Showing posts with label Menopause. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Menopause. Show all posts

Thursday, December 9, 2010

My Ship is Coming In! Dream Interpretation / Physical Fitness Advice / Routine / Workouts


Dream interpretation is a great self-therapy practice and something you should incorporate into your self-care routine. As I've stated before, the only book I use (and I use it daily) is The Dreamer's Dictionary by Robinson and Corbett.

Here are last night's dreams (remember that part of the mystery of dream interpretation is that the meanings are often contrary to what you might presume). Check out these mixed messages.

Dream: My partner and I are on a cruise ship (my most favorite thing in the world to do!) or in a fine hotel (either on vacation or a honeymoon). But someone has stolen my black leather purse. I try to find it but can't. I think I know how it was stolen and by whom. But it doesn't matter.

The toughest part is that we no longer have any cash or credit. We can't eat! No purchases of any kind, no restaurant meals, and especially no buffets (another one of my favorite things). It's frustrating as hell.

I keep trying to talk the Front Desk help into cutting us a break, but they just won't do it.

Loss of money: Contrary. You are likely to have a windfall.
Ship: Profitable ventures; success; think of the expression 'My ship is coming in!'.
Anxiety/Frustration: Contrary. Your worries will soon be relieved.
Robbery: Loss of money means that you should be careful how you handle your cash.
Abscond: Be careful not to give your affections unwisely.
Loss of great value: Warning: If you try to be too sharp you can end up cutting yourself!


Today's Workout:
 
Exercise. If you are just starting out exercising or have had a long break, go slow and by all means consult your physician, especially if you have health issues. 

Remember to go at your own pace. It’s a good idea to set machines on Manual. That way you can lower or raise resistance to meet your daily fitness level. I call it Fitness by Feel™. Feel where you are and then push yourself right to the edge of what you can handle. 

Listen closely to what your body is telling you. Back off when it becomes too much. Move forward when you have the strength and energy. Consistence is the key. When I first started on the stairmaster (at 23) I could only go for 4 minutes. Now I can do an hour. But it took time and patience… the new machines with TV monitors help a lot. 

2 Hours (Since I've had to double my workout time with the slowered metabolism of menopause, I am committed now to at least 1 hour a day. But I've found that I really like the yin and yang of working out every other day and resting in between. Thus, the 2 hour workout was born.)

Warm-up: Jump rope and push-ups for 10 minutes then a 5 minute stretch. When you're new to jumping, it's important to find the right rope. It should fit you comfortably, not too long or too short. Measure the rope part, halved. It should reach from your armpit to the floor. If your lungs or calves need a break while jumping, just step in place for a minute, then start again. 

Cardio Kickboxing: I did an hour class at the local Muay Thai Kickboxing Club. But a video at home would work just as well. A club is great because a class consists expressly of calisthenics and bagwork. Punching and kicking a bag are an awesome resistance workout. 

As a woman ages it's especially important to have resistance training as we age to keep our bone mass. A couple of years ago I had a bone density test and was rated in the top 2%. Nice. 

I once did surgery on a woman with osteoporosis. Her bones literally crumbled in my hands. 

Jillian Michaels' experience is similar to mine. She also has a karate and yoga background. So I'm comfortable in recommending her kickboxing workouts. Some health clubs have dance-like kickboxing classes. If the moves are too fast or the instructor doesn't understand the dynamics of kicking, it's easy to injure yourself. Always end the kickboxing with a cool-down stretch. A few yoga moves are perfect.

Elliptical Machine: After class I did a nice steady fat burning pace on the elliptical machine for 15 minutes.

Bicycle: Then 10 minutes on a recumbent bicycle.

Treadmill: And topped it off with 20 minutes on the treadmill with a nice steady climb working up to levels 8-10 incline at a nice slow pace of 2.2 to 2.4. Did you know that you burn more calories walking on a high incline than you do running on a low one?



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Sunday, December 5, 2010

My Menopausal Workout for CHEAP BASTARDS

So I've decided that I hate the title of my Blog (PsychiatricSelfCare). But I don't know how to change it other than by creating a new blog. And I'm a little bit concerned that Blogger stated somewhere that I had a 100 viewer limit? 

What the heck does THAT mean? Don't all bloggers aspire to millions of readers? Hmm. Once again I'm baffled. I searched "Best Blogs" and came up with some really interesting things: ZenHabits.net, PostSecret, and PerezHilton, among others.

I've been trying to figure out if a blog post is supposed to be designed as an article or as a journal entry. It seems that the ones I found were all written from the personal perspective (as in journaling) but... still they had a focus (as in an article).

And how concerned do I need to be about web searches? All these great sites had great names. My crappy site name came from my trying to find the best search term for my subject area. "Psychiatric" had the most searches in one month in regards to mental health and physical fitness.

Anyway...

My Menopausal (aka Anti-Aging) Workout for the Day
2 Hours Total:
1 hour and 15 minutes of CARDIO:
= 30 minutes on the treadmill (set on Manual with walking, climbing, and a short run), 30 minutes on the elliptical machine (again set on Manual), and 15 minutes on the Stair Master. I have a membership at Golds Gym. What's great about that is that most of the machines have a television monitor now and cable TV (something we don't have at home).

In case you haven't figured it out yet, we're cheap bastards. That's probably why we're not sweating the recession as bad as we could be. We have money in the bank! Yes, and it's not because we make great money (we don't). It's because we're CHEAP BASTARDS.

We don't make a lot of money and I've been out of work for six out of the last 12 months. But we don't spend anything... well, groceries. And we get those at the seconds store!

Yes, there are second hand stores for groceries... sort of. What happens is that they take the stuff that's about to go out of date and send it to this store... WAY marked down. We save about $400 a month by shopping there. In the summer we stock up on clothes and other essentials by (what we call) "Garage Sailing". All this frugality, we figure, saves us about $20K a year.

We dine out with "2 for 1" coupons, cut each other's hair, drive used cars, and seek Entertainment with the word FREE attached. And, thanks to Jerry and Esther Hicks, I can truly say that I (we) find joy in every single day.

So, all we have is money in the bank. Which ain't so bad. It's funny because, at the bank, I'm treated like GOLD. And there I am in my little red 1988 Mazda.

Anyway... back to the workout! I digress.

So we have 1.25 hours of cardio  (my new MENOPAUSAL STANDARD is a minimum of 1 hour a day exercise!) and 15 minutes of weight lifting (both free weights and machines) and 30 minutes of yoga cool down. Whooh!

Here's the low-down:
In my 20's - 30 minutes three times a week was enough to maintain a flat (a very flat and sexy!) belly.

Then in my 30's - I had to up that to 1 hour three times a week.

In my 40's - 4 to 5 hours a week was plenty.

Then one day, at the ripe old age of 49 I noticed that I'd gained 25 lbs. What? Yes, it had been creeping up for some time at the rate of about 1/2 lb. per month. Virtually undetectable. I started increasing my workouts and nothing seemed to happen.

Finally, after going back on Atkins (which used to work like a charm!) I realized that I'd better take it a step farther. Now I'm counting calories (not something I used to be concerned with) AND I've DOUBLED my workout time. Apparently your metabolism slows down so much during menopause that double is what's needed.

So, in the last month, I went from 4-5 workouts a week to 7-10 AND I've started watching my caloric intake (reducing by approximately 500 calories a day).

Thank God I measured because... in that month's time I GAINED 2 lbs net but lost 5 inches. Yea! Finally some results. I guess the moral of the story is that it gets harder not easier. Pa-dum-pa-dum!

That's it folks.

Oh, P.S., I still watch the sugar and white foods (white bread, pastries, cookies, cake, potatoes, rice, and pasta). For bad health, they're the worst culprits. I wrote a book about my healing experience in relationship to quitting sugar. It's called The Sugar Addict's Diet by S.J. Wise. And, just for the record, it's out of print. Which just means that I no longer receive any money for its sales. Still, I recommend it if you have health issues. This program literally saved my life.

Oh, by the way... nightmares two nights in a row? I forgot to ask myself the key question: Did I have sugar? (It slips back in so easily) Yes!

Every now and then I forget and have a little. I had eaten one, make that two over two days, yogurts with added sugar. Thought I could get away with it, but NO. The nightmares were my clue.

Do YOU sleep well? Try quitting sugar for a while and see what happens. No more waking up at 3am and having difficulty getting back to sleep.




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