healthy living Archives · Starting Over At Sixty

I’m here…I Love Being Sixty!

August 29, 2019

Repost from 1/20/2016

Sometimes you are freed from something that you didn’t know was holding you back. That’s me. And it’s not just the age thing. I’ve never been one to worry about my age that much. My Mother died at 49 (cancer) and my Father died at 55 (stroke). So I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have the opportunity to turn sixty. To be here with my kids at sixty. To get to see them as young adults and beyond. I am a grateful girl at this point. I love sixty!

It is a great time to be unhitching my self from my husband. I had no idea how beat down I had felt for years (not physically, let me make that clear). I was oppressed by the lack of trust in my marriage and that darkened everything in my life. Waiting for him to come home, maybe, and not knowing what that was going to look like was torture. I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it always dropped eventually. I built a fortress around myself for protection. I had no idea the enormity of the weight of that fortress and it is gone. Read…my…lips……..gone!

And, while I was living with that, my business was oppressive because I really just didn’t like it and wasn’t good at it. I did it to impress him. It did not. I have been carrying too much weight because there had to be some “place” of happiness and ice cream was that place. I was drinking too much, well, you know why. I was living in a big house on a golf course because I thought that if we moved there maybe my husband would like me better. He just likes golf better now.

I sold the restaurants, I moved to a one room, 1000 sq. foot loft apartment: my husband wanted to keep the house because living on the golf course makes him feel like a big man: you’re welcome. I probably drink less but Have fun more. I am never going to like working out, but I am doing so for way better reasons than to try to make my husband like me again. Funny, I seem to have lost about 195 lbs. (you get my drift I’m sure).

Hooray for me! Happy Birthday!

Living in the Pink

April 23, 2018

When I left home about three years ago it was important to me that my little one-room loft apartment feel like home to my adult children. I knew that while their father still lived in our marital home it would not have the same homey feel: I took that with me. Fast forward three years and I am now ready to move on to a real condo with actual bedrooms! Yippee! And since the condo is much bigger than my current postage stamp of an apartment, I do get to buy a couple of new pieces of furniture. One piece will be a crib for my crib: my son and daughter-in-law are having a baby boy in October so the timing of my move couldn’t be more perfect. I will have plenty of room for my new little lovey.

I am looking forward to changing up my style a little as well. Since I am the only one who will be living there, I can do whatever I want (one of the perks of living alone). I saw this pink sofa at the Women in Digital Headquarters outside Columbus and fell in love. So I tracked it down and I can’t wait to order it for my new fancy living room. I have never really had a space where the only person who mattered was me, and I am having a blast just thinking about coming home and sitting down on my girlie pink sofa. I might even get some maribou high heeled mules and drink champagne around the house because that is how I roll.

The pink sofa is from Ikea, so it is affordable for this girl on a budget. I ordered a rug to go with it so there is no turning back now. I couldn’t be more excited and I will keep you posted every step of the way.

Setting Goals: My First Triathlon

October 31, 2017

Diane Lemay was used to accomplishing big goals: she is a retired pediatrician, a medical director at Anthem Health Insurance and is a theology student at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, Ohio. In high school, she had been a runner and in her thirties, she ran marathons. She did a mini triathlon at Buckeye Lake in Ohio, where she lives, but she didn’t really enjoy it. She found the transitions difficult, especially biking to running, and that was the end of her triathlon experience, she thought.

In 2015, Diane found that she needed a new goal: she had experienced the break up of a long time relationship, she had gained weight and she felt that she just wasn’t herself: she wanted to get the active part of herself back. She was already a cyclist and loved it, and with her running background, she knew that if she could learn to swim, really swim properly, she could attempt a half-Ironman race. So, she made that her goal. It was December 2015 and the only Ironman-sponsored event in Ohio was a 70.3 in August of 2016. It was the first time Ironman had come to Ohio and it was in eight months!

Diane enlisted the help of Coach Kim Clark, who had her start swimming on December 26, 2015: there was no time to waste so the day after Christmas Diane was in the water, and for 18 months Diane has continued to learn and train to be a better swimmer. Now she loves it. She finds that when it is just her and the water swimming has a meditative quality. “I pray a lot when I swim,” she said.

Her biggest obstacle in swimming was that she had a hard time putting her head all the way in the water. So her coach taught her a trick: she pretends that when she is blowing bubbles she is talking to the fish and that when she is breathing and her ear is to the ground she is listening to them talk. Diane also learned to breathe bilaterally from her coach not only to balance her breathing but to give her the option of choosing one side over another if the sun is in her eyes when swimming. Coach Kim Clark also created hardships for Diane (swimming over her) to get her mentally ready for the swim. She even enlisted the help of a swim class full of children to jump in and swim over Diane.

Transitions were difficult at first because of the heaviness coming out of the water and moving on to the bike. It was a “different kind of hard,” she said. Biking to running was all about recruiting different muscles and changing your rhythm.

After eight months of training, Diane did her first IRONMAN. Swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 and run a half marathon, 13.1 miles, in Delaware, Ohio. “I actually enjoyed it,” she said. But the swim was tough. She had a hard time swimming in a straight line and says she knows she swam much farther than the 1.2 miles. During the first five minutes, she had a panic attack. Her heart rate was skyrocketing and she couldn’t catch her breath. The next wave of swimmers was passing her. She swam over to one of the kayaks in the water for safety and just waited to get her heart rate down, then she was fine and completed the swim. Her concern: Would she make it in the time allotted for the swim, or be disqualified? “I made it with six minutes to spare,” Diane said.

She took a couple of weeks off after the IRONMAN, then thought she would just continue to do some maintenance training. Her coach had other ideas for her. She asked Diane, “What makes you get up in the morning? What are the things you are passionate about?

Well now, Diane was passionate about triathlons. But, she also has a passion for helping those who are incarcerated. She hopes to work in the prison system when she becomes an ordained minister. Put those two interests together and there is just one place to go: Alcatraz.

If you are interested in learning more about becoming a triathlete like Diane LeMay, go to http://beginnertriathlete.com/.

What Does “Go Get ‘Em” Mean to You?

January 30, 2017

At a Starbucks that I drive through a couple of times each week, the Barista hands me my drink and says, “Go get ’em!” The first time I heard it I thought he was talking to someone else. Then, I realized he was talking to me and every other car that goes through the window. It made me think about what it means. Now, I have started saying that to myself every morning when I wake up. I don’t say, “Rats, it’s morning.” Actually, some days I do say that. But you can’t lay in bed for another 20 minutes after you say to yourself, “Go get ’em.” You just can’t do it.

Now, I don’t say to myself , “Oh no, hello morning. I am not ready for you.” Actually, some days I do say that. But you can’t lay in bed for another 20 minutes after you say to yourself, “Go get ’em.” You just can’t do it. It feels lazy.

So, I try to have my day laid out in my head when it hits the pillow, so I don’t worry about it in the middle of the night and toss and turn. That allows me to “Go get ’em.” I find myself in such a bad mood when my day gets derailed: when the things that I wanted to accomplish just get put on the next day’s list. It makes me grouchy. So, I look at my calendar every evening to get myself ready for the next day, even if my day is wide open (isn’t that about the best feeling on earth?). If I am working out first, I get my workout clothes out and ready to be slipped on, so I can sleep until the final second, then “Go get ’em.”

If it is not a workout day, I have my clothes all picked out. I don’t like the feeling of having to hear the weather forecast them come up with something when I could have done that the night before. I have my bag ready and my electronics ready for action. I know, I know, it is a little silly, but it works for me. I like the feeling of being in control of the morning.

For me, what “go get ’em” means is that I am ready for that busy day. I am charging forward and making progress daily. I like that. I find that the older that I get the less time I want to waste. I want to fit everything into every day. I don’t want to just coast.

That doesn’t mean I want to be on the run all the time. I do not. I love my downtime. But I find that the more I “Go get ’em,” the more downtime I create for myself. It’s the best.

Whatever it takes to put that spring in your step, to get you fired up for the day, do it. It makes life so much more enjoyable and satisfying.

Go get ’em!

I’m a Cougar, at My New College That Is

February 2, 2016

Repost from 2/2/2016

It is official…I am a Cougar! And all I had to do was turn 60 and pay $2.00.

Since I am 60 and live in Ohio I have the opportunity to audit college classes free of charge at some, if not all, state universities. I wanted to take a class that would really expand my horizons, take me out of my comfort zone, teach me to think differently. So I decided to take…wait for it… Accounting!

I should have taken an accounting class 40 years ago but I did not. I should have taken an accounting class before I bought a restaurant franchise but I did not. So, better late than never. I looked at what I was offered at Ohio State since I am a Buckeye, but it was limited. So I took a look at Columbus State Community College and there it was. In bright lights. Introduction to Accounting. Yes. And, I could even take it online. Even better.

CSCC is just about a block from where I live, but I loved the idea of online class, since that is about as foreign to me as accounting itself. I am now three weeks behind because I couldn’t figure out how to navigate the online learning system. I had forgotten that I took a class at Columbus State about 35 years ago. So to them I am not Pharer…I am Pdaniel. Perfect. I stopped in to the bookstore to pick up my textbook. I guess I didn’t really pay attention to the cost of the individual books as my three children went to undergrad. My textbook was $153.00. Now I am afraid to make a mark in it.

So this week I am playing catch-up, just me and my big, giant, expensive book. The hour set aside for Web Chat is Friday at 7 pm. What? Don’t they know that we “Good as Gold” students are finishing up dinner by then (kidding)?

So, here is the best part. The Columbus State mascot is the Cougar. I am a Cougar! Ironic, don’t you think? Sixty years old, soon to be single and a Cougar.

Can’t wait to try out for Drill Team!

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