From MS Patient to Fitness Junky

September 22, 2010 | 11 Comments

I made a to-do list!

Yep, a few days ago I started to make to-do lists on my I-Phone and it’s Chalene Johnson‘s fault. I know she means well but god she got on my nerves with all the “make your to-do” list spam on facebook. Yes, I say spam because there are very few updates from her that don’t mention to-do lists. In the end though, it worked..

So a few days back I thought, “OK, I MAKE A DARN TO-DO LIST!!” and downloaded the 2Do application I heard about from a friend (thanks Nick!). Let me tell you, it helps.

Who doesn’t feel overwhelmed or is fighting for time to plan out all the tasks you have to do during the day? Specially if you want to fit in an hour of working-out. A lot of people also take it as an excuse to NOT work-out.

Once I entered tasks both private and for work and started to follow and tick them off whenever I completed them it was like some weight fell of my shoulder. I have a clear overview and that lingering feeling of having tons of stuff to do and not enough time eased up completely.

Speaking of not having enough time: I work 8 hours and am home around 7ish pm most of the time after a short trip to the grocery store. I still have a workout of about an hour in front of me, showering, cooking dinner, checking e-mails and social networking in general, general household stuff, spending time with my boyfriend and last but not least freelance painting or hobby time. I couldn’t fit all this without a bit of planning. Specially since I love my sleep!

Here are a few tips on what helps me deal easier with the few hours left:

I have a routine which I follow: Coming home means changing into my work-out gear and do the workouts
my Fridge is full of stuff I can prepare fast. For example I prefer cherry Tomatoes because they need less cutting then normal tomatoes. Frozen Peas and Corn Nibbles is much handier then the canned versions.
I am pre-cooking food on Sunday or whenever I prepare fresh food and store the rest in Tupperware for the following week (Chicken, Pasta and vegetables).
Eggs are always handy to have around for some quick mixed egg and egg-white omelets with spinach or any kind of vegetable you might have to use up.

When it comes to our fridge/kitchen, there are a few things I have around all the time. Check out the video (even though I forgot to mention a few things such as Olive Oil, frozen beans, peas and corn nibbles, chicken breast whole-wheat pasta, eggs and broccoli).

September 19, 2010 | 8 Comments

Testing frenzy

After a veritable marathon of tests including one and a half hour of MRI nightmare I have the latest results.

But first things first:
Early morning and no breakfast – that makes me cranky. Half a year ago I wouldn’t have cared at all but the morning of the tests were occupied with me planning out my meals (minus my beloved oatmeal-protein-berry breakfast because they wanted me to be “sober” for the bloodtests”). We had a long day ahead and Henning brought some books to occupy himself while he had to wait for me. I don’t know what I would do without him

I hate getting IV’s placed but after all the hospital visits I even got used to them and the nurse was quick and experienced. It still did hurt though!
I swear they took buckets of blood and I was worried I might get dizzy, seeing I had no breakfast and all..

After the blood-tests off we went to the MRI area where the familiar buzz and bumping of the machine greeted us (almost like an old friend).

I was strangely excited but also nervous since this was the very first MRI test I was taking because it was time to do so and NOT because I had bad symptoms. Never feeling better, I was pretty certain nothing could go wrong even though I had been battling the heat a bit and some old neurological issues were surfacing.
I’ve had MRI’s which took close to 2 hours so I was ready to lay still for 1.5 listening to the buzzing and clanking of the big tube around me.

The first few minutes are always a bit scary since I am frantically trying to do a check if I really didn’t miss anything metallic on, in or around my body, followed by nightmares and horror scenarios of what would happen if some metal piece snack in and what gory mess it would lead to.

As always, everything was fine and I started to concentrate on the familiar patterns of noises. I find it to be a more healthy thing to do then starting to count seconds..

The first batch went fine – after a looooong while the assistant took me out and injected the contrast agent and said something about “10 more Minutes”. I was relieved since my bladder started to refuse to spend more time in the tube and I thought, “ok 10 more Minutes, I can do that”. Unfortunately, after they pushed me back in..nothing happened. No noise..no movement..Ok, not good..

The assistant came back after what felt 10 to 15 more minutes and apologized that the machine seems to have problems. Luckily around 5 to 10 more minutes and they fixed whatever was wrong (probably went to the pet shop to buy some new hamsters). In the meantime the familiar feeling of the contrast fluid distributing in a heavy rush through my veins set in. I am always getting dizzy from that stuff. The effects range from “funny roller-coaster ride” to “OMG someone stop the Washing Machine and get me out of here!” to “ok, gonna pass out now”. This time it was more of a “hammock on high sea” experience, not too bad to handle.

So, finally all done and the assistant pulls me out and proceeds to take away all the fancy stuff they put in place to stabilize my head and spine but obviously the head piece strapped over my face doesn’t want to come off. He keeps apologizing and pulling with all his strength when that thing comes up and some metal piece loosens and falls flat on my forehead. BAM!
I had to laugh (despite the fact that it did sting quite a big) and he couldn’t stop apologizing.

The same day we went back and I had a quick talk with the general Neurologist at the hospital. Tomorrow I will discuss the results from all the tests with my own Neurologist but the verdict so far is as follows:

NO new lesions in my brain or spine
NO active lesions in my brain and spine (for the first time)

But the most important part that made me actually tear up was the fact that the doctor (dare I say a bit puzzled himself) mentioned that it seems that the old scarrings show signs of improvement. I honestly didn’t even know that was possible (even though Henning mentioned that he read about this but that it normally takes much longer for this to happen if at all).

Well, I hopefully get more information tomorrow evening – for now I am a really, really happy camper

September 16, 2010 | 12 Comments

A second chance

I decided to put together a small video about my fitness journey so far. I hope you enjoy

September 12, 2010 | 5 Comments

Self Diagnosis by Video: Postural kyphosis

See, that’s the reason I find taking pictures of yourself or ideally, videos, during workouts so extremely helpful. It has nothing to do with me being horribly narcissistic (well maybe a little bit?) and everything with me being determined to find weaknesses to counter and improve them.

While watching my captures from the current Recovery Week Exercises for Insanity I noticed, again, that my upper back has a tendency to be slightly rounded. I first noticed this during my plank and push-up form and also during standing hamstring stretches. It’s specially obvious if I compare the form to Shaun or anyone else on the DvDs (I compare my form daily to make sure I am not hurting myself or cause muscle imbalance by working out with improper form).

So, I went back over the books and references I have and also asked Mister google for help. Now a word of warning, google is definitely not the place to look for scientific correct write-ups but it can help you start off in the right direction. I prefer having references from books and officially published papers to compare with information I find on the net. As long as you don’t just blindly believe what you read on the net and have studies to compare information to you should be OK. If in doubt it’s always best to ask a professional though.

All this rambling leads to the following: Due to me sitting pretty much all day (and for an extended period of time also during the evening), I tend to slouch and have bad sitting posture. This can lead to Postural Kyphosis. Roughly explained, it means that because of bad forward sitting posture my upper back area has gotten weak and my chest muscles got tighter and more contracted then they should be . That’s what the hobby PT in my figured out anyway (just with a bit more details about which muscle groups are affected and how to counter it).

So my plan of action is the following for this particular problem:

Make sure I have a better posture while sitting (sometimes hard because it leaves me with sore muscles).
Get up and stretch often during long periods of sitting
Do Chest opening stretches in the morning and evening
Make sure I pull my shoulders back, straighten my back during exercises and don’t let them round out in general

Since the workouts I am doing right now are laid out for full body conditioning I am automatically doing exercises which will help me strengthen the back and improve my posture as long as I do it with proper form.
All this makes it most of the time harder to do the normal exercises as I have to remember additional things on top of the normal cues from the workouts. However, I am determined to improve every possible aspect of my health and poor posture is a very important part of it.

I already pin-pointed a lot of weakness and managed to improve and work with them thanks to my “Self Diagnosis by Videos and Picture”-Method.

You should try it. However, as I mentioned, be careful and if in doubt please contact your PT or specialist!

September 11, 2010 | 2 Comments

Insanity Workout – Recovery Week Impressions

So, I am in my recovery week with Core Cardio and Balance. I wouldn’t really call it a recovery, even though it’s much less high impact and slower over all.

However, doing movements slow and controlled asks more of your strength and balance. It’s much easier to do the moves during the recovery week fast, I noticed.

It’s also quite funny that I am sore again for the first time in a few month. I guess I am not used to the slow muscle work anymore as opposed to fast twitch work.

My form is a bit weak at points but at least I see improvements in my push-up / plank form.