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See You in the Fall
“Have a nice trip!” “I’ll see you in the fall!” These little phrases with double meanings used to be funny to me until I started experiencing unwanted falls with no explanation. -
Diving Disaster
One of our last outings before starting my Senior year at BDHS was a trip to the Fall River Pool. I had heard so many things about how nice it was. It was a busman’s holiday from the YMCA pool where my boyfriend and I worked. My sister Sandy and her husband, Art drove us to the pool. My boyfriend, Spencer was a great diver. He had been promising to teach me to do a one-and-a-half somersault off of the three-meter board. I loved doing regular dives and was excited about adding a new dive to my accomplishments.
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New Year…a Commitment to Change
I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions. As a teacher, I’ve always considered the school year the beginning and ending of life, with the summer as a buffer zone.
Starting the 1973-74 school year with high hopes Every August, I would sit down and think about the ways I wanted the upcoming school year to go. I yearly focused on having one family meal each week, another year, I organized my dinner plans in a rotating schedule…Monday–pasta, Tuesday–tacos…I usually worked to organize my brain around making my home and family life sane. While working as a full-time teacher with three kids, life was full…busy…chaotic.
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Walking, Walking, Walking – Keep it Moving
For the past 3 months, my sister and I have been walking the dogs every morning. We are becoming known around the neighborhood as the crazy dog ladies (at least that’s what I think we must look like while walking 4-5 dogs).
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Update–8 Weeks Later
Whenever I’ve done one of those life evaluation surveys or goal setting or tried to start a new habit, it always feels so good to begin on a Monday or on the first day of the month. I’m not a big fan of January 1 resolutions. But I do like re-evaluations and starting new habits at the beginning of seasons–fall and summer both coincide with the beginning/end of a school year. But this time I’ve gone rogue and set myself up with a public weight loss challenge.
I posted 8 weeks ago that I planned to drop 8 pounds because bulge had crept to my middle and set up housekeeping. Now it was time to lose those 8 pounds. I stated that I would provide an update on June 1st…
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How to Gain 8 Pounds in 8 Weeks
The day that I’m writing this is exactly 8 weeks until June 1st.
June always feels like the beginning of summer to me. Summer..sleeveless shirts, shorts, sandals (read no more covering up with turtlenecks, sweaters, or fleecy leggings). I’ve used these items to camouflage my fluffy body for a few months. Putting on weight happens soooooo effortlessly. I weigh myself every Monday (mostly) and watched the numbers creep up, pound by pound, each week. I wasn’t trying to lose weight, just trying to stay the same. But I was struggling.
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What to Do When Your Body is Falling Apart
What do you do when your an active woman with a full life and your body starts to fall apart? Well, I made an appointment to see my primary care physician…
Midlife: That time in your life when you finally get your head together and your body starts to fall apart! At the office visit, my doctor informed me that that I no longer needed a mammogram, pap smear, or colonoscopy. I found this interesting so I asked, “Why is that?” He skirted around the question, but I guessed, “You mean I am just too old?”
Well, the fact is, say…if cancer is detected, I am actually too old to go through the process of working on a cure or whatever….
WOW!
HELLO?
Let that sink in a moment.
That made me feel, kind of, sort of WEIRD.
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Move it…or Lose it!
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Are New Yoga Mats Motivating?
I just paid a gob of money to learn exercises to strengthen my broken wrist, to increase strength and mobility and to rid myself of pain in my knees and hips. This was an investment in ME… Great, right?? Wrong. Once my OT and PT were done, have I continued to exercise? No, not at all. Why? I just don’t feel like it. There is never a right time and I have other “things” that take priority. -
Dancing is Exercise
I feel the need to exercise. I feel so good when I do this, and yet, it is something that
always goes to the bottom of my to-do list. -
Are Your Mind and Body Friends?
My alarm clock goes off at 5:00 am. I go to the kitchen and get a glass of water. Stella is asleep after an early breakfast. I leave my fuzzy fleece pj pants on, slip on socks and my tennis shoes. Sports bra goes on over the top of my t-shirt. (When you exercise with no witnesses, it doesn’t matter what you wear.) On go coat, neck gator, balaclava, gloves and mittens. I call Stella…quietly. She stretches and yawns like she is doing me a favor. -
Exercise Attempts
Every year I plan on jump-starting my exercise habit. Every year I fall short. I would love to be one of those people that loves to exercise, but I don’t know how to get there. I have a treadmill at home, but when I use it, I feel guilty for not taking the dogs for a walk. -
Walk to Downshift
Stress makes me crazy. Literally. I want to sleep the second I get home from work and then when it is actually time to hit the hay…guess what, I can’t shut my brain off! It doesn’t make sense.I wish I could drink and the calm continues. But alcohol just makes my brain depressed and my body tired. Besides that, I don’t need the empty calories..and I wake up in the middle of the night..and I can’t get back to sleep…My brain is on while my body feels groggy and heavy.
So..is downshifting an art? An art that I have a very limited talent for?
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Country Roads
Back in 1999, author Stephen King was struck and seriously injured by a minivan while walking on the shoulder of the road near his summer home in Maine. The driver was distracted by his dog in the back of the minivan and was apparently not driving recklessly, speeding, nor had he been drinking. King’s injuries, which included a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, cuts to his scalp, and a broken hip kept him in the hospital for almost a month.
I run every morning on rural Wisconsin roads. Like Stephen King, I go against traffic. I also wear a reflective vest. While I’m on my run, I see perhaps 3 cars. If I run later, mid-morning, that number increases to about a dozen.
