Double Duty

So Today was a double duty kind of day. First off my school went on their field trip to Davis Farmland and then I started my first week (out of thirteen) for a cardiac wellness study I am participating in. Let's first begin with Davis Farmland...

On our way into Davis Farmland.

So we had four classes that went on the field trip ranging from 3 years old - 6 years old (fun I know). Oh yea and we can't forget all the additional parent chaperons that went with us. Let's just say some were a lot more help than others.

We took all our children over to our corral where we would be having lunch and then headed out onto our "tour" of the farm. We started with a hay ride which was fun, all the children got to look at some horns/antlers and horse shoes and then we got to check out some animals. There were many animals that were roaming free and we even had some come and visit us as we rode. The favorite of the whole ride seemed to be the horses however I must confess one of the children in my group constantly says she is going to be a horse when she grows up so I think they were a little biased.

Two horses and two ponies.

We went on to explore the rest of the farm. Now here is where I always get a little confused at the setup of how Davis Farmland does these things. As part of their field trip "tours" they lead you around the farm to different animals and tell you things. I always find this problematic mainly because the children are never interested in A.) Whatever animals they happen to be showing us & B.) Seem as though they could careless about what they are saying. My suggestion would to just let the groups roam around where they would like from the start rather than trying to give a guided tour (Just my opinion probably not every else's that was there from my school). After finally getting about 10 minutes to explore by ourselves we headed back to out corral to have lunch. At which point I discovered that one of the children did not have a lunch, but I have moved beyond blaming others and have just realized I need to double check everything for myself before we go anywhere (which was also reconfirmed while trying to change the children after playing in the splash pad).

Everyone was done eating and we all headed over the splash pad. All the children had to keep their school shirts on in order for us to keep an accurate eye one them. There was plenty to do, they had water tables, water guns, all kinds of sprinklers and things that just got you drenched. Needless to say I certainly did not stay dry at all but I had planned on that happening. 

As we were walking to the corral there weren't many people in the splash pad so I got a good shot of the water guns without having to worry about getting my camera soaked trying to take it later.

After the splash pad we went back to change all the children at which point we discovered numerous children who didn't have underwear and one who didn't have a change of clothes at all (like I said I need to check everything myself from now on). Once fully dressed and cleaned up we headed back to the bus and sang our way back to school. All in all I would say it was a successful field trip even with the minor complications.

Now on to part two of my day, My first class for my 13 week Cardiac Wellness study at The Benson-Henry Institute For Mind Body Medicine.

Week One Done!

We start off each week by taking our blood pressure and weight. My blood pressure was normal and I weighed relatively the same as I did when I went for my initial intake interview a week and half ago. Then we start our hour of exercise. I started on a machine called NuStep which is basically a combination of a stair machine and a bike. It was very interesting. I did that for about 20 minutes and then moved on to the treadmill (Something I am much more familiar with). They come around while you are doing your machines and check your heart rate and talk to you about how your previous week has been and can answer any questions you have as well as give you pointers about different ways to do things or how to help your accomplish your goals. We did about 45 minutes of cardio and then moved into the weight room and did mild weight training for 15 minutes.

The next part in something that I think will be the most difficult part of this whole process for me, relaxation. We started will deep calming breath, moved to stretching/yoga and then a form of meditation. I say this is going to be my most challenging part because I have a hard time just relaxing. My mind is constantly going and I often feel as though doing something like meditation is a waste of time because there are so many other things that need to get done that I could be doing. I am hoping that this will force me to really focus on spending a little more time de-stressing myself and learning to relax will be very helpful.

All in all I think it will be far out weigh the annoying things with good things so I am still optimistic about the program. I think if things progress this way for the thirteen weeks when I talk to the survivor-ship people running the study for Lymphoma patients I might suggest having a separate group for them so that everyone is experiencing the same things rather than feeling like a fish out of water. But given it is only week one I will not jump to too many conclusions.

So after driving home (oh yea I forgot to mention that this cardiac wellness study is out in Waltham so it takes me about an hour to get home) and having a piece of pizza, shower and writing this it is far past my bedtime as I am exhausted!

Thanks for reading and staying tuned for the next one!!