Archive for the ‘Health & Wellbeing’ Category

Last weekend I reached the anniversary of my movement streak. It’s like a run streak but a bit easier. Walking definitely counts and it is only a kilometre, as long as it is done intentionally.

Now that I have reached a year, I am going to stop.

I’m glad I tried it but I don’t want to keep it going. It became very monotonous. I would work out where I could crowbar it into my day and it wasn’t necessarily quality time. What has helped me get out more is counting my calories, and more recently, a step challenge. Both of these things have encouraged me to get out of the door for longer periods. Whereas with this, I would often just do the minimum. And in heavy rain, it was just unpleasant. So it’s time to move onto the next challenge.

We recently went for an allergy test and to get it done quicker we paid to get it done in one of the private hospitals. I don’t think I’ve been in one before and it is so fancy. There are fountains and artwork everywhere.

And there is a food court with multiple options that all looked attractive.

Of course, the main thing is the healthcare and that was a mixed bag. We were seen on time and staff were friendly. But they didn’t tell us that we were supposed to bring our own avocado if we wanted testing for that, so they couldn’t run all of the tests.

For the past 100 days, I’ve been on a movement streak.

A lot of runners run every day inspired by Ron Hill running every day for 52 years. Mine is a little different: I wanted to ensure I intentionally got outside every day but I’m happy to include walking and I wanted it to be metric so I’ve been running or walking at least a kilometre each day.

It’s not been much of a hardship as I train most days anyway. And it was a good reminder to get out of the office on days when I was dealing with some ehavy stuff.

On the downside, it hasn’t revolutionised by physical or mental health. Why can’t there just be one simple thing we can do that would achieve this?

When I was young, printing was high quality. Printers used sharp fonts and everything was easy to read.

Now, for no reason, the entire industry has started using low quality blurry fonts that are hard to read.

For the past month, I’ve been having a hard time with my physical and mental health. it has been a tough gig because I have been doing client work throughout, so helping others manage their mental health while managing my own has been quite a challenge. Not made any easier due to medication limiting my ability to exercise.

Luckily, I have a very supportive family to draw upon. One of the downsides of greater mobility is that we can often find ourselves in a new cities, or even new countries, that take us away from our support networks and it can be difficult to rebuild those locally, especially when working multiple jobs, and studying, and doing whatever else we may have going on in our personal lives.

I’ve also gone as far as to do nothing. Or at least nothing “productive”. I’ve read a lot of books, destroyed a lot of civilizations on Age of Empires II, and finished off the whole of Downton Abbey. Not forgetting some time at the beach, as well.

After spending the first quarter of last year rehabbing my broken ankle, this January has been déjà vu. There isn’t even a cool story behind it: I fell over at a soft play. This year it was the opposite ankle and only a sprain. Thankfully, after four weeks of rehab, I’m now back up to running long distances.

Last week I was leading a club run when due to some combination of poor foot placement, a bit of gravel coming down from a curb and maybe just some plain old bad luck, I decked it. I went over on the ankle and it hurt a lot. Thankfully, Lucy was running in my group and was able to lead everyone back to The Edge.

I booked an appointment with my GP to get it checked out but when I asked for a telephone appointment, explaining I couldn’t walk, they said they were only doing face-to-face appointments (they’re going to freak out when they hear about COVID) and so I had to go to the walk-in. The irony was lost on them.

Next, I tried the minor injury unit at Middleton. However, they don’t allow you to drop in, you have to phone 111. Which I did. 111 booked me an appointment at the LGI A&E. I found this hilarious as pre-bookable emergencies was a Monster Raving Loony Party policy proposed in 2015. Although the LGI had some trouble finding the referral details, everything here was really good: almost no wait going through assessment, x-ray and minor injuries. They checked it out and referred me to the fracture clinic who phoned back the next day.

End result: it is fractured. It’s called an avulsion fracture which is where the ligament rips off a tiny piece of bone. I have to wear a walker boot for 4 weeks, and no running until 8 weeks post-injury at least. Not what I wanted given I had just start my training for Race to the Castle. But it’s happened so I just have to get on with life.

You msy think that Ironman training is great for weight loss. But training so heavily makes you ravenous, and I like to eat plenty in the first six months as I am attempt to build muscle and get stronger. Then the next three months is race season and I am busy having fun. That leaves the final few months of the year for weight loss.

This means dieting through Christmas which is always a pain. But this year has gone extra well and I made it through the festive period without any cheat days. This wasn’t easy, for me or Venla. I started Christmas Day with a two-hour run to pre-burn all of the calories and El Junior was not impressed at having to wait to open her presents.

But, earlier this month I hit my weight goal and it proves promising for going up hills faster. An FTP test suggests I am still the cyclist I was last year (4 watts down, so negligable) but seven kilos down from October. My time up the climb in Innsbrook (29:37) beat my previous time by three minutes. Although it should be noted that I am now riding a Specialized Shiv Disc with DT Swiss wheels, rather than stock Zwift frame and wheels.

Typically, we only want to supplement when we cannot build a diet that provides enough nutrients. But, in the case of vitamin D, we get it mostly from exposing our skin to the sun, rather than from food, so it is difficult to get additional vitamin D from your diet.

Given that many of us do not get outside enough in normal times and that we’re all inside because of the pandemic and lockdowns, vitamin D deficiency is probably pretty common right now, And there is some evidence that it is a good idea to supplement. So, I thought I would give it a go.

Labelling can often be a little confusing, but a typical adult intake should be around 600 IU (international units) which is 15 µg (micrograms). However, we can safely tolerate up to 4,000 UI (100 µg).

I picked up some vitamin D gummies from Boots. These contain 25 µg per gummy so one per day should provide plenty of vitamin D (and I will still get some from going outside, and a little through diet) and yet be safely within the tolerable limit.

I probably won’t let you know how I get one because I’m not expecting a vitamin D gummy per day to make any noticeable changes. If I don’t report back, assume it went fine (or I’ve exploded).

The Mindfulness for Anxiety app is now available for both iOS and Android on the Apple App Store and Good Play Store respectively. The app is completely free to use and comes with five guided audio practices, a self-timer mode that allows you to set any time length and a learning section where you can find out more about mindfulness.