Archive for the ‘exercise’ Category

going to the doctor

August 9, 2011

I am going to the doctor today. Nothing is wrong, at least that I know of. It’s just that I am approaching my 58th birthday and I never go to a doctor— like ever. I figure it’s the responsible thing to do.

Having never been to a doctor except for less than a handful of times since I had my kids (yes, really), I have a certain great amount of trepidation about going! I don’t like doctors, have never liked hospitals, but I realize a lot of this is irrational fear. At my age and with the history just mentioned, I refuse to see a male doctor for a gynecological exam. It just is not within my being to do so, to have some random strange man looking at my body parts. I know this is also based on irrational worries, but I don’t care. The point is to get myself into a doctor’s examination room and have a check-up.

I am going in this morning only for them to draw blood. The appt. is actually next week. And it’s taking me forever to take a shower and get going.

My last 2 kids were actually home births, as in “in our home”. I definitely saw a doctor all through the pregnancy, who knew of our plans, and also a lay midwife. Everything looked 100% and all turned out well. I just don’t like hospitals. They are impersonal, bureaucratic, and we know today that infections are rampant in them. You have to tell every shift of nurses the same things you told the last shift of nurses, they wake you every few hours, you hear noises and can’t sleep in hospitals. At any rate, at my age I want things checked out, see how I’m doing, check the heart, check the sugar levels, etc. There is zero incidence of cancer in my family. I know of none. No diabetes either. However, there certainly is heart disease. I’m getting to the age where arteries could be blocked & it’s just time to check things out.

I walk 3 miles a day, take an occasional swim, do not crave sweets, feel pretty good. I’m starting to have a few aches & pains out of nowhere but nothing major.

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backs

May 19, 2011

The spine is an amazing labyrinth of interconnected parts. When some of them don’t quite connect right or get twisted or bent a little wrong, boy do we know it!

I’ve started walking 3 miles a day, and now that I’m beginning to exercize regularly, my back is giving me fits. It just plain hurts. So now I am walking but in pain. Especially first thing in the morning.

Our son Jamal has some sort of genital defect, he’s been told, in his back or spine, which he has to gingerly care for, or he could be in very big serious trouble. He’s been in pain wrything on the floor before.  The last chiropractor said it was from one of his parents. I’m guessing it’s me.

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Mar.13, one week to go

March 13, 2011

One more week of the Baha’i fast where we do not eat or drink from sunrise to sundown. That being said, Daylight Savings time doesn’t do a THING for us!! We now wait until 7:30pm to eat dinner.  🙂  Any kind of food sounds good by that time. You don’t care what it is.

I think of the people of northern Japan, who have left their homes which were either destroyed, pulverized by the tsunami or are threatened now by a nuclear reactor meltdown, and they have no power. Japan, one of the most advanced, high-tech societies of the world, with a people-per-sq-mile of something like 900, now has hundreds and thousands of people wandering south, looking for shelter, food and water. There have to be ten thousand personal stories, stories of human giving and generosity, as well as human suffering, but all we see on the news is the same old boring reports. I would like some human stories, personal stories. They also edit the tsunami videos. If you watch, just about when the wave is going to reach a road which still has people on it, it shuts off. They are edited. Makes you wonder what it’s really like out there.

Ghadafi and Libya have disappeared from CNN. You can bet he’s getting ready to strike, or he is already. The world cannot move forward toward unity until ALL the world is free of oppression and dictators who don’t care who they kill as long as they retain power. Only after they achieve democracy will the stories of the WOMEN of the world come out! They will never be free until the men are first freed of the dictators. Then the women will demand their own freedom.

Today I added the last of the photos of gravesites I had taken over spring break. Perhaps someone, sometime, will decide to look for their loved one’s gravesite photo, type in their name and birth or death dates, and up will pop my photo. That is my hope. It all takes time, time to drive to the cemetaries, photograph the stones taking care to get all the information, and then LOTS of time to add them into the website and post the photo.

Yesterday morning I spent about 2 hours, by mistake adding photos to the wrong cemetary. I just thank God I discovered what I did, so I could then delete them all. I would have transfered them easily to the correct cemetary, but when I checked, someone else had already added most of them. There were only a couple that had not already been added. That was a lesson learned.

Yesterday I restarted my 2-mi. daily walk, so it’s time to hit the pavement again right now. Bright and sunny and 74 degrees, how can I complain?

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walking

May 10, 2010

I got one of those pedometers that measures distance. The walk I like to walk at home is only 1/2 a mile long. That is not enough. I’ll have to add to it.

Walked with my 8-9 mo. pregnant daughter this weekend and knew again how out of shape I am. I just have to go out every day and gradually add to it. I’m also still dealing with plain exhaustion, at the end of the semester. Went back to sleep today and woke up at noon.

Saw two large turtles today in the pond. Went to the recycling center with our plastic, aluminum, newspaper and trash. And cooked dinner just now, chicken tenderloins with onions and red pepper, in a red pepper tomato soup sauce, baked potatoes and corn. So creative. My big accomplishments for the day.

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in my 50s

April 12, 2010

In my 50s, I have become “dumpy”. I am not happy with this. It is time to take charge of a number of things in my life, weight being one of them.

I have made a few decisions, one of which is to take charge of our finances. We are creating a savings for the 1st time in our lives, we are paying down our debt, even though the Parent Loans are unimaginable in size, and we are making progress. I can do the same with weight.

For most of my life, I have turned heads with my looks. Part of me is quite happy and satisfied turned “dumpi-er” in my 50s. I am happy with myself. But I am not comfortable being this weight, which is about 175 lbs. and 5’4″. For most of my life at the same height, I’ve been more like 135-155. Suddenly, I’m at this size. Guess what I’m saying is, I’d feel better if I wasn’t.

Health becomes a concern in your mid-50s. Heart, cholesterol, sugar-levels, all that good stuff. I’ve never had a concern health-wise. Suddenly, it’s feeling like if I don’t start fighting this fight now, it’s all down hill from here. My body is refusing menopause but I don’t have to be this weight. That is up to me. A lot of it comes from sitting at a desk and a computer ALL DAY LONG every single day! I have to control what I eat, and go walking regularly, for a lot longer than I have been.

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walking

March 24, 2010

To get back to an earlier post about walking for exercise, I did start walking again. But then it started raining, and it seems every time I think of walking, it is sprinkling or raining.

Just this morning, it is clearing and the sun is rising over the pond. It is going to be a beautiful day. The mist that forms and moves across the pond is happening, which means the weather is changing.

I realize that a change in my thinking is what is needed. I’ve had this vague notion in my mind about walking (when I have time). The truth is, my body is changing, and will continue to change, and nothing is going to change for the better, at this age! So I either start fighting it, regularly and consistently, or it’s all downhill from here at a much faster rate than what I want.

I have to walk to save my life. Not “when I have time” which is never. It has to be a regular pattern to my day, and I have to think of it in terms of saving my life. Maybe saving my body, to the extent possible. Spring in the south is the best time to realize this. I can walk every day, or at least 5X/week. It has to be a necessary part of my day, just like lunch after the fast is over!  🙂

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walk 10 miles

February 11, 2010

per week! I just made a pact with myself to walk approx. 2 miles at a time, 5 days a week. At the end of each week I’ll give a report.

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