Seriously unfit, inflexible and generally a mess page

[AussieNana]

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 have taken up karate and have been doing that for nearly 18 months but 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.

I have finally, with the help of my desk and hanging on tight, been able to get into a deep squat. It took a couple of months! I can do a couple of push ups properly after 18 months (have to for karate) but I still have problems doing the numbers of wall push ups Mark suggests.

My biggest problem is that as soon as I ramp up the numbers my auto-immune diseases kick in and my health rapidly deteriorates. It is frustrating. The difference between improving fitness and flexibility and overdoing it setting off the health problems is only about 10 minutes a day and I can't always pick it. I can feel great while I'm doing it, only to have my auto-immune flare up an hour or more later. It really p----- me off!

Dietwise I'm pretty strict and my health is better than its ever been, but that doesn't mean I'm anywhere near where I want to be yet.

I do NOT want to continue to deteriorate as I see so many people of my age do. I'm improving, but, my goodness it takes focus and determination to make the changes after all this time.

[badgergirl]

But you *are* doing it and slow and steady wins the day! Hats off to you, AussieNana! You'll find loads of help and support here from much wiser heads than mine, but I would caution you to mainly stick with posters in your own demographic. There are a fair few young bloods who are building muscle hand over fist and so forth - their recipe for success probably won't work so well for you. That said, karate! My goodness - you really are kicking arse

[AussieNana]

Thanks badgergirl.

I've struggled all my life with my health but going paleo has been the only way for any improvements to stick. So now I know what health feels like I want to keep on improving. And I love the feeling of being fitter. But I do need to do it really slowly. If someone says to do something for 10 minutes I can't usually get away with doing it for one minute. I need to do it for 20 seconds each day for a week before upping it to 30 seconds. It makes improvements painfully slow. But hey, I might have another 40 years of living yet and if I learn how to do one major improvement a year then its certainly a lot better than the alternative! I want to be able to squat properly for 10 minutes by this time next year.

I don't know of anyone else my age who is improving and reducing symptoms. They are all complaining about reducing abilities.

I love being able to get up off the floor, to be able to stand on one foot to put on trousers and shoes and socks. And if anyone gets in to my house I am now agile enough to be able to run. If they trap me in the kitchen they will get a real surprise in that I could now turn my fear into anger and be able to attack to protect myself.

[Dirlot]

Keep going and keep listening to your body it seems to be working.

If ramping the number of reps is causing problems perhaps just jump to the next level and take it slow. I don't have the autoimmune issues but I get bored with endless reps so will ramp to the next level when my body feels ready (I am currently doing convict condition not PBF but same idea).

[PHaselow]

My biggest problem is that as soon as I ramp up the numbers my auto-immune diseases kick in and my health rapidly deteriorates.

What autoimmune disease(s)?

[AussieNana]

I've had a range of diagnoses over the years - 6 so far, but I'd rather not say as one of the things that I need to avoid is my previous tendency to say, "my crap is worse than your crap". I used to be competitively ill because medicine gave me no way out. Now I want to minimise them. I acknowledge certain limitations. But previously I found it too easy to focus on what I couldn't do because of the conditions so I now focus on what I can do, on my strengths and find a way of working round the limitations.

[ennaejay]

I love being able to get up off the floor, to be able to stand on one foot to put on trousers and shoes and socks. And if anyone gets in to my house I am now agile enough to be able to run. If they trap me in the kitchen they will get a real surprise in that I could now turn my fear into anger and be able to attack to protect myself.

We live next door to a sweet elderly widow whose home was broken into (thankfully she wasn't home). If you're looking to ward off an attacker, a man will always have the upper hand against a woman, strength-wise and especially if he/they are under the influence of something. Please do yourself a favor - read Paxton's Quigley's book "Armed and Female" and consider getting yourself some training and experience with using a firearm. Even a little .22 mag won't give hardly any kick, it's not too heavy for someone advanced in years, and a revolver is easy to load/unload. You don't have to use an Uzi; nobody breaking into your house will volunteer to be a shot with a .22, regardless of how small caliber it is.

THAT said...... GOOD for you! I read your first post and I am so encouraged and inspired by you! How I wish my mom (who is 57) would read your post and take it to heart! 10 minutes a day is fabulous girl! We're all starting from different places. 10 minutes a day of something taxing on your system is a great place to start - and you're paying attention to your body's signals if you're doing too much, rest is equally important too. It sounds like your flexibility and endurance is already improving, strength and agility are worth fighting for! Keep it up!! Report back to the forums with any questions and we'll try to help!

[Neckhammer]

I've had a range of diagnoses over the years - 6 so far, but I'd rather not say as one of the things that I need to avoid is my previous tendency to say, "my crap is worse than your crap". I used to be competitively ill because medicine gave me no way out. Now I want to minimise them. I acknowledge certain limitations. But previously I found it too easy to focus on what I couldn't do because of the conditions so I now focus on what I can do, on my strengths and find a way of working round the limitations.

That is well put and I think your new approach to minimize is awesome! Acknowledge and move on...very good. The tendency for us to name things also leads to our tendencies to look at our bodies in an alien manner and as some broken inept piece of equipment. We claim to "have" certain diseases and give them ownership in our own mind. They become a part of our identity and handicap us mentally. I don't recognize diseases...I see adaptive states of physiology.

By the way I think what you are doing is GREAT! Even if you do 10 seconds more of walking today than you did last month. Every little bit that you CAN do in you current state moves you away from that adaptive stressed physiology toward health and homeostasis!

[PHaselow]

I've had a range of diagnoses over the years - 6 so far, but I'd rather not say as one of the things that I need to avoid is my previous tendency to say, "my crap is worse than your crap". I used to be competitively ill because medicine gave me no way out. Now I want to minimise them. I acknowledge certain limitations. But previously I found it too easy to focus on what I couldn't do because of the conditions so I now focus on what I can do, on my strengths and find a way of working round the limitations.

Sorry. Didn't mean to pry, and I love your attitude. There are other helpful options like *safe* chelation (removing heavy metals), avoiding environmental chemicals (cleaning supplies, plastics, vaccines), and adding some supplements (turmeric is great) to help. Being tested for celiac disease, if you have not, would be a good thing. If you are strictly Paleo you will not be eating gluten outright, but still could have it sneak in there with processed foods or dining out. Cutting out Aspartame for sure (read labels; it is a sneaky ingredient).

I wish you only continued improvement and success. I am sorry your road back has been a slow one, but impressed that you are sticking it out. You just might convert a few of your peers!

[AussieNana]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Some days I really feel I need it. After yesterday's half hour of various exercises my autoimmune condition kicked in again - I had over done it even though I felt great doing it at the time. Ah well, today is quieter.

@ennaejay - I live in Australia and we can't easily keep guns. Even if we do get one we have to keep it in a locked cabinet and any bullets in a different locked cabinet (both screwed both to the wall and the floor). So I'm not going that track at the moment. One of the side benefits is that few criminals use guns in home invasions unless they know you have a gun or are involved in drugs. And if you have a gun - they will know about it and are likely to come and try to get it as my son-in-law found out. They took 3 hours to hammer into his house and noone in the suburb noticed!.

I know that fighting a strong, tall male is not a good idea and my first choice will be to run. However my karate colleagues are now very wary of me even though I'm well below them in training and am decades older and smaller in size. But I'm not afraid any more - wary, but not so afraid I would just let them beat me up. I'd at least try to give as good as I got. And karate is an hour of fairly full on exercise. When I first started it would take me a week to recover from each class. Now its only a day or two, depending on how much kicking I have to do. I'm trying to add in some core strength and flexibility to my schedule and its this which makes it easy to overdo things.

@ PHaselow - not problem about the question. I've done all the chelation stuff for a number of years so should be pretty right there though I'm still taking zinc, molybdemon and selenium as recommended by my doc. No aspartame, no artificial anything other than what might be in my very dark chocolate. Everything cooked from scratch and I seldom eat out. No coeliac disease according to the doc but I don't eat any grains. I won't put anything on my body that I wouldn't put in it. I make all my own soap from good ingredients and use food grade olive oil and coconut oils for moisturisers. Sodium bicarb for shampoo. I only use makeup if I'm going to have photos taken (say once a year!).

Its a long haul when you've been ill all your life and probably a lot of damage to be undone. I've become fairly expert in self management - expert in the psycho-social-spiritual components and getting to know more about what I can do physically. I suspect that I have at least one other component I'm not getting right yet or I wouldn't keep dropping back into auto-immune flares, but goodness knows what it is.

The comment about 10 minutes exercise in my first post was somewhat misleading. The difference between maintenance and improving is small. And the difference between improving fitness/flexibility and dropping into auto-immune stuff is about 10 minutes. The trouble is I'm feeling so much healthier that I want to move. I want to get fitter. I like exercise. But as this is so different from most of the rest of my life that I'm not completely tuned in to when I need to stop. Ah, well, its a much better problem to have than what a lot of my friends are developing.