Lighthouse Park Walk

Yesterday we went for a walk in Lighthouse Park with a friend & her dog. Of course, I brought along my Urban Poling Activator poles, & we were able to walk around the trails for an hour.

That might not seem like a big deal to you, but it's been years since I'd been to Lighthouse Park. I'm still finding it so much fun to do things like seawall walks or light hiking like this because I'd been avoiding it for so long with all the pain I had in my hip.

The combination of the nordic poles & the weight I've lost means I'm a lot more mobile now, with much less pain, after a few years of hobbling around & avoiding walks. I actually didn't even feel sore the day after our walk!

So glad I finally got a diagnosis last summer & started making changes to manage my osteoarthritis better.

Here are a few more pics we snapped in the park. I tried to capture all three of the juvenile bald eagles that were soaring around over our heads & chittering the huge trees, but I only managed to get one.

Disclaimer: I just wanted to mention that I was not compensated to write about or link to Urban Poling--I just really like the poles I bought from them!

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2016 Resolutions

It seems like forever that I've been making New Year's Resolutions. Some years I do better than others, but I keep on. Here are my ambitions for this coming year:

1. Keep eating healthier & probably lose a little more weight. I think the amount I've lost so far has made a big difference to the amount of pain I have from my osteoarthritis, but I don't want to go lower than a healthy weight. Once I'm at that point in a few months, I'll work on maintaining good eating habits & drop the food diary that I'm keeping at the moment. 
2. Meal planning follows logically from #1. I want to get back on the wagon with this one so that we can grocery shop more effectively, waste less food & eat better with less work.
3. Find a workable routine with my physio exercises for both my hip & my shoulder. I want to strengthen both to heal up the tendinopathy in my shoulder & further reduce pain in my hip. Hopefully I'll be able to shift from boring exercises by myself at home to more aquafit & try pilates classes.
4. Less screen time for me. I spend way too much time online when I could be doing things like #5, #6, & #7 on this list. I think I'll go back to using RescueTime to try to log & reduce wasted time on my various devices.
5. Work on more creative projects like sewing & visual art. Having the chance to follow my inspiration & drift from a simple cutting exercise for Linny into a collage, then a big multimedia decoupaged canvas recently was fabulous. I need to do more of that.
6. Read more. I'll aim for at least a book a month. That should be off to a great start when my copy of the Velocipede Races arrives in the next month.
7. Take more time for myself on a regular basis. I find I'm a much better parent/spouse/human after I get time off. I just can't function properly if I'm with my husband & children 24/7 with no time alone. 

Once I look at the whole list, it seems rather typical--lose weight, exercise, me time. But I guess that's why these things are so common as to be cliched resolutions--we all need to do them. 

Are you into resolutions? If so, what are some of yours for 2016? If not, do you have any tradition of setting intentions or a motto or a word to go by for the year?

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Hiking with Arthritis: Urban Poling Nordic Poles Review

My first urban test of the Activator poles

When I went to my OASIS clinic assessment with a physiotherapist, she recommended I try Nordic pole walking so that I could take some of the weight off my arthritic hip. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I tested some out at the clinic & noticed a big difference, even when just using them in a short hallway. I registered for the OASIS pole walking class to get more information & have a chance to try them out for a more extended period of time.

If you're not familiar with Nordic poles--they're also called trekking poles or exerstriding poles--they're much like cross country ski poles, but with rubber tips that fit over the metal points so they can be used on pavement in the city too. Using two poles, rather than one cane, means better posture & balance. Putting some weight on my arms takes enough pressure off my hip (apparently about 30%) that I can walk without pain.

Weight Loss Update: Slacking A Bit & "Eat To Live"

After a follow-up appointment with my doctor, I took her suggestion & read "Eat to Live", by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. It's a fairly extreme diet plan with a foreword by Dr. Oz, which pretty much gives you a good idea of the tone of the book. I found it a little infomercial-ish & condescending, but I think there are some good ideas in it.

Fuhrman basically advocates going vegan & avoiding most grains, particularly anything processed like bread, pasta or crackers, as well as oils & added sugar. This means you can basically eat vegetables & fruit, beans, nuts & seeds. Also, no alcohol. His plan requires you do do that for six weeks to drop a lot of weight fast. All of his testimonial style stories in the book of patients who succeeded on this diet are obese people who have major health problems like diabetes, heart disease, etc, & that seems to be who the diet is aimed at primarily.

Loading up on veggies 

Once you've done the six week Eat to Live diet, Fuhrman's plan allows a little bit more leeway, switching to a maintenance diet that allows you to get about 10% of your calories from dairy, meat, grains, oil, alcohol, etc. I'm not willing to go vegan--I like cheese far too much--nor do I plan to give up beer! I'm also not really in the demographic that Fuhrman's diet is targeting--I was only about three or four pounds overweight by BMI chart standards--I didn't have 50 or 100 or even more pounds to lose. So I'm loosely following the Eat to Live plan--more the maintenance stage, including a little meat & dairy

I'm finding it somewhat exhilarating that the scale keeps showing a smaller number every week or so. I do struggle with staying away from the junk food, especially during the times of day that I habitually snacked, like after I get Bronte to bed, while I'm watching a show. But I'm not finding it too hard to just eat more veggies--I tend to just load up at lunch with a giant salad--& reduce the amount of dairy & meat I consume. I feel hungry just before meals, but I'm not hungry all day--I'm not starving myself. My goal is to lose 20 lbs, which would put me right at the weight I was before my first pregnancy & the lower end of the range I was in during my 20s.

However, I have always had a sweet tooth & loved salty junk food too. When I was at that weight, my diet really wasn't that great--it included more added sugar than is probably healthy, tons of refined starches, not that many veggies, & a lot of dairy. So I wonder if I change my eating habits permanently to include tons of veggies (like the 2 lbs a day that Fuhrman advocates for in Eat to Live), much less refined carbs, less fatty dairy & meat, if my weight will stabilize at a lower point than it's been in past.

My weight loss started off fast & has slowed down a bit in the last month-ish. I'm down a total of 15 lbs, 10 of which I lost in the first 3 weeks, just 5 more in the next 5 weeks. I'm a bit lighter than I was before getting pregnant with Bronte & getting close to where I was at before I was pregnant with Linnaeus.

I don't see that much of a difference & my "bagel" is still there on my belly. However, I've noticed my pants are looser these days--some of them slip down far enough to drag on the ground. I finally got around to measuring myself: though I've only lost about an inch at the waist, I've lost three at the hips.

As you can tell, I'm happy about the changes to my appearance from the weight loss, but I'm a little disappointed that I don't feel much of a change with my bad hip. The arthritis that spurred this diet is causing less pain in general, but I'm not sure how much of that is the reduced weight on my joints, or the physio exercises I was doing, or starting to use a cane. In any case, it isn't worse...

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Osteoarthritis & Other Sucky Things

Photo Credit: pinkcigarette via Compfight cc

Last week I realized my life needs to change in a big way. It has been a long time coming, but it's still hard to process. Here's the story.

For the past couple of years, I've had hip pain that makes it difficult to walk. I've had issues with my hip on & off for about fifteen years, but it wasn't until Bronte was a newborn that it became really debilitating. However, dealing with it was lower on the priority list than our breastfeeding challenges, her health concerns & all the other the usual parenting two little kids stuff.

I eventually went to the doctor & then to physiotherapy, but didn't keep up with the daily exercises. The problem & the pain worsened, so I avoided standing & walking as much as possible. I biked everywhere instead--even a block or two--because cycling is very low impact & doesn't put as much strain on my hip as walking.

After talking to the orthopedist at Children's about Bronte's hips--she was born with dysplasia like I was--I started to realize that I really needed to deal with this. I finally went back to my family doctor & I had an X-ray.

When I went in to discuss the results, I was prepared for bad news. She said she'd only call if there was anything of concern & I already knew from the pain I've been dealing with means there's a problem. The X-ray shows that my left hip is okay, but not great. My right hip is showing signs of damage, wear caused by the irregular formation of the bones due to the hip dysplasia that I was born with. Hearing all the medical anatomy terminology in the X-ray report, it all seemed so abstract.

When the doctor said she was referring me to OASIS, the Osteoarthritis Service Integration System program at Vancouver General Hospital, it really started to hit home. She joked that I'd probably be the youngest person in the room at the various classes they offer.

Being told, before I even turned 40, that I have osteoarthritis in my hip & that surgery is not an if but a when, was a bit of a blow. But what she said next hit me hard. I need to lose weight, as much as I can. I am still carrying around about 20 pounds of 'baby weight' since Bronte was born.

I love food & I don't believe in dieting. I have always just eaten what I feel like & used active transportation--walking & cycling, plus some fitness classes here & there over the years--to stay fit & healthy. That formula doesn't work when I can't walk because of my hip. I was sort of in denial the last couple of years, thinking that when my hip got better I'd be able to exercise more & the weight would come off.

So I'm going to have to change how I eat permanently to lose weight. In the past, I always tried to focus on being healthy & fit, not my weight. But now that number on the scale, my actual weight, really does matter. Every extra pound on my body puts more force on my joints. More pain, more damage to the cartilage.

The other thing I'm struggling with is that I may have to quit stilting permanently. I've only performed a handful of times in the past few years. I paid dearly for it each time, with a flare up of pain for days afterward. I've been in denial about this, thinking that my hip might get better & I could return to stilting, pain free. However, even if I can consistently stick to my physio exercises & strengthen my core muscles to help hold my joints in position better, I'm not going to 'fix' the arthritis.

I may be able to reduce pain & improve function somewhat, but the damage to my hip joints isn't ever going away. Well, until I get hip replacement surgery. But I'm trying not to think about that. I'm focussing on what I can do right now: how to change my diet & what supplements are shown to help.

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Don't call me brave

When people see me pull up on my cargo bike with my two little kids, I get lots of comments. Pretty much always positive, but there's one that kind of bugs me: "Wow, you're brave!" I think it's meant to be a good thing & not a backhanded critique of my parenting, but saying, "You're brave" actually makes me a little sad. I normally say something awkward that amounts to, "No, really, it's not that bad!" & then think of a better way to put it on my way home. Classic l'esprit de l'escalier.

We all know what brave means, right? Brave means courageous, strong in the face of danger or pain. So... does this really mean people think I'm facing danger, or that cycling is difficult or painful? 

Sadly, I think that most people do perceive cycling as very risky. So let's attack the risk aspect that people worry about. If we did have a car, I think driving the eight blocks to my son's preschool would be a little silly, & I'd walk or bike anyway. So let's compare walking & cycling. In terms of risk of death--because that's what I assume people are worried about: getting killed by a driver--walking is actually more risky, more than double the risk if you look at deaths by distance travelled. But nobody perceives walking as risky like they do with cycling. There are no helmet laws for pedestrians.

When I say walking is twice as dangerous as cycling, it's still only an infinitesimal risk. We're talking 7 in 100 million (yup, that's EIGHT zeroes) vs. 3 in 100 million km, here in BC. Riding in a car carries a risk of 1 in 100 million km. So they're all in the very small neighbourhood of under 10 in 100 million. (this article unpacks the stats even further--worth a read)

On to the concept of difficulty or pain. Because I have a hip issue that often makes it painful to walk, cycling is less painful for me than walking would be. Well, it's actually not painful at all. But not everyone has hip problems, I know. Cycling is technically the most efficient form of transportation there is in terms of calories of energy used per distance travelled. It takes less energy (in the literal sense of calories eaten or calories of fuel burned in a car) than walking or driving. Walking to preschool is slower & I'd have to put Bronte in the stroller, which I'd have to lug down & up a flight of stairs. That is a pain in the neck.

I suppose there's another aspect of cycling that gets me the "brave" label: riding in the rain. Whether I walk or bike, I get equally wet, since I can't hold an umbrella while riding or pushing the stroller. But I really don't get that wet. I have a cycling poncho & gumboots; that pretty much covers me, so just my face gets wet, which isn't the end of the world. Maybe if I were wearing a bunch of makeup this would be a problem, but who has time for that with two kids under five?!?

Set aside all this talk of perceived risk & statistics to think of the usual alternative to walking or cycling: driving. It's slightly less risky in terms of your likelihood of getting killed in a car crash. However, a lifetime of sitting in a car thinking cycling is "brave" carries other major risks like obesity, heart disease, some cancers, dementia, etc. Then there are the health problems like asthma that are exacerbated by the air pollution caused by driving. When you factor how cycling (& walking) offset these health risks, it's really driving that's more dangerous.

Maybe next time someone says I'm brave for cycling, instead of trying to come up with a retort, I'll ask them why they think so. Maybe it'll spark a conversation about perceived risk & the very real benefits of active transportation.

What about you? Do you ever call people brave for cycling or get called that yourself? Do you feel it's riskier than walking?

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Quarantine Christmas

Poor sick baby

It's been a rough couple of weeks around here, I have to admit. Though really, it started around two months ago, when I got what I thought was a thrush infection--which I've had many times before--in my nipple.

After trying everything in my home arsenal & having it keep popping back up, I finally went to the doctor. I should have gone sooner, but instead waited until it was excruciatingly painful to deal with it.

It was a bacterial infection in my nipple piercing. No idea why this happened now because I got the piercing at least 15 years ago, haven't worn jewellery in it since before Linnaeus was born & it never gave me any trouble through nearly four years of breastfeeding. Anyway, thanks to five days of amoxycillin--yay for modern medicine!--breastfeeding is no longer wince-worthy.

Deck the bike with LEDs, fa la la la la

Right in the midst of the worst of that infection, I also got a gastro bug that I can only assume was Norovirus. I tried hard to keep my germs to myself, but about a week later Bronte got it too.

She & Linnaeus were already both dealing with a nasty chest cold, so the poor mite was pretty miserable. She got over the barfiness as quickly as I did, thankfully, but wouldn't sleep except on me for the entire day. That was the 23rd.

On the 24th, Bronte was more or less back to normal, except for the chest cold. Unfortunately, because Norovirus is contagious for up to three days after you have it, we had to cancel our plans to go to our big Christmas dinner at my sister's place. 

Market carousel

I admit I cried when I realized that we wouldn't be able to go. I love getting together with my big extended family at Christmas & I think I've only missed a big family dinner once in my entire life before this when we travelled to Oli's parents' place.

I was determined not to wallow in my disappointment however, so I biked over to the store to brave the last-minute shopping hordes & grab supplies for our own little Christmas dinner.

I got a whole turkey breast, cranberry sauce, ingredients for making pumpkin pie & some Christmas crackers. I'm not big on the crappy toys & waste that crackers produce, but I just wanted something to make the dinner more special.

That afternoon was beautiful & sunny, so we biked downtown to the Vancouver Christmas Market, in the last couple of hours that it was open for the year. We grabbed a couple of mugs of Feuerzangenbowle (mulled wine with brandy) & got in line to ride the carousel. On our way there, someone gave us four ride tickets that he wasn't going to use, so all of us rode for free.

My two Christmas hams

Christmas morning we all got to sleep until at least 8am & then we had a relaxing round of opening gifts, followed by a late breakfast of French toast.

I made some pumpkin pie, then a few dozen sugar cookies while Oli took the kids to burn off some energy at the park. Linnaeus helped me decorate them with icing & sprinkles when he came back.

Our little turkey dinner was fairly simple but delicious. I suspect any chunk of meat wrapped in bacon & then roasted would be awesome--glad I tried that.

Gotta have the paper crowns

All in all it was a nice, quiet little Christmas. I'm thankful that we had some lead time to adjust to the change of plans. The paper crowns didn't quite make up for the fact that we couldn't be with all my family on the holiday, but the four of us were together & feeling fairly well. We'll see most of the family at another gathering in the next week, hopefully.

Someone else even booked the Modo car that we cancelled, so we won't be on the hook for late cancellation charges.

I hope your holidays were full of fun & food & a little less sickness than ours have been!

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