General Health Archives - Fran's Fitness Over 50

When life throws curveballs

Minding my own business. Rolling along… Working, exercising, training the dogs… And then bam! An emergency. And then another one. Life throws curveballs at anytime. What can we do?

Everything’s under control … until it’s not

We think we’ve got our lives under control. Great house, great family, cute dogs, fulfilling work. And then things happen. Something is eating the garden. The dog starts throwing up. A family member develops a condition that, it turns out, is chronic. Things we don’t plan for.

Events like this really test our resilience. “Psychologists define resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress—such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors,” according to the American Psychological Association. As we maneuver through these events, though, we’re tempted to sit in a corner and cry or scream. But, the more resilient we are, the sooner we stand up, put our shoulders back, take a deep breath, and deal with the things that need dealing with.

Internal growth can come out of adversity

We do some internal growing as we’re dealing with these adversities, too. We all deal with adversity, but the more resilient we are, the sooner we actually address the problems that face us. And the more resilient we are, the healthier we tend to be.

Build resilience with these components

So how can we build our resilience? The APA says we need to draw on these four components: connection, wellness, healthy thinking, and meaning.

Connection means that you have a strong support system. You can bounce ideas off of others, and these others will keep you grounded.

And, we must take care of ourselves first. Like airplane attendants tell us, put your own oxygen mask on first. Our wellness must take priority. As hard as it might be, we have to focus on the things that are key to our healthy aging – exercise, nutrition, good sleep, and a healthy mental state.

Healthy thinking – it’s all too easy to think ourselves down that negative spiral. Catch yourself when it happens and pull yourself out. Change directions. Address a problem from a different angle.

And as for meaning – find your own purpose. Join a group, help others, be proactive.

After all, it’s our life. We only have one. And we have to do everything we can to get the most out of it.

It’s okay to keep your stuff

I read an article telling me it was okay to keep my stuff. That made me happy. My philosophy of No Guilt is right on target again. We’ve been told that we should do a “Swedish death cleaning” so that our kids don’t have all that stuff to go through. The author of this article said bush-wah to that. If you enjoy every knick-knack on your shelves, keep them. If you enjoy all the hundreds of socks in your drawers, there’s nothing wrong with that. It really is okay to keep your stuff.

Don’t let others lay a guilt trip on you

Don’t let anyone else guilt you into getting rid of your things. If they bring you joy, keep them.

I don’t know why we sometimes feel the urge to collect things. I have some dolphin figurines. Some are glass. Some are ceramic. Some are metal. Some are more realistic than others. Some are better than others. I love them all. I enjoy looking at them. I’m keeping them.

I’m the one that has to dust them. And when I feel the urge to do that, I enjoy picking each one up and putting it back once the shelf is dusted. Even if I hired someone to do the dusting for me (wouldn’t that be nice!), I would still enjoy looking at my little collection.

If your things bring you joy, keep them!

They bring back wonderful memories that make me happy. And happiness adds to our resilience and promotes healthy aging. I’m all for happy!

If you enjoy decluttering, go for it. If you no longer enjoy the things on your shelf, then by all means weed them out. Get rid of the clutter that is in the way of your life. If you stack magazines by a table and you’re constantly knocking the pile over. Find a different place for your magazine. If you don’t read them and if the most recent one is three years old, recycle them.

And if you have clutter blocking your pathways through your house, that’s a hazard. Definitely get rid of that. I spoke with an aging expert a number of years ago, and she told me that clutter is a major cause of falls in folks our age. We should do everything we can to reduce our risk of falling, like improving our balance or getting rid of clutter. Especially in our own homes.

But we can’t let others dictate what we do with things that make us happy. It’s okay to keep your stuff.

Don’t wait forever

What do cat videos and chaos have in common? I watched a short video this morning from a guy I follow on Facebook and something struck me. He said, “If you wait for life to calm down before you laugh, you’ll be waiting a long time.” Here’s a secret: life does not calm down. There’s always something that seems to come first. Let’s all adopt a new philosophy: Don’t wait forever to laugh and be happy.

Don’t let the stuff get in the way

There are always things to do. Things that don’t take a back seat to anything. There will always be chaos in the world. But you’ll always have five minutes to watch a silly cat video and laugh. Take a minute for joy. You’ll feel better about the rest of your day. You’ll even increase your resilience, and your overall health.

There are a few things you can do every day to boost your happiness that don’t take much time as well. We’ve talked about many of these things before, but they bear repeating. Because you can never have too much happiness or joy. Real Simple magazine recently listed 12 of them!

Think of others

Do something nice for someone. Pick up the phone and call a friend or relative. They’ll enjoy hearing from you. Or even send a text and let them know you’re thinking about them.

Take a walk outside. Breathe some fresh air.

Notice humorous moments throughout your day. They happen – we just have to pay attention.

Turn it around

Turn a situation around and find a more positive aspect. If something goes wrong, and something inevitably goes wrong, you can usually find a way to get something positive out of it. Shift your perspective. Find a lesson in the bad stuff. Or at least acknowledge your part and move on.

Yes, sometimes we do have to look for the joy in life. Some days it’s definitely harder than others. But joy and happiness are there. Don’t wait forever to find them.

Procrastinating increases stress

Did you ever start thinking about all the things you have to do – all the things on your list that didn’t get done last week. And all the things people are expecting you to do this week. Then all the things that you want to do to try to push just a little bit further toward whatever goal you want to achieve? And you don’t feel like doing any of it? Don’t wait. Start now. Procrastinating will only increase your stress. Life is stressful enough as it is without adding additional stress to it.

I was sitting at my desk the other day, looking at my to-do list. It never gets any shorter. And not doing any of the things listed on it. I was feeling more and more anxious, and more and more stressed. Why? By not starting a task?

So, instead of actually starting a task, I did a little research. It turns out that procrastinating really does increase your stress. I was not imagining it. A review in the National Institutes for Health indicates that procrastination is a low-resource means of avoiding aversive and difficult task-related emotions.

Yes. Instead of beginning a task on my list, I procrastinated and added more stress by researching procrastination and stress.

We know that stress is bad for our health. It tends to compromise our immunity. And as we age our immunity decreases. Not what we need.

Here’s the deal. If you’ve got something on your list that you think is too challenging, you’ll try to avoid doing it. Or if you said something to your best friend that you probably shouldn’t have, you’re going to put off calling them to apologize. On the other hand, if your dog threw up, you’re going to grab the paper towels and cleaner and do something about it. There are few immediate adverse consequences to not jumping into a challenging task. Your friend will still accept your apology a few days later. After you’ve worked yourself up about it and finally called.

So even though you know you might pay some consequences later, it’s worth it to you to put off taking the action. That action is hard. It might be worthwhile in the end (making progress on a challenging task or strengthening your friendship), but right now you’ll procrastinate. You know that the carpet will stain, though, or someone will walk through the mess, so you clean it up right away. That’s easy. And, as it turned out, my research into procrastination actually did tick an item off of my list: this article!

Procrastinating increases stress. So get to it. Start small. Take one little action. Chances are, you’ll be motivated to do more.

Little rituals keep us grounded

The other morning I was feeling out of sorts. Until I was making my coffee. And then it occurred to me that it’s the little rituals that keep us grounded.

A normal morning, but…

It was a normal morning, nothing out of the ordinary. After I took the dogs out, I prepared their breakfast and I even remembered the flax and psyllium powders. Booker gets the lion’s share of one homemade food container, Torque the rest of that one, some of the next, and Simon gets the rest of the half from that container. Then even it up with the kibble, except for Booker. I still felt out of sorts, even though it’s the same dog food routine every day. I fed them and started preparing my own. Same routine every day. Fill up the electric kettle. Measure the coffee. And that’s when it hit me.

Comfort comes first, then the grounding

It felt comforting, that little ritual of making the coffee. It keeps me grounded. The act of pushing the lever on the kettle, measuring the coffee, pouring the water. The smell of the coffee steeping. And the rest of the breakfast preparation. It sets me up for the day. I know what to expect. It settles me. Grounds me.

Then I can take all the unexpected happenings more in stride. Or, as in stride as I ever do. Which is to think, “OMG! What’s happening!” at first. And then settle down. “Okay. We got this. We can handle it.”

Those rituals add to our resilience

But the little rituals help us get there. They help us to accept minor irritations as just that. And they help us deal with the major ones a little better. Those little rituals set us up to grow more. If we’re settled first, then we can grow. And we can become more resilient. If we start in a comfortable place, then we can get uncomfortable for a bit.

How to resist the temptation of the couch

My sister said it the other day. “I understand how people just don’t get up.” It was one of those days when the knees, hips, and back were creaky. After a certain age we all have those days. You know your knees and hips are going to hurt when you start to get up. And then when you’re most of the way standing, your back feels like it’s going to give. It’s certainly tempting to just sit. Read a book. Drink a beverage. And not get up. But at some point, you’ve got to. And you know that the more you sit, the worse the pain and creakiness will be. And yet, you still sit. Here’s how to resist the temptation, get up, and be productive.

I’m not going to give you platitudes. Yes, you’re going to be creaky. That lessens, but it never disappears. But the more you move, the easier it is to move. And Newton’s first law of physics should also be our first law of getting older. A body in motion stays in motion. The more you move, the easier it will be to move. And the easier it is to resist the temptation of the couch.

And, the more active we are, the more resilient we are as well. When we think nothing of getting up and doing something, the better equipped we are to tackle hard projects. And the more we’re willing to take the extra steps to reach our goals.

If you sit at a desk working, set a timer to go off every half hour. Get up. Move around. I tend to sit for way too long at my desk. And then, even though I am quite active throughout the day (think about a 13-year-old dog wandering the house – Where’s Booker?! Is he wearing his pants?!) I still get stiff. Enter the timer.

And drink lots of water if you’re sitting. You’ll have to get up to go to the washroom. Cause, effect. It’s certainly easy to resist the temptation to stay sitting when nature has an urgent call.

And exercise. The Centers for Disease Control recommends we each should do 150 minutes of moderate to intense exercise every week. It keeps our heart healthy, our lungs filled with oxygen, our muscles and joints lubricated. Add to that a couple of days of strength work to keep our muscles and bones strong. It sounds like a lot, but if we incorporate some of that into our daily activities, it will keep us healthy and less creaky.

But, I will say that some days it’s tough to resist the couch.

Exercise and the brain, and Lumosity

Yes, I’m a nerd. And I embrace my nerdship. I play Lumosity games every day to exercise my brain. Some of the games are lots of fun, like the train one. I’m really bad at it, but I enjoy it. Other games are not so much fun, but I do them (sigh) because they’re good for me. All beside the point. The other day I earned a card playing brain games on Lumosity: Exercise and the Brain.

Exercise is good for the brain

It’s nothing we didn’t already know, that exercise is good for the brain. Exercise, especially cardio, increases blood flow, including blood flow to the brain. And regular exercise has been linked to slower loss of brain volume as we age. Lumosity cites a study by Luis F. Ciria, et al that seems to confirm this. The researchers note in this review that exercise does not seem to cause improved cognition, but other studies have shown that with exercise our cognitive function is sustained.

Lumosity is quick to point out that a single workout won’t do much for our brain, but regular workouts do seem to give our brains a boost.

Moderate workouts for the win

And they note that the workouts don’t have to be intense. Regular moderate workouts are great for our brain. A 30-minute brisk walk most days of the week is something to shoot for. An amble through a shopping mall won’t cut it, though. If you don’t like to walk, Lumosity, like others, says that a workout you will do is loads better than scheduling a workout that you won’t.

I’m not a huge fan of walking or running on my own, so I’ve implemented the Make It Fun and It Gets Done theory. I listen to an exciting audiobook that lets me forget what I’m doing and takes me into the story. Before I know it, my treadmill time is done, I’m dripping with sweat, and the characters in my book have gotten themselves into another dangerous situation.

So, get your walk on. It’s good for your brain. Find a way to make exercise at least tolerable. Lumosity says so.

Type 2 Fun – What is It, and Why Bother?

Type 2 Fun is actually not fun. Not fun at all. Well, maybe, thinking about it was a little fun.

The fun that you think about later

What kinds of things do you do for fun? Go on. Okay, I’ll go first. Reading a good book. Cooking. Needle work. Puzzles. Training my dog. I train my dog in competition venues like obedience, rally and agility. I find the training loads of fun. My dog learns fun stuff, and our bond is stronger than ever. Competing with my dog, though? Putting all those hard lessons to the test? Not fun. Until later, when I go back and think about all the great moments we had. We may not have qualified for a ribbon, but there were lots of great and fun moments. Experts call that Type 2 Fun.

What ever possessed me?

Type 2 fun is the kind of thing that you wonder as you’re doing it, “Whatever possessed me to try this?” It’s the kind of thing that may not be fun at all in the moment, but then when you think back, the experience stands out and you relive the shining moments. Like when my dog was able to hold a 1-minute sit when I was across the competition ring. And he could hear my sister (his aunt who he loves) in the ring next to ours, with her dog. Not fun at the time. Lots of fun thinking back on it.

Not necessarily physical activities

Tori-Lyn Mills, a licensed clinical professional counselor with Thriveworks in Columbia, Maryland, clarifies that Type 2 fun can be physical, like hiking, skiing, competing in a 5k race, or it can be a mental challenge, like learning a new language or skill.

Rebecca Moravec, a licensed professional counselor, trauma therapist and founder of Full Bloom Counseling, says that we all need more Type 2 fun in our lives. It has all sorts of benefits for our bodies and our minds.

Sense of accomplishment when we meet the challenge

Type 2 fun offers a challenge, and when we meet that challenge, it’s deeply satisfying and gives us a sense of accomplishment. And that’s a boost for our resilience. She says, “Our brains are ‘prediction machines’ with a primary job of survival, not happiness. We’re constantly asking, ‘Is this safe, is this familiar, is this worth the energy?’ And type 2 fun doesn’t check any of those boxes.”

A boost to our self-confidence

It’s novel and exciting, and sometimes a little scary. Not dangerous, but challenging. Trying something new gives us a shot of self-confidence as well as dopamine. And type 2 fun is integral in achieving big goals.

So, when faced with a challenge, just remember – it’s type 2 fun.

Uncertainty can provide opportunity

We humans hate uncertainty. When I’m faced with uncertainty, my brain kind of jitters. I know I’m not alone. If a repair person gives me a four-hour window, it’s frustrating. If my website goes down and the hosting provider doesn’t have a clear-cut answer as to when it’ll be fixed, it’s scary. At least one neuroscientist, though, says that uncertainty can provide great opportunity.

A shocking result (literally)

There’s a study out that shows that people are more stressed when faced with a 50% chance of getting an electric shock than when faced with a 100% chance. The certainty lets you prepare for what you know is coming. We don’t want to face the ambiguity of not knowing. And how can you prepare for something you’re not sure will come?

Easier to pick up the pieces?

In some ways, it’s easier to pick up the pieces after a calamity. The worst has happened and we can deal with it. We can form a plan and move on to putting that plan in motion. That’s what our resilience can do for us. And to make our resilience even stronger, neuroscientist Maya Shankar says rather than define ourselves by the things we can do, we should define ourselves by figuring out why we do those things. Your why can help you get through those tough times. Shankar delved deep after a hand injury ended her concert violin dreams and discovered that a love of human connection was at the root of that dream. She was able to shift successfully into an avenue that let her keep those human connections.

Embrace your shiny object syndrome!

And Shankar also tells us to embrace the distractions we come across in our lives. They can give us the break we need to let the uncertainty or chaos settle. We humans can get used to just about anything. And by giving ourselves some time, we can let our brains figure out how to deal with it. We’re usually told that confronting the bad stuff right away is the way to get through it. And that works for some of us. But if you’ve tried that and it just scares you more, set it aside for a bit. Let yourself be distracted. Go follow that shiny object. When you come back to face the hard stuff, you might be more ready.

The sneaky reason we seniors feel the heat more

It’s not just you. We seniors feel the heat more now than we used to. Yet another thing we lose as we age (besides our hair, our eyesight, our hearing, and our sense of balance) is the ability of our sweat glands to regulate our internal thermostat. Our sweat glands become less efficient, so we feel the heat more. And some prescriptions we take can also affect our body’s ability to cool itself. In extreme heat, we can become warm without even realizing it, and that could be dangerous.

But before you vow to not leave air conditioning for the foreseeable future, know that you don’t have to stop doing the things you love to do. You may have to modify them a bit and make some accommodations to your physical reality, but don’t stop.

You’ve all heard the advice to drink more fluids when it’s hotter, and that’s good advice. It’s always wise to stay hydrated. But when it’s hot, you may not realize that you need to take a drink of water before you’re thirsty. And ask your doctor if any of your prescriptions can affect how you feel the heat.

You’ll see more folks out walking really early when it’s hot, and that’s sensible. Do your walking before it gets too hot. And you may also want to take it a little easy on extreme heat days. The Centers for Disease Control has a Heat Risk Tracker that you can check just by entering your zip code to see how your area may be affected.

The clothes you choose to wear can make you more comfortable, too. Fabrics that breathe, like cotton, help keep you cool. And clothes that fit you more loosely help as well.

So, don’t let the heat scare you. We feel the heat more, but if we’re prepared we can still enjoy the summer months.