Today I got to run!  The wonderful thing about the Alter G treadmill is that you are totally supported.  Walking, never mind running – is really hard work for me and I am at risk of falling.  Falls are NOT good. I go down like a felled tree and usually cause damage to my neck (whiplash, as I throw my head back) plus the fact that my arms don’t have elbows or wrists – means that I take the full force of my body weight through my shoulder joints.

My heart rate was getting up to 165bpm – I was walking and running with just 75% of my body weight – the remaining weight being supported by the air filled chamber underneath.

I worked up a healthy sweat and look forward to charting my progress.  I’ve booked a series of 10 sessions.

…or perhaps the Personal Trainer?  Had a very useful hour with Mike, the Sports Therapist at the Circle Clinic.  He’s devised me an exercise routine to help strengthen muscles in my problem areas where I get regular and often unrelenting pain.

I get a lot of pain in my neck, shoulders, lower back and both hips.  Some of the pain is caused by the mechanics of my walking (there’s more here about my unique hips..) but most of it is caused by the way I use my body to carry out activities – such as using a keyboard, dressing myself, food preparation, etc.  I spend a lot of time with my head crunched forwards and my shoulders hunched.

Excuse the awful background music… there was some sort of circuit class going on at the same time!

Squats to strengthen my arms, shoulders and glutes

Concentrating on building up the muscles in my right (weaker) leg whilst building up muscles with squatting.

Bridging on a gm ball – building balance and core muscles, strengthening my lower back

Balancing on a gym ball, one leg lift.  Strengthens core and leg muscles

Building up and strengthening arms and shoulders, concentrating on keeping my shoulders down.

Todays appointment at the clinic went really well.  After a further physical assessment and some work on my lower spine to alleviate some of the stiffness that occurs plus stretches on the muscles at the front of my thighs, I was zipped into my Alter-G shorts!

I was soon walking at 5.2 kph (3.2mph) at 70% of my total body weight.  The wonderful thing about the Alter G is that I am able to walk without over-stressing my joints and muscles and therefore I am not experiencing the lower back and hip pain that ordinarily occur when I walk any distance at all.

In total I walked for 20 minutes, mostly at a brisk pace.

I have now signed up for 10 sessions on the Alter G, the first one will be next Monday when the Physio will over see me.  After that I can go back any time that I want and use the treadmill without supervision – but I will need support from someone to get the shorts on and zip myself in and out of the machine.

I am also booked to have a session with the sports therapist at the clinic this Friday.  He will devise me an exercise programme to work on my “problem areas” – neck, shoulders, hips and lower spine.

At the end of November last year, I visited a local Circle Clinic locally.  They offer privately funded advice and treatment and what really attracted me to them was the fact that they offer pain rehabilitation.  So it’s all about learning how to live with persistent pain.

Over the course of last year I underwent various investigations to determine the cause of lower back pain and pain in my left hip.  I was fortunate to be referred to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore by my GP.  The hospital is a centre of excellence and provides a comprehensive range of neuro-musculoskeletal health care, ranging from acute spinal injury to orthopaedic medicine and specialist rehabilitation for chronic back pain sufferers. This broad range of services is unique within the NHS.

I had MRI scans of my lower spine and hip and they have determined that there is “minimal posterior disc protrusion at L 1/2. mild lumbar degenerative changes at the facet joints at L3/4, L4/5 and L5S1.”

Much of the damage is caused by the mechanics of walking – I don’t have proper ball and socket hip joints.

We discussed a pain management plan and the hip consultant agreed with my thoughts on devising a regular programme of non-weight bearing exercise.  I don’t want to have to take pain killers on a regular basis.

At the Circle Clinic, after an initial assessment by a specialist consultant in rehabilitation, I was referred on to an Orthotist and Phsyio at the Clinic.

The Orthotist quickly determined that I do not need the shoe raise I have been using for over 15 years.  In fact, with my right sided ankle fusion, the toe of my shorter (fused ankle) leg is longer than my long leg! He gave me some temporary heel inserts to try out for a month (in boots and trainers). He felt that my gait and balance, the level of my pelvis appeared improved with these. If I feel this is an improvement, he will arrange to get me a custom made insert that supports my high instep too.

Certainly the inserts have felt better and I felt more balanced. He also works as a consultant in the Orthotics dept at the local hospital who do my shoe raises, so he managed to retrieve the two boots I’d just taken to have built up! (Perfect timing!!).

The Physio has agreed that I need to get back to a regular exercise routine. I have already explored swimming (with disabled swimming club), will look to going back to Pilates regularly (one-to-one) and arranged to go back to Clinic in the new year for him to work with me on some exercises. He’s going to set me up on the Alter-G (anti-gravity treadmill) and if I like that and he feels it will benefit me, I can go back and use it unsupervised.  I also saw the Hydro Physio aquatic treadmill in use. 

He thinks a lot of my pain comes from the shortening of my muscles and tendons at the front of my legs/thigh (too much sitting) and that I need to work on laying on my front and improving / stretching the muscle which will hopefully help with the pains I am experiencing.
So….. I am booked to go back to the orthotist and the physio next week. I undertook with the physio to move more and exercise as I am able to between that appointment and when I next see him – which I have done!

Whilst in Tenerife I managed some walking and I have got back to my stretching / Pilates exercise regime most mornings.

I still need to find a suitable swimming pool that myself and hubbie can visit regularly.  It needs to be accessible to me both in terms of getting into and out of the pool (I find step-ladder type steps almost impossible) AND have some unisex changing facilities, as I require support from my husband to get changed. But I have in mind for us to try out the newly opened Reading Lido!  We will just have to ensure that we aren’t lured by the rather lovely looking menus in their restaurant and poolside bars!

My appointment at the Circle takes place on Monday.  Watch this space as I plan to share my progress!

This is an easy peasy lemon squeezy recipe and takes just a few minutes to make!

Prawn lemon & chilli courgetti

Preparation Time:  10 mins

Cooking Time:  5 mins

Serves:  2

Calories per serving:  371

________________________________________

Ingredients

Red chilli – ½ Tsp/1.5g

Courgette – 2 Courgettes/448g

Olive Oil – 1 Tbsp/15ml

King Prawns, Peeled – 180g

Peppers, Chilli, Dried, Whole, Red, Schwartz – 1 Tsp/0.5g

Lemon, Fresh, Raw, Average – ½ Lemon/57.5g

Soured Cream  – 2 Tbsps/30ml

Soft Cream Cheese  – 30g

Dried Parsley  – ½ Tsp/0.5g

Pine Nuts – 7g

Fine Egg Noodles, Sharwood’s – 1 Block/63g

________________________________________

Method

Julienne the courgette into fine strands. Peel and chop the garlic. Zest and juice the lemon. Finely chop the chilli. Toast the pine nuts under the grill or in a dry pan until golden brown.

Cook the noodles as per the instructions – drain and set aside keeping warm.

Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the courgette, garlic and chilli flakes and fry for around 5-6 minutes until softened. Add the parsley, lemon juice and zest and continue to cook for one minute. Add the soured cream, cream cheese and the prawns and continue to cook over a low heat for around 2 minutes until the prawns and sauce are warmed through.

Serve into two large bowls and top with the toasted pine nuts.

________________________________________

Nutrition Information

Nutrition Data Per Serving

Calories (kcal)   371.5

Carbohydrate (g)   28.5

Fat (g)   18.2

Fibre (g)   4.0

Sodium (g)   0.901

Fruit & Veg   3.3

Protein (g)   23.5

Preparation Time:  30 minutes

Cooking Time:  1 hour

Serves:  8

Calories per serving:  127

Ingredients

• Olive Oil                                                                     –   35ml
• Butternut Squash                                                       –   1000g
• Red Peppers (x 3)                                                      –   445g
• Butter                                                                         –   20g
• Carrots                                                                       –   115g
• Celery                                                                        –   110g
• Dried Chilli Pepper Flakes                                           –   1 Pinch/0.1g
• Knorr Vegetable Stock Pot, As Sold                           –   1 Pot/28g
• Water                                                                         –   2 Litres/2000ml
• Onions                                                                       –   125g
• Garlic                                                                         –   3 Cloves/9g

Preparation:

Peel garlic cloves. Peel and finely dice onion and carrot. Wash and finely dice celery.
Peel and de seed the butternut squash and cut into 1.5 cm cubes.

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6.

Place butternut squash, red pepper and garlic cloves in a roasting pan, splash over a good drizzle of olive oil and grind over some salt and pepper. Sprinkle on the chilli flakes. Toss to coat well.

Roast in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until the squash is tender, stirring thoroughly half way through cooking time.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat then add the onion, celery and carrot. Cook and stir until tender, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven and add the roasted vegetables to the saucepan along with any roasting juices and mix well. Pour in the water (boiling) and stock pot and quickly bring to the boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool for about 10 to 15 minutes before blending with hand held liquidiser or using a food processor.

Return to a clean saucepan just prior to serving and heat until bubbling. Serve in warmed bowls with a dollop of soured cream.

Ah, Christmas has taken its toll on me – and I managed to gain a staggering 12lbs over the festivities.  That was over the course of a month and did include a two week holiday in the sunshine just ahead of Christmas.  In my defence I did  manage to get in a little exercise!

As of yesterday, I am back on it.  This will be the year where I get to my 9 stone goal!

I also need to start improving my fitness levels.  I have my first appointment with a Physio who I have been referred to via a Pain Clinic next week.  The plan is to devise a suitable regular exercise programme which I hope will help with ongoing hip and lower back pain issues.

Yesterday and today I have been doing some bulk cooking – and thought you may like to see these healthy and low calorie filling recipes.

We have a plan with regards to diet.  We are going to attempt 2 days a week eating fish, 2 days vegetarian and just one day of red meat.  Outside of that, we will continue trying to find new recipes!  We are also reducing the processed meat that we consume.

Healthy Bean Stew

Preparation Time:    30 mins

Cooking Time:    1 hr 30 mins

Serves:   6

Calories per serving:    154

Ingredients

• Onions, Raw                                   –    110g
• Garlic                                              –    2 Cloves/6g
• Olive Oil                                          –    12ml
• Celery                                             –    85g
• Carrots                                           –    100g
• Swede                                            –    175g
• Courgette                                       –    250g
• Chopped Tomatoes in Tomato Juice   –            2 Cans/800g
• Tomato Puree                                –    1 Pot/70g
• Butter Beans                                  –    235g
• Cannellini Beans                            –    240g
• Thyme, Dried                                  –    ½ Tsp/0.5g
• Paste, Spicy Chipotle Chilli             –    10g
• Oxo Vegetable Stock Cubes          –    1 Cube/6g
• Chestnut Mushrooms                      –    170g

Preparation:
Peel and finely dice carrot, onion and garlic. Trim and finely dice celery. Peel the swede and cut into 1cm cubes. Cut the courgette and mushrooms into 1cm cubes.
Method:
(1) Pour the olive oil into a large lidded pan and heat over a medium heat. Add the carrot, celery, swede and onion and fry gently for 10-15 minutes. Add the garlic clove and cook for a further 5 minutes.

(2) Add the tinned tomato, tomato puree, crumbled stock cube and the water. Add the chipotle paste, thyme and paprika.

Stir thoroughly. Bring to the boil, lower heat to a simmer, cover and continue to cook for about 20 minutes stirring frequently.

(3) Add the courgette and stir. Cover and continue to cook for 30 minutes.

(4) Add the mushrooms. Stir thoroughly, cover and cook for a further 20 – 30 minutes until all the vegetables are cooked through.

(5) Finally, add the (drained) beans and stir. These only need to be heated through.

This meal makes an ideal “batch” cook and can be served either as a main meal or as a side dish to accompany chicken, white fish, pork chops, sausages or Mozzarella/Feta.