Weighty matters: Battling inner conflicts

As I barrel to the official retirement age of 60, I find myself still not having a handle on maintaining weight loss. I have had a few good weight loss years – 1983, 1992, 2010, 2016 and 2021 are ones which come to mind. But they are always followed by me slacking off….taking my foot off the gas, and then of course, the weights creeps back on.

Since about November last year, I have been unable to fit into my company-issued uniforms. Truth be told, it was a few months before that…..I was squeezing myself into the ones I had made the seamstress take in. At the time the uniforms were delivered in late 2021, I had been on a really good eating pattern which had led to steady weight loss. I had reached to 199 lbs. So I had asked her to take in 2 of the 3 sets of uniform that were noticeably baggy. “Leave 1 set….just in case.” I guess I know myself.

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Seon 180 podcast on Dementia, with Dr Kester Nedd

If you have ever found your car keys in the fridge, or driven back home because you swore you left your coffee mug on the counter but later found it on your desk, could you be presenting with symptoms of early onset Alzheimer’s disease?

Alzheimer’s is just one form of Dementia. Listen to this Seon 180 podcast featuring Grenadian Dr Kester Nedd. The topic is personal for host Leslie-Ann Seon, as her mother had Vascular Dementia. It’s also relevant to me because my maternal grandmother had Alzheimer’s.

https://fb.watch/hlTCNlZQTH/?mibextid=6IxyOt

Thoughts About Aging

As you get older, do your thoughts change about aging? Do you see visible signs that lets you know you are getting older? I used to have neutral thoughts about aging. Maybe it was because my parents and all their relatives seemed to look the same from year to year. Then when I turned 40, a wave of panic set in. I started to draw a mind map of my thoughts about aging, while on a plane somewhere over the Caribbean Sea.

The signs of aging were evident before that milestone. In my 30’s, on March 29, 2003 to be exact, my eye spotted a grey hair peeking out from my curly afro. I froze. Next came a battle between me and it. I finally succeeded with the help of my tweezers.  The hair now rests on a page in one of my journals with the caption “My 1st grey hair!”

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Are You Ready For The Big R

For many people, the events of the past 10 months have understandably brought certain financial questions to the fore, chief among them being: Is my emergency saving fund in good shape? Am I carrying too much bad debt? Does my budget realistically reflect my current reality? Is my financial portfolio adequately diversified? Do I have enough of a safety net by way of insurance?
— Read on www.jamaicaobserver.com/style/are-you-ready_212630

My 52nd birthday

NB. Click on links to view videos

Today is my birthday! Always excited to see the #Twitter greeting.

I’d had initial plans to check into a guest house in Western Grenada Sunday and stay till today, but they quoted more than I thought I should pay. Then a second option came up and I decided not to do that. Yesterday I drove up that side and came back to my flat, all in quick time. Twenty-one x 12 miles enables that.

What should I do on my birthday then? I decided to make no plans, except for the 1 pm physiotherapy appointment. One of the best ways for me to spend a day is not to have a schedule. I value freedom.

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The night I thought I’d reached my expiry date

This could be any of a milion and one nights…..just ask the brother and one of the Aunt-Doctors who have received ….dare I say willingly(? (-_-))…..my calls in the wee hours of the morning when a panic attack was taking a stranglehold. Thankfully, those are behind me (I think!!) and it is probably for that reason, why I remained calm, even as a headache rocked me for 3 days.

It started at work. Actually, it started with me having a cup of Instant Coffee at work one Wednesday. Back in 2008, I had converted to brewed coffee. What a blessed day that was, although the shock of the caffeine that first time had made me feel I was going to take off like a rocket at first. So it is very rare now, for me to drink anything but brewed coffee. After that Instant cuppa Wednesday, I felt tinglings in my head. Added to that, I had changed the desk I sat at and the height of the chair at the desk didn’t seem to agree with my neck. Slowly, I felt the pain creep up.

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Thoughts about aging

As you get older, do your thoughts change about aging? Do you see visible signs that lets you know you are getting older? I was on a plane a few years ago and started scribbling a mind map and notes on aging. Just wrote it up as an article which was published on The Caribbean Current.

Where were you when you heard this #song?

I was driving home a few nights ago, listening to The Soul of Grenada when this song came on. Within a nano second, I flashed back to a house party I had gone to, about 32 years ago (I’m not THAT old though!) as a teenager. The image of the shades-of-brown striped shirt with gold lines (hey….it was the early 80’s!!), the tan coloured pants and the high heeled thong slippers (not so good for dancing) I was wearing was vivid in my mind. I even remember who I was dancing with too! -_-

Then I started wondering……..am I getting old? You know they say that the older you get, the more your short term memory diminishes while you have vivid memories of looooooooooooooooong ago.  Le Sigh  🙁

So, where were you when you heard this song? Can you remember?