9. New Thoughts Thursday

Thinking brand new thoughts that you've never thought before...is wildly more conducive to creating big life changes than just thinking different varieties of the same old thoughts.

--from Mike Dooley's "A Note From the Universe" (www.tut.com)

I am happy where I live. I accept it completely.

We sold our home, purchased a two-story condo, moving to the next phase of our lives, at the very end of the housing boom. If we had fully comprehended what would come next, of course we would not have made this move. The economy has slowed necessary building repairs to a snail's pace and de-valued our investment.

My choices are limited. The following is Dooley's advice, however any wise advisor would council the same.

1) I can leave--not at all wise financially.

2) I can change things--possible up to a point, but not fully.

3) I can accept my situation fully.

Thus, my new thoughts this Thursday: I'm putting away, setting aside permanently, all thoughts of despair, disappointment, frustration, and anger about our building....instead, "I am happy where I live. I accept it completely!"

When I wake in the morning, prepare a meal in my kitchen, set a table for guests, DVR "The Event" or watch "Paris 36" on our flatscreen, dine on our cafe-like deck, fill the bathtub, offer our guest room to a friend, raise the blinds each morning and lower them in the night... it is true. In the moment I am happy where I live.

I remember a glow I discovered four years ago on the first night we moved in. Above the kitchen counter, orange globes around each light bulb cast a pale, yet shimmery, golden light in every direction. As I opened the newly-filled silverware drawer I called out, "Harold, come look, our silverware is glowing!"

It's the same glow we see from the deck on warm summer nights after hours with good food, good wine and good friends, when we walk back inside and say goodnight.

Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect. It means you have decided to look beyond the imperfections.--unknown

It's the same warm glow I feel when I imagine my fullness of heart, hiking up the mountain next October with friends and family at my side, one step at a time.

8. Wednesday Vignettes From The Gym

1) Oblivious runner with headphones on, singing out loud.

Every time he laps me, I get to play Name That Tune. Today he belted out, "Stopped into a church I passed along the way, Oh, I got.. down.. on.. my.. knees, and I pretend to pray." (I always thought it said, "...I began to pray." Looked it up though and he was right!) Next lap he's onto, "And I will always love you." Of course after his run, he slips on bright neon orange and yellow camouflage pants! He always makes me smile, but I have to say, there is nothing camouflaged about this dude.

2) Shout out for Technology!

New treadmills--I'm beginning to use the incline feature, and this new machine actually brings up a picture of a mountain on the screen--I can watch myself climbing up the mountain!! At this point I am at the very base, but it will be interesting to watch as I increase my incline and pace over these next months and get to watch my dream of climbing the mountain in living color as I workout!

3) More Technology

In addition to recording my heartrate while I'm on the inclined treadmill, four categories are posted, with my required heartrate for each one:

1) Low Impact workout 2) Heart Healthy 3) Endurance Training 4) I forget this one! (It's number three I'm going for anyway.)

As I'm working out, my recorded heartrate appears in one of these four categories. In the Endurance Training category, my heartrate needs to fall between 133 and 152. Easy to understand, it's a great tool to insure I'm working at the necessary pace!

4) My Favorite Couple

A husband and wife who work out together every morning--advanced seniors--provide ongoing inspiration. For some reason, she is only comfortable in a dress. Therefore, that's what she works out in! They row together, spin together, and stretch on the mats together. Then the best part--before they leave, they always go into the gym, and dance. There are no songs playing, but when I see the way they move across the floor in each other's arms, I know they are dancing to their own music.

My Dentist Climbed to the Top of Mount Kilimanjaro !

I was 31, a young mother with a four and five year old, when we moved to Chicago’s near north side--blocks from the Gold Coast, Cabrini-Green, Lake Michigan, downtown, and old town. Having grown up in a rural farming community in western New York State, it was an adventure in urban living for this country girl.

In my hometown of Bloomfield, Dr. Howard lived across the street from us and saw patients in his home office. As young children we were accustomed to walking to Dentist appointments, also in home offices nearby.

Not knowing where to start to find a family doctor and dentist in downtown Chicago, I followed an add for free examinations at a nearby hospital. It was there I met Dr. David Center. I immediately felt a connection. We are exactly the same age and I appreciated his gentle approach as well as his choice of music. From that moment on, he has been the only dentist that I trust. I followed him wherever his career has taken him. We’ve had grueling sessions over the years from time to time, but he knows to turn up the gas and turn up the volume on the classic rock!

My fear of dentistry kept me out of his office for years at a time, but when there, we always catch up on each other’s lives. Today I told him about my challenge to hike a mountain for my 60^th birthday next October.

He said his family recently returned from climbing a 14,000 ft. peak in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. He reported the very cold conditions freezing his fingers, and his wife and daughters having to return, only half-way up. Then casually he mentions, “Several years ago, I took my whole family and we climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.”

I couldn’t believe my ears at first. The questions were flying. Why? Because he’d always wanted to! How? He researched and prepared well, and hired several guides. When? When his two daughters were in high school. How was it? It was a three-day climb to the summit, and it took two days to get back down. His wife and older daughter succumbed to serious altitude sickness and had to turn around after having reached 16,000 ft! So close.

However, he had hired enough guides so that any one of them would be able to complete the climb with a guide, even without the others. He and his youngest daughter (in spite of severe blisters) proceeded on, making it to the very top at 19,300 ft.! I sensed the deep respect in his voice for his daughter’s mental will, her resolve and determination which took her to the top of that spectacular mountain at his side.

When it was all over, they all went on Safari as a reward. What a bonding experience!

There on his office wall, hangs the certificate authenticating his climb. I’d walked by it many times and not noticed. Today it came alive.

Each step I take in this journey awakens life all around me…awakens me!

One step at a time.

Monday Oct. 25^thTook Harold to the airport mid-morning and had French class in early afternoon. In the past, I would have said, “No time to squeeze in a workout today.” Priorities, priorities…I squeezed it in just fine! New mind set--just do it!
On my own: Cardio warm up, seated row 40lbs 3 sets 12x, same sets and x’s for chest press, (8 lb.) lateral shoulder raise, tri-ceps --all in a circuit (3 actually.) Biceps (also 8 lb.) balanced on one foot. Leg curl--heels on stability ball, etc. More cardio, core and stretching.

Sunday Treat

Fall, the best season...of raking leaves and swishing them underfoot, denim and corduroy jackets, homemade apple butter, crock pot meals, pumpkin seeds-pies-soups, and hot spiced apple cider!

Today's treat on my new breadmaker, is Carrot Bread.  Thick and warm, chewy and sweet!  However, there is flour and sugar in the recipe.  Currently the only way I have to make this a "healthy" treat, is to give most of it away so we only get to eat a small, limited portion!  Next Suday I will experiment with substitutions for the flour and sugar.   

Please send your substitution ideas for the 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 1/4 cup flour.  I can look them up online of course, but I'd rather hear from readers who know from experience what works best.  Thanks!              


Throw all ingredients into bread pan and the machine does the rest!






A Saturday Thought

A FABLE

             by Ralph Waldo Emerson
 

The mountain and the squirrel
Had quarrel;
And the former called the latter "Little Prig."

Bun replied,
"You are doubtless very big;
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together,
To make up a year
And a sphere.
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I'm not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry.
I'll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track;
Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut."

"All sorts of things and weather Must be taken in together, To make up a year And a sphere."  It's risky, perhaps fool-hardy,  to jump to obvious conclusions!

I imagine I will have plenty of conversations

with the mountain over this next year! 

I will meet it heart to heart,

as well as foot to trail.

Grateful for Inspiration--Palani and Carisse

A young friend’s status today on Facebook said, “It’s Friday, get your freak on!”

I read this sipping my coffee, and called out to Harold in the next room as he was slipping into a suit, preparing for work, “Harold, it’s Friday, get your freak on!” Then we laughed for the next few minutes, having never thought, heard, or uttered those words before, ever.

One is never too old to learn something new!

Something new indeed!

Only an hour from the desert climate of Las Vegas, winter snows can pile seven feet deep and elk graze in lush meadows. The Spring Mountains, and particularly their dominant peak, Mt. Charleston, stand like green alpine islands in a sea of sand and stone.

Because of the heavy winter snows, late spring through early fall is the best time to hike these mountains…Elevations range from 4,300 ft. up to 11,918 at Charleston Peak’s summit…

There are no bears in the Spring Mountains but there is plenty of wildlife including wild horses, mountain lions, and the desert bighorn sheep…                                                            
--From “Base Camp Las Vegas -- Hiking the Southwestern States,” by Deborah Wall
　
I had no idea this existed so very close to the glitz of the Las Vegas strip and the surrounding desert. However, one Sunday afternoon Palani posted a video he shot after he and Carisse reached the top of “Cathedral Rock” trail, in the Spring Mountains. Slightly winded, he highly recommended the climb, realistically described burning legs and breathing challenges due to the altitude, and finally spanned for the viewer to see the fabulous view.

I never would have known Palani, or caught that video, if I hadn’t called the Qua Spa at Ceasar’s Palace one day to ask about a session with their private trainer. The voice on the other end of the phone said, “What? We don’t have private trainers.”

From Chicago I said, “Yes you do, I’m sitting here looking at an article in your magazine that describes the training sessions and shows a picture of the trainer, Palani. I’ll be vacationing there soon and I’d like to train with him!” This was such a new feature to the Spa that all the staff didn’t even know about it yet.

From that day on, every time I visited, we worked several training sessions together. I knew I was in good hands as he studied all the angles of every move I made.  He led, adjusted, challenged and encouraged me throughout. Inevitably after two times through everything, I was ready to escape to the Spa sauna, steam room and pools, but there would always be a third circuit, and unbelievably, a fourth!

Over time we became friends and ultimately seeing his video at the top of “Cathedral Rock” trail was my inspiration for this year long challenge! He and Carisse, both top fitness instructors, are far more--they lead and inspire all those around them to follow their dreams, and to grab life and run with it, literally and figuratively!

Never too old to learn something new.
One step at a time.
　
　
Friday 10/23/10
Worked with Donna. Starting Monday, I will work the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday programs she prepared for me, on my own, until checking back in with her the second week in December. At that time, she’ll revise my workouts for the next six weeks. Today was the “Friday” workout: 10 min. cardio warm-up, weighted wall squat 60 sec., squat w/side kickout 60 sec., squat w/forward kick 60 sec.--repeat all, 3x…and it goes on and on with seated rows, dead lifts, lateral shoulder lifts, leg curls, etc……In the middle is another cardio workout…ends with core work and stretches. Each Friday the time of cardio sections is increased …..you get the idea!

Workout Anywhere

Yesterday Kathy wrote about helping a friend, "We looked at the paneling and said, 'No way,' then proceeded to rip it off and actually gut an entire room, removing all the old plaster and lathe board to the studs with only hammers...then haul it all out to a huge truck and lift and throw it in - Never have I had such an intensive almost 5 hour workout!

Sheryl reported over lunch last week how thrilled she was when the workout instructor wrote up a plan for her to follow on her own in the pool on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in addition to her Monday, Wednesday, Friday group pool classes.

In his seventies, father walked every day on country roads near his home.  In a daily log, he added his completed miles each day, cummulatively, to the miles from previous days.  He smiled with a gleam in his eye when reporting the hundreds of miles he'd walked.

Jackie picks up her sister-inlaw every morning on her way to Curves, where they will progress to the next room in a couple weeks to work out with their own personal plans programmed into each machine.

Steve devised a plan to walk across the state of Massachusetts, then carried it out!  He experienced the bonds of sharing segments of the journey with different friends, enthusiastically chronicling his discoveries in a blog.

Peg ran her first marathon in her 50's, finishing in a most respectable time, next to many very experienced marathon runners. 

My daughter, Melinda, is running for the first time in Chicago's half-marathon --thirteen miles-- at the end of October.  Though she does not like running and reports that literally everything hurts after six miles, she continues to work her training plan with an almost gritting-her-teeth determination to complete the race.  Working out last weekend, running the city path along Lake Michigan with the wind at her back in the sunny, yet cool & crisp, fall air...at mile six she called to say, "This really feels good today!"

Melinda

I don't tear down walls, swim, calculate the miles I've walked, cross whole states on foot, or run marathons, but at my best I can relate to every one of these get-up-and-go, just-do-it ventures.  That is the key, isn't it?   At our best, we move.  At our best, we relate.  At our best, we understand our connection to everyone and everything around us.

Then we get to come home, maybe apply a cool face mask, and sink into a warm steamy tub with a glass of mineral water (or Merlot for some!)

"What if I told you that instead of gettin' older, I was gettin' younger than everybody else?"

--Benjamin Button

My youngest child, Harold M., called me in March of 2009 to ask, "Mom, do you think this is a good time for me to buy a house?"  He already had his answer.  In his second year of teaching high school, having lived with fraternity brothers for two years after college, with their lease expiring in May, he already saw himself owning a home. 


He visualized the tax rebate he'd receive, the new rental lease he would not have to sign, and the real estate advice he would gather from his fraternity connections.  He imagined himself driving a small moving truck directly from his current apartment to his own home in exactly ten weeks...the time necessary to have everything fall into place smoothly!


He and his fiancee began to research homes for sale and in an incredibly short window of time, signed owner's documents on their home in Fishers, before his rental lease was up that May.


Was it the innocence of youth?  Optimism?  Luck? 
Or, a focused intent, an uncluttered mind, taking one step at a time toward meeting his goal--toward creating the reality he envisioned?


One could argue it was all of these.  However, knowing my son, it was definitely the latter.


As a six year old, he stepped back behind the three-point line to sink a basket in the final seconds of a basketball game when three points were required to win--the beginning of many such moves in his elementary career!  As a high school junior and senior, he decided he wanted to play Division I Soccer in college.  He gave up basketball to concentrate on soccer, played and trained all year long including winters and summers, and networked at IU Soccer Camp.  He went on to play Division I soccer as a walk-on at Butler University. 


Now I'm stepping back behind the three-point line.  For me, winning is moving up to a whole new level of fitness.  The three-point basket required for that win is my goal of hiking the mountain.  I see myself ascending the trail, scrambling around rocks, climbing, as clearly as he saw the long arc of the ball leading to the swish of the net.


I see the training and results which will prepare me for my "Division I" experience.  As clearly as Harold M. driving a moving truck from a rental to the doorstep of the home he owns, I am in the driver's seat of this preparation, focused on owning that mountain--altitude an all!


Focused intent,
an uncluttered mind,
one step at a time.


Wednesday Oct. 20, 2010
Worked out with Donna--Elevated treadmill, biceps, triceps, back, leg muscles and core--circuits with no down-time in between each.  Chiropractic adjustment in p.m.

Best Protein boost after a workout!  No sugar, only 100 calories AND tastes good!  Can be ordered online and I noticed recently that Walgreens and Sam's Club carry it now too.

1. The Challenge

I am the girl who hated gym class, never joined a sports team, and never ran. My feet hurt if I walked more than one block. The first time I attempted using a skateboard down the slightly sloping concrete walkway of my East Bloomfield home, I fell and broke an ankle. I briefly joined ski club, only to have my one ride to the top of Bristol mountain followed by a very long, terrifying descent, rarely in an upright position.

I am the young woman who never once swam across a pool, whose brain never registered the thought, "Maybe I should join a gym," and who certainly never jogged pushing a stroller!

I am the woman who in middle age,

awoke in a strange land--a gym! 

2008 With friend and trainer, Donna.

Three years of fairly diligent workouts later, with time off for any and all manner of reasons, I succeeded in lowering my blood pressure to normal levels, losing inches and pounds, gaining strength and improving my cardiovascular system.  Though I also lowered my "body age" by six years, fitness evaluation charts however, declare I have the potential to lower this fifty-nine year old body, to a body age of forty-one!

Now

I am the woman who will turn Sixty in October of 2011,

beginning a year-long training regimen,

in order to climb/hike a mountain

on that landmark birthday

--erasing every old misleading tape,

whether mental, spiritual, emotional or physical--

to claim the highest ground.

One foot in front of the other,

step by step,

recording this log of preparation...

I will look out from the top of the mountain.


Monday 10/18/2010
Worked out with Donna.  Keeping heart rate up, worked  leg muscles, shoulders and back, balance, and core. Discussed following workout plan on my own, but building in regular and frequent accountability markers. Will firm up details at Wednesday appointment.  Also discussed plan to begin private Pilates instruction and Yoga classes.
Tuesday 10/19/2010
Called Galter Life Center to arrange block of five private Pilates sessions, after which, will attend group classes.