Day 70: An Unsettled But Successful Day

 

Saturday October 26, 2024

Here is the link to my original Day 70. It was Thursday March 14, 2019. My headline for that day was "Stay The Course". This was a reference to staying on the Nutrisystem program, as I was doing well and was very motivated to continue.

I woke up just before 9 and only had 3 stray cats to feed this morning. Minnie and I had our usual morning snuggle but when she hopped down just after 10 I took the opportunity to make my bed, get dressed, make my shake and brew a second cup of coffee. I also went out on the porch to open the curtains and right one of my mums that had tipped over. We had some wind but by 11 or so it seemed to have calmed down. This morning I had blood in my stool again and of course I immediately panicked and decided I have colon cancer. However, after thinking about it I relaxed a bit. I've taken ibuprofen a couple times recently ! Looking at the side effects of it, I feel like I have all the symptoms of a reaction to the ibuprofen. Bloating, constipation, indigestion, blood in stool. The 2nd time I went to the bathroom today there was no blood at all. I had been taking ibuprofen the first time this happened ! So I looked around the house, rounded up the 2 bottles of it I have and tossed them. When I grocery shop I will buy a bottle of Tylenol. It's unfortunate, because the ibuprofen does wonders for my sore hip. However, I'd rather have a sore hip and no blood in my stool ! I'm sure Tylenol will be just as effective and it's actually better should you have a fever. As with any drug like this, moderation is key. You can't take any of this stuff on a daily basis and I really don't need to. The first time I had blood in my stool I actually had bloody diarrhea for a couple days but I had been taking Miralax every day along with ibuprofen, so my digestive tract likely had a lot of healing to do. I stopped taking both and it cleared up. I recently took the ibuprofen again as I am exercising more and had some hip pain. Miralax and ibuprofen are now banned from my medicine cabinet ! I hadn't thrown away all the Miralax but I've done so now ! I have to wonder if all the vitamins I took over the last week contributed to the issue. All of them seem to have the potential for digestive symptoms. I used the bathroom a 3rd time around 12:30 and all was normal. I'm going to give it a few days and then slowly start taking Metamucil if I feel like I need help going to the bathroom. It's not a laxative but when I was taking it every day I had a much more regular bathroom schedule and no constipation. If I need it, I'll start with one scoop and see how that goes before increasing to the recommended 2 scoops. It doesn't help that I'm not eating a lot and I'm not drinking enough. I need to stop being lazy and have a salad with my lunch and work on drinking more water. More food and water in my digestive tract will help things keep moving.

In lighter news, it's a beautiful sunny day ! It's only 51 degrees as of 11:40 am, but that's not bad for late October. Close to 1 pm I checked to see if the front porch was warm enough to open the door for Minnie but it was not. I'll check again after my first workout !

Breakfast was a 180 calorie Eggo waffles with sugar free syrup followed by an 80 calorie yogurt. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was the last 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was an 80 calorie cheese stick and 120 calorie crackers. Dinner was 260 calorie roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and green beans. Evening snack was a 120 calorie oatmeal chocolate chip square with whipped cream. I also had a 100 calorie s'mores cluster. Explanation for that is later in this blog.

I thought about taking a break from exercise today, but there really is no reason to. I feel fine, I am fine and exercise is important. I can't use every little bump in the road of life as an excuse not to exercise. It would be different if I felt sick. I don't. 

My first workout was the Lafayette Beach walk and it was complete as of 1:53 pm. This is always the hardest 20m12s of the day, since it's cardio. I might have ended the cool down a minute early, I can't remember ! Oh well .. no big deal ! If I feel like it, I will add a minute to one of my other workouts. My heart rate maxed out at 144, which is well within my 164/165 range. I felt fine throughout the workout and afterwards, so I'm glad I didn't decide to take the day off ! The remaining workouts of the day are slightly longer but slower paced. Workout #2 has some 5% incline in the beginning but after that it will be smooth sailing for the rest of the day !

Workout #2 got off to a late start (lazy) but it was done by 4:25 pm. It was 21m26s and I added an extra minute to the cool down to make up for the minute I think I missed in the first workout. My heart rate maxed out at 125 during this workout, probably due to the few minutes of 5% incline. 

After the workout I sat down with my afternoon snack and a diet coke. Minnie joined me for an afternoon snooze in my lap. It did warm up enough to open the front door enough to allow Minnie to go out on the porch. She spent some time out there but the sun was in and out and by 5 I had closed the door.

Workout #3 didn't start until about 6 pm but I got that 23m32s done by 6:33 pm ! My heart rate popped up to 176 at 6:08 pm but gradually came down. Considering my walking pace was 2.2 or 2.3 mph, I'm not sure why that happens. There was a very brief 2% incline followed by a brief 3% and those shouldn't cause my heart to beat so fast. My warm up is at 2 mph but that transition from 2 to 2.2 or 2.3 seemed to jolt my heart to get a move on. Odd that the transition from 2.7 to 3 mph during my first workout didn't do that. I suspect the 80 calorie cheese stick in my afternoon snack is not providing enough protein. I only have 3 of them left and then I'm switching back to cottage cheese.

It was 8 pm when I started, but workout #4 is done ! It was 21m21s in Italy. My heart rate maxed out at 134 during this workout. I didn't start the warm up at 2 mph, I worked up to that speed. I also made an effort to take some deep breaths as the workout was starting, as that can help moderate your heart rate. I will need to be more mindful of that going forward !

My total workout time today is 86m31s plus xx minutes of warm up/cool down for a grand total of 114m31s. I'm at 92 workouts for 2024. My goal for 2025 is 500+ workouts and that is very reachable if I continue this pace. As of 8:55 pm, Fitbit says I completed 15,520 steps and burned 3,320 calories. Another amazing fitness day !

As I much finalizing this blog I was thinking about that fact that it always seems like something happens when life starts to improve for me. My job was going amazing and I was making enough money to start adding to my savings, then I got laid off. Twice now I've interviewed for great jobs only to be told they can't hire me. I finally got my exercise program in place and now the bloody stool issue makes a return. I've had a lot of good fortune, so maybe it's just unrealistic to expect everything in life to always go smoothly. Sure, I lost my job but I have enough money to survive. Sure, I had a bloody stool today but it didn't keep me from exercising. I really think the ibuprofen is the problem and it's now in the trash. I'm also throwing away the potassium supplement as I don't think I need it. Besides that, it's only 2% of the RDA, so does it even benefit me ? I'd rather have a dish of pineapple. Starting tomorrow I'm holding off on all supplements for at least a week. Once my digestive tract seems to have returned to normal, I will reassess what I want to take. The B12 wasn't cheap but I may toss it. I may just go with a multivitamin and the calcium supplement, which also contains some vitamin D.

After my last workout I fed Minnie, cleaned out the litter boxes and then went out on the porch to close the curtains and bring my mums inside, since the low for tonight is 35. It is super windy out there ! I lingered on the couch until nearly 10 before finally deciding to take a shower. Before I did that, I decided to have a s'mores cluster. I was just feeling weak and wondered if I just needed a shot of sugar. Well, by the time my shower was over I was feeling a lot better ! That 100 calorie boost was well worth it and I managed to limit myself to just one. Most of what I eat throughout the day is sugar free. The syrup on my waffles. The sweetener in my coffee. The yogurt. The diet coke. The sweetener in my water. The eggo waffles I had for breakfast likely have sugar, but that would have been burned off in my first workout. I think I'll buy some apples when I grocery shop. I really enjoyed the apple I had last week. I'm supposed to be consuming 1400 calories a day since I have over 100 pounds to lose but most days I don't even get 1200, so with all the exercise I might be starving myself.

It's 10:41 and I've checked all the boxes on my checklist, provided I brush my teeth when I go to bed. I'm going to publish this blog, watch a little more YouTube and then head for bed. I'm hoping to not see any blood in the toilet tomorrow !

Below is what I achieved today. I am focusing on what I do each day, and not looking back to what I did or didn't do any other day. I hope that one day soon I won't need a checklist to ensure I do all of these everyday tasks !   

Make the bed - x

feed cats - x

have breakfast - x

get dressed - x

exercise - x x x x 

clean litter boxes - x

take vitamins - x

have morning snack - x

have lunch - x

have afternoon snack - x

have dinner - x

have evening snack - x

shower - x

skincare - x

brush teeth - x