Month: February 2018

I have known about diaphragmatic breathing for a long time. It is breathing in through your belly. It is an essential tool to learn in meditation and for breathing. This video tells you more, and you can google diaphragmatic breathing to find out more information. 

Learning to get a deeper breath in any way that I can is important. It goes to say that the diagram is a muscle.  As  I began to exercise I wondered, could I strengthen this muscle? Of course, singers know about diaphragmatic breathing, and I wish I could find a pulmonologist therapist that worked with the voice as I know this would help me a great deal, and I would find it more fun that breathing into a tube.

Instead, I opted for trying to strengthen my diaphragm. That means increasing my core strength. I have joked for a long time that I am coreless. I had no desire to get a core, and I knew I didn’t have one. But strengthening my core now was a life-saving technique. If I could do that, I would raise my chest, strengthen my diaphragm and perhaps get more breath.

Here is an excellent article showing your diaphragm 

I also began to use a weight on my diaphragm as I was practicing my breathing as in this video.  However I don’t use books I have a medicine ball. 

Because I was wanting to strengthen my entire core I also added some other basic exercises to my routine. Here is the list.

Planking- I never thought I would be planking at 57. But planking uses many muscles.
Bicycle Crunches– yep I’m doing crunches on the floor.
Ankle touches– These seemed quite easy to do and made me feel more accomplished than crunches.
Seated medicine ball crunches– I purchased a 10 lb ball years ago and decided to use it. These are easy and fun.

I have a Lifeline 30lb resistance cable that I purchased for $9.00 and I love it. I do many things with it and it is fun. A core exercise is the Wood chop.

What has happened with all of this? My waist has become smaller. Just a few weeks ago I ha my hans on my waist and thought, this can’t be me. I could not believe there was so much room under my ribs. It must be working. I’m standing up straighter and I would like to think it is helping my breathing. It also helps that I am losing weight which is less for my heart and lungs to have to deal with. So, In general I’m excited with the outcome.

I lurk on several online exercise forums. I love seeing the exercises and other people’s progress. Those who exclaim, “I lost 20 pounds in one month,” well, science shows that is not good, it is better to lose slowly.

My story…
My goal is to be the best me I can be. I am 57 but started this last fall when I was 56.

FOOD
I wanted first to get a better diet. I’m not really a fast food, meat-eating type of gal, but I did want to have a better relationship with food. I did several things over the years that helped me to do this. Daniel Fast was my first attempt to get closer to understanding what I put in my body. Of course, I grew up in the health food industry and studying food, so I knew a lot. I moved to a Whole 30 in support of my daughter. It was intersting. She got more out of it than I did and I found it used entirely too much meat.

When I made my lifestyle change in September 2017, I kicked it off with the green smoothy diet. I wanted to learn more about these smoothies as I figured as I transitioned into vegetarian and then vegan having smoothies would help. I have added a vegan protein to the smoothies. This helps me to boost my protein. Since Sept 2017 I spent a lot of time understanding proper nutrition as it compares to vegan and vegetarian. There are some great forums on facebook with incredible recipes for both vegan and vegetarian. Sometimes just having those regular photos coming up on your feed in social media is all I need to prompt me into exploring a new meal. I have a deep freeze and prepare a lot of soups, chili, and meatless burgers, so I have them ready when I am in a hurry. I try to eat whole foods, which means nothing packaged and as raw as I can get it. Protein is important, and I have to eat a ton of food to get everything I need, so being hungry is never a problem.

EXERCISE
Dance- I love to dance, and in the past over the years I have just put music on and danced for 20 minutes. A few years back I started formal dancing taking salsa and bachata. I loved it and began to assist teachers.Taking dance later in life is the one do over I would like in my life. I wish I would have taken formal dance and joined a dance community earlier in my life. I didn’t because I always thought you needed a partner or the partner and most partners that I were with would not. Here is something I learned—they don’t need to do it. JUST GO and try different dance studios. Each has their individual flavor.

Hike- I loved hiking but wondered how I could do it alone. So I joined groups and started my own group and hiked. Though I also hike alone

I’m a sculptor, so my job is extremely physical at times. So work is not sedentary. I am also a writer and when I’m writing, well. That is a sedentary thing.

I did the above before Sept 2017.
In Sept I wanted to not just exercise and have fun, I wanted a routine and a commitment. I wanted “me time” with my body “daily.” I committed to doing yoga for 10 minutes and walking for 20 minutes EVERY DAY! I was feeling poorly when I started this, having some coughing spells and lung issues. I added a qigong movement to my yoga called “Dragon and Tiger.” I did this mostly because Dragon and Tiger is a healing move.

You should have seen me when I started. It was laughable. I researched yoga poses that helped my posture and breathing because these were the areas in which I had trouble. I weebled, I wobbled, and I even fell, but I kept at it.

The treadmill? It was laughable. With my coughing and where I was, I could only do the level of the treadmill that it is at when you turn it on.

Apparently, I was sicker than I thought. My body was worn down, and I had double pneumonia. I was in the hospital for four days and on oxygen. I walked every day toting oxygen.

I’m convinced that all that I did before going to the hospital kept my vitals good. They sent me home with oxygen. I kept up my routine. By then I was up to 30 minutes on the treadmill and 30 minutes of yoga and qigong.

I’m now doing 40 minutes on the treadmill, and 30 minutes of yoga and qigong. Every other day or every third day I add weights and floor exercises for about an additional 20 minutes. This is a huge commitment of time daily, but since coming home and still on oxygen three months later, I have been diagnosed with lung disease, and they are doing tests on my heart. I’m a vivacious and active woman. This news made me realize that health problems can happen to anyone. Since then, I have seen my massage therapist have a heart attack and two women my age die of pneumonia and lung issues. The best thing you can do to avoid health complications and to work through it is to eat right and exercise. When I wake up and don’t want to do it for myself anymore, I think about leaving my child and grandchild behind. It breaks my heart and gets me moving.

LOSS?
I don’t remember how heavy I was when I started. I think the heaviest I ever weighed was 172. Presently I’m at 142. There were months that I was on the treadmill and eating right, and I would not lose a pound, but I did measurements, and I was losing inches. Even if I weighed 172 when I started, it means I lost only 30 pounds over six months. Charts say that the best weight for me is between 107 and 135. To me, it is no longer how I look, but 1. the less I weigh, the less protein I require which means I can eat less. As I said earlier on a vegetarian or vegan diet, I have to eat a lot! 2. The less I weigh, the less my heart and lungs have to work to get me around. Toting oxygen kind of sucks, but I’m getting used to doing  things with it and won’t let it hold me back.

MOTIVATION
Wanting to live is a huge motivator. I have, in the past, used Spark people and love that it is a free app to give you support, log your things, etc. It is great. Run keeper is an app on my phone that I use to document my walking, hiking, biking, etc. Music is an excellent motivator as is watching motivational or exercise videos on the iPad while I’m on the treadmill. Also, youtube music videos are so much fun and keep me going.

EQUIPMENT
I do everything at home.
1. Oxygen
2. I have a beautiful music CD I listen to when I’m doing my yoga and qigong,
3. Yoga Mat
4.I love my stretch belts
5. A weighted ball
6. Hand weights
7. The treadmill.

I’m adding more things to my routine and switching things up. I’m having fun looking better and I actually like buying clothes again.

I hope I can encourage others to do the same.
Pusche