Seven Invaluable Skills I Learned in Toastmasters

August 25th, 2009

By Madeleine Kolb 

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My first real job involved occasional public speaking, and looking back I’d have to assess my performance as “uneven.” Sometimes I was relaxed and confident, other times, quite nervous. Sometimes I connected with the audience, other times, I didn’t even come close.

I was frustrated because I wanted to be a good speaker all the time, not just from time to time. But I’d never had training in public speaking. Until the day–many, many years later– that I got up my nerve and walked into a Toastmasters meeting.

There I was warmly welcomed and sat back to enjoy the proceedings. I went back the next week and the week after and then I joined. That was over 9 years and 70 some speeches ago, and in that time I’ve learned  these invaluable skills. 

1.  How to write for the ear

Writing a speech is different from writing a report or an article. A speech is more informal, more conversational:  You need to write for the ear rather than for the eye. Writing speeches has taught me how to do that. And as an unexpected bonus, it  has improved all my writing.  Read the rest of this entry »

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End of Fighting About End of Life?

August 17th, 2009
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Photo by Ben Fredericson (xjrlokix)

By Madeleine Kolb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could see this one coming. In a way I hoped it would come, so that now Americans could get on with rational discussion of health care reform. So I was not surprised to read that the proposal regarding Medicare funding for voluntary end‑of‑life discussions with one’s doctor is being dropped. 

 Not because it was a bad idea.  But because it was deliberately distorted to fool people (most of them on Medicare) into believing that they would have to appear before government bureaucrats every 5 years to talk about how they wanted to die. 

Bizarre as this distortion is, it did what it was meant to do!  It created huge fear in older Americans—a group which already has plenty of fear about having health care when they need it.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Your Health: Your Responsibility?

August 11th, 2009

2322070560_e7b6c05d48By Madeleine Kolb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently, another complex and contentious issue—taking personal responsibility for your own health—has been has been injected into the debate about health care reform. See Health Reform Idea:  Put Down the Doughnut at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32306655/ns/health-health_care/. 

The article states that “There’s no doubt that the bulk of the nation’s health care costs are self-inflicted. Smoking, high blood pressure and being overweight are the top risk factors for early death…with physical inactivity, high blood sugar and alcohol use not far behind, according to an April study by the Harvard School of Public Health.” 

Take, for example, the “358-pound diabetic who didn’t take his medication for two days and then stayed up all night playing poker,” cited by Dr. Steven Spady, a dedicated and hard-working emergency physician in rural Kentucky.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Sarah Palin Should be Ashamed of Herself

August 8th, 2009

By Madeleine Kolb

Like millions of you, I’ve been watching those disturbing videos showing angry crowds, disrupting Town Hall meetings on health care reform. In one,  Republican Congressman Todd Akin refers to Democratic congressmen going to meetings in their own districts being “just about lynched”—a remark which evoked loud applause and laughter in the audience. 

Other videos show an angry crowd inside a Town Hall meeting, pushing and shoving and drowning out a Congressman or woman–attempting to speak–by shouting, booing, or chanting. Meanwhile, an angry crowd outside is pushing, shoving, and banging on the door.

The images are alarming:  we’ve probably all seen the man in his fifties whose shirt has been mostly torn from his chest. Even more disturbing are videos linking President Barack Obama and health care proposals to Hitler’s Final Solution. 

But it gets worse. This morning Sarah Palin weighed in on Facebook, suggesting that her parents and her baby with Down Syndrome “will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective view of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care.” She concluded that “Such a system is downright evil.” Read the rest of this entry »

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I’m Taking The President’s Challenge and You Should Too: Part II

August 4th, 2009

By Madeleine Kolb

When I stumbled on The President’s Challenge website at www.presidentschallenge.org, I was excited. I was already exercising regularly, but the Challenge could help me stay motivated for the long haul.  So about a year ago, I got with the program.

It was simple. I just logged on to the website, picked My Favorite physical activities from the list, and then—every time I exercised—I entered the date, activity, duration, and intensity (rate) in my online Activity Log. 

Sometimes I ran, usually I walked. Sometimes I walked with my BF, usually I walked alone. Sometimes it was raining, usually it was dry. And in three months, I racked up 20,000 points to earn a Bronze medallion. I was elated!  Read the rest of this entry »

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I’m Taking the President’s Challenge And You Should Too: Part I

August 2nd, 2009

By Madeleine Kolb

I like to measure how I’m doing. It’s the best way I know to stay motivated when it comes to things like physical activity. So for nearly a year now, I’ve been participating in a terrific program that encourages people of all ages to be physically active (or more physically active) and helps them track their progress. It’s the President’s Challenge at www.presidentschallenge.org, part of the President’s Commission on Physical Fitness and Sports. 

I got involved shortly after I retired from my job a year ago. At that time, I thought long and hard about what to do for exercise. I’d spent years exercising on a treadmill at the fitness center at work.  And a treadmill measures lots of things:  how long you walked or ran, how fast, at what incline, even calories burned.  But I figured I’d had enough running on a treadmill to last me the rest of my life.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Weighing in on Alzheimer’s Disease and Crossword Puzzles

July 23rd, 2009

By Madeleine Kolb

There is probably nothing about aging more terrifying than the specter of Alzheimer’s disease. We are so afraid of losing our ability to remember things and, ultimately, to do the simplest things that we panic if we can’t remember trivial facts from the past, such as which of the Righteous Brothers had the wonderful high falsetto? [It was Bobby Hatfield]. 

I know that’s Alzheimer’s Disease is not part of normal aging, yet I dread the thought of getting it and having one of my children care for me as I lose the ability to cook a simple dinner without setting the house on fire or go out for a walk in the neighborhood without getting hopelessly lost.  

The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is not known for certain. But there’s no shortage of suggestions about how to prevent or delay it, such as the idea that doing crossword puzzles on a regular basis may help.  Read the rest of this entry »

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The Omnivore’s Dilemma

July 20th, 2009

 

Photo by Tambako the Jaguar
Photo by Tambako the

By Madeleine Kolb

 
I’m still reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and finding it fascinating, thought-provoking, and very well-written. Also disturbing:  After reading Part I, it hit me that I couldn’t eat beef ever again. 
 
Actually, this was just my personal tipping point. These were other factors:

Books I’d read over the years

The first was Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe, which was published in 1971. It advocated eating combinations of plants (grains, rice, and beans) rather than animals to get the “essential amino acids”—the ones that humans need but can’t synthesize in their bodies. A more recent book was Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. 

How raising cattle has changed over the years

The Omnivore’s Dilemma describes the extreme measures taken to force cattle to eat corn. Cattle are grass-eaters, and—like other grass-eaters—they are ruminants. They have a four-chambered rumen which digests grass. When cattle are fed corn, it takes a team of veterinarians and liberal use of antibiotics to keep their digestive systems working. 

How my diet has changed over the years

I’ve always eaten a reasonably healthful diet, and the older I get the healthier it gets. Over the years, I’ve cut way down on fatty foods:  no more French fries, pepperoni, regular ice cream, doughnuts, spareribs, or pepperoni for me. I have type 2 diabetes now, and one of the main ways I manage it is by diet. That means eating lots of grains, rice, beans, vegetables, fruit, chicken, and fish, along with a little meat. 

How my cooking has changed over the years 

When I first started cooking decades ago, I used to follow recipes religiously. If I didn’t have a certain ingredient, I wouldn’t prepare that dish. Now I regard most recipes as suggestions. If one calls for celery and I don’t have any, I’ll use some other crunchy vegetable. I’m also much more adventurous about using new foods, like jicama, fava beans, and bok choy.
 
So I’m cooking healthy and eating healthy. It seems wrong for me to eat cows raised  in feedlots eating food they can’t digest well.

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Do You Know What You’re Doing? That’s the First Step to Change

July 17th, 2009

By Madeleine Kolb

I love measuring things, such as how much I walked and how long it took and how much weight I lost or gained. Yesterday, for example, I walked for one hour and 15 minutes. This morning I found that I’d lost 0.2 pounds which is not bad, since I’m just trying to lose a few pounds. 

I’m not obsessive; I just love feedback! Without feedback, I literally don’t know what I’m doing. And if I don’t know what I’m doing now, how will I know when I  change what I’m doing?  If I want to change, how will I know when what I’m doing is working? 

A recent Real Age article cited a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture which found that “more than 80% of women underestimated their daily food intake by a whooping 700 calories.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Still Working After All These Years

July 14th, 2009

By Madeleine Kolb

I’m a sucker for those quizzes I see online and in newspapers. Like this one:  

Question:  By 2050, the world population is projected to surpass 9 billion people, up from 6.8 billion people today. Nearly all of this growth will occur in the developing world.  Which age group will expand the most? 

  • Children younger than 15
  • Working-age population (15-59 years)
  • Elderly (60 and older)

Answer:  “The age group that will grow the most by 2050 is the working-age population, or the 15-59 cohort.…Other than the working-age cohort, the other cohort expected to increase significantly is people 60 and older.”

I almost choked on my seven-grain cereal when I read this over breakfast. Since when are people aged sixtyplus not working? Read the rest of this entry »

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