LIFESTYLE CHANGES TO MAKE NOW

Lifestyle changes?

Either you make them or they’re made for you.

This picture shows a flat bench with 225 lbs on the rack.

You won’t take this off the rack if you neglected to protect your shoulders with lots of warming up.

What about surgically repaired joints, like the shoulder?

Most advice says don’t lift heavy, and 225 lbs is a heavy lift no matter what you see strongmen do on television.

The older you get the heavier things are. Everything is heavier.

Chances are you’re also heavier.

Not ‘Fat Boy’ heavy, but larger just the same.

Weight control is important to keep track of, so is the weight you lift.

You do lift, don’t you? No?

Why you should lift: So your friends can say things like, “He might be big but he can still bench his weight.”

That’s me. I could bench my weight if I lost the ten pounds I gained just before my high school reunion.

And that’s why I didn’t wear my tight shirt to dinner; I didn’t wear Spanx either and wondered if any of the other guys did.

Lifestyle Changes Part One: Either stay strong or get strong.

Lifestyle Changes Part Two: Booze

You’ve heard it, I’ve heard it, and it’s not always coming from a doctor: Ease up on drinking, party boy.

These are the king-sized liquor bottles that have been in the hour a few years. Seriously, a few years.

Okay, one of them, the Pendleton Whiskey has had a long shelf-life.

They’re all in the recycle because I saved them. The neighborhood walkers know to keep off my yard.

I wouldn’t knock on my door with this array of alcohol on display. Maybe I’ll turn them into yard-art.

The doctor says one drink a day, two if you don’t drink the next day. And you may lose weight.

Does that mean three drinks if you miss the next two days, four if you’re sober the next three days?

Back when I got the chemo cure for cancer in my neck I dropped weight fast. Too fast.

Doc: You’re losing too much weight too fast.

Me: Yep, that’s what beer-weight does. It’s not real weight until after the first two weeks of not drinking, then the pounds count. Every beer drinker knows that.

Doc: That’s not the sort of math we use here.

Since it wasn’t alcohol related cancer, I felt a relief. But it was short lived.

Lifestyle changes means paying attention to avoidable health problems.

Alcohol carries that warning on boomerpdx.

The Air We Breath

If a two year old hands you a toy phone, you’re taking that call.

How about taking a walk with that same kid, their dad, and lifelong friend?

Since it was my kid’s idea to go out into the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, I went.

No one wants wimp out in the first rain, and the trail is closing.

We saw a rare Black Swan, along with deer, nutria, geese, ducks, pelicans, egrets, an eagle.

And a blue heron.

Me (being philosophical): Taking a walk with someone at the beginning of their life at the end of the day feels special.

Wife: So is walking with someone at the end of their life like you.

Me: I’m not at end of my life. The sun isn’t going down on me.

Wife:

Me:

Wife: Okay, boomer.

Me: We’ll go out there tomorrow.