Unexpected productivity

And also unexpected exercise but it’s all good.

The „brush teeth first“-trick worked for the second time in a row, I went to bed on time. I did not sleep all that well but apparently you can’t have everything.

I was waffling between taking the bike or the bus to my doctor’s appointment which meant I couldn’t really focus on my morning routine. It was raining in the morning and biking in the rain is not fun but neither is walking to the bus stop and maybe having to wait 20 minute for the next one of you miss one.

I did get to the breakfast table a little earlier than usual but my tea was still so hot that I could barely drink it before I ha to leave. The weather looked like the rain might have stopped so I choose the bike.

Good thing I have a rain cover for my bike helmet…

The 20-minute ride was more pleasant than expected but my jeans and shoes were very wet.

I had an appointment for a bone density test, I wanted a DEXA-scan (that stands for „dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry“) because my mother has very severe osteoporosis. I didn’t really think I’d have it too, I just wanted a baseline measurement and to be sure.

I didn’t have to wait at all before going in, in fact, I was in the middle of juggling two pairs of glasses and a micro-fiber cloth because I wanted to dry my glasses and had to take my sunglasses out of the case for that, when the assistant called me. I answered tons of questions about my health, medications and all kinds of things, was weighed and had to take my jeans and shoes off. (Now that I think of it I was wearing an undershirt with holes in it that were clearly visible, ahem.)

Both my hip joints and my lumbar spine were x-rayed (the radiation there is minimal, the assistant didn’t even leave the room), then I had wait some more before seeing the doctor.

This orthopedist continues to be the nicest I’ve ever met. She was delighted that I had followed her advice to start hormone-replacement therapy and went on to explain everything to me very throughly.

So. My lumbar spine is fine, my hip joints are already showing osteopenia which means the bones are less dense than ideal. The doctor thinks the hormones I’m taking will help, as will the vitamin D I started taking again. Things I can also do is do resistance training and balance training, running is also good as is being a bit overweight. My calcium levels are good, so there’s nothing I need to do there but I do have a long list of foods that help with that.

I am supposed to come back in two or three years to have it checked again.

Then I rode my bike back, the rain had stopped, so that was nice.

At home my husband was busy with two cooking projects at once in two different kitchens in the house, so that was intense. I went out again, bought lots and lots of tea at the tea shop, then went on to the health food store.

When I came home lunch was almost ready:

These are bigly noodles, an Italian specialty, with duck ragu. It was very good but the pasta had a bit too much salt. At least parmesan has lots of calcium as I learned yesterday.

After that I took a break, then went off to have a video chat with a friend in India. That was highly enjoyable and we agreed to hold each other more accountable.

Chatting with her was very good for my motivation. After our conversation I went online, decided to quickly change the colors on my author website from orange to purple to fit my book better, tried finding the fonts the cover designer used on my book cover (and failed), made a very provisional and wonky new header, wrote a welcome mail for my newsletter and triggered my first email automation sequence. (You can see it in action if you sign up on said author website, just saying.)

I then started writing this post, looked at the laundry that was still hanging on racks in my studio and decided to just leave it there another day, ate dinner, made a list for today, wasted some time online, read a bit more and went to bed.

Today will be a little quieter, I think, apart from all the exercise again and one student to teach. Who knows, maybe I’ll even touch the piano outside of the lesson.