Monthly Archives: September 2019

This Felt Like Hell Week (or An Unexpected But Fun Workout Week)

Posted on September 16, 2019 | Comments Off on This Felt Like Hell Week (or An Unexpected But Fun Workout Week)

This past week of workouts was so tough. I wasn’t the only one who said that, so many people felt like this past week was getting us prepared for Hell Week. And I went into the workouts planning on working hard anyway so they felt even harder for me. But they were great workouts and I had some reasons to have even more fun with them.

Monday’s class was endurance based and it was a weird one for me. Not because the class was weird, but I went earlier than I would normally go. I originally had a meeting on Monday that would have prevented me from going to my normal class at the Brentwood studio, and even my early class in Culver would have been too late. So I went to an even earlier class and went at 6:20 am! I’m not used to working out that early so I think it felt harder because of that.

For cardio, we had push to base pace intervals. Half of them were 90-second intervals and half of them were 30-second intervals. But the push and base paces always matched. I was using the different resistance levels for the 90-second intervals, but for the 30-second ones, it was hard to switch back and forth. So I just kept the resistance level at my base and increased my speed.

On the rower, we started with a 3-minute row for distance. Then we had medicine ball lunges which I modified to be medicine ball squats. Then we took 200 meters off of our 3-minute row and did the medicine ball work again. We repeated that for the first half. Then, we followed the pattern of the treadmill with the 30 second intervals of push and base paces. The rowing for the second half was a lot, but it was good.

And on the floor, we had a lot of lower body work. We had goblet lunges (I modified them because we were supposed to use the Bosu), swing lunges (which I modified by using the straps for stability), sit-ups on the Bosu, lateral lunges into bicep curls with weights, and crunches on the Bosu. My legs were so tired after the workout and I was actually glad the meeting I was supposed to have was canceled so I could recover a bit at home before I had to go out to do other things that day.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day, but it almost felt more like an endurance day. Another hard class that felt like a Hell Week class to me.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had a 90-second push pace, 90-second base pace, and 1 minute all out. Then we repeated that but with 30-second intervals. The second block was almost the day, but when we were doing the 30-second intervals we took out the base pace. I was working with the resistance levels when we had 90-second intervals, but I skipped them for the 30-second intervals. It’s just too hard to reach down to adjust the resistance level when there is so little time to work.

On the rower, we started with 3 rounds of 100-meter rows. Then we had 2 rounds of 150 meters and 1 round of 300 meters. Between the rowing, we were supposed to do lunges but I did squats instead. The second block had the same rowing plan but with squats instead of lunges so I guess I got double squats. On the floor, we had sumo squats to high rows with weights, sit-ups, plank work, toe reaches with weights, and rollouts on the straps. It was a lot of work work and a lot of getting up and down.

Friday’s workout was a power day and also Friday the 13th themed. But it was a workout I had been looking forward to for a while because my dad was joining me for it! My dad doesn’t go to Orangetheory that often. Normally it’s just for the family Thanksgiving workout. He’s also been to the Brentwood studio for 2 classes (once when I started at OTF and once when I didn’t need my liver surgery). But this would be his first time at the Culver studio and also the earliest workout he’s done with me.

I warned my dad it would be a hard workout and I was right! For cardio, we had 13 rounds of all outs to walking recoveries. All of the all outs were 30 seconds and the first 6 recoveries were 30 seconds before increasing to 45 seconds. My dad kicked butt doing the all outs on the treadmill and he was increasing his speed throughout the block. I was on the bike and skipped increasing the resistance but worked even harder than normal with trying to pedal faster. I think having my dad there motivated me to try more.

On the rower, we had rounds of 130-meter rows. We started with 13 squats to overhead reaches with the medicine ball between the rowing and decreased the number of squats each round. My dad and I raced for the first 130-meter row, and I think I beat him by a fraction of a second. But we didn’t race for the other rowing since we were both going at our own pace.

And on the floor, the theme of 13 continued. All the exercises were reps of 13. And a few times during the floor work, the screen went black and white and we were supposed to do 13 burpees. The regular floor work had ground to presses with weights, calf raises with weights, Y raises on the straps, crunches, and knee tucks and hamstring curls on the ab dolly (I modified the hamstring curls to be weighted hip bridges). It was a lot of work and really hard, but I was having so much fun having my dad in class with me. Having family in class is a real treat for me, and of course, my dad and I had to take a sweaty post-OTF photo with my Friday coach.

On Saturday, we had a strength day. I was a bit sore from Friday’s workout (and from doing other things on Friday), but I knew I had to finish the week strong. And I had been taking it easy with the resistance levels on the bike, so a strength day was the perfect thing.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks started with a 3-minute hill. The resistance level for the first block was between my push and all out and for the second block was my push level. After the hills, we had base pace with no incline/added resistance before a push and all out. And the all out was supposed to be on a hill so I set the resistance higher than normal for me. It was hard and I was moving slowly, but it felt good to do it.

On the rower, we had slow pulls only. That means that we count for a specific number of strokes but the goal is to go super slow on the rower. We were told to try to wait until the water tank wasn’t moving as much before pulling the handle again. Doing slow pulls is hard and takes patience, but it really helps with rowing form. The first set was 4 rounds of 20 slow pulls with squats between each round. The second set was 15 slow pulls with squats between, but I only got 1 round of those in before the block was done. I focused a lot of going as slow as I could and I think I did much better with my form than normal.

And on the floor, we had a lot of upper body work. We had bicep curls, pullovers, uppercuts, chest fly, and hip hinge upright rows. All of the work was with weights and I tried to go heavy since it was a strength day. I was glad it wasn’t lower body work because my lower body really did need that break.

Even though these workouts were really hard, I really loved them. I was also having a good week without pain or nausea affecting the workouts which helped. This week might be a bit tougher for me, but I’m ready for it.

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Default ThumbnailA Good, Strong Workout Week (or I Really Love Feeling Like Myself) Default ThumbnailAnother Short Workout Week (or Still Can’t Believe My Milestone) Default ThumbnailHell Week To Orange Voyage (or One Challenge To Another) Default ThumbnailThis Wasn’t Going To Be A 4 Workout Week (or Some Pleasant Surprises) Default ThumbnailFinishing Up 12 Days of Fitness (or This Felt Like A Long Hell Week) Default ThumbnailA Fun And Unique Workout Week (or Not Letting Setbacks Set Me Back)

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A Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize)

Posted on September 13, 2019 | Comments Off on A Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize)

I hate that so many things in my life were affected by election season, but it really did take over my life. I’m finally feeling like things are normal again for me, but I’m still dealing with what happened when I let other things in my life slide because I didn’t have the time or energy to deal with them.

When things aren’t normal, it’s stressful in so many ways. But one way that I was stressed was by the lack of cleaning I had done in my house. While I’m not the cleanest person I know, I still do daily cleaning and try to do weekly deep cleaning. I thought with having a small house that it wouldn’t be as hard to clean, but I feel like having a small house actually can make things worse. Dirt and dust seem to appear so quickly, but that’s probably because there’s less surface area for them to land on. And clutter is definitely a problem with a small house. I try my best to limit what I bring into my house, but last month things just started to pile up.

I was avoiding doing the cleaning I needed to for a little while. I want to claim that I needed some downtime to recover before getting back to things, but honestly, it was just being lazy. But this week, I had to get my act in gear. First, the messiness was starting to really bother me and I could feel that I wasn’t in the best headspace. But also, my parents are in town now and I want to have a clean house for them. I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind if my house was a little messy, but I don’t like having it that way. And it’s not as clean as I would like it to be, but it’s significantly better than it was before.

Besides doing all the cleaning, I had to get my house back in order. I’m still working on the organization part, but I was able to get a lot done this week. And in that organization, I started to get rid of things. There are so many things I was holding on to for no good reason that I just needed to toss or add to a donation pile. I know that most of those things had some sentimental reason at one point, but it’s been so long that they are now meaningless junk. And there is no reason to keep them in my house and taking up the limited space I have. Maybe if I was in a bigger house, I’d find a way to keep them. But it’s probably better that I have a little space so I am forced into a more minimalistic lifestyle.

I did try to work on the cleaning and organizing a little bit each day for the beginning of the week. I didn’t want to get overwhelmed in the middle of working on it and making things more of a mess. I actually managed to figure out a good schedule because I never felt like I was trying to do too much. In fact, many days I actually felt motivated to do a bit more than I planned to do. It helped to make things go by and I was able to do almost everything I wanted to do with organizing and getting rid of things.

I still have a few more organizing projects that I want to work on, but I didn’t worry about them this week. They can wait and things don’t look too messy while they aren’t done. But I do want to get more of my house feeling as put together as the main spaces do. It’s been a huge relief to feel like things are clean and nice looking and I want to make even more of my house feel like that. Those extra projects require purchasing some things to help me and I haven’t found the perfect things to use yet. For example, I need new drawer organizers and I haven’t found a set I like. The ones I am using are cheap ones I got and I realized that while they worked I never loved them. I kept them until they started to fall apart (about 4 years) so it’s time to find a replacement that I want to have. But since there’s no urgency to get that done, I can take the time to find the perfect thing instead of spending money on something I don’t really like.

Even though I’m not totally done with my organizing, I got a huge chunk of it done and I feel so accomplished. And hopefully, I’m able to keep things up and not let my house get back to how it was just a week ago.

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Default ThumbnailIs It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused) Default ThumbnailSlowly Spring Cleaning (or Tidying Up My Way) Default ThumbnailDoing A Lot Of Spring Cleaning (or Trying To Fill My Day) Default ThumbnailGetting Rid Of Extras (or Cleaning House) Default ThumbnailUpgrading My Kitchen (or Time To Organize) Default ThumbnailWorking On Cleaning (or Time To Declutter)

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Another Quick Therapy Appointment (or Video Appointments Make Things Easy)

Posted on September 12, 2019 | Comments Off on Another Quick Therapy Appointment (or Video Appointments Make Things Easy)

When I had my last therapy appointment, I was put on a new medication that would hopefully help me with recovering from my eating disorder. The plan was that I would try the medication for 6 weeks with increasing the dose each week and then I would have an appointment with my therapist to discuss how things were going and see if the dosage was correct.

But things didn’t turn out that way. I tried the medication for about a month before the side effects just became too much for me to handle. I really was hoping I could keep going, but it was affecting my life too much and the benefits weren’t worth it. I emailed my therapist to let her know I wanted to stop the medication and we worked out a plan for me to ease off of it. I’ve been lucky and the side effects I was experiencing went away very quickly. I haven’t been dealing with vertigo or numbness for a while now. And I don’t know if my period is going to be affected again this cycle, but at least it should be normal again soon.

Even though I stopped the medication already, I kept my appointment with my therapist. I figured that it would be good to keep it in case she wanted to talk to me more about stopping the medication and see if I was ok. And since it was a video appointment, it was easy to keep it and not have to worry about if the appointment wouldn’t be worth my time. I figured it would end up being a fast check-in and I was doing work at home while I was waiting for my therapist to get online.

And as expected, it was a quick check-in. She wanted to confirm that I was off the medication and that I was doing better. I think she was relieved that most of the side effects went away almost immediately. Unfortunately, the medication is very strong and a lot of people have reactions like I did. But it was worth trying it to see if it would help. We had no way to know how I would react until I tried, and now we do. And it did make me feel a bit better to find out that so many people have side effects. Even though I don’t feel like a failure for having them, I still felt better knowing that it was so common and not one of my medical weirdo moments.

Going over the medication was the main reason for the appointment, and we didn’t have much to discuss since I was off of it. She did want to check in with me to make sure that I’m doing ok emotionally and with everything else, and I was honest that I’ve been exhausted and dealing with a lot lately. But nothing that seems unmanageable or that I needed extra help with. It’s mainly something for me to be aware of and make sure that I take care of myself. I think my therapist was understanding with everything going on in my life and she was ok with me having a few extra things to deal with as long as I was handling them.

The last thing we went over was how I’m doing on Vyvanse. I know that she typically doesn’t prescribe it to patients and she’s following the protocol that my last therapist had. But I appreciate that she understands why I’m on it and wants to make sure that we don’t have to adjust anything. She did mention that we could increase my dosage, but I don’t want to do that right now. I feel like it’s a good amount for me and I do feel it helps. And I don’t want to increase until I feel like I do need more to get the help that I’m used to.

And that was pretty much it for my therapy check-in. We did set up my next appointment for 6 months from now and it will be another video appointment. Because my appointments are mainly medication check-ins, I don’t have to go as often as I used to. And every 6 months is pretty standard now for making sure I’m still doing ok and I don’t need anything to change. And of course, if something changes in my life and I need to go in sooner, I know I can make another appointment and go in person. But for now, I continue to be grateful for video appointments because they are so easy for me to do. And considering this appointment ended up only being about 5 minutes, it was nice to not have to drive 30 minutes there and back to do it.

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Starting My Delegate Term (or The First Of Several Meetings)

Posted on September 11, 2019 | Comments Off on Starting My Delegate Term (or The First Of Several Meetings)

I probably spoke too soon when I said that things would be a bit calmer for me now that election season is done. I’m still doing a lot of work for my slate and our social media, but I knew that would be happening. But I guess I forgot about the prep work for the election taking as much time as it does. I knew there would be a few meetings, but this year there was an extra meeting added in beside the ones I have attended before.

Normally, there is an orientation meeting for the convention and that’s the only main union meeting regarding it. That’s normally combined with a local board meeting so it’s a pretty long meeting. This time, the orientation is going to be a webinar online and there will be a board meeting later that night (and I’m hoping to still attend that as an observer). But they added an extra meeting this week all about convention resolutions.

Resolutions are the different changes to the union constitution that we vote on during the convention. There can be a lot of resolutions to consider and some of them are not voted on if they are something that the delegates don’t have authority over or if they would be breaking a contract or law. But we still go through lots of resolutions that are submitted by delegates around the country. While I haven’t personally submitted one before, I have looked into doing them. But many of the resolutions I have thought of cannot be voted on for one reason or another. Having people in my slate who can advise us if a resolution can be voted on or not is just another benefit to being a part of a slate.

But not everyone has that support or they want to discuss their resolutions with a larger group. So the local officers created a delegate caucus where resolutions could be discussed among delegates and one of our legal representatives could advise about the legality of the idea.

They did cover some things about the convention that I know they will discuss at the orientation such as the basics of the schedule and what events are happening on what day. But I know that information will be explained in more detail during the orientation webinar. There were a lot of people with resolutions to discuss so they wanted to limit convention discussion time to get through as many resolutions as possible.

Some of the resolutions were ones that are already online and can be endorsed and others were new ideas. Nothing official happened at the meeting, it was more of a workshopping of the resolutions. We did raise our hands if we would consider supporting it, but it was not the same as an official endorsement. But it still helped the people working on the resolutions to see what the temperature of the room was for their idea. If they knew that nobody would support it, maybe they would reconsider submitting it. And while we want everyone to submit the resolutions they want to be considered at the convention, the more resolutions we have the less time we have to discuss and debate.

I knew there was a chance the meeting would get political and tense, and it did happen a bit. It wasn’t as bad as the campaign stuff was, but some resolutions were very clearly against one group or person. I tried to not be biased when I listened, but it was hard when I knew exactly what the person was trying to say without actually saying it. It helped that nothing was official at the meeting so I didn’t feel pressured to vote one way or another and know that it would be a real decision. I know I need to research the resolutions before convention before I feel comfortable voting.

All the resolutions have to be submitted this week and then I can take the time to research them before the convention in a month. And I know I have a lot of people I can turn to and ask questions about them if I’m not clear what they mean or what would happen if it was voted up or down. And I do take voting on the resolutions seriously because I know that they are important. I take the time researching and I decide how I want to vote. I do get recommendations from others, but I still decide for myself how I want to vote.

I know the convention will be here before I know it and I know that I’ll be probably doing a lot of work to get ready for it over the next few weeks. I can’t wait for the convention because it really is something that I enjoy and I love getting to spend those days working with my fellow members. Even when it’s crazy and political, it’s such an incredible feeling being in that room. And doing all this prep work is getting me even more excited and ready for it!

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Some Random Medical Tests (or At Least Getting Blood Work Was Entertaining)

Posted on September 10, 2019 | Comments Off on Some Random Medical Tests (or At Least Getting Blood Work Was Entertaining)

Something I didn’t post about when it happened was having some extra medical tests done recently. It wasn’t anything urgent or needed, but I like to try to get as much done at one time as possible. And I knew that I would have blood work done after my annual appointment. So I figured that would be the perfect time to ask about doing a few other medical tests that I had been curious about.

Even though I don’t want to have kids right now, I’m aware of the biological limits of my body. And I don’t know if people are more open about infertility or there is more infertility out there now (I honestly feel that it is a mix of both), but I have dozens of friends who are struggling to get pregnant. Some of them are due to age, but some are because they didn’t know that they were in pre-menopause early or they had another fertility issue going on. And many of those friends have been telling everyone they know to try to test your fertility just to see if there is an issue you can be aware of before you spend money on fertility treatments that might not work.

For me, fertility treatments might not be an option because of my liver tumors. And even though being pregnant is a higher risk for me, my tumors are small enough that it wouldn’t be life-threatening. So if I get pregnant in the future, that is fine. But since fertility treatments aren’t necessarily an option for me, I know being aware of my fertility and what the realities are of my body is a good thing. So when I was at my annual appointment, I asked about some of the tests that my friends said they wished they had done sooner. Some of them aren’t really a good option for me right now (I could be fine now and in a month things would be different so the results don’t matter), but there were 2 tests we could add to my blood work that would at least give me a baseline idea of where my fertility is right now.

Because I was doing some fertility testing with my blood work, I couldn’t just do my blood work that day like I normally do. You have to do the tests on the 3rd day of your period. Of course, my period was late and I had to wait even longer, but I finally was able to do the tests 2 weeks ago.

The blood draw lab was being remodeled so it was temporarily in a weird place in the hospital. And they had fewer stations than normal so things were getting backed up. And because I hate needles and I already have issues with nausea during my period, I was pretty miserable while I was waiting. The staff noticed how sick I was looking (nausea makes me break out in a sweat and I guess my coloring was super pale), so they started to worry about me. I tried to tell them that I was fine and sadly this was normal, but I don’t know if they believed me. They kept giving me weird looks as I was waiting.

Finally, it was my turn for blood and I was really worried about how it would go. I was feeling light-headed and weird and I didn’t know what was causing it. I have been doing much better with needles lately so I was trying to tell myself that it had nothing to do with the blood. But I still let the nurse doing the blood draw know about all my issues so I didn’t scare them if I passed out. And I mentioned that I was dealing with some hormonal pain and nausea so that wasn’t a shock if I mentioned it after the blood work.

I guess I didn’t think about how it would sound when I said I was dealing with nausea because they started to worry that I had the flu, measles, or some other disease. They started to ask me about what immunizations I’ve had and if I had been exposed to anyone sick recently. I kept saying that this is normal for me during my period and explained I had to do day 3 blood work. Finally, they relaxed a bit but I could tell they were still a bit suspicious about what was making me sick. And when the blood was done (I didn’t faint which made me happy), they asked me how I was feeling and I just said the same as before so they wouldn’t worry. The nausea was awful while I was there and I was terrified I could need to throw up during the blood draw. I’m so glad that didn’t end up happening.

It took a bit of time to get the blood work back (I was warned it isn’t as fast as the normal blood tests I had to do), but I did get my results back last week. And everything with me is in the normal range. There is one fertility test where I am on the lower end of normal, but that’s actually normal for my age. If I was trying to get pregnant now, I should be fine. And I know that this can change rapidly because of my age, but it still was good to know a baseline for now.

And the fact that things can change quickly for me is something my doctor brought up when she gave me the results. But she understood I was doing the tests more to see if anything was really abnormal and that it’s good that everything is in the normal range. I’m trying not to keep my age and fertility in my head too much because I can’t do anything to change my situation. And I’m not going to date or marry someone that I don’t feel right about just so I can have a biological kid. I have to just hope that I will meet someone and my tests will still all be in the normal range. But for now, I’m just glad that there isn’t anything I should be worried about.

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A Good, Strong Workout Week (or I Really Love Feeling Like Myself)

Posted on September 9, 2019 | Comments Off on A Good, Strong Workout Week (or I Really Love Feeling Like Myself)

This past week of workouts was another good one for me. I’m so glad that I’m getting a little bit of time of feeling normal and good when I dealt with so many weeks with nausea and pain. I know that I’m about to have the nausea and pain again, but I’m trying to take advantage of the time before that. And I feel like I did that for sure in my workouts.

Monday’s workout was an interesting one. It felt like a run/row but technically it wasn’t. During the cardio and rowing blocks, we switched back and forth every 2 minutes. For cardio, we had increasing incline/resistance levels each time we were there. I did work on increasing my resistance level on the bike since I hadn’t done a lot of that recently. On the rower, we had a 100-meter row to start and we increased the rowing 50 meters each time. And between each row, we had squats.

On the floor, we had 1 long block. But within the block, we had main exercises and add-on exercises. The main exercises were chest presses, hip hinge rows with weights, and shoulder presses. We did each of the main exercises twice and after it, we either had crunches or side crunch heel taps. Then we moved on to the next main exercise. It was an interesting format and a bit different from what we normally do.

Wednesday’s workout was a benchmark prep class. We have the 12 minute run (or bike) for distance later this month so this was a workout to get ready for it. For cardio, we had 2 rounds of 5 1/2 minute runs (or bikes) for distance with a 1-minute recovery between them. I kept my resistance level at my base level because I wanted the focus to be on biking the entire time and not being at a higher resistance level. It worked out well for me and I was proud of myself for what I was able to do. I did get a little further on the second one, but that’s how it normally goes for me.

On the rower, we started with a 90-second row for distance. Then we rowed 50 meters less each time we rowed and we had squats with the medicine ball between each row. My rowing wasn’t that strong that morning so I didn’t get as far as I should have in the 90 seconds. So I used 300 meters as the distance instead so I would have easy numbers to remember when I kept taking 50 meters off.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block with 2 mini-blocks in it. The first mini-block was bicycle crunches and hip bridges for 3 rounds. The second mini-block had suitcase squats, single-arm shoulder presses, leg balance curls, and chest presses. I wasn’t going too heavy with the weights for the upper body but I did do heavier weights for the lower body work to make up for that a bit.

Friday’s workout was a strength-based class. I feel like we have had a lot of those lately and it’s having me make up for all the time I wasn’t using the resistance levels on the bike. This time, it was a lot of resistance level changes. We had push and base paces at incline/higher resistance levels with some base paces at a flat incline between. It wasn’t easy because I was getting the resistance level really high on the bike and I wasn’t able to pedal as fast as I’m used to. But it was a good thing to do since I needed to get some resistance work in my workouts again.

On the rower, we had 2 blocks. The first block had 3 rounds of a 300-meter row followed by 10 frogger squats. We weren’t supposed to reset the rower during the  block so we were higher than 900 meters when we were done. The second block was to row the distance from the first block total. Then we had squats when we finished that. It was hard to row for that second block and I did have to take some breaks. But I did get it done before the block ended.

And on the floor, we had 1 block with mini-bands and one without. The mini-band block had squats with weights, lateral walks, and plank toe taps. The other block had goblet squats, tricep kickbacks with weights, and leg raises to crunches. The mini-band work was hard on my hips and I was starting to have some hip pain, but nothing unexpected for me. The second block was much better for me and I was able to use some heavy weights.

Saturday’s workout felt like a tornado workout because we were switching every 4 minutes or so. We were constantly moving which is something I like in my workouts. It doesn’t give me enough time to get tired and I feel like I work harder.

For cardio, we had the same block every time. We had a push pace, base pace, all out, recovery, push pace, and all out. That’s it. All the intervals were 45 seconds or 30 seconds. The recovery didn’t even feel like a recovery because it was so quick. And because we were doing such fast intervals, I didn’t change the resistance level on the bike during the workout. It was just easier to keep it the same for the entire time. But that meant I had to focus on pedaling faster when we had a push or all out.

On the rower, we had a similar format for all the blocks. For the first 2 blocks, we had a 200, 150, and 100-meter row. Between the rows for the first block, we had squats with the medicine ball and I did do those. For the second block, we were supposed to do lunges. But because it’s not easy for me to get on and off the rower and lunges are already tough, I skipped those and just rowed for the block. The last block was all 100-meter rows and we were supposed to do both squats and lunges between each row. I just did the squats between my rows.

And on the floor, each block had 2 exercises. Since we didn’t have that much time, it was better to only have 2 exercises to worry about. We had clean to presses with weights, squat jacks, lunges with a hop (I used the straps to help with those), high rows on the straps, pop jacks, and sit-ups. It was hard to not take too many breaks because I was tired, but I didn’t want to miss out on that much workout time either.

I was feeling really proud of myself after each workout this past week. I worked really hard and I felt it in my body too. I had to be a little gentle with myself on my rest days and I did work on taking care of myself. But having muscle soreness is something I consider a positive because it is proof of what I did. And I’m hoping I have the same this week in my workouts. And I’m extra excited about this week of workouts because my parents are going to be in LA and my dad is joining me for a class! I can’t wait to see how my dad and I challenge each other and what he thinks of the Culver City studio!

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Default ThumbnailFinally Getting Back To Feeling Like Me (or A Transitional Workout Week) Default ThumbnailAnother Week Of Pushing Through (or Feeling Strong Before Feeling Sick) Default ThumbnailAnother Week Of Taking It Easy (or Feeling Strong While Not Working As Hard) Default ThumbnailAn Up And Down Workout Week (or I Love Having Workout Buddies) Default ThumbnailFinally A Normal Workout Week (or I Love Having Nothing Crazy) Default ThumbnailFeeling Special This Workout Week (or Maybe I Influenced My Coaches)

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Appreciating Some Laziness (or Finally Having Time To Play Catchup)

Posted on September 6, 2019 | Comments Off on Appreciating Some Laziness (or Finally Having Time To Play Catchup)

With all the craziness of my schedule lately, I haven’t been able to do some of the things I usually get to do every day that make me happy. I don’t know if I realized how little I was doing until I finally had time to get back to a more normal schedule. But I’ve finally had some time over the past week to really do nothing that I had to do and could do things I wanted to do.

I knew I was stressed and that it was getting to me. But I don’t think I realized how much it was affecting me until I finally had the time to decompress. And while I wanted to spend time hanging out with my friends and catching up on the life I missed, I realized that it was more important for me to catch up on my own life. That’s part of the reason I created the challenge I set for this month.

Since most of the tv shows I watch are during the fall and spring, I didn’t have much tv to catch up on. I did watch the few random things I recorded on my DVR, but I didn’t have a huge list of shows I hadn’t watched that I needed to get through. That was probably good because I think having a list like that would have added to my stress. And while I try not to watch tv mindlessly and usually only watch shows I record or the news, I did take some time to zone out watching tv from time to time. I also took some time to look at my DVR and see what shows I could take off the recording schedule. I do watch a lot of tv, but I don’t want it to take over my free time. I need to find a balance and I know that with the new tv season starting up that I will be adding new shows. So a few old ones needed to go. But that’s something I usually have to do each year so it was nice to have some time to do it.

Without having tv, I did spend a lot of time doing other things that make me happy. Mainly, I have been doing a lot of reading. Reading is almost a daily thing for me. I really can’t remember the last day that I didn’t read at all. But I hate it when I only have time to read when I’m going to bed. I usually fall asleep quickly and there have been a few times that I dropped my Kindle on my face while falling asleep reading (and getting an impressive bruise because of it). I took some time over the weekend to go through my wish list at the library to get some new e-books or put things on hold. And I did some research online to see what new books I could add to my lists. There are a few books that I’m re-reading because they are the book equivalent of comfort food for me. And I’ve been getting through those books quickly since they are easy reads. There have been several afternoons that I just spent hours reading and not worrying about anything else. It has been so nice to get to do that.

I know I can’t be lazy like this forever, so I’m taking advantage of this week when I can do that. I know my schedule will be picking back up soon and I won’t be able to spend my time relaxing as much as I have been. I won’t be as crazy as I was recently, so it should feel a bit more balanced. And besides my schedule picking up, there are a few other things that I want to work on adding to my life and schedule and I need to see what free time I will have each day.

But for now, I’m really enjoying this time that I can be home doing nothing if that’s what I want. I can do as much reading as I can fit into a day and not have to worry about any other plans I have later. And I’ll probably get to do that through this weekend so I’m already looking forward to seeing what other books I can read, shows I can watch, and other lazy activities that I can get done.

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Default ThumbnailSo Much Entertainment So Little Time (or Scheduling Leisure Time) Default ThumbnailRevisiting Old Characters and Stories (Or A Journey Of Re-Reading Books) Default ThumbnailThinking Of Changing Up My Monthly Challenge (or I Guess This Would Be A First) Default ThumbnailHaving A Book Nerd Moment (or The Little Things That Make Me Smile) Default ThumbnailLaziness As Self-Care (or Grateful For The Slow Season) Default ThumbnailGospel According To First Squad (or Enjoying A Play Reading)

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Remembering A Year Ago (or Still So Grateful My Friend Got Help)

Posted on September 5, 2019 | Comments Off on Remembering A Year Ago (or Still So Grateful My Friend Got Help)

About a year ago, I wrote a post about a friend who I had to force to get help because I felt they were a danger to themselves. That night was one of the most terrifying nights of my life. I have shared a lot of what happened with my friend because he doesn’t remember much about it (which I’m grateful for because I said some harsh things to him to force him to get help). When I wrote that post a year ago, I had no idea what my relationship would be like with my friend. Now, I’m so grateful that it hasn’t changed. If anything, we have gotten closer.

That night will stick out in my mind for so many things. I feared what would happen if my friend didn’t listen to me. I had threatened to call the police to get him if he didn’t go to a hospital, but I was so worried he would drive somewhere else and I couldn’t call for help for him. I didn’t think he would do anything to hurt himself while he was in the car, but I was still scared he would get in an accident because he was acting very irrational. I had no clue if my friend would talk to me again but I had to realize I was willing to sacrifice our friendship if that meant his life would be saved.

But some positives came out of that night. First of all, my friend got the help he needed. He has told me since that night that his doctors believe he might have harmed himself that night, so he needed to get help and he did. He has done some amazing work with his doctors and in therapy in the past year and I’m so glad that he has taken those steps. If that horrible night was what needed to happen for him to get the help and medical care he needed, that’s a good thing. I also witnessed so many friends coming together to help, both that night and for the days after it. We pulled together to help our friend with things like moving his car to a place where it won’t be towed, picking him up when he was coming home, making sure he had things he needed, and looking into options for paying for his medical bills.

My friend has also become much more open regarding this since this happened a year ago. I think that’s a good thing because more people can learn from what he has gone through and that can support him if they are going through something similar. I’ve shared on here several things that I battle with, and I have only seen positive things from being open. I hope that that’s what my friend is experiencing as well. From what I’ve seen, he has only gotten good things from his openness.

I know that my friend has been a bit anxious about this anniversary and I can understand that. He has gone through so much in the past year and I have only seen a fraction of it. I have tried to remind him that this is also an anniversary of him getting help and starting a new phase of his life. I’m sure he is remembering things from before and it’s not always easy to see the difference in your own life sometimes, but I see the difference. I know he isn’t the same person he was a year ago. I don’t worry about him the way I used to because I know he is in a much better headspace than he was before. I know that he is more comfortable reaching out and asking for help if he needs it. He has more resources than he had before and can manage things differently. I’ve only seen positive changes in him and that makes me hopeful that things are just going to continue to get better.

A year ago, I had no clue what would happen or if my friend would be ok. I’m so glad that things turned out the best that they could. I know that not everything is perfect, but they are being worked on. And seeing all these positive changes in my friend makes me feel better about forcing him to get help because that was something I really did struggle with. But now, there’s no question that it was the right thing to do and I hope that anyone who knows of someone who is at serious risk of harming themselves would do the same. It’s not easy to do, but it was the right thing to do.

And if you are struggling and want help, there are many resources out there. Going to an emergency room is an option if you don’t feel safe. They will help you and make sure that you are safe or get the help that you need. But I know that some people can’t or won’t do that for a variety of reasons. So if you don’t want to do that or are not sure if you need help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. There are available 24/7 and can offer resources or just be someone to listen to you. Getting help isn’t easy, but hopefully, you will see the good that comes out of it by hearing a little bit of what my friend accomplished since he got help.

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Default ThumbnailSo Many Birthdays and Anniversaries! (or A Month Of Celebrating And Remembering) Default ThumbnailA Non-Surgery Anniversary (or Another Year Of Being A Medical Miracle) Default ThumbnailTrying To Help A Friend (or Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?) Default ThumbnailTen Years Ago (or Another Big Milestone) Default ThumbnailSo Grateful To Work From Home (or Just Getting Through The Day) Default ThumbnailIt Can Be Tough To Get Help (or Trying To Be A Good Friend To My Friends)

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Another OTF Hangout (or Having Fun Being Social In Normal Clothes)

Posted on September 4, 2019 | Comments Off on Another OTF Hangout (or Having Fun Being Social In Normal Clothes)

I feel like since the Culver City Orangetheory location opened, I’ve really been taking advantage of the different social events and hangouts. While the Brentwood location was not far from my house, I didn’t want to drive back over there after I went home after a workout. And if the hangout was a day I wasn’t over on that side of LA already, I usually didn’t feel motivated to go over there. But now that most of the Culver City hangouts are within minutes of my house, I try to make it to them as long as they fit into my schedule.

There have been a few different events like hikes that take place on Saturdays when I am working, so I can’t go to those. But there have also been beach days and happy hours that either are after I’m done with work or a long enough event that I can go after work. I have never been a part of a workout community like I am a part of at OTF. I have made some great friends in class since I take the same classes each week, but also just having the general community around the workouts has been special. It’s always fun getting to hang out with workout people outside of workouts. I especially get a kick out of it because people seem to always be surprised that I have long hair. I guess I hide that well by putting my hair up for the workouts.

This past Saturday was another Culver City OTF hangout. This was at Kay’n’Daves which is pretty close to my house. Even though it’s near my house, I haven’t eaten there at that location before. They had a location near an old job of mine over 10 years ago and I remember having it once then. But it still felt like a new place for me. We had the back patio reserved for us, which was nice because we knew everyone back there was a part of OTF and we didn’t have to wonder if we were bothering someone who was just at the restaurant on their own.

I got there before the event was supposed to start because my friend Andie was there early because she had to leave for work soon after it started. But that worked for me because we were able to sit at a table right in the center of the patio and enjoy people watching while others arrived. And some of the staff arrived right after we sat down so it didn’t feel like we were there before things started.

Kay’n’Daves was pretty awesome and allowed us to order from their happy hour menu while we were there. I didn’t order anything (I wasn’t that hungry and I didn’t want to spend money if I didn’t have to), so I just had water and chips. But everything that everyone else ordered looked so good and it was tempting. But I’ll just have to go back another time to try things.

The patio quickly filled up with OTF people. There were some that I recognized from class, but I also don’t know that many people who are in different class times. If they are in much earlier classes I take or the afternoon and evening classes, I don’t see them. But that’s one of the benefits of going to these hangouts. I get to know people who are a part of the community even if I don’t see them in class. And it’s nice to have that because there are random times I have to take a class that is a different time than I’m used to. And hopefully, I’ll know at least one person in class that I met at a happy hour event.

It was also fun getting to hang out with one of my coaches there. Even though our coaches get to know us well since they see us every week, it’s different when you get to spend real time chatting and getting to know them. Again, anything that builds up the community feels like a real benefit to me.

I stayed at the happy hour later than I was planning on staying. I had some work things I still had to finish doing so I knew I couldn’t stay forever. But I was there for about 3 hours which allowed me to relax and spend lots of time getting to talk to the people who were there. I got to know the people I know from class better and I met so many new people. It really was the perfect event and I felt even more connected to OTF when I left.

I know there will be more social events coming up and this gives me more motivation to keep trying to make it to as many as I can.

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Default ThumbnailA Fun Union Hangout (or Hopefully This Is The Start Of A New Regular Thing) Default ThumbnailA Quick Happy Hour (or Making Myself Be Social) Default ThumbnailBeing Social Outside Of Workouts (or Making OTF Friends) Default ThumbnailSaying Goodbye To A Workout Buddy (or Hanging Out In Normal Clothes) Default ThumbnailAnother OTF Hangout (or Discovering A New Local Wine Bar) Default ThumbnailAnother NextGen Mixer (or A Fun Post-Election Hangout)

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Taking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge)

Posted on September 3, 2019 | Comments Off on Taking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge)

Last month, I challenged myself to celebrate more often. That made sense since August is my birthday month, but it didn’t quite go the way I expected it to go. A lot of things didn’t go the way I expected them to go because of how much energy the election took. I did try to celebrate as much as I could and appreciate the little things in life, but I really had a bigger expectation of what I was going to accomplish.

I thought I’d be celebrating my birthday and bigger things like that. I ended up celebrating nights that I was in bed before midnight or didn’t wake up multiple times to get more work done. And I celebrated when I had the rare moments last month that I wasn’t nauseous. Those are still things to celebrate, but not exactly what I thought of when I originally started the month. But I guess I have to allow myself to be flexible and I did celebrate how I was able to do so. But like many of my challenges, this is one that I want to continue and remember that it’s important to celebrate even the little stupid things sometimes.

Because of how crazy and hectic August ended up being for me (and because I know that October is going to have a bit of craziness too), I wanted to figure out a good monthly challenge for September. I had a list of ideas that I created before the beginning of the year, but nothing really felt right to me. I wanted to find a way to be centered again and not feel like I am living from stressful moment to stressful moment. I also can feel burnout creeping up on me and I want to do what I can to stop it.

So I had to let go of the challenge ideas that I had because none of them would really accomplish what I want to do. Some of them might have ended up stressing me out even more because it would be adding something else to my life or only having me focus on one part of my life. I had to rethink about what the monthly challenge could look like for me. I realized I needed less of a challenge for September and more of a goal and plan.

So for September, my “challenge” is to reset my life back to normal. I have been doing horribly with some parts of my life that I know need to be regulated like sleep and my eating schedule. I need to spend this month getting back to a healthy place with things like that because if I don’t it’s going to be even more stressful for me. I need to work on getting to bed on time and not worrying about not being reachable in the middle of the night. I probably need to set alarms again to remind myself to eat because there were several days last month that I forgot one or more meals in a day. I know there are more parts to my life that I want to reset, but sleep and food are the big ones.

I also want to reset my free time scheduling and use it productively. I haven’t had a lot of free time lately so when I have it I usually nap or spend it doing as little as possible. I want to be productive and maximize each day. I want to get my spending and budgeting back on track because I haven’t been tracking it the way I need to. And I even realized that some of my self-care practices took a backseat last month and I want to get back to the regular routines that I have had in the recent past. Making sure I take care of my skin and appearance isn’t the most important thing, but it helps me feel better about myself.

Hopefully, by taking this month to get back to what I know to be my normal, I will feel less stressed soon. And maybe I’ll discover new habits I want to add to my day or old habits that I can drop or do more efficiently. While it’s not a challenge like most of the challenges are or what I want them to be, I am still excited to see what happens by the end of the month.

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Default ThumbnailA New/Old Challenge (or Using An Idea From Therapy This Month) Default ThumbnailI Feel Like Every Monthly Challenge Is The Same (or Will This Be The Month I Get Back On Track?) Default ThumbnailNot Perfect This Month (or Challenged With The Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailFailing And Succeeding In One Monthly Challenge (or Another Repeat Challenge This Month) Default ThumbnailMonthly Challenge Check-In (or Doing My Own Version Of An OTF Challenge This Month) Default ThumbnailA Challenge For A Weird Month (or French And Deep Breaths)

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