Today I attended a student award recognition committee meeting. Hundreds of students are nominated each year to recognize outstanding achievement both in terms of academic distinction and volunteer service to the University and the community. This commitee volunteers their time to identify those that are most deserving of recognition at graduation. Its a hard job and I could spend many hours discussing how a student's academic and service contributions are evaluated. However, this blog is devoted to how to create behaviors that contribute to successful aging. So what I am focused on is the box lunch. I am probably missing a few things about the social interaction that transpired today but I can not scientifically vouch for the benefits of meeting a few new people. I can however analyze what I recievied in cardboard box. There was a package of corn chips (350 calories), a ham sandwich (estimated 650 calories) and a chocolate chip cookie (390 calories). That's 1,390 calories for lunch! I ate half a sandwich (325) and the corn chips (350 calories). That's 675 calories for lunch which by comparison is quite austere but in terms of weight loss is about 275 calories over the limit. I had the option of not eating dinner or having any snacks but the truth of the matter is those 675 left me feeling hungry . So I sucked it up and had a normal meal for dinner. I consumed about 400 calories.
Today I focused on what I ate. More importantly is how I felt and how I responded to the day. I woke up this morning to find that a few of the pumpkin seeds I planted sprouted. That was enough to make the rest of the day start humming along.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Day 358
At the beginning of the year I started a very calorie restricted diet. I lost about 15 pounds. Then I visited my doctor and he told me that he recommends people try and lose about 1 pound per month. I feel like he gave permission to cheat. So I had my little fling in Chicago (which included deep dish pizza, genuine Russian dumplings, some wonderful small dishes at a place called the Purple Pig and the best Brazillian Barbeque I've had in my life). I've been lingering at the same weight ever since. Now, I am psyching myself up to go for another restricted calorie binge. I think I need to get through Easter before I taske a serious stab at it. I can see why one pound a month makes much more sense than 8 pounds a month. One is sustainable and the other is not. The only problem is that it takes a lot of motivation to deny yourself one of life's most satisifying activities..cooking and eating. Food is what we use to celebrate and to sustain our lives. I'm going to make my family a great Easter dinner. I am enjoying planning it. I plan on buying cream and butter. I don't know what I am going to make with it yet...but I am going to use those two things in something I make. I may make my own chocolate truffles. I may make a great cream based sauce for my home made pasta. I feel like rebelling before I gear up for at least three weeks of extreme calorie restriction. I know that this is not the advise you may be looking for. This is not the stuff of the next best selling diet book. But this is my life. I'm really healthy. I feel really good about myself. I only wished I looked better and I was stronger. I have to balance that out with enjoying my life and ensuring I live my life well.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Day 359
Today was a Monday. Thankfully it was fairly uneventful at work and I got to leave on time today. I was anxious to get home while it was still day light to see what had happened it my garden today. My pumpkins have just begun to turn into seedlings. FYI...pumpkins are a superfood. They are filled with antioxidants. In addition to being a fun food at halloween (which if you are growing your own, don't start as seeds any later than mid July), pumpkins are good for you and can be incorporated in a variety of dishes. The extension at the University of Illinois has a very good website devoted to the anti-oxidant protection that pumpkin provides this information: www.urbanext.illinois.edu/pumpkins/nutrition.cmfs.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Day 360
Somehow Day 362 and 361 merged. I think I ended up writing this blog late at night. Today is day 360 for sure. I am frequently up late and night when my days sort of blend together. I'd like to tell you that the reason I am awake is because I am researching the latest and greatest on aging science but the truth is much more mundane. I have two beautiful daughters. My oldest will turn 23 next month and my youngest just turned 18. Both have active social lives and are out and about late at night. That means I am up waiting to hear from them wherever they go. Last night I stayed up until 2:00 AM until my youngest daughter reached her final destination... a cast party for a play she had just been in at the Los Angeles Theatre Company. She is a relatively new driver and I make her check in with me from each point of departure to each point of arrival. I have a very good sense of how long it should take to get from one point in Los Angeles to another. Whenever she takes a little longer than I think it should I start to melt down, thinking of all of the things that could possibly have happened and why I did not prevent it. If you are one of those individuals that think I worry too much and should take life as it comes...you are delusional. I have been described (or really accused) of being too controlling. Let me assure you, I only try and control what I care about. The rest of the world can conduct itself in whatever manner it may to whatever results it may. When it comes to those that I love, I will try to exert whatever control I can over what ever circumstance I can to ensure an optimal outcome.. That's just how it is.
My Mom was 42 years old when I was born. By the time I was a teenager she was a single mom who was the only source of support for me and my brother. After working all day and taking care of us she was usually asleep by 9:00 pm. I think I knew that if I stayed out too late she would wake up and start worrying about me but I always tried to avoid that happening. We didn't have cell phones or email in those days so it was up to me to check in with her. Let's just say I was trained to check in and be home when I said I would be.
My Mom was a wonderful person. As far as I was concerned she had a tragic life. She was born into a family of Italian immigrants from Sicily. She was the third child in a family of five. My grandparents immigrated to Beaumont, Texas from Palermo, Italy. Not exactly the stereotypical Italian immigrant story portrayed in so many movies. My family tried quickly to assimilate and within a generation the language was lost and cowboy culture was adopted. Whatever this strange cultural mix produced in her, she had the audacity to endure some of the worst curve balls life had to throw at her. She was four foot, eleven inches tall and the biggest person I have ever known.
When she was ten years old she was involved in a terrible car accident. It was 1929 and her family had moved from Texas to California seeking a better life during the Great Depression. On a family outing to the beach, the car she was travelling in collided with one of the "red cars," the now defunct rail system of the greater Los Angeles area started by Henry Huntington. She was in the back seat and the car door opened and her arm was drug along the street. She was taken to the hospital and her arm was sewn back up with gravel inside. This resulted in gas gangrene. Although I can not authenticate this, she told me she was the first person to ever be spared the loss of a limb with gas gangrene due to the efforts of a Dr. Love. I tried to google this doctor to no avail. I do remember hearing his obit on the radio in approximately in 1988. For reasons that are somewhat foggy to me, my Mom's 14 year old sister was asked to sign a document consenting to the amputation of my mother's arm after gas gangrene developed. She refused and a young doctor asked if he could then try an experiment. He tried skin grafting from healthy parts of her body on to her arm. He was successful. Although her arm was badly scarred as was her abdomen (where the successful skin graft occurred) she lived. She had stayed in the Los Angeles Children's Hospital for 9 months before she was released.
By the time she was sixteen years old she had met and married my father. She had six children with him including my only sister who died when she was two years old. My sister's name was Shirley Anne. From what my mother tells me, Shirley was an "RH" baby. Her doctors told her that it was amazing that she lived until she was two years old. You can find out more about the "RH Factor" at www.mayclinic.com/health/rh-factor/AN00566.
I was an RH baby too but by the time I was born in 1961 the medical community figured out a way to deal with it. I hate to write down what I have been told because I can not vouch for how accurate it is. My understanding is that I was kept in Children's Hospital for two weeks after I was born and under went a blood transfusion. Today I understand babies with RH Factor are treated in vitro.
Intentionally or not, I have been raised to believe that my mother and I were both spared untimely deaths through scientific intervention. My Mom lived until she was 69 years old. By today's standards she died fairly young. When I think about her life though, I think it was long and drawn out. First dealing with the death of a child when she was a teen ager herself. Her oldest child was a schizophrenic. My father was a adulterer who eventually left her with nothing but her youngest two children to raise by herself when she was 50. I was eight years old and my brother was 12. Granted the extra years you are given through science are something to be gratful for, but how those years are experienced rely on many variables including life style choices and an each individual's response to what life throws at them.
My Mom was 42 years old when I was born. By the time I was a teenager she was a single mom who was the only source of support for me and my brother. After working all day and taking care of us she was usually asleep by 9:00 pm. I think I knew that if I stayed out too late she would wake up and start worrying about me but I always tried to avoid that happening. We didn't have cell phones or email in those days so it was up to me to check in with her. Let's just say I was trained to check in and be home when I said I would be.
My Mom was a wonderful person. As far as I was concerned she had a tragic life. She was born into a family of Italian immigrants from Sicily. She was the third child in a family of five. My grandparents immigrated to Beaumont, Texas from Palermo, Italy. Not exactly the stereotypical Italian immigrant story portrayed in so many movies. My family tried quickly to assimilate and within a generation the language was lost and cowboy culture was adopted. Whatever this strange cultural mix produced in her, she had the audacity to endure some of the worst curve balls life had to throw at her. She was four foot, eleven inches tall and the biggest person I have ever known.
When she was ten years old she was involved in a terrible car accident. It was 1929 and her family had moved from Texas to California seeking a better life during the Great Depression. On a family outing to the beach, the car she was travelling in collided with one of the "red cars," the now defunct rail system of the greater Los Angeles area started by Henry Huntington. She was in the back seat and the car door opened and her arm was drug along the street. She was taken to the hospital and her arm was sewn back up with gravel inside. This resulted in gas gangrene. Although I can not authenticate this, she told me she was the first person to ever be spared the loss of a limb with gas gangrene due to the efforts of a Dr. Love. I tried to google this doctor to no avail. I do remember hearing his obit on the radio in approximately in 1988. For reasons that are somewhat foggy to me, my Mom's 14 year old sister was asked to sign a document consenting to the amputation of my mother's arm after gas gangrene developed. She refused and a young doctor asked if he could then try an experiment. He tried skin grafting from healthy parts of her body on to her arm. He was successful. Although her arm was badly scarred as was her abdomen (where the successful skin graft occurred) she lived. She had stayed in the Los Angeles Children's Hospital for 9 months before she was released.
By the time she was sixteen years old she had met and married my father. She had six children with him including my only sister who died when she was two years old. My sister's name was Shirley Anne. From what my mother tells me, Shirley was an "RH" baby. Her doctors told her that it was amazing that she lived until she was two years old. You can find out more about the "RH Factor" at www.mayclinic.com/health/rh-factor/AN00566.
I was an RH baby too but by the time I was born in 1961 the medical community figured out a way to deal with it. I hate to write down what I have been told because I can not vouch for how accurate it is. My understanding is that I was kept in Children's Hospital for two weeks after I was born and under went a blood transfusion. Today I understand babies with RH Factor are treated in vitro.
Intentionally or not, I have been raised to believe that my mother and I were both spared untimely deaths through scientific intervention. My Mom lived until she was 69 years old. By today's standards she died fairly young. When I think about her life though, I think it was long and drawn out. First dealing with the death of a child when she was a teen ager herself. Her oldest child was a schizophrenic. My father was a adulterer who eventually left her with nothing but her youngest two children to raise by herself when she was 50. I was eight years old and my brother was 12. Granted the extra years you are given through science are something to be gratful for, but how those years are experienced rely on many variables including life style choices and an each individual's response to what life throws at them.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Day 362: The Weekend
Today I made pasta from scratch. It was delicious. I used a basic egg and flour recipe. I have wanted to do this for a long time but I never had the equipment. I have always made sauce from scratch but never the pasta. My husband gave me the attachments for my blender that included a pasta roller and a two pasta cutters for my birthday. I made a thick cut pasta and a tomato sauce with fresh herbs from my garden. I have a very small garden but I am hoping to expand it this summer.
Last month I went to the farmer's market in the rain and quickly picked up a few things I needed for lunch including two non-descript tomatoes. Had it not been raining I never would have grabbed them. I would have spent much more time inspecting all the varities and trying to find the firmest, reddest tomatoes I could find. Due to the rain I had to just grab and run. They were small regular looking tomatoes, not Roma or Heirloom. I sliced up the first one for my sandwich and it was the best tomatoe I have ever had in my life. It was sweet and the flesh was meaty. It wasn't acidic at all. So, I seeded the second tomatoe and planted the seeds. Now I have about 40 small tomatoe plants growing in pots in my back yard. By this summer, I should have enough tomatoes to use in my sauce. Tomatoes are one of the many superfoods that should be included in your diet. You can find out all about tomatoes at www.tomatoesweb.com. In addition to nutritional information you can also find tips on how to grow them. I think you will be surprised at how much a tomatoe can benefit your efforts for successful aging. For starters they contain a nutrient called lycopene. Lycopene is an antioxidant that reduces DNA damage at the cellular level.
I also walked for about an hour today at the Los Angeles Arboretum www.arboretum.org. I doubt I burned too many calories, it was more a symbolic gesture of becoming more physically active. It is also a place that you can learn about plants and gardening including fruits and vegetables. For example, this summer they are offering a certificate in Permaculture Design. I don't think my tomatoe farming efforts require me to step up to the next level of sustainable land use management, but you never know.
Last month I went to the farmer's market in the rain and quickly picked up a few things I needed for lunch including two non-descript tomatoes. Had it not been raining I never would have grabbed them. I would have spent much more time inspecting all the varities and trying to find the firmest, reddest tomatoes I could find. Due to the rain I had to just grab and run. They were small regular looking tomatoes, not Roma or Heirloom. I sliced up the first one for my sandwich and it was the best tomatoe I have ever had in my life. It was sweet and the flesh was meaty. It wasn't acidic at all. So, I seeded the second tomatoe and planted the seeds. Now I have about 40 small tomatoe plants growing in pots in my back yard. By this summer, I should have enough tomatoes to use in my sauce. Tomatoes are one of the many superfoods that should be included in your diet. You can find out all about tomatoes at www.tomatoesweb.com. In addition to nutritional information you can also find tips on how to grow them. I think you will be surprised at how much a tomatoe can benefit your efforts for successful aging. For starters they contain a nutrient called lycopene. Lycopene is an antioxidant that reduces DNA damage at the cellular level.
I also walked for about an hour today at the Los Angeles Arboretum www.arboretum.org. I doubt I burned too many calories, it was more a symbolic gesture of becoming more physically active. It is also a place that you can learn about plants and gardening including fruits and vegetables. For example, this summer they are offering a certificate in Permaculture Design. I don't think my tomatoe farming efforts require me to step up to the next level of sustainable land use management, but you never know.
362: Friday
Today I got off track at lunch. I was invited to see a presentation of a new technology enhanced learning program and a boxed lunch was provided. I picked egg salad thinking it was the best choice. The problem was the bag of potato chips and the peanut butter cookie that came with the meal. I ate a snack for dinner rather than an entire dinner and hoped to make up for lunch. This entire week I had occassion to eat out just about every day for lunch and I am starting to want to go out to dinner more for entertainment than for food. Still I think I hit 2,000 calories, more than I needed. If I exercise this weekend for several hours I can rectify some of what went wrong this week.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The Beauty of Dull: Day 363
Today was wonderful because it was non-eventful. You need non-eventful days once in a while. Today I was able to eat three sensible meals. I had five servings of fruits and vegetables and kept my total calorie count under 2,000. There are many websites that can tell you how many calories you need to maintain your weight and to lose weight; www.calorieking.com is one of my favorites. Sure, I'd like to have logged in at 1,500 calories but I didn't but I didn't stray either. Talking (or blogging) about calories is so boring. Who wants to know what I ate today? Nothing special, I assure you. Last week, I was in Chicago. Now, what I ate there was much more interesting....and responsible for about 2 extra pounds. I'm happy to sacrafice two weeks of austerity for just a few really, really good meals. Email me if you want the details.
Here's the thing. When we talk about healthy aging it seems like we are talking about a destination. Some place we arrive at some point in time. But aging is truly a journey. Just like today most of the journey is pretty uneventful. We can exercise good judgement and make healthy choices without many problems and in the end those occassional sidetrips are just that. They've made the trip more interesting but did not lead us off our path.
Here's the thing. When we talk about healthy aging it seems like we are talking about a destination. Some place we arrive at some point in time. But aging is truly a journey. Just like today most of the journey is pretty uneventful. We can exercise good judgement and make healthy choices without many problems and in the end those occassional sidetrips are just that. They've made the trip more interesting but did not lead us off our path.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Mixed Emotions: Mixed Results
Today I got to work late. There was an ambulance and public safety officers in front of my building. I asked what happened and I was told that a woman was hit by a car. When I asked who it was it turned out it was a woman I have known for 20 years. She is a role model for successful aging in every sense of the term and one of our instructors. I was told that she would be o.k. but i will find out tomorrow the extent of her injuries.
The public safety officer asked if I could contact her husband and let him know what hospital she was brought to. I felt like I was helping sort of so I was glad he asked me to do it. At the same time I had a prospective student waiting to talk to me about a new career in gerontology. The woman had driven 50 miles in morning traffic to make it on time to see me and I felt compelled to spend enough time with her to make sure she felt like all of her questions were answered and her time was well spent. She was a perfect candidate--academically accomplished and passionate about improving the lives of older people. Somwhere in between I had to check my email for today's little dramas not worth noting.
By noon my husband called to tell me that a "big envelope" had come addressed to our daughter from USC. He was planning on picking her up at 1:30 pm for an appointment with the orthodontist. She had called him ahead of time and asked that he bring her all of her mail. I have been waiting for that "big envelope" her entire life and I refused not to be there when she opened it. I had also scheduled my annual vision exam for 2:00 pm. I ran to the bookstore and bought cardinal and gold roses (o.k. they were yellow and red but to us they are cardinal and gold) and another $100 worth of USC paraphernalia. I had 20 minutes to make it to her high school where I met my husband with the envelope. In the most wonderful 45 seconds, I watched her open the letter and finally see "Congratulations!"
I had less then 30 minutes to make it to my appointment in Pasadena. I slid into the office two minutes late. I book my annual appoints around the time of my birthday so I will remember to do it. So after the vision exam, I headed off for my annual mammogram. By this time it was a little after 3:00 pm and I had not had lunch. There was a Burger King across the street from the imaging center with a drive through. In an instant I assured myself I could make a smart choice. Note to self: entering any drive through when super hungry is not a smart choice. I got a grilled chicken combo with a diet coke...but shoot, the french fries were not diet fries, but they were good and they satisified me.
I tried to make amends at dinner and will try harder tomorrow. So, I get credit for making my appointments and getting my annual exams taken care of. I'm not going to beat myself up over a bag of french fries at least not on day 364.
The public safety officer asked if I could contact her husband and let him know what hospital she was brought to. I felt like I was helping sort of so I was glad he asked me to do it. At the same time I had a prospective student waiting to talk to me about a new career in gerontology. The woman had driven 50 miles in morning traffic to make it on time to see me and I felt compelled to spend enough time with her to make sure she felt like all of her questions were answered and her time was well spent. She was a perfect candidate--academically accomplished and passionate about improving the lives of older people. Somwhere in between I had to check my email for today's little dramas not worth noting.
By noon my husband called to tell me that a "big envelope" had come addressed to our daughter from USC. He was planning on picking her up at 1:30 pm for an appointment with the orthodontist. She had called him ahead of time and asked that he bring her all of her mail. I have been waiting for that "big envelope" her entire life and I refused not to be there when she opened it. I had also scheduled my annual vision exam for 2:00 pm. I ran to the bookstore and bought cardinal and gold roses (o.k. they were yellow and red but to us they are cardinal and gold) and another $100 worth of USC paraphernalia. I had 20 minutes to make it to her high school where I met my husband with the envelope. In the most wonderful 45 seconds, I watched her open the letter and finally see "Congratulations!"
I had less then 30 minutes to make it to my appointment in Pasadena. I slid into the office two minutes late. I book my annual appoints around the time of my birthday so I will remember to do it. So after the vision exam, I headed off for my annual mammogram. By this time it was a little after 3:00 pm and I had not had lunch. There was a Burger King across the street from the imaging center with a drive through. In an instant I assured myself I could make a smart choice. Note to self: entering any drive through when super hungry is not a smart choice. I got a grilled chicken combo with a diet coke...but shoot, the french fries were not diet fries, but they were good and they satisified me.
I tried to make amends at dinner and will try harder tomorrow. So, I get credit for making my appointments and getting my annual exams taken care of. I'm not going to beat myself up over a bag of french fries at least not on day 364.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
365 and Counting
Today is the day I start acting on all of the knowledge I have in order to be in the best shape I can be when I turn 50 a year from now. I don't just mean physical shape although that was my original motiviation for doing this. I also mean financial, mental and spiritual shape. I think it is important to define what successful aging means to you as an individual. In his book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," Dr. Stephen Covey http://www.quickmba.com/mgmt/7hab/ suggests that we "begin with the end in mind" He has six other great suggestions but that is the one I find most useful in both long term planning and in my daily routine. Without being morbid, I often visualize my own memorial service. What do I want people to say about me when I'm gone. Who will be there on that day? I always imagine my two beautiful daughters sitting together. They are accomplished and dignified. I am hoping that a few close friends of mine will be there and I hope they remember me as someone who truly cared about them. After that my vision is fairly muddled. What more is there?
It is my nature to stay at work until I'm so tired I start making stupid mistakes. That's when I know its time to go home. Tonight I've imposed a time limitation on myself. I must leave my desk by 6:30 PM.
It is my nature to stay at work until I'm so tired I start making stupid mistakes. That's when I know its time to go home. Tonight I've imposed a time limitation on myself. I must leave my desk by 6:30 PM.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Fiscal Fitness
Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm looking forward to starting on a journey to health and happiness by the time I turn 50. It is a long term commitment that I hope will produce the kind of behavior change I know is necessary in order to stay as active and independent as possible. I just got back from a conference devoted to aging in Chicago and I heard an interesting bit of information. A 50 year old woman with no previous history of cancer or heart disease can expect to live to be 92! So in addition to my goal of becoming fit and healthy, I need to figure out how I am going to support myself for an additional 42 years. Time to monetize!
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