Once a Mother, Always a Mother Check-in, Fall 2023

[Nuggie's Auntie]

Hello, old friends! I have revived the check in! Hope some of you join me.... I have done absolutely no exercise in the past few weeks. I still have a barre3 streaming subscription and I did a 'challenge' they had back in August... I think it was a two week endurance challenge. I haven't been good about being consistent.

Anyone else?

[TonyaK]

Hi Stephanie! It's so nice to be back 😁

This spring I broke my foot and hurt my elbow (separately). My foot has healed but I am still working back up to normal amounts of walking, especially on uneven surfaces.

I'm going to occupational therapy for my elbow but it still hurts a lot. I don't know how long it will take to heal!

I'm trying to get a routine going to walk, stretch, and work on abs and unweighted lower body. It is so easy to say, "well I can't do anything so I might as well eat junk food and sit around!" 😂 Must resist!

[Nuggie's Auntie]

Oh no, Tonya, I'm so sorry to hear you've been injured! That's awful! I broke my ankle last summer and it was so depressing. I think we have to just do the best we can.

I'm hoping to get a workout in tomorrow... we'll see....

[Nuggie's Auntie]

Omg, I took the dog for a walk this morning and turned my ankle in the woods. I don't think it's broken, but it's a pretty bad sprain, at least. Argh!!

[Pratima]

I'm here! Happy to "see" you all again.

Goodness, lots of injuries here! Tonya, how did you break your foot? Did you do PT for it? I think I mentioned I hurt my elbow too a few years ago. Nothing specific, just overuse maybe? Actually started with my shoulder and then got to my elbow and I did PT for a while.

Stephanie, maybe time to look into boots! I was just thinking the other day that I should probably hike in them rather than shoes because I feel like my ankles are weaker somehow.

I have been working out pretty consistently but often take random rest days and am all over the place with what I do. For a while, I was doing Caroline Girvan workouts from YouTube. They're shortish (I stuck with the 30 minute videos) but focused (e.g. just shoulders) and she usually goes pretty heavy. A couple of her series worked well for me but I think the last one I did might have been TOO focused.

So then I switched to new Les Mills "Shapes" workouts. I'd say they're like a combination of barre and PT. I didn't do much cardio with the CG workouts, mostly walking, but with the heat I couldn't get outside much during the day. I've done early runs and hikes, and the Shapes workouts for about a month and that seems to be working.

There's this new Lululemon 10K in November that I signed up for. With the registration you get free access to a training plan and their app, which normally comes with their Mirror. The strength, mobility, and yoga within the plan are pretty good so I'm doing those as well.

I spend so much time driving these days, and DD's practice goes to 8 PM now on M, W, Th and 7 on F so the whole household is up later and it is such a struggle to get up early! But of course they have to be at school early and DH still works overnights, so I have no choice. And THAT is why I take rest days somewhat at random.

Hopefully mbramer will be here! I've been emailing her lately about job stuff.

[TonyaK]

Stephanie, it is depressing when you are injured and limited in what you can do! I'm so sorry you turned your ankle. Was it the same one? I hope it will heal quickly!

Pratima, why didn't anyone warn us about our elbows breaking down in our mid-40s?? What a weird coincidence! Those Shapes workouts sound interesting. I might check that out sometime.

I broke my foot by taking a weird step, basically. I was working in our partially-finished yard and stepped on a pile of rocks, which shifted. In keeping on my feet, I torqued one of them and a bone snapped. I assumed it was just strained and limped around on it for a while. Finally I made an appointment with a podiatrist and waited a few weeks to get in. The doctor showed me the X-ray of the thickened bone, healing up fine on its own. By that point, it had stopped hurting if I didn't do too much, and all I had to do was wait a while longer before jumping.

Your consistency is inspiring! Well done on keeping it up, even with a busy family schedule, AND well done taking rest days when you need them.

-----
Monday:
TurboFire Abs
Walk outside
2 miles with Leslie Sansone
TurboFire Stretch 10

Tuesday:
STS 2.0 Legs (parts of it, unweighted)
Cathe Total Body Stretch
Occupational Therapy

[Nuggie's Auntie]

Pratima, you are indeed a marvel! I'm amazed that you have remained so consistent. You are very sporty indeed!

Tonya, yes, middle age... you hurt yourself and people ask, how did it happen? And you respond, 'I was walking down the street' or 'I was just getting out of the car.' LOL! Sob.... it's so annoying.

I need to learn to handle it with good grace, though. I don't cope well with physical infirmity. I get sooo depressed. I got practically nothing done today, which is a problem because I have a lot to do! I just faffed around on my phone instead. I'm going to try to turn it around tomorrow. I'm kind of sore all over. I fell when I turned my ankle and I'm just a little sore. I have a bruise on my knee and the heel of my hand hurts, too.

I did some upper body exercises and leg lifts this afternoon and I stretched as best I could.

I'm still trying to figure out how to make peace with my middle aged body! I happened upon my workout log from ten years ago and I am thirty pounds heavier than I was then. It's headwrecking. I keep trying to make my peace with it, but I can't seem to manage it. I'm going to try to lose at least ten pounds, hopefully fifteen. I'd love to lose twenty, but I think I have to accept that isn't realistic. I think ten is probably doable, though. It's just so bizarre, because I really don't eat much these days! I'm just not as hungry as I was when I was younger. I can't work out what is a good diet for me. I read that high protein is important post-menopause, but I just could not eat that much protein! I seriously felt sick to my stomach. Sigh.... who knows, I guess we just do the best we can.

[Pratima]

Honestly, working out seems to be the only time I REALLY have to myself these days, especially if I'm running or hiking, so that's part of my motivation for consistency! It's also largely my social life, so there's that too!

Stephanie, being around my grandma makes me realize two things. First, our bodies do just break down. Her skin is so thin, she gets injured so easily and something like that (thinner skin) can't be prevented. Second--and this is the important part--taking care of your body definitely makes that breakdown happen more slowly. I think too there isn't enough information out there about what really happens as you get older, so it's all a surprise to us.

I'm realizing that a lot lately as the women around start experiencing and finally talking about menopause.

Tonya, I suppose it's good your foot basically healed on its own. Do you have issues though? I ask because I fell down the last couple of stairs in our house once and am pretty sure I fractured my thumb. Never had it looked at and lately it's been bothering me. I may go in because I feel like there's something wrong with the ligaments and I wouldn't want it to get worse!

Let's see, yesterday I did a 3 mile early morning run and today a 2.5 mile early hike. It is finally cooling off in the mornings here so I'm hoping to do this later in the day soon. I am also trying to find a new job though and if it's busy (unlike my current one) I probably won't have time later in the day. :/

[mbramer]

Hi Stephanie, Pratima, and Tonya! It's so good to be back together again!

I agree that our bodies just break down as we age and don't heal as well. I also feel like I'm not nearly as good about doing PT as I used to be. I injured my elbow a year ago in July (tennis elbow), and it's still bothering me. If I were consistent with my PT, it would heal much faster. But I already wake up and do PT for my back first thing in the morning. Adding in the elbow PT feels like too much, especially because I have to get a workout in before I get DS1 up at 6:30. I'm already getting up at 5:30, and that's pushing it with all the evening activities and driving around that I have to do for the boys.

I've actually been really consistent with exercise, focusing more on doing what feels good and helps me to be consistent rather than trying to stick to a focused plan. It's usually 2-3 days of weights/strength, 3-4+ days of cardio, 1 day of yoga/stretching. Now that it's dark in the mornings, I do something inside for cardio, or I'll wait and go for a walk at lunch (like I did today). Sometimes I'll add in a quick walk in the evening or during a break at work just to get outdoors while it's still warm enough. Can you tell that I am not looking forward to winter?

Despite all of this, my weight is still at the highest it's been. I'm exercising more and eating better than I have in a long time, so I am focusing on all of the good things that are happening rather than the things that aren't happening. For example, my average walking pace last Saturday was 14 minutes 14 sec per mile, which is awesome!

[Pratima]

Maybe we should change this to the "Old Elbows Check-in?"



mbramer, it's good to see you! I'm up super early too--4:30 or 5:30 AM, depending on what I'm doing. And since both kids' activities are late, we're not home until after 8 most nights. When DH finishes his work shifts, he can fortunately more or less take over.

It sounds like you're doing GREAT with the schedule. And that is a really fast walk! I have runners in my group who average that for a run.

I too am really trying to be better with the eating part. I feel like these days it's mostly portion control and really focusing on quality intake. As in, no random snacking on whatever in the afternoon. And I feel like I need to eat more earlier so I don't wildly snack later in the day.

I've been doing better with that part this week, we'll see how it goes.