Fitness

It’s a weird and wonderful life!

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It occurred to me today that I live a weird life; or perhaps I’m just a weird person!

I’m a 60 year old woman preparing to go to China to teach English. In between weight lifting sets this afternoon, I’ve been working on editing a master’s thesis for someone in Japan and taking apart a dress for my son! Yup, definitely weird!

I started weight lifting 18 years ago before it became a popular activity for women. According to Wikipedia, nearly 20% of American women now lift weights on a regular basis but I doubt that many of them are in their sixties and most of them probably weren’t total non athletes like I was in my younger days.

I like what Adam Campbell, fitness director of Women’s Health and author of The Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises says:

But do I look like I lift weights? Absolutely. I’m lean and fit, and my muscles are well-defined, even if they’re not busting out of my shirt. 

You see, lifting weights isn’t just about building 20-inch biceps. In fact, for most women, it’s not about that at all, since resistance training may be the single most effective way to lose fat and look great in a swimsuit. What’s more, the benefits of lifting extend into nearly every aspect of your health and well-being. So much so that after nearly 12 years of reporting in the field of health and fitness, I’ve come to one rock-solid conclusion: You’d have to be crazy not to lift weights—even if bigger biceps are the last thing you want. 

The truth is, lifting weights gives every woman an edge. Over belly fat. Over stress. Over heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Lifting even makes you smarter and happier. 

To read more, including his 20 reasons why you shouldn’t live another day without lifting, click here.

If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you know that I also love writing and keeping my mind active. That’s why when my friend, Smoky, asked if I would be willing to edit his thesis on factors that affect Japanese junior high school students’ motivation to learn English, I jumped at the opportunity.

Smoky's family

Besides, is it any wonder that he doesn’t have as much time as he’d like to polish his own writing? Those darling children are three of our “Japanese grandchildren” and I’d way rather he spent his time loving them!

dressNow, what about the dress? As I mentioned in an earlier post, on February 9th Nate will be skiing the 31 km Canadian Birkebeiner in an African schoolgirl dress to raise funds so that little girls in Sierra Leone can go to school. He’s already raised enough to provide a full year of schooling for one girl and is hoping that money will continue to come in.

The dress is snug on his 6 foot 3 inch frame. He needs more room for a warm layer underneath and to ensure that his arms can move freely when he skis. I’ve opened the seams down both sides and am adding panels of stretchy sportswear fabric to provide the space and mobility that he needs.

Yes, my life might be weird but it’s also rich and full and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Definitely a word nerd!

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Imagine being able to exercise your brain and your butt at the same time. That’s exactly what I’m going to be doing over the next few months!

I like a lot of things about living in a small prairie town but sometimes I wish we lived closer to a bigger centre. One thing I’d really like to be able to do in my retirement is take a few college courses just for fun but distance makes that impractical.

Then my sister told me that she was enjoying university lectures on DVD while walking on her treadmill! For more than 20 years, The Great Courses have been producing college level courses taught by the best professors that major American universities like Harvard and Stanford have to offer. Their lectures are available on CD and DVD as well as either audio or video download.

The Great Courses offers something for everyone; everything from science and mathematics to business and economics, from gourmet cooking to world history. I could have borrowed DVDs from my sister but our interests are very different. Her lectures on statistics and probability would have put me to sleep and I would have ended up a broken heap on the basement floor behind the treadmill! Knowing that, she suggested something entirely different for me, a course entitled The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins. I was intrigued!

There’s absolutely no question about it; I’m a word nerd! I even got excited reading the introduction to the course guidebook.

We’ll travel back in time to the invasions by Vikings and the Normans to explore words from sky to story, which are so familiar they hardly seem borrowed at all. Then, we’ll immerse ourselves in the classical revival of the Renaissance, which gave English related sets of Latinate words, including omnivorous, carnivorous, piscivorous, and voracious. 

I know, if you’re not a word lover like me, you’re probably falling asleep already. I hope you’re not on a treadmill! I, on the other hand, could hardly wait for my DVDs to arrive in the mail. I watched the first lecture this evening and wasn’t disappointed. My professor is Anne Curzan PhD, Professor of English at the University of Michigan. She’s an excellent speaker; clear, easy to follow and obviously in love with her subject matter. I could hardly believe it when the 30 minute lecture was over. I’d walked almost two miles and hardly noticed!

I’ll continue to use my walking videos from time to time. In fact, I’ve been walking on the Isle of Capri lately but I can hardly wait to spend more time in the “classroom”. In this evening’s lecture, Professor Curzan introduced four main themes that will be covered by the course.

  • English is a mixed linguistic bag with many borrowed words giving it a rich, multi-layered vocabulary.
  • Words are powerful.
  • English is a living, ever-changing language.
  • Studying English asks us to rethink some very common notions about language.

Oops! There I go putting some of you to sleep again!  I hope you’ll bear with me though if I share a few tidbits from the course over the next few months. I probably won’t be able to help myself!

No more CRACK please!

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I clearly remember the first time my knee popped. I was visiting a museum in Sakura, Japan. The gallery was silent. I crouched down to look at something close to the floor and when I straightened up… CRACK! There was no pain but what a shock! What was going on? The year in Japan was a bit hard on our knees… lots of walking, millions of stairs to climb and then, of course, there was climbing Mt. Fuji but this was something new. That was over three years ago. Since then, the knee has popped and cracked with increasing frequency. Now it happens many times a day.

Breaking my toe on the beach in Costa Rica a couple of weeks ago threw a curve into my normal fitness regime but the timing could have been worse. I won’t be doing much walking for awhile and the treadmill is gathering dust but just before we left on our most recent trip, my doctor decided that it was time to try physiotherapy to see if that would help my knee. I saw the therapist a few days after we got back. It’s too soon to know if it’s helping my knee or not but half an hour of physio three times a day is definitely giving my legs a good workout especially since I decided to do all the exercises and stretches with both legs instead of just the affected one. After just a week, I graduated from beginner to intermediate exercises and I also continue to work my legs at the weight bench three times a week. By the time the toe is ready for hiking and treading, the legs should be in prime condition too! I just hope there’s no more loud pops from that left knee!

What am I doing in the basement?

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According to a recent article in The Globe and Mail, one in eleven people over the age of 65 suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. The likelihood of developing the disease doubles about every five years after age 65 says the Alzheimer’s Association website. After age 85, the risk reaches nearly 50 percent. A family history of Alzheimer’s increases one’s risk of developing the disease even further.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions but given the fact that I’ve been watching this disease gradually rob my mother of her memory and her mind, I’ve definitely been giving a lot of thought to what I can do to lead a brain-healthy lifestyle and to reduce my risk of suffering the same fate.

The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain by Barbara Strauch was a reassuring read. Impeccably researched and easy to read, the book explores the latest findings that demonstrate that the middle-aged brain like mine is actually more flexible and more capable than previously thought. Apparently standing in the basement wondering what I came down to get or failing to remember a name that I know I should know are not signs that I’m losing it after all!

Though there isn’t enough scientific evidence to prove that a healthy lifestyle can prevent Alzheimer’s, studies have shown that regular exercise, a healthy diet, managing stress, getting quality sleep, staying socially active and engaging in mentally stimulating activities may help prevent or delay symptoms. So how am I doing? The beginning of a new year seems like a good time for a bit of self examination and perhaps some goal setting.

I’d definitely give myself high marks for exercise and diet. I was working hard at maintaining physical fitness and healthy eating long before I began to think about what effect they might have on my brain. Fortunately what’s good for my heart and the rest of my body is also good for my brain. The Christmas season sabotaged my efforts in both these areas but now that I’m back home and into routine again, I’ll soon be back on track and yes, Santa did come… I met my goal of being able to do ten push ups by Christmas morning! Hopefully I’ll soon be doing even more.

Stress management and quality sleep go hand in hand for me. As long as I’m not feeling anxious about anything, I usually sleep well and when I’m well rested I handle stress better. I assume that that’s probably true for most people. Retirement has, of course, been a wonderful stress reducer! I still have crazy school dreams once in a blue moon but not like I used to. For reasons that neither my doctor nor I have been able to figure out, I’ll lay awake for hours if I eat anything sweet after about 8:30 p.m. so I’ve learned not to do that. I also sleep better in the winter time when we have longer hours of darkness. That’s one definite goal for this year; darker blinds for the bedroom before spring arrives. I plan to buy ones to match the newly painted feature wall.

Being away as much as Richard and I are, staying socially active and connected is something we need to consciously work on when we’re at home. While we wander the world, everyone else’s life goes on and if we want to be included we need to keep our connections strong. For that reason, entertaining more is another one of my goals for the coming year. I see the effects of failing to stay socially active in my mother’s life. After Dad retired, they settled into a high rise apartment in Vancouver where Mom didn’t make the effort to get out and develop new relationships. Once a very social person, she gradually became more and more reclusive. Now that she’s truly housebound, she has no friends to come and visit.

I don’t know how much failing to stay mentally active had to do with Mom’s eventual decline but I’m determined not to let that happen to me. I’m a firm believer in the importance of lifelong learning. I’m an avid reader and also a member of Lumosity, a website that offers of a series of engaging brain games and exercises each designed to improve a particular area of cognition; speed, memory, attention, flexibility or problem solving. In addition to playing individual games, participants can enrol in guided brain fitness courses that are designed to improve each of the five areas. Brain training has become as much a part of my daily life as eating and sleeping. Since Christmas, I’ve also been working on logic puzzles. Thank you to the Santa who put a whole book of them in my stocking!

So am I worrying about the possibility of succumbing to Alzheimer’s disease? Not really. When I stand in the basement trying to remember why I’m there, I’ll simply remind myself that that’s normal forgetfulness and that I’m doing everything I can to prevent something much worse.



All I want for Christmas

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Six months ago I couldn’t do a push up; not even one. In fact, in spite of all my years of weight lifting, I’d never been able to do one; not even a so-called ladies or knee push up which, in my opinion, isn’t really a push up at all. When the tendonitis healed and my frozen shoulders thawed, I decided it was time to learn. I found a great little instructional video on YouTube and got to work.

Beginning with wall push ups, I worked intermittently over the summer months, gradually moving down from doing push ups against the wall to the kitchen counter to the bathroom counter to the three step landing in our entrance. By fall, I was using the coffee table. That’s when I decided what I wanted for Christmas… ten perfect push ups… real ones, on the floor! Today I struggled through seven fearing that I was going to collapse face first on the floor at any moment. It wasn’t pretty!

Can I eke out three more before Christmas? I’m really not sure but I’m going to give it my best shot.

What influences your sense of self-worth?

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This post has been brewing for awhile. In fact, I started it once, discarded it and now I’m starting it again. Richard and I are doing a weekly Bible study with two other couples using Charles F. Stanley’s How to Reach Your Full Potential for God. One of last week’s questions resulted in some serious self examination.

What influences your sense of self-worth?

The study guide offered the following list of possible responses:

  • ___  entertainment
  • ___  relationships
  • ___  education
  • ___  hobbies
  • ___  goals
  • ___  possessions
  • ___  employment
  • ___  appearance
  • ___  service
  • ___  God
  • ___  other: ______________

I don’t have a problem with low self-esteem. In fact, I feel pretty darn good about myself. Many factors on this list contribute to that: healthy, affirming relationships; hobbies like writing and drama; and of course, my relationship with God, to name just a few.

At the bottom of the list, my “other” is my children. I am so proud of the fine young adults that they’ve become and it irks me when people say “You’re so lucky that your kids turned out so well”. I have news for you, folks! It isn’t luck! Parenting well is hard work. I know that there are no guarantees and even some of the best parents have troubled kids but I believe that I (we) did a great job and yes, knowing that definitely adds to my feelings of self-worth.

So why is it that something as superficial as appearance influences my sense of self-worth so strongly? The next question in the study guide asked “In what areas of life are you most likely to compare yourself to others?” and I had to admit to myself that for me it was appearance. I know that this is true of women in general but why? This question has led to a lot of soul searching on my part.

Donloree onstage

One of my favourite bloggers is figure competitor, Donloree Hoffman of Bikini or Bust. As I’ve followed her blog for the past year, I’ve come to the conclusion that I, too, am a figure competitor. Oh, I’ll never stand onstage in a spray tan and a bespangled bikini (too many stretch marks and scars from multiple abdominal surgeries make that an impossibility) but I compete with other women all the time. I’ve come to the realization that it’s not my hair, my make-up or my clothes that I look at when I’m comparing myself to others; it’s my body, my physique. I don’t look at a healthy, fit looking woman and think ‘I wish I looked like her’. In fact, I can truly appreciate and admire a well toned body. No, it’s the overweight, out of shape women that make me feel like a winner! How pathetic is that? I’m absolutely certain that this attitude doesn’t please my God, the one who created each one of us and who loves us just the way we are.

Twiggy

But why do I feel this way? I think there are many reasons. Our culture, of course, teaches young girls and women to value physical beauty above even good health. I grew up in the age of Twiggy, the emaciated looking fashion model of the 1960s. She became an instant sensation and suddenly, skinny was beautiful. In those days, my mom was overweight. She wasn’t obese but she definitely carried a few more pounds than she should have. “Just wait until you’ve had babies,” she’d tell me. “You’ll look like this too.” No, never, I vowed to myself! My father, who exercised regularly, often gave her a hard time about her weight. Is it any wonder that I grew up thinking that thin equalled beautiful? Then came marriage to a porn addict. Obviously I had to compete physically, or at least that’s what I told myself. Those are all things of the distant past now, but clearly they had a profound impact and helped shape who I am today.

So, what does all this soul searching and self-evaluation mean? Am I going to stop striving toward a better physical body? Absolutely not! There are many very good reasons to continue eating clean and exercising regularly. I believe that I am “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). God has blessed me with a healthy body and I plan to do the best I can to keep it that way. I hope to live for another 30 years or more and I want them to be good years filled with action and adventure. Staying physically fit has so many benefits. No, that’s not something I’m about to change. I feel good and I like what I see in the mirror!  What I do hope to change is my attitude. From now on, I want to look at other women, even those who are obese and those who haven’t taken care of themselves, with compassion. I want to see the beauty that God sees in them and I don’t want my sense of self-worth to depend on them any longer.

So, now that I’ve bared my soul, let me ask what influences your sense of self-worth?

Golf is good for me!

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After battling tendonitis in both my shoulders for more than a year and then being diagnosed with adhesive capsulitis or frozen shoulders a couple of months ago, I worried about whether or not I’d be able to golf this season. As it turns out, golf is actually good for me! Imagine my delight when I first swung a club earlier this month and discovered that the motion was almost the same as one of the exercises that I’d recently been given by the physiotherapist! Shortly after that, I read that playing golf can actually enhance strength and mobility of the shoulders, hips and other joints. It’s actually recommended by the Canadian Arthritis Society as well as the Arthritis Foundation in the US. Though I don’t have arthritis, the recommended exercises are the same. Sweet!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve worked hard on the exercises that the physiotherapist gave me and have been delighted with how quickly I’ve seen positive results. Not only are my shoulders no longer sore but I have regained almost normal range of motion. When I saw my doctor last week, he actually told me that I could start lifting weights again! I’m not planning to do that until fall but I do have a new fitness goal that will help rebuild strength in my arms and shoulders. I want to learn to do push ups! I don’t understand why but even after all my years of lifting weights, I’ve never been able to do a push up, not even a so called ‘ladies push up’. Hopefully, that’s about to change. I found a great little video entitled Push Ups For Beginners on YouTube and started working. So far, I’m only doing the super simple wall push up but eventually I’ll graduate to more difficult versions and hopefully someday I’ll be doing the real thing. Maybe before I’m 60?

With our two month missions trip to Saipan coming up soon, we won’t be golfing as much as usual this summer. Apparently there are five golf courses on the island though and we hope to have the opportunity to try one or two of them. I can do shoulder exercises and work on learning how to do a push up anywhere though and we’ll also continue to keep in shape by doing some hiking and lots of walking. Since setting my 100 mile goal back at the beginning of September, I’ve actually walked just over 300 miles and am still counting! Anyway, the sun is shining and golf is good for me so guess what I’ll be doing this afternoon?

26 no shows!

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After waiting more than a month, I finally saw a physiotherapist today. He was brought in to supplement the regular clinic staff for a week in an attempt to clear the backlog as the waiting list had become much too long. According to a sign above the receptionist’s desk reminding patients to phone and cancel if they’re unable to keep their appointments, over the past month there have been 26 no shows! 26! That’s more than one a day! What is the matter with people? How much effort does it take to pick up the phone and make a simple call and what has happened to common courtesy? Surely 26 people didn’t forget that they had appointments! Had they bothered to call and cancel, 26 of us who were waiting could have received treatment sooner.

My appointment went well. After a thorough evaluation that included using a protractor device to measure my range of motion, the therapist assured me that I still have plenty of strength in my arms. That was definitely good news! He agreed, however, that the range of movement in my shoulders is quite limited and went through a series of exercises with me that are designed to increase flexibility in those joints. Several of them involve using a wand. In the clinic, he had me use a cane but any straight rod would do. At home, a broomstick would work well but I’m using my old golf putter instead. After all, one of the reasons for wanting to get my shoulders back in shape as quickly as possible is the fact that the golf course opened this week! We haven’t been out yet but I’m hoping that I can still swing a club. Of course, if 26 people had bothered to cancel their appointments, I would have been doing these exercises sooner and my chances would have been a lot better! Grrr…

My WordPress 5k walk

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When WordPress invited bloggers around the world to join 80 staffers in 62 cities and take part in a 5k run/walk anytime during the week of April 4 to 10, I decided I was in! It was simple. No getting sponsors and raising funds; just getting out and getting some exercise then blogging about it. The idea obviously caught many people’s fancy as bloggers from across the US, Canada, Europe and Australia began to respond. It truly became a worldwide phenomenon as others from Islamabad, Indonesia and India joined in.

I decided to do my walk this afternoon. I knew that 5 kilometres or 3.1 miles wouldn’t be particularly challenging as I walk at least half that far several times a week. After saying hello to the pigeon that has taken to sunning itself at the edge of our driveway the past couple of days, I headed north and out of town. It was a chilly +4C but the big Alberta sky was blue. With the sun on my shoulders and the wind at my back, the first leg of my walk was marvellous.

I passed by the golf course where the greens have recently been cleared of snow and covered with grow tarps and daydreamed about the upcoming golf season. Some years the course opens as early as mid April but it will clearly be awhile before we swing a club this year!

Hole #3 - Sedgewick Golf Course

The walking trail is still mostly covered by snow so I walked along the edge of the road. As I looked out across the snow-covered fields, I wondered how long it will be before we’re out on the land seeding this year’s crop.

When I first planned today’s route, I intended to walk down to the shore of Sedgewick Lake but when I realized that the road into the park wouldn’t have been cleared, I chose a different route. Turning around at the park entrance, I headed back toward town. Walking into the chilly wind wasn’t as pleasant. I was glad I’d decided to wear a hat but I began to wish that it covered my ears! As I entered town and heard the school bell ring, however, I was reminded how lucky I was to be out in the sunshine, wind or no wind. I enjoyed my days in the classroom but oh, how much more I’m loving retirement!

After walking to the centre of town, I turned left at the second 4-way stop. There are exactly two of them in Sedgewick! I stopped at the post office to pick up the mail and, as people in small towns are prone to do, I stood on the steps for 15 or 20 minutes chatting with a friend I hadn’t seen for quite awhile. From there, it was a short walk back home again. Along the way, I looked for signs of spring and was delighted to find a few.

running water

budding trees

and the season's first pussy willows!

I’ve been given the cold shoulder

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Well, in actual fact, I’ve been diagnosed with adhesive capsulitis which is more commonly referred to as frozen shoulder. The symptoms are stiffness, pain and reduced range of motion in both shoulders making it difficult to do simple tasks like applying underarm deoderant and doing up a bra! Fortunately, in my case, it’s just developing and I’m hopeful that by taking action now, I can keep them from freezing up completely.

The cause is often unknown but in cases such as mine, it can start when the shoulder is not used normally for a period of time. Over time, the connective tissue tightens and restricts the joint’s movement. Apparently, the tendonitis that started in my left shoulder a year and a half ago, then in my right several months later, led to this. Gradually, especially over the past winter, I stopped doing things that caused discomfort. Richard took over the vacuuming and washing of floors and I adjusted my exercise program to eliminate those activities that put stress on my upper arms and shoulders. One of my biggest frustrations is the fact that I wasn’t able to lift weights all winter. My once muscular arms are skinny again and I really don’t like skinny!

The good news is that the condition usually resolves itself over time without surgery. The bad news is that that can take up to a couple of years to happen! Treatment usually begins with anti-inflammatory drugs but unfortunately, I can’t take those because they destroy my stomach. The doctor that I saw yesterday doesn’t feel that there’s enough evidence to show that either ultrasound or cortisone injections are very effective so for now, I’m on the waiting list for physiotherapy and I’m doing lots of gentle stretching. I also haven’t ruled out acupuncture.

I plan to follow the example of Bikini or Bust blogger, Donloree Hoffman, whose physical challenges are greater than mine. Rather than feeling sorry for myself, I’m determined to remain positive and work at overcoming this. I WILL have strong arms again! It’s just a matter of time.

And while I’m waiting for my shoulders to thaw, I’ll look for the silver lining. After all, this has turned my husband into quite the gentleman! Not only does he vacuum, wash floors and open the heavy garage door for me, he also holds my coat for me these days. Of course, he remembers the night when I cried because it hurt so much to take my t-shirt off. Fortunately, most days aren’t like that one and compared to the health issues that many people face, mine is really pretty trivial.