I had a follow-up appointment with my GP yesterday where blood was drawn to check my cholesterol, and we discussed my blood pressure, which I freely admit has been on the high end of normal. It still falls into the Hypertension 1 category, so the doc and I agreed to double the med dose to 100 mg. If that doesn't work, she'll be forced to add a "water pill" (diuretic) and we don't want that! I'm already sipping water all day due to chronic dry mouth, which means not wandering far from the bathroom anyway. Lipid panels are not back yet. I don't want to take statins, so really, I should drink less fancy coffees (can't filter a cappuccino) and stick with filtered coffee, less meat, more oats and apples, more onions and garlic. Not like I don't do that already. Mostly.
There's a lot of things I can still do; but I just shouldn't because I'm going to regret it the next day. And I don't mean DOMS. I can handle soreness. Soreness isn't going to degenerate my optic nerves and make me blind sooner. Soreness usually doesn't mean sciatic pain that makes it impossible to sit or lay down without resorting to drugs (looking at you, ibuprofen & gabapentin). I can do cardio, much as I hate it. I can do pull-ups, even if I'm not picture perfect at it. I can push lighter weights for lots and lots of reps. I did just read an article extolling the virtues of a "dead hang." Or, as I see it, what happens when you can't pull yourself up during a pull-up. Maybe I'll try just hanging there on my non-pull-up days?
The drier air is making my skin itch and this seems to be a seasonal affliction. In the Autumn and Winter, my neck itches yet nothing I do or wear has changed. It's the weather. Since it's been warmer, the hives on the sides of my thighs have disappeared. They'll re-emerge once temps drop again, like next week. Fissures in my finger tips have finally healed thanks to slathering them with Aquaphor and Bag Balm. Plus I wear gloves almost all year round. I know, I'm weird. My favorite gloves are a thin leather lined with thin cashmere and I order them from Land's End. They're one of the few pairs that actually fit my small hands so I own several pairs in various colors. Eventually they wear out and I sew up the seams but there's only so much repairing with thin leather gloves once the skin wears through.
Microfiber towels are light and dry quickly, but they are going to shed micro particles in the wash water, which will eventually wind up in my drinking water, because the peat moss septic system is but yards uphill from my well. Yep. So I'm going to use this towel sparingly. I also wash all my fleece very infrequently because I know it's going to wind up in the water.
I find one of the Nautilus benches and drag it out from a squat cage (some dork left 45s on the bar in the rack and walked away). I don't care that it's in the middle of the area. People can walk around me, I'm not blocking any equipment, and I'm not constrained by the rack, which I don't need for what I'm doing. I start a bit past noon, and by 12:15 there's a half dozen HS boys at various stations. At least they're not in my way.
I'm trying to be mindful of my time, hence the time notations next to my set notes. I get everything done on the list for the Aerobics Room, including Walking Lunges, and Wall Sits. Actually, the Wall Sits aren't as bad as last time, probably because I was distracted by the pain of my toes squished against the front of my sneakers!
Tomorrow I'm planning on a Cardio Day, mostly because I know I can do it without injuring myself. I've been toying with the idea of adding a rowing exercise back but again, I'm worried about aggravating that delicate sciatic bundle. Maybe I should start with seeing how a few Skull Crushers feel afterward? Or maybe do a few BB Rows with just the bar? Are BB Rows a safer movement than Seated Cable Rows? The real problem is that I can do all of it and it won't actually hurt until the morning after. Looking at you, aggravated sciatica.
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