Enjoying Exercise #4 The Catch 22

I am overweight and I need to exercise. When exercising, I have a lot of hip, leg, and back pain. So how do I exercise to help with the weight and not aggravate the pains? This dilemma has been plaguing me for years. After a 2002 car accident, I went through years of off and on physical therapy and chiropractic work. I have dealt with pains from sciatica, the sacroiliac, and bursitis.  Cortisone shots have helped but you can only do that so many times. I have an elliptical and a recumbent stationary bike to minimize pain but lately they even  hurt to use.

So I went to the doctor today to see what he thought was going on. After x-rays, the doctor informed me that I have bad arthritis in my hip. I now have a physical therapy appointment  and an appointment with a specialist in non-operative treatment of orthopedic injuries. Maybe something here will help. I hope so because my first 5K of the summer is in less than two weeks!

On to the exercising. The best way to exercise is to make it fun and be with friends! I love to walk 5K's with a little jog every now and then. With my hip and knee issues, walking is best for me. This is the time to start looking for what is in your area. Then invite your family and friends to join in the fun. Such a healthy way to spend time together instead of socializing around a table of food. These 5K walks are fun and are a good way to bring family and friends together. Last year I survived my 2nd Dirty Dash and my 1st Hit and Run. Not bad for a 56 year old that is out of shape! The cost of doing these walks is worth the money. I have saved by not having a gym membership and you get a cool t-shirt!

This is what I have planned for the summer so far:

May - Color Me Rad 5K  (tons of fun with lots of color!)
June - Still looking but there is a run in my area put on by the local hospital
July -  Bubble Run (this one looks wet and wild with soap bubbles)
August - The Color Run (another 5K filled with color)
September - Obstacles of Obesity (we run the 5K in blow up suits)
September - The Walk for Suicide Prevention  (this is a fund raiser and I will post the link)


Having lost my husband to suicide, this walk is dear to my heart. I wish I had the support of a group that taught suicide education and prevention. If it was out there, I didn't know it. More people need to be aware of the helps available. That is what this fundraiser helps with. Please contribute to my goal of raising $1000. Every $5 or $10 dollar donation helps. Thanks

http://afsp.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=738997

What ever you choose to do, get out there and have fun! Here is hoping that I find a solution to my catch 22 and exercising won't hurt and I can lose some weight.

Sometimes Life Happens!

I have know Corinne since I was 3 years old!

I appoligize for not posting in a very long time, but sometimes life happens and we get very busy. I don't blog for money so the need to post often isn't a high priority. What is a high priority is the fan requests :) I get from my friends!

Life has been busy since last September. I have had one daughter's family move out of the basement to Oregon and another daughter's family move in the basement. At lease now I get to see the 6 month old twins more often!  I love being a grandmother and seeing the next generation grow and develop. I am so proud of the way my children are raising my grandchildren. I am actually working on my third book that will be interesting to all so being watching for future updates.

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

So what has happened in the last seven months? Well, I put on a mega reunion for my high school in California, traveled with my childhood best friend to LA and Vegas, the grand twins Boston and Lyla were born, I traveled with my travel buddy to Antarctica, Argentina, and Chile, and lost 5 pounds then gained 15! Life is so fun and full of changes.

Iceberg in Antarctica

                                                                      Since I like to focus on healthy living, lets look at the weight issue first. I love food and have a few food items I cannot control myself around. One of them is chocolate milk with Nestle's Quick. It is the bane of my existence. I cannot have it in the house because I will drink 2-3 glasses a day. I cannot say it is the reason for all the weight gain, but I traveled for almost the entire month of January and didn't gain any weight! I was eating out for a month. After arriving home, I have downed two large containers of Nestle's Quick and a lot more milk than I usually drink so what else could it be? Maybe the fact my exercise has been sporadic? Maybe because I only get 4-5 hours of sleep a night?

Healthy Habits and Enjoying Exercise:
Whatever the cause this has to stop because I have what I call my pain threshold. It is a specific weight that if I go above all the pain intensives by triple. I have more hip issues, more numbness in my toes, more back issues, and need a new wardrobe! So how do you take the first step to change? I started by signing up for a 5K for every month starting this month. I have actually gone to bed twice this week before midnight, and I am back in the books studying nutrition. I am way behind in my college independent study course on nutrition. It saddens me when my friends look at themselves in the mirror and see fat when I look at them and see beauty. I guess I need to apply that to myself because all I see is fat right now. With the weather so nice a good walk outside is one of the best things to do. I don't want to be skinny, I want to be healthy.

Fun Food:
I am totalling enjoying the meal situation here. I buy the groceries and my daughter cooks the dinners. She is a great cook and is trying new and healthy foods all the time. I think she needs to start a food blog. She has a great blog on her adventures with the blessing of her twins. Look her up at: http://littleivielane.blogspot.com/

So be watching for weekly blogs, I hope, on healthy habits, enjoying exercise, and fun foods. Maybe my daughter will  even let me share a few of her recipes. Better yet follow her on Pinterest, she has a board on the recipes she tries. Have a great week and remember "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page"        St Augustine

My beautiful twin grand babies!

Fun Food #5

Beating Mindless Eating

I found this report absolutely fascinating and true. So how do we stop this overeating spiral that we are all caught in?

For me the best thing is not to have food in the house that I don't want to eat. I also try asking myself "Why am I really eating this?"  The answer is usually, "because it is there."  Every time I walk by the candy dish with M&M's leftover from a baby shower, I grab a handful for no reason. I go to the kitchen because I am hungry, find nothing worth eating, and then grab something that is all carbs.

This process is really a total relearning of how we were raised eating and it is hard!

Healthy Habits #2

Today at my church a great lesson was taught based on a talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf entitled "Grateful in Any Circumstance." It is a favorite of mine. He talks about knowing how to comfort and support people in their trials. He teaches that if we choose to develop a spirit of gratitude, it will bring us true joy and great happiness. Many times we wonder what we have to be grateful for when our world is falling apart.

I felt that way 6 years ago when my husband took his life. Where do you find the good and happiness in a situation like that? This week was the 6 year anniversary of that loss and I felt more sadness this year than in some of the past years. Sadness that a man with so much to offer couldn't see the good he was providing the people around him. For the most part, I have done very well after such a devastating loss. Many people have wonder how I have bounced back and how I have done so well, so I am going to let you in on a few of my successes with this tragedy.

First, it was not my fault and there was nothing I could do to stop what happened or change it. So I chose not to take the blame for his decision. No going to the 'what ifs' or 'if I'd only."
Second, I focused on the good he did in this world and the stories other shared about how he helped them.
Third, I wrote. I wrote my feelings of sadness, happiness, trials, pain, joy, and loss. As I wrote, I tried to find humor and peace in the crazy things life was throwing at me.
Fourth, and this one took awhile longer, I realized the good I could do because he left me well taken care of.
Fifth, and most important, I made the decision to be happy. Happy with what I had in the past and with what I still had.

Was life easy, no. Was I always happy, no. But it was my choice and I believe it was what carried me through to a healthy state of mind so quickly. I never needed counseling, but I did need my friends and their support and understanding.

So what is the point of writing this entry? Hopefully to help other see that life is tough and we have many things thrown our way to knock us off track, but most of us hold the key to being happy. Our health depends on it. With a smile and a happy heart, I believe we can help our bodies stay healthy too.