What's a Haiku?

Todays prompt from the WEGO Health Bog Challenge is...

Write a haiku about your health focus. 5 syllables/7 syllables/5 syllables. Write as many as you like.

Consider I still don't know what a haiku is even after reading that explanation, please give me a few moments to make sure I'm doing this right....


Okay, I think I got it, here it goes. Not sure if the are supposed to rhyme or not:


The heat of the sun
Is upon my wrinkled face
Where did my hat go?


My left lung is tight
My right one feels just alright
Treatments please, no fight


Mckenna my girl
Amanda my rock and wife
Blessed be my life


Arizona hot
Underside of pillow cold
At least I am told


Alright sleepy time
Eyes heavy, not one more rhyme
Maybe you leave haiku?

Rest and Recovery

***If you're here for the at-home workout challenge, today is a day of rest for me. Refer to yesterday's blog.***

Overtraining

Regardless if you perform a combination of overall fitness training or a single aspect fitness program, it is important to properly design/spread your workouts to not overtrain certain muscle groups and to implement rest days into your program. If you have taken a few weeks off of your usual training program, or are starting a brand new fitness program all together, you should start slow and use light weights focusing on higher repetitions.

Ask our MidwestFit Team at anytime if you are in need of guidance or advice.

Integrated Training Programs

A combination of weight training, cardio training, and flexibility training is considered the best style of program to achieve overall fitness because properly combining the different training programs allows for the body to extract the most benefits from all of the separate training styles.

Weight training can benefit you by producing strong bone mass and reducing the risk of osteoporosis, strengthening joints, developing toned muscles and alower body fat percentage, developing better body mechanics and proprioception to assist with daily activities, boosting metabolism, and burning calories even after you are done exercising.

Cardiovascular training can benefit you by increasing heart health and heart strength, reducing blood pressure and bad cholesterol, reducing stress and depression, boosting metabolism, decreasing recovery time, and overall muscle toning.

Flexibility training can benefit you by improving overall physical performance, decreasing risk of injury, reducing muscle soreness, improving posture, reducing risk of low back pain, and improving coordination.

Training Opposing Muscle Groups

Depending upon the style of training you focus on, it is necessary to understand the importance of spreading out your workouts and training opposing muscle groups to avoid overtraining.  Overtraining is a physical, behavioral, and emotional condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of an individual’s exercise exceeds their recovery capacity.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Today's Challenge

If you're looking for the at-home workout challenge, you've come to the right place. Remember, this is just an example of something you can do. Feel free to go beyond this list and push yourself even more. If you can't fathom doing this list, pick one thing and do that! Remember, the important part is to move; it's not important how fast you move!

Here is my workout for today:

25 Pull-ups
50 Box Squats with Smith Machine
50 Curls with Barbell
50 Tricep Extensions on Cables
50 Box Jumps
50 Lat Pull-downs on Cables
50 Straight Arm Pull-downs on Cables
50 V-ups
20 Decline Sit-ups with rotation using medicine ball

25 minute walk

Be sure to do something active this weekend. Challenge yourself, you won't regret it!!

At-Home Workout Challenge

Thank you to all who participated in the Hospital Exercise Challenge! It was such a success and I got so much great feedback, that I wanted to be sure to continue a little something at home. Here's the problem though, I'm not exactly sure what to do.

I need some ideas. What would be most helpful to you guys? Should I design a workout that I feel would be beneficial? Should I just report each day what I do and then you guys can try to match? I want to do whatever you guys feel would help the most. I'm down for whatever!!

If your curious, my workout today was...

50 leg squats on Smith machine
50 box jumps on 24" box
50 V-ups
50 pushups
50 pull-ups
50 barbell shoulder presses

I try to do all of those exercises as at quick of a pace as I can so it is not only an great muscle builder, but also a great lung workout. I'm huffing and puffing pretty much the whole way through, but it feels SO GREAT when it's all said and done.

Think you can match that today?

Hospital Exercise Challenge - Day 6

Hospital Exercise Challenge - Day 5

Hospital Exercise Challenge - Day 3

Hospital Exercise Challenge - Day 2

Happy Valentines Day!!



Hospital Exercise Challenge - Day 1

Hospital Exercise Challenge - Day 1

Wall Sit:



Box jump (or you can use anything 6 to 60 inches high that's stationary):



Standing Jumps:



DO NOT however, do this!

Challenge from Chronic Admissions!

Nancy over at Chronic Admissions posted an awesome blog with a mind blowing stat and great challenge that I wanted to share.

Make sure to stop by her blog and tell her whether or not your up for the challenge:

It's Friday! and it's 76 and sunny. It's the perfect day to open all of the windows and let in the fresh spring air... especially after all of the humidity we've been having here in the Northeast. Even better would be to make this day an outdoor day. Take the kids outside for a nice game of tag or wiffleball or for a long bike ride. Not only will it bring you closer as a family (and tucker those kids right out), but it can save your life.

The American College of Cardiology released the results of a study finding that sitting for 6 hours or more a day is as deadly as smoking. Yup, smoking! So for all of you sitting at your desk reading this, GET UP. Women are 37% more likely to die sooner compared to those who sit for 3 hours or less a day. Men have a 17% greater risk of early death. You may think that this is completely out of your power if you have to work. But if you take breaks to stretch or if you do some of your work while walking on a treadmill, you will be making improvements. Sitting too much can cause heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, and early death.

I don't know about you, but I'd like to avoid each of those things. I already have a few issues with my heart, but like my cardiologist said, one of my problems disappeared when I was picking up the pace on the treadmill. So, I ask you again - especially you CF parents or those of you with CF - join me on my new mission to improve my lungs, my heart and my overall health. I'm doing it for me and my girls. What about you?

Why don't you do clinical drug trials?

I know I've talked about it before on RSBR, but I just have to talk about it again: Clinical Drug Trials.

Today was my first visit for the new trial that I'm on which will be studying the effectiveness of inhaled Levaquin. I'm super excited for this one, because last year I did an inhaled Cipro study and Levaquin is the "cousin" of Cipro. Why am I excited? Because, and this is "off the record" and completely my opinion, I felt like a million bucks and my lung function increased (mind you, I very well could have been on placebo...doubt it.) Anyway, I'm hoping to have the same great experience with this inhaled antibiotic and I figure if I don't, somebody else is, so it's a win-win in my mind!

I thought I'd list a few reasons you should be doing clinical drug trials:

If not you, then who? If you're one of those peeps who champions a "cure" and does not actively search out drug trials, then let me be frank, you're talking out both sides of your mouth. We will never have a cure without clinical trials. And more immediate, we'll never have better medicines to help control the symptoms. So no more cure talk if you're not willing to put your money where your mouth is.

Speaking of money, you get paid. It's almost too good to be true. You can get paid to do medicines that can potentially increase your lung function? Yes. At the very worst, you get cash money to puff on some saline or pop a sugar pill. This is easy money if there ever was some.

You learn more about CF. Now maybe I've just been blessed with a great research coordinator or maybe she's just wicked smart, but I've learned so much about how drugs work and the anatomy of CF. And to be honest with you, the more you learn about CF, the more you realize that we have a lot more control over this thing than we give ourselves credit for.

You're taking control of your health. Doing a clinical drug trial is just another way of taking control of your health. It's another way of being active and not settling for "the cure" to come to you (when I speak of "a cure", I'm not speaking of our genes being corrected and our cells working properly, I speaking about us being our own darn cure by what choices we make in our lives). It's up to each and every one of us do to everything possible to put ourselves in the best position to succeed.

I could go on and on about the reasons you should be doing a clinical drug trial, but I'll step off the soapbox and save you from my diatribe. On a serious note though, get involved!! Stop thinking about all of the reasons you won't do one, and just do it all ready. That is, unless you can come up with a reason that doesn't sound like a total lame-o excuse, which I am more than willing to listen to.

Which leads me to my next question, why don't you do clinical drug trials?

Run/Walk Challenge 2010

Hey everybody!! First, I just wanted to thank you all for the kind birthday wishes both on here and an Facebook. You guys went above and beyond and definitely made me feel special on the 30th b-day.

So, I was contemplating something yesterday and I wanted to get the RSR readers input on it before I "pull the trigger". I was thinking about bringing back the run walk challenge. Some of you from FB may remember the run/walk challenge from when I was in the hospital. It was pretty simple. Everyday that I went for a run or walk, I would document it on Facebook and "challenge" the community to match me. If I ran for 15 minutes, the challenge would be to either run for 15 as well, or walk for thirty. It seemed to catch on with many of you and I believe we had about 20 people taking part of the challenge.

Here's the questions for you all: Would you guys like me to get it started again? What shall we call it? Would you like to match time or distance? Should there be a maximum amount of days per week that the challenge can take place? What do you think the best way to track your individual performance would be?

I think that's all of the questions that I have for now! If you guys can think of anything I'm missing, please bring it to my attention. I look forward to seeing what this can possibly bring about!!!

I'm Sick and it's My Fault

So I head in for some PFTs today (just as a formality) so I can get myself a bed in The Hole ASAP. I've definitely taken a hit this last month with my overall health. If you remember my post from last week, my PFTs were also down about 10% from last month and I'm having hemoptysis. I knew that I was going to have to get in sooner rather than later, but I was hoping to hold off until after Thanksgiving. It's gotten to the point though that I know damage is being done and now I just have to nip it in the bud. The biggest problem has been my lack of energy. And with me, a lack of energy can be a killer...well, let's hope it's not that bad :)

Everything kind of slowly goes downhill when I start missing my runs and workouts. With all of the traveling I've been doing lately, my schedule has been all over the place. I mean, I brought my running shoes to Dallas with me, but did I use them? NOPE. And that's completely on me. I can't blame lack of time. I can't blame weather. I can't blame how I feel. There's nothing to blame but the guy I see in the mirror everyday. Cause here's the deal: I've managed to run when I had even less time, there was worse weather AND I felt even crappier. So there is only one thing left to blame: Ronnie. I've made choices over this last month that have allowed my lung function to slip. I could have pushed harder. I could have scaled back on work. I could have went to bed earlier. There's a million things I could have done differently, but I chose a different way.

Now I have another choice to make: I can sit here and sulk and wonder how things would be different without CF or I can learn from how I'm feeling right now and realize that I don't like it and I CAN control the outcome next time. I'll pick option number two. If I sit around and wonder why, I'll be wondering the same things on my death bed. I don't see the point in asking a question that really doesn't have an answer...and to be frank, if it did have an answer, I wouldn't care what it is. All of this "feeling sick" crap is what actually makes life even more interesting for me. With everyday that passes, I'm learning a little more about myself and my opponent. The fact that I get to face a "challenge" everyday is something that I thrive on. It drives me like you would never believe to prove all of the statistics, numbers and nay sayers wrong. If I lose this challenge, I can guarantee you it won't be Cystic Fibrosis' fault...it will be mine.

Can You Figure Out This Top Ten????

So today's top ten is a little different. Here is a list of ten _______. You need to figure out what all of these phrases have in common to be able to fill in the blank. To answer, don't actually say what it is, but leave your own _________ in the comment section.

10. Don't nod.

9. Party boobytrap.

8. A man, a plan, a canal: Panama.
7. Anne, I vote more cars race Rome to Vienna.
6. Dammit, I'm mad!
5. Ma is as selfless as I am.
4. Never odd or even.
3. No, it is open on one position.
2. Was it a car or a cat I saw?

1. Nurses run.

Hint: Ran for Vice President last year and lost + Fourth letter of the alphabet + The city not built in a day

Good luck!!!!