General topics.

Madge, I plank on the floor. So far, the challenge was going smoothly, adding increments of 5 to 10 seconds every day. But today, it said to go from 6o to 90. Ye Gads! I ended psyching myself out. I know I could have done it but that little voice in my head that says "I think I can, I think I can, was saying, you kidding, no way!" I had a talk with it and tomorrow is a new day. LOL

Do you plank on the floor or the back of the couch ?

Send,
Fabulous news on the chiro - just curious if he pulled your leg ?

Veronica,
Name your walker Jughead, Archie, Betty, Moose, or Reggie, friends of Veronica.

Now it was suggested I name my shower stool.  Much rather have it remain an inanimate object, rather shower alone, I will be in the buff, ya know?

veronica - that stool sounds like just the thing!

ff - it is a choice. I have ongoing CFS/FM which makes exercising harder. But I figure out how to do some and build on that. Even a little helps a lot.

madge - It's all those inflammatory pies you eat!!! So sweet of your mother

cw - not quite 80 yet - another month. ;)

send - so glad the chiro is good for you

gershun - 60 secs is awesome for a plank. Well done!!! Glad you got good new glasses

lu - they come out in June here. Awful things!

I wonder why June bugs come out in July and why they aren't called July Bugs......

Golden, speaking of doing planks, Wow!............now there's a workout. I found some exercise challenge on Pinterest and there is this 27- day plank challenge. You start out holding a plank for 20 sec. and build on it every day. I am up to 60 sec. It definitely works your core but you are right, it is excellent for over all body strength and conditioning. Even though I have been sick with mono I still try to do my plank exercise every day. I know 60 secs. doesn't sound like a lot but just try it and you'll see.

Send, so glad you found a good chiropractor! Way to go and poo on your husband for not asking you how you are doing.

I found a new optometrist yesterday and he told me my prescription I had was over correcting. My eyes have gotten better with age. He gave me some sample pairs of monovision contacts. They are for people who are near sighted and can't see close up when they are wearing their lens. They are good for people who can't tolerate bifocal contacts. I walked out of the store wearing them and it felt like a whole new world. I was looking for a new book to read and I didn't have to take my reading glasses out to read the back cover.What a treat that was!

Glad you found a great chiropractor. Hope you are feeling better. Have a good weekend everyone!

Saw a really great chiropractor today, on a Saturday, after calling for a new patient appointment only yesterday! He is really excellent, and I am sooo encouraged, maybe I will not need a walker after all. Maybe I will get one anyway, if we get to name them, maybe I won't feel so lonely! Hubs never asked how my appointment went or how I am feeling.

HaHa, FF, you are being outpaced by an octogenarian. It must be the viking blood, I was pleased with myself when after years of trying I could press 60 lbs and her dd could probably do more with one hand!

golden23, wish I could do squats but at 70 my body isn't the same one I had at 65. Someone had switched it out !! It's like a light switch went on, all the weight shifted to the front of my body, for the first time in my life now I can see how I would look if I was pregnant :P

And here I was a gym rat for decades. Lifting weights was what I liked best. Good grief, to look at me now one would think I never even walked past a gym.

The extra 25 lbs was from stress of caregiving for me, because it wasn't from eating. It wasn't that long ago, ok maybe it was 6 years ago, my sig other and I hiked 22 miles in one weekend. Now trying to tie one's shoe is a major doing !!

I'm so stiff when I get out of my chair at work that it's embarrassing

The other night at HOCA I bent over and half jokingly told mom I couldn't get up and to come help me - poor thing stretched out her arms and scooted in her wheelchair and said but I can't get up

Veronica,
Name her Rhonda - that way you can sing, help me Rhonda

Golden I have one of those gardening stools that you can use either way up. With the seat up you can sit and bend over (don't recommend doing that on a slope). The other way with the seat part down you kneel on the underside of the seat and have the legs which are U shaped to pull your self up. I am going to try indoors before I venture near any weeds. I just can't take the 8 ft thistles any longer.

Send get one of the reachers then you don't have to bend to pick something up.

My walker is my new best friend, I try not to go anywhere without her. Now what shall I name her?


Hubby is anxious to know when I can manage without a walker so I told him probably never. It provides so much confidence. I shoould have told him if he stopped leaving death traps all over the floor there might be a better chance.

Oh, and in the topic of exercising, google "mom farts in yoga class." It's hilarious.

cw - thank you. I don't do many and the first three in the morning are hard on my knees, but then things ease up. I started doing a modified plank as well as other exercises as part of my routine. Both are great for core muscles. I have been doing them a few months and really notice the benefits. like in housework and general well being. Dd started serious exercising and weightlifting just a few years ago. She is 53 and never exercised much when she was young. She can deadlift 170 lbs now and she is a hard gainer. She is working to be a personal trainer and started me on a regime suited to a 50 yr old. I could do it the first day, but then the CFS/FM kicked in and I had to cut way back. So I keep at it very slowly. Age is not the problem for me so much as the CFS/FM. But, if you don't use it you lose it. And joints do better when supported by muscle. I eat an pretty anti inflammatory diet which I think really helps the joints.

Are you eating enough protein? DD aims at 150 gms a day which is quite high, but she says she needs it and cautions me to eat lots. You have to work at it to get that much inside you daily. Studies have indicated that as you get older you need more protein. I don't think the current RDA is enough. Happy lifting!!!

Golden I am 20 years younger than you and I find doing squats hard work, you are an amazing woman!

Gersh, I noticed the grunts and groans popping out when I reached 50 and I made a conscious decision to put a stop to it. Just like when lifting weights or working out, exhale SILENTLY during the hard part, inhale after. Bonus is that proper breathing actually makes the work easier :)

It's not how I look when I am getting up or sitting down it's the sounds I make. People look at DH and I strangely when we are out cause we both make these groaning, exertion sounds all the time now. I wouldn't even know how to spell them. They're like
Ahuuuowww! :O

Got down on the floor to look for my driver's license lost while changing the sheets.
I have now determined going down is just as impossible as getting up, so knowing my limitations, I won't be attempting that.
After my summer swim program, maybe that will change.
No more gardening feats for me. :(

veronica - I said fearless, not reckless. I think you are fearless wanting to get out there on your knees weeding.

ff - learn to do squats - You will get up with no trouble!

Veronica, I find at my age when I get down on my knees to pull weeds, I look like I am a drunk trying to stand up, and here I have no broken bones healing.... [sigh]

I wish I could out in the dead of night to weed so the neighbors won't see me :P

I am not fearless any longer not with a broken elbow and two broken hips still healing.
Now I am allowed to put on my own socks and shoes as precautions have been lifted. Been doing that for some time as hubby started to rebel. Now if I can just get down on my knees and start pulling weeds. I am pretty sure I can get down it's the getting up that may not work.

cm - you can still be fearless. Try it!

For the same reason that my cats couldn't climb the wallpaper any more, and my dog couldn't fit through the catflap even though she remained convinced 'til the end of her days that if she tried hard enough she would.

We all growed.

Can you imagine standing with your legs slightly straddled, and then slowly toppling backwards with your legs still straight and landing wham! on your backside and then just jumping up again and carrying on regardless?

Or hanging upside down by your knees over a metal railing with nothing but a concrete floor to land on?

It's not so much the fit I miss, as the bouncy and bendy. And fearless.

Cwillie,
You are not going to like the answer...
It is cause ......well, wait, that's not the answer.
Because.....
Oh, I don't know.....it's just because.......
Wait, is this a trick question?

I don't think dragging you around behind his bike will build his upper body strength Send, although it may help yours as you hang on for dear life!
Why is it that even when I exercise diligently I can not get even half as fit as I was as a young woman who exercised not at all?

"The Last Word", with Shirley Maclaine, Amanda Seyfried
An Amazon comedy drama is a 2017 movie about a lady who hires an obituary journalist to write her obituary, controlling to the extent that she teaches the journalist how to write a good obituary.
Write your own obituary here (btw, AgingCare will be the owner!)

I will start.......

Too soon, she awoke while lowering the coffin...her life was not over yet! There goes Sendhelp, no longer limping or needing a walker! What a close call!

You are always ebciuraging too Send! :)

Really, I was imoressed by all your kovely and ebciuraging responses. I am not even going to correct tgat! You all know I love you, and appreciate your resoonses. You've got to see tge challenges I am up against trying to type this out on my kindle. There, I'm done.

Maybe I will hook up the walker (with 8"wheels) suitable for uneven terrain,
to hubs bicycle. I will sit on the seat and he can take me to the park. It is up a hill, and he needs to build up his upper body strength, his arm, biceps, etc.

Wouldn't walking a dog help? I could house sit someone's dog maybe. August I will get my walker.