Fit Mommy Crashes

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Two weeks ago I was very busy harvesting, and also very active, although I did not meet my Fit Mommy goals last week.  I felt great! 

So great, in fact, that seven days ago I helped rake the lawn.  Not much, only a few piles, and not all at once.  After that, I worked on figuring out how to harvest our amaranth.  After all sorts of experiments with dehydrators and fans, I finally discovered that if I rub the amaranth plumes back and forth between my hands, the tiny seeds will fall out.  So Miss 8 and I rubbed amaranth plumes between our palms.  For a long time.  And the next day, I carried a cuddly baby.  Put that all together, and you’ll notice an excess of unusual (for me) upper-body and arm activity. 

After months of doing well, I had forgotten my doctor’s strict orders to never, ever push myself.  In fact, I didn’t even realize that I was pushing myself, but a friend did and relieved me of the baby.  By then it was too late.  I spent the rest of that day on the couch, aching, and was too weak to fold laundry until today.  Obviously I did no exercise this week. 

Finally, today, we did go for a walk with a friend, and it was good to get outside into the crisp air.

On the positive side, we’ve been eating lots of vegetables.  In fact, my veggie-loving husband looked sadly at his colorful plate and said, “This is going overboard!”

And I did make some lovely, thick yoghurt.  And I avoided all sugar.  Feeling sore and weak is good motivation to avoid anything that could cause trouble.

And, yes, I rested everyday, although never quite all day.

So, what did I learn?  Never overdo it.  Never push myself.  Build up strength slowly.  After an unusual activity, give those muscles a break for a day.

Here are my goals for next week:

• Walk 6000 steps a day, even if it means going out for a walk in the rain.
• Do the physiotherapist’s stretching exercises every second day, and one quality repetition of the core strengthening exercises every day.  Determine a time of day that will work for me.  I must do this, to build up my strength slowly.  After all, years down the road I’ll want to carry my grandchildren around without crashing afterwards!
• Make more yoghurt.  Eat lots of veggies. 
• Rest every afternoon, spend some evenings reading, and enjoy sit-down activities like blogging when I’m tired.

Later addition: Fit Mommy Host Denise is hosting a Ten-Week Fitness Challenge.  Here are my challenge goals for the next ten weeks, over and above my normal goals:  

• walk at least 6000 steps five days a week.
• do my physio exercises regularly and build up to the full reps by the end of the year.
• avoid sugar except on Sundays, Christmas, SinterKlaas, and New Year’s Eve (or when my kids cook it into meals; I will eat what my children cook, although not what they bake).

 If you want some fitness accountability, join Fit Mommy Friday at Got Chai?  As you can tell from my posts, you don’t need to be very active or healthy to participate, although some of the Fit Mommies are.