Clever Manka is dressed and undressed

Good news, I think Tim the PT guy and I have the potential for a really great working relationship. Not so great (but not terribly surprising), I have a lot more wrong stuff that needs fixing with my body than I thought. Let's start at the top? ( Click for a laughably long to-do list )

To be honest, I walked out of the session a little overwhelmed and thinking sheer fucking force of will must've been the only thing that allowed me to deadlift 140lbs and push-press 70lbs last year. But I also had a near-tear-inducing realization of Holy Shit Imagine What I'll Accomplish When I Correct These Issues.

It's Friday! Before we party, let's start with body stuff.

First, a recommendation find: Overhead squats are my most feared (yes, feared) lift. Frankly, they terrify me. I'm a bit unsteady in even a basic weighted squat, but I feel downright unstable in the overhead squat and I have actually fallen over backward while in the bottom of one. With weight overhead. In a full squat. I am still proud of myself for bailing out under it correctly and nobody was hurt, but still. The overhead squat is really, really scary to me. If you're in the same boat, the trouble might not all be in your hips. Here are a couple mobility drills to open up your thoracic spine which will allow that gorgeous, broad, open chest and strong uplifted arms that are crucial to a successful overhead squat. I'm going to add at least the first one to my Restorative Yoga Collection because honestly it looks gloriously soothing.

Next, a personal find: I mentioned a little bit ago about my newly-smooth thumbnails after decades of them looking like tiny washboards. I now have little half-moons under my fingernails. Used to be I only had half-moons under my thumbs and the fingernails were just solid pink beds. No more! Circulation and oxygen supply must be vastly improved because I have at least a suggestion of a moon under every finger. The pinkies are barely there, but they're there! So exciting! Visible progress like this is incredibly rewarding.

Yesterday was my monthly supplementation consultation with Dr. Jonah. We're phasing out the digestion treatment, continuing with the endocrine support (decreasing amounts on that was an informative experiment but not one I'm going to repeat for a while), and starting work on gut flora--clearing out overgrowth and bad stuff as well as re-populating the good stuff. If this helps my abdominal swelling issues, it will make having my period at 221B Con so much easier.

Last night I slept pretty well. Cramps woke me only twice, and the second time I was able to fall back asleep after taking a Naproxen. SLEEP IS SO GOOD. But before bed (and by "before bed" I mean "immediately after eating dinner"), I settled myself into bed with herbal soothers, a heating pad, and my laptop to indulge in some fic-reading. I'm going through an old LJ community for due South fic recs and found this story that was really touching and a slow build to some very steamy and sweet sex. The comm has been inactive for more than ten years, so a lot of the URLs don't work anymore. I'm glad that one did. Sorry I can't give you the comm name--I have it as an open tab on my home computer and I can't find it in an LJ search.

Update on that DIY Vitamin C Serum I mentioned a couple weeks ago: It's pretty fucking amazing. I just upped the percentage of LAA to 10% in the batch I made last night, but even at 5% I was seeing skin quality improvement. In fact, last weekend mckitterick said something like "I don't know what you're using on your face lately, but your skin looks twenty years old." Granted, I have anti-aging genes and not a lot of wrinkles, but the little pre-crow's-feet lines next to my eyes are gone and my naso-labial folds are as minimized as they're going to get on someone with my size nose and cheekbones. Also, just the overall skin quality is improved. And because of the tiny bit of glycerin included in the mix, I don't have to use any sort of additional moisturizer. I'm going to have to be super careful about slathering on the SPF this summer, though. Probably gonna switch to this SPF this summer to avoid those chin-breakouts I'm prone to.

If anyone local wants to try the serum for themselves, I'm willing to part with a half teaspoon of the LAA powder I ordered to get you started. Once mixed, it's good for a week before it deteriorates. But it will give you a sense of how your skin reacts. Bring your own dropper container, though!

I'm all alone in the office today \o/ and am very much looking forward to the weekend. I am dreading the task of getting the house organized for the student-recruitment visit reception on Monday. Thinking we probably would feel better getting that out of the way as soon as possible, but I'm pretty sure we'll put it off until Sunday night just like I said I didn't want to but it's the weekend.

Monday: Yoga
Tuesday: One of the most amazing yoga sessions of my life
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Yoga
Friday: Off
Saturday: Punching and Very Active Yoga
Sunday: Restorative yoga

If anyone is actually noticing/reading these things, would you be interested in my listing the poses I use in each yoga session?

If you reference a person's accent in any way other than "omg that is a sexy fucking accent hngngngn" or something similar, I'm judging you.

Mobility Mobility Mobility! Breaking Muscle has an extensive post about getting deep into a squat. I have mobility issues in my hips and my ankles and my squat form is, in a word, terrible. I know this. I'm working on this. I want to work on this more.

OH MY GOD THIS TEE SHIRT.

Because I am L-A-Z-Y lazy (and also, I have no burning desire to be a published writer), I decided not to spend the energy on a re-write and submission of that disordered eating post as an article to The Toast. So in case you missed it before I marked it as private, here it is. I'm also going to post a link to it on Tumblr tomorrow in case anyone wants to reblog it there.

Today's Tumblr, btw, is Tuesday, February 17: Wolves.

And speaking of Tumblr, I had a giveaway last week and nobody took me up on my offer. *sigh* If this looks like something you'd enjoy, please drop me a comment or send me a PM. First response I receive gets a free online art workshop--mutual follows get first dibs, but if none of my mutuals are interested, it'll go to the first commenter. If you're not on LJ but you have my email address, email me! I'd really like someone to use this gift certificate for the workshop. I've never taken one of Traci's online workshops, but her in-person classes are top-notch and I've seen several of her videos, all of which have high quality production standards.

Because we're finally getting some snow here, I have to drive the fucking Subaru to Kansas City for my appointment with Dr. Jonah today. UGH. I hate that vehicle. I know it's not unsafe, but it handles so different from the Crossfire that I feel unsafe in it. Like I'm not really connected to the road and the skinny little tires might just fling themselves off the highway at any moment. Blech.

In other vehicle news, mckitterick finally settled on what engine to buy for the Chevelle (remember when I said the engine was the only part of the car we were keeping? yeah, never mind) and now we've got an engine on the way that is worth more than what we paid for the entire original car. Life with a gearhead, folks. IT IS GOOD. We've also decided to just grit our teeth and do a full off-the-frame restoration and finish the body work while we've got the thing apart, so that's going to delay our estimate on getting this thing on the road (again). But I feel like finally we both understand what the other wants out of this car and there's an actual plan in place instead of just nebulous concepts. So now it's just a matter of when we can get the things done that we know we want to do. This car's gonna be five years in the making but god damn it's going to be an amazing ride.

LJ is fucking up (again) and won't let me upload to my scrapbook. One of these days I'm gonna try to log on and it's all gonna be gone. I really gotta back this thing up. I discovered the problem when I was trying to post this photo from weather.com that I grabbed about two minutes ago.



As I say in the Tumblr post (because that's where I could upload the pic even though I'm having other technical difficulties with Tumblr right now but at least I can use it okay) "My part of the world has forgotten that we’re actually in the northern hemisphere and it’s supposed to be winter here."

Even though I could really use a nap, I am definitely going on a walk during my lunch break.

I want to resume weight lifting soon. Not as soon as I'd hoped (April), but perhaps May, after the semester is over. To avoid a repeat of my last two crash-and-burns with overexertion, I'm looking into HRV monitors, per the suggestions in this article. Quite an investment, though, since I'll need the monitor and a new phone to run the app.

How to progress to a perfect push-up.

A lot of people might not share my feelings on them, but I love abdominal exercises. I know, (I know! I know!) that trying to spot-tone an area is a useless exercise, but I actually like the sensation of my abs working hard. If you do share my feelings about ab exercises, check out these recommendations from my beloved Breaking Muscle.

I'm feeling better today, thanks for all the well-wishes. Not sure what was wrong. I was having monthly issues, yeah, but man, I was so fucking beat it was overwhelming to get out of bed on Monday (which honestly, I didn't do much outside of lying in bed reading) and Tuesday I took it pretty easy before I went to KC to see Dr. Jonah--although I did take a walk around the office grounds (they're very pretty) because I got there half an hour early. Ooops.

Two more things for the Movement wishlist. The first one I'm hesitant to buy/ask for because I have Kelly Starrett's first book on mobility and I haven't made it very far in. It's so dense and not written in a manner that my brain easily absorbs. But he wrote another one more recently that's primarily directed at runners but seems to be usable for most activities. The second one, though, I'm ordering today. A tabata timer that comes highly recommended by a friend. SOLD!

I'm a believer in post-training mobility work, and I've sometimes thought about more active exercises for post-training correction. Thanks, Breaking Muscle, for posting an article about that very thing just as I'm starting to gear up for more demanding movement! I'll be looking into other articles about corrective movement post exercise.

Yesterday was beautiful. Nearly 60 degrees, and sunny until noon, when clouds rolled in but didn't cool things off. Cold air started moving in toward evening and winds are pretty wild right now, but yesterday was so nice. I got a lot of errands run, including delivering to the thrift stores a bunch of stuff that needed out of the house. Had to leave the desk at the Sally because no other thrift in town takes furniture. Bleh. That was a LOT of mass removed from my life, though, so hurray! Sometimes I feel like the amount of stuff in the house is pressing in on me. I've still got a lot to shed, but oh it feels good to get one carload of it gone.

stuology asked me for the recipe for my fruit-nut bars. I didn't have one (they're usually a combination of eyeballing the amounts and using what I've got on hand), but yesterday I measured things out and they came out good, so here's what I put them. Keep in mind, these are flexible--not just amounts but ingredients.

Made-at-home Lära Bars
1 c shredded, dried coconut flakes (plain, not sweetened, no added sugar; either plain or toasted or a mixture)
1 c dates, chopped
1 c dried figs, chopped
1 c almonds
1-2 T date syrup (or honey or maple syrup)
1/2 t ground ginger
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t salt

In a food processor, chop/grind the coconut flakes until they're powdery/mealy. Add spices and salt. Process just enough to blend. Add figs and dates and process until slightly incorporated with coconut, but not yet blended to paste. Add almonds. Process until almonds are thoroughly chopped and all ingredients are well-incorporated. Still processing, slowly pour in small amounts of date syrup (just a little at a time) until mixture starts to adhere into a ball. Pour out into an 8x8 or 9x9 pan lined with parchment paper. Press evenly to fill pan. Cover with parchment paper and refrigerate for two hours. Cut into small squares. I get 16 bars out of a pan.

Finally, I want to eat everything in this blog post. RIGHT. NOW.

I'm going to start doing these on Sunday night.

1. My planner (where I write what I did for movement that day) runs Monday to Sunday, so this is easier to see the week at a glance instead of having to turn back a page for Sunday

and

2. If something happened and I missed more than two days of movement, it's more likely I'll be able to make those up over the two days of the weekend rather than if one of the two days is smack at the beginning of the week.

So.

Monday: Yoga
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: SI Joint Yoga
Thursday: Walking
Friday: Off
Saturday: Yoga
Sunday: Self Myofascial Release Work

After learning from Dr. Jonah that I don't actually have one leg longer than the other, I just have an internal pelvic twist that nobody bothered to diagnose me with until now, I've been working on strengthening core muscles to help correct the issue as well as doing only single-leg movements only when it comes to strength training. Happily, Breaking Muscle put up an article on Three Alternatives to the Pistol Squat just yesterday. I've done the first two, but the third one? Holy shitballs that looks difficult. I would like to have a plyo box at home, but I'm not willing to have something that takes up that much floorspace in my sewing room.

Oh for a dedicated space for all our physical activity stuff: Boxing, yoga, dance, massage...*sigh* But right now mckitterick doesn't even have his own bedroom. He sleeps in his office, which is at the top of the stairs and technically isn't even a real room because it lacks a fourth wall and a door.

Speaking of doors, today's Tumblr collection is Tuesday, January 13: Doorways.

Sunday: Boxing
Monday: Self-Myofascial Work
Tuesday: Yoga
Wednesday: Yoga & Calisthenics
Thursday: Yoga
Friday: Off
Saturday: Boxing