<p>At this point dadII has devolved into a creature living under a bridge, and the best thing to do with such a creature is not feed it.</p>
<p>Ignore him and he will find another bridge.</p>
<p>One of the things I like about this thread is that if someone comes on here and says - I walked for a mile today - we say congratulations and we mean it. There is just no point in comparing. I will never be a runner like MOWC, a bicyclist like MichaelNKat, or a lifting demon like idad. But I can be happy for them and vice versa. </p>
<p>Pizzagirl - am glad you said that, because I’m returning here with hesitation. As some of you know, I had surgery last April for endometrial cancer, and was doing really, really well with my recovery. At my six-week check up, I was told I could basically go back to lifting, working out, etc. I was walking three miles a day. But it coincided with my daughters being in town, and I didn’t get around to it that week. At 7 1/2 weeks post-op, I developed an internal abscess and became septic. I was in the hospital for five days - sicker than I’d ever been in my life. I was sent home with a PICC line to infuse my own antibiotics for two weeks; the home health nurse who came to visit me during that time told me, as a rule of thumb, when you’re over 50 years old, for each day you spend in the hospital, count on a week to get back to where you were prior to the hospitalization. I was EXHAUSTED for weeks on end - the infection sapped every ounce of energy out of me.</p>
<p>So when I finally returned to working out, it began with an assessment by my trainer. I was truly in worst shape than I’d been when I started with him almost five years ago; I had zero stamina. We started so, so slow and are very slowly moving up the weights. We actually switched from doing set training to a PHA training about two weeks ago because I feel like what I really need is to work on my stamina. I have not gone back to my water aerobics class, because, honestly, I can’t get up in time in the morning to make it to a 9AM class. My sleep has been so poor since the hysterectomy (still working on that with my GYN and tweaking my hormones) that I’m rarely awake before 9. So I’m not getting the cardio exercise unless we do the PHA training.</p>
<p>Here’s my concern - I started wearing a heart-rate monitor when we started doing the PHA training. The trainer is still keeping me at a round of 3-4 exercises, then a rest period to allow my heart rate to come down. Then we start another round again. We usually do 3-4 sets before switching to a new round of exercises. We usually get through 3-4 different rounds in an hour. My heart rate is going up pretty quickly with anything that involves squatting and taking a while to come down… not only that, but almost every time we do anything that involves squats or lunges, I get extremely light-headed. But I recover pretty fast - the lightheadedness only lasts 15-20 seconds, but even though it goes away, my heart rate continues to climb, sometimes up to 155-160… then my trainer wants me to wait for it to come down at least to the 130s before I start the next exercise. So while we’re trying to do PHA, sometimes I have to take a break between exercises, long enough for the heart rate to come down.</p>
<p>Basically I’ve written all this as my way of saying I’m somewhat worried about the lightheadedness and lack of stamina. I don’t know if I’m expecting too much, too quickly, or if this is something I need to consult with my doctor about. The lightheadedness comes not only when I’m doing squatting-type exercises, but if I’m at home, and am down on the floor for something, or kneeling, then get up, it happens then, too. Sometimes just getting up from the couch after sitting there for a while makes it happen. When I was in the hospital for the sepsis, because the particular bacteria I had has a small risk of settling in one of the valves of the heart, I did have an echocardiogram and everything was OK. When I was sickest with the infection, my heart rate was in the 140s to 150s, but it was a normal sinus rhythm. When I followed up with my internist after the sepsis, he did an EKG in his office because he was concerned about the high heart rate in the hospital, and again, normal sinus rhythm. </p>
<p>So I’m not sure what to do at this point. Like I said, we’ve only been doing the PHA for a couple of weeks now, so should I just give it more time? If I try to do even ten stationary lunges on each side, I’m very dizzy by the end and have to lean against the wall for a bit (when I first returned to working out with my trainer again, we started with three on each side, and have gradually worked up to ten on each side at this point - my legs can handle it, but the dizziness is always there by the end of 20).</p>
<p>I would welcome any suggestions (and or opportunity to clarify anything)!</p>
<p>Teri, is it possible that you have a mild case of vertigo? You should definitely mention this phenomenon to your doctor. Mine went away before I had a chance to make an appointment. From what I gathered, blood loss and anemia could lead to that, or it could be a myriad of differnt other causes. </p>
<p><a href=“Dizziness - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic”>Dizziness - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic;
<p>Fingers crossed your stmptoms will soon go away! </p>
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<p>The original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica (1930s) and the later one (late 1950s) in Venice are legendary in weightlifting, bodybuilding, and gymnastics – home of pioneers like Jack LaLanne and Joe Gold and, later the steroid generation (Arnold, etc.) Lot of fitness history on those beaches.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.musclebeach.net/smonica.html”>http://www.musclebeach.net/smonica.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnRkF4v6no8”>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnRkF4v6no8</a></p>
<p>Congratulations KMC on the tree removal trail maintenance. A big round of applause to everyone who clears fallen tree from trails!</p>
<p>Congratulations MOWC on the first half marathon post-fractures! We’re not worthy! ^:)^ </p>
<p>MKet: Among other things, one of the real pitfalls of using the stopwatch as the sole measuring stick of fitness is, that, eventually, father time drives us to a point where the stopwatch can no longer go in the right direction. When that time comes, it’s important to have other motivations. The same challenge occurs when the scale stops going down in weight loss…</p>
<p>Woot MomWC. And Woot Sabaray on such a robust run. And of course, woot to everyone else who is happy with whatever they did ;)</p>
<p>Momwc, as it turned out, I should have texted mcson to tell him about your marathon…he got “trapped” (and lost) downtown and had trouble getting to the Gardner expressway…ergo it took him 10 hours of driving to get home by the time he made a lunch stop and cleared the border. Good thing he’s young. I can’t tolerate much more than 4-5 hours of driving in a day these days. ;)</p>
<p>Broomfield, jealous of the ocean walk but not jealous of the 12,000 steps closing up the vaca home 
michaelnk - trebly jealous of the ocean walks. New meaning to Happy Trails ;)</p>
<p>Teri, glad you are on the mend. I think just slowly and incrementally rebuilding your stamina is the way to go…and I think after such a systemic infection, its pretty normal to take a while to bounce back. As to the cause of the vertigo (which I get bouts of now and then), ask your doc if it could be a side effect of any of your Meds, have him check that you don’t have a nascent ear infection, and ask him if perhaps you should supplement iron. (Mine seems related to anemia.)</p>
<p>Maybe to rebuild your stamina for harder work, you could do some Nordic walking with poles…that ups your heart rate over regular walking, and if you get dizzy at all, well, you’re holding onto poles Even a week of not walking the hill for me reduces my stamina. So to me after what you’ve been through it seems you’d need some slow recovery. I know its hard to be patient, but be kind to yourself.</p>
<p>Teri, I had a similar problem to yours many moons ago after an extremely difficult pregnancy and emergency c-section. I would check with your MD. I had what is termed orthostatic, or postural, hypotension - the causes can vary and I would suggest consulting with your doctor. </p>
<p>Too late to edit, but a friend just posted this on facebook: </p>
<p>“Fitness is not about being better than someone else. It is about being better than you used to be.” </p>
<p>Cheers to everyone working to be better! </p>
<p>^^Love that!!</p>
<p>Teri, give yourself kudos for the motivation and effort to get back into some sort of fitness after a couple of health scares. Let the time you have been given be your friend - ask your doc about your concerns and give yourself permission to take things slow - but keep going, a little at a time as your body allows. :)</p>
<p>So you all have been busy! I had a fitness full day on Friday and then a weekend off as I was busy entertaining relatives from France. So either in the kitchen, reconnecting with family, or eating! All good food, and much of it “good for you” food too - with the exception of the piece of cinnamony apple pie! </p>
<p>Enjoyed talking with my cousin about her Chicago marathon experience. Turns out she has now run Chicago, New York and London. Inspiring and let me tell you, for 57 she looks AMAZING! She did talk about how she was pleased with Chicago but she felt she was too goal oriented and would like to focus more on the “pleasure” of running. She said she felt she was a slave to her Garmin - watching her time/pace, knowing where she needed to be at different points to meet her goal - which was 4:15 and exactly where she came in. I asked her about supplements when she runs and she said she cannot do the gels - she carries some type of bar and water which she says is what works for her and approved by her trainer. Just interesting to hear the different methods people use and succeed with! </p>
<p>My Friday fitness day was further rewarded by a package arriving in the mail - my good friend who ran the Chicago marathon is WAY too good to me and sent me the 2014 Nike Chicago Marathon dri-fit quarter zip - it’s gorgeous! Though I am a “slow turtle” I will wear it proudly knowing that my fitness is not about being better than someone else, but about being better than I used to be - which is perfectly legit to and for me! </p>
<p>Will be exercising that apple pie off later today. :)</p>
<p>Ohio, no I didn’t. It’s now part of Gold’s gym and in addition to requiring the payment of fees, my daughter and I decided that we would only seek out and patronize small boutique studios.</p>
<p>IDad, I hadn’t been aware of the 2 Muscle Beaches until I walked from today’s Muscle Beach down to Santa Monica Pier. Interesting history. And yeah, if all you’ve got to keep you motivated is the extrinsic motivation of a stopwatch (or how much weight), there will certainly come a time when those metrics are going in the wrong direction! Which is not to say it’s not fun to challenge yourself based on time, speed or whatever, but at the end of the day it’s the intrinsic motivation that keeps us at it.</p>
<p>Sabaray, we can add to that my daughter’s words to some of her clients who are metrics obsessed “Its only a number”.</p>
<p>Teriwitt, I would certainly recommend seeing a Dr about your dizziness and lightheadedness. It can be caused by any one of a number of things and only your doctor can really tell you what’s going on and how to deal with it. When you see your doctor, also ask him if you are clear to work out and if so whether there are any limitations. If there are, ask him to give you the limitations in writing so you can copy and give to your trainer.</p>
<p>Teri, I have no advice for you, this is out of my knowledge zone, but I hope you find the answer soon.</p>
<p>I’m back from a two-week hiking trip to southern Utah. I counted about 90 miles of hiking in 13 days – we do only day hikes and stay at nice hotels with nice beds at night. </p>
<p>Most interesting hike was the Narrows in Zion, where the trail is the river. <a href=“Zion National Park - Zion Narrows Bottom-Up Day Hike”>www.citrusmilo.com/zionguide/narrowsday.cfm</a>. We walked 3+ miles against the current, on slippery rocks – which was really tough. Coming down with the current was much easier. Rented dry pants and special boots and I fell only once. The next couple days I felt like I’d done 500 sit-ups – I think I was constantly tightening my core out of nerves,</p>
<p>Longest hike, Chesler Park Loop in Canyonlands, <a href=“http://www.utahtrails.com/CheslerPark.html”>www.utahtrails.com/CheslerPark.html</a>. About 11 miles and gorgeous, worth every step.</p>
<p>Prettiest hikes were two in Bryce Canyon, Peekaboo (<a href=“http://climb-utah.com/Bryce/queens.htm”>http://climb-utah.com/Bryce/queens.htm</a>) and Fairyland (<a href=“http://climb-utah.com/Bryce/fairyland.htm”>http://climb-utah.com/Bryce/fairyland.htm</a>). </p>
<p>Since I’m afraid of narrow ledges with steep dropoffs, we didn’t do the infamous Angel’s Landing hike in Zion, but instead went up to the higher and steeper Observation Point (<a href=“Joe's Guide to Zion National Park - Observation Point Trail Hiking Guide”>www.citrusmilo.com/zionguide/obspoint.cfm</a>).</p>
<p>I hike in Salomon trail running shoes, which are the most comfortable and secure footwear I’ve ever hiked in. </p>
<p>We ran into lots of hikers who were older than us, so there is hope that I can continue to take this type of vacation into the next decade. </p>
<p>Off to the gym to do weights!</p>
<p>Oh wow, looks gorgeous, Fireandrain!</p>
<p>Nice! That sounds great. My boss and his son have done that river hike! I agree with you about the ledges! Not for me!</p>
<p>Long time lurker, first time poster to this thread. I have followed this thread for months and have gotten so much helpful advice. Decided to stop lurking and join in on the discussion.</p>
<p>For years I was focused entirely on my career and raising my kids so my health took a back seat to everything else. The pounds crept on over the years and my blood pressure went up. Finally in June 2012 I had to start taking blood pressure medicine and for some reason that made me angry enough (at myself) to finally do something. The kids were launched (more or less) and I had a little more time of my own. My husband and I started the Couch to 5K program in June and completed it in September (we had to repeat a lot of the weeks). In December 2012 we realized we needed to do more than just run/cardio and joined a gym and started working out twice a week with a trainer. A year ago we ran our first half marathon. My goal was 2:11 to be under a 10 minute mile. I just missed it and ended up at 2:12. I ran another half in May this year and was very happy to do it in 2:09. I’ll be running another half marathon on November 1 and I’m feeling really good about it.</p>
<p>The combination of weight training and running has really paid off, I am down 40 lbs and weigh less than I did in high school. Thanks to the weight training I’ve built up some good muscle strength. I’ve maintained at the same weight for 4 months but am terrified of gaining it back. I really think maintaining is harder than losing.</p>
<p>I plan to continue with the running and strength training but my next goal is to work on better nutrition. Confession - I love carbs. I don’t like to cook very much, husband doesn’t cook at all, so too many of our meals are easy frozen dinners from Trader Joes, Market Day, and the like. I need to spend some time working on meal planning and integrating more veggies and healthier choices into our menu.</p>
<p>Thank you so much to all the contributors to this thread - I have followed your activities for some time (sorry if I’m sounding like a creepy stalker!) and am so impressed with the variety of accomplishments and very positive attitudes about engaging in a healthy lifestyle.</p>
<p>We’re delighted you finally decided to chime in, C3Baker! As you know, there are quite a few like-minded folks here (and no, we don’t think you’re a creepy stalker). I hope you’re able to pick up some quick and delicious cooking tips here. </p>
<p>Welcome C3Baker! In reference to your name, do you at least like to bake??! </p>
<p>Your progress is really impressive. And you have a 2+ year history of staying pretty dedicated - that says ALOT. I think most of us who have lost weight/inches because of exercise/eating changes have a certain degree of fear of gaining back. </p>
<p>We probably could/should talk more about nutrition - at least in the sense of the type of stuff we do/should put in our mouths! </p>
<p>What foods are your carb downfalls???</p>
<p>Welcome and yay!!! </p>
<p>I am retiring in a little over a year and I think that will be the point where I really “kick it up” in terms of running. We’ll see if I get to a marathon. You are an inspiration!</p>