Tag Archives: Health

What I Love #1

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I think I can include this next post under the LOVE heading.  It is, after all, something I love…..It could have fitted in nicely with last month’s theme too though, of motivation.  But I wasn’t actually doing it then so it will be fine here…..

What am I on about?

EXERCISE

Those people who know me well may have had to read that a couple of times to make sure they hadn’t misread it.   You didn’t. I said EXERCISE.  I love EXERCISE.

For years, I have found it hard to keep myself motivated to do anything physically taxing.  I have been known to park as near as possible to anywhere, to avoid walking and I positively hated the gym.

But, something happened last month. I saw the light.  And now, I am a keep fit convert.  

A Born Again Exerciser.

I’ve had phases of doing different types of exercise, it’s true.  I enjoy badminton and I don’t mind swimming (apart from the getting changed and the getting in and out of the pool. Oh, and the swimming). But recently, something has changed.

I took up a new hobby, burlesque dancing.  I’ve only been twice but I’ve found my ‘thing’.  I love it because, not only do you prance around in a provocative way, looking alluring and sexy (in my head, in my head, ok??) but you also get to wear frou frou outfits, with feathers and lace and SPARKLY bits.  What could be more fun??  I don’t really care about the dancing bit, I just LOVE the attire!  But the dancing is the exercise.  So I’ve cracked it.

However, the more surprising thing, for me, is that I LOVE the gym now.  Well, maybe not the gym exactly, but my personal training sessions.  This love of training was sparked by a television series that is on currently, Fat Fighters (not Fat Losers as I previously wrote. Oops!).  Prior to this, I paid to have a trainer but I dreaded going.  Watching the programme, I was suddenly inspired.  And I texted my trainer to sign up again.  I now go religiously every Saturday morning, a time that suits me.  I realised that planning to go after work was the reason I hated it.  It’s too late for me and the traffic meant I was always stressing about making it in time.  I now get to have a little lie in on a Saturday before going to the gym and waking myself up properly.  It’s great!

But the main point of this post really is that I have a totally different attitude towards exercise.  Instead of being something I HAVE to do to be healthy or lose weight, it is something I do because I WANT to….

I love that

(That’s not actually me in the cocktail glass.  But it could be, one day!)

I Love my Motivation!

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Well, we are almost at the end of January.  My initial resolve was to take part in the 365 Project and post on the same theme for a whole year.  I chose motivation but quickly realised that I’d bore myself, let alone my readers, if I posted up about that for a WHOLE YEAR!!  So, I decided to adapt the idea and post on the same topic for a month.  I also allowed myself not to post every day.  I pretty much abandoned the 365 Project in fact!

Anyway, I have, more or less, posted motivationally themed stuff throughout January, I think, and I intend to end with a summary of how my own motivation has helped me to keep up my fitness training and started all the other things I said I would do.

Or rather, that WAS the intent

Unfortunately, I’ve just returned from a slap up meal of Tapas with copious amounts of wine and I really feel a bit of a fraud talking about how determined I am to eat healthily and keep fit.

Although I did go to a personal training session at the gym this morning. AND I have been walking regularly. AND…and this is the bestest AND….I have joined a burlesque dancing class.  So far, I’ve only been to the taster session but I’ve signed up for the full six weeks.  It’s so much fun!   The challenge for me is how to look alluring whilst trying to follow the steps.  Not quite there yet but I’m hopeful!  Anyway, I highly recommend it as a fun way to exercise.

And, joking apart, I am really enjoying my exercise, whatever form it takes.

The Italian classes are great fun too, not too hard but I’m learning new stuff.  It’s fun doing the class with KD who has a fantastic accent and we practise our new words during the week so I fully expect to be fluent by the end of the course (well, I hope to be able to order wine and food at least. Or just the wine even….).

As for the other projects I had intended to pick up on, well, the photography is slow. The weather has been poor and I have yet to find the subject that inspires me….but I will. I am a frustrated photographer.

I have not done any more drawing and I have totally forgotten about the needlecraft apart from a brief spell (one evening) where I got out the knitting needles for half hour.

Still, it’s only January.  Eleven more months to achieve my goals!

I have decided to make my theme for February ‘Love’.

Amore.

Not sure what I’ll post yet but isn’t that the beauty of it all?

Ciao Belle.

 

Fuzzy Eyes

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I am having trouble focusing this morning.  I mean,literally, focusing.  Everything is a little bit blurry.   I sometimes find that my eyes take a bit longer to wake up than the rest of me but this is much worse than usual.  I have cleaned my reading glasses at least three times in an effort to clear my vision but to no avail.

I can only surmise, therefore, that the problem lies with my sight.

I have fuzzy eyes…..

Cheese-aholics Anonymous

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Having said I would NEVER go to the gym again once my personal training sessions were finished, I have just booked myself in for 14 more, starting on Saturday.

Now, how’s THAT for motivation?!?!

The fact that I look like a big fat cheese due to the ridiculous amount of the stuff I have eaten over Christmas and New Year, is neither here nor there…..

I found the solution!

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Last year, around the beginning of November I think it was, I had some sort of ‘awakening’.  I have always struggled with exercise and I had reached the point where I just didn’t know how I was going to stick at anything.  I was a member of the gym, I had a personal trainer and I still hated it and I still made excuses not to go.

Being in the business of motivating others I felt a complete failure, not being able to motivate myself to do something I knew would be good for me.

About this time I went on some training.  Solution-focussed brief therapy training. I blogged about it at the time –  solution-focussed fitness plan 

I volunteered to be the ‘dummy client’ and I had to bring something for the trainer to work on, to demonstrate the technique.   I blogged about my first day in this previous post but there was a second….and a third.

Something clicked after that second day.  I realised that I had been approaching it all wrong.  I didn’t like the gym and it wasn’t working as I kept cancelling my training sessions.  So I knew what I didn’t like but I had no idea on what to do about it.   It was decided in this training/therapy session that I would try out some other types of exercise until I found one I liked.  I agreed to go for a bike ride and to walk after work at least twice a week between this session and the final one.  I had to come back to the third day, two weeks later,  with a report of my progress. 

The training focussed on when I had enjoyed exercise.  I realised I liked exercise more if I had company. So, with the help of KD, I started my plan that weekend.  We went on an exhilarating bike ride and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Every night that week, even though it was dark, we (and the dog) went for a walk.  A brisk walk. In fact it was a little TOO brisk for my liking at first but I had promised to try things out so I stuck at it.  After only three nights, I had started to enjoy it and my pace quickened.

I kept up the walking with KD almost every evening after that, until just before Christmas, mainly because of social commitments.

The most surprising thing (to me) was that I started to enjoy going to the gym.  I had 5 sessions left with the personal trainer.  We agreed I would only go once a week, rather than book two sessions in which I dreaded and that I would go on Saturday mornings, rather than after work.  This really worked.  I am most definitely a morning exerciser!  By the time I got to my last session, just before Christmas, I was almost sad that they had finished.   In fact, I will probably book some more in soon….

After three weeks, I had lost weight but, much more importantly, I felt so much fitter.  My blood pressure came right down and I felt energised.

Christmas and New Year have caused me to slip back slightly.  I haven’t done any exercise, apart from one walk and I’ve been eating all the wrong stuff.  But I still feel motivated and I know I will get back to where I was.  I have decided to start again properly on Monday, since we are having another Christmas Day on Saturday with plenty of food and drink….

I am now, obviously, a HUGE advocate of solution-focussed therapy!  If you focus on what works, rather than what doesn’t, you are going to succeed.  Trust me – it works!!

Solution focused fitness plan

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Today I was on day one of a training course.  It was a therapy course so we naturally had to do some role plays.  The trainer asked for a volunteer with a real life problem that he could interview and demonstrate the model we were being taught (Solution Focused Brief therapy, if you are interested!)

Anyway, I didn’t volunteer but, as always seems to happen, I did end up being volunteered by the others.  I don’t really mind.  I am not naturally shy (believe it or not!) and I did have a problem I needed to work through.  So it was fine

My chosen issue was my difficulty in maintaining my fitness and health.  I go to the gym for a couple of weeks and my motivation drains away and I cancel my personal trainer and slip back into my sedentary ways again.  It’s an ongoing problem, and I wanted to discuss it with someone to find a solution

So this was the ideal opportunity

The conclusion was that I actually HATE the gym.   This is true.   Even with a personal trainer I can’t stick at it for any length of time

Having thought it all through with the trainer AND the group, who all became very personally involved with my issue (I have a way of doing that), the class was divided

Half thought I should stick it out for a bit longer and the other half said why do something you really detest so much?

When I go to the course tomorrow, they’ll be eagerly waiting to hear if I went ahead and did the training or not

I didn’t go

I feel so much better now

In a totally unhealthy way

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As long as she is wearing glasses

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I used to know a woman, a mother of one of my friends.  She was getting on a bit (well, to me she was, at that time – she was probably only about ten years or so older than I am now!) and she applied her eye make up dreadfully

She would use eye liner and a thick, black, uneven line wobbled it’s way across her eyelids.  It looked as if she had applied her make up in the dark

I wondered at the time if she knew, or cared, how she looked but I now understand why she did this

She was LONG-SIGHTED

Meaning, she couldn’t see anything up close

How do I know this?

Because I am now very badly afflicted with the same thing

I’ve had to wear glasses for reading for about ten years now and they have got stronger and stronger.  I can’t read without them, I can’t text or use my phone without them, I can’t do anything much that requires me to look closely at something without them

And this includes applying my make up

Each morning I put it on and think it looks fine

When I put my reading glasses on and look in the mirror, it’s actually quite SCARY, like a macabre clown’s make up

I have an uneven squiggle of eye liner and sploshes of mascara on my cheekbones…..

I spend the next few minutes trying to correct my mistakes through a fuzzy blur – not easy

I bought some glasses that were designed for people with this problem.  The lenses ‘flipped’ down individually so you could look through one whilst applying the make up to the other eye

Ingenious

But useless.  They never worked, they just got in the way

I suppose one solution would be to abandon the idea of wearing eye liner.  It would certainly solve the problem of badly applied make up

But that makes me feel as if I am giving in to being old

I’ll be letting my hair grow out to it’s natural colour next

And taking Sanatogen

I can’t be growing old just yet

Maybe I’ll just wear shades all the time

Boot camp – day two

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I have just returned from the second boot camp session.  Well, for me anyway. 

I was supposed to go on Friday but, since I still had difficulty walking upstairs I felt it wise to leave it another day or so before punishing myself again.

That extra day or so made all the difference.  This morning I woke up early, pulled on my gear and drove up the road for the hour of training

The trainer had a word with me about pacing myself and gave me some low impact exercises to do while the others were doing star jumps and BURPEES

I didn’t know what burpees were before this, I thought they were just the result of eating your dinner too fast! 

As it turns out, they are hideous exercises but, like I said, he told me to leave those for today.

I managed to last the whole hour, working at my own pace, today.  I feel very pleased with myself!

The best thing though, is that now, an hour later, I actually feel GREAT! 

I can feel I’ve done some exercise but I feel energised, not ill, like I did on Thursday!

I think I’ve cracked it!

5.55am

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alarm clock, bought from IKEA

Image via Wikipedia

That’s the time my eyes pinged open this morning.  Again.  I seem to wake before 6.00am nearly every day now.   And, once I have woken, there is no going back to sleep again.

The time has gradually been getting earlier and earlier and if it carries on like this, I’ll be awake before I’ve gone to sleep by this time next year!!

I’m guessing it’s age related.  Or hormones, or something.

But the truth is, I’ve never really enjoyed a lie-in since I had my children.   The oldest is 29 this year so that’s a long time to go without a lie-in!!!

I mean, she doesn’t wake me up NOW, obviously.   She doesn’t even live at home.  But the legacy of being a mummy and having to get up early lives on.   And, no matter how hard I try, I cannot force myself to stay asleep longer, or go back to sleep once  I’m awake.

Well, unless I have to be somewhere first thing in the morning of course.  Then you can bet your life my body will be pleading with me to let it sleep a bit longer.

Hmmmm….maybe the answer is to book early appointments at weekends.  And set my alarm to wake me up to cancel them just before it is time to be there.

Now, where can I arrange to be at 9.00am on a Sunday morning……

Change isn’t always good

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Last night was one of those nights.  One of those nights where you go to bed tired but wake up in the small hours wide awake.    For me, lately, 1.50 a.m. seems to be the significant wake up time.

Two hours of half sleep and fidgeting and I finally drifted off again.  This is happening a lot these days.  I blame my hormones.  I am in the midst of the menopause.

Before it started, I must admit that I thought women who went on about how awful it was were a little melodramatic.  Come on, I thought, it’s just like PMT only more erratic, surely?  Well, I got THAT wrong, didn’t I?

The menopause can consume you if you let it.  I won’t let it but it has a damn good try every now and then.  Hot flushes that wake you hourly, the insomnia that seems to kick in at any time, usually when you HAVE to be up early or have a very long day ahead of you, the feeling that everyone around you hates you (yes, paranoia is a symptom of the menopause) and the general tiredness that can only be compared to the feeling of being drugged.  This is not an exhaustive list either, it is just the way I experience it.

I think the worst bit is that you have no way of knowing when it’s coming or how long it will last.  It isn’t present ALL the time thankfully but, when it happens, it’s a nightmare.  I am not alone in this experience, I know.

However, some research into the symptoms, and how they are experienced by women worldwide, shows some interesting differences.  In Japan, for example, the most reported symptoms are headache and pain in the shoulders.   They do not seem to experience the other symptom I have described above, yet these are prevalent in Western society.  A possible explanation is the diet, rich in soya protein.  Here, we eat very little soya protein, generally, and too much processed food.

In some cultures, there are no physical symptoms at all and there are various possible explanations for this, aside from the dietary aspect.  In some cultures, women are perceived as unclean when they are menstruating and the menopause provides a welcome sign that they are no longer outcasts at certain times of the month.   The menopause signals the end of the reproductive phase of a woman’s life and this can be a blessing in some places where childbirth carries a high risk of mortality or where it takes women away from being a useful member of the labour force.  This positive connotation is thought to affect the experience of the menopause.

Here in the west, we see the menopause differently.  It announces that we are getting old and that we are no longer able to compete with younger, fertile women.  It means sagging skin, osteoporosis, lack of sex drive.   Here, the social construct is against the menopause.   It provides one explanation of why women in more developed countries find it so difficult to cope with and, possibly, experience it in a less than positive way.

Exercise is also known to help with symptoms and it is probably fair to say that we are not as healthy as we should be here in the UK (I am using the UK  as an example purely because this is where I live but this is just as true of the USA and many other countries).   A woman living in a small tribal village, with no car and no job that involves sitting in front of a computer all day, is not going to have to worry about fitting in time to go to th gym – indeed, her daily activities probably amount to more exercise than I get in a month!

Obviously, I am generalising.  There will be women reading this who lead a very healthy lifestyle and who do not experience major problems with the menopause (or they have taken the cheat’s option, like me, and opted for HRT!).

Clearly, there are a lot of factors that influence how we experience this time in our life, I haven’t even touched on genetics, but I think it’s fair to say we CAN help ourselves to a certain extent. 

So why don’t I??