Balancing......Breakfast on Broadway

So, as I promised some of you, I wanted to talk about my balance/no fall class that I mentioned previously. When I first got to the classroom and found out the first two weeks were mainly about just talking (and watching a movie), I had hesitated to stay. I thought it was mainly exercises. But I had promised my daughter.

And after the second week I'm glad I stayed. While the first week was a lot of paperwork and organization, we also got to meet everyone and find out why they were in this eight week program. The ages vary and our reasons were different. One is a 60 year old gal who had a knee replacement and is not walking evenly (and doesn't want to go under the knife again) and her husband is there to support her. There are guys and gals who have fallen. A 72 year old woman who had both her knees replaced at the same time (they did an epidural and wanted to give her just one). And there is me, who has fallen once down the front steps, fallen once on a local outdoor mall street (although we now know that was as much about the uneven payment as anything else). and who is nervous about falling again-but not about to stay home because of it. 

This week's exercise was about our thoughts and concerns how realistic they were, and how we would address verious real life situations. For example a friend who has front steps and no railing invites us  over, we can't walk because the roads are slippery, and a host of other issues. I've already handled the first case. I have an every other week bible class at the home of a couple who have made their garage entrance friendly but not the front porch which has about six very wide steps with no railing. I simply call before I am coming and Bob comes out and gives me his arm. When I leave, he goes down the step in front of me and I place my hand on his shoulder. Almost all of us in the class are unwilling to stop being active, but we want to be careful. We also talked about discussing falling and aging in general with our kids. I was surprised to see that some were concerned adult kids might want to limit activity, because my kids are all about my going and doing and being independent. Anyway, it was a very interesting two hours.

The next few weeks are more about movement including fall prevention exercising (apparently one nurse can make herself fall on cue), being willing to ask for help, being willing to accept help (for example, my washer cannot be moved upstairs, so I can go up and down but not with laundry. I require help with that, and I ask for it). Other classes are about habits that can make you fall (I tend to look down when I get out of a chair as I push myself out of it, which is the original reason my daughter wanted me to take this class, and it's a habit I need to change), making the house safer as far as things on high shelves, and a bunch of other things. At this point I'm happy I made the commitment, if not for now, for in the future.

We also talk about getting stronger so that we can get up or grab if we fall. As as many of you know I do fifteen minutes of arm strengthening daily and the same with my legs. I'm sure there will be much to learn and share. 

Since another one of my gals group is also in my class, we went out for lunch.....err....breakfast afterward. If I have to be somewhere and leave my house by nine thirty, I''m probably not eating breakfast. And if I don't get breakfast food at breakfast, then I need it somewhere else throughout the day!  I figured we should try a place that was always packed on the weekends. So off we went to-you guessed it-Breakfast on Broadway. A place that advertises breakfast, lunch and Bloody Marys.  We stuck with the breakfast and no bar, and I ended up with french toast with eggs and sausage and my friend had an extremely large breakfast burrito.  A little pricey but delicious in the extreme. Next time I'm up for the Cointreau cream cheese stuffed french toast or the Hawaiian Benedict. I am nothing if not adventurous when it comes to food.

t

Time for an obligitory dog picture. See that little squirrel head on top of the wood fence on the other side of my metal fence? He (or she) knows darn well that the coon dog can look and climb and bark to no avail and takes great pleasure in the torment, The two of them must have been like that for at least 45 minutes.

Needless to say the rest of my day was spent walking off said lunch, getting groceries in advance of the next cyclone blizzard or whatever it will be called, and enjoy the 78 degree day, or the calm before the storm.