ElderExercise

Hi, everyone,  I just thought I would share a book I stumbled on at Amazon…oddly enough it was listed on a list for the Kindle, but is not published for Kindle!  At any rate, 3 5-star reviews for…

Exercise Beats Depression!

This book is written by a physical therapist.  Obviously it espouses no particular system, but the reviewers seem to have found it helpful.  Maybe as we enter the “indoor potentially depressive holiday” season, some fresh input would be useful!

And now I confess it, I have not been to the gym today…but tomorrow will be a fresh start!  It seems that Wed. is becoming my “let-down” day in all respects…my equivalent of most people’s Sundays…

Thurs. Nov. 5 – 11312 (6861)

Fri. Nov. 6 – 10043 (2446)

Sat. Nov. 7 – 10739 (7338)

Sun. Nov. 8 – 8358 (1806)

Mon. Nov. 9 – 6302 (2914)

Tues. Nov. 10 – 4494 (0) – I went out with singles club friends for a sybaritic dinner of shellfish soup, lamb, asparagus, and strawberry crepes with ice cream!

Today my step count is quite low, I fell asleep on the sofa, but have enjoyed malingering.  It was much too windy to walk outside (wind discourages me more than light rain!).

Excelsior!  I’m going to try to post regularly on Wednesdays, it seems to work better than the weekend.

I was sort of expecting to have to comment on all of your posts after three weeks’ absence and just found four, out of which only one actually described exercise done.
My last three weeks have been spent mostly in coaches, planes and trains, so I don’t have much exercise to account for.
I stretched for five minutes every day and did whatever walking was possible, but the state of roads didn’t allow for accurate pedometer recording. I realised that, when my pedometer marked 12,000 steps after five hours spent on the coach .
But I am back to recording my steps on my google calendar.

I have the feeling that most of the time, ElderExercise has becomes a place to moan and whine about what we haven’t been able to do. So maybe we should just give it up. It has helped me establish a routine. My routine is stretching and Feldenkrais time on the one hand and steps on the other hands. I record it on my Google calendar and don’t really need to come here and spend time copying and pasting from the calendar if there are only two of us doing it. We might as well share a Google calendar.

I think it would be a good idea if we each of us had a look at our goals page to take stock and decide if we want to keep going, or if we’d rather stop.
What do you think?

Oh dear, time has slipped by and after reading what Lynn and Sara have been up to, I hang my head in shame.

After more than a month without rain it has drizzled or poured  ever since our friend arrived at the end of October. My son and daughter have taken her to Brussels and Amsterdam for a long weekend and they come back tomorrow for one night before taking her to Paris for the flight to New York on Wednesday.

Despite eating more than usual, all I can say is that I haven’t put any weight back on.

As far as exercise goes all I added was a bit of extra cleaning: there wasn’t even a dog to walk!

Lynn: it looks as though you have finished clearing your garden for Autumn. Any chance you’d like to come over here and do mine?

Sara: I hope you find a musician to take over from you. I know what it’s like – very enjoyable but very time-consuming – so I think you must be ready for  a bit of  time to do what you want when you want.

Last week,  any exercise time went to yard clean-up. I took the afternoon off on Monday 10/26–beautiful, sunny day and I wanted to soak up whatever daylight I could. Did leaf clean-up (multiple passes w/ the lawn mower, etc.) and some weeding/cutting back. Tuesday I was once again out w/ the mower in the late afternoon dusk. Wed I had my writing group after work, so no exercise. Thursday I worked at home and did do some yardwork and took a short walk. Friday did a little yard work after work. Saturday I was a slug all day.

We set the clocks back on Sunday. I had an active day. Yard work for about an hour and then a 2 mile walk.

Monday I walked 15 minutes before work and then did stretching/strength exercises after work.

Tuesday I walked 15 minutes before work, 15 minutes at lunch, and about 10 minutes after work.

Wednesday I hadn’t slept well the night before and did not do any exercise.

Today, Thursday, I did not have time to walk before work and have a meeting at lunch–so I predict not much exercise today.

Ahh, winter…

But like Lynn, I have let the time slip by without posting.  Have had a work crunch with a number of funerals, instituting a change in liturgy procedure  (Catholics are dreadful when it comes to handling change…), and Christmas planning.  Plus I discovered last week that the musician I was counting on to take my job when I retire has found a job elsewhere.  Good news for him!  But it means doing the whole search thing, probably next year, beginning in the summer or fall.  I don’t look forward to this – I have a fear that NO ONE will ever want my job and I’ll have to totter on forever!  There, that’s my weekly whine…

Here are the steps:

Sat. Oct. 17 – 6677 (3357) – # in () is aerobic steps

Sun. Oct 18 – 8255 (2216)

Mon. Oct. 19 – 12784 (6464)

Tues. Oct. 20 – 5365 (0) – BUT I made it through a killer Pilates class!  Did almost all the exercises…I intend to go back but haven’t yet…

Wed. Oct. 21 – 8799 (4053)

Thurs. Oct. 22 – 5599 (1987)

Fri. Oct. 23 – 9057 (4906)

Sat. Oct. 24 – 9931 (5552) – gym, used treadmill & elliptical for these aerobic steps.  Happy that the elliptical was not nearly as difficult as when I resumed it last year.

Sun. Oct. 25 – 7917 (2082)

Mon. Oct. 26 – 2453 (0)

Tues. Oct. 27 – 9223 (3428)

Wed. Oct. 28 – 1025 (0)

Thurs. Oct. 29 – 11381 (7723)

Here is my hill - leaves cover the path now - makes for slippery walking

Fri. Oct. 30 – 3635 (0)

Sat. Oct. 31 – 9205 (3404) – decided to boycott Hallowe’en and fled to the nearby Wegman’s where serendipity led me to a guy speaking French who has put me in touch with the local Alliance Francaise.  I thought it was defunct but no, just disorganized!  so I am going to an Alliance gathering today for a half hour before I have to conduct choir rehearsal.  I’m excited!  Oh yes, I also did a bit of Pilates at home with a videotape…

Sun. Nov. 1 – 5266 (0)

Mon. Nov. 2 – 6279 (0)

Tues. Nov. 3 – 10220 (5278)

Wed. Nov. 4 – 2705 (0) – on the other hand, my Christmas choir planning is DONE…

But I’m not happy with this record.  Weather change has affected me – I just don’t WANT to walk as much – and the gym does not lure me.  On the other hand, I’ve decided that I will walk after dark (except in the real dark of the moon) since my neighborhood is pretty safe.  So if it’s been a sluggy day, I will just get that walk in late if possible…and not too cold…

this little guy was quite surprised to see me

I’m also missing my old camera – Canon did NOT fix it for free, so I said the heck with it, they can keep it, rather than charge me to mail it back unrepaired.  I’m disgusted with Canon and will buy a Panasonic as soon as I can afford one…

OK, enough griping!  There is SUN today and later I am going for a walk!   We will all adjust to the change of seasons eventually…best wishes to all!

I’ve once again gone 3 weeks without posting. I have been exercising however. I don’t have a daily log (not very good at daily record keeping either) but I’ve managed to get in at least 1/2 hour walking or vigorous yard work 5 days each of the 3 weeks. Today I spent about an hour and a half doing leaf clean-up and there’s a lot more to do. I’ve been, as usual, less successful with the strength building exercises but did manage to do them twice last week, so that’s an improvement.

We have one more week here before we set the clocks back and I lose my after-work walking time. I think at first I’ll try switching my exercise time, with a goal of getting a short walk in before I leave for work and another short walk at lunch time (there’s a nice river walk near my office). But I’m still thinking about what to do when the bad weather sets in. We didn’t get the snow that Sara posted about but we have had some cold rainy days–just a little foretaste of what’s to come.

I will go out and take some photos later so you can see the dreadful effects of snow that comes too soon.  Most leaves were still on the trees, so many trees were weighted down and broken by this snow.  One rather near my house, but it didn’t hit the building when it came down.

A nicer view - poor tree trunk! Fortunately no buildings hurt.

I’ve gone too long without posting- will try to do better!  Especially since Claude may be out of touch for a while.

Tues. Oct 6 – 10491 steps (6443 aerobic)

Wed. Oct. 7 – 6294 steps, none aerobic – this was my photo taking day.

Thurs. Oct. 8 – 6964 (1822).

Fri. Oct 9 – 2275 steps, none aerobic – just a slug!

Sat. Oct 10 – 10,101 (1961+) – another photo taking day

Sun. Oct. 11 – 10518 (4801)

Mon. Oct 12 – 10118 (6783)

Tues. Oct 13 – 12085 (6461)

Wed. Oct 14 – 9900 (3301)

Thurs. Oct 15 – 3138 – sluuuuuug…

Fri. Oct. 16 – 5346 – ditto, but I did have the excuse of LOTS of snow!

Today there is more snow but it’s not icy and paths are clear.  But unfortunately we don’t have this type of inducement to walking and stair climbing…

I have to get back into my gym routine!  Trouble is, I’d so much rather be outside…also need to do some stretching exercises since my computer habit is making itself felt in stiffness…

Au revoir for now and happy walking!  And safe traveling,  Claude.

Hello all, sorry for being so long (again).

September was chock full of medical  appointments for  the whole family – but mainly my husband with follow-up checks after a week in the diabetic unit and then a cataract operation.

My neighbour has been away quite a lot because it’s a sad time for her – birthday and wedding anniversary for the first time since the death of her husband last April. She didn’t want to be at home on her own so I looked after her house and pets while she went to stay with relatives.

That meant a good bit of dog walking which helped me lose 2 kilos in a month. Nowhere near the target I had in mind but a loss all the same.

I’ve been having regular massages to help my neck and back which tend to seize up but last week the physio, who is training to be an osteopath, tried out some of her ‘new moves’ on me. This included bending and twisting  my knee – ouch – she didn’t realise I had a problem (she’s fairly new) and by the time I’d shouted it was a bit too late. Fortunately her manipulation was gentle so no great damage was done – just a few days of being extra careful and I’m back to what’s normal for me.

It’s becoming harder to get up now that the mornings are so dark so I’m looking forward to the clocks going back an hour at the end of this month.