Had a FABULOUS Day . lol, though I did fall out of the ‘troopy’ 4WD driver’s seat, instead of climbing out and have a bruise on one leg and skinned knee on the other. I caught my leg in the seatbelt, stepping out of the car and fell to the ground. Never done anything like that before.  Only hurt my dignity, it looks worse than it feels.

But when I think of how bad, it would have been, for the old me who had bad knees, a few years back, not the new 30 kilo lighter and fitter me with good knees who got up from that fall and walked for an hour including up and down steep steps, in a rainforest walk, at Paronella Park. I count myself very, fortunate and consider, I wasn’t hurt, not anything, that matters, anyhow. 

I bruised so quickly it suggests I might need to increase my vitamins, I find if I eat more citrus fruit, including some of the white pith from the rind, it always helps stop me bruising.

 It was a lovely day and it was spent with a new friend, Nikki   I met through the Michelle Bridges, 12 Week Body transformation, and facebook.

I have been enjoying lemon juice on the fresh fish we have been catching, lately so I had not been eating plenty of oranges with some of the pith, which contains the rutin, a bioflavonoid that was singled out, by researchers in the 1950s as the best way to strengthen fragile capillaries and minimize bruising. If you find you bruise easily, check if you are getting enough Vit, C and K in your diet and bioflavoids. I will start back on an orange a day, including some of the white, pith, tomorrow.

 

I am Kathy, (Wendy, the carer, in this Never Never give up land story).
My story is rather dramatic in that I back from rock bottom health and injuries the point where you get told to ‘make your final arrangements, both for me and my husband’. I decided that Reg needed a carer and I jolly well would not die, so I went on a get fit, for life, kick. Started with the only thing I had any power to change and that was my excess body weight and sedentary lifestyle. I stopped saying I could not do it and I did it.  Well part way, I am still ongoing doing it :-) and sharing my journey and happy to encourage others.
I am a young senior with some serious past medical history and injuries, none of them holding me back now.  I also live just out of small country towns so cannot buy a lot on the meal plan list so I substitute intelligently and with nutrition knowledge. I have osteoporosis, so  strength training and working on my core muscles, are essential to me, I had (scarred lungs) pulmonary fibrosis so to learn to do aerobic exercise and run was at first a shock to my system and ability but I can now run....can hardly believe it myself J.

As I had 50 kilo of weight to lose to get to my goal and I am in my mid sixties I sure I will be needing anti wrinkle eye cream, lol J,  before I complete my journey, but I don’t care, I love my new found fitness.

 

Do you allow intuitiveness to guide your actions?

I am glad I quit, early last night, I did not do my customary late night full body workout after Reg went to bed, nor sit and blog a few stories to satisfy my creativity.  I must have intuitively known I needed my sleep.  If I had gone to bed earlier and not been as tired, I might have heard my man stir and prevented his fall last night. I must stay more in tune, with where I need to use my energy, for a while.

We had a lovely evening at my eldest daughter’s home, a delicious meal but these simple things, which should be a joy, if they come out of routine for my man, can tire and upset him. He usually wakes me up if he needs to go to the Kohler toilet.at night, but not last night, I was woken by the THUD when he fell hard, part on the floor and part against the furniture.

I am just sitting around now waiting for him to wake up as I don’t want him to attempt to get up by himself again, if he is still not fully orientated this morning.

Thank you all my wonderful friends who sent me support messages last night when I mentioned I needed to slip back into carer mode and could not focus as much attention to the fitness training this week.  I will do as much as I can to be active and not let this be a setback but I am going to do all I can to get Reg relaxed and content again so this current flair of his, fronta lobe degeneration,  settles down as soon as possible.

Hope to be posting, more enthusiastically by tomorrowJ.

I will get Reg checked over at the doctors this morning.  

Intuitiveness, Do You Respond to Your Inner Voice?
Trusting in my Intuition as much as my knowledge has been a huge factor in making decisions that have helped, both Reg and me keep reasonably, fit and well. Last night was a reminder to me to stay, 'tuned in'.

 

My first daughter was born in 1969 and my second in 1971. Back then, there were few ramps leading into stores or from footpaths, to roads, everything was steps, and narrow doorways into shops. Business buildings like banks were near impossible to navigate for young mums out trying to do the shopping and banking with a toddler and a baby in pram.

I can remember how we were expected to leave our baby parked outside the bank, unattended as there was no way we could get the pram up the flight of steep concrete steps let alone through the narrow door and we were not supposed to take the baby into business establishments.

At that time there were no parenting or breast feeding areas in shopping centres and public breast feeding was not only frowned on, you could be arrested for public indecency y for doing it L. You were supposed to go and sit on a public toilet to breast feed, your babyL.  I was more than once, ordered, off a park bench and told to go to the toilet to feed my baby. L, even though I was feeding modestly and while you could tell what I was doing you could see less of my breast than you would see if you saw a woman in  a bather on the beach. That infuriated me that it was OK to wear a string bikini on the beach, even on open see through crochet one, but breast-feeding was deemed disgusting. L  Society’s priorities all wrong. 

Anyhow, ‘cut the waffle, Kathy’, I got heavily involved in trying to make changes for my daughter’s future. I helped obtain signatures and along with two other tireless workers, we petitioned Jones Lange and Wooton, who were building the Westfield Shopping Centres and we succeeded to sway them to include mother’s rooms within shopping centres they built, beginning with the Brandon Park Shopping Centre.

Try as I could I had little effect in getting a smooth run for prams in streets or into public buildings, but in 1981. Ten year after I, along with countless, other people, had begun to try to bring about changes to public buildings and pathways to allow access for prams and mobility products, for the disabled, the United Nations declared the International Year of the Disabled. This made a huge difference as all countries involved in the United Nations, were expected to make their country more liveable, more accessible, for all disabled people.  This of course, was a godsend to mum’s with pushers and prams as we finally could enter buildings and push prams along streets. I can only guess what an enormous difference this must have been for those in wheelchairs.

To search for different types of mobility aids and compare the function and price, take a look at mobility compare , it’s is a great place to start if you have a need to research such items.

Huge gains in access and rights were made, for disabled people, beginning in 1981, so much so that the major outcome of the International Year of Disabled Persons was the formulation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1982 and International Decade of Disabled Persons ran from 1983 to 1993. December 3 each year, since 1998, is identified by the United Nations as the, International Day of Disabled Persons.

The laws that helped bring about changes to make our streets and stores accessible to disabled people help parents of small children in strollers and prams. This is just one more example of how when we consider the needs of a minority and make changes so they can participate at an equal level with the majority, we ultimately benefit everyone.

As Reg and I travel the country on tour, we discover more walks every year designed for ease of wheelchair and pram navigation. 
 

Indigo loves it here at Phillip Island.  While there are many areas that doogs cannot go at anytime, there are areas where dogs are allowed off the leash to run on the beach :-).

If you are interested in dogs, or posts about our five year old, Indigo, she has her own doggies blog, and would love to have you visit.

  Ginger Almonds

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2009 and thank you Roma Strong Zanders, my facebook, friend, for sharing this great recipe with me. J

·         Cook Time: 27 min ·         Level: Easy ·         Yield: 1 pound or approximately 4 cups 1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 teaspoon dark sesame oil

1 dried arbol chile, stemmed and broken into small pieces

1 pound whole naturalalmonds

1 tablespoon less-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Heat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Combine the ginger and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Heat the olive oil and sesame oil in a 12-inch saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the arbol chile and cook, stirring frequently, until the chilli begins to give off an aroma, 30 to 45 seconds. Add the almonds and cook, stirring frequently until lightly toasted, approximately 5 minutes. Add the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and cook until reduced slightly and the pan looks dry, approximately 1 minute. Immediately remove the nuts to the large bowl and toss with the ginger mixture.

Spread the coated nuts into a single layer on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the pan to a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes or until completely cool. Store in an airtight container, for up to 1 week.

I often see chilli recommended as a metabolism booster and as one of the ingredients in diet pills, when I have looked at diet pill reviews, and being a natural food product, I am happy to include it in my diet, in it’s natural for. Ginger is also a food I love to include in my diet for it’s taste and anti inflammatory properties and almonds, well I just wrote a rave review about being nuts about nuts, in my Art Slim, blog.  http://www.artslim.org/2/post/2010/02/nuts-for-weight-control-and-health.html

Illustrated with a card from the Kathy Shell, cards from art, collection.