Pain-Free, What a Concept

Strangely mostly pain-free. Wow, is this what it feels like to be normal? It’s a short-term prescription, but hopefully it will have long-lasting effects. Might as well enjoy it while I can.

It’s funny to see what people are calling HIIT (high intensity interval training) on youtube, especially since I avoided it for so long. See, I get the idea to push yourself for a bit, and then let up. But back when I was in shape I was already hitting BP 140-180 and I thought what, you’re telling me that’s not enough? And if you’re going to push yourself say, 2 minutes (or whatever), I thought you might as well push yourself as long as possible, right? Get that much more out of it? Why “only” do intervals if you can push yourself and haven’t keeled over yet?

Right now I’m looking at the stuff I’ve been dong and seeing it labeled HIIT and I think you’ve got to be kidding – this is easy. Some of them are doing the activity for 50 seconds, resting for 10 (or various combinations). I’m trying to see if I can push through and not use the 10 second break because that would be even better, right? Let alone the ones that are 45 seconds work and 15 second breaks. Geesh, if I had know it was this easy I would have gotten on board long ago. Of course maybe it’s because some of these are old-people exercises, but not all of them.

Then this bizzare idea that a person can exercise for a smaller time-frame and it still counts. 10 minute cardio? Unheard of when I was younger. I thought one had to do at least 25 minutes in order for it to “count.” I came from the background of ok, how long to we want to exercise? Am I ready to commit to 30+ minutes? Is it worth dragging out the treadmill if not? I wish I had contemplated a less serious approach could still be beneficial instead of a more all-or-nothing approach. Now when I work from home I can do a few minutes on each break. I don’t have to wait until lunch or after work to do a “serious” work-out. What a thought.

Silly Girliness

I’ve never been particularly feminine or girly. One of my mother’s chief complaints was that I didn’t like to dress up and she didn’t want to be seen in public with me (thanks, mom). My one weakness is sparkly stuff. As a child, it’s glitter or crystals. If you try to adapt it to being grown-up, it becomes jewelry. I don’t go for expensive jewelry, but since there’s so much variety of cheap and pretty stuff out there . . .

Last year when I had the cancer scare and waiting for yucky tests and results to come in, I got a ring that ended up kind of having that specific meaning associated with it - hope I don't have cancer. Somewhat recently I thought maybe I should wear the “hope I don’t have cancer” ring more often to see if it could motivate or scare me into eating better. You can tell that didn’t work.

I was on this cheap website my spouse told me about (therefore it’s not my fault, right?), and I thought hey, this one could be a sort of “condolences you can’t eat food like that anymore, but you can look at this ring instead.” Ha. I eventually gave in and bought it, cuz, why not. Now the funny thing is that my size 6 rings are so loose I’ve discovered I’m almost a size 5. Good grief. I still need to lose 100+ pounds, how am I already a size 5? The lowest I ever was, when I had 17-point-something body fat, and WW threatened to kick me out, was a ring size 4.5. Even if one loses weight from the extremities first, this seems weird. I’m still in the “morbidly obese” range (not merely obese, morbidly so). But more importantly, my stupid ring hasn’t even arrived yet and it won’t fit. Wah. How much does that serve me right? I have little ring sizers, so it’s not the end of the world, but still. Of course it’s the cheap kind of website where returns and exchanges are not allowed, and I knew this before purchasing. Oh well.

Weight Loss Desperation?

The prescription I’m taking the next few weeks makes me monumentally hungry. It commonly causes weight gain. I’m upping protein and plants, but may not be enough. Think I may need to resort to incorporating drink meal replacements into my life. Is that an indication of failure? Maybe I should use things like this to re-kick my weight loss even after I'm on the short-term rx? Idk. In theory it's at least partially my fault for being in pain since I'm so heavy. And if it hurts so much to move . . . Of course there are also those injectables and weight-loss surgery one could try. People have been pushing keto type diets on me. After researching and discussing with a nutritionist at work, I don't think that would be a balanced and healthy idea for me. Maybe it could work for some people, but I believe it is also my right to pursue other options (I've been kinda scolded for not doing keto lately). Hopefully the rx helps, so maybe I'm getting ahead of things.

I am not going to have bariatric surgery to lose weight, and I am skeptical about the injectables. Guess I wondered if drink meal-replacements were a gateway act of giving up hope.

Work drama has not helped overall well-being, but not going to go into that. Let's just say escalating stressors there.

Score One for the Rheumatologist

Yay, another provider doing a good job. Maybe you have to see specialists to get better results? Is that the secret?

They did a great overall exam even though I was only complaining about my one knee and one shoulder. Unfortunately they said I was inflamed pretty much everywhere (hands wrists, elbows, knees, ankles) even though I felt pretty good today. They are going to have me get more imaging and a 5 week prescription and see how to proceed based on those results.

Let’s tally the positive points. By saying I was inflamed, they validated my suffering. Not only that, but they apologized for not getting me scheduled sooner (what? It was only 3 or 4 months? Everyone is booked out that far). They were interested in what remedies had or had not worked, and asked if I had any questions before leaving. Follow-up appointment scheduled scheduled without issue.

What a refreshingly positive experience. Even better the front desk was nice. Overall score? Pretty decent, even if I had to wait a while since they were running almost 45 minutes late. Still, I'll take it!