My last post - goodbye blogland

I've decided to quit blogging.

I'm still doing fine on my journey to health, blogging about it is just feeling more like a chore than a helpful part of my plan at this point so I'm quitting.

When I first started blogging in 2008 I found it to be extremely helpful. I met a group of supporters to cheer me on and motivate me and challenge me. There was a lot of back and forth with comments that helped me too (both receiving and giving comments).

I feel like I've just moved closer to my goal of a healthier me and that I have different things to focus on now. My blog posts have been further and further apart. I dread doing them. I'm just not interested in blogging anymore.

The last couple of months I feel like I've had to choose between blogging and going to the gym, just living and being out and about and being active. That isn't right. I shouldn't feel like I have to blog when I would rather be at the gym or cooking something healthy or taking a walk.

I want to focus more on my 'in-real-life' activities and spend more time with the people around me.

I made this decision a few weeks ago and just sat back and thought about it and did a trial run of not blogging, and I found I feel really good about this decision.

I'm going to continue working on becoming a healthier me. Even though I won't be blogging you can rest assured that I will be fine and this is a good thing and not a setback.

I wish you all well in your journeys and lives.

Take Care!

~Liz

2012 Healthy Habits Challenge

So, it's already March 5th - wow has time flown by!

My February Healthy Habits Challenge was to have at least 20 min of activity per day.

The month started out great, and then I pulled my back out. With the worse muscle strain I've ever had. The first day I seriously couldn't go from sitting to standing (or vice versa) or walk without help. It was bad.

It took a while to recover from that. And of course, when my back was out I wasn't able to do my stretches for my foot either which made my plantar fascitis worse.

And of course I got sick. I caught that nasty sinus thing that's been going around.

So, it was a rough month. I did what I could when I could for the most part though. I counted up my days of stretching and/or activity. I had 11 days of activity (walking, elliptical, etc) and 19 days of stretching, and 10 days of nothing. So, 19/29. Not the best, but at least I got more than half in.

I'm not counting this as a win. I truly don't feel that I created a new healthy habit.

But, that's ok. I'm going to keep moving forward.

My March goal is:
Stretch 2x a day and get at least 20 min of activity every day.

I've got a set of 5 stretches that I need to do 3 sets of 2 times a day. When I do them I notice a huge difference in my foot/leg and also in my lower back.

I'm off to an ok start so far on this one. March started last Thursday, which was also my anniversary, and hubs and I were off to the beach for a long weekend. But I got lots of stretching in over the weekend and I got activity in everyday we were gone. Actually yesterday and today were the only days that I haven't gotten activity (or stretching) in - and my plan is to begin remedying that tomorrow.

I feel confident that if I plan and prep and stick to my routine then I will make being more active a new healthy habit for me.

Are you challenging yourself at all?

Wanna be my friend?

It's hard to make friends as an adult.

My two best friends live in different states. I met N when we were babies and then later we lived on the same street from elementary school until high school and have remained great friends since. I met C when we were 18. She is also from the Pacific Northwest and we both were delayed by a snow storm and were late a few days late to report to our first duty station after basic training. We got bundled together for processing and have been friends for 15 years now. But N lives in Texas and C lives in Washington state.

I moved to Portland 9 years ago. When I first moved here I lived with my brother, his girlfriend and their daughter (my niece). Things, life really, happened and they ended up moving away. I then moved in with a cousin of mine for a bit until a few years later when I friend of mine moved to the area. I ended up living with her for a couple of years. More life happened and suffice it to say we are no longer friends, and she moved away.

I'm so glad that I met hubs along the way though. He is a great match for me, we get along so well and really enjoy each others company. But he isn't a best friend. I can't have 'girl talk' with him. And that is what I would really like.

N & C are great, but it's not the same when you can't just meet up at the last minute and hash things out ya know?

Anyways, I've been thinking lately about how I would like more friends, good friends in my life. Without even realizing it at first (maybe my subconscious is working to help me!)I noticed that I've been more social and friendly with people.

When shopping instead of saying I'm fine or just browsing when someone comes up to help me, I've been actually answering them and asking for help or for what's new and talking for a few minutes. Really, this is a big step for me. I usually don't like to talk to people at stores. I'm shy and don't want to feel stupid or anything so I don't even try.

A few weeks ago I came across a book MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend by Rachel Bertsche. I found it intriguing. Basically, it's about a 27 yr old married woman living in Chicago. She'd been living there for 2 years and had made friends, but not a best friend. No one to call up for last minute brunch or to vent with or to go over all the emotional details with. So, she starts researching and learning about why friends are important and how to find some. She decided to go on a friend-date every week for a year - hoping to make some new good friends, and maybe even a best friend along the way.

So far it's a great read. My Kindle says I'm 24% through the book :)

There's a lot of research that she's put into it referencing articles and studies that show that have really good, close friends (more than just your spouse or family) contribute to better your health & well-being. You are more likely to live a longer, healthier life when you have close girlfriends.

That sounds important. Much more important than just someone to go shoe shopping with.

So, I'm working on reading this book and seeing what kind of tips and ideas I can come up with. I'm not going to go on a yearlong search or anything, but I do want to be more conscious and put myself out there more. Reach out a bit to old friends and to new people I meet so that I can eventually have some really close friends in my life. I need people like this so I can bitch & vent, go shopping with, watch girly movies with and just to be girlfriends with.

Don't get me wrong, hubs is great (really, really great!) but men just aren't wired the same as women and I need some girlfriends around.

Hubs and I have several friends, but really they are more his friends. See, he is really into soccer - especially the Portland Timbers - and most of his friends (our friends) that we hang out with and interact with on social media have this in common. While I think that soccer is a great sport and am glad that it is growing in the US, and I fully support the Portland Timbers (and their awesome supporters group!) I just don't really care that much about sports. I just can't get into it. And therefore, really what holds this group of friends together is the sport.

There are several women in our group of friends, but they are all big soccer supporters. Also, they are all friends, have been for a long time, with this commonality between them and I don't think there is a place for me to get closer.

I also work with a great group of people. I've hung out with a few socially, as a group, but I really prefer to keep work and social separate. It makes things easier at work. My closest person at work, J is great and I would love to be closer friends with her, especially since our husbands are great friends and spend a lot of time together. But she also feels that work and social should be separate, plus she's my supervisor and there are just some things that you don't want to share with your supervisor and I don't want to have to censor myself like that with a potential bestie.

So, I'm on the lookout for new friends - hopefully a few that I can really grow close with. I'm going to do my best to start up some conversations with new people I meet, and maybe a few I've lost touch with too, and see what happens.

Do you have trouble making friends as an adult? Any tips for me to try?

NSV!!

Today I had a great workout!

In fact, today I finally got my first, full, real workout in of 2012. Yep, you heard that right, I did it.

45 minutes on the elliptical followed by a 20 minute weight machine workout for my arms. It's been a long time, but I'm so glad I finally felt healthy enough to do a full workout.

I've been regularly doing stretches for my plantar fascitis and my lower back. And I'm finally not sick. So, it felt right.

I was just going to do a 20-25 minute workout but I felt ok so I kept going.

Yay me!

It's a good thing that today's workout was a NSV (non-scale victory) because the scale hasn't been very nice to me at all. In fact I've gained. Another 3lbs.

I've gained 9lbs since my foot started hurting me at the end of November. I'm kinda sad it took me until January to figure out what was wrong with my foot (plantar fascitis) and start working on it.

But I'm feeling good, and still working on my healthy habits, so I know that I am still on the right track - I just hit a big bump in the road, maybe got lost a bit and took a detour, but I'm back to heading in the right direction.

Yay for NSV's!

Hmmm, has it been a week already...

Well, I obviously haven't been doing a good job of keeping my blog up to date at all.

Here's what I've been up to:

Stretching my calf, foot and back a couple of times a day.

I went to the gym on Sunday and did 20 min on the elliptical and a 20 min arm workout on the weight machines (my first time back at the gym since my back went out!)

I have started a new hobby (kind of...don't have everything I need yet, but I'm practicing my skills) - making earrings! Once I've got some practice in I'll post a pic or two :)

I bought a new bed - it will be delivered this weekend. We really need it, so now I will be able to sleep better & be more rested.

My birthday is tomorrow. We went out to dinner with friends over the weekend and tomorrow we are going to pub quiz with some other friends. Nothing big and exciting, but that's alright, I like it that way. Hubs did buy me some great boots for my birthday though!

I'm getting ready for our anniversary trip. Next week I'm taking Wed-Fri off of work and hubs and I are headed to the beach. We rented a condo right on the Oregon beach and I'm looking forward to it!

My plan is to keep stretching as much as I can and to get in my 20+ min of activity when I can. I'm hoping to get up and go to the gym before work tomorrow, but we'll see. It is my birthday so I might decide to sleep in.

I saw these on pinterest the other day and think they are totally cute - I'll pretend to drink one for my birthday :)

source: http://rock-ur-party.tablespoon.com/2012/01/07/marshmallow-cake-tini/

Have a great week!

Hanging in there

Yep, that's what I'm doing.

I'm pretty much recovered from my back, but hubs has been sick and now I'm getting it too.

I took the day off to rest and hopefully that will keep me from really getting sick.

I have not been doing good with my healthy habits challenge this month. My goal is to do 20 min of activity (at least) every day. When my back was out I literally couldn't do that, so that's been hard. And of course, now that my back is feeling a bit better I am getting sick which isn't making it any easier.

I am taking it one day at a time and trying to do what I can.

That's my plan - to keep hanging in there.

Getting "back" into things

So, I've been pretty quiet lately, and the reason being is that I pulled my back out on Sunday.

I had been doing really good, still staying on track with January's goal (replacing my grande nonfat chai latte with hot tea) and with February's goal (consistent workouts = at least 20 min activity per day. I had gone from 20 min on the treadmill, to 30 min on the elliptical or a 30 min (hilly) walk.

Then right before the Super Bowl was starting I was setting a plate on the coffee table and *blam* my back spasmed really bad. I eased myself into my chair and then ate my lunch. Then I knew that sitting wasn't going to help it at all, so I got up and walked around a bit and decided to bake some cookies since that would keep me on my feet for a while, but not moving too much.

Hubs was very helpful and got out the things I couldn't reach, and pulled the cookies out of the oven when they were done etc.

After that I knew I needed to rest, so I put some ice in a baggie and went upstairs and hubs helped me get settled in a nice position on the bed with my legs propped up to take the pressure off my back. I watched one of my girly shows I had on the DVR and relaxed.

The ice really numbed my back so I felt like I could move without really hurting myself I needed to use the bathroom so I started to get up and when I did my baggie of ice opened up and ice water spilled down my back and all over my bed. Well, that freaked me out and made me jump which was was a really bad idea. I had probably the worst spasm I've ever had. It literally brought me to my knees.

I caught myself on the nightstand and lowered myself to my knees and then had to stretch one leg out in order to relieve some of the pressure. I could not move from that position though. Trying to sit on my butt or to stand up caused more spasms, so I stayed as still as possible and with tears rolling down my face I grabbed my cell phone and called hubs to come upstairs and help me.

I'm sure I scared him, I was in so much pain I couldn't really even talk. He helped me stand up and then helped me to the bathroom. He had to lower me down, and help me back up, and pull my pants up for me and everything. I seriously couldn't bend. It took quite a while to move around.

After that I decided I would rather lay on the sofa in the loft as it's lower and firmer than the bed. So I did that for a bit, with my legs propped up. I tried a heat pack for a while too. Things were a little better, but I had to have help to go from laying to sitting to standing and back down.

I was bored so we slowly made our way back downstairs and I sat very straight in a chair for a while. I took advil regularly. That night I decided to sleep on the sofa in the loft, with a pillow between my knees to help support my back. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep.

Monday I had hubs drive me to work as I couldn't do it myself. I did my best to get up and move around as often as I could but that's hard to do when you have a desk job. I tried to just do whatever I could to keep the pain at bay, by sitting straight and still and taking advil.

Luckily I was able to get in to see my doctor that afternoon, so hubs picked me up and took me over there. She was examining me and as she was poking around on my back she says 'you are really rock hard back here, you must be in a lot of pain'. I didn't even realize she had been touching me, that's how stiffened up I was.

She sent me over to the pharmacy to pick up some muscle relaxers to try and see if that would help ease the pain. (by the way they gave me 30 pills. 30! That's a lot, I'll probably -hopefully- never need that many!)

I went home and took a muscle relaxer and laid on the couch with a pillow for support. Hubs took care of dinner and everything. I had such a hard time staying awake but I did because I wanted to make sure I slept through the night.

That night, I took another muscle relaxer and then crawled into bed.

I slept so much better and felt ok when I got up on Tuesday but I was so groggy that I decided to take half a day off and sleep off the effects of the muscle relaxer. I went in to work around lunch time, feeling better. I was still really stiff and needed to be careful when bending, but I wasn't in pain.

So, rinse & repeat that scenario (minus the missing half a day of work) and that's how Wednesday went too. At the end of the day on Wednesday though my back popped a bit when I stood up and after that the tension slowly started going away, so maybe it was sort of pinching something in there.

Today I woke up feeling pretty good. Just a little bit stiff, able to walk rather than shuffle throughout the day, and just taking advil. I'm not planning on taking any muscle relaxers tonight as I feel so much better. The area has really loosened up.

So, now I'm trying to think of how I can try and prevent this from happening. I happened upon a couple of blogs that were talking about planks and bridges (mizfit was one of them...) and I think I will try and start incorporating those into my daily routines once I'm feeling a bit better.

Anyway, that's my plan for now. Do you have any suggestions for me?