60plus and loving life

health and fitness

Waking up sad…

By Posted on 0 3 m read
dog stuck in a cat tree

Mornings can be hard…

It is reasonably common for me to wake up feeling a bit sad, down or flat. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this way. There is no particular reason or rationale as to why this happens. I just wake up and don’t feel so great.

If I’m up at 5.30am for an early gym session, the sads don’t have much time to take hold. I am up, in my gym gear, grab my water bottle and towel and head out to the gym. Usually by the time the session starts and most certainly when it ends I feel absolutely fine or fantastic depending on how the gym class goes.

The other mornings when I don’t have to leap straight out of bed or when I wake earlier than I need, then it’s like existential dread drops like a veil over my mind and emotions. Sometimes I just go with the sad feeling, get up anyway, lace up my running shoes and head out the door for a 5-6km run. Again, I usually feel better once I’m on my way – says something about the power of exercise on mental health and wellbeing.

Other mornings I just can’t. And that’s ok too. I’ll stay in bed a while longer, feel like crap (again no real reason as to why) and then get up and get on with my day whatever that may bring. I always try to take my dog to the park as it’s good for him and my spirits lift when I see him galloping around with his ears flapping in the air!

Sometimes my spirits may lift as the day progresses, occasionally they do not. So I just sit with the sad feelings knowing that they do pass.

Occasionally I wake up feeling wonderful, happy and full of joy. Again, no idea why that happens, but I am more than grateful when it does.

To counter the waking up sads, I exercise every morning, which really helps me re-set my mind. For the mornings where it is more of a struggle I try other things like positive affirmations & gratitude lists – I have varying success with that.

On one of my favourite podcasts (click the link to go there if you like) I heard about another podcast/app called Wake Me Up: Morning Meditation & Motivations (click the link for the Spotify version or this link for the Apple version). The guy talking you through the sessions is Tyler Brown (he has a lovely soothing voice) and there are a series of meditations, motivational sessions or yoga/stretching options. The free version is great, except you have ads at the beginning which can be a bit jarring. There is a subscribe option, but I’m sticking with the free for now.

I don’t know why, but I find (and I’ve only been using the app this week and I’m not getting paid to say any of this, just offering options for people who may feel bleh in the a.m.) that it actually helps. The sessions are only 10-15 minutes long, so not too long to interfere with getting your day on the move, but long enough to refocus and re-set your mind and emotions for the day.

Give it a go and see what you think 🥰 🤗

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health and fitness

You really never know what is around the corner!

By Posted on 0 2 m read
sisters

Sisters…

My sister went to have her bloodwork done a few weeks ago. When she got the results her doctor thought her liver enzymes were a little unusual and sent her off for an ultrasound.

She had the ultrasound done the following week and fortuitously the results found that her liver looked fine. However, the doc said that she had a small lesion on one of her kidneys.

My sister then had to book in to have a biopsy of the lesion to determine whether it was cancerous. She had to reschedule as she caught a bad head cold the week prior to the biopsy and was still unwell the day before.

They got her back in within the week, which indicates that they were fairly concerned about the lesion. My sister wasn’t too freaked out as she trusted the urologist and oncologist, mostly because they kept her informed and were reassuring. She was a little nervous the night before and the day of the procedure, which is understandable.

She finally had the biopsy last week and got the results a couple of days later. That appointment was via Telehealth because in her town they still do a lot of online medical appointments due to another wave of Covid.

The outcome was that the lesion was cancer, more precisely it was a ‘renal cell carcinoma‘ – you can read about that if you click the link. The good news was that it was very small and had not spread anywhere else. The specialist is booking her in for surgery in January to have a ‘partial nephrectomy‘ which is surgical removal of part of the affected kidney. Again you can read about that procedure if you click the link.

I had to google all the terms as they were unfamiliar and I am now far more informed. My sister is fortunate that due to the small size of the lesion, she can have ‘robotic surgery’, rather than having ‘open surgery’. The recovery time from robotic surgery is a lot quicker and the surgery itself is far less invasive.

She has been reassured by her specialist that they will be able to remove the entire lesion and that she (likely) won’t need further intervention. Although I guess she will have regular scans to ensure she stays in the clear.

She’ll be in hospital for a couple of days and then home to recover. I am planning to send over a care package for her when she gets home. We live in different cities on opposite sides of the country, so I can’t get over to see her easily.

Please look after your health and wellbeing, have your bloodwork done (I know I am well and truly overdue for mine and will book in asap!), eat well (as much as you can), exercise well (as much as you can) and take care!

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nature makes me happy

Motorbike frog

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motorbike frog

I love frogs!

I am fortunate that at my workplace we have a garden section. In that section we have some resident fauna, including this cute little motorbike frog!

I don’t always get out into nature, so it’s lovely having a work garden to wander through occasionally and check out the critters. Motorbike frogs are native to the South West of Western Australia and they get their unique name from the sound the male frogs make when mating, which sounds like a motorbike going through it’s gear changes!

I was listening to one of my new favourite podcasts recently called “big picture science” (I’m a bit of a science geek and love to listen to science based podcasts, in addition to my favourite health and wellbeing ones). The interviewee was discussing nature and people and how we need to be more interconnected. Can’t argue with that one. However, the commentary was that people/humans see themselves as distinctly separate to nature, hence the common expression of getting “out into nature” (which is a statement I use a lot and have done pretty much my whole life) implying that we are not actually part of nature itself.

For me, I feel very much connected and a part of nature when I am surrounded by trees or by a river or the ocean. Less so when I am in the city and/or suburbs. I think that is common for most people and possibly why many people feel apart from or separate from “nature”.

Interesting discussion and ideas to think about. I like things that make me think or question things or reflect on my own concepts of how I view the world.

Spotting that little motorbike frog in the plant made me smile and brightened my day and I hope it makes you smile too!

For more information on motorbike frogs, check this link: motorbike frog

 

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health and fitness

Health & Fitness is a lifestyle!

By Posted on 0 3 m read
Ways to be active picture

I don’t do diets…

I was at dance class yesterday afternoon. It’s interesting trying to have a conversation during the class. The women move from man to man and you have 30 seconds top if you want to catch up whilst dancing (rather than before or after class!). And with some folk that’s when I do catch up with them.

I was chatting with one of the guys who has been coming along for a couple of years now. The first pass by, he mentioned he’d started a diet and I expressed surprise as he seems fairly trim, however he doesn’t have much muscle tone (I know this as dancing does involve touching the other persons arm or waist, depending on the dance move).

I asked him why and he said he needed to lose 8kgs. I then moved on to the next dance partner. However, my curiosity was piqued, so on the next turn with my friend I asked him what his motivation was to lose weight. He said that he started walking 5kms a day and had gone on a diet (I didn’t ask which one as diets are not my thing).

I said walking 5kms a day was a good thing to do for his health and fitness as it will improve his cardiovascular health. He said he was determined to stick with his diet and walking “this time”. He also said he’d taken up doing push-ups each day and has one of those vibrators  (sorry, but I snorted with laughter at this point), then realized he meant one of those vibrating plates that you jump on that jiggles you about. I’m not sure how effective those things are as I’ve never tried, but kudos to my friend for giving it a go.

His comment that he’d stick with it “this time” implies that he has tried dieting and getting fitter and has somehow “failed” previously. I am not keen on “failure” as a word when it comes to health and fitness goals. Sometimes I am super healthy and fit, sometimes I lose focus and eat crap or wake up and can’t be bothered going for a run. I never see that as “failure”, it’s just that it’s impossible to be perfect all the time and we are, after all, human with all that entails.

Back to my friend and the next ‘go round’. I said that rather than focus on  being on a “diet”, he could reframe his thoughts and see his new exercise regimen and eating plan as his now and forever lifestyle. I said that the problem with going on a diet is that at some point it ends, then people tend to go back to their old eating habits and the weight creeps back on. He hadn’t thought of it in that way and it was like a light had switched on in his eyes.

Back round again and he said that thinking of it as a lifestyle made him feel more optimistic about succeeding. I did want to talk about the concept of failure, but didn’t have the time in that lesson to continue the conversation. However, I did suggest that he not focus too much on the numbers on the scale, but to focus on improving his cardiovascular fitness with his walking and to keep up the strength training and healthy eating. He smiled. I felt good about sharing knowledge with someone starting (or re-starting) their health journey. Oh, by the way, he’s 74 – so it’s never too late to start improving your health & fitness (but check in with your health care practitioner first!).

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musings about ageing

Waking in the night…

By Posted on 0 1 m read
smoke alarm detector in ceiling

One of the not so great elements of getting older…

Is that you tend to need to get up to pee more often during the night. Sometimes once, sometimes (like last night) literally every two hours!

That just leads to disrupted sleep and feeling tired the whole of the next day. Not only did my bladder give me a hard time last night, my smoke detector alarm also decided to join in!

Wired in smoke detectors are required by law and I have two. One outside my bedroom door and one in the passageway leading to the garage. They also have back up 9volt batteries in case there’s a power outage.

Of course the back up battery in the one right outside my bedroom door decided it was done at midnight, because of course midnight is the time for batteries to die.

Which means that the smoke detector alarm starts emitting this really loud intermittent squawk and it won’t stop. Woke me up, woke my dog up and wouldn’t let us get back to sleep. Sigh!

So I got up, turned on the light (which I hate doing in the night, my poor eyes do not appreciate bright lights in the night), unscrewed the smoke detector from the ceiling, then unscrewed the unit and yoinked out the battery.

Silence!

Then an hour later I woke again to pee! Seriously bladder? Calm down! Image of Rolling on the Floor Laughing emoji

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health and fitness

Dental hygiene y’all!

By Posted on 0 3 m read
dental crown

Getting a crown (not the royal crown, the tooth crown!)

I’ve just come back from the dentist and my face is still numb and my tongue feels like it’ll flop out or worse that I might be dribbling, but not realize it!

Fortunately I am home on my own with my dog and he doesn’t mind the odd drool! 😂

I have reasonably good teeth for my age (64). I have not had any teeth extracted and only have a few fillings. However, one of those fillings is more filling that tooth – in one of the back molars.

I’ve always gone to the dentist regularly, every six months for a scale and clean and then, over the years, the odd filling. I chipped a front lower tooth a few years back and they built it back up with amalgam. I’ve had it done twice and it’s lasted over 20 years!

I’m a bit paranoid about dental health and hygiene. My dad had false snappers from his 50s (he never went to the dentist until it was far too late!) and I have delightful (not) memories of him at the dinner table, popping the saliva coated teeth on the table. He was unable to eat apples or other crunchy things as he had difficulty biting into them.

My mother also eschewed the dentist’s chair all her life and in the last 20 years of her life she only had a sprinkling of brown stumps in her mouth with many gaps from teeth that had rotted and fallen out! It made life difficult for her as she found it hard to eat most things and in the end she would just reheat frozen sliced chicken and vegetable dinners that she bought in bulk from the supermarket. It was soft and mushy and she could manage to get that down with minimal chewing.

My parents were of a generation and background that did not think dentists were necessary, certainly not on a regular basis. They thought it was a waste of time and money. My sisters and I had no dentist visits as children, my first proper dentist appointment was when I turned 18 and my boyfriend said I should go, he was shocked that I had never been.

I was shocked that he thought one should! I’m so glad he did get me to make that first appointment, fortunately my teeth were fine and I didn’t need any treatment, apart from X-Rays and a clean. But it started a lifelong devotion to dental hygiene and good practice for me. Even so, I did require some fillings over the years, but not too many thank goodness.

So, back to my molar. As I said it was more filling than tooth and over the years my dentist has suggested getting a crown, but no pressure and no urgency. She mentioned it again at my last check up and I thought, yep now is a good time. I’m semi-retired, I have private health insurance and so I booked in to have it done.

It requires two appointments. Today’s was to dig out the old filling, grind down the molar, take a mold for the porcelain crown and put in a temporary crown for two weeks until the permanent one is made and ready to be glued in/on. She put numbing gel on my gum and then jabbed the syringe in, it wasn’t painful, but I could taste the anaesthesia in the back of my throat, unpleasant but bearable.

In two weeks I go back and she will remove the temporary crown and glue on the permanent one. In the meantime I have to chew on the other side, not eat nuts or crunchy things, not floss around the temporary crown and use a manual toothbrush on that tooth 🦷🦷

 

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all about the dog

Georgie-boy…

By Posted on 0 1 m read
Spoodle dog

My dog is the best!

George went to the groomers yesterday and had a day of doggie daycare as well. He had a slightly shorter cut this time as it’s close on summer time in our neck of the woods and I don’t want him overheating. I took this photo of him and he looks so sweet and neat & tidy too! He has the most beautiful soulful eyes 🥰

So I thought I’d share the picture and share the love. I gave him a treat after taking his photo as he’s very patient with me. He sat there all nice and chill whilst I snapped a few pics until I got one that felt like I got the composition right. He has the nicest temperament, is very relaxed and calm and very loving.

Sometimes the world can be a bit hectic. Our lives can feel unbalanced and people or things happen that may disappoint. Sometimes you just need to see a photo of a lovely, friendly dog looking into your eyes and to remember that there is kindness, caring, love and peace in the world. Sending you all loving and peaceful vibes 🥰

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health and fitness

Reflections on boxing for seniors…

By Posted on 0 2 m read
woman at boxing gym reflected in the mirror

My daughter convinced me to take up boxing!

About a year or so ago my daughter wanted to take up boxing as a sport and for additional exercise. She can be a little shy in new situations (she gets that from me, although I’m way less shy these days! Benefits of getting older! 😂) So she asked if I’d come along to a boxing gym near my place (she lives across town, so nice to be closer to mine).

It was a women’s boxing class and the first session was pretty intense. Skipping, short sprints and more skipping to warm up and get the heart rate up. Then drills in basic boxing techniques. Jab, cross, hook and upper cut, boxing stance and correct footwork (although that is still a work in progress for me!). At the end of the class is a short strength and conditioning session with weights and then usually finishing with a plank or other abdominal strengthening exercise.

Now you might think it odd that I am happy to pick up a new sport in my 60s and that is where you’d be wrong. I love trying new things and I have found I really enjoy boxing. It’s a great cardiovascular workout, you need to have great coordination and balance skills and if not, they certainly will improve!

After I started I did a little research on the benefits of boxing and found that it is recommended for older people, not just the young. It really is a great overall workout, good for your mind health as well. Research shows that heart health is linked to good mental health outcomes and boxing keeps your mind active too.

As with anything, check with your medical and/or health practitioner to determine if picking up a new exercise regimen will benefit your health.

My daughter has now joined another gym closer to her home and has regular boxing & sparring and strength and conditioning training, she’s no longer too shy to put on her gear and head to her gym, it’s a great sense of community and everyone at boxing (at her gym and our original gym) are super friendly and helpful. The coaches are fantastic and the workout is intense and fun!

She still comes along to our original gym with me for our weekly boxing session, followed by dinner and a catch up at my place.

The photo at the top of this post was taken by my daughter right after a training session, I edited the photo to just keep the reflection of myself in the mirror. I think it’s a great shot and captures the vibe of boxing perfectly!

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musings about ageing

Not a grandmother and that’s ok!

By Posted on 0 2 m read
mother and child

Not a grandmother and I’m totally fine with that!

First up I will say that grandparents are awesome and I’m happy for you if you have grandies. Ok, now onto my story. My daughter, who is in her early 30s, told me a couple of years back that she decided she did not want to have children. She is of that generation of women that carefully consider their life choices and make decisions based on what is right for them. 

I recall back when I was younger, in my early/mid 20s (in the 1980s, sheesh that was a long while ago!) there was a lot of pressure to have children. Whether you would make a good parent or not, the societal expectation was very much that you marry and have children (not always in that order 😂) but you get my drift, yes?

I was called selfish as I wasn’t sure I wanted children and dared to voice my opinion (I also didn’t get around to having my daughter until I was almost 32, which was not so common back in the day). I was puzzled at the idea of being called selfish for not wanting children. I still don’t quite get it. Young women make different and better choices these days, but there is still pressure and the ‘selfish’ word still gets thrown around a bit.

Choosing to live a full and happy life of work, travel, relationships, friends, volunteering, pets, hobbies, interests, fitness and fun seems a sensible choice to me. The world can be a bit of an unsettling place and not one we necessarily wish to bring children into. That said, I realize that people choose to have children as it’s a deep seated desire/need for them and again, good for them, but it’s not for everyone and that is fine and dandy.

I also hear folk of my age group who pester their adult children into having children as they want to be made ‘grandparents’ and have meaning and purpose in their lives. Heck, my mother pestered me and she already had a few grandies before I got around to producing another. She used to point to a space on the wall that she left ready for my child’s portrait, in between all the others. I told her I’d give her a photo of my cat, I think I was ahead of my time or just cheeky. Same/same!

I do not need grandchildren to add value to my life. I am content with my life and my relationship with my daughter is loving and close.

The photo for this post is of me and my daughter when she was a baby 🥰 and I 100% support her in any decision she makes about her life as an adult and I am incredibly proud of the way she has turned out. She is loving, kind, generous, thoughtful, smart and absolutely my best friend!

 

 

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random thoughts...

Playing around with images…

By Posted on 0 2 m read
butterflies

Having fun with digital art and images

First up, this is not an advertisement and I am not suggesting you use the website I am talking about. I use Canva at work and home to develop digital images. I have a bit of fun playing around with it, but I am by no means an expert nor do I have a particularly good artistic eye.

I use the free version and find that I can generally find either a free template or adapt one of my photos to play around with and hopefully improve.

I got an email from Canva this week (and like pretty much every website, I get daily updates all the time and most I just delete). This one caught my attention. It was a new option to change text to images. Basically you type in text and then Canva gives you a selection of four images based on the words you have entered. The feature image of this post was one of “butterflies in a field”. Not exactly a super creative idea, but the image is sweet and pretty.

I found this intriguing and kind of fun. I think it’s still in the testing phase and I guess eventually they will charge for it. I jumped onto the site and spent a creative (wasteful) half an hour creating images from sentences. Like a “golden fluffy dog in a magical forest” This is one of the four images suggested:

fluffy dog in a magical forest

You can get the images in various formats for social media posting. I opted for blogpost images for obvious reasons! 😅

I tried to get a bit more creative and put in “Beautiful Australian wildflowers” as I have a fondness for the flora of my country. What I got was certainly pretty, but not exactly specific to our wildflowers. Nonetheless, I did have a lot of fun playing around with this new part of Canva. Like I said, this is not an endorsement or an advertisement, just me having fun, playing around with something different and new!

flowers

 

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