@ClassicMom98 thank you and your H( and the house guy). You prevented a possibility tragic situation by being aware and stepping up.
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That is a facinating story. So much thanks to your husband for his attentiveness and care. Amazing that at 90 what keeps her going is the thing that “keeps her going”. When you don’t know what else to do or where to go or how to do something you fall back to what you know you can do - you walk, just keep walking. I’m sure that is her “purpose” in life today since that is all she has and all she knows. I do hope she finds more in her new home.
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I’ve started to notice that retired pickleball ladies I’ve met (some who knew each other before especially through tennis and others newly aquainted) watch out for each other. Check in via text after knee surgery, inquire about ailing husbands, give compassion about funerals attended etc. LOL, if the server is tired and forgets the score her partner (or a player on the other side) kindly assists. In fact, I’ve joked that maybe if we are in assisted living with each other someday distantly down the road we’ll “cover” with family if a buddy is forgetful on a detail when chatting with family.
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Raise your hand if you are spending hours and energy pulling weeds! Lol I spend the entire afternoon alternating pulling weeds and swimming a few backyard pool laps. I’m super grateful to have the pool time in the summer as an alternate activity.
I continue with “ 3 miles on the watch of something” each morning.
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Horsetail this summer is Jurassic-sized!!!
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On Thursday I did a lot of gardening/weeding and finally tackled the many little sumac trees sprouting in our years. Some were a few feet tall. I was a bit sore the next day.
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Want to live longer? The answer is apparently very simple: move yer ass! 
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The linked page has this quote: “The best predictors for how to live longer? Physical activity, followed by age, mobility problems, self-assessed health, diabetes, and smoking. Take a moment to let that sink in: how much and how vigorously you move are more important than how old you are as a predictor of the years you’ve got left.”
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I watched my parents and my MIL age in place. All 3 died in their 70s.
Seeing that first hand has been a motivating factor in getting myself moving.
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I moved my rear end further than I have in a long, long time. My long runs have been really rough - last week my shoes had pools of sweat inside when I finished, and I was just drained the entire day. Today I decided to go in to the gym with H - he goes in at 4:30, it opens at 5am - and run on the TM for awhile before heading out into the muck. Also, I realized that I used to run with Powerade on long runs in the warm months. I have just been stashing water bottles, or looping around to a water fountain, because I gave my fuel belt away a few years ago. I didn’t think I’d be doing any more long runs.
Anyhow, I did 10K in 51 min on the TM, then headed outside when I drank some Powerade stored in my car. (Brilliant me forgot to bring it inside for the TM) Then I ran 7.8 miles outside in 2 loops, drinking Powerade in the middle. It still was rough. The gym’s AC has been broken for awhile, but in the morning with the fans on, it’s not as horrible as outside. My clothes were still so heavy and disgusting, my shoes soaked… but I felt much better and so far I still feel much better than the last several weeks. I’ll probably keep this up for the next several weeks until I get bored… I admit I like when I can knock out a few miles before everyone else gets there.
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Wow - that’s a lot of movement. Good job!
My movement goals are far more modest. Lately they have been way more modest as we gear up for a long road trip, where I have some opportunities to run or play pickleball but likely will mostly just be walking. Expect to see me back here with renewed interest in August.
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I was going to post today with an update, but now my update is that I have a pulled hamstring.v 
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I am TRYING to drink protein powder on a regular basis. I’ve done it 4 of the last 5 days. I don’t like it, but I’ve decided I can tolerate it if I use very cold water with it. I had to dig to find one of the kid’s old shaker bottles - that helps too. I was using a whisk, but the shaker bottle with the little round thing is easier.
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The abstract states that the model without including physical activity had 78% concordance, and the model with including physical activity had 79% concordance. While the 1 percentage point increase in concordance was statistically significant, it also doesn’t suggest that increasing physical activity is a magic bullet that overrides the many other analyzed factors. Instead it suggests that there was a large amount of correlation between the different factors. People who are currently physically active are probably also more likely to have a lifetime of healthy habits and do well on the other metrics listed (more likely to be younger, better mobility, better self accessed health, less likely to be overweight, less likely to smoke, …). This makes it difficult to disentangle what are the driving forces vs what is correlated with the driving forces. I’d be interested to see a treatment effect type experiment .
Can you drink it if you mix with other things? I’ve been doing a blended drink of coffee, one banana, 2 T peanut butter protein powder, dash of honey and vanilla and little milk or half and half over ice. It’s delicious.
Also one of the little mini frothers can be good for the mixing part - easy to take when traveling too.
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I sometimes mix peanut butter powder with plain low fat greek yogurt (and other stuff - yesterday it was half banana and walnuts). I’ll have to try your coffee “recipe”.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I am finding quick works best for me. The friend I shared some with over the weekend is trying different smoothies, but that’s just too much trouble/I’d likely put off doing it. I’ve had this powder for many months (Son gave it to me when I told him I wanted to try protein powder). I was thinking of giving it back to him, but he already has several bags. So - I’ve got to make sure I use it before it expires, which gives me a little incentive. By then it will (hopefully) be a habit.
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I just can’t get into protein powder.
I’ve only had the PB protein powder - it may not be as potent as some of the other popular ones. But I imagine if you can combine the powder with some other “delicious and nutritious” ingredients it might be more palatable!
This is the recipe that got me started - I use the PB powder instead of regular PB.
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This week I signed up to do a half marathon in Oct. My goal is not the race per se, but the training that I know I’ll be motivated to do.
I used to be a heavy exerciser until a couple years ago. A series of health and life issues derailed that and it’s been difficult to get back into the level of activity that I require to feel my best.
Now that my health issues have resolved enough to permit me to exercise more, I’m struggling with motivation. I walk 5+ miles most days, but I am suffering from not getting my heart rate into the “endorphin” zone (it’s actually endocannabinoids, but I digress). And for me, exercise is a snowball effect that begets more exercise (I KNOW I need to be doing strength training but somehow only do it when I’m running regularly).
In the past, signing up for a race has been an effective incentive for me. I’ve done some significant races (running, cycling, triathlons) in the past, and I think the half marathon is the perfect distance right now. If it was less, I’d neglect training and might end up winging it. I can certainly walk 13 miles comfortably. But I’m going to be annoyed if I can’t run basically the whole way. So I have my training calendar mapped out, and it’s going great so far.
Even if something interferes with my race, the increased fitness that comes along with training is my actual goal, so I think it’s a good strategy. I’ve not actually run a full marathon, but have trained for one 3 times and each time had something come up to prevent me participating. But I made it up to a 17-20 mile training run each time so I wasn’t too upset. I eventually gave up trying to do marathons because the time commitment was too big and I was over it.
Back in middle school, I read Jeff Galloway’s book and that’s how I got into running. I haven’t followed his run/walk/run method much since then, but I’ve chosen to start with a modified version of it for this training plan because I’m trying hard to prevent injury.
Is anyone else signed up for events that are motivating them?
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