My life today: The Road to 50-------the LONG awaited update!!

My life today: The Road to 50-------the LONG awaited update!!: All I can say is that I had the best of intentions…………I truly MEANT to consistently update on my “Road to 50” saga but instead of a...

The Road to 50-------the LONG awaited update!!

All I can say is that I had the best of intentions…………I truly MEANT to consistently update on my “Road to 50” saga but instead of actually writing about it I guess I was busy LIVING it so I will rationalize the exceptional tardiness of this update in that way.  Where to begin??  The short version of that question is that I've only 3 months left until I turn HALF OF A CENTURY old. (She says with her head completely buried in the Florida sand).  The longer version is that I've been on a journey………an odd, funny, remarkable and sometimes boring journey………but a journey none-the-less.

I decided to try and slow down and “pay attention” to the world and my life that was passing me  by so quickly.  It's been good.  I recommend it.  Highly.

So, what have I been doing over the past year or so as I speed along furiously toward the big

5-0?! 

Last December I had a minor surgical procedure that caused me to refrain from caffeine for a period of a week or so.  This is a big deal because I was HIGHLY addicted to caffeine as it presents in Diet Coke.  Like VERY VERY addicted----like it was the ONLY thing I drank each and every day.  No water, no juice, no coffee, no tea, occasionally some skim milk and some alcohol (more than occasionally some alcohol, let's be honest) but lots and lots and LOTS of Diet Coke.  Anyway, since by the end of my medical issue I had come through the worst of my withdrawal and since they gave me a "Sprite Zero" following the procedure I decided to try and stay the course.  I wasn’t going to give it up forever mind you, I mean, let's not go crazy here so I kept some on hand in my kitchen soda supply until, well, last week actually.  However my car still knows the way to the drive through to get my fix when I fall off the Diet Coke wagon (I am nothing if not a realist) but for NOW, I'm strictly a diet ginger ale, Sprite Zero and Diet A & W rootbeer kind of gal.  At least until the road to 50 is over. (Or hey, tomorrow)  But you know, it was step one.  I did something good.  I did something healthy.  I took a teeny tiny step.

Last January (at least I think it was last January----seriously, I can’t remember yesterday so we’ll just go with “last January”) I joined a “wellness” club with a few of my friends.  My friend Evonne Bird is the leader and she is an instructor in our Health and Exercise Science Department at Truman.  I had often asked her to tell me her “title” for my blog but because I have put this off so consistently I’ve lost my notes.  Let's just say she is certified in some cool things that have “wellness” in the title.  She is working on another certification so she agreed to give me and my posse a cut rate and have us be her group to gain additional clinical experience.  What can I say, I owe the world (or maybe the world owes me?) I mean,  we live in a town with a medical school----do you have any idea how many times I’ve had a doctor come into my room and ask me if I “mind” if their student sees me first?”  I always say yes in part because I’m the director of a “teaching” clinic and in part because we all have to learn from someone right?  SO, I was happy to be the “student” for a change.    ANYWAY………

My friends Paula (pre-retirement), Trish, Amy (sometimes Andrea) Julia and I decided to begin a “wellness” group with Evonne our wellness “coach.”  Here she is………..

We’re still meeting a year later[?] (when we can actually all get together) and we each have our own goals.  We talk about sleep, exercise, stress, food, stress, diet, stress and other stuff. (like stress) Since beginning wellness, I’ve been learning to try and make it a priority to get at least 8 hours of sleep although truth be told, my body prefers 9 WHEN I can get to sleep without the aid of pharmaceuticals.  One would assume that when giving up caffeine one would fall asleep more rapidly but nope.  In my case, I actually have more trouble getting to sleep naturally.  I still rely on the aid of sleep meds but not EVERY night so I guess for all intents and purposes that may be a trend heading in the right direction. Over the last year I actually cried in one wellness group meeting which  indicated just how stressed and tightly wound I had become.  I believe the topic was “students of concern” or “getting ready for the accreditation site visit” or “how the hell can I get 20 interns placed in TWO internships EACH?!” Anyway, I ended up crying. Didn’t plan on it.  Wasn’t expecting it. But then BAM! There is was. It was telling.  It was important.  It was informative. And it was necessary.  

It was the beginning of learning about balance.  (Which in full disclosure is STILL a VERY difficult thing for me to routinely achieve and maintain). But the journey of a thousand miles and all right?????

The other thing we did in wellness group was to read the book (or at least most of it) entitled “How to Have a Good Day:  Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life” by Caroline Webb.  It's actually a great, user-friendly book even though it sounds scary with the word “science” in the title. It’s full of practical advice on improving your work day from real professionals backed up by science.  Perhaps most importantly, it has summary bullet point items at the end of each chapter that those of us who are too busy or too stressed to read the entire book  can skim and still garner the important pieces from.  It's been a good thing……….I recommend.

I’ve been learning that balance is important.  To that effect, I’ve tried several things.  I was invited into a “book club” which I would have normally declined due to my perceived lack of time.  However, since I’m cruising along on the road to 50 and trying to change some habits, I accepted the invitation and it has been SO GOOD.  It's a Catholic ladies book club and we read awesome books that ever increase and at times challenge our Catholic faith.  If I liked the word “fellowship” I would say our group is heavy with that.  But honestly, I’ve always thought the word “fellowship” was weird so let’s just call it a get together with my Catholic lady friends that highlight what God IS doing, HAS done or MAY DO in our lives as we live through the joys and struggles of everyday Catholic maternal life.  To be honest, I’ve enjoyed my time in that group more than I could ever have imagined and even though I cannot make it to every meeting I ALWAYS feel like I am RIGHT where I am supposed to be EVERY time I go.  Seriously.  Sometimes, God speaks so loudly to me in those gatherings that the intensity is deafening.  Often I find myself talking to him on my way home, like out loud. Often something like “uh yea God, I got it------you can stop now."  (But he never does). The road to 50 has included some wonderful conversations with my friends Michelle, Tara, Collette, Evonne, Katie and Ilene.  It's been one of my favorite parts of this journey. I always intended to post a picture of us when I discussed this part of the journey but because I’m so far behind, I never did.  Maybe in the next (and final) installment........

In another effort to achieve work-life balance I have tried to spend time with my friends like inviting my pals with young children over for Easter so that I could enjoy “little ones” again and having couples over for dinner or to play cards.  The thing I have learned along the journey is that I HAVE to make time to do these things because I NEVER feel like I HAVE any time.  (And I don’t).  BUT, I’m learning to give myself permission to put off the laundry, bill paying, cleaning, grocery shopping, dog maintenance and everything else in order to try and achieve more balance.........even if for only a fraction of one day out of every 10.   

Another of my favorites is to go out for “girls night out” which is VERY hard to arrange since we’re all BUSY professionals who work a TON but I want to give a shout out to Andrea, Ilene, Janet and Lisa for the many “drinks” we have shared while lamenting (okay let's just be honest) “bitching” about the stressors in our lives.  It's another fantastic part of my road to 50 journey that I began BEFORE the last year and a half but it definitely helps to keep me balanced and I’m forever grateful for those relationships which help so much to just keep me “going” and put the world in perspective. (Maybe pictures of them later too-----final installment?)

So, work on sleep, stress relief, a balanced life with friends and caffeine elimination (in Diet Coke form anyway) have all been part of the trip.  But I did some other things.  

I’ve had recurrent pain in my hip when I drive (or fly) for long instances (which is often) and  have also had TERRIBLE plantar fasciitis.  In the past I would medicate with OTC meds, limp along and leave it at that.  BUT, as part of the road to 50 campaign I actually hauled my a** down to Columbia several times and saw an orthopedic physician.  I also saw a podiatrist and my good friend Amy Fleshman for physical therapy.  (That helped in an additional healthy way since Amy is a LONG time friend and I enjoy spending time with her..………and only get to see her when I go in for an appointment.) Working on those annoying physical nuisances is not something I ever made time for in the past. But as part of the road to 50, I decided to try.  There are many things in my body that need to be taken care of like that but hey, ya gotta start somewhere right?!  SO, off to the doctor and friend turned physical therapist I went.  I’ll talk about the cardiologist some other time (LOL). 

One of the most drastic things I did on this journey was to get braces.  Like on my teeth----(not for my hip or foot-----who knows what 60 will bring.)  My teeth were not bad at all which is why I did not require braces when growing up.  However, I have now spent the past 26 years hanging out in and generally assessing people’s oral cavities.  (SLP peeps will get this).  I also had a class II occlusion on one side of my mouth and have wanted to structurally change the shape of my teeth and bite to one of more aligned normalcy.  So I did.  Lemme just say getting braces at 48-49 years old has been ------- odd.  I’m lucky because I never needed a note from my ortho to get back into school and I never cheated by eating caramel, jolly ranchers or gum.  Here is what my lower teeth looked like pre-braces.

As an SLP, the entire experience was fascinating.  Call me an SLP geek but watching your oral cavity slowly change over time------COOL! Braces come in a box and are put on with tools like these:

Also, they don’t “tighten” them with like a screwdriver but rather they replace the wire every so often with one that is thicker in diameter.  It's not the best feeling in the world and I won't lie-----there were times when I wished he prescribed me grown up drugs with some street value to aid in the pain relief but hell, if the 12 year-old crowd could handle it, I guess I could too.  I loved my orthodontist (Dr. Darren Wittenberger) and his entire staff. They are cool for many reasons including their affinity for professional group photos which are all over their office and hall.

 And we’re lucky because they come to Kirksville sometimes too so it made driving to Columbia unnecessary every month or so.  The best part was that I only had them on for a year and a month----literally.  I got them on February 8, 2016 and got them off March 8, 2017.  Cool huh?  On the day I got them off they put my name on a sign along with the others who were getting them off that day.  So, Rebecca, Jacey, Ian, Emily, Heidi, Sarah, Grace, Emma, Ezekiel, Jake, Callie and I were all congratulated!

Here is a RARE pic WITH the braces since I smiled with my mouth closed for 13 months like in the pic here with my friends Lynn and Cindy.

And one of the only pics I have with my mouth open while wearing braces.........

I have since picked up my retainers and try to wear them religiously (along with my permanent one on the bottom) because after all of that money I'm paranoid and actually quite terrified really of my teeth "shifting."  

Taking them off was the scariest part of the whole deal because I honestly thought they were breaking my teeth apart! The instruments looked like these and lets just say I may have expressed some "discomfort" during the process!

Here I am sporting my ortho tee shirt  with the doc and Michelle (because I got POINTS for wearing it to my appointments which lead to PRIZES!!!---yea, I was quickly ALL about the points and prizes!). Michelle was the first person I met on the braces part of the road to 50 journey so here we are at the end of it (sorta).

SO, when I turn 50 in a few months I hope to have near perfect teeth.  REALLY interesting part of this journey!

When I finished paying for my braces I decided to join a gym.  Joining was the plan all along but I could not afford both and the whole teeth thing took longer so I did that first.  In January of this year I joined "Warehouse 660" which is a gym in our town.  The personal trainers are young and fun to talk to though I quickly learned I am not a “hire-a-trainer-to-watch-you-work-out" kind of client.  I’m more of a “gimme-the-damn-excercises-and-don’t-look-at-me” kind of person. SO, they played it my way and it worked out well.  At the time I joined there was a contest to see who could lose the most weight so I signed up.  I went EVERY DAY and won a prize the first week which was a "chair massage" that I've still not collected.  As part of the contest, one of the things you had to do every time you went was to log in on Facebook and post "#weightlosschallenge2017." Like EVERY time.  I HATED this in a way that is too fierce for words.  The LAST thing I wanted was for the whole world to keep track of me at the damn gym.  And it was named all wrong anyway.  I’m all about the baby steps here so I wasn’t even focusing on the "weight-loss" part but rather just the "exercise" part.  It should have been entitled “going-from-when-you-never-move-except-to-get-in-the-car-and-go-to-the-drive-through-and then-go-to-your-desk/couch-and-now-you-are-moving-your-fat a**-challenge 2017."  That would have been MUCH more fitting and descriptive for the contest I was entering!   Seriously, this road to 50 thing is not for the fat faint of heart.  There was NO WAY I was going to focus on caloric intake AND moving my very sedentary body.  And I was doing well too!   They told me not to go every day but I did anyway because why not be an over achiever I say!  I was doing 30 minutes of something in that gym EVERY day and losing inches if not pounds.  I even took TWO yoga classes and bought my own mat.  I carried a bottle of water.  I wore a towel around my neck.  I LOOKED the exercise part.  I even eventually made eye contact and occasionally spoke to Alex’s friends who were there “lifting.”  

Then I got a cold.  A bad one.  Like REALLY bad.  I was traveling (and even exercising on the road).  I was on a trip where I saw 4 interns in 4 hospitals in two states in two days and left on the third day to fly to Washington D.C. for a meeting.  And that's where we kind of stall on the road to 50.  While at the airport I fainted.  I ended up cancelling my trip and going back to a hotel and sleeping for an entire day.  When I spoke with my doctor he told me not to go back to the gym until after spring break and that my body needed a rest.  My old, 49 year-old body was tired.  And I cried.  Because I couldn't finish the contest. 

BUT, that's life here at middle age SO, I'm picking myself up, dusting myself off and plan to get back out and walk while I'm on spring break in Florida. (Which is precisely where I sit as I write this). Baby steps back to the gym.  

I had originally planned a MAJOR birthday extravaganza with my family in the smoky mountains on the day I hit the big 5-0 but 7 months into my road to 50 campaign I realized I could not afford what I wanted to do sooooooooooo, no big finish once June 13 hits.  (Which is REALLY hard since that trip was an essential part of my motivation for change!)

For now, I continue to work on balance, (I’m currently sitting in Florida with work I brought with me BUT have chosen to work on my blog BEFORE doing any “real” work which is where I am currently!  (I may even get into the pool before I work----who knows),decreasing stress when and where I can, following up on doctors appointments, getting “enough”sleep on average, sipping non-caffeinated beverages, wearing my retainers, hanging with my friends, trusting in God more often and as Dr. Laura says, “Moving more and eating less.”

It's been a journey this road to 50.  Three more months. Until then...................