Women Over Fifty

Depending on which thermometer you read this afternoon, it’s either 98 or 100 degrees this afternoon.  That’s hot.  We’ve lived in this area a long time.  When we lived near the ocean we just lounged for a couple hours during the hot part of the day.  Most days that was enough.  If it got too bad, we went shopping.

Now we live 12 miles inland - not so very far from the beach.  Near enough to go to the beach for the afternoon and come home for supper.  The difference in temperature is a lot.  Not only that, but we begin to think of Global Warming.  Years ago, we just thought it was a hot day.  Now when it’s hot we worry about the GW Boogie Man coming to get us.  Before we’d call it “unseasonably hot.”  Today we are a little nervous about it all.

After all, what can I do about it?  If you have been reading my blog, you know the gas and electric company has been cutting down my trees.  We cut a big one down that shielded our west wall of windows.  That pepper tree was great shade and I loved it because it reminded me of all the climbing trees in my life - the ones you can climb into easily and hide in its branches to watch the world go by.

That tree - that gaves us so much shade from the afternoon sun had a hole in the middle.  I just happened to see it when I was washing some debris off the trunk.  I think I could have stuck my arm inside that hole.  I didn’t try because who knows what was living there?  It was going to come down by itself and maybe on the house.  So, we cut it down.  We haven’t replaced it yet, but we intend to.

I have the AC on and fans going in the house to keep the cool air moving.  I’m hiding out on the east side of the house.  I don’t take heat very well.  So, if it’s too warm inside I just have to sit around with a cool drink and a book, - or go somewhere with better AC.  We have a heat pump, but it doesn’t keep the house cool in the same way as the other kind of AC would.  We had no idea there was a big difference when we had it installed.  We bought it because it was more environmentally friendly.

So, I am going to turn off my heat-generating computer and go where it’s even cooler.  Because it’s April, the weatherman has assured us that it’s only a day or two.

Marilynne

You may know that I’ve been exercising at Curves three times a week.  This is nothing short of a phenomenal record for this Internet potato (a form of couch potato).  I am not known by any one as being athletic.

I am proud of myself for doing this.  Pride isn’t what it’s about though.  I feel so much better.  I feel strong.  I feel like I can do things I haven’t done in months.

Is this bragging?  Sure, but there are times when it’s OK to brag and I feel that this is one of those times.

My sisters in law who are both younger than me and think of me as terribly old, were emailing about back pain.   One of them said that exercise was helping.  I read for a while, then shared how I was going to Curves three times a week and had been for some time.  Have you ever read astonishment in an email?  It was worth every drop of sweat I’ve shed.

I know I’m rambling so I’m going to quit here.  I hope you have some exercise in your life.  Just keep after it.

Marilynne 

My feet are dragging this morning about going to Curves.  I’m in a weird spot. 

• It’s lunch time,
  
• I don’t dare exercise hungry,
• I don’t dare exercise right after a big meal,
• I really want to go out to lunch today,
• I don’t like going over the lunch hour because so many are trying to exercise during their lunch break.

I know these are small potatoes beside the next reason,

• I don’t feel like exercising today.

Awwww!  Poor me!  I have to exercise, don’t I?

• I want to feel better,
• I want my knee pain to stay away,
• I want to look better,
• I want to lose weight
• I don’t want to give up on my goal of a full year at Curves.

I’ll go.  I’ll even go during the lunch hour.  I’ll eat a snack bar, exercise, and then go out to lunch.  It’s doable, but today I just had to whine a little before I left.

Marilynne    (I’ve been looking for a post where I could use this emoticon.)

Since I first wrote about my sugar freakouts, I’ve been thinking more about exercise and how the body changes in response to it.  I was an overweight  marshmallow before I started exercising at Curves.  Now my body is developing muscle.  I find it amazing to sit here and feel that I’m sitting on muscle.  My back is straight, my body tight.  That’s a big change and a good one.

I’m looking now for cause and effect and thinking about what might cause that deep, crazy need for sugar.   I’m wondering if it’s an after-response to exercise.  I’ve never been an athlete so I don’t know what an athlete’s needs are when it comes to food.  I don’t know what a diabetic’s needs are when I suddenly begin to exercise and develop more muscle.  It’s a big change when you’re over fifty and a marshmallow. 

So, I’m in research mode.  That means lots of testing my blood sugars and recording what I eat.  I don’t mind exercising.  I don’t mind logging test results, but I HATE logging my food.  

I log my food (sometimes) and my exercise (usually) on sparkpeople.com .  It’s nice to have a tool that I’m in control of.

Marilynne 

I really don’t want to tell you about this, but it might strike a chord with some of you who have diabetes.  I usually follow the rules made for the diabetics of this world.  I exercise.  I take my medicine as prescribed, including testing my blood sugars and injecting insulin.  I also take Byetta, which is supposed to help me.  It does - if I take it an hour before meals.

I am a spontaneous person and my husband is worse than me in this regard.  When I’m hungry, I just like to grab something on the run.  The easier it is for me to eat it and do something else at the same time, the more likely I am to grab it.

Before diabetes, that grab-it food was often cookies, cake, and candy washed down with milk or coffee.  After diabetes, my favorites are down to cookies and candy.  I don’t have cake in the house.  It is impossible for me to have it around and not snack on it continuously until it’s gone.  Fortunately, my husband prefers salty snacks to sweet ones.  However, that does leave the cake snacking for me.  Thankfully, cake is not usually within arm’s reach.  It’s OK.

Cookies I can eat by the handful until they’re all gone, but the cake rule applies to cookies as well.  The exception is when we’re making cookies to share with someone else.  My husband and I love to make the oatmeal raisin cookies that’s often on the Quaker oatmeal box.  We cut some of the fat and add applesauce.  We make it with Splenda for baking.   Splenda for baking is nice because it’s mixed with real sugar, but you use only half the amount called for in the recipe.  Everyone loves these cookies and they’re relatively good for you.  We leave a few cookies at home to eat and give away the rest.  It’s wonderful!  The house smells of cookies and there are a few laying around to eat, but not enough to be a terrible thing.

So, what’s left?  Candy.  Candy is easily grabbed.  When I’m in control, I allow myself one small piece of candy after dinner.  If I feel like I’m visiting the candy spot too often, the candy goes.

This is bad in a way because having candy around opens the path to sugar freakouts.  There are times in my life when I feel like nothing is more important in my life than my need for an immediate dose of sugar.  It was times like this that lead to me diagnosed with diabetes.  So why is it happening now?  I’m not sure.  Perhaps I’m indulging myself (the poor little me act) or maybe it’s a real need.  I need to start testing my sugars when this happens, but at the time, I’ve just got to have sugar NOW!  Yesterday I ate half a bag of chocolate covered mints.  I always buy the wrapped small candies for home, not the candy bars (except when I’m out). My blood sugar levels were really high after the mints and that feeling of need was still there.

I also feel really bad about doing it.  Is there anything more stupid or hurting for my body than for me to go on a sugar freakout?  I don’t think so, at least not in things I do to myself.

Today after Curves I didn’t stop at Starbucks for a latte and a sweet treat.  That’s getting to be a three-times-a-week bad habit.  I went to WalMart to buy wild bird seed, shampoo, and some cleaner for my stove.  That sounds safe, right?  I snagged a candy bar on the way out.

When I got home I made myself a low-fat turkey sandwich and had a tangerine to go with it.  I know what to do.  I usually do it.  But sometimes I just go crazy.

Marilynne 

Today was demo day for our Square Dance Club.  A demo is where we go and square dance in some public place for fun and to introduce the idea of square dancing to new people.  Of course, most people have a memory of square dancing in school.  They always smile when they tell me that.  It’s a happy memory.

When adults square dance they take it to the next level.  It’s lots of fun and it’s aerobic.  Square dancing challenges you to listen to music and calls, and dance the calls without thinking about it.  If you stop to think, the square is dead and you’re the reason.

It’s like making a direct link between your ears and your feet.  It’s fun.

When you square dance you meet all sorts of interesting people.  I don’t know what the connection is, but I almost never meet a square dancer I didn’t like.  Maybe it’s just meeting and having a good time.  We dance a couple times a week.

This morning we went to our local farmer’s market for the demo.  My husband and I showed up in square dance attire.  Others wore casual attire.  The teens wore what kids wear.

I must mention that when teens square dance it brings new meaning to the dance.  Kids have energy.  They dance circles around us and have all sorts of embellishments they add to the dance.  The unspoken rule is, they can’t break up the square.  They love the challenge.

Today I must have passed out a hundred fliers to interested people.  They weren’t just being polite.  Try it some day.

Marilynne

Today was the first day of doctor week.  I line up my doctor visits so I can keep track of them.  Today was a visit to Endocrinology, my diabetes doctor.  I was eager to see if I’d done a better job of managing my diabetes, even though it covered the period through Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My weight is down a little.  (My muscle tone is way up.)  My blood pressure surprised even me:  118/76!  Isn’t that cool?  My A1c (a test for blood sugar) was at 6.7 (very good).  I know I wasn’t as careful with my diet over Christmas as I meant to be.  I also knew I’d faithfully exercised through the whole holiday season, including Thanksgiving.

So, you see, it really pays for me to exercise regularly.   You won’t really believe me unless you try it yourself, and I encourage you to do so.  It was fun seeing a happy doctor today, not one who had to give me bad news.

 Marilynne 

I am continuing to visit Curves three times a week.  In October I was a marshmallow.  Now, in 2009, I’m a recovering marshmallow.  I’ve been pulled away from the heat, toasted, but still whole.

I’m also a bit silly, but today I rejoice because I’m feeling good and I hope to feel even better.  Seven years ago I spent two days in the hospital with a suspected heart attack.  Evidence didn’t support that, but I definitely was sick.  I was so sick I couldn’t walk from my bed to the bathroom and back without taking a rest.  No fun.  I slept and I slept.

I was suffering from a bladder problem that took a long time to diagnose and almost as long to cure.  While searching for an answer why I sometimes didn’t make it all the way to my bed before I was back in the bathroom again, I saw a urologist who, with seriousness, told me that because I’d had children I should expect some bladder problems at my age.  He pretty much told me to live with it.

Well, I was alive, but I wouldn’t call it life.  I was desperate for an answer and saw another urologist who was able to diagnose the problem, and after two years of treatment, pronounced me cured.  I told him I could tell I was better because I had driven to his office, waited for him in the exam room, and now was ready to go home and I hadn’t visited the bathroom yet.

So, being over fifty can have it’s problems.  Doctors sometimes cling to the old idea that these problems are imagined, exaggerated, or just the hysterical whinings of an old woman.  Yes, there are doctors out there who still don’t understand the over-fifty woman.

Fortunately for me, I am now in the hands of some very good doctors.  They help me maintain my health, including the suspected heart problem and diabetes.  But none of them repeated to me often enough that I needed to exercise.  You see, they’d grown tired of saying it and not have anything happen.  I just wasn’t listening.

Last year my left knee hurt me so bad I went  to a knee specialist and went through all of his tests, some shots for pain, a knee brace, until finally he said I wasn’t really ready for a knee replacement (good news), but offered nothing much for the pain.  (The shots had given me unacceptable reactions.)

So, on an appointment with my knee specialist, when I was beginning to accept that I would never walk comfortably again, I asked about the possibility of physical therapy to strengthen the muscles of my legs so my bones could have a rest.  (Your muscles, when strong, hold your joints away from each other allowing the joint to move freely.)  The doctor seemed relieved to have something to offer and sent me to physical therapy.

I’ve only gone to one physical therapist, but I understand from talking to others with knee pain that I have an exceptionally good one.  He walked me through strengthening exercises, and also provided some pain relief so I could do what I needed to.  The pain relief came in the way of massaging the muscles around my knee, electro stimulation, and cold packs.  Within two weeks I was feeling no pain, but continued to go for physical therapy three times a week.  This continued for three months or so.  Then my insurance quit paying and it was time to go.

I had worked so hard to gain the pain relief and I was beginning to walk and do the things I enjoyed.  So I went to Curves where I exercise three times a week.  (Other gyms could probably do similar things for you, but I like the Curves attitudes and encouragement.)  If you saw me exercising today, you’d have a hard time believing I saw last summer’s county fair from a wheel chair.

My happy knee specialist allows me to do all the exercises with some exceptions:  I warm up my knee muscles before I begin, and I don’t do the squats.  Believe me, it’s not a hardship to give up the squats.

Leaving Curves today I went out for lunch and then went shopping.  I felt a lot like the old me, only tighter and more put together.  I feel optimistic.  I feel like I can do it.

Tonight I’m going square dancing with my sweetie.

What works for me might not work for you, but I must tell you to try it.  If you aren’t a good self starter for exercise, then go to a gym or another exercise program.  Personally, if I were to try to do this at home, I wouldn’t make it.  At home there never seems to be time to exercise.  Be sure to follow the recommendations of your doctor.

What I’m trying to say is don’t give up.  Don’t settle for what you’ve got now.  Fight the marshmallow effect!

Marilynne

On the last few days of December, I have a compulsion.  I have a compulsion to put my life in order for the New Year.  I guess it’s kind of a reverse New Year’s resolution.

Today is the last day of 2008.  I’m far behind in putting my life in order, but I tried.  Isn’t that true also of a New Year’s resolution?  Yesterday I sorted through the junk laying around the Great Room.  It’s mostly mail that I didn’t throw away when I first got it.  The bills are paid, the mail read, except for magazines, it’s just stuff.  Some of it needs to be filed away, but most of it was trivia like coupons and casino promises that are out of date.

Today’s target for cleanup is what I want to call my Study, but in truth we call it the Computer Room.  It also doubles as a guest room (trundle bed), a sewing room, an ironing room, and storage for my square dance dresses, which take up a lot of room in the closet.

Whatever gets done today will be a vast improvement I assure you.  This is also a project room where dreams are dreamed, begun, and left to be finished later. 

Does any of this strike at home for you, or am I the only one who lives in the middle of a mess that I created for myself by not dealing with it at the time?  You could say I’d rather be blogging. 

Today, I’ll be cleaning.

Marilynne

I was exercising at Curves today.  We’re a bunch of older women whose bodies look it.  We’d like to look and feel better.  That’s the point of exercise, isn’t it?

Today there was a 17-year-old exchange student from Russia exercising with us.  She is everything we wish we were.  But she isn’t everything she wants to be.  She wants to be strong.  To us it was amazing.  Here is this delightful young woman who  totally looked like an American teen and she thinks she needs to improve her body?

Actually, wanting to be strong is a good goal.  She recognizes in herself the need to be stronger and she’s doing something about it.  That’s a good  thing for the rest of her life.  She seems to embrace adventure.  She needs to be strong so she can do that.  Eventually she will get married and have children.  She needs to be strong to do that.  And eventually she will be older like us, and being strong is an excellent thing to take with us into our over fifty years.

I was really impressed with this young woman.  She spoke English well.  She had read a number of American and English classics and knew the authors and could discuss the books.  She mentioned a book by Jane Austen called “On being Jane.”  It’s autobiographical and had been made into a movie in England.  I would like to see that movie, based on her description.

We were very taken with her.  I’m sure her parents, her friends, her sponsors are too.  I hope she goes home with a good feeling for the United States.

Marilynne