It Is What It Is………

My week started out pretty good if you like pain and cold weather. I was so happy to have made it to the gym both Saturday and Sunday that by Monday morning I felt exactly what muscles I have not worked in a few months. I was very happy to feel this “good pain” when I woke up Monday morning.

Every morning this week I also had every intention of taking a walk in the morning as I usually do with a friend of mine. However, its was so miserably cold outside all week that I walked my 4-K student to school and decided to return home for tea instead.There comes a time in the winter that enough is enough and I believe I have come to that time. Spring arrived days ago and since then its has snowed numerous times, winds have been horrible and its just stinking COLD! Come on already, have we not suffered enough, lets have some warmth and sunshine.

Anyhow, let’s look at what I did this week for my mental and physical health.

Saturday: gym: 30 minute elliptical, and full body weights minus abs

Sunday: gym: 30 minute elliptical and full body weights minus abs and a family afternoon trail hike 3.1 miles

(photo courtesy of Quade Byrnes Photography)

Monday: rest

Tuesday: 1.5 mile evening walk

Wednesday: recumbent bike 30 minutes

Thursday: 30 minute elliptical and leg/back weight routine, 3 mile evening walk

Friday: rest

Clearly, not a great week in the exercise department.  A few nights I had evening parent interviews to do to replace a daycare family that is moving to another state which really hampered our evening walks. And then, about mid week, I came down with some sort of stomach bug that made me feel pretty miserable. All I can do from this point is hope next week shapes up a bit better.

 

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This Too Shall Pass……

This week started out pretty rough. Let’s just say I could not keep up to all the runny noses I had in the house, my own throat started feeling rough, and really none of us were free of some nasty bug that entered our bodies.

And then it happened……..a major snow storm mid week!!!!!!! Yes, every pile of snow was gone from our yard, our grass was raked and our yard was ready for Mother Nature to rain down on my brown grass and green it up. Instead, she decided one more snow storm would be the perfect plan….I however, completely disagreed with this plan. Unbelievable!

To put it mildly, it was a long, hard week. I did get in some exercise but overall I did a lot of resting myself while getting up and down a million times to wipe kid noses. I can only hope next week we all feel a bit better and can possibly get back outside to play again….that is if all this snow melts.

Here’s what my workouts this week shaped up to be:

Saturday: 3.10 mile hike

Sunday: gym: 30 minute elliptical, hips/glutes

Monday: arms, shoulders, back routine,1.25 mile trail walk in the evening

Tuesday: recumbent bike 30 minutes, various yoga positions for stretching, 3 mile evening walk (one last outdoor walk before the snow covered our street once again)

Wednesday: rest…..to sick to exercise

Thursday: 30 minute recumbent bike, arms, legs and back weight routine, stretching

Friday: rest

How does illness affect your workouts? (Typically, I can push through illness but sometimes I just have to except that it’s my body’s way of saying….take a rest would ya!!!)

 

 

Where Have I Been You Ask?

Ahhhh, I can’t believe it been a week since my last post. I apologize but life sort of got away from me for awhile.

Let’s update you all on what I’ve been up to. Last Friday I finally had my MRI of my ankle. It took forever but I actually enjoyed the 38 minutes I had to lay there peacefully listening to the machine bang away. I started feeling somewhat under the weather Friday morning so a little rest at the end of the day was quite nice.

Saturday I woke up feeling terrible. My head hurt, I had this nasty cough, and my entire body felt like I was run over by a semi. The sun was shining brightly and I did not even care. I did venture from bed to the couch but it did not take me long to venture back to bed.

Easter Sunday I seriously felt like I would have felt better to some extent. After spending Saturday sleeping all day, how could Sunday not be better? Well, it was not! I was the same if not a little worse. I tried to push through it, do some things around the house and finally just gave up. Back to the couch I went and that is where I stayed until the phone rang. This was part of our original plan for Easter Sunday and one I knew I would have to just get up and get through. Earlier in the week I had worked out a deal and a delivery time with a kayak outfitter in Ironwood, MI to purchase and deliver my husbands new kayak. When they offered to bring it to WI for us instead of us making the drive to MI on Saturday I was elated. One of the employees were traveling straight through and said she could just throw it atop her vehicle if we would meet her Sunday night and make the exchange. When the phone rang, I needed to get up and function for about 45 minutes. We arrived at the meeting spot and soon were the owners of yet another Jackson kayak! We drove home with my husband dying to paddle a nearby river and me just waiting to get back into my nice warm bed.

Then Monday arrived and instead of life getting better, it didn’t take long to get just a little bit worse. By 8:15 in the morning I received the call stating the results of the MRI I had Friday. I have a tendon tear in my ankle. My doctor basically gave me two options:

#1: total immobilization for 4 weeks in a knee high boot 24 hrs a day.

#2: surgery and immobilization for 12 weeks in a boot with physical therapy to follow.

Ummmm, being the person I am and the plans I know I have on the calendar I knew before asking which one I wanted to hear. But I did ask him what he would recommend. He surprised me by saying, ” lets try the boot first for a month. If we can keep you still and off that ankle as much as possible, I think we have a good chance of it healing without surgery.” HURRAY!!!!!

As you see, I agreed completely (well almost). I am determined to do my best to stay off that ankle. Which, if you follow this blog, you know this is not going to be a pleasant experience for me. We already discussed this as a family, and my son said,”mom it’s just a month.We can live with you crabby for a month better than three months.” This means, no hiking, exercising, walking, workouts, geocaching, disc golf, etc. This ought to be an interesting month.

I’ll let you all know how this works out as I progress through this journey.

 

Monday Motivation

Sunday 11/16: GYM: 30 minute elliptical, 10 minute bike, upper body and lower body weights

Monday 11/17: HOME: 200 crunches, arm weights, 10 minute bike.

MALL: 5 mile walk

Tuesday 11/18: HOME: 200 crunches, arm weights, 30 minute bike

GYM: 30 minute elliptical, half my normal weight machines and stretching

Wednesday 11/19: HOME: off

GYM: 35 minute elliptical and stretching

Thursday 11/20: HOME:200 crunches, upper and lower body weights, balance ball exercises, 30 minute bike

MALL: 2 mile walk

Friday 11/21: HOME: 200 crunches, arm weights

Saturday 11/22: GYM: 40 minute elliptical, upper and lower body weights

This past week brought freezing temperatures to our area. Monday when I woke up it was -9 with the windchill. Tuesday it was even colder. Apparently, everyone that said they heard this winter was going to be as bad, if not worse than last winter, was correct. No worries though, my tickets are reserved, paid for, and I am counting down the days until I see sunshine, green grass and mountains to climb:-) I just have to make it through the holidays first.

This past week we were also blessed with our first case of a stomach virus on Tuesday. This made my day! OK, not really!!!! You have to understand, when we get a bug like this it turns me into a germaphobe. Which makes it hard while caring for children whom touch EVERYTHING!!!! I cannot clean and disinfect enough when this happens. So after sending my sick one home with his parents, nap time came at our home and I cleaned like a crazy person. Hoping all the while that my family, my other two daycare children, and their parents don’t all catch this nasty bug. When an illness like this happens at our home it can go on for weeks as everyone whom gets it then starts the incubation period over again for the next round. So, now I wait and pray I got it all out of here. As you can tell by looking above at Tuesday’s gym workout, I at least attempted a full workout but I was exhausted and eventually came home to relax. A little is still better than none.

Thursday we were planning to have our weekly yoga session until…..my husband called home to tell me he had a work accident. I mentioned to him that if he was not interested in yoga that night he could have just said something. HAHA! Either way, we ended up walking the mall again since yoga was not able to happen that night due to his injury.

Then Saturday morning I woke up, both my boys had to work and I was just not looking forward to zumba. It was rainy/misty, dark and pretty blah outside. So I blew off zumba for something I knew would brighten my outlook for the day. I went to the gym and had a wonderful morning workout.

All in all, I won’t lie, this week was a challenge in the workout category. I can’t quite pinpoint why since everything really was not all that bad. Yes, I could have done without the stomach flu in our home, the work accident, and the extreme cold temperatures. We did have some very good things happen along with all the bad. However, nothing really gave me that big warm fuzzy feeling this week. We’ll just blame it on hormones and go with it. Isn’t that what all women over 40 do???

 

 

 

 

Random Thoughts…

Ahhh, it’s Friday and I have so many things running through my head that I am afraid it could explode. It has been a crazy week and I hope to have many things wrapped up by the end of the weekend. Hear is what I have on my mind…

Illness In Our Home Taking care of youngsters is normally a joyous experience until something like illness strikes. At this point I am in the “hoping it stays with one family and does not spread through all my families” stage of the game. Monday night my husband,son and myself spent the night cleaning every toy, bedding, and stuffed animal we have. Along with sterilizing highchairs, outside toys and everything else little fingers touch in our home. Here’s to hoping we got it all and we have a healthy week next week.

Vacation Plans This has consumed me for the past two weeks. I am making great progress and really hope to have it all wrapped up by Sunday. I keep thinking in my mind that I am actually resorting to buying warmth and sunshine in the winter months. I have always disliked winter but I never thought I would be one of those people that pay money to find warmth. Apparently I am.

Winter Gloves  I am ashamed to say, I bought a new pair of winter gloves this week. People, it is SEPTEMBER and I bought winter gloves. OMG, what was I thinking????

Weekend Plans This weekend we plan to take a trip up north to visit and celebrate my MIL’s birthday. Saturday hubby has to work as does our son. And hopefully we make it to a waterfall so our son can get some photography homework done in the meantime. Other than that no grand plans are set. It’s going to be a chilly weekend here so I am just hoping my boys don’t get the urge to kayak…then again…does that urge ever go away?

Workouts  I am pretty proud of all the workouts I achieved this week considering all that has been happening. We made it to the gym, walked over 15 miles the entire week, I did not miss a single afternoon workout, and even did one yoga session. I have not done yoga in a few months, so believe me when I say, sore was a good feeling:)

Panicked About Winter  I just can’t shake the thought that winter is going to be upon us so early this year. Thursday morning we woke up to a WINDCHILL!!!! I heard that on the news and wanted to shut if off. Don’t tell me about it yet, I am not ready. Maybe those winter gloves were not such a bad buy in September. Anyhow, my fall list of outdoor chores is written and hanging on the board. I better get at them before it snows.

Training Plan With our vacation plans coming together and a good idea of what we will be hiking I have been thinking about how we will train for this trip. Training and exercise are two totally different things in my eyes. I train to accomplish a goal. I exercise to keep my sanity. We trained for our Zion hiking trip and were so grateful we did. We were two of the oldest hikers in our group. We were also two of the only ones that did not live on vitamin I (Ibuprofen) the entire trip. I was proud of this. Which means I need to come up with a plan for this trip as well. We want to enjoy every second and not live to regret it for weeks after.

There you have. Everything important running through my head. Along with everything else I typically have on my mind, I sort of feel a little overwhelmed right now. If only I could see in that crystal ball and know what the future holds….then again I would ultimately just worry about the future too. So as life passes by I will just be patient and hope things all work out for the best.