Sunshine 2's Keep On Moving thread - July

[agate]

Sunshine 2 is still with us, I'm glad to say, but may not feel like starting this monthly thread--and so I'll start it. I hope to post step counts soon. This is Sunshine 2's thread-opener:

MS creates some real challenges to keep on moving. It helps to inspire each other on how to find ways to move.

Did you stretch in your bed, swing your arms, roll side to side today? Or perhaps you did housework? Or exercised in a pool? Tracked your count of steps? Chased your cat around the home? Pushed the wheelchair wheels with your arms at the store? Post them here and we can support and egg each other on.

REMEMBER: this is a keep on moving thread, not keep on exercising! Any moving is important it doesn't have to be exercise! Even Science proves that.

[Virginia]

Sunshine, I hope you will soon be feeling well enough to come back and post with us some. We miss you. I read your post last month. Let us know if you might decide to go for a second opinion regarding MS. I know your Doctor now thinks it might all be SPS. I can't remember if you had many MS lesions and if so is there a difference in SPS and MS lesions.

[agate]

In June my average step count was 1,906 steps/day, based on 24 days, and that is several hundred steps higher than most of the averages I've had.

On July 3 I did 3,374 steps, which may be a record for me.

I'm not sure how this has become possible but I did manage to shake off a few pounds a couple of months ago.

[Virginia]

That is an incredible number of steps. Is your pedometer working correctly? I thought you were so small that you wouldn't want to lose any weight.

The average for June is quite good.

[agate]

I've had my doubts about both pedometers. I have two going, and if one isn't working right, maybe the other will be. I'm thinking seriously about getting yet another one.

When I was diagnosed with diabetes, I got my weight down to 108, but a while back it crept up to 120, and when I realized I'd lost still more height, I made an effort to get back to 108 at least, if not lower.

I have more energy and mobility if I try to keep my weight at the low end of the weight range that is OK for my height. I don't know if this is true for everyone with MS but it's been true for me. It seems as if every ounce I carry around matters. If I weigh down my pockets by carrying too much in them, my balance is thrown off. If I wear shoes that are a few ounces too heavy, I trip. It seems as if my muscles rebel very easily.

[Virginia]

I am small boned, but if I try to get too small I don't feel or do as well. I try to eat enough that I never feel deprived or not satisfied. My SIL's Mother that died a year ago started dieting and when she began to get too small and people told her she wouldn't listen. Finally she got dementia and wouldn't eat at all. Of course she died. The lady in the room with me in rehab did almost the same thing. So I try to keep my weight at a steady number. If I get a few pounds over I watch what I eat until I am back to my normal. My normal is a few pounds over what most charts for my height, but I have read that we should weigh a little more when we get older.

[agate]

Virginia, I guess we should all try not to get too thin because it's not true that you can never be too rich or too thin--?

I'm heading right for the cookies and those Dove ice cream bars that are just lying around here.

[agate]

My insurance plan is once again offering ways to make money by tending to your health. They did this a few years ago, and I received about $15 or $25 for just having a "wellness exam" at the doctor's office. Now they've come out with a way to "earn at least $80."

I was curious about that eye-popping figure. $80!!!

Well, it turns out that I'd get $15 for a "wellness visit," $5 for a "provider check-in," and $10/month for 6 months of reporting "step activity."


To do the step activity routine, you must walk 7,500 steps per day for 10 days each month.

That makes $60 that I won't be earning.

By going to the Website for this, I found that if I didn't have a smartphone-compatible fitness tracker, I could report 45 minutes of "physical activity" for 10 days each month instead. It isn't clear on the Website just how this works or what is meant by "physical activity."

Is typing this message on a keyboard physical activity? It moves some muscles....

[Virginia]

7,500 steps a day!!! They only want healthy people. Good luck Agate.

[agate]

Not just healthy people but well-off healthy people, I'd say. There's a list of fitness trackers that are compatible with their system, and they're all pricey. You couldn't do this with just any old pedometer.

[agate]

Yesterday's achievement (imagine a drumroll here):

Quite unexpectedly some building maintenance people moved my refrigerator out of its usual place yesterday, and what came to light under it was quite a bit of dirt. I told these people that I'd like a chance to clean it before putting the fridge back, and I thought they said they'd need to be back again and would put it back if I'd let them know when I was done cleaning.

So on very short notice, and feeling I didn't have much time for the job, I got up and down from my kneeling pad twice with a wet rag and a putty knife. As there isn't much to hang onto in that location, I positioned my rollator with its brakes on and used to for getting up.

There was a section I couldn't reach, and I used the reacher with some paper towels soaked in water and window cleaner to do that part.

I survived that experience and could have moved the refrigerator back as well though they were kind enough to do that.

I've been patting myself on the back for this achievement ever since. Not only did I survive it without falling--the area under the refrigerator is now very clean. (I hadn't done that job in a number of years.)

[Virginia]

Congratulations, that sounds like quite an undertaking. I am glad you were able to get it done. Depends on how big the refrigerator is, but it might be best that you didn't have to move back in place.

[agate]

I didn't move the refrigerator back myself--though I have done it. Unlike some refrigerators, this one has casters that still work, and so it just rolls. No lifting.

And I did pay a price after all. For 4 days after this effort, I had problems every time I tried to get out of bed. Each time I didn't think I was going to be able to walk at all but after I forced myself to do some steps, walking came more easily. Each day it's been a little better.

I have a new pedometer now, and it does absolutely nothing but count steps. No history of previous step counts, no date or time, no pulse rate or distance. Very very simple and exactly what I wanted--provided it's not too inaccurate.

I no longer expect real accuracy of a pedometer. I'm happy if it gives me a ballpark figure.

[agate]

Because there has been a transition in pedometers, I don't know how dependable July's step counts are going to be but these are some of the more dependable ones (from the middle of the month):

7/16/22 - 824 steps
7/17/22 - 917 "
7/18/22 - 1146 "
7/20/22 - 2075 "
7/21/22 - 1687 "
7/22/22 - 1022 "
7/23/22 - 1017 "
7/24/22 - 2990 "
7/25/22 - 1372 "

Missing dates are days when there was a pedometer dysfunction.

[Virginia]

They are great step counts Agate. The 24th you must have gone to your local grocery store - by foot!