Riding the stress train

For the past two weeks, things in my life have been really stressful.  Like most people, this can derail the best intentions for healthy living, whether it's giving in to the craving for rich, comfort foods, or being too worn out to exercise.  For someone with a disability, this can also mean an increase in pain levels as well.  It's at this time, though, when we really need to be the most careful, by making better choices in food, staving off an immune crash with vitamins if our diet is more off than we'd like, and at least attempting to do some gentle movement and stretching to decrease the pain.

In my particular case, I am not a stress eater.  In fact, quite the opposite.  But while this may appear at first to be a blessing instead of a curse, it does make my usual approach to food much more difficult.  Oftentimes, when stressed, I will have to contend with low level nausea at the mere idea of food.  This renders me unable to eat some of my usual high protein options, instead reaching for simple carbohydrates, which my stomach handles much better.  I do still try for the Greek yogurt in the morning, as I have several medications that I need to have on board every day.  But to take them requires food, so there you go.  Tea is another staple of my life, so I'm glad I'm able to still drink it without it making me sick!

So when stress hits, and we're off our feed, what is the answer?  Let's look at some potential options.

If stress eating is your bane, don't vilify yourself for wanting the comfort foods.  Deprivation just leads to binging, which is pointless sabotage.  Instead, try for some basic modifications to those foods to at least make them healthier.  Is mac and cheese your balm?  Add some broccoli and cauliflower to it, and maybe some ham for protein.  Or how about mashed potatoes smothered in gravy?  Make them with low sodium chicken broth; it'll have lower fat than cream, and more taste, too.  How 'bout that delicious wedge of chocolate cake?  Go ahead and indulge, but make it a slender slice, and top it with a few handfuls of fresh berries, which are packed with antioxidants and vitamin C. 

When stressful times hit, appropriate amounts of rest are vital to everyday functioning.  Don't skimp on sleep, even if it means bailing on some social outings.  If your sleep is interrupted due to the stress, do some creative image meditations, and at least rest your mind and body.  Melatonin can assist in restful nights, along with bedtime routines.  However, medical sleep aids should only be a last resort, and supervised by a physician.

Exercise is tough to do when stress rears its ugly head.  Extra fatigue and increased pain levels suck motivation faster than a Sham Wow on a water spill.  If the idea of heading off to the gym makes you want to crawl into a hole, skip it.  But don't let your body off the hook completely.  Go for a walk to clear your head, pop a favorite dvd into the player and do the treadmill/elliptical/bike.  Lift some weights, concentrating on pouring your stress into each rep.  Or turn on some guilty pleasure music and dance your uh...anatomy...off.  Not that I would ever even recognize the song, but um, let's just say I've heard that stuff like Rihanna's Pon de Replay can be catchy and boppy enough to get you moving.  You don't have to run a marathon or work out for several hours to be effective.  Just move.

Part of our stress can easily be attributed to feeling out of control of our situation.  In keeping control over our basic health, we remind ourselves that we do have the power to achieve our goals of better health.

Cheers!

Working it out

There is a very simple component to a healthy body that is so often overlooked, that many people don't even realize that it should be in their everyday routine.  That thing, my friends, is stretching.  Now, I'm not talking about doing Pilates and Yoga til you can apply to Cirqu du Soleil as a contortionist.  It doesn't need to be that strenuous or extreme.  But the benefits of stretching are numerous, and if you already have an issue with a joint of muscle, it's almost mandatory.

Tight joints and muscles are much more apt to be sore and painful, even before exercise.  Gentle stretching loosens up the fibers and allows for greater lubrication and blood flow, thereby reducing the risk of injury.  Remember to stretch slowly, though, and never bounce; this leads to muscle tears.  And for the love of Mick, please, please do NOT do that one stretch that used to be so popular among the runners I knew.  It involves sitting with one leg extended straight, and the other leg bent back such that the foot points away from the body, to the outside.  This stretch has been a staple for years, but it so, so bad for the knees.  My youngest, the Ambassador, is a soccer addict.  (Yeah, I said it.)  But any time he gets a coach who starts with this stretch, I  forbid him to do it.  His Osgood-Schlatters Syndrome aside, it's just dangerous for the knee joint in general.  If you have access to a trainer, or a physical therapist, I implore you to seek the counsel of a professional before really getting into any heavy stretching.  Don't risk an injury.  If not, your doctor can help, instead.  Don't make the mistake of blowing this off as something that's easy or unimportant.

Increasing flexibility also improves balance.  Now, not everyone who has a disability or limitation will have concurrent balance issues, but the vast majority will.  If you don't know the reason for this, Alvin and the Chipmunks will be happy to educate you on the topic!

It took me a while to learn this too, really.  But it's true that everything is truly connected.  My injury is in my right knee.  However, in addition to my balance, both of my hips and lower back are very much affected simply because I stand and walk differently than the human body was designed to move.  Same goes for someone with a shoulder injury; it will affect their arm, neck, and back as well.  It may not seem like that would impair balance, but trust me when I tell you, it does.

Stretching before exercise is a great warm-up for the body, but most people forget the fact that stretching after exercise is almost more important.  When we work out, muscle fibers break down and can tighten up.  Stretching gently loosens them up again, and helps the healing process improve.  It keeps the blood flowing through the joints, which prevents swelling and soreness from exacerbating. 

Even if you aren't sure what stretches are right for your body, here's one that almost everyone can do after a workout: Lie flat on the floor; doesn't matter if you're supine or prone.  Whichever is more comfortable is fine.  Try to reach your toes to the other side of the room, and your fingertips to the opposite wall.  Hold for ten seconds and relax.  Repeat two more times.  Obviously, unless you're in a really, really small room, this will not be possible.  But the light, all-over stretch will loosen the spine and the major joints, and feel really great.

We'll make ourselves into rubber bands in no time!

Deprived? Hmm. Maybe not...

When the topic of exercising with physical limitations comes up in conversation, it's often met with a flippant response of, "Whatever.  Just swim instead."  Well, sure!  I'll just come home from work, make dinner, and hop right into my indoor, heated lap pool that I had installed last month.  Oh wait...

There are hundreds of "guaranteed weight loss" machines out there, just waiting for the desperate people, hoping to lose some of their fluffiness with the very least amount of effort.  Problem is...most of these are absolutely not possible for people with orthopaedic impairments.  This constant barrage of "it's so easy!" being met with, "yeah, but I can't use it" can get old very fast, creating a huge level of frustration.

To try to alleviate some of that frustration, and help my fellow Adapters to realize that we don't have it quite as bad as we thought, I offer up the following examples of exercise equipment that we cannot use:

First up, I give you the i-rider horseback riding machine.  (Just gonna take a second and let that name sink in...)  You can ride your way to a stronger core, and um...well....maybe give yourself a nice ride while you're at it!  With the instability in my leg, along with the lack of strength, there is no way I could handle this.  And somehow, I'm glad!  Want to see a video of this little beauty?  Oh yeah, baby.  You know you do!

*cough*

Ok, moving on.  Here's another gem of a machine that has all the ladies lining up.  It's called the Ab Circle.  this little wonder has you on your knees, leaning over, and either swinging your bottom half back and forth like a cat in heat, or opening and closing your legs like a...well, I won't finish that one.  Instead, I'll just let you see for yourself:

Don't bother with the whole thing.  Just watch the snippet starting at 1:20.  It'll be enough.  Every man wants to buy one of these for his woman, but gentlemen, please take my advice and don't do it.

And of course, we always play fair at the Imperfectionist.  Men have their "special" equipment too!  From the time they are adolescents, boys need a way to strengthen their arm muscles.  Poor little scrawny boys get picked on!  Let's help them be the hot, buff Adonises that they want to be.  Get every boy their very own Shake Weight!

So you see, you don't necessarily have to feel left out of the mainstream, simply because your body won't allow you to use popular exercise equipment.  Sometimes all you need is a partner!

Within the navigational beacons*

Dinner last night was fantastic.  I'd scored some tilapia fillets on sale B1G1, so I decided to make them because I knew it'd be quick and easy.  I know a lot of people bake theirs, but I love broiled fish.  Leftover buttermilk became the dredging vehicle, and then a mixture of panko and parmesan cheese combined for the crust.  I broiled them for 4min on one side, flipped them, and put them back in for 5 more min.  I know I probably should've gone green for a side, but we did carrots instead.  Thew hole family raved, and the teenagers went back for seconds.  Now I wish I'd gotten more of them!

I had stuff to do last night, but had also planned on a light workout as well.  I've been in some pain lately, so I didn't want to push too hard.  However, one of the biggest mistakes someone with a disability can make is to stop moving completely.  Joints stiffen, muscles get tight, and soreness will increase, causing a nasty little cycle to ensue.  Bad move.

Every person who works out needs to learn and understand the difference between "sore" and "painful."  They are two vastly different things when it comes to exercise, and mistaking one for the other can have disastrous results.  When you lift weights and feel it the next day as your muscles protest your attempts to get out of bed and in the shower, that's soreness.  This is actually a good thing, as your muscle fibers break down, and then rebuild.  Stretching can ease this, along with heat and massage.  Resting the muscles before pushing them again is essential, but there is no reason to stop exercising. In the same example, though, if you are lifting and feel a sudden, sharp pain in a muscle or joint, it's time to stop immediately.  At this point, continuing could lead to some serious damage.  You need to assess whether it was a momentary torque in your body, or whether there is an actual injury that requires professional attention.

When a disability is brought into play, whether it's temporary or chronic, pain becomes a whole 'nother issue.  In rehabilitative therapy, there is and element of working through the pain a little in order to push your body into working again.  A lot of this come in knowing your own body, but be careful not to create excuses.  There are people in my life who scold me for doing various activities even though I'm in pain, and I have to laugh.  My honest response is, "If I 'rested' every time I was in pain, my sorry tail would never get up off the couch."  There's no exaggeration there.  I am in pain pretty much most of the time, but I am very used to it.  It's relative low level, controlled by medication, and I can ignore it without any trouble.  When it escalates, then I need to pay attention and make a better assessment.

Now, most people are pretty familiar with the visual pain scale, simply by having been to a doctor with an injury or illness.  It usually looks something like this standard one:

However, mine is slightly different than this one.  I thought I'd share it, simply to give you a little more insight into my perspective:

Pain, as a general rule, doesn't so much make me sad or depressed as it gets me mad.  It hinders me from doing the things I want to do, and so I get angry.  In figure 1, you see my normal, dorky self.  At figure 2, the pain level is rising such that I now notice it.  But it's more of an eye-rolling annoyance than much else, and I can go back to whatever activity I was enjoying.  At figure 3, I then need to address it.  And if I have to address it, I'm seriously pissed, because it means that I have to stop what I'm doing, and most likely use [more] mobility assistants or take to the couch.  If I hit figure 4, I don't actually cry, but I usually want to.  (No judgments on people who cry; I'm just not much of a crier for whatever reason.)  At this point, I am on my back with the knee elevated, packed in ice, and am popping pain killers like Pez.

You should always have your own version of this if you're going to exercise when you have limitations.  You need to know your body's boundaries for when it's ok to "push through it" or "ignore it" and when you need to "just stop.  As in now."  Last night, I was hovering around figure 2, so I went ahead and did my push-ups on the ball, and then used the foam roller to stretch out my back and hips.  I had wanted to do some all over stretching, but I've been at this long enough to know that it would not have been a wise idea.  My knee was swelling and slipping, which just would've gotten worse.

Whatever symptoms you experience along with pain need to be monitored closely to figure out your own baseline.  For me, it's swelling and instability.  For others, it might be totally different.  Learn your body, learn your limitations, and listen to them.

That said?  No excuses.  No playing the pain card unless you have to.  Don't ever use your disability as an excuse: you deserve better than that.  If you need to skip a workout, or cut it short, then do it.  Own it, accept it, and let it go.  But respect your body and your spirit enough to only do that when you truly have to.

Strength is within your reach -- you just have to stretch a little to get it.


*If you get this reference, you get a zillion and five brownie points!

Up the yin yang

Yeah, ok, so my sense of humor is a little warped.  No big surprise to those who know me, I'm sure.

There were some positives and some negatives yesterday, so I figured I would lay those out before I get to my planned topic for today.

I did make the roasted butternut squash soup, using a bit of vindaloo and substituting Greek yogurt for heavy cream to add protein.  Woohoo!  *snork*  Not so much.  Apparently, most of my family (sans one child) does not like butternut squash.  The two guys tried it, gagged, and set it back down.  One girl expressed great gratitude that she was away at college and missed it, and the other girl ate it, but didn't want more.  I tried to like it, but failed.  Yeah, that pot went down the disposal.  Blech.

However, I did do my core workout, and I also used the foam roller to stretch out my back.  This segues beautifully into today's topic, which is the idea of using some basic tools to adapt some exercises and also to protect injured or sore body parts.

To do any core work, I use a basic therapy ball. I couldn't for the life of me tell you the brand name, but it cost me around $25 at Target and looks something like this one:

This protects my lower back, and keeps me from having to get down on the floor and back up.  And really, for my own body, it's more effective because I can start from a slight arch instead of 180 degrees, getting a better workout for my ab muscles.  On adaptation I have made is to lie with my knees on the top of the ball and my hands on the floor.  I can do push-ups this way, because it doesn't involve the leg strength and balance that traditional ones do.  I definitely get as much of a work out as anyone else, considering I'm starting from nearly flat and then going down and back up.  Works well!

Another cool thing I found and asked for at Christmas was this:

You can read the description here: https://www.rejuvenationrehab.com/product/alignment-mobility-kit.  (Mine came from Target.)

Now, I have a dear friend who is an athletic trainer who nearly skinned me for using this on my IT (ilio-tibial) bands as shown above.  Mine are a mess, but I was honestly stunned at the level of pain I experienced when I tried to use it to massage them.  Wow.  However, let me say that using this thing on my back, both vertically and horizontally, has been a-freakin-mazing.  My back gets really tight really fast, and this has helped me stay loose.  I love it.  I can also use it on my quads/hamstring and my calves as well. 

Let me be clear, though: I am by no means trying to say that people should run out and buy these items.  I'm not about product endorsement or advertising or whatever.  I am merely sharing what I am using to adapt some exercises and help my own body.  If anyone has recommendations or options they'd like to share, I would love to hear them!

Tonight's plan is to do push-ups on the ball and then do all-over stretching.  My joints and muscles have been tight, which just makes me more sore in the damp, winter weather.

The Nitty Gritty (Without the Dirt Band)

Well, if I'm going to have a blog about striving for fitness and health with a disability, it's time to air out the dirty laundry.  I know it's part and parcel, but there is something about letting those ugly little details be seen by others that makes it a little too realistic.  But in all things worth having, there is such a thing as accountability.  If you're not going to do it right, don't do it.  So here it is...

I'm 5'10" tall, but I do not stand up straight unless I can hold something on the right side along with my cane.  (This prevents me from falling, of course.)  So I look a little shorter than that.  My current weight is 174lbs, but at my highest, I was somewhere upwards of 230.  Once I hit 225, I stopped getting on the scale, but I know I went higher.  So I estimated my starting point at 230, even though the real number was probably more.  I've looked at varying weight charts, and from what I've found, the highest end for my "large frame" (gotta love having shoulders like a linebacker!) is 170lbs.  I'm not a huge fan of the BMI, considering it doesn't take gender or frame into account, or body type either.  However, in the interest of accuracy and thoroughness, I calculated that too.  It's 25, which put me right on the cusp between "healthy" and "overweight."

The disability issues that hinder me are the lack of strength and balance capability in my right leg, as mentioned yesterday, and also cervical stenosis with a bulging disk in my neck.  This impedes some of my weight lifting, and also completely killed my one perfect, aerobic exercise, kayaking.  After that became verboten last spring, I hit the skids a little, and really struggled to recover.  It felt like a kick in the teeth, having finally found the "perfect" exercise that I could actually do, and then to have it taken away.  I was pretty seriously depressed about it.  However, I am allowed to go if it's a calm day with no wind, and I don't push the current at all, so I'm planning to get back on the 'yak this summer.

My goal here has never been about a particular weight or BMI, though.  There is no magic number on the scale that will suddenly turn me into one of those rare women who thinks she looks fabulous.  Because really, it isn't about that number.  It's about how I feel.  It's about how my jeans fit, it's about how I think I look when I get into a bathing suit.  Let's face it.  I'm nearly 40, gimpy, and really not interested in playing any sort of flirtation game like some 20 something kid.  When I walk on the beach, my goal is not to attract the admiring glances of the young and beautiful.  When I walk on the beach, my goal is not to lose my balance in the shifting sand and fall on my face.  I think that's a high enough pedestal for now, hmm?

My current jeans size is a 12, and they aren't uncomfortably tight or anything.  If I drop one more size, great, but if not, I'm fine with that too.  My biggest body image issue is my abdomen.  I am, as I've quipped before, all gut and no butt.  It's just...flabby.  I don't like it.  There, I said it.  I don't hate all of my body, but I sure as hell do hate what's between the tatas and the hips.  I want that part of my body to slim down a little, to be better toned.  I have decent arms when I'm not slacking off the weight lifting I do, and my legs are asymmetrical at best, but not horrible.  But the sight of my midsection is enough to make me cringe.

So today's goal when I get home is to do the stretches with the foam roller (more on this tomorrow), and do some core work on the therapy ball (more on this tomorrow too).  I'm making a roasted butternut squash soup for dinner, but I need to come up with a protein to add, too.  That is one thing that I have done so far is to jack up the protein levels for the whole family, not just for the diabetic member (no, not me).

OK, so there you have it.  All of my embarassing shame, laid out for the world.  Hey, just be glad I didn't include pics!

The Elusive Quest for Perfection

...is a total crock of shit.  There.  I said it.  Pick up any health and fitness magazine, and it's filled with men and women with already-perfect bodies doing exercises designed to help them attain and even more perfect body!  Just 20 minutes a day and you too, can look like a super model!

Riiight.  So anyhow, despite my derision at the disproportionate body image that society, combined with the media, has convinced women that they need to achieve (and maintain!), I too, find myself at least attempting to look more like the ideal and less like...well...me.  Now, there isn't a person I know who couldn't stand to tweak their diets a little bit.  Pobody's Nerfect, and we all have our little "sins" that we choose not to completely leave.  Now, pllease note the use of the word "choose."  That was very deliberate, as what we put down our gullets every day is a choice.  I refuse to be one of those people who doesn't take responsibility for their health, and I won't support those who do so.

However, there is an element of health that is sadly neglected by some, embraced by others, and can appear very inaccessible to a large, silent group of people.  Those same fitness magazines offer fantastic tips for adding weight loss moves into our everyday lives: park far away from the door, take the stairs, get a pedometer and reach for that 10,000 steps a day.  The exercises they feature are fat busting! muscle building! toning! optimizing! the key too all things blissful and perfect...oh wait.  Sorry.  Uh, went a little too far.

Aaaaanyhow.  There are those of us who have physical limitations that restrict us from doing a lot of what is touted as a great workout.  For some, it's chronic back problem.  Some have had shoulder surgery.  For me, it's my knee.  It was ruined by a doctor's negligence back in December of 2004, and since then I have worn an ACL brace and walked with a cane to prevent falls.  According to a Functional Capacity Evaluation, I have 8% of the functioning in my right leg.  I walk, but cannot walk far.  I cannot hold my leg up in the air or balance with it.  Kneeling/squatting/lunging and other similar activities are completely out of the question.

So what are my options?  How does someone like me work out, lose weight, get in shape?  That's the point of this blog.  My goal is to share my own journey, and hopefully have others like me come along.  I'm not the only person with a disability who wants to get my body looking and feeling better, and I know it.  It's time that we got together and created our own ways and then shared them with each other.  Whether it's recipes, workout moves that target muscle groups and avoid others, safe alternatives for stretching, I want to hear it.

I'll be posting examples of my own, but my hope is to get people reading and submitting theirs too.  I'd love to build a network of people who are reclaiming their strength and their health, and doing it on their own terms.

Welcome!