Attack and Tone

And so it begins:  the exercise portion of the doctor's recommendations.  Since I have not attempted this order over the past couple of weeks, I assumed that I would not stir up the gumption to work-out along with my XBOX Kinect "Your Shape:  Fitness Evolved" game.  I tried that game the day that I bought it over a year ago and I think I pulled my hamstring so I never trusted myself with it again.

My solution was to join the local gym and go to classes.  I am not a big fan of using the 'machines' or 'free weights' because I feel like I'm being watched by the other gym-goers.  The last time I exercised--the Summer of 2008--I really enjoyed the teacher-led classes for the fact that I could blend-in with a group and listen to music at the same time.  The other reason I like them is because there is a knowledgeable person in the field of exercise directing my every move.  When I try to use the machines on my own, I don't always know what each one's purpose is, so it can be a bit daunting just choosing one, let alone using the thing.

Today was my first session and even though the class was called "Attack and Tone," I greatly underestimated the difficulty level.  In the waiting area, all of the other class members were an average age of 52 so I did get a bit confident that I would be able to handle the routine.  And for the first 15 minutes, everything was going swimmingly.  I was hopping and kicking to the beat with the rest of the class.

Then I felt 'the burn' and I began lagging behind everyone else.  My bubbly, energetic jumps and jabs quickly faded and although I kept smiling, I was reduced to a mere marching-in-place while the other women were grape-vining this way and that.  By the end, my goal was to maintain my physical position within the line-up so that I didn't trip-up anyone else.  The most nerve-wrecking part was when "Di," the instructor, yelled out, "Turn!"  This meant that I found myself in the 'front' and suddenly, the adrenaline kicked in (pun intended) and I was Di's new protégé, moving in-time with the beat.  As soon as the pressure was off though, it was back to the marching.

After 30 minutes, I was looking forward to the cool down, but when that didn't happen, I thought maybe Di was running overtime.  Two more times, I thought that surely the cool down stretches were coming our way.  It turns out that I inadvertently signed-up for a 45-minute class.

The rest of the day, I have had so much more energy than I usually do and I feel better that I'm back on the road to good health.

Showing us his toys and 'explaining' how to play his game

 

Posing with his new haircut

Supermarket Sweep

 

Racing right into Mommy!

Howdy, Partner!

Developmental updates:  Jackson mimicked saying, "Peek-a-boo," this week.  It was pretty close to how it should sound.  He helped us unpack the groceries and we were shocked when he carried the bag holding 10 pints of milk to the refrigerator!  We were also shocked the next day to find a brand new pack of ham laying in the garbage can.  To ease into bedtime, Jackson likes to read a book in bed to himself and to his stuffed animals.  He also read to me in the car on Thursday on the way to nursery.  He said a 'sentence' and then gave a loud 'roar'!  (The book was Dinosaur Roar!)  I guess that he's memorised the pattern of the book and now he can recite it in his own language.  Today was the first time that Jackson has had any hair cut.  He just needed the sides and back trimmed so I did it at home and thankfully, he sat still long enough for me to get it done and he had no idea what was happening.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Disney Remakes

This week I noticed a flurry of posts on Facebook about the new Mary Poppins movie being filmed and set to come out on Christmas Day in 2018.  I clicked on the link because initially, I was intrigued to see what the 'first look' picture was.  Anticlimactically, it was just a shot of Emily Blunt (who is playing the practically perfect nanny in the new film) with a sapphire blue coat and mauve hat standing outside of a London-esque house.

After reading a few of the thousands of comments, I noticed that most people were mad that Disney was remaking the classic.  Some of them were really over-the-top with their angst, too.  I say this mainly because the new movie is not a remake but a sequel to the original.  Most of the discussion did not reflect this fact because with the current style of reactive commentary to the news, most people tried to be the first, most witty, to make their remark on the headline.  With Twitter, Facebook, and even blogs, everyone can have a voice and some of us who post on-line can often make a mountain out of a molehill.

I remember when Disney remade The Parent Trap (starring Lindsay Lohan) when I was a pre-teen.  And since I didn't have much to worry about then, I was one of those people who was annoyed at the fact that Disney thought they needed to re-vamp the classic starring the angelic Hayley Mills.  I was also much more judgmental then so I put any of my friends who didn't know or appreciate the original as much as I did in another sub-level of film literacy.  I didn't realise then that I could actually like both and that would be all right.

Looking at all of these comments about whether or not a movie should be remade--most recently Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book, and Cinderella--it seems like such a waste of time.  I think this especially since I was trying to find a family-friendly movie for Jackson on Netflix today and here are two of the movie synopses I read:

• "Assistant DA and single mom Jackie's plans to wrap up a big case and enjoy Christmas with her daughter are disrupted when her estranged dad visits."

• "Young siblings learn about country life and surviving Nazi occupation when World War II breaks out while they're visiting grandparents in Normandy."

With plots like these, a Disney classic or even a remake would have been a welcome sight today.

The fact of the matter is, these movies are going to get made no matter how many more thousands of comments are written about whether or not they should be.  The Mary Poppins sequel still has another 21 months until its release and it is already a "trending topic" on Facebook.  Are people going to continue to complain about it for another two years?  I hope that something more important comes along to discuss.

And when was the last time Disney made anything that wasn't perfectly magical?  Never.  

Lastly, I would just like to say 'thank you' to all of my friends this week at work.  After last week's post, which surprisingly has over 200 views (thank you to everyone who read about our adventures), a few of my close friends at school have been really supportive and caring by checking up on me.  The song Lean on Me comes to mind.  I think we all need true friends to be there with us through the good and the bad, and I just wanted to note how thankful I am to have you all.

Playing outside in the wonderfully sunny and mild weather--no hat needed today!

Hiding and running around his climbing frame

Exploring and touching different leaves around the yard

Enjoying a night out at the new Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Southport

 

We chanced it and made it through most of the meal without a meltdown.  Jackson polished off a banana, a package of raspberries, a quarter of a cucumber, three slices of ham, and some milk before we reached the inevitable.

Taxi, please!

Developmental updates:  Jackson turned 17-months-old today!  Lee had to leave for a couple of hours today to go back to his hometown and Jackson got upset before he went out the door and said, "Daddy," twice for the first time ever.  Usually, we get a Da or Dada, but it was very pronounced today.  He knows what sound a sheep makes by heart now without any reminding and he also can point to his nose when asked to do so.  Jackson has memorised where the bananas, jelly (Jell-O), chocolate chip brioche rolls, and yogurt are stored and will stand near them, point, and make a noise to get our attention to tell us if that's what he wants for a snack.  At nursery this week, his teachers said that he was pushing a pram (stroller) with a dinosaur in it, stopped to do a dance, and then carried on pushing.  I do dance a lot at home with him and I wish I could have seen the dance moves he made-up at nursery.  At home this week during one of our dance sessions, his new move was balancing on his right leg while his left leg stuck out at a 90 degree angle to the side.  He's such a cool baby!

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Wake-Up Call

On Monday, I started back to work after a week off and it took no time at all to get back into the swing of things.  But, something has been happening this week that took me back to seeing the doctor this morning for a check-up.

Strangely, a few times every day this week, my heart felt like it was being squeezed for 15-minute stretches.  Then on Thursday, I felt like I was going to faint in the middle of teaching a lesson and then felt an instant, almost electric sort of zip along my back and down my right arm.  I wasn't sure if these events were related, but after telling my friend at work, he said that the safest thing to do would be to run all of my symptoms by a doctor to see if it was anything serious.

I am very thankful for the NHS because visiting the doctor over this heart pain is not something I would have been comfortable paying for back at home and I probably would have written it off as heartburn or a pulled muscle--even though I know that what has been going on feels much different than those two things.

After visiting the walk-in GP service in Ormskirk today, I did indeed receive a wake-up call to basically change my entire life.

The doctor told me that my resting heart rate is 90 bpm and my blood pressure is 124.  She then asked me what I eat, how much I sleep, and what I do for a living.  I told the doctor that I eat supper every night, but usually a muffin in the morning and no lunch (because that is what happens the majority of the time).  I then explained my sleep routine of sleeping from 9 P.M. to 1 A.M. (sometimes to 2) to ensure myself four hours of sleep and then I work through the night until it's time to get Jackson up.  I started doing this in September so that I get to spend as much time with Jackson as possible and to also have a quiet house to work in for marking books and fulfilling the paperwork required every week.  Lastly, I said that I was a teacher and she seemed to understand that the workload on teachers in England has skyrocketed and told me that many teachers have been in to see her this year already.

I made sure that she understood that I don't intend on leaving the profession and I really do love teaching and struggle to imagine myself doing anything else.  Upon hearing this, she gave me a long list of ways to improve my health because, as he put it, if I "continue on this way, [I] will burn out in the next five years."

Scared straight by her tone and other advice she gave me, I am putting her list of things to do into action today:

• Get more Vitamin D (at least 20 minutes of daylight every day)
• Eat fish twice a week or take Omega-3 vitamins
• Drink two litres of water a day
• Eat protein and some carbohydrates for breakfast
• Have a fruit or vegetable snack for lunch because only two main meals a day is fine
• Sleep for at least six hours a night
• Work before midnight and wake up a little early if necessary because the hours in the middle of the night don't produce the best work anyway
• Exercise for at least 20 minutes a day
• Do something non-work related and fun for at least 20 minutes per day

So I learned today that I am not above stress and although I may feel happy and friendly, the numbers don't lie.  My heart is working too hard to just 'rest' and that's not ideal or sustainable.  I also learned that avoiding smoking and drinking is not enough.  I thought I could avoid anything harmful to my health by merely not doing 'bad' things; however, avoiding healthy choices is also apparently taking its toll.  And while nothing she said was anything I hadn't heard before, I didn't think anything would actually happen if that list wasn't followed regularly.

I did receive more advice as to what I should do if the symptoms continue, but hopefully with the changes she ordered, I can lower the numbers without another doctor's visit.

Walking across the sofa and building ramps with couch cushions

Relaxing and watching Bubble Guppies before heading up to bed

What's left over of our fence after Storm Doris

Developmental updates:  Jackson likes to say, "Uh oh," now if something goes awry.  He also says, "Yep," when we ask him questions.  When he shakes his head for 'no,' Jackson seems to fully comprehend what he is disagreeing to whether it be getting a banana or or putting on his hat.  Today he got his picture taken for his first passport photo and it went a lot better than we thought it would.  He sat on my lap looking toward the camera, while I sat sideways and out of the way of the shot.  Even though he was crying because he wanted to be roaming around the shop instead, he managed to pull-off an adorable photo without any tears or signs of unhappiness.  (Lots of credit goes to the photographers who were showering Jackson with compliments and capturing his pose at just the right split second when he looked his best.)  Lee and I like to watch The Big Bang Theory and when Jackson hears the theme song, he dances and on the last beat, he raises both of his arms like a sign of victory.  We have no idea why he does this, but it happens every time without fail, even if he hears the song from the next room.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.