health update
The BP is coming down, 137/84 which is still high, but not even close to the 190/130 so this is an improvement. And depending on which scale I look at, I have lost 6-8 lbs since early december when I realized how bad things had gotten.
Picked up a stability ball and have been doing exercises and stretches with it. I overdid it on the first couple of days, endorphins I suppose, but on day 3 when my spine told me to "fuck off" I decided that alternating days for exercise would be best. Not doing anything intense yet, just trying to get comfortable moving with the ball and then move up from there.
I also picked up a yoga mat, been doing child's pose and that's about it. Again, I will add more to this eventually, but I'm not remotely flexible right now, and I'm mostly working on trying to get some sort of calm about myself. Still failing, but still trying. Meditation, centering, whatever you want to call it, not one of my strengths.
I think that I am going to be trying to hit the gym for the elliptical soon. When I was doing that before it really helped me. The weight loss at this point I think can be atributed completely to strict food intake. Whole wheat toast and 2 eggs for breakfast or oatmeal depending on my mood and time. Lunches have been Tuna salad sandwiches on whole wheat bread. Dinners are one chicken breast, one package of veggies (get 4 of my veggie serving in one swoop) and some sort of carb, rice or ramen and some sort of spicing. The hunger pangs were really rough the first week, but with the dry mouth issue (getting better not gone yet) I am drinking water like there is no tomorrow, so I will just fill up with water throughout the day.
Between making better food choices and some exercise, when it gets warm enough to ride again, I will be a better shape than last fall.
Dog health update. As of yesterday I am officially out of dog debt (goodbye christmas and birthday money), and she is now one 1/2 the original amount of prednisone. There's another trip in a week to confirm that her packed cell volume is where it should be. If it is, then we are on the home stretch, and she should be drug free in 8 weeks.
Probably going to try and update this more, I have access to a nice scale at work, also folks that will get my blood pressure numbers for me, so tracking this would be wise and I think give me a good idea of my progress.
Picked up a stability ball and have been doing exercises and stretches with it. I overdid it on the first couple of days, endorphins I suppose, but on day 3 when my spine told me to "fuck off" I decided that alternating days for exercise would be best. Not doing anything intense yet, just trying to get comfortable moving with the ball and then move up from there.
I also picked up a yoga mat, been doing child's pose and that's about it. Again, I will add more to this eventually, but I'm not remotely flexible right now, and I'm mostly working on trying to get some sort of calm about myself. Still failing, but still trying. Meditation, centering, whatever you want to call it, not one of my strengths.
I think that I am going to be trying to hit the gym for the elliptical soon. When I was doing that before it really helped me. The weight loss at this point I think can be atributed completely to strict food intake. Whole wheat toast and 2 eggs for breakfast or oatmeal depending on my mood and time. Lunches have been Tuna salad sandwiches on whole wheat bread. Dinners are one chicken breast, one package of veggies (get 4 of my veggie serving in one swoop) and some sort of carb, rice or ramen and some sort of spicing. The hunger pangs were really rough the first week, but with the dry mouth issue (getting better not gone yet) I am drinking water like there is no tomorrow, so I will just fill up with water throughout the day.
Between making better food choices and some exercise, when it gets warm enough to ride again, I will be a better shape than last fall.
Dog health update. As of yesterday I am officially out of dog debt (goodbye christmas and birthday money), and she is now one 1/2 the original amount of prednisone. There's another trip in a week to confirm that her packed cell volume is where it should be. If it is, then we are on the home stretch, and she should be drug free in 8 weeks.
Probably going to try and update this more, I have access to a nice scale at work, also folks that will get my blood pressure numbers for me, so tracking this would be wise and I think give me a good idea of my progress.