exercise | So This is Julie

Last night we made homemade pizza for dinner with homemade dough and sauce, alongside store-bought (We’re not that good) sausage and cheese. I have a horrible track record with baking anything with yeast, so you can imagine my hesitancy about making our own dough. Husband wanted to use a recipe that was in the newspaper and it turned out just fine with a nice bready crust that our daughter ate up like there was no tomorrow. But note to self: store-bought, fresh pizza dough… only 99 cents!

While I was eating my little slice of ‘za, I said, “Huh, this is good. Doughy and Soft”. Husband, not sure what I was referring to, said, “What exactly are you talking about?” And I replied, “My stomach.” You may grimace and wince now. Also you can be thankful I did not post a picture of my stomach.

I will admit, I am not athletic, never have been… and working out regularly has only been a recent activity, only the last two years. Even then it’s only once a week. Here, let me put it this way, and my husband will attest to this. I am soft. This is not an overstatement, and this was before I had two kids by c-section. The c-sections just make it more difficult to get back any strength in my “core”. And, I emphasize the words “ANY strength”.

It’s not that I’m upset about it or freaking out about being overweight… I’m not. I’m just a little less than fit, and there’s a little extra softness around my mid-section. Not my favorite part. So here’s the thing – I’ve been doing sit-ups every day since New Year’s. It innocently started out as a joke with someone asking if I could even do a sit-up, ONE sit-up. Yeah, very funny, but I got down on the floor, Jaunary 1, and did one sit-up. So, to continue the “joke”, I did two sit-ups on January 2. For every day that has gone by this month, I’ve done exactly that number of sit-ups.

Sit-ups may not be a very big deal for a lot of people, but it’s movement in the right direction for me and as much as I despise sit-ups, it’s probably a good example for my daughter to see me do something somewhat active at home. She’s even joined me with my little exercise experiment, so my husband and I told her that once she gets to ten sit-ups a day, she could stay at number of repetitions if she wanted to. (She wants her reps to start over at February 1 with one sit-up.)

I’m planning on continuing this for the rest of the year, so by the end of the year, I’ll hit 365. Crazy? Probably. Possible? Yes. Who’s on a journey with me?

Last April, I wrote about my acid reflux problem. It’s been an on-and-off again sort of relationship where you’re not sure where it’s going, sometimes it gets a little worse and some days are actually okay. My self-diagnoses and self-medication with over the counter choices just wasn’t enough. My symptoms were getting worse and I was drinking Maalox too often, on top of taking pills. I’m not a doctor. Who did I think I was kidding? I really should have seen a doctor last October or November, but when my uncle passed away early December, I thought, he would’ve never let this go on so long. I was doing my own family an injustice by not following up, because (as many of us parents know) what good am I if I’m not well.

So, friends, I went to a skillful gastroenterologist (GI doc!) who gave me a look over, asked lots of question about my lifestyle and ordered up some kicked-up proton pump inhibitors (think Prevacid/Prilosec) and an endoscopy. Wow…cool. They were going to sedate me, stick a camera down my throat and take a look. I had it done over the holidays while my husband was home on Winter Break. Talk about loopy! They had me in a “twilight” sleep. Julie, we’re going to administer the sedative now, don’t be nervous, you’ll feel a little tired and… I was OUT. About 20 minutes later, I awoke in recovery. Eastman told me I was mumbling about going to Crate&Barrel to buy something. He was quite amazed at what was floating around in my head. Good thing I wasn’t talking about some hot guy!

Glad to report that they found nothing serious, just a few areas of question and totally manageable. Thank you, Dr. Yoon. I was going to post pics of their findings, but I’ll spare you. Who needs to see down my esophagus and inside my stomach? Ewww. Along with the medicine I may need to take for the rest of my life, I started attending yoga and spinning at our local park district. Just once a week, both have been a welcome change.

My husband was cool enough to loan me his roller, so we moved my bike inside our home so I can ride a few more times a week. While I have no intention of making this a spot to hang clothes as so many people do, I’ve used the bike once since we moved it (it’s been a week). I’m hoping to change that this week. Maybe this will make me feel more accountable by telling my cyber-friends.

Here’s to health in 2010!

So This is Julie

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Tag Archives: exercise

Doughy and Soft

Acid Reflux and Health Update