Monday the 13th

I got a text this morning from a dog park compadre, warning me that the parks department had suddenly decided to do some spring maintenance starting at 8:30 this morning and lasting until noon. That's rather sudden! I scramble to get my dogs to the park at 7:30 so they'll have plenty of time to do their running, barking, digging, sniffing, peeing and of course, pooping. We're out of the park by 8:15. But I still get to the gym later than I'd like.

There's two people already pedaling on the ellipticals. And unfortunately, after I climb on and wipe the machine with a disinfectant cloth, I find that both elliptical #3 and #4 are non-functional. You can pedal them, but they're unable to activate any programs: the dashboard is useless and there's no way to adjust for elevation or resistance. Ugh. I do what no one else does at this gym: go to the front desk and tell the staff that these machines need to be fixed. Or at least given a hard reboot.

I could get on the Life Fitness Cross-Trainer, which tends to make my feet go numb. I decide to pedal the Octane instead because it's been a few. Months. Maybe years. After 23 minutes, I'm barely warmed up though. I doubt if an additional 12 minutes (to equal my standard 35-minute session) would've made much difference. I'm lucky I managed to squeeze out a dozen reps at pull-ups. Not only am I not warmed up, I feel tired and heavy. Still, I'm able to knock out all my reps for Seated Cable Rows. But I don't feel at all excited or energized. I just feel crushed.

Actually, what I feel is depressed. Lethargic, heavy, weighted. No doubt it's me trying to adjust to having to "police" the husband's drinking (emptied and discarded multiple half bottles of Tito's vodka squirreled away in his desk drawer) and preparing to spend the summer months with my kid back from college. He'll have to be coerced into learning to drive, which means I'll be taxiing him to appointments and maybe even a summer job. That's one of the reasons I haven't looked into any summer classes... 

Since we'll be driving to Buffalo and back mid-week, I probably won't get to the gym again until maybe Friday. And that depends on when I can pick my dogs up from the pet boarding/grooming facility. I've scheduled baths for both of them; I'm sure they'll be thrilled. Not. 

The Aerobics Room is warm and clammy. Seniors don't like the chill, I guess. I do my routine and get my 120 seconds in for Wall Squats. It's been a few days since I took a BP reading so I'll have to remember to do that today. I toy with the idea of doing the Step machine for 10 minutes, but the gym is surprisingly crowded when I exit the Aerobics room. School is out and HS kids are everywhere. I'm sure it'll be worse this summer. Maybe I should rethink my timing and start coming earlier in the morning?

(Oddly, I can no longer import images, but I can drag them from my desktop into this blog before it's published... I'm sure that'll change. My hubs calls these obstacles NPCs Non-Player Characters from gaming scenarios.)

13 May 2024 11:59-1:32

Blah Sunny Monday

Octane LX8000

Program Manual 1 / 3 width

Strides: 2840

Time: 20+3,

Distance: 1.43

Floors; 44

Cal: 150

Avg Hr: n/a

Fitbit: 50-126

(Barely warmed up)

HGPU 12 (feeling fat & weak)

Seated Cable Rows

50 lbs x 15

60 x 15

70 x 15, 15, 15

20 Hip Bridges

Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch

DeadBugs 20 x 5

10 Hip Bridges & 10 one-leg

Quick Child’s Pose

Cat stretch 12

Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose

Fire Hydrants 20 x 2

Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2

Push-Ups 25

Air Squats 25 (knees)

Arm rotations 20

Neck stretch / Eye yoga

Wall Squat 120s !!!

All Good Things Come to an End

My husband came home a day early and not only was it unexpected, but I could smell the alcohol exuding from his pores. He lies to me and tells me he's not drinking. After almost five months of sobriety, he's drinking again, and lying to me and himself. As the oldest child of combative parents, I tend to be non-confrontational in my relationships. Psych articles will tell you that eldest daughters grow up to be peace-makers and care-takers. But I can't sleep when he goes to bed, and I wind up emptying all the small bottles of Tito's vodka I find under my husband's desk. I know I fell asleep eventually because I woke up in the middle of a dream, trying to identify the old man I'm interacting with. He's actually a figment so nothing to worry about.

It's cold and rainy when the alarm sounds. My husband gets up much earlier and is at work at his desk. He has a deadline, but I'm suspicious of the weird giggling emanating from upstairs. When I get back from the gym and he's out, I find another mostly empty small bottle of vodka stashed in a drawer upstairs. I empty and toss that too. He's not going to complain or confront me about it since he can't even admit that he's drinking again. He just says he's off his diet because the work schedule was too hectic for regular healthy meals. While the problem with the schedule is real, that's not the reason he's put on weight. No, it's the drinking which leads to binge eating. 

This morning I tell him I know he's lying and that things always get worse when he's drinking, that I'd like us to repair our relationship. His response (after I get back from the gym) is to ask whether I'd like to have Mother's Day meal on Sunday or postpone it until our son can join us. He never actually addresses any issues. He's never apologized. He just buys things that he thinks I'll like. I feel sad and depressed. I'm not sure I can go through another decade of progressively bad behavior.

I'm at the gym later than I'd like but I've avoided the Seniors. And oddly, elliptical #1 is available although #2 and 3 are occupied. I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth, so I happily pedal away until I'm drenched with sweat. Then I get my piddly pull-ups done. Off to the Aerobics Room which seems warm but gradually chills until it's the frosty temp I'm used to. Everything is good, except, as predicted, Wall Squats have me screaming a little inside my head. No way I'd ever scream out loud...

I'm still researching why Blogger stopped allowing me to import my own pix into my own blog. It's not even limited to the Duck Duck Go browser (which prevents cookies and trackers) because I've also tried importing images while in Google's own Chrome browser. And no go. As a last resort, I actually drag the image off my desktop onto the blog page, and shockingly, that works! WTF?

10 May 2024 12:16-1:33

Rainy Friday 

 

Precor elliptical #1

Program 3

Time: 30+5 (5810)

Distance: 2.87

Cal: 321

Avg Hr: 161, 192-79

Fitbit: 52-140

HGPU 15

20 Hip Bridges

Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch

DeadBugs 20 x 5

10 Hip Bridges & 10 one-leg

Quick Child’s Pose

Cat stretch 12

Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose

Fire Hydrants 20 x 2

Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2

Push-Ups 25

Air Squats 25 (knees)

Arm rotations 20

Neck stretch / Eye yoga

Wall Squat 120s !!!

The Weather App is Always Wrong

The weather app promised a week of rain. It said temps would rise into the mid-70s today. Nope and nope. It's actually on the cooler side, which I like better. But the bugs have emerged and while I'm gratified to hear the buzzing of bees, I'm less happy with the tiny kamikaze bugs darting into my eyes and up my nose. Lilacs have bloomed and I catch their fragrance in my driveway even though there aren't any blooms in sight.

The gym isn't too crowded and I'm finally early enough to grab elliptical #2. The first one is occupied. Later, one of the obese older women who's taken to pedaling on the elliptical shows up and is relegated to a Cybex glider until she can use #1 or #2. Not sure why she doesn't trust #4 except that the dashboard doesn't display the notoriously inaccurate HR. A guy gets on #3 and isn't bothered by the machine's inability to access programs. He pedals while staring at his phone.

It's Thursday, which means no Senior class and the gym is less crowded. I do all my DB Shoulder sets without worry. The Aerobics Room is refreshingly cold and I'm instantly dry. I've taken Walking Lunges out of the routine and added another 30 seconds to Wall Squats, for a total of 2 minutes (120 seconds), which is fine. It hurts more than yesterday. I suspect it will be even worse tomorrow.

Last night I found old photos of myself from 2015 when I was at my leanest. I had great round biceps, a flat defined stomach, and a low body fat reading of 14.5% at 103 lbs. I weigh over 10 lbs more than that right now and weighed even more last winter. There's a huge difference in body fat readings from my Tanita home scale, depending on whether I use the "athlete" or "normal" female setting, adjusting for height and age. Tanita's website says to use the "athlete" profile if resting HR is below 60 and you're exercising intensively for 12 hrs or more a week. Which meant I used that profile way back when, but can't use it now. 

The difference in body fat readings is a whopping 5%. Online reviews of body fat scales claim that these products tend to overestimate the amount of body fat in regular people, while also underestimating percentages for athletes. So, while there's no way I'm 17.5% BF, I also don't think I'm 22.5% either... Does it really matter? Well, any little bit of encouragement helps and keeps me from backsliding. Am I ever going to drop down to 103 again? Probably not. Unless I get sick. But even just getting back to 109 would be awesome. And my clothes would fit so much better. 

Still can't import any pix or vids unless I pull them from YouTube... Been seeing a lot of PetSmart commercials that use that sweet song from the musical Oliver. I'll post that here 'cuz watching Jack Wild, Shani Wallis, Mark Lester and the incomparable Ron Moody is always a treat.

9 May 2024 11:29-1:21

Crisp Thursday

(Athlete mode vs normal female body fat 17.5 vs 22.5%)

Precor elliptical #2

Program 2

Time: 30+5 (5648)

Distance: 2.86

Cal: 319

Avg Hr: 155, 188-81

Fitbit: 50-128

Incl DB Press s/s Lateral Raises s/s Rev Incline Flys

10 lbs x 25/15/25 warm up

15 lbs x 25/15/25

20/15/20 x 25/15/25 x 3

20 Hip Bridges

Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch

DeadBugs 20 x 5

10 Hip Bridges & 10 one-leg

Quick Child’s Pose

Cat stretch 12

Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose

Fire Hydrants 20 x 2

Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2

Push-Ups 25

Air Squats 25 (knees)

Arm rotations 20

Neck stretch / Eye yoga

Wall Squat 120s !!!

Progress and Regression

There was a hail warning this morning and then it rained hard. But it was all over by the time I got the dogs to the park. Although showers threatened the rest of the day, it was mostly an empty threat with temps rising into the 80s and a blazing hot sun peeking through the clouds. It should cool down the rest of the week with rain forecast everyday. 

Because I don't want to be at the gym while it's full of seniors, I try to get chores done. Yesterday I spent a lot of time in traffic due to all the roadwork while I was trying to get to the Home Depot to buy a replacement smoke detector, and a new fluorescent tube for the fixture over the kitchen sink. Gotta have light there! Today I try to install both items. The smoke detector doesn't show you installation instructions until you rip open the packaging. 

The detector requires a drill to install the holder and it isn't activated until it's screwed into the holder properly. I'm not sure where the battery-powered drills are anymore since my husband has a tendency to squirrel tools away like a hoarder prepping for the end of the world. I think we have 3 different drills (Ryobi, Milwaukee, DeWalt) but I can't find any of them. Ugh. That'll have to wait until the husband returns from Boston. 

The fluorescent fixture over the kitchen sink is another matter. While I'm tall enough to reach the tube standing on the step stool, I'm not tall enough to actually grab and manipulate the tube so that it releases out of the holder. Ugh. Sometimes being short really sucks trying to get house chores done. 

I get to the gym late. Much later than usual. And of course, there's those other folks on the first two ellipticals. So I'm on #4. Which is fine. But I'm tired. Probably because again, I had trouble falling asleep in spite of drinking chamomile tea. I think it's because I've stopped eating cheese and crackers before bedtime. Because my LDL level is much too high. My BP has been borderline lately. 

The only good news I have is that my home scale shows that I'm finally losing weight. If I believe my scale, I've lost 5 lbs in the past 2 months. (Only 4 more to go!) I'll take any progress while being careful not to self-sabotage. I haven't really made any dramatic changes,  except to push my gym time to later. Which means I'm getting home later in the day, which means there's less time to be hungry and snack. I don't like to eat before I exercise, so I'm really hungry by the time I get to the gym. And because exercising kills the appetite (as well as sipping water), I'm not hungry again until I leave.

I've lost strength to do pull-ups and can only get 14 today. I tell myself that anything over a dozen is good to keep me from feeling too sorry for myself. The Aerobics Room feels warm and humid so it's quite an effort to get through my routine. Even push-ups are stressful to the shoulder joints and lower back. WTF? Air Squats are okay but I skip Walking Lunges. I'd rather spend the effort to get a full 2 minutes for Wall Squats. I add a forward back stretch to the neck rolls: sit cross-legged and roll yourself forward until your face is inches from the crossed ankles and you can rest your forearms on the mat next to your knees. Then slowly straighten the spine one vertebrae at a time until you are sitting up. Not recommended if you're having a sciatic flare-up.

I can't import any pictures or diagrams or videos, unless I've copied them from YouTube. And then it's not import but embedding the code. I didn't learn HTML coding but that's what it would take for me to post pix. Unless I want to created a video and upload it to my own YT channel and then copy the code that arises... but that's getting too complicated already. So I've embedded a video from Ze Frank here about The Mantis. Enjoy!

8 May 2024 12:39-1:59

Dreary Wednesday (113.6! Yaaay!)

Not sleeping well

Precor elliptical #4

Wobbles at higher spms

Program 1

Time: 30+5 (5540)

Distance: 2.81

Cal: 311

Avg Hr: n/a

Fitbit: 50-140

HGPU 14 (losing my reps!)

20 Hip Bridges

Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch

DeadBugs 20 x 5

10 Hip Bridges & 20 one-leg

Quick Child’s Pose

Cat stretch 12

Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose

Fire Hydrants 20 x 2

Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2

Push-Ups 25

Air Squats 25 (knees)

Arm rotations 20

    Skip Walking lunges 36 steps total

Neck stretch / Eye yoga

Wall Squat 120s !!!

Mondays Are Crowded

Not only is today the Monday after a soggy, cold Cinco de Mayo, but it's also just Monday in general. Which means the gym is crowded. There are middle-aged people on the elliptical machines that I've never seen do cardio before. Which means I'm initially relegated to machine #3 but discover that it needs a hard reboot since it won't allow any programs to initialize. That's fine if you're just going to pedal aimlessly and not change resistance or elevations. Well, at least there's #4. It works but is the slightest bit wobbly at higher speeds and as it wobbles, it makes an odd noise. 

That's my excuse or at least one of them for my less than stellar showing. The other reason is that I hard a really hard time going to sleep last night. I went to bed at midnight but my skin was super sensitive, so every little itch and tickle bothered me. I couldn't get comfortable. My clothes kept putting stress on various joints, my feet were either too hot or too cold, my fingers ached, my armpits were chafed by the seams in my nightgown, my hair kept tickling my nose, or lips, or poking me in the eyelid. I finally fell asleep at 1:30 and didn't really want to get up when the alarm sounded at 7:30, but dogs need their park time. It was damp and chilly but the rest of the week promises temps back in the mid-70s.

The only things I like so far is the wafting fragrance of lilacs, and the trill of peepers in the wetlands at night. There are dandelions everywhere, but very few bees. Although I've heard that the hummers (hummingbirds) are back. I have a variety of sparrows (love those song sparrows), chickadees, nuthatches, goldfinches, pine warblers (which I may have mistaken for female goldfinches), catbirds, an assortment of woodpeckers, starlings, grackles, and some redwing blackbirds (with their distinctive call). [Blogger is glitching and won't allow me to import images anymore, but I can still link to YouTube videos.]

Pull-ups aren't great but at least I can still get more than a dozen. And I'm able to claim one of the two Seated Cable Rows. Over the weekend, I realized that my lower lats were actually sore. Probably not from the cable rows, but maybe the Reverse Inclined Flys are hitting lats instead of the posterior delts and supporting muscles? 

The HS kids start to filter in. It's getting late. The Aerobics Room is warm and humid. I do everything except Walking Lunges because I feel as if I'll fall over if I do that one. So I don't. But I'm oddly refreshed by the time I get myself situated against the wall for Wall Squats, and I actually do 120 seconds, 2 minutes, and it isn't a problem. Weird, right?

Meanwhile, I've discovered Ze Frank on YouTube, and I can't believe he's been on for over a decade. Short, informative and hilariously honest nature videos. I think I've viewed almost the entire catalog so prior to 10 years, he has other short videos that are also entertaining but pertain more to society and humanity. Definitely worth a look. Not sure if Blogger will allow me to embed videos since they keep losing the ability to import images...

6 May 2024 12:02-1:40

Dreary Monday 

Precor elliptical #4

(Wobbles at higher SPM)

Program 3

Time: 30+5 (5548)

Distance: 2.82

Cal: 312

Avg Hr: n/a

Fitbit: 48-130 bpm

HGPU 14.5

Seated Cable Rows

50 lbs x 15

60 x 15

70 x 15, 15, 15

20 Hip Bridges

Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch

DeadBugs 20 x 5

20 Hip Bridges & 10 one-leg

Quick Child’s Pose

Cat stretch 12

Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose

Fire Hydrants 20 x 2

Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2

Push-Ups 25

Air Squats 25 (knees)

Arm rotations 20

    Skip Walking lunges 36 steps total

Neck stretch / Eye yoga

Wall Squat 120s !!!

Friday Carb Crash

(Still can't import photos.)

I get to the gym slightly earlier than usual, but I still leave kind of late in the day. Exercising and showering afterward seems to take a lot of time, probably because I'm so high-maintenance, needing all those special creams and lotions to keep my skin from drying out and cracking. It won't stop the endless flaking though. I get on elliptical #1 and start pedaling. I feel sluggish though, and I blame the two slices of plain cheese pizza I ate yesterday after I left the doctor's office. I've had a craving for NY-style pizza for the past week, and unfortunately, the pizzeria I visited, although highly recommended by some, just didn't fix it. Mostly because the slices, although generous, were extremely thick and bready, with spots of cheese and sauce. No, I'm craving a real NY style slice and might have to go two towns over to find it.

I should've given the bready slices to the pups, but it was literally all I ate yesterday. No doubt too carby. Maybe even carbier than store-bought Boboli or DiGiorno pies. I managed to get past 2.8 but just barely. I also get my reps in for pull-ups but I'm admittedly tired. And then I head to the free weight area. There are regulars and strangers there. For some reason, every single breaker bench has a pair of 45 plates loaded on the Olympic bars. Some bars have spring clips holding the plates in place. But no one, literally no one is actually benching or pressing these loaded bars. Ugh.

I get my shoulder routine done and reluctantly head to the Aerobics Room. It's hot in there. I do all my movements, except I skip the Walking Lunges, not wishing to test whether I'd actually fall over while traversing the room. When I get home, I get a notification that my lab tests results are ready to view online. Unfortunately, although I'm in relatively good health, my LDL cholesterol is much higher than it should be. I blame my latest habit of snacking on hard cheese and crackers before bedtime. I've made substantial cuts to my meat intake but still eat eggs, cheese, and yogurt. And I've been negligent in eating enough oatmeal or other soluble fibers. Yeah, I feel very high-maintenance.

I also need to take my BP machine to my next check-up because now there's a big discrepancy between my machine's latest readings (112/78) and the reading at the doc's office (134/92). Maybe my home machine needs new batteries? I have a backup cord so maybe I'll take a reading while powered that way. But at least I'm starting to lose my post pandemic weight gain, if only in minuscule amounts.

3 May 2024 11:52-1:47

Temperate Friday

Precor elliptical #1

Program 2

Time: 30+5 (5556)

Distance: 2.83

Cal: 314

Avg Hr: 157, 188-79

Fitbit: 47-154?

HGPU 14.5

Incl DB Press s/s Lateral Raises s/s Rev Incline Flys

10 lbs x 25/15/25 warm up

15 lbs x 25/15/25

20/15/20 x 25/15/25 x 3 sets

20 Hip Bridges

Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch

DeadBugs 20 x 5

20 Hip Bridges & 10 one-leg

Quick Child’s Pose

Cat stretch 12

Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose

Fire Hydrants 20 x 2

Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2

Push-Ups 25

Air Squats 25 (knees)

Arm rotations 20

    Skip Walking lunges 36 steps total

Neck stretch / Eye yoga

Wall Squat 90s (!!!)

My Gym Changed Its Name

Looks like Google Blogger site is screwed up AGAIN and won't let me import photos. Sorry.

On Monday, as I left the gym after my workout, I saw a cherry picker truck for a sign company removing the giant neon Gold's Gym sign from the front of the building. Weird. And I didn't think about it again until today when I realized that the Gold's Gym decals (on the Aerobics Room floor) had been replaced with 52 Fitness logos. Uh, what? Apparently the gym is no longer beholden to the Gold's Gym franchise system and is now an independent, marketing itself as a fitness center with a lot of classes. Muscle head gyms aren't quite so popular these days and the ones that remain in my town are outrageously expensive. There's no way I'm paying over $75/month to exercise. (Yeah, Equinox and Orange Theory are way out of my budget and don't exist in my town.)

I get to the gym later than I'd like. At some point I'll figure out how to get out of the house at the right time. Maybe Friday? Tomorrow I have my annual with my GP, and that requires a fasted blood test. So, no coffee in the morning. Grrrr... Also, no time for the gym. And Thursdays are the best days because it's less crowded than other days. I guess I'll also mention the faint dark line that I just noticed on my left pointer finger, but I'm not having a nail biopsy done. Did that with the right toenail, and it took almost a year to recover. It still doesn't look quite right, and that dark line wasn't subungual melanoma. It was just my skin being weird.

There's someone on elliptical #1 so I'm on #2, singing to myself and pedaling as fast as I can. I'm worried that I can't make it past 2.8 but as I warm up, I feel myself surge forward. It's a good feeling. I also manage a few reps over the first dozen pull-ups. Still, nowhere near the 23 I got once upon a time, almost two dozen reps! Oh well...

My BP has actually measured at "normal" levels (yipee!) for the past two days. I'm very pleased, but wonder if that's because these past two readings were taken a few minutes before 9 pm. I usually take the BP med at 9 pm and have an alarm on my phone just for that. Tonight I'm going to take readings before AND after taking the Losartan. It shouldn't make any difference, but my body doesn't always behave predictably. I'm really curious as to whether this is making that ridiculous difference!

I've also spread out my eye drops and don't know if that might also be having an effect. The preservative-free drops come in ampules that are designed for a single dose. But each ampule is 0.3 mL, which means that I can dose each eye once in the morning, and once at night and still have a dose left for each eye. I've calculated that each drop is about 0.05 mL.

In the past I would just squeeze it all out and it would run all over my face. What a waste. Lately, I've been giving myself three doses a day in both eyes, and that uses up one ampule completely. Because I keep the opened ampule in a capped upright container (that my husband 3-d printed just for this), I'm not worried about the drops becoming contaminated. I told my doctor's pharmacy assistant about this. (He told me to mention it to the GS at my follow-up appointment.) I asked him if there's really going to be a difference in whether I use the one ampule twice or three times in a day? Is spreading out the single dose over the entire day is the same thing, or not? He couldn't answer. But I assume the eyes are getting more meds since the eye surface can only absorb so much at one sitting.

What's annoying is that another drop that I'm on (and that the health insurance company doesn't want me to be on and keeps raising the co-pay for), only comes in 2.5 mL bottles, which translates into 50 drops (0.05 mL size drop per dose) per bottle, which is 25 days since it's both eyes. And the insurance company says, No, that's for a month. Uh, months aren't 25 days.

I stepped into the Aerobics Room and it's clammy and warm. Ugh. There's also three other people in there. Surprise! Halfway through my routine, the gym owner came in and adjusted the thermostat and I felt the a/c kick on. I guess the Seniors in the hour before were just fine with the sultry temps. I do all my movements without any issues but can't wait to shower and change. I'm on the hunt for Nivea vanilla flavored lip balm. For some reason, it's been very scarce and my lips, like the rest of me, is prone to getting dry and flaky...

1 May 2024 12:26-1:44

Wednesday Late

No More Gold’s Gym / 52 Fitness

Precor elliptical #2

Program 1

Time: 30+5 (5668)

Distance: 2.86

Cal: 319

Avg Hr: 161, 191

Fitbit: 49-138

HGPU 15

20 Hip Bridges

Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch

DeadBugs 20 x 5

20 Hip Bridges & 10 one-leg

Quick Child’s Pose

Cat stretch 12

Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose

Fire Hydrants 20 x 2

Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2

Push-Ups 25

Air Squats 25 (knees)

Arm rotations 20

Walking lunges 36 steps total

Neck stretch / Eye yoga

Wall Squat 90s (!!!)