Exercise Check-In for 7/5/18

[Seasha]

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!

Five of us checked in this last week.

GOALS REACHED:
4
GOALS MISSED:
1

For new Exercisers:
Feel free to join us. You set your own goals. You can keep the same goals week-to-week, or modify them. You decide if you accomplished them. Check in once a week to let us know how you did last week, and to set goals for the following week.

[KoKo]

Made Goal

Hi everyone

Made goal ~ up on feet doing activities 4X a day @ 30 min each ~ walked 5X during the week @ 30 min each (with rollator, in apartment) ~ and stretches.

There were many pauses between my walking steps, but I persisted for the 30 min during every walk. Weight bearing and staying up on my feet became key during the oppressive weather, when taking a lot of continuous steps was very tough to accomplish.

Those darn nerve signals just don't like working in the high humidity and high dew points!

Wishing everyone strength and peace of mind.

[Seasha]

I completely failed on my exercising attempts this past week as visiting kids from NJ were here thru the 2nd week. Having 2-4 grands over every day wore me out, but it was wonderful having the cousins play together. I mostly sat back, took photos and had everyone clean up after meals. Empty house as of today.

I will set my goal for next week as 4x. The house needs cleaning and garden needs weeding

KoKo, I really admire your persistence despite the weather

[Diamond57]

Madw Goal!

I'm so bloody exhausted and almost didn't have the energy to come through. Just got done cleaning and 2nd set of company coming Saturday. If I feel this way everybody's going to have to pitvh in. I have the nature to wait on everyone and my body was so bad last night I threw up. My friend Rick said .........after this we'll bring something to a party and leave. I always go all out. Done.
Made my goal.......geeeeeeeeez wonder why.I'm not breaking it down please forgive me. Total steps for the week; 22,788 Average=3983. Whether we make it or not we're a team that motivates one another. I'm so proud of you all. Thank you Seasha for talking over.

Til next week......So long

Susie

[msgijo]

Made Goals

Thu - 6067 (the new kitten adds steps -2x to barn every day to check on it)
Fri - 6072 (30 min Volunteer work)
Sat - 9440 (attempted to bake a cake my grandmother used to make - got it almost right)
Sun - 6641 ( watered plants)
Mon - 4800
Tue - 5631 (30 min volunteer work, visited aunt in assisted home)
Wed - 7323 (Prepared 4th dinner and watered plants)

Made over 5000 steps on 6 of 7 days, and averaged 6568 steps / day . Will keep same goals next week.

The heat/ humidity / and dew point have been killers for me this week. It has been an effort to do everything that I managed to do this week. It is supposed to turn a little cooler this weekend, but it also has a higher chance of rain.

Susie - Great week ! Now take some time to recuperate. I understand about the 'going all out', and have had to make myself step away from hosting dinners/cookouts. Even this past week I wasted too much energy for my husband and I baking a cake (which he wouldn't eat because it had fruit on it) and the 4th dinner (at least I am not cooking until Friday - I figure the leftovers will last that long). BTW - there is nothing wrong with having others pitch in to help - I am sure that there are many others like you who WANT to do something to help .

Seasha - Great week ! Even though you didn't make your stated goals, with 4 grandchildren running around I am certain that you did more than take pictures and direct cleanup activities. Two of my grandchildren at a time for a couple of hours on 1 day is my max. They wear me out!
BTW - Thanks again for filling in this week.

KoKo - Great week ! My husband has gained so much weight that he stays 'hot' all the time. So I suppose that it is to my advantage that he insist on keeping the house cold (too cold for me). Unfortunately that doesn't help with the humidity / dew point. And because it is so very cold in the house whenever I go outside (to feed up, check on kitten or water my plants) the heat is like a brick wall. I applaud your efforts to stay on your feet . At least we can start the countdown to cooler weather now - Here we will have a 'cold snap' in 2 months but it will start getting consistently cooler in 3 months. (I sound like old folks talking now ).

I hope that everybody had a wonderful 4th and that all have a good productive week .

[KoKo]

The heat/ humidity / and dew point have been killers for me this week. It has been an effort to do everything that I managed to do this week.

msgijo ~ I found the articles about the dew point and it's possible effects on some people with MS:

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.co...256/wea.214.01

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.co...1256/wea.91.04

The Dew Points in the article are listed in Celsius, so I converted them to Farenheit:

When Dew Point is 52-55 + Humidity is Above 75 = Slight Effects

When Dew Point is 57-59 + Humidity is Below 75 = Slight Effects

When Dew Point is 57-59 + Humidity is Above 75 = Moderate Effects

When Dew Point is 61-63 + Humidity is Below 70 = Moderate Effects

When Dew Point is 61-63 + Humidity is Above 70 = Severe Effects

When Dew Point is Above 63 + Humidity is Below 50 = Severe Effects

When Dew Point is Above 63 + Humidity is Above 50 = Very Severe Effects

Two years ago I e-mailed a local weather station and asked them to please include the dew point on their online weather forecast. The meteorologist answered my email and now the dew point is always listed with temperature and humidity.

[msgijo]

msgijo ~ I found the articles about the dew point and it's possible effects on some people with MS:...

The Dew Points in the article are listed in Celsius, so I converted them to Farenheit:

When Dew Point is 52-55 + Humidity is Above 75 = Slight Effects

When Dew Point is 57-59 + Humidity is Below 75 = Slight Effects

When Dew Point is 57-59 + Humidity is Above 75 = Moderate Effects

When Dew Point is 61-63 + Humidity is Below 70 = Moderate Effects

When Dew Point is 61-63 + Humidity is Above 70 = Severe Effects

When Dew Point is Above 63 + Humidity is Below 50 = Severe Effects

When Dew Point is Above 63 + Humidity is Above 50 = Very Severe Effects

KoKo - Thank you!
I had a terrible night Saturday night (it rained at some point that night), and when I got - before I even got to my coffee - I knew that it was going to be a bad day. When I checked the weather forecast I saw the evidence of what I have been trying to tell people for years!

On Sunday morning the Humidity was 82 and the dew point was 63. The chart says that I was on the line between severe and very severe effects (and I felt it too!). It eased off slightly as the day progressed, but we did get another rain shower around dark.

This morning I got up walking better, but still stiff and sore. The humidity was 84 and the dew point was 61, but the sun was shining. The chart tells me that today I should have severe effects. I have not hurt as badly today but am still not "normal" either.

Thanks for the chart. It certainly re-affirms what I have been feeling. But I will make sure to check it again when I get up and find that I am not in pain. I have found that even without the chart, or the local forcast, I can tell when the dew point and humidity are high . It is definitely interesting to see it spelled out like this .

Do stretches help you any? Is there anything that can be done to ease the spascity some? I am already taking Baclofen on a pretty much as needed basis (up to 80 mg/day ). But there are times when it doesn't seem to be doing anything for me. Would magnesium help some? I am thinking about a lotion type to use as needed.

I hope that you are having a better week than I am (weather wise).

[KoKo]

Thanks for the chart. It certainly re-affirms what I have been feeling. But I will make sure to check it again when I get up and find that I am not in pain. I have found that even without the chart, or the local forcast, I can tell when the dew point and humidity are high . It is definitely interesting to see it spelled out like this )

I was really glad to find the articles about dew point effects. I just happened to stumble on the articles one day, while searching around for MS stuff.

I used to wonder why there were times when the humidity was low, and the temp was average warm, and yet I had the same symptoms as when the weather was hot and humid.

After reading about the dew point effects, I started gauging how my body functioned in the summer. When I would be weak, not moving well, and fatigued - I would check the dew point, and sure enough it would be above 62. Honestly I am very relieved to know about those effects.

Do stretches help you any? Is there anything that can be done to ease the spascity some? I am already taking Baclofen on a pretty much as needed basis (up to 80 mg/day ). But there are times when it doesn't seem to be doing anything for me. Would magnesium help some? I am thinking about a lotion type to use as needed.

Yes, stretches do help. However, I can't get the really good stretches done on my legs when I am weak, due to the fact that I have to do them one-handed (I don't have full use of right arm and hand, and have to pull my legs up while sitting). My back stretches really help a lot, which I do while standing with my walker.

I used to take Zanaflex, but because half of my body is weak and the other half gets spastic, it was a tricky situation. I can't afford to be weak, risking my leg to give out.

I used to take magnesium (the Calm brand), but it made me very drowsy!

I hope that you are having a better week than I am (weather wise)

Had a really good weekend - huge difference for the better in moving around and walking!