Fitness routine with the guys

I was minding my own business at the Lifetime Fitness Center watching HGTV on the big screen, but I couldn't help overhearing the 3 guys next to me. Men just rag on each other. It's a hoot. They call each other ugly, bald and fat, and then they all laugh. Don't try that with women. But after the introductions it's down to business. A friend who wasn't there on the treadmill was at the hospital with his wife who was having surgery; another guy was waiting for a kidney transplant; two guys were discussing the various taxes they were struggling with; another reminisced about the old days when our suburb had its own trash department and little scooters would go to the garage to pick up the trash cans (I'd forgotten that, but it was true).

And meanwhile, I missed which house was chosen by the home buyers.

House Hunters is getting a new twist. A New 'House Hunters' Spin-Off Is Coming to HGTV with a Major Twist (msn.com)

16,000 miles

I learn a lot at the gym. The exercycles are about 2 ft. apart. So, I could overhear the conversation of 2 retirees, maybe 10 years younger than me. So, I learned about the karaoke places and where to go ball room dancing in Columbus, OH. I also learned which local bands (really crazy names) have split or are having problems with venues. One guy had lost 30 lbs, but was having eye problems, so all the directions to the venues he told his friend involved side roads because he doesn't do freeways anymore. There were the usual complaints about safety, so they are both shopping in the daytime. Seems they don't like President Trump personally, but when they ran down the list of policies and programs like immigration and military, they were right smack in the middle of MAGA.

 
Meanwhile, my log sheet rolled over to 16,000 miles yesterday. I think I started tracking in January 2015 and I record both walking and cycling. 

Fitness memories

I went to Lifetime Fitness this morning. Rather sparse, and only 3 women. Not the usual older crowd I see later. Also, many people may be taking a holiday--from work and from effort. This memory from two years ago came up on Facebook. I may have included it in 2019 on my blog, but it's a good one for a repeat.

"You meet nice people at the gym. He looked sullen, tough and gruff, but I greeted him, he smiled and we began to talk (riding nowhere on our stationary bikes). I found out he was a plumber, then that he wasn't the type that comes to your home, he helps keep the James serving cancer patients. That's shorthand for Brain and Spine Tumor Center at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. That led to my former position in the Veterinary Medicine Library. That led to his story about his rescue, a black lab, that formerly was kept in a cage as a breeder, and she couldn't walk when they got her. His little cockapoo taught her to walk and play, and now he has the most wonderful dog. But the cockapoo is still the boss! It's easy to ride 6 miles with an interesting companion."

Reality shows—muscle cars

I wonder who writes the scripts for "reality shows?" This morning at the gym I started watching a show about muscle cars and the guys who love and restore them. It might have been Counting Cars, a spin off of Pawn Stars, but not sure, since this was the first time I saw it and I didn't see the opening. I was sort of tired of politics, and wanted to go 10 miles. Fox was showing clips from the last debate, usually Biden bloopers about fossil fuel or Covid.

I didn't watch a whole program but it took in a car show (some restored cars $150,000), the 2 characters stopping a guy on the freeway and eventually buying his Dodge Charger to restore it (it deserved better, they said), and later we'd see it restored and the guy who was going to buy it. But the cutest human interest story was when the muscle bound, bandana head, full of tats guy brings in his two tiny dogs to the shop, sweet talking them, and hands them over to the Hungarian immigrant wash and detail guy to give them a bath. That was laugh out loud funny, and I'm not sure all of it was in the script. You know it wasn't real because no one I know would hand over their 3 lb mixed breed Chihuahua to a novice to bathe in a yellow floor bucket with a wringer. But it was good theater. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting_Cars And I got my 10 miles + in.

At the fitness center

I met a wonderful guy at the gym this morning. Kind, articulate, interesting, athletic and it turns out he was at St. Ann's hospital in the OR when our son had his surgery last October. Small world. The only draw back was we talked for such a long time I peddled for over seven miles instead of my 4 or 5 and now can hardly walk.

How do you meet new people at 80?

I'm finding that the gym is an easier place to meet people than church. Today I met a retired Army General while riding the exercycle. He was reading a magazine I'd never seen, "Veritas : journal of army special operations history," so I asked him about it. He'd entered the service  as a private right out of high school and retired 37 years later as a General. The military paid for his bachelor’s and two masters degrees. He looked like he was about 30, but I did a little math and figured he had to be at least 55, but was probably older.

Last Friday on the cycle I met a lovely young woman who lives in my old neighborhood and school district, and loves the library, park and pool where I used to hang out. She grew up in San Antonio, lived in New Jersey, and then moved to Columbus with her husband to raise their daughter. And it was a magazine that got us talking that time too, "Experience Life" which is a very nice quality monthly serial published by the owner of Lifetime Fitness. She organizes food tours of Columbus. I didn't know such a job existed and I'm not sure yet what it is.

Twenty minutes on the cycle or treadmill can get you a lot more information than 2 minutes at church coffee time, or a few minutes being introduced during Sunday School.

Working out at Lifetime Fitness

Rudeness is in the eye of the listener

Interesting morning at the fitness palace today. Someone described his very large dog--about 200 lbs--who ate four pounds, yes pounds, not sticks, of butter that had been put out for Christmas baking. So far, only one really bad mess (I think there will be more).

Then my friend, Joanne, and I were catching up on the treadmill after she'd been gone a few weeks. The guy on the treadmill next to her said very loudly into his phone that he couldn't hear the person he was talking to (loudly) because the people next to him were talking! Since I was saying something extremely important to my friend, I just leaned over and said to him. "And you think you're not talking too loud?"

It's not unusual to hear people on cell phones complaining about other people talking (not on their phones) talking too loud.

My exercise log turned 8,000 today

In late December 2014 I had a check up and the scale at Dr. Bush’s office said 170 (which I call 165 on mine).  So I started a log for riding my exercycle and told myself I’d ride to Jeanne’s home in Indianapolis, about 180 miles and back.  When I met that goal I said how about Debbie’s in California (Bob’s other sister).  Meanwhile I started using my Silver Sneakers membership at the Metro next to Panera’s on Bethel road.  So I recorded miles (and for awhile minutes, but that ended in a few weeks) in a small notebook for which I’d had no use.  Today, on the second notebook I logged in 8,000!  My routine usually is to go to Lifetime Fitness on Henderson Rd near by, but I’m down to about 4 miles (3 on cycle and 1 on treadmill), but if it’s nice I walk maybe a mile outside, and occasionally use the treadmill in my office while watching the news. I’d also been doing a resistance routine and some regular stretching, but when we got back from Lakeside on Labor Day, that sort of dropped off.

Looking back through the first log I see I was far more successful at weight loss in 2015 than in 2019.  After 6 months of logging my miles, I’d lost 30 pounds—obviously I also stuck to my tried and true diet plan of “eat less move move” aka ELMM. I’ve put about 13 back on.
I was working on our Spain travel plans then, both saving money and trying to lose weight for all the walking we’d be doing.  Unfortunately, I developed bursitis and did have to carry a cane much of the time in Spain. To save money, I stopped having my hair colored ($500/year), gave up my morning coffee (about $2/day) at Panera’s, sold a piece of pottery for $500, rolled the change in the piggy bank (about $200) and cashed in some points on our Freedom Card, about $200. Saving money for me is easier than losing weight!

Riitta and I on the stairs in Gaudalest September 2015

April 2015 with new exercise outfit

Do as I say, not as I do

Bahram Arkadi built Lifetime Fitness (about 130 locations) where I have a Silver Sneakers membership and is a multimillionaire. Recently in the magazine "Experiencing Life" he pointed out the root causes of threats to biodiversity: overpopulation and overconsumption. He personally wants for nothing. Has his family and his millions, and he's lecturing the rest of us on birth control and materialism like someone running for president? The U.S. population is already below replacement rate, and his business was built on a never ending hunger and quest to look and feel better that will always sell.

One way to help the environment is to pick up trash on your walks—and you don’t do that in a gym.

At the gym

I used to write a blog about the people I met in coffee shops.  But I gave it up—going to coffee shops.  Now I go to the gym and I see a lot of interesting people, and even talk to some, although I rarely know their names.

Today on the next exercycle there was a woman who is an immigrant. We’ve chatted numerous times. She goes to her “home” country for 5 months of the year, but her adult children were born in the U.S.  “I’m very close to my children,” she told me today.  “We talk first thing in the morning, and later maybe 8-9 times.”   I would like to think I misunderstood that, she having an accent, but I don’t think so.

One older (older than me) man dresses up for the holidays.  This month he’s all about green—hat, tie, shirt, knee socks, neck wear, etc. We chatted a bit one day—he’s also a graduate of the University of Illinois, sometime in the mid-1950s.

The fashions are fascinating.  Some women are perfectly color coordinated—shoes, pants, shirt.  If the women are very young, say 18-25, they might wear shorts, but very few do that. And only those with really fabulous legs.  Some men wear shorts—old guys have really baggy shorts, and if a young man wears tight fitting shorts, he’s probably gay.

One woman has been recommending books for me to read.  She suggested “What Alice Forgot,” which I checked out of the library, and really enjoyed.  She also suggested “Elegance of the Hedgehog,” originally published in French, which I’ve started.  Today she suggested a non-fiction title, “After Emily,”  about the 2 women who organized Emily Dickinson’s poetry. https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2018/11/06/emily-dickinson-dobrow  I often see people reading, so I don’t talk to them.  I haven’t had much luck reading on the treadmill, although I do it on the cycle. Most people have their smart phones with them and ear buds, so they are not interested in chit-chat.

I often talk to a very friendly couple who moved to Columbus from California. She’s in excellent shape.  They came here because two of their children live here and their only grandchild.  Her mother is 101 and still lives in California, so she goes there a few weeks of the year.

Another couple I’ve met are also living in Columbus because of their son and grandchild. They actually own 3 homes, and vacation in the summer in Minnesota, and go to North Dakota to ski.  It’s a bit tricky to catch up with them—they are always traveling.

And then there’s Dan.  He has neuropathy, is always in a lot of pain, but struggles in every day using his walker.  He was getting much better, but one day was hit by a car in the parking lot.  Although he had been able to give up his walker a while back, he is now using it all the time.  He’s an inspiration.

Another woman has had her leg amputated; the other day I saw a man using a white cane with another man explaining the machines to him; I’ve seen several people who appear to be recovering from strokes.

I’ve seen a number of members of our church there.  Sometimes so many I think we should have a committee meeting.

At the fitness center

 

I haven’t noticed any increase in traffic—must be fewer resolutions to exercise and lose weight this year.

About a month ago I mentioned a man I was watching who was having a huge struggle using his walker, but who wouldn’t accept help from anyone. It would take him about 5 minutes to get from the door to the rowing machine.  I would watch him each time I’d decide I really didn’t want to walk a mile on the Treadmill, then I’d keep going when I saw how hard he was working to build up his legs

Then one day I saw him taking a few steps without the walker, and then he stopped using the walker all together.  Another member told me his injury was from a failed surgery to fix something else.  Then this week he was hit and knocked down by a car in the parking lot walking into the building!  He came in and exercised anyway, but we both think the police should have been called.  The woman who hit him used the excuse she wasn’t wearing her hearing aids!

I met a woman at the fitness center around Thanksgiving who is really pleasant and attractive and in excellent shape.  She’s usually finishing about the time I arrive (which is rather early) and works somewhere nearby. She has 11 dogs, 5 cats, a pot bellied pig, and 4 horses and lives around the Johnstown area.  She says the pig is about 9-10 years old and is rather elderly for a pig.  She showed me his photo on her smart phone.  I haven’t seen photos of her grandchildren, but I know she has at least two.

Exercise ideas (not goals, not resolutions) for the New Year (just January)

I’m not a goal setter (I’ve written on this numerous times), but I am a problem solver. So a year ago I used my Silver Sneakers on my insurance plan to join an exercise facility. (I had originally joined one next to Panera’s in 2015 but bursitis ended that.)  Didn’t like the first one I tried on Bethel Rd.  (it has since closed) and have now been at Lifetime Fitness on Henderson about a year.  I ride a stationary bike for three miles, walk on the treadmill for one mile, and three times a week I do resistance exercises using the machines, mainly working my arms.

“Vigorous stationary bicycling is the best weight-loss exercise among gym activities, according to the “Harvard Heart Letter.” It burns 782 calories per hour in 155-pound people and 932 calories per hour in 185-pound people. Moderate stationary bicycling burns 520 and 622 calories per hour in the same people. Vigorous exercise raises your heart rate to 70 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate; moderate exercise raises your heart rate to 55 to 70 percent of its maximum. The maximum heart rate is 220 heartbeats per minute minus age. In contrast, walking 4.5 mph, the fastest speed most people can walk without changing their technique and becoming power walkers, burns 372 and 444 calories per hour in 155- and 185-pound people.”

https://healthyliving.azcentral.com/stationary-bicycle-vs-walking-exercise-9889.html

I do 3.5 mph three times during the one miler on the treadmill and get to 104 heartrate then drop back to 2.5 mph. When on the stationary bike I also increase the heart rate 3 times in the 3 miles to 104.  On either, it’s about 25 minutes. So I’d have to recalculate the above figures, but it looks like an hour on the bike burns more calories than an hour walking, even at a moderate pace.  Also the bike doesn’t bother my hips or knees.

My plan for January is to increase the resistance machines to 2 sets of 15.  I’m currently doing 2 sets of 10.  When the instructor showed me last January, she started me on 2 sets of 20—which I knew immediately wasn’t going to work for me.  If you pull or injure something you have 2 sets of nothing as you sit at home eating another slice of toast with cheddar cheese.

The importance of exercise

“The experts call physical activity the “best buy” in public health. And the guidelines are based on evidence from thousands of studies. Based on this evidence, an expert panel concluded that exercise increases our lifespans, prevents that sneaky annual weight gain and reduces the risk of almost every chronic disease: cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many cancers. No other single behavior can do as much good for your health. By investing some time into exercise now, you get to cash in later. Think of it as the 401K for a long, healthy and happy life. “
I go to Lifetime Fitness 6 times a week, so that’s about 300 minutes of planned exercise, plus I may do another 10-15 at home on my exercycle.  I’m not seeing a big pay off, but then I’ve pretty much been a slug my whole life.  I don’t really enjoy exercise, but I can do 3 miles on a cycle if I take a magazine with me. or turn on Fox News. However, being a researcher from way back, the number of articles on exercise as the new life extender pill is stunning.
This article suggests move more, sit less, but since I’ve battled weight gain from all this exercise (I’m more hungry), I still hold to my old motto, “Move More, East Less,” or MMEL.  The author is exactly right, though, in saying it’s not difficult to add 5 minutes a day to your routine, and then when that’s settled, add another five.
As I’ve said before, I’ve seen some stunning role models at the gym—usually men who come in on walkers, or are using canes. One woman has an artificial below the knee prosthesis.  When I think the treadmill is too boring, I look at them and decide I don’t have it so bad.
https://theconversation.com/move-more-sit-less-great-advice-but-how-can-we-make-time-for-exercise-106741
I looked up the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Scientific Report linked in the first  paragraph thinking I’d print it, but it turned out to be over 700 pages, so I just printed the Executive Summary, pp. 18-25.
https://health.gov/paguidelines/second-edition/report/pdf/PAG_Advisory_Committee_Report.pdf

How disgusting!

After riding four miles on the cycle at the Lifetime Fitness center I switched to the treadmill.  Because it was Saturday, it’s a bit more crowded than usual and almost all the machines in that row were busy.  So I’m moving along at 2.5 mph reading my JAMA when I hear someone blowing her nose—a very juicy, sick as a dog, sort of sound.  I looked to my left and saw a very thin blonde woman blowing her nose on one of the towels that are provided for showers by the gym.  Oh yuk!  Although I would not be surprised if a guy were doing that, I’d never seen that behavior from a woman.  Or was she?  I looked again.  Hard to tell.

September 11

We all know what September 11 means, that scary day in 2001. It was sitting in my office of our home watching TV, and saw the second plane and listened to the amazing TV staff on duty that day.  But in 1988, 30 years ago, there were millions of people who'd been led to believe that September 11-13 (give or take), Jesus was coming back to rapture the church. (And it was the month we settled our mortgage and bought our home in Lakeside which we've been enjoying for 30 years and since we’re not in the group that believes in the rapture we had pretty much ignored the warnings.)  A retired NASA engineer, Edgar Whisenant, wrote 2 books predicting Jesus would return--he sold 4.5 million copies, and enterprising promoters were selling trips to the Holy Land with a beautiful view of the Eastern Gate and Temple Mount. And they ignored, or explained away, Matthew 25:13.

I fell on the treadmill at the gym, Lifetime Fitness, yesterday. I wasn't injured, just hurt my pride. Another woman, also in her 70s, a cute little brunette, stopped and jumped off her machine, and rushed over to stop mine so I could get off. Otherwise, I might still be dangling. If I hadn't been going there 6x a week, I wouldn't have had the strength to hang on; on the other hand, if I hadn't been going 6x a week, I wouldn't have even been on the darn thing!

Adventures at the gym

Today one of the instructors showed me how to use the machines. First I told her everything I didn't want to do and any health problems. So in addition to the treadmill, which I've been using about 3 weeks, she showed me five machines, 4 of which were in a special section called "physical therapy." I decided not to argue with her when she told me two sets of twenty on each machine.  I've known this body a lot longer than she has and if I do 5, I'll be pleased.  Even after a demo, I came home and took a hot shower and some Advil.  She told me she used to weight 220 lbs. and looks like she might be 115 max. now.  It's always cold there, even though I see a lot of people sweating.  So I went to Wal-Mart and bought myself some new work out clothes with longer or mid-arm sleeves.