Hi there! This is Ida LeClair reporting in from Mahoosuc Mills, over here in western Maine. Never heard of Mahoosuc Mills? Can’t find it on a map? Well, it’s true. We’re not on a lot of maps. But trust me, we’re there! You just have to know where to look.

My niece Caitlin convinced me to do this. She said blogs are the hottest thing going, and I like to keep up with what’s happening. I figured writing a blog would take less time than having a Facebook page, which Caitlin said can “totally take over your life.”

A little background, then I’ll start blogging. Like I said, I’m from Mahoosuc Mills. My husband Charlie is, too. We went to Mahoosuc Mills High together. High school sweethearts. Charlie was a couple of years ahead of me. He graduated third in his class. ‘Course there were only six of them.

Since then, Charlie has been working at the Mill. He’s a foreman there now, and I’m a cashier down to the Super Food World (formally the A & P. It’s a long story. I’ll fill you in later). I also moonlight doing books for Smitty’s Hardware and the Mahoosuc Mills Mainely Maine store, and offering advice to anyone who asks, and to some that don’t. My hobbies are country line dancing, crafts and having adventures with the Women Who Run With the Moose, which is me and my friends Celeste, Rita, Betty, Dot and Shirley.

Anyways, from what I understand, blogging is a loosely goosey kind of thing. Caitlin tells me I can cover pretty much anything that’s on my mind, so I’ll be talking about life in Mahoosuc Mills and giving you my opinion on things (which Charlie says I have no shortage of). I may even throw in a craft project, and a recipe or two. I have one for baked Spam that will knock your socks off!

I’ve learned through experience, it takes more energy to avoid doing something than to actually do it. So, I’m going to just jump right in, up close and personal with my approach to good health, which is to get it over with early in the day. Here’s my routine:

I get up and drink two, eight-ounce glasses of water. Then I take a two-mile walk with my friend, Betty. Having a friend to walk with passes the time. Plus, you burn up all those extra calories talking, which is a good thing, because to be honest, most of the time our mouths are moving faster than our feet. The bad news is that neither the walking or talking has helped me loose this extra twenty pounds I’ve been dragging around since my mid-thirties. The good news is, carrying around an extra twenty pounds qualifies as “weight bearing exercise,” so I have the osteoporosis thing under control.

When I get home from walking, I drink another glass of water, and move onto my beauty regime. This involves cleansing, exfoliating, and moisturizing my body with a whole arsenal of products that say things like: age defying, anti-wrinkle, antioxidant, alph-hydroxy, pro-retinol, and include enough vitamin A, E and C to meet my minimum daily requirement if smearing it on your body counts.

Once I’m all lubed up, made up and dressed up, it’s time for breakfast. By now, I’m starving. I mean, I’m so hungry even my high fiber cereal looks good. It doesn’t taste like anything, but it looks good. On my cereal, I put a teaspoon of ground up flax seed and some blueberries. Dr. Oz told Oprah to do that, and what’s good enough for Oprah is good enough for me. The flax seed adds to the fiber, he says, and has Omega 3 fatty acids. Then, the blueberries ramp it up a notch because they’re filled with antioxidants, too, and are a “super food.” ‘Course, if you live in Maine, you’ve known blueberries are a super food for a long time. In fact, the wild blueberry is our state berry. So, once again, we are on the cutting edge. Now on top of my fiber, Omega 3 and super antioxidants, I pour some skim milk, and the chomping begins. It’s a good thing my husband Charlie isn’t much of a talker in the morning. It would be hard to hear him over my crunching.

I wash everything down with two cups of coffee. Right now, they’re saying that coffee is good for you, for some reason I can’t remember. (Don’t tell me any different if it’s changed!) And even better, coffee now counts towards the eight glasses of liquid you’re supposed to drink each day. I’ve finally weaned myself off Half and Half and put whole milk in my coffee. I know I should be trying to work my way down to 1%, but that’s the best I can do right now. It’s a quality of life issue.

I pour myself another glass of water and take my multi-vitamin and an L-Glutamine tablet. I have no idea why I take L-Glutamine. One day I was at the Rite Aid and there on my list was “L-Glutamine.” Yes, I thought, that’s definitely my handwriting. But I had no recollection whatsoever of writing it, and no idea what the hell it did. I must have read about L-Glutamine somewhere in a magazine and thought it would be good for me. I trusted I knew what I was doing at the time, and so I bought it. When I got home, I searched through every magazine in the house, and couldn’t find the article that told me to buy L-Glutamine. But I spent ten bucks on it, so I take it. I’m hoping it’s for memory loss.

By 9:00am, I’ve exercised, moisturized, eaten my fiber, Omega 3 and antioxidants, taken my vitamins and L-Glutamine, and drank five of my eight glasses of liquid. Then, I pop a baby aspirin and coast the rest of the day.

That’s all for now. Catch you on the flip side!

The views expressed on this Web site are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent the views of Down East Enterprise or its employees.