29 Nov, Another Pritikin Perfect day. It is fascinating to meet folks like 93 year old Joseph who came to Pritikin 30 years ago as a big bellied 63 year old with a bad heart. He is an amazingly fit and trim fellow who turned his Pritikin experience into 30 more years of quality life. Ron is in his sixth pain free day. No more knee or back pain. Cynthias foot pain is alleviated by staying off the treadmill.
28 Nov, Tues. This day next week we will have to leave this awesome place. We love it here enough we will plan to return for another month next year. And we hope to return every year. Ron experienced extra heart beats doing Rock and Roll during high intensity cardio on the elliptical machines today. This means the end of rocking out in cardio to keep that heart rate about 90 at full speed. Cynthia had her own injury yesterday with pain in her left foot. She has racked up nearly 20,000 steps every day this week. I wish there was a way to summarize all of the lecture information for the blog. There is no one like Frank, former physical therapist for the Miami Dolphins who always has time for us, yet he is so incredibly busy. Keep the pelvic tilt walking to keep the spine fit for a long, healthy life.
27 Nov, The day was cloudy and much cooler. After four lectures, yoga, cardio, free weights and awesome food we are ready to sleep early for our 7:00 AM labs.
26 Nov, a stellar day at Pritikin. Ron has NO pain. Pritikin is amazing. All knee, back and shoulder pain is gone. Our workouts are successful. The morning was successfully spent doing the routine workouts. We bought the Yoga DVD for hotel room continuity. The magnificent coral sunset is kissing the earth while the palm trees dance in the balmy breeze.
25 Nov, We see why people travel to south Florida for vacations. The weather is glorious. Our routine includes an hour of yoga, cardio, free weights, lectures and walking. Of course, the food is fabulous at Pritikin. Another group is leaving tomorrow, but we have 9 days to go.
24 Nov, Is a Pritikin perfect day in Doral, FL following an awesome Thanksgiving dinner last night that left us filled and healthy. Ron ate sea bass, Cynthia ate turkey with sage dressing made of Ezekiel bread, a cranberry relish, mashed sweet potatoes with pineapple chunks and bread pudding. Cynthia’s labs are almost as perfect as Ron’s. Her total cholesterol is 117. This beautiful, sunny day, Ron had yoga class, Cynthia worked out with a trainer. We both did cardio, and core with a long walk after lunch. Ron believes high salt on pretzels may have contributed to AFib. The new pretzels are fat and salt free. Half a bag helps fewer nocturnal trips to the Necessary Room. Yesterday we learned high salt causes brittle arteries but the Pritikin plan will reverse the brittle arteries to normal elasticity. Our niece Erika Axtell performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City with her high school drill team.
23 Nov, Happy Thanksgiving! Thank God, thank God, thank God for life’s abundant blessings that includes you, our family and friends. We are especially grateful to friends we met in Scotland who sent marvelous news this morning:
“Many thanks for sharing information on Prinikin food menu. I have subscibed to their Newsletter and have been eating your way. I am making the sweet potato pancakes to night.
I was given medication for high blood pressure several months ago. Since eating plenty of fruit & veg and cutting right down on butter, etc, my blood pressure was normal to day. I am so pleased. You have given me and Fred inspiration to eat the Prinikin way. I swim several times per week and do Pilates and Fred plays golf and exercises with me. He has diebetes and his sugar level has come right down.
Thankyou so much for your facebook posts and blog.
You and Ron are a wondeful couple. so glad we met you.
Kind regards,
Wynn
22 Nov, A stellar day at Pritikin despite afternoon rain. Ron went to yoga straught away while Cynthia endured an extensive phone call to LifeLock because of an identity theft alert that was nothing more than our address change showing up on a credit card. Once that was resolved she joined Ron doing cardio intensive interval workouts. Ron had free weights next and Cynthia had core with the personal trainer. After a lecture by Frank on foot and ankle pain we did water aerobics. Ron is too tall for the 4’ pool; additionally, Ron was unsuccessful in testing his body composition by going to the bottom of the pool to let all the air out if his lungs to see if he would stay on the bottom. He chickened out. We walked to our room in the rain. Now it is dinner time!
21 Nov, Happy birthday, Julie. Early morning labs are a challenge, but the news from the scales brightened our day. We each lost two more pounds. Ron’s blood pressure was 78/60. Cynthia’s was 92/70. The Pritikin attendance is very low over Thanksgiving, hence the experience is different from the hustle and bustle of a full dining room, fitness center, etc. Ron did yoga, we both did cardio, stretch and tone, plus walking an additional five miles and listened to three lectures on aging, stress, biomechanical means to alleviate pain in the back, neck and knees. The photos was taken from the upper patio looking towards the golf course.
20 Nov, Monday Fun at Pritikin included visitors from their winter home in Naples, FL. We gave them a tour of Pritikin and Ron arranged a golf car tour of the magnificent five golf courses. We dined at the Pritikin Center so they could experience the food, too. Geoff said the sweet potato was like dessert. Yes, it is. Ron managed getting in all of his cardio and yoga. Cynthia worked with the trainer. Our lectures were on atherosclerosis and nutrition. Cynthia’s Fitbit recorded 49 miles last week. Wow.
19 Nov. The sun is shining in Florida again. Imagine that. We loved the brunch, especially the sweet potato pancakes with blueberries.
18 Nov, The sun is shining, we are happy and extremely well fed with a break between lectures to make it to the Running Co. for Hoka Shoes. Cynthia bought the Hoka Clifton 4; Ron was fitted and learned his Hoka Bondi5W are what he should have, so he doesn’t need to buy another pair for ten more years. The evening was glorious.
17 Nov, The weather could not be more perfect. After cardio, core, yoga, eating again and Again, plus a lecture on “Sitting is the New Smoking,” we walked the jogging trail. Ron hustled off to cooking class to eat food samples. We greatly enjoy our new nam, “The adorable couple.” Amazing that we have a long enough afternoon break to take showers. On our evening walk, via the jogging trail, we met some golf club maintaince guys who asked, “Where are you kids going?” Ron replied, We’re going to get into trouble.”
16 Nov: D-Day. Doctors said we hit home runs on our test results. Ron’s total cholesterol is 107, Cynthia’s is 123. WooHoo. Perfect in every way. Our workouts are going great, too. The food continues to be awesome.
15 Nov, Craaaazzzyy busy. Cynthia was tested for sleep apnea testing positive. Physician will discuss tomorrow. Ron went to yoga cardio, free weights, two lectures, and a 3 hour appt with the biomechanical physical rherapist who loves motorcycles. We accomplished our evening walk on the jogging trail and we are ready for sleep. Zzzzz
14 Nov: We arose early for blood draws, had breakfast and returned to our room to write and shower.
Cynthia had a 2.5 hour appointment with the biomechanical therapist to follow up on the treatment prescribed when we were here last April. He and Ron enjoy motorcycle discussion. Lectures today were on nutrition and relationships. Someone suggested we could lead that group. Exercise discussion from yesterday:
13 Nov. dawns with gratitude to our veterans. After five lectures on nutrition, cardio, walking and delicious food, we are ready for sleep. A lecture on anger was most interesting. Myth: people and events make make us angry. Fact: our expectations and beliefs make us angry.
12 Nov., On our way rejoicing, thankful for the gift of this day, each other, our family and the opportunity to improve our health. One of the guests at Pritikin arrived with type II diabetes and sudden vision loss; he is now able to stop insulin and his sight is expected to recover. Another fellow came because of high blood pressure; yesterday he was able to stop blood pressure meds. The Important number for daily tracking is keep sodium under 1200 mg day if over 49 years of age. Recommended diet is to eat 5+vegetables and 4+ fruits, oatmeal, and 4ozs fish 3 times a week. Dairy is two fat free servings daily. No Oils, butter, cheese. The only nuts allowed are walnuts. Forget dry foods, eat low calorie dense, high fiber food. We enjoyed a lazy afternoon. We walked after dinner.
11 Nov., really happened yesterday, we know we woke up and participated in Saturday doing exercise, walking, lectures on reading labels, asking questions about exercise and medical issues; we overate at usual, visited with friends, and dropped into bed exhausted. We just ran out of day forgetting to remember to blog.
10 Nov, we love the food! It is almost vegan but far healthier because it doesn’t include sodium or fats, including butter or oil which is the most calorie dense of all. The morning was spent in cardio, yoga, free weights and a personal trainer for Cynthia. The AM lecture was on metabolic syndrome. The afternoon lecture was success when leaving. Ron attended cooking school to eat extra food. Yummy sorbet today. We had an afternoon walk followed by an evening repeat. How fun to have people say our love makes them happy
9 Nov., another day raced past without a single item crossed off our to do lists. Cynthia had an appointment with her doctor on staff at 8:30 AM to go over test results, all good but triglycerides were a little bit high. Ron met with Dr. Scheib who approved fat and sodium free pretzels in the evening. Ron did the stretch class with a cardio class. Cynthia did cardio and lined up a daily personal trainer instead of the free weight/stretch class. Great lectures on hypertension epidemic and metabolism. We walked the jogging trail after dinner. Zzzzzzzzz
8 Nov, another terrific Pritikin day. Ron went to yoga, Cynthia walked. During morning cardio, Ron didn’t think his rowing was intense enough despite having to stop out of breath. Cynthia did the high intensity interval training on the treadmill, followed by free weights. On this gorgeous day, the morning lecture topic was reading labels by Dr. Gomez. Frank, the biomechanics therapist, lectured on foot and knee pain. We went to cooking school, then attended the lecture on supplements before dinner. Dr. Arvon led the evening lecture on relationships and said she loves us. After a walk on to the end of the jogging trail we are exhausted and ready for sleep with zip time to respond to messages. Good night.
7 Nov, was a stellar day in every way. The Pritikin food is delicious, the exercise great, and the lectures by notables in the medical field on aging are stimulating. Ron held people at our dinner table spellbound telling stories of the AT, motorcycle riding, and falling in Love.
6 Nov, 5:40 AM, we don’t like such early mornings, but we had to rise and shine for blood draw, medical appointments and later, an exercise evaluation. Ivan, the head trainer, placed us together in the red cardio grouping. Neither of us have blood pressure issues, but Ivan gave Cynthis strong warnings to have blood pressure evaluations before, during and after cardio per Dr. Fruge's orders. Overachiever Ron hustled onto the elliptical machine for 10 minutes and weights for 10 minutes while Cynthia joined the yoga class. The morning lectures were centered on exercise, nutrition and diabetes. (Cynthia is celebrating 14 years insulin free.) We walked the jogging trail before Ron boogied onto the sleep disorder lecture. Cynthia is indeed happy Ron has returned from the Keys; the lecture hall is cold, and he is so wonderfully warm and cosy-able.
5 Nov, 5:41 AM at the hotel associated with the Pritikin Longevity Center: We were awakened to a loud fire alarm. Ron had heard soft knocks on the door preceding the alarm and wasn’t concerned about a fire. Cynthia threw on a robe and hustled outdoors to discover a delusional, incoherent man; Ron pulled on shoes, pants & shirt before following and listened to the guy ramble incoherently, obviously delusional, and asked him if he set the fire alarm; he did acknowledge he had the second time Ron questioned him. The police took him to a hospital. At breakfast, we learned he had accused (to others standing outside) Cynthia, and others, of breaking into his room. We were able to return and rest for another couple of hours. Today we check into the program and move to our scheduled room for the remainder of the month in the program.
4 Nov, Big Pine Key, FL, Ron awoke refreshed with energy for another day of chain saw maneuvers. At 9 PM, with a full moon to light the way, he will ride back to his beloved bride at Longevity Center in NW Miami. Cynthia awoke late to breakfast with a lovely, gentle rain that ended with a marvelous rainbow overhead.
3 Nov. Cynthia is at the Pritikin Longevity Center, Miami, FL. Ron is running a chain saw in Big Pine Key, FL where he notes the hurricane damage is greatly improved. By evening, the chain saw enthusiast is feeling his age. Imagine. Cynthia walked 6 miles and enjoyed a haircut.
2 Nov, The Pritikin Center would make a great permanent residence. Ron figured up the cost and Cynthia is ready to decorate. Well, maybe someday. Ron rode 120 miles to Big Pine Key to help Greg and Cindy with Irma repairs for three l.o.n.g. days, leaving Cynthia in a spa without adult supervision. The ride into the Keys was very familiar and very different. Traffic flowed along steadily at the speed limit of 45 mph, 50 mph or occasionally 55 mph. There were passing opportunities which advanced Ron to the next group of cars going the speed limit or less. What was different were new businesses and surprisingly more views of water alongside the roadway. The hurricane pruned enough vegetation that new water views were revealed in the final 50 miles to Big Pine. Ron attempted to bypass the stop light in Big Pine and instead wandered through "The Avenues" section to see huge piles of discarded everything lining the streets. It was an impressive evidence of massive destruction from the storm. Coconut Highway looked much cleaner, but evidence of destruction was still close to the road. Greg and Cindy seemed not to be home, so Ron rode back to Winn-Dixie to acquire vital frozen fruit bars to fortify himself before returning to Greg's house where he found Greg in time to share a frozen fruit bar. Greg gave Ron the choices of 1) sanding door jams, 2) shoveling sea muck from the yard, 3) clearing twisted, torn, tattered, tangled tree limbs & debris from the "back 40." Ron chose options 2 & 3 and spent the rest of the day and the next two at those tasks, making a noticeable improvement but still leaving a staggering amount of work.
1 Nov: The 200 mile ride from Sarasota, FL to Miami took 3 hours and 15 minutes; it took 45 minutes to drive the last 15 miles to the Pritikin Longevity Center because of traffic. The Everglades have much more development since last March, although we didn’t see any alligators hawking business. Sunset was beautiful; the sky turned a luscious lavender and the fields were sun-kissed gold. Two majestic great blue herons flew over us At least we arrived in time to have dinner.
