Musings from a 40-year-old

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What does the world look like once you are in your 40’s? Pretty much like it did, for me, in my 30’s. Granted, it just the matter of a few weeks of comparison …

But aside from that, one can take stock of their dreams and consider what they haven’t accomplished yet. That’s something I’ve done for years already, nothing new to me. 😉

I have spoken to older women on various occassions through my life, and this idea stuck with me that some of them, at least one old lady in particular said to me many years ago: “I still feel 18 inside”

I don’t have that particular age inside, but I do have a “kid” in me, in that I can’t imagine myself ever being a serious old person. I have seriousness, sure, plenty of it, but inside I am a youngster, as I’ve always been.

I’m wanting to get into better shape, and that’s a tough row to hoe at this point in body life. I mean, I move around and my middle isn’t as flat as before I had babies. In fact it got worse after my miscarriage in 2004. I don’t excercise beyond climbing real stairs to get somewhere in the house, and walking around doing things.

I’m not an ‘exerciser’ type, but I am a lift-weights sort of person [I’ve never been a gym goer, so I haven’t actually “lifted weights”] and we do have a Bow-Flex machine, have for years, but with DH traveling for work for all these last 9 or so years I’ve not gotten into using the machine, I can say we did once, and it was awesome, we both loved it, but to do that “alone” I can’t.

So we got another machine for abs a year or so ago, and it’s one that I’d prefer a buddy to start it with. I don’t necessarily ‘need’ a ‘spotter’ but it would be a decent thing to have.

I woke up this morning with the TV on and an infomercial was on for yet another great exercise piece. It looks a do-it-myself sort of thing, but I looked it up on the web, and it’s $200 give or take depending on how you pay. Hello!??? Too bad.

So I’m going to have to bite the bullet and drag out what we have and make something work out. Yeah, me. Just three times a week, nothing overly strenuous. Actually I find the bow-flex idea to be my ideal, it’s refreshing, it’s great stuff.

I’m not talking about this due to “wanting a svelt waistline” but only talking about strength I need and lack of “I feel fat”-ness to go along with it, with the facts being that I’m not able to wear certain clothing I own due to a “pookier than it should be” middle, which is quite tiresome.

DH needs to work out too. He needs to worse than me. All those years I had babies, he gained for each one, similar to me, but I lost most of it each time, whereas he didn’t. :rolleyes: He knows this stuff. So let’s be motivated to firm up the muscular structuralness about us hubby!

Maisy

3 responses to “Musings from a 40-year-old”

  1. Kelly Avatar
    Kelly

    Dang. Long, eloquent post lost… just like that. Did it arrive in your inbox? I’ll check back later and attempt to recreate it if not.

    Reply
  2. Maisy Avatar
    Maisy

    Kelly, sorry, I didn’t get it. Sometimes there is a dumb “server error” on this site, which I don’t comprehend as to why it’s here, but it’s connected to MySQL I think.

    Anyhow, it’s something that happens on Boards, to me, and it IS very frustrating to lose a long post, or even a short one, any of them that are GOOD in ones estimation of their own writing 😉

    I have found that if something odd happens, like here, the server error, if I hit “back” I can reclaim the page where I was writing and the comment is still there, USUALLY it is there, using Firefox, at least. I don’t know about IE since I don’t use it for anything but “have to in order to see that …” kind of situations.

    I can’t recall how much I’ve lost over the years, but I do say to myself now and then, “write it in a text file. and THEN paste it in the comment/board section” or “write it in the comment space and hit ctrl-all and ctrl-c every other paragraph” or some such thing … but I never make a habit out of it, since things generally go fine. KWIM?

    It just reaches out and bites you when you least would want it to. :rolleyes:

    Thank you for trying, at least. And if you want to try again, feel free! (Of course!)

    Reply
  3. Kelly Avatar
    Kelly

    I tried going back to it, but the comment box was blank and I had the right settings in IE so that it should have worked, so I suspect it was really eaten. I used to always copy the text before I hit the submit button, but I’ve gotten lazy about it lately – this computer has so few problems, unlike my previous one, that I’ve quit taking that precaution just as a routine.

    Anyway, what I said before was that I’ve started doing Pilates, using this book: www.amazon.com/gp/product/076790396X/

    (Maybe my attempt at a link is what messed it up before, so I’m just pasting the URL here instead of making a hyperlink. Does hyperthinking allow HTML in the comment box?)

    If you’re not familiar with Pilates, it’s a strenuous but low key workout designed to strengthen, tone, and streamline the muscles, improve breathing and posture, increase fluidity of movement, and help you de-stress.

    I’ve put on weight with every baby, but what really did me in was the resurgance of asthma after my surgery two years ago – more than a year on steroids and nearly on bedrest really took its toll on my energy levels. I suppose Pilates will help with weightloss as fringe benefit of getting healthy and strong again, but so far what I like best about it is that when I do it in the morning I feel more energetic than usual, and when I do it at night it seems to improve my sleep.

    Oh, the other thing is that most exercise is just so bloody boring but one of the strengths of Pilates is that it engages your mind, and I find that to be absolutely indispensable.

    And one more thing – I have three Pilates videos but they don’t teach the basic principles of Pilates explicitely, and I find it’s much much more effective to know from the outset what the philosophy is, and to have things so clearly explained, so that I can know not only how to do the movements, but why, and what to focus on for each movement to make it successful.

    Reply

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