Last night I added more exercises with bottles of water as weights. I did enough that I had some sore muscles, so that was good.
Today after looking at a couple of videos (thank you, Sheila) of a lady dancing, I looked up music videos labeled, “dance music,” to encourage me to bop around the room with my headphones on. I lasted three songs on the first video before pooping out, and I had a good time, a smile on my face as the years fell away in my mind.
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Just a minute ago, I was truly ‘amazing’ though, as I sprinted toward my balcony to rescue my laundry drying on the rack when it started to pour suddenly. And I mean POUR!!!!! Not just a turning-the-faucet-on rain, but someone using spray attachments!
I had forgotten how quickly this old lady can move, if needed. I managed to get the dry stuff off the rack and onto a chair, and then proceeded to open the balcony folding door fully so I could move the rack of still damp clothes inside. I managed to do that without injury or dumping the clothes and then got the door shut without pinching fingers or causing any other problems.
True to Thailand, while I’m still breathing a bit heavily from all the exertion, the rain has quieted to a calm rain, instead of all the slashing, blowing rain. Thankfully, this rain was slanted differently, so my windows didn’t leak. 😁
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Now that I’m up and my heart is ‘awake’ and functioning, I think I’ll do my session of yoga stretches for the day…
Since I’m not EVER going to be an ‘exercise afficionado,’ – particularly since it’s a bit late to start at 78 – I’m trying to make the exercise I AM doing do the most for me.
I read an article recently (actually, my friend Marsha pointed it out to me) that the Japanese had done a study that showed that, instead of just getting on the treadmill, setting the speed, and walking for 30 minutes (1 mile) as I have been doing for about a month and a half now, it’s more effective if you start with a warm-up of a couple of minutes, then increase your speed as if you were going to miss a bus, be late for work, etc. for a few minutes, and then go back to slow, repeating over and over for the same 30 minute session.
I don’t really know if it’s really doing me much more good than what I was mindlessly slogging through before, but it keeps my interest and makes me FEEL like I’m doing myself more good.
I’ve been doing what I call, “Old lady yoga stretches” for quite a while now, hoping to keep myself as flexible as possible, improve my balance, loosen stiff muscles, etc. The problem is that I’ve been planning to do my session in the evening after dinner.
I’ve finally recognized a tendency to either shorten my session or just put it off altogether due to my innate laziness. SO – now I’ve changed to doing my session in the afternoon, when I’m still relatively fresh, not sleepy, and more likely to do a full length session, slowly, with intention. (Like as soon as I finish writing this post!)
Last, my doctor here in Thailand recommended three exercises for me to do to strengthen my back when I told her about my ‘mystery debilitating back spasms’ from which I suffered for about a week.
I don’t have weights, but I DO have 1 liter bottles of water. I’m doing two of the exercises using one of the bottles. I’ll increase that to two when this gets easier.
The first exercise is to stand holding the bottle close to your body with both hands in front of you. You twist as far as you can to the left, then back to the front, then twist as far as you can to the right and back again. I’m doing 20 reps.
The second exercise starts with you standing holding the bottle in front of you legs spread for balance. You reach as far as you can up and to the left, hold, then bring it back. Then reach as far as you can up and to the right, hold, then bring it back. I’m doing 20 reps of this one, too.
The third exercise is really a challenge for me. I’m combining it with my yoga stretches. I’m flat on my stomach on my mat, arms in front of me on the floor in a ‘V’ shape. Then I’m supposed to lift up my arms and my head and as much of me as possible from the waist up off the floor and hold.
Yeah, right.
I’m doing the best I can, but I’m barely able to lift anything from my waist up off the floor now. I’m looking at this as the same theory as the lady who created the yoga video for seniors. She said that it doesn’t matter if you can’t touch your toes. If you are TRYING to touch your toes, bend over as far as you can and breathe into it, you are doing the same good for your body as if you DID touch your toes. Your body is stretching toward your goal and will give a bit more each day. I’m HOPING that – if I keep lifting up as much as I can each day – gradually I’ll do better and better. The lifting and stretching will hopefully strengthen my back a bit at a time.
“Relaaaaaaaaxing jaw. Relaaaaaaaxing face.” ~ Cat Kabira, “Gentle Yoga” DVD set
I just finished doing my yoga practice for the day, earning my 5th gold star for the week for yoga (+ two for my elliptical trainer). I’m going for 10 gold stars on my desk calendar by the end of the day Sunday.
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“Yoga. Because punching people is frowned upon.” — Anonymous
My husband watches me practice each day, reading his tablet in his chair. He says he is exercising and stretching with me ‘in spirit.’ His favorite pose HE calls, “The dog at the fire hydrant pose.” :0)
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“Yoga is not for the flexible. It’s for the willing.” — Anonymous
I AM feeling a good difference since I started the DAILY sessions of yoga 25 days ago. Even though my husband is still having to rub muscle gel with Arnica on me most mornings, I’m feeling looser, and I feel good after my practice. This is really good for me because, at 72, I tend to get stiff and ‘brittle.’ This is a great way for me to stretch s-l-o-w-l-y and c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y without hurting myself.
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“Remember, it doesn’t matter how deep into a posture you go – what does matter is who you are when you get there.” – Max Strom
The Gold Stars are a stupid, silly way that WORK to keep me motivated to continue daily practice. Now that I’ve added my elliptical trainer 3 times a week, I’m working toward 10 stars a week. :0)
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“I bend so I don’t break.” — Anonymous
It’s fascinating to FEEL my body resist a pose at first, many times being uncomfortable at first – and then start to ‘give’ toward the stretch as I breathe into it. I’m feeling the difference here. I still can’t go all the way to the floor on some things, but Cat Kabira, the wonderful teacher on “Gentle Yoga” emphasizes that if you are stretching toward your goal, that’s enough. It’s really what kept me going at the very first of getting into this.
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…just enjoy yourself. For many years I mistook discipline as ambition. Now I believe it to be more about consistency. Do get on the mat. Practice and life are not that different.” — Judith Hanson Lasater
So, this old lady is grateful to have found a way to start a practice that will help me get and stay as flexible and strong as I can be. Hopefully, I can keep this going for many years to come.
My husband and I have had a hard time for the past 6 months or so on our efforts to get the lard off and get healthier by moving more. We simply drifted off the track, endlessly seeing yet another excuse for splurging or ignoring our guidelines. Excuses, lies, and blather followed.
We’ve been trying various things over the past month or so – some successful to a certain extent, but not really being serious on a long-term basis in our heads. Last Monday we came up with a combination that seems to be working for us! There are certain things that are important that we keep – such as my husband’s fruit and cereal in the morning and our orange dream bars at night – but everything else is on the table for discussion.
My husband likes to eat out at lunch. This has been one large problem because we tend to choose the wrong things at the deli, as an example. I have decided to be prepared to fix us a large salad for lunch each day. If my husband decides suddenly that ‘we’ should stop at CV’s and he wants to get lunch at the deli, he can do that. If he does, I have a go-to meal I can throw together at home, some combination of raw veggies and dip, hard boiled egg, a bit of meat – things like that. For dinner we’re staying low carb. Last night we had a roast from the crock pot and some steamed mixed veggies. My husband is a big boy and can make decisions about whether he REALLY wants to eat half a bag of potato chips while he’s reading in the afternoon… We also chose carefully and stockpiled our pantry freezer with low carb, low sugar frozen dinners, so we’re not derailed if I’m “too tired to cook.” I’m concentrating on drinking more water during the day, as well.
Since last Monday I’ve lost 5 lbs. (18.2 total from my highest weight.) I’m down 13″ from my starting point so far.
I’m hoping that I’ve finally turned the corner again, taking responsibility for what I put in my own mouth, rather than grabbing excuses out of the air and pointing fingers elsewhere. I’ve told myself that I won’t be upset if the scales or the tape measure don’t show any improvement from one week to the next. I just want them NOT to INCREASE!
I have not been doing my exercising, again using lame excuses. :0( We have a 91 pound lab ‘puppy’ who tends to come in and run over me on the floor on my yoga mat, knock me over, or lick me to death. There ARE ways around this problem. It has been REALLLLLLY cold for Arkansas this month. My elliptical trainer lives in the garage, so I’ve been using the excuse that it was too cold to do that. (The fact that I have walking DVDs in the house has been ignored.) I have also piously excused myself because I have been tackling an area most days to DEEP clean, including taking everything out, going through it all, deciding what to keep, what to donate, and what to throw away before cleaning the area and all things in it and reorganizing. This is a good thing to do – and LONG overdue – but NOT a valid excuse for not doing regular exercise.
I’m giving myself a bit of slack, though, because I HAVE been eating much healthier and taking responsibility, so I’m honoring my promise to
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but I need to put this together with an honest effort to at least do some yoga stretching each day. I’ll concentrate on that this week.
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