Category: Mental Health (Page 3 of 3)

Bike Ride Recap of the 2019 Buckeye Breakaway

August 10, 2019 / Chris Brown / 4 Comments

Fun. Challenging. Hot. Lots of food and laughs. Exhausting. Sleep Depriving. Happy. Silly. Tiring. Inspiring. Great.

The recap of the bike ride for 2019 Buckeye Breakaway with my team the SOB’s was all these things and more. Take a couple minutes to watch the video below with the Skiers on Bikes, read this recap and learn about my experiences this year!!

About my bike:
My bike is a 1988 53″ Cannondale with downtube shifters that we bought from Craigslist in 2012. The previous owner barely rode it and it was like new. Except for the bent fork. I suspect during one of their first rides, they ran into a ditch and then didn’t ride again. Then 24 years later I bought it. The bike is 31 years old (half my age!) and still has a lot of umph left.

My Goals for the Buckeye Breakaway:

This year for the ride, I used the idea of an A, B and C goal to help me define success. Overall, I met with success because I

A) HAD A LOT of FUN! Lots of silly times and fun jokes along the way.

B) Met my fundraising goal and even went over. Thanks to all those who provided support.

C) Rode all 75 miles the first day, but only 36 miles the second day. So this goal fell a little short, but I feel the effort was an overall success.

This was my annual big ride event (you can read about all my yearly experiences here.) It’s like reading 9 years of a bike ride recap! Click thru to find out:

How many MS rides have I ridden?
Why do I ride?
What’s it like?
What do we eat?
Where do we sleep?
How long does it take?
Is it hard?
Is it fun?
Is it hot?
Did it rain?

There were many funny and inspiring stories from the 2019 ride that I want to include in this bike ride recap:
Here are just a few stories:

Second morning as we were riding out of town, the sun was coming up. A little rooster was Cack-a-Doo-Doodle-Doing all over the place seeing all the bike riders going past. It was like he was talking to us! While the seat was uncomfortable, the weather was perfect.
We rode past a whole group of goats (flock? gaggle?) and I had to stop to get a photo. Reminded me of goat yoga. I think I’m the only one that thinks Goat Cycling is funny. Okay, I’ve got a quirky sense of humor.
We got a corn photo too, and got a SAG driver in trouble for stopping to take our picture!
There was a blue bike on the ride that had a seat approximately 9 feet off the ground. I don’t know how the guy even got on it!
While riding up some steep hills Sunday morning I was super inspired by the handcyclist in front of me. I don’t know that she had MS, but she sure had a whole lot of spunk, heart and determination! I think she did better than I did on day two for sure this year!
I also met a guy who posed under the big orange inflatable for a photo. He had a bunch of medals around his neck from many different years. When I congratulated him, he said, “Yeah, I’ve ridden this 15 years… 14 of them after I was diagnosed with MS.”

Wow. That’s inspiration.

I’m glad I did it. Although I’ve spent the last few days trying to get my “oomph” back, I’m already to commit to next year! How about you? Want to join us?

Do you have a big physical challenging event each year? What is it? How do you prepare? If it doesn’t go exactly to plan, how do you regroup? What’s next on your goal list? Let me know by leaving a phone message at 330-970-6662 or an email to Chris@BecomingElli.com. Thanks!

You Don’t Have to Listen

August 3, 2019 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

When that little voice in your head says “Are you kidding?!? You are too old.” You don’t have to listen.

When you think about a new challenge and think “I can’t do that! That’s too much/too tall/too long/ too hard.” You have a choice. You don’t have to listen to those negative thoughts.

Or when you look in the mirror and the mirror looks back as if to say “No, not you.” YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LISTEN.

It took me a long time to learn this. Who am I kidding? I’m still trying to learn this. Ha ha!

It’s easy to forget that the one person who is holding me back is… me.

Jill and I have talked about getting past negative voices during a podcast about a year ago. We have a list of mantras to download (just provide an email) to help you reframe your challenges.

This weekend I’m riding in the Buckeye Breakaway, a 150 mile fundraiser. Having a strong mental game feels just about as important as being physically prepared.

The ride is going to be hot. It’s going to be long. It will start at what I call “dark thirty.” And for me, it will probably end in mid afternoon when it’s really really hot.

The purpose of the ride is to help support research about MS. There are around 20,000 people in Ohio that have MS. There is no known cause. No known cure. And it mostly affects women. (My sister is one of those who have been diagnosed with MS.) In truth, this is one of my favorite weekends of the year because I get to ride bicycles with my friends and enjoy being with a fun group of people. There will be lots of food, laughs and good times.

I’m going to remember to hydrate, use sunscreen and plenty of chamois butter. And to keep my focus on the positive to ride with a light heart.

Look for a recap in the next week or so from me to hear about how it went.

QUICK UPDATE on the following Tuesday: You don’t have to listen to negative thoughts. But after interviewing one of our experts for the podcast, I remembered her saying about “if your heart rate doesn’t drop, you should finish for the day.” Check out my post this coming Saturday to hear what happened!

Kayaking: Trying a New Sport

July 6, 2019 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

Have you ever been invited to do something fun, but you hesitated and said “NO” — Why did you say no? What’s that about?

Maybe because I’m getting older I find I feel like saying no because it’s outside my comfort zone.

I am trying to be more adventuresome and not say no to things. I want to continue to try new sports. Last month I participated in a terrain race. Definitely not in my comfort zone.

Last week a friend of mine invited me to go kayaking. She has two kayaks, with the floatation devices (AKA lifejackets), paddles, and a clever waterproof pack for valuables that will float if the boat gets flipped.

She did all the work getting them loaded into the back of her truck and getting everything ready. All I had to do was show up!

So why did I feel like hesitating? Probably because I didn’t have much experience kayaking.

When I was a teenager, I used to play on little sailboats, (Sunfish and Sailfish boats mostly) and I was almost fearless. I was very confident. Somewhere I left that Chris behind. Since I really didn’t have much experience maneuvering a kayak, I was coming up with reasons why not instead of saying yes. And although, I have used a canoe before (maybe 3 times), I have never tried kayaking or paddle boarding.

Guess What?? It was so much fun!

We kayaked by putting the boats in at an inlet of a lake called Mogadore Reservoir. There were lots of inlets with trees woods and wildlife. The sun was shining and there were lots of birds flying around. I’m not sure if they were blue herons or some type of loon.

The water was high (but not too high like the river walk I wrote about last week) and the lake was very cold. Just little ripples of wind showed up on the surface of the lake, no waves. In fact, in some places, it was downright hot on the water. I believe that the air temperature got up to 91 degrees, but it wasn’t too bad out on the lake when I’d dip the paddle in the water and let it run down my arm a little to cool off! So glad that I had the sunscreen on and I wore a baseball cap to help shade my face.

After my initial hesitation, my feelings turned into relaxation and enjoyment. What a fun way to spend a few hours on a sunny afternoon. I’m so glad I said YES!! I have to remember that it’s a fun thing to say yes! I’m definitely going kayaking again and I would recommend it to other women over 50 who are looking for a little bit of adventure outside their comfort zone.

I am trying to remember to try new things and not be too hard on myself for feeling hesitant.

About Kayaking
Kayaking has become a popular sport popular water sport. It seems like it has surpassed went windsurfing and sailboating, but is probably rivaled by paddleboarding. Canoeing has been popular for many many years. Kayaks are great for floating down the river (as long as the river isn’t too high!) or exploring the nooks and crannies of a lake nearby lake.

While I don’t have any statistics about how many kayaks have been sold in the last 5 years, it seems like this is a sport that is gaining momentum.

According to a report from the outdoor foundation.org posted on the American Canoe Association website, in 2017, 49% of the US population participated at least once in some sort of outdoor activity during 2017.

WOW! Half of the people in the US. Wow, that seems like a lot. But take a look at page 11 of the report. After age 50 how much that drops off. And outdoor activities for women crosses indoor activities at around age 20. Interesting. No surprise that the report said that the Outdoor Foundation says that walking, hiking and running are the most popular outdoor activities in the USA.

How about you? What new sports are you trying? Or thinking about trying? What seems too scary or outside your comfort zone to try? Leave a message below or call our voice mail at 330-970-6662 to leave a voice message. Let us know if it is okay to add you to an upcoming podcast.

Doubling Up with a Walk and Talk

June 29, 2019 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

Jill and I are having so much fun building the community of Becoming Elli, interviewing guests for our Fit Strong Women Over 50 Podcast and developing resources that women like us would want (like our Fitness Foods downloadable recipe booklet.)

As you can imagine, it takes a little coordination and planning. It was really sunny last Friday. Rather than sit in a meeting in front of our computers, we decided to do a “walk and talk.”

I love when we do that. We catch up on what is happening. So often the sentences start with – “Oh! Yeah! I wanted to tell you about …” or “I found something that I think would work for…”

Walking, while we talk, helps keep the blood circulating in the brain and we rarely have a moment when we say something like “hmm, there was something I needed to tell you, but I can’t remember now.”

Sometimes I’ll bring a little notebook to jot things down, but more often, I just use my phone to keep a reminder note.

This was the first day since all that rain we’d been having in Ohio. We had more than 7 inches in June, which is unusual for around here. There was an enormous amount of water running in the Cuyahoga River. This river was in the news recently for the 50th anniversary of the clean-up efforts. In the 1970’s this river became famous because it caught fire in Cleveland with all the oil and pollution in it. With a lot of work and legislation it has been resorted. You can see it is healthy now thanks to all the focus on it.

Jill and I met at Fred Fuller Park near the trail. One side of the trail was closed. We didn’t walk even half a mile and the other direction was closed for flooding as well. So we drove a little farther up the trail to Brady’s Leap and continued our walk and talk.

Take a look at the rushing water where the Cuyahoga River goes under Main Street in Kent, Ohio! It’s usually pretty calm right through here. Kayakers have been warned to not try to enjoy the river until it goes down. A few kayakers even had to be rescued when their kayaks got caught in trees that were hanging.

I’m not sure how far we walked, but I ended up with a total of 6.4 miles for the day. I guessestimate that we walked was just under 5 miles. That’s what I call doubling up!

What a pleasant way to enjoy a meeting!

Do you ever double up to get work done and exercise at the same time?

Inspiration, Motivation and Discipline Podcast #35

June 11, 2019 / Chris Brown / 4 Comments

Looking for inspiration, motivation and discipline? Podcast #35 Becoming Elli Community

In episode 35 of the Fit, Strong Women Over 50 podcast for the Becoming Elli community, Jill and Chris discuss inspiration, motivation and discipline.

We discuss attraction versus fear, commitment, accountability, the carrot and the stick as well as approach and avoidance.

Listen to the conversation where we talk about:

What’s the difference between inspiration and motivation?
Where does discipline come in?
How can you get motivated?
What do you do when you’re not feeling inspired to eat healthy or to work out?
How do you use the Becoming Elli community to help stay motivated or inspired?

More inspirational and motivational women mentioned in this podcast:

Norwegian Elkhound mix - Lucky — Lucky posing October 2008

The Power of Pets – Missing Lucky Dog

May 25, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Regular readers may have noticed that I have missed posting lately. I guess the main reason is that there has been a loss at my house. I’ve really been missing our 14-year-old dog Lucky, since he has passed away May 14.

Lucky posing October 2008

Obviously the loss of a pet doesn’t compare to the loss of a human loved one, but to deny those emotions doesn’t make them go away. If you’re not a dog lover, you may want to skip this post and check out some of our other ones.

Lucky with Jean at Bow Wow Beach years ago

You probably recognize Lady, but I’m not sure I’ve put any photos of Lucky on Becoming Elli because he really hasn’t come on a lot of walks during the last few months. I used to do many many walks with Lucky. He loved getting the miles in and only seemed to get tired in the heat, I think because of his double coat.

Lucky on the left, Lady on the right.

We got him at just a few weeks old when the mother dog abandoned the litter. He had his own independent personality. Lucky loved chasing a tennis ball, swimming at the dog park and chewing on a good bone.

Lucky and Kingsley

Obviously he was a mixed breed, and although I think his mother was part German Shepherd, he seemed like he was mostly Norwegian Elkhound.

Lucky at age three (right) with Jean in May of 2008.

Like most pets, he definitely become part of the family. All of my pets seem to really wiggle their way into my heart and I talk to them like they are people.

Lucky and Lady at Christmas time a few years ago. I took them for a walk downtown and logged just over 5 miles that day. It was unseasonably warm for December.

I think Lady and the two cats, Kingsley and Sasha, have gotten so much more attention since Lucky is gone. He required quite a bit of care the last few months.

This is supposed to be me, dressed as Kingsley for a Saturday Smile – illustration credit Bitmoji.

While Lady doesn’t appear to be missing Lucky, I can’t claim to know what is in her mind. I believe she is enjoying the added attention and dog walks.

Lucky on the towpath in the fall. I remember this day because it was a 6 mile walk and I was amazed when I looked at my tracker when we got home.

Walking with a dog really takes my mind off of the time and effort it takes to get exercise.

The other day, during one of our recent walks, I figured out that Lady is my age in dog years! I’m doing my best to enjoy being with her and getting more walks. Good-bye Lucky dog…

Hormone Health for Women Over 50 with Jeannie Beaudin

March 12, 2019 / Chris Brown / 2 Comments

Fit Strong Women Over 50 Podcast Episode #29

In Episode #29 of Fit Strong Women Over 50, Jill and Chris interview Jeannie Beaudin, a recently retired pharmacist who specialized in balancing women’s hormones for over 10 years, while she owned her own pharmacy.

Her clients appreciated her broad knowledge of non-drug, natural and standard treatment options.

As a compounding pharmacist specializing in balancing women’s hormones, Jeannie would take time to thoroughly review the hormone-related symptoms, explain available choices and discuss the woman’s preferences for treatment.

In today’s podcast, Jeannie explains how she became known as “The Hormone Lady”. The podcast explains how women can work together with a compounding pharmacist and the doctor to improve hormone health. Four levels of treatment are outlined.

She describes how she and her husband eat following a health scare 14 years ago. “No white flour and I make my own bread.” She mentioned Michael Pollan’s rules for eating: “Eat real food. Mostly plants. Not too much.”

Also in this episode:
Chris and Jill talk about their winter training and look to the spring.

Veggie Challenge – how did you prepare your vegetable of the week?

Reading to Reduce Stress and How to Find a Good Book

January 17, 2019 / Jill McCauslin / 4 Comments

I think reading to reduce stress is a great idea. Shortly after my husband died, I met frequently with a bereavement counselor that the hospice service provided to me. She was helpful to me and made a difficult time a bit better. Being a person who loves to research things, I asked her if there were any books she thought I should read. She thought about it and suggested The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion’s book about the death of her husband.

I had already read that and so the counselor thought about it and said, “well, just read a mystery book.” That made me laugh and I said I can do that.

We’re always talking about ways to improve our health and our fitness. Of course, that’s important. In our podcast episode 25, Setting Goals for the New Year, Chris said she wants to work on the mental aspect of health. We talked about focus and meditation and ways to quiet the mind.

Thinking about ways to improve our mental health made me remember that conversation with the bereavement counsellor. Reading a mystery or any other book for entertainment can be a great way to reduce stress, relieve anger or boredom, and improve your mood.

I’ve always been a big mystery reader so I loved that counselor’s advice. As I’ve gotten older, though, I must watch that I don’t choose a book that’s too disturbing. I really don’t want to get stressed out over gory details.

Finding a Good Book

If you’re not a big reader, you might wonder how to find a good stress-relieving book. I have some ideas on that.

Get Recommendations

Look at what book clubs are reading. My local bookstore has an area where all the book clubs have their books shelved for their members. I like to go browse that area to see what’s hot on the book club circuit.
Check out book reviews and also look at Amazon’s “If you liked this, you’ll probably like that” feature. I like to see what my friends on Goodreads are reading.
Ask your friends. Ask here on the Becoming Elli page or join our Facebook group and ask there. People love to share their ideas on books. If you visit your local library, check out what’s on the “hot sellers” area or ask the librarian for advice.

Reread a Favorite

Go and find the books you enjoyed as a child or teen. Rereading them can be a real treat. Of course, they can also make you wonder what you were thinking at that age. Over the past few years, I’ve reread the Chronicles of Narnia. I loved those books when I was probably about 11. They hold up though the religious themes were stronger than I remembered. I also reread Little Women. That was enjoyable but a very different read than when I was a girl.
Read a classic you’ve always regretted missing or reread one that you love. Every 5 to 7 years, I decide to read Jane Eyre again. I also love to reread Jane Austen. A year or two ago, I picked up Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities and was pleased that I enjoyed it.
Choose a favorite author. Perhaps you loved a book by a particular author. If so, go see what else he or she wrote.

Borrow from Movies or Different Genres

Read the book of a movie that’s coming out that you know you want to see. Or, if you’ve already seen a movie that you enjoyed, pick up the book that it’s based on.
Check out some of the current young adult series. They’re often enjoyable and usually pretty straight-forward. There was that whole period of dystopia series (The Hunger Games, Divergent, etc.) but I think you can find other genres now in the young adult area. I find these books to be great selections for audio books.
If you normally read romances, maybe try a mystery. If you normally read mysteries, maybe try some science fiction.

Reading to Reduce Stress

These are some of the ideas of where to find a book for reading to reduce stress. Remember, there are times to read books that might disturb you or upset you but we’re talking about reading to reduce stress. Therefore, try to select books that you will enjoy. If you’re having to force yourself to read it, put the book aside and try a different one.

Links:

Finding a Good Book

Get Recommendations

Reread a Favorite

Borrow from Movies or Different Genres

Reading to Reduce Stress