Author: Sandi C.

Sandi is a feminist in the throes of what some would call her mid-life crisis, having gone from exercising only her mind to lifting weights and throwing heavy objects. Her natural curiosity and need to know everything serves her well in a career in research as well as all things health, science and well…life really.
fitness

Exercising during recovery (Guest post)

Sandi C.8 Comments

footOver the last 10-15 years, I’ve been dealing with foot pain. The last three, since I started my highland games sport, have seen the pain increase exponentially. I don’t know if it’s the spinning, the cleats or both, but the pain has been unbearable. Highland games take several hours, so it’s a lot of time on my feet, and I typically would change shoes 3 or 4 times during the day. I’ve finally had surgery on both feet to break some bones and align my toes properly. The time off has been great as I was suffering from burnout from work as well.

It became apparent once the drugs started to wear off after surgery that my lack of movement was going to cause me problems. I’m moderately active normally, but lying in bed with my feet up and doing nothing was making it impossible to sleep, and sleep is something I’ve struggled with for a long time, so when I say impossible, I mean, awake for 36 hours impossible. The first few days I was incapable of doing much, so started working my chest, arms and shoulders with resistance bands, just a few minutes at a time, which was exhausting when drugged, later moving to walking around a bit in the stores to get out of the house and tire myself out. Since then I’ve been craving movement.

I googled exercise options and was disappointed with what I saw, so decided I just needed to be creative and modify workouts I know to accommodate my temporary abilities issues. It’s only been a few weeks since the surgery so still not able to do anything requiring balancing or feet. I’ve been in the gym bench pressing, and am back up to my pre-surgery personal best. I have been in the backyard doing (really) modified high intensity interval training, on a chair with a kettlebell and medicine ball and have started pilates, modified slightly as I can’t flex or point my toes, or have the top of my foot touching the floor due to pin placement. This might actually be a bit of a blessing as my workout has to be much better-rounded to accommodate the handicap.

Getting back into the workouts has really been helping me sleep, is relieving some boredom, is probably helping me to heal faster but is getting me pumped up in general about moving more and integrating a few more options into my normal routine.

fitness

Resolution skipping and short term goals (Guest post)

Sandi C.2 Comments

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Every year I work on the New Year’s resolutions, with S.M.A.R.T. (but lofty) goals so I can start January with the right attitude and a plan. Like most people, by February, I’ve lost the plan in a sea of papers that I never got around to decluttering and by March, I’m stuffing pizza in my face and wondering why my pants are still tight.

After a year that ended in complete burn-out, with just a few goals met, I’ve decided that I’ll start my January a bit differently. I will still identify some personal and professional goals, but will keep them relatively modest. But I’m going to spend time reflecting on what went sideways last year that took me over the edge to total burnout. I joke that I broke my feet on purpose to get some time off in December, but there’s some element of truth in that statement. I wasn’t able to schedule my surgery myself, but the timing couldn’t have been better. I needed the time off and apparently needed a week to just lie in bed, stoned on opiates, with my feet propped up and Ted Talks and Netflix entertaining me.

Now that I’ve had a few weeks off with a few more days to go, I feel like I can tackle the new year. I realize that I’m in a much better head space now. I ended the year at work with a really great team where we can redistribute work moving forward, and I feel that I’m finally in a place where I can take tighter control of my calendar. My goal for January is to focus on cleaning up the backlog of projects that went sideways in 2015 (3 of them!) and solve some process problems so I can reengage in February with my clients.

I feel like solving these issues with work will help me to focus again on the basics: eating clean and healthy and working out regularly. Once my feet are healed, I’ll go back to running, back to yoga and just by virtue of the fact that I can’t drive or walk far in January will force me to take lunches to work. Other than that, I’m not setting big lofty goals, I’m not setting my goal to become a concert violinist, hit top 5 in the highland games or lose 40lbs but am interested this year in balancing my work and life. I would hope that finding that balance will open up all kinds of possibilities and ensure I’m not so exhausted I can’t play or even notice the opportunities.

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Guest Post

Sport supports (Guest post)

Sandi C.8 Comments

There was a time I’m embarrassed to say that I was one of those women who was jealous of other women. There were always women smarter than me, prettier than me, more successful than me, and I wanted to be what they were.

Age, experience and being open minded enough to talk to these women went a long way to making me realize that we all struggle with something and not everything is as perfect as it appears.

As a kid, I didn’t really try because I figured that as accident prone as I was, there was no point in wasting my time. I was afraid everyone would laugh at my ridiculous attempts. However, starting my athletic career in the upper half of my 40’s, in a niche sport has been very eye opening.

Caber tossing is not your average “old girl” hobby, but it’s an interesting way to leap into sports. Carrying a 40-70lb log vertically while running and looking for the optimal time to flip it end over end is not something I would have even thought of 20 or 30 years ago. Add onto that another 8 events and you’ve got the makings of an exhausting but exhilarating day.

The beauty of this sport is really around the support system. Everyone is a coach, but not in a pushy, I-know-better-than-you kind of way, but in an I’m here to help kind of way. Sometimes the coach is so good, the student beats them on the next throw.

We compete for placings, but for a new thrower who is throwing against women half my age, or women who’ve figured out the technique years ago, I couldn’t have picked a better sport. We celebrate each other’s improvements, breakthroughs and personal bests. I watch the women beating me and learn from them.

I’m not jealous, but incented. I’ve made some fantastic friendships and am excited to keep working at it to kick last year’s numbers to the curb.  I’m doing instead of watching.  It’s kind of awesome.

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WOB: Photo Credit: John Cavers: http://johncaversnature.com/

 

Sandi is a feminist in the throes of what some would call her mid-life crisis, having gone from exercising only her mind to lifting weights and throwing heavy objects.  Her natural curiosity and need to know everything serves her well in a career in research as well as all things health, science and well…life really.

 

Guest Post

What’s the optimal age to start a sport? (Guest post)

Sandi C.5 Comments

Who cares? What’s important is to start!

I’ve always been a bit of a workaholic, have thought nothing of working 10-14 hours at a computer, and worked out sporadically. I owned many workout videos, hand weights and a thigh master…that’s right, a thigh master. I’ve tested out every stupid diet introduced in the last 20 years, including a few where I paid ridiculous sums of money to various organizations to coach me through the diet. Many of them worked, many more did not. Inevitably I gained back the weight and then some. Text book mistakes.

A few years ago I was introduced to Life by Design, which was focused on clean eating – nothing with a bar code, no sugar, no wheat. It was kind of amazing. In a 30 day challenge, my energy levels went from meh to woohoo! At the same time I was looking for something to do with all this energy that would be fun and would get me off the couch. Running was ok, but I wasn’t excited enough about it to really keep at it religiously. While sitting on a lawn chair, reading about fitness, I looked up to where my husband was coaching some athletes in our back yard, and decided to get off the chair and give it a try.

My husband is has been competing in the Scottish highland games for 15 years now, and I’ve always supported him, sitting on the sidelines, taking pictures and feeding him on his breaks. I never felt that I could do it, so never tried. I didn’t have the energy and felt that I didn’t have the strength. Now that I had the energy, I figured there was no harm in giving it a try. I figured I’d practice with everyone, but would never compete.

Fast forward to now. I practiced for a year before competing and have been competing for 2. I’m entering my 3rd season of caber tossing, weight, stone and hammer throwing and it turns out I’m doing alright. During the competition season and off season I lift weights, as strength is a big component, but I also practice quite a bit as technique will definitely take me further. I finished last year at #21 in Canada and am competing against women who are significantly younger than me and more experienced (ie. Better technique than me), but I feel I’ve still got plenty of time to learn more.

I can’t believe it took me 45 years to find something that made me want to get off the lawn chair, but I finally have. I’m stronger than ever and have some new lifting and throwing targets in mind for this year. Turning 47 this year is not slowing me down at all, in fact I really think that I’ve got a lot more to do, and I’m having a blast.

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Sandi is a feminist in the throes of what some would call her mid-life crisis, having gone from exercising only her mind to lifting weights and throwing heavy objects.  Her natural curiosity and need to know everything serves her well in a career in research as well as all things health, science and well…life really.