2023 Summer Lower Body Routine

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  1. DB Squat with DB at shoulder 3×12 8-12 pounds
  2. Side Lunge (hold DB at chest feet wider than shoulders lunge back and forth to each side) 10-12 times
  3. DB Bridge on floor (DB on hips) 3×15 15 pounds
  4. DB Romanian Deadlift (1 DB in each hand – start with DB by side and bring to front of legs as you reach for the stretch) 3×12-15 8-10 pounds
  5. Calf Raises with DB by sides (can be with or without platform) 3×12-15 10 pounds

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30 Glute Kicks

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Leg Raises (not lowered to floor) 15 reps

High Jumps (not quickly – one jump at a time)

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Plank on forearms (squeeze stomach) Hold as long as possible

2023 Summer Upper Body Routine

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  1. Push-ups modified on knees (keep weight over top of hands) As many at possible
  2. DB Row (leaning on chair or table – left side first – start with palm in and turn palm up as you pull elbow back right by your side) 3×12 8-12 pounds
  3. DB Shoulder Press (DB in each hand held just above shoulder press straight up to ceiling) 3×12 5-8 pounds
  4. DB Skull Crusher (hold DB in each hand lying on floor bend and extend elbow straight towards ceiling) 3×12 5 pounds
  5. Resistance Band Curls (step w/ 1 foot in center of band) 3×12

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Fast Step Up on platform with 2 risers 20 steps

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Ab crunches (resting on hips and weight on hands – tuck knees back to chest

Squat with medicine ball followed by ball slam 12-15

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Twists on floor with 5 pound DB left ankle over right 15 times

Believe!

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I tell you to believe that recovery is possible from whatever illness trauma or injustice a person has experienced.

All my life I lived with a disability I didn’t know I had until I turned 22. The story is in my first book so it’s out there.

Having read the book The Future is Disabled I think that author is on to something: individuals with long haul COVID symptoms are often becoming disabled.

What does it mean and how does it feel like to have a disability?

A person who uses a cane can go to the gym. Others might not be able to exercise.

Pity from outsiders and self-pity is to be renounced.

The fact that long haul COVID patients are becoming disabled I see as the segue to opening up the literature to include first-person accounts that ordinarily wouldn’t be told.

I’ll take this turn of events even if it took ordinary people becoming ill with COVID for there to be more compassion in society.

COVID threw out the rules in an old playbook that is outdated today.

In a coming blog entry I’ll talk about this new post-COVID reality and the benefits of breaking the rules that existed in society before now.

Like the unhinged pursuit of bigger better more that used to exist.

What am I doing smash that dynamic?

Stay tuned to find out.

Long Haul COVID Help

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I checked this book out of the library. It should be required reading. For how to get help when you’ve had COVID and the fatigue and brain fog have persisted long after the virus went away.

Individuals written about in the book lost their jobs and often became disabled. Even with this outcome the author James C. Jackson, PsyD offers hope for thriving not just surviving with long haul COVID.

Reading the book could bring on survivor’s guilt for those of us whose bout with COVID was a one-and-done deal–so far at least. Being on the lucky end of the luck of the draw I think mandates that we use our fortune in life to advocate for health, wealth, and happiness for others as well as ourselves.

Are you experiencing a heat wave? Keep cool and rest with the air or fan blowing. In a coming blog entry I will talk about the idea that people who have had COVID are becoming disabled.

We need in this post-COVID New World to practice what I preach: “No judgments.”

Those of us with long haul COVID symptoms should be given compassion not told we’re lazy and should get up and be active.

Each of us is doing the best we can with what we were given.

I want this blog to be positive and life-affirming.

Garlic Scape Dressing

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I’m going to give the link to the garlic scape dressing recipe I posted in 2017.

This is the time when garlic scape is available at the Greenmarket. I’ve used the dressing on leafy greens in a salad. It’s tastier than the old olive oil and balsamic vinegar standby.

Coming up the twist on the hobby that I was going to take up–skateboarding–and what I decided to do instead–roller skate.

Yes–they still sell roller skates.

2023 Late Spring Lower Body Routine

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  1. KB Goblet Squat (hold KB at chin with base forward – feet shoulder width & squat to parallel) 3 x 12 reps 15 pounds
  2. Lunges with front foot on rise (left side first & foot flat & lunge forward – DBs by side) 10 each side 5-8 pounds
  3. Single Arm Kettlebell Swing (left side first) 3 x 12 reps 15 pounds
  4. KB Romanian Dead Lift w/ both legs (hold KB with both hands – loegs & back straight – reach toward feet until you feel stretch at hamstrings) 3 x 12-15 15 pounds
  5. Wall Sit (as long as possible)

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Squat Jump[s (15) shoulder width with feet

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Static Ab Hold (rest on hips with shoulders & feet up – hold DBs at chest & hold position as long as possible)

Slam Ball Side to Side x 20 (Bring ball all the way up on each side before slamming)

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Plank (as long as possible)

2023 Late Spring Upper Body Routine

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  1. DB Row (1 DB in each hand – hinge over keeping legs & back street – pull DB’s up w/ elbows by side) 3 x 12 reps 10 pounds
  2. DB Press (Hold 1 15 pound DB with both hands at chin height – press straight up toward ceiling) 3 x 12 reps 15 pounds
  3. KB Chest Press on Floor (Hold 1 KB in right arm and press to ceiling 12 times – then switch to left side) 3 x 12 reps 15 pounds
  4. DB Tricep Extension (Hold 1 DB on sides with both hands – bend arm behind head then extend back up toward ceiling) 3 x 12 reps 10 pounds
  5. Kneeling DB Curls 3 x 12 reps 8 pounds

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High knees (25 seconds)

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Bicycles – 15

Burpees (12-15)

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An Tucks (rest on hips & lean back on hands – tuck both legs back)

Spring Cleaning

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Those skeletons dancing around in our closets deserve our attention.

On the cusp of 58 I had the urge to tidy up all over again. Packing up two sets of dinnerware that each was service for four. Who needs three sets of dinnerware.

What remains is service for six in one set that I bought with a gift card I was given for Christmas decades ago.

The older I’ve gotten I’m aware my life is getting shorter. Hence the reckoning with then-and-now. The sifting through the contents of my apartment that brought on memories of the past. Of the Christina who shopped with abandon.

Others have written about Not Buying Anything for a year. About editing out their seasonal wardrobes to 33 items.

As a person who used to buy whatever caught her eye I realize now that retail therapy isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.

The authors of the book Happy Money wrote that the fewer items you have the more you’ll enjoy those things. This has proved to be true in my life. People who engage in consumerism have more financial worries and are less happy.

Who has the wherewithal to spend all our time attending to organizing vast collections. Having the Salvation Army truck drivers come again to cart off seven tote bags is Salvation for me. Not just hope and help for the Army’s recipients.

In our fifties it’s wise to let go of the things people and thoughts that are holding us back. Far better to do this today than to turn 60 and be weighed down with “stuff” of any kind.

58 is great. I’ve learned the life lesson that it’s now or not ever to be your authentic self. That who you were ten years ago or five months ago or yesterday can change when you wake up this morning.

I’m not that girl who bought whatever she wanted. I’m two years shy of what I call the “This is It!” decade. The skeletons are here in our lives to tell us something.

Those rattling bones demanded that I change my tune. Does inflation ring a bell as a probable cause for why any of us would want to buy one or two tee shirts instead of twenty-three.

The material objects crowding our homes can be painful reminders of the person we used to be who is not here any longer.

Far better to live in the present moment. To be optimistic that the future can be better.

To know that we are enough. We have enough.

That freeing up the space in our homes can clear our heads to see new possibilities.

Avanti! (Forward.)

Creating Our Ideal Lives

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Marie Kondo was at it again with the book above that she published one year ago.

Kurashi is Japanese for “way of life” or “lifestyle.”

The way you live in your home can enable you to achieve your ideal life. Marie Kondo said that after doing the work her clients often were happy in their current home and stayed there. Or were able to move into their dream home a couple of years later.

Toying with using the word ideal has been hard. Then I realized that the ideal life is an authentic life. In this regard it IS possible to live your ideal life when you’re true to who you are and what your purpose is.

Each of us can thrive when we find our “kurashi” at home where we can be our authentic selves (and have beloved books on the shelves).

A tidying tip I recommend is to line up the spines of books right to the edge of the bookshelf. Refrain from placing objects in front of books. Presto–instant order joy and calm.

My intuition tells me that when we don’t like our living space it’s because we’re out of sync with ourselves.

Even in a bedroom in a halfway house a person can decorate with a poster of The Cure or listen to music or buy a colorful bedspread. We can make our homes our own wherever we live at any time in our life.

Right after turning 58 I started to embark on a new routine with atomic habits.

Was it the start of drinking water or the burst of spring cleaning that gave me more energy. On an odyssey I’ve been to create my own sustainable “kurashi” at home as I near 60.

In the new Marie Kondo book she has worksheets you can photocopy to write on to plan your day.

More in future blog entries about how I–a real person not a celebrity–changed her life for the better.

Water the Drink of Life

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A Health Coach told me to drink 60 ounces of water each day. I’m willing to trust that she is right that “Water flushes out toxins.”

Years ago I read a book an M.D. author wrote who claimed the health advice people are given is bad. At first I thought she could be right. Her confession that she drinks Naked Juice all the time killed her credibility.

This ENT doctor for kids in a hospital claimed you didn’t need to drink water throughout the day. That most of us get enough water from the food we eat. What about people who chow down on a Big Mac for dinner.

The more sensational your claim (the Medical Medium anyone?) the more likely you are to get a book contract to peddle your “knowledge” / “information” (often along with a product or pill for sale).

I’m not a licensed professional. What I write and speak about is to show readers and audience members things they can know to have a better life.

The truth is I practice what I preach–or else I too would be a charlatan selling modern-day snake oil.

My Health Coach is the one I turn to for solid advice. Right away after drinking 53 ounces of water for 7 days I saw a a difference.

Drinking water throughout the day helps you maintain energy. At least I feel lighter and more clear-headed when I drink water.

There’s a trick to make this easier. The Health Coach told me my idea was great to fill a water bottle before I go to bed and keep it on the night table. Quick and easy it is to drink the water first thing on waking in the morning.

In the drugstore I bought a 23-ounce double-walled stainless steel water bottle. As well I have a 10-ounce ceramic Venti mug of water with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The analogy is that you need to fuel up at the start of the day to feel and see the best benefit. It’s like filling up your gas tank before you take a road trip. Either way if you don’t do this in advance you’ll be running on empty for the rest of the day or the trip.

I’ll end here with this: wanting to be happy and healthy isn’t something to be ashamed of. Each of us deserves to feel good and be well. Even if our devotion to wellness threatens others who are miserable because they don’t like their own life.

The reality is you and I can live our ideal lives. Define “ideal”–it isn’t perfect or flawless. Ideal=authentic. That’s the difference.

I’m in cahoots with Marie Kondo on this one: Tidying up is the gateway to creating a happier and healthier life for ourselves. I’ll talk in the coming blog entry about how reading Kondo’s latest book sparked health as well as joy.