Exercise Mutual Support

Let's support each other in our striving to get exercise and stay healthy during the taper.  I used to do a lot of swimming and some light workouts at the gym before covid.  Now, my daily goal is to get ten minutes of walking in.  Usually, once I get outside and walk for ten minutes, I find I can go another ten or even twenty.  I find it helps decrease the anxiety and I sleep a little better, which is huge. 

 

Today I walked for 20 minutes outside! The weather wasn't great, but I feel better after walking.

 

What do other people do for exercise? Let's check in here and support each other to do something, take a few steps, do some stretching, whatever it may be, every day.

 

Haimona

I def walk daily. I am able to do some strenuous work/labor, but I give myself permission to say no If I'm "feeling off". I accidentally broke into a full sprint the other day as a member of the bee family was after me and I am allergic....apparently I can run still lol. I went swimming twice this summer - loved being in the water!!

Stretch for sure... I used to be super limber, but since recovery I seem to tighten up more easily.

 

What a great thread this is!!!

I def walk daily. I am able to do some strenuous work/labor, but I give myself permission to say no If I'm "feeling off". I accidentally broke into a full sprint the other day as a member of the bee family was after me and I am allergic....apparently I can run still lol. I went swimming twice this summer - loved being in the water!!

Stretch for sure... I used to be super limber, but since recovery I seem to tighten up more easily.

 

What a great thread this is!!!

 

Thanks, Trina! I love what you said about giving yourself permission to say no, which is what I did yesterday when I was having an especially bad "wave."  But I am fully planning to get back out there and walk this evening (it's very very hot where I live, so I have to wait for it to cool down a tad). 

 

I cracked up when I read what you wrote about finding out you can still run, lol.  Not the best way to find out, but hey, you did it!

 

Thanks for posting here.  I really hope it catches on, as I think it could help me and a lot of us buddies to have exercise support during and after our withdrawals.

 

Haimona

Checking in to say that I went for a twenty minute walk again tonight.  I waited until it got a little cooler (real feel: 98 degrees, not kidding) at 10 pm, but I did it.  Right now I'm feeling a bit overheated, but I'm still glad I walked. 

 

Haimona

yay for your walk! I've lived in NC for 2 years..I'm a northern girl so at first I didn't realize the heat stays into the night, bc summers in the north can have hot days but the nights give relief. I def had to adjust to that. (I also learned to let my curly hair just go curly in the south and not try to fight it using a flat iron..bc humidity always wins..).

Did I mention we returned north? lol

 

I have quite a bit to do in the house today..which means I get to do stairs - so that counts as exercise. But I will be outside too:)

Trina,

 

You are so right about the heat staying into the night! I skipped my walk yesterday but today I was back out there for another 20 minute walk.  The hardest part is getting out the door.  My aim is to get consistent with walking twenty minutes at least 6 days out of seven.  Eventually I would like to get back to swimming too, when the pandemic is behind us.  Swimming is so relaxing and meditative (and great exercise), so it will be great to get back to it when the time is right.  But in the meantime, I'm proud of myself for walking today.

 

 

Haimona

I'm a walker. I find that I feel better when I walk most days of the week with some long walks thrown in. I allow myself to slip up but I feel better when I'm in this mode. I just got back to it the last few days. I'm glad that this time I had only let myself slip a bit and so I'm not completely unfit. I get more air hungry than I think is normal for someone who isn't so unfit. I think this is withdrawal.

 

We've got a table tennis table for the garden which is good when it's still and dry enough. It's actually decent equipment. I can play for about an hour, but that is pushing it and wouldn't do that often.

 

I don't know whether I'll feel like this when I start to think it's a good idea, but I'd like to do some running. I'm fitter as it is and feeling better for it. I can still get fitter without doing anything much different, just sticking with the walking and eating fairly well and I'm headed the right way even if I have a wobble. So I'll carry on like this for a while because I'm still losing a little weight when I keep this up. When I'm a bit further along, I figure I might want to get myself in fit condition, not just trimmer than I have been. It'll be good for my confidence and something to set my mind upon.

 

I may have to return to this thread when I'm further on in my journey because it's one thing saying I'll run/do other stuff to get myself in good shape when I'm in a position to do so, but another to actually go ahead and do that when the time is right.

 

I'm lucky that I like walking and I have some countryside to walk in on the doorstep. I don't know what else I could do so frequently that would help so much.

Alas, I'm not a walker, but I'd sure like to be. A drunken driver and two back surgeries left me with a right leg that mostly works, but I sure won't be running 5Ks as I used to. Or walking the,m either. So . . . I bought a rowing machine. I figure I must be at least halfway to Japan by now. Seriously, I row for 20 minutes to upbeat music. And I do feel mostly better for it. And when I don't feel better, at least I feel virtuous, so that's something. We have a lovely wooded area just out our back patio, with a trail for walkers, but if I tried it, I'd probably trip over a tree root, fall into the mushrooms, and lie there until moss covered me. So I'll stick to rowing.

 

Walk on!

 

Enviously,

 

:'(

 

Katz

Alas, I'm not a walker, but I'd sure like to be. A drunken driver and two back surgeries left me with a right leg that mostly works, but I sure won't be running 5Ks as I used to. Or walking the,m either. So . . . I bought a rowing machine. I figure I must be at least halfway to Japan by now. Seriously, I row for 20 minutes to upbeat music. And I do feel mostly better for it. And when I don't feel better, at least I feel virtuous, so that's something. We have a lovely wooded area just out our back patio, with a trail for walkers, but if I tried it, I'd probably trip over a tree root, fall into the mushrooms, and lie there until moss covered me. So I'll stick to rowing.

 

Walk on!

 

Enviously,

 

:'(

 

Katz

 

You are resilient..to have found another outlet to enjoy, despite what has happened. 

Oregonkatz, I agree with what Trina said about your resilience.  Good for you for finding something you can do and not being deterred.

 

Diaz-e-bam, Where you live sounds lovely.  Here it's mostly just hot and humid, but I've been meeting and exceeding my goal of walking for twenty minutes almost every day -- in fact, I've gotten to where my usual baseline is now thirty-five minutes, with occasional days when I get a second wind and do another ten or fifteen.  And it's making a difference! I slept for SIX hours the other night.  I'm sure I must be getting a bit fitter too, but sleep and mental wellness are my primary goals.

 

Haimona

Yes, the old adage seems to ring true. "Healthy body, healthy mind."

 

My motivation in the first place was also primarily to improve my mental health. It's only because I'm doing so much better in that area that the physical benefits seem to matter more. When it comes to the size my belly can get to, it seems to be equally important for mental and physical health that I don't let that get out of hand. I don't put on weight anywhere else, except my belly and a little on my face. I look swollen. It's very satisfying watching that drop off. Good for my mental health, I figure.

 

So today I feel really lazy but I did a brisk 2 hour walk yesterday. Today is a day where doing the minimum is a bonus. Because I'm trying to be good, I'll at least go out for half an hour and tomorrow I'm going to walk to the nearest train station to go shopping and get exercise like that. It makes me feel good (virtuous, as someone said) just to keep up my streak of doing something each day. I don't beat myself up too much when I get lazy but I feel better when I am relaxing at the times when I'm maintaining a minimum level of physical activity.

How's everybody doing? I've given myself a modest push with more exercise and also tweaked my diet. I'm strongly considered going ketogenic but don't want to overhaul my diet overnight because I think that could confuse my body, so I am going healthy and kinda-keto as a sort of bridge. The exercise I have been doing is just more of the same, I'm walking briskly for more than 2 hours. I also helped to install a washing machine, which is something I would have politely excused myself from even a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would be a good challenge with a little lifting. I'm quite weak, apparently. I could lift as much as needed but it had my heart thudding out of my chest. This was on Thursday and I've just managed to level off from it.

 

Overall I'm happy with how I'm doing. Yesterday I did a long stroll to keep things ticking over. I'll probably do the same again today before stepping it up a little again tomorrow, if I'm still feeling good. The most obvious boost is to my cognition. I feel quite sharp.

Glad you're doing ok, Diaz. I'm jealous that you can walk. I'm so boaty that I'm bedridden but I'm trying to come up with a plan to walk a bit. Any ideas?

Ohh yeah I've tried holding walls, a walker, holding on to somebody

Thanks for checking in, Diaz-e-BAM.  It sounds like you're doing great with the exercise and that exercise is doing great things for you! As for me, I've gotten to where I am close to walking an hour almost every day.  I don't do it all at once -- I walk maybe 35 or 40 minutes, cool down and hydrate, then go back out and do another 15 or 20 minutes.  It's still painfully hot where I am, so I tend to do this at night when it "only" feels like 100 or so degrees.  But it is helping.  Some days it seems to be the only thing that does.  I feel calmer and sleep a little better after I walk.  Clarity and mental sharpness are very elusive these days, walk or no walk, but I do feel a bit more awake during and after my walks.

 

I've changed my diet some too, but in a different direction than keto.  I've gone strongly plant based (almost vegan, but still eating bits of dairy and fish) for the past few months.  Given that my cognition continues to suffer, though, maybe I *should* try adding back in some meat and see if that helps.  I do like the weight loss I'm experiencing, though, and the fat loss too.  It's not massive, but enough that I feel the difference.

 

LadyDen, my balance is better than it was earlier in my taper, when I used a sturdy three-pronged cane for my walks.  You might want to try that too.  It's the kind of cane that has three rubber tips at the bottom, for balance.  Less cumbersome than a walker, but still helps.

 

Haimona

 

 

Thx Haimona for the suggestion. I'm wondering if my body doesn't want me upright for a good reason. But at the same time, at some point doesn't it have to be able to handle it? Like a baby learning to walk. If the baby doesn't try then no progress. I'm just afraid of something bad happening because I didn't listen to my body. So what do I do?

I can make some suggestions based upon my own experiences but you should know that I haven't had the same issues as you.

 

One piece of advice that should apply universally is the advice to build up veeeeery slooooowly. I am very lucky to have no physical problems that made it more difficult, apart from an extreme lack of fitness at the start, but I still had to go slow.

 

There must be some good exercises you can do from a seated position or lying down? I think I'd look into that if I were in your position, to build up some strength. Then hopefully it shouldn't be such a huge load on your body every time you try to stand up.

 

I'm not a physical therapist and very much learning how my own body reacts to certain things, so I'm not sure I have much more to offer. I think it's a brilliant sign that you're in the frame of mind where you want to step up your physical activity. It must be very frustrating to not be able to just do it. I think you're right in your analysis that you will have to try things and that this could lead to some unpleasant symptoms. It's why I hope you'll give yourself adequate recovery time after exerting yourself, even if you feel fine.

 

It's really hard to make specific suggestions when I don't know you but I would make this about building up to being able to do some routine activity that you miss. Break down what is required into subtasks and train yourself individually on those subtasks. Whatever seems most manageable, start there. Your body is screaming at you to not be upright and I still think you need to listen to it most of the time... but you're gonna need to override it at some point or it'll always be like this. Just don't push too hard and give yourself a few days between exertion until you're a bit stronger.

Diaz, I appreciate your insight. My thoughts were the same as far as at some point I've got to push the limit. That's a great idea to rest whether it put me in a wave or not. I've started doing bed exercises but those only go so far. I'm doing that to keep up my strength. I can stand up long enough to go to the bathroom and on my small window days, I walk a bit. But it's not long before I feel faint. I'm going to try a timer when I'm standing to see if I can stand up for 10 minutes. Then I'll try 15. You're right I should do this very slow. Once I'm able to stand for 20 minutes, then I'll start going outside to slowly walk the driveway. Then I'll work on sitting up. I figured the walking would set the foundation for sitting up.

It's so tough, isn't it? First you have to understand what the limit is so that you know that you're only pushing it a little, rather than beyond what you can reasonably cope with. It sounds to me as if you've got a good understanding of this. The more you try, the more you'll understand and adjust your plans.

 

I think it's so important at this stage to be cautious when it comes to how often you exert yourself. I like the standing for 10 minutes idea. That sounds like a small upgrade from bed exercises and perhaps something you can do daily, or most days? You walk a bit on your window days... that sounds more like the challenge activity so perhaps you could formalise this? I don't know your current frequency but say you currently do this once every two weeks, you could make a challenge to do it one day in a week, then two days in a week, etc. Then when you can manage that, make the walk longer.

 

These are all ideas about starting out. I suspect that as long as you are cautious and don't burn yourself out too quickly, in a month or two you will both be doing better than you are now as well as being more sure about what you need to do to continue making progress.

 

I'll be watching out for an update... hope it goes well!

Wow! That's a great idea!!!!! I'll definitely try it. I'll start today  I'll do 10 mins every other day. On my window days I'll do those 10 minutes in the sunlight. Doctor said because I'm in bed so much my vitamin d is quite low. She started me on gummies but I reacted badly to them. I was tapering so I wonder if I should try a half? I'll definitely keep you posted! Thx friend 

It's cool. I'm not having much luck helping ladies into bed so figured I'd help one out of bed  .

 

I walked to the supermarket and back today. That took me 2.5 hours with my shop included. Groceries in a backpack for the uphill walk back and it was sunny too. It was a really decent workout but it didn't floor me. I feel a bit stronger, which is mostly why I do it.

 

Isn't it weird how telling a few people on the Internet makes you more likely to stick to a plan? Yesterday was a weak day for me in terms of motivation. I wasn't really feeling like doing any exercise and the day before, I didn't even go for a stroll as I said I might. At about 10:30am I looked out of the window and saw that it wasn't bad weather and got up to go walking without hesitation. When I got going it was great as usual but I wasn't feeling it beforehand. I did it because I'm serious, which is why I am posting here . Today was a bit easier with the supermarket cos I wanted to go there anyway. I allow myself to buy a sirloin steak but only if I walk to the supermarket. I bargain with myself more than anyone I know  . Now I'm in a bit of a groove and I feel enthusiastic about making more progress. I want to get to where I'm running ~weekly. I think I could technically do it now, but it's risky. Perhaps in a month or two.

Thanks for checking in, Diaz-e-BAM.  It sounds like you're doing great with the exercise and that exercise is doing great things for you! As for me, I've gotten to where I am close to walking an hour almost every day.  I don't do it all at once -- I walk maybe 35 or 40 minutes, cool down and hydrate, then go back out and do another 15 or 20 minutes.  It's still painfully hot where I am, so I tend to do this at night when it "only" feels like 100 or so degrees.  But it is helping.  Some days it seems to be the only thing that does.  I feel calmer and sleep a little better after I walk.  Clarity and mental sharpness are very elusive these days, walk or no walk, but I do feel a bit more awake during and after my walks.

 

I've changed my diet some too, but in a different direction than keto.  I've gone strongly plant based (almost vegan, but still eating bits of dairy and fish) for the past few months.  Given that my cognition continues to suffer, though, maybe I *should* try adding back in some meat and see if that helps.  I do like the weight loss I'm experiencing, though, and the fat loss too.  It's not massive, but enough that I feel the difference.

 

LadyDen, my balance is better than it was earlier in my taper, when I used a sturdy three-pronged cane for my walks.  You might want to try that too.  It's the kind of cane that has three rubber tips at the bottom, for balance.  Less cumbersome than a walker, but still helps.

 

Haimona

Hi Haimona,

 

It's been really good walking weather here, so once I get going it is a pleasure usually. Not too hot, not too cold. Nice and dry. The heat gives a more intense workout if you can stand it. The midday sun was quite hot today but only compared to a normal late summer's day in Great Britain.

 

I think what it does for me is help me with everything else. If I go out for a good long walk, I am more motivated to prepare myself a decent meal. If I do both of those things, it's guaranteed that my mood will be better and I'll have greater mental clarity. What stops me doing it more? Probably the weather! I will probably look for this thread around the winter time, especially. Cos if I get my wellies on and all that, I can still enjoy it when I get going and the benefits are still the same. I know I need to keep it up but traditionally, I get the winter blues and it's hard to always push myself. But I really feel like getting a minimum amount of exercise rain or shine is the key for me and this is one thing that would help fend off the winter blues. So hopefully I can find out.

Diaz I just walked slowly for 10 minutes. I immediately feel an uptick in pushing pulling feeling, rapid heart beat, increased ear ringing, don't feel good....starting a wave.

Have you started your keto diet?

Haioma I'm glad that you can walk almost an hour. Keep up the good work.how are you feeling lately

Well done! I'm sure you expected a bit of a reaction, hopefully it doesn't take too long for your body to recover!

 

I have not yet gone full keto. I do intermittent fasting and eat ketogenic meals sometimes and generally keep carbs down but not as low as strictly keto. I bought a few things in like olive oil and sunflower seeds cos it's a bit of a challenge to up the fat intake. I'd love to eat a load of cheese but it makes me feel sluggish. A little cheese is good though. I like avocados, I'm buying more of those. I think they'll become something I eat most days. I did a couple of days where I was very low carbs which I thought was keto but now know isn't quite. I should have been consuming a lot more fat and that's one reason I felt a bit weak. I need to figure out a few staple keto meals I like, particularly that contain enough fat. So I'm hoping that in my experimentation, I manage to put together some combinations that I like. And then perhaps in a couple of weeks, I'll have enough to do a strict month long ketogenic diet and hopefully feel the benefits of making the adjustment. I have felt good the small number of times I have fasted for 24 hours or longer. Ketosis is probably a big part of that, so I hope that nutritional ketosis will be as beneficial as fasting, which has the downside of burning lean mass meaning fasting for too long isn't good for someone like me! It's only after improving a little that I dared to fast. I didn't like adding the weakness from feeling hungry to withdrawal symptoms.

Sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what you want to do. I think fasting for short periods is ok but be careful not to let your blood sugar drop. I think you will do well on Leto. There's some delicious recipes for keto. My daughter in law recently did keto. Her food looked good. She even had keto friendly ice cream. I wish you the best!

Yes I expected a reaction. It has settled a little.

Diaz I just walked slowly for 10 minutes. I immediately feel an uptick in pushing pulling feeling, rapid heart beat, increased ear ringing, don't feel good....starting a wave.

Have you started your keto diet?

Haioma I'm glad that you can walk almost an hour. Keep up the good work.how are you feeling lately

 

Hi LadyDen and Diaz-e-BAM,

 

It's great to see the mutual support happening here! LadyDen, good for you for trying to take some (no pun intended) baby steps toward being able to walk more.  I completely agree with Diaz's advice to take it slowly and honor what your body is telling you. 

 

Diaz, I hope the diet brings you great symptom relief! I love avocados too. 

 

I am continuing to do my long walks, although I usually can't do a whole hour at a time, but I'm gradually working my way up (from 20 minutes at a time, to 30, to 35, to 40 and now 45).  I will do one bigger block, cool down and rest up and rehydrate, and then go for a shorter second walk.  When I first started doing these walks, they usually lasted 5 or 10 minutes.  I figure anything is better than nothing (LadyDen, of course as long as you can do it without danger or bad repercussions).  I definitely am starting to feel a bit fitter, which is awesome.  And even though sleep is still a major challenge, I've had a few less-bad nights now that I'm walking more.  Yay!

 

Haimona