Sometimes you need goals

our house in the middle of the street

Sorry my post is late today but i wanted to do something first. That is take a walk. At the moment i tend not to walk too much in one go, although i am getting very good at hobbling from one bus to another. 

Osteoarthritis needs exercise. In the morning most of my joints are stiff and often painful and hobbling to the bathroom next door is all i can do until the pills work and the pain is reduced. Up to two weeks ago i had a routine, take pills, eat breakfast, check emails, wait and hour then get up, do exercises, have a bath, get dressed and i was doing really well but then life took over and i started thinking too much and became too stressed and everything fell to pieces.

To cut a long story short i haven't done any exercise, except for the odd hobble here and there, for two whole weeks. It's disgraceful it really is and i can't even blame anyone else, so it's all my fault. So i decided that today was the day i would get back on tract. I followed the plan as above but i also added a walk, it was a very short walk but i know i had to start somewhere.

The photograph shows the street i live on, looking down from the top. I actually live right by the tree on the left as you look at the picture. So i decided that i would find one of the many abandoned pedometer's i have in my house, attach it to myself and walk from my house, down the street, across the road, back up the other side, across the road and down the street again back to my house. It came to 446 steps. Not very many but at least i know where i'm starting. The goal is to add about 10% extra steps every 3 days (Sunday not included) until i can walk a mile = 3,000 steps approximately. It's going to to take a while but i shall try and keep you updated. As for the other exercises after doing x6 repeats today my worse knee had, had enough and so i struggled to add another 2 repeats but then had to quit. So it really is baby steps.

As for all those abandoned pedometers in my house; if time team ever came to excavate my house in the future they would be completely bemused by all these small plastic squares with metal balls inside them and what they were used for and why i had so many.

Living Streets

I am trying to get organized and i know i've been a bit laxed and lazy with my blog this last week but it's because i've been living the high-life whilst staying at my daughter's house when she was away. Chance would be a fine thing but it was nice just having space to myself.

I can hear you asking - how is the fruit challenge going? Rubbish really. I have managed it a couple of times but yesterday i had some orange juice in the morning and i did have salad with my lunch but that's not really fruit, even i know that, so doesn't count.

And the exercises? About the same as the fruit challenge really. Like i have already said laxed and lazy. But when you are the worse at something there is plenty of room for improvement - so they say or someone does. I often wonder who 'they' are??

Actually i am stating that the exercise isn't going very well but last week i did a little experiment and tried walking a mile from my daughter's house to the local supermarket. It took me an hour. Most people can comfortably walk a mile in 20 minutes. I tried it a couple of times with similar results, it takes me 3x as long as anyone else to get anywhere. However i will map out a mile in my area and see how long it takes me to walk it and see if i can improve on the time and maybe, eventually the distance too. I also figured that i need to have the hour spare to just trot along at my extra slow speed, which even though i'm not yet back at work i am often busy doing, what? oh this and that, stuff, you know!

Anyhow on to other things, i found this web site http://www.mylivingstreets.org.uk/aboutus, called Living Streets and it's an english site and not only does it encourage us to walk but also to help take care of our neighbourhood streets. I can also log how far i've walked in a day and gain points, erm nope, not sure what the points are for, will try and find out. 

Walking is supposed to be one of the best exercises we can do but i'm not sure it counts when you are walking like a snail. Monday seems to have become exercise day so i shall let you know how it all goes.

Exercises and the cold

No, it's not me

People keep asking me if the cold weather is affecting my arthritis and I reply no, not really. However today that is not the case. For the first time I have woken up with knees that feel twice the size of what they should be and stiff to the point that I have found it difficult to even get dressed.

I’m staying at my daughter’s house while she is away for the week and I didn’t realise how difficult it would be to get in and out of her bath/shower. My bathroom is tiny, lots of walls to hold onto but my daughter’s bathroom is huge and there are not many nearby walls. However it was good to get into the shower and getting those old joints moving.

This seems to be the exercise day, so here are a few more;

For this you will need a step, the bottom step of a flight of stairs in fine, works for me, anyway.

Stand in front of the step, feet hip distance apart, step up with one foot, then lean forward bending the knee forward over your toes. It’s important to keep everything in alignment. Hold for 3 and then step down, repeat x12, repeat with the other leg.

Stand in front of the step, feet hip width apart, step up with one foot, follow through with second foot, so you are now standing on the step with both feet. Step down with the first foot followed by the second foot, repeat x12. Then repeat using the second leg first, repeat x12.

Don’t forget to do the full body stretch at the beginning and the end.