Are You Waiting Until New Year's?

New Year's is just around the corner. In 3 days, actually. A typical time for people to make resolutions (that they usually don't keep; I'm not usually cynical, but this is reality!). Me, I'm taking a different tack and focusing on the next 6 months.

What can be accomplished in 6 months? In 6 months of focus?

These are the questions on my mind today. Actually, they started yesterday as I realized that yesterday marked exactly 6 months until my brother-in-law and his family head off to Hawaii for a week. My family is hoping to go, too, so we may very well be leaving in 6 months, minus a day, as well.

Kaanapali beach on Maui. Yes, this is where we are hopefully going!

 

6 months. Hawaii. Yes, this brings to mind definite physical and health goals! Financial goals, as well.

What would I like to be free of in those 6 months? Just off the top of my head:
*the extra 10-15 lbs I think I have
*body pain: knees, neck and shoulder area
*low fitness; weak muscles, especially in the derriere ;)
*glasses; I improved my eyesight a bit some years back by following natural vision improvement techniques, so I know I can improve it even more, perhaps even to the point of not needing my glasses at all
*fears of not having enough money to go; I would love be financially free!!!

So, what does that mean I would like to accomplish in the next 6 months?
*get down to what I perceive as my ideal weight (this will require a definite change in eating habits!)
*use yoga, Pain Free, massage, tackle trigger points, tapping, Healing Codes, exercise, etc. almost daily to have a happily functioning body.
*be able to run 5 km (that just seems like the number to achieve)
*use the natural vision improvement techniques faithfully!!!
*make more than enough extra money to pay for a nice trip (Air Miles are covering our flights at least). I'll need to set a $ amount for best results

I will need to sit down and do proper SMART goals (Specific Measurable Action-Oriented Reasonable Timely) for each of those desired accomplishments and start working out short-term goals to accomplish on the way to them. And perhaps create some trackers that I can post in my house (or on my computer screen? lol) that will be in my face and remind me! Regardless, I'm starting right away. I'm not waiting until January 1st to start resolutions. Today is as good of a day as any and if I wait, I'll have that much less time to achieve what I want.

What about you? Are you waiting until New Year's to work on some goal? Change a habit? Or will you begin now?

Women Don't Always Follow Directions Either

I am, once again, going to sing my praises of this book:

I have used it to deal with all kinds of different pains over the years. (If I used it perhaps more consistently, I wouldn't have to be dealing with so many pains!)

Recently, I started having neck pain. Not my usual neck pain: with this, I could not lift my head past a certain level. Try drinking from the bottom of a glass when you can't lift your head backwards! The pain got so bad earlier this week, I woke up in almost agony in the middle of the night just trying to shift positions, managed to get myself out of bed and find my Pain Free book. Found the section on necks and did the sequence. The pain was not completely gone, but it was so much better.

BUT he clearly says multiple times in the book that you do the sequence daily until your pain is gone, then follow it with the daily maintenance program at the end of the book. Did I follow instructions? No! I felt so much better the next morning, I just let it go. But I ended up being in some serious pain again last night. Did the sequence while we watched a movie (okay, I listened to the movie while doing this sequence) and much better. Woke up this morning with it barely noticeable. Did I follow instructions and do the program today as I'm supposed to since the pain is still somewhat there? No! But I hope I can remember to make myself later when I have some time. I don't want to start a vicious cycle!

30-Day Challenge - Day 14 - Regression

I think I have to set myself a 30-day blogging challenge sometime. lol. It's been a week since I last posted! It's been an intense week with everything going on here, so blogging was the least of my concerns.

I have, however, been sticking to the challenge and done my Pain Free sequence every morning. It's curious, though: while things were improving for a while, I seem to have taken a step back. There's one exercise that involves lying on your back and doing foot circles and flexes. The past couple of days, it's actually been harder. The wall bench is another I'm finding harder to do and I can't hold it to 90 seconds anymore. I don't know if it means that weak muscles that are supposed to be engaging are finall engaging or what, but it's just strange since there was a clear progression for the first while and now it's regression! I've had one day where my knees actually hurt, but other than that, my ITBS (iliotibial band syndrome) symptoms haven't been bothering me.

If you are at all curious to see these Pain Free exercises at work, here are some YouTube videos:

Foot Circles

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3 Egoscue Exercises to Keep You Running, Walking and Hiking Pain Free

And, you know, there are 16 days left in my challenge. Why not join me with a 16-day or even a 2-week challenge? Let me know what you are challening yourself with!

30-Day Challenge - Day 7 - Quick Check-In

I have been doing the challenge! (What about you? :) It's not too late to start! You could do a 21-day challenge instead!) I haven't updated in part because I had my laptop monitor start going which involved a mad scramble to try to transfer things and figure out how to use Gmail (and if it's worth using Gmail over Yahoo Mail) so that I can have everything web-based and not have to worry again about losing emails and such because of a faulty computer. (Although, I admit it, I still worry that Google could lose everything on me! :o )

In any case, I'll keep this short and sweet: I did my 7th day in a row of the last sequence in the Pain Free book. I'm amazed at how quickly the exercises work! I went walking up stairs and escalators the other day at a good pace and it was so much easier--and painless--than I so often experience. I couldn't do as many repetitions as he said to do on Day 1, but was able to do all of the reps today. Still can't get to that 90-second mark for the wall bench (and he wants you to actually hold it 3 minutes), but I remember a year and a half to two years ago, I could not even get into a proper wall sit it hurt my knees so much. I'm glad to see this progress! If you have any kind of chronic/recurring pain condition, I strongly urge you to get this book!

30-Day Fitness Challenge - Day 4 - Are You Dysfunctional?

Yes, I missed posting for Day 3. It's not because I didn't meet my Day 3 goal, but because of the crazy day I had yesterday involving moving furniture around, some serious decluttering (working toward a clutter-free home!) and organizing that I spent probably a good 5+ hours on! I slept very well last night. :) And then there was the monitoring of the tornado warning situation and driving in hail... But that's another story.


I just wanted to take some time today to talk about how functional we are. Are you functional? Truly? Do you even know? If you are prone to stiffness, pain or injury (joint and muscles injuries, not being clumsy like me and having your leg hit the corner of the little table each time you go buy, leaving a large bruise), this is a good sign that your body is actually dysfunctional.

What do I mean by this?

Well, have you ever noticed someone walking kind of duck-footed? Or feet turned out even slightly? Or perhaps one foot turns out more than another? Or somebody whose shoulders aren't level or are slumped forward? There are many signs of dysfunction, signs that our bodies aren't in proper alignment.


I think most people have some sort of dysfunction and don't even realize it. I know someone who ended up having knee surgery. For years, he's blamed his knees as just being bad, especially the one that ended up having the surgery. Do you know what I saw when he was walking? One foot turns out more than the other. Guess which knee was the "bad" knee? That's right: the knee on the same leg whose foot turned out more. The knee itself wasn't bad, just stressed. Damaged through years of dysfunctional walking.

These dysfunctions are the result of imbalanced muscle use. What initially causes this can be different things and, really, doesn't matter in terms of fixing the problem. But think of what happens if you work toward higher and higher level of fitness and you have muscles working improperly? Muscles taking over where they aren't supposed to and muscles that aren't doing their part? What happens as you keep strengthening the dysfunctional state?

The muscle imbalance becomes an even stronger muscle imbalance. 

This can and does in many cases lead to some sort of joint, muscle or tendon problem.

There is a fitness place here in town where they do a full assessment of your gait and everything before they put you on a fitness program. They check the dysfunction and target balancing things out before they get you into serious fitness work. It just makes sense to do. Those who start running without tackling dysfunctions are probably at the most risk. And when you think of how many runners have problems with their hips, knees, ankles or feet, it's pretty easy to see that taking up running is detrimental when your muscular system is out of whack. Running isn't the problem; the dysfunctional system is.

I encourage you to check out your own state of affairs. Especially if you are suffering any kind of chronic pain. Have a look in the mirror. Are your shoulders level? Does one turn in more than the other? Do both turn in? What about your hips? Are they twisted? Uneven? When you walk, what do your feet do? Now, you can't just fix all these things by forcing your body into position. Yoga can help (if you make sure to be doing the positions right!). Chiro can help, too, if you follow up with the necessary activity to strengthen what needs to be strengthened and let weaken what needs to weaken. I have found Pete Egoscue's books to be a tremendous help (he also has a website). If you have a local place that does kinetic chain assessment or something similar, that would probably be the best thing to do--having someone who knows what is what and do a proper assessment.

My IT band problems are a result of dysfunction. It would be silly and even dangerous for me at this point, I believe, to get into some sort of hard core program to improve my fitness when I know I've got some serious muscle imbalances. I don't want to strengthen those muscle imbalances! And so, for the next while, my focus will be on "Pain Free" sequences from Pete Egoscue and yoga and some small things to help encourage cardio and strength in my glutes (my glutes essentially atrophied with my 2nd pregnancy and left me in a particular dysfunctional state where working on fitness just led to other parts getting stronger and my glutes staying weak--leading to the IT band syndrome). I finished Day 4 this morning and it's actually amazing how much the short program makes a difference. The sequence I'm doing involves a wall bench. I could not get to a 90-degree angle and last more than 30 seconds when I started on Monday. Today, I was at 90 degrees and held for 70 seconds. It's fantastic!

But enough of my babble, there's a whole day ahead of me to get moving on. What will you do for your fitness-or dysfunction--today?

30-Day Fitness Challenge - Day 2

Did you start with me yesterday? If not, it's not too late! You can start your own 30-day challenge today and end a day after I do or you can start today and have a 29-day challenge. :D

As I mentioned yesterday, my main challenge is to do a sequence from a book I have Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain. I not only did that yesterday, but also did a few sets of stairs and ended the day with the yoga sequence in the video below (I see now I've been leaving out the arm stretch at the beginning! and I hold each stretch for several breaths, as they say to--don't actually do the sequence as fast as in the video).

I find this yoga sequence helps a lot with my IT band problems. If I haven't been doing it for a while and I have a day where I can feel everything around my knees tightening up or perhaps the IT band itself is hurting or tingling, I do this sequence and it feels sooo good. By last night, I was starting to feel things in some muscles. I'm feeling things even more this morning! I have already done my Pain Free sequence this morning and hope to remember to do the stairs and yoga later on.

What about you? What will you do today? Even if you aren't doing the 30-day challenge, what will you do to nurture your fitness level today?

30-Day Fitness Challenge - Day 1

Today is Day 1! Are you going to join me today in a 30-day challenge to improve your fitness?

My friend who set this challenge up is going to be doing Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred.

Given my knees are bothering me a bit from doing more stairs than usual in my house yesterday, I don't even want to know what this 30-day shred would do to me. So, I'm not going to try it.

But, I've been thinking a lot lately about how I do want to really be in good shape. In better shape than I've ever been in. I've never been the athletic type but I was watching something the other day and a person was running and it just somehow hit me that I would like to have the freedom that being in shape would bring: I can play physical games, run with my kids, run with the dog or chase after her and not get tired so quickly... So many things. I had never had the desire to really be in great shape before; just kind of fit was enough. That's changed.

Right now, I'm not free due to my IT band issues and knees. So, I'm starting with that by using sequences in this book:

I have found in the past that a combination of doing an appropriate sequence (could be knees or even shoulders or just the final sequence), some stairs repetitions and a yoga sequence focused on stretching the IT band have really helped me progress. I'm not sure I can commit to doing all 3 at the moment, so my commitment for the 30-day challenge is one of the Pain Free sequences, with the intention of adding in the others as I remember them.

 Do you have a fitness goal you will commit to for the next 30 days? Please join me and share in the comments!

A Tuesday Mishmash

Make-a-Meal Monday--completely forgot about it. The way this week is, I can't even remember what we had last night. (lol). We will be having pancakes tomorrow evening (yes, that's right, Ash Wednesday instead of Shrove Tuesday--a tradition in my husband's French Canadian family) and Thursday, we might have Chinese take-out or something for Valentine's (yes, the whole family; my husband and I have never done something special for Valentine's Day just the two of us!) and Friday... Well, who knows. lol

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I've failed my family--Yes, somewhat melodramatic, which is funny given I'm probably the least melodramatic person you'll come across, but I feel I've failed in everyone's nutrition education and like I need to really take charge of our nutrition around here and not only get some much needed education in, but really make sure that I eat properly, which will make it all the easier to make sure they eat properly. A certain someone, who shall remain nameless but let's just say I am not homeschooling this person as s/he's much too old for that, said last night, when I pulled out the cut up raw veggies, that s/he had had a bag of veggies at lunch so didn't need to have anymore. Like you can have too many veggies.

I did some searching this morning: If one of the baggies constitutes 2-3 (Canadian) servings of veggies, this particular person is supposed to be having 8-10 servings (possibly more, given this person's high metabolism) of fruits and vegetables a day according to the Canadian guidelines. Now, from everything I've read, a higher percentage of fruit and veggie intake and fewer than the recommended grains would be better, but I digress: This person, who may have had something like 3-4 servings of juice at lunch, which I refuse to count as 3-4 servings of fruit since it's not like it's fresh juice, and possibly had a banana at breakfast--but not guaranteed, had therefore had at best 8 servings of fruits and vegetables during the day, but probably more like 5-6. But what to say since I know I'm not getting lately anywhere near what I ought to be?

There is a part of me that is hoping that as I work on nutrition and perhaps figure out charts or something that can be on display that this particular someone that I love dearly will learn a little something? This person was somewhat reluctant to accept that white sugar wasn't what was meant by people needing to consume sugar (glucose). I'm not actually sure I've convinced him/her. But at least I can tackle the kids--and my own--food consumption!

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Might have overdone the stairs--I decided to do 5 sets straight of my stairs today. I'm not feeling the type of discomfort I had yesterday, but actual moments of pain. Too much too quickly once again. I will do some good stretching/yoga this evening and cut back to 4 sets tomorrow. On the flip side, the kids and I went to the mall today and we never just stand on the escalator--what a waste of muscle use and time!--so we walked up as we usually do. I could tell that it was much easier than in the past. I can't believe how much difference just a few days has made. Makes me feel optimistic for the parent duty day next week!

That's it for now!

Unexpected Knee Pain Help

One of my long-standing issues is knee pain. Specifically, knee pain associated with iliotibial band syndrome, AKA IT band syndrome, and possibly Runner's knee combined. At its worst, I could not go up and down stairs without heavily relying on the banister. At its best, I don't feel discomfort, but I'm still careful about how I use the stairs to avoid certain movements that cause pain.

I have a parent duty day on the 21st. This might seem completely unrelated to my knees, but bear with me. The parent duty day time is from 9 am to 4 pm in a three-story church building. And we're not allowed to use the elevator.

Some moms a couple of weeks ago were saying how having to help out on different levels and all the stairs was killing them. One mom who is there every week said she calls Thursdays her workout day. My thoughts went straight to my knees: What was I going to do? How would I manage a parent duty day without being in absolute pain during--and after? I can often do activities and it's not until later that the IT band flares up and the knee pain sets in.

Picture borrowed from this article on IT band syndrome

An answer came: Do stairs. "What? You're kidding, right?" I said to myself. I didn't start right then, even though I knew it was going to be a good idea. Start slow and build up, it would help. It hit me last Thursday that I only had two weeks before my duty day. "Two weeks of training is enough, right?" Not sure. But two weeks is better than none at all.

On Friday, I started. I live in a four-level split with three short sets of stairs totalling 20 steps. The church has a set of stairs, a mid-way landing, another set to the second level landing, another set to the mid-way landing and the final set to the top level. I'm guessing it's between 40-60 stairs. And they're steeper than mine.

I opened up my basement door, my lowest level, and started going up the stairs. Did them all and went back down. For my first day, I did 3 sets of this. It was tough! Second day, I repeated and my atrophying muscles, who were now woken up, kind of complained. Knees and IT band all tingly, but no increase in pain. The third day, yesterday, I went for 4 sets. I was even kind of worried I was doing too much too quickly (that's what caused this all in the first place). But I felt absolutely fine this morning, so I did 4.5 today. This is not to say that I don't use the stairs at other times during the day, but I don't ever do all the sets in a row like that.

The side of my knees are feeling a little tingly right now and I can actually feel my IT band on both sides (that is, feel it without touching! kind of a tingle), but all in all, so far, so good. Actually, really good. As my weak muscles are getting stronger, even though it's only been a few days, my general stair climbing feels better. Fewer sharp pains suddenly showing up in my knees and just feeling more stable.

I've done in the past all kinds of different exercises to help strengthen the glutes and stretch the IT band and all that. The yoga for the IT band has been the greatest help, until now. While I still love my yoga for the IT band and will keep doing it fairly regularly, the stair climbing, the thing that's been the hardest to do for ages, is what's actually helping the most.

Go figure.