Category Archives: Health and Fitness

Farm Stories, Health and Fitness, Inspiration, Stories

One step forward, three bumps down.

I might have mentioned that since I’m not working lately I have been doing a lot of yardwork. For the last two weeks my biggest focus has been the nightmare of a firepit terrace. See, somebody about 15 or more years ago got a brilliant idea to reuse chunks of broken driveway to make a terrace. It’s a great idea in theory, but the way they did it was awful. There were gaps to swallow chair legs and it was uneven enough to trip over. I’ve put up with it for 8 years and I decided that I was going to tackle it. Pry slabs loose, break them up, shovel out the sod between. It’s not easy work and I’ve been going slow but steady.

The firepit before I started tearing it apart. You can hardly see the concrete for the grass growing between!

A week ago a friend volunteered her husband for a couple of mornings. His work was on pause and he was going stir crazy. We spent one morning prying up the slabs and got farther than I expected. The next day he put treads on my deck stairs. They’d been out of commission for an embarrassing amount of time and we had been using a less than ideal path down to the lawn. But with a couple of hours of work he had the top half put back together. Yay! Now I have easy access to the lawn from upstairs.

The terrace after one week of work. I might not be fast, but I love to see the results of my efforts.

So Tuesday of last week I got as far as setting up a row of blocks to mark the edge of the terrace. I put in probably five hours of hard labor moving heavy things by hand. I took Wednesday easy to make sure I didn’t hurt myself. Thursday morning I got ready to work hard again. I put my boots on by the back door on the deck and went to use my newly useable stairs. The top half was fine. Then I got to the bottom half where there are still the old wood deck boards. Wood stairs that haven’t been used in almost two years… If you’ve ever lived in a damp climate you know exactly where this is going. Wood that sits for any time ends up getting coated with a sludge that isn’t quite moss, mildew, or mud, but is as slick as snot.

I took one step onto the first stair and the next thing I knew my feet weren’t under me. I landed on my tailbone and bumped down a few steps until my heels dug in at the bottom landing. Ow! It didn’t hurt much at first, but my mobility was suddenly severely limited. I could hardly bend over to pick things up from the ground. But I have found that if I don’t keep moving I will freeze up.

I got the hose and a wire brush and scrubbed those steps to within an inch of their life. I managed to mow part of the lawn. Ow! I didn’t want to sit. Reaching for anything that takes me out of center hurt. And every time I hurt it made me laugh. Ibuprofen didn’t help much. An ice pack helped a little. But what did the most was time.

It’s been a week. It hasn’t been a fun week. I’ve been restless and cranky and hardly got anything done. I gave myself a deadline of May 30 to have this terrace cleared and some sort of firepit functional. Lounging around wasn’t getting anything done. I hate feeling like I can’t get things done. It does bad things to my mental health. But yesterday I got moving again.

My boys helped me get the big trailer down into position, then they helped break up more slabs.
I did not think there was this much concrete in that terrace. And there’s more to load.

I got my boys to come out with me. The middle one just needed the incentive of driving my truck to bring the trailer down. I am horrible at backing trailers while he has a natural instinct for it. We got it parked and started throwing chunks on it. Now it’s piled high enough that I’m worried about it being overweight. We might have to throw half of it off before we take it on the road.

I often start projects only to run into the most ridiculous roadblocks. All I know how to do is to keep trying. It often feels like I’m going too slow if not backwards. But when I pause and look around I can see that I’m not doing as bad as it feels. Baby steps might not be fast, but if you take those tiny steps for long enough you might be surprised how far you can get. And don’t hesitate to slow down if the situation calls for it. Allowing yourself to recover means you can do more the next time you push. Just don’t let the momentum completely disappear.

I just have the one pile of chunks left to throw on the trailer. Then I can rake it level. Should be done this evening!
Health and Fitness

I’m hungry for change

Okay, I had a plan. I set it up on Sunday. But it’s my plan so I get to change it up when I want. Today was supposed to be about family, but as I put together my lunch I felt more like I need to talk food.

I’m not going to use the word diet, though technically it’s perfectly appropriate for the use. I just hate the word. It has too much other meaning that people use to place chains on their souls. I won’t diet. Instead, I will deliberately choose food that doesn’t make me feel bad.

I’ve never been drunk. Yeah, I’ll drink a bit. Once in a while. Usually at the end of a miserable work week when I’m done with people altogether. But I don’t overdo with alcohol. On the other hand, I have gotten sugar-drunk more than I like to think about. You know, there’s a bag of candy that doesn’t taste all that good but you keep eating it until you have a headache and you know you shouldn’t touch it anymore but keep putting them in your mouth… I’m not proud of it. I know it has done harm and I want that harm to end.

I have been trying to learn how my body responds to food. I don’t mean the fast enjoyment that I get from putting delicious stuff in my mouth. I don’t mean the drugging sensation from eating that is soothing and puts you to sleep after. I mean I am learning how I can eat to properly fuel my body so that a reasonable amount of food is satisfying for the longest amount of time. I am trying to adapt my eating habits so that they serve proper body function rather than short term satisfaction. I think I have found part of the puzzle by leaving carbs and sweets for late in the day if at all.

These days my breakfast is coffee with cream and a bowl of cottage cheese. Fruit makes me hungry too soon so I leave it out. My lunch is packed in a homemade bag. I fill a sandwich container with cheese sticks, olives, and veggies. There is a snack baggie with nuts and seeds, a yogurt, and often a fruit for the end of my work day. Sometimes I have hard boiled eggs to add, sometimes I put in egg bites from Costco. I guess I’m aiming for low carb with a vegetarian spin. I don’t know that this is going to help me lose any weight, but so far I definitely feel better eating with this pattern. At some point I’d like to figure out how to add in intermittent fasting.

So this is where I’m at for now. It can and probably will change as time goes on and I find other ways to eat. The foundation won’t change. I want to feed my body so I can live the best life possible for as long as I can. I share it to make it stick with myself and because maybe someone else might find it useful.

Health and Fitness, Stories

I should go for a walk

Driving for a living is bad for your health. I know nobody’s reading this, but I feel like I should put this out there.

I have been driving bus for nearly 14 years. It is physically and mentally demanding. It has me away from home for 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. It pays a very good wage, but that comes at a cost. I gained 30 pounds that I didn’t need. I deal with gallstones on an occasional basis. I have lower back pain that sometimes flares into sciatica so bad I can’t sit to tie my own shoes. I also deal with anxiety attacks sometimes, triggered by things that almost happen but leave a residue in my mind. I’m glad nobody’s reading because it’s hard to admit that much in public. There’s more that I will keep to myself.

If you don’t pay attention these kinds of things will kill you. It’s easy to become complacent about your health. You come home mentally exhausted and there’s no energy to fix a healthy dinner or go for a walk before bedtime. It’s easy to grab fast food on the way home. It’s easy to just sink into the routine of the machine that you have become a cog in. But I know better than most that this is how you die. My husband drove bus for 14 1/2 years before his heart attack killed him. That will not be me.

There is never any energy to take care of your health when you have to choose to every day. Instead it must be made a part of the machine that drives your existence. Grocery shopping has to include the items that will go into a lunch that feeds your body without harming it. Exercise has to be scheduled like an appointment and turned into a habit. It’s still a daily battle to not fight off the plans I have made for my health. I have to stop hitting the snooze button on the alarm that tells me to get up and go for a morning walk. I have to not carry cash that lets me buy candy from the vending machine in the breakroom. I have to choose the long term good over the short term pleasure. I don’t always make the best choices, but at least I am thinking about it.

I do not want fitness to look good, though that is a nice side benefit if it happens. I want fitness so that I can feel good. I want health so that my body will do what I need it to when I need it to work. I want health so that I can live a life that does not revolve around my next doctor’s appointment. That is worth making the little choices ahead of time and making myself follow through. There is life outside of bus driving. I’m ready to grab it.