Ambitious

This morning I am feeling ambitious. I have no idea where this came from. But now I am ready to go to the gym. Then the grocery store. Then home to do some gardening. Its supposed to be bear 70 today - which is very rare around here at this time of year.

I also have a goal. Our new house has all sorts of brambles growing near the house. Brambles (or picker bushes or briers or whatever you may call) them are not welcome in our garden. I got one out of the ground yesterday. I have my sights on a few more for today. I figure if I get to a few of them at a time I won't over do things (not me!), I can get on rid of a lot of them. One thing at a time is how it works for me.

Maybe I am just feeling positive for a while. That would be a good thing. Its not that I never feel positive but I am ambitious today. My husband commented that he is used to me being tired, sleepy and grumpy. That tells me I do need to change my ways.

But now before I lose my ambitious, I will go to the gym.

Talking and working out

Yesterday afternoon at the gym, I got to talking to two other women (this is a common occurrence to stop and chat) on the topic of getting into shape/staying in shape while dealing with ailments. One woman is just done with chemotherapy again for chronic recurrent ovarian cancer and is new to the gym. The other woman has osteoarthritis among other problems and has belonged for five years or so.

The woman with ovarian is trying to get back in shape so she can go on a three week vacation to Turkey and Spain. She said it is quite difficult quite understandably to get some muscle tone again. I shared that I had been diagnosed with RA and fibromyalgia since joining the gym plus two cancer diagnoses as well. They both said they were impressed by what I could do in my workout. I said I thought I was in better shape at my diagnosis because I had already been going there regularly.

So the discussion quickly turned to the important of working out before a life changing diagnosis and after the diagnosis. All of us agreed going to the gym was important and helped us greatly. The third woman with osteoarthritis had  had a lot of back pain before working out. Her improved muscle tone had helped her a lot and helped get rid of a lot of pain.

Then the conversation came to the benefits of swimming. All of us agreed we could not be paid enough to swim laps. One woman dog paddles, the other woman had her face pushed in the water by an instructor as a child and never learned to swim. I just hate swimming laps. So all of us agree the gym is  a great way to get in shape but you won't catch us in the pool.

So while talking and working out, I learned a bit about others and how we can all agree on different things.

PS this is a lame post today. I know it.

Surprising people

As I have mentioned before, I go to an amazing gym for dilapidated people. Its a combination of PT and a gym and is full of people with ailments. I see people there daily in wheel chairs, on oxygen, and wearing various types of splints and braces. I know most of the people who go there have medical issues and greatly benefit from the additional support, like me.

When you first join, you get assessed by one of the physical therapists - which consist of three of the four owners - and then work with either one of the exercise specialists or one of the PTs to set up an exercise plan. Then every three months you go back to one of the PTs or an exercise specialist to reevaluate your program.

I went to one of the PTs three plus years ago when I joined. Since then, my health has increased its downward spiral and I decided I needed to go back to one of the PTs and start over. I met with one of the two brothers yesterday to do that.

We started by going through which of my body parts have issues and my medical issues which impact my abilities. At the end of the conversation, he turned to me and said "I had no idea you had so much going on. I see you here going through your routine and did not know".

I had surprised him with my ailments and that I am still exercising. At one point, he did say "I'm sorry" and I said "no you are not supposed to say 'I'm sorry'. You aresupposed to say 'That sucks.'"

But I am a little sore after my new routine but I will be back tomorrow.

Now that is a misconception

Yesterday afternoon I went to the gym after work. I know a bunch of people there, mostly women, that I chat with while there. Do I remember their names? Of course not. I am sure we introduced ourselves in the past. I recognize them, they recognize me. We chat about the latest  news, weather, our inabilities to balance on one foot as much as we should, and more. And skip addressing each other by name gracefully.

There is one woman who is always relatively stylish, excessively thin, and very much a doer - always on the move. I can't remember her name if you paid me a million dollars. She always says she likes talking to me because I am so perky and positive all the time. (???) Now that is a misconception.

Yesterday I stopped her by saying I was ready for winter to be over. She replied she never heard me say anything negative. (!!) I said it was due to be above freezing for five days in a row so our giant glaciers (still 2.5 feet of solid snow drift I can walk on in the front yard).

She said she was glad to hear me say a positive thing because I never say negative things. I'm always perky. Yes she called me perky.

She has such a misconception. Not that it is a bad one. I think I won't fill her in on the real me.