Random Tuesday stuff

[selenay]

- New radio alarm clock actually work me up because it was tuned to a station rather than being quietly fuzzy noise.

- It was nice to hear a weather forecast that wasn't "rain, fog, drizzle". Today is sunny, bright and gorgeous.


- It's Humira day again. That came around fast.

- It took me by surprise so there was a mad scramble over the weekend to get the Humira ordered in time. I picked it up last night so I'm all ready. I now have a reminder set up to make sure that I order it with a bit more time.

- I've promised myself an evil chocolately treat tonight afterwards, provided I don't fluff the injection and give myself another big bruise.

- While I can do the injection with no big fuss, it's nice to have a routine that involves a treat so that I can look forward to it rather than putting it off all evening.

- Right now, the routine is work-out, spot of housework, supper, Humira straight after supper and then an evening of veging plus a treat.


- This routine may change when Mum is here. We'll have to see how things work out.

- I'm feeling very proud of myself: I'm managing to only weigh myself once a week now. I'd been getting a bit obsessive so now I'm pulling back. After all, I probably only need to monitor things every day when I'm mid-flare and losing a couple of pounds a day.

- My weight seems to be stabilising at around 6 pound below what it was before I got sick in January. I'm quite OK with this, although Mum may not be happy. My BMI is still in the healthy range, I like the flatter tummy (I think that's from exercising as much as weight loss) and I really need to finish replacing my trousers with stuff that fits because it looks like I won't be fitting into the bigger sizes again.

- I think my slight relaxation around weight, work-outs (I missed yesterday's and didn't freak out) and food is because I'm off the prednisone and am no longer worried about gaining a ton from it. Phew!


- Mum arrives in less than three weeks. I may be starting to panic slightly. Is the house clean enough? Will she make me cut out a ton of stuff in my diet to be healthier? (She has a total thing about sodium and fat, of which I eat more than her but still rather less than the RDA) Will I have time to do the healthy stuff that I've been doing?

- Will Kate abandon me completely again or will she occasionally consent to a cuddle with me??

- Last year, my daily routine was turned upside down in part my the renovations and in part by Mum being there and wanting to do things like sit and drink tea when I got home from work. I'm too polite to say no, so I managed maybe four work-outs in the entire six months plus some of my weekly yoga classes. It wasn't enough.

- This year, it's going to be different. I love Mum, but I need to exercise regularly and have time to relax at the weekends rather than running around like a headless chicken and my sleep levels are important.


- Oh god, she's not even here yet and I'm whining about my mother. Someone distract me with something shiny, OK?

Comments

[fyrdrakken]

Is the workout something you do at a gym (so you could make a point of going to the gym without stopping off at home first while your mother's here) or something you do at home (so you could maybe be on your machines or whatever while your mother is in the room, drinking her tea and chatting while you're doing your workout)? I suppose you could argue with her that it's fine that you're eating red meat and whatnot because of all the exercise you're getting, but I fear that would leave her with the opening to suggest that if you cut out the red meat and sodium and whatever else she hates, then you could also cut out the exercise and sit with her instead. So, hmm. Is the yoga class something you could invite her along to?

I live with my mother and we've gotten a very comfortable situation with regards to letting each other live our own lives. (The main issue being when she wants me to hang out watching TV with her when I've got other plans for the evening, or wants me to stay up later than I'd like because she's not ready for bed yet.) But I was living with my grandmother my senior year of college, so I've definitely been there with regards to sharing the house with someone whose opinions on what I should be eating, how much I should be bothering to exercise, what hours I should be keeping, and what I should be doing with my free time didn't at all match up with my own. Endless aggravation and constant fighting -- most notably over the topics of whether I should put away my books and go to bed at an hour my grandmother deemed suitable (and never mind whether I was finished with the reading I needed to have done that night), and whether I should be permitted to sleep until 3pm on a Sunday afternoon when that was the only day in the entire week I had available to catch up on that lost sleep (since I was stuck working part-time for my father and had to get up Saturday mornings to go work).

[selenay]

The work out is something that I do at home: a mixture of yoga, Wii Fit, a Zumba work out thingy and sometimes a spot of running. Not all of them every day, but I try to do a reasonable amount four or five times a week and the yoga is a must for my back.

It's not really something that works well with Mum keeping my company! We'll have to work it out. My yoga class wouldn't suit her due to the nature and location of her arthritis, but I am planning to encourage her to go to a senior's class my studio runs during the day that I think she'd enjoy.

I lived with my parents back in England and I suspect part of our problem is that it's easy to fall back into old habits that always frustrated me. She did most of the cooking because I had an insane commute and a bad back, so I'd probably have ended up living on toast and cereal if she hadn't. However, her preference is for bland food with minimal fat, salt and taste. Whenever she was away, I tended to eat all the (not terribly healthy) things that I loved and couldn't eat while she was there.

I acquired a bit of a reputation for only knowing how to cook food from boxes or cook really unhealthy stuff.

My food choices now are as healthy as I can make them, minimal fat and sodium, but I don't do bland and tasteless so there is a touch more fat, salt and flavour than Mum would use. It's our only real battle ground and, as neither of us are fond of entirely separate cooking, I can see that we're going to need to find some kind of middle-ground or at least a way to co-ordinate this.

wants me to stay up later than I'd like because she's not ready for bed yet.)

The first time Mum visited I was exhausted because I felt obliged to stay up until her bedtime. As she only needs around five hours of sleep and I need closer to eight, this did not work at all. Last time, I felt much more comfortable just wandering off to bed and letting her do whatever until her bedtime. Love her dearly, but six months on short sleep would kill me.

[fyrdrakken]

Is the running at least out and about the neighborhood, rather than on a treadmill or some such?

Yeah, if she was doing all the cooking anyway last time and thinks you can't be trusted to manage your own diet, I can see where the problems arise. How much might you be able to use your lunches to compensate for the dinners she'd be trying to feed you? Or I suppose joint menus, with some dishes of your choosing and some of your mother's -- though I can see how hard it could be to get her to along with this if she's used to having both the parent-to-child "moral authority" and the power of actually doing the cooking to set the entire menu herself. You both hate separate cooking, but it could be useful as a tactic if she refuses to negotiate -- find yourself confronted with a totally unsuitable meal and simply head into the kitchen to prepare your own. (An inevitable scene ensues -- but if you're more stubborn than she is, and if she sees her meals for you going untouched, while your meals for yourself are much less unhealthy than she'd been in the habit of thinking your own cooking for yourself would be, she might capitulate and start compromising on joint menus.)

[nic]

wanting to do things like sit and drink tea when I got home from work. I'm too polite to say no

I COMPLETELY understand this. In the last couple of months I have finally been closing my door on my roommate (she's very chatty when I get home) and it's been tough to take this stand but I had to.

Good luck with your Mum!