Weight Tracker

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Fighting Fibro

Yesterday was a "Bad Fibro" day. I woke up achey and as I call it "locked up," where my muscles feel like they're clenched tight, even though they are not. It's an odd, uncomfortable feeling that makes movement difficult.

I was tired, and felt defeated. Tuesday is one of my Karate days, and I've missed a lot of those lately. I spent most of the morning on the couch, letting my daughter watch way too much television. She had dance class at 1:00 though, so by noon we were up and out of the house. My parents were picking her up from dance class, so I made a decision.

I went to Karate. I threw my Fibro a big middle finger and went.

I refuse. I refuse to let this define me. I refuse to let this take away the things I love. It wasn't an amazing class, I could feel that I had less power in my techniques than normal, but it was a good class. Weirdly my symptoms seemed to ease up during class, and even though the tenseness and aches settled right back in after class, it was easier to deal with them, knowing I'd been to class.

So there. Take that Fibro. I'm fighting back.


Saturday, May 14, 2016

A rocky start

This first week at home has been weird. I know it won't be in any way how a "normal" at home week will go, which is making it hard to settle in to my new life.

First, I had a two and a half day long headache to start the week. It started sometime Sunday evening, intensified at around 4 am on Monday morning, and hung around, tapering off sometime late night Tuesday. It really put a damper on the start of my week.

My parents invited me to come along to a Garden Store on Monday, Read as: They needed my help pushing the cart. (My mother has Multiple Sclerosis and is completely Wheel Chair bound.) What I assumed would be a quick hour trip turned into a three hour errand that stole much of my energy and time.

My Brother and his wife showed up in town this week on short notice, which threw all of my plans for the week out the window. They live in Chicago, so we don't get to see them very often. They showed up Wednesday, so the second half of the week was spent mostly over at my parents, doing things with them.

Fitness wise, I've been "easing" into my new routine by walking the dog instead of running. I ended up hitting 10,000 steps every day this week except friday (when I missed it by 500 steps.) This was helped in large part by the fact that this week was the Lilac Festival, a large outdoor festival in Highland Park. It's a decent walk from our house to the Festival grounds, and we ended up walking there and back Tuesday to go to a concert, and then I did the walk again on Thursday when we went with my Parents, and my Brother and his Wife.

I had my "Week One" weigh in for the Ton of Fun challenge, and although I showed a loss, it was only a loss of about 0.8 lbs. which was disappointing. I know my eating hasn't been on point this week, but I have been tracking everything and have stuck to within a few hundred calories of my goal.

I've got a run planned tomorrow with my (much faster than me) running buddy, and next week should be a more "typical" week, so I'm hoping to show more of a loss on the scale for week two.

Moving Forward.

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Tons of Fun

First, I'd like to thank everyone for the encouraging comments. I was shocked and humbled that there were people who even still would see my posts, and it meant a lot to me to hear from you guys. I'm sorry I've been awful about replying to comments, I've been just trying to get through my last week at work.

I made another commitment this week, and signed myself up for the "Ton of Fun" program through my local Fleet Feet store. It will give me an additional level of accountability (weekly weigh ins), motivation (tons of goal based prizes), and another huge (and local) support system.

I'm determined this time. My health is being directly impacted by my weight. With the Fibro, the more weight I'm carrying, the harder it is for my body to deal with the affects of the disease. Movement, diet, exercise, they're all recommended for dealing with the muscle aches and fatigue.

I know that this time will be way harder than the last two times I lost weight. I have my own body working against me this time, not just my mind. I'm going to need all the support I can get.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Begin again.

Not long after posting my last post, I had a serious discussion with the Hubs, and made a decision to put in my two weeks. With my new limitations, working outside the home while raising a child was just too taxing on my body.

This means I will be able to focus on getting myself healthy. Not just by giving me more time to exercise, but also to prepare and cook healthier meals.

This past weekend, I managed to get myself out for my run with my running buddy. She's doing the C25k program, since she just started running. She is way taller than me, with a stride almost double mine, so she runs much faster than me. This is making for a good fit, since it's basically like doing intervals for me.

The run went well, we ran the running portions much faster than I'm used to, but I didn't feel like I was pushing myself too hard.

I'm looking forward to getting back into a regular fitness routine. My plan is to run in the mornings while my daughter is at pre-school, three days a week, and to do my karate class twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I may give up one of the runs during the week, moving it to Sunday to keep my run with my running buddy consistent.

Hopefully this routine won't be too much on my body, and will help alleviate at least a few of the symptoms I've been having.