DAY 102

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As I look back to when I first started my old lady yoga stretches, trying to build a ‘habit,’ I see several improvements –

When I started, I –

• Had trouble getting on the floor on the mat
• had to wait a full minute or so for lying on my back to quit hurting
• could not put my arms behind me over my head
• could not bring my knees up high enough to grab them
• could not even THINK about touching my toes
• could not lift the front of my body up on my arms while lying on my stomach
• had trouble balancing while on hands and knees for any stretching

Et cetera,. Et cetera, Et cetera. (Like Yul Brenner in “The King and I.”

I’m still old – even older now, but I have made a lot of progress. Each day I feel I’m a bit looser than I was the previous practice. It’s not a miracle, but it makes me feel better – more flexible, with less pain, able to balance much better. Some of my muscles are getting stronger. It has started to offset any overdoing I do in other things, bringing me back to being able to relax.

Daily yoga is not a habit – yet. I seem to be one of the harder nuts to crack about how long it takes to make something a habit. But I’m definitely seeing a difference and determined to keep going.

Time to go practice!

Favorite Thursday

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Today is my favorite Thursday of the month – the Thursday I get a massage. Ahhhhhhh!

My sore muscles, stiff places, pops and crackles all wait impatiently each month for Lynn’s attention. The stars align and it’s my morning to go enjoy her healing hands.

If I won the lottery, I would probably ask her for more, but I’m very grateful for the one Thursday I feel totally relaxed each month.

Each time when she gets finished, I tell her ‘thank you,’ and ‘good night,’ hoping she could simply leave me there…

11th Star

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I just earned my 11th sparkly star in a row for my desk calendar, doing my yoga session.

I still have to talk myself into actually doing my daily sessions, but once I’m on the mat stretching, it feels better when I stop. (By that I mean, it still is uncomfortable doing the stretching, since I’m stiff and sore, but once the session is finished, I feel looser and better than I did when I started.)

I’m making fewer excuses each day for why it wouldn’t matter if I skipped one session. I just get down on the floor and DO it.

I’m still quite motivated – like I was at school a hundred years ago – by sparkly stars. The ones I have now, that I ordered online, are even prettier than the ones I worked so hard for in school. These are silver sparkly or gold sparkly stars. Now that I have 11 in a row, I don’t want to break my record…. :0)

Even if I never actually build it into a habit, something I NEED to do, the fact that something is working to get this old lady to fold herself into a paper airplane is the important thing.

Short Rant

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Okay. I’m feeling MUCH, much better.

I’m eating more veggies and fruits. I’m eating healthy. I’ve even splurged a couple of times, but not badly. My ‘rant’ is the frustrated question – why does feeling better have to mean I’ve gained 3 pounds? I’ve been trying really hard to lose the lard. I haven’t been doing anything ‘weird,’ in my efforts. I have now learned that the high fat on the keto plan is not the best one for ME, with my lack of gallbladder, after trying all the suggestions for compensating for that.

I’m trying to eat more whole, fresh veggies, fruit, nuts, meats as a flavoring. I’m still trying to move more, including more exercises as I am able. I’m drinking water. Increasing fiber. Watching my portions.

I’ll keep on keepin’ on, but it’s aggravating that what is supposed to be GOOD for me results in MORE of me so far…

Did It!

I crab about ‘walking with annoying Leslie,’ but I freely admit she knows what she’s doing. The last time I did this – after quite a hiatus – I only managed to do one mile with her and her group. Today I did TWO miles. I pooped out before the regular exercises she does in a section AFTER the 2nd mile, but I feel good that I lasted this long.

This is supposed to be low impact on your joints, but I guess it all depends on the shape your joints are in. My hips are a challenge, and I’m doing all I can to loosen up the muscles and move the joints carefully to strengthen everything as much as possible. The elliptical trainer is low impact and works my hips, too, but in a different way – if that makes any sense.

About halfway through the first mile, my hips start talking to me. By the end of the second mile the talk became more serious, but not to the point that I had to quit.

We had a cold front move through this morning, taking the temperature down to 20 degrees F right now, and going down to 18 or lower during the day and night. Rain/sleet/ice is also forecast, so I’m really happy I can exercise while staying at home.

Another gold star for my calendar!

Getting the Lard Off Progress Report 12/13/2018

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I MAY be making some progress again, after hitting a plateau and going back and forth above and below the 30-pounds-off mark. I’ve also lost about 30 inches, though that hasn’t changed in a bit.

I’m going to add the Wii Fit Plus to my regimen starting tomorrow. Yesterday I did yoga and abdominal exercises. Today I did 35 minutes on the elliptical trainer. The Wii tomorrow and the “Annoying Leslie Walking Video” will round out my routine for the next several days and I’ll see how I feel about things after that.  I’m determined to use my good tools, even though the person on the Wii insults my efforts, and Leslie Sansone is really annoying, telling me how GOOD what she’s doing feels and being truly annoyingly perky.

I AM feeling looser. More flexible. A bit stronger. I want to feel secure in my footing and I would like to feel more energy.

I’ll try this for a week and will report the results next Thursday. Wish me luck?

Folding Myself into a Paper Airplane – Take 16

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I think that I have finally settled on an exercise routine that I can keep up with – 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer one day, and about 30 minutes of yoga stretches and exercises the next.  I’ve kept up with this for about a week now, and I’m not feeling overwhelmed.  I can easily work in 30 minutes a day of ‘official’ exercise and still get other things accomplished.

Today was yoga. 

I’m doing my own routine now, slow and steadily stretching my parts, holding the poses and breathing into them until I feel my body ‘give’ a bit. It still takes me a minute or so before I can bend over and touch my toes, but I CAN, after months of simply bending over and breathing, trying to relax and not fall over onto my head. :0)

I’m also ALMOST able to put my head onto my feet when in the sitting position with the soles of my feet touching each other. I’m flirting with it, though not there yet.

I’m twisting my torso in all different directions. I still can’t relax while doing this, but I’m holding the positions and breathing into them.

When I started yoga I was unable to lie on my back without breathing and consciously RELAXING, pressing the small of my back into the floor over and over before I could finally relax enough to simply lie there. Then I was also unable to stretch my arms up, laying them on the floor above my head. I spent a lot of time with my arms hanging mid-air, breathing. FINALLY, one day my arms touched the floor. I’m still not comfortable, but I’m gradually able to relax a bit more.

Today Amber came in while I was practicing, wanting to play ball. When she saw I wasn’t going to play, she lay down and ‘oozed’ closer and closer, a bit at a time. Finally, she was beside me, her feet in the air, trying to get me to rub her tummy. When I wouldn’t comply, she started gently biting my fingers as I did my stretches. At this point, I yelled at my husband in the office, asking him to call her.

As always now, I feel better after my stretching. I’m more relaxed, and I move more easily. The fact that it’s still hard to make myself go into the living room, get out my mat and get started is just the fact I’m hard-headed and have spent years avoiding exercise like the plague. I will never become an exercise aficionado, but I DO see the benefit in moving more, trying to increase my flexibility and balance, and alleviating much of the pain and stiffness in my back and hips.