It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a BLOG!

This blog doesn't really have anything to do with superman, unless you consider for a moment the many hats I am juggling right now. I'm being a Mum, working, being a Springsteen fanatic (very busy at the moment with ticket buying), caring for my Dad, trying to protect my Dad's interests, and at the moment nursing a very sick, elderly cat.

I'm also a bit stiff and sore from my 5km race efforts and from my sore back.

There really isn't much else to report. I'm drinking my water, blowing the diet altogether and freaking out about my budget while lamenting the extremely poor political choices in our upcoming federal election (which I wouldn't give a moment's thought except that I'm bombarded with advertsing about it).

I feel a profound sadness at the turn of many recent events. Thankfully I have Bruce to look forward to, as well as our family trip around the country.

What I really need to be planning is the next school holidays!

I finished a 5km race!

There's something I can cross off my bucket list! I've just finished the 5km race in the Sunshine Coast Marathon!  I'm coming back to edit this, just realising that what I am totally neglecting to mention here is that 12 months ago there is no way I could walk 5km at all, due to the arthritic pain from psoriatic arthritis.  I have Bruce Springsteen's inspiration and my own determination to thank for this remarkable recovery. 

I still have arthritis, but like any auto-immune disease, it is affected quite incredibly, not only by stress (in a bad way) but also by happiness and joy.  The lighter, more joyful and happy I feel, the less impact the disease has on my life. I am still prone to injury, particularly muscle and tendon strain, and swelling, however my pain levels are significantly reduced since I started exercising, and especially since I started enjoying life to the fullest, courtesy of Bruce Springsteen's musical inspiration.  I hope that in the months leading up to his arrival in February, and in the months after he leaves Australia again, that I get my fill of Springsteen-motivation and am able to carry on with even more mobility and less pain for at least a year!  After his concerts this past March, the extreme happiness bubble wore off within 3 months. Its sort of back now, and I intend to keep building on the happiness so that my Bruce happiness bubble keeps me going for a considerable time!

My goals today were to 1. finish and 2. finish in under one hour.  I managed both, quite easily!  My time was 50 minutes and 14 seconds!  Which I believe is 6km / hour, if my maths brain is still working!

I can safely say that I think I'm hooked. Its fun to be in a great big group of people running and walking. Setting a pace of 6 km / hour over 5 kms is quite remarkable for me, and it was all about having people in front of me that I could focus on catching up to and keeping up with.

 

As usual thing didn't go as much to plan as I would like. My poor phone decided to have a conniption so Runkeeper didn't work and I had no idea of my pace until 3km into the race, when the helpful water station people knew we were at the 3km mark.  Then it was a bit of a race to finish under 1 hour.

I enjoyed my almost hour of Bruce. The playlist for my walk was

All or Nothing at All
All that Heaven Will Allow
Atlantic City
The Rising
We Take Care of Our Own
Easy Money
Shackled and Drawn
Reason to Believe
Glory Days
Dancing in the Dark
Shackled and Drawn again :)

By this time next year I hope to be up to some variation on the 5km I just did. Perhaps some jogging along with the walking. It really depends as jogging does have an impact on my spine, and I need to protect that part of me!

Either way, I'm sure next year I can do a better place, and get closer to the top half of the field.

I'll absolutely be doing this one again because the location and weather couldn't be more perfect!

 

Tomorrow I might be a little sore. At the moment I have a few blisters, hopefully they will heal up before work tomorrow!

Walking 5kms for Alzheimer's

Oh, thats me! I'm doing the 5km section of the Sunshine Coast Marathon on Sunday.  My training, as you probably know, if you've been reading my blog, is sporadic at best. I am just aiming to finish the 5kms without mishap.

Here is my rather boring fundraising page 

Here is my Dad, who has Alzheimer's. 

I watched an amazing TED talk once, about a woman who is preparing herself to get Alzheimer's disease. Here it is!

Please consider sponsoring me, and helping aid research into the prevention and treatment of this terrible disease.

Two Bruce days later...

Here I sit in the post-Bruce pre-sale apocalypse.  It wasn't at all like this:

It was more like this, only on the internet, with the selling site being one side and all the ticket-seekers on the other.

I have survived with some of the tickets I was after. But it did rather interfere with exercise today, so it was a short 15 minute walk for me. The cold weather didn't do me any favours as the car fumes on the main road nearly choked me so I hurried home for a drink of water.

Yesterday however turned out rather well. After hiding at a friend's house, I arrived home with a sleepy baby so I put her in the stroller and took a half hour walk with her snoozing the whole way. Pushing the pram around gave me an extra workout, as did having a different Tai Chi instructor last night who made sure that we really got the muscles pumping.

Hopefully all that makes up for today's small effort. My back hurts after the injury the other week, I am hoping when the cold weather goes away so will  the backache!

Time for bed now, more chaos and mayhem tomorrow. 

Hi Ho! Off to work I went.

Today's update isn't very newsy. Monday is my workday and its a long commute. I had terrific plans of a long walk, but really I don't like to spend any more time than I have to at work. 

Dad is unwell, so with hubby sitting by his bedside there was no evening walk for me either. Tomorrow I will have to do a long walk with baby girl in tow (somehow) as well as my Tai Chi class.

Tonight's goal is to finish the washing up and leave the kitchen benches, table and floor tidy and clean. Sounds simple but its not an every day thing around here, my kitchen genie ran away a long time ago. I still have trouble sleeping if  I get too enthusiastic about the housework in the evening!  

Speaking of goals though I need to finish more water, only 1 litre so far today. Another litre to go. 

Bruce is coming baaack! *happy dance*

My inner spirit is in a happy happy place, despite considerable turbulence in my life. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are coming back to Australia in February! 

Excitement! Anticipation! Planning! 

Exercise!

Yes, exercise!  One of my quiet, secret dreams that I did not even commit to paper (hence making it a dream not a goal) since seeing Bruce and the band last March, was to be in the front row of the pit, with a sign that said "Hey Bruce, you inspired me to lose 20kgs!" 

Now that he's returning in 6 months, and that I've written it down for all the world to see, its a goal, not a dream.  I'd be happy to waste my 'sign request' on letting him know what a difference he's made in my life.

And its not too hard as goals go, as I've already lost 10kgs, so its really only 10 more to go! 9 if you are an optimist as most days I'm now 89 kgs.

But hey, 79 kgs is even better than 80 as a goal. I like it more, because it starts with 7 not 8!

My first steps are to ignore the sugar cravings I'm having, they seem to be a force of nature at the moment, but to counter them with at least my 2 litres of water a day and to do 30 minutes exercise every single day for the next month.  In the past few weeks I was increasing my Tai Chi, but at the expense of my walking, so I hovered at the same weight all month.

I'm also wanting to write a little blog entry every day.  For me right now, the number one way that I can organise my energy is to again focus on exercise and health, while the excitement is with me. Yes I also want to continue to finalise all the mountains of renovations (and clean washing) but at the moment I want to revisit the basics of exercise exercise exercise :)

Having said that, I have a short update on the general energy front. I was diagnosed with Iron Deficiency Anemia - and the other day when I didn't take my Iron supplement on time, oh boy. Flat me. But I dragged myself out of that and just got about my day 'pretending' to be managing, and pretty soon not only had I cleaned and swept the back verandah but I had Miss 2 out there painting pictures! 

Tonight we had campfire toast, marshmallows and garlic bread for dinner! Happy Mummy and happy children.

The boy and I also caught a TV interview with Bruce Springsteen and he has again asked to go to a concert! I am one proud and excited Mummy!

Sugar Sugar ... Bad news for me!

This is a really short post to make note of my recent, self-pitying sugar indulgence.  I'd say I've been really getting into the sugary food for about 4 days, but it did all start 2 weeks ago, being the only mud cake eater in my house devouring birthday cake slowly but surely after my girl's party.

I'm currently having a decent wallow in self-pity.  I'm feeling very burdened by family troubles (the ones I was born with, not my own gorgeous hubby and children); I'm feeling uncertain about my health, about finances and I'm feeling tired (yes that will be the anemia!)

I'm finding 80's music strangely extremely uplifting. I've always liked 80's but at the moment it is having an effect similar to Bruce Springsteen's magic of the past few months.

But I digress. I suspect much of the mood I'm currently in, given that in theory right now is a wonderful time hormonally speaking, can be squarely blamed on too much sugar.

I've followed a reasonable diet of little sugar up until the party, and have really only gone all out with poor choices like biccies and milk since this weekend.  

This quote from a random Google search result says it all doesn't it? 

"sugar consumption triggers a cascade of chemical reactions in your body that promote chronic inflammation. In the long term, inflammation disrupts the normal functioning of your immune system, and wreaks havoc on your brain."

And I've learned a new thing tonight that makes sense. Sugar apparently reduces your vitamin B. "these foods not only supply very little in the way of nutrients but they also use up the mood enhancing B vitamins"

Well there you go. So my recent awful diet has caused inflammation (bad in someone with auto-immune disease), but it has stolen my B vitamins.

This girl is going to take drastic action to fix this up, I'm tired of feeling low, and its only been a few days.

Iron deficiency - spectacular ways to avoid blogging.

Well that explains a lot. Including why I don't seem to find time for blogging at the moment.  I just found out 'officially' that I have Iron Deficiency Anemia.  Which is a rather spectacular way of saying I'm not getting enough dietary Iron and its causing havoc with my whole system.  It does not mean that I am a bad wife / mother / housekeeper for not doing enough ironing, although I do have a 'no iron' motto in my house, it was not meant to refer to the dietary kind!

Way back in early April I visited my doctor. "I think I'm low in Iron." I told him.  At this point, what I'm learning now in hindsight, I should have stuck to my guns and listened to my body. It would have saved me months of feeling less than wonderful.  Instead I listened to a lovely, calm rational explanation from a man quoting a text book about why I should not be low in Iron.  Including reassuring me that my recent blood test results that showed a healthy haemoglobin level.

One of the things that can happen when you exercise (and breastfeed) is that your Iron stores get depleted. Or you don't absorb it as well. Something happens, I've read it on the net :)   Increasing exercise can equate to decreased Iron. Which is fine if you treat it straight away.

If you don't, the symptoms you can suffer with (and I did) include:

• fatigue
• mental fatigue (vague, memory loss)
• dizziness
• poor concentration
• hair loss
• irritability
• headache
• irregular heart rhythms

from the following websites - 
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/iron-deficiency-anemia-topic-overview
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/ida/signs.html
http://bodyandhealth.canada.com/condition_info_details.asp?disease_id=274 

So although it is still possible, given my family history, that I'm menopausal, all of the symptoms above may also be related only to my Iron deficiency.   Which was only picked up after a second doctor sent me for an "Iron Studies" blood test (also known as Anemia Studies).  This brilliant site explains the difference nicely, stating that Serum Iron has little clinical value. What looks on the surface to be reasonable levels of Iron, when investigated fully, showed me as being anemic due to low Iron. So today I started a pharmacy only supplement of super-powered Iron tablets. I'm hoping these make a big difference to how I feel day to day. 

I'm impatient now for the extra steak and the supplements to kick in and give me a pick-me-up, but tonight's bloggy message is to believe in yourself, listen to your body and intuition and don't give up when faced with a setback in what you believe. I could have spent my winter (or part of it) in glorious European summertime, watching Bruce Springsteen perform if I had acted on my instinct and started taking Iron supplements in April instead of waiting for doctors to finally order a fully investigative set of tests and for those results to prove to them what I knew four months ago!

I've got my fingers crossed that restoring a healthy Iron level brings me back to normal energy levels, and moods.

A plan of harmony, or a river in Egypt?

Despite the challenges I face in this, I want my home to be a place of harmony. Where all of the household members feel safe and  valued.

To do this, I need to really get a move on with the following:

Physical Changes
1. lock for big girl's room
2. cleaning up middle boys' room including rug cleaned, and floor scrubbed.
3. providing an environment that is functioning (e.g. they can get clean cups) and calming to look at.

Emotional / People changes
1. spending time with each child alone, maybe making a day for each of them during the week when they have my undivided attention (just doesn't happen otherwise)
2. stimulating their minds with interesting stuff. I just don't do that enough

I started this post with great enthusiasm not long after my time-warp commentary. And then I also started two others - one about recent health . hormonal changes, and a second one about what Bruce Springsteen has in common with Prince Charles. Yes I hope to finish both of them. What is happening now however is that I am spending a lot of my day-times feeling like I'm underwater. Feeling a bit floaty and not-quite-real. It is quite possibly a side effect of the strong levels of denial that I'm feeling regarding decision making when it comes to Springsteen's Chile concert; and that I need to book airfares for my Aunt's birthday. It could be the effort it is taking to ignore that one of my 'friends' had her 40th birthday party quite clearly organised in advance, despite several discussions with me about not making any plans. Perhaps its worry about my father's health, which has taken a negative turn again.

Regardless the recent attack of not paying attention is not doing me any favours. It isn't helping me get moving, or motivated. Perhaps it's a coping mechanism of denial that I'm now 40.  I'm really not sure. I only know I'm almost enjoying my bubble of ignoring so many details, almost.

Recognising the 'almost' I think I'll get busy inviting people in person to the lunch I want to have for my birthday celebrations. I don't want to do a facebook event, so I'll go old-school and use the phone :)

All this blogging just to work that out, I'm doing well! (yes that's sarcasm)