The Levoxyl I take every morning to compensate for having half a thyroid says: Take one hour before eating. Unfortunately, this also includes coffee, tea, water with lemon, and even water with electrolyte powder.
I’ve been ignoring those directions for the 29 years that I’ve taken the medication and knock on wood, the bloodwork numbers are always within range. I occasionally know something is wrong by my mood, and sometimes the scale, but I bounce back without a change in dosage.
But…..now I’m 66 years old and if it really is 10 years since menopause, this weight is hanging on tighter than a tick on a dog and apparently, it has no intention of leaving!
Oh what to do, what to do? I am running an experiment for the next 8 weeks, with doctor’s approval, and a follow up lab slip in my hand. The plan is to give up the morning coffee I usually drink 10 minutes after I take my pill and, wait until after my workout to put electrolytes in my water. I need to know if it will have an effect on my numbers and possibly, hopefully, on my weight. I’m only on Day 2, and already I have extra time because I don’t have to finish my coffee. I could get to my workout 15 minutes earlier if I want. I have my cup of coffee once I get to the office, and I add the electrolytes to my water bottle after my workout.
I’ll keep track of moods and weight and we’ll see where the numbers end up in 8 weeks.
Anyone else out there deal with taking medication on an empty stomach?
As an adult, I have been in the position of trying to help a parent understand that “this needs to be done.”
For me, it was my father after he had a triple by-pass, followed by an above the knee amputation of his leg. For months after the heart surgery, he was convinced he was going back to his 2nd story apartment. Even after the leg amputation, no matter how many times we told him it wasn’t possible, he still talked about moving back. He couldn’t walk five feet on his new leg, never mind up a flight of stairs. And driving his truck was out of the question. In hindsight, well, I don’t want to talk about hindsight, because it’s been years and in the long run, he was safe and happy at his assisted living.
This isn’t about where he was, this is about what he allowed us to do for him. I don’t mean “allowed” in a passive aggressive way, but, in a “this man, understood the assignment” way. He allowed us to take over financial control of his money. My sister had her name put on his checking account, and we brought in an attorney and had a will, living will, and durable power of attorney completed. We jumped through all the hoops to enable both of us to talk to Medicare about his claims. When he passed away ten years later, there were no hang ups to getting any bills paid. Now, he didn’t have anything of note, so it was fairly simple but the other day at the bank, I witnessed something that I think all adults, especially adult children, need to think about and figure out how to address it with their parents.
A 93 year-old-woman in a wheelchair was in the bank with her adult daughter talking to one of the representatives. Don’t accuse me of eavesdropping because they were right there in the open! The daughter and bank person were trying to get the mother to understand why she should sign paperwork to put her daughter’s name on the accounts. She was just not having it! “Why is this necessary”, she asked. “I have a will”. They tried to explain that it wouldn’t be until after her estate is settled that the money would be distributed and there would be funeral expenses and bills that would continue to arrive. She didn’t seem to care and then the daughter asked, “you expect me to have to pay them all, and I don’t want to do that.” She had a point.
The mother wanted to “think about it”, at which point the daughter said, “you’re really going to make me have to bring you back here again?”, which made me think it had been a chore to get her and her wheelchair from her home, in the car, to the bank, and in and out again. I did it with a father with one leg and let me tell you, after I went from an SUV, where I could get my knee under his butt to hoist him up, to a sedan, where it was impossible for him to drop into the seat and get back out again, there were no more car rides.
They couldn’t take the paperwork with them to be signed and returned (although if it was notarized maybe by someone the bank approved of, I don’t know why not), so the only option was sign now, or come back after the mother had time to think about it. Unfortunately, that was sometimes what we had to do: suggest something to our dad, he’d say “No”, we’d wait a few days, and he’d suggest the same thing we had presented like it was his idea all along. Maybe that was what needed to happen in this situation as well.
What it all boils down to is, Talk! Talk to your parent(s) if they are dealing with any sort of health issues that might prevent them from taking care of their finances. Talk to your children if you want to make sure they know what to do in the event of your health issues. Talk to your spouse if you, like me, are the one who takes care of all the bills and checking. Talk before you get to that bank appointment and save everyone the time of trying to “convince” someone that this should be done for your and their benefit.
It was the end of my sophomore year of high school and the end of a school-year long romance. An up-and-down, go round-and-round romance.
I cried a lot. I must have, because he gave me a box of tissues along with a small give for my 16th birthday. What a guy.
By the end of the year, we were barely speaking because he was avoiding me. I had to go to a girl friend in the group to find out what was going on. Evidently the fall was coming soon.
He expressed in words (his and evidently others), what he couldn’t say to me directly –
The Note
We broke up not long after, without me draining the DNA out of my body to become someone more suitable in his eyes.
I’m continually working on my understanding of how the sun, moon, stars, and signs align and how they can affect my day (or years!).
I receive the Moon Omens newsletter and follow on Facebook and today the email started out with “Happy Virgo Season, Nancy!”
I’m getting better at knowing the start and end of Zodiac signs, mostly because I’m born on the cusp of Aries with an April 22nd birthday. Even the cycle of the moon once you remember when a full moon is.
But this email gave me pause and brought back some memories of this time period. It said: “This is a season for refining your everyday routines, cleansing toxicity from your life, and bringing your mind, body, and spirit back into alignment.” “This is a perfect season to right any ships that are steering off course in your life, and to create new habits and routines to help you stay in alignment with your ideals.”
I immediately thought about those few weeks before going back to school. Fourteen years from first grade to last year of college. New uniforms, making sure everything fit, getting back into good morning habits (no more sleeping late!), notebooks, pens, pencils, and binders.
After that last year of college, when late August arrived, I felt a sense of mourning. I would never again have that new start. That feeling that the clock has reset to zero, and I could start all over again. It was quite a few years before that feeling went away.
But now, I see it still is a time to reset and restart. To find a new path and create new habits and routines, to help me stay in alignment with my ideals.
We picked the book, Heft by Liz Moore, for our September book club meeting. I finished the book and, of course, told the group that just to be “punny”. But it was heavy. Two individuals, a middle-aged man and a 18 year old boy, connected by the same person, but yet, alone in the world. One encumbered by physical weight and the other encumbered by emotional weight.
With that said, I enjoyed the book. I had a cousin, second I think, who was heavy his whole life. Even in first grade, he looked like a teddy bear. So round and cute. He was so outgoing and had many friends through the years, had a beautiful singing voice. As time went by, he continued to gain weight and had health issues until he was housebound. He lost his foot to diabetes, and passed away last year. He would leave messages of him singing to me and other friends through Facebook. While I read the book, I thought of him.
My heart went out to the boy in the story because his heaviness was the loss of his mother after many years of alcohol abuse. He literally had no one but her. The man he thought was his father, who had “moved to Arizona” long ago, was not actually his father. And not in Arizona but in the next town for years.
Both found the support they needed and as the book ended were on the path to meet each other and, I hope, form a relationship to lean on each other. I think they got there.
What book have you read that you felt was heavy, but hopeful?
I went to the Mumford & Sons Prizefighter concert this past Wednesday at Madison Square Garden and brought my husband along with me. I feel very fortunate for a few reason – MSG is only a 2 hour train ride away, I can afford to buy tickets, and my husband, however much he “complains”, is willing to go with me. He’ll give me the “well, I can’t let you go by yourself”, because I have said many times for many things that if he doesn’t want to do it, “I’m going anyways”. In case you were wondering about that first sentence, this is why I say I went and brought him with me.
Anyway, I bought these tickets six months ago when I was only 2 songs into their new Prizefighter album. Spotify has that feature to look for an artist’s tour dates. I saw MSG, the dates, went to the website and the only indecision was which night based on which seats I could get. We like section 224. Nice angle, clear view of the projection screen, and in rows 3 through 6, you head down and not up. I thought about Tuesday, opening night, but Wednesday had a AISLE SEAT. What better offering to my husband than that!?
I’ve been watching videos of their concerts across the United States and getting hyped up. Looking for playlists on Spotify and singing along to all the songs. Even Spotify following the artist, Medium Build who would be the opening act. August 12th couldn’t come soon enough!
Finally! Wednesday arrives and we take the train into New York, check into the hotel (not the Hilton I thought I made a reservation for but it was actually better located! Story for another time), and head out for an early dinner.
Back to our room, get ready and walk 3 blocks down 8th to MSG.
I’m So Excited!
It was smooth sailing into the arena and our seats. Of course, we got there and in about 20 minutes before the first act but it gave us time to look at the merchandise. We didn’t buy anything but they had a pop-up shop near our hotel during the day so we went the next day for t-shirts.
The seats on the aisle were awesome and our whole row was couples which was really weird!
View from my seat – all a little magnified
The only bummer of the evening was the group of six 30-somethings who showed up as Mumford & Sons started. JUST as they started. Not 5 or 10 minute before. No. Right in the seconds of the opening notes of Run Together. Six of them. Right in front of us. Looking for their seats, when they are the only six seats left in the row, so, no surprise there, pick a seat.
Ok, no big deal. Praying to God that the tall guy won’t be in front of me. No, great! He was on the aisle so, to my right. But wait, what did he do? He and the guy next to him TALKED through the first 2 songs. Comment, stop, comment, stop, comment, laugh, comment.
Now, the entire arena is standing. I have been standing since the first notes started. We are all into it, and these guys are talking.
The second song ended, and I took my hand and gently placed it on his shoulder. He turned towards me and I said, very politely, very civilly, “Please.Stop.Talking” as I fixed him with my disappointed mother stare. He did and I carried on enjoying the rest of the concert.
Marcus Mumford was so energetic! After about 10 or 12 songs, he jumped off the stage and ran down the side of the floor, into the crowd in the back, and along the other side back to the stage. A few songs later, he and the 2 others in the group, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane (have to give them their props!), headed to the other end of the arena and set up on the B Stage and played a couple of songs there. I’m happy we got The Boxer but should have known it since we were in New York! Once back on the main stage, they played three more songs and the concert was over. According to the Set List website (yes, you can search for a concert and find the songs they sang!), these songs were considered the Encore. I thought they’d be back, but the house lights came up, and everyone started leaving. I guess I should be happy with Twenty-Two songs and 2 hours of watching and hearing them sing! My husband had to sit down a few times but I caught him tapping his toe to the music, and he really enjoyed Medium Build.
It was a quick walk back to our hotel and we were still full from our burgers earlier that we skipped a late night slice of pizza one block north.
I thought I had a video of them to post here but I must have been so engrossed, I don’t have anything but snippets. But there are plenty out there on Instagram if you’re interested. It was really a concert to remember!
In the title are three types of meditations I do in my Peloton daily meditation. 10 minutes in the morning and the same meditation for a week with a different instructor.
I’m not crazy about breathing meditation because I feel like my breathing is wacky and on any given day, I have trouble with deep breaths. I call it Anxiety Breathing and have had it all my life. I panic when I can’t draw in a really deep breath. Most days, I’m fine. It must be all these meditation classes I’m taking!
Funny story #1 – I would be in church and would be breathing just regular breaths and I would go to inhale deep and if I couldn’t I would panic (internally, but there were plenty of times in life when I was little I’d freak out at inappropriate moments!), and just say over and over, “ok, wait, wait, just breath and they next one try!”. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn’t.
Funny story #2 – we took swimming lessons at our town pool growing up. I think it was the Intermediate group we were being taught the crawl. You know that one where you take a breath and stick your head in the water and then turn your head and exhale, inhale? Well, I would inhale, do a few strokes and when I would turn my head, I would never breathe in or out! I would just continue to hold my breath and then flounder about. No coordination whatsoever!
Unfortunately, last week and this week are 10 minute classes of breath work! A lot of deep inhales and sighing out of my mouth, along with box breathing this week.
Maybe it’ll make me a better breather. But I’ll never be a better swimmer.
I’m sitting in the parking lot after 7:30 mass, waiting for the parking lot to empty a bit before heading out. After almost a year of attending, you would think I’d remember to wait instead of entering the scrum to exit!
Besides that, I love going to mass at this time in the morning. Because three churches merged into one parish, it is nicely populated. I see the same people sitting in the same pews every week. I do too. One young couple’s two daughter are the altar servers. One middle aged man arrives right at the start of the first reading. Every Sunday.
There are two priests for the parish right now. Although I like them both, Father Lane is my favorite. I enjoy his homilies.
Today the gospel was about Jesus walking on water and Peter being afraid when he tried to walk to him. Father Lane’s homily was about doubt. He talked about the doubts he had when he was first in the seminary to become a priest. What a big life changing decision that was. But he knew he had no reason to doubt his decision.
He told the story of how he was at a 30 day SILENT retreat. What? I can’t be silent for 30 seconds, I sat there wondering how it could be possible not to talk for 30 days.
I follow a few other ancestry writers and one of them, Trisha, introduced me to a great show on BYU TV called “Relative Race”.
Four teams, in cars, start out from the same location in different directions with an individual time allotted that includes a challenge once they get to the town of their relative.
Using only paper maps from one location to the next, their clock stops when they get to the home of their relative.
They introduce themselves, and ask “whose relative are you?” On some teams, it might be only one person searching for relatives, on other teams, both.
They meet and visit with their relatives, and it looks to me like on some occasions they meet the relative at an Airbnb set up by production.
That night, the teams get on a Group FaceTime type chat, Dan the host comes on and he will announce the winner for the day. They are the team that came closest to their allotted time. The loser is the one who took the longest. If they are last for the day, they get a strike. 3 strikes and you’re out. Goodbye, go home (although they still got to meet the relatives just not on camera). Season 16, appears to be different and the team with 3 strikes still travels, but maybe they just don’t get a chance for the $10,000 prize at the end when they do the big, final challenge. I’m at that episode now!
Did I mention, they give up their phones and only have flip phones? Yes! They can text each other, which on occasion they do. Dan texts them in the morning with their next destination, welcomes them when they arrive to the town with their challenge location, and when that’s complete gives them the relative’s location.
The race is run primarily on the East Coast. But one season had them all over the United States and then flew the people who ended up in California back to the final location. This season they started in Alabama. One team has gone to Louisiana and Texas, another upper Florida and Georgia, another North Carolina, to Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and another to North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana.
The teams themselves and the family they are seeking tugs at my heart strings. It isn’t run-of-the-mill relatives they are looking for, it is FAMILY. The majority were adopted at birth or a very young age. Some knew they were adopted, some only found out a few years ago. You hear their stories at the beginning of the season and again throughout the season but not to excess.
Maybe I enjoy this show because we found out my mother had a different father than her siblings! She had passed away years before we found out, but it made me wonder if there were differences in looks and personality that made anyone go “hmmm”.
Obviously, DNA testing is done prior to all this and family members contacted to see if they would be willing to meet with the contestant. Once they are selected, I’m sure they are situated for maximum show drama impact!
In earlier seasons, teams weren’t always very nice to each other. A team each season would really be looking to get the edge on everyone else. Sometimes the daily winners get to put a time penalty on another team and they would target a team to ensure a strike. but every season the show evolves and those types of “rewards” have gone by the wayside.
You can find BYU TV in your streaming channels if you have a Smart TV or you can watch episodes on YouTube through the Relative Race channel.
If you love heartwarming family reunions with a little suspense thrown in, you will enjoy this show!
I’ve been doing one particular 30 minute routine for the last week. Faster pace, lighter weights – right where I like it. I don’t feel so “thick” when I’m done and I’ve seen the numbers on the scale sloooowwllly declining.
I was keeping it lighter even on the lunges. Four rounds of 16 lunges (8 each side) and thrusters I was using 12 pounds.
I decided after 2 rounds to kick it up a notch to 15 pounds on the lunges, so I picked them up and off I went! Whew that was tough!
Then I realized I had been using the 10 pounds and not the 12! I was a little breathy, but the second time around, it was ok. Slow and steady.
That of course got me thinking about the weight we carry around every day. Google tells me that for EVERY pound, while you walk on level ground, your knees feel 1-1/2 times your body weight. Stairs? 2 to 4 times. Squatting or kneeling? 4 to 5 times!
How are your knees? Is it time to lighten the load on them? My knees feel pretty good, I think I’ll keep up the good work!
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 