8/26/11 My Week In Review

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Hello! Lot of life happenings this week.

My son is settling into the new school year. I’ve mentioned driving over to the east side to drop him off… how I enjoy it. The different vibe, funky little shops, beautiful architecture, the variety of humans. People watching is one of my favorite pastimes. Observing a person’s eyes, their body language, pondering what their story might be. The repressed “Nancy Drew” inside of me can spin interesting theories and stories for quite some time while gazing at people!

School is going pretty well. I think Kevin had one of those emotional growth spurts over the summer. He’s evolving into an interesting, creative, thoughtful young man. Thankfully, his interest in school has grown along with it. Touch wood when I write that!

I read an article on the AOL page this week about a woman named Kim. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/22/kim-focused-on-healthy-choices-and-lost-100-pounds_n_930927.html  She’d had an AHA moment about her life when her overweight body caused the toilet seat she was sitting on to crack apart. It proceeded to do its own version of the Jaws of Life on her bottom and wouldn’t let go. This gave her an opportunity to reflect on things. Her truly inspiring story got me to think about my state of health. I really don’t fancy the fire department coming to extricate my bottom from a broken loo seat! Maybe I should do something about MY health before I have to place such a call.

This led me to write the earlier blog entry – “Confessions of a Couch Potato“, where I pondered why can’t I stick to a healthy lifestyle? I got interesting feedback here and via email. It caused my decision the next day to TRY and move my body, if even for a short time. After I did that, and saw that I didn’t vaporize from the effort,  the page “Get Off The Couch Princess” was created on this blog, where I can publicly document the ginormous task of getting my body to move again. I’ve decided to leave my ego at the door, in the hope that being transparent will garner me a good supportive group of readers who will hold me accountable.

Oh wow, here’s an interesting note. When I looked for a photo to show leaving your ego at the door, this image came up. It’s called ” “All is Vanity” by C. Allan Gilbert. Life, death, and meaning of existence are intertwined. (Woman gazing into boudoir mirror forms shape of skull.) I think it’s a great picture to illustrate the deadly consequences of getting too wrapped up in your own importance.

On a lighter note, I took one of our elderly Friends from Little Brothers over to a fellow volunteer’s house to view a film the other night. We watched “Mrs. Henderson Presents” starring Dame Judi Dench. I enjoyed it a great deal. (Spoiler Alert: Don’t watch it if artful nudity bothers you!)

What else? I’m reading a variety of books at the moment. Being the distactable female that I am, I keep 3 or 4 going at any one time. The CoDA big book holds my interest currently; along with a Reader’s Digest. I started two different fiction books from the library, but neither held my interest long enough to finish them. I’m happy to write that an acquaintance is considering hosting a book club for the book “The Help”. I bought it at Target while doing back to school shopping a few weeks ago; it’ll be nice to read it along with other people.

Next week I have a Birthday Visit for Little Brothers to look forward to: that’s when I deliver a cake, flowers and a bag of birthday gifts provided by Little Brothers to an elderly Friend to help them celebrate their special day. Little Brothers doesn’t want any of our Friends to ever be alone on their birthday. Isn’t that the coolest thing? I think everyone should be treated like royalty on their birthday. LB shares that sentiment. 🙂

Let me post a few pictures here from Little Brothers Quarterly Birthday Party held on August 13th. Dig the birthday cake!

Friends celebrating their birthdays. 🙂

8/23/11 Confessions Of A Couch Potato

It’s been such a busy few weeks. School started for my son on August 16th. He goes to school on the east side. It’s been a continuation of a sobering experience to drive over there and see all of the fit people out jogging, walking, enjoying life. The east side seems to emanate energy and vitality. I don’t feel that vibe on the west side. I wondered if I lived over there, would I still be the couch potato that I have become over the past decade?

June 2010 at 258 lbs.

I USED to work out… a lot…. and keep my body not exactly thin, but at a much healthier weight. About 70 lbs less than I’m carrying now. I ponder and ponder this, but can not deduce why I can’t stick to working out and eating right.

I’ll draw up plans for a workout schedule, join Weight Watchers (repeatedly), go to the store and load my cart with healthy foods, write down all of my toxic emotions in a journal. Things seem to go better for a while, and then, just like the sober alcoholic who plays Russian Roulette and decides he can take “just one drink”, I decide I can do it on my own, I don’t need the weight loss meetings, or to work out this week, or I convince myself that two cartons of Hostess love in a box won’t really hurt (especially if I keep them hidden and no one in the house sees them).

WHY does this one area of my life confound me so?

I have supportive friends and family, I have way expensive walking shoes and countless pedometers to track my steps, enough exercise DVDs and videotapes to stock my own store…. yet I can’t stick to it.

The first thing I kid myself into/out of is sleep. I reason to myself that I can get by on 5 or 6 hours of sleep. I’ve never been able to put the proper value on enough sleep for myself. Late evening is the only time I seem to be able to read a good book, waste countless minutes/hours playing games on my smart phone, check my email in case Ed McMahon’s trying to reach me with that elusive million dollar check.

This is one of those times I wish I had a legion of dedicated readers who could at least chime in with their two cents regarding treating yourself as well as you try to treat everyone else.

I’m open to all thoughts. PLEASE chime in.