Seriously unfit, inflexible and generally a mess page 2

[zoebird]

you'll be able to find balance over time.

I'd also suggest that you get some massage. It will help with a lot of aches and pains, also help remove adhesions in muscles and joints, and improve blood flow, flexibility, you name it. it's great stuff.

go to a massage school. they often give very low cost or free massages. our local massage school does an hour for $50, when the going rate is $80-90 for most professional places. You do get great massage, even if they are students.

[PHaselow]

Well, one day I'd love to see you in one of Mark's Friday "Real Life Stories" of success!

I've spent 9 years working with a "protocol" developed by Andrew Cutler to deal with my son's regressive Autism (I hope you don't have any silver dental amalgams if you chelated). I understand the frustration of seeming to be doing all you can do but something just isn't changing! Three steps forward, two steps back. I am impressed that you have not given up; many would have.

Tested for Lyme Disease? Sorry, I just can't resist the questions. Several of the Internet friends I've met over the years while treating my son have found the source of their neurological problems to be Lyme (a few tested negative before testing positive). It is huge in parts of the US.

[AussieNana]

@PHaselow: One day I'll write up my story - once I feel a success. A 40 pound weight loss isn't enough yet.

I wonder if I do have a problem with my last few amalgam fillings. I tried to get my dentist to replace them but as they looked good to her she didn't want to. Perhaps I need to be a bit more insistent.

Lyme disease shouldn't be a problem. My problems go back to my childhood and we definitely didn't have lyme disease where I lived back then. Officially it isn't in Australia at all but there are now enough people here getting it for us not to believe the public health officials. As it isn't a new problem for me I think its not at all likely.

I'm pretty sure it has to do with TH2 dominance whereby its related to the very dark chocolate I've been eating. I'm not totally convinced but enough to drop the chocolate and I slept better last night and feel better today.

[Misti]

AussieNana, I had to register to thank you. You have told my story and my husbands, except that you're further along in the journey than we are. You have given me new hope. My Aussie Boy and I have been eating grain free for over 4 years, but we are far from ready to start on even the most basic of the fitness routines -- I could no more squat than I could spit gold. Pushups are out of the question since I'd have a very hard time getting off the floor--during *or after*! (nearly 4 decades of debilitating arthritis have left me with little muscle strength. It hurt so much to use them, that mainly I didn't.

I have been shooting for walking 5 miles per week, and wondering if there was any way to start where I am and get to the point these athletes and healthy young people are. Maybe not, but you give me hope that one day, I may be as fit as you are.

Thank you for lighting up my day!

Misti

At the age of 62 and after 6 decades of being chronically ill from eating the wrong foods (ie a balanced diet with lots of grains) I am wanting to get fitter and more flexible. ... I'm still suffering the consequences of never being fit and never being flexible. I've started doing Marks recommended exercises and oh, my goodness. I have seriously a long, long way to go.

[zoebird]

misti:

swimming might work well for you, as would water aerobics and similar if you can find some at a community center.

[NZ primal Gwamma]

Aussienana - you go girl ! Fantastic to hear about your successes, and experimenting is the best way to move forward. Just a thought, have you checked your selenium levels ????? Selenium can be extremely toxic, however there is very little in our soils here in NZ. My husband and I try to have 3 x brazil nuts every other day to keep the levels up. He recently had his full bloods done, and the Doctor suggested that he must stop taking selenium suppements immediately !
This is a little scarey to think that the Brazil nuts were that high in selenium, and these were the most likely suspect.
Anyway just a thought.
Keep at it girl

[AussieNana]

Misti, I really know what you mean about getting up off the floor! When I went to karate at the beginning it was my biggest problem. I got into karate when my grandchildren's sensei asked me, along with all the other parents taking children, when we were going to start. After 6 weeks I thought, "Why not?" So I gave it a go. I was amazed at how easily the young ones just moved their legs and rose from the floor with ease. The sensei would go from kneeling to rolling back onto his toes and just standing from there. It took a couple of weeks of observing how he did it, then about 12 months of practice till I could do it when wearing shoes/slippers and another 6 months till my toes were flexible enough to do it in bare feet on a wooden floor. I still have to do it with conscious thought but it is so much easier than my previous staggering around.

Might I suggest that you work on a couple of flexibility items. Choose something that doesn't cause too much pain. I think as we age and when we've been immobile for a long time that it can take us longer to get there but I've found I can over time. At the moment I'm working on my wrists. They have been a weak point all my life and make doing pushups very difficult - always have. Probably due to the arthritis I developed around the age of 16 though I remember they were weak before that too.

Zoebird suggest swimming and that's a common recommendation. I'd try it, but if you do and you find yourself coming home exhausted - more than is justified by the amount of exercise you do - then you will have a thyroid problem and the chlorine in the water will be replacing the iodine, suppressing the thyroid. In those cases it suggests an iodine deficiency - despite what many people will suggest. I don't swim much as I found it mucked up the rest of my day though adding iodine supplements helped a lot.

[Misti]

Zoebird, thanks for the suggestion!

Aussienana, my youngest son also studies karate and his sensei has also suggested that my husband and I study along with him. I tried qi gong at the dojo instead--for a short while--but that's still way in my future.

However after reading your mention of how you worked up to the squats, I have been doing something similar to what I think you said you have done. First, I asked my son to show me how he squats so I had some idea what I was going for. He did it several times slowly, and now I do it several times between sets of chores in the morning. No one else in the world would recognize it as a squat, but I go as far as I can and hold until I start to shake, then I stand up, shake my legs out, and do it again. I figure eventually I'll build up my strength and be able to go deeper. I also started doing the qi gong longevity exercises I learned at the dojo...and downloaded Mark's exercise book and am reading that while I do my "squats".

Thank you again. I appreciate your post -- it seems I just needed a sense that it wasn't too late to start figuring out how to do it.
m

[Baba]

AussieNana,

though I'm a few years younger than you (but by no means young any more), I can tell you: it will get better. Your body will produce more mitochondria and with your diet and supplements they will get better at producing energy. So exercise will get easier and you will become stronger. Fear not. And give yourself time - also for recovery.

The other thing which you might consider is to have your hormones checked and if there's anything below optimal, think about BHRT. It can help a lot.

[valmason01]

Thank you! I am younger than you but no spring chicken and also am paying for years of inactivity and horrible eating. More than once since I started this journey in April I have wondered if I am fooling myself by thinking I can heal and repair. Your post has helped so much in just knowing someone else is fighting the same battle and winning. I know it seems so slow but don't give up. You can and will accomplish all you have set out to....