Week 8 of Baby Steps

I'm on week 8 of the Baby Steps workout routine and still making it, despite crazy fatigue and feeling blah.

  

Here is a photo of my little notes (along with some of my friends: Wellington the bear, Chiki the monkey, and "the Lion" who gets hidden by Don or me for the other one to find) that I posted on my bedroom mirror to remind me to do my exercises each day.  I add an increment each week, draw a large number, write the date range for the week on top, and just stick it on top of the others.  (Yes, it's getting thick.) 

I'm also noticing a few quirky things that may or may not have to do with my increasing my exercises.  

When I turn over in bed or try to get comfortable in a new position, once I settle, I notice I get these muscle twitches in my torso.  This is the first time I've been able to associate any of my muscle twitches to anything I've done or that happens to my body.  I still get the random twitches everywhere else - arm, eye, lip, leg, toe, butt - but when I am turning around and settling into the bed or the couch, I am now noticing that almost every time, I end up with muscle twitches that occur in the torso area, usually on the sides of my stomach.

Also, the heart palpitations are back.  I used to get very infrequent episodes of my heart pounding and beating incorrectly (tachycardia) that sometimes lasted for hours.  When I tried to capture an episode or two on a heart monitor I wore for a month last year, (after seeing a heart specialist for this,) nothing happened, so we don't know exactly what kind of issue is occurring.  However, over the years, I've had my heart checked out via ultrasound and even did a stress test and everything turned out okay, test-wise, so apparently these are benign episodes, though they can be very distracting and unsettling if they go on long.  

So what I'm noticing recently is that when I wake up or for no apparent reason sometimes, I notice my heart beating incorrectly and quickly for just a few seconds before returning to normal while I concentrate on breathing and focus on a normal heartbeat.  These are occurring daily or more frequently these days, and I'm not sure if it is coincidence, or perhaps my trying to increase my muscle mass is causing some sort of electrolyte or other chemical imbalance or something, due to the needs of my muscles.  Perhaps I'll do some research and see if a supplement can help me with this.

Another thing going on lately is lots of dizziness and feelings of presyncope, especially in the mornings and while moving my head or even just my eyes.   I get myself to work and step off the elevator to get to my desk.  All the while, each time I turn a corner, I feel like I might faint.  I've never fainted, so I don't know if there's any danger of actually fainting, but the feeling is there.  Needless to say, I'm not myself until my body settles down a bit and I can focus on other things.

At any rate, I'm still moving forward on my exercise goals.  Hopefully, once I get stronger, I'll have increased my metabolism and built up my endurance a bit.  Then I can get serious about losing some fat and maybe getting into some of my smaller pants sizes again.  Dare to dream...