Good news coffee drinkers

Many of us love coffee and the good news coffee in moderation is very good for us. Meridan Zerner a registered dietitian from Cooper Aerobics writes,

 "that the polyphenols in the coffee bean in combination with caffeine provide substantial reduced risk in cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and some forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease.

While coffee can be wonderful, it can also propose a challenge when we begin to “doctor” our cup. The biggest offenders are half and half and flavored creamers. These are filled with saturated fat which is a high contributor to heart disease and inflammation."

A low fat creamer and one sweetener helps those who don't drink their coffee black to be healthy. You can read her article at

http://cooperaerobics.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/a-healthier-cup-of-coffee-a-better-start-to-your-day/

The New York Times, Paula Span reported on how we are improving care with people

From a Nancy Hermes

with C.O.P.D. and reducing hospital days. Because it is almost exclusively connected  to smoking, there is a feeling "you did this to your self buddy". This doesn't help anything but slow down research and treatment.
We know if we quit smoking we can help our care. But there are those who smoke anyway. The article goes on to say we are improving our care and that is helping those stay out of hospitals more often. If you or your loved ones suffer from C.O.P.D. I encourage you to read the article.

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/

Habits that hurt us are hard to break. I am working this summer to reduce inches on my body. My goal is to be the not so fat man walking. I was encouraged by Gary Player posing for the ESPN magazine at 77. Player has lived healthy all his life and wants to encourage people to follow his example. The magazine won't reveal his private parts and I think we will evidence of being 77. But the point is we will see a body that still has muscle and can move. I read an article Gary was reported in the Wall Street Journal where he believed health was 75% diet. His exercise routine involves about an hour a day and with reasonable modifications that is something we could aspire to in retirement.  

Diet and exercise change as we get older has the goal to improve our lives. Are we willing to do that? Keep walking

Retirement a 2nd or 3rd chance at life

I was reading a book about retirement and the author said,"we don't die of old age, we die of retirement." One could make an argument the other way around, but let's go with it for a minute. Do we suffer from lack of purpose and the benefit of work? There is a certain security of a paycheck. My dad worked and died at work. Growing up through the depression and living poor left its mark on him. There are countless people who worked till the day they died. There has also been those who worked for less because of being old made them less productive.
Things happen so I am glad we can retire when we get older. But can we continue with purpose and value. In truth more of our time is taken up with health concerns and most seniors take an active role in the family care. But there will come a time when the aged are cared for.
More many of us years have been put into jobs with little payback or personal satisfaction. Work has value but some jobs can test that theory. Retirement can be a redo in something that interests us and something that can benefit others.
For me there is a passion to walk and share what walking has done for me. There is a passion to change the way I eat to live better. There is an offshoot passion about aging and rounding off the curve where more of my life is independent and I feel better. I am reading tons of stuff with the passion to share what I have learned to help others live well as we age.
Along the way I have a passion to understand mental illness and not be controlled by it. Related to this is abuse won't be who I am and I desire to help those caught up in the darkness of abuse. These new energies give a new way to look at retirement. Keep walk

Summer fun

Last night we lost power and took me back to my youth. You remember no fans or air, just sleeping by an open window. Billy, Tanya and the kids were visiting and by camp light and candles we played a mystery game. Not a bad evening.

Today power restored, but fun playing in the kiddy pool and lots of playing and laughter. Billy and I took turns cutting the grass and when everybody went to bed I went for my two mile walk. I took advantage of the air and walked indoors. It is also a lot safer. 

Later this summer we are. Planning to go to Brookfield Zoo in particular to see the dinosaurs. When you go on these outings don't underestimate your steps. There is a reason why your feet are tired at the end of the day. You can easily walk 8,000 to 14,000 steps. It isn't the fastest walk, but your feet don't know that.

Many of my co-workers are being world travelers this summer. I am enjoying their journey's. the digital world is fantastic as pictures videos can be shared so quickly. 

The Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup. Watching on big screen TV's make it easy to follow the puck. The blessings in our lives we can take for granted, but I am glad they can come down to a simple game shared by candle light. Keep walking

Soaked in the longest day

Ever since December we have waited off this day. A day to take note of for sunshine or daylight for the longest of days. Mentally and physically we do better in long days then w do in the short days of winter. I plan to sit out on the deck if the storms pass through.
Reading an article on being frail at 70. About 5 to 10% of us will find our saves to thin and weak with loss of muscle. The article talked about exercise and using Ensure to put on weight. One question I have is can we prevent being frail or delay it? Another thing I note is 90% of will delay it.
In reading books on aging by Dr. Cooper we can delay aging by aerobic exercise and weight training. Weight training with weights, bands, have a positive effect on our bodies as we get older that I think every senior should consider. We can delay muscle loss and even put on muscle into our nineties.
We are all different but I encourage you to invest in your retirement by walking and strength fitness. The quality of living and benefits abound with 30 to 40 minutes of exercise. How you do it can vary.
The evening cleared and the day ended nicely. Many long days ahead. Keep walking

Just walking

Walking has a pace to be aerobic, right now I a walking 2 mile walk at a 15 minute pace with a few minutes at the beginning and end at a slower rate to warm up and cool down. Like running I am paying attention  to form and muscle movement. Arms are moving and I am trying to move fast enough to breathe deeper. Sometime in the summer I will walk a 12 minute pace for 20 minutes in the 2 mile walk.
There are many good goals in walking from 10,000 steps to just getting started. A stroll can be great as well as short walks through out the day. Your doctor, and your body will tell you what you can do. Most of us can improve, but walking any way we can, swimming, biking, gardening, visiting friends, shopping, or a hours and other ways keep us moving.
It was great to see friends photos on face book. What a simple encouragement. Keep walking

How did we become good at being a dad?

Happy Father's Day dads.

Billy around 1

Have you ever considered how someone becomes a good dad? Over the years I have read a lot of parenting books and looked at it from the Bible. In one sense I am still learning. I can tell you I have listened to dads and being a dad is to far from the list of many dads I know. Dads who are invested in their families spend more time thinking and growing then I think they are given credit for.
A motivation for my son is to be a better dad than I was. I'm OK with that. I am now in life's doctorate program called being a grand parent. I am now invested in my children and their children and one day children's children. Ah I am way to young for that.
Three books stand out with these three thoughts I like to share:

1. Howard Hendricks, Heaven Help the Home: The Bible has very practical principles that can be known and lived out. There are important things and then there are things not so important. Not everything is a principle and opinions are open for discussion. Teens love knowing this.
2. David Elkind, All Grown Up... written in the eighties is still worth reading; Parents have to grow up, kids need them to be parents. They have to set limits and make decisions. They have to be the one who meets the emotional and physical needs of the child and not the other way around.
3. Josh McDowell's book How to be a Hero to Your Kids, has a discussion about rules need a relationship and how to build acceptance in your kids. The idea when a kid out grows a rule get rid of it. Somewhere in Josh's ideas I also picked up try to find ways to say yes. It works...

These ideas have been tested. They gave me some flexibility when I needed the most. Somewhere I also got the idea that parenting is a thirty year term in our modern world and the goal would be adults not babies. To know my kids as adults is the most satisfactory part of my life.
Sitting down with friends talking dad stuff still goes on. Class is still in session. Keep walking
 

visitors for the month

My good looking Son

Welcome to all of you who visited the fatman's blog this month.

United States	1736
Algeria	32
France	17
Russia	17
Philippines	15
Germany	12
United Kingdom	12
Ireland	10
Australia	8
Bahamas	6   New to the blog are visits from Ireland and Algeria. Not factored in are hits from another part of the Carrebean and hits from Europe. I was visiting sites with different languages and used the translator an pooff I was able to read blog or site in English. That really blows my mind as we used to say back in the day. Keep walking

Everyday living to health

Here we are in Long Beach, California in a taffy
shop, that was a good day. We walked 4 miles that
day and we didn't walk off the taffy.

What a beautiful day today. Last night was quite a storm front through the Midwest but today was awesome. I was sitting out today reading a Longmire mystery, painting trim for our bedroom feeling what we used to say "pretty groovy". Walking and loosening up this ole body, feeling good.
Restocking my tools and doing some rehabbing in the house gives me plenty of stair climbing. My grand son wants to earn some money cutting grass so their goes a workout. Turning my energy to home renewal may be a trade off.
Do lists are great way to get more steps in your day and may include movement involving your whole body. If you are aware of a step conversion charts you may see a healthy angle to the shores of life.
It has been over a year since I added sit ups, push ups and squats to my daily routine. If

Yep, a pretty good day

you start out with modified movements it works. Things like getting up from chairs, getting in groceries, doing stuff that takes muscles is easier. These workouts used later at night have helped me actually get to sleep faster. Part of that is helping my CP and relaxing and stretching out the muscles. Moderate or easy workouts in the evening can be very helpful with sleep. Dr. Oz has a PM workout that you can look up at Real Health.
Long summer days I think get all of us active. Hot days look to walking early or late. I know many friends down in Florida who walk before day light. Retired consider a pre-dawn stroll. When I am in Florida I like to swim.
Ice treatments really helped, recovering very good from a fall earlier this week. I think everything I have written in the blog is the stuff of everyday life we can do. Eating right, moving, getting pleasure out of what we do all adds up to a good day.
Dr. Cooper, Leslie Sansone and others have share if we decide to do one thing for better health it often leads to other things and in the end we feel pretty good. Keep walking   

had a setback...don't give up

Reading our Daily Bread yesterday, David C. McCasland titled A Letter from C.S Lewis, a correspondence dated some 52 years ago in which a then high school student asked Lewis about was he tempted when writing the book Screwtape Letters. Lewis wrote the book during WW2 about a senior demon advising a junior demon about a hindering a man who just came to faith. I remember Lewis commenting on the popularity of the book which he felt people owned but did not read. I recommend you get a copy and sit in your reading chair with a cup of tea and have a read. After 40 years I have recently reread the book.

McCasland writes,

"In September 1961, Harvey Karlsen, a high school student in Brooklyn, New York, wrote to C. S. Lewis in England. Harvey had read Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters and asked the author, “When you wrote this book, did Satan give you any trouble, and if he did, what did you do about it?”

Three weeks later, Lewis penned a reply in which he affirmed that he still had plenty of temptations. He said that in facing them, “Perhaps . . . the most important thing is to keep on; not to be discouraged however often one yields to the temptation, but always to pick yourself up again and ask forgiveness.”

Sounds very British doesn't it; "Keep on; not to be discouraged...pick yourself up again" The asking forgiveness as needed is very Biblical and true to life. Temptations and failure happen, we have set backs all the time. God is the one who knows us better than we know ourselves, keeping our walk with Him up to date and gaining victory beats giving up.

Today I fell again and picked up a few more bruises. Nothing serious but I admit I don't like the experience. But with experience I have gotten pretty good at treating the injuries as well. Immediate ice pack keeps the swelling down and speeds the healing. Indoor walking with Leslie Sansone also is helpful because it is something I can do without falling again.

Have you had some setback? Reality sinks in and we have to heal and take the steps needed for recovery. When I fell today a shot of pain went through me and I used some colorful language. Has that happened with you? I am glad there are words that go with pain. Amazing how the ice eases the pain. Writing now I feel pretty good. We can go through extremes rather quickly. Lewis' words encourage me. Keep on walking

 

The growing season is upon us, Thoughts on John 15 and fruit bearing

I have been studying John 15:1-17 this week where Jesus in his last hours gave a brilliant teaching we call the Upper Room Discourse. It would become the foundation of the rest of the New Testament. Here He shares one of His "I am" statements, "I am the true Vine". His Father is "the Gardener" and we are the "branches". If you listen to many on this passage of Scripture you think they were the gardener removing branches and caring for the garden. The one thing I tried to do this time is look at this passage is look at it from the perspective of a vineyard grower and what happens from start to finish in the growing season.
In verse two we have the beginning of the season when the vine is prepared after the winter season. "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." Pruning and lifting up the vine off the ground maximizes the seasons growth. Every gardener does similar things to their perennial plants and they start in spring. The focus is on the life of the plant and what we expect from that plant.
In verse six we have the fall of the growing season some time before winter. "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." Vine wood is useless and burns too quickly, branches that wither and die need to be removed so that what remains alive can produce fruit the next growing season.
A few thoughts to leave with you:

• All these branches are "in me", key words that we understand salvation. What is
  
  being taught here is not about salvation but productivity in the Christian life. Fruit is something we see but the life that runs in the vine and branches is less apparent. Leaves so important in the plant health we see first. Most people talk about cutting back the leaves, but look closely in John 15 that is not said. Watch a gardener, they are more careful than that. There are many things God does when He saves a person we don't see.
• The focus on the Gardener is on new growth, old growth that has died is not part of the new growth is cut away. Now I am in my 60's I have to keep on growing in character and service. It is no time to quit. But I also know new life is going to produce fruit. How can I support younger servants of the Lord?
• The Christian life is dependent of God for everything, we have to remain in the vine. Have you ever watched branches? Have you noticed they don't walk off on their own. They stay put. Things may happen to them because of weather or animals or people who break them off, but they don't walk away on their own. As long as they are connected they have life in them. Believers are in Christ.
• Our lives have a growing season then winter. Life continues but fruit will have to wait until next growing season. When we go to the Lord in heaven is up to the gardener. Our lifeless shells go back to the earth. Talk about recycling and being green. As a gardener God is skilled at what He does.
• Paul writing about this in 2 Cor. 5 writes, "⁶ So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. ⁷ For we walk by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."
• The actions of John 15 are a natural part of gardening. if you accepted Jesus as your Savior, you are in Him. You have eternal life. Fruit bearing is also by faith and as we abide in Him by walking with Him in fellowship and doing what He commands by the power He supplies, fruit will abound.  Don't give up. Keep walking
   
   

Moving and taking in the light

Sore tendons in my ankles so biking was the way I walked today. The legs felt good as my muscles warmed up. I can't speak for your experience but for one that has CP moving makes the body feel better. As we get older I think many of you can relate to how moving helps the joints and muscles. Along with my old man work out with bands and using my body weight not bad.
Tomorrow I am off to see a few baseball games.
Long days are here. I wish I could have a summer home in Australia and go back and forth to enjoy the days of sunlight. Enjoy each day, keep walking

The Bible keeps me positive and hanging in there to help others...

Mart Dehann's blog. Been thinking About talked about how people misuse the Bible, beloved by millions including me. It has always left a bad taste in my mouth when the Bible is used for some selfish purpose. Some use it to build themselves up and tear others down.
I was watching an episode of Ellis Peter's Cadfael where a monk was delirious and others stood by to take his comments in his weaken state to the young man's ruin. Cadfael studied the events out and came to the young man's aid. The two actors playing the cads do a very good job. Personally I think it would be fun to play a villain. But in real life I think it is better to use our gifts and talents to encourage people in a fallen and too often harsh world.
To attack the wounded, or those weak in some way is a cowardly act. In the body of Christ we should use the Bible as it was intended, to help those lost in unbelief or ignorance come to know Christ who is the "light of the world" as He says in John 8:12, "Ἰησοῦς λέγων· ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου·" Within the body, the Church we are to bind up the wounds and share words that build up. One of the fruit of the Spirit is kindness, χρηστότης, right next to is goodness, ἀγαθωσύνη,. When we build on these words we are doing something to benefit others. All of the fruits of the Spirit spring from love, ἀγάπη which we do when we love as God loves unconditionally.
I have failed enough to know I am far from perfect. I am glad others shared their strength when I needed it. But I never mind standing against those who hurt others by abusing the Bible. Mart's blog worth reading, keep walking

http://www.beenthinking.org/

PTSD Post tramatic Stress from a heart attack or major surgery? Hey it happens...

My thoughts are on sleep as I myself will soon prepare for bed. Last week I read a study from Columbia University Medical Center where researchers reported about 13% of people who suffer an heart attack will have sleep problems due to an onset of PTSD. When I had traumatic surgery several years ago it triggered PTSD symptoms and insomnia that needed professional treatment. My experiences were so acute after the surgery that I knew if I had serious surgery again I would seek help. What I didn't realize was I already needed help. I sought help a few years later, but I should of sought help as part of my recovery from surgery. All the signs were there, but I did not act on it.
If it is true that at 63, 25% of us have clinical depression, could it be in part triggered by some major health event? Add to that death or divorce and loss of job or retirement and we are set up for an onset of depression and anxiety or PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is also possible we face increased loneliness and social support from loss of job or family loss.
My experience, it took me three years to act on my sleep and anxiety disorders. These things can stare us right in the face and we are slow to act on it. What do you think? Why is it we are slow to seek help for our mind and emotions when we are faster to act upon our heart or injuries?

What ever my problems, Liam helps my
perspective

Consider your experience and if you have or are going through some traumatic event due to health, heart diseases, cancer, diabetes; bring to your medical team a Psychological professional whose insights may help your recovery and future be brighter. I am glad I did, but I wish I would have done so that first crazy night after major surgery I had. PTSD we think of from war or abuse, but it can also be from the traumatic treatments we experience as we age.
I was in the hospital for nine days and I talked to fellow patients who faced there own horrors. Since then I have talked with many others and they shared their scary stories. We need support and help in these times. Psychological and spiritual help should be the norm What do you think? Keep walking

http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/2013/05/30/poor-sleep-linked-to-ptsd-after-heart-attack/