New Year, New Location, New Progress

 We moved to St. George over Christmas break. Well, I think we moved. We're here in our house in St. George, but we still own a house in Pleasant Grove, and we already have plans to go back there for a few weeks in March. So, maybe we are "snow birding" this winter. I'm not sure about all of this, really.

But the move has already seen some drastic changes for the good for me. Without having to live by an alarm clock, I have slept and slept and slept. Slowly, my body is recovering. It is slow, mind you.  But I am feeling better already just with the opportunity to sleep as long as my body needs to sleep. That could not happen when I was working and was needing to work just after 6AM each day.

With no employment responsibilities, I have used the time to exercise to build strength in my lungs and muscles. I have found a new online yoga class that has helped me focus on my breathing as a way to strengthen from the inside out. It is fostering a renewed flexibility in my body and reminding my body of old ways of toning up and feeling strong again. 

Having a pool at my daily disposal, I have begun to swim each day and with that daily ritual, I was gathering strength to my breathing as well as my muscles. I am saving my joints from the pounding that running would cause and I find emotional and mental health as I see the blue skies each day--even if the air is still a little brisk. On days when I have a little extra energy, I have also taken myself walking, using the several trails that follow the rivers edge here and have found myself enjoying seeing the wild animals along the quiet trail and the serene, natural habitat of creatures great and small.  I have also enjoyed sharing a "good morning" with fellow trail users on both their bikes and their sneakers.

The winter was always hard to cope with in the north.  There could be weeks at a time that were socked into an inversion that trapped cold, gross, gunky air in the valleys. The air was unhealthy, and the mood turned sour quickly when that occurred.  Here, there is no inversion issue.  The winter is here, but regularly we are 10+ degrees warmer than friends in the old cul-de-sac. Seeing the blue skies each day is a blessing I didn't appreciate like I should have before, but I sure do now.

There is still much to do with my personal health improvement campaign.  But I feel I am well on my way. None of this would have happened without Genius Golfer's agreement to let me quit my job and move south. That would not have been an option had we not bit the bullet 4 years ago and begin this "retirement" house project and the subsequent pool project. Maybe he knew I would need to flee here for my mental health some day, but I do nothing either one of us had any idea my physical health would need it too. So, I'm all the more grateful for him leading those decisions.

With all that said, my business plans for our Quench-It down here are at a stand still, for now.  Finding a good location is much more difficult than I had imagined. But I feel like that right thing will show up and when it does we will be ready. But like all my gut feelings, I have no time schedule given to me ahead of time. So we wait, prepared.

Progress on too many arenas might be too much to accomplish, perhaps.  So I have taken my sense of accomplishment from my health progression and will focus on that for the time being. Regardless, I am grateful to be here and to be on the upward swing, however slow that movement.

#52 Stories--Story #17

What has been your greatest physical or athletic accomplishment--an endurance race, a difficult hike, a personal health goal? how did you stay motivated to reach the finish line?

In March 2017 I began making small changes using an app on my phone called "Lifesum" to count calories and track my exercise with the goal in mind to loose 25-30 pounds.  I knew that my health needed to improve and doctors I had seen over the years would always tell me "if you lost some weight..." I knew it was time.

I had rolled along fro some time with the hope that something "magical" would come along to help me with the weight and appetite control.  But with most anything, my mom was right all along--count calories and eat less that you burn was the actual answer.  There is nothing special or exciting about a plan like that, but it is something that I could live with the rest of my life--which is really the real answer here.  I needed a lifestyle shift as mush as I needed to loose some weight.

I weighed myself to begin with and then vigilantly kept track of the portion size and calorie counts.  I would enter that into the app each day--each meal most of the time.  I saw how much something "cost me" and what amount of exercise I needed to burn that off.  Soon I was making better choices with my food selections.  Soon I was getting in to a habit of exercise-- I preferred yoga and the treadmill.

I have lost a solid 20 pounds so far.  With another 5-7 fluctuating as the days pass and my menstrual cycle comes and goes.  I have a goal for another 10-15 on top of the good 20 I have lost, but it takes time.  I have hit a plateau in the last month--since the holidays--that is vert discouraging.  But I know if I keep at it, I'll get to my goal weight and have healthy habits to show for it the rest of my life.

At my annual exam with my doctor--who does thorough blood work to really see how healthy I am--in November she told me that I was not only looking good and feeling better, but that I had lost enough weight to no longer need the simvastatin drug to combat my high cholesterol that I have been taking--at the same dosage--for almost 18 years.  I had started on that with my regular family doctor that long ago because I knew i have a family history of heart disease. Now I had made enough improvement to get off of that and be in the safe zone.  That was amazing to me.

I hope the results only to get better as I keep up with this.  I love when people tell me I look great, but it is even better to know I am taking better care of my body that it can be my friend instead of feeling like it was against me all the time.

Just What The Doctor Ordered

I think I wrote about seeing a new doctor in August.  I wasn't having anything seriously wrong, I just felt off somehow.  My regular GP/family practitioner had told me (annually, in fact, at my check up, any time I mentioned any of these concerns) that it was all part of aging and I had to face facts that I was getting older and so was my body.  I didn't like that answer.  So I went somewhere else to get a second opinion.

Dr. A is a specialist in women's health.  She runs a women's clinic in Orem and also works part time in a large general practice--where she is one of the partners with my regular GP.  At the women's clinic she focuses on hormones related issues and some reproductive issues.  My concerns were leaning toward the hormone side of this equation.  She spent almost an hour with me at the first appointment, then she took blood for a variety of tests.

I had another follow up appointment scheduled for Sept 2nd, while I was already off work to be with The Girl.  In between the first appointment and the follow up, I received the standard EOB from my insurance.  There were three pages of blood tests done.  That is more than I have ever had.  Usually it is just the standard cholesterol/liver function/lipid panel.  Already this made me anxious to see what these new and different tests showed.

At my follow up appointment she walked me through each of these tests.  What they were checking for and what my results showed.  Then she went back through each test and we talked about steps to try to fix the problems they showed.  It wasn't all about prescribing new drugs either.  She actually dropped my statin dosage to one fourth what I have been on for about a decade.  That was a good sign.

She also showed me my heart was in great shape and, with our family history of heart disease and stroke, I was thrilled to hear that.

Then she got to the hormone issues.  My levels are not as far off as I had feared.  But they were off.  So far the things she asked me to try are over the counter herbal things.  I would have never thought to try the things she mentioned.  I just didn't understand how my body used these hormones.  In fact, i learned there are more hormones at work here than just estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. I knew there was more to them but I am beginning to understand my own body for the first time--and even in its aging state, its pretty amazing.

This week I have finally gotten on board with all the things she asked me to try. Some of them I had to order--SO much cheaper than our local health food store.  So far, they are making a positive difference.  I'm feeling more energy throughout the day.  I'm clearing out the foggy-brained feeling I'd get each morning.  I feel like I can deal with the stresses of my day to day life better. I feel more alert and connected to myself--does that even make sense?  And I feel my body becoming more settled with less of the food I used to eat.

I'm not saying I am losing a ton of weight.  I haven't been on a real scale since my last GP checkup, really.  But I don't feel like cravings taking over my life in the afternoons.  My body is functioning the way it did ten or fifteen years ago. Yes, my knees still "click" going up the stairs.  Sure I could stand to loose weight still--but THAT was not the only answer.  Sorry, Dr. GP...you were wrong there. There ARE other things going on here. And who knows?  Maybe the weight will start to fall off as I reset my eat patterns and metabolism--not through drugs, but with some nutritional education and additional understanding.

That is the next step of this process.  I am looking forward to making the small changes I need to reset my body's metabolism by changing the food I am eating.  That takes some will power, but more knowledge and understanding will do wonders with this step.  I'll keep you posted on how that goes.  I begin next week--assuming my book gets here tomorrow like it is supposed to.  Comes on, Amazon!

I just feel so much better knowing there is hope for changes I can do myself, without all the drugs.  An easy weight loss miracle pill is a nice pie-in-the-sky idea, but not happening.  I am excited to learn and come to understand this amazing machine I have possession of for the next 30-40+ years.  And here's hope for keeping it in prime working order for decades to come.

Follow Up Post

OK, this is post number 890.  Just in case anyone is counting, besides me.

I picked up The Boy in Park City today after a day of snow boarding, solo.  Genius Golfer dropped him up there this morning on his way to watch The Girl's swim meet at the gorgeous Davis Aquatic Center, so The Boy could board and now complain at how slow the swim meet was moving.  I had young women basketball all morning, so that was going to be any more fun than a slow swim meet for the poor kid, so he opted to board.

Apparently, he was doing his dangerous thing...including being the first one into the freshly groomed half-pipe this morning, since he was there early enough to be the first one in line for the lifts.  Anyway, he must have warn out his danger-card because at some point he crashed and bruised his tailbone, hit ice with his helmet (thank goodness he will wear one...and not give me grief about that) and knocked the wind out of his pride. 

He tried calling Dad at 11 AM...who, in the middle of an indoor swim, meet can't hear his phone.  I got done with the basketball stuff and was home at noon, when two minutes later the kid called me to come get him.  Not quite what I had planned, but he sounded next to tears, so I jumped back in the car and made it up there in an hour flat.  With no tickets, thankyouverymuch.  The Boy is fine, but his bum was sore.  Nothing a little stop for lunch at Wendy's couldn't fix.

While I was picking him up, however, I noticed that the thermometer in my car read a full 10 degrees warmer than it had been down in the valley.  The sky was blue and the air was clear too.  It smelled so good up there.  We have a winter phenomenon here called an "inversion" where all the pollution and cold air gets trapped in the valley and with a high pressure system parked over us, that yucky air is trapped here until the next storm comes by that is big enough to scour out the gunk.  We are due for one tonight.  After seeing the sunshine and blue skies, I think I am going to cheer for the storm to show up.

GG just got home a bit ago and said The Girl shaved a full second off her breaststroke time but her 500 yard freestyle was slow, almost equal to her very first time for that event.  Oh well.  We'll focus on the breaststroke improvementt and call it good.  I'm just hoping that her iPod didn't get stolen--her first one was at this same meet last year.  It was an expensive weekend for her last time.

The day or two before we left for California for Christmas, he went skiing with The Boy and our nephew, Garett.  The boys saw GG at some point hit a snow pothole and basically face plant it hard.  The boys thought it was funny, and GG was sore, but he always is after a day of skiing--crash or no crash.  We went ahead to CA and when we got home, he was still sore, like a possible broken rib.  So he went in to see the on-call doctor for our local family clinic.  X-rays showed nothing broken, but the doctor told GG that the tissue that holds the lungs inside the rib cage may have been injured and the damage brings on inflammation that would cause that kind of pain.  He was told to take 800 mg of ibuprofen and take it easy. 

He did that for a week or so, and it was still hurting--even more--so he went back this week to our regular family doctor.  Sure enough, that was his diagnosis too, but he gave GG a prescrition for some steroid to bring the inflammation down faster, along with a muscle relaxer to keep the spasms at bay and good, strong pain killer--that, of course, he doesn't like to take, but that is his choice.  He is moving, but feels miserable.  Keep GG in your prayers that he can heal quickly, and be back to normal.  He is stiff and sore each morning trying to get out of bed, and if he starts coughing (with this air quality, it happens to the best of us) it is incredibly painful.   He is not a good patient, as he expects himself to heal as quickly as the kids forgetting, of course, that he is 40-something years old and his body doesn't like to be beat up like this.

I've got a full week coming up--funny how that happens so quickly after a long holiday break. But so far, as the rest of us are healthy, sore bums aside, it is a good thing this time of year.  Seeing the sun, however, sure made me anxious for spring.  I can keep hoping it will come quickly--though I know it is only January.  Dangit.

On Rounds

Just wanted to leave an update on every one's health. Apparently, and I am knocking on wood as I say this, apparently, we are all going to be well enough to go after all.

The Girl's fingers are healing very well and the almost sore throat has not been mentioned again since Sunday.

The Boy didn't even sniff this morning before he left for school.

And I am sure my issue was allergy related. We have a storm that has blown in for today and it stirred up a lot of dust and junk in the air. I am pretty sure that is what my problem has been. Today I am just depressed that it is starting to snow, again.

I need this short vacation more than I realized. That, and spring must trump winter and soon!

Time's A Wastin'

I had about a half hour yesterday that required nothing of me--that is to say, I had free time! It was fantastic. Did you read Tolstoy? You may ask, or Thoreau? Did you write a letter to your mother? Did you write your personal history? Or did you spend that time baking fresh homemade cookies for your dear children? No, I did none of those worthy suggestions.

From those suggestions, I suppose the time wasn't completely free time. (Sorry, mom.)

What I did do was waste my time by laughing myself silly over old episodes of Saturday Night Live I rediscovered online. Nephew Travis and his new wife told me about the bit last Saturday with Sarah Palin making an appearance--that is what started it. Then I scrolled through some old segments and finally found one of a particularly funny "Church Chat". Remember Church Chat? Dana Carvey as the Church Lady? "Isn't that SPECIAL?!" Come on, you remember it too.

This particular segment was the week in 1988--come on in the "way-back-machine" with me here--when Jimmy Swaggart was caught in the sex scandal and confessed on TV, eyes weeping copiously, that he was a "sinnnnnnerrrr". Well, Phil Hartman played the fallen televangelist like no body's business. He was joined on that episode by Al Franken as Pat Robertson, who was a Republican candidate for the GOP's nomination at that point. Oh, and Dana Carvey's pious Church Lady was very funny, of course.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/4151/saturday-night-live-church-chat

What a total waste of time. I know, you say, I could have used that time so much more reasonably and responsibly.

I read a study once that a 15 minute period of hearty laughter can add years to your life. The oxygen you absorb through hard laughter helps your blood and your organs and especially your brain. Your skin regains some elasticity and your stomach will digest better following a spurt of laughing.

So, that is what I was really doing! I was extending my life, improving my health and well being. Yeah, Yeah....That's the ticket.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and TOES!

This weekend I took the time to cut my toe nails. Already, too much information, for you I'm sure. At our Seven Peaks trip I had a crack in the nail of my big right toe, and a small hole in the nail right at the cuticle. By the weekend the hole had essentially merged with the crack and low and behold, one third of my nail was gone. I must have some toe nail problem, but it doesn't hurt and though very ugly, doesn't seem to be affecting my toe function. My SIL Lori said she had some kind of nail fungus or something for years and the solution her doctor had recommend some time ago was a $50 a month antibiotic that might fix it over six months.

I lost this nail once before. In my sophomore year at BYU, I worked at at fabric store and one summer day I pulled a pile of fabric bolts off the counter in order to put them away, when what do you know but I also pulled off a large set of fabric shears that had been laying under the bolts and suddenly rammed my toe at the cuticle with their point down. It was so terribly painful I thought I had broken the toe bone. After my manager insisted I take a trip to the Instacare, the doctor there x-rayed my stubby toe and then drilled three holes in it from which oozed a nasty blood and pus mixture that smelled to high heaven. But it did bring much relief from the pressure that had built up in my toe under the nail. That nail has never been right since that accident.

So, here I am just a day or two from Girl's Camp and I have only 2/3 of a nail on my toe. The beauty of it all is that I have had no pain associated with my mangled digit and I am not currently employed as a "foot model" (Anyone watch Seinfeld?!).

In all seriousness, I am amazed at how much I take my body and my health in general for granted. I only seem to notice it when things are quite right, or I'm in some type of discomfort.
So for now, I'll appreciate the other 9.67 nails I have on my toes and the 10 full nails on my fingers and be grateful for them. And until the stupid ugly thing grows back in, I'll paint my toes some gaudy color to distract the toe beauty police that might be lurking at the pool. I'll let you know how that goes!