A literal pain in the ass

My workout plans were derailed for the last couple of weeks.  I had a pretty bad flare up in my left sacroiliac joint.  The results in the muscles in the area become so tense that I feel like I have a charley horse in my butt.  In the past these flares have only lasted a couple of days, but this time it lasted almost two weeks. Ugh.  It sucks because it's pretty painful and the muscles are weak.  My physiotherapist worked on the area, I had a massage, and did several types of stretching to get the area to loosen up, but it just took its sweet time.  I'm super thankful that you can get muscle relaxers over the counter up here.  

So I lost two weeks of proper workouts.  I did some modified stuff, but for the most part I'm super disappointed.  I'm trying to make you healthy body, stop rebelling against me!

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Ipsy Glam Bag Review

It's kind of weird, I've never really been into makeup or hair before.  I wore some makeup everyday, but it wasn't ever a lot and I wasn't particularly skilled in applying it. And *gasp* there are some days I leave the house and don't wear any makeup!  However, some time in the last couple of months a switch flipped in my head and I'm really interested in learning more about hair and makeup.  It would be nice to be able to do something to my hair besides putting it in a ponytail.

I decided that if I was going to do this, I should invest in some higher quality items so I went into Sephora.  Holy cow! Good makeup is fricking expensive!  So I got color matched (which I highly recommend), bought some foundation, and walked away kind of sad since I'm way too cheap to buy a lot of their stuff to experiment with. 

Then I found ipsy.  I've always been somewhat enamored with subscription boxes.  It's like getting a little surprise present every month.  Ipsy seemed like a fun way to try new types of makeup for fairly cheap ($10 a month).  I'm justifying this as a good thing for my mental health.  I have something silly to look forward to, I feel like it's a reward, and, the best part, it's not food :)

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Physiotherapy

Or as it's known in the States, physical therapy.  I'm not sure why it's called something slightly different up here.  Anyway, I had my second visit today and it's been very helpful.  The biggest concern I have at the moment is making sure that my spine remains flexible and that I avoid developing the "hump" as I get older.  My physiotherapist has shown my some really great exercises and stretches, but probably the most important thing I've learned so far is how to be aware of my posture.  I didn't even realize that when I was standing I would lock my knees.  Almost 30 years old and I have to relearn how to stand up properly.  I am making an effort to "soften" my knees whenever I'm standing still and I think it's starting to work.

I also have the get the sides of my hips strengthened. The physiotherapist told me that when you see women walking down the street doing the "sexy sashay", letting one hip dip really low when taking a step, it's actually putting a large strain on all those muscles. It makes me laugh, the things we women do to look sexy.

If anyone is in Vancouver and looking for a physiotherapist, I highly recommend Gastown Physio and Pilates. They are amazing!

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Xbox One Fitness Review

We lucked out and my fiance received an Xbox One a couple of months ago.  One of their apps is "Xbox Fitness" and I've been working out with it the last week or so.

The workouts themselves are not unique to the Xbox.  They are videos that are available other places such as the 10 Minute Solutions workouts, P90X, and Jillian Michaels. Most of the workouts are free with an Xbox Live Gold subscription.  The interesting thing is the way that the workouts are set up with Kinect. You make sure the camera is pointed where you are going to be working out and it tracks your movements as you workout along with the video.  It can tell how intensely you are performing the the workout and offers suggestions such as "work those legs" if you aren't going as deep into your lunges as you could.  You are awarded points and bonuses based on how well you follow along and compares your points to the average of your age group.

All in all, I'm enjoying using this quite a bit.  The workouts are very good at getting your heart rate up and I'm dripping sweat after 10 minutes.  It's nice getting the immediate feedback that you need to move your arms more or that your leg work is good.  I'm also a fairly competitive person and like the game aspect of it where you earn points and have challenges to complete during the workout.

There are a couple of negatives so far. I had some issues with the Xbox One where when I would try to play a workout, it would crash back to the home screen.  I ended up unplugging everything and plugging it back in again so it would work. Today it crashed back to the home screen when I was in the middle of a workout, which was frustrating.  I'm hoping that this is not a hardware issue and is fixed in the next update.  You also need a lot of room to perform the workouts, which I don't have in our tiny apartment.  I'm making it work, but it's a little cramped.  Once you hit play, the first few seconds of the video are cut off so the trainer is already in the middle of the warm up exercise when the video starts.  It's not a huge deal, but it's a little jarring.

Even with its quirks, I think that Xbox One Fitness is an excellent non-gym alternative for the traditional workout.  The time flies by pretty quick and the competitiveness of point earning is good motivation to do just one more workout.

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New Year's Resolutions

One of my New Year's resolutions was to ramp up my workout routine.  I've been exercising pretty consistently since the beginning of November (except the week I was sick and a couple of days around Christmas) for about 40ish minutes a day.  The usually consisted of about 10-15 warm up cardio, about 20 minutes of body weight exercises, and about 10 minutes of strength training. The past week and a half I've added 10-20 minutes of high intensity cardio depending on how I'm feeling.  I have to be careful that nothing is high impact and even with that my right hip was very tender last night.  This is in addition to the walking I do everyday just to get around town.

Here is my current workout routine:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday-

• 10 minutes warmup boxing (WiiFit)
• 20 minutes bodyweight and yoga mix (WiiFit)
• 10 minutes arm strength training 
• 10-20 minutes higher intensity cardio (Xbox One video-review to come)

Tuesday, Thursday- 

• 10 minutes warmup boxing (WiiFit)
• 20 minutes bodyweight and yoga mix (WiiFit)
• 10 minutes leg strength training 
• 10-20 minutes higher intensity cardio (Xbox One video)

Saturday- 

• 10 minutes warmup boxing (WiiFit)
• 20 minutes bodyweight and yoga mix (WiiFit)
• 10-20 minutes higher intensity cardio (Xbox One video)

Sunday

• Rest day, but still active like taking a brisk walk

With my visit to the physical therapist I'm also adding in the exercises she has recommended and I think that one of those days is going to be replaced with an hour of pilates with her. 

I know that I've been building muscle since November, so I'm hoping that soon some weight will come off to make it easier on my hip joints.  I'm not obese, but I carry a lot of weight on my thighs so I look weirdly disproportionate since I'm short. 

So far I'm proud of myself for sticking to this!  

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A Brief Sunny Interlude

It was sunny and gorgeous here this weekend.  I've been really good about exercising everyday, but Sunday I decided to go walk instead of "working out."  Still a bit of exercise, but it was a nice rest day after a hard week. 

I went back along the sea wall as it is a really nice walk with plenty to see. I didn't take any pictures out onto the water as the sun was shining very brightly.

This is a sculpture of the Great Blue Heron. 

Some nifty rocks that someone set up. 

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Good news everyone!

I'm not dead.  I was just kind of depressed and lacked any motivation to do anything when I got back from visiting my family.  I've got myself out of my funk for the most part, so I will stop being lazy and commit to posting again for my own mental health.

Two weeks before Christmas I ended up with some good news/bad news.   I went to a rheumatologist and got a diagnosis for my back/hip problems.  Turns out I have ankylosing spondylitis, which sucks but at least I know what is going on now. 

PS. I did not complete a Whole30 back in August, because when I came back to BC I fell into old habits of eating to make myself feel better.  I've actually been working through those feelings in the last few months and I think I'm doing really well. 

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