50 Years Young

     I turned 50 years old yesterday.  I never, in all of my life, imagined myself at 50 years old.   On one hand, I don't feel like I've been around for a half century.  But on the other hand, my body seems ancient lately.

     I've decided to start making changes that will, hopefully, buy back some time for myself.  I know I won't be any younger, but at least I want to physically feel younger than I have the past couple of years.  This means a diet and exercise regime.  For the most part, I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent woman.  I KNOW that means eating w/restraint, passing up the brownies [which are my weakness] and getting myself moving.

    Therein lies the biggest problem for me.  Since I ache ALL over, how can I get moving more?   I have a home gym that really gets very little use.  Ok.. it gets NO use.  Except for the one time I did use it to pull myself up off the floor when I fell down the stairs.  But I doubt that really counts. 
    
     I've decided the best way to start out is SLOW.  These days I'm all about slow!  I'm going to start out w/10-15 minutes a day, a couple of times a day.  Then begin to build up as I improve my stamina.  {and my Ben Gay stock}

     I go to see my knee doctor tomorrow.  I'm hopeful that he can do something to ease the pain in my knees.  The cortisone shot he gave me on the last visit was phenomenal for about three days.  Then it disappeared.  I'm not exactly sure how all that works, but maybe another shot will last longer this time.

     If I could get out and walk that would be the greatest help of all.  But my knees are so sore that if I tried to walk around the block Allen would probably have to follow me in the car to pick me up.  

     Next is watching what I eat so I can lose weight.  As I said, I'm intelligent enough to know that all the extra weight I carry is not helping at all.  But what my brain knows and what the rest of my body does very seldom meshes. 

     Once the local homegrown tomatoes start to come in, I'll do alright.  Unfortunately they don't stay in season long enough for me to lose all the weight I need to lose.  I LOVE homegrown tomatoes.  I can eat them all day long.  When I'm hungry, I just snack on them to fill up.  They have very few calories.  So eating a small sandwich and some tomatoes may constitute my lunch instead of filling up on potato chips and other fattening foods. 

     Eating healthy is tough in our house because my family is particular about what they eat, especially my son.  He wants to eat healthy and eat vegetarian, but he only likes about 5 meals.  That's puts a damper on dieting.  [and they all involve hamburger!]   My husband feels like he NEEDS meat.  All in all, it can be very difficult to cover everyone's needs and wants.

     But there is no other option than for me to lose weight, get in shape and get a handle on all the health issues I'm now facing.

    I may have hit 50 being old and haggard, but I am determined that when 51 rolls around I'll be in better shape.  I simply can't let fibromyalgia, arthritis and all the other obstacles overwhelm me.  I KNOW I can do this.  I know I WILL do this!