Hurtin Hips

Sorry my posts have been so sporadic. I’m extremely busy at work these days so it is hard to find any time to read any blogs or update mine with anything intelligent. After work I’m either out walking, working out, or going out to get stuff done because I’ve been too busy otherwise to get it done. Then there is the house cleaning…..

Anyway.

Saturday Kim and I attempted to walk 25Km. We met up with 18 other ladies that are also walking the 3-day walk and we headed out around 9:00 in the morning. It was fairly cool so I had worn layers of clothing. It wasn’t long before I was peeling the first layer off. It was a very nice place to go walking and since it was a location I hadn’t walked before, the time was more interesting. Plus walking with others helps with the boredom. I’m not saying my daughter is boring, but I have been doing a lot of walking with her and there is only so much we can talk about. Besides, most of the time she walked 10-20 feet behind me. Upsets me to tell the truth… the walking behind thing. She just can’t or rather won’t keep up and since I am walking with her, I keep stopping and waiting. Quite honestly, this makes it much harder for me.

I’m worried about her on the March keeping at the back of the pack – we are going to be in the wilderness you know J

There were some ladies that walked 6km/hr and most of us walked around 5km/hr so we eventually spread out quite a bit (especially my daughter). But we met up with the faster walking group about every hour and did a lot of stretching. At about the 18Km mark, quite a few had to leave and that included Kim and I. We had been walking for about 3.5 hours (with stretching and potty breaks involved) and Kim said she didn’t want to go on. I could have continued but probably not much farther as my hip was hurting.

Which made me worry about doing this 3 days in a row.

Before Kim and I got into the car to drive, we made sure we did a LOT of stretching. But when we got out of the car 20 minutes later, we both walked like we were 90 years old – it was quite funny to watch actually (and she is 20 years younger than me). But once the muscles warmed up, we were walking much better again.  By the time we got home, the stiffness had gone out for the most part.

So this tells me that I have to do as little stopping as I possibly can during the 3-day walk. I can’t allow myself to stiffen up too much.

But.. how am I going to do 3 days in a row?

Sunday/Monday my hip was so sore that I continued to worry. But I now think I know why it hurts more than it has in the past training walks. One of the stretches I was doing with the group was a new one for me and obviously put too much pressure on my right side. I stretched more than my hip was capable of doing or rather more than it was used to. I could not sleep on my right side at all Sunday night.

So last night I went to HOT Yoga –oh how I miss that – and had a great sleep last night. I couldn’t stretch my right hip as much as was required for some of the postures but I modified them and did what I could.

Tonight, I’ve pre-asked my personal trainer to concentrate on my back, core, upper body and no leg work as I need to heal my hip. AND my massage terrorist is coming to my house tonight after my strength training session so I should be just aching by tomorrow…. But a good ache.

Tomorrow night I’m joining in with another 16Km training walk (which should take almost 3 hours) and then I’m going away for the weekend for my birthday. I plan on just taking as many short walks as possible. Nothing marathon like as I won’t have anyone to walk with (not that far of a distance) and I’ll be in Fernie BC and there are only so many places to walk in this town. My focus for the next 10 days is to walk a little but to stretch as much as possible and keep my body limber and un-sore. The looser my hip is, the better I will do starting September 10^th. Wow has it ever come fast!

Here are a few pictures of our walk on Saturday….I took them with my phone so they aren't that great.

There were some hills - but it was paved. That would be Kim in FRONT of me :)

That would be me, second from the right.

I hope you have a FANTASTIC day!

Ttyl

Sandra

Achin Legs

My post yesterday wasn’t to encourage folks to eat real potato chips but to watch the ingredients of the “healthy” stuff you are eating. I’ve written posts about this before, if you can’t pronounce the ingredients, don’t put it in your body. J

Kim and I have got 2 weeks today to get ready for our 100Km Kidney March. I have to tell ya, I’m aching from all the walking we are doing. Because of this, I’m not doing too much else right now. We have been averaging about 2 hours a day with a couple of days off the last week. That’s not enough walking. We need to do it longer but Kim works all day on her feet, I work all day on my butt. By the end of the day where I’m raring to get off my butt, she wants to sit on hers. So 2 hours is about all I can get out of her. But we have consistently done it a few days in a row, then take one off so that we can get used to doing it 3 days in a row. I figure at the speed she walks, we will be walking 6 hours the first day, probably more like 8 the second and 6 again on the third day. That’s a LOT of walking.

So tomorrow we are getting together with a bunch of other marchers and walking a training walk for 25Km. Not sure if Kim and I will make the entire 25km  but we sure are going to try. It will give us a feel for what we signed up for in two weeks.

If anyone has done really long walks, I’m open to any suggestions you have for foot care, leg care, aches and pains, stuff to bring – send it my way. They have a list of things to bring but I’d like to hear from anyone that has actually done a walk before.

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC day!

Ttyl

Sandra

Healthy versus Non-Healthy

Which one is better:

Ingredients: Dehydrated Potato Flakes (dextrose, mono- and dyglycerides, sodium acid pyrophosphate, citric acid) modified corn starch, sugar, vegetable oil, salt, soy lecithin, monocalcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate.

or

Ingredients: Select Potatoes, Sunflower and/or Corn oil, salt

On the weekend we had “subs” for lunch. I know, not the healthiest of choices but I still made pretty good choices when selecting all the extra’s. Except, mine came with a small bag of chips so I thought I’d grab the baked Lays. They’ve got to be better than the deep fried version – right?

So I had a look at the Nutrition Facts. Sure, there is a lot less fat – I’ll give it that but that list of ingredients?? If I can’t say the words right, what makes me or anyone else think my body knows what to do with it.

I still think eating the “real” thing is better for you, even if it is a bag of chips when the mood strikes you.

And I must tell ya that this week has been a good foodie week!

I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Ttyl

Sandra

Walkin Feet

I think there is going to a lot of insurance claims from yesterdays hail storm. Mr. Sandra’s truck and Kim’s both have dents. Kim’s is worse than the truck and fortunately for me, since my truck was farther away, it did not get any damage. Little Lilyana is having tummy problems and Mom and Dad are concerned so they had her at the clinic yesterday – with my truck. 

My little garden, the square foot one, was pretty safe. It’s kind of tucked under my deck so most of the damage was on the edges and all I have there are onions so it pretty much was unscathed. My flowers on the other hand didn’t survive. And I had some empty pots hanging on my outdoor clock (never got around to putting anything in them) but now there are no pots left. The hail completely broke them up. My deck is also covered with shingle grit so not sure what’s up with my roof. It likely is OK but I will have to check it out … oh what a way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I’ve got 18 days left for training for the Kidney March (100K walk). Actually it is less than 18 days as we walk on September 10^th. As I mentioned yesterday the route is going to be pretty hilly but they have us walking the highways so it should be pretty smooth going. We are getting bussed to and from the designated walking routes so the camp is in one location instead of moving it like they originally mentioned. I think that makes more sense.

I have my list of things to pack and what I am to carry so Kim and I are going to pack our backpacks with what we will be walking with and start training with the same weight.  A new friend of mine that I was talking to on Saturday, did a 60K walk recently and she recommended that we cover our feet with Vaseline then Baby Powder first thing in the morning, then at lunch change our socks and do it again. She said everyone who did that did not have one blister. I’ve got the roll-on type of blister preventative stuff so I’m sure it will be the same… but less icky.  I’ll be packing at least 10 pairs of socks, which means I’ll have to fork out some more money for socks as I’ve only got 5 pairs of non-cotton socks and Kim only has 2. And shoes….

I’ve not got three pairs of shoes. I bought my Nike’s in April when I got my new orthotics and I just don’t like them. After about an hour my feet hurt in them. The ball of my left foot starts to hurt and my toes go numb. The shoes are not tight at all, so that’s not the issue – I think it is the orthotics. I also have new pair of New Balance that I’ve been wearing only indoors on my treadmill and not on the roads yet – but it also takes my orthotics and my left foot hurts slightly but not as much as with the Nike. And then the third pair I bought on my vacation – they are Asics and have arch support built in them as I didn’t have my orthotics with me when I bought them and they are the most comfortable of the entire lot. My feet don’t hurt at all. So I am not sure what to do. Between the Nike, New Balance and Orthotics – you are looking at +$600 worth of foot covers. Buying a second pair of Asics just isn’t in the pocket book right now. So I think I will be going with the New Balance and new Asics and hopefully my feet won’t hurt during the three days. Well we all know they will hurt but not as bad as they could if the shoes aren’t right.

Well that’s enough yakin for today – I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC day!

Ttyl

Sandra

Oh Hail!

I know a lot of you have been having a very warm summer but there are some of us who really haven’t had much of a summer at all. In fact, I can quickly blame it for not getting outside to walk as much as I had planned. It’s hardly been nice for the last two months. Don’t get me wrong, there have been sunny days, but it just hasn’t been a great summer.

Kim and I have been walking when she gets home from work (or I get home at the end of the day). We have only been averaging 2 hours at a time this week but were intending to getting in a few more hours today.

However, this is what came home with her:

My poor tree out front lost a lot of its leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

You can’t really tell by these pictures, but some of them are golf ball sized. There are going to be a LOT of damaged cars around here. Fortunately my son has my truck right now but depending on where he is with it, on how much damage it has received – I’m hoping for none :)

This is AUGUST people – hasn’t Mother Nature looked at her calendar lately – we need some warm weather around here.

Kim and I have been doing a lot of walking and so far have been aiming for walking every day to get conditioned. On Saturday we will be walking a 25K training walk with our complete pack so we know how it feels. I’m looking forward to it.

They also have finally posted the route on the internet and let me tell you, there’s going to be some pretty big hills. Syl, we will be walking along the 22 from Priddis to Bragg Creek – them are pretty big hills…

Good thing I’ve doing a lot of hill walking then….

I’m very unhappy about my weight right now but there is no one to blame buy myself so I’m working hard to correct it. Uncle Tom keeps disappearing and showing up at the oddest times. And showing up right after a two week holiday when I was not feeling myself to start with, well it just made it worse.

I’ve been doing lots of research on how I want to tackle my grub for the next while and so much of it sounds so good, that I don’t know where to start. Silly eh?

I hope you all have had a FANTASTIC weekend!

ttyl

Sandra

Yabbering

Well it’s back to the grindstone and I’m not happy about it J Just before I left on holidays, they had me scheduled to move offices so when I got back yesterday, everything was in boxes. Nothing like coming back and having to get organized. Actually was a good thing because I wasn’t into working just yet, in fact, after looking at my online timesheet, I wasn’t even supposed to come into work yesterday. This means I have another day to put towards Christmas or whenever. I have to admit, I do get a lot of vacation days and since Mr. Sandra and I have been together, I have had NO problems using them all up. ALL of them…

I’ve gained weight and it is past that 5lb flashing light warming that I have. AND I feel like crap. No nice way of saying it really. My stomach feels like it is at least 10 inches bigger due to the bloated feeling I have. OK it’s not a feeling, I am bloated. I also know it isn’t that much bigger but it might as well be considering how I’m feeling. It’s darn uncomfortable.

It’s time to get back on the feel good wagon. Time to cut out the stuff I know I shouldn’t be eating. Time to get the right stuff into this body as it’s crying out to be fed only the good stuff. I’m craving healthy foods – it’s weird. I ate good on holidays, lots of fruit and vegetables so it’s not like I haven’t been feeding myself right in that respect, but there were chips and just like Helen mentions – also pepperoni sticks. But I’m craving 100% clean eating. I really feel like I need a detox. Flush those nitrates out of my body…

My birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and then it will be the 365 day countdown until I hit the big 50. Because I’ve found this lovely blogland world and have met some pretty cool online ladies who have already reached this milestone in their lives, I am no longer upset about the fact that it is quickly approaching. Besides, I still look like I’m in my late 30s J However, I am nowhere near where I want to physically be by the time I reach that age.  I’ve kind of been messing around and not getting down to business. I will be the first to admi this -  that's the first step right ? Admiting it and stop hiding from it.

I think I’ve been deluding myself that since I have been exercising so much (with the exception of that 6 week stint of laziness this summer), that I could eat whatever I wanted and not count calories. I kept wanting to try to be 100% clean and I can successfully do it for a couple of weeks then I tend to eat crap for a couple of days and get rid of any of the benefit I received when I ate clean. By crap I mean going out for Pizza, or eating chicken wings, or burgers, etc. Or going on a potato chip binge. So when I’m on the “clean eating” phase, when I all of a sudden crave the fatty/salty stuff, then my body is missing something from the clean eating and I need to figure out what it is so that I can make sure I can supply a clean version so that it doesn’t trigger the fatty version. Does that make sense?

I also sometimes think I spend too much time trying to analyze all this stuff. But if I don’t, and be mindful of what I am putting in my mouth, well then bad things can happen – like an increase in that number on that scale.

I need to be organized or all hell breaks loose.

I want to experiment and see what my body likes/needs and does well with.

My nose gets stuffy if I eat real butter.

I’ve only 23 days until the 100K kidney march – OMG!!!

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC day!

Ttyl

Sandra

Now that was a workout…

During our Vacation, we got up early to go fishing. It was supposed to be a fairly nice day but we would have gone no matter what it turned out to be. Because we are from a different province, we have to buy annual fishing licenses and a classified license for each fisherman (or woman) for each day that we go. It can be expensive. It is their way of cutting down on the poaching and folks fishing the rivers out.

Anyway, we got dropped off about 3 miles from the campground and were going to make our way back. The guys had done the same route a couple of days before.  I took my small camera with me and the pictures are not as good as my Nikon but you will get the drift of what we did that day.

We got dropped off at the top of the Kimberley Golf Course and had to walk down this service road that went right through it. It was all downhill and this is what the view was like. We were to walk upstream which was towards that mountain (but of course not that far).





There are tons of Osprey nests around the river and they were flying over us for some time. I couldn’t get one on camera because my little camera just doesn’t have the capability like the Nikon to take that type of picture. It can be frustrating…









We fished about two hours around this first bend. It was an old power station and was quite the hole. What I want you to notice is what we had to climb over to get to the water.




There were logs and very large rocks everywhere.









Nice hunk of rock which I will assume is a piece of petrified tree. I had to take  a picture of it.








Pretty









Once we started walking it was very tough to do. We were wearing wading boots which have felt on the bottom to help prevent you from slipping on the rocks. Works great if the rocks are wet but not so good if they were dry. Since we were walking along the bank for the most part it still made it slippery. The boots are large and heavy and climbing over big rocks and trees is not easy.

While I was contemplating how I was going to make it over this log jam, some rafters came down through the rapids.











Yes, I had to try to climb over that and no I didn’t make it. I went up into the mountain and walked through the brush. Not sure what was easier as I got pretty scratched up.





 





That is Mr. Sandra in the blue by the way. They walked along that thicker log then had to get over the jam in the corner and walk along another log.





There was no way I was going over those logs… I walked around the back end of them and climbed over this instead.  Which I realize is still logs but was a shorter distance and something I felt safer doing. I had already fallen on the large logs and did a face plant so I was nervous. I didn’t hit my face by the way but hurt my hand as I needed to prevent my face from hitting the rocks. Stupid boots…. so when I stepped on that big log, my shoe slipped and I got off and walked around the back of it and humped over the above logs instead.


We were almost to the end of our day and after what we had to climb over next just about wore me out. Unfortunately I didn’t take any close up pictures of it but there were lots more trees and very large rocks.  I have to tell ya it was a very hard workout. All in all the trip took us about 6 hours to walk the 3 miles. Of course lots of stopping and fishing. Unfortunately it wasn’t a very productive fishing day. The guys had better luck two days before.

Mr. Sandra did this two days, with one day of golfing in between. He can exercise if it is something he likes – I just have to find something we can both do together that he likes.

We both ached at the end of the day and we just stayed in the trailer and watched a movie and went to bed early. Even the next day my hip was sore. It was all that straddling the huge logs to get over them :)

I hope you enjoyed the day with me. Have a FANTASTIC day!
ttyl
Sandra

Greetings from Vacation

I had the opportunity to connect to the internet at the store in the campground we are staying at. I thought I’d just send a quick note to say “HI”.

The weather has been on and off for the last week but we are making the best of it. Some days it is nice and sunny, others it is pouring rain.

Last year they were working on a new trail between two small cities. They took out the old railway and made it into a 30Km walk/bike trail. Kim and I have gone out on it several times now, walking 2-3 hours at a time. It’s very clean, smooth and of course since it is new, in great shape.

I even got my rollerblades on and gave it a go. I have had these for the last two years but have been afraid to give them a try because the first time I did, I hit those little rocks on the road and almost did face plants several times. AND I need to learn how to stop.  The other day, that was still my issue – learning how to stop. Once I get that mastered, I’m 100% sure I will love skating again. I used to do it as a teen but on 4 wheels rather than 3 in a line… :)

We’ve been golfing once so far as well and I plan on going at least a couple more times. All in all, I’ve been keeping pretty active and am in good spirits. I like it when things flow…;

I hope you all are doing well, I’m going to try to catch up on blogs now while I wait for my laundry to finish.

ttyl

Sandra