Life by Misadventure 2

Oh, thank you so much for explaining. My heart just breaks thinking of little Salem. I’m glad they are well cared for now.

Yes, the cats are very well taken care of, and Evy's foster mom lets me spend the night whenever I'd like!

Hey, Ceph, my doctor is fit and ripped. He just uses his own body weight. He has put out videos on his website explaining the science behind his diet and exercise plans. He was Paleo before anyone heard of it. He put me on the low carb Paleo diet in 2004 or 2005, and I lost 60 pounds permanently.

On exercise, Paleo philosophy says to focus on building strength.

So, I took his advice on using my own body weight, but I haven’t taken the pull up bar out of the box <blush>. It just attaches to a door frame. I use an exercise ball instead and do exercises I find on YouTube (with hand weights).

He recommends sprinting, but I can’t run. I’m thinking about buying an exercise bike. I could certainly “sprint” on a bike.

@Everyone: Hi! I missed the chat. I was in bed, dying of a cold. It just started today. Winter was like, here's your present. But it also snowed beautiful snow.

@Turtle Rider: I love those pics! Too cute.

@Everyone talking about cats: Is 16 lbs really a lot for a cat to weigh? Wow.

@KT: It is completely hilarious that your cat jumped on your stomach in the middle of the night while you were dead asleep. Lol. I'm so sorry it kind of hurt though.

@Everyone talking about exercise: Exercise rocks. It is clearly a struggle to do it sometimes, for moi anyway, but I feel better after. I like to hike, walk, and gym it. Sometimes I swim. Sometimes I do yoga. Oh my gosh, I'm boring myself. Sorry.

Good morning and good night. Its around 2:30am here.

I can definitely relate to this! Grrrrrrrrrrr (I won’t post the picture )

I think in some cases the therapist deliberately tries to wind us up to try to get a reaction...

My vet advised 12 pounds is the "correct" weight...but I disagree.

Yeah, the plyoga is good for that. It requires no equipment, and is good for both strength and cardio.

For the dumbells I have, there's a number of exercises that can provide good strength training with low weights if you maintain proper form.

Lark's hiking sounds good, but somehow just never seems to happen for me. (Shrug)

Swimming is a bit of a hassle, but might be good if you can't run.

I had been sedentary for too long and needed to work on everything: cardio, strength, flexibility, balance.

The strength work helps with a lot: burning calories, looking better, preventing injury and atrophy. But the cardio tends to do the most for my mood stabilization. That's hugely important to me. The stretch and balance work is the least interesting, but I don't want to end up all crippled as I get older like the previous generations in my family.

Are we all bored yet?

Aww ... here, have a stand-offish hug while I wear a mask.

Hope you get over it quickly.

(Nice picture!)

Thanks Cepheid. Here, have one back.

Glad to hear from you, Fuzzy.

I've warned them off stunts like that, because I'm pretty open and honest in therapy. Otherwise why waste the time, money and severe effort? I'm still convinced they did it a couple of times.

It's not like I've ever laid a finger on anyone in my life (I never did the "boys will be boys thing"), but like most people, I'm uncomfortable with my anger. The therapists never seemed concerned. They seem to view me like this:



Of course, they're right.

Oh, you just need something to take with you to comfort you in therapy...

Oh, I love this!

Aww, that looks like a little pile of trouble!

I see you've transformed into a little pepper. (your "update")

No, not bored here.

We have great hiking around here. I used to do it, but I ended up with hip and knee pain. I was overdoing it with long, challenging hikes intermingled with 20+ mile bike rides. It’s too cold and rainy here now anyway.

I feel the same way. That was three years ago when I was in shape.

I keep coming across this information about exercise helping mood. Stretching is my favorite thing. I just think it feels good.

OK, maybe I’ll go find the exercise thread.

<snicker> I love when someone notices

No one told KT that using the pepper emote too much leads to becoming an actual pepper.

Darn it

Oh my gosh, you’re always cracking me up!

I’m still laughing

I'm having such a hard time relaxing, but I just can't.

Every day there's something I have to run around to do.

For the holiday? Or getting ready for moving? Or the new job? Or all of the above?

All of the above, and then some.

I felt really bad today. My bipolar *really* showed today. Last night my T told me to stop with the donation runs (I literally spend all day every day looking for donations I could get for everyone in the house hold plus Christmas gifts), to cut back on all-day caffeine (I drink 2-3 cups in the morning, 1-2 energy drinks, then 1-2 more cups of coffee....I didn't even tell her that after all this caffeine I drink 3+ glasses or shots of alcohol), and to eat better because if I don't cut back on this stuff I'll end up in a manic episode. She got me riled up last night, and then today, my grandma asked me to please not keep my belongings outside of my room because it was a tripping hazard, and I absolutely LOST IT. I started freaking out, hissing/screaming/talking myself really loudly, throwing things out of my room, stomping around, yelling at my grandma, and my grandma told me, "Don't runaway, just deal with it" and I went out for a smoke and then I broke down and started crying, my grandma was sad, and I told her everything I felt about all the stresses and what my T said, and how all I want to do is to provide for my family and make them happy because I feel like I'm freeloading but I felt that the donation runs weren't appreciated anymore and I was being told to take stuff back, and I told her I have always since I was little had a very hard time expressing and talking about how I really feel because I am so afraid of hurting feelings if I say something bad. I felt so terrible about how I reacted and lashing out at her, and I told her I was very sorry. So she told me she'll help me organize my room and that Papa was working on getting me cardboard for my clothing shelf....they picked up a free clothing shelf which was originally a 6 tier shoe rack from a department store, and the rods lining the shelf kept breaking off no matter what my Papa did, and I just got set off because the reason my clothes were everywhere was because so many rods fell off that there was no place to put my clothes....my Mamma told me that everything I angry about was "small stuff, everything fixable". So she promised she would help me get my room back in order, and after an hour the room was tidy and spotless, and she even made room in the hall closet so I could store my sweaters and pants so I would be able to hang up all my stuff on the shelves, and my Papa cut out cardboard to fit the shelves, so all my clothes are neat and tidy. My Mamma and I went through and organized every area in the room (my bedroom is a living room) and now I have so much space and there's a place for everything.

To make a long story short (too late), I had so much pent up anger from all the donation runs and juggling my first job from my second (I spent an hour this morning filling out online paperwork) and having a reality check from my T that I lashed out, but I was able to express my feelings once I calmed down and that everything got sorted out. All my Christmas stuff is wrapped, although I do have to paint three things for Christmas (mirrors and a local wine cork bottle thing) but all my Christmas stuff is behind me. I want to focus on me right now. I told my T that since October 9th, I had one day where I did absolutely nothing. Since October 9th, everything has revolved around digging through the rubble, bringing home my cats, and going on donation runs for my family. I haven't done anything for myself to relax. I wouldn't even know where to begin.

Do you have things you've wanted to do but haven't had time for since the fire and holiday season started? You so need to kick back, but like you said, it's probably hard to shut off the business. Hmm, is it possible to force oneself into relaxation? Or fake it till you make it? I dunno.