2 days each so different at the gym

Saturday I drove Mr. Bean over and had a strenuous workout.  Upped the weights a tiny bit and did the same amount.  Got to the pool and did stretches.  Great.  Even did a few extra.  Swam the usual 25 min. freestyle, 5 min. breaststroke, 5 min. cool down.  The older gent who had been there in the past was back.  I think he has some severe back pain, as his walking was very laboured and looked like he had regressed.


He brought up how he liked, "Monk."  Me too.  I like Monk.  He said he is kind of a slob.  Funny that he should like Monk.  


Well, it was nice to get to talk to another human being over there, esp. one whose native tongue is English.  At the end of the sauna, as I was walking back toward the locker room, he said, "May the Peace of the Lord be with you!!!"  I said, smiling, "Also with you."


Amazingly enough, I thought about this several times that day, that he passed the peace, actually, and at the gym!  Believe it or not, I told M. I wanted to go to church the next day, and you'll never guess what he preached on.... of course, the Peace of the Lord... Not only that we do not really pass the peace in our church, but have a little gab session, "How are you?  My name is..." and so forth and so on.  When really, the peace is a blessing, a little prayer...  and is what we should be doing as a part of our worship service.  I have always struggled  with this phony baloney stuff, so it was well received by me.  And on top of that, I found it interesting that someone blessed me in the pool room at the gym and not at the worship service!  


Pastor Mark also asked what was the one thing that is hindering the Peace of the Lord in our lives...  Actually, I think it is really anger.  But I said pain.  Pain leads me to have a very short fuse.  I think you could say Job was angry.


This leads to the second day at the gym, Monday.  I got there a bit late, since I was procrastinating.  It is not like most people, who say, "I didn't really want to go to the gym, but I am so glad I did, because I feel so much better now."  


For me it is more like, "I didn't really want to go to the gym, and when I got home, I was in so much more pain, even the icing and advil didn't really help; I wish I never had to go again!


Why do I go you ask?  Very simply this ~ to keep moving.  If I don't go, the muscles freeze up, atrophy and turn to the white part of the meat.... grizzle and fat.


So, this second day, Monday, I stuck with the upping of the weights and went through everything on the machines.  Fine.  Got to the pool and began to do some stretches.  Did some in the hot tub... ouch.... and then the regular ones in the pool where I swing the legs and do circles, etc.  There was another pretty good lap swimmer in the middle lane, and a sweet, young girl with a Christian t shirt who brought up some conversation about how she was trying out for a position in the Irving Rec Dept.  


Nice I thought, two days where I actually get to talk to someone in my native tongue.  Real conversation.  These thoughts were rudely interrupted when this big black guy proceeds to take big gulps of water from his water bottle only to spit it back out on the DECK OF THE POOL~  YUCH!  Nasty... I told him, "Please don't spit on the deck!  People walk there in their bare feet."  He kept right on doing it.


There was a 'red shirt guy' in the natatorium who completely ignored this interchange.  The guy kept spitting.  I asked him if he would like to walk where someone else had just spit.  He just ignored me.  He did have earphones in his ears.  But I got pretty loud.


I got out of the pool to see if I could see that red shirt guy to ask him why he did nothing.  But he was gone.  Before I left I went to the front desk to tell Peter about it, but he said he would have to know exactly who it was.  He told me to come tell him next time.  I said, "In my dripping bathing suit you want me to come to the front?"  "No, not exactly."


I am so ready to join another, "Health Club."  I never have liked it there.  They play the most horrid music, if you can call it that.  And now my headset is not working.  There is a ladies place right on the next block, but I am sure it is way over our price range.  Only if insurance pays for it could I go there.  Then I could swim at Northlake.   


Lord, thy will be done.

Sol G.ndy born on M.ndy

It's not all about getting out of physical pain.  The minister asked what was the one main obstacle preventing me from securing peace....  Peace is a nebulous word.  Many connotations...


Peace with God can't be interrupted by anything once secured.... by Jesus.... free gift.... comes with the territory...never to be revoked!  Now, that's a relief!


But peace in the daily grind... another thing.  Easily frustrated.  Easily angered.. Easy to blow up..
Easy to say bad words... 


Not too peaceful with the self whose old habits come back to haunt after having been sent on sabbatical for a long time.  This thing with swear words.... Who would have known they were so hungry to come back and use my mouth???


Hey, this is not my mouth!  This mouth belongs to Jesus... Bought with a price... His very own lifeblood!


It's the bizzillion negative thoughts, too, that are rehearsing toujour les temps in my mind.


"I don't care~
What's the point?
So and so's a jerk.
A slob.
A perv.
Nobody else cares, either."


Just sayin....  
The author of these have been given their walking papers...


Now on to the phys. part...  The physical is bearable if the mental-spiritual-emotional-psychological is on track...  That is not fun, but it can be beaten...


Ok, I know it is not too cold to ride to the gym today.
Bye.

Grundy born on Monday

Debating on whether to try to ride to gym.... light wind so far, so do-able...


Also have vacuuming and mopping that desperately needs doing...


That will be here tomorrow.


On the down side, water in ear still, causing a bit of dizzyness.  


Took sudafed to no avail.


but need to get moving!


Planning on chiropractor tomorrow, so will make the effort to gym and swim today...


O for more motivation...


I do it for the glory of god alone...

Worse on Saturday

Solomon Grundy sick on Friday, worse on Saturday, died on Sunday, and that was the end of Solomon Grundy.


Biked to gym yesterday with a steady, low wind both ways.  Very sore and iced, pain killers, but not much relief.


Saturday got ride to gym, did not do much else all day.  Not as sore.  Did all ball exercises and stretches.  Stretches seem to help.  Should stretch, then roll around on ball...


Even stretching in water was not easy.  Doing the back exercises also was difficult in gym.  Just tried to do toner exercises, not muscle building ones.  Maybe later on building muscle.

Solomon Grundy christened on Tuesday

As for my experiment on not riding the bike against the wind ~ that seemed to help the leg/back pain.  However, after doing a favor for a friend today and driving her mom to and from her church, I find that sitting and doing errands seems to cause a great deal of pain again.  Icing and liqui-gels are slowly helping as I lie here and hope to be able to go to the gym in an hour.


Just wondering why doing a few hours on my feet/sitting/walking seems nearly impossible without paying a heavy price...


Very disheartening and hard to be thankful; hard to praise God or even think he cares about me right now.


O poo.

Solomon Grundy born on Monday

So far my experiment is leaning away from riding Huli the Bentley into the wind either to or from the gym, for over the weekend, I had much less pain after my routine, having not ridden.  The problem is I have no other way to get there during the week until Mark fixes the carberator on the truck.


I could ride to the aquatic center (downhill all the way there) but being uphill all the way home is not much help.


O well, something will serve to be the solution to this.  Of that I am sure.

progress report

Managed the night til about 2 with no pain; then woke after not having been asleep for long with pain on the left again.  Not being a back sleeper, I'll take anything right or left, just give me a side on which to plop.


It appears the stuff I take for a longer pain dulling duration, the naproxin, is not working for me.  The next time I gym it, I will try the liqui-gels and take more in the night if need be.


For anyone who doesn't know sciatica pain that persists despite all the things they tell you to do, the thing that is happening is the bulging disc is pressing on the nerve that goes to the leg or legs.  It can also go further down, wrap itself around the knee and all the way down to do the same maypole around the ankle and top of the foot.  It is like a nasty snake.  


 Why keep going to the gym, you might ask, when it just seems to exacerbate the problem of pain in the legs?  Well, as Nancy's brother, Eric, once told me, the meat you see at the grocery store with a lot of fat?  The fat looks like an atrophied muscle.  Not a pretty sight.  Nothing useful about atrophied muscles.  


Since lying down is about the most comfortable position for me, apart from getting up to do the occasional light housework, laundry or cook a meal, I don't get much exercise.  I have to work these muscles to just keep going.


No, it ain't no fun to not have much of a life.  I often feel alone, sorry for myself, that God and "friends" have abandoned me, I resort to eating cookies if they are around after Mark leaves for one of his "gigs."  Not a good thing.  It is a compulsion on which I seem to have no self control.  Prolly a result of  my not thinking this is a wonderful time to draw close to God or to unleash my creative talents. 


When Mark does come home and wants to get on this machine to play Frontierville, something he has only recently taken up, prolly just to spend some "quality time" with me... ha ha ha ..... I either pick up the pencil and sketch or read Jonathan Edwards on free will and God's sovereignty or look at one of Julia's, "Nature Friend" magazines.  At least that is a step in a better direction.


I have to fight the temptation to let boredom rule; for once I let myself get bored, I eat, yes, but I also get that 'anzy'  feeling where one gets so down one is unable to express one's angst.  I am sure the Lord likes it when I say, "Oh, Father, I know I should come running to you, for you always make yourself available to me, but I am feeling..... and then list all the ways I am feeling at the moment...  I mean he already knows my heart better than I do, so why don't I just talk to him about how I am feeling?

T G I Frumpday

Decided to try a quasi-experiment this weekend.  Other times I go only every other day to the gym.  


But have had success sometimes going every day.  


Then there are those more frequent times where it about kills my legs to go every day, so I alternate the home stretching, ball exercises on days I don't go.


Today Mark took me to the gym, so I didna have to ride against the wind.  Did everything except the bicycle.  Andi told me a friend of hers got better when she quit riding the bike.  Though I'd absolutely not like this, I am gonna try to go two or three days for a, "Light" workout minus the bike and see what happens.


Today, I did all, including water stretches, lap swim, for the usual time, taking it easy the whole way.  Came home, ate, and am icing.  Oh, and also took a liqui-gel dose, just to ward off any pain that usually tries to set in.


I am determined to keep riding the bike, even if I only go up to the highschool and ride around the track while the sun sets!  More later....

Living hopeless Thursday

Weel, things were definitely looking good after my workout yesterday, but all too soon, you guessed it, things went to the downside.  


The right leg wasna the culprit this time.  And even now, the left leg is throbbing from the hip down to the ankle.  Stopping at the knee, of course to have a little tea party with those muscles.  I guess it is muscles, but maybe on second thought, it is nerves.


So, I couldna sleep last night til almost 4 a.m. and woke up at around 10:00 a.m.  Usually six hours is ok once in a while, but this problem requires more sleep.  The more sleep I get, the better I feel generally speaking.  


I am not gonna stay on long cuz, writing is causing more pain in the left side.  and it is going past the ankle to the top of the foot.  I guess writing about it makes it want to boast.


Leave now, pain...In the mighty name of Jeshua ha Messiah.

how it went on hump day

Peeled myself off the couch away from games and tv games, rode to the gym with no pain.
Did all routine with very little trouble, although it was hard work.


Got through pool stretching and got to swimming/praying...
Always look forward to the time with the Lord in the pool.  Is what keeps me going.


NO pain!  


Rode home tired with very little trouble.  Try to go a new way every so often and often find less toilsome routes by experimenting.  This was one of those days.


Smelled the telltale odor of fertilizer which always reminds me of GramaRosie, who grew prize winning roses.
Also drove through a waft of hamburger cooking on the grill which made me hungry.


Had a snack of the last piece of the flaxseed/buckwheat/masa birthday cake with a dollop of the caramel ice cream Mark got for it and am pretty satisfied with life at present.

Hump day

Made it to the gym yesterday and wasna gonna do arms, but at the advice of one of the ladies on staff, did, "Light workout."  Fared pretty well on all machines, and since the pool was being cleaned, did my ball exercises there (which can get embarrassing!)  You see, the movements they want me to do on the ball are kind of like a sit down version of belly dancing.  Must have been an hilarious sight!


Interestingly enough, swimming did not come easy yesterday.  After doing 15 min. of leg stretches in the water, and a bit of trouble with my goggles, my legs became sore while swimming the crawl.  The first fifteen minutes brought throbbing from the sciatica to the knees and settled down in the ankle of my, get this, left leg.  Usually, the right leg is the culprit.


But the last fifteen minutes were not as difficult.  Maybe it was due to the added ball exercises, which I usually do at home on alternate days to gym days.


So, even getting home proved to be not fun.  There was a steady wind not in my favour, and, of course, since we live on a bit of a hill, it was uphill a lot.


Icing and liqui-gel ibuprofen didna seem to help.  Going to sleep took a long time, so I played, "Price is Right" a while.  Once I got to sleep, I slept pretty well, because I only slept 5 or 6 hours the previous two nights.


I did get back to sleep this morning with no signs of demonic attack and felt pretty good upon waking.  


It was even nicer since Mark came home for lunch, which he hasn't been able to do since the accident.


Will update how this gym trip goes, since the left side is throbbing even as I lie still writing these words.

Tuesday morning

Oh I should have gone back to sleep.  Stayed up too late writing on this last night and woke up early with the sounds of the trash being taken out.  Yes, I know.  That should be music to my ears!  
But when I went to make the coffee, I didna realize there was water already soaking the pot.  So the sizzling sound of the liquid on the burner told me something was wrong.   I quickly put a saucepan on the burner, removing the heavier coffee pot full of sledge.  Then what remained in the unit splurted out all over the counter ~ anywhere but in the saucepan.


This wouldna bother me had I not just cleaned the unit yesterday!


So, no coffee with my scones this morning!  Maybe I will doze off before trying the ride to the gym.