menopause – Swimming With The Rain

How a pill organizer made me feel old…

May 11, 2021

I have a Sunday morning routine that is a MUST, and it is my weekly reminder that I am getting older… I fill my weekly pill container. In my 20’s and 30’s, the only thing I was concerned with taking on a daily basis at the same time every day was my birth control. Now that menopause has visited, that is no longer a concern, but if I don’t have my daily dose of Potassium, my hands cramp up. It is what it is, I guess…

In my early 40’s while still popping birth control like candy, my blood test came back showing I was low on Vitamin D. While already taking Blood Pressure pills, it wasn’t that big of a deal to open those bottles. Then life would get busy and I would wonder if I had taken my daily dose before or after making coffee. Birth control packaging is awesome with the days listed, because let’s be honest, I would rather of had a stroke than an accidental pregnancy at that age. (If you are getting offended at that, you’ve never been in that situation.) But now I have to take Vitamin D on a daily basis?!? Come to find out, Vitamin D is basically a sunshine pill… Studies have shown that most people are low and can benefit. I personally think it helps with my mood, but it is known to help with absorption of calcium and since I don’t drink milk, I need all the help I can get. There are also so many other health benefits and easy on the stomach.

Slowly, I was accumulating a row of pill bottles… Birth Control, two different Blood Pressure pills, and Vitamin D. Allergy meds and Ibuprofen were kept elsewhere because surely I didn’t need them that often. And then, allergy season arrived and I had a massive asthma attack that landed me in the hospital, so my Zyrtec and Ibuprofen became a part of my daily routine. By then, the birth control was gone thanks to early menopause, but trying to figure out all of these meds and when to take them (and did I take them) became frustrating.

While researching asthma and what vitamins can help, I came across Magnesium and it is almost like a wonder drug! Since asthma is all about inflammation, magnesium helps to reduce that. It also helps with depression, aids in sleep, and several people in my weight loss support group swear that it helps with fighting constipation. CHECK! Magnesium has also been added.

Zinc was also something I kept on hand and if I felt like a cold was coming on, I would start taking. I learned about this years ago from a co-worker that swore by it. I know that some will say that it is an old wives tale, but if something works, I’m going to go with it. Each time I was sick or my kids, zinc was added to the cold meds handed out. I finally decided that I would add this to my daily regimen because the last thing I wanted was a chest cold while being asthmatic. To all of those that thought I was crazy, tell me why zinc was in high demand when Covid started becoming an issue… Through the years when I have caught a cold, it is always after I have been out of zinc for a week or so. So, yes… I truly believe in zinc.

A few years ago, I noticed that my hands would cramp up for no apparent reason. My thumb and my index finger would almost touch and stay in that position for no apparent reason. Not to mention charley horses randomly through the night that would cause words to come out of my mouth that would make any sailor proud! One day I had a flashback to being out at Crab Island and my feet cramping uncontrollably and all I could do was bury push them down in the sand until they would relax. It then became a “tradition” to have a banana prior to heading out on to the boat for the day. Wait! Don’t they sell pickles at the ball fields for players to eat? Yes! Because of potassium and to help prevent cramping. Guess what… Potassium was now added to my basket of meds.

Then a bit of deja vu… I saw all of the pill bottles that my grandparents had sitting on their pink tiled bathroom counter… (I used to think that was the ugliest bathroom and now that brings back so many memories.) I wasn’t ready to be that old. I didn’t want to feel old. I didn’t want to need meds, vitamins, preventative care, maintenance care. But, here I was. There I was in Walmart and it’s as if lights started flashing above the medical supply aisle… Not only did they have weekly rows in different colors, they had a weekly AM / PM pill box!!!! (Angels singing)

So, here I am filling my weekly pill bottles feeling old… Something I had to learn while taking these meds, when to take them. Since magnesium can also aid in sleeping, I take that at night. Also, zinc needs to be taken with a meal or it can bother your stomach, so I take that at night. Basically, my “minerals” which includes potassium, are taken around the time I eat dinner. I have found that taking allergy pills and Aleve in the morning and night, helps to reduce my allergies which is a blessing to my asthma.

Why am I sharing all of this boring information? We’re getting older… It is okay to have these conversations with friends, but sometimes we might feel embarrassed to share that we take a pro-biotic to help with stomach issues. Funny how we will discuss this in an online forum with strangers but we don’t share with our friends or family how we take care of ourselves. Find the combination that works for you and get started on taking care of yourself!

I am not a doctor, nor do I pretend to be one on tv. If you have any questions about meds, please talk to your own health care provider and do your own research.

Health & Spiritual

The Beginning of My Weight Loss Journey

June 19, 2020June 25, 2020

Why am I going to tell you about all of these things that happened in 2019? Because making the decision to lose weight can be a battle. It usually doesn’t happen over night, at least with me. I have to rationalize things in my head until it finally HITS me and I have my reason WHY.

January 2019 ~ My blood results came back and the doctor was not happy. Not only had I put on weight, but my blood sugar was at 190, which is in between borderline and high. Dr. C, the fitness fanatic, is not one to just say, “Here, take this!” which honestly, can sometimes drive me crazy! His instructions that day – “Go keto and go keto NOW! Drop some weight and your sugar level or I will HAVE to put you on meds.” Two months later, I did my follow up and I had lost 10 pounds along with my level going down down 40 points. Yay! “Keep at it, drop some more weight and I am confident that you will be fine.” Did I listen? Well, no.

April 2019 ~ I saw a photo of myself in a bathing suit, from the backside. I was mortified. How was this me? How did all this weight come on so quick within the past couple of years? Oh… Menopause. While I am so thankful to God for putting me in to it in my early / mid 40’s, I hadn’t stopped to realize what it was doing to my hormones. I was no longer the person that could just starve for a few days and lose those few pounds. Suddenly, those photos where I thought I looked fat, I wanted to be that size again!

May 2019 ~ I started back to the gym and told myself, “Yes, I can eat lunch out today because I went to the gym this morning.” (FYI ~ that’s a lie!) Then, the craziest thing happened… I was on a boat, lost my balance a bit, and my phone went flying in to the water. Not thinking in my head that the water was only two feet deep, I jumped. That’s when I heard a nice little pop in the right knee as I landed near my phone. I did good for a few weeks, keeping it up, icing it, trying to stay off my leg. But, while watching tv with my son, I got up off the couch, turned my body without turning my knee… Pop!

***This has become my life ~ knee up with an ice pack.***

July 2019 ~ My knee is still visibly swollen so I finally make an appointment with the doctor. After an X-ray confirms that it is not broken, he schedules me for an MRI with the instructions, “You can do anything you want to, but do not let your feet leave the ground.” Well, that leaves most things out. Why go to the gym? I hate upper body workouts so what’s the point, right? Stupid decision. My next stupid decision was not getting the MRI done because it was $200.

September 2019 ~ I had resigned myself to the fact that I was just going to let myself be fat and happy, thinking I was ok with that. I mean, I was finally enjoying all that delicious food that everyone talks about. But, when I came back from seeing my family on vacation, I saw the number on the scale and was in shock. I had never weighed this, not even with either of my pregnancies. Whatever, it didn’t matter. I had friends and if a man wanted to be a part of my life, he would have to love me for how I looked.

October 2019 ~ My knee brace was no longer a constant and I was starting to feel better as long as I didn’t stand too long, have it in one position too long, and wore the brace if I was doing anything that involved movement, so why not get a puppy? Since I wasn’t picking her up until around noon, a friend and I went to see the sunflower fields. We walked and the sharp pain wasn’t there for the first time, my knee felt great! The two year old going down the slide looked like he was having a good and made it look so easy, so why not? Bad decision! I really need to learn that when I say, “Why not?”, my answer needs to be, “DON’T!” Two year old legs are short, so when they come off the slide, their feet hit the ground. When you are 46, that doesn’t happen. Your feet go forward and your tush has to hit the ground. (My kids explained this whole gravity thing to me, but I blew them off when listening) Luckily, with the young child near, the words stayed inside my head instead of causing him life long mental damage and possible therapy. Yes, I broke my tail bone and there is nothing that can be done about it. So, my charming new puppy was welcomed in to my home by being put on the couch behind my knees while I laid on my side in the fetal position for two days. There went my plan to get back to being active! Honestly, being active or sitting or sleeping or breathing hurt. (Eight months later, I still have pain. My doctor confirmed that I jacked it up and probably should have had it looked at sooner, but that there really isn’t anything that can be done except time.)

***No part of your body should ever be bruised that color, especially your butt.***

November 2019 ~ By now, it was just easier to eat out instead of cooking and I generally rotated between Firehouse Subs or Panda Express since I could order online and they were near my house. If I had to run in to the store, those Totino pizzas are cheap and soooooo good! I live alone most of the time so why put all that effort in to cooking when it just wasn’t thrilling… But, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, about 30 minutes after having a Firehouse sub, it was not sitting well with me at work. Our unspoken rule at work is that “that” DOES NOT happen there. (Graphic, yes. Honest, yes.) Luckily, I live less than a mile away so I told them that I thought I was going to be sick and ran out the door like a crazy woman. Once I got home, I was pretty sure that I was going to die, convinced that it was food poisoning. But, the longer that I laid on the couch, the more I started thinking about the fact that I was eating fast food too often and that I needed to quit. I was feeling awful… Not just physically but mentally… Why was I telling myself that I was ok like this when I clearly wasn’t? I didn’t feel energy to do much of anything, my motivation was shot, I felt ugly inside and out… Now that everything in me was pretty much cleaned out, wouldn’t now be a good time to start? But, I needed help knowing that I could not do this on my own. I knew that I couldn’t do keto because I LOVE pasta and I didn’t want to give up fruit, plus I refuse to do any diet that tells me that I can’t have wine. That’s just sacrilegious right there! Wait! What about those Noom ads I had seen? I liked the thought of a coach and psychology… Let’s do this! So, I signed up for the free two week trial while I was laying on the couch depleted of any food I had consumed in probably the last 24 hours. I did what it suggested and ate like I normally did the next day, which happened to be Thanksgiving, and I logged every bite. I was in shock at the the amount of calories, but I also knew that this accountability thing was going to work. It wasn’t just me looking at my food intake, it was a ‘goal specialist’ and I was allowing her to see my weight. If you have ever truly struggled with your weight, you know that that is the hardest thing to do – let someone know your dirty little secret.

Oh! If you’re wondering if it was food poisoning, it wasn’t. About 30 minutes after eating, my oldest son was pretty convinced that he was going to die (reminded me how he is SOOOO like his dad when sick) and the majority of my office seemed to be out for a day on a rotating schedule for the next week or so.

Want to get started on Noom? Here’s what you need to begin YOUR journey ~ https://swimmingwiththerain.com/starting-noom-what-you-will-need/

Exercise

The Gym after 5pm is not for me…

June 9, 2020

What a difference 12 hours makes in the clientele at the gym… Or maybe it’s just my personality that is different. Let me preface this by saying that if you are a gym hottie, gym babe, gym bunny, gym rat, body builder… Well, you get the picture. If you resemble one of those, read at your own risk because I may offend you. But, if you are just a normal person trying to lose weight and / or tone up, you’ll completely understand what I am talking about. Either way, I hope you stick around to the end, for my self-realization.

On a normal day, I like to go around 5am. Hence the term, 5am’er. As the sun is starting to rise, the gym is sporadically filled with little old bitties working with a rehab trainer, and those that prefer early morning workouts to start their day, or the ones like me that have to force this new lifestyle. Having overslept this morning, I decided that I would force myself to keep up my 5 day a week gym new found routine and go after work. Easy enough, right?

When I walked in, I felt like all of God’s perfect creations were staring right at me, beginning to judge, as soon as the key card was swiped. I looked around… This did not resemble my gym; you could see the difference in physiques, and feel the overly charged air! Did we have the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders in town? Where were all of my middle of the road people, my little old ladies, my men that would be putting on a business suit in a couple of hours? They were HOME and I was surrounded by all of the hot single people in this town. FYI it’s not such a thrill when you’re in your mid 40’s.

My heart stopped as I looked for my trusty almost always empty ellipticals! What in the world? Why were they all so full? Oh! Because the few men somewhat near my age were lined up, dropping sweat beads, while watching the young hot chick go through her hip abduction workout.

Generally when doing the hip abduction machine (one of my favorites), most people sit on their tush, grab the handles, then press out with their outer thighs. Not this little darling. Nope. I saw new ways to use this machine, reminding me of Channing Tatum dancing with a chair in ‘Magic Mike’. Yah, you get the visual. In between her reps, she made sure to get some stretches in, along with a few glances. The machine next to hers was the only one empty, the only thing going through my mind was, “Stare straight ahead, straight ahead.” However, as her ‘moves’ were in my peripheral, my brain was saying, “Oh, you can use the back of the head rest as a balancing tool while on your knees…” This isn’t the type of stuff you see from a 5am’er.

The unspoken rule at the gym first thing in the morning, no one talks! Even to people they know. I see a co-worker most mornings, and I started to feel guilty that I wasn’t even acknowledging her presence. So, at work, I explained that I am just focused on what I’m doing. “Do not apologize for that! You don’t even have to make eye contact. I just want to get through my routine.” Good! Glad we have that out of the way.

Like I said, us 5am’ers, we don’t talk. We’re all just busy doing our own thing, pushing through the sunrise without coffee, with headphones in our ears listening to something, or perhaps they are the noise silencing ones. I don’t know what they are doing because no one questions it. We make hand gestures if needed when walking towards the same machine or in passing, and even the owner just waves hello or goodbye, with a nod and a smile. But, not the 5pm’ers. Nope. It’s their time to chat, gossip, and compare macro counts. “Go to a bar for this and have a couple of drinks. In fact, grab a few appetizers while you’re talking!”, my head screams at them. Oh, wait! That’s why they look like THAT and I look the way I do. This really IS their version of Happy Hour!

Once again, I needed to use a machine next to one of these gym babes and since empty ones were hard to find, I walked up. Her condescending look basically said, “Um, what are you doing here?” My eyebrows raised as if in reply, “I used to look like you with the perky little boobs and flat stomach. But, this is what happens when you give birth to two kids and life gets in the way, you judgmental little…” Wait! Was she judging me the same way I had been judging her? Does she prefer the evenings because her friends are there and there is a more energetic vibe going on, everything completely different from why I like the gym early in the morning? So, I smiled warmly and turned up the current song on my playlist, (‘Mighty Wings’ by Cheap Trick. It’s on the Top Gun soundtrack. Excellent motivation!) and started my reps.

What did I learn today from watching these little gym bunnies, besides workouts go A LOT quicker when you just want to get out of that hormone crazed place? I realized that basically, we all want our own personal experience at the gym… Some really want that social experience, encouraging their friends, trading back and forth on equipment. While others, like me, want personal space to zone out and focus on themselves for just a short amount of time. I can tell you what we all want, though… To feel accepted… To not feel as if we are being judged on our muffin top that we are trying to lose, or our perky little body that those girls have to work HARD to have. We all want to feel like this is a shared experience with like minded people.

So, to you young girls with your rocking bodies… Enjoy it! Appreciate your smooth skin, the lean muscle, the ability to look gorgeous in leggings and a sports bra. Because one day, you may be covering up those stretch marked stomachs, and find that it takes a bit more effort as you get older. And you will understand why you just need your own time listening to a playlist with music from your thinner days, that will serve as a goal to strive towards… When your body was still young and healthy… Before kids… Before being afraid to sneeze in public… Before daily blood pressure pills… Before menopause… Young girl, I promise you that I will try my best to no longer judge you, because I have one thing you don’t have yet… life experience. I have rocked my crying babies, I have held the hands of loved ones dying, I have had that extra helping of dessert and enjoyed it without guilt, I have learned that a good education will only get you so far… I have lived! Unfortunately, you only start to realize that those were the experiences that shape your life as you cross in to your 40’s, when your body starts to soften, along with your heart. PS, let me be honest, I may envy your youth a bit, though.

With all of that said, I am now a confirmed 5am’er! (I have a tendency to learn things the hard way. Ha!) Tomorrow morning, I will throw on my gym clothes, pull my hair up, dab a bit of muscle ache cream on my plantar fasciitis sneaking its way in to my left foot, tie my boring grey sneakers with insoles and walk out with headphones on, listening Mighty Wings by Cheap Trick on the Top Gun soundtrack. And you better believe that I have a new determination… I will remember that I am working towards the confidence that those young ladies exude, as I enjoy my experience around MY gym people.

PSS, I can tell you one other thing we all need regarding the gym… A shower afterwards. Perky or muffin top. We all need a shower!

Health & Spiritual

Abyon Bluetooth Scale

May 30, 2020May 31, 2020

Prior to menopause taking over my weight, I had just the normal scale and I would step on, make sure it was within “range” and move on about my life. Then a friend posted about this scale and I thought, “Well, how cool is that!” I’m not overly technologically savvy, but if she could figure it out, so could I. The scale syncs with an app on your phone and right there, you have a plethora of information! Honest moment – the first time I saw the bluetooth icon on my phone, I took a picture and posted on facebook asking what it was.

*I’m in a weight-loss support group on facebook and everyone talks about the Renpho scale. Based upon the photos and reviews, it is basically the same thing so grab whichever one you want.*

So, here’s the bool thing about this scale, it measures things you didn’t even know you wanted to know about!

Weight – Obvious what that is.
BMI – Body Mass Index
Body Fat – Body composition fat tissue ratio
Fat-free Body Weight – muscle, in addition to body fat, is a major component of body weight
Subcutaneous Fat – The ratio of subcutaneous fat stored in your skin to your body weight. (Subcutaneous fat is the jiggly fat visible just under the skin)
Visceral Fat – A type of body fat that is found around the human organs and which mainly resides in the abdominal cavity.
Body Water – Water Weight, which includes the blood, lymph, extracellular fluid, etc.
Skeletal Muscle – The ratio of muscle involved in the mechanical system of our limbs and other part of the body.
Muscle Mass – The total muscle weight, including skeletal muscle, cardiac, and smooth muscle.
Bone Mass – Bone tissue consists of bone minerals per unit volumes.
Protein – Protein plays a vital role in the body, as it builds and maintains muscles, organs, and other tissue.
BMR – Basal Metabolic Rate. In an inactive state, this is the minimum necessary energy needed.
Metabolic Age – Ideal physical body age is 2/3 of the actual age.

*The tracking is awesome because you can look at the year…*

*The home screen is very user friendly and shows you your weight along with other fast facts.*

*You can click on each category to see which bracket your percentage is in.*

The great thing about using a scale like this is that it gives you something to work towards and a feeling of accomplishment on little things. Of course I watch my weight number, but I also have been focusing on my body water and learning about foods that help to increase that number. Also, when I started, my metabolic age was 56 (What?!?) and now I’m down to 51.

Use a scale like this for guidance. Just remember, if you are going to take a photo while standing on the scale because you have hit a goal, the flat part does have a glare so if you’re naked…. You’ll be sharing with the world what God gave you.

Do you have one of these types of scales? What do you think of it?

Click here to check out on Amazon (no, I don’t make money off of this)

How a pill organizer made me feel old…

The Beginning of My Weight Loss Journey

The Gym after 5pm is not for me…

Abyon Bluetooth Scale

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