Month: November 2017

Skip the Gym This Season, Seriously

Let me tell you what an old broad hates about the holidays. People and their cars. Yeah mugs are generally all ’tis the season to be jolly” and such, there’s just too many of them. During this time of year I generally avoid retail establishments other than the grocery store like the plague and even that can be dicey. Now I do happen to be fortunate to a) have a gym that’s not close to popular retail establishments and b)an old broad body that wakes up early sans clock most days to get to the gym, allowing me to avoid said people and cars. However some of you may not be as fortunate. Your gym may be next to the mall or worse, Wal-Mart and you just don’t want to fool with all the hoopla. Well guess what? You can skip the gym and get those reps in…

AT HOME. Surely you didn’t think you were going to get a pass did you?

Believe it or not gym rats there are tons of fitness channels on YouTube. (Now if you already know this, this post is not for you, but feel free gift this to someone else). I’ve been working out with YouTube folks for maybe 5 years now and enjoy the convenience of rolling out of bed jumping in clothes and getting it in right at home. Any type of workout you want can be found there, strength training, cardio, HIIT, kickboxing you name, as well as the more centering practices of Yoga and Two Chi. So to help some of you nOObs along, here’s the YouTube trainers I currently workout with now as well as some of my tried and true faves.

HASFit – Coach Kozak and Claudia are the dynamic duo behind HASFit. They have over 1000 FREE videos on YouTube and a variety of them, HIIT, Cardio, Strength you name it.  Kozak usually does the high intensity moves, Claudia the lower intensity.  These two are not the “HEY C’MON LET’S GET IT” types, they are quiet assassins.  They calmly whoop your tail and you’ll love it.  I do most of my strength training with these two, most recently this.

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BodyFit by Amy – I came upon her by accident, looking for a Kettlebell workout.  I had done most of the ones that I like with my old standbys and was looking for somebody, anybody else and Amy fit the bill.  She has a wide variety of workouts by type Cardio, Strength etc, but also specialty workouts like her prenatal series. I did one of her prenatal cardio kickboxing workouts on a day when I was really sore and it was great to for getting in some light cardio. I generally do Kettlebell and strength training with her, most recently this.

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Lumowell – My standing workout schedule includes 3 days of walking per week.  Some days, due to work, fatigue and downright laziness I can’t make it out of the bed at 0 dark thirty to go to the gym.  Instead of wearing out my carpet with household laps,  I looked for walking workouts on YouTube, found a few that were good but a few years old, then Lumowell popped up. I was like whaaattt is this???? Well the trainer is an animated lady or gent (haven’t done one of his yet), with voiceover ques.  The exercises are great and include modifications. For the workouts I suggest turning the sound down and using your own music if you like exercising to music.  I most recently bumped some House doing this one.

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Now for my faves, my tried and trues, the ones I ALWAYS go back to week after week after week

Yoga – Yoga by Candace, Fightmaster Yoga, YogaTX, Yoga with Adriene – I’ve been ALL over YouTube trying various Yogis, subscribed and unsubscribed to many, but these 4 I go back to every single time.  I can’t tell you why but these are the ones that are best for me and the way I wish to practice right now.

Favorite HIITMAN – Millionaire Hoy.  This dude is non-stop work, energy and talking!  I have never seen anyone do what he does and talk like that at the same time.  What I like, is that he doesn’t hide the fact that he’s working as hard as the viewer.  Every now and again he’ll let out a little scream which is HEEEEELARIOUS to let you he’s feeling it.  I dig him so much and believe in what he’s doing that I joined the BOOM Fist Bump family on his Patreon.  MillHoy has incredible HIIT workouts, cardio, targeted body area workouts, themed workouts and as of late a lot more strength training which, if you can tell I’m starting to ALMOST enjoy.  Check him out, his energy is contagious even at 5:00 am in the morning.

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Do you have enough tools now to skip the gym but NOT skip your workout?  I hope these resources help and that you find the right trainers for you and your lifestyle.  If you have tried any of these folks or would like to make some recommendations, I would love to hear from you in the comments and in all the usual spots.

Until next time, enjoy time with your family during the holidays, but don’t forget about yourself, put in that WORK!

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Photos: YouTube screenshots of trainer pages and MsThorns

Physical, Mystical very Diabetical

2004 or thereabouts  I just wasn’t feeling well, overweight, uncomfortable, sluggish not bad, but just not well.   I had taken a fasting glucose test a couple of times where they make you drink that fake nasty wannabe Fanta drink and my doctor determined I was borderline diabetic and had “insulin resistance” or some nonsense.  Well on that last fasting test I crossed on over into Type 2 Diabetes land.  My doctor gave me a prescription for Metformin, a diet book from the American Diabetes Association and sent me on my way.

Anyone diagnosed with diabetes in the early 2000s had to have gotten the book.  It was a colorful little book with pictures of fresh veggies and such and a meal plan with suggested foods. The calories were limited (I think) to about 1200-1500 per day.  Needless to say, the way I was eating at the time, I lasted all of three days on that diet. First of all it was low-carb and no sweets which are of course my favorite things. THEN this plan recommended nasty food like cottage cheese. BLEH, who eats that?  I couldn’t do it.  I went into full scale rebellion mode, eating all the food, all the snacks and drinking all the pop.  Of course doing so for the next two years only made matters worse.

I was having WILD swings in my blood glucose.  I would spike up to 280-300 and drop down into the mid 50s.  The lows were really scary because I would start sweating and shaking and being all panicky as is wasn’t helping. My diet was trash and I knew it but was it THAT trash?  I went back to the doctor, told him about the wild swings and you know what he did? He gave me some more medicine.  This time a shot that I had to administer every day right into my fat stomach. That was 2006.  The medicine worked I was still eating whatever I wanted but I wasn’t having all the wild swings anymore.  Byetta was a life saver, a least for the moment.Byetta-2

I started a new job in 2007.  I recall going into the restroom at the job, every morning, listening to make sure no one was coming so I could expose my stomach and shoot up.  I wasn’t good enough at it where I could just look down and handle my business within the confines of a stall, I needed a mirror.  I felt better but NEEDING to do this every day sucked and I very much wanted to not need it anymore.  That same year a member of the management team at my job passed away suddenly.  He was only 3 years older than me at the time. Not only did the entire office mourn is passing, but I was scared sh***ess.  I went to my new doctor at the time, an absolutely awesome lady doc who kept it 100 at all times and told her I didn’t want to take any of those meds anymore. She said getting off the medication required getting the weight off. I complied and have been Diabetes drug free since then.

That’s the long and short of how I became Type 2.  Do I do right all the time? Nope, my struggles are well documented, but I do the best I can most of the time and when things start getting out of hand, my body and my doctor of the last 4 years, Dr Diva,  let me know and I get back on track in.   Diabetes is nothing to play with, complications can be severe, however with proper management you can still live your best life.

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#thisisdiabetes

What about you?  Are you Diabetic?  Want to tell you story?  Hit me up in the comments or in the usual spaces.  I’d love to have you do a guest post here on Powered By Soul sharing how you live your best life with Diabetes.

Until next time, see you at the grocery store, where hopefully you’ll see me reaching for broccoli, instead of Tostitos.Snacks-2

Photos: Meds, Web MD; all others, MsThorns

Big Mama, Medicine Woman

I am now my mother.

Way back during the times that dinosaurs roamed the earth I was a teen living in the home of my mother and father. In one house (my fave), was a nice sized kitchen. Open, eat-in style with plenty of cabinet space and a walk in pantry. The upper cabinet closest to the pantry housed the family pharmacy. In it were all the prescription meds, otcs and vitamins. We certainly had medicine cabinets I just don’t recall medicine being in them. The kitchen was it and looking back it makes sense because the kitchen is where the beverages were and required for taking meds, unless you’re a person with snake-like tendencies swallowing pills whole without water. None of us are snakes.

I am now my mother.

Around age 37 or so the proverbial poo hit the fan. I thought I was having a heart attack, madamoiselle drama queen called the nurse advice line who told me to call an ambulance and go the hospital. Now EMTs weren’t an unusual site in my townhouse community as there were a few neighbors who were seniors. I was NOT a senior and was getting hauled off to what later became a more frequent hangout spot, Northside Hospital.

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I was a big lady, am now too but even bigger then. I tell them I’m having chest pains and can’t breathe and these fools put my big butt on a treadmill on INCLINE. They kept speeding it up until I was running. Then they looked at me crazy because I was running. I’m like, “don’t get it twisted I’m a 200 lb cardio queen.” But I digress, they finished the stress test, told me my heart was fine and that I was having an asthma attack.

Whaaaaat??

They used to say that you “outgrow” asthma. Those famous theys lied. I’d gone 20 years without problems but the greenery of the metro and the smog had me jacked up. After painful allergy tests, allergy shots which I still get, Ct scans (just had one last week) and alllllllll the meds I’ve become my mother, the lady with the kitchen medicine cabinet except my kitchen is far less spacious and said meds are kept In a basket. Most of the basket is filled with vitamins, however meds are ever present to handle all of my various maladies. Do I like it? Nah. Are there alternatives? Yeah sure, just haven’t found anything that doesn’t cause HIVES. So for now, I do what is required in order to keep all my fluffiness upright and above ground.

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What about you? When was the moment that you became your mom/dad/grandmam? Let me know in the comments or the usual places. Until next time, see you in the vitamin aisle or the pharmacy where I’ll be trying to maintain.

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