Swimming and Other Fitness Stuff

Hello there!  It’s been awhile!

I don’t know about you, but I know for myself that the idea of “health” gets overwhelming.  You can find so much information on the internet and a lot of it contradicts other information.  One website says, “Don’t use plastic because it will cause toxins to leach into your food.”  Another site says, “Don’t eat GMOs – they cause cancer.” An article claims, “Walking is the greatest anti-depressant” while another blames gluten or dairy or red meat for humanity’s problems.  What are we supposed to believe? Perhaps more relevantly, what are we supposed to do about it?

When you live with mental illness, it is easy to blame yourself for your illness.  Add to that the never-ending barrage of information on health, and you can find a million reasons to blame yourself.  When I start reading too much about health, I am tempted to stop taking my meds.  I feel like because I am not doing all the right things, it is my fault I’m sick.  If it’s my fault I’m sick, then I don’t deserve to take the meds that help me.  If I’m going to justify spending money on meds, I’d better be doing every single thing that could possibly help me. 

That is faulty thinking.  For one thing, the meds I take are cheaper than a lot of the recommended “health foods”.  For another, without the benefits I receive from my meds, there’s no way I would have the energy or mental clarity to even figure out a healthy lifestyle and diet. 

My approach to fitness and health is an “every bit helps” approach. This means that I’m not going to cut out my meds and trust a specific diet instead.  I know my meds help, so I take them.  I don’t have to earn them by meeting a certain lifestyle standard.  I can add health components to my life, as long as they work for me. Every little thing that works adds to the benefits I get from my meds.  For me to incorporate a health practice into my life, it has to meet some criteria.  First, it can’t cause a lot of stress.  If I’m going to be constantly worrying about what I’m eating, that will increase my anxiety, not reduce it.  If I always have to force myself to work out, it has the same affect.  Second, it has to be sustainable.  It can’t take hours out of my day or require a lot of prep.  Third, it has to be at least a little bit enjoyable.  I won’t force myself to drink a smoothie that tastes terrible or do a workout that makes me so tired I could cry. 

Here’s what works for me right now:

Swimming. Back in January I set myself a goal to be able to swim 2km by my birthday in May.  Yesterday I hit 1.25km!!  Swimming works for me because:

-I’ve set a specific goal.  It’s not just “work out twice a week”.  I’ve tried that kind of goal and failed.  With this goal, if I have a couple of weeks where I don’t exercise, it just means I have to work a bit harder the next few times.  I haven’t failed.  It’s a specific but flexible goal.

-swimming is fun. I love the feeling of being in the water.  I like that I can go slow if I’m having a bad day or faster if I want to push myself.

-swimming is solitary.  Sure, sometimes I need to share a lane in the pool, but I don’t have to wait in line for the exercise machine or awkwardly walk between the mirror and someone doing curls to get to the dumbbells.  Once I’m in the pool, I’m in my own world.  This is a huge plus because the gym always heightens my social anxiety, but the pool lessens it!

-swimming is horizontal.  When I’m tired and having a bad day, I don’t want to hold my head up.  I just want to lay down.  To me, swimming feels like I’m exercising and laying down at the same time. J

-swimming is a full body workout.  I don’t worry about “leg day” or “cardio day”.  I do everything at once, so there’s a lot less to keep track of.

Being off (some) dairy.  Recently I cut out most dairy because I was having some gut issues.  It worked!  I still eat plain yogurt and mozzarella cheese, but I’ve cut out everything else.  This had some unexpected consequences.  Not only does my gut feel better, but I feel calmer and more alert.  My body feels lighter, not like I’ve lost weight but like I’m less sluggish.  I get stressed less easily and I enjoy life more.  I’ve always enjoyed not having diet restrictions, but hey, this is SO worth it.

What works for you right now?  

Introverts Date Night Ideas

I was recently inspired by Bailey's post, Every Summer Festival, Ever to write a post on date ideas for introverts.  My husband and I are both introverts.  Here are some of the things we enjoy doing together:

1. Go out for coffee.  There is a large grocery store close to us that sells THE BEST COFFEE EVER in their "ready made foods" section.  We go there occasionally.  If you go there between 8 and 9 pm there are almost no people in the seating section. It is a great place to sit and look out the window.

2. Go for a hike or a walk.  This is great if you enjoy nature (which we do).  You can stop for ice cream first or pack a thermos of hot chocolate to share.

3. Sit on the couch and play endless rounds of the card game Golf or get really competitive over Carcassonne

4. Go to bed early just to hang out. (Not to be intimate [you should be intimate, but that isn't the point of this date idea.])  Play 20 Questions or Truth or Dare, have a pillow fight, tease each other, ask each other about funny/sad/embarrassing childhood memories - you name it.  I always found growing up that the best "talking time" was in bed, where there is nothing else to do and no distractions.  There is something about being tired and laying in bed that seems to loosen inhibitions and make people more talkative. :)

5. Do a puzzle together.

6. Get a couple of puzzle books.  You can race each other to see who can finish their book first.  Our race has been going on for months.  We ripped out the answer sections and stuck them in the closet first, though.  Occasionally we will pick one particular page and race to see who can finish a Sudoku or cryptogram first.

7. Read a book together.  Each week, each of you should read one chapter, and then set aside an evening to go over it together.  This can be a Bible study book to deepen your faith, a marriage/relationship book, or a book on a topic you both are interested in.  To be honest, we haven't done this since we got married, but it still sounds like a good idea to me.

Being introverted means you probably won't be having "Instagram" worthy dates, but that doesn't mean they can't be fun or significant to the two of you!  And after all, that's what matters, isn't it?

Experiences of a Synesthete

I am a synesthete.  Basically what this means is that I have some wires crossed and I perceive things with more than one of my senses.  For example, to me numbers, days, and letters have colour.  Numbers have personality.  Sounds have shapes, colour, and movement.  Smells have texture.  Some movements have feeling and taste.  Flashing lights have sound.

When I was a kid, I got it into my head that this is a symptom of schizophrenia.  Several weeks ago I was sitting there worrying about it, and I decided to Google it.  (I know, good old Dr. Google.)  I found a Wikipedia article (I know, I know!) about synesthesia which explained the way my brain works – and reassured me that no, I most likely don’t have schizophrenia!  I was so excited and sent my mom the link via Facebook because she had always kinda given me a weird look when I started talking about things like the colour and personality of numbers.

Having synesthesia means just about everything in life is a multi-sensory experience.  In many ways this is a great thing.  It fuels my creativity and gives me a fountain of secret beauty to enjoy.   It also helps me to be good at spelling, math, and remembering dates and phone numbers.  After all, who’s going to get a stuck up pink goody-two shoes like 4 mixed up with gruff navy 5?  And who’s going to get bland, pale follower 6 mixed up with creative, mysterious, red-brown 7?  I’ll always remember that my sister’s birthday is June 7, not June 6, because she was born on a day with a nice number, not an annoying one.

However, the downfall to synesthesia is sensory overload.  Picture you are in the mall.  Around you are clothes with price tags, people moving around and talking, music playing, and the barcode scanner beeping.  Now imagine every number on every tag has a colour and a personality.  The talking is dark grey and shaped like a cloud that is filling the room at about ear level.  The music above you has round black drumbeats, light brown peaks and valleys like the screen of a heart monitor, and a woman’s yellow voice getting larger and smaller with its fluctuating volume.  Through everything are the round red beeps of the barcode scanner.  Now try to make a decision on what to buy!

I love being a synesthete and I am very glad I found out it is an ok, semi-normal thing.  It is interesting now because I found out some of my siblings are also synesthetes, though for them numbers and days have different colours than they do for me.  When we were discussing this, I said, “We should make a club!”  and one of my brothers (who is not a synesthete) said, “What are you going to do – sit there and argue about what colour each number is?”   He had a point, but it is still a pretty neat ability to share with some of my siblings.