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So I thought of something else this afternoon that I do to keep my morale high.

Because I do so much with Pilates and weight lifting, and other physical tasks around the house (don't forget that 32 lb. grandson who lives four doors down from us!), I get a regular massage. And I tell her to do deep tissue. It allows me to touch base with my whole body once a week and see where I need to work on stuff. For instance, today I knew my back was tight from having helped H move a heavy outdoor decorative shelving unit a couple of days ago. But it was hard for me to pinpoint exactly where in my back I should target for foam roller or tennis ball. She worked on me and told me exactly where I should focus my home treatment to get more mobility in my back again. Where you feel pain is sometimes not where the problem is - it can be referring pain which always throws me off. I mean, she can be working on my upper left back where I think I tweaked something, but it's not actually tight there; then she'll move to the right side and find a huge knot that's pulling on the muscles from the left side. So spending time on releasing that right side would be more important that day, than the left side.

I've been getting massages for many, many years, and whenever I've moved, it's taken me a few tries to find someone I like. My previous massage therapist in CA was actually a Master Pilates instructor, so very versed on anatomy and movement. I don't think we ever stopped talking the entire 90 minutes. I was always picking his brain about movement and corrective exercise. I miss him, but I do like my current therapist, too.

So yea, I thought of this while I was on the table this afternoon. It's a BIG part of my morale related to keeping my body mobile.

I go to a local CrossFit. I am by no means competitive but I really love how varied the workouts are and the community around it is so supportive. I started going 10 years ago and when I moved to the USA I started at a box near my house. It’s been a lifeline. I met a woman there who I now consider my closest friend and it’s been such a great experience. I know CrossFit is intimidating, and I am not athletic, but you can scale the workouts and compete against yourself. And it’s Fun!! I’m turning 60 this year (gah!!) and I’m in great shape. My friends who don’t regularly exercise had a much worse menopause than I did and I absolutely credit fitness.

number4, I'm so jealous!!! I have a great chiropractor whose sister in in the same office, she is a massage therapist. I'd love to go to the both of them, so people do that. He has worked on my back for years and we've found that referred pain can go all kinds of places. Like my L5 can send pain around to my pelvic abdominal area and I'll be all worried about IBS or something, but then he adjusts it and it's better until the next time I do too much in the garden.

Now his sister I went to only one time (you have to strip naked, but I'm such a sissy I really didn't like that. Plus, I started crying for no particular reason, telling her my story. I'm sure you can figure out why that happened...she said it's amazingly common for people to release all kinds of pent-up emotions during a massage. Who knew.) She started working at the back of my skull and when I flinched, she said "you need my brother to work on this!" I said "He does!"

TENSION!!!

Do you have to get nekkid? :O