Fitness Fellowship 2024: Week 41 Check-in

[sylvanwitch]

It has been a long week already, and it's only Monday. I hope the week that was treated you gently, my friends. Please do share, as usual, your ups and downs.



Weight: I'm about where I was last week, or maybe a little bit lighter.

Exercise: My stamina has been fairly non-existent. I think I did yoga maybe four times out of seven days. I did get a lot of steps most days, but yesterday (Sunday), I was so tired from doing some very light gardening that I didn't break 4500 steps for the day. Saturday, we went for a walk after dark to look at a nearby neighborhood's Halloween decorations, and a mile into the mile-and-a-half walk, I started getting lightheaded and had to really push myself to make it back to the car. Anyway, I'm doing what I can when I feel like it's reasonable, and I'm trying to go easy on myself when I can't find the energy for things like yoga.

Eating plan: I was mostly good about this, I think? Honestly, the brain fog this time is worse than the first time I had COVID.

Hydration: Yes, this I've been very good about.

Sleep: With the exception of this morning, when my day's anxieties woke me early, I have been extra good about going off-screen at least a half-hour before bed, getting to bed on time or early, and have slept very well without sleep aids. My body knows it needs the sleep and is, for the most part, letting me get it.

The week ahead: I'm going to continue being careful about over-exertion and hope that my energy levels increase. I've also started taking a higher dosage of D3 because there is medical evidence that suggests it can help with fatigue. Oh, and I've added some cognitive exercises via Lumosity and good, old-fashioned crossword puzzles to try to rebuild some of the cognitive damage COVID may have wrought in my brain.



Go easy on yourself this week! May your goals be easily achieved. :-)

Comments

[china_shop]

It sounds like you're taking good care of yourself. *many many hugs*

I didn't exercise at all last week because I got a head cold and was trying to stop it from sliding down into a chest cold. Which worked! Now I need to get myself back into exercising...

[sylvanwitch]

*so many hugs*

I'm glad you were able to keep the head cold from getting worse and migrating and hope you are feeling better now. May your plan to resume exercise work for you! :-)

[luzula]

Oh, don't feel you have to get in exercise while you're still recovering from covid! A mile and a half sounds like a lot to me...but I suppose it depends on where you are in the recovery process.

As for me, who needs workouts anymore? Today I and my housemate have raked leaves, gone twice to (manually) fetch horse manure at the neighbors', made a warm compost, and planted a plum tree and protected it from herbivores. I'm still loving it. Perhaps I'll grow tired of it eventually, who knows! (And if I got covid I would definitely rest for a while...) Weight and sleep fine, except for one night when I slept badly because my brain wouldn't turn off. Food very good! So glad I have housemates who like to cook now. Ha ha, no excessive screen time.

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you once again for your kindness. I do not do well with self-imposed limits, so it has been hard to convince myself that I'm not being lazy, but I really just do not *feel well*, and I appreciate someone else telling me it's okay to take it easier.

Also, the kind of purposeful exercise you're describing here sounds MARVELOUS! It's one of the things I love best about gardening--getting outside and seeing tangible effects from my labor. Long may it continue so for you, too! :-)

[luzula]

Definitely okay to take it easier. <3

Yes, I love the tangible effects! It feels so meaningful.

[oschun]

Take care of yourself, hon. I hope you're back to your usual self very soon. Take it slow and listen to your body.

I was also sick last week and had to take Thurs and Fri off work. The brain fog was bad for me too. I barely remember last week. It might've been covid, I don't know, I don't have any tests left. I had a weird thing on Thurs night where I thought everything tasted like it had gone bad. I made S sniff everything and refused to believe him when he said it smelt fine. The only thing I could eat was jam on toast.

Oh, and another weird thing! I had night terrors and experienced sleep paralysis for the first time! I thought there was something else in the bed (not S or the cat!) and there was this tapping noise in the room. I couldn't move at all. It was super scary. Anyway, whatever virus I had was relatively short-lived and I woke up on Sunday feeling like a normal human being.

I haven't fasted or exercised at all this week and I probably won't next week either. I'm putting everything on hold until after I get married :)

Feel better soon!

[sylvanwitch]

I've only experienced sleep paralysis once myself, and it was awful, so I empathize with your own experience here. I also had the bad taste thing with COVID this time around (in addition to the more usual symptom of anosmia). I'm glad you're feeling better, and I think it's absolutely on-point to ease up on your usual plans until after the wedding. That's the sort of life event that deserves all sorts of accommodations. I hope it's an amazing day for you both, hon! *HUGS*

[delphi]

I'm really glad you're getting rest and being careful - and I can say, Lumosity was a big help and reassurance when I was recovering from my first bout of COVID and worried about my cognitive function.

I had a decent week with my goals, but I've paused some of my bodyweight exercises because I managed to do something to my gluteus medius - ridiculously, not through exercise, just sleeping on it wrong - and I'm proceeding carefully lest I mess it up further.

[sylvanwitch]

I love Lumosity and so does T. (He started it at my urging and now uses it more often than I do.) I've been having some unsettling cognitive issues, and since so much of my identity (and my job!) is built around my intellect, these issues have been very upsetting. I am feeling better, though, and sharper too. I hope the progress continues.

I am so sorry to hear about your sleep-induced injury and can empathize because I am currently experiencing a sitting-induced injury. It has certainly made walking and bending a lot more interesting. I hope that your heals soon, my friend, and you're back to your exercises when you're ready to be.

same old, same old

[oldtoadwoman]

You've reminded me that I should probably buy more vitamins. I go through weird phases of regularly taking vitamins but then forgetting for an entire week and then remembering again and taking them daily until the bottle is empty and I don't get around to buying more, so then I go months without taking vitamins until I practically forget that vitamins are a thing. (Or I go to the store to buy more, balk at the price, and find myself questioning whether vitamins are even worth it. In fact, I often don't get back on the vitamin habit until I spot them discounted on sale. Which is silly because I will spend way more money than that on a single junk food binge. Why is the price of something that's good for me such an obstacle in my mind?)

I think 200 pounds might be a set-point of sorts for me. (Are "set points" a real thing or just one of those fad diet phrases? I can't keep track of what's real science versus nonsense anymore.) When I eat healthy, I still can't seem to break the 200 mark, but this week I've eaten far too many things that I shouldn't have and I still weighed in at 200 exactly this morning despite expecting an increase.

Re: same old, same old

[sylvanwitch]

I am increasingly baffled by my scale numbers. I've had the same experience you're describing here, where I have not been particularly "good," but the scale doesn't reflect a gain. Then, I'll think I *have* been especially diligent, and there will be no movement or, sometimes, an uptick! It's frustrating.

I don't know what "set points" are, but it sounds like they might be the dreaded WeightWatchers "plateau"?

Anyway, I'm glad you didn't see an increase on the scale despite the challenges of your week. I do hope once you've gotten into a routine with school you find yourself in a better place in terms of eating and exercising. Believe me, I absolutely understand how quickly it all falls by the wayside when you're teaching, though, so absolutely NOTHING but commiseration from me. :-)