Old Lydy is Old

[lydy]

So, I'm in my fucking fifties. Hard to believe, but there you go. And I'm fat. I don't have a lot of emotional baggage around that, actually. It's true, but I am not having trouble getting laid. While the current psychotic medical establishment has bizarrely negative opinions on my weight, I'm quite certain they're full of shit. On the other hand, the combination of the weight and the age mean that I hurt. I'm stiff. When I stand up from a chair or get out of bed, I limp for a while. It's not fun.

I'm basically a sessile creature with legs. If I had my druthers, I'd sit all day and vary that with lying down, some. I don't like movement for the sake of movement. And I have a remarkably sedentary job. I basically sit and stare at a computer screen from eleven at night until seven in the morning, three nights a week, with additional sitting around at various times on either end.

But, as I said, I hurt. Not lots, not extreme. However, this is getting less and less fun, and it wasn't fun to begin with.

I've decided to try to move a little. Not a lot. But, get up from my chair every half hour, or at least every hour. And I'm trying to do brief stretches several times a day. I'd really like to be able to do the Sun Salutation, and I've tried, but man am I stiff and out of practice and my balance is not so good as it once was. Also, my breathing is crap. I can't remember where to breathe.

So the goal is to move at least once an hour, try to do one or two Sun Salutations per work day, and one or two triangle stretches per day. The hope is that this little bit of additional movement will help with the stiffness. I haven't decided what I'm going to do for my off days. Maybe nothing. Maybe I'll try at least the triangle stretches a couple times. We'll see.

I've been on this, um -- program is an awfully aspirational term but let's go with it -- program for two whole days, now. Not long enough to have any results, and not long enough to know whether or not I'll be able to stick to it. I'm terrible at doing things on a schedule. Terrible with procrastination sauce. So far, the stretches hurt, and the the Sun Salutation feels awkward and unpleasant. I'm hoping that with a little practice, these things will start to feel, if not good, at least not actually unpleasant. Twenty-five years ago, I remember really enjoying yoga practice on a daily basis. I wish I hadn't gotten out of the habit, but there you go.

My secret goal? Get comfortable enough with all this that I can attempt the Tree pose. I always love the Tree pose, even though I was crap at it. It had this wonderful feel to it, a completeness and an groundedness, even as I was losing my balance and falling over. Go figure. Yoga. Very weird.

So, I'm telling you all about this in hopes that it provides a little more incentive to actually, you know, do it. Who knows. Might help.

Comments

You could

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Set an alarm on your phone...

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I have a similar exercise program, consisting of "stand up every 20 minutes." 20 minutes is about how long it takes for me to start stiffening up. You're younger than me, so 30 minutes might be about right for you. Believe it or not, I DO find that if I stand up and move around even a little bit every 20 minutes it doesn't hurt to stand up. If I get involved in something and sit for an hour, standing up hurts like crazy.

Larry suggests a phone alarm. I use the timer on my iPhone (part of the Clock app, and different from both timer and reminder). I use Siri to restart the timer: "Siri, countdown 20 minutes." That's SO easy that I sometimes actually remember to do it.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I am vastly reluctant to have an alarm on my phone go off where Todd can hear, and ask me about it. While I will cheerfully talk about stuff like my sex life, because I am neither embarrassed nor insecure about my sex life, I feel very vulnerable about my weight and fitness. Todd is not someone I feel comfortable being even a little bit vulnerable around.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Oh, right. Todd. Hopefully you will be transferred soon and Todd will shortly be nothing but a faintly creepy memory. Until then, I guess you'll have to, oh, pay attention to reality and passing time the way we all used to be able to do before we outsourced all that to our phones.

I think it likely that if you remember to stand up once or twice per hour you will immediately notice that standing up is less painful than it used to be. At least that's what happens to me. Longer term results like being able to do your old yoga poses will take a little longer. But if the stiffness results directly from sitting too long, the improvement should be immediate.

[guppiecat]

I am going to guess that you don't wear your phone like I do (my approach seems to be less and less common), but if you do, you can set it to vibrate regularly and use that. If it's heard, you can just claim it's a text coming in.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I am getting stiff and creaky too! I have always been very flexible, but man.... I am surprisingly achey surprisingly often. Am not all that into these changes.

K.

[redbird]

For the "get up every hour" I have a computer program that reminds me (actually every 50 minutes, for a three-minute break). In my case it's more for my hands and eyes, and a convenient time to do my elbow- and shoulder-related stretches, but I suspect it might work in your case too.

While I am as sessile as you, I am prone to just falling into computer stuff and staying there longer at a time than is good for me.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Yep, yep, yep. Sedentary pursuits, stiffness, tree pose is fun but I tip over.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

Since it ought to feel good to get up, stretch, and walk a bit, it's easy to define "success" as getting at least six feet away from your desk. (I'm very sensitive to the New Year's Resolution problem, where you formulate a Good Intention in such a way that when you slip up once, you've ruined it.)
And there are so many alarms and timers and whatnot out there that there have to be a couple suitable. Phone vibrate? Blinking doohickey in the corner of your computer screen? whatever

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I think all these ideas about alarms are terrible, and would be infuriating, as well as noticeable by Todd and other people. (I wrote "Toad"!) What I find is that doing things when I am doing things anyway is better. So for instance, every time I turn a record over, and using records rather than CDs. Or when I go to the bathroom and that kind of thing.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Toad! So perfect.

I suspect an alarm would be annoying, as well as cause problems for me with the Toad. But I'm doing a lot of clock watching in my job, anyway, so just being aware of the time isn't too hard. And there are a number of chores that can be done throughout the night (which the Toad never does), so I could space them out rather than do them all in a lump. And it's easy to just walk away for a minute or five. It's a matter of just remembering and doing it. If it stops hurting to stand up, I'm likely going to become more willing to do it. We'll see what next week brings.

I do admire the strategy of turning over the records. We don't have a record player, so that doesn't work, but it's a nice, organic thing.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

Encouragement for any program of mild, pleasant movement!

I'm not sure of your health/history, but if even mild stretching hurts, you may need physical therapy first. Due to arthritis in my shoulder, I had unknowingly restricted my own range of movement so that normal movements could suddenly hurt. Physical therapy, for instance, always applied heat first and cold after. Then, once normal or almost-normal range of motion was restored, I continued on my own.

I'd be happy to talk yoga. I can't do the Tree, but I enjoy the same feelings from the Warrior poses. Also, my first yoga instructor introduced me to a couples pose called the Tree Hugger (too cute) in which two people do the Tree side by side, arms over each others' shoulders or behind each others' backs, which is enjoyable and much easier.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I don't really need PT. Stretching hurts, but it hurts in a stretchy sort of way. I'm stiff and in pain when I get up from the chair, but it eases up pretty quickly. I don't think I have arthritis. There is one weird thing, a very thin slice of pain from my knee up to mid-thigh, which feels like a nerve that is being stretched. I have no idea what that is, but it's not a muscle, joint, or bone thing. It will sometimes snap as I walk. No fun, but also not amenable to massage or stretching.