Pictures are Fixed!

Several months back, I changed this blog over to a new email address. In doing so, I ended up losing all the pictures on the blog; I deleted them off the old account, but saved the pictures on my computer's hard drive to eventually re upload. Well, that day has finally arrived: all pictures are back! This is true for Fitness Reviews as well!

30 Day Shred

Yes, it's been awhile since I updated this blog. I have graduated school and had a busy summer/beginning of autumn. I have been moderately active, having discovered that pilates does not make my glucose level drop (while even mild yoga does).

But that really wasn't enough. I had a bit of an epiphany about a month ago: working out may not be inherently fun, but it will let your body actually do more crazy things (like climb monkey bars without your arms screaming at you). So I have decided to slowly up the exercise in my life and make a real effort to get into better shape. Sure, I fully expect the going to be tough thanks to my diabetes, but in the long run this will be totally worth it, making me healthier and happier (in theory).

To that end, I purchased Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred dvd. I read a couple of really promising reviews, so this sounded like the dvd for me. Starting today, I was going to use it every day to jump start my new outlook on life.

Before I go any further, let me say that the day after Halloween is the worst day you can choose to try being healthier. There's a lot of junk food around and I know full well that I don't have the best will power.

But junk food aside, I actually did try this workout today. Before going any further, I will admit that I am in terrible shape, so anything this intense is going to help me. I was okay when it came to the ab section (thank you, pilates!) but I was dying, most especially in the strength section. I know full well that I'm not a fan of strength training, but I'm trying to keep my epiphany in mind while tackling it.

When I finished, sure, my arms and legs felt like jelly. I did stop part way through to check my glucose, so I didn't actually work out quite as intensely as I was supposed to (but like I said, I'm in terrible shape!) But I felt absolutely awful. I had a foul mood at the end of it, which came as quite a shock - working out is supposed to make you feel good (and it normally does). It's possible that this will pass in a week or so once I'm more used to the exercises (and exerting myself like that), but I'm really not sure what happened here.

On the plus side though, my glucose level didn't come crashing down, so that was encouraging.

Then while I was getting ready to write this post, I stumbled on this review. Apparently people are getting hurt by the 30 Day Shred. So now I may have to rethink my plan. At the very least I may have to come up with a better warm up to help protect myself (better safe than sorry, right?)

Either way, I was planning on giving my body a rest tomorrow (even though I'm supposed to be doing this dvd daily); I think I'll opt for a walk instead. I'm also going to look through all my other fitness dvd's and see what other options I have. And maybe one of them won't leave me in such a foul mood at the end of the workout.

2011 "Weekly Update" April 16

Yeah, those weekly updates aren't going so well. But on the plus side school is over! I have taken the week off in an attempt to catch up on sleep. And while I wasn't very active during the last few weeks of school due to major time commitments, I have been outside for walks over the last few days. So hopefully I will be both active physically and more active here on this blog now that school is out!

2011 "Weekly Update" - February 12-27

Well, I really need to rethink everything. For one thing, the weekly updates on Fridays don't seem to be working. I am going to need to pick a new day, but I'm not quite sure which one yet. Mondays might be good, but I have school then, so I'll have to give it a try and see what happens.

So what has happened over the last few weeks? A few big things. My brother has been moving into his new house, so I've helped a bit with that. I bought a new bed, so I've been busy cleaning out my room, making more space for it and just generally decluttering. And Study Week happened (over the last week).

Decluttering has been interesting. I got rid of 7 bags of trash, 4 blue bags full of paper, and donated books, clothes, etc to the local library and the Diabetes Clothesline program. If the trucks pick up your donation, they take all kinds of items! My room feels better because it is less cluttered (although I lost some space, so my closets ironically feel a bit more jam-packed in some places). But the one major downfall to decluttering was that I kept going low. A lot. Apparently moving boxes and cleaning in general makes you much more active than you would think. And while activity is good, going low really isn't. I ended up drinking a lot more juice and regular pop than I would have liked.

Study Week also happened over the last week. While it's been great to kind of relax by not worrying about school, the last few days in particular haven't been very healthy. I went on a road trip with a friend and we ended up eating rather unhealthy (by which I mean we ate a lot of desserts). To top that off, my glucose was on a pendulum - I started off high, then went low, then high again. Repeat. So while I had fun, I felt rather unhealthy and rather off the whole trip because of the glucose problems. On the plus side I did not have ketones, so that's good.

So I think I need to start setting weekly goals again. I haven't done so in about a month. And it looks to me like without some sort of goals laid out, healthy living seems to go on the back burner. So for the coming week, I will:

1. Walk at least 5 times during the week. This seems a bit much, but I'd like to feel more active, and I really don't feel like being inside. So I might have to bundle up a bit!
2. Drink only water, milk and tea. Milk will be for mealtimes. Tea if I'm cold, but I will try to have green tea so I don't need sweeteners. I'll try to drink water otherwise.
3. Eat only healthy snacks. I will try making my own snacks, rather than buying things (like chips) from the store. Although buying things like baby corn is okay. To that effect, I'll pull out my Grazing cookbook and try making something new!
4. Only hit the snooze button once! I wake up sometimes and feel okay, but don't really feel like waking up. So I hit the snooze button several times, and when I do wake up I feel kind of crappy. So even if I don't get as much sleep as I should, I'm hoping that will help me feel better in the mornings!

These goals are a bit more agressive than my previous goals, but I really want to commit to being healthier. I want to feel better and have more energy. I'm coming up to the end of school, so I know I'm going to be busy in the coming month. But I'll also need that energy to help me get through. And I'm hoping that energy will help stave off any depression once school is over. I felt rather depressed the last two years when school ended, and I'd really like that not to happen! Summer is short and I want to enjoy it!

2011 Weekly Update 5: February 5-11

This week I spent a lot of time cleaning my room. I found out that I'm getting a slightly bigger bed (I'm finally moving up from a Twin to a Double). Unfortunately I'll need to make some room for said bed. So I decided to start cleaning up my room (I've also been planning on doing so for awhile now; I want to make my eventual move out easier). To that effect, I got rid of 6 trash bags and 3 1/2 blue bags of paper. I went through my books, getting rid of quite a few while organizing the rest. I also went through some clothes, getting rid of a lot of stuff that I haven't worn or don't really like anymore.

Surprisingly, while doing all of this cleaning, I kept going low. It turns out that cleaning keeps you active, especially lifting things. So even though I wasn't specifically "working out," I was really active all week.

Unfortunately, as I've already mentioned, I kept going low. So I drank a lot of regular pop this week, which was kind of counter-productive (and I'm getting rather sick of pop!)

2011 Weekly Update 4: Jan 29-Feb 4

This is again going to be a quick update. I was super busy with my seminar all week. It hit the point where I really didn't have time for anything else. So this week things will get back to normal. My big goal is to fit in exercising, so that is going to trump any other goals. I'm going to stick with the normal 3 times. Wish me luck!

2011 Weekly Update 3: Jan 22-28

There's not a lot to report right now. I'm expecting my period so I didn't bother to weigh myself. I did exercise three times this past week. My aunt and uncle were here to visit, so I ended up drinking quite a bit over the last few days.

I have another seminar at the end of this week, so I don't know how things will go. But I will just keep trying and hope for the best. Right now I don't have any other goals to make, and don't really want to try just with how busy I'll be with school. I think I will just try to be active three times this week and count that as a victory if it happens!

2011 Weekly Update 2: Jan 15-21

So this week didn't go as well as last week. I only exercised two of the three days I wanted to. One day I walked/jogged a little bit to work. This wasn't a super long walk/jog (about 15 minutes) and it was really cold so I only went one way and got a ride home. But it was a lot better than my other attempt to workout: I tried to do a Yoga routine, but didn't have all of the proper equipment. So I just sort of did my own thing, which amounted to me lying on the mat. To top that off, I didn't weigh myself this morning, so I have no idea how I've done. But I'm guessing not too well: I don't think I ate very well at the beginning of the week.

But I made a great discovery: my salter scale can be used to actually weigh things. I know, I feel really stupid even writing it. But I used it to weigh crackers today, then used the weight to figure out how many carbs were in my serving. I know it's not rocket science, as that's what you do with scales. But I feel like a whole new world has been opened up for me!

I also decided to sign up for an online writing class. I know I don't have a lot of time as it is with school, but this was something I really wanted to do. I feel happier working on the class, even with the catching up I have to do (I started a week late), than I have felt when working on school work. So I'm hoping that will help to improve my mood a bit (and maybe even help me get a story or two published, which would be great!)

So for the coming week, I need to make some time for exercise between school, writing class and work. I've got my work schedule, so I will schedule some workouts around the times I am busy. I'm going to go with only two goals for the coming week: lose 2lbs and workout 3 times in the week. I'll weigh myself tomorrow when I get up to see how my progress goes.

2011 Weekly Update 1: Jan 7-14

So here is the first of my "weekly" updates for 2011. Hopefully they'll actually be weekly updates this year.

My goals for the week were:
1)lose 2lbs
2)don't drink any booze
3)workout 3+ times this week

With the first goal, I wasn't successful. I managed to lose .4lbs. I'm not really sure if that means anything, but that's okay. I will try again next week.

The second goal was a big failure. I drank at my grandmother's birthday party, then again today. This one I will also try again with. Luckily next week there aren't any family gatherings, so hopefully I'll be more successful.

I thought I failed my third goal as well. But looking back, I was active for 3 times during the week. I played DDR on the 7th, I walked to and from my grandmother's house (an approx 40 minutes total), and I hiked in to take pictures of a waterfall on the 11th. I even managed to be active on two of the three days I specifically scheduled activity! The problem with this week was that I signed up for to present a seminar this Monday, so I've been working on that and have been feeling like I don't have any time for activity (which is clearly false, but that's how I do feel). But the seminar will be out of the way, which means I will be less stressed next week (after Monday)!

Unfortunately my rewards for the week didn't work. It's hard to reward yourself when you're working like mad on a seminar. So I'll try that again next week, too.

So for now, I'm going to try the same three goals.

Goals and Rewards

As I am slowly making my way through Jillian Michaels' Winning By Losing, I have found myself stuck while trying to come up with goals and rewards for myself. She recommends writing them down so you know what you're trying to do and you have something to look forward to once you complete it. Overall the goals haven't given me much trouble, but the bigger rewards have. Here`s what I`ve got so far:

Goals	Rewards
Long-Term Goals -I want to lose 30 lbs -I want to feel strong, confident and beautiful -I want to have a lot of energy -I want to be able to sleep straight through the night	Long-Term Rewards ?
Monthly Goals -I will lose 8lbs this month	Monthly Rewards -I will read a novel of my choice without feeling guilty about school
Weekly Goals -I will lose 2lbs this week -I will not drink any booze from the 7th-16th -I will work out at least 3 times this week	Weekly Rewards -I will read one (or 2 if short) story(ies) from an anthology of my choice without feeling guilty about school
Daily Goals -whatever the goal might be	Daily Rewards -varies but if a workout was involved, write for an equivalent amount of time

I’m really liking some of the smaller goals. I think they will be great for the next few months while school is still in (at which point I will need to reassess my goals). They will also help me out by strengthening a writing habit and helping me get through some of the anthologies I have piled up in my room. But I’m going to have to really think about what a fitting Long-Term Reward will be (and I’ll need a few more good daily ones as well!)

A New Year

Over the holidays I rediscovered DDR. I haven't played in a long time and jumping on the dance mat felt amazingly good. Unfortunately, along with feeling good, playing DDR forced me to take a good hard look at myself. As I expected, I was a lot slower than I used to be. But the big problem is that my lung capacity is completely gone - I tire out a lot faster than I used to. On the plus side, my muscles remember how to play all of my fave songs, so I can still play them, and even beat some of them on hard mode. But the lack of lung capacity and the easily tiring really bothered me.


Along with that, I have known that my mental health has not been good for awhile, but it seems to be getting worse, not better. I have been stressed thanks to school (nothing new there) but I also think I am withdrawing. I don't want to be around large groups of people at all (and by large I mean 3+ people which isn't good). And I have been feeling angry at all kinds of stupid things.


So today I went out shopping by myself, which was nice. In my travels, I did two things. First, I picked up Jillian Michaels' book Winning by Losing. And second, after picking up a notebook for myself, I bought myself tea at Starbucks and wrote about the things that are bothering me (and some rather tentative fixes for some of them). While writing about things doesn't fix them, it sure made me feel better (at least for now). So my next step is to come up with some real strategies to make me feel better. And I'm thinking that being active will really help in that regard (giving me more energy and possibly helping my mood lift a bit).


But the problem is the whole "working out" thing. I don't like to do things that feel structured and like an actual work out. That's why I shy away from the gym in favour of something like DDR. I'm thinking that a good fix for me will be to get a dog, but that cannot happen until after I move out. (Hilarious side note: the dog idea evolved from me wanting a horse. A horse would be awesome but is entirely impractical unless I win the lottery. A dog, on the other hand, is completely realistic. I'm planning on getting both a cat and a dog when I move out). So I need to come up with something in the interim.


As part of the exercise thing, I think I am going to try to schedule certain times where I will definitely work out in one form or another. Those times will have to be flexible though to allow for problems with glucose levels (I can't work out if I'm low). I'm hoping that actually scheduling time will help me stay active during the coming term. I'm also planning on scheduling time for other things so that school doesn't completely take over my life again, resulting in a stressed and depressed me.

As to Jillian Michaels' Winning by Losing, I was wandering through the bookstore in the mall and found myself in the healthy living section. I'd recently bought a Self magazine featuring Michaels, and she sounded like a down-to-earth person who I wanted to hear what she had to say. I flipped through a couple of her books before deciding on this one because this one started with a section on the self; this first section is all about changing how you look at things. I know that's the hardest part about changing your life, and really feel like I could use some help with it. I'm hoping this book will be the help I need.

As a side note, I also want to get into better shape in the hopes that it will help my knee. I don't know why I thought of it today, but I'm wondering if my knee isn't really getting better because I am so out of sh

ape. I guess the only way to know for sure is to try.

Finally, I know I was abysmal with the weekly updates last year, but I will make a renewed attempt this year. Like exercise and other stuff, I am going to schedule them into my weeks so maybe I will actually stick with them this year!

Wish me luck with everything!