fitness – Page 2 – Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie

November 11th – Dane Sanders

November 11, 2022June 24, 2025 by annemariedemyen, posted in 2022, Health and Fitness

Today I am highlighting another inspirational teacher that I have discovered. Dane Sanders is a motivational speaker, business trainer, and professional photographer. I was just recently introduced to his work by my friend Dwight Hyde at https://www.fadedjeansliving.com

Dane Sanders is one of the co-creators of ‘Men and Women of Discomfort’. This is a group of men and women who take on 90 day challenges to push themselves physically, mentally, and beyond. More information on this group can be found on Instagram or at their website https://www.mwod.io/

What inspired me about Dane Sanders was a blog that he shared discussing character roles. In writing narratives there are three typical character roles – Villain, Victim, and Hero.

In real life, we all tend to play these roles. We switch roles on a continual basis – playing the villain, the victim, and the hero on any given day (or at time of day). These roles are not specifically positive or negative – much depends on the circumstances and our intention. Often, we are not even aware of the role we are playing.

The role of a victim is not one that we typically choose – we just are a victim of circumstances or others. We have been victimized. Generally, our goal will be to work through our victim role to a hero role. Occasionally, we deliberately or unconsciously choose to remain in the victim role because there is a lack of personal responsibility in playing the helpless victim. We just are. We do not realize that this choice is costing us our free will – the power to create and live our own life on our own terms.

Victims attract heroes. Those who choose to remain victims attract ‘false heroes’ or villains who are called rescuers. These rescuers, do not help victims – they are enablers or victimizers, who use their false hero role to empower themselves at the expense of the victim.

Victims with a goal to work their way to being a hero, attract true heroes. True heroes are guides. Guides lead by example and provide the information that victims require to become true heroes, so that they may in turn guide others.

Dane Sanders encourages us to notice the role(s) we are playing, choose the role we want to play in our lives, and move towards that goal.

This lesson by Dane Sanders gave me a new perspective in how I see myself and how I live my life. At times I am the victim – not choosing to remain the victim for long. Everyone enjoys the occasional (self) pity party, and I am no exception – but I really do NOT enjoy feeling helpless. At times, I am the true hero (the guide). I have, especially with my family, tried to lead by example and to share that which I felt would be beneficial to them. But, most often (and again especially with my family), I have played the villain (the typical ‘rescuer’ villain!). It makes me feel needed – even if I do not feel wanted or loved. It is a role I choose to mask my lack of self confidence and self worth. And worst of all – It victimizes others, by undermining their own confidence and self worth. 😢

This is a hard lesson to learn – but it is an incredibly powerful lesson in my mind. It is a lesson that I believe can help me to be a genuinely better person. For that, I am truly grateful to Dane Sanders for sharing his wisdom.

Take care and have an authentically great day! 💞🌞

Week 37 – Changing up!

November 8, 2022June 24, 2025 by annemariedemyen, posted in 2022, Health and Fitness

Time for another health and fitness update. I finally did it! Last night, I moved up to five pound dumbbells for my evening routine. I did cut back on reps and sets, but I also switched up two of my lifts to dumbbell rows and dumbbell squats. 😁

I missed my Molly walk on Sunday, but I did shovel some HEAVY snow. I did the back landing and steps at about 6 AM when I let Molly out. Dan did most of the sidewalks and front steps, but I did go out and help.

***The snow was about 6 inches up the back door and packed solid.***

I also missed my Molly walk yesterday because she was at the vets getting spayed and today because she is still fairly medicated.

***Molly on painkillers and sedatives.*** 🥳

Molly is doing fairly well, so we should walk tomorrow. That collar is about two feet across so it’s just a bit awkward for her to move around the house. It is also rather awkward when she tries to herd me around the kitchen. 🙄

We had serious wind and a bit more snow last night, so I have some more shoveling that I can get out to work on. Molly is finally taking a nap so I am just waiting for her to wake up so she can come outside with me – at least for a while.

Other than that I made some cinnamon buns on Friday – kneading the dough was a bit of a workout. 😊 They weren’t my best effort but they were okay if you didn’t actually know they were supposed to be cinnamon buns.

And… There wasn’t any fitness involved, but we did go out on Saturday to help celebrate great granddaughter Alaska Rose’s first birthday.

***Alaska did an amazing job of opening her presents – with a bit of help from Mom and a couple of aunties.***

***She could use some work on her cake eating skills.*** 💞

That’s it for today. Molly is awake so time to bundle up and go move some snow.

Take care and have a great day! 💞🌞

November 1st – James Clear

November 1, 2022June 24, 2025 by annemariedemyen, posted in 2022, Health and Fitness

Twenty years ago, I discovered the potential empowerment of self-help programs. For me, finding an aged copy of Norman Vincent Peale’s “The Power of Positive Thinking”, was life-changing. It started me on a quest to discover the wisdom and inspiration shared by the amazing and insightful individuals who work in this field.

What never fails to amaze me in discovering a new brilliant concept, is the total simplicity and truth at the heart of it. The ideas that these gurus relate are so obvious! They shouldn’t be amazing and yet they ARE.

For the past eight and a half months, I have been sharing the progress of my health and wellness journey that I began in mid February. Most of what I have shared has been relative to my physical progress and the benefits that I have enjoyed. This month, I decided to share some of the mental and emotional progress that I have made over the past couple of decades, and which has been accelerated and enhanced by the improvements to my physical health and well-being in the past few months.

My biggest challenge today was choosing the subject of my first blog on this topic. There are so many and I love them all. After much consideration, I decided to go with James Clear and his book “Atomic Habits”.

I am sure many people who read this are familiar with his work. He is well known for his work with professional athletes and entrepreneurs – helping them to develop good habits that will lead them to success in their field.

The inspiration for his program originated from a devastating accident that he suffered on a baseball field when he was in highschool. In working his way through his lengthy, difficult, and ultimately successful recovery, Clear discovered the remarkable results of building healthy habits.

The concept in ‘Atomic Habits’ that grabbed my attention was Clears idea that habits are compound interest. He noted that, if you make it a habit to improve 1% every day, you can improve +35% over the course of the year. Likewise, if you engage in a poor habit and decline 1% every day, you can decline to virtually zero over the course of a year. This works for virtually anything in life that you may want to improve on, or anything that is gradually wearing away at the quality of your life.

Practicing one single good habit every day takes very little effort or determination, but over the course of days or months, it makes a huge difference. Likewise practicing one single poor habit a day, may not have immediate noticeable results and the results may be easy to ignore from one day to the next, but over the course of days or months – the results will be all too obvious! Stacking good habits on good, or bad habits on bad – makes things incrementally better or worse.

In his book, and through his program, Clear helps others to focus on their habits and teaches techniques for developing good habits and breaking bad ones.

From a young age, I was taught the importance of having goals. From focusing on my habits – I have learned that my potential is beyond any goal that I might set for myself – any goal, for improvement to my physical, mental, emotional, financial, spiritual wellbeing.

Our habits, big or small, good or bad, make a major difference in how our lives play out. We owe it to ourselves to deal with them – and fortunately I found James Clear to help me deal with mine.

Take care and have a great day! 💞🌞

Week 36 – Beyond the Physical

October 31, 2022June 24, 2025 by annemariedemyen, posted in 2022, Health and Fitness

This will be a health and fitness update but I cannot blog today without mentioning Halloween.

So… Happy Halloween! TBH I am not a fan of holidays and Halloween competes with Christmas for my least favourite of the lot – but my greeting is sincere for all those who are into it. 😊

This year, with our eight and a half month Pyreneese (who has all the social skills of a ginormous rabid squirrel), I thought Dan and I had agreed to forgo the festivities, dim the lights, pull down the shades, and crack open a bottle of wine. It turns out, I was wrong. Last night Dan brought it up and was concerned about the influx of kids in our neighbourhood and how he hated to disappoint them. I was willing risk their disappointment, but okay we will partake.

***Our dainty dog, pretending she will be all chill about this.***

Since we had no plans until last night, we had no treats to hand out so my mission this morning was to go shopping. Easy, peasy as our Maddy would say.

I headed out at 9, started the Jeep, and was greeted by the dashboard drama queen carrying on about the lack of air in my rear passenger tire. This is a regular occurrence, so whatever. I headed off to Walmart. The last time I was in Walmart was sometime in July and they had shelves overflowing with Halloween treats. Today, nothing! I picked up a few things we didn’t need and made my way to the cashier. There were two women ahead of me. The first was a frazzled young woman trying desperately to stuff her overflowing cart as the cashier rang her groceries through. I felt for her. The woman behind her was an elderly woman with two packages of chicken breasts and a bag of salt. She kept her salt in the cart and set her chicken on the end of the counter. She told the cashier (who was still running through the previous customer) about the salt and then proceeded to push her cart to the end of the aisle, whipped out her bank card, and pushed herself right up against frazzled young woman – who couldn’t even pay for her stuff because elderly lady was blocking her access to the debit machine. WTF? I was so busy watching the drama play out, that I didn’t notice the cashier across the way trying frantically to wave me over to her til. It finally got painfully obvious, so I hustled on over there.

I got out of Walmart and made my way over to Freshco – dashboard queen getting herself into a lather of red lights the entire time (which matched all the red lights that I was hitting). Did I mention, I dislike driving? A lot? So I get to Freshco and surprise they have no Halloween candy. I consider going to our Dollar Store but decide to just whip over to the Wholesale Club on 4th Ave – which OH YEA is closed for construction. After navigating the detour through hell, I get to the Wholesale Club and find that my best option would be a couple of cases of single pack potato chips. Massive cases. I am NOT one of those elegant, sophisticated women at the best of times. Carrying two big ass cases of potato chips through a busy store and across the parking lot to our Jeep, is not happening!

On to Northgate Mall. I did run in and check out Dollarama. They had miniature chocolate Santas and individually wrapped Easter eggs. I headed down to Safeway but took a quick detour (because they’re my thing now) and I went to Shoppers Pharmacy. Hallelujah – they had shelves of Halloween candy.

I grabbed an assortment of goodies and hustled up to the cashier. FFS! What kind of fresh hell is this. Virtually, every cashout is self serve. (I haven’t been to Shoppers for years). I go up to the sole actual living, breathing cashier and she points across the aisle and offers to help me ‘over there’. Over where? She tells me she is pointing at the self serve counters. Why? You’re here. I’m here. Why would we go over there? I said “No, I would rather help you keep your job”. 🤦 Unbelievable.

So I make my victorious way home, stopping at a dozen red lights, and crawling through three or four school zones. Despite all the ballyhoo about the air in my tire, all is well. I am still driving on four round tires. I should be super pumped about my successful venture, but I am kind of struggling to get past the entire episode. Which brings me to this week’s health and fitness update!

Thirty six weeks in and I am still excited about the health and fitness regime that I started in February. I talk mostly about the physical aspects of what I am doing but health and fitness isn’t only about the physical. We are not just physical beings, but also mental and emotional. It is all so intertwined that what affects one system affects all of our systems.

So yes, I am still excited about doing the physical work – my Zumba lessons, walking Molly, and lifting (light) weights. This week I am finally up to ten sets of ten reps of four lifts and I am adding a few wall push-ups (push-outs). But…

I am also meditating every day, working on developing general coping skills, and I have started (re)reading self-help type books. In my journey to wellness, I have come across a number of authors whose works I find to be particularly inspiring. In the days to come, I am planning to write some blogs highlighting some of these authors and explain what it is about their ideas that I personally relate to and how they have helped me to improve my mindset.

In the meantime, I have to sign off for today. Molly is impatiently awaiting her walk and I really need some fresh air and some quiet time out in nature to re-centre and work off my earlier shopping venture.

Take care and have a great day! 💞🌞

Week 33 – Setbacks

October 10, 2022June 25, 2025 by annemariedemyen, posted in 2022, Health and Fitness

It is thirty-three weeks since I started working on getting fit and healthy. Things have gone rather well, better than I had ever thought was possible – and with few set backs.

Back in May, I skipped a couple of days of workouts when we went to son Dan’s for the long weekend and my blood pressure rocketed. Once we returned home, it started to drop and has been getting better and more stable all the time. My husband had a bit of a cold/flu/virus thing this summer and I skipped right through that with nary a sneeze. 🤗

However, this past Saturday I woke up feeling a bit rough and it only got worse throughout the day. By evening, I had no inclination to do my evening weights and after crawling into bed early, suffered through a miserable night. By Sunday morning, I was feeling somewhat better. I puttered around the house all day and for the first time since the beginning of July, I missed walking Molly. She seemed fairly understanding – at least until I tried to lie down on her spot on the sofa. Having a 70/80 pound dog walk back and forth over you and finally flop down on top of you, is not nearly as restful as it sounds. 😧. I survived the rest of the day napless, got a good night’s sleep, and got up feeling even better this morning.

I got up, fed Molly, made myself a nutritious breakfast, did a sinkload of dishes that should have been done last night, took Molly for a walk, tried to meditate for an hour while Molly tried to sit on my lap, chew on my hands, lick my ears, and half sit on my lap while half standing on the floor while wagging her tail in my face. (That was difficult to ignore.). I persevered and then chased her out into the yard so I could complete a thirty-three minute You Tube Zumba class.

My final challenge of the day will be completing my weight lifts (3 Pound dumbbells) and moving up to 9 sets, 10 reps, of four different lifts. 💪

One of the most challenging aspects of working the last few years before I retired, was dealing with health issues. I was never ‘healthy’ and, more often that not, I was dealing with the effects of chronic health issues and catching every bug that came near me. Calling in sick was seldom an option, so I would generally suck it up. But, I really looked forward to the day that I was retired and would have the luxury of pulling a blanket over my head and just wallowing in misery when I got sick.

Now I am retired and in so much better shape since I started working out in February, that I… A – I almost never get sick, B – When I do get sick, I recover so quickly and easily that I do not have time to wallow, C – Have learned that wallowing does not really speed up the healing process, and D – Have a dog that does not approve of wallowing. So that retirement dream has run its course! And honestly, I am so much happier feeling healthy and fit that I really don’t mind missing out on the wallowing in illness thing.

That is it for today. Another week of making health and fitness a priority and another week of looking forward to a retirement filled with happy, healthy, adventures with my husband and our Molly dog! 🤗

Happy Thanksgiving to any Canadian readers. Take care and have a great day – to all! 💞🌞

Week 32 – I’m On My Way!

October 4, 2022October 4, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Health and Fitness, October 2022

It has been thirty two weeks since I started making an active, healthy lifestyle a major priority in my life. While I have enjoyed countless benefits from the improvements I have made to my lifestyle, there are limitations.

Physically, most of my limitations involve my respiratory system. I have asthma, COPD, and bronchiectasis. These are all chronic conditions which have caused permanent lung damage. They are also conditions that are aggravated by dust, woodsmoke, frigid temperatures, and humidity. All of which happen in Saskatchewan on a regular basis.

Yesterday, I woke up to a city wrapped in thick fog. On days like that, it is hard to get up, get active, and basically get excited about doing much of anything. On days like that, I have two options. I can go the easy route, wrap myself in a fuzzy blanket, plant myself on the couch and wait for the congestion to get worse, the bronchitis or pneumonia to set in, and ultimately the trip to the health clinic or ER for x-rays, antibiotics, and oral steroids. Or, I can push myself to get dressed, get active, and work on improving (or at least maintaining) my lung function – and my waistline. 😊

Fortunately, I have built up a few foolproof means to help me make the right choice. I have my fiercely motivated Volley workout partners who inspire me every day – and keep me accountable, I have a library of dance music to get me moving, I have a library of Zumba workouts to push me through, and of course I have my Molly dog to get me out into the fresh air (once the sun burns off the fog).

Here are a few of my currently favourite inspirations…

Molly at the dog park

That’s it for today and another week of working my way to a fit and healthy lifestyle. 👍

Take care and have a great rest of your day. 💞🌞

Change of Season

September 30, 2022September 30, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Health and Fitness, September 2002

Despite our pool weather temperatures this week, it is obvious that our seasons are changing from summer to fall.

With my natural instinct to hibernate come mid-September, the pitch darkness when I let Molly out at 5:30 A.M. is less than optimal. My efforts to rearrange my schedule to optimize the sunlight that we do have is also proving to be a challenge. And… With everything falling,drying, decaying and generally turning to dust, my lung and sinus issues have been causing me grief. Autumn is not my favourite time of year!

Fortunately, even autumn has it’s redeeming features. Just as I am getting a bit tired of salads and barbecued suppers, we find ourselves in the season of comfort foods. Since we had a steak leftover from Sunday supper (Dan and I decided to share one) and a container of homemade beef broth in the freezer, I whipped up a pot of beef barley soup for supper on Tuesday. So good! I used the regular onions, garden carrots, parsnips, celery and cabbage and even tossed in a few (peeled) fresh San Marzano tomatoes and a couple of fresh hot peppers. 😯

And made a tray of homemade cheese biscuits to go with it!

With any number of soups and stews and casseroles reminiscent of my mother’s kitchen to choose from, I can work up a little enthusiasm for autumn and even for our up and coming Saskatchewan winter. Not a lot, but enough to keep me going on my health and fitness journey. 🙂

I finished my Zumba workout so it’s time to head out with Molly. This could be another dog park day. We have been there three times and Molly does enjoy it. Yesterday we played fetch for a while, but I got tired of going to retrieve the ball so that didn’t last long. 🙄

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day! 💞🌞

31 Weeks From Feeble to Fit!

September 26, 2022September 26, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Health and Fitness, September 2002

It is hard to believe that I have been working out and getting in shape for THIRTY-ONE weeks.

It is even harder to believe how far I have come in only thirty-one weeks. In Mid-February I was exhausted, cold, sore, sickly, flabby, and feeble. My mind was sluggish and I just felt blah.

With spring coming up in two or three months, I decided I had to do something to regain some strength and improve my health. I started gradually, and have worked up to an hour of dancing/Zumba every day (except Sunday), daily walks, and working out with dumbbells each evening (except Sunday). I drink six ounces of beet juice a day and take cold showers on a regular basis. I have also joined an online Volley group for support and motivation. Nothing I do is much of a time commitment and the only cost has been in maintaining my Daily Walk companion Molly.

The difference in my health and fitness has been amazing! I feel good – physically, mentally, and emotionally. I look better than I have for years. I keep active all day and embrace new challenges!

This morning, Thirty-One Weeks from spending my days in my rocking chair in front of our electric fireplace, I strapped a harness on Molly (our now +/- 70 pound Pyrenees), set off for a walk, met up with a stranger in one of our neighbourhood parks and WE DID IT! Molly and I went to our first offleash dog park.

If anybody had told me seven months ago that I would be heading into an offleash park to hang with a group of strangers and a pack of BIG dogs, there is no way I would have believed it. But there, I was, hanging with the other dog owners, while watching our pups race around an open field, having the time of their lives. Occasionally, they would come back to check on their human, before racing off again tails flying and grinning eat to ear. It was just one of those moments that make it all so worth while!

It was just one moment of many, when I am so glad that I decided to make this health and fitness change. Every day, I have reason to appreciate the choice I made, reason to appreciate ALL of the people who have supported and encouraged me, and reason to marvel at all of those random moments that have brought me to this place – be it a random meeting, a chance advertisement on Kijiji for a perfect walking partner, or coming across the right article at the right time. That first step has led to so many more – and in only thirty-one weeks.

That is it for today. It’s time to go finish prepping the porch so I can get it painted this week. Just one more thing that I couldn’t have imagined doing back in February. 😊

Take care and have a great day! 💞🌞

Week 28

August 29, 2022August 29, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in August 2022, Health and Fitness

It has been 28 weeks since I started living my ‘better’ life. I am pretty sure I haven’t peaked yet so I am still working up to my ‘best life’. ☺️

There isn’t a lot to report this week but I did drop a pound YAY and having added a dumbbell workout in the evening, I think I am ready to move up a size this week. Three pound weights it is! My next biggest size are five pounds so that might take a bit.

Since I started getting more active and eating better, I have been feeling progressively better. I am also trimming down and looking healthier. All of this is good, and it is nice that others are noticing, BUT… The most frequent ‘compliment’ I get – and have received often in my life is “You look too young – to be, to have, to do…whatever” or “You don’t look that old”.

Seriously! Why are people so surprised if anyone is healthy or in relatively good shape AT MY AGE. At any age? Why is age a factor to be judged by?

I even did an internet search for “women who are 67 years old”, just to see what a typical 67 year old woman was supposed to look like. There were dozens of photos of women and the only thing they had in common was that none of them looked ‘typical‘.

What’s more, each photo had a headline and none of those were what many people would consider typical for a sixty seven year old woman – one had just given birth (having conceived naturally), one had just been sentenced for a DUI hit and run, one had a black belt in martial arts and had taken down an intruder with her bare hands, and one had been found after wandering away from her home. If the photos and headlines had been separated and I had to guess which woman did what, I never would have guessed any of them.

There are so many memes and posts around about seniors – and so many of them normalize negative aspects of aging. This is one I received recently…

**I get this is supposed to be funny, but why?** **Why do we portray ourselves like this at any age?**

And this gem…

**Apparently 75 is our expiration date 🤣🤣🤣**

I don’t know anyone who is seventy five. I do have a sister who is seventy eight. She is not sitting around worrying about whether she ever “embraced the sun on the beach” (Nor did she ever sit around thinking about whether her thighs jiggled 😂😂😂 – although I doubt that her thighs ever jiggled). At seventy eight, she is still running circles around me, living her life, taking care of her home, taking care of the people she loves, and no doubt anyone else who needs her. She is driving herself and her loved ones anywhere they need to be on any given day. And she is as perfect now as she ever was.

What’s more – I know any number of people even older than my sister who are happy, healthy, strong, capable, intelligent and perfect who are living life to the fullest. I have met many of them here on WordPress. Age defines nothing.

I have no desire to look or be younger. I have no desire to live indefinitely. I just want to live the best life that I can, regardless of my age. That is why I make health and fitness a priority – physically, mentally, and emotionally. Quality of life matters – at any age. I realized that 28 weeks ago and I am committed to that 28 weeks in.

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day! 💞🤗

Week 27 💪

August 22, 2022August 22, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in August 2022, Health and Fitness

Twenty seven weeks in and I am still working it, getting fit and staying healthy. Things were getting a bit ‘routine’ for a bit, but with some encouragement, support, and solid advice from my Volly workout friends I am back on track. I have gone from my Zumba routines back to my freestyle dancing after my morning walk and I am doing some meditating and a bit of work with light weights and it is going good. Between that and the beet juice, sauerkraut, and cold showers, I am feeling pretty good these days.

Molly and I had a pretty good walk this morning. (Molly was good but I did accidentally swallow a bug) We are averaging about 2.5 k (1.5 miles) which isn’t where I would like to be, but it is what Molly can handle right now. In a few weeks, our temps will be cooler, the mosquitoes will hopefully be gone, and Molly will be a little more mature. And 2.5k is a LOT further than I would be going if I had never taken that first step on this journey back in February. I think about that quite a bit lately. I am so grateful to my old flabby, tired, sickly self that made the effort to get up and get moving. 💗

I have a few photos that I took, to share today…