Please enjoy this little stroll through the gardens…..

I have been struggling with change lately, not in my surroundings but instead, change within myself and it is not without issues. What is happening right now is something that every woman has to deal with at one point or another; menopause.

Menopausal females, we’ve all joked about the topic a lot, in reality, if you are going through it,  it is no joke.  One minute I am feeling okay, the next I feel waves of nausea and unease;  a mix of emotions on overdrive for an extra bit of fun. Something as benign as a photo depicting a pastoral scene, will bring me to tears, this part of the process is exhausting.  Other times, conversations that I would normally brush off would instead have me stewing for hours.

Caffeine, once a welcome friend, has turned against me and now can make my symptoms seem so much worse.   I have cut my coffee consumption in half at this point, anything to make the head spins and nausea go away.

As you all know I am an avid reader of Ode Magazine, I was happy to see last months issue filled with menopause stories, it seemed to be written for me.

Image via Ode Magazine: The Meaning of Menopause by Hanny Roskamp

The first article I read was “The Meaning of Menopause,” by Hanny Roskamp, really spoke to me and what I was feeling.  In the article she speaks of hot flashes being a result of blood pressure dropping and facial flushing being due to blood vessel dilation.  Much like Hanny, being someone that tends to always feel cold, the momentary hot flashes are rather welcome.

Hanny also writes in her piece that:

“The symptoms of menopause are caused by falling levels of estrogen and progesterone in the body. It begins in tiny steps around age 30. Once the ovaries definitively go on strike, somewhere between 45 and 55, things suddenly careen downhill. Hot flashes are one clear symptom, but heart palpitations are also part of the package, as are night sweats, weight gain, difficulty sleeping, loss of libido and vaginal atrophy. Mentally, we undergo significant changes, and these may be accompanied by fear, anger and feelings of depression.“

I am just in the beginning of my journey, I am not afraid of the aging process and do little to thwart aging, except for grey hair, those I have been fighting since my 20′s.  I live my life as naturally as I can, hormone replacement isn’t in my cards and I chose to deal with this crazy ride as best I can, naturally. I agree with Hanny in that the taking of medications to offset menopausal symptoms is all personal choice, I do not judge those who do so to help manage all the various issues that come up during this transition.

The other, more important, thing I have noticed in the last few months, is my ability to advocate for myself more.  In the past I would avoid confrontation, unless it was absolutely needed, now I am not afraid of speaking my mind and letting people know when they are taking advantage of me. Perhaps that is my “witchy” menopause symptom, but I enjoy the liberation of taking care of myself and my needs first, before I tend to everyone else, for me that is a big change.

The whole magazine appears to be dedicated to the topic of menopause with article after article discussing the process.  Some talk about how women dealt with this in the past compared to the now, a time with endless choices of medications.  I like “Still on the Journey’s” by Lissette Thooft, who mentions that women need time alone, or with good friends, to process their thoughts during the journey when she said this:

But how do you manage it, sailing through menopause while your busy life as a partner and mother continues unabated? Well… you don’t.

You’ll do better to take the time and space you need and to pamper yourself with quiet time and herbal teas. Time, especially, to meditate. The harder you fight against it and want everything to keep going the way it’s always gone, the worse it will be for you.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I had the time to just BE and let this process move forward without the pressures of day to day life stirring up the mix.

As for me, my past history with fitness has certainly been a tremendous help in dealing with the symptoms and/or results of menopause. My physical self has seen a few small changes, but,  due to weight training my metabolism is still running on high. Weight training also helps with bone density, which, as a coffee drinker this always concerned me, of course menopause can also cause lower bone density as well.

I still have more reading and look forward to the experience and the journey. What about you, my readers, what have your experiences with menopause been like, if you have experienced it for yourself please share?

Then: 4/1/2012

Now: (5/2/12)

Now 5/2/2012

Please come back on the 12th with your 12 photo for the 12 of 12 project ..

As all my readers know, over the winter I had a little set back, which resulted in some gained weight.  Now I find myself playing catchup trying to get the last of those pounds off my frame.  My fitness hasn’t been as regimented as in the past, daily workouts still, but due to studying, I find myself riding the recumbent bike more than I would like.  A good friend of mine just got her hands on Turbo Fire (my personal favorite cardio program) which prompted me to join her in her quest for summer fitness.

Now I love Turbo Fire (which we have already determined) almost as much as I love lifting heavy objects in an effort to sculpt my body.  When good friend, Corey, a trainer from Barbados,  (@NarkSide) runs monthly challenges; I am so lucky (cough, cough) to be included.  Seriously, Corey is a great guy who sets these challenges up to motivate people in his life; he is also a talented performer, writer, and all around great guy.  With that being said, below you can see a column dedicated to his schedule for the Insane 30 Day Fitness Challenge and how I have worked that into my routine.  You can visit the Facebook page and join in the fun if you would like, watch the videos too and get jealous that Corey gets to workout on the beaches of Barbados daily….

2012 swimwear choice

My 2012 swimsuit has just arrived, yes I get a new swimsuit annually it is just something I do.  All my swimwear is stored away in a neat little box,  for me, they hold a lot of memories of all the fun things and places traveled, but that is for another post I guess. Of course as I have matured I have often wondered when I would be too old for bikini bathing suits, I did get a one piece to wear around my more conservative friends.. but alas…  this is another bikini summer…

I am a lifetime exercise enthusiast, that we have already determined, so it isn’t surprising that each day I will find a physical activity to work my body. One of my goals in writing this blog, is to encourage people ~ who do I hope to encouraging?  You, if you are on the fence about your exercise regime, I hope to help you to get started each day  until it becomes habit for you as well.

At this moment in time I am reading the Ace Personal Trainer Manual and finding a lot of nuggets of information relating to why you need to continue your physical fitness like:

“On average, previously untrained youth, adult, and older adults increase their muscle mass by 2 to 4 pounds and their muscular strength by 40 to 60% after eight to 12 weeks of standard strength training.”

and;

“Physical capacity decreases dramatically with age in non-strength training adults; an average of 5 pounds, per decade, of muscle tissue is lost due to disuse (disuse atrophy).  A woman who doesn’t strength train loses about .5 pounds of muscle each year. “

Ohhhh what does that mean and why is this important, let me explain:
Per Ace fitness:

“Susan weighs 120lbs at 30 years old and is 20% body fat, she has 24 lbs of fat and 96 pounds of lean body weight. If Susan doesn’t exercise to maintain her muscle tissue and loses 5 pounds of muscle per decade, at 50 years of age, if she maintained the same body weight, her body composition would change by 20 pounds, how does this look you ask? At 50, without strength training, Susan weighs 120 lbs,  measures at 28.3 % fat: Susan carries 34 lbs of bodyfat and 86 lbs of lean body weight. (hello batwings and cellulite)

Here is a visual example of same weight but different body compositions, below is Deb Hunter, who increased her muscle mass and has the visual composition improvements to prove it.

This is Deb Hunter, the photos span from Jan to June of 2011 after doing a challenge to improve health and fitness at her local gym. Notice her weight is the same but how her body composition has completely changed. (She also changed her hair, which I love the new do and the bright smile too)

After 20 years of inactivity, Susan weighs the same but her body isn’t going to look the same, there is more bodyfat and less muscle tissue on her body.  This is how aging makes us look and feel older if we don’t work to maintain our health.

BUT THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE, IT DOESN’T MATTER WHEN YOU START.

Per Ace Fitness:

“Numerous strength-training studies have shown that several weeks of traditional strength training result in about 3 pounds more muscle and 4 pounds less fat in adult and older adults (Westcott et al., 2009; Campbell et all., 1994; Pratley eta l., 1994) this rate of body-composition improvement appears to continue for several months (Westcott et al., 2008)”

So why is this important? For one, muscle is constantly actively maintaining it’s own muscle tissue. During sleep, resting skeletal muscles are responsible for 25% (or more) of the body’s calorie use.  It only stands to reason that when your body has more muscle it will burn more calories maintaining itself. Plus, muscle looks a lot better on your body, both dressed and undressed.

Per Ace: “The 5 pound per decade loss of muscle tissue accounts for a 3% per decade lowering of RMR (resting metabolic rate) in non exercising individuals. Strength training raises RMR resulting in more calories burned on a daily basis. Studies have shown that a 7 to 8% increase in RMR can be experienced after several weeks of regular resistance training.” (Hunter et al., 2000; Van Etten et al., 1997; Campbell et al., 1994; Pratley et al., 1994)

Ace also states that Hackney, Englels, and Gretebeck are reporting an average of 9% increase in resting metabolic rate for 3 days following an intense resistance workout in untrained individuals, and an average 8% increase in resting metabolism for three days after an intense resistance workout in trained individuals.”

Lets recap shall we:

Your muscle deteriorates due to disuse, which decreases your metabolism, the decreased metabolism decrease your resting metabolic rate; the rate of which calories are burned. Losing 5 pounds of muscle every ten years means you carry more bodyfat and less lean muscle. This leads to the decrease in agility and capacity and an aged appearance.

Returning to fitness and resistance training increases your metabolism, increases lean muscle mass and decreases the percent of bodyfat your body carries. Resistance training increases your metabolism from 7 to 9% 72 hours after a training session. This equates to a leaner more toned appearance, along with better agility and being more active.

Which reminds me of an old joke from the eighties:

Inactive person: “I’m not fat, I’m big boned”

Overheard response: “Really, I’ve never seen bone jiggle like that!” (Don’t let this be you)

I haven’t even started to address the many other benefits of resistance training, like:

• Bone density, lowering risk of osteoporosis,
• Ease is completing activities of daily living,
• Better health,
• Exercise helps stave off diabetes, this per the Scientist’s article “Exercise Alters Epigenetics“
• Lowered injury risk
• Helping to lower blood pressure
• Helps with digestion (movement helps move food through your digestive system)
• Reduced pain of Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Decreased depression
• Improved quality of life and decreasing the effects of aging

So really, what are you waiting for..   time to stop reading and start pushing play..

One of the advantages of social media is that sometimes you will stumble upon things just at the right point in time to inspire you to keep pushing forward. Like the photo below, the caption stated that this lovely lady is 68 years old and competing in the Arnold Sport and Fitness Competition this weekend.  Even at my age I was feeling “over the hill” regarding competing, thinking I had missed my window of opportunity, apparently not.  Thank you James for helping to inspire me today.

There are times you stay in a bad relationship longer than you should. Why? Because you love your in-laws and don’t want to leave them. When this happens you are willing to put up with your partner’s minor idiosyncrasies; eventually, however, those little quirks become too much. So how do you know when it is time to pull the plug? This has been something that has crossed my mind many times in the last few years regarding an experience I initially thought would be a positive one.

I entered into a distribution role of sorts with a company that I have had a lot of respect for, or respect for their products at least. The unfortunate part of the story is that the business model they operate under opens you up to some very disturbing behavior, not just from the strangeness that ensues in the online world, but from people who are supposed to be on your team, so to speak.

Now this is sunshine, but not daisies.

I went into this venture thinking all sunshine and daisies — what I got in return was a lesson in how to act defensively. Before you start screaming about how I should have known better, considering the type of distributorship program it was, let me clarify: I don’t operate under their business model! I have used and believe in their products; my end goal is to help people and I felt that this was one way to achieve that.

My other issue with working with this particular company: while they have good products, I quickly found they don’t get a lot of respect within the community they represent, which is health & fitness. It didn’t take long for me to see that the fitness community resented the constant barrage of rhetoric coming from people whose only interest seemed to be closing the deal. You couldn’t post anything that included the letter X, or mention drinking a breakfast smoothie, without finding your inbox spammed. Why? Because the company’s distributors were on the cyberhunt, searching for mention of certain topics, before going in for the kill. These sales techniques were taught in private classes, for an additional fee, given by a few highly ranked individuals making hay.

How embarrassing! Suddenly I was ashamed of what I was doing with this company. Instead of talking openly and freely, I found myself hiding; not the best way to get exposure.

Why did this happen and how did this company lose respect from their community? By some of their sales team utilizing unscrupulous sales tactics, albeit mainly by a vocal minority. What is it they say about a few bad apples spoiling the batch — yeah, that’s just how it happened here. The company itself didn’t ask people to go out and spam everyone; they, in fact, wanted the opposite. At the one and only company meeting I attended, corporate talking heads spoke at length about how damaging this behavior was to the company and their sales staff. (I will only call them sales staff, or distributors. I refuse to call them anything else, especially not by the title bestowed upon them by the company, which is a major fail BTW. Talk about upsetting the applecart with instant hate from the industry they represent. Somebody better go back and read “How to win friends and influence people” for a refresher course!)

The other issue I have is that lately the majority of the email information I get from the company isn’t about their products or how they can be used beneficially or safely by your clients, but how you can use a “tried and true” model to start earning your way to riches! These emails offer web lectures on how to talk up the company’s sales structure, by those who are major earner. The company has hired a consultant who was very high up the ranks of one of the most notoriously disrespected home sales companies of them all, AMWAY! (Excuse me while I rinse — I gag at the mere mention of that name.)

You know, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck…  All the sleight of hand and mirror tricks won’t change that.

Yes, it's a duck

So what do you do when this is all simmering on the back burner for months, weighing heavily on you, when someone on your sales team raises a red flag. You go up the ladder and share, hoping to get a solid return of information and reassurance. That wasn’t my experience, not that I am surprised. I have witnessed more than one public flogging by others that had similar concerns. While this blog is rather public, I don’t have a lot of readers from that group and I am calling a safety; that’s right, I pulled the old tag playground trick!!!  (Ollie, Ollie, Oxen Free)

Initially I was yelled at, in black and white at least, told that I wasn’t working enough at the “tried and true” methods laid out for me by those trailblazers who have dream lives; don’t recreate the wheel they say!

I started feeling guilty for having doubts, as if I needed to do more and work their model harder, just quit complaining. So what happened?

I wrote to the owner of the company and expressed my concerns, I sugar coated nothing and expected absolutely nothing in return. I wouldn’t have been surprised to get a nasty letter from their legal department and I did, to help and offer support. The owner contacted me as well, I was both shocked and amazed by that actually. He seems like a person who truly cares as well, perhaps struggling to find a happy medium for all his sales staff, why, because that one tried and true sales model doesn’t fit everyone.

What do I plan to do, I will continue with this company as I do respect their products, with a new and upgraded respect for the CEO. Unfortunately there will always be people in this world who are opportunistic, that will never change, the company is trying to control that.  I operate respectfully and don’t steal customers from my competition using dirty tactics.  In truth, I have given contacts away, if they came to me in error, when they truly belonged to another person. There will be no false claims made by me or unrealistic promises either, because my goal is to truly help people and not pad my bottom line. There are some months that I’ve given away almost as much product as I have sold.  I would rather see someone get healthy than take money out of their children’s mouths.

I was excited to learn that the company has been working on a sales model that fits the fitness professional much better. One that allows a trainer to work directly with a client, teaching them form and technique to ensure they don’t injure themselves. Previously, this professional relationship wasn’t allowed. The rule was: if a trainer was on the company sales team they were not allowed to charge their client to work with them using this product; they were advised to push product to get remunerated.

They aren’t getting rid of their old business model, but offering something more realistic to the fitness professional.  My email was not the catalyst behind this change, the company has had that in the works for quite some time, perhaps due to another brave souls email.  I am happy to have had this conversation with them and that they realize that sometimes, even if the shoe fits — it is too ugly to put on.