Friday, February 22, 2013

This is what I get for working out?

This is what I get for working out? This is what was rolling through my mind,as I stared back at six EMS/Firemen standing in my bedroom. For some woman this would be a dream come true to have six Firefighters in their bedroom. (sorry I could not resist) but for me it was a nightmare.

A few days prior to this, I started feeling a bit "under the weather." I chalked it up to that time of the month. During this time I get super sick, but that is a totally different story/blog, ha! No, this was something entirely different. After dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup, I laid back down. Just as I was drifting off into Never land, my heart started beating super fast, as if I was jogging. Then I got chest pain and tightness. After a few minutes of this not going away, I called my husband upstairs. We decided it was time to call 911 when it did not get better. What the heck?

I chewed up a full dose of aspirin and waited. When EMS got here, my blood pressure was 165/85! Yikes! They determined I was NOT having a massive heart attack, but said I needed to go in to be assessed. Ugh. I knew that meant a few hours in the emergency room. Since I was NOT having a heart attack, my hubby took me in.

The Voyage of the Goddess to the land of E.R

ACT ONE:
Blood work, cardiac enzymes, EKG, blood pressure cuff in place squeezing my arm every so many minutes, My blood work came back that I was super low in Potassium which can and will mess with your blood pressures.  Enter the nurse with two of the biggest pills I have ever seen. At least if I choked on them, I was in a good place! GULP! "Okay, can I go home now?" Enter the Doctor. "No, we need to keep you over night to get two more blood draws to check the cardiac enzymes. When a cardiac incident happens, it sometimes does not show up until 3 to 6 hours after, plus we want to do a Nuclear Stress test on you in the morning." NOOOOO!

ACT TWO:

Typical stay at the hospital, No sleep, no food or drink due to my testing in the morning, Poking and prodding, freaking out about all the other crap I could pick up from being in there. In the morning I was injected with a nice little cocktail of radio active something. Hour later, I am under a moving camera for about 10 minutes, then off to the treadmill. At least I wore my tennis shoes to the hospital right? My nurses running the test were amazing. They explained how the treadmill would start, increase in speed and incline. Joking that we would be taking a nice hike through the Appalachian mountains in Tennessee. I said I could handle that, as long as we were not hiking the Rocky mountains. I got this, I have been busting my butt in the gym haven't I? Buahahahhaha! The Goddess was laughing inside. She knew that it would be my journey to Hades on that last incline. It was. Nothing like jogging up the side of mountain.

Act Three:

The Results were that my heart is just fine. Pumping at 70 percent. What? Why not 100%? Well, I looked in the mirror and realized that. But my ticker is good. However, I have been referred to a cardiologist to "maximize my health." Not a bad idea considering my family history. Whew! They want me on a low-sodium diet, which I was doing any way with my own doctor. Take a heart healthy multi-vitamin, with CoQ10, B's, lycopene, etc.

Final:
Home. But I did not come home alone. Remember my statement earlier, I think it was in "ACT TWO?" the one about picking up some other crap from the being in the hospital? Yeah, well...

Five days later, I came down with the most beautiful upper respiratory infection. Fever, sore throat, etc. Here I am six days into this and I had to break down and call my family doctor for medicine, my herbal/natural remedies were not going to win this time. Relief has come as 500 mg of antibiotic three times a day.

So I have told my "Goddess Inside" to enjoy this little break now, because it is not going to last long, back to the gym we will be going. This will not stop us!








Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Exercising I will go, Exercising I will go! Oh, how sore I am, exercising I will go!

Yep, the will is there but by golly the flesh is weak. My fat human body is fighting the Goddess who is trying to claw her way out. FYI the Goddess is winning. I have been consistently exercising, and I am rocking it! This is the first time I have been this diligent. Don't get me wrong, it stinks to lug myself out of the house to the gym, and for the record, I personally do not think I have never used some of the muscles that I have been using. I even thought of looking up them in a physiology book to make sure I am not some sort of mutant! Once I enter the gym it is on! All I can say is I thankful for endorphins, can I get an "Holla!"

What makes this different then all the other times? Well, the will. The simple will to be healthy and fit. I have said I doubt I will never be a size 8 and model again, but I do NOT want to look like this, at all. My other motivation is having my work out buddy. My friend Lisa is on the same page as I am. She gets it. We encourage each other. We push each other. She is the first one to tell me to buck up and put my big girl pants on! I am grateful to her.

The other thing is despite my soreness, I can already see a difference. My stamina is better. I have went from doing cardio two to maybe three days a week for 30 minutes. I can now do 55 minutes cardio. I work out six days a week now. My strength is growing. On the days that I strength train, I have to raise the weight amount on certain muscles groups.

Here is my schedule:

Monday: Cardio and Strength. *On these days we are at the gym for about 2 1/2 hours, working it!
Tuesday: Cardio
Wednesday: Cardio and Strength
Thursday: Cardio
Friday: Cardio and Strength
Saturday: Cardio
Sunday: off

Some days due to schedules, it is harder to get to the gym, so that is when I have to get creative.

My Creative Moves!

-Pop in a Walking Away the Pounds DVD and work it with hand weights.
- Put in some "jams" and boogie around the house. I love to dance. (Don't worry neighbors, I will pull the shades to not scare you!)
-Bust out the tap shoes and bust a few moves.
-Have my hubby run me through his martial arts work out.He has studied martial arts for 28 years and I have trained with him in a structured setting before. Ugh, nothing like having to refer to your husband as "Sir."
-Pick up the pace while doing those household chores.


It all comes down to moving it!  I admit I get frustrated it is not coming off as quickly as I like. But it did not come on overnight either.

Daily Reminder:

In the lyrics of one of my favorite singers to dance to Ms. Christina Aguilera

You are beautiful in every single way...