Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

Kids doing pushups. It's hilarious. I'd put pictures but it would be of other people's children, so I am thinking that would not be so awesome. Instead I had my son pose. From my observations of those new to our karate class and warmup, the kids' pushups fall into a few different categories: The bottom in the air What not to do - pushup with bottom in the air That's what the top of the motion looks like when they do this. The bottom of the motion is closer to more what the start position should be! The hip on the floor In this one, the hips and top of thighs stay on the ground but the elbows bend. So that's good, the elbows bend? It's not correct, but at least the elbows bend? What not to do - pushup with the hip on the floor The head bob I don't have pictures of this one. Liam got tired of doing pushups incorrectly and was highly suspicious of me taking pictures so he declined to do more. "Mama are you going to show peo

Last year marked 5 years since I was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer and since I am currently a household officer/ I made a list of things I'd been thinking of doing, but never got around to. I really like lists! The past year was about: Being purposeful Experimenting.  I think I'll just continue that way. As I explained in my original post,  50-things-to-do-this-year   , these are not so big, not so small, and not too many. My list of 50 things to do this year (Partial) Completed In progress Not Started, Recent changes in red Visit Enchanted Rock. Climb Mt. Bonnell steps. Sunset while dining at Oasis. I hear the view is great. Watch Sound of Music with the family. High Tea. Celebrate with friends I've made through work. Celebrate with sister survivors. Celebrate with my mommy and neighbourhood friends. Celebrate with my Zanshin (karate) family. Celebrate with friends I've made through my husband's work. Get some fitness photos- 

The kind that only interracial couples encounter. Awww mixed race couple   I've been married now for quite some time, so I do forget that we are in fact a mixed race couple and some people may be surprised when they see us together. Child without an owner When my son Lucas was young, we lived in a suburb St. Louis. The winters were cold and long. What to do with a small child? Take him to the mall and let him run around of course! Picture it when Papa took him: one little coloured child running around with no coloured person in sight. The people in the mall were befuddled. They did not know what to do with this child who had no owner. Should they intervene? Grab the kid? They certainly did a lot of looking around and swiveling! This was a predominantly (white) suburb, so not many coloured folks out there to even assign my child to a random but like-coloured stranger. It happens all the time. If our sons wanted to pretend like they did not know their dad, they could

Fitness after stage III breast cancer Plank on ball in silhouette Why a fitness shoot? I am not a fitness model, nor am I ripped like one, but I wanted to do a fitness shoot for a few different reasons: 1. As a reminder of how far I have come At the 5-year anniversary of my diagnosis of stage III breast cancer, it seemed a good time to remind myself how far I have come since I went through the trauma of diagnosis and treatment. That no matter how low I felt at the time, I came through it. Not all my sisters made it and many are still struggling today (shout out to my IV-leagers - those living with stage IV,  EVERY DAY). 2. As a reminder of how much the body can do It is a moment for me to acknowledge that while there are things I still cannot do, there are things I could not do when I first started lifting weights, that I can do now and THAT is amazing to me. When I first started weight lifting maybe I could do shoulder presses with 7.5 lbs, now I can do more than

Retargeting? Remarketing? It's all in the cookie. Sponsored Ad for Kirkus Reviews Ads following you? I am sure you have noticed that you are on one site and then next thing you know the very thing you were looking at starts showing up as "Sponsored Ads" on other websites you visit. Facebook is a prime example of where ads follow me. I had just been looking at where I could get a review of my book, you know the one I've been talking about writing since forever? Well, since I encourage myself to dawdle and delay and not actually WRITE, it seemed a good idea to look at how to get a Kirkus review for my non-existent book. Retargeting or remarketing, regardless of what you call it, it seems creepy to me. Interest-based advertising This is the world of interest-based advertising apparently. You show an interest  in something and then pay the price afterwards.  Everywhere that Google Ads are served is fair game to give you that "nudge" to buy

Pigeon Point, Tobago - My new profile pic! Blogger vs Google+ ? Creating a brand? My head is spinning! You may notice that I've updated my profile picture, both here as well as on my social media accounts. I've also moved away from the CEO Human Capital blog name and embraced the persona "Austin Trini". Please update your bookmarks accordingly (because I know you have my site bookmarked if not subscribed to receive my feed the instant I post). Why change? When I first started as CEO, Family Human Capital, I had just become the stay-at-home parent/homemaker/domestic executive. I was in charge of the family human capital: my children. By now, I have to admit to myself (and yes to the world), that I have succumbed to the twin evils of laziness and selfishness. Laziness because I am not improving their human capital at all (and if you ask them, I am in fact doing the opposite of that). Frankly, as my children get older, I am less and less able to inf

Starting Martial Arts as an Adult? Have you been thinking of starting martial arts, but think you are too old? Already in your 30's ? 40's? Don't worry about it, just start! It does not matter if it is jiu jitsu, taekwando or any other flavour of martial arts. Here are the top 6 things I've learnt in my 2+ years. 1. Find/Keep the courage It is not easy to get started and/or it is easy to talk yourself out of the idea. I mean, how many adults do you see now starting out? (Not many.) I started in my 40's and there were only a few adults learning karate. I believe it is more common for practictioners to start as children and continue through to adulthood rather than start as an adult. I am part of a family program of a mix of adults and children so I can do the class with my kids, in addition to separate "Adult" classes. (In the adult class,  I appreciate not having to do extra pushups because a student didn't say "Yes Sir" or &

Driving in a 3rd world country On my last trip to Trinidad, I was finally able to articulate why I am so reluctant to drive there. When I first moved to the U.S I did drive in Trinidad whenever I went back, but after a few years, I would always go back during the summer school vacation and my brother, who is a school teacher, would graciously drive us around. This time, school was in session, and while I could have borrowed the car, I declined, choosing instead to ground my sons and I.  In a hot house. Why? Ahhh.. De Reflexes an' de Roads Long story short - I feel I no longer have the reflexes required to function safely and successfully on the Trinidad roads.  Yes, my reflexes have been dulled by the well-behaved Austin drivers, smooth roads and relatively well-organized transportation system. Also, you drive on the left in Trinidad. So now I move into a little Trini to capture the essence of my adventures. Picture it. Yuh drivin' along, an' yuh busy try

Pretty Himalayan Salt - but not the grilling plank The Himalayan Salt BBQ Plank Now that Father's Day is upon us here in the U.S. I have come to the conclusion that 70% of dads must really take grilling seriously because many "gifts for dad" lists are mostly about the grilling paraphernalia. How else could one explain the phenomenon of the " Himalayan salt barbecue plank " ? Have you ever even heard of such a thing? Well, now I have and not only does it exist, it is a "thing", that people have bought, used, reviewed and are happy with! Top Gifts for Dad I have been found out - yes, I look at those various lists of top gifts, and perhaps I should not have been looking at one from a site calling itself  uncommongoods.com but I did get stumped (read lacking imagination) and I figured if someone else has gone to the trouble to put a list together I should just use it. But have no fear, if the dad in your life is not a griller, he must be a d

Fidget spinners and Agile Now agile and fidget spinners are probably words you don't hear regularly in the same sentence. Well, me neither until I was forced to up my game.   Career Talk in 3rd Grade My son's 3rd grade teacher asked parents come in to talk about their careers to the class. My son Liam raved about this one parent in particular. A neurologist who not only spent about an hour talking cool brain stuff but gave out swag (a brain stress ball) and to top it off, brought tuning forks for the kids to put on their heads! Well shit! How was I going to beat that?  (My husband: "You know it is not a competition, right?" Ignore.) Liam's teacher asked me about coming in to talk...about writing. Hmmm, writing vs tuning forks? BORING. I opted instead to do my part to promote women in STEM and decided to talk about my other career - as a computer engineer. Maybe I can work in video games in there somewhere! Get the kids excited! Some parents work in ch

Exercising as an older adult I am still working on my 50 things update , so in the meantime I wanted to share a few thoughts on what takes up a consistent part of my life at the moment - exercise. But first the caveat - do not start any vigorous exercise program without the consent of your doctor. I expect to continue to exercise as I have done, and even improve, even though I know I am getting older. I've also had a few surgeries that forces me to be mindful of what is going on with my body.  (Read the start of my breast cancer story here ) For example, my lymphedema risk on my right arm means that I should not be lifting weights to maximum ability at any time (but I use how I feel as my gauge),   I do have some range limitations in certain planes because of the breast surgeries, but extensive physical therapy really helped get me to where I am now. I believe the chemo drugs helped me along the path to osteoporosis which means that I need to do weight-bearing exercises. As I

Grey Wolf Pet Gear Yes, friends and family, this is what has been keeping me busy these past few months.  As you may or may not know, I have now been on a sabbatical from my other work life for coming up on 2 years. As we have been exploring options, G and I have been toying around with the idea of starting something, like a business. It has been quite the experience learning about how to sell a product, but I am very excited to announce that we now have our first item for sale on Amazon! Here is the link to it:  Grey Wolf Dog Leash And why are we starting with a dog leash? G has been volunteering at Austin Pet's Alive! for some time now, getting his dog fix in since big L is allergic. Let's say that the quality of the leashes that everyone there has to use day in day out, left something to be desired,  so that's where we started. This is what it looks like up close: Grey Wolf Pet Gear - Dog Leash I am hoping that we can grow this, I quite fancy myself

Where have I been? Well, to be honest, I've been in a turmoil, that's where I've been. On the one hand, I've been very grateful and inspired by the words and actions of fellow Americans, while at the same time I have been so confused, disappointed and frankly mad at the words and actions of fellow Americans. It's taken me a little time to get back my writing groove, but I am going to give it a try! Where do I start? I still have to do an update of my list of 50, which I will do in my next post most likely, but for now I wanted to give an  update on a bucket list item. Seems simple, but one of my bucket list items was having a vacation with my brother's family and mine. Just us. While the circumstances were sad (our father died), it did give us an opportunity to take that vacation together after all the commitments and ceremonies.  It gave us time to be together as a family and for the cousins to spend time together and share experiences. I also taught m