Tag Archives: new exercises

Thoughts on Wednesday, July 16, 2025

This is a gazing ball that I covered in mosaic style to sit on in the middle of our birdbath in our yard in Arkansas. I loved the process, and it gave us joy for many years.

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I spent an hour on the phone with our insurance company last night. We hope that we are sending what they want today and that things will be approved soon.

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At dinner last night, Brian and I were discussing exercising – what we wanted to get from it. A few years ago, Brian did a bunch of weight lifting and exercising with a trainer and beefed up his muscles significantly. He gradually decided that he wanted to emphasize being healthy rather than concentrating on the muscles. When I told him I wanted to improve my stamina, particularly for walking here in Thailand; improve my flexibility, balance, etc., he showed me a couple of things he does every morning –

  1. He just stands in the middle of the room and moves his head back as far as he can, looking at the ceiling. (I will try this, but will be standing next to something for balance, as that will make me dizzy.)
  2. Another move is to reach up over his head with both arms, pointing them to the ceiling. He stretches up, up, and up again, breathing into it, then stands up on his toes, stretching even farther. He hears a pop or two. (I’m not sure what I’LL hear, but, again, I’ll probably stand beside a wall or my couch.)
  3. A third move is to stand with legs spread, balanced. Put arms over head, then bend to the left as far as you can. Straighten, then bend to the right. Repeat several times, breathing into it.
  4. Finally, stand with plenty of room around you. Straighten your arms out to the sides. Then turn one direction as far as you can, wrapping your arms around your body to increase the stretch as much as you can. Repeat on the other side.

I’m going to add these to my yoga practice each day, where I’ve already added the strengthening-my-back exercises my doctor showed me. Hopefully, these – along with my walking a mile on the treadmill at the gym each morning – will work together to help me meet my goals.

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Thursday 9-26-2024

Healing Hands

I have a massage this morning. I’m really looking forward to Lynn Moody’s healing hands, finding and easing all of my sore or stiff parts. I’ll also try to visit with my friend, Linda, while I’m at the retirement place. My husband forgot to get the trash can when he drove down to get the mail yesterday, so I’ll do that when I get home.

Yesterday I did the ‘Fit Sticks’ warm-up video plus two more in the series. Each series of exercises features a small group of women using drum sticks on elevated exercise balls, moving to the beat of a nice song. Since I don’t have an exercise ball, I just moved with them, doing basically the same moves, holding 3-pound weights. By the end of the third video, I was tired and didn’t want to overdo, so stopped. I plan to do them again today. It was fun. I followed that up with my yoga, so the weights and the stretching seems like a good combination.

lolagain.org

I’m seeing good results (for me) on the scales lately, getting closer to my interim goal. I’m hopeful I’m on the right track for this to continue.

I finished this set of 4 wooden painted Christmas ornaments yesterday.

This is the back, waiting for personalization before I spray them for protection.

I’m having a lot of fun in my art room, working on various things. It’s good to have some time to myself, doing something fun and challenging.

We bombed out on putting a new innards kit in the toilet tank yesterday. My husband isn’t strong enough to get the new part ‘stuffed’ into the inner front of the tank. I’ve called our plumber, asking him to put us on his list for whenever he can work us in.

Our project for this afternoon is changing out some fluorescents over the entertainment center in the living room today.

People in the path of Hurricane Helene are in my thoughts today. I hope everyone comes through this safely.

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It’s Friday 4-5-2024

Brook Noel Art via @Urbanartist2 on X
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I’m down 23.6 pounds – closer to my interim 5-pound goal. I’m doing my 30 minutes of old lady stretching yoga each day. I’m going to add exercise for my arms with 5 pound weights on M-W-F and a few minutes on the elliptical trainer T-Th-S. It would be nice to see a good difference by the end of April.

American Montessori Society

My sweet veggie plants are still doing well despite the wild changes in temperatures. I just watered everything, and I’ll take some pics tomorrow to share with you. I also plan to harvest some lettuce!

We had to re-install one of Amber’s gates last night. We’ve been keeping her on the tiles since her tummy hasn’t been completely reliable lately. It doesn’t happen often, but we try to at least make sure her food has settled after feeding her before we let her into the carpeted area. Now she has started routing around for more food in the kitchen. I’m careful about not leaving anything on the counters or island, having learned the hard way that she will eat anything she can find. Last night I heard something and found her with her front feet on the counter in the kitchen licking the counter!  So we re-installed the gate between the dining area/kitchen and the utility room. 

I learned this morning that with the new gate I have to plan ahead to get out into the garage without incident. I managed to have the utility room gate open while trying to also open the door to the garage. Amber wanted out and Abby wanted in at the same time. It was a mess. I ended up shutting the door to the garage, closing the gate, then starting over on going out. When I finished, I related my ‘lesson’ to my husband, hoping to save him from experiencing the same thing.

Freepik

I’m still having bad dreams about trying to help my husband after Amber pulled him down into the brick planter on the 30th. I was really freaked out that I couldn’t get the blood to stop, and then we spent all night in the ER getting him the help he needed. In my dreams I continue to rush around frantically trying to gather what I needed to help him. We HAVE 1st aid kits, but they tended toward snake bite kits, etc., and I was rushing around upstairs and down, trying to find things to help us.

I have now ordered several things online in order to create two bins of wound care supplies – one for upstairs and the other downstairs, gathering the things I would have liked to have, or have more of. I’ve received some of the things I ordered, and I think I’ll receive the rest of them today. We’re going to get two bins with lids that I can label, distributing the things I ordered into them. Having them organized, where I can grab them quickly and have more of might be needed to at least get us to the ER intact will help me sleep better. Hopefully, I won’t need them.

I wish you a wonderful Friday.

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