I'm Ready to Play

It’s hard to stay motivated to exercise. Then add other factors like, work, kids, spouse, and other obligations and responsibilities, and it gets tougher. I don’t know about others, but when it comes to doing things for my family, it’s easier to stay committed. I can get everyone to their activities, and be a task master about it. When it comes to exercising, something that will benefit me, it becomes a chore!

On top of trying to juggle the kids, and life, with exercising, I easily become uninterested in doing the same things over and over. I want exercising to be fun, and I don’t want to go it alone. For that reason, I’m continuously on the look out for various, and fun ways to exercise. Recently while reading the February issue of “Fitness” magazine, I came across Trend Watch – Recess Revisited.

Karin Schmidt, and athletic and fitness trainer in Portland, OR, came up with a cool idea. She recognized, (just like me,) her clients lost interest in traditional methods of training. She took recess games, and turned them into an alternative work out. How cool is that! I’d much rather play hopscotch, kickball, or jump rope instead, of lifting, squatting and pulling. As a kid, I enjoyed recess, and P. E., and I think I can enjoy it just as much today.

I’m not fitness a trainer, but I think I can get a group of ladies together a couple times a week for good old black top recess fun. I’ve already started my list of ladies to call. I'm ready to act like an adult, and play like a kid. My goal weight is in sight, and within reach. Look out summer, here I come. I’m ready to play!

I refuse to be gray!

Like members of my family, on my mother’s side, I’m graying early. And I don’t like it one bit! I refuse to be gray at 40.

Gray is a tell-tell sign of being older than you look. I don’t look or feel like a 40 year old. I would say I’m more like 26 years old. I want to look the age I feel. So, gray be gone!

A year ago, I dyed my hair blonde. I wanted something different, as well as cover the gray. I accomplished both, and loved it. Now that the color has all grown out, and been cut away, I am stuck with a gray streak in the front, and a scattering all over. Not for long!

In the past month, I rinsed my hair with a black and a brown, on two separate occasions. The color didn’t cover the gray completely either time. Now, I have to pull out the big guns, the PERMENENT stuff! The gray has gotta go! Permanent colors are really the only way to completely cover gray hair, according to InStyle Magazine’s “Getting Gorgeous.”

All I have to do now is decide if I want to be blonde, black, light brown, or auburn. Clairol, L’Oreal, Covergirl, Revlon, Tones & Textures… there are so many to choose from. Surely, one of them will rid me of “The Gray.”

We’ll see what happens!

No pill thing-a-ma-jigs; I’m only 40

A few months ago, I had a terrible scare. Headed to a meeting 45 minutes away, I did my normal, “Did I take my medicine today?” That led me to a mental recount of taking my daily medicines.

Whew, I remembered taking it. Then… I thought about exactly when… and uh-oh. I think I took two doses of the blood pressure medicine.

Immediately, I called my Dr.’s office. She wasn’t in, and the nurse wasn’t available. My next response was to call every nurse I know, and had a number for. No one answered, and I left messages all over the place.

Finally, I got a nurse at the Family Practice. I told her what I was taking, and the dosage. She said I should be fine. The worst thing that could happen is, my blood pressure dropping too low, getting dizzy, and to passing out. “If you start getting dizzy, get to a hospital.”

Of course, I was fine, without incident. Today, I still haven’t figured out if I actually took an extra dose. Later a friend and I laughed about it. She suggested I get one of those pill cases. It’s clearly divided and marked S, M, T, W, TH, F, S, for each day of the week.

No way! I’m not having it! I’m just 40, not 70. My grandmother had one of those things. That’s for people who can’t remember taking their meds. “That’s the problem you’re having,” she reminded me.

I absolutely REFUSE to use the pill-thing-a-ma-jig! It’s not like I’m taking a whole regimen of drugs, just three. I’ll figure something out.

So far, I’ve tried a few different things. When I wake up in the morning, I take my Synthroid, and set the blood pressure meds out on the counter. Once I take them, I put them up. If the medicine is still on the counter, I know I haven’t taken it. That seems to be working for now. I have to admit, there’s been at least a half dozen times I didn’t move the bottle, after taking the medicine. I can say, I haven’t over dosed. It seems to be working for me.

When I get be 70, I might consider one of those pill thing-a-ma-jigs, and only if it’s cute.