[buddha1too]

I digress a bit, but there's a little store near us that only sells beer, wine, cigarettes and lotto tickets. The name of the store is Bad Habits.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Originally Posted by buddha1too

I digress a bit, but there's a little store near us that only sells beer, wine, cigarettes and lotto tickets. The name of the store is Bad Habits.

How precious!

[Tart Cherry Jam]

I did one hour and a few minutes of rowing on the rowing machine, covering the equivalent of 8K on water on Friday. I drank 1.5 liters of water with electrolytes. It was good. I hope to do it once a week. I think it is a reasonable goal for me.

[unaluna]

Originally Posted by Tart Cherry Jam

I have so many goals. It is impossible to meet them all, especially given how many hours I need yo spend in bed to get decent sleep. I simply do not have as many waking hours as most people. Oh well

I had a neighbor who was a therapist, very accomplished, who had her life timed down to the minute. I would linger in the swimming pool for hours, and she would swim for exactly 22 and a half minutes, followed by a 35 minute bike ride, etc. She unalived herself some time ago, idk why. But who can live like that? I have spent my last 20 years on disability and retirement, after 30 years of working, after 20 years of an abusive mother and strict education, whew! just trying to unclench my intestines!

[Tart Cherry Jam]

I agree. Who wants to live like that, optimizing to half a minute? Where is the enjoyment of life?

[Tart Cherry Jam]

on weighted vests

I messaged my physical medicine doctor telling him of the vest and asking if I should eventually get a heavier one. He responded saying that there are pros and cons and asking me to schedule an appointment to discuss a general conditioning plan. I will see him in September and then post about his final thoughts on the pros and cons of weighted vests. So far it feels like the vest causes me to improve my posture. For now I will continue wearing it.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

So I have stopped doing anything except for occasionally walking slowly in a weighted vest for 30-45 minutes and a couple of stretches. I have stopped strength training exercises and the majority of stretches.

And realized that this is just how it is, that I need structure and outside help for resistance training. Sure, I can go rowing on my own, but I cannot motivate myself to do strength training and I do not know enough about how to do it safely, preventing injury. I am at a heightened risk of injury because I am hyperflexible (flexibility is one good thing that you can have too much of).

My trainer went away in April, saying it would be for three weeks. It ended up being months. She went incommunicado many times. She is now waiting for the sale of her late grandma's house in SoCal. I asked to connect me with a colleague of hers for the time being. She promised to connect me with a friend twice, but it never happened. She still does not give me a timeline for when she will be back.

And I have suddenly and just recently regained 5 lbs. I think this is a warning to me that I need resistance training. So I reached out to several services this morning and ultimately negotiated a package where for three months someone will come to my place to train me three times a week, twice on weekdays and then on sundays, at a price that is only $5/hr more than my, I guess I should now say former, trainer's fee, and much below the advertised prices at other services I corresponded with.

I think I have already waited more than enough, since April, for her. She is now risking my liking someone else so much as to stick with them.

This service with which I have signed an agreement has 15 trainers. So if I do not immediately like the first one they send, they will replace. Out of 15 trainers, hopefully there will be someone I will stick with.

As a free add-on, they offer group classes on Zoom, but I do not like Zoom classes. I am looking for personal training.

I have given it enough time trying to see if I can get this going by myself, and failed.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

My update.

My new personal trainer came today for the first time. He is Turkish, a retired soldier and a professional athlete. In amazing shape now but showed me his pictures from before and I could not believe what I saw: he was totally not athletic. We did one hour and he told me to then go walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes at 2.6 mph which I can totally do and will do after I post this update. I will train with him three times a week. He told me to summon my willpower and do cardio on my days off training. If what he means is walking at 2.6 mph, I can do that. I thought he would tell me to walk at 3.5 mph.

I liked him. He hinted at having had depression in the past. He found me to be in not too bad a shape, say at 60% of where I want to be where that is 100%. He told me about his supplement company and meal plans but I said no to that. All I want is training.

It is unfortunate that I recently regained some weight and of course around the waist where I habitually make fat deposits. About 6 lbs but it feels like 15 lbs. I believe the culprit was drinking a cup of tart cherry juice at bedtime for better sleep. I stopped doing that which is a shame because I believe it was helping with sleep.

There is one positive thing that I have achieved in terms of building good habits. At work, there is a tiny little shower room inside the ladies' room. So after I pee, I go into the shower room which is always empty and do my atretches. These are the stretches I described earlier on this thread. It kills two birds: I get a break from sitting at my desk and I get through most of the stretches over the course of a workday. And some of them feel great so it is fun.

My immediate goals are to do personal training, to do cardio on days off, to go to bed on time and to do those stretches.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

5 mins warm-up, 20 mins walking at 2.6 mph, 5 mins cool down. All the while wearing a 12 lb vest and listening to "The murder on the links" by Agatha Christie on audiobook. Came back home and gave myself a quick sink bath; very refreshing.

This is doable. I hope.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

2nd personal training session. Wasn't too hard. I realized how much I had missed all of that.

Followed up with a slow walk around the complex, wearing my weighted vest and listening to "The Murder on the Links" by Agatha Christie on audiobook. Later, finished listening to that amazing story.

Tomorrow, will see my physical medicine doctor and will ask him about the weighted vest.

On Friday, another personal training session.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

I went to my physical medicine doctor's office wearing the weighted vest.

Amazon.com

he really liked how well it fits me and fully endorsed the kind of usage I have for it: going for a walk, walking on the treadmill, cooking. He even said wearing it while using the computer might be OK, but I do not plan to do that.

I am 5'5'' and weight slightly under 230 lbs and am not broad-shouldered. But I think for anyone interested in trying this vest, it is about buying it, trying it on and seeing if it fits, if you feel like it improves your posture (I get that subjective feeling), and if it appears to be snug.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

So I am back to working with a trainer. 3x a week now. But in terms of also making sure I do cardio on my own, no, I skip it often.

Still, this is better than nothing And the exercises given by the trainer are hard!

[raspberrytorte]

I'll join this thread!

I have drank zero coke zeros today and had green tea and caffeine pills instead! I am kicking my Coke zero habit. And physically I feel great!

My husband and I have been going on morning walks and I've been exercising at home everyday. I WILL lose weight damn it!

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Do you like green tea?

[raspberrytorte]

Love it! I make a huge jug of iced green tea with stevia in it. It has to be the green tea with ginger though or it upsets my stomach. Do you like green tea?

[Tart Cherry Jam]

No, I sometimes drink it but purely for health benefits. Unfortunately, I am no more than OK with it. I prefer black tea, possibly because I grew up drinking weak black tea. I also use stevia, or I sometimes use erythritol.

[raspberrytorte]

Originally Posted by Tart Cherry Jam

No, I sometimes drink it but purely for health benefits. Unfortunately, I am no more than OK with it. I prefer black tea, possibly because I grew up drinking weak black tea. I also use stevia, or I sometimes use erythritol.

Black tea makes me nauseous unfortunately.

I've never heard of erythritol. What's that?

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Originally Posted by raspberrytorte

Black tea makes me nauseous unfortunately.

I've never heard of erythritol. What's that?

It is a sugar alcohol (not to be confused with sugar). Like stevia, it has no calories and does not cause a glucose spike, but in addition to those benefits, it is also beneficial in the prevention of caries.

I buy it in bulk from Amazon and use only at home. When I eat out, I carry Stevia packets with me.

[raspberrytorte]

Oh okay.

Yeah. I like stevia a lot.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

I had green tea today and it was OK. I figured that it gets bitter for me when I steep it longer but if it is just a few seconds of immersing the teabag in the water, I actually quite like it.

And the funny thing, I do not need sweetener with it but absolutely must have sweetener with black tea.