I’ve been slowly losing flexibility, which, since I used to be practically a contortionist when I was in my 20s, was kind of a bummer. The PT who helped me with a back problem that was a holdover from pregnancy I waited way to long to work on suggested yoga. I was skeptical, because of all the “Omms,” and chakra-talk I hear from friends who have done yoga, but I finally decided to try it. Well, there’s some woo involved, but I ignore it, and it’s helping with flexibility. Also, I’m finding out there’s yoga, and there’s yoga. By picking the right classes, I can find the ones that make me sweat.
The studio is just 15 minutes away by bicycle, so about three times a week, I bike over and bike back.
We also just adopted a shelter dog, and I do her morning walk, so I walk about 30 minutes a day, every day (unless there’s torrential rain, but then she gets a longer walk the next day).
I also lift weights to make sure my upper body also gets exercised. I do that about 30 minutes 3 times a week. I do flies for lats and deltoids, military presses, biceps and triceps curls, and push-ups. I have a set of free weights, but they are one-handed dumbbells. I don’t have a barbell set. I’ve get a cheap weight bench that holds up to the minor use I give it.
I’m not trying to win any contests. I just want to be healthy. I have heard horror stories of women who break hips, and have so little upper body strength, they can’t do the rehab. I don’t want to be that, but mainly, I’d like not to break a hip in the first place, so I eat right, and exercise, and with luck and good genes, I’m hoping to keep my bone density. My mother and grandmother both had good bone density. My maternal grandmother had her first bone density test that was borderline osteoporotic when she was 94. She was pissed. But she probably could have been getting more calcium in her diet, and anyway, more to the point, she made it all the way through her 70s and 80s with really good bone density. My mother only lived to 77, but her bone density tests were always good.
I don’t know about my father’s mother, but I know her general health was poor. Somehow she lived to be 86, though, but her general health had been poor all the time I was aware of it, which is to say, since her early 70s. She always followed doctors’ orders, but she never did anything pre-emptive, which is to say, she let things get to a point where doctors were involved. She virtually never exercised, and was overweight. When I think of how she kept chugging on, even with everything that was wrong with her, I wonder what her health would have been like if she’d taken care of herself.
I’m going to restart the diet and see if I can drop a few pounds over the next weeks.