neeni88

[neeni88]

April 24th - Day 14

My mettle and level of determination was put to the test today. I made myself vulnerable to the guy I was dating and he responded coldly. It was puzzling and a bit painful and really, all I wanted to do when I got home was just curl up into my bed and sulk. But, I was like no, I have to go workout. I can't break this streak, especially not over a worthless guy. I came home before heading back out although my initial plan was to go straight to the gym and do some pool stuff again, but I no longer felt like swimming, so I stopped at home in order to get my workout clothes etc. I also decided that I still wanted to enjoy the hot tub and I would do that once I finished my actual workout. I was alone for the most part in the women's fitness section and so I got a chance to look at all the weight machines and what they do and how to use them (based on the picture instructions posted on them). My lower back/upper leg is still killing me. I remembered my physiotherapist said to do some stability exercises like pulling on a weight but grounding yourself which strengthens your back muscles. So I did some of those kinds of exercises, and arm exercises and just any kind of exercise that would target my pained area. I feel like it just needs to be worked and strengthened and then maybe it'll stop hurting so much. Anyway, I did weights for about 15 minutes or so, then went on the recumbent bicycle and did another 15 minutes on there. Then I changed into my bathing suit and chilled in the hot tub for another 15 minutes. I swear, I'd live in that hot tub if they'd let me. Feels sooo good! And I was so proud of myself for pushing through and forcing myself to go despite the low mood I was in. It made such a difference and I'm in a much much better mood now! :)

[neeni88]

April 23rd - Day 13

Today I decided I would go to the pool at the location in Mississauga since I recently discovered that it's pretty much 24/7. I packed my stuff before heading to work so that I could just go straight there afterwards and go I did. Unfortunately, with it being a busier location, I didn't get the pool area to myself at all. It wasn't too too bad - about 4 to 5 other people either in the pool or in the hot tub, cold plunge, steam room that's there as well. Anyway, right away, I got the barbels and started out doing underwater arm exercises. I did my best to ignore everyone else there and just do my own thing - there was no competition, I tried my best not to be self-conscious and care what anyone was thinking of me. So yeah, I then pretty much did breaststroke, flutter kicks on front and back all while holding the barbels ... I didn't keep count but I would estimate that I did about 16 laps in total and was in there for about 30 minutes. I took a break after each lap but also took that time to stretch, do more arm and leg exercises. I think my favourite is the lying on my back with the barbels being held down underneath me. It's by far the most comfortable yet effective swim style and although I move slowly, cause I'm not the best swimmer, I just close my eyes and push myself as far as my little legs will take me. I can feel it working my legs, abs and triceps all at the same time, so it's beneficial. I ended up developing a curiosity for the cold plunge pool that I saw there and it mentioning the benefits of it to improve circulation and heal torn muscle fibres etc etc. So when I got out of the pool, I went to feel it and I was like hellllll no, I won't even be able to stick my toe in there. So, I went into the hot tub, relaxed a bit (cried a little bit too cause I was just feeling kinda unattractive and unlovable but hopefully no one noticed the tears running down my face cause I was wet anyway)... but then after a while I decided I would try the cold plunge after all and just put my legs into it. I saw other people going in and out and a guy was saying yeah, you should try it, it's good for you. I initially told him I don't think I can. But eventually, after I saw this other girl go in without even a flinch or reaction on her face, I figured maybe I can handle it. So I step in there and oh my gosh, it was so fricking cold - the pain was so intense, I had to cover my mouth with my hands to keep from screaming (I'm so emotive, there's no way I could keep a straight stone cold face like that girl did and if I wasn't alone, I would be even more expressive to whoever I was with as to how freaking cold it was!) I managed to go all the way up to just my hip (which was my intent to try and ease this pain I've been having in my lower back, hip and upper thigh area) and stay in there for maybe 30 seconds. It felt good once I got out though. I decided to go in again and stayed for maybe another 30 seconds and then quickly ran back out to the hot tub, which led to a burning sensation on my skin from the hot/cold contrast. I'm not gonna lie though, it felt nice once you were OUT of the water, so I think I'd do it again. Anyway, that was my day 13 workout. I think I'll try to go to the pool again for Day 14 - I love it!

[neeni88]

April 22nd - Day 12

Today I could not think about what I wanted to do. I didn’t manage to get up in time for hot yoga, the pool would be closed, and I was so freaking sore I was contemplating actually giving up, but then I was like no, I can’t break the streak. I didn’t want to do anything that would further my pain (normally this would be a good time to let my body rest and recover but I had to keep keeping on) so I just decided I’d do some stretching once I got home. I used the resistance band, laid on my back on the ground and just did whatever stretches felt good for my hip and legs that are so freaking sore. I gotta admit, I may have been under 30 minutes (about 20) but I decided I deserved somewhat of a freebie for even trying despite the pain I was experiencing, so I say kudos for me - day 12 counts if for the effort alone. Oh and also, I made it a point to make sure I got up from my chair at work as often as possible and just walked around, worked standing up when I could and just tried my best to reduce my sitting. It was a combination of seeing a video highlighting how bad sitting is for us humans and also the pain in my lower back/hip/upper thigh that seems to get worse with sitting. I’m pretty sure it’s because of my favouring my left side all these years, putting all the weight on it when standing and even when sitting. The left leg is trying to say it’s had enough and the right side needs to step up and take off some of the burden. I dunno if right side is fully up to it though yet even though I’m doing my best to strengthen it so it can at least be a shared burden of 60/40 for the left and right. It’ll never be 50/50 because of the leg discrepancy as well as the amount of years I put all the burden on my left (my body has adjusted accordingly and it’ll no doubt take years to readjust it, if it can be at all). Anyway, yeah, I got up, did squats and generally moved around a lot more than I usually do at work and I’m gonna continue to do that from now on and stop being a lazy chair monkey.

[neeni88]

April 21st - Day 11

Today, I decided that I would walk the hallway at work for half an hour to get my exercise in. I had my remote headset to take any calls that might come in, set the timer on my phone and just got to walking. I was walking around the office and hall in circles for a while but it honestly started making me dizzy and I didn't want to disrupt anybody that was working in the office cause it'd probably make them uncomfortable/irritated to see me just walking back and forth, back and forth. So then I decided to just stay out in the hall area and walk up, pivot, and then back down the length of the office. After a while, I actually started to work up a sweat and I was feeling its effects, which was good. It seemed to take forever to finally make it to 30 minutes, and since I had my phone on me, it was counting my steps. However, I was surprised to see it was only about 4300 steps or so. I was like how do they expect people to make it to 10000 steps every single day??! I felt like I was walking forever and it wasn't even 5000 steps. Like, who has time to put in 10000 steps on a daily basis?? Certainly not I. Doesn't matter though, I still walked for 30-35 minutes and successfully completed day 11.

[neeni88]

April 20th - Day 10

Well I started afternoon shift today and it's probably going to be one of the hardest shifts to get my workout into. I realize that I'm going to have to be a bit more lenient on the whole 24 hour, has to be before midnight to count thing. I won't be getting home until at least 11:30pm and so I won't have any time to get a workout in before midnight. Anyway, I found out today that there are perks to the afternoon shift - I decided I would do swimming today cause I've just been so sore and I didn't want to do anything to further aggravate my poor muscles. So, I came home, did my chores, got ready and headed out to the gym to go swimming. I got there and there was one guy in the pool and one guy in the hot tub (by the way, the hot tub was my main motivating factor that helped me actually follow through with going swimming - it was to be my reward). So I got into the pool (which was pleasantly tepid) and did a lap doing breaststroke. Wow, I couldn't believe how out of breath I was after. I did about 4 laps and each time had to take a couple minutes to catch my breath. Then I used the flutter board and tried to do some kicking laps (I totally suck, I basically move 1 cm per minute when I'm doing that - I don't know how to propel myself forward. It also doesn't help that I can't float.) Then I used the water barbels and did some water resistance weight training which felt pretty good. I stayed at the wall of the pool and alternated working my arms with the floating barbels and working my legs doing kicking outwards and cycling moves. I also had the idea to walk the length of the pool (the whole thing is just shallow) trying to balance on the black line while pushing the barbels up and down with each step - it turned out to be a good challenge. I then tried pushing down the barbels to help me to float while going the length of the pool doing either flutter kicks or breast stroke kicks, and then also tried doing breaststroke with the arm movements and all while holding the barbels - that also turned out to be a nice challenge. Then I had the idea to lie on my back while pushing the barbels down and kicking my legs and went the length of the pool 2 times doing that. I actually really enjoyed that. I wasn't planning on getting my hair wet, but I thought screw it, whatever. It was nice having my ear underwater and hearing only your breath and the soothing sound of the water. By that time, I was totally alone in the pool area so I was just totally enjoying it. I spent about 35 - 40 minutes in the pool and frankly, I feel I gave myself an even better workout than aqua zumba did. Then...I claimed my reward. I got into the hot tub, no one else around and just relaxed and enjoyed the heat and the jet massage and kinda just sat there letting my limbs float starfish style. It was so nice. I wish I could do this every day after evening shift but unfortunately on the weekend, the pool closes for the night. Boo! For a moment there, I was just feeling rather blissful and content. I'm gonna try to go back to the pool come Monday when it'll be open again at night. I'll even take any other opportunity to get to the pool around this time when no one else is around cause it was just so perfect. So, now I'm officially one tenth of the way through my challenge and I'm feeling good - sore, but good. :)

[neeni88]

April 19th - Day 9

Today I went to a Blue Jays game. I was going to try to go to the gym beforehand but then I figured I'm going to be doing so much walking that I'm going to count that as my exercise for the day. We did a shitload of walking and a ton of freaking stairs walking to and from the Rogers Centre. It was good. I feel like had I not been exercising for the past week, I could easily have burnt out, collapsed and died, but luckily, I had built up enough strength and stamina to keep up. So yeah, that was my exercise for Day 9. And the Jays won by the way. :)

[neeni88]

April 18th - Day 8

Today was my physiotherapy session and it went pretty well. I was on level 9 on the bike and did that for 10 minutes. I had to wonder if it was broken or something because level 9 would have been way too hard for me a few weeks ago, but it actually felt easy. My physiotherapist was quite proud. I went up in the amount of bands on the shuttle and all around was just pushing myself a bit further. Of course, by the end my hamstring was starting to be like, okay, you're pushing it a bit too far lol. My therapist massaged it out a bit and said to book an appointment for next week, so it looks like it's gonna just be a once a week thing from now on. Yay!

[neeni88]

April 17th - Day 7

Today I did exercise sessions through the 8fit app. It was near the end of the day (close to 11:30 pm) when I got into action trying to fit in my exercise before midnight. I did a bunch of wall sits, wall push-ups, squats, running in place, etc. Each of the 3 sessions were about 9 minutes and then the warm up was a couple minutes or so, so all in all, 30 minutes. Day 7 workout complete.

[neeni88]

April 16th - Day 6

I finally made it to hot yoga AND completed a class. It was amazing and I wish I had kept up with it since I started in 2014. I was dripping sweat like crazy but I'd like to think that it was all the toxins in my body and my mind just pouring out, cause I felt mentally cleansed at the end. The studio at this GoodLife location was very nice and they actually provide you with mats as well, which serve as extra cushion underneath your own mat since the floors aren't padded like the one at the location closer to me. It was funny because, it being Easter, the instructor at the end went around doling out chocolate eggs while we were in relaxation mode. Of course, considering the fact that the room is hot, the chocolates were all melted. Oh well, I still ate 'em. All day I felt pretty good and actually was considering doing some more activity later in the day, but didn't end up doing so. My body is starting to feel a bit sore, but I'm not in any kind of unbearable pain. We'll see how I feel tomorrow once the effects of the yoga moves manifest.

[neeni88]

April 15th - Day 5

Today I went for a 35 minute walk in the evening with my mom just around the neighbourhood, down by the ravine, through the park, through a couple streets and back up our main street. It was an awesome day and overall it was a good walk. Nothing spectacular, but I got my heart pumping a little and stayed on track. I had originally planned on going to hot yoga in the morning, but something more important came up, that being April the giraffe finally giving birth. I missed the birth part but I at least wanted to see the calf get to its feet in real time. So, I vow to make a very big effort to go to yoga tomorrow morning.

[neeni88]

April 14th - Day 4

I didn’t get to workout until 11:30 pm due to visiting a friend out in London for most of the day. I had half an hour to not miss out on the streak I have going here. I had no idea what to do cause I didn’t want to do the workout again from yesterday since I was sore, and I didn’t want to go to the gym, so I decided to just play some music and dance. It started off slow and I didn’t really start breaking a sweat and moving my body till I played the “Dollar” song, then I started getting a good heartbeat going lol. I must say, it was quite fun and all in all, I would say I got about 30 minutes of cardio in. I’m going to try to wake up early tomorrow in order to make the 11:00 morning hot yoga class. Feeling good. :)

[neeni88]

April 13th - Day 3

Last day of day shift and I was exhausted. If I sat anywhere for more than 5 minutes, I started dozing. I thought for sure near the end of the night when I just could not keep my eyes open, that there's no way I'll find the energy to do a workout. But somehow, a second wind hit me and I let the birds out to get their exercise while I used the 8fit app and a couple of their workout routines which included push-ups, planks, side kicks, squats, lunges, etc doing reps with short bits of rest in between. I think it did something cause my legs were so sore the next day.

[neeni88]

On my impromptu walk on Day 2

[neeni88]

April 12th - Day 2

Well, many obstacles were presented today, but I managed to remain on track. I was tempted to say fuck it, I’ll start over on another day, but I’m glad I didn’t.

First of all, note to self - do not rush off to hot yoga giving myself only 10 minutes to prepare when I haven’t been to hot yoga in at least a couple years. I thought I would make it for what I thought was a 7:30 class as Kingspoint. I got home, rushed in, got dressed, packed my bags and headed out. Arrived in good time, got into the change room and then realized I forgot my yoga mat. Fuck! Okay, no worries, maybe I can just use my towel cause the floors are padded so maybe I can get by. I grab my water, towel and rush to the class since I only had about 7 minutes at that point. I open the door and everyone’s laying down and right in the middle of “happy baby” pose. I was like what the hell…. Of course everyone looks at me the same way. I come in and lay my towel down and lay on it, and then it occurred to me that I had barged into the end of the previous class that started at 6:30 (I initially thought they had started early and were already fully into it). Oops! But then I’m running it over and over in my head and thinking that they usually give enough time between classes, and why wasn’t anyone waiting outside the door, and also why wasn’t the door locked (I thought they locked it during the class so that this very thing couldn’t happen). I felt like an idiot but I just decided I’d lay there until the end of the class and then start with the 7:30 bunch. When it was over, the yoga teacher started saying to me that this was the 6:30 class and that next time I should check the schedule. And she was saying this in a nice but annoyed manner. I tried telling her I saw on the app that a class started at 7:30 but she kept talking over me and she’s like you can check the schedule online, the schedule’s also on the door, and you can also check the app. Finally, I let her finish and I’m like, that’s just it, I did check the app and it said 7:30 pm. And she’s like oh, maybe it was the McLaughlin location. I’m still thinking that I was mislead and the app was wrong, but then another girl in the class actually agreed (I think) that it said that and the teacher backed off. I figured there’s obviously not going to be another class after this one so I packed up and left. I went back to the locker and checked the app again and lo and behold, it was I that was in the wrong. I totally somehow misread the schedule and location and mixed it all up completely. I felt like an absolute idiot and was ready to just go home in shame. But I’m like no, I gotta at least do something. Something was pushing me to just keep trying and not give up and work through the obstacles. I decided that since I was there, I’d just go on the treadmill for 30 mins, but then I realised I forgot my sneakers thinking I was gonna be doing yoga so I don’t need them. Fuck! Now I feel totally defeated. I pack up and just leave and on the drive home decided that maybe I’d just do a quick walk around the block. So I just ran inside quickly, got on my running shoes and got my headphones and phone to go for a walk. I badly needed to clear my head being really upset at this point. It was crisp outside but it felt nice to breathe in the fresh air. I started at 7:52, felt like I was walking for a quite a bit, then checked the clock and it was only 7:56 at that point. I was like oh my god. I committed to doing a half hour walk. So I walked down the street, crossed over to the ravine, into the park, around the paths there, discovered what looks like a makeshift lake due to flooding, got startled by a pair of loons, walked back out of the park, went down the ravine path to the end of Ken Whillans, then across and back up on the other side and was on track to complete 30 mins or more by the time I got home. I started feeling a bit of pain around the pins in my left hip so I may have overdone it a little, but other than that, I wasn’t as winded as I thought I would be for walking that long, so that was good. Overall, I was proud of myself for not giving up and still pushing forward and doing something, despite feeling so defeated about the whole yoga thing. So, there you have it, I completed day 2 and I’m still on track. Now, let’s see what challenges day 3 brings.

[neeni88]

My 100-Day Challenge - April 11th to July 20th 2017

April 11th - Day 1 Today I decided to make my physiotherapy session my first activity. Finally, after months of pain, progress and regress, my hamstring was feeling really good and strong and my physiotherapist was so pleased to see that. I felt very confident that I could now take on the physical challenge of the next 100 days. I cleared it with my physiotherapist and she said just as long as I take it easy and know my limits, as well as work a different body part each day, and don't be too repetitive with my activities (doing cycling each and every day) then I should be fine. At the session, I did cycling for about 8 minutes, clam shells, balancing, ball rolls and presses, the shuttle, got a hamstring massage (which she even says it feels better), and actually skipped the lasering this time. I've also been downgraded (or is it upgraded) to having to only come in once a week, instead of twice, so that's an improvement. All in all, a good start.