I want to be an athlete again.

[Bertha Venation]

Up until just a few years out of college, I was an athlete. Marginal in talent, I worked hard and played hard at tennis, racquetball, softball.

I just ran into a friend from high school (my best friend, if she'd known it, I don't know if she did) on FB.

She is still an athlete, and I am not a bit surprised.

I look at my 260 lb body, and I don't see a fat woman. I only see me. But I'm surprised that my body won't do things. I can't walk up more than one flight of stairs without having to stop for breath. I have to stretch everytime I stand up so that I don't limp and waddle down the hall. I try the simplest of exercises to try to get busy again - wall push ups - and think, "look at yourself!" I can do the damned push ups, but I see what I'm reduced to to try to begin again.

Even though I played ball up until about ten years ago, I'm twenty years removed from the time when I could call myself an athlete.

I must say that if I were to make a date to meet my friend again in the near future, I'd be horribly embarrassed.

I want to be an athlete again.

If I were to begin to lose weight, is 46 too old to become an athlete again?

[hvn_nbr_2]

1. 46 is so not too old.

Well, depending on your definition of "athlete." You're highly unlikely to get into the kind of shape you were in high school, but you can definitely get in shape.

I'm 61 now and I can do more pushups now than at any time since college. It's only a third of what I could do in high school, but it's still twice as many as it took to pass P.E. in high school. A couple years ago, doing even one pushup was very difficult and felt like it was going to injure me. I was older than you are now when I started to get back in shape, and it took me probably 5 years to get serious about it.

I've read about research showing that weight training can be beneficial even for people in their 80s.

[Bertha Venation]

2. Your experience buoys me.

My definition of "athlete" is, I suppose, one who can exert oneself physically for sport without tiring and falling to the sidelines. Pretty simple.

Thanks, hvn_nbr_2. :hi:

[XemaSab]

3. I hear ya

Asthma + back problems + knee problems + unemployment = me being really out of shape. :(

[Bertha Venation]

6. ah, XemaSab

:hug:

[XemaSab]

12. .

:pals:

[malta blue]

4. baby steps Bertha....

I was at 217 lb about 6 months ago. No one could "see" how I was that heavy, but the scale does not lie.

I started weight watchers, and did that for a few months. I lost 20 lbs. Then I stopped - and no matter what I did, the pounds would not come off.

Now I have started using my elliptical, and little by little, the pounds are coming off, and I look thinner. And those days where I want to eat a tray of brownies, well, I do it. Just as long as it's not every day - hell, you only live once and if you don't feel like you got the "splurge" then the craving will never go away.


You can be an athlete again. Just take the small steps, and soon they will grow. I have several high school friends on FB who are "real" athletes - team usa cyclists. I know exactly how you feel about feeling embarrassed to see them.

:hug:

[Bertha Venation]

7. it's the exercise, then

the thing that is hardest will take me to what I want most. hmm.

[VenusRising]

5. No, it's not too old.

And you should get out and play tennis. You don't have to go crazy running after the ball. Just a nice volley with no score. It will get your muscles used to playing again, and you'll be running around before you know it. Then, the pounds will start melting off.

This was the way it was in my experience. My husband and I had to do something after spending months inside during winter. We can't play normally because Zodiak has a heart condition, but as long as we're not too intense, it's been great for both of us. I actually can't wait until it warms up so we can get out and play.

:hi:

[Bertha Venation]

8. i think there are tennis walls

at the big park not too far from home. I wonder how much an inexpensive racquet goes for these days.

Thanks. :)

[VenusRising]

9. Tennis walls are great!

I wish there was one close by because I would use it. They can really get you moving around.

And you can find an inexpensive racket for about $20 the last time I looked.

Have fun!! It's the most important thing that will keep you playing. :hug:

[no name no slogan]

10. You're never too old to be an athlete

But in my case (other than my gymrat/fitness stuff), I've decided I'm best as an athletic supporter.

[Bertha Venation]

21. Bah!

:)

[livetohike]

11. You can do it Bertha! Use that as your motivation

:hi: and :hug:

[Bertha Venation]

22. thank you, livetohike

i'd like to hike too :)

[dembotoz]

13. older than you by about 10 years

have lost about 25 lbs over the past 10 months or so

i am hardly slender, but i am in better shape than before.

My quality of life is better

Am I an athlete?????

if you consider walking a sport--then i guess yes.

and some light kickboxing--than i guess yes.

[Bertha Venation]

23. more inspiration

thank you, dembotoz :)

[InternalDialogue]

14. 46 is absolutely not too old.

My mother got her masters in physical education, and by the time she had me she was 29 and long out of academia. But she played with us kids every day, and when we were old enough to play organized sports, she was our tutor, our coach, our playmate, and our practice buddy. Especially me. I'd ask her to play catch every day, hit grounders to me until we were both worn out, and shoot baskets until it was too dark to see.

She had stopped being a PE teacher long before then and got on into her mid-40s while raising a family of six, taking care of the house and still coaching and playing with us kids -- teens by then. She coached softball teams for my sister and was an assistant coach on almost every one of my baseball, football and basketball teams. When she wasn't coaching, she was playing in the yard or driveway during the week and cheering from the stands during the games.

She always told me she was getting too old for it, but as long as I asked, she'd come outside and be my opponent or teammate.

Her conditioning was never better than when she was in her 20s, but her age never kept her from being the best trainer and adviser I ever had. I learned from her that it wasn't physique or conditioning that made her an athlete, it was her motivation and love of sports.

If you've got those, then you're an athlete.

[Bertha Venation]

24. that's a great post, I.D.

I appreciate it very much. What a mom.

:)

[KitchenWitch]

15. Now that I am over my pneumonia

I am going to start working out again.

We have the Wii Fit, the resistance bands, and several workout DVDs. I have worked out on the Wii Fit and you do break a sweat.

I weigh more than I would like, but really I want to tone myself. I am not going for the six pack as much as I wish to convert some of my body fat to muscle.

[Bertha Venation]

25. Why didn't I know you had pneumonia?

:(

:hug: I'm glad you're over it.

I want a Wii but we can't afford it. :(

[Wetzelbill]

16. Yes you definitely can

Take it slow at first, because if you try to do too much right off not only do you risk injury, but you just get terribly sore and it makes you not want to go out and do it again.

[Bertha Venation]

26. slow

thanks, Wetzelbill :)

[LynzM]

17. Not too old, dude :)

Never!

Find the thing that is *fun* for you, that makes you want to exercise for the *fun* of it, not the work... you can do it! :bounce:

[Bertha Venation]

27. fun, eh?

Then to the tennis wall it is. Riding the stationary bike isn't horrible, but I wouldn't call it fun. Thanks :)

[bluesbassman]

18. Something to keep in mind as a former athelete..

is that you need to take it slow and easy. Your mind will tell you that you can do any of the things that you used to do, but your body will let you know real fast what you can currently do. The key is to not let your desire be hampered by you present condition. It took a while to get out of shape, and it'll take a while to get back up to speed.

Best of luck to you, it will be worth it!:hi:

[Bertha Venation]

29. keeping in mind that my body can't do those things again - yet

That's going to be hard, because once I'm out there I'm going to want to go hard. I don't want to hurt myself.

Thanks, bluesbassman. :)

[Kali]

19. Start with swimmimg!

I think you said you were a beach girl - can you find an indoor pool for winter? So much easier on the joints to get started!

[Bertha Venation]

30. Mrs. V. and I have talked about that.

I'd like to put it into action. Thanks for the reminder, Kali. :)

[old mark]

20. BV, if you had any athletic gifts, you still have them and will have them till you die.

Take all the time you need, but start moving again - easily to avopid injury - and you will see it start to come back.

If you want it, you can do it.

mark

[Bertha Venation]

31. really?

That is very encouraging, Mark.

I can envision myself playing softball. I want to do that more than anything. It's nice to think I still have the talent (at least, at the level of talent I had).

Thank you :)

[Taverner]

28. 46 is the perfect age for Marathons and Triathalons

Seriously - there's something we 30 and 40 somethings have over the wimply little 20 somethings

[Bertha Venation]

32. Ooooh, Taverner

May I leave those to you, please? :scared:

:)

[Taverner]

33. Well I've done one tri, and although I wasn't bleeding out of my nipples

But I can't say the experience was fun. I crossed the finish line - that was my only goal and I did it. And most of the finish line crossers were folks in their 30's and 40's. The 20-somethings had all bailed early :rofl:

But I'll bet you could run marathons :thumbsup:

[bmbmd]

34. Years ago, I assumed care of a 560 pound

Hispanic male named Raoul. He presented the Methodist Hospital ER with biventricular failure, diabetes, renal insufficiency and respiratory failure, and got admitted to my service by chance. He was about 21 at the time. After several weeks on the ventilator, seen by every subspecialist in the book, and dialyzed until his kidneys recovered, he had diuresed about a hundred pounds and was able to be discharged to home care. He asked me what he could do to hasten his recovery, and I told him that meaningful improvement was unlikely-he was doomed to an early death due to morbid obesity.
I saw him again a month or so later with a repeat of the same scenario-multiple organ system failure due to morbid obesity. After he recovered enough to be discharged, he asked me the same question, and I gave him the same answer. "But I'm too young to die", he said. "I've never even had a girlfriend." He never kept his office appointments, and I did not see him again.

Three years later, on Valentine's Day, I took my wife to lunch at a very nice Mexican restaraunt. The waiter came to take my order, and then said " You, know, you really shouldn't eat that stuff-too much fat and salt and you might get really fat and you might die". I looked up into that handsome young face of that fine, strapping, athletic looking waiter-and realized that I was looking at Raoul.

He told me that the day he had left the hospital, he went to Maxey Park and sat in his car watching the ducks. He wept because he knew that what I had said was true-he was doomed to death because of his morbid obesity. He said that there was a picnic table about twenty-five yards from where he was parked, and he decided to walk over to sit on the bench. It took all of his strength and all of his breath to walk twenty five yards, and then he sat down and wept some more. After a good cry, and regaining his breath, he got up and walked back to the car.

The words he said next may be the most inspirational thing I have heard in thirty years of practicing medicine, and changed the way I look at life. "And then, after I rested, I got up and did it again". Doing it again, it seems, is the key.

He spent all afternoon walking back and forth from the bench, crying, huffing and puffing. He told me that he could clearly remember the first time he walked all the way around the lake-about a half-mile. Atkins diet, lots of water to drink, no sweets, no alcohol.
Within a year, he had lost a hundred pounds. In two years, he could run a marathon. Now, three years later, he weighed under two hundred pounds, was married, and had a job. His wife was expecting.

To this day, he is my favorite patient. Sadly, he was killed by a drunk driver a few years later, but I was blessed to know him. He lived his life to the fullest, and may be the most successful person I have ever know.

No, Bertha-it's not too late.

[supernova]

35. Hey Bertha!

:hug:

I know you and I have discussed this before back in the early DU days.. just to refresh. I'm also a cardiac kid and I have discovered a few things:

1 Be patient with yourself. Be patient. Enjoy the journey.

2. Warm up and cool down are really important. Not just to prevent injury, but to give your heart time to adjust to the exertion needed. 5 minutes at the beginning and end makes a big difference. I used to want to get in "the zone" faster than my body was able... now I just wait, going slowly or moderately until I can more easily pick up speed, at whatever activity I'm doing. And I'm kinda nutso about monitoring my heartrate on the equipment. If it gets too high, I slack off, but don't stop.

3. Start small, whatever you think you can realistically manage. If it's a walk around the block, that will do to start. You love softball, right? Maybe find a league and get in there! :-). The Wii suggestion is a good one. Go for it, if you've got the change.


4. I don't know about you, but after 3 or 4 days, I need a rest, no activity that day. I know because I start sleeping in and generally feel run down that day. I used to try to exercise through even these days. Not a good idea because I just wore myself out instead of energizing myself. IOW, listen to your body. Design your outings around what it's telling you. It will thank you later.

5. If you goof up and don't exercise for a while, don't beat yourself up and give up. Just keep trying. Every time counts. ;-)

Just get moving! That's what our bodies were designed for! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Plus, it makes you sexy! B-)

[Droopy]

36. I'll tell you what, BV. I just weighed in at 265.4

I've lost 24 pounds now and I'm not stopping until I get to 185. I have not been under 200 pounds since I was 19 years old. I'm 36 years old now. Like you, I was really starting to notice that the extra weight was starting to take a toll on my body. And I need my body to do my work. After dropping 24 pounds, my knees already feel a little bit better after work.

If you want to know what I'm doing, or if you need encouragement or a pep talk, feel free to give me a shout.

[Arugula Latte]

37. I think the key is to make yourself move until you WANT to move.

It is rough getting started. If you slack off for a few weeks, it's hard to go back to exercise. But if you do, and then you go back again, and then again ... eventually, your body will crave movement. It might take your body a year or more to get to the point where you look forward to exercise, but it happens. The key is to just shrug it off when you get knocked off track. I know sometimes I have a virus or something that puts me out of commission for a little while. But, after I regain energy, I just resume exercising. And I want to.

You can do it! :bounce:

(Then there are the days when I'm trying to do crunches or leg lifts or something and a kitty comes and curls up on my belly and I don't want to disturb him, but, hey, that's another story.)