Staying the Course -- 10-24-2016

[Superbob]

Thanks again for all the supportive comments last week. I promise to stick to fitness this week. Fall weather finally arrived a few days ago and it is wonderful. Ellie dawg does not want to stop walking -- so I will be getting lots of extra exercise. She's better than a drill sergeant. One good piece of news from doctor's visit plus getting my Weight Watchers scales operational again -- I am only up 3 pounds over my best-in-a-long-time weight I was crowing about a year ago. Think I can erase that in a week or so. Am motivated. Exercise is a great outlet for dealing with stress, and fall weather is best for exercise -- so here we go.

I expect to be posting some more as week goes along. Looking forward to hearing from you all, y'all, as we'uns in the South say.

Cheers,

Superbob

 

[jwinter]

Superbob, I see you have a mission and that 3 lbs will be looking for a new home! You are right about exercise helping with stress. I am ready to join you soon. My "waiting for the coffee to finish" kitchen routine is not much but trying to stay somewhat active before surgery next week. I think Ellie wants to help in your quest too. We'uns in Montana are getting nice cool fall temps but I am missing my AZ snowbird friends as they are all moving in for winter. It has been 9 years since I have seen snow

 

[honeybunny]

I'm staying the course with my little exercise bike. Much better than the treadmill.

 

[Superbob]

jwinter, i confess to missing the snow too. The first winter we moved down here, we did have a surprise "snowstorm" -- two inches, the grandkids and dogs played in it, and it melted by the afternoon. We have had a few ice storms in the next 8 years but no measurable snow. I do miss the excitement of a big snowstorm coming in and the crunch, crunch your boots make walking in the snow. Do not miss, however, shoveling the snow. I am sure Steve would be glad to send me a goodly portion of Chicago's snow if he could.

Honeybunny, I envy you that small exercise bike for home use. We have big ol' industrial-duty ones in our community workout room, but after walking Ellie and then having chores to do, it is hard to bestir myself to get down there and use it. A home-sized one would be nice for taking exercise breaks after being on the computer. Did you have to assemble it? (I'm not very proficient at that)....

 

[Mellyouttaphase]

I have had one encounter with snow my life - a few days whilst I was trekking in the Himalayas. This Queensland girl lost her mind over it! I always talk about preferring colder climates and as things start to ramp up towards Summer here I get stressed about the oncoming heat and humidity. I simply cannot cope with the heat but then every day off I am at the beach enjoying oceans swims amd getting a wicked tan (oops).

I ran 5km again on Monday and knocked my time down slightly. I actually felt like I could have gone further but I want to get my 5km under 30mins before I push ahead with distance. I wish I could find my morning person power again! I fear that as an afternoon exerciser, too much life gets in the way. Need to get back in the morning habit because there is only one excuse at 5am!

I am going to call the Heartstart clinic this week and unfortunately explain that I will not be making it to the rest of my rehab course. I am working full time hours again and I kind of got shamed by the rest of the crew for being there anyway. And they have a point, I guess. Considering that I am running and starting to think about going back to Crossfit, I should probably leave the space for somebody who really needs it? It is mostly heart attack and bypass patients here and when they look at me funny asking what I am doing in their class, I smile and say that everybody needs to exercise!

Great to hear everybody is staying the course

 

[Superbob]

Melly, meant to reply before now but I am still pondering the wicked tan. lol -- forgive me, just a silly old man. Crossfit -- wow! Yes, I can see it is reasonable to assume you have graduated from cardio rehab -- so wonderful that your running is going well. I remember my running days fondly. Glad to be continuing walking with my 75th birthday coming up in a few weeks. The heart isn't stopping me from running -- it's my replaced knee, which is fine for walking but not running. Anyway, I love to hear about your 5Ks and such. Please keep us up to date. Happy running!

Oh and a quick update from my medical front: the CT-Scan of my aorta has been scheduled for tomorrow! -- sooner than I thought. My folo with the cardio,however, is not til Nov. 21 as of now. So as usual I will have to wonder about the results for a few weeks. Hoping this is just another incidence of cardio fretting needlessly about a few silly cms on an echo...we'll see. I will try not to obsess. Cheers!

 

[epstns]

{Steve waves his hand frantically. . . }

I'm still here, everyone! I was buried in work for a couple of days, then was out of town on a paratrooper trip to Boston (in and out the same day) to see an out of town specialist on another medical issue, and now I'm back. Glad to hear things are getting back to normal for some of us. My issues, while they haven't resolved, have become more clear after yesterday's visit, and there is a path to a favorable outcome from it. That's good enough for me, right now.

On the "bummer" front, some dirtbag banged a shopping cart into the passenger door of my 1-year-old car. The shape of the dent makes paintless dent repair not an option, and the repair estimate is "Oh. . . about $1,200 or so." There goes another insurance claim, and they have to make the claim against my collision policy rather than comprehensive, as the comprehensive covers fire, theft and vandalism. This was an altercation between the car and another object, no matter how it occurred. It will be a complicated repair, with removal/replacement of all of the trim on the door and front fender, fixing the dent, repainting the door and fender, and on and on. All this for a 2-inch long crease in the door. But as the crazy gearhead that I am, I cannot drive a car having visible body damage. It is just not done at our house. So I have to drive a junky rental for a week or two while all this goes on. Sorry for venting, but it just makes me crazy when people are so inconsiderate -- especially when I park a mile or so from any store in the hopes that nobody will go out there anyway. I don't even know when it happened.

 

[Superbob]

Hey Steve, glad to hear there is a path to resolving the non-heart-related medical problem, but so sorry to hear about the damage to your car caused by some careless lout! That is terribly maddening -- my DW can't drive anymore, so we have just one car, and I try to keep it right up to date with service and very presentable in appearance. I, too, could not abide driving it around in a damaged condition. Hope the repairs are done in good order and the hit on insurance coverage wont be too bad. Anyway, go ahead and vent -- that is reason aplenty for venting!

 

[FredW]

Just a short note to say that I'm staying the course, too. I do check in to hear from friends. Working too hard this week, but not eating junk food or sweets. Except that ice cream my wife made tonight, and those marshmallows my grandkids made,. Oh, then there was those dark chocolate covered cherries I found in the pantry, and those cookies I ate while ...

 

[epstns]

Wait a minute. . . Fred - Your wife makes ice cream? ICE CREAM! Where were you last summer when we needed that creamy confection? Just save some and send it up here, please!