Pentagenarians & Beyond: W/B 11/25

DH did the yoga workout again today while I was doing my workout in the exercise room. he took both yoga mats! I was left with a little tiny 3 foot carpet. as soon as I turned on lights and started setting up, he said he needed the mats, took both and left. Arrgh.!! Yes Carolyn, he looks like he is grimacing and being tortured instead of relaxing. I think it will take a few times thru this before he calms down. I told him down dog was a sort of resting position and he told me I was crazy, that its all this work. its not as restful as some, but for me it is pretty relaxed.
I was not even on the same floor. did upper body giant sets premix from SS series, the core workout, most of it, and 25 min on the treadmill. I didn't like the workout very much, it seemed choppy. I need to do upper and lower instead together though before judging. it didn't flow well as just an upper workout. as it was, I ended up with almost every dumbbell I own on the floor. in this one, cathe uses a ball plus weights. I did not have a mat, and ball felt too unsteady on the hard floor, so I used the bench for many.

I could tell the "l" was missing from plaquenil. I don't know a lot about the medicine or your medical situation, but anything that is eroding/undermining your joints is not good. I have osteoarthritis going on, all of us probably do, some spots worse than others, sometimes I take prescription NSAIDS to settle it down. If I have an injury, it's supposed to be 2 doses a day. I might take 2 the first day or several days, and then to one a day, then daily for however long I need it, then every other day, then off. it depends on what kind of joint / soft tissue injury I have. most things I've had are much better in 2 weeks, so I take the med faithfully to start, and then taper it off as I improve. OA is crummy but RA is different being an inflammatory arthritis. just make sure your doc knows what you are up to.

I've read every sweet potato in the US is a "sweet potato", that an actual "yam" is an African vegetable not available here in this country. And there are many varieties of sweet potatoes. I usually get the deeper orange ones. yes, we called them 'yams", even stores do, but apparently they aren't really. they are just one of a variety of sweet potato.
preparing them is like winter squash to me. I like them but only with savory seasoning. do not show me marshmallows anywhere near a sweet potato.
 
Good morning,

PT exercises only yesterday. I decided to split them up, and my leg is much better today. Went to the vet this morning with another sample from IKE....they tested and said it was all clear, no red cells, blood etc. Hopefully this round will do the trick.

Valerie, do the bikes that you are riding have gears? I have a real problem with inclines too, but never did anything like what you and your DH do.

Diane Sue, It sounds like you are getting to the right dosage of that medication for RA.... I am sure there are some side effects to the 5-HTP, just like everything else right? I was just curious because it sounded a lot better than melatonin, when reading the reviews. I stopped the melatonin, since I didn;t see much difference and was concerned about taking them for too long.

Carolyn, I hope they are finally correct in the delivery date for your computer. I ordered some B-Complex from the site that the NG's are part of, and got an email yesterday saying it was going to be delivered that day. Funny, it was delivered the day before!

Hi to Judy & Lori,

Take care,
 
This morning I did Rhythmic Step, combos 1 and 2, for 41 minutes and 281 calories burned. My average heart rate was 126 and maximum heart rate was 154.

I love sweet potatoes in all forms. I usually bake them whole because that’s so convenient, but I also make oven fries. I think that the name yams may be used, but they are all sweet potatoes, just different varieties.

Valerie, have you tried Ramped Up Upper Body? That’s a good upper body workout. My husband did a Jane Adams Yoga lying practice where everything is done lying down. Afterwards he complained about how tired he was :) .

Deb, good job getting the PT exercises done. Do they remind you of any of Cathe’s lower body exercises?

Diane Sue, I hope you can find the right amount of medication for your arthritis. It’s good that you are communicating with your doctor about your supplements. I agree that with so much online ordering and shipping, companies tend to make mistakes.

Hello to Lori and Judy. I hope someone has decent weather today! Take care everyone.
 
absolutely Deb. gears make riding much easier and more efficient. if you have hills to go up or down , or a headwind, you shift gears to make it easier or to go faster. they look complicated but really aren't. when you push the shift lever, it moves the chain, stepwise... from one gear to the next, one step at a time, up or down one "ring" at a time. the gear changing levers are on the handle bars. you shift back and forth according to the terrain in a way that makes pedaling more efficient or comfortable.

the levers on the handlebars pull on cables to the chain rings to change one gear to the next. two front chain ring are controlled by your left hand. the rear rings are smaller, more of them, and your right hand moves those.

Link is a pretty good explanation of how gears work and has pictures.
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/product-news/using-bikes-gears-efficiently-148101
both our mt bikes and road bikes have two rings in the front, and 8 or so rings in the rear. to change them you decide which direction you need to change gears, and you push the levers on either/ both hands to move up or down the gears. it is a whole lot easier in person. it becomes automatic, I don't think much. both my bikes are Trek bikes but there are lots of good brands.

really simple bikes don't have gears. like kids bikes, or cruiser bikes. they don't work so well if you have hills to get up and down, and riding any distance usually gives you some hills. I'm not very mechanical. I won't lie, it takes a little practice to shift smoothly and do it automatically. I have had a bike with gears since I was in my teens. they work WAY better now than they used to.

Carolyn I have done Ramped up upper body a few times and like it. I didn't use the S&S series as much as some of the others. I like giant sets. I think that workout is better doing both upper and lower as it's set up.
 
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This morning I did Les Mills Body Step on Demand Express #112, 38 minutes, met 5.5 (surprising), 231 calories, 2,370 steps, 119 average heart rate, 152 max. I wish when they break the workouts down to shorter versions they let you know when equipment is changed. They had started with the step vertical and I found myself still trying to do a turn and over the step move vertical and having difficulty and then when the gave a shot back of their steps they had turned it horizontal. I then did Les Mills Barre 2 (part of it). This was ballet type moves that built in intensity and each group of moves was increased in speed before moving on. It was pretty active and they piked up light weight plates ( I used 3# and a 5# dumbbell for this) She did upper moves with the ballet type moves. Then she hit the last part that was a variety of the moves with spins and dance type moves. I was losing my direction and balance so quit. It was not what I had hoped. This was 25 minutes, met 5.0, 139 calories, heart rate 109 average, 148 max, 778 steps. I followed this with Coffey Fit Raw Core Moves with the stability ball, 24 minutes, met 3.0, 79 calories, heart rate average 91, max 111, 188 steps.
I finished with Les Mills Short Body Flow 17 minutes, met 2.0, 38 calories. This one was kind of blurry, I think because the set had big lights behind them and when it would move down to the floor the lights bounced off the camera. Not as great a stretch as the other two I have done. 486 calories, 1 hr 45 minutes.

Valerie, I like butternut and acorn squash with savory seasoning too. I bought some Pacific butternut squash soup in a carton once and couldn't eat it. It was sweet with spices in it. Nothing like when I make it with onion and savory seasonings in it. I won't purchase it again without reading labels carefully. The surgeon that took care of my knee said there was more arthritis in my knee than he expected when he did surgery. I think it is pretty much normal as we age to have some arthritis as part of aging. I do keep up with every supplement and dosage on my medical reports. I add and change it online when something is different, so when they go over it with me when I go in I don't have to remember a whole list of things.
Funny that your husband took two mats to do yoga. I have a couple of large rubber mats that have a kind of pebbled surface that my husband bought me that I use sometimes. Feet don't turn as easily when doing yoga on them though. I used to put one under my step. They are something like 4x8 foot. I always feel better with some sort of mat under me when using the stability ball. It helps the feet grip the floor and protect if I roll off. Sometimes I do what I have seen Kelly Coffey on Raw do with some of the puzzle mats. Mine are 7/8 inch thick.

Deb, that is great that Ike showed all clear. I find that a lot of that stuff that is helps sleep will knock me out for awhile and send me into nightmares and then I wake up in the middle of the night. They also tend to leave me feeling a bit depressed. Probably because of the nightmares. I am pretty careful about those things. 5htp does seem to have a lot of good qualities. I just know that there was some reason I decided that it would not be for me. Something with medical issues or it conflicting with something else. I just can't remember what it was. I looked at Mercola, since I am almost out of their joint formula and they have a 15% off free shipping. Only thing is with the discount it is still only 1 dollar less than I paid for it on Amazon. Not a huge discount. What was that site that you got the vitamins from again? I thought I wrote it down.
Carolyn, I used to love doing Rhythmic Step. For so long that was my Saturday morning fun workout :) I think I am going to have to contact Delta about my faucet parts. I saw a UPS truck out here this morning, but no part.

Thinking I might like to try one of the Les Mills spin workouts. I was looking at a shorter Sprint one this morning. I like that Les Mills does give a breakdown of the workouts, so you know what you will be doing.
 
Hi Everyone,

Yesterday was a rest day. Today is my birthday but we celebrated it yesterday because of the Winter Market in Birmingham. We had lunch then did some shopping and went to the tree lighting. The weather was almost perfect. It was a little chilly after dark but sunny and clear all day.

http://www.allinbirmingham.com/calendarevent_T4_R57.php

Today I did Pedal Power again. I love that one!


Deb-That's good news about Ike. Great job doing the PT exercises!

Valerie-Thanks! The spin workouts are harder than Spinervals, in my opinion. 72 minutes of Pedal Power wipes me out! Spinervals have more and longer breaks, so not as exhausting as regular spinning. There is almost no down time in Cathe's spin workouts.

Diane Sue-Great job with the Les Mills workouts. I'll be curious to hear what you think of their spin workouts. I
was reading about 5 HTP and it looks like it does have some safety concerns. It interacts with some medications and there has been some controversy about it.

Carolyn-Great job with Rhythmic Step! I wish I could say the weather was good, but it's been raining all day.

Lori-I hope you are having a good weekend!


Judy
 
Happy birthday Judy!

72 minutes of pedal power would wipe me out too. I will do 2-3 hours outdoors without blinking, but not inside. I only do the spins with the count down timer. that's a deal breaker for me. cathe doesn't take many breaks as you noted judy, and knowing how long I have to continue is key for me to do it at all. I find I won't exert myself to the max if I don't have an end time in sight.

today was a day off. we did some yard work.

deb this is when checking Ike's urine yourself would be beneficial. you could let it go for 4-5 days, and then do a random check to see if there is any sign of the UTI returning. Hopefully, both you and Ike are done with this.

when I was a kid I would not eat squash or sweet potatoes at all because they were always swimming in candied sugar sauce. I have no idea how anyone can eat that at all. plain roasted with a tbit of olive oil and salt is so good, one of my favorites.

yep, joints wear out after 70 years of use. some things you can work around. it ain't over til its over.

DH seems to need more cushioning. he used the mats stacked on top of each other, one is especially thick. it is a hard floor in that room. I have a hard floor in our exercise room, and didn't feel I could keep the ball in place without a mat so I skipped a couple moves.
 
Judy,Happy Birthday ! Your day at the Christmas market sounds fun. Thanks for the link. We have a Christmas shop of pop up tents downtown here with Santa there. I was not so impressed with it. There is a big Christmas store that everyone seems to love and I have never been. I saw them advertising their yearly Santa Reading the Christmas story. My girls love to go there. The ice carving would be fun to watch. I thought I would start with the Les Mills Sprint after looking at the moves and it seemed to end with tabatas. I am not sure what an RPM ride would be which is what their other series is.

Valerie, I think I got a lot of my tastes from my mother. She liked sweet and salty mixes and savory things. She put salt on her watermelon and pepper on cantaloupe. I like lots of pepper on everything. I often add some berries or fruit with nuts to my greens salad then lots of pepper with the dressing.
I often think if I was not as active as I am I would probably be in lots worse shape as far as the joints. All of the doctors suggest I lift weights.
 
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