Gentle Reader,

These beautiful fall days have many of us moving and shaking.  Great time for working in the garden, chasing our soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, football, field hockey playing school children and perhaps you are among the older adults who play geezer basketball and master’s tennis.   My favorite thing to do in the fall is hunt chanterelles.  Eight of us hikers recently had a successful day.  We were lifting legs, stooping, reaching, climbing steeply through giant sword fern, around old stumps, over huge fallen fir and cedar trees.  This is exercise.  Well rewarded.

I am having such a consuming time writing the story of my courtship with my first husband that I haven’t been taking time to workout at home.  Perhaps some of you over 65 have found Silver Sneakers, the Medicare Program that encourages Active Older Adults (AOA) to remain flexible and independent.  I tried my first class this last week. When I saw all the chairs set out, I thought this class would be way too easy.  Not at all.  The chairs were for balance when standing behind them on one foot.  They also gave us a platform for 80 repetitions of getting up and down out, standing—sitting, standing—sitting.  We used weights and bands for increasing upper body strength.  What fun to be in a room full of smiling  gray haired men and women having a great time.

On Friday mornings I go to an AOA salsa dancing class, led by a gorgeous, slim older woman who can lead the rumba, salsa, cha-cha-cha, and mambo to Cuban and Brazilian music.  We trill our tongues, clap the flamenco and sweat.  Fabulous.

I brought 3 new hens home from my grandson’s birthday celebration on his family’s farm an hour north of Seattle and these young ladies are not being welcomed into the established coop of 3 Rhode Island Reds.  They flew over my 6 foot fencing and scattered into the neighborhood.  Picture this old lady trying to corner a frightened chicken and having to climb a rockery with a blanket in my hand.  We did lose one little black hen, which broke my heart.  They are not settled yet.  I’m pleased that I have the energy and stamina and flexibility to chase chickens.  Take those classes.  Life in the suburbs! You may have to use all that strength moving and shaking in some unexpected ways.

How about you?  What classes are you taking to keep fit?  Let us know.  While you are responding, “like” my fan page on Facebook, www.facebook.com/betsybellshealth4u

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving (and Shaking)

Betsy

206 933 1889

www.grandmabetsybell.com/blog/