October 11, 2022October 11, 2022 atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Takin’ it easy

I’m still hurting from NYCC so, walking was my workout for the day. I had a doctor’s appointment to go over the results of my last blood tests and while the lab did email me the results, it was good to hear the doctor go over them with me as she wasn’t as dire as I’d assumed looking at them myself.

My good cholesterol is fantastic but my bad cholesterol is creeping up which, since so many of my other numbers were so good (aside for some low vitamins), my doctor recommended I start taking omega-3 supplements. I used my lunch break to get myself a tuna sandwich (there’s a great place near my job that has a lemon tuna salad with no mayo and it’s delicious) and stop by the grocery store to pick up some sardines, mackerel, and salmon. I figure the pills will help but it’s always better to get nutrients from food instead.

Since I started Saxenda, I have been eating less fish because I’ve been eating less in general. Very often, lunch fills me up enough that I don’t feel the need for dinner. That means I’m not firing up the oven to bake any fish. Especially in the summer. The only other way I get fish is tuna in my salads; which I only buy when it’s on sale. Even the sardines and mackerel I bought were on sale.

Now, it’s been so long since I’ve eaten sardines, I didn’t put much in my salad for dinner in case my palate changed and they’re gross now. Luckily, this wasn’t the case and this was my dinner. That’s lemon pepper on there instead of straight up salt.

I portioned out another bit of this for lunch tomorrow and hopefully I’ll get back on my regular workouts after one more day of resting.

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May 26, 2022May 26, 2022 atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Almost missed them…

I had downloaded a bunch of ARCs and somehow I completely forgot I had them. They were about to expire today so, I read those while I did my peddler today. I managed to read them just in time but I have more to get to in the next week. I’ll post them after I get back from my first mammogram tomorrow.

Getting old is the pits. All these frikkin scans and shit. I know it’s to keep myself healthy but my need to interact with as few people as possible on my days off is clashing with the much needed human meat bag maintenance every person needs to do. It’s like that Tiktok meme of taking a walk for your stupid mental health. I’ll do it but I’ll be grumpy about it.

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May 4, 2022May 4, 2022 atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Numbers

I went in for my annual and they did my regular blood test. I clearly got too complacent in always getting great numbers because this time was not good. My bad cholesterol went from 155 to 177. Holy shit. I guess I treated myself a bit too many times here…

Now, my plan is to do extra workouts daily. I have the desk bike at work and I grabbed my kettle bell today. I know I do have a weight loss goal for the scale but it’s more important for me to get healthy and have a better quality of life as I age. I may not be able to run like I did in my 20’s but I want to be able to walk when I’m in my 60’s.

One of my little tricks is to do 50 squats whenever I brush my teeth and considering I’m gonna try extending my desk peddler time to at least 40 minutes, my legs are gonna be burning. My arm muscles are already trembling from just 10 minutes of kettle bell so I am CLEARLY not in as good a shape as I could be. I mean, I have good endurance that I can walk for long distances and the bag I carry daily has to be about 20 pounds and I don’t struggle much to lift it. I have a lot of work to do.

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March 30, 2022March 30, 2022 atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Cardio Day 2

I took a break yesterday to work on a short story that I seriously should have finished by now. I don’t know why I’m having such trouble with it but it’s a SLOG to get the words on the page. There are times where writing is like a wild ride and there are times where writing is WORK. And this story is being so stubborn.

In addition, after my trip to the eye doctor, I have to stop and take more breaks because of blocked oil glands. The doctor asked me “How many books do you read?” and after laughing, I told him my side gig along side being a librarian who’s on screens all day, I write and review books; meaning more screens. I use a warm compress he gave me twice a day at least and it’s both comforting and unnerving being medically forced to take a 10 minute break a couple times a day. But, I need my eyes so, I gotta take care of them.

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May 7, 2021May 8, 2021 atthequillsmercy

Genetic Testing – Makes sense…

So, as previously stated, I’m 40 now. In my continuing efforts to get and stay healthy, I asked my doctor for a genetic test to not only determine my colon and breast cancer risk but to finally see what may be lurking on my father’s side of my DNA (since nobody knows who he is). The lab was frantically calling me and I thought “Oh shit. What’s wrong with me?!” What was wrong? Getting insurance approval for the test.

Okay. We go through what I know of Ma’s side of the family in terms of cancer and since it wasn’t breast cancer or anything that is classified as genetically related, the insurance won’t pay for the test. It will cost me $2,500.

After an interesting few moments of no heartbeat, I tell the nice woman I want the test because I literally have no clue what 50% of my DNA is. I can’t afford that. Of course there’s a payment plan or whatever but isn’t that interesting? “Hey, my genetics are a mystery and I would like to know my health risks. We don’t know enough about your genetics to qualify for insurance to pay for a test to determine your health risks and we will financially punish you for that.”

Lovely…

I need to know so, I guess I’ll just have to sell more books and stuff to make up the money.

Yay, American healthcare… 🙄🙄🙄

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November 21, 2018November 21, 2018 atthequillsmercy

Health Check? Not doing too bad!

If you read my blog regularly, you see me posting all this workout stuff. So, what’s the point, right?

I got my blood work back from the doctor today. Last time, there were some concerns about my cholesterol. This time?

My doctor said I have one of the best cholesterol levels she’s seen!

Not bad for someone as overweight as I am.

Now, this time the doctor was concerned about my B12 levels so I got me a booster shot and I’ll be going back every two weeks to get more. How did the shot make me feel?

giphy1 — I had to apologize to my coworkers

According to some research, low B12 can lead to depression and fatigue, which may explain why I have been tired ALL THE TIME. And I think the deficiency is down to my diet. In order to be “healthy”, I cut way down on red meat, cheese, and I don’t drink milk because it’s gross. I used to have steak once or twice a week. I’ve been having red meat once or twice a month now; ground beef or lamb in chili or stew. Chicken does have B12 but not nearly as much as beef. I’ll have to get back to putting beef into my rotation.

With my new amazing bill of health, I have gone insane and signed up for two more virtual races. I have two going over on Yes.Fit and I had to pause one to finish the other… Yeah, I’m going a bit mad with the running thing but I like it, it’s healthy, and I don’t feel like stopping.

So, there.

In my mind, I am still looking to lose weight. It’s not for health reasons at all now, since I’m healthy, it’s because I have some AMAZING outfits that I don’t fit in to. They are sexy as hell and I want them to see the light of day.

If you wanna connect with me on Yes.Fit, drop a comment and let me know. I don’t mind being social and I think it’d be cool to connect with people there.

How will I run during the holidays? Well, I ran before Thanksgiving dinner last year. I see no reason to do it again.

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March 16, 2018March 16, 2018 atthequillsmercy

Today’s Run: Season 3 Begins!

Yesterday I woke up feeling like absolute crap. I got the kid to school and went back to bed for a nap before I went to work. Today, I made it up.

I may have been slower today but I was able to stay at 3.4 miles per hour and stay there for 10 minutes without feeling like I was going to die. All that training is paying off and I LOVE it.

I also have to report that I may have gained a couple pounds (somehow I crept up to 221!?!?) but I am back down to 217.8. I am losing about 2 pounds a week which is exactly what I wanted! My fancy scale also shows my muscle going up!

No pics of that because I was tired and fuck it. Maybe next time.

As for my food today, I went for a bagel for my late breakfast but I cooked dinner:

I really should write shit down when I cook it but I am a true kitchen witch; I add shit to the pot and smell and taste as I go without measuring.

This is basically sliced some garlic and ginger and threw it in a pot with some butter. I let those cook and before they could get brown, I added the sliced chicken. While that cooked over a low flame, I sliced up half of an onion and threw that in there. That cooked while I sliced up the bok choy. When the chicken was mostly cooked, I poured in some mirin and soy sauce, stirred it up, then poured in about 4 cups of chicken broth. Simmered for 5 minutes, added udon noodles. Let them cook for 10 minutes, then added the white parts of the bok choy. 2 minutes later I added the green parts, put it all in bowls, and sprinkled some red pepper flakes on top.

This is truly the essence of “I made this shit up” cooking.

Every so often I think I should video myself cooking and have someone who is an actual professional reason out what the hell I did but then I would have to be on video and hear the worst dregs of any YouTube comments section so… No.

That may account for only two meals today but if I am presented with a chance to sleep in, I will do it. I don’t care if I miss a meal. One of these days, I’ll post a timeline of how a typical day of mine is like for a day so you guys can see how I would nab any sleep I can.

I am pleased with today! I haven’t knuckled down to write yet but I always write better on days I workout. I’ll get to that later.

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March 12, 2018March 12, 2018 atthequillsmercy

Start The Thing Already…

I’ve decided I’m going to be blogging about my runs more often. This is not just to pad out my blog with more posts;

But also to really hold myself accountable. I have been running for almost 2 years now and while I did lose weight, I hit a plateau that bugs the crap outta me.

Currently, I am 216 pounds at 5ft 7in. On average I run a 15-minute mile and can complete 5k in about 55 minutes. I feel dead afterward, but I can do it and in a sick way, I enjoy it.

My long-term goals are to be able to run a 10k and to lose 30 pounds so I can move faster and be stronger. I could give to shits about a dress size or looking sexy because I don’t get any complaints about such things.

At my last round of blood tests, I did get some worrying results for my cholesterol so my thing here is HEALTH overall. As a librarian and a writer, I spend a great deal of time sitting. Also, I’m not getting any younger; I’m 37.

Get ready for obnoxious posts about workouts and food. I’m sure you’re all super excited.

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November 2, 2017 atthequillsmercy

ZombiesRun! Halloween Virtual Race 2017

Not exactly my best time but hey, I still did it.

With my knee as messed up as it is, this was more of a power walk than a run. But after resing the knee for two weeks, I was beginning to feel lazy and I’ve gained some weight. I know my weight is not a reason I run BUT I recently had my yearly checkup and all my bloodwork came out PERFECT. Blood pressure, cholesterol, thyroid; all completely normal. The doctor said to me “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.” What I was doing was running. Not being active will not keep those numbers.

For now, I’m just walking fast and going for endurance. Straight up calorie burn and leg strengthening. I’m also looking into a good orthopedist to protect my knees into the foreseeable future. I would hate to have to get a knee replacement one day because I didn’t take care of them properly now.

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May 4, 2017May 4, 2017 atthequillsmercy

Running Update! May the 4th Be With You.

It’s Star Wars Day! 😀 So, to celebrate I am not only wearing my Darth Vader dress, I ran the May the 4th Be With You 5k/10k virtual race!

I ran the 5k (in a walk/run combo) on the treadmill and used my fitness tracker to submit my results. While I am getting faster, it still takes me about 54 minutes to hit the 5k mark. I’ve shaved about a minute off my time in the last month or so.

Now, my next race is the Super Mom 5k/10k on May 14 so I will be taking the next couple days off before I go back to running at least one mile a day. I don’t have any other goal in mind but to get these 5k races finished in under 45-50 minutes. Then maybe I’ll start registering for races where other people are around.

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