Another Year Older
I have friends who read my blog who will concur that I used to shave a year off my age whenever someone asked me how old I was. This was my chance to be deliciously naughty and outright lie about how old I was and let me tell you, it was empowering. I didn't feel bad about not being truthful because the truth was I felt younger than I was. But what a ridiculous sham. Why did I think one year made any difference at all in how people perceived me? At the time I was working in publishing and it's such a young business that I felt in order to fit in better I needed to whittle my age down by 365 days. (forehead slap)
But in all seriousness age is an odd thing. I recently turned 46 (and that's for real) and even with this broken foot of mine and some lower back issues I feel like a thirty-two year old stuck in a 46 year old body. My bad cholesterol is low, my good cholesterol is high, I'm at the optimal weight for my height, my yearly blood work reveals that I have excellent organ function with no signs of heart disease. I do not suffer from diabetes nor have I ever had skin cancer (I dutifully wear my sunscreen and get yearly full body checks). I have never been a smoker, heavy drinker, nor have I ever been addicted to drugs. And I have always been careful about what I eat. My motto is moderation. Eat the good stuff and consume less of the bad stuff. I love my kale smoothies, my famously huge salads with tons of brightly colored veggies and sunflower seeds, hearty grain breads, angel hair pasta dish with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, Roma tomatoes, and fresh basil and grilled salmon filets done on a cedar plank. But if a homemade vanilla cupcake with chocolate butter cream frosting is handed to me I never refuse. Ever. It's all about balance, right? Have a glass or two of red wine rather than consume the entire bottle. Don't starve yourself all day to then binge eat at night. Exercise regularly.
I used to be very "put off" by the number assigned to me. And now at 46, I realize that this is just a number. And that my 46 years compared to another person's 46 years can be remarkably different. It's not the number. It's how we have cared for our selves all these years that matter. I do think that the hard years of sleep-deprived partying in your 20's, continued on into your 30's because you think you're still in your 20's starts to play catch up real quick in your 40's. I see what all those years of taxing your liver, burning your lungs, consuming large amounts of greasy snacks on a pot high can do to you. No amount of body cleanse is going to wipe away years of being bad to yourself though I admire folks I know who have kicked a bad habit and are getting themselves clean and healthy.
Age is no excuse to give up on taking care of our bodies. Work is no excuse not to exercise (there's always an extra 15 min. in your day to get outside, walk around the building at a brisk pace and back to your desk before your boss even notices), and being uneducated about healthy food is no excuse for eating a lot of highly processed foods (the internet is a wealth of information - what you need to know is right in front of you if you're curious enough to learn about it).
So I proudly tell people how old I am now. Sure I've got some crows feet around the eyes (hoping my Olay Regenerist cream will help with that!) and a skunk streak of grey that I have colored regularly. And I'd love a little more youthful baby fat in the face, but I'm happy with how I feel and look and I'm pleased every time my blood work comes back with all the right numbers.
I've gotta be doing something right.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Hurting All Over
After going silent for, um, two years or so (now how did that happen?) I am back to blogging. However what brought me back to the blank page is a matter of unfortunate circumstance. Do you want the dirt? OK, OK. I'll share with you my misfortunes and then you can smirk (don't worry I won't see you doing it) and whisper under your breath, "Thank god that didn't happen to ME." Come on it's human nature to feel a little better about your own life when you hear that someone else is worse off. I'm not judging you. We all do it. So just admit this blog post is going to lift your spirits. And I'll take the credit, thank you.
Right, the mishap. I was half way through a 17-day road trip to California when I broke my left foot in a biking accident. I was on my new cruiser bike eager to see the gorgeous beach at Islay Campground just outside of San Luis Obispo and to catch up with Tim and the boys. I had a huge smile on my face as I breathed in the salty air. It was so good to be seaside again. I grabbed a beach towel and draped it around my neck and hopped onto my cushy saddle. I had been wanting a bike that I didn't need to clip silly shoes into, that generously cushioned my juicy caboose, and was simple in design and use. As I was coasting down the campground's main road I noticed four women linked arm-in-arm stretched across the entire width of the road. They showed no signs of moving out of my way so I gently swerved onto the grass but as I cut back to the road I hadn't noticed that the swaying hippie chicks off in la-la land had a teenage cyclist behind them. My re-entry onto the road put me in a head-on collision with the girl. I freaked out and over-corrected, swerving out of her way which threw me over my handle bars and into a heap of painful agony on the ground below.
A doc at a local urgent care took x-rays and told me what I already guessed - a broken foot. My foot looked like a puffer fish and it was a nice eggplant hue. And god did it hurt. I was tempted to hobble on the Urgent Care's crutches with a broken foot for the next week. Let the swelling come down and then once home have specialists look at it. But as I lay that night in our pop-up trailer with my throbbing foot elevated on pillows and a Ziploc ice pack melting so quickly it - as well as a flood of tears - was soaking the bedding under my beat up body I knew my vacation had come to an end. What if the break was really bad and needed immediate attention? How was I going to hobble down the beach in San Diego, our next stop, as my crutches sank into the fine sand? Hike the Arizona desert (the stop after San Diego)? How was I going to be a bolster and not a burden to Tim with the set up and break down of camp not to mention helping with our two raucous young boys? How do I do this vacation ON ONE FOOT!?
Suddenly what had been a glorious vacation filled with luxe accomodations in Park City and Lake Tahoe (thanks to Timmy's media connections) with friends (camping in the Redwoods together), tastings at amazingly good breweries, a stunning drive along Hwy. 1 through Monterey (Monterey Bay Acquarium visit was top notch) and Carmel-by-the-Sea to our breathtaking campsites along Big Sur (sightings of elephant seals and sea otters) it was now coming to an end and I was simply overwhelmed by loss. Missing out of the rest of my family's vacation (my body had been craving the ocean and now I was not going to have the chance to swim in it), the loss of work - lots and lots of work - as a yoga instructor and as a server in a fine dining restaurant and the loss of function of my foot temporarily and perhaps with arthritic pain for the rest of my life. Bam. My life changed.
I boarded a plane a day and a half later and met my dad in Denver who whisked me off to my first appointment to an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Colorado Hospital. The break is bad and will require surgery this coming Wednesday. I'll be in a non-weight bearing cast for a minimum of eight weeks.
But just when you might want to start feeling sorry for me, I'm telling you don't. I cried enough for all of us. I had not one but a few pity parties I threw for myself. I didn't invite anyone because I like to be the only guest at events like these. I'm sure you understand. And then I made a vow to myself that I would make something out of this crappy place I was in. To find value in the vacuous void I was teetering above.
First and foremost, value has come from the kindness of others. It started with my dad's offer to pay for my flight home so I could get the care I needed so desperately. And the care he has provided since I've been back. I couldn't have done this without him. It was the help I got from an elderly and prominent lobbyist on my shuttle ride from the Disneyland Hotel to LAX who happened to be sitting across from me and wanted to know what happened to my foot. Even in his limited range of motion he was able to flag down someone with a wheelchair at the airport and make sure me and my luggage made it to my flight. His stories of his 58-year marriage to his college sweetheart, his passion for his work in D.C., his friendship with Walt Disney himself lifted my spirits and kept me from crying that hour to the airport. To my dear friends Alicia and Kate for bringing me homemade food to nourish myself with. And listening to an old CD that Corny gave me years ago that talks about moving from scarcity to prosperity - something that really resounds with me now that I've lost work for a bit. I'm not much for reading "lists" on how to improve my life but I was desperate and in my search I found one on advancedlifeskills.com entitled 10 Ways to Cope When Bad Things Happen. It is my guiding light right now and it is helping me to stay positive and strong.
And finally the writing part. For me, there has always been so much value in writing. It is therapy for the mind and for the soul. I hope in some way others can have a cathartic experience by reliving my experiences with me.
As the website I mentioned above states, "If something in your life falls apart, turn it to your advantage . . .
turn the setback into progress. So, the end result will put you ahead of where you were." I immediately thought, I need to write more and I need to take my yoga instruction to another level where I guide through words more than I demonstrate the pose. This can be done on-line as well and I'm excited to figure out how to post my classes on-line and to make my blog a one stop shop for everything healthy - 15-minute mini-Vini's (Vinyasa classes), postings of my favorite healthy recipes, my musings about keeping things in balance, links to fantastic yoga retreats, etc. Stay tuned. I think good things are heading everyone's way.
Right, the mishap. I was half way through a 17-day road trip to California when I broke my left foot in a biking accident. I was on my new cruiser bike eager to see the gorgeous beach at Islay Campground just outside of San Luis Obispo and to catch up with Tim and the boys. I had a huge smile on my face as I breathed in the salty air. It was so good to be seaside again. I grabbed a beach towel and draped it around my neck and hopped onto my cushy saddle. I had been wanting a bike that I didn't need to clip silly shoes into, that generously cushioned my juicy caboose, and was simple in design and use. As I was coasting down the campground's main road I noticed four women linked arm-in-arm stretched across the entire width of the road. They showed no signs of moving out of my way so I gently swerved onto the grass but as I cut back to the road I hadn't noticed that the swaying hippie chicks off in la-la land had a teenage cyclist behind them. My re-entry onto the road put me in a head-on collision with the girl. I freaked out and over-corrected, swerving out of her way which threw me over my handle bars and into a heap of painful agony on the ground below.
A doc at a local urgent care took x-rays and told me what I already guessed - a broken foot. My foot looked like a puffer fish and it was a nice eggplant hue. And god did it hurt. I was tempted to hobble on the Urgent Care's crutches with a broken foot for the next week. Let the swelling come down and then once home have specialists look at it. But as I lay that night in our pop-up trailer with my throbbing foot elevated on pillows and a Ziploc ice pack melting so quickly it - as well as a flood of tears - was soaking the bedding under my beat up body I knew my vacation had come to an end. What if the break was really bad and needed immediate attention? How was I going to hobble down the beach in San Diego, our next stop, as my crutches sank into the fine sand? Hike the Arizona desert (the stop after San Diego)? How was I going to be a bolster and not a burden to Tim with the set up and break down of camp not to mention helping with our two raucous young boys? How do I do this vacation ON ONE FOOT!?
Suddenly what had been a glorious vacation filled with luxe accomodations in Park City and Lake Tahoe (thanks to Timmy's media connections) with friends (camping in the Redwoods together), tastings at amazingly good breweries, a stunning drive along Hwy. 1 through Monterey (Monterey Bay Acquarium visit was top notch) and Carmel-by-the-Sea to our breathtaking campsites along Big Sur (sightings of elephant seals and sea otters) it was now coming to an end and I was simply overwhelmed by loss. Missing out of the rest of my family's vacation (my body had been craving the ocean and now I was not going to have the chance to swim in it), the loss of work - lots and lots of work - as a yoga instructor and as a server in a fine dining restaurant and the loss of function of my foot temporarily and perhaps with arthritic pain for the rest of my life. Bam. My life changed.
I boarded a plane a day and a half later and met my dad in Denver who whisked me off to my first appointment to an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Colorado Hospital. The break is bad and will require surgery this coming Wednesday. I'll be in a non-weight bearing cast for a minimum of eight weeks.
But just when you might want to start feeling sorry for me, I'm telling you don't. I cried enough for all of us. I had not one but a few pity parties I threw for myself. I didn't invite anyone because I like to be the only guest at events like these. I'm sure you understand. And then I made a vow to myself that I would make something out of this crappy place I was in. To find value in the vacuous void I was teetering above.
First and foremost, value has come from the kindness of others. It started with my dad's offer to pay for my flight home so I could get the care I needed so desperately. And the care he has provided since I've been back. I couldn't have done this without him. It was the help I got from an elderly and prominent lobbyist on my shuttle ride from the Disneyland Hotel to LAX who happened to be sitting across from me and wanted to know what happened to my foot. Even in his limited range of motion he was able to flag down someone with a wheelchair at the airport and make sure me and my luggage made it to my flight. His stories of his 58-year marriage to his college sweetheart, his passion for his work in D.C., his friendship with Walt Disney himself lifted my spirits and kept me from crying that hour to the airport. To my dear friends Alicia and Kate for bringing me homemade food to nourish myself with. And listening to an old CD that Corny gave me years ago that talks about moving from scarcity to prosperity - something that really resounds with me now that I've lost work for a bit. I'm not much for reading "lists" on how to improve my life but I was desperate and in my search I found one on advancedlifeskills.com entitled 10 Ways to Cope When Bad Things Happen. It is my guiding light right now and it is helping me to stay positive and strong.
And finally the writing part. For me, there has always been so much value in writing. It is therapy for the mind and for the soul. I hope in some way others can have a cathartic experience by reliving my experiences with me.
As the website I mentioned above states, "If something in your life falls apart, turn it to your advantage . . .
turn the setback into progress. So, the end result will put you ahead of where you were." I immediately thought, I need to write more and I need to take my yoga instruction to another level where I guide through words more than I demonstrate the pose. This can be done on-line as well and I'm excited to figure out how to post my classes on-line and to make my blog a one stop shop for everything healthy - 15-minute mini-Vini's (Vinyasa classes), postings of my favorite healthy recipes, my musings about keeping things in balance, links to fantastic yoga retreats, etc. Stay tuned. I think good things are heading everyone's way.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
