trail – Fantastically 40-ish

Exercise – Wellness Wednesdays

Posted on May 12, 2021February 15, 2023 by nlchronicles

Welcome to Wellness Wednesdays! Today’s focus is exercise. Allow me to remind everyone that I am not giving medical advice, but just sharing my journey that has allowed me to move toward better health.

For most of my life, I’ve tried to incorporate some type of exercise. As a teenager, I ran track for a couple of years. I tried out for field hockey and made the initial cut to do conditioning but that level of running left me exhausted. Looking back, this should have been a stop sign to find out why I was so exhausted. In college, I worked out fairly consistently my freshman year and lost about 25 pounds. But when my course load increased sophomore year, physical activity decreased. After graduating, I worked at an hmo and went to the gym there several times a week but it seemed that I toned more than lost weight. And the saga goes on and on. Frustrating, yes?

Around 2011, I started having issues with my hip and so I chose yoga and stretching to help ease the concerns. And it worked! Another clue but I still hadn’t taken the time to put all of it together. I walked a good deal and did other higher impact aerobics but was just maintaining weight. Then I started following doctors and nutritionists who focused on PCOS. That was a game changer.

Basically, I had been doing a lot of the wrong type of exercises for me. While exercise is wonderful, the body believes there is stress and increases cortisol- your fight or flight hormone. Well with pcos, that hormone is hard to get back down and that increases the storage of fat and inflammation, especially in the gut. So I’ve changed to longer, slower walks and always stretch at the end. I try to do a yoga or Pilates based workout twice a week. Weight training probably once per week. I limit hiit workouts to maybe twice per month. Sometimes I cycle or do the elliptical at the gym, when available. And that’s it! After years and years and years of thinking that the harder I went, the more I would lose 🤯 I don’t have to do that. How amazing to have that revelation! And I have still lost 97 pounds in the process! 🤩

So I encourage you to find the workout that is best for you. Comments, questions? Drop them below and share what works for you. See you next week!

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Grass, trees and trails – oh my!

Posted on May 19, 2020July 28, 2020 by nlchronicles

Allergic to alll greenery outdoors but I love walking and exploring so do it anyway 😂😂

I’m always looking for good walking areas and I found a couple of locations to go to: flatter trail closest to home and a split trail that goes to two parks about 10 minutes away. With the advent of the coronavirus, the walkways been more congested than usual so I try to go at odd times and hotter parts of the day. My joints LOVE heat so this is a win-win.

Community trail that is closest to home. One day I will conquer the entire trail!

Getting outdoors allows for a change of scenery and can produce endorphins to make you feel better. And I love warmer weather so getting in a sweat is a plus! My acupuncturist is all about walking outdoors as nature, especially green and trees, relaxes the body. And with stress levels through the roof, who doesn’t need a way to relax?!

I truly hope this finds you well, safe and healthy. Have you found a place to get away? If so, drop a line below; I’d love to hear from you! 🥂 to your good health.

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April Explorations

Posted on April 28, 2020May 19, 2020 by nlchronicles

So I’ve been in social/physical distancing for 7 weeks now…. and when the weather is great, I go out for a walk since our gym is closed. Thankfully, my apartment complex has been posting suggestions of walking trails that are still open during this time. Today, I decided to check out the Riverwalk in a neighboring town.

Riverwalk is actually part of a walking trail between two parks and can extend to a local mountain area. Now, I didn’t walk that far! (I wasn’t thinking recently, ate food with paprika which is a nightshade and aggravated joint pain.) It’s a really pretty area, a bit hillier than what I am accustomed to. While I wore a face covering, I only saw one other couple that had on masks so the next time I go, it will definitely be earlier in the day for fewer people.

I truly believe walking and just being in a nature is therapy. Well, it is for me. And it’s great exercise…and with heavy pollen winding down, it’s a great opportunity to get outside of my four walls and get a change of scenery.

This was actually written in chalk at several locations on the trail LOL

Below are more pictures from exploring today.

How has your physical distancing been? What have you learned from it? I am doing a series of chats with friends of activities or ideas that they have been involved in during this time; we will be on Instagram. I chose that platform so that I can have another person on with me. If you are interested in checking it out, my IG is msinternationalsuperstar. This time may be difficult for some and let’s all be a help to one another by connecting. As always, until next time….