#Gym Stats!
It was another push day and I came through just fine, no matter how it felt at certain moments. Working out has taught me how often I let how I feel at a current moment control that moment.
Between that and mindfulness, I’ve learned that I can step back and take stock independent of how I feel.
The result is progress on my goals. There’s a saying stenciled on the wall of this gym here. “The key to success is consistency to purpose.”
@JGSchaeffer Six days a week. I take Sundays off.
I also do a half hour of warm up in the morning, just get going calisthenics. 3 minutes of plank, 100 leg lifts, things like that.
I spent a long time neglecting the health of this body, but over the last ten years, I’ve come to take better care of it.
I’m a long distance thru hiker, and I get so much from the work, even if some days its hard.
@NiveusLepus @JGSchaeffer Wow! That's awesome!
You flatter an old beast. ^_^ If it’s possible for me, it’s possible for anyone. Mired in self hatred, at 21, I was 370 lbs. I’ve learned and grown a lot since then, or it at least seems like I have made some progress.
The goals I chase, I chase because they serve my purposes. Having a high degree of physicality means I can respond better to what arises in my world. I often travel to help people in my network do things like move, or recover from surgery.
Any amount of physical activity is good for the body, a 1/2 hour of walking is half hour you aren’t sitting in a chair, and those gains add up. People look at my 2 hrs and boggle, but I see people at the gym just getting started every day, or people in the sunset of their years, just being a boss, and those are the ones that are my heroes
I know how hard it is to get started and I know how hard it is to stay on that horse. If you give it your best, I’m proud of you
@NiveusLepus @TrueBloodNet OMG you are amazing! From 370 to where you are now. Just incredible!🤩🥰🤩
@JGSchaeffer @TrueBloodNet That glow to the west is me, my friend. ^_^
@NiveusLepus @JGSchaeffer That is amazing Becca. So proud of you!
I went from a very muscular 175 to 305 when I ripped the tendons out of my ankles in a snow incident in my late 30s. Took me over a decade to be diagnosed and then get it repaired. Another decade to really move the needle on weight down to my fighting weight. Then I bounced back to 250. During pandemic lockdown, I got fed up and started dancing through my chores, tracking calories etc, Now 5 lbs above being just fat. :) #Goals
@TrueBloodNet @NiveusLepus AWESOME! ❤️💃💃💃💃❤️
@TrueBloodNet @JGSchaeffer Yeah, I bounced back to 230 for a while there after an Injury in 2021 led to tend of my pacific crest trail thru hike at 2000 miles in. I was a month away from completing the whole trek and I got deeply demoralized.
I fought it back, put down the waffles, and got to work.
I’m resolved to keep coming back stronger than before.
@NiveusLepus @TrueBloodNet Wow again - both of you on persevering through injuries! I have this weird 50 lb slow bounce I’ve done several times now that I’d like to end with consistency in working out. 2009: 190; 2012: 140; 2017: 190; 2020: 140; 2023: 190. Enough!
@JGSchaeffer @NiveusLepus 2 things that helped me were working out a group of meals that I knew about what the calories were consistently and sticking to those until I had time and energy to figure more out. And secondly to increase my movements during every day activities. Dance while you do things like dishes and vacuuming. Lift milk jugs up and down while getting them from the fridge to the table - or cans whatever.
GL!
@TrueBloodNet @NiveusLepus Wow. Yes that is amazing. I’m working towards consistency and making exercise the centre of my gravity again. It’s not easy after decades of intense computer-focused work at all hours. I’m 54 now. Are you in your 50s too?
@JGSchaeffer @TrueBloodNet I am 42, 43 in January.
@NiveusLepus @TrueBloodNet Keep going! As you keep it up during perimenopause phase, you will be so much the healthier for it! I’m in Crone Era now (freedom came and I graduated to post-menopause this past February) so my body has relearning to do for sure. But I’m doing my bit!
@JGSchaeffer @TrueBloodNet I am hoping the healthy choices you are making now will gift us many years of encouraging each other! ^_^
You are a rad and groovy soul.
@NiveusLepus @TrueBloodNet Awww… You Too!❤️🥰🤩🥰❤️
@NiveusLepus @JGSchaeffer Awww you just made me tear up a lil bit!
@JGSchaeffer @NiveusLepus Oh I'm WAY past perimenopaus.. can you be past post menopause? :)
I agree though, the only path is forward!
@TrueBloodNet @NiveusLepus This was me on Feb 5, my Crone Birthday, my Day 365!!! I think there is a past-post menopause phase - I still have hot flashes and some estrogen imbalance but waaaay less than before. Once they taper off, I won’t need the 37.5mg low dose Venlaflaxine at bedtime for nighttime flashes anymore and then I’d consider myself past post-menopause❤️
@JGSchaeffer @TrueBloodNet You look so joyous and happy! That is such a wonderful heart affirming image.
You are an inspiration to me to keep going!
@NiveusLepus @TrueBloodNet Go Go Go! ❤️🥰💃🥰💃❤️
@NiveusLepus @JGSchaeffer @TrueBloodNet
I’m glad it’s ok to lurk on CoSo. I loved y’all’s conversation, shared suggestions & mutual encouragement. 💜💛💙
@ATXJane @NiveusLepus @JGSchaeffer Yes, I enjoy the community here :)
@ATXJane @JGSchaeffer @TrueBloodNet
Wouldn’t be the same without you!
@ATXJane @NiveusLepus @TrueBloodNet That’s awesome!❤️❤️❤️
@JGSchaeffer @TrueBloodNet @NiveusLepus I'm glad you had such a joyous transition! Mine was abrupt, after 10 years of peri. Urgent hysterectomy at 51 years. I refused HRT and toughed out about a year of the hot/cold stuff. Everything wonderful since! Enjoy, sister!
@wolfwoman @JGSchaeffer @NiveusLepus Wow! Mine was sudden too but I didn't have that kind of drama. So sorry!
I was on BC pills since 14 cuz my periods were insane.. I had to stop the pills for surgery.. I had almost no hot flashes or anything and it was over like in a minute and a half.
@TrueBloodNet @wolfwoman @NiveusLepus Wow! So different. Mine was gradual from about 45 on. Now I make sure to tell all my in-their-40s friends what no one told me: chills? Hot flashes? Crying jags? Insomnia? Forgetting? Anxiety? Weight gain/loss? Rages? You’re not losing it; it’s peri-menopause! Its’s physical, not mental and it does indeed go away in time❤️
@JGSchaeffer @TrueBloodNet @NiveusLepus Yup! DD1 is 43 and suffering from the long-term crap I put up with. DD2 is almost 40 and questioning us daily.
@wolfwoman @JGSchaeffer @NiveusLepus I felt horrible for my best buddy at the time who was also going through the changes... she used to sweat like it was raining in a tropical jungle.
@TrueBloodNet @wolfwoman @NiveusLepus OMG so did I! I once captured it when it would just whoosh up on me and every pore would bead up with sweat. This one I’m actually going to print large; took it back in ‘22.
@JGSchaeffer @TrueBloodNet @NiveusLepus I hate to tell everyone this, but at 68 I still have night sweats. Seriously, WTF
@wolfwoman @JGSchaeffer @NiveusLepus Low(ish) blood sugar? I sometimes get those and it's that every time.
@TrueBloodNet @JGSchaeffer @NiveusLepus Hmm, maybe. I shouldn't say sweats although sometimes I do. It's more like the hot/cold/hot/cold blanket off/blanket/on thing ....
@wolfwoman @TrueBloodNet @JGSchaeffer it’s such a blessing to me to see you share your challenges and victories with being older. I hope I can age with a similar grace.
@NiveusLepus Awwww. I wish I had a great gif like you, to show my wolf self blushing. But alas, wolves don't readily lend themselves to cuteness ;)
@NiveusLepus @wolfwoman @JGSchaeffer You're very sweet. :)
@wolfwoman @TrueBloodNet @NiveusLepus my night sweats are now reduced so I can sleep through the night after my doc prescribed one 37.5mg low-dose pill of venlafaxine at bedtime. I can’t do hormone therapy. Research on it if of interest: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3870169/ ❤️
@NiveusLepus @JGSchaeffer Lots and lots of time to enjoy your progress. :)
@JGSchaeffer @NiveusLepus I'm in my retirement years. :) Late 60s.
@TrueBloodNet @JGSchaeffer I was visiting my parents and at the gym down there *yay franchises* in 2019, doing my run, and this little old lady in workout clothes came walking in.
She had to be pushing 70 if not a little more. There were 20 something’s all over lifting heavy weights and what not.
Out of nowhere, grandma started just owning it on the weights, then half an hour later shes _running_ on the treadmill while the young kids were astounded.
Define: Life goals.
@TrueBloodNet @NiveusLepus Yay! Me too! I call it Reinventment & Rewiring (do a lot of Board work now)❤️
@JGSchaeffer @NiveusLepus What is board work?
@TrueBloodNet @NiveusLepus I chair a Board of Directors on a company I founded and I sit on a Board of Directors for a non-profit I adore and I sit on a Science & Education committee as a non-board director for a science centre. My chair role pays a stipend; the other two are volunteer (they pay travel & expenses) and I donate to them.
@JGSchaeffer @NiveusLepus I admire you immensely. :) It takes focus to take on those kinds of things!
I was the literally jack of all trades, master not as much. :)
@TrueBloodNet @NiveusLepus Awww….thank you!🥰🥰🥰
@NiveusLepus You inspire me! 129 minutes - wow! Is that daily or do you have off/on days?❤️💪❤️