Stay Sexy ~ Stay Healthy

Got your attention? Not what you’re thinking, though I’m all for asking for what you like in the bedroom, as well.

It’s about asking for physical therapy. I’ve been chatting on Facebook with the amazing Emma Lai, who has struggled for years with back pain and joint pain, and finally got referred to a physical therapist, where she learned there is actually something she can do that will be effective. Watch for an upcoming blog from her in these pages, and read her interesting journey thus far in this Interview from last April.

Chatting with Emma got me thinking: How did I learn I had to ask for physical therapy?

It shouldn’t have to happen. Doctors, after all, study anatomy, including all those tendons, muscle groups, and how they’re linked up to each other and to our skeletons. Doctors ought to know. Somehow, though, the links get trained out of them, and they’re taught to think in terms of surgery or drugs.

Here’s the scenario, about fifteen years ago. At that time, hubs and I lived on forty acres of tamarack woods in northern Minnesota, not far from the Boundary waters. There’s a LOT of winter in those lands, and if you want to stay active, you have to be outdoors in it. As soon as the snow was deep enough, we’d follow the deer trails on our snowshoes and tramp out a couple miles of trail for our cross country skis. (in case you’re wondering, yes, humans are much taller than deer, and we worked each summer on keeping the branches trimmed so we could navigate). That way we could ski from mid November till sometime in March or maybe even April, some years.

This probably happened as the weather was beginning to enter the cycle of melt and freeze in late winter. I slipped and slid on my ski, tried too hard not to fall, and pulled a hamstring. F.Y.I., a pulled hamstring is serious enough to take an Olympic athlete out of competition. Just saying. It hurt like the blazes. Hubs helped me hobble back to the house, where I grabbed the crutches left over from a son’s knee injury and managed to get around the first floor okay for a day or two.

It didn’t get any better, so I went to the doctor. I have a vivid memory of standing in front of her as she looked up from whatever it was she’d been doing to examine me. Her diagnosis? “Yup, you’ve pulled something.” She went on to suggest pain control medications, rest, and avoiding stairs. In a two story house.

Tried that for two or three days, with no improvement. Then I remembered the very useful physical therapy hubs had benefited from when he twisted his knee downhill skiing, so I called the clinic back and asked for a referral to PT, which they granted.

Like Emma, I learned what to do to strengthen the muscle groups around the hamstring, and what exercises to avoid, at least until it healed. It took a long time. I still carried a special seat cushion as long as two years after the injury, but have no after effects now.

The best consequence of this saga? A very valuable lesson: If physical therapy isn’t offered, ask for it. Even if the referral isn’t given, there’s a lot of information on line. In the last year, I’ve successfully rehabbed a strained knee joint, based on what hubs and I had already learned from his knee therapy and what I was able to find on line. I can go dancing again with the best of them.

I’m not one to sit around and just accept the fate that’s handed me, if I have any options. Sometimes there’s nothing we can control, but if we can, I want to find it and tackle it with my best effort. If it’s not offered to you, ask for it.

Meanwhile, have fun, and Stay Sexy.

We all know the brain is the most important sex organ – so today’s Stay Sexy column is about keeping your brain supple, happy, engaged and excited. In short, exercising your brain!

It’s one of those basic use-it-or-lose-it phenomena – the more we stay interested, curious, open to new situations and eager to learn, the healthier our brains will be. “Anything that closely engages your focus and is strongly rewarding… will kick your brain into learning mode and necessarily notch it up,” according to a recent article.

So today I’m going to share our newest curiosity – the Saguaro Cactus, Arizona’s famous trademark cactus with its arms pointing to the sky. It’s new to me. I’ve never (before) lived where they grow and hardly ever traveled where they were common. But for the month of March, we’ve parked our motorhome at an RV park in the Sonoran desert west of Tucson, Arizona. The edge of our park opens onto desert trails that lead to Tucson Mountain Park and beyond it, Saguaro National Park.

We’ve started hiking those trails – a mile and a half yesterday, two miles today. We can observe the entire life cycle of the Saguaro on our wanderings. Yesterday, under the protection of a Palo Verde tree (which is a story for another day), we found a virtual Saguaro nursery. The baby cactus plants need just enough protection from the occasional freezing temperatures in this region that they thrive best with a little shelter. There must have been over a dozen “babies” under this tree, ranging from less than an inch to over a foot.

These two babies in the middle of the photo are two or three inches tall – a year or two old.

You can see the green “bark” of the Palo Verde tree in the upper left. It’s hard to find, but in the lower left corner are the spines of a very tiny baby, only half an inch tall. A one-foot Saguaro is on the right side of the photo.

Saguaros typically don’t grow their arms until they’re several decades old. The arms are needed for the blossoms – night-opening blooms pollinated by bats. The cactus can grow as tall as 70 feet and live as long as 150 years.

Hubs is just under six feet tall, and the Saguaro on the left is rooted in a gully behind him, so it’s close to thirty feet tall. We don’t know what anomoly caused the arms in the lefthand cactus in the next photo to grow straight out instead of up – winds? Drought? Genetic variation?

At the other end of the life cycle, we saw the carcasses of several of these fallen giants, their outer shells long gone and their long white inner spines exposed and lying in a log-like pile. Those spines are what holds the water – up to several tons, in a large cactus, able to sustain life through the long desert droughts.

When our Tucson friends first told us about hiking in the desert, I’ll confess it didn’t sound very inviting to me – I’m used to hiking in forests, surrounded by trees. But both of us are falling in love with this desert and its impressive diversity. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about it in future posts.

Have fun, and Stay Sexy!

Not what you’re thinking, probably – today I’m talking about the healthy eating part of staying sexy, with some tips on satisfying substitutes you can reach for when you bump up against a craving for something you know isn’t good for you.

Caveat: I am not a dietician. I’m sharing what works for hubs and myself, things we’ve learned by trial and error and a little advice from our friends.

We all know one of the biggest threats to healthy eating is the list of favorite foods we should hardly ever eat – the things we need to cut way back on if we want to keep our bodies fit and energized and – of course – sexy. Do you struggle with cravings for some of those things? We do – so here are some alternatives we’ve come up with:

I love chips and dips – especially taco chips. But I want to avoid the empty calories of simple carbs whenever possible. I’ve just discovered Trader Joe’s Quinoa and Black Bean infused Tortilla Chips. Compared to most ordinary corn taco chips, there’s less fat, double the fiber, and fabulous southwest flavor. Very hearty and satisfying, goes with my favorite hummus perfectly.

Speaking of hummus: Did you know it makes a tasty sandwich spread? Use it in place of mayonnaise, to add even more healthy legumes to your diet. Far less fat, more fiber and protein, too.

Another great chips substitution – popcorn! Nutritionally, it’s lower fat, higher fiber (twice as much per serving), and fewer calories than potato chips. At our house we air-pop it, then add a tiny taste of butter: 1 teaspoon for the entire batch, or 1.8 grams of fat per serving, and just a touch of salt. Hot out of the microwave, it’s very satisfying.

Ice cream? Not even on my radar, since I can’t eat dairy products – but my husband, as a cardiac patient, has become very fond of Greek yogurt, from the dairy case or frozen. Higher in protein, lower in fat, and (if you pay attention to the nutrition label and select carefully) lower in overall sugar. His favorite? Chobani Dark Cherry Greek Yogurt: Half the sugar of the equivalent amount of ice cream, zero fat, and three times as much protein.

Here’s a LINK to more “reach for this” tips I shared last March. What is your worst unhealthy food craving, and what healthy substitutions have you come up with? We’d love to hear from you!

Have fun, and Stay Sexy!