Welcome back, Catherine! A good vacation, with no illness or injuries or problems, always goes too fast. Glad you count count your blessings on that one.

Sounds like a great trip Catherine,looking forward to the pics!

Hay all. I just edited the post from my camping trip and added some pictures. I didn’t get many good shots on this trip. On past trips I have gotten some great nature scenes, sunsets, dragon flies, loons, more flowers, a few moose, and even a snake sunning it self on a lily pad. Maybe I’ll go through and post some of my favourite pictures from past trips.

Sunday’s workout - Back & Hams at the gym.
Didn’t get any extra cardio again - keep leaving it too late in the afternoon and only getting time for my weights.
I’ve had a headache since Friday that keeps coming back. I didn’t take my migraine med on the trip with me and it is too late to take it if you don’t catch it at the beginning. So this afternoon I had a nap with an ice pack to try to get rid of it - it didn’t work so I took more advil and went to swim practice tonight. 2.6 km total (still trying to break 3 k in one practice). Right now the head feels ok, but we’ll see in the morning.

Your trip sounds like it was fun!  I miss camping, haven’t been in a few years.  Maybe next summer....

Sounds like a blast! I love how much moving you got in, that’s the best vacations to have!

Hope your head stays feeling good.

Bree

Yep - the headache seems to be gone.  Thanks Bree I had a chiro treatment today and he did my neck so it should stay gone now.  But my back was quite stiff today - from all the stuff I’ve done recently (canoeing/swimming) and I had just finished my workout at the gym before my appointment.  He did a different stretch that he doesn’t usually do.  It felt good.  I wish I could replicate the stretch myself but I can’t hold myself down nor do I have that table and I can’t send my foot through the floor.

Today’s session at the gym was Shoulders, Arms & Legs.  Good workout followed by 20 min on the crossramp with the resistance cranked up!! HR ave 155.  Discovered that I can now do a bridge (from my shoulders - not hands) and extend one leg at a time.  I couldn’t do that a few months ago!!  Yeh for stronger glutes!  I did 3 sets of 10 sec each.  It’s not in my program, but I may add it every once in a while and see if I can go for longer.  It is an exercise my chiro recommended to help my lower back.

Good stuff Cathrine, way to push it, great pics!

Ok - I’m stressed and upset this morning.  I just had to take all 3 cats to the vet for an emergency.  Short version of the story - paint, varsol used to attempt to clean them up.  I got woken up to help.  She (I won’t name her but it wasn’t me!) decided to use sissors to try to cut some of the paint out and cut the paw on Misha (cat on the left in my avatar and my absolute favourite) - possibly damaging the joint capusle - will need surgery (likely under general anastetic).  3 cats currently sedated, given activated carcoal (to absorbe the varsol), and IV fluids. All three have already had baths by the groomer and will get a second one once they have calmed down a bit.  Sam (big black cat - not mine) may have to be shaved because he got varsol all over!!  Big vet bill to come - but it’s not coming out of my pocket!!

Sam also bit “her” so she has to go to the doc to get it checked. 

So early morning workout = cat wrestling.

This ironic thing is I have an apointment with my doc later today to get a shot.  (Hep B vaccine - preventative measure for teaching kids - 2nd shot of series)

Oh, poor kitties.   I hope they don’t have permanent effects of the paint and varhol.

One my cats got into paint once, but wasn’t too bad, I just ended up with painted pawprints all over.

Thanks Eileen.

All 3 cats back home but all wearing big cone collars. None too happy. $860 later!! (Which went on my credit card, but I will be getting a check to cover it!!) Misha’s treatments were over 1/2 that cost. She has one stitch in her front paw and is on antibiotics for 10 days. So cat wrestling is in the plan twice a day for the next 10 days. The good news is that they should all be fine, but I have been instructed to keep a close eye on them for the next week to watch neurological and intestinal effects. The poor things are having a tough time navigating with their collars on and Misha just flipped the water dish in an attempt to get a drink.  A good sign is that they were famished when they arrived home.  I took to hand feeding them because the collars were too big for them to get their noses in the dish.  I have switched to a smaller dish that the cones will fit over.


My workout got cut a bit short today as I had to go and pick the cats up, (I thought they were going to stay in overnight), so I only got 30 minutes on the crossramp. I was just doing my warm-up and stretch when the vet called so I figured I had to make the time I had count. I decided to try High Intensity Interval training for the first time instead of just doing LSB. I got on the crossramp and did a few minutes to get my HR back up, then started at the lowest elevation doing 30 seconds as fast as I could followed by 1 minute recovery - repeated 10 times - increasing the elevation each time. That was enough. I finished out the 30 minutes doing normal LSB. Then quickly got cleaned up, but skipped the shower and went to get the little ones from the vet.

Sorry to hear about your kitties, hope there all doing fine!

Poor Kitties - I’m glad to hear they are doing well.

Yikes! Sorry for the kitty woes...I can’t imagine having three sick kitties around all trying to get their collars off.  And 30 minutes of what sounds like intervals on the cross ramp sounds like one heck of a workout.

Malama Pono & Happy Aloha Friday!
Jeff in Hawaii

Sorry to hear about the cats. I am a big fan of the chiropractor. I hurt my tailbone a few weeks ago and the chiro has helped quite a bit. I had the same injury years ago and he was able to help me when a conventional dr. couldn’t

Keep going strong with the workouts.

Thanks for the words of concern for the little ones (well my 2 are little - Sam is well over 20 lbs). They are all fine. Sam has his collar off now, but Misha has to keep hers on till she gets the stitch out of her paw next Friday. I’m keeping Nika’s on even though she is allowed to go without it because she might start grooming Misha and pull on the stitch so it is just safer to keep hers on too. They seem to be OK, but Sam was obviously depressed with it on.


Workouts

Thursday - Chest and Quads. - Put if off till the end of the day and still had to push myself to get there. Felt tired at the start, but once I got going it wasn’t too bad. Upper body weights good. Still have to go lighter on the legs. Followed up with 20 minutes on the crossramp. HR 125 - 130 range. Good workout, but I felt worn out. My hamstrings have been sore for the last few days - I think from Tuesdays session on the crossramp session with high resistance, so I came home had a hot bath. Then iced my knees as I fell asleep in bed.


Today - I just felt like I needed a recovery day. So instead of going to the gym I kidnapped my nephew (Matthew -22 mo) and headed to the park. We had fun on the swings and slides. I got a good workout following him around in the sand and helping him go up the stairs and even the slide when he decided to climb up it instead of going down. When I got home I had a nap on the couch with my favourite set of ice packs (and 2 cats).
Tonight I headed to the gym briefly (they rent movies and I had one to return) and did a quick 5 min to warm up a bit on the bike and then did about 15 min of abs. I need a good stretch so I’m going to hook my iPod up to the TV and do a yoga session before bed. Then ice my knees once again!

Update:  Did ~70 min of yoga and it felt great.  I really needed the stretch and my lower back feels so much better.  Completed 3 podcasts - Forward Bends, Shoulder Openers and Hip Openers

I kidnapped my nephew

That, along with Bree’s child throwing at the pool.
Are you guys developing kidisthenics??

Hope the kiities are better!  How do you hook your Ipod up to the TV?

Is that what we are calling the new olympic event??

Saturday - hardio - spent the day rearranging/tidying the basement. Need to have a garage sale…

Got to the gym and did my Back & Hams routine from program 4 for the last time. Felt tired and had to push myself to do the 2 min cardio intervals -didn’t push to get my HR quite as high as normal (usually end up above 160) and settled with HR around 145 by leaving arms out of the exercise.
Ran out of time to do extra cardio but honestly didn’t mind skipping it.

This morning I started my day doing a Forward Bends yoga podcast, because my hamstrings were tight again and I wanted to be a bit more stretched out before the session with my trainer to begin my next program (#5) I had scheduled for noon. I didn’t take my copy of the program he emailed me earlier this week assuming he’d have a copy at his house, but he messed up and didn’t have a copy saved on his computer so he had to wing it. He still put me through a good workout, and actually it was nice because he was able to adjust it a bit more to give the sore areas of my body a break (hamstrings), and I got to ask about/practice exercises on both days of my new program (from what I could remember of it).

I talked myself out of doing more cardio after my session and didn’t head to the gym after, but I promise to go for a long walk this evening. I’m feeling a bit burnt out but still want to keep moving.

Saved the best news for last. I have finally hit my next 5lbs down marker!! Yah. Down a total of 35 lbs now. Have 12 more to go to get below 200, but I doubt I’ll make it by my original goal date of my Birthday in less than three weeks.

Congrats on the 35 pounds!!!
Don’t worry about missing the goal date...you’re still going to hit the goal and thats what’s important.
Kidnap another kid or sumpthin’.

Wow, Catherine I’m just catching up here (I’ve had MTM tunnel vision). Crazy stuff about your cats! I hope everything works out okay there.

Congratulations on your weight loss milestone!  Woohoo! I love those milestone numbers. As for your goal for your birthday, just think how good you’ll feel about how far you’ve gotten by then! I’m telling myself the longer it takes to get there, the harder fought, the more glory, and the more likely I’ll keep it off.