Columnists
Game on
It’s shaping up to be another holiday pizza-by-ourselves festive season for LOML and me. It’s hard to ignore the climbing COVID-19 case numbers. I’m afraid it looks as if we all sat back and took a breather, literally, when the numbers started to fall a couple of months ago. We just might be hard-oflearning. According to more than a few epidemiologists, we may be living with COVID-19 for years, if not forever. Vaccination against the virus is the only way to keep it at bay. I won’t get into why people aren’t being vaccinated, we all have reasons for doing or not doing something. If you are an anti-vaxxer or you have a sound medical reason for not vaccinating, remember there are safeguards you, and all of us, should take to protect those who are vulnerable. Just saying.
So, on a good note, I’m feeling better about life these days. Like many of you, some days I get a bit down-inthe- dumps about things, likely because of The Pandemic, but I’ve decided to be more proactive about my lifestyle. I’m cleaning up my act, again, kids. For some strange reason I had gradually thrown caution to the wind and started eating like a teenager with a big allowance and time to spare. How much damage could one, or a dozen, leftover Hallowe’en treats possibly do? I found out in a big hurry when my stretchy gym clothes started to feel tight. Seriously, my stretchy tights felt tight! And it wasn’t a pretty sight, either. Picture a duffle bag stuffed full of laundry with some of the laundry spilling out. I was huffing and puffing my way through a workout and treating myself to a mini-chocolate bar after. My doctor called to tell me my cholesterol level was slightly elevated and to “smarten up”. What the H E double dipped donuts was happening to me and my brain? I had started to feel like crap. When the chocolate stopped making me feel better, I figured it was okay to have a glass of wine every day. Soon I was pouring myself an extra glass of wine at dinner time. GEEZ LOUISE. The last straw was when my skin started to break out (I never, ever, had a zit when I was a teenager. Never.) but there I was looking in the mirror at this old face with a mess of zits and the bonus bags under my eyes. Being over seventy is hard enough without looking like an old Bat Out of Hell. I was literally washing eleven years of faithful gym-going and clean eating down the drain. Come on, girl.
So, two days after Hallowe’en I decided I’d had enough of the Pandemic Paunch and I cleared the decks. I literally cleared the countertop, the dining room table and the coffee table of the mini-chocolate bars in decorative jars, and “no” I didn’t eat the temptations. Dr. A had suggested the Mediterranean diet as a way to get things back on track, but I’m not a “diet” person and I headed back to plant-based eating and upping the intensity of my workouts and hikes. I know it’s only two weeks in, but already the indigestion and the lethargy is gone. I’m feeling more positive about life in general. The empty calories and saturated fats were messing with my mind and my body. Yes, I miss the chips, the chocolates, the wine, the cider and the scads of red meat. Yes. Yes, I do. Do I miss the ingestion, the headache, the tight tights, the breathlessness and the lethargy? No. Not at all.
It’s been eleven years since I first met with Superman, at the gym. It’s been eleven years of giant steps in the right direction, a few setbacks—two of which were EPIC. It’s been eleven years of becoming more fit, more honest with myself about myself and of becoming a whole lot healthier. Eleven years ago Superman demonstrated a dumbbell chest press, handed me two ten-pound dumbbells and away I went. Well, not exactly. Five pounds in each hand was where we settled on that first chest workout. I was exhausted at the end of those reps, but I knew I could do better and the only person I was competing against was me!
I feel like I’m back in the game and getting back on my game. The Hallowe’en candies are out of my life, but Ho Ho Ho is just around the corner! I’m sure I’ll get by with a little help from my friends and memories of those tight tights.
Did I mention the chocolate Advent Calendars, last week? Egads!
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