60plus and loving life

Tag Archives health and fitness over 60

Health, fitness, dogs, dancing and coffee!
health and fitness

Health, fitness, dogs, dancing and coffee!

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I take my health and fitness very seriously. I am committed to healthy (and balanced) eating and exercising most days of the week. I love to run outdoors and I also love heading to my favourite gym and jumping into a weights, yoga or cardio class. I love my fitness instructors and my workout buddies.

I also love to dance and I have a whole community of dance friends, including my lovely teachers. The older one gets, the more important it is to keep moving, do some resistance training, stretching and balance work.

Sometimes you can get stopped dead in your tracks. I’ve had to take some time out from my fitness regimen as I’ve had a couple of health issues to deal with, including numerous tests, biopsies and a surgery.

When I say time out, I mean from my full on routine. I haven’t entirely stopped. Well, not until Covid bit me again – that stopped me for a whole couple days!

I had to slow down on the weights training after the surgery to give myself time to heal. No problem, I went for super long, brisk walks and a hike in the countryside. Then returned to dancing once the surgeon gave me the all-clear. Which was literally a week after surgery as I was healing so well.

That is why I stay healthy and fit. It helps my day to day life, eases life stresses, keeps me emotionally balanced and prepared me for facing a couple of health scares that I really did not anticipate.

I was back running and hit a cardio class last week. This week I was cleared to head back to weights training.

Then I got bloody Covid again! Seriously?!? I had it last July and not too bad, this time was about the same. I felt absolute garbage for a couple of days with a temperature/fever. Then that cleared and I started to feel better day by day and today I am feeling fine and dandy.

I know that restrictions and isolation rules have ended. However, I am mindful that other folk are more susceptible to getting really sick, so I have spent all of this week at home.

Yesterday and today I was able to get outside and go for a couple of long (6km) walks with George (my dog) and a quick car trip to the drive through coffee place. I took Georgie-boy with me, so he could get his dog bikkie from the server. The pic above is George waiting on his dog treat – that face!🥰

I also have a favorite YouTube exercise woman who does a weights workout that I enjoy. I have weights and exercise equipment at home, in fact, one of my spare rooms is set up like a mini gym. Useful when I can’t run in the dark or on heavy rainfall mornings.

So, for the first time in a while I did some weights training and oof! I am feeling it today, but you know what? I’ma going to do it all over again today. It’s such a wonderful feeling to notice my muscles are in action again!

I am giddily excited at the idea of going back to my full on training next week. Really cannot wait!

I tested negative to Covid this morning, and fortunately so, as I have an action packed weekend coming up. Two dances – tonight & tomorrow night💃🕺

Plus my gorgeous partner has booked us in for a private lesson to learn the Viennese Waltz tomorrow during the day. That’ll be a challenge for me. I can do the basic box step regular waltz. I’ve watched couples dance the Viennese Waltz and it looks so elegant and flowy! I surely hope I can channel my inner elegance and learn this lovely dance routine! I’ll let y’all know how I go…❤️

 

 

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Boxing for fitness, strength and building grit!
health and fitness

Boxing for fitness, strength and building grit!

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Boxing is a great sport for women, both young and old!

“Boxing as a discipline teaches skill, tact, protection, patience, self-awareness, and above all else: grit.” Per My Last Email: The Psychology of Boxing – On The Dot Woman

Proud mumma moment here – my daughter competed in her first match over the weekend “Girls Fight Back”. It was a fundraiser for breast cancer and there were women from different boxing clubs competing.

There were 3 rounds of 3 minutes each and my daughter won her match. Her opponent was taller and bigger overall. But my girl has great technique and she’s fast on her feet!

I watched her match and filmed the first round, then watched the other two rounds without filming, so I could focus on and enjoy her skill She was awesome! I am so proud of her skill and strength.

They wear head protection and mouthguards, so the risk of injury is minimal – in case you were worried.

We started going to boxing lessons together around 18 months ago (so yes, it is for any age, however at 64 I was definitely the oldest in the class – but I more than kept up!). My daughter has improved greatly over this time, and she joined a new boxing club/gym closer to her home and trains 3-4 times a week.

Ultimately, the boxing ring is the greatest metaphor for life:

“How do we show up to face our opponents?

Do we shy away, or do we stand tall?

How do we rise up after a hit?” Dr. Nahal Delpassand

Literally life advice right there.

In times of difficulty stand tall.

When life knocks you down, rise up.

Look your opponent in the eye, be brave, you’ve got this!

you got this

Further research on the benefits of boxing for women if you’re interested:

Why should women try boxing? Here are 5 great reasons. | Bright Star Boxing Academy

Dozens of Victorian women took part in bouts of boxing, study reveals | Daily Mail Online

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Some days (weeks) I’m just not feeling it!
health and fitness

Some days (weeks) I’m just not feeling it!

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Health journey… (with links to reliable articles to explain medical terms and conditions)

I would love to be able to say I eat healthily and exercise every single day and for the most part I do (more or less). However, there are days (and sometimes a week or two) whereby I just don’t.

There are so many articles, books, blog posts, Instagram stories of fit, healthy and fabulous people trying to inspire us to live a better and healthier lifestyle. Some of the thoughts and images are both inspirational and sometimes discouraging as they portray a certain perfection that is not necessarily attainable. Then you have the posts of “real” images – which are better, but still.

I’m kind of one of them. Sort of. I try to show and maintain a fit and healthy image and lifestyle, I try to be relatable and real. I don’t follow any particular “diet” as I find they are limited in nutritional value and primarily set people up for failure. You can follow most diets and achieve weight loss (not necessarily an improvement in your health, unless you need to lose weight for weight related diseases such as metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and/or type II diabetes).

However, most diets are self limiting and not designed to be ongoing. Especially if they are particularly restrictive, most people will either get fed up with following the diet, start craving the foods that caused their ill health in the first place or stop when they have reached a goal weight. Then go back to how it used to be and wonder why the diet hasn’t worked long term.

I’ve always said that however you eat for health, good nutrition needs to be your actual lifestyle. Your day to day eating plan, exercise regimen and how you live your life will govern your best health outcomes.

Which is why I puzzle my own self when I have days where I either eat way too much or pick up something at the store that is nutritionally unsound (crap, rubbish, junk food). I know most health promoters talk about cheat meals or treats and yes, that is all well and good. But I’m talking more about just sabotaging your own health plan and goals.

I know for me personally I need to maintain a certain body weight, I know 100% that if I go over a certain weight my blood pressure starts creeping up. High blood pressure and heart disease is in my family – inherited and genetically based.

My father had heart disease and had his first heart attack in his early 50s, he also had a stroke in his 60s and a quadruple heart bypass surgery in his early/mid 60s.

Both my sisters have early signs of heart disease. They have both been on blood pressure medication since their late 40s, cholesterol lowering meds since their early 50s and the older one is also on angina medication. So I am mindful of my family history and genetic predisposition, so I have always maintained my health and fitness levels.

So, to wind up, I started on my health and fitness journey probably from my late 20s (I quit smoking and took up swimming and eating better). I am now 64 and very fit and fairly healthy – I don’t have any chronic diseases or any signs of heart disease. My blood pressure (last time it was checked was 116/66 which is really, really good!)

I get disappointed in myself when I sabotage my own health journey. But the good thing is that it’s never all the time, I don’t just give up and give in (I guess I’m tenacious like that!). I’m still trying to figure out the sabotage, it’s sometimes when I’m feeling down or feeling stressed or sometimes I have no freaking idea… but I think because of 40 years of improving my eating and my exercise/fitness, I always want to go back to the health journey that I want to be on and set aside the setbacks as literally just that – setbacks.

There is no magic potion, book, article, blog or Instagram post that will be the “thing” that makes you want to improve your health and fitness. You start with one step forward, the odd step sideways, sometimes a step or two backwards, then back to one step forward.

A little progress each day really does add up to big results long term! You may not always be able to see or feel it, but trust that it will and trust yourself and know that the little “saboteur” within us may wreak occasional havoc, but your better self is mostly in the lead!

 

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