Missed a day

I was informed by my son, Keone, that I missed a day of blogging.  I don’t have a good excuse except that I was busy cleaning.  I did PIYO: Core and that was awesome.  It felt great and I felt strong through the core all day.

I had to switch to sit on an exam stool, like the one the doctors use.  It was comfortable and made me maintain good posture.

I went to the Jaycees Rodeo meeting because rodeo is this weekend.  It was great saying hi to old friends.  Peggy is stressed.  Pat is sick an hi dad is in the hospital.  I went to bed saying prayer for their family.

My Kaikai was sick with a fever during the say so he stayed home.  I hate it when my kiddos don’t feel well.

After the Rodeo meeting I had too much energy so I did all of the dishes and finished all of the laundry and folded all of it.  All while I listened to my audio book.  I have to say, that is one of the best things that Jason got me into.  I really enjoy listening to audio books.  It takes me to another place and I listen to them for hours while I clean and organize things.

That is all about yesterday.

Aloha…Loke

Start of week TWO. I am one tired chica

I am so ready to go to bed.

I started the day doing PIYO Define: Lower Body.  I felt pretty good.  Feeling stronger.  I felt like I needed more stretch time afterward though.  That probably has to do with my body being sore after two workouts within 12 hours and cutting down trees over the weekend.

Work was productive but I needed Motrin.  I need to make sure I keep a supply at work.  I was just sore.

I am feeling better about myself as I start the second week.  I am looking forward to see what my pansa looks like after 8 weeks.  I know I should have done before and after pics but I really didn’t want to see myself in the beginning.  I really felt horrible about myself.

Soooo.  Now…I feel stronger but tired and I think I need to take advantage of my desire to go to bed.  Goodnight all.

Aloha….Loke

Day 6, not feeling much like blogging

I am not really feeling much like blogging today but I know that s kinda BS and that I will end up typing my heart out.

Day 6 was productive but motivated by frustration.

Luckily I was able to get the day started right with PIYO Define: Upper Body.  I did as I mentioned yesterday and started with a better warm up to get the body ready for the workout. Then I went to do my one mile walk and abs and squats.  Part of that was because I missed by mile walk, squats, and abs yesterday.  I shouldn’t have missed part of my routine, but I had a great time visiting with Peggy and Pat at the Jaycees clubhouse so I will give myself a small pass.

The motivation for today’s productivity was a letter that Jason and I received in the mail addressed to “Homeowners.” At first I thought it was a letter being sent by an organization to get us to refinance.  We have received a lot of those since we purchased our home.  I opened the letter to find these words:

“Congratulations, you purchased on of the well-known homes in the Yuma area.  I know many people who have admired your house for years.  The house has a lot of curb appeal.  I would think you should be proud to have this house.  However, I do not understand why you don’t? With all the stuff on your patio, cars parked on the lawn and a red and white striped tree you have made a beautiful home that was once admired to an eyesore.  Your house is an introduction to the neighborhood and in a few months you have made this wonderful neighborhood that people were proud to live in to, “yikes it is time to sale”.

The letter was not signed.  It was mailed through the post office and post marked on February 2.  The envelope was typed.

There are many thing that bothered Jason and myself about this letter:

  • The person/people who wrote this are cowards and obviously unable to approach us about this letter
  • The person has made us unhappily suspicious about all of our neighbors, which makes me very sad because I really liked the neighbors that I have met so far.
  • Then…the stuff on the porch.  The person is right about that.  I have just been too lazy to get it to a donation center.  I finally loaded it up and got it to Crossroads Mission this morning.  I have been planning to do it and it just has not been a priority.
  • The red and white tree.  Well.  The tree was an eyesore for a long time before we moved in.  It is dead and has been so for many years.  I painted it red and white and laced it with lights during the holidays.  The plan was to cut it down in the spring.   Obviously we were not moving on that person’s schedule and getting it cut down soon enough. AND, I was wondering…were they going to pay to have it cut down, or do they have a chainsaw to cut it down?
  • The parking on the lawn.  Well…let me tell you something.  Not one month after we moved in our truck was broken into, and when we parked on the side of the house our car was smashed into by a neighbor coming around the bend too fast.  so…sorry if we want to protect our vehicles because we know you are not going to!!!
  • Also, if you were so concerned about the entrance to your neighborhood why did you not buy the house? It was on the market for a long time, and we were the only ones who made an offer.  Many people looked at it and many people considered buying it at one point or another…well WE did…YOU didn’t!
  • Finally, if it is time for you to sell…please do!!!  I have an excellent realtor.  She is amazing.  In fact the funny thing is..she contacted me today to ask if I had any referrals for her of people wanting to buy or sell.  I told her about the letter.  She couldn’t believe it.  I told her that she may want to check out the neighborhood because there may be some people wanting to sell because of us.  As far as I am concerned that will be good riddance.  We do not need neighbors who are cowards, judgmental, and unwilling to offer assistance if they are concerned about the view of their neighborhood.  This is my home!  They had an opportunity to purchase it.

Jason and I have discussed it and we both feel that this is an older person who really doesn’t like change.  We agreed to remind each other of this incident if we ever find ourselves becoming grouchy old people 🙂

Tomorrow will be a new day.  Good night and sweet dreams.

Aloha…Loke

Day 5

its Day 5 of getting healthy and its FRIDAY!!!

You know, when you work Monday through Friday Friday is a great day!!!

Do I actually got up with my alarm today.  My sleep was still restless and I had dreams that I don’t remember but I did sleep a little better than the night before.

PIYO Define: Lower Body.  Got through it!  minimal modifications.  I felt better.  I did have to move to the tile because my feet wouldn’t grip well on the carpet and I wanted to work on my form with the leg lifts.

When I finished lower body I still felt like I needed a little more so I started upper body which is for tomorrow.  I made it almost half way through and then I was just….done.

Some things about Define: Upper Body is that it work the core ( I like that), it work uses a lot of wrist work (that hurts a bit, but I know it will get better), my right shoulder is hurting a bit (not consistently, and it was hurting before I started this journey), and I need a better warm up to start the upper body video.  Part of the reason for that is  because the video starts right where Define: Lower Body ends and your body is already warm from that.  But starting upper body from scratch could use the full warm up that they do with the first video.  I will try that tomorrow when I do Define: Upper Body as I am supposed to do.

Eating…well I have decreased the carbs a bit.  Weekends are usually my undoing with carbs so we will see how it goes with the addition of the exercising (which extends into the weekend).  I am going to try to prep food and freeze it for easy access to try to maintain paleo.

I am also looking forward to creating more pages and discussion topics this weekend.

Have a great Friday!!!

Aloha…Loke

Rest day

I am four days into my “getting healthy” journey.  I woke up today and had a lot of trouble getting out of bed to go downstairs and work out.  I fully expected to get up and ignore the PIYO plan.  Today was supposed to be a rest day, but I was going to do another day of PIYO Sweat.

NOPE!

My body was aching.  I am assuming this is why they put a rest day in the day 4 position.

So instead of completely resting I took the opportunity to do a really thorough stretching. I expected to stretch for 15 minutes, but as soon as I tried to bend at the waist, so that I could stretch my hamstrings, I decided I had to do a little warm up.  So my 15 minutes turned into 30.  Which of course, caused a snowball effect and I left late for work.

On the upside…the stretching was wonderful.

It is one of the few things I remember about the exercise classes I took at the University of Wisconsin.  At the time I wanted to be an exercise physiologist, or run an exercise program for business corporations to help keep their employees healthy.  But the stories about my time in Wisconsin will have to be for another time….

Back to what I learned…I learned that posture is very important and proper alignment isn’t quite what you think.

it actually aligns specific parts of the body, and when done correctly is sometimes feels as though you may fall forward.

The other major thing I remember learning was that stretching and flexibility are very important to physical fitness.  They are also two areas that many people take for granted and do not give enough time to.

I like to use the Mayo Clinic as a source of information about a variety of health care issues.  I found some good information that describes the benefits of stretching, stretching essentials, and when to use caution.  You can see this at http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/stretching/art-20047931?pg=1.

Here are some of the main points:

  • Benefits
    • increase activity and athletic performance
    • decrease activity- based injuries
    • increase flexibility ad range of motion of the joints
    • increases blood flow to the muscles
  • stretching essentials
    • warm up the muscles before stretching (it is even better to stretch after you have exercised)
    • focus on stretching bilaterally, working to make it equal on both sides
    • stretch the major muscle groups and muscles you use often: calves, thighs, back, hips, neck and shoulders
    • ***hold your stretch, do not bounce
    • ***hold the stretch for 30 to 60 seconds with consistent breathing
    • feel tension…not pain!
    • thorough stretching 2-3 times per week
    • tai chi and yoga use the fluid movements that take one stretch to another. this is good
    • remember that stretching can actually cause damage if not done with caution.

Basically…don’t forget the importance of stretching and flexibility as part of your journey to getting healthy.

looking forward to PIYO Define Lower body in the morning!

Sweet dreams 😉

Aloha….Loke

Dreams addendum

Well, not one hour after I posted the information about dreams yesterday I got a text from Amy that said:

“(we aren’t requesting your presence this time…lol) but just wanted to let you know that we are in the ER with Noah.  He fell off his scooter inside the house…Sara said he was fine then she sat down with him and he fell asleep like 20 minutes later.  When she got up to go to her room he was waking up.  He was unresponsive for about 15 minutes but breathing.  The nurse in the ER got him to wake up when they got here.  They are still checking him out.  He is fun and giggling right now :)”

At the time Amy had not read my post.  I was pretty freaked out.

Here I was thinking that the dream I had was about Sara, (which I still think it was) but then Noah actually does end up in the ER.

I have always known that I have an intuitive nature.  I can read people by their actions, and the tone of their words.  My gut tells me things about situations and the expected outcome.  BUT, I did not expect a dream of mine to give me a clue about a future event such as Noah going to the ER.

Unfortunately that put me in a spot that made me question the rest of my dream.  Why would Jason and I have to see a lawyer?  especially when he was hurt from a procedure (Jason is having surgery on February 25th)  And why was Carmen with Leslie on a plane with me and Jason headed to Hawaii?  Carmen passed away years ago.  Granted the moment she passed Keahi’s plane lifted off headed to Hawaii (he was headed to Explorations) and I just saw his plane take off when I got the call that Carmen had just passed.  And why would that have a place in my dream on that day???

I was worried about falling asleep that night.  I was afraid that I would have a dream that would tell me something about a future event and that I wouldn’t see the signs before they happened.  Then I would feel guilty that I could not forewarn or protect someone that I care about.  I was scared that I would be forced to admit in hindsight that I knew something would happen because I dreamed it.

So needless to say…I slept like crap.  I am expecting to get all of that out right now so that I can let my brain rest and try to get a good night’s sleep.

Wish me luck

Aloha….Loke

Dreams

I am not sure what dreams mean and so I am going to embark on some research:

First…here are some of the things that I have noticed:

  • I have noticed that I wake up sweating when I have been dreaming, whether or not it is a good dream or a bad dream.
  • I also have trouble waking up sometimes
  • I notice that some dreams correlate to information that I have been thinking about before going to sleep
  • I also notice that if I journal before going to bed I sleep with less dreaming.

Now here is some of the stuff that I have found:

  • Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur usually involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. – The American Heritage Dictionary of the English. 2000.
  • Dreams usually occur in REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement) when the brain is very active.
  • REM sleep consolidates more emotionally related aspects of memory
  • The average person has 3 to 5 dreams a night and the last one is usually the one that has the highest chance of being remembered.
  •  Authentic dreams are ones that reflect memories of the dreamer and create experiences that the person can relate to.  This is significant to the reinforcement of neurological pathways.
  • There is considerable evidence that vivid, intense, or unusual dream content is more frequently recalled
  • There are many theories and opinions about the meaning of dreams:
    • dreams show insight into your hidden desires and emotions
    • dreams assist in memory formation and problem solving
    • dreams are a product of random brain activation
  • Dreams are often interpreted using tools such as a Dream Dictionary, but ultimately dream interpretation should not be taken too seriously.  I found a dream dictionary website at  http://www.paranormality.com/dream_dictionary_f.shtml  It didn’t help me much in interpreting my dream from last night.  I decided to stick with my own intuition to figure out the meaning.

So.   Here was my dream last night:

I dreamed about: Eddie fighting me about moving the kids (all 5 boys) to Hawaii with Jason and the girls.  I was on a plane with Leslie and her mom, Carmen,  and Leslie had baby Noah.  When we got to Hawaii Jason and I had a meeting with a lawyer about him being shocked during a medical treatment.  Ari/Daniela (The girls was both of them), from his office, was the lawyer’s assistant and she was trying to quietly tell us that we were gonna get a huge settlement.  My thoughts wandered to first paying off the house.  On our way out of the office we were headed to a train station.  We were on the platform and I was on the phone while Jason finished talking to Ari/Daniela.  I was talking to Leslie and she was telling me that Noah was projectile puking and could not stop.  I said, You are going to have to take him to the ER and my thoughts led to, “Oh no, what about insurance and paying for the ER visit?” and then I thought, “Oh well, we will have to make payments, he has to go!”  Jason and I were also trying to get things moved out of our old house before time was up.

Without using a dream dictionary I can figure out where some of these things came from…

  • I saw Daniela (Jason’s coworker) at Walmart before I headed home yesterday and I saw a picture of Ari (another one of Jason’s coworkers) on facebook earlier that day too.
  • I was thinking about talking to Eddie about helping me pay for the boys school, (he hasn’t paid for many things for the boys the entire 5.5 years we have been divorced). Why he was giving me trouble about taking all of the boys to Hawaii (including Kalani, Keone, and Austin) I do not understand.
  • I have been wanting to work on finances and paying down/off bills with the Dave Ramsey program. So I can understand that part.
  • Not sure why Jason and I had to see a lawyer.
  • Not sure where Leslie and Carmen fit into the picture except that maybe Leslie and I are supposed to go on a trip?
  • As far as Noah being sick…Well I kinda figured that out today.  It has to do with his mama, Sara.  I am worried about little Kaia in her belly and my response to get Noah to the hospital was alot like my response to her today, “If you  don’t feel baby move…go to triage!” That part of my dream may have been a little residual from her recent hospital visit and maybe a foreshadow of today.
  • And why was I concerned about getting things moved out, was that just a memory of my emotions from when we moved in September?  Was it that traumatic that I am still thinking about it??

Well, let’s see what happens the next time I dream.  Good night for now.

Aloha…Loke

Oh boy am I out of shape!

But that’s OK!  In the words of Chalene Johnson, “You gotta have a place to go!”

Day number 3…PIYO Sweat

I made it through the workout…that’s the good thing

I had to modify most of the workout…I would say that’s the bad thing but actually its kinda funny!

Of course I had to modify the workout!  Its day number 3!!!  But like I said…that’s OK

Some of the things I noticed:

  • My wrists hurt, but I know they will get more flexible
  • My body is tight and achy.  I felt like I needed a good warm up and stretch both before and after the workout
  • I feel GREAT after working out, even though I had to take frequent stretch breaks
  • I need more water!  GOTTA, GOTTA stay hydrated ( I will post soon about hydration in the Nursing section)

So…I am ready to get started on my day.  Let’s see what the world has to offer!

Aloha…Loke