Monthly Achievements July

I am doing an hour Yoga class regularly before breakfast. This does appear beyond my reach and until I realised what yoga was all about I would have thought it would be. Yoga class involves, not pushing to the limit, not working up a sweat, but gentle poses which suit my mood and stretchiness every morning. The classes are easy to find and if there are sections of the hour which are totally beyond me, I adjust or sit them out. I am seeing the benefits enormously. I can stretch and bend unbelievably compared to six months ago. my upper body strength has improved- I can't carry the shopping yet, but can fill the washing machine and make the bed in stages, without consequential pain. (I wrote this ten days ago, thinking I needed a monthly achievements post and now am only managing 30minutes at most every day, but I fit in stretches and poses when I am resting throughout the day. So I may not be doing an hours class or doing as many weight baring poses, but am still stretching and encouraging movement)

I can cook a little more, standing at hob or the mixer. I don't feel dizzy or lightheaded and my legs don't ache so quickly, so 10-15 minutes is OK. The tools I put in place are still invaluable to me, so I don't have use my energy everyday to do this. Everything is frozen in batches and somedays I can cook myself breakfast and an interesting sour of the moment lunch or tea, somedays I have to rely on the microwave and husband! I'm still not chopping vegetables- I tried a few weeks ago, but it hurts my wrists pushing the knife down on the chopping board. I do it occasionally rather dangerously holding the knife and item in mid-air as if I was peeling an apple, but it doesn't achieve particularly good results!

Been on holiday!!! and stayed longer than expected. We stayed at my sister's when they were away, so had the place to ourselves. I had to deal with stairs, which were less of a challenge than I thought they might be. We were anticipating having to come home after just a few days if I found it difficult but we were there for 8 nights and very sad to leave. Thanks sis!

Walking a little, either pushing the wheelchair or without. I mentioned this in May, but it has been and gone since then week on week and I now feel more confident when I do it. Again this is probably due to the yoga poses I now practice daily which strengthen my legs and encourage a taller spine; mountain pose can be done just waiting for the microwave to cook my lunch and one of my friends was impressed to see me emptying the washing machine- I was in chair pose! Walking takes a lot of energy and I must follow my daily pacing, so if I am doing more indoors I will not walk outside. To quote Yoda "It will be so" ! (actually I'm not sure that is something Yoda said, but it seems like it is)