Exercises for a bad back

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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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Heart attack? Climbing high

Gentle Reader, How do you survive trekking at a high altitude?  The second day of our Engadine Valley hike in Switzerland began and ended from the little village of Zuoz, a bus and train ride from Guarda where our 1st day ended. No more sciatica or lower back pain.  No more arthritis troubles with Pain …

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Hiking the Engadine: Avoid arthritis pain

Gentle Reader, I am back safe and sound from my hike through the Engadine Valley in the Alps in Switzerland and the Writers Workshop in Villa Lina north of Rome.  And my body is not suffering from arthritis!  Sitting in the airplane for the long flight to Amsterdam, the first stop of my journey, I …

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