A Year to Change: Conversations with women on choice, connections, and clarity in midlife

At a certain age, you have to find exercise where you can. I understand that many people go to the mall to walk.  I hate the mall–I’m  pretty much incapable of going in and just buying one thing.  And I hate carrying around a bunch of stuff I don’t need.  But I see people doing the mall walk thing.

HOWEVER, I wish I’d seen this woman doing HER version of mall moving. I might even pull up chair and watch, ’cause I sure won’t be trying it! I’m 50! For goodness sakes!

Check this out!

I stumbled across this “everywoman” quote while I was reading Page Six online this morning (ok…that’s one of my dirty little secrets:  I read Page Six online and am verily addicted to it.  But I do NOT touch the tabloids in the grocery store checkout lines!)

Read on - are you “like every other woman” as described by Stella McCartney (remember that her father, Paul, was the cute Beatle.)…

“I’m like every other woman. I don’t want my underwear to make me feel fat” - Stella McCartney in Vogue . . . ”

Think about it.  Does your underwear make you feel fat?  What does that mean?  What kind of underwear could that be, other than ill-fitting underwear or a thong?  Do men have this problem?

Just for the record, I finally quit smoking today. The final catalyst for action? Well, actually, there were two:

1. After 37 years, the smell of my own cigarette smoke is disgusting.

2. Chantix. Pharmacology is a wonderful thing!

Susan Reimer’s column in The Sunpapers this morning gave lots of reasons why women delay having a mammogram. Read all of that faulty thinking and dangerous logic here.

I won’t rant, or go into what Kerch calls “the full Leslie.” I will however say that there are really only two reasons why smart women don’t get regular mammograms: Fear and Stupidity.

Ms. Reimer ultimately posits that money and pain are the chief reasons why women don’t get regular mammos. To which I say: having a baby was expensive and giving birth hurt, but we did that. Isn’t your own life worth the same?

Clearly I feel very strongly about this, given that I am a breast cancer survivor since 2000 and my early stage cancer was detected by a mammogram. I was 46 (which is “young” by breast cancer standards). And while we’re on the subject, colonoscopies fall into the same category.

If you’re smart and you want to live, you do what you can, right?

Just do it. Now.

Getting the colonoscopy is on my “To Do” list for this year.  And yes, I’ve been putting this off longer than the American Cancer Society says I should. 

I’m not Katie Couric, so they’ll be no live streaming video here on this blog.  Also no photos or general whining.  And no vivid word pictures, either.  I’ll just check it off the list when it’s done and note same here.

It’s enough to say that I have now scheduled the colo for about 6 weeks hence.  I’ll be the first appointment of that day at an “endoscopy center” - never to be confused with an outpatient center at The Hospital.  Clearly colonoscopies (sp?) are such a growth industry that they have their own facilities now. 

This is, I suppose, another example of Baby Boomers and their endless contributions to a burgeoning economy as a result of our aging body parts.

A couple of the women who we e’mailed yesterday about this site have asked if they can track their own progress in various areas on this site.  Here’s how:  make your entry as a new Comment to this post on the topic and schedule of your choosing.  Just remember, it will live on the Internet for the world to see!

I’ll start:  Weight change was not a particular goal for me this year, but getting (and staying) Healthier IS a particular goal for me.  I track my weight weekly, so I can tell you that for the past 3 weeks, I have been stable.  No change up or down.  I’ll take that!

I must report that in my travels through my neighborhood on foot today, I saw blooming crocuses.  Croci?  3 of them, and they were brilliant yellow through the snow. 

This causes me to note the progress of the year through winter and now headed toward spring and to relate that to my own “progress against goal.”  I feel like I’ve made some progress, despite my continued failure at quitting smoking.  A number of my health-related “to do’s” are now “done” and I’m closing in on the last few. 

My vainglorious return to the gym now feels like habituated behaviour and my eating is under control (which means that my weight is not going up and - some weeks - actually goes down a little).  Still, both eating and exercise are battles that are never really won and done, are they?  Always a work in progress, I guess.

Well, I’ve started on the “body work”. 

Bone density scan - done.  All ok.

Abdominal ultrasound - done.  All ok.  I do not appear to be apt to “go” from the same hereditary malady that killed my father.

Gym - back on track.  At least for now.  I try to go every day and I won’t go with more than one day “off”.  And on the off day - like yesterday - I seriously walked.

Cardiologist follow-up appointment - done.  With an EKG classified as “norma”. Normally not a word I enjoy, but I’ll take “normal” to describe my EKG.

Blood work to determine exactly how elevated my cholesterol is and the dreaded colonoscopy to go!

And look below - I’ve figured out how to put my signature in!