Good News/Bad News

I joined the Akron General Lifestyles gym near my office [she says, patting self on back]. Last night after work I went over for my assessment session.

Oops.

Okay, the Good News is I joined a gym.
The Bad News is I'm 57 years of age and I'm out of frigging shape!

GN: My aerobic capacity is 80% above average for my age.
BN: My waist-to-hip ratio is 74% which, as all women over 50 know, is not good if you're trying to avoid heart disease.

GN: My blood pressure is Good.
BN: My blood pressure should be Excellent. It's always been excellent before. Oh, yeah. In the past two months I've thrown every stressor into my own path with a) finding a new job; b) quitting my job; c) packing up my house; d) moving out; e) driving across the country, 2600 miles in four days all by myself; f) starting a new job; and g) switching from living alone with Rudi to being in a household with five humans and six animals. Umm, if my blood pressure weren't elevated by now, I'd be dead!

GN: I did ten or twelve pushups. I though I would do one.
BN: I have to stop being lazy, get off my ass, get out of bed earlier, and get to the gym.

(Sidenote: every time I think about trying to facilitate getting up earlier and getting to the gym, I remember how PianoLady used to have her twin boys sleep in sweatpants and T-shirts instead of pajamas. That way she didn't have to dress them in the morning. Just roll out of bed and go-go-go. Maybe I'll start sleeping in my workout clothes. Sounds fetching, huh?)

GN: Probably 90% of the people I work with are younger than I and active. A bunch of the guys go to the gym at least once a week at noon and play basketball. I'm motivated to stay in shape to be able to keep up with these young whippersnappers.
BN: The procrastination has ended. Oh, I guess that's really the good news.

The worst news of the hour, though was the fact that I'm now measuring 67 inches in height. Bummer. I've been 5'8" since my 40s. I love being 5'8". When I was in elementary school and high school, I always wanted to be petite and blonde. The petite girls always seemed to be popular and have lots of friends. I wasn't popular, had one friend, and always thought anyone who hung around me was just there because I played the piano so well.

At some point in adulthood, I realized I was 5'8" and started loving it. Last year I was thrilled when platform shoes became popular again, and invested in a couple of pair. This made me 5'10" or so. I love being able to look eye-to-eye with tall men, or hug even taller men without hurting my neck.

What does it say that I'm now only 5'7"? It says I'm a*g*i*n*g.

For all the time I've had a profile on Match, I've railed against men who stated their height as if they were 45, failing to recognize or admit that men start shrinking at 45. Egads, now I've started to shrink.

If you haven't figured out from my ranting here, this is a big deal to me. Even bigger than my waist-to-hip ratio or, even worse, my body mass index, which I ain't gonna tell you!

But stay tuned. I'm determined to make a change. When the young man who did my assessment asked what I wanted from my program, I told him I didn't want to be using a walker when I'm 77 and I knew I needed to start now to prevent osteoporosis. (Actually, I needed to have started ten years ago, but I didn't, so I'll start now.)

Stay tuned. I've never met a challenge I didn't like.