Gentle Reader, I began this blog to report on ways to manage osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis by reflecting on my own experience. I have to tell you that I have no symptoms these days. I’ve been trying to understand what I have done to reduce the chronic pain to this degree. I practice all the suggestions I have written about […]
Hard Core Mother of Four
Gentle Reader, My daughter, Priscilla, the personal trainer extraordinaire (www.hardcoremotheroffour.blogspot.com) mentioned a Pilates move when we were talking after Thanksgiving dinner. For the first time, I thought she could probably help me with my chronic back issues. Funny how your children can be experts to so many and take a long time to claim that status for their mother. Tuesday […]
Get out the tape measure!
Gentle Reader, Here we go into the season ‘tis jolly with food and good cheer!’ It will not be popular to talk about belly fat being the death of you. How has Santa survived all these years? I keep harping on ‘keep moving.’ It turns out that even if you are at your ideal weight and your tummy is sticking […]
Guess what the liver of an inorganic turkey looks like.
Gentle Reader, Thanksgiving Day and 17 of the children and grandchildren are coming. The alarm went off at 5:15 so I could put the turkey in for a dinner time of 2 p.m. When I chopped up the giblets, I thought, yes, it is worth it to pay for the organic free range bird. The organs are deep purple-red, the […]
Can we eat pie this Thanksgiving?
Gentle Reader, Are you shopping for Thanksgiving yet? Tell me about your resolve to eat so your joints don’t hurt, the achy knees don’t creak, the back doesn’t twinge when you go from sitting to standing? Have you been eating a dinner plate big on greens with a small portion of meat or fish and the starch in the form […]
What helps when sitting around all day: Italian workshop
Gentle Reader, This is the view from the grand guest house bedroom window at the Villa Lina, a working 80 acre farm in Lazio, just minutes north of Rome in Italy. I was there to write with Natalie Goldberg, the guru I’ve been following for several years. She begins each day with sitting in a meditation room large enough to […]
The Nutritional Management of Chronic Pain
Gentle Reader Are you like me, suffering from chronic pain? Do you wake up every morning and check to see which joints are hurting? A friend of mine describes sitting on the edge of the bed wondering if she can actually stand and walk to the bathroom. I’m better off than that, but the first ½ hour each day is […]
One more injury hiking the Engadin
Gentle Reader, The 3rd and most dramatic day of my hiking-in-the-Alps adventure this past Sept. occurred on day 5. Pedie Jolly and I left the other two hikers at the Via Engadina junction above Grevasalvas where they would pass the “Heidi” house. We trudged on up beyond the tree line to a high lake just below a dramatic escarpment, at […]
Traumatic Injury: my story
Posted on October 18, 2011 Hello, Gentle Reader, In 1989, I lifted, or should I more accurately say, yanked a large drink box full of wine bottles out of the back seat of a two door Datsun. I heard something go in my lower back. I was angry about carrying these bottles up a long flight of stairs to […]
Feldenkrais for back pain
Feldenkrais for back pain? Posted on October 31, 2011 Dear Reader, Feldenkrais for back pain. My neurologist, head doc for theUniversityofWashingtonsports teams, suggested I see Becci Parsons, former dancer, now Awareness Through Movement and private Feldenkrais practitioner. “Watch out for your pants,” she said. “Your clothes can be dangerous to your health.” Her levies were on the baggy side. You […]