Via Laura Moncur at Pick Me! who said it made her laugh out loud. Me too.
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Laura over at Pick Me! posted about hoarding today. I started to respond but it got so long that I decided to make it a post instead of a comment.
*
I grew up with a hoarder and I couldn’t stand it! I was always embarrassed to have my friends over. I wasn’t allowed to throw popsicle sticks or plastic spoons away. Not only couldn’t we throw spoons away, my mom would actually bring home her used plastic spoons from restaurants. We had a whole drawer full of plastic spoons. We had 5 boxes full of rock salt filled with rabbit pelts that my mom was going to make into mittens someday.
I carried those 5 50 pound boxes in two different moves. I was opposed to them killing the rabbits I raised, opposed to saving ridiculous things we were never going to use, and opposed to the hard, meaningless labor of carrying the boxes. Grrr… (Hey, I just thought of something I could say in groups when the leader says to introduce yourself and tell people a fact about yourself that would surprise them!) We had a whole bunch of USED toothbrushes. I threw some of these away once and my mom got very upset with me.
If I lived in my childhood home now it would be fun to do a photo journal of all the strange stuff that we had. Very out of date medicine, old jars of canned tomatoes, piles of fabric, boxes of old game and puzzle pieces, closets full of old clothes, corners crammed with dead relatives furniture, one room just FULL of paper- literally piled to the ceiling with paper, including piles of charity solicitations with free address labels. My mom would keep all the paper work in case she wanted to use the free address labels or free cards they sent. Then she would send them money before she used them.
When I lived with my mom for a couple years as an adult, I made a deal with her that I wouldn’t touch the basement if the upstairs could stay clean. When I got particularly frustrated, I would throw everything that I thought was clutter over the banister down the stairs. (Don’t try this at home.)
I’ve read that hoarding is a reaction to loss and the hoarders in my family did have a lot of loss. It adds credence to the theory that when my mom got remarried she got rid of at least 2/3 of her stuff. It was amazing. It was like she was coming alive again and breaking out of some old tomb and throwing off the shackles of the paper and the unmatched game pieces! In reverse, my auntie, who I love, has become more and more ensconced in things since her husband died.
I love getting rid of things if I know they’ll have a good home. I take car loads and car loads of things to thrift stores. (I don’t shop much so I don’t know how I end up with carloads of things to get rid of.) I live in an apartment without much storage space, so when I decorated for Christmas, I just bought strings of lights at a thrift store for 50 cents and took them back after the holidays! And I love that no new things have to be manufactured when I buy them from a thrift store.
I keep things that are beautiful, useful, and/or happily sentimental. I love that I have distilled the objects around me so that everything I see in my room is something I love. (My roommate is a minimalist and probably thinks I’m a hoarder, so it’s somewhat relative.)
I did learn some good things from my mom’s hoarding behavior. I learned that random bits of junk can be useful in art projects. I think that thriftiness and ecology was tied into my mom’s hoarding behavior. She wanted to use everything and everything has a possible use. It’s like recycling. It’s important to me to recycle. I love composting although I don’t compost right now. (no yard).
I also would never throw useful things in the garbage that someone else could use. I’ve seen other people throw perfectly good CLOTHES into the garbage. GASP! No way. Someone could use that!! So, maybe the basic premise of the hoarder has been passed onto me, I just don’t feel the need to store the objects in my space when there are perfectly good libraries and thrift stores to do that job for me.
* Some of the flowers I bought myself with the flower money my mom sent me this Valentine’s Day with probably my favorite collage I’ve made n the background. Made at my mother’s house it is comprised of a bottle of glue I was going to use as glue, it was dried out though, so I cut it open and taped the glue and glue bottle to the collage, which I put in an old frame we had lying around.
Tags: hoarding, mom, family, thrift, recycling, grief
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What IS this? Why are people like this?? How do we make this kind of petty tyranny unacceptable to ourselves, by ourselves, and by others?
Hmmm… I used to imagine I had a video camera. I was a mini revolutionary as a kid. I told our parents that they weren’t supposed to hit kids. I was a freedom fighter living in tyranny! This video reminds me of just how badly kids can be treated. No one talks to me that way anymore and I’d forgotten how bad it is. I’m glad this kid has a mom he knows will stick up for him. The behavior of this adult should be totally unacceptable. Who do you call when it is the police acting like this?I’m so glad someone was video taping this.Video found at Pick Me!
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My food resolution this year is simple: eat food. What else would I eat, you ask? Well, according to Michael Pollan in his book In Defense of Food, there is now a lot of edible non-food available in the grocery store.
He writes about the history of food in America and how the idea of what we should eat has been taken over by well intentioned scientists and self-interested industry. We now have a near mono-culture of soybeans and corn. He talks about all the concessions that the USDA has made in their labeling and reccomendations because of industry pressure. I think I just found a consession he didn’t mention.
My friend Laura over at Starling Fitness lists the oils that the USDA reccomends which include soybean oil and corn oil. Those are our surplus crops, but I highly doubt we need ever more of those products in our body. Very interesting… I wonder if someone out there on the internet has already unravled this mystery.
I couldn’t find the spot on where the USDA recommends these oils. I did find a page where they are listed. They use vague language about the oils, so maybe they are trying to avoid industry wrath without lying.
Oils come from many different plants and from fish. Some common oils are:
- canola oil
- corn oil
- cottonseed oil
- olive oil
- safflower oil
- soybean oil
- sunflower oil
I highly recommend In Defense of Food. You can listen to Michael Pollan’s six minutes of advice about nutrition and read an excerpt from his book on NPR, and listen to the more interesting and longer interview he did about the content of his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
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14 more days to go until the Christmas holiday. Since I have worked several hours from home during the past few weeks without getting paid for it, I am giving myself guilt free time to do my own stuff today. (OK, maybe I feel a little guilt.)
Yesterday I had a dentist appointment. I need nearly $5000 worth of work done. Dang, it takes a lot of energy (in the form of money) to care for one little being’s teeth. They are being super helpful and scheduling me in for all my work while I still have insurance.
Which leads me to the answer to Laura’s question: no- I do not have a job lined up. It just got to the point that the risk of remaining in the bud was too odious to my soul. It remains to be seen if I will blossom. (Ack! I’m getting nervous about the leap I’m taking.)
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Inspired by Laura Moncur’s Halloween costume post.
We were poor when I was a kid, and, true story, one year I was Cinderella BEFORE she met the fairy godmother! :D I had soot on my face. I just think that is so funny. I actually loved my costume but some of the kids made fun of it.
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Laura is a writer, artist, entrepreneur, internet sex goddess, and friend, among many other things. :)
Happy Birthday to you ,
You are a ram too,
I wish you love and happiness!!
And moons that are blue!
I created this drawing in dreezle, then took a screenshot, then downloaded Painter 25 and copied the screenshot into it, then saved it to my desktop, then downloaded Art Rage and imported the saved screenshot into it, painted over the screen part of the screen shot, and finally uploaded it to blogger. MY COMPUTER SUCKS.
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Wouldn’t it be awful to have a “dead friend” meme? But I have been inspired again by Laura, and I can’t help it. Now I want to write about all my deaths. Maybe it will quiet some of the winds of sorrow and grief that sometimes blow across my chest.
Adam, what first memories do I have that aren’t the pictures? The first picture, does it count? Is the picture of our moms face down at the beach. Only their beautiful young bodies were showing, while their large pregnant bellies were hidden in turtle holes in the sand. The story goes that my mom came to visit Sharon after having me, and Adam, who should have been born first, decided that he wanted to come out into the world too. Our moms met in a pre-natal class and he was born exactly two weeks after me. We both came into the world in beautiful mountain country, and then my mom moved, and a few cute baby pictures could have been the end of the story, but they aren’t.
Adam, carried along as babies are by fate (ie their parents), moved several states away from where he was born to the state I was being raised in. There we were, two toddlers separated at birth, together again. Again, the pictures. His wide smiling face and my thin concerned face. We sit at the beach together, two fat lumps of bundled babies. Our moms take turns sitting with us on Sharon’s front porch. We eat popsicles. We clumsily lean our faces together in a baby kiss in front of one of our birthday cakes. We take baths together. (This is what our mothers gleefully tell us when we are older.)
The first real memory? I remember being in the kitchen with him in their house when we are about 6. I remember assuming that we would one day marry when he became taller than me. He was so cute and all the girls had crushes on him, as his mother proudly told me and he smilingly and with a shrug admitted. I was amazed by his Star Wars collection of toys. He was an only child and was given heaps of toys. Although some of my memories are hazy, I vividly remember his star wars action figures and most of all his Star Wars ships. Those were so cool. The rule was, he could have as many toys as he wanted as long as he didn’t break them and took very good care of them. He told me this seriously and I was awed by the concept and by his parent’s seriousness about his toys.
My favorite pictures of Adam and I are of us dancing at my mom’s second wedding. We are two years old. His face has his usual baby expression, a happy-go-lucky dimple faced, wide cheeked good natured smile. He is wearing a green checkered jacket. I am wearing a long red velvet dress with a white lace pinafore over it. We are holding hands and the bottom of my dress is swirling out around me. My face is turned up and the expression on my face is one of pure joyful delight. Grown-up’s legs mix with darkness and lights in the blur behind us.
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My response to Laura’s response to Steve’s post about fixing the problems in the world.
Hmmm.. I agree with both of you. I think we should all be like medical doctors and first do no harm. After that, I think there is a lot of room for variation. I am one of those save the world types that I think Steve and Laura both are. However, the world would be very boring if there weren’t the decorate and make things pretty types and the look at me aren’t I beautiful types and the I’m so charming types. (I’m sure we all have a little of all of those, I know I do. Tounge in cheek aside: As Max in Sound of Music said, people aren’t good or bad, they are charming or dull.)
That being said, I do think a call to action can sometimes be very healthy. Some people may need a call to action. It’s all about balance. If you are a save the world type, I think it is wise to follow Laura and S. Covey’s advice and focus your efforts on your area of influence rather than your area of concern and then your area of influence will grow. But first, do no harm and be kind. We save the world types can sometimes be pretty hard on other people and ourselves, at least I know I can.
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Loneliness was the theme of Grey’s Anatomy this week and the theme of the post over at Starling Fitness.
…don’t let Hollywood convince you that being fat means that you have to be lonely. Loneliness is caused by isolating yourself from people, not from your body shape. If you are lonely, it’’s not because you’re fat. Promise yourself that you will do something today to alleviate your loneliness (join a club, call an old friend, volunteer your time). Then, when you get to goal weight, you won’t have the shocking discovery that thin people get lonely too.
Like, Laura, my aunt R. often speaks truth to the lie of fat equaling loneliness. She tells me about friends she has that are lonely and think they need to lose weight to find love. The truth is, lots of people with fat on their bodies have love in their lives. Whatever your many flaws may be, and don’t we all have a lot of them, don’t wait. Don’t wait to reach out to someone, don’t wait to do something you really enjoy, don’t wait to go swimming in the ocean or dancing. Ok?! Don’t wait! Love yourself, and let someone else love you, now.
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I started a new diet on Halloween. Halloween!! All that missed candy!! In sharp contrast to Laura’s advice at Starling Fitness, I am doing a diet which restricts my food choices. It’s an experiment. I’m trying it until Thanksgiving Day, at which time I will eat everything that I want to, which will probably not be as much as I anticipate. The Rosedale Diet is supposed to turn me into a fat burning machine and make all my inside systems much more youthful. I’ll let you know. Tonight I made a “pizza” which would have been much better if the recipe hadn’t referred to it as a “pizza.” I weighed myself for the first time today, on a neighbors scale, so that will have to be my benchmark.
My experience: So far my biggest fear of being hungry has been realized, all because of lack of planning. I also feel a little weird. I don’t know how to describe it, I don’t have the icky low blood sugar feeling, but I do feel carb-deprived.
Links
- A Diet Blog weighs in about the Rosedale Diet.
- L. Robinson’s personal experience with the diet over at free dieting.
- A Blogger is documenting her experience on her blog (named Rosedale.) She started in September.
- Jonni Good blogs about trying out the Rosedale.
- A Rosedale Diet yahoo group that you don’t have to join to read.
- A Mixed review over at Everydiet.
- A list of the allowed foods by NC… from a discussion at low carb friends.
- A Threaded discussion about the RD also from low carb friends.
- Dr. Mercola gives Dr. Rosedale props. (Dr. Mercola loves Dr. Rosedale, Dr. Mercola loves Dr. Rosedale…)
Wish me luck!
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Your Superpower and Your Kryptonite, a great article over on Starling Fitness reminded me of this poem:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
Mary Oliver
I first found this poem at a website which offers poems to different Enneagram types. (The enneagram is a personality typing system.) I just typed a line into google and found it again on a UU website! Go UU’s! The exercises there will be a good match with the questions on Laura’s site.
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I watched a Gilmore Girls episode on TV last night. (I love the Gilmore girls) and Lauralai’s love came back. The thing I liked about it was that she wasn’t crying, there was no drama. She was watching movies she liked and going to the diner and hanging out with her friends and going to work. It was almost strange to see someone acting like that on TV who broke up with their boyfriend just two episodes ago. BUT it felt so real. So grown-up. When you are past that crying/drama phase and are just quietly, achingly longing. Anyway, she was watching a movie, just fine at her house, and he knocked on her door. I don’t know how she did that, but you could feel the quiet longing. They had the moment in the movie she was watching be about losing a man, which was unneccesary. I could already feel the ache. Then there was a knock. Just like there would be a knock in real life and the hairs on the back of your neck would stand up, “Could it be him?” But you wouldn’t get excited or even check how you look, because you know very well by now not to expect anything, and then you go to the door and it is him. And it is a miracle and you just hold each and kiss as hard as you can and don’t say anything.
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I am being inspired by other people’s blogs, so here’s another post in the comments-I-left-on-someone-else’s-blog category! I left this comment over at Laura’s Starling Fitness site.
Laura, I hope you find the cause and cure for your stomach hurting. If there is pain in your body, that is a sign that something is wrong!! So please don’t just live with it.My stomach story: I hardly ever got headaches, but all growing up, my stomach hurt! Especially right before I went to school. So, the in house doc, my mom, said that I was either faking it or just nervous. My stomach pains continued into college. Nearly every day of my life I was in pain or uncomfortable for part of the day. In college, I found out that I’m lactose intolerant!!! That’s all it was!! So, there I was eating oatmeal or cereal for breakfast with milk, feeling sick and being accused of faking it! Now, I don’t drink milk and my stomach hardly ever hurts!
In related news: I used to get a gassy stomach when I went on dates! Then I accused myself of creating it out of nervousness. Luckily I read in a magazine that fake sugar gives some people gas. I never drink pop, but I would chew sugarless gum when I went out. I stopped with the gum, the gas stopped. SOMETHING is making your stomach hurt. You can trust yourself.
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Yes, revere me. Less than a year ago at this time I could run 20 miles. I rock. I still rock even though running 3 miles would be have my lungs aching at this point. Once you run a marathon you rock indefinately. That is the glory of the marathon. Lisa Watts apparently made that running thing a habit.
When I started running in my twenties, the exercise suited and soothed me. Out on the road, breathing hard, I could burn up my frustrations and sort out my questions. Years have passed, but I keep running. In hectic times, it grounds me. In wary, uncertain times, the miles sometimes point the way to some solution or relief.
Read the ten spiritual life lessons that running taught Lisa Watts.
Thanks to Laura at Starling Fitness for the link.
Categories: My Life, Unitarian Universalism, Well Being, Health, Links
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Umm.. yes, while it’s true that it’s good to love yourself and if you don’t you might self-sabotage (see last post,) self sabotage can also be healthy! I forgot about that until today when I was listening to a CD of my old NLP instructor Nick Le Force. He reminded me that if you try and make a change that does not meet the needs of all parts of yourself, you might self-sabotage. You’ve got to consider ECOLOGY! Resistance may be an important signal to you that there are other important factors you need to consider as you create your goal.
Here is some web-based advice to deal with self-sabotage. John David Hoag writes about ecology issues that come up when creating goals:
“What do you want?” isn’t always easy to answer. We may have conflicting thoughts or feelings about it. We might welcome help to resolve an important issue. But beneath our desire for help we might not be entirely sure we want the issue resolved. It might be a sort of “inner secret” for us, even to ourselves. This is called an “ecology issue” in NLP. Unlike traditional therapy which calls it “resistance,” NLP doesn’t minimize or pathologize it. In NLP we understand that it is precisely those ecology issues that are the keys to unlocking new realms of potential. Before any change can take place — and reaching a goal is a change — resolving a problem is a change — the ecology must be attended to. Otherwise, we’ll be going nowhere fast on the road to our desired outcome. Our ecology issues can stop us — because they’re so important.
So, how do we figure out what those conflicting thoughts/feelings/needs are? Laura Moncur at Starling Fitness recommends writing it out, so does Sraightforward Coaching:
If you find yourself struggling to manifest a goal you have set yourself, try this exercise* to discover the hidden fears, beliefs and values that might be holding you back: write down all the reasons why you DON’T want that goal in your life. Let your darkest thoughts surrounding your goal reveal themselves on paper and keep writing until you can’t come up with any more. These are some of the fears, beliefs and consequences surrounding your goal or decision and they might include the one(s) that are holding you back. Once they are all out in the open, you may find some issues you need to work through before you are ready to achieve your target. Reframing or redefining your goal to address the conflicting value or belief could also work to integrate the goal with your personal ecology.
After asking yourself some good questions, NLP Weekly recommends giving yourself time:
Let the questions sink in.
Write them in your journal (you do have a journal, right?).
Read them before bed time and wait for answers.
You’ll get dreams, songs, words, flashes, memories, voices… don’t ignore them. It’s important to notice, note and acknowledge. Your brain doesn’t like keeping riddles unsolved.
Asking good questions and giving it time to find the answers with no pressure, is one the greatest talents you can develop.
Reading and thinking about ecology reminded me, once again, how important it is to treat myself kindly. If part of me is protesting, (which shows up in my weight loss goals as eating fattening food I don’t even want,) then instead of dragging those protesting parts of myself kicking and screaming, I can attend to myself, (listen!) and do my best to meet all my needs, address my concerns, and calm my fears. As you know, those protesting parts are hard to ignore. You might as well turn to them and say, “So, what do you want, anyway?”
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Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos - the trees, the clouds, everything.
-Thich Nhat Hanh
I was just reminded of how great Laura Moncur’s fitness blog is. Head on over to Starling Fitness and check it out. I read every article in the Motivation section. As I read about her internal struggles- the thoughts, the self-sabotage, I thought, there is no point in trying to trick myself into exercising because, until I wholly love and accept myself, there will always be some part of me that self-sabotages. Now I also remember that besides telling myself that I love myself, another way for me to understand that I am worthy of love and care is to show myself. One way to show myself that I love and care about myself is to eat healthy foods and do healthy exercise.
More tips for treating yourself like you are worthy of love and care:
- Buck societal trends: Reward yourself for what you do, not how you look. In fitness goals that translates to: consider yourself a success when you take actions towards your fitness goals, whatever the result on the scale.
- Be kind to yourself in little ways. Are you sitting in an uncomfortable position? Shift your body now, stretch, breathe deeply. Let yourself feel comfortable physically.
- Remember what activities you enjoy. Make doing activities you enjoy a priority in your life! If you love painting and think you don’t have time for the full blown hobby, take some time today to do a small sketch. Even giving yourself a little of what you love is a kindness. It’s better to give yourself something today than to withhold from yourself until you can have it perfectly.
- Don’t wait until you think you deserve love to be kind to yourself. Has anyone ever loved you unconditionally before? It’s time someone does. You can be that someone.
- If you have trouble unconditionally loving yourself… don’t get down on yourself for that! You can always step out one level from your current thoughts and acknowledge your thoughts or behavior and say “ok, I acknowledge that.” Sometimes it’s not the thought or behavior itself that hurts, but the meta-thought you have about it. For example, if you feel depressed just notice how you feel and avoid adding an additional layer of hatred, blame or guilt for what you are feeling. If you feel fat, just notice that, love yourself anyway and avoid adding an additional layer of anger or guilt or self-hatred. I think that is part of what “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional” means.
Didn’t I start this entry by talking about fitness motivation? What does all this self-love talk have to do with that? Well, if you want to get fit, and then you create a plan, and then you follow that plan, probably nothing. BUT if you want to get fit, and then create a plan, and then you… try to do it and sometimes do it, but sometimes buy yourself donuts (or potato chips or…) even as another part of you is screaming ”NO!!”, or some part of you refuses to go running even though you know you‘d feel better if you did, or you lose weight and then freak out when someone gives you a compliment then… you may have a little self-sabotage going on. One way to deal with the self-sabatoger is to love the little bugger. Hug the dragon. As all of you is loved (by you,) you (all of you) will want what is best for you, because you will know/feel you are worthy of the best.
So, practice unconditionally loving yourself so you can be of one accord, want to be healthy, create a healthy plan, and simply follow it. In the meantime, use some of Laura’s motivation suggestions and gently drag yourself out to excercise. Be a good parent to yourself, and with all the kindness and compassion you can muster tell yourself, “I’m doing this because I love you, you’ll thank me when you’re older.”
For another look at positive self-talk,check out Norm Ephraim’s article.
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My friend Laura just reminded me that I have fallen off the face of the blogosphere lately. For some reason, when I blog, I tend to think a lot about blogging and there are other things I like to think about. For instance, my family. My Granddad has been in town visiting and he has Alzheimer’s. Everybody with Alzheimer’s is different and my granddad has amazingly kept his wit, his silliness and his sweetness. He does occasionally forget who we are. He forgot his old car I was loading my stuff into. “Granddad, you gave me this car.” “I wouldn’t have just given someone a car would I?” “Well, you made me pay you a dollar.” “Isn’t it funny, that car doesn’t even look vaguely familiar…” “It will in a minute.” I said. The back was up and I thought he would remember the car when he saw the bumper sticker with the name of his hometown on it. I slowly closed the back of the car. “Oh!” he said and tried to smile as he started to cry, “Now I think I remember.”
Oh, my Granddad.
In other news, soon I will be starting school and I can not comfortably handle all this typing. It doesn’t help that I have the most unergonomic set-up ever. So, with my Christmas money, I am going to purchase Dragon Naturally Speaking version 8. I haven’t decided to get the pack that comes with a voice recorder or without. Everyone says the voice recorder it comes with is crappy. I think my life and my creative output will improve tremendously with my new gadget.
Speaking of gadgets, my Lucent Technology 1725 answering machine has died and I can’t get a direct replacement because someone else is now making that model. I happen to love gadgets and have bought some stinkers because of my craving. However, I made a really good decision when I decided to go with the expensive 1725. It was really a pleasure to use and I was thankful for it everyday that I used it. It just illustrates the heaven of good design. I mean, have you ever had something that you used daily that caused you minor daily frustration, don’t you come to hate or at least resent it? Oh how I loved my answering machine! It was so nifty! It was so easy to use, so sleek and so fun. Now, what will I do? Where will I go? How will anyone get a hold of me?
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Wow, I can’t believe its day 9 of the cleanse! I called my mom the other day and she said she was sticking to the cleanse, but she was gaining weight because she was eating a lot of cheese. “Cheese!” I exclaimed, betrayed, “but we aren’t eating any dairy!!” She hadn’t noticed that part. We agreed that we could eat yogurt. Then she had the nerve to ask me if she could eat a brownie. “No!” I said, “you can not eat a brownie!” Then I relented and said of course she could eat whatever she wanted to. However, I gave her the advice I saw over on Laura’s weight loss blog, and reminded her that if she asked, her husband would probably make brownies again.
So, what about me? I’m sticking to my cleanse, but am still having trouble eating as many veggies as I would like. I actually like vegetables, but am some what at a loss about what to do with them. I’d like a wok so I could eat [I meant to type "make" ha, Freudian slip! I really just want to EAT homemade stir fry!] homemade stir fry. This morning I came up with an innovative and yummy solution to my no milk and no soy rule (no soy- I’ll explain later.) I used coconut milk in my oatmeal, slices of apples and cinnamon. It was really good. Truly, I want to enjoy eating and have that be a pleasure in my life instead of a utilitarian function.
Exercise: Last Thursday I did my new old Firm video, “Total Body - Time Crunch Workout.” Its only 45 minutes long with simple and hokey and EFFECTIVE exercises. It’s so much easier for me to get myself to work out with weights than to go running, because I know working out with weights is going to show. When I first started working out with weights, (I used “I want those buns!“) I lost 2 inches off my butt in 3 workouts and I’m not exaggerating. My sister-friend told me, “I love your butt!” It still rings in my ear to this day, although the butt she loved is hidden and weak right now. I will raise my rear again! :)
Today I’m going to go try, for the first time ever, the Fitprime video “Strong Bear.” Its with Tracey Long and I can tell its going to be good and tough. I’ll let you know.
Oops! What I haven’t been doing: the P and B shakes. (I bet my mom hasn’t either!) I’ll get on that.
Weight loss: My scale has just (unfortunately, serendipitiously?) died. It’s ok though. From being quite in shape and trim to quite out of shape and plump, I have gained 3 to 5 pounds. That’s why I didn’t notice how out of shape I had gotten for awhile. So, I’ll go by the fit of my jeans and the jib of my… something. (I just wanted to say, “jib.”)
Good Luck in your fitness goals!
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Well, the day has just begun and I’m not running because its raining. I haven’t called the colonic lady back yet and now I’m wondering if I should call my mom and say, “Don’t do it!” I just read my friend Laura’s thoughts about cleansing with links to dire warnings about colonics at Starling Fitness.
I’m sure there is a truth to be found in the mix of different reports from established and alternative medical ideas. I’ve found several alternative therapies that do work, although I often doubt the reason they work is the reported one.
Bowel movements- it’s not a pretty topic, but it’s at the crux of the cleanse issue. I have to side with the alternative practitioners on this one. The medical community says there is a range of normal and that it’s ok to have a bowel movement every couple days. Eww! The alternative practioners say that a very healthy person should have a bowel movement after each meal. I agree that that is a sign of health. MD’s seem like they are constantly trying to calm an anxious and hypochondriacal public, “Don’t worry, that doesn’t signal a disease!” Alternative medical people are like the Cassandras of our day. “Mucoid plauque will be your downfall. Cleanse yourself!”
Since reading Laura’s post and email to me, I’ve been thinking about why I like to do cleanses. I know that a balanced diet is healthy and that weird concoctions are not required. But I like weird concoctions! If I had lived in olden times I would probably have been a witch, stirring up bits of this and that and seeing what they do. It’s funny, because I love science and the scientific method, maybe weird concoctions seem like a more earthy and less controlled science experiment. I understand the alternative practitioners fascination with little bits of this and little bits of that. I don’t know what it means about our personalities! The truth is, part of the reason I want to do a colonic is, I want to see what comes out of the tube!
I used to take very long baths as a child and I would gather up different items from the kitchen and bathroom cupboard and pour them into the bathtub with the water to see what it would do to me. I was right in the middle of my own experiment and I thought it was great fun, like a little scientific witch.
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(Not a)
Not this year at least. Here is what some crazy people are doing, including my friend Laura. They are writing an ENTIRE novel in 30 days, at least 50,000 words. wow. You say you have time to kill, speedy fingers and stories just waiting to flood out of you? Go to NaNoWriMo and join the throng. Hurry!
ps: I just went to Laura’s site and she has written 2 more chapters in her very “page-turner” book. yay!
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