Carers Active April
This month is about helping to get carers more active. There's very little time in our day for exercise which in turn impacts our health, the obvious being weight gain but also injury and poor muscle tone. Exercise is also reportedly good for mental health, although there are swings and round abouts with that as it can also make it worse.
I have yet to try any of the classes from carers Uk as I've realised that by the time I've read the subtitles and attempted it they've moved on to something else. There is one class I really want to participate in although it straddles med times here so again it will be a catch up but more about that later.
My kit arrived yesterday, I'd actually forgotten about it as they were being sent out weeks ago. Although I did wonder what that DPD parcel was as I couldn't remember ordering anything but I didn't recognise the parcel name either.
What was in the kit?
A bag, love the bag it's lightweight and I can fit my clothes in it with ease.
A drinks bottle, as someone whose constantly drinking water it would need many refils but I love the quality.
A wellness journal: I'm not sure what I think of this as yet, part of me fears it could make me more obessive with improving and doing more regardless of the consequences and part of me thinks but some days I need the encouragement to keep the exercise going.
Relaxing and sleeping aids: The principle is great and if you are someone who finds smells relaxing whether that's candles or oils you will love this. Personally I am currrently still experience a preaurricular sinus flare up and the combined smells of discharge and anything else makes me queasy so I'm going to hold off trying them until after the infection settles down. I've finished the antibiotics, discovered the trigger and will now remove that from my diet and sit it out until it fully calms down.
A snack: I cannot comment on this one, it's a great idea and in theory looks like a great idea. It's nut free but I'm not 100% convinced it's dairy, potato and rice {my latest reactor} free so I've given it to my caree.
The big question is am I exercising?
Well no I started the month with a serious infection that led me to take medication we knew would cause problems with asthma which led to increased medication there...the options were only that sadly so for the last 2.5 weeks ish I was just muddling through. This week however that changed.
I've done two 75 minute sessions. They are both at home and using the wii fit. There are benefits to this:
- It can be done whilst my caree sleeps
- It's done in privacy {yes I'm fat and unfit}
- I can track my progress and even become obsessed with improving it
- I can do it at a time that suits
- I won't embarrass anyone in the gym or pool
- I can learn the routine so I don't have to hear/see it
- I can mix things up from yoga to "cardio"
- I can do as long or as little as I like
- It's fun, rather than just doing squats your entertaining yourself with a game
- It's a lot cheaper than a gym/pool membership as I've had console and games for decades.
There are negatives too:
- I'm not 100% convinced of it's accuracy but telling me I've lost any amount of weight even if it's not obvious is an encouragment to make me keep going
- If you don't already have the machine it's an expensive outlay
- You need the motivation to do it
- Your unsupervised so there's a chance of injury
- It's at home so it won't improve isolation
- You need the space and time to do it
For me personally the positives outweigh the negatives particularly the fact that it's in my home. It's my home and I'm allowed to be embarrassing at home as there's only me to see it. I would feel awkward and uncomfortable at a gym, I would fear embarrassing someone just because I'm there. There's also the fact I've always been and always will be fat and unfit, I feel as though I shouldn't be entitled to be fit or slim, that I shouldn't look after myself because in a way I don't deserve that. That's something everyone else is entitled to but not me.
Why do I feel like it, I suppose I was told it often enough as a child and teen and even as an adult. It didn't matter if I was walking, cycling, participating in sport at school, it wasn't something I was supposed to do. It's been ingrained in me from about four years old, it's not going to leave any time soon.
Which also brings me neatly to the one class I want to catch up...healthy eating.
Again something I don't feel entitled to do, I've always had comments made about eating and what I eat from a child eating salad in my lunch box at primary school, to not eating chips at secondary school through to comments about not eating ready meals or take aways and crisps as an adult. It doesn't matter what I've eaten I've been told and now feel bad about it. Even today I'm told how weird I am, how strange it is that I love Salad and fruit or veg.
I genuinely love those foods and have all my life, the difference is unless your doing something like slimming world everyone thinks it's odd, weird and tells you so. It's caused enormous problems with eating for me, I can go days to a week skipping meals and not even noticing as long as I have water {plain water, not squash, not tea, not coffee, not fizzy drinks or any of the normal stuff} then I'm happy. Bad days I may even control water intake but for the most part I'm okay with water.
It's because I struggle so much with eating that I'm intrigued about the healthy eating topic. Healthy eating appears to have a different meaning for different people. There's also the guidelines about how much veg/fruit etc you should be eating. It doesn't take long to get confused and bogged down by what you should and shouldn't be eating.
I'm also curious because I have allergies, cows dairy, pistachios, potato and rice products. How easy is it eat healthy and maintain allergies along with soft palates and low sodium diets. As soon as I get the chance I will do a review of the session if I can access it afterwards. I'm a tad disappointed that it's a time when I am busy with medication etc but these sessions will never suit everyone.
Just before I go, it's difficult as a carer to find time for looking after your own diet, your own health, your own fitness and sometimes even the most offhand, sarcastic and unintentional comment can destroy your confidence and willingness to try. Be kind and be nice is something that's become popular recently but rather than thinking about am I being kind/nice saying this I would ask just don't say anything, if a carer is talking to you about exercise and lack of healthy diet, don't ever add an opinion on if you did this or don't do that or make time just use encouragement, it's okay to fall but your getting back up so don't worry about it. Or hey no one is perfect we all slip, it's recognising that and moving forward what counts.
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