Green Light For Lifting

“Then the angel told her: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call His name Jesus.”  Luke 1:30-31

Ahhhh, Christmas is only 10 DAYS AWAY!!!!  Um yeah, and I’m not ready.  But let’s not focus on that, shall we?!  Let’s talk about the weather…

Baby, it’s COLD outside!  Annnnd a little piece of information that the kids are thrilled about:

We are under a Winter Weather Advisory.

Ack!

They are hoping that we get a little of the sleet and freezing rain that they stations are calling for so that they can start their Christmas break a tad early.   I wouldn’t mind starting the break early, but I’m really not in the mood for any ice!  We’ll see what happens tonight. 

It was a late night for us last night as we were in Eminence for Tyler’s basketball game.  It was a bad night for all 3 VB teams (Girls, JV Boys, & Varsity Boys), because it seems that all the kids forgot to show up.  Not really…they were there, just not “with it.”  I don’t know if nobody slept the night before and they were tired, or maybe they were all thinking about their finals this week, but it was not a good night for VB basketball.  We got home around 10pm, 0-3 for the night.   But it’s still very early in the season and I’d rather have a loss now and learn from it, than to lose later – when it really counts.  So here’s to moving forward!

I mentioned the other day that I was going to start looking at some of the information from the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium from last weekend.  I was most intrigued by the announcement of a new finding:

That weight lifting may help LOWER lymphedema risk!

What?!  This is both shocking and exciting to me because, as a woman who had all the lymph nodes removed from under my right arm AND having had radiation makes me at high risk for developing lymphedema, I have always been told not to do “too much” with my right arm.  The reason being is because that without the lymph nodes there to drain off the excess fluid that can build up when you “overdo it,” the arm can swell and develop into the painful condition called lymphedema.  And once it starts, it can be managed but not reversed in most cases. 

So ever since my first surgery, I have refrained from lifting ANY weights, for fear of not knowing what my limits are and not wanting to push too far.  But I am so excited to hear about the results of this study that not only is light weightlifting allowed, but it can actually be helpful in preventing lymphedema!  Yay!  I can tell so much difference in my strength and my arm definition from two years of no weight lifting whatsoever, and I’m so excited to starting lifting my little 3- and 5-pound dumbbells again and possibly progress from there.  Weight lifting is also very important when it comes to preventing osteoporosis, which I am at risk for since I am now officially menopausal and on the drug Femara, which has a side effect of bone loss.  I can’t be losing bone in my early 30s!!  I’ve got a lot of years left to use these bones!!  So I’m going to be doing all I can NOW to prevent problems later.  <-----I get my preventative streak from my Mama.   

I’m going to go dust off the light weights and get to work! 

I have more Upward Cheer stuff to work on today (!!!) and then I’m going to enjoy NOT having to be anywhere tonight.

Bye, guys!

xoxo