Resolutions, hell-o-lutions. How to keep them.

Gentle Reader, Here we are again at the first of the New Year.  2013 is going to be IT.  That last doctor visit convinced me once and for all that I must do something about my weight/exercise program or I will die sooner than later. How many people do you know who begin again to …

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What can help the pain after an accident?

Help for pain after an accident? Gentle Reader, A woman I know suffered another bike accident on her commute.  She is in her late 40s and this is not her first tumble.  It is taking a long time to heal and she is suffering miserably, no fun any time and least of all at the …

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Blue Christmas

Gentle Reader, Does the over whelming need to be cheerful this season get you down?  Perhaps you are like me and Christmas brings memories, and some of them are not go wonderful.  It feels like an emergency.  I have to figure something out or I will go down in a wash of self pity. The …

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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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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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