Tag Archives: health and fitness after 50

YMCA Holiday Trimmings Weight Loss Challenge

Posted on December 6, 2012 | 2 Comments

Yesterday I signed up for the YMCA Holiday Trimmings Weight Loss Challenge at my local Y.

The Holiday Trimmings Weight Loss Challenge is a national weight loss challenge hosted by the YMCA. I looked it up on-line to see if anyone else was doing it besides my hometown of Wichita Falls, Texas. And sure enough, there were challenges in Kokomo, Indiana and Lancaster, Pennsylvania…just to name a couple. Of course, people all over California are doing the program.You know how they are. Hippies.

Some of the programs last for 10 weeks, some 12. Here in Wichita Falls, we’re just being challenged for 6 weeks. That’s a good jump start on the New Year’s weight loss resolutions that everybody will be making soon. We started on December 5 and will try to exercise and lose weight through January 16.

I regret signing up already.

I am a lazy, fat, over-50 woman who hates to exercise and hates to sweat.

I like to eat cookies by the dozen and ice cream by the pint.

I’m not really a good candidate for any kind of weight loss program, much less the YMCA Holiday Trimmings program.

But that doesn’t keep me from trying new diets. So far this year, I’ve tried the DASH diet, the Atkins diet, my own lax version of the Weight Watchers diet, and the Oh-heck-I’ve-got-diverticulitis-again-and-can-only-eat-soft-foods-diet. I’ve only dropped a few pounds with each, and then gained it all back. So far, I’ve only really lost 11 months.

So…I’m not a Big Loser. I’m not exactly a winner either.

I thought about exercising and I walked around the block a few times this summer.  I even bought some new exercise DVDs to watch. But that’s all I did…I sat on the couch eating Blue Belle Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream  watching people exercise on TV. They looked sweaty. Eeewww.

I hate exercising. It makes me angry. I know…I know…it’s supposed to work off stress and make you feel relaxed. But exercising just makes me madder than a hornet. I don’t know why.

Here’s the deal though…I’m 20-25 lbs. overweight, my body mass index is 28 (30 is obese), my triglycerides and blood pressure are too high.

Dang it.

If it was just a matter of being overly plump and flabby, I could learn to live with that. I’d just buy some bigger pants and wear 3/4 length sleeves. The problem is that I’m not healthy…I’ve got some problems that could kill me…and I can’t really learn to live with that.

So yesterday, I signed up for the YMCA Holiday Trimmings Weight Loss Challenge, wrote a check for $10 to pay for a 6 week trial membership to the Y, and weighed in.

Today I was going to actually go to the Y and exercise. Instead, I read the brochure to see what classes I wanted to take. I got in my car and drove around the neighborhood to plan a walking route that is just over 2 miles long, starting from my front porch and going all the way back again. I didn’t eat any cookies. No ice cream, either.

Baby steps.

Tomorrow morning, I will pull on my big girl panties, my exercise britches, and my tennis shoes and go to the Y. I will attend the exercise class…Aerobics Lo & Lite…that I chose today. And I will take a walk tomorrow afternoon.

Oh, lord, I dread it. I don’t want to do it at all. I expect to be griping, whining, complaining, and sweating a lot. I am not smiling right now…I’m already mad.

But this fat girl’s going to do it anyway. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

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Posted in Happiness, Health and Fitness after 50, Life after 50, Peggy Browning writer, Weight loss over 50, women over 50

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Mental Health After Age 50…Yours, Mine & POTUS Candidates

Posted on February 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

 I worry about my own mental health after age 50. I worry about other people’s mental health after age 50 as well. 

More specifically I worry about the mental health of our presidential candidates no matter what their age.

I swore I would not make political commentary when I started writing this blog. I really did. I am neither well informed enough nor educated enough to do it wisely. (Although that doesn’t stop most people.) Plus I don’t like to lose arguments.

However I can’t stop myself from saying something that just seems so obvious to me. Let’s just say that I’m talking about the mental health of people who are past 50 years of age instead of saying anything that might rile up anyone who disagrees with me politically .

After age 50 I, like most people my age, have an opinion on …well…everything. And I, like most people after age 50, express my opinion on…well…everything.

And since the candidates in the 2012 presidential campaign have ideas on policies that will affect all of us post 50 folks, I feel I have to speak up because I have opinions about that too.

 I’m not so concerned about the policies these candidates espouse. Those will change as the campaigning moves forward. The candidates seem rather flexible on policies. They’re pretty good at figuring out what we want to hear and then saying it, swearing by it even.  They will say almost anything to get our attention.

 I’m more concerned about their mental health. Some of the candidates have said things that made me wonder about it.  My primary diagnosis is that they might possibly be delusional with a little dash of narcissistic behavior disorder as their secondary diagnosis.

 See, I used to work for the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

 When we had a “consumer” who persistently insisted that God wanted him/her to be the Leader of the Free World, we were suspicious about that person’s mental status. In fact, after a quick mental assessment, the “consumer” usually had the opportunity to spend some quality time (approximately 28 days ) at one of the fine state-operated all-inclusive facilities so conveniently scattered across Texas.

 Three candidates entered the 2012 Presidential race because they said (nay…insisted) that God told them to run. I won’t mention their political party, but it rhymes with See Publican. Bachmann, Cain, and that other guy from Texas who can’t seem to remember anything  all said that God, (yes, THAT God) told each of them they should be President of the United States.

Naturally, given my background, I was a little reluctant to follow any one of them blindly.

Pat Robertson even said that God has already revealed to him who the next President will be. I wish Mr. Robertson would just go ahead and tell us so I could quit watching the news and go back to watching “That ‘70s Show” re-runs.

Anyway, after just a very few primaries, these same three God-directed candidates  quit the race.

 Hmmm…..that makes me wonder about them. In fact, I have some questions about their actions.

Now as I understand it, these folks believe that in 2011 God spoke directly to each one of them and gave them the go-ahead to be our said Leader.

Here’s what I don’t understand:

  1. Did they misunderstand God and what he wanted them to do?
  2. Did God change His mind and tell them to quit?
  3. If so, why didn’t they tell us about God’s change of mind?
  4. Did they disobey a direct commandment from God?
  5. Was God just messing with them?
  6. Are these candidates just messing with us?
  7. Or, are they crazy?

 All are possible political points to ponder.

 In my humble opinion (see opinions of people over age 50…of course they have one), a mental status assessment may be in order for people who are in the Presidential race.

I’m not saying that one has to be crazy to run for POTUS…I’m just sayin’ that some might be.

And that’s all I have to say about any of it. For now.

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Posted in Aging, Mental Health after 50, Random Thoughts about Post 50 Issues

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Breathe In. Breathe Out. Move On.

Posted on December 23, 2011 | 3 Comments

 

Breathe In. Breathe Out. Move On.

I quit my job on October 24, 2011.

I stepped out of a job that paid a decent salary, provided health care benefits, and promised a retirement income.

I had plenty of reasons for doing so. The main reason I gave my family for quitting was that the job was so stressful it adversely affected my health. That was the truth.

A blood pressure reading of 150/124 is pretty adverse, right? So is blurred vision, a pounding heart and hearing loss caused by high blood pressure. That job was literally, physically killing me.

But the other reason I quit is because I just flat out hated the job. I repeat: I HATED my job.

There were parts of it that I liked a great deal.  But I disagreed with the administration about the way my particular program was being run. Therein lay the trouble.

Not only was I dying physically, I was dying spiritually as well.

Anyway…I’m not one to take death lightly, neither the physical nor the spiritual kind.

So here I am. I’m living in the real world again instead of living in the somewhat unrealistic, although somewhat comfortable academic world.

But, hey, at least I’m living!

I know I’m supposed to complain about the terrible economy and lack of jobs. But I found a job before I turned in my resignation. I also found another one. And another one.

Altogether, three part-time jobs net me about one-third of the money I made by teaching.

I’m really busy. But my blood pressure is normal again without the aid of medication.

I’m 56 years old. I work three part-time, slightly above minimum wage, jobs. I don’t have a reliable income. I don’t have a retirement account. I don’t have health care coverage.

But I have a dream. And I couldn’t make it come true while I was barely functioning at stroke level.

I guess we’ll just see how this all turns out.

In the meantime, I breathe in. I breathe out. I move on.

 

 

 

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Posted in Aging, Anti-Aging, Employment/careers after 50, Health and Fitness after 50, Mental Health after 50, Random Thoughts about Post 50 Issues, Reinvention and Starting Over

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