From my previous posts you can see that I had some lofty goals for this past summer focusing on my personal lifestyle, habits and behaviours. So how did I do? Not bad but not done either. Some of the not to continue habits have been pulled back or redirected rather than fully eliminated. It was primarily my compulsion for “picking” antiques and collectibles that was to stop but was downsized instead. Still going to a few auctions on-line and live but buying much less. Also sold or donated a lot of inventory with three categories style in stock. Have kept my olympic collectibles to be sold somehow during the 2020 Summer Olympic season, continued to refresh the Parkinson;s LP inventory for the Pie and Vinyl sale for next year and somehow accumulated a few hundred (thousand) marbles. Why marbles, maybe because the are shinny, colourful and interesting? Why not, they seem fun. The goal is to sort and prepare almost everything for a Collectibles Sale in the spring and see what I can make of it.
As I am writing the is blog, I am actually typing with both hands which is a great improvement for my left hand. One of my original indicators of my PD was the inability to productively use my left hand for typing. But with a variety of exercises everything seems better. Although the boxing has been great for the last year, I have taken a break to try Yoga. And when they say Hot Yoga is HOT, believe me it is. Although Gentle Yoga is my primary class, I have been doing Hot Yoga once a week. I have been stretching and sweating muscles that I didn’t know I had. My biggest benefit is sleeping for the first time through the night only to be nudged awake at 5am by Charlie our golden retriever. This allows me to complete my morning routine to get him and his Mom (Riley) out for our morning walk (2.4km). With the help of my Nordic Walking Poles, I retain good posture and pace while mindfully walking, even purposely spreading my toes within my shoes and ensuring a good stride. This is a major accomplishment for me to get back to walking after a number of falls while walking and cycling this spring.
Supporting our local Parkinson chapter continues to be my main focus with additional effort in the search for healthy foods. I have found that a tea from a combination of mushrooms (not those ones!) have replaced coffee and is a great cold drink during the day. A blog will follow on this shortly. Looking forward to attending the Porridge for Parkinson’s Event in Toronto this weekend to see if it can be duplicated in a smaller market like Peterborough.