My 3 R's for Healthy Living, in my 64th Year of Life,
Pledge to Myself and the Man I Love.
Research, Responsibility & Respect.

Maintain my RESEARCH so I have the knowledge of calories, amount and type of fat, refined sugars, chemical additives & portion control in what I am eating.
Know I can still be active despite most injuries or illness and the right form of exercise is good therapy and protective of lifestyle disease. Get and follow, expert advice to maintain and build on our aim to be "Strong Seniors".

I take RESPONSIBILITY for having the right attitude, commitment and RESPONSIBILITY for what goes in our mouths and for ensuring I form healthy habits, get 7 hours sleep each night and do three strength training sessions, three cardio work out sessions and one flexibility training session each week, including stretches in these work outs.  I will ensure I break my sedentary creative work with at least three active sessions each day. I accept the RESPONSIBILITY   of helping Reg stay interested in life so he does not want to sleep too much and enjoys staying active and alert. I understand that being RESPONSIBLE for our health has nothing to do with being motivated, having everything in life ideal or perfect, I Need to maintain a RESPONSIBILITY to care for ourselves, at all times, not just when it is easy or convenient to do so.

& finally I will  RESPECT myself so I can be the best I can be.
I see RESPECT as covering the physical-exercise/nutrition and my emotional/creative needs. Out of respect for my creative needs I am setting a minimum creativity target to achieve 6 days a week.  My creativity can be in any form I choose, eg; painting, gardening, cooking, home decor, sewing, and currently with a commitment to write novels I have set an initial 1,500 creative word count target per day.
I pledge to show the person I love and care for, more  RESPECT. I understand my taking the carer role places him at an emotional disadvantage, I know how I would hate to not feel my ideas are respected, I need to show more respect to others.

I pledge that I will Research for the knowledge, help and strength I need to do these things, take responsibility to follow through and show respect to myself and my man, by doing what I have pledged to do, in this wonderful,  64th year of my life.

Kathy Shell

Happy 42nd wedding anniversary darling :-). Reg went fishing, early today but only fed the fish bait, he got a few nibbles.  The fishing rod I bought him a week ago today, for his wedding aniversary present from me, has been a fantastic success.

There were personalized baseball bats in the store where I bought Reg his fishing rod one week ago and this got me thinking about all those personalized engraved trophies that have been through our home and how successfully we managed to downsize even these personal, mementos, so we could lead a freer lifestyle of travel with fewer posessions. 

My downsizing journey was not only of my excess body weight, it also involved the sale of a gallery, a home, and the sale, giveaway and donation to charity a lifetime of hording of mementos. It was one huge elephant size job; I took on ` 'one bite at a time'.

We had many personalized engraved sporting trophies and gradually we parted firstly with Reg’s football trophies as our daughters as children wanted them and got them to play with.  Then the bowling trophies went as we moved to another home and last of all the golf trophies we gave to other golfers and I ‘awarded’, my own art trophies to my art students when I left my last home.

So no sporting or creative trophies, to show for our life, but wonderful opportunities, for living today.

Oh Reg is getting his fishing trophies, lol, he has caught 10 whiting in one week and we have had four, fresh caught fish mealsJ. Now that is the gray nomad’s idea of a trophy.



 

"And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see -- or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read." -Alice Walker.

I have become sentimental today. Warning, do not read on if you’re not prepared for a tearjerker, because I am crying, but they are happy tears of emotion, it’s not sadness I feel.

I know the Mother’s Day  Classic, is to raise funds, for breast cancer research and it is usual to dedicate your run to someone you know who has had breast cancer, but I am dedicating my private run, on Mother’s Day, to my mum who died at age 62, in 1972, following a ten year battle, with heart disease and emphysema.

So while running around the oval during two separate 500 meter runs yesterday I was thinking , ‘I hope you can see this mum and be happy’, and I was also thinking, ‘I wish mum had good guidance and been able to start a health recovery program before it was too late for her, she died far too young’.

When I was at my rock bottom, three and a bit years ago I did the only thing I had the control to do.  I decided I would lose weight and knowing every attempt I had made before from trying the best diet pill through to weight watchers had only resulted in some initial weight loss then months even years of plateau weight stall. So I made the best decision of my life, not to diet at all.   I have always eaten healthy, occasionally, I indulged in non-nutritious food and often I ate more food than my body was burning for fuel.  Arguments about poor metabolism and 'oh I can’t help it its in my genes' or my 'Syndrome X or whatever' are just excuses I told myself, I was frankly eating too much too often and not exercising enough. 
I changed my lifestyle to being consistent in self care.

I did not begin with running, a hundred meter walk had me puffing and in pain, I just made a start. That's all we have to do, 'take on to day', at the best we can do. We can 'do today'.

Today, three years and three months later, I just ran 4 kilometres in 32 minutes maintaining a consistent 8 kilometres an hour and I dedicate my run and my newfound, fitness to you, mum, with all my love. I see you now, much as you looked when you left me, only it’s the healthy happier version. Every time I look in a mirror now, I see you smiling back at me. Yes, we had a troubled relationship, there were times I hated you and in all honesty, I was a monster of a defiant child. 

I have learned that mums are not perfect and we all do the best we can with the skills and the circumstances we find ourselves in, even I made mistakes as a mum but I know I did the best I could and this helps me to understand that you also did the best you were capable of. You always told me that your idea of heaven or hell was that you thought that souls might be aware of what people thought about them after they had left their human body form and other than that, you had no idea what there was beyond human life on earth.  I think that was  a very insightful observation and I don’t  know that anyone has a better explanation of heaven and hell than that, so mum, I hope you are in heaven today, feeling joy  and a happiness seeing how fit and happy your youngest daughter is.

“I talk about you with pride these days and I now treasure that my childhood was so unusual, you helped me develop skills I have needed in my life, there is a purpose for everything after all.  I love you mum, Happy Mother’s Day, Mum”

 

I am very pleased with my day. J, Family pleasure, together, healthy eating and great exercise.

OMG My lower legs, lol, I power walked/jogged 16,000 stops in soft sink into it sand this afternoon.

I had a wonderful time trying to keep up with a 12 year old, happy active granddaughter and Oh my, can I feel it in my calves tonight.

Driving to the next destination tomorrow, not sure, if that is good or bad with aching calves. lol. I had not realized I had done such a big work out until the after effects set in.

I saw some amazing sand castle sculpture and I shared in my blog ‘A Creative life’, how these are made. I have seen others post about these sorts of highly skilled sand castle sculptures but this is the first time I have ever seen them before.  If I made such sculptures, I think I would be looking forterm life insurance quotes aren't that expensive due to the stress of fear of the fate of his creation.  I would hate to make something so labour intensive then leave it out to the fate of the weather and possible vandals

The 12 week body transformation is entering its the seventh week and I have been able to keep pace or at least modify the exercises to my ability, up until now, but suddenly the exercises are escalating. I feel it’s time for me to do my first ever attempt at aging gracefully as there is no way I intend to attempt a triathlon of a 5 kilometre run a 10 kilometre bike ride then an 800 meter swim, either back to back, nor with a huge rest in between.  I am going to be planning my own exercises from now on; I have gone as far as I can in that program as regards the fitness advancement at the rate the program is set for.
 

When I came home I was hungry yet too tired to cook a proper meal and I didn’t want to go to the fridge and grab fast food, bread and cheese, which was a part of my old bad weight gaining habits I left behind three years ago, so what did I do?  I sat down in front of the computer to edit these photos, wishing the genie would appear and cook vegetables for me to eat, next thing I knew, I woke up, yes I has fallen asleep in front of the computer, sitting up.  Talk about slipping back into my old bad habits of sloth. 

I made the effort, got up, stir fried in a teaspoon full of olive oil, some onions, mushrooms, red pepper, cabbage, garlic, carrots, celery and a small quantity of lean mince steak and I served this with some fresh lettuce and tomatoes, picked fresh out of our own garden.  This made a lovely homemade, veggie with lean meat burger. ~ back on track; never want sloth, being too lazy to prepare a healthy meal with vegetables to make me morbidly obese again. I can see how easy it is to slide back if I am not forever vidulant. 

My dream goal size 12, (US size 10) Christmas party dress, then a day sun frock, was my present to myself today. :-).
I haven’t earned it from any special exercising nor good eating feat but I have spent a week and a half, helping to clean up the family home of one of my daughters and I think I got rid of the last of the mouldy not eaten school lunches hidden away by the youngest granddaughter, today.  I have to laugh to think, ‘like mother, like daughter and myself  I have vivid memories of searching for the mouldy lunches in my daughter's dressing table and wardrobe.  My daughter was so like me and now my adorable granddaughter takes after her mum.

So I have been working very hard this last two weeks, not achieving a personal goal I have mentioned here, but a goal non the less.  My daughter’s happiness means everything to me. I do not mention my family much, I respect their privacy and do not speak of them a lot, but I love them dearly.  My daughter works very hard, and like all mums, gets tired at times, children do not help a lot, they make lots of creative mess. My daughter is a great mother, encourages creativity, after school interests, and allows the mess that goes with being creative.  I was happy to help but it was hard work.  Work enjoyed and I will keep doing it, though I will not keep rewarding myself spending money on presents for myslelf.

But here are my two treats :-). My new dress and gorgeous denim coloured shoulder bag, just great to wear with jeans and hold my mobile phone, camera and diary. I will use that a lot during my travels.

Oh and lol, 'did I boast that the dress is a size 12 J ?'  lol, I know I did. 

When I was a size 22 going on 24,, size 12 was my goal size.


My husband saw the specialist today. They will do some more tests, just for precautions but no sinister expectations from them, the specialist seemed to think, as I think, it was just a setback that he had, that he is gradually recovering from :-).  All is well :-), and glamour gran is going to shock her husband and the children by showing her cleavage for the first time this Christmas, lol, :-).

Wherever you are in your preparations for the Christmas holiday season, have fun :-), take it a day at a time and enjoy life :-).  I know Christmas can be a strain for many and there is as much grief as there is joy as we remember family members who are no longer with us more at this time than at other times.   

This isn't so hard for me, my parents left this earth when i was in my 20's, I've had so many Christmases now without my mum, and my own children have grown and given me wonderful grandchildren that I am easy with the partings and see this as a part of life moving on.  This season is very much like this, a time not just for party frocks but also for reflecting about the family now, and the family past. 

I spoke to my daughter this week, I gave her my father’s military records to keep for the next generation, I also mentioned to her that my mother would have been 100 years old, soon, if she had been alive.  There was no pain for me, at all, in talking of loved ones long gone and lol  ( as family skeletons exist in all families), the not so loved ones. 

So (((hugs))), if this season brings more grief or stress to you than joy and I hope if that is the case, that soon your special season, however you celebrate it and whatever its meaning, will be one where you can feel joy in the family and friends that are present. I hope that you soon will, feel pleasure recalling the best of the past and let go of the pain in past memories. I am wishing you a wonderful Christmas season.

For those struggling with weight issues, and self-doubt, remember I was a size 22 going on 24 at Christmas 2006. Today I ate half a take away Asian meal, half a small lemon and shortbread tart, and tonight I am eating a few chocolates (see I am not fanatical about my diet J ), and I'll be loving wearing my size 12 dress and counting my many blessings :-) and sharing the season with loved ones.

 

My exercise yesterday was only incidental activity. Preparing and packing stock and giving it away or packing it ready to travel with us when we tour. I packed all the teddy bears I want to clear, downsizing stock. I only need a couple more good retailing weekends to sell out of these. 

Since I became interested in being fit and exercising more, I have totally lost interest in crafts. I just want to clear the remaining crafts from our small home, complete the downsizing. I still love my art and writing. I have donated all the fragrant soaps and gift boxes to charity. I am assuming I will sell out of the teddy bears that remain in just a couple of retailing weekends.  

When Reg and I had our gallery and exhibited professionally we had a portable EFTPOS machine so we could accept credit card for merchant service, this year I am only planning a couple of shows so do not need a professional set up. I hope to spend most of my time free lance painting and writing and enjoying very active afternoon bush walking and swimming.

We have not decided which direction we are travelling.  

Today Reg and I are going to watch out granddaughter Hannah, perform in the ballet, ‘The Gypsy Princess’. J These, end of year, performances are a highlight of our family life. J. When we get home, I need to tidy up some of the mess I made during the stock sort, yesterday, so one more day of fairly ordinary, incidental activity.  Two days off from exercise so I am reviewing my fitness exercise goals and making a recommitment to begin as from Monday: - Alternate weight-training and cardio workouts for six consecutive days and rest on the seventh day. -: