Get Real & Heel - #2

On April 2nd I described the Get Real and Heel program, so I thought I'd take a few pictures of the facility and some of the trainers/therapists who have worked with me over the past four months.

I'll be done with the program in mid-September and although I have not had any significant weight loss, I do feel stronger from an hour of exercise 3x/week (most weeks), and I think that I've turned some fat into muscle. At the end of the program, I'll have an assessment where my previous measurements will be compared, and I'll be able to find out whether (and if so, how much) I've lost in inches and fat, and gained in strength.



I've also benefited from learning meditation and biofeedback (half-hour sessions 3x/week). I think it is a very useful tool for handling stress and being more at peace with myself and the world. The woman in green in the photo below is the Recreation Therapist who has been the main person working with me on biofeedback, and I've really enjoyed getting to know her...she's sweet and patient and kind. She works with the elderly during the day at either an assisted living facility or a nursing home. The woman on her right is a student who is learning how to be an Exercise Therapist.



The photo below shows the exercise room in the building. A long time ago, this building used to house the Chapel Hill Country Club, and is on Country Club Road (duh). I didn't even know it existed before I started the program. It is also used for the UNC Outdoor programs, and has a lot of tennis courts, a very small climbing wall, and a volleyball court and some scenic open space behind the building.



Shown above on the treadmill is one of my fellow Get Real and Heel participants. Behind her is the director of the program, who has a Ph.D in Exercise Physiology and is on the faculty at UNC. He is from Brazil and went to college in Colorado. I haven't met anyone as bubbly and enthusiastic and positive as this guy in a long time! He'll be going to Australia at the end of September to help set up a Get Real program there (poor thing!...I think I missed my calling!) Just kidding - apparently he works like a dog, teaching and writing grants during the day and working with the Get Real program in the evenings. The guy in the forefront in the red shirt is one of the trainers, and is a (?doctoral) student in the Exercise Science program at UNC. I've also had several female trainers, and there are two other female Rec therapists who have filled in on a few occasions.

I'll really miss this program and the wonderful people when it's over - I feel so lucky and I'm so grateful to have found it! By then, I hope to be running around the soccer field again : )

Long Beach, NC, weekend of the dancing queens

I had ANOTHER "girls" trip to the beach, but this was only for a weekend, and with a LOT more "girls". We relaxed on the beach, ate great food, partied at the beach house, and some of us went to see Mamma Mia (2nd time for me). The theater was completely empty except for us, and we talked and laughed before the movie and we stood up and sang (LOUDLY)and danced during the movie - it was a HOOT! Here are just a few pics of us being silly on the beach.





We may be older, but we're still limber!

meme

My daughter tagged me for this game where you answer the questions below with only one word, and then you tag other people, but since I don't know too many people who have a blog, I can't do that until I get home and find my brother's blog to tag him. Right now I at another girls beach weekend using someone else's laptop to post this.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your significant other? home
3. Your hair? short
4. Your mother? heaven
5. Your father? gone
6. Your favorite thing? music
7. Your dream last night? vivid
8. Your favorite drink? tea
9. Your dream/goal? achieved
10. The room you’re in? kitchen
11. Your hobby? soccer
12. Your fear? roaches
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? retired
14. What you’re not? warm
15. Muffins? yes
16. One of your wish list items? health
17. Where you grew up? Jamaica
18. The last thing you did? talk
19. What are you wearing? mumu
20. Favorite gadget? none
21. Your pets? lovable
22. Your computer? works
23. Your mood? relaxed
24. Missing someone? hubby
25. Your car? cluttered
26. Something you’re not wearing? bra
27. Favorite store? Walmart
28. Like someone? friends
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? move

zzzZZZZ Crown me (twice) the Queen of La-La Land

Yesterday I had dental work with sedation (placement of two crowns on lower back molars on either side of my mouth, and a re-filling of another lower molar that had an old mercury filling). Man, oh man, did those tiny, little (was that redundant?)pills knock me for a LOOOOOP!!!

My instructions were to take 10mg of Valium the night before the procedure. In the morning I took 2 capsules of hydroxyzine (Tradename, Vistaril, class: antihistamine) and 2 sublingual tabs of triazolam (a.k.a. Halcion, a sleeping pill)an hour before my appt. The Valium didn't seem to affect me much, and as a matter of fact, I did not sleep as well as I usually do and woke up quite a few times the night before the procedure. I don't think I was particularly anxious, and I didn't seem to benefit from any "good" feeling from the stuff (DARN!- when I had intravenous Valium once in the past, it was a wonderful happy, peaceful, "I feel so calm and carefree" feeling.

The only reason I was having sedation is that the last couple of times I've had dental work, the Novocain has been totally ineffective. I asked the dentist how these sedatives work, since none of them are actually pain relievers. She said that somehow they affect the pain threshold, and in treating over 300 patients, no-one has ever reported feeling pain. I guess I was secretly wondering if I would be the first! I could just picture myself being totally "out of it", but in excruciating pain, but unable to communicate my agony (My imagination is way too vivid...)

Apparently, this type of sedation allows you to be awake enough to follow commands and communcate, and the Halcion also has an amnesic effect. The only things I vaguely remember are going out to the car from home, seeing two faces above me while hearing the dentist say "Open" several times, and the dental hygienist poking and jabbing(and HURTING) my gums with her sharp pointy instrument (I had a dental cleaning at the end). I was so sedated that I slept all day Friday and all night too, except for a few trips to the bathroom, my dear hubby waking me at about 4pm to take tylenol and ibuprofen, and (according to him) around midnight to make sure I was still breathing (i.e., NOT DEAD).

I woke up around 5 am this morning and still feel groggy after a short walk and several cups of tea and a couple of hours of watching Ellen and Oprah (which my hubby very thoughtfully taped for me). My jaw is very slightly sore when I open my mouth, but otherwise I have no pain. I have beautiful eye-dazzling WHITE temporary crowns, but I can't chew hard stuff yet, so maybe I'll eat less and lose some weight while waiting for the permanent crowns to arrive in about 3 weeks. These fake teeth are so white in comparison to the yellowish real teeth beside them, it really makes me want to have my teeth whitened. Of course, after paying through the teeth (OH NO - BAD PUN) for this work, it will be a zillion years before I can afford that; meanwhile, I'll ask my dentist if she will take me for a ride in her new yacht, or whatever she buys with what I paid her for just a couple of hours of work!

Seriously, though, I'm thankful to have a very pleasant, competent dentist whom I trust, and I'm very happy that everything went so well. I'd recommend her to anyone who needs sedation dentistry. (But I'd fire her hygienist in a heartbeat, or give her a remedial session where I poke and jab HER painfully in the gums many, many, times till she understands what the word, "gentle" means). Hopefully, I won't have to go back to the dentist for this kind of work for a very long time. I'm also extremely grateful to my dear hubby who chaffeured me, kept me from falling, and checked me on and off just to make sure I wasn't dead : ) Life is good, and so is being able to chew, i.e. EAT. Speaking of which, I think it's way past time for lunch!

Brown as a berry

Oh, how long it's been since I wrote in this blog!!! I am BAAADDD to the bone. Ha ha. I've still been writing in my journal occasionally, but have not been motivated to keep up with writing on the computer, probably because I am so saturated with computers at work, that I don't even want to see one, much less USE one at home.

There's no way to make up for the long absence or to share everything that's happened in the past ?5 weeks?, but I just came back from the beach and thought I'd try to post a few pictures; that way, I don't have to write as much : ) I had a great time relaxing with a couple of friends on Holden beach last week, reading, (I finished an excellent book/memoir called "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert), eating seafood, watching silly videos, taking walks and swimming and paddling in the sea!



We had really good weather for the most part, especially on Thursday, when it wasn't as hot as earlier in the week, and there was a nice breeze. We saw people parasailing along the beach almost every day -- maybe sometime I'll get up the nerve to try it!



Here's the view from the deck of our beach house on the Intercoastal waterway one foggy morning. It was so relaxing to get up and have our morning tea or coffee while rocking on the porch.



Here I am posing for a pic - Is it sandy on the beach, or is it Sandy on the beach?



I LOOOOVVVEE beach vacations!

Walked for the cure but got sick instead

Well, I had a pretty good time "Walking for the Cure" this past weekend, but now I've got a head cold and it sucks. Not that the two are necessarily related. Someone at work had a cold and then had to take antibiotics for a sinus infection, so maybe I picked up a virus then. I feel yucky.

That is all.

Cruisin'

Just got back yesterday from a cruise to the Bahamas - I'm feeling lazy so this post will be hightlights I copied from an email I just sent:

It was great to get away and not have any responsibilities or concerns for a week. My review on the cruise is mixed - some things were great, others disappointing compared to the wedding cruise we took in 2000 to Cozumel. We had a view of the ocean this time so that was nicer. Our friend’s group booked very early and got outdoor balconies for about the same price we paid - we chatted with them briefly on their balcony after dinner one evening.

The first shore excursion to Freeport was relaxing - we went to an all-inclusive hotel called the Viva Wyndham and hung out on the beautiful beach under a wooden umbrella. We had both sunny and partly cloudy weather that day. We had trouble booking a shore excursion in Nassau - the one we were going to do with our friends got cancelled due to too few participants, and our second choice was sold out. We ended up having a pretty good day anyway - we went to the Crafts Market right next to the pier in the morning, and I got a straw hat and very pretty straw handbag and shopped for souvenirs. We went on a Taxi Van tour of the island in the afternoon. This worked out pretty well in that it rained buckets a good part of the afternoon when we were inside the van, and cleared up just in time for us to get out at the next stop at a fort. The van itself was small and I was a bit cramped, but we heard some of the history of the islands. They appear even poorer and more run-down in the inner city than Jamaica, but I suspect that's partly because of their smaller size. No surprise that their number one industry is tourism, followed by banking.

We enjoyed some fabulous broadway type on-board evening shows with a singing and dancing group, and one show with a magician/comedian that had me bent over laughing and crying. He did some awesome magic and ended with a beautiful story and an amazing "illusion". However, my biggest criticism of the cruise was that the music and sound systems on the sundeck and in the shows was WAY too loud. We decided to leave one show a little early because our ears hurt even though we had earplugs. The food and dining facilities were good, but not as good as 8 years ago, although the service was incredible. We were seated with a wonderful Hungarian waiter named Sandor. In general, the staff on the cruise were genuinely cheerful, pleasant and helpful.

We both managed to get some sun, although for the most part, we tried to stay in the shade as much as possible so as not to get burned. I've been instructed to be more careful in the sun for about a year after radiation treatment, and of course my hubby did not want to get burned and be miserable afterwards. However, we are both more tanned than before we left. We purchased some professional photos that were taken on board, and I got a lot of photos with the instant cameras I took.

All in all, I enjoyed my vacation and feel very blessed to have been able to go.