sirdle - 2019

[stillcrazy]

Hi Sirdle, I have been following your journal too and ust wanted to say I am impressed with how well you handled your recent medical situation! I hope you continue to feel well. Vee

[moonlight]

Hi Sirdle,
It’s a treat to read a description for contra dancing. I did that for years. We went to dance weekend festivals and had a local group for weekly dances. Like your group, we had local bands and callers. Very much fun. It’s great exercise, too. I may look into going back and getting involved again. My husband isn’t a dance person so sometimes that can feel a bit awkward, relying on getting a dance partner.

So good your health crisis was not more serious.

[sirdle]

Day 12, Sun

Food
==============================
B: oatmeal, blueberries, flaxseed
L: potatoes w/ salsa, mustard, ketchup + salad
S: none
D: potato leek soup
S: grapes

Exercise
==============================
Activity - walking (intermittent) 11,000 steps
Cardio - none
Strength - weight training (45 min)
Balance - none
Flexibility - static stretching (10 min); dynamic stretching (20 min)

Rest
==============================
Sleep - 7+1 hr, restful
Meditation - none
Stress - very low
Reading - "Take Charge: Fitness at the Edge of Science", Clarence Bass

Notes
==============================
Sleep, very deep and restful, even though I woke up twice. A 1-hr nap in the afternoon.

Weight Training
week 1

Taking it easy after my stay in the hospital. One low-intensity set... just enough to make my muscles remember that they are not fat-storage warehouses. The weights used are at, or below, my workout warm-up intensity prior to visiting the E.R. last week. I monitored my heart rate throughout... never rose above 85.

leg press, 45 deg - (90x15)
bench press, iso-lever - (10x15)
hamstring curl, machine - (40x15)
row, low, iso-lever - (25x15)
shoulder press, iso-lever - (10x15)
pull ups, assisted - (115x20)
crunches, machine - (110x15)

[sirdle]

Hi Sirdle, I have been following your journal too and ust wanted to say I am impressed with how well you handled your recent medical situation! I hope you continue to feel well. Vee

Thanks! Glad you stopped by.

[sirdle]

Hi Sirdle,
It’s a treat to read a description for contra dancing. I did that for years. We went to dance weekend festivals and had a local group for weekly dances. Like your group, we had local bands and callers. Very much fun. It’s great exercise, too. I may look into going back and getting involved again. My husband isn’t a dance person so sometimes that can feel a bit awkward, relying on getting a dance partner.

So good your health crisis was not more serious.

I LOVE contra dancing. My wife and I tried many different types of dancing: Waltz, Foxtrot, West Coast Swing, Country Line Dancing, Cajun, Scottish Country Dancing, and Hula. I was terrible at all of them. I felt very self-conscious and every time I made a mistake I felt like I was letting my partner down. And that, of course, made it more likely that I would make another mistake.

Then I found contra. The dancers were uber-friendly and when I made a mistake, everybody just laughed and guided me in the right direction. When I got lost, I would just skip the step I was supposed to be doing and go stand where I needed to be for the next part of the routine and wait for the music to catch up!

This is one of my favourite contra videos: Contra Carnivale in San Luis Obispo with Elixir. Elixir is a band with a lot of energy (the horn section adds a lot). Carnivale takes place around Mardi Gras, hence the wild costumes and decorations. My wife is in this video... but you'll have to pick her out yourself. LOL. It is 11 min long, but the tune is catchy... and it grows on you. Enjoy.

Contra Carnivale 2019

Cheers,

[moonlight]

Thank you for the video! It was fun to watch. Is that your local dance group or a festival? I kept looking to see if I knew anyone. People often travel to the weekend festivals. Our local group is not that large, except for the annual weekend festival.

[sirdle]

Day 13, Mon

Food
==============================
B: oatmeal, blueberries, flaxseed
L: potato leek soup + salad
S: Brussels sprouts
D: potatoes w/ salsa, mustard, ketchup
S: none

Exercise
==============================
Activity - walking (intermittent) 10,000 steps
Cardio - none
Strength - none
Balance - none
Flexibility - static stretching (30 min)

Rest
==============================
Sleep - 6+1 hr, restful
Meditation - none
Stress - very low
Reading - none

Notes
==============================
Energy, seems to low today. Moving and thinking in slow motion. Wore my heart monitor during my intermittent walking and noticed that during each walk my pulse was a little higher than the previous. Ready for a good night's sleep.

[sirdle]

Thank you for the video! It was fun to watch. Is that your local dance group or a festival? I kept looking to see if I knew anyone. People often travel to the weekend festivals. Our local group is not that large, except for the annual weekend festival.

This is a 3-day 'dance weekend' that our local group sponsors. We are located about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, so we draw heavily from those 'markets' for the festival. The dance in the video had 5 sets of dancers, with each set containing 8-10 minor sets. So, maybe 150-200 dancers on the floor at a time!

The rest of the year our local dances have 40-80 people with anywhere from 16-70 people on the floor at a time. Maybe 1/4 of those people are absolute beginners who never return for a second dance. It's hard to build a solid base. This year, my wife and I are thinking of travelling to 3-4 dance weekends. We have signed up for Foggy Moon (in Monterey, in Nov), but haven't decided where else we will go.

Cheers,

[sirdle]

Day 14, Tue

Food
==============================
B: oatmeal, blueberries, flaxseed
L: potatoes w/ salsa, mustard, ketchup + salad
S: blueberries
D: potatoes w/ salsa, mustard, ketchup + green beans
S: pears

Exercise
==============================
Activity - walking (intermittent) 2,500 steps
Cardio - none
Strength - none
Balance - none
Flexibility - static stretching (30 min)

Rest
==============================
Sleep - 10+2 hr, restful
Meditation - none
Stress - very low
Reading - "Take Charge: Fitness at the Edge of Science", Clarence Bass

Notes
==============================
Energy - I'm having trouble deciding if I'm feeling better because I'm getting better... or because the anti-inflammatory drugs I'm taking are also pain killers. So, I decided to take the day off work, laze about the house, and get caught up on my reading. I'm not worried; I just think some extra rest is in order. I didn't think I'd take a nap today, since I slept for 10 hrs last night, but as soon as I lay down on the couch, I was out.

[AnnetteW]

So how are you enjoying that book you are reading? Any great insight to share?

I've gotten a bit tired of nutrition books (same with youtubes) and have moved back to my trashy romance novels.

Hope you continue to feel better. I always feel better when I take anti-inflammatory pills. I knows there's "stuff" going on in my body. Hopefully some day it will be all gone.

[sirdle]

So how are you enjoying that book you are reading? Any great insight to share?

I've gotten a bit tired of nutrition books (same with youtubes) and have moved back to my trashy romance novels.

Finished it. I'll post a review sometime in the next week when I've had a chance to digest it.

Spoiler: keep moving

I have a stack of 'old standby' novels that I read whenever I need a break. Right now, I'm finishing up Tamora Pierce's "Trickster" series. Fun stuff.

Cheers,

[sirdle]

Day 15, Wed

Food
==============================
B: oatmeal, blueberries, flaxseed
L: potato leek soup + salad
S: pineapple
D: pasta, marinara sauce, zucchini
S: grapes

Exercise
==============================
Activity - walking (intermittent) 10,500 steps
Cardio - none
Strength - none
Balance - none
Flexibility - static stretching (30 min)

Rest
==============================
Sleep - 7+2 hr, restful
Meditation - none
Stress - very low
Reading - "The New Rules of Posture", Mary Bond

Notes
==============================
Recap - It's been 1 week since my visit to the hospital. Still discomfort in my upper chest whenever the pain medication wears off. Hard to tell if I've made any improvement or not, which is very frustrating. Meanwhile, heading to the gym today for some very light weights and then food prep and reading in the afternoon.

[AnnetteW]

Spoiler: keep moving

Yes, luckily I know that and am fairly active. I always feel like I should be doing more, yet I'm sure I'm more active than most women my age. I do think when I'm finally slim I'll have some lovely muscles to show for it (I hope at least.)

But man, there is a price to pay. I have a massage appointment this afternoon, and I go to the gym more days of the week than not, we walk our dogs, I work with the physical therapist, I do stretching exercises while tv watching most evenings, we go to dance classes. Heck, my feet hurt and my knees hurt lately (calling a doctor today) and my neck always hurts.

But just keep moving.

[sirdle]

Day 16, Thu

Food
==============================
B: oatmeal, blueberries, flaxseed
L: potatoes w/ salsa, mustard, ketchup
S: cherries
D: tortilla soup
S: grapes

Exercise
==============================
Activity - walking (intermittent) 6,000 steps
Cardio - none
Strength - weight training (35 min)
Balance - none
Flexibility - static stretching (40 min)

Rest
==============================
Sleep - 7+1 hr, restful
Meditation - none
Stress - very low
Reading - none

Notes
==============================
Strength Training
week 1 (new routine)

1 low-intensity set at about the same weight I used for warm-ups prior to my hospital visit.

leg press, 45 deg - (90x13)
bench press, iso-lever - (20x12)
hamstring curl, machine - (40x25)
row, low, iso-lever - (25x13)
shoulder press, iso-lever - (10x20)
pull ups, assisted - (100x20)
crunches, machine - (110x20)

[sirdle]

Day 17, Fri

Food
==============================
B: oatmeal, blueberries, flaxseed
L: pasta, marinara sauce, zucchini + Brussels sprouts
S: none
D: tortilla soup + salad
S: cantaloupe

Exercise
==============================
Activity - walking (intermittent) 11,000 steps
Cardio - none
Strength - none
Balance - none
Flexibility - static stretching (30 min)

Rest
==============================
Sleep - 8+1 hr, very restless
Meditation - none
Stress - very low
Reading - none

Notes
==============================
Sleep - very restless. Woke up 6-8 times throughout the night. Have no idea why. It almost seemed like I was high on caffeine, but I haven't had any for a couple of weeks. Not sure what that was all about.

Balance/Flexibility/Meditation - not doing very well on these goals. I keep telling myself that I'm still recovering from the hospital, but that's really just an excuse, not a reason. Need to get back on track.

Food - I've been experimenting with easy-to-make dinners that my wife can cook when I'm not around. She doesn't like to cook (doesn't like to muck about with spices) and doesn't like to clean up afterward, but she has an extremely sensitive pallette. If all the food tastes the same, she'll wander off and eat something else. I'm extremely fortunate that she likes my cooking, but I am often away from home for weeks at a time.

I recently discovered Frontier Soups soup mixes. Many of the mixes do not contain salt or oil... at least the ones at my local store. But I notice their web address has changed, so perhaps they got bought out and the mother-ship is going to change all the ingredients. I hope not. I never follow the package recipes because they always suggest added meat and oil. Instead, I use the mix as a 'starter' and go from there.

Tortilla Soup mix
-----------------
dehydrated black beans
corn
red & green bell pepper
onion
garlic
chili powder
cumin

Things I added:

8 cups water
2 ribs celery (leftover from making a jumbo salad)
8 oz frozen mixed peppers (from Trader Joe's)
4 oz canned chile peppers (from TJs)
8 oz 10-min barley (from TJs)
12 oz Pico de Gallo salsa (from TJs)
26 oz chopped tomatoes (Pomi)
7 oz tomato paste
1 Yukon gold potato
5 oz Swiss Chard

Throw everything in a big pot and cook until done. If you want to get fancy throw the frozen items and the potatoes in first to give them a head start, and add the Swiss chard about 10-min before everything is done. Easy-peasy.

I might throw in an extra potato next time.