Surviving Winter and Other Serious Things

This last month has been pretty intense here weather-wise. Lots and lots of snow here and I've been spending a lot of time after work shovelling. When the snowbank hits seven feet, yes seven, it gets hard to throw the snow over the top! And it's been so very cold. I usually like Winter, but now, not so much. It's overstayed its welcome! 

All the extra work outside does make me feel good, those calories are getting burned up, but the chill afterwards basically alters my evenings in a big way. Sometimes I have to take a long hot bath just to feel normal again. Thankfully, it looks like warm temps on are the way!!! I'm looking forward to Spring!

My mother has had her ups and downs, with a few trips to the hospital due to allergies to her new medications, and low magnesium issues, so I'm still very concerned about her health. Her doctor was very blunt with her and said she could indeed have another heart attack any time since her risk factors are still present. That's giving her motivation to do all she can not to die. She is trying her best to get back on track with diet and daily walking to avoid having another heart attack. She's started physiotherapy and strength training but finds the exercises difficult since for the past thirty years, she's not done much other than occasionally walking. We talk about all the challenges and her head is definitely in the right place. She's lost ten pounds so far.

In my last post I showed those Richard Simmons DVDs she sent me and they are a hoot!! I tried them both and yeah, I still have two big left feet. I'm not going to do them often, just when I need a fun and emotional lift.

I do have some health concerns of my own as well. I've been feeling unusually tired for the past six months or so, and I shouldn't be waking up groggy and puffy. After visiting the doctor, and getting a couple of preliminary tests out of the way, he warned me of a couple of possible issues, including possible pre-diabetes. More tests are necessary. Although he said possible, I'm not happy it right now. I thought I was out of the danger zone. Since I'm in fact still overweight, currently 166.3 lbs, and the weight is concentrated around my middle, that right there is a major risk factor.  After taking my blood pressure, which he said was a little high, he did say it could be nothing so not to worry... but I can't help it. 

So my goals for the next while are to continue to:

- exercise every day, with cardio 5-6 times a week, strength exercises 3 times per week

- eat well

- keep watch on my portion sizes

- stay low sugar, and low sodium. 

Adding in:

- try not to worry about everything 

- meditation

- warm baths

- listen to more music, less TV and Internet

- dip into savings to pay for a weekly massage