Pentagenarians & Beyond: 4/6/2025

Good morning, everyone. Yesterday I did Perfect Pump, lower and upper body premix. It wasn’t such a great workout. I think I should have stuck with the originally planned yoga. I was just really tired and working much harder than normal. I nearly quit twice. I think I need to have a snack an hour or so before my workouts now. I never used to need one, but I’ve been hit by this same thing a few times recently. Ah, the joys of getting older.

Cathy – How is Derek’s car issue? That stinks for sure. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy Live Step Express and Blasts.

Carolyn – a Power Pyramid Walk sounds wonderful. But I’d want to do it outside. Honestly if we had more hills, I’d probably make walking my main form of cardio.

Valerie – I can’t imagine vision that self-corrects. All mine does it get worse, LOL. I remember when I hit the transition where I needed bifocals. I was going to the eye doc twice a year, and once I even asked him if I was going to go blind. He very kindly reassured me that I wouldn’t. But it was not a fun time. A week or so ago, I was visiting my mom. I took off my glasses to rub my eyes. She was sitting across the room, maybe 10 or 12 feet away. I told her all I could see was a big blur – she didn’t have eyes, nose or mouth. She was stunned.

Hello to Judy and Diane.
 
This morning I did live Boom Boom Pow Kickbox and Live Long and Sculpted Legs. That one is discs, no equipment, barre and ball.

Valerie Derek has decided that he's going to get rides and walk to work for the next week. It's about an hours walk, and they are supposed to have decent weather. He has a funky schedule since his normal days end at 1:00 and every else at 5:00. Today is their weekly meeting so he's there later and has training 4-5, so he'll just have to hang around for an hour or so I between. He did rent a car when they went to CO, so he's at least done it before if he ends up needing one. Big cities are really not my thing at all, and if I have to go, I go with people who are used to them. But, Derek has found like Nick, and Bismarck is far smaller than Fort Worth, that he does everything within a small area because most everything he needs is within a 10 minute drive and they both have stores they can walk, too.

Delayed shopping till this afternoon as here were still reports of some icy spots early. Had a mix of snow/rain last evening and during the night. Snow melted in most places, and temp has been above freezing most of the time. Just annoying stuff.
 
Today I did STS 2.0 Lower Body 1, express. My time was 34 minutes and 136 calories burned. My average heart rate was 113 and maximum heart rate was 137. Then I did most of STS 2 Chair Yoga for 19 minutes. I had to stop a few minutes before the end.

Shannon, nice job with P 30 Perfect Pump Upper and Lower body premix. I’m sorry that you didn’t enjoy it more. It sounds like your vision is really bothering you. I have small cataracts too, but they don’t bother me. It seems that your ophthalmologist should reconsider the need for surgery.

Cathy, good job with Live Boom Boom POW Kickboxing and Live Long and Sculpted Legs. That’s unfortunate about Derek’s car. At least he is in a place where he can get rides and walk to work.

Hello to Valerie and Diane Sue.
 
I dont understand how they quantitate impairment in vision. before insurance will pay, it has to be a certain level. I qualified but any cloudiness I had wasn't very noticeable. after the surgery I had saw no difference in colors, brightness. Ive been told by friends it was "night and day" after their surgery. my distance vision was sharper and my close vision was as good as before., but now I didnt need contact lenses. I didnt even mind those but thi is easier and less fuss. I wasnt bothered by night driving before either. I skipped the whole bifocal thing. I guess I was lucky with my eyes, but sure was unlucky with my back! Im also the one with the pacemaker. I never looked into private health insurance coverage but Im guessing its similar to medicare criteria where it's level of impairment, not age, that decides what's covered . medicare has been simple and uncomplicated with minimal paperwork.

cathy I never liked big cities . it always was all the things I wanted to get away from. no interest in art, fancy restaurants, big sports, crowds and traffic etc. I visited many cities for mainly work. not what i enjoy. that doesnt sound too bad for Derek.

did walking yesterday. nothing but therapy today. didnt sleep well and feeling crummy and tired and I got a stye or something in the corner of one eye. hot soaks and antibiotics. ugh.
 
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Good morning, ladies. Yesterday I actually had time before my evening meeting to do yoga. Yay! I did Cathe's Yoga Max from the Low Impact Series. So switching my workouts yesterday worked out well. I got my workout in, and I wasn't all hot and sweaty before my meeting. Today I'm supposed to do one of her older high impact HIIT workouts, but I can't remember which one. Of course I will modify it to low impact.

Cathy - Very nice that Derek can walk to work. I hope it works out okay for him. I laughed at the name of your workout, Boom Boom Pow. :) I'm sorry you still have ice in any form in April. How unpleasant.

Carolyn - great work on STS 2.0 Lower Body 1. Sorry if I confused you about my eyes - all that talk the other day about things being blurry is not because of cataracts. It's my natural vision. I'm extremely nearsighted. It doesn't bother me. It's just the way things are.

Valerie - Lucky you on skipping the bifocals. I'm used to them now, but it was very disturbing when the change first started happening. But yeah, your poor back! Back problems can really cause a lot of limitations in so many areas of life. Do you still feel crummy today? I hope you feel better soon and that the sty goes away.

Hello to Judy and Diane.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll see you on Monday.
 
Today I did Live Lucky Seven Upper Body. This is one after Cathe's shoulder surgery and she's using 1,3 and 5's. It's hard to know what weight to grab because the pacing isn't consistent, so you don't know until you get into an exercise whether you picked the right one. I generally watch the cast members to see what they are choosing, but it's not fool proof. The interesting thing with these workouts is that in the majority of lives the class chooses to use the same weight as Cathe, but in these they seem to feel freer to choose and you get a much wider range of weights being used.

Shannon here in mid-Michigan, we can get really nice weather in March and April, but we aren't really safe from wintery stuff until we hit May. Up north, they can still get blizzards into May. Hence you get things like 3 years ago when NMU had to close school for a day during finals and I had to reconfigure my hotel and travel plans to move Derek home, because there schedules all changed, while leaving graduation still on Saturday. That was fun. LOL I think that was the time, he checked out of his room, we loaded the bulk of stuff in the car, but he still spent the night in the room, because he had a class moved to the next day. Technically, I'm pretty sure he wasn't supposed to still be in the room. LOL

Valerie I hope you are feeling better.
 
Just doing a quick check in.

Diane Sue-Great job with Raw Arms, Boxing Finisher and LMR Functional Pilates Timesaver 1. I hope your blood pressure is back to normal.

Shannon-Great job with your weights, STS 2.0 Core plus Floor, Perfect 30 HIIT, Double Low Impact premix, Perfect Pump, lower and upper body premix and Yoga Max. Going on a mission to Malawi sounds very exciting!

Valerie-Great job with the ride and walking. I have a good friend that lives in Peoria, IL. I’m sorry you weren’t feeling well yesterday. I hope you are feeling much better today.

Carolyn-Great job with STS 2.0 Upper Body 1, express with one set, JS Power Pyramid Walk, STS 2.0 Lower Body 1, express and STS 2 Chair Yoga.

Cathy-Great job with all of the Live workouts. You really did a lot of them this week! I’m sorry about Derek’s car issues.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I will check back in next week.
 
Today I did P 30 Low Impact HiiT, 31 minutes, 199 calories burned, average heart rate 128, and maximum heart rate 158.

Valerie, nice job with walking and therapy. I’m sorry that you aren’t feeling well.

Shannon, nice job with Yoga Max. I did misunderstand about your vision, but I get it now. My vision is terrible too and I‘ve worn glasses since I was 8. Have a great weekend.

Cathy, nice job with Live Lucky Seven Upper Body. It sounds like an interesting workout.

Hello to Judy and Diane Sue.
 
I got enough sleep last night so feel a lot better. i cant shrug it off well if I dont sleep. did therapy work anyway yesterday. today I walked the yard for 35 minutes and did some therapy work and curls and pushups.
we tried new meds on the kitty today and it looks like a combo of two meds will work on him. gabapentin plus trazodone. he was pretty quiet for 6 hours so would need a redose at the halfway point but this worked a lot better than what we tried before.
DH hurt his knee 2 weeks ago and finally went to the walk in clinic today. xray looks good but he's still got a lot of discomfort so we will see if he can get an MRI done before seeing the orthopedic doc in 2 weeks. . will make the process a lot more efficient if we can get it arranged. you would think a retired physician might get a little advantage ( not jumping the line but getting the needed studies done) but the receptionists are hard to get past! anyone he knew has retired so getting anything ordered isnt always possible.

I honestly was surprised after the cataract procedure that I had so little impairment. the ophthalmologist had been suggesting I do this for several years already, way before the back surgery, so I thought I must be having more trouble than I realized. , its great not to fuss with lenses. my neighbor had her eyes done a few months before I did. she had terrible vision, "coke bottle" level glasses her whole life. she had a huge enormous change in color and brightness. im not sure if she needs glasses at all anymore. her vision was so bad they insisted she get her eyes done a week apart. it would have been so hard for her to do anything with one eye corrected and the other not.
 
Today I did Lift Move & Restore Functional Barre + the foam roller bonus upper body, 62 minutes, 217 calories, heart rate 100/138. Tuesday I did CDorner Step # 458, 46 minutes, 273 calories, 3,206 steps, heart rate 130/157. I followed with CDorner, neck and shoulders stretch 20 minutes, 34 calories, and added Raw stretch finisher(lower body) 16 minutes, 34 calories. 82 minutes total, 345 calories. Wednesday I had a field vision test for my using hydroxychloroquine, and yesterday I had a rest day. My left knee was achy and in the evening I had knelt on the right knee looking at pictures and it locked out. I had to work to get it back in place and it was sore afterward. So today was a bit lighter work. Tomorrow I will not get a workout in.
My blood pressure has went down some since I stopped the leflunomide. The rheumatologist did not say how long to stop it to see if that is what is causing the raise in blood pressure.

Shannon, nice work on Yoga Max. I pick P30 because the workouts are short and just do upper alone or lower alone. I think I like upper more than lower though. I am sorry your eyesight is such a problem. They checked out the cataracts that I have forming while doing the field vision test. it has not changed so I am good for a while.

Cathy, good job on Lucky Seven Upper Body Live workout. It is easier when you know what weight you are going to do.

Judy, I hope things are going well with your project.

Carolyn, nice work on P30 Low Impact Hiit.

Valerie, I am glad you got in a good night's rest. Good job on the walk, therapy work, and curls and push ups. I hope your husband can find what is causing the knee problem.
 
Just finished Lower/Upper Balance Discs and SB lying stretch. For a couple months I tried to do the balance discs twice a week, and now I've dropped to one. I had good balance when I started, but I've had a lot of improvement. Lower Body I can do over 90% without touching the barre now. Big improvements with upper body, but some of those exercises are very challenging for me to start with, so still some room to improve on a lot of them.

For those that haven't seen it here's a link to video of the ice storm damage. Yesterday still 21,000 without power.


Derek didn't want to wait around yesterday for a ride, so he walked home. No issues. Took him about an hour. He works a full day today so he's getting rides. He's a hoof stock keeper, which is cool, but those aren't among my favorite animals, but he's been doing training for closing in other areas, and has been making me jealous. He's fed tamarins and marmosets, and hand fed an otter its fish containing daily meds. Going to start making lists for my trip. It'll be in 3 segments, so I'm planning to pack in stages and leave some stuff in the car. I'm taking a LOT of stuff. LOL

Diane Sue, I hope your knee is better.

Valerie my Mom finally agreed to make an appointment to get her eyes done, and hers will be done a week apart, but her appointment isn't until September and lots of time for her to back out. She could get it done sooner, but she refuses to go to the hospital and wants to go to the other site he does them at. Other than location everything will be the same, but she really really hates hospitals even if she won't be there long. I hope your husband figures out his knee issue. I'm glad you've found something that will work for kitty.

Carolyn interesting is a good word for that workout!

Judy I hope your project is moving along smoothly.

Hi Shannon.
 
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cathy ( everyone) clinics have SurgiCenters for cataracts. WAY less complicated than a hospital. a hospital takes hours to check in and get prepped. a surgicenter is fast and efficient. patients are lined up ready to go. Use someone who does a lot of these procedures. the clinic i used ( my regular ophthalmologist) does surgery one full day a week. other docs in the clinic do the same on other days. Mom will have an IV running for pain meds and to calm he. everyone needs calming meds plus the iv is for quick access if there is an emergency. she will be awake and able to follow directions during the procedure. it was absolutely painless. wore comfortable street clothes. I was in and done, DH driving me home in maybe 2 hours ? some clinics do only cataract surgery all day, every day, with a number of doctors. Best is a clinic that does these procedures regularly. dont go to someone who does 5 surgeries a year. a good clinic has nursing staff who've done this a thousand times and are very experienced. I had an 8 am appointment and was home eating lunch before noon. no food or drink before the surgery so early morning appts are best IMO. there were maybe 5-6 people lined up in beds in the prep room , all of us chatting. one by one we rolled in, got it done, think maybe 15 minutes, rolled out and released after a few more minutes to our driver. it was a trip! I was scared, but when you see how organized and well set up everything is, the fear fades quickly. you go back to the facility for a post check in a day or two and again in a week. if you are the driver plan for it. Good luck to your Mom. loss of vision and loss of hearing are both associated with worsening dementia. getting this fixed can't hurt and might help. these was my experience in a very busy metro area. your more rural area might be different, except that city or rural, most older people need caratact surgery. go to someone who does a lot of them.
 
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