Tag: health

fitness

Acting my age – at least when it comes to exercise? Probably not.

Diane Harper1 Comment

I recently came across this article in the Guardian on fitness routines by age, shortly before suffering an overuse injury that had me incapacitated for a couple of weeks.

I don’t actually hate my middle-aged body. I do hate the misuse of “ladies” though – it should be “lady’s”.

I’m glad it’s just a super tight soleus muscle and not a torn Achilles tendon or hamstring injury. But I’m still not impressed with myself for needing to use a cane for several days. As much as I like my physiotherapist and appreciate her getting me on the road to recovery, I would have been happy not to see her and need to have KT tape all over my ankle.

I will do my best to take my training a little easier, at least for now. And I have already started taking a Pilates class so I can work on improving my strength.

I know exactly what triggered the injury, and what made it so much worse a couple of days later. But will I stop doing dance or lifeguarding (which includes mandatory fitness training)? Not a chance.

fitness · health

How Much is Enough When it Comes to Our Health?

Diane Harper1 Comment

I’m facing probable heart surgery at some point soonish, and I’m finding it all very complicated.

If I were a “normal” heart patient, maybe this would be easier. I have excellent care at the Ottawa Heart Institute; the issue is with me.

When I was first diagnosed with a severe heart murmur, I was surprised. After all, I’m active and didn’t have symptoms, or so I thought. But then I was sent for a stress test and told what symptoms to look for.

My cardiologist was happy with my stress test results but I was not. As a friend said at the time, I need to learn to distinguish between diagnostic and competitive. Put another way, I should have been told to go as long as I was comfortable, not as long as I could.

I started learning to acknowledge that I get breathless when climbing stairs, that I may not faint but I definitely suffer from “brown-outs”. That constant chest pressure is not normal and cannot be explained by overdoing workouts (at least not for weeks on end). And that I’ll be lucky to hit 1/10 of this year’s modest cycling goal.

At the same time, I am still active and would like to stay that way. So how do I navigate that fine line between advocating for myself and not wasting scarce health resources before I need to? When does advocating turn into drama queen behaviour?

I may still be quite healthy compared to some other heart patients, but I also have a lifeguarding job that requires me to be very fit.

I have settled on being clearer about my symptoms with my doctor while reminding myself that early intervention may actually save the health care system money in the long run.

I feel a bit guilty, but also have an angiogram scheduled for mid-December, and an appointment with a surgeon after that, which indicates that maybe it was wise to be speak up.

This is the only Heart I would like to be thinking about. Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images from an article about the iconic band in https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/26830/heart-ann-nancy-wilson-50th-anniversary-tour/
fitness

Stress Test is Stressful

Diane Harper

A couple of weeks ago, I had to do a stress test as part of figuring out next steps for my newly-diagnosed heart murmur.

It all seemed very straightforward: wear comfortable clothes and running shoes (or other comfortable shoes). Then walk on a treadmill while someone tracks what your heart does.

Then I started walking. The treadmill was on a slight incline and went faster than I was comfortable with, but I figured out how to adjust my pace and walk almost normally – for three minutes. That’s when the incline got steeper and the treadmill got faster. It happened again at six minutes and at nine. After ten minutes, I called it quits.

I felt like I might have been able to keep going until the next adjustment at twelve minutes, but decided it was dumb to try simply to prove a point to myself. Besides, I don’t run at the best of times and I was certainly going to try running without wearing a bra!

At the same time, I was mad at myself for giving up because I wasn’t going to get an A on this test dammit! I always want to get an A (or an A+). Nothing the tech said before or afterwards could reassure me that it wasn’t that kind of test and I had actually done just fine. A friend pointed out that I need to distinguish between diagnostic and competitive – yup.

I’m now waiting anxiously for my results to be uploaded into the hospital’s patient portal so I can see for myself how it went. Because of course I can’t simply wait until my next appointment with an actual doctor…

I did not look this good on the treadmill. Instead, I was wearing a bunch of wires that poked out from beneath an oh-so-elegant hospital gown worn backwards and taped shut for a little modesty. Photo by Bojan Milinkov/Shutterstock
Outdoor photo of a dog skidding the ground Christine’s Current Conundrums
ADHD · health · injury · rest

Christine’s Current Conundrums

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

Conundrum #1

As I work towards healing the muscles in my back, neck, and shoulders, I need to do a certain amount of movement to keep the circulation up, to create ease, and to maintain mobility but I can’t do too much or I will end up hurting myself and have a setback. 

How can I tell if I am doing enough or doing too much?

It’s a conundrum – there’s actually no way to tell, it’s something that everyone has to kind of figure out for themselves.

I hate that for me because I really have NO IDEA how hard I am working at any given time – even when I am not injured – so I can’t compare how I am moving now to how I moved last time (even if ‘last time’ was 5 minutes ago.)  

I’m sure you can see how that makes it very challenging to take a ‘do what you can, evaluate, then make adjustments next time’ approach for this healing process. 

I know a lot of people with ADHD mention having issues with this sort of thing – a lack of perception regarding our efforts – so it seems to be one of those challenges that everyone has but is often exacerbated by ADHD. 

The whole ‘how much is enough/how much is too much’ is really an unanswerable question loop so I’m really just going to hope for the best. 

Conundrum #2

I woke up on Sunday morning with the sort of panicky thoughts that usually only show up when I am having the sort of migraine that doesn’t involve any actual headache. I thought that was odd until I sat up, my stomach turned and I realized that I *was* having a migraine. 

I took a migraine pill, slept for another few hours, and then felt pretty ok until about 9pm on Sunday night when I suddenly stressed myself out about something and my stomach turned again.  Next thing, I was lying in bed with my migraine hat on , listening to cello music , putting an ice cube in my mouth, holding a hot water bottle to my stomach, and trying to find some ease.

Did I actually have the same migraine all day but the meds in the morning put it in the background? Or did getting stressed out bring on a new migraine? Or did a pre-existing migraine make me more vulnerable to getting suddenly stressed out and the stress just brought the symptoms to the foreground again? 

Is there even any point in asking myself these questions?

Since I haven’t ever been able to reliably predict my migraines there’s probably no point in going through the thought-loop but it would take a lot of energy to stop myself so I might as well travel the loop until it burns itself out.

Conundrum #3

After my Sunday night migraine,  my Monday self felt pretty lousy but I also had a bunch of tasks that I needed to do.

If I had felt any worse, I would have just taken to my bed like a Victorian lady and called it a day but I wasn’t that kind of sick. It was a ‘take it easy’ day, not a ‘grind to a halt’ day so, basically, I was in the same kind of loop as the ‘enough/too much’ question above except with work and rest.

Rest is important, obviously,  but my day wouldn’t be very restful if I couldn’t put those tasks out of my head, especially since I knew people would be checking in with me about them. (I never want to risk getting extra email.)

The best answer would be to identify the most important tasks and work on those but that brings me to a different challenge: 

Prioritization is extremely difficult for me under the best of circumstances and a day in which I am very tired and recovering from a migraine was not the best of circumstances – especially since my ADHD meds are less effective when I haven’t slept well. 

And if my meds are less effective, it not only affects my ability to prioritize, it also affects my ability to concentrate on my work so I am going to be slower and less focused.

So, I basically spent a good chunk of Monday putting a lot of mental effort into my attempts to prioritize/cut back on my work for the day so I could rest. 

Conundrum #4

As I got towards the end of my day, I discovered another conundrum:

Am I too tired/out of sorts to take Khalee for a walk or will taking Khalee for a walk actually make me feel better?

Luckily, I quickly figured out the correct answer for that one:

And about 5 minutes after we got home, it started to hail (just a little, but still!) so I was really glad that my ‘Will a walk help?’ loop was far shorter than the others. 

Conundrum #5

My final loop of the day was ‘Do I feel up to writing a post for the blog? What am I going to write about? Should I write about this loopy day? Will anyone want to read about that? Am I just being self-indulgent and whiny?’

And maybe I am being self-indulgent and whiny but I also know that I often feel better when I read posts like this. When other people write posts like this they always remind me that I am not alone in my frustrations, and thought loops, and in my efforts to make my way out of ordinary, fairly low-stakes conundrums. 

So perhaps today is my turn to do that for you.

It’s ok to get caught in conundrums – thought loops happen to everyone.

It’s ok to struggle to balance things and lots of us find it hard to figure out how to rest. 

There’s nothing wrong with you if it feels like AllOfTheThings are in your way today. 

Please be kind to yourself as you make your way along.

health

Broken Heart

Diane Harper4 Comments

My heart is not completely broken, but it definitely needs repairs. Back in January, I got what turned out to be bronchitis and eventually made the unusual (for me) decision to check in with my doctor. He heard a murmur and sent me off for tests.

Two echocardiograms and EKGs later, plus some bloodwork and a referral to the Heart Institute, it appears I have a severe murmur from a damaged mitral valve and it looks like I will need surgery to either repair or replace it.

The whole experience has been interesting. It turns out I am really bad at noticing (or admitting to) changes in my health. Also, answering subjective questions is hard! Do I feel tired? Breathless? Have swelling in my legs?

Answers: Compared to what? Under what conditions? How much do I take into account pre-existing things like the varicose veins I have had since I was a teenager?

Since being diagnosed I am noticing symptoms but again, I have questions: am I getting worse? Or allowing myself to notice what I have been ignoring for years? Or is it all psychosomatic?

The good news is that I am being encouraged to keep up my regular fitness routine. That surprised me, but the doctor says that cardio is actually good for my heart because my heart plumps blood out to my extremities, thus reducing the pressure on the heart muscle itself.

So for now I’ll keep up with my swimming and dance, and get back to cycling. Plus I am doing more walking – easy to stop if I get tired, and no worries about trying to keep up with a group.

There will be more tests at the end of May, and hopefully some decisions shortly thereafter. The pool where I work is closing for six months so I don’t need to worry about missing work if I get scheduled for surgery soon. I do worry about whether I will be able to return at all. That would be heartbreaking.

In the meantime, I’m going to try not to borrow trouble, and spend time with friends and family.

My son and daughter-in-law with my grandson when we were out for a walk last week.

fitness

Public Transit and Fitness

Diane Harper1 Comment

I have been without a car for much of the past few weeks. I was not comfortable cycling for various reasons, so I pulled out my transit pass and started using the bus. My step count went way up.

This isn’t entirely surprising. I have to walk further than my driveway to get to the bus stop, and connecting buses and final destinations do not always align perfectly with bus stops.

It was rather fun to take the bus; definitely more social, and less pressure on me to navigate to where I was going. And because I’m cheap, I often walked to places that were relatively close because I didn’t want to pay $4.00.

Better health outcomes from using public transit isn’t news. OCTranspo has listed a bunch of studies here. This meta-analysis considered 27 studies, of which 9 reported on absolute measures of physical activity associated with public transport and further 18 papers reported on factors associated with physical activity as part of public transport use. A range of 8–33 additional minutes of walking was identified from this systematic search as being attributable to public transport use.

Of course, good integration of transit modes is what will encourage people to get out of their cars and use public and active transit, so this image from a study by UITP on exactly that issue seems perfect.

Pedestrians use a crosswalk while cyclists on a separated bike path wait for them to cross. There is a tram and another vehicle that may be a bus, and two large bike parking areas full of bikes. In the far background, you can see one car and possibly a truck.

Christine finds drinking tea easier than doing yoga
ADHD · fitness · habits · health · mindfulness · yoga

Christine finds drinking tea easier than doing yoga

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Last week I outlined my plans for April and I thought I made things pretty easy for myself.

And I kind of did.

But, apparently, not quite easy enough.

It turns out that a mindful cup of tea – clear break- in the afternoon is a lovely addition to my day.

My days have felt a bit calmer.

I have gotten to have tea with friends three times, including tea with my sister Denise on her birthday.

I just feel really good about making a point to stop for tea and a rest.

And I’m sure that yoga would have a similar calming effect and would feel great for my body and my brain…

If I could remember to do it.

I mean, technically speaking, I have done yoga daily because I did a few focused stretches and a little time in Savasana (corpse pose) before heading to bed.

But that wasn’t what I had intended to do each evening.

My plan was to do a 10 minute yoga video before bed so a few stretches and some time in Savasana was not the kind of practice I was seeking.

Instead, it’s the kind of practice I end up doing when I realize moments before bed that I don’t have enough energy to do 10 minutes of movement – even gentle, restful movement.

So, since the tea practice is coming to me fairly easily, I will just let that one roll along and I will focus on figuring out how to remember to do that 10 minutes of yoga before I am too tired.

This week, I’ll experiment with setting an alarm for 9pm and see if that makes things easier.

And once I’m done my daily yoga, I’ll probably even have another cup of tea.*

A screencap of the alarm edit screen on an iPhone
Image description: A photo of the edit-alarm screen on my phone. The background is black and there are settings for the time (9:00 PM), Repeat (daily), Label (Yay for Yoga!), Sound (Constellation), Snooze (option is on),

A mug of tea and a drawing of a robot sit on a wooden table
This isn’t from this week, I just like this photo. Image description: a large glass mug decorated with stars is sitting on a wooden table. The mug is partially full of tea (a tea bag is still in the mug and the white tag is hanging over the side) and next to it is a green post-it note that has the word reminder at the top and below it is a drawing of a robot pointing to a sign that reads ‘Everyone needs to recharge!’

*Don’t worry about me drinking tea at 9pm. Mostly it’s ginger-peach tea but even if I have caffeine at that hour it won’t keep me up – this may or may not be related to my ADHD.

Christine’s April Plans
fitness · habits · health · mindfulness · motivation · self care

Christine’s April Plans

Christine Hennebury

I’m starting April while on a school storytelling tour with my friend Catherine (not blogger Catherine, a whole other marvellous Catherine) so the month is truly off to a good start.

Storytelling is great for my mental health and the fact that I am taking a break from my usual routine AND hanging out with a dear friend compounds the positive effects.

And this tour has been good for my physical health too because Catherine is a big proponent of finding energy by getting outdoors. So there have already been several times when her choice to go for a walk has shifted me into a more active rest mode after a busy day instead of just sitting around.

(To be clear, there are times when sitting around would be the right thing to do but in this case the walk felt waaaaaaaay better.)

Since the month is starting on such a positive note I have decided to add more positive health elements.

1. I found out yesterday that April is Afternoon Tea Month which is definitely a made-up kind of commemoration but as an avid maker-up-of-things, I’m here for it.

I’m going to celebrate by taking an afternoon tea break every day.

I can hear my sisters’ voices as I write that, “Chris, don’t you already drink tea every afternoon?”

And the answer is “Of course I do!”

But my April plan to to focus on the ritual of it, the making of the tea, the clearing of mental space, the sitting down to drink it.

This isn’t going to be a ‘drink tea at my desk while working’ kind of thing, it’s going to be an actual break in my afternoon.

A cup of tea in an octopus mug
One of my favourite cups for tea (a gift from my friend Mary) Image description: a cup of tea sitting on a small mat on my table with my ebook slightly out of focus in the background. My cup has a blue octopus on the side (only part of it is visible) and it has an ice cream cone held in one of its tentacles.

So that’s a small April addition for my mental health, now on to my physical health.

2) I mentioned last week that I am following the Active April calendar so that is staying part of the plan but I am also going to really commit to evening yoga (again!) and I have made a YouTube playlist to choose from each day.

And since I know sometimes get stuck in the decision making process, I am giving myself the default that if I can’t pick one, I have to choose the video immediately after the one from the night before.

I have often done evening yoga before and I throughly enjoy it when I do but I have gotten out of the habit so this is as good a time as any to get started again.

What are *your* plans for April?

fitness · health

Things I Never Thought about Learning in My 60s: Breathing and Walking

Diane Harper1 Comment

My continuing quest to improve my posture and knee health has taken me down the weird road of re-learning to walk. I didn’t quite realize that was what I was doing until I read Breath, by James Nestor. He writes about a multi-year drought project to learn about breathing, and how it has affected his health.

Obviously, I know how to walk. What I’m less good at is walking with my shoulders back, my torso lifted, and my head and feet at optimal angles. My new habit is to walk during my shifts on desk at the pool. I wiggle my shoulders to remind them to be wide both front and back. I peek at my reflection to make sure my feet are facing forward, rather than turned out like a duck’s.

I walk backwards sometimes (most of the benefits may be overstated, but it’s a good way for me to keep scanning the pool as I move around). I walk sideways. Sometimes I stop and go up on my toes 20 times, or do little leg lifts.

A Lego image of a lifeguard wearing a red bathing suit and pinny.

Similarly, I am trying a few of the techniques in Breath. I breathe in through my nose and exhale slowly out my mouth as much as possible when exercising. Sometimes I try box breathing, especially when I’m trying to relax. Occasionally, I’ll even do a bit of yoga alternate nostril breathing. The rest of the time, I focus on breathing only through my nose, at least when I’m awake. I have not yet resorted to taping or strapping my mouth shut for sleep, though I confess to having considered it.

Mina wrote recently about some of the alternative medicine things she is trying alongside her prescription medications. I thought it was an interesting approach.

Like Mina, I’m just doing them as entertaining supplements to my physiotherapy and prescribed medications. I think they’re helping a little. If not, that’s fine; they won’t hurt me (as long as I don’t trip).

Cubiis, productity myths, and The Squeeze
equipment · fitness · functional fitness · gadgets · gear · health · overeating · time

Cubiis, productity myths, and The Squeeze

elan.paulson3 Comments

It’s been a long, cold winter, and I work a few days a week from home, so I’m inside at my desk a lot right now. When a friend told me she uses a Cubii whenever she works at her desk I went online to see about it (as one does).

The Cubii is one of many (many) under-desk elliptical and cycling trainers, ranging from about $150-$450 (if you don’t count the high-end ones). They claim to be small, silent, and easy enough to be peddled for exercise while one sits doing office work. The Cubii looks simple and convenient, though if I bought one it might join all of my other doo-dads I have bought over the years for simple and convenient exercise…now gathering dust.

Pedal trainers join many (many) other devices that are sold for exercise at one’s desk: isometric standing devices, standing desk mats with ridges for stretching, disc wobble cushions, gyro balls, and smart water bottles. I remember when at one time there was only the stabilizer ball that you sat on instead of a chair. Now you can buy an entire work station that doubles as exercise machinery.

Various people sitting on exercise balls at desks, a google image search
Various people sitting on exercise balls at desks, a google image search

Awhile ago I read an article by Eryk Salvaggio (2024), “Challenging the Myths of Generative AI”, that has stuck with me. The piece focuses on how, based on misunderstandings about how AI works, certain myths are shaping how we justify AI’s importance and reshaping how we think about ourselves and what we do.

For example, AI is widely regarded as useful because it is understood to save time. (Frequent users know this may not be true depending on how complex the task, how good one’s prompting skills are, and how critical one is about the output). The productivity myth underlying this valuation is the automation of work. If is AI is good because it saves time, then automating more of our work with AI is good because it will save more time. In this AI-infused workflow cycle, where saving time with AI is better than working without it, the automation of work itself becomes the preferred norm.

Put another way, has anyone encouraged using AI to help complete a task more slowly because that task is worth spending time on?

I just spent a bunch of time explaining that idea (thanks for sticking with me) because the productivity myth may take a related form in the world of desk exercise equipment. This equipment is sold as a healthy remedy for the harms of sedentary office work, but it also produces a new idea that exercising while working is good. We save time because we are doing both at once, but in doing so our relationships to work and exercise change.

In “optimizing” work time also as exercise time (or using exercise time to work) then neither work nor exercise needs to be (should be?) the single focus of our time. Whether we are effective working while exercising, or exercising in safe form or duration while working, is beside the point.

Of course, no one lives in this purely either/or world: you can use your Cubii at your desk and still go curling later in the day. And, not every minute of our work day is likely to suffer if we were to divide our attention with light exercise once in awhilr. For fidgety people like myself, physical activity of some sort might indeed promote increased focus during certain tasks.

Furthermore, if you want to exercise at work, you can certainly avoid commodifying it by passing on the costly exercise equipment and opting for brief stretching or body weight exercises. Most importantly, I am certainly not refusing the vast evidence that prolonged seated work is bad for one’s health.

But…in reviewing many review pages of Cubiis (and their first and second cousins) I began reflecting on how serving the myth of productivity means we may be more more likely to buy things that will help us to squeeze more out of our time without questioning the squeezing. When it is always better to optimize by going faster or doing two things at once, we may start to care less about what we are actually doing than how long it takes us to get to the next thing.