It Sucks Being Old!!

I've been reading all of your posts the past few days and just now realized (ok, so I'm not all that bright or quick) that most of my blogosphere buddies are younger than I am. Now, I am a hip and happenin' grandma. I "Tweet" when I can remember my password, I am on Facebook, I blog, I have a Crackberry, so I'm not without an up to date skill set. My problem seems to be that at 60, the body is not as committed to my new health "kick" as my mind is. Each day brings a new "creek" or "snap" in some joint or another. It really sucks to hear your body talking back to you. It almost seems as tho' my joints are mocking me. :(

As you all may recall, The Perfect Child and I have had an ongoing Cardio Challenge the past few months. I began with a flourish of cardio activity. Followed by a period of cocky assurance, followed by "the insurmountable lead", followed by the "Dear God, my knee hurts", now ending with the "casual bike ride" phase, which is nowhere near a cardio event. So you see my point, don't you? As committed as I am in mind and spirit, the body is rebelling against me. I assure you I am not about to tell you I'm quitting or giving up, I'm just sayin' I might have to adjust what I do to attain my goals. Gotta be flexible in this.....even tho' my body is less flexible than I'd like.

I have to admit, I'm a little jealous of all you youngsters out there. Even tho' you might have more to lose than me, and even tho' it might be harder to "Ger 'er done" each day, you inspire me with your drive and high ideals. I want to keep up, I really do. I just realize now that it isn't going to happen in the ways that I had hoped. I love it that all of you are attending to this healthy lifestyle while you are still younger. Changing these habits later can be very difficult. To all of you, I'd like to say, DO NOT give up, stay with the plan (whichever one you have chosen), and be strong. As you get older it only becomes more and more difficult to do......and much more difficult to stay with it. I really believe that if the Perfect Child was not on this journey with me (and, of course, you, my blogger friends, on whom I rely) I might well have called it quits after the first week of "The Stall". I'm now beginning week 4 of "The Stall" so even tho' I haven't lost anything in 4 weeks, I haven't gained, and over all I'm still down 16.6#. I'll take that, and hopefully continue to build upon it. Weigh In Wednesday brought now change....again.

As for the Great Cardio Challenge, I'm willing to call it a draw. Although I do not like ties, it seems only fair to let this one end that way. I started off like gangbusters, as did the PC. We waned a bit in the middle, but PC has taken to using a trainer and has done some really strenuous workouts, altho' not really cardio per se. I've been pedaling around, but not fast enough or hard enough to be called cardio. The PC has been nice enough to say she'd let me count my bike rides, even tho' they are more casual stretching than anything else. By extension, I suppose I should let her count the training sessions that are tremendously physical. So see, the really fair way to end this little challenge (the last day was to be Aug. 1) is to call it a draw, and begin a new challenge. I am proposing a healthy eating challenge since the PC isn't so great on healthy eating for dinner in the evening. She'll be in town here this weekend and part of next week, so I'll see what we can work out in the challenge department. Something easy on me, I hope. :-)