessarily!!!!
So Friday I allowed my brain about 30 minutes to be utterly stupid. Then I turned on the TV for an hour which provided enough distraction to sidetrack the demons, then I fell back to sleep.
And Saturday morning? I handled the two items that had reared their ugly heads exactly as I had planned on handling them. And all was right with the world and no other people were hurt in the process
Have I previously NOT been quite so smart about ignoring the insomnia demons? Yeah. Oh yeah. And every damn time I learned how wrong I was to do that.
So please, don’t do that!
You’re Welcome
I passed my latest blood test with flying colors! Cholesterol is down. Triglycerides are way down. I didn’t even have to debate with my doctor on medication – she was thrilled with how the Lovaza+diet+exercise seems to have done the trick. Unfortunately for my wallet, the Lovaza is a fairly recent FDA approved pure Omega 3 capsule so there are no generics yet, but she’ll keep an eye out.
Meanwhile, I get to go SIX months before testing again – yay!
Of course, since I happen to like that I lost 10 pounds and also that I have toned abs & can even see some muscle definition in my upper arms & shoulders….you know I will keep up the more extreme exercise I started. Yes, I will even keep up with the running – which is currently really just a super snail pace slow jog. And I wont go back to eating Skinny Cow every night. Ice cream stays a once a week (at most) treat. But at least now I wont worry about things when I go on vacation & pig out a bit. I deserve it!
In case you missed the twitter update
