Sigh..

About a month ago, I decided that for my health (both mental and physical) it was time to leave teaching behind. It's kind of scary. Teaching has been my existence for most of my adult life. But it's better for me, and better for my students, that I make this decision while I am still a good teacher. I've seen too many people scared to leave who really ended up not being good for the students anymore. So, as of last Friday, I am a retired teacher.

I celebrated my first day of retirement by getting up at 5:45 (I slept in a whole hour). Then, I dragged everyone in the house to the gym. I mean, my whole idea is to get healthier, right? Everyone must suffer with me. And, due to knee and hip problems, I decided that water aerobics would be much easier on my body. Well...

First, there is the issue of a bathing suit for a plus size women. I have one. It's from a lovely company called Junonia, which designs athletic clothing for plus size women. A "tankini" with a skirt. Well, it might be fine for folks sitting on a chaise lounge, next to the pool,but once you start jogging in 4ft deep water, everything floats up! So, the dreaded search for an appropriate bathing suit has begun.

I thought that water aerobics would be easy on my joints. Right. It may be, but I'm one of the youngest people in the pool, and these old folks are wiping me out! There is no letup, no break for an hour. OK, I'm jogging with my weight mostly supported, but I'm still moving all the major muscle groups continuously for an hour. And the props! They handed me a noodle and a set of styrofoam weights. They weigh next to nothing. But one of the ladies, a lovely, slender former preschool teacher, warned me away from the "heavier" weights. She said, "Hon, you'll never come back if you try class with those". And she's right. If the ones I used were considered low resistance, it's going to be a while before I try anything harder. I was absolutely wiped out on both Monday and Wednesday. Slept most of the afternoon! So, today, I took it a little easier. My brain remembers being in much better shape, but my body is complaining loudly.

My fellow poolmates insist that I'll improve, and I'm sure they're right. But, starting after so long without exercise is painful. The smallest change...3 classes a week.

First steps

Day 1: Decision
According to the Chinese Philosoper Lao-Tzu,
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
So begins the Camino

I will walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in the spring of 2015.

Yes, it was symbolic. Easter Sunday, the first steps of a pilgrimage. I suppose that once I have made the mental commitment, I felt I had to do something physical, if only a bit. So, I tied on my walking sneaks, and walked around the block. Not much, and fairly quick (about 10 minutes) but I had to start.

So, it’s after Easter now. I’m doing a self-evaluation. I’m 62, very overweight. I have bad knees and hips (arthritis), I’ve had back surgery, and frozen shoulder, and Hashimotos thyroiditis. The orthopedist looked at my knee x-rays and immediately started telling me what a good candidate for a knee replacement I am. OK. That’s the bad.

But, I have the support of family and friends. I’m not doing this alone. Of course, my husband says, “It’s just walking. Put one foot in front of the other”. He said the same thing when we did the 60 mile Avon walk for breast cancer a few years ago. And to him, that’s all it is.


My first goal is to walk at least 5k, 3 times a week, and to participate in water aerobics classes twice a week. I'm starting quite slowly, with about 1k as my goal for the first two days. Knees are going to be a little tender, but that's to be expected.

As well, I've started investigating the things I'll need to carry with me on the trek. It's recommended that you not carry more than 10% of your body weight on the walk. Just a few days ago, I tried to carry 20 pounds of rice. I ended up dragging it. Upper body strength has to go back on the planning calender. I was hoping for just aerobic and core. As well, I'll be doing a lot of research on how to pack light!

I've started looking at packing lists and websites that talk about what you need. Obviously, decent shoes/hiking boots to start. And, for me, my trekking poles. Traditionally, pilgrims carry a wooden staff, but the trekking poles seem more logical for my needs. Leki poles looked good, and have the best ratings. I bought a pair a couple of years ago, but I may pass them on to either my son or husband, as there is now a women's set that has a smaller hand grip.


My husband, son and cousin have decided to come with me on this trek. Ought to be interesting.

Spring resolutions

Most people make New Year's resolutions. I have a tough time with that. Winter is depressing for me, and resolution making is hard. So, when the weather starts to warm up, the flowers are blooming (and I'm sneezing) and there's enough sunshine to raise my Vit D levels, I start to consider making resolutions. As well, two posts ago, I talked about finding a goal. I think I've found one. This year, it's kind of major. A goal is a dream with a timeline attached, you know.

For nearly 3 decades, I worked out a lot. For 15 of those years, it was daily, taekwondo, juijitsu and judo, at least 2 hours,usually more, every day. I did all the warmups with every class. I did my forms, sparred, taught, coached, refereed.... all of it. Now, for my health, I need to start working out again, after too many years of being sedentary. And it's hard. I'm tired and everything aches. The motivation of fear doesn't work well for me. Even fear for my health. My doctor is kind of demanding that I get active. So, I found something linked to things I already love to do.


I started studying Spanish in 3rd grade. My neighbors spoke it, and my curiosity was intense. This was just after Sputnik went up, and the government went wild to ensure that Americans got training in math, science and languages. My strength remains languages. We won't discuss my math skills! So, my school started offering Spanish. I loved it, and still do. I loved the language, the culture, the food. And while studying the culture, I heard about the Camino to Santiago de Compostela. A pilgrimage route across Spain that people had been walking since the 9th century. It sounded so romantic, and of course, I was learning the language.

Time, responsibilities, distance. All of them just got in the way. I sighed every time I read about the Camino. I looked at pictures...and I put it in the "bucket list" category. But now, I'm getting older, and it's a long walk. At least 100K. Carrying a pack! So, now or never. I've made the commitment to walk the Camino before the end of 2015. Time to start walking, and start saving.

Letting go of doubt

I was so delighted when I packaged up my beard conditioning oil and sent it out to all the people who volunteered to beta test it. I thought the response was great! I had it all allocated within a couple of hours, with just a small announcement on Facebook. Feedback has already started coming in, and people are enthusiastic about the results. I knew it was great stuff!

I am finding that making the products is a lot of fun. Marketing, not so much. It's a skill I'm going to have to learn. For years, whenever I made these sorts of things, I just gave them away to friends. You know, that feeling that your things are ok, but not really good enough. Not good enough. My stuff is fabulous! I use the finest ingredients I can find, I mix with care, I infuse it all with my love for family and friends. It's good enough. The only thing I truly need to improve is the labeling. I'm looking for someone to help with that, as artistic things are beyond my scope.

I'm also having fun deciding what to make next. I have the base formula for the beard conditioning oil to the point I like. The shaving soap, I'm still playing with. The hemp based soap is good, but I want to learn to make cold-process soap. That's close to a chemistry class! The pre-shave oil is in my plans for this weekend. That should have a wider popularity than beard oil, I hope. So, three day weekend! Lets get going!

Catching up.

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. The time since April has flown away. It's been a tough year.

First, I returned to my roots in martial arts. I've been practicing the Tai Chi for Arthritis sequence in my home for about 4 years. I decided to take the next step and get certified to teach this spring. I was a little nervous, as I'm obviously not in perfect shape. But the class was great, and I earned my certification. It feels good to be doing something that I love again. I'm not going to quit my yoga practice, but I am enjoying my practice, and getting ready to start a class at work.

As well, I found a new endocrinologist. Dr. Wiggy (what a cute name), is an actual thyroid specialist. He's put me on a natural supplement. So, that small change is helping me have a little more energy, and I'm hoping it will help with weight loss. However, a month-long bout with knee pain has the orthopedist talking knee replacement. Fleh!

The most exciting thing over the last few months has been working on men's shaving products with my son. It's a little hard to do with him 5000 miles away, but Facetime and FB chat have helped. The first two products have been wonderful. The shaving soap and the beard conditioning oil are in beta test mode as we speak, and my husband loves the shave cream I developed for him. That one I have to figure out how to ship though. I'm afraid it will melt. I'll be posting more about the products and how to get them soon!

This year, I'm hoping to start working toward something, rather than just reacting to events in my life. Planning, planning, planning. A goal without a plan and a date is just a dream. Time to wake up.

Yoga

One of the things I promised myself I would do on this journey is exercise. For over 25 years, I exercised a lot. For 15 years of that, I worked out 6 days a week, between 2 and 3 hours per day, learning and teaching taekwondo, juijitsu and other martial arts. It was my job, and an all-consuming one. Owning a business took some of the joy out of it for me though. When you're worried about keeping students, safety, inventory, rent, and all the other things that go with owning a business, sometimes it's hard to just enjoy the art, the workout, the people.

So, when we closed our dojo, for 12 years, I just stopped working out. Of course, back surgery did cut into my desire to exercise much. But I just walked away from it. And my body is showing the results of that decision. At age 60, getting back in shape is a lot harder than it was at 30. A LOT harder. I decided that gentle exercise was the way to go. Walking and yoga were on a very short list. I had done yoga on and off over many years, never actually as my only workout, but often as the adjunct. We used a lot of yoga asanas to stretch in martial arts classes as well. When I was young, I had watched Richard Hittleman on TV, and he introduced me to hatha yoga.

I started with a seated yoga sequence at home. It was nice, a good workout, but lonely. I am kind of used to a class environment. It's good to have companions on the journey, and a teacher to offer encouragement and tips on improving. When I started working at my new school, I found out that one of the other Spanish teachers was also a yoga instructor at a local gym. I just needed to get settled a bit before we got started.

When the Little Yoga Studio opened up, they were offering a class in "Yoga for Stress Relief". Oh yeah, sounded about right. So, about 6 weeks ago, we started classes. Kathryn Rhodes, you are a fabulous teacher! I can see improvement every week. I'm feeling more flexible and stronger already. My posture is improving. It's all good. I'll be sharing more yoga info in posts to come, talking about benefits, styles, etc. But for now? I'm enjoying the first, small changes.

De-cluttering

One of the most important changes I'm trying to make is to live with less. I don't mean to live in poverty, not physical, emotional or spiritual poverty. I'm just trying to make a smaller footprint, use less resources, and think twice before bringing anything else into the house.

So, over spring break, instead of heading to the beach like many of my colleagues, we headed north to our house to de-clutter. I used to have nightmares that I'd open my door and Ms. Neicy from Clean House would be standing there, telling me what a "hot mess" my house is. And she would have been right. My house was cluttered.

It used to be less of a problem, as when we were in the military, we moved frequently. Every couple of years, we de-cluttered, got rid of anything that was broken, worn, useless. We were only allowed a certain weight for our goods. But the seeds were there. Books always had priority!


So, we're going through everything we own. Do we love it? Does it have value? (That value can be intrinsic or extrinsic.) Do we want to pay to have it transported? At a certain point, everything has to be judged. There are two bags and a box wherever we're working. Throw away, give away (or sell) and pack. So, during Spring Break, we completely filled the truck with books, and took them to the used book store. Then, we completely filled it again with clothing, and gave that to Goodwill. And sadly, it barely made a dent. It's going to be a much longer process than I had hoped. But, it's that small change again, a start.

The small rental home we're in just now has shown me just how little I actually need. It's been lovely. There are a few times when I want something that's still in the other house, but I can make do. Cleaning is quick. I run the vacuum, dust, clean the bathroom, and I'm done. The dishes are done every night, no soaking till morning. The clothing is in order, and laundry is done once a week. It's folded, and put away immediately. Building new habits, one little bit at a time.