A fitness resource for those of us who are already 42 and those of us who aspire to be.
What does forever mean?
by Jay Hiller, December 3, 2023 Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash When you search for an image for forever on a stock photo site, you get a lot of pictures related to weddings. But right now, I’m thinking about how my great-aunt used to tell me about time going by fast. I didn’t listen to her. I was 15 and I had forever. The worky-work stuff. I’m going to resentfully crank out in about an hour feels like it’s going to take forever because I don’t want to do it. It will actually take 45 minutes. When my children…
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The gift of curiosity
by Jay Hiller, November 4, 2023 Photo by Josh Mills on Unsplash Right now there are a couple of mid-level stressors that make me anxious. Just by accident, on my way to work I heard a recommendation by a psychiatrist that a good thing to do when you’re feeling anxious is to be curious about it. The link to the podcast is here if anyone’s interested: Anyway, I tried it and it was interesting to notice the physical sensations I have when I’m experiencing anxiety. When my anxiety subsided I noticed the difference. And then, like a gift, this morning,…
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Cold swim
By Jay Hiller, October 16, 2023 Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash The shift from crazy hot to moderately cool temperatures in Central Texas seems fast to me. Take me swimmin’ anyway. I can handle it, I thought. A few weeks ago, when I got under the outdoor shower at the neighborhood pool the water was way hot. When we went yesterday I hoped it would be warm again. Nope. Then I stalled for a while by trying to figure out whether it would be easier to get in in the deep end or the shallow end. I walked from…
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Our purpose in a troubled world
By Jay Hiller, October 13, 2023 Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash The world has been going to hell in a handbasket for a very long time, I read in the Austin paper over 30 years ago. The speaker was a veteran of World War II. He meant that we can get through whatever’s troubling us. But how? I think it’s important when faced with terrible events not to forget our purpose. I won’t share mine here and I know what it is. I know what it is because I ask myself four questions every morning before I get out…
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My only regret about the 2023 Paddlejam is that I didn’t try harder to get my friends to join me
By Jay Hiller, October 1, 2023 Rise Up & Shine, Seas the Day, Be In-Ten-tional–The Operation Get Out (OGO) Surf & Paddlejam bracelets are awesome. The 2023 Operation Get Out Paddlejam was worth getting up early on a Sunday for. It’s a yearly event that honors female first responders and raises money to provide them with equipment to enjoy being out on the water. This is my fourth year to do it. (In 2020 I did the virtual option.) It’s a beginner friendly event, untimed and no one is keeping track of how far or how fast you go. I…
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Impossible Pool Vibes
By Jay Hiller, September 24, 2023 Photo by john labelette on Unsplash Our neighborhood pool is nice. I don’t think of it as a good place to lap swim. And I had reservations yesterday when my husband suggested going there to swim in the late afternoon. ‘Full of kids, warm as bath water,” I thought. When we got to the parking lot it was full of cars and I wanted to go home. ‘This is going to be impossible,’ I thought. It turned out to be great. The cars seemed to be from the tail end of a party that…
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Something beautiful, Wild Asana
By Jay Hiller, September 16, 2023 The writing in the book Wild Asana: Animals, Yoga and Connecting Our Practice to the Natural World is absolutely beautiful. In each chapter the author, Alison Zak, focuses on one yoga pose and connects it to the animal it’s named after. Ms. Zak is an author, yoga teacher, anthropologist and executive director of the Human-Beaver Coexistence Fund. Writing about yoga must be difficult, because so much of the experience of practicing is about strong feelings that are so deep they’re not easy to express through words. This book eloquently conveys a great deal of…
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At last, a parallettes plan
by Jay Hiller, September 10, 2023 Finally getting some use from my Lebert Fitness Parallettes. Today I walked in the heat to the neighborhood pool for a lap swim. The water wasn’t as hot as I expected, so I was surprised by how fast I ran out of steam. I hadn’t realized that the muscles in my upper back and shoulders were still tired from the parallettes workout I did last night. I bought my parallettes right before the pandemic hoping they would be a way for me to work around some issues in my wrists while practicing handstands. After…
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Book Review: Fiber Fueled
by Jay Hiller, September 8, 2023 As I read, Fiber Fueled, I kept thinking of people I know who I think should read it. The author, Will Bulsiewicz, a gastroenterologist and clinical researcher, does a good job of presenting health information in a way that makes you want to follow through on it. He explains clearly and in detail why the gut microbiome (the trillions of microorganisms that evolved with us and support our health) is so important and how the food we eat affects the microbiome. His advice can be boiled down to eat a wide variety of plants…
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Physical confidence
By Jay Hiller, September 2, 2023 Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash When I’d only be doing yoga a few years, I went to a class where I was given this instruction for Warrior I: “You know, mmmmmmmm.” I didn’t know what that was supposed to mean, and when I thought about that instruction, I was critical of the teacher. I was critical of her until yesterday, when I was trying to explain the way I felt about strength training to a friend. “My back feels really good, right here,” I said, pointing to a part of my back she…
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Exercise and optimism
by Jay Hiller, August 31, 2023 Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash My week included a bunch of dumb worky-work stuff, a Tuesday night with only two hours of sleep and two days of sub-optimal amounts of exercise. When I got home this afternoon, I felt down and lethargic. I didn’t make my way toward my weights until after 8 p.m. By 8:30 I felt much better, physically and mentally. It’s so easy to get into a spiral where I think that whatever downer thoughts going on in my head are real. Fortunately it only takes a little activity to…
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Sunrise Barton Springs swim
by Jay Hiller, August 19, 2023 Photo by César Couto on Unsplash After a 6 day worky-work work week, my husband and I got up early and drove to Barton Springs this morning. Walking from the parking lot while it was still dark everything smelt like dead grass because of the extreme heat we’ve been having and I wondered how it was going to be. I felt happy before I even got in the water. It’s always a special experience there and everybody seemed to be in a good mood. I was surprised by how many people were already there…
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Old Lady In Tennis Shoes
by Jay Hiller, August 9, 2023 Photo by Joshua Hanks on Unsplash It’s scary hot and it’s also the first week back at worky work. I’ve been wearing dresses, which in many ways are practical for this weather, dresses with red basketball shoes. When I was 17 and quite overweight I wore a big skirt with running shoes everywhere one summer when we were on vacation. It wasn’t as cool then as it, um, is now. My dad said when I got older I was going to be an old lady in tennis shoes. What that meant was that I…
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Want a better life? Walk if you’re able.
by Jay Hiller, August 4, 2023 Photo by Arturo Castaneyra on Unsplash At noon yesterday in Austin it was over a hundred degrees and I had a lunch appointment at a restaurant half a mile from my office, a distance I would walk without thinking twice if the weather were better. I decided to walk, mostly because I had parked my car so far away that by the time I got to it I would be halfway to the restaurant anyway. I probably looked pretty funny in my hat and big sunglasses, walking in the heat. I didn’t care. It…
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Two good podcasts targeted at those of us in our third act
By Jay Hiller, July 21, 2023 I have a long commute during the school year. Podcasts keep that time from being lost. Photo by Melanie Pongratz on Unsplash In the last three weeks I’ve listened to an episode each from two podcasts directed at women who are older. They’re different in that one of them is by a famous actress, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the other one is a podcast that a friend of a friend has. I liked both of them a lot and each addressed my need for ideas and role models for aging well Wiser Than Me with…
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What are regrets for?
By Jay Hiller, July 20, 2023 The sentiment on this bracelet is well-meaning. I don’t find it helpful. Photo by Hailey Moeller on Unsplash A few years ago, in one of those moments when you’re waiting for yoga class to start, I was talking to a student who was more than 20 years older than myself. He was happily married and retired from a responsible job. I don’t remember how we started talking about his first marriage and how he felt he had allowed work to interfere with his home life. He said, “I was so stupid,” and stopped talking.…
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A display of advanced yoga from a novice practicioner
By Jay Hiller, July 18, 2023 Photo by Daniele Franchi on Unsplash I wasn’t expecting much this morning. I had three classes scheduled and less time scheduled in between them than I really liked. Before my first class, a stand up paddleboard yoga class, I waited idly on the dock and half listened to the attendant coach a woman about my age on how to use a stand up paddleboard. I started paying more attention when she began to express concerns, some logical (What do I do if I fall in the water?) and some not so logical (Aren’t there…
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What if locust pose actually is the answer to everything?
By Jay Hiller, July 12, 2023 It’s a long story why I don’t have a picture to illustrate locust pose. This guy’s cute? Photo by Heiko Haller on Unsplash I’ve been paying a lot of attention to locust pose for about two years now, mainly because a well-known yoga teacher I follow, Jason Crandell likes it. Jason jokes that it’s the answer to any test question in his teacher trainings. The reason he likes it is that most of us need to open the front of our body and strengthen the back. It’s hard to imagine a better pose than…
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My bottle of cheap hair conditioner is almost empty or summer doesn’t last forever
by Jay Hiller, July 4, 2023 Photo by Joan Tran on Unsplash I’ve been swimming a lot this summer. To keep my hair color from fading, before I swim I get it completely wet in the shower and then I saturate it with cheap creme rinse and put on a cap. The bottle’s almost empty and my membership at the club I joined for the summer will be over in 4 weeks. I would really like to stay in good swimming shape this fall and winter and am starting to think of places I could go. I’m sure I’ll figure…
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Morning Quarry Swim
By Jay Hiller, June 30, 2023 Photo by Christopher Coronado, Lifetime Fitness website My husband likes movie quotes. “I’ll take you someplace you’ve never been before,” he said the other day. (Do you know what movie that’s from?) I knew where we were going. He went about a week ago after clearing brush for a Craig’s list gig and came home super excited about it. It turns out that the fancy gym we joined for the summer has a location with a private quarry swimming hole. We had it completely to ourselves for a long time and when we left…
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Book Review: Yoga for Bendy People
by Jay Hiller, June 29, 2023 I won’t give away the reason why the author is wearing a zebra suit. Years ago in yoga class, I would sometimes end up practicing next to a woman who was very very flexible. It was hard not to be envious of how easily she seemed to get into positions that I couldn’t even get close to. My teacher would tell me now and then that people that flexible are actually breaking. I had no idea what she meant. To me, it looked like incredibly good genetic luck. As a yoga teacher, and someone…
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Food review: Banyan Foods Tofu Crumbles
By Jay Hiller, June 20, 2023 Tofu crumbles are convenient and they taste okay. I don’t know what convinced me more to buy these, that they were on sale or the blurb on the back: “The white block scares you. It sits in fridge waiting. It haunts your dreams at night. ” That’s an accurate description of the way I feel about tofu. I just have not had good success cooking with it, even with coaching from my daughter and her partner, both of whom are pretty good cooks. The waiting half an hour while the water gets pressed out…
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Complicated grief and what the voice of God is not.
by Jay Hiller, June 19, 2023 Photo by Jessica Delp on Unsplash A meditation book I like, Embracing Bliss by Jeff Kober, suggests that when we hear a negative voice in our head it’s not the voice of God. In many instances, the negative voice in my head is my mother’s. A few days ago was the two year anniversary of the day she died and I found myself thinking and remembering negative things about her. That’s not the voice of God either so I thought of five good things about her and wrote them down. I had a complex…
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Five reasons you should join the 10th Annual Surf and Paddlejam Weekend September 30-October 1
By Jay Hiller, June 15, 2023 Image from Operation Get Out website. operationgetout.org I’ve participated in the Get Out Girl Annual Surf and Paddlejam Weekend, an all female event, three times and each time was so much fun, even 2020 when I did it virtually. I registered for this year’s paddlejam yesterday and I’m super excited for it. It’s a great day on the water with good company and good food. If you’re going to be in Austin the weekend of September 30, 2023-October 1, 2023 I hope you’ll consider doing this. Here are 5 reasons why: It’s a great…
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First kickball game
By Jay Hiller, June 12, 2023 Photo by Valeriia Miller on Unsplash The story of my first kickball game, might be the story of why for a long time, I thought of myself as someone who didn’t like to exercise. My family lived in Bogotá, Colombia for most of my first 4 years of elementary school. P.E. in the private school I attended was a lady with a British accent, a pixie haircut and cat-eye sunglasses teaching us calisthenics. I remember liking one of her exercises, happy cat, angry cat, a version of cat/cow, one of my favorite yoga poses.…
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Challenge, complexity, purpose
By Jay Hiller, June 8, 2023 Photo by Eilis Garvey on Unsplash On episode 263 of the podcast, The Proof with Simon Hill, Drs. Ayesha and Dean Sherzai, speak at length about a number of topics related to brain health. One point stood out to me: we can build our cognitive reserve, the brain’s ability to improvise and find alternative ways to get the job done, by engaging in activities that are challenging, complex and purposeful. When we keep doing the same things over and over in the same way, we miss the chance to strengthen our cognitive reserve. I…
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What does this pain mean?
By Jay Hiller, June 6, 2023 Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash Many years ago, when I had small children, my back hurt frequently and a lot. I got into the habit of thinking of myself as fragile and easily injured. It turned out that my back was hurting because I was spending hours holding my baby in a chair that was pushing me into a slumped position. Once I understood that and had made the changes I needed to, I learned that I wasn’t fragile at all. It’s important to pay attention to pain. In my own body, I’ve…
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Make it a great day!
By Jay Hiller, June 5, 2023 Photo by Jorge Vasconez on Unsplash On November 1, 2022, discouraged and ticked off, I pulled a notebook out of my purse and wrote “Things that make this a bad day.” Then I listed four things, all of them pretty bad,. They still seem bad looking back at them 7 months later. When I stumbled across this list 15 minutes ago, my first thought was that Cindy would never make a list like this. Cindy signs every email with “Make it a great day!” She’s one of the most positive people I know and…
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A bathing suit with me at all times
By Jay Hiller, June 5, 2023 You can never have too many bathing suits. Photo by Malik Skydsgaard on Unsplash “And when you mean, with you, you don’t just mean in the same building, but you don’t know where it is?” my husband asked. I’ve had a series of locker room mishaps since I joined a new gym last week. I’ve locked myself out of my locker, a bunch of times, lost a favorite bathing suit for about 15 hours and today I forgot to bring a bathing suit with me. My husband has had some good ideas to get…
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A very nice gym, a liminal space
By Jay Hiller, June 1, 2023 Photo by Ivars Utināns on Unsplash A small windfall fell into my lap a few weeks ago, and I decided to use it on a membership at a nice gym this summer. I thought it would be a good place to go in the afternoons when it’s hot. I’ve been a member for a couple of days. They have every conceivable piece of equipment. I like the pool and the sauna and the hot tub. I took a spin class this morning. It’s clean and there’s a machine in the locker room that spins…
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A conversation, not a wrestling match
By Jay Hiller, May 30, 2023 Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash In her book, Yoga For Bendy People, Libby Hensley recommends that foam rollering be approached as a conversation with your body, rather than a wrestling match. By that I think she means that we should approach foam rollering as an inquiry and not a tool for self-punishment. I liked this because it matches my approach to physical practices in general. I like testing the edges of my strength, mobility and balance, but I don’t believe in hurting myself. I’m about 75 percent through with the book, and plan…
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Foundational yoga poses are valuable for their own sake
by Jay Hiller, May 30, 2023 Photo by Jon Moore on Unsplash “And that’s quite the warm up and the stretch,” the well known yoga teacher on the streaming service said as he led Warrior I, a pose some people would describe as foundational. It’s never been my favorite and something about him saying that clicked with me. Why not practice Warrior I, a hated pose, a lot? So I added it to the list of things I try to do daily. In that particular class, which I’ve taken many times, Warrior I leads to other poses that are difficult…
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Finish something
By Jay Hiller, May 24, 2023 Photo by Reid Naaykens on Unsplash There are two unfinished needlepoint projects under my desk. I started one of them in 2002 and the second one in 2006. I know the point where I stopped working on them and every time I glance in their direction it zaps a little of my energy. Up until now, I haven’t been able to accept the idea that I’m not going to finish them ever, so they’re there, under the desk. In contrast, with the upcoming graduation of one of my students and my last communication with…
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How yoga saved my sewing machine
By Jay Hiller, May 23, 2023 When I was a little girl, I knew someone, Filomena, who had a foot pedal sewing machine. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash A few years after I started practicing yoga, I got up from my sewing table and as I turned away, I got my feet tangled up in the cords underneath the table. (I’m not very neat.) I could have fallen and pulled my sewing machine down too, but instead I caught myself in a three legged downward facing dog. That was the first time I noticed yoga creeping into my everyday…
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Yoga works
By Jay Hiller, May 22, 2023 Photo by Richard Jaimes on Unsplash A long time ago, when I was just starting to practice yoga and after taking a yoga class I called my sister and said, “This yoga crap isn’t working. Maybe I should start drinking.” I was joking but it was during a period of my life where I was dealing with something serious and frightening. Fortunately, I kept doing yoga. (Also fortunately, I realized that drinking wouldn’t help.) Yoga works. It’s good for everyday stress and it’s also an excellent anchor for times when life escapes our control.…
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Too easily stressed
By Jay Hiller, May 19, 2023 Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash I got a text a few hours ago, that stressed me out. And then I remembered something important. I don’t remember what was stressing me out on this date a year ago. I’m sure there was something, because I worry a lot. And I have absolutely no recollection of it. And I know that gratitude helps with a lot. Here are a few things I’m grateful for. A neighbor said some kind things about my ill mannered dogs. A friend came over for a walk after work. A…
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I need more mat Pilates in my life
By Jay Hiller, May 19, 2023 Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash A long time ago I attended mat Pilates classes once a week. The teacher, Amanda Avis, was exceptionally good. I learned so much and then…she moved out of state and I just haven’t made time for it again. I impulsively decided to do a class on my streaming service tonight. It was wonderful, the perfect intensity level and just what I needed. Subscribe here!
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Book review
Wave Woman: The Life and Struggles of a Surfing Pioneer by Jay Hiller, May 18, 2023 Betty Pelmbroke Winstedt’s life is lovingly recounted by her daughter in the book, Wave Woman. Wave Woman: The Life and Struggles of a Surfing Pioneer by Vicky Heldreich Durand is a unique biography. It’s the story of Betty Pelmbroke Winstedt, who lived a remarkable life. Toward the end of the book, she tells her granddaughter that getting into trouble and then finding your way out of it is the fun part of living. While she certainly had her share of troubles, from her family’s…
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An ongoing experiment
By Jay Hiller, May 17, 2023 Photo by Alex Kondratiev on Unsplash It took me a while to realize that for many years I’ve been running an ongoing health experiment on my body. I try stuff, sometimes with good results, as in swimming, running, yoga, weightlifting, sometimes not so good, as candy bars advertising themselves as healthy in some way. (I knew it was too good to be true!) I also went through a disastrous phase of buying as much good quality chocolate as I wanted, the idea being that this would make me want it less. Was I crazy?…
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The hardest part is putting on your shoes
By Jay Hiller, May 16, 2023 Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash I’m writing this post as a stall to working out. It’s been a busy day and it would be easy to lie on the couch and waste a bunch of time scrolling through a device. My husband always says the hardest part is putting on your shoes, meaning taking that first simple step–rolling out the yoga mat, setting up the weights, driving to the pool. Now that I’ve said it, I guess I’ll head to the next room and work out. A quote I like: If…
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Soul clean out: Yoga, Netflix and a good cry
By Jay Hiller, Monday May 15, 2023 Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash I like the Netflix show, Firefly Lane. The other night after my yoga practice, which was strength based and demanding for me, I watched a couple of episodes. The last season is sad if you’ve been into it and are familiar with the characters. I cried so hard. And when it was over and I’d turned off my computer, I noticed that I felt good, as if I’d cleaned something out. I’d released a lot of tension crying like that after a workout. It’s a trick I’ll…
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The complexity of Mother’s Day
By Jay Hiller, May 14, 2023 by Jay Hiller, May 14, 2023 Mother’s Day is there if you have young children and you’re tired. Mother’s Day is there if you’re children are adults that you’re proud of. Mother’s Day is there if you’re children are troubled. Mother’s Day is there if your children have passed away. Never wanted to have children and don’t, first Mother’s Day without your mother, have a complex relationship with your mother, can’t wait to have brunch with your mother today–Mother’s Day is a holiday with almost as many circumstances as there are human beings on…
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Rainy weather morning swim
By Jay Hiller, May 13, 2023 Photo by Max Bender on Unsplash Just last night when I wrote about how I used to swim on Friday afternoons, I thought about how I should go to the neighborhood pool more often. After we took the dogs this morning, my husband suggested that we go swimming. It’s been raining here a lot the last 2 days and it seemed like there was a good break in the weather. It turned out to be an awesome thing to do. No one else was there and the water temperature was on the chilly side…
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The Friday Night Sigh
by Jay Hiller, May 12, 2023 Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash Twelve years ago I had a great routine on Friday afternoons. After work, I would go to the gym and swim laps. Then I would go to the library to kill time before going to the yoga studio and taking class from a gifted teacher. For reasons I’ve never understood, the class was poorly attended and many times I’d end up with a private lesson. I started calling Friday evenings the Friday night sigh. I don’t have that exact routine anymore, but I still have that sense of…
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Go for a walk.
By Jay Hiller, May 11, 2023 Photo by Arek Adeoye on Unsplash This afternoon I came home from worky work unhappy with a decision I’ve half made. The weather’s not as hot as it’s going to be, but it’s hot enough to make you remember how bad it’s gonna get. I was cranky. It was a great time to go for a walk. My husband says that when he’s running, the movement functions as a gentle agitation that helps him calm down. Tonight’s walk was similar for me. I deliberately left my phone on the counter and the break from…
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Little things
By Jay Hiller, April 30, 2023 Photo by Marie-Hélène Rots on Unsplash I didn’t realize that I was going to write about spiders when I found this picture of a ladybug. Last weekend, I found a spider on the floaty thing-a-ma-jig that we hook paddleboards into to practice SUP yoga. He must have hitchhiked from the boat dock. I like spiders so I transferred him to my paddleboard, you know, to give him a ride back home. It must have been an ordeal for the spider because in the transfer process he fell in the water and I had to…
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What can you get done in 2000 hours?
By Jay Hiller, April 23, 2023 Photo by Lucian Alexe on Unsplash A long time ago when I first started teaching yoga, I calculated how long it would take me to teach 2000 hours of classes: 9 years. As of this morning, I’m 30 hours away and it looks like I’ll be done in….8 years 11 months. I’ve been thinking about what I’ve learned in 8+ years of teaching yoga and the experiences I’ve had. There’s a saying the top of one mountain is the bottom of another. At first I thought that the bottom of the next mountain would…
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Everyday is a chance to turn it all around
By Jay Hiller, April 10, 2023 Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash I used to read housekeeping books, because I wanted to be a better home manager. (Reading the books without actually doing housework doesn’t clean the house, by the way, though I kept hoping it would.) In one of them, and I wish I could remember which one, the author suggested that one way to think of time as a virtual bank account and everyday a loving friend deposits $86,400 (24x60x60) for us, with the only constraint being that we spend all of it every day. It stayed with…
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Who are you?
by Jay Hiller, April 6, 2023 Photo by Park Troopers on Unsplash Yesterday I watched a video of myself explaining who I was in terms of my resume and then in terms of my relationship to someone else. Everything I said was accurate but it was also incomplete. Thinking about yourself in terms of something you do or in terms of your relationship to others is like looking at yourself through a funhouse mirror and believing that you’re looking at an accurate representation of yourself. There are people who think that there is really only one thing and that we’re…
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Staying current
By Jay Hiller, March 31, 2023 Photo by Ingo Schulz on Unsplash When I was a little girl, my dad went to Viet Nam. Occasionally he would send tape recorded letters that my mom would play on a reel to reel tape recorder that plugged into the wall. Listening to them was a big deal. I know that I remember the smell of the tapes, because last night on the Dick Van Dyke show someone pulled out a tape recorder like that and I remembered how the tape smelled. Old TV shows are works of reverse science fiction because they…
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The Don’t-Be-a-Pain-in-the-Butt-While-on-Vacation exercise program
By Jay Hiller, March 27, 2023 Do you have to be over 42 to recognize this brand? (Jersey City, NJ March 26, 2023. Photo by me.) I had a great weekend visiting family in New Jersey this week. At home, for the most part, I’m disciplined with my workouts and I avoid some foods for health reasons. On vacation, I tried to be flexible. I worked in brief yoga sessions in the morning when I woke up, took a couple of great walks with my daughter and her boyfriend and danced at a family party. I called all of that…
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Excess of things
by Jay Hiller, March 18, 2023 Photo by Julia Joppien on Unsplash I’m working steadily but slowly to reduce the amount of stuff in my home and life. Having seen two family members in the last 3 years spend enormous amounts of time and energy dealing with the possessions of family members who have died, I don’t want to leave a similar mess to my kids. All of this decluttering has made me think about the reasons I have all this stuff to begin with. Part of it is that I get enthusiastic about hobbies and start collecting the equipment…
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An unexpected dopamine hit: Buy Nothing groups
By Jay Hiller, March 17, 2023 Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash When I first joined my local buy nothing group, I thought it would be a good way to off load some stuff. It is. I’ve given away several things now that I knew I would never use again and was unsure of how to get out of my house responsibly. I would really to think that nothing of mine is floating around off the coast of Africa or in that giant dead trash heap in the middle of the Pacific ocean. The unexpected part is how much fun…
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The spring break I needed
by Jay Hiller, March 16, 2023 I kept asking myself, “Shouldn’t I want more from spring break than the opportunity to clean the refrigerator?” Shouldn’t I be traveling or something?” Yet this was exactly the spring break I needed and I’ll be traveling next weekend. It’s felt good to rest and have a chance to catch up on things. It’s not the spring break I should have. It’s the spring break I need. As I mentioned, next week I’ll be traveling and I have a whole slate of decisions to make in the coming weeks. This week I’m working out,…
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Miso vs. Movie House Popcorn
By Jay Hiller, March 15, 2023 Photo by Corina Rainer on Unsplash I’m not sure exactly why this happened. There’s free movie house popcorn at worky work every day now. Every morning, a colleague fires up the machine and it’s free. I try not to eat too much of it, and it’s tempting. I can smell it all the way down to my office. There are days when the picture above is a good representation of my daily allowance. I’ve been home for about 4 days now and I feel so much better not eating all that popcorn. How am…
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Aqua Workout
by Jay Hiller, February 26, 2023 The width of the blade across the top of these bells determines how much you drag you experience. If you look closely you can see a difference between the blue ones (widest) and the green ones (narrowest.) These are made by Aqua Logix This was new and fun After I taught my yoga classes today, I went to an aqua class taught by my friend, David. I was expecting it to be challenging. I knew it would be fun. I wasn’t expecting it to be as much fun as it was. It’s been a…
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Will workout for new exercise clothes
by Jay Hiller, February 25, 2023 A running dress. This is not me. I was listening to an interview today with a 65-year old woman who is a world champion marathon walker, Yolanda Holder. She had a lot of great things to say about staying active and open to things as you get older. And of course, the part I focused on was when she said something to the effect of You do all this work, why not look good doing it? At the time, I was working out in 15 year old yoga pants and a top that didn’t…
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Daring antics in the produce department
By Jay Hiller, February 20, 2023 Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash Like many people, I tend to get the same things over and over at the grocery store. Every once in a while though, I remind myself to try something new. Or at least a variation on something I already like. The produce department is one of the best places to do this. Vegetables contain many vitamins and minerals that support health. The fiber in vegetables is good for gut health and varying the vegetables we eat encourages the growth of a variety of beneficial gut bacteria. Yesterday in…
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The Bucket Concept
by Jay Hiller, February 18, 2023 Photo by Lucas van Oort on Unsplash We all have areas of strength when it comes to accomplishing goals. There are areas where we feel intrinsically motivated and it’s not hard to put in the time you need to to get what you want done. Exercise is like that for me . There are many other areas where there are things I’d like to do and I experience quite a bit of internal resistance around working on them. For me, I think the resistance comes from issues of self-trust. Yesterday at worky-work, I was…
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A good podcast for fitness enthusiasts over 40
by Jay Hiller, February 13, 2023 Photo by VD Photography on Unsplash For fitness enthusiasts over 60 who are looking for inspiration, Helen Fritsch’s interview with 65 year-old Crossfit World Champion Julie Holt on the Age is Irrelevant podcast makes very good listening. In the interview, Julie talks about the importance of mindset and positive self-talk, her experience as a young athlete and women’s basketball coach and her workouts. For people thinking about starting a fitness program, or any new endeavor, Julie stresses the importance of starting somewhere and being brave enough to take those first steps. Here’s the link…
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Blah Blah Blah SPLAT!
By Jay Hiller, February 8, 2023 A Yoga Nidra I like describes sleep as an infinite ocean. It sure evaded me last night. Photo by Henrik Dønnestad on Unsplash Last night I could not turn my brain off. I worried about work. I worried about stuff that happened 20 years ago. I worried about stuff that isn’t even close to happening yet. I also felt a little sick to my stomach which I blame on eating my own cooking, so I skipped lunch. I somehow made it through my work day. What a mess. The best thing about lack of…
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Cooking + Legs Day
By Jay Hiller, February 6, 2022 Photo by Calum Lewis on Unsplash I’ve cooked quite a bit the last few days, which is not like me at all. You may remember my ongoing project to cook all the dishes in the Vegan Instant Pot cookbook my daughter gave me. Yesterday I made a wild rice salad which was a lot of work. I thought it was good and judged it to be worth the effort. Tonight I made this lima bean tomato thing. It has a better name than lima bean tomato thing and it was still way too time…
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Body weight workouts can be more than enough work
by Jay Hiller, February 5, 2022 Photo by Hayley Kim Design on Unsplash “Um, this is hard,” I thought by the third time the yoga instructor on my streaming service added “just a little bit more to the sequence we’ve been doing.” It was a good practice with challenging moves that put me on my edge for sure. I enjoy weight workouts and sometimes need reminding that you don’t necessarily need all that stuff to get stronger. The weight of your body on its own can provide more than enough resistance. Another advantage is that you don’t need a whole…
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The process is what makes the whole more than the parts
By Jay Hiller, February 1, 2023 Photo by ian dooley on Unsplash I was watching a physical therapist, Athena Oden, lecture today on child development. It was pretty good, a main point being that developmentally we’re made up of systems that are all interrelated. She had this analogy that very few people would enjoy a bowl of milk with salt, sugar, an ice cube and a raw egg in it. After those ingredients are churned into ice cream, most people would enjoy them. The process, she said, is what makes the whole more than the parts, in terms of physical…
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Among a cajillion choices, there’s gotta be an exercise you enjoy
by Jay Hiller, January 31, 2023 “Honestly, the bike is so good for you,” a family member’s PT told her. My family member was excited because she had been able to do some very light biking without pain for the first time in weeks. I immediately thought to myself, I should get on the bike. I haven’t done that for a long time. The reason I haven’t biked is because I’ve been choosing other forms of exercise. I used to think I didn’t like to exercise because as a child I hated team sports. With super shaky eye-hand coordination and…
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Aging Exuberantly
by Jay Hiller, January 30, 2023 Photo by Dominik Scythe on Unsplash About a week ago, The New York Times published an article, 3 steps to aging exuberantly in which they discussed three ideas from the work of Margareeta Magnusson, an 86-year-old Swedish author and artist. The ideas come from her latest book, The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You. Unfortunately, my attempt to provide a link to the article didn’t work. I’m always interested in good role models for aging well, so here are the three ideas as I understand…
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The Quest for a Third Place
By Jay Hiller, January 29, 2023 Photo by Kris Atomic on Unsplash There’s work. There’s home. And there’s a third place, where you run into people you know and have a good time. As if life were that old TV show, Cheers. My third place used to be a yoga studio I spent a lot of time at between 2010 and 2014. And then many members of the community, including myself moved to another yoga studio and that studio was my third place for a while. I’m feeling the need for a third place now and it’s hard to identify…
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A decluttering trick that’s working for me
By Jay Hiller, January 28, 2022 Photo by Ashim D’Silva on Unsplash I’ve always been a little messy and I’ve tried to change my habits many times. They say that having a lot of clutter isn’t great for your mental health so I’m excited about this idea I’ve been trying out for about 8 days now. You mark out 30 days and on day 1 you donate or throw away one thing. On day two you donate or throw away two things, and so on….. I tried a couple of systems for doing this on my phone. Probably because I’m…
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I’m back.
By Jay Hiller, January 27, 2022 Photo by Clemens van Lay on Unsplash It turns out, all I needed was a break. Writing a blog post a day, even on a topic I like, was hard to sustain. I’m back and here’s what I’m thinking about. (Thank you, Elena, for asking about this today.) Consistent Workouts Pay Off The last 2 weeks have presented me with some emotional challenges. Making time to work out gave me some structure and a break from my own thoughts. It was good tonight to look back at the chart my app makes for me…
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I’ve said what I wanted to say or The End
by Jay Hiller, January 11, 2022 Photo by Mohamed Rishfaan on Unsplash Over the last 6 months, I’ve posted almost daily and have said all that I have to say. Exercise is good. Trying new things is good. Eating and sleeping well is good. Learning about fitness is good. Thank you to everyone who read any of my posts. Writing the blog every day was an interesting experience for me. And many thanks to my daughter for her support and encouragement. Onward!
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The importance of getting outside
by Jay Hiller, January 9, 2023 Photo by Mike Benna on Unsplash I went to the dentist this morning and was surprised when he told me he needed about 35 minutes to get my crown ready and I could take a break if I wanted to. So I took a walk at a nearby park. It felt like such a treat to get out of the dentist’s chair. The park was hopping at 9:30 in the morning with people playing tennis and a other walkers. The pool my husband and I used to go to when we were dating was…
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This birding app looks like fun!
By Jay Hiller, January 8, 2022 Having written yesterday about what how being on my phone or computer for too long can suck me into a bad mood, today I’m excited about a birding app someone showed me, MerlinBirdID.com. I haven’t explored it fully but tried it out on the waterbird I saw a few weeks ago and wrote about here. I just entered information about what it looked like and where I saw it and the app suggested that it might be the bird above. You can also record bird song or take a picture and get identification. There’s…
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How I manage my screen time
By Jay Hiller, January 7, 2023 I had trouble with this kind of screen too. Photo by Diego González on Unsplash I have a hard time unplugging from screens. It’s not hard for me to lose a couple of hours sitting on the couch looking at Instagram with my mouth open. It’s probably not good for anybody and for me social media sites have a depressing effect. I just feel lethargic and unhappy if I spend too much time on the internet. What’s helped me a lot is this guideline: I stay off Facebook and Instagram for recreation except for…
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Face Yoga
by Jay Hiller, January 6, 2023 Some of the exercises I’ve been doing look a lot like this. Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash Over the last 2 weeks or so, I’ve been dabbling in face yoga, both through my yoga streaming service and a book of exercises. I don’t know how much it’s doing for wrinkles, but it is effective for releasing tension in my face, head and neck. The exercises aren’t hard to do, don’t take long and I feel better afterward. The book I’m using is The Ultimate Guide to the Face Yoga Method by Fumiko Takatsu.…
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Early morning run followed by cooking fail
By Jay Hiller, January 5, 2023 Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash I had a nice run this morning. It’s my last few days of holiday break and I enjoyed being outside as the sun was coming up. Yesterday, a friend lent me her library book. Someone in the book taught himself to cook by going through a cookbook and cooking all the recipes in it. I can do that, I thought. Um, sort of. I’ve chosen a book of vegan Instant pot recipes that I’ve liked. Unfortunately, even though I followed the instructions in the recipe for tempeh chili,…
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A walk with a good friend
by Jay Hiller, January 4, 2022 Photo by Jacob Campbell on Unsplash The weather in Austin was great today. I met a friend that I hadn’t seen for months at Brushy Creek Park for a walk. It was a good reset for me. She’s a good listener and it was good to get caught up. Being out in the fresh air was great too. I had gotten a little lethargic and as I said, it was a good reset. Beside the walk, I did an upper body work out that included bench press, assisted chin ups, push ups, rows, and…
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Injury stinks. And it can be an opportunity for growth.
By Jay Hiller, January 2, 2023 Photo by Tom Claes on Unsplash A few weeks ago I was taking the plates off my Olympic bar and it occurred to me, fortunately, to move my foot out from under the bar. That time, I avoided dropping something heavy on my foot. Other times, I haven’t been so lucky. One second you’re feeling good, things are going well and the next something has gone wrong. I’ve had other injuries that popped up for no clear reason. In those it’s cases it’s been like working a puzzle, trying to figure out what needs…
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Happy New Year! Don’t forget to eat your black eyed peas!
Photo by Jasmine Waheed on Unsplash
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You don’t have to be a tough guy to get a good work out
By Jay Hiller, December 30, 2022 Photo by Gelmis Bartulis on Unsplash A participant in my spin class today introduced herself by saying that she didn’t spin a lot and wasn’t going to do very much. My observation was that she did a good job of pushing herself and I would bet got her heart rate up for the duration of the class. And she seemed to be enjoying herself while doing so. She told me she had. My point is that unless you’re training for the Olympics, and maybe not even then, not every workout has to be a…
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A fact about coconut
by Jay Hiller, December 29, 2022 Photo by Tijana Drndarski on Unsplash When I was a teenager, my mom told me not to eat bananas because they were fattening. A doctor had told her that when she was 20 and she passed it on to me. It’s easy to misinterpret information about food and generally I’m against putting foods in never ever eat this categories. I think it’s good to know about the nutritional properties of foods so that when you eat them, you know what you’re getting. In that spirit, I’ll share a fact about coconut that surprised me.…
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Today’s workout: Upper body and a swim at Barton Springs
by Jay Hiller, December 27, 2022 Photo by dominik hofbauer on Unsplash When I woke up this morning, my back, which had been cranky, was much much better. After we walked the dogs, I did an upper body workout. The weather in Austin was pretty today and my husband and I went swimming at Barton Springs. I’m on break from worky-work and life is good.
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Simple information that makes reading food labels clearer
by Jay Hiller, December 27, 2022 Bacon. Photo by KG Baek on Unsplash A lot of people like bacon. I’m not one of them but yesterday I had a reason to look up nutritional facts about it. I realized that if you don’t know 3 simple facts about macronutrients, it would be easy to misinterpret bacon’s nutritional information. The three facts are: each gram of protein equals 4 calories; each gram of carbohydrate is equal to 4 calories; each gram of fat is equal to 9 calories. Here’s the screenshot from my phone: At first glance it would appear that…
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Why I find New Year’s Resolutions helpful
by Jay Hiller, December 26, 2022 Photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash For I’m not sure how long, probably more than 20 years, I’ve made about 4 New Year’s Resolutions each year. I’ve gotten better at writing them over the years and most years I complete about half of them. This year, I completed one out of four, a work related resolution that was important to me for personal reasons. I got lazy about another, which was to work on improving my French and Spanish. On another, to be able to do a full range chin up unassisted, I simply…
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Happy Holidays from Santa’s B Team
by Jay Hiller, December 24, 2022 I wish this picture had come out better. They were cute. Hope everyone has a good day tomorrow, whether you celebrate or not. I’ll post again on December 26th. Happy holidays!
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Entrance hallway workout
By Jay Hiller, December 23, 2022 Photo by Point3D Commercial Imaging Ltd. on Unsplash When our family moved into our house 29 years ago, I never dreamed that the entrance hall would become one of my favorite rooms. I always lose the carpet vs. hard floor debate, so most of the house is carpeted, leaving the entrance hall as the best place for me to jump rope. Especially in this weather. It was too cold to be outside this morning. I switched out my planned run for 20 minutes of jump rope followed by a vinyasa yoga practice. Subscribe here!
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Cold front day, day off, legs day
by Jay Hiller, December 22, 2022 Three things about my day. Photo by Tony Hand on Unsplash Here are three things about today: First, a cold front blew in I proved I don’t remember how to dress for cold weather by going on the dog walk with my ankles exposed to the air and wearing too thin gloves. For my run tomorrow, I plan to wear two pairs of long long pants and two pairs of gloves. Incidentally, the warmest place in my house is the landing at the top of the stairs. I’m considering camping there. Second, no job…
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A fox and a water bird
by Jay Hiller, December 21, 2022 I wasn’t expecting to see this guy tonight. It’s been an interesting couple of days for me in terms of urban wildlife. Yesterday when I was driving home from worky-work a fox crossed the main street that runs through my neighborhood right in front of my car. Then tonight, I went to teach an outdoor meditation class by the lake. Nobody came because it’s 49 degrees so I walked around a little by myself. When I first saw this bird I thought he was yard art. He was there for over 20 minutes which…
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Shaking off the blahs: today’s upper body workout
by Jay Hiller, December 20, 2022 This is not me. Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash I felt lethargic when I got home from work this afternoon, which surprised me. I thought I could take a day off yesterday and shake things off. It would have been easy to sit on the couch today. Part of it may be the time of year. I’m not a fan of winter. To get myself going, I decided to do an upper body workout instead of a lower body workout. I did dumbbell bench presses, band assisted pull ups, rows, lateral shoulder raises,…
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Oops! Incidental-exercise-only kind of day
by Jay Hiller, December 19, 2022 Photo by Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash I’m not sure how I did this, but I got in over 11,000 steps and 113 zone minutes today. I feel like I spent the whole day in front of a computer with occasional walking breaks. I must have done more than I thought and will lift weights and jump rope tomorrow.
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A dash of something beautiful
by Jay Hiller, December 18, 2022 My kids gave this to me last year. I love it. A friend gave me a 2023 calendar that comes as separate sheets in an acrylic display box and every day you’re treated to a new piece of art. I can’t wait for it to be January 1st so that I can start enjoying it. There are beautiful things everywhere. This morning the light hit the wall in our workout room in a way that made me feel good and I took the picture above. When I went to teach yoga this morning there…
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An interesting documentary about grief, gratitude, hope and running
by Jay Hiller, December 17, 2022 Photo by Heather Ford on Unsplash This afternoon I watched a 40 minute documentary about ultramarathoner Sally McRae. The link to the documentary was sent to me by a supplement company. In spite of that, it was worth watching and the product placement wasn’t obnoxious. The name of the documentary is Choose Strong. Sally Macrae ran 5 ultramarathons in 81 days, a total of 507 miles, 1 mile for each month her mother, who died of cancer at age 43 when Sally was 14, was alive. The last 10 miles were from Sally’s childhood…
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On my reading list
By Jay Hiller, December 15, 2022 I’ve owned this book for quite a while and haven’t read it yet. I bought it because for while I was following the authors’ blog, Yoga For Healthy Aging and it was full of good ideas. The blog has since become Yoga For Times of Change. I thought they had stopped blogging and I can’t wait to follow them again. Here’s the link if you’re interested: Yogafortimesofchange.com I’m expecting to have some time off in the next few weeks and already have quite a reading list going. I would enjoy a discussion of this…
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What I do when I have a back ache
by Jay Hiller, December 15, 2022 Photo by Joyce McCown on Unsplash Back aches are not fun. I used to get them quite a bit when I was in my thirties. Over the years I’ve learned to manage them. We all have to evaluate in terms of what we know about our own bodies and of course, according to your doctor or physical therapist’s advice. However, these are some things that have helped me: Subscribe Here!
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Be grateful yoga
by Jay Hiller, December 14, 2022 Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash Today my friend Robbie asked what I would like to call the New Year’s Day yoga class I’m going to teach on, well, New Year’s Day. I thought about suggesting “Have Another Cookie Yoga,” but she might not have thought it was funny or worse, expected me to come up with a let’s-eat-cookies-and-do-yoga class. (The appalling part of that is I could do it.) We ended up with a title with the word gratitude in it. It’s a good word and a good concept. Gratitude makes everything better.…
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Klutz
by Jay Hiller, December 13, 2022 This is tragic. Photo by Sarah Kilian on Unsplash I was talking with a friend, David, on Sunday about fitness. We’re about the same age. As usual, he had a really good exercise tip for me. Then we talked about how the goal for the long game is to still be ambulatory in your 90’s, if you’re lucky enough to get there. And that made me think about what I was like as a child. I had the following characteristics: very poor awareness of where my body was in space, poor eye hand coordination…
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Late afternoon swim at Barton Springs
by Jay Hiller, December 12, 2022 Barton Springs was nowhere near this busy, today, which made it great. Photo by Alex George on Unsplash I love Barton Springs. My husband and I went there in the late afternoon. There were probably less than 50 people there. Everybody seemed to be in a good mood or maybe I was. It’s always hard to get in the water and always hard to leave. I saw a lot of fish and my husband saw a turtle. After we finished our swim I did my traditional dorky jump off the diving board. I love…
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Saturday morning run, tired mind trick
by Jay Hiller, December 11, 2022 Little trees like this one helped me with my run. Photo by Devon MacKay on Unsplash On my run Saturday morning, I noticed, not for the first time, that I always want a walking break in exactly the same spot. It happens to be the start of a long uphill. You probably remember that I’m in the stage of reviving a consistent running practice. Part of being in that stage for me is that I find excuses for walking breaks without difficulty. Today, I used a trick that I used to do when I…
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Soul-swallowing siege or creative opportunity?
By Jay Hiller, December 10, 2022 Photo by Anna Kolosyuk on Unsplash The last few months at worky-work have been challenging. I read somewhere recently that one way to deal with people making you angry is to lower your expectations of their behavior. Deepak Chopra says in difficult circumstances a good question to ask yourself is what the creative opportunity is. And in that old movie, Jerry Macguire says that work is a soul swallowing siege, which makes me laugh. It’s so apt and at the same time, so self-pitying. So who are you with, Deepak or Jerry? In the…
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I like the hex bar
by Jay Hiller, December 9, 2022 About 3 weeks ago, I had this idea that I thought would work well to squat using a hex bar. If you’re not familiar with them, you stand in the middle of them and hold onto the handles. The orientation of your torso changes whether you’re squatting or deadlifting when you use them, I learned from YouTube. Anyway, I like it. I wasn’t getting far in terms of adding weight to my squats because I felt limited to dumbbell front squats or goblet squats. (No squat rack in our home gym.) This put a…
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The value of pets
by Jay Hiller, December 8, 2022 Photo by Hannah Lim on Unsplash Seven years ago, I had a stray cat named Luna. I fed her every day for about 6 months before she disappeared. I paid a little girl on the street to feed her when I went on vacation and my husband built her a shelter in our backyard when it started to get cold. She was suspicious of me for a long time and about a month before she disappeared she approached me and let me pet her. I loved Luna. Today my dogs, Barney and Tessy greeted…
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Who am I?
My name is Jay Hiller and I’m well over 42 years old. I’m 60 and I like that I’m 60. I’m a fitness enthusiast, a yoga teacher (eRYT 200, RYT 500) and an ACE certified personal trainer. I was an overweight teenager and a survivor of elementary school dodge ball games. I have a tendency to overwork and over worry. My exercise, yoga and meditation practices have been invaluable to me in moderating those tendencies. My job as a yoga and fitness instructor has been a source of joy in my life. Even more important to me are my husband, my two adult children, my friends and my dogs.
When my children were in elementary school, their PE coach, Frank Tighe, would explain to the parents that he was teaching his students to celebrate the gift of movement. We all can benefit from using this wonderful gift and every day is an opportunity to celebrate. There’s a meme on social media, It’s not too late and you’re not too old. That’s not only true, the world would be a completely different place if everybody recognized that—and not just in the area of fitness.
Why 42?
Why is it The Over 42 Club and not the Over 40 Club or the Over 57 Club or the Older than Dirt Club?
In 2014, during my first yoga teacher training, one of the instructors asked us how many of us were over 42. Three of us raised our hands. The teacher’s point was that she had been teaching yoga longer than many of us in the room had been alive. The three of us who had been alive longer than she’d been teaching started referring to ourselves as the Over 42 Club. You don’t have to be over 42 to get something out of this blog. My hope is that as you read these posts, you’ll find nuggets of information that will help you wherever you are with your fitness. In sharing what I know, my intention is to share not just the things that I’ve been successful with, but also my past and ongoing challenges. My experience has been that the stuff that doesn’t come easily is a lot more interesting than the stuff that does. For example, a few years ago, when I hurt my wrist, I learned a lot about wrists.
Fitness Tip: Choose something to work on
We can all benefit from picking out something to work toward and doing something about getting there every day for a specific period of time, maybe a month. It doesn’t have to be for a big chunk of time each day. It could be for as little as a few minutes. Right now, I’m working on doing a full range chin up with proper form. Other goals have been wide angle seated pose, the splits, peacock pose. You get the idea. Using this method, I don’t always get to something that looks good. But I do make changes in my flexibility, strength and mobility, which is really my goal. Try it and see how it goes for you.
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