Healthy Living Archives · Page 2 of 5 · Starting Over At Sixty

Lift Your Mood by De-Cluttering

July 22, 2018

One of the best ways to lift your mood is by de-cluttering. It’s true. Here is my tale over the last few weeks: I lived in a one-room loft. When I left my house and husband three years ago my goal was to create a place for my adult children to visit that looked like home to them. And, I probably wanted it to look like home for me as well. My tiny place was filled with all the trinkets of the past, those things that meant so much. And, I was glad they were around for me to look at while I sat there in my place stunned at what had just happened to my life. There was comfort in things. Although my place was small, it was filled with memories. When each of my children came to visit, I told them that I hoped that it looked like home to them. It did. Mission accomplished.

Fast forward three years and I moved into a condo that is nearly three times the size of that little apartment. It has floor to ceiling windows with a loft living space and it is light and airy. So as I was unpacking box after box (don’t ask me how I had all this stuff in a one-room loft) and putting everything away I realized that I didn’t need to make this place look like a replica of my children’s home. I have done that. I eased them into the world where their parents lived in two different places. I did my job. I don’t have to fill this place with family memories. And, I think I don’t need to surround myself with clay projects that the kids made 20 years ago. Love them, but don’t have to see them every day.

With that in mind, I am feeling lighter, physically lighter. I don’t have to throw everything away, but, clearing it out and putting it away makes me feel better. I am not weighed down by the memories that were facing me daily when I awakened. I can wake up with a clean slate and move forward rather than letting objects keep me in the past.

Here is Your Challenge

You can do the same. If you are single you, of course, love your children and are probably surrounded by them through stuff. You don’t have to say goodbye to the stuff, just put it away. I am keeping the stuff, just not dusting the stuff every week. Take this challenge: clear off your refrigerator or a countertop or vanity this week and see how it makes you feel. Do you feel lighter? Physically lighter? That action alone can lift your mood and lighten your heart, even if it is temporary. And if tomorrow you put up a new refrigerator magnet, no worries, today your mood will be light and airy because you don’t have to manage and look at the stuff today.

I hope you will try this and let me know how de-cluttering even just a small portion of your life makes you feel. Let’s face it, there aren’t a lot of things you can do for free that can have such a positive effect on your mood and attitude. So, go crazy and clean off your kitchen counter!

Starting Over at Sixty Sisters

July 15, 2018

I always look at which posts are more popular on Starting Over at Sixty than others so I can learn more about my readers and their interests. One topic that repeatedly gets the most hits is loneliness. Loneliness is at the top of the heap consistently. Even if I reprint a post about loneliness it is again, very popular. That tells me that many single women over 50, 60 and 70 deal with loneliness. It is so sad because we still have 30-50% of our lives left to live with passion while in the grips of loneliness. Well, guess what, we are not a subculture: we are not an “also-ran.” Americans live more than 60% of there lives single. But, I am often heartbroken by the loneliness that single women feel.

So, that’s what I have been focusing on: a program that helps single women live lives that are as full and meaningful as they can possibly be. We need to live with the same strength and drive to have a happy life as we did when we were younger, no matter what our end game is. I am offering a free 8-week program that I am calling Starting Over at Sixty Sisters. It will include interactive webinars, actionable items to tackle and support and pep-talks along the way. Will it be inspirational? Yes. Will you be part of the conversation? Yes. And, will you feel like you are part of a powerful, vibrant community? Oh yes, you will!

I can’t wait to get started: just go to this link to sign up for the free 8-week course. You will hear more about it in the weeks to come. You have nothing to lose by joining and I know you are going to love the ride. These are the phrases that are rolling in my head every minute:

Never give up, never give in and go get ’em!

Are You Living in Alignment?

July 8, 2018

Three years ago I ran away from home: I moved out of the home that I shared with my husband before he returned from work at 6 p.m. I moved into a one-room industrial loft, the one in the photo here, that I absolutely loved. The apartment felt small and safe. It was the one little place where I could hide from the world while my marriage was crumbling.

Last Saturday I took a giant step in building a happy life for myself again: I moved again. I now own my own condo (well, of course, the bank owns my condo!). I have lots of space and a wonderful view, two stories and the biggest closet I have ever owned (I will post some pictures when the boxes are unpacked)! And, while it is filled to the brim with boxes right now, it represents a new beginning for me; a new, happy chapter filled with hope and success and family and friends. “All that, just from changing your address,” you might ask. Yes! Yes! Yes! When I moved to my loft, I felt that it was important for it to look like home for my adult children. I wanted them to know that no matter where I lived, it would be their home. It might have been just one room, but it was their home. And that’s what it was, their home.

Now, while this is still their home, it is my home, it is me. My new place is not a miniature replica of my married life: it is a home for a single woman over 60 who has a full, exciting life. It is a place where I can entertain, where my children can sleep in separate rooms when they visit (rather than all in one room) and it is a place where I can really start my life over. There is nothing about it that screams, “I am a sad, sad woman who is having to pick up the pieces of her failed marriage and trudge through life.” Instead, I feel like it says, “Paula has overcome a mountain of obstacles and look at her now!”

Join My New Program!

So, I am launching a test program for Starting Over at Sixty followers designed to build community among women who are 50+ and single and want to live the fullest lives possible. I mention it here because the focus of the group will be how to take steps forward in order to live a life on the outside the way you feel on the inside: vibrant, vital and relevant. I want you to live in alignment! I hope you will join other women who support each other through this chapter of life. Please register here. This test group is 100% free and launches August 1, 2018. I can’t wait to get started!

Keep Your Core Strong to Keep Your Balance

February 3, 2018

As I am sure you have heard, it is important to keep your core strong. As we age we lose some of our balance, and without that important balance we fall and trip and have a hard time getting in and out of chairs. You may not notice it now, but just wait, it’s coming. So, if you are like me, you want to do everything you can to stay strong throughout your core so you need less help moving in the years to come. Even if you are someone who never exercises (and if you don’t exercise this is even more important for you to get started), improving your core strength is critical for your future. So, I grabbed my friend Nano Anderson (Cuffed by Nano, The Butcher Shop Fitness) to help demonstrate a couple of key moves that will help you strengthen your core and maintain your balance. We shot this at The Butcher Shop, a Lagree Studio, so you could see the moves from all angles. Let me just say that if I can have my picture taken next to Miss Nano you know I think this is important! I hope you will add these to your morning routine to improve your life in the future.

How You Can Keep Your Core Strong. Start with a Plank, then Make It Harder

You can start out with a basic plank, which isn’t easy. Put your hands and feet on the floor, and straighten out your back. As with every exercise here, suck in your tummy, trying to touch your spine with your belly-button. If you can hold this for 30 seconds, that’s a good start. Continue to increase your time until you have reached one minute. Then, to change it up and take it further, add in a one-armed plank for 15 seconds then switch arms. Always protect your back by sucking in your gut! If you haven’t worked out your abs in a long time, you may need to start your planks on your knees. And, remember, it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.

Push-Up

Push-ups can be done at a number of different levels. Nano and I are just showing you a few. I have my hands raised to make it a little easier and Nano is all in with a version of the real deal. So while I am starting up in the air, my goal is to do what she is doing. You can modify the push-up by putting your hands on a wall or a kitchen counter to start, then slowly move your hands down toward the floor, or as I like to say, you go from being a Paula to being a Nano! Remember, the only way to do these is with your tummy sucked in to protect your back and strengthen your core. Here are a few examples to follow.

Twist and Shout

This exercise is tough but effective. Sit on your bottom and bend your knees with your feet flat on the floor. Lean back, hinging at your bottom, as far as you can go without putting a strain on your back. Again, suck that belly-button into your spine. Now, twist one direction then another, slowly. You can cross your arms at your chest, hold them out in front of you or even add a small weight like my friend Nano is demonstrating. Keep going as long as you can and increase the number over time. If you aren’t feeling this one you aren’t performing it correctly! It is a killer but effective. Take a look below.

Superwomans

The name says it all and this is great for your lower back. It is pretty simple. Just lay on your stomach, relaxing your body. Then, lift your arms and legs off the ground, pointing everything, really reaching your fingers and toes as far as you can. You will actually feel like Superman. Tighten your abs. Count to ten, then lower for a few seconds and do it again. Really hold your tummy in and feel that great stretch. Maybe you can perform some superhuman good deeds while you are at it!

Crossover Balance Move

The mere mention of this exercise by my trainer makes me start to cry. It is nearly impossible for me, but important. And, when you get just one done from start to finish you will be so proud of yourself. Stand on your left foot with the right arm in the air. Lift the right foot behind you and use it to help you balance. Slowly bend over and try to touch your left toes with your right hand. If you are like me you will have to try about eight times even to get this far. Then stand up straight again, with your arm overhead. When you have completed eight, go to the other side. The only good thing about these for me is that every once in a while I can do them all without having to put the other foot on the ground and I am elated.

If you do nothing else over the next month to six weeks, challenge yourself to do 10 minutes of core work every other day. That’s not much. I can’t tell you that you will look thinner or weigh less or appear chiseled, but I can tell you that it will make a difference down the road.

Setting Goals: My First Triathlon

October 31, 2017

Diane Lemay was used to accomplishing big goals: she is a retired pediatrician, a medical director at Anthem Health Insurance and is a theology student at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, Ohio. In high school, she had been a runner and in her thirties, she ran marathons. She did a mini triathlon at Buckeye Lake in Ohio, where she lives, but she didn’t really enjoy it. She found the transitions difficult, especially biking to running, and that was the end of her triathlon experience, she thought.

In 2015, Diane found that she needed a new goal: she had experienced the break up of a long time relationship, she had gained weight and she felt that she just wasn’t herself: she wanted to get the active part of herself back. She was already a cyclist and loved it, and with her running background, she knew that if she could learn to swim, really swim properly, she could attempt a half-Ironman race. So, she made that her goal. It was December 2015 and the only Ironman-sponsored event in Ohio was a 70.3 in August of 2016. It was the first time Ironman had come to Ohio and it was in eight months!

Diane enlisted the help of Coach Kim Clark, who had her start swimming on December 26, 2015: there was no time to waste so the day after Christmas Diane was in the water, and for 18 months Diane has continued to learn and train to be a better swimmer. Now she loves it. She finds that when it is just her and the water swimming has a meditative quality. “I pray a lot when I swim,” she said.

Her biggest obstacle in swimming was that she had a hard time putting her head all the way in the water. So her coach taught her a trick: she pretends that when she is blowing bubbles she is talking to the fish and that when she is breathing and her ear is to the ground she is listening to them talk. Diane also learned to breathe bilaterally from her coach not only to balance her breathing but to give her the option of choosing one side over another if the sun is in her eyes when swimming. Coach Kim Clark also created hardships for Diane (swimming over her) to get her mentally ready for the swim. She even enlisted the help of a swim class full of children to jump in and swim over Diane.

Transitions were difficult at first because of the heaviness coming out of the water and moving on to the bike. It was a “different kind of hard,” she said. Biking to running was all about recruiting different muscles and changing your rhythm.

After eight months of training, Diane did her first IRONMAN. Swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 and run a half marathon, 13.1 miles, in Delaware, Ohio. “I actually enjoyed it,” she said. But the swim was tough. She had a hard time swimming in a straight line and says she knows she swam much farther than the 1.2 miles. During the first five minutes, she had a panic attack. Her heart rate was skyrocketing and she couldn’t catch her breath. The next wave of swimmers was passing her. She swam over to one of the kayaks in the water for safety and just waited to get her heart rate down, then she was fine and completed the swim. Her concern: Would she make it in the time allotted for the swim, or be disqualified? “I made it with six minutes to spare,” Diane said.

She took a couple of weeks off after the IRONMAN, then thought she would just continue to do some maintenance training. Her coach had other ideas for her. She asked Diane, “What makes you get up in the morning? What are the things you are passionate about?

Well now, Diane was passionate about triathlons. But, she also has a passion for helping those who are incarcerated. She hopes to work in the prison system when she becomes an ordained minister. Put those two interests together and there is just one place to go: Alcatraz.

If you are interested in learning more about becoming a triathlete like Diane LeMay, go to http://beginnertriathlete.com/.

Healthy Living