Category Archives: health & happiness

more workouts

25 Friday Aug 2023

Posted by in health, health & happiness, pilates, yoga

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more workouts

Since I started doing chair yoga and chair pilates I have since discovered a whole whack of different workout vids by this woman. They vary from quick 10-minute stretch/strength videos to 35-minute cardio ones and there’s lots of variety. The good thing is that there is never any excuse not to do SOMETHING each day, though I try to fit in at least half an hour, and obviously you can mix and match them. Some of them are quite challenging and, as you can see, I am also getting out of my chair (!). The whole point of starting with the chair stuff was to avoid having to sit or lie on the floor (knees! back!), so the standing ones work just as well for me. My goal is to also start fitting in some of the shorter ones (that don’t make me all sweaty) during the day, just for a bit of extra movement. Have to say that my back, and even my knees, are feeling much better.

blocked af

14 Friday Jul 2023

Posted by in change, health, health & happiness

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block

So this popped up in my Instagram feed and I thought it was pretty timely as I had just received the notice that my appointment with the nutritionist/endocrinologist will be on August 4th (three weeks from today). Not bad as my GP just sent out the request last week. Anyhow, I have always felt “blocked” when it came to losing weight, pretty much all my life, but things got a lot more difficult after cancer/chemo, menopause and, well, getting older. As my friend Kate @sledpress wisely says, it’s not a simple binary about what goes in or doesn’t, which is something I have also noticed all my life.

The hope is that new doc won’t just put me “on a diet” but will address the various issues and help me find a more balanced and intelligent way of living with everything, without having to take more drugs. Though I think she has her work cut out for her because when I saw this pic I realised that I have ALL THE BLOCKS. In spades. Wish me luck!

nixing the statins for now

11 Tuesday Jul 2023

Posted by in health, health & happiness, sevilla

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no statins

Since my GP prescribed cholesterol meds for me last Thursday I’ve been uneasy. I filled the prescription but then I was hesitant to just start taking them without doing a bit more research. And what I was reading was not making me feel any better. Unlike the blood pressure meds I’m on, statins seem to be seen as an “easy fix” drug, so that people can take them without feeling they need to make lifestyle changes. Which we all know is bullshit.

And so, since I am about to meet up with a nutritionist soon, I’ve decided to take the route of modifying my diet, which others have told me has worked very well for them with lowering cholesterol levels. It just makes more sense. Take a drug with some rather dodgy side effects or cut out putting so much cholesterol in your body? I’m opting for the latter. Wish me luck!

the lowdown

06 Thursday Jul 2023

Posted by in health, health & happiness, knee saga, knees

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doctors orders

Since my GP for all the time I’ve lived here, also my friend and my second ever English student Agustín, retired a couple of years ago, I have had a new GP assigned to me. A woman. And she seems nice enough, albeit a bit, um, terse? So I never feel like I can actually talk to her, other than to ask her to get things done (blood tests, this and that). Mostly because her response to most of the “complaints” I’ve had over the past couple of years has been YOU NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. Uh, thanks? I mean, of course I know I need to lose weight, for so many reasons. But this has always just felt like a brush off and not helpful.

Anyhow, went back after latest blood test and also after THE KNEE INCIDENT. I really thought she was just going to remind me once again that I am fat and tell me to take Ibuprofen, but she surprised me. I mean, she did tell me (once again) that I have to lose weight. But this time she looked me in the eye and said, “Shawn you have four things going on here, your age, your weight, your blood pressure and now high cholesterol. You need to start taking this seriously.” Gulp.

She then booked an x-ray for my knee for Monday morning, started me on cholesterol meds (to go with my blood pressure ones), arranged for more blood tests in three months, said she would call me next week with the x-ray results (she thinks it’s artrosis) and is sending me to a nutritionist. So that was all a bit more than I’d bargained for but at least she’s not just brushing me off this time.

Thing is, I DO know all of this and I’ve known it for some time. But nobody has called me on it until now. And I don’t know what I think I was trying to “get away” with because that doesn’t make any sense. It wasn’t even that… it’s something I can’t describe. Anyhow, got a bit of stuff to “unpack” here, as they say.

ouchy knee

23 Friday Jun 2023

Posted by in health, health & happiness, knee saga, knees

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ouchy knee

I have had KNEES for several years now, meaning that I didn’t used to be aware that they were there and then suddenly I was. Stairs were no longer my friend and as for getting down on my knees (yoga, pilates) forget about it. Those days were gone. But this is the first time I have been hit with such a sudden blast of severe stabby pain through my knee (left one) that my leg almost buckled under me and even taking small careful steps afterwards was excruciating. It kind of wore off after a bit, or at least the pain became bearable, but omg what a shock. I almost went to Emergency to get it looked at but then decided to wait it out a bit to see if it improved on its own. For now I’m using a stretchy cloth bandage wrapped around the area but also have one of those “knee sleeves” winging its way to me.

I wondered if this had anything to do with the Chair Yoga/Pilates I’ve been doing, but that stuff is supposed to alleviate or prevent knee pain. In any case, I couldn’t lift my leg in a sitting position now for all the iPhones in China, so any lower body exercise is off for the moment. Gaaah, it’s always something.