No more purging!

Quote du jour: The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed.
- Søren Kierkegaard

I come by my pack rat tendencies honestly -- I inherited them. When I moved up to Oregon, my mother sent me a box of personal papers (birth certificate, baptismal record, etc.).

I was touched that even after bringing seven other children home from the hospital (and giving birth to another one who never made it home), she'd still saved every single scrap of paper that she'd been given in the hospital, all the birth information, hospital bill (she spent four days in the hospital, it cost $7, thank you USAF), and every single "Congratulations on the birth of your child" card.

Until I started looking at the cards, and found that some of them were "Congratulations on the birth of your son!" and mentioned the name of #7 child. And there was a birth announcement from 17 years earlier on the birth of #1 child. Also, she'd included the summer school report card from #2 child, and the Band and Orchestra report card from #4 child. Basically, the contents (except for the one about #1 child) were collected the year I was born, or from a couple years before that, and dumped in the box.

(The birth announcement re #1 child had been sent to my grandmother, who'd saved it for 18 years and then sent it back to my mother. Presumably it was intended for #1 child, but ended up being saved in my box for another... well... 47 years.)

It's not my fault that I create little time capsules of paperwork and carry them around with me for decades. It's heredity.

[Note: also, of course, my mother was working full-time and had 8 children living at home, i.e. she came home and worked too. I only work one job.]

Goal of the month: This is the last day of the 30-day Purge. I think I can say I survived. I would like to say I feel freer, but really all I feel is relieved. And unlike Kierkegaard, I don't miss all the stuff that I've been holding onto for so long. The stuff probably doesn't miss me either.
Done!




Exercise du jour:
200 Squats Challenge
13
13
18
18
13
13
13
max (at least 34)
Done! And, may I say, @#!$%$!#@!!!!! Thank you. I needed to say that. I might need to repeat this week. That was only 135 squats. Felt like 535 instead.


An extra star for making NaBloPoMo, 30 days straight of blogging.



HBBC:
Today, I was good. Well, good for me.
20 minutes yoga, 20 ellipticalling, 3 miles walked, veggies consumed.
6

Facebook makes people strange

The problem with not being on Facebook is that you tend to notice its effect on your friends. They start behaving oddly.

One woman dropped by my house, at a time convenient for her, and seemed surprised that I wasn't prepared to stop what I was doing to entertain her. "But I announced on Facebook that I'd be in the neighborhood!" (And no, she's not the Queen of England. Not an evil person either, usually.)

Another example? I got an email from a friend. "Those of you who are on Facebook will have heard the story of the scandal behind X's baby picture. And here's another picture of Z, and you all know about her story. " Um... no, I don't know the story. Should I care?

To me, Facebook is another networking tool. It is not the whole world. I suppose it's not FB itself that is teh evil; it's people's reactions to it. People get swallowed up by Facebook, or World of Warcraft, or any number of other time sinks perfectly good software applications.

Goal of the month: The penultimate day of the 30-day Purge of Stuff.
Done!



Exercise du jour: Week 6 of the c25k.

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

* Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
* Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
* Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
* Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
* Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes
Done! Plus, 2 20 minute sets on the elliptical


HBBC: 4
Squirrel courtesy of ray eye.

Sometimes, I even follow directions

Quote du jour: I have grown happier with every year of life, as though gradually conquering something in myself, for certainly my miseries were not made by others but were a part of my own mind.
- Yeats


Goal of the month: Still going on the 30 Days of Purging. Three more days. I can do it.

Update du 7:07 pm: Yes, I really am going to put a gold star next to that goal of purging. I've been avoiding the trouble spot all day. For some reason, when I get really close to finishing a goal, I slow down. I don't know why that is, but it's really annoying. I'm going to grab a timer and go in and attack. I'm posting this so that I will be accountable and Get It Done.

Finally -- done!



Exercise du jour: For some reason, I seem to do best with schedules and challenges like the 200 squats or C25k challenge. Seems dumb, but if it works, what the heck. I passed the Week 4 test for the 200 Squat Challenge, so it's on to week 5.

23
27
21
21
27

Done! Egads, that was 119 squats. How did that happen?
Also, 20 minutes on the elliptical, just so I'll have something to put up for the HBBC challenge.





HBBC:
1

27th day of purging Stuff from my life

Quote du jour:

Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, to discover what is already there.
- Henry Miller, Sexus.

Goal of the month: Thank God I'm almost done with the 30 Days of Purging. Honestly, it feels as if I have spent years on purging stuff. It's only been 27 days, but if feels like a lifetime and a half.

Okay. Whine done now. And don't look at me like that. If you'd spent 40+ years hording stuff, you would be feeling the pain as well. The good news is that I am getting rid of about 80% of the paperwork that I've saved. (Good ole Pareto.) And of the rest, maybe half is going to Goodwill or to the "Dunno" box. Perchance the equation will be Less Stuff = Less Merry.
Done! I have now sorted every friggin' box of paperwork that I've been storing for years. The Find du Jour is that I now know who my godparents were. (Found my baptismal record in a file that my mother had given me.) Mind you, they're both dead now, but still it's good to know. My mother never could remember who they were -- one of the many perils of being the youngest in a large family.

HBBC: 1

Hats off to a holiday Friday!

Not only is it Friday, it's Friday of a holiday weekend. Enjoy!

Goal of the month: Day 26 of the 30-day purge. I am proud to say that there is noticeably less stuff around to purge.




Goal of the week: Get up by 8 a.m. (No, I'm not braving the stores today!)

Exercise du jour: C25k Week 5. Yes, it's that time. The infamous 20 minute jog.

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking.
Done! Plus, 20 minutes on the elliptical. Damn foot didn't complain about the 20 minutes jogging, but afterward he bitched a bit. 2 ibuprofen and fingers crossed. The foot doc was right: easing back into running slowly has been pretty painless... at least, it has been so far...


HBBC: 3 (argh! want more points!)
Photo courtesy of Daniel J. Mclain.

Thank you!

Quote du jour: If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is 'Thank you,' that would suffice. - Meister Eckhart

Good day to stop and think and thank. Thank you for reading this! Thanks for stopping by. And thanks for commenting. You really help.

Goal of the month: Still with the 30-day purge of Stuff from my life. I promise that I will to find some time today to purge stuff.
I am really getting tired of doing this. It's still not done -- it feels like I'm not getting anywhere. I know that I am getting somewhere, but I wish it felt like it.



Goal of the week: Since it's a holiday, I'll make this a goal to get up by 8 9:30 a.m.
I think I see the key to success -- redefining your goal to something your body will accept.



Exercise du jour: 200 Squats challenge, week 4
22
24
18
18
27!!!!!!!

Done. And I'd just like to say, "Argh!"



HBBC:
Did 20 minutes on the elliptical earlier, and I'm off to do 20 more.

2

Photo courtesy of Mila Zinkova.

I'd have been a hottie back then...

Quote du jour: Judgment of beauty can err, what with the wine and the dark.
- Ovid

My first reaction on seeing this picture was "Dang! They liked them curvy in ye olde days."
My second reaction was "But there's no excuse for that hat."

Goal of the month: 30-day purge of Stuff. 30 days is a real long time, you know that? I know I'm getting there... the end is in sight... but it's been a long, long month.




Goal of the week: Out the door by 8 a.m. C'mon, Merry! You can do it! (Yeah, I know. Self-pep-talk is pretty sad.)
Oh, the heck with it. I'll take the rest of the week off (since it's a holiday) and make this a goal for next week.

Exercise du jour: Week 5 of the C25k:
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
• Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)

Done! I'd originally planned to walk to the library, but it was so friggin' cold that I ended up jogging just to keep the blood flowing. Hey, whatever works. Plus, walked a mile.


HBBC Challenge:
jog - 2
walk - 1

Photo of French ballerina, 1890

Me and Virginia Woolf

I read other people's diaries.
Now wait. Don't leave in a huff. Let me explain.

I wait until the diary has been published first. Which is usually not until the person has died. (I'd certainly prefer that my diary not be read by anyone else until I've died.)

Anyway, if you've ever read Virginia Woolf's diaries, you know that she included a lot of comments that were specifically written for her future self, "I wonder what future Virginia will think of this." (Clearly, she planned to re-read her diaries when she was much older. I can only conclude that her handwriting was better than mine.)

The point I'm coming around to is that I ran across a similar entry in the diary I wrote when I was 17. At the time, I wrote to my future self that it didn't matter if I got married and had children, it didn't matter if I stayed single and devoted myself to helping people. All the future paths that lay open to me were good, and I accepted whatever my future self chose to do with this life we shared.

My reaction to reading this was odd. I thought, "Well, who the hell are you to tell me that? Yes, it's all very nice of you to give me permission to end up where I am, but what business is it of yours? We're two totally different people. I'm not you. You certainly are not me, you little twit. And no, damn it, you're not fat!"

Goal of the month: Sigh. Yes yes yes still stolidly slogging steadily through the 30-day purge of Stuff.
Done!



Goal of the week: Out the door by 8 a.m.
Look, I'm not claiming a fail here. I blame God for the ice that covered the roads. I didn't want to set foot outdoors that early.

Exercise du jour: 200 Squats challenge, week 4
19
22
16
16
24
Done! Dang but those are getting harder.



Plus, walked 2 miles.
Plus, 20 minutes ellipticalling, which I would not have done if it hadn't been for the HBBC and my pathetic need to boost my points. It's making my life less pointless.

Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge:
3

Portrait of Virginia Woolf by Roger Fry.

No way out Monday

see more Very Demotivational


Goal of the month: Day 22 of the 30-day purge. I am seeing definite progress. Of course, I'm also seeing stuff scattered across the floor, but it's scattered in specific boxes that are designated to go to specific destinations. In other words, the short-term view is depressing, but the long-term outlook is promising.

Goal of the week: Okay, I'm going to try to compromise with the inner slug. Out the door by 8 a.m. That should be doable... right?
Believe it or not -- I did it!



Exercise du jour: Week 5 of the C25k. There, at least, I'm making progress. (I do hope writing that doesn't jinx anything.)

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Done! On the down side, it was a cold, windy, rainy, blustery day. They (y'know, "them") kept promising snow, so almost no one was out besides me. But on the up side, as I got back to the office I ran into a co-worker, an older man who is a super-fit veteran marathon runner. He was so proud of me getting out and running that he gave me a quick hug. Validation!

On the down side again, another kind co-worker gave me a ride to the Max tonight, because "they" had said it was going to snow. I didn't have the heart to tell him I needed the exercise. On the up side (getting sea-sick yet?) I stopped off at the grocery store, which was over a mile from home, and walked home.


HBBC Challenge:
Yoga - 1
Elliptical - 1
Walking to Max/work - 3
C25k - 2

Sometimes, it's all about meh

Quote du jour: Success is moving from failure to failure with undiminished enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill.

To me, going from failure to failure sounds like a recipe for futility. (It didn't work? Well, let's try it again!) But in this case I guess it applies. I let life get in the way of goals for the last two days, which is frustrating, but today I can apply the nose to the grindstone. Screw the enthusiasm part, but I'll get it done.

Goal of the month: Day 21 of the 30-day purge of Stuff
Done!




Exercise du jour: 200 Squats challenge, week 4

16
19
15
13
22
Done! Yes, even the 22 set. Which incidentally wasn't a whole lot of fun. Somebody remind me why I thought this would be a good idea? Oh, right. Because 4 weeks ago I wouldn't have been able to do 22 squats in a row.

HBBC: What have I gotten into now?

I'm blaming Xenia for this.
What else could you expect from a woman who put the "I" into warrior woman?

Thanks to her, I've signed up for the 3rd annual Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge. To quote the Run to the Finish blog, the rules are thus:

HBBC Rules
1 Point per mile (run/walk/snowshoe)
1 Point per 3 miles biked
1 Point per 20 minutes of weight lifting, Pilates, yoga, stretching or abs
1 Point per 15 minutes of another form of cardio (e.g. kick boxing, aerobics elliptical)
1 Per day where you reach a minimum of 7 servings of fruits and veggies

Challenge will run from Nov 20 to Jan 7

It doesn't say anything about taking points away for stuffing yourself with stuffing, or pie, or any of the other holiday goodies in store for me this season. Probably a good thing. It is possible to take the holidays too far...


see more Lovely Listing

On the plus side, since I had to push off yesterday's run, this means I get to count yesterday's C25K as part of this challenge, which is a good thing.

If you want to join in the fun, go to Run to the Finish and sign up.
We can all blame Xenia for getting us through the holidays with leaner, fitter bodies.

Santa could use a workout...

Exercise du jour:
Week 4 C25k

A gloomy gray Friday deserves a great photo

Yes, I know it's sexist to put up pictures of scantily clad males on this blog.

Even if it's a picture that's incredibly full of color and makes you want to go find a sunny beach somewhere far away from traffic and rain and cubicles full of work that you're behind schedule on.

But today... I don't care.

I've spent a week of being stymied and thwarted at work, and even though it's Friday I have to confess that I'm feeling
lumpy...
and grumpy...
and frumpy...

as well as gloomy and doomy.

A day like this calls for a great photo.





Site du jour: Adopt a word. The Oxford English dictionary is on a quest to prevent thousands of words from falling out of daily use, and is asking people to "adopt" one, in order to keep it alive. The random feature of the site suggested I adopt the word "yelve."

And to save you the trouble, I looked it up. Turns out that means a fork used to carry dung; such a fork used as a garden tool. Um... are they trying to tell me something? Still, it's a fun site.

Goal of the month: 30 days of throwing stuff out. Maybe throwing stuff out will improve my mood.

Goal of the week: Out the door by 7:30. Maybe if I keep trying, I'll get this done.


Exercise du jour C25k week 4.

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

* Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
* Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
* Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
* Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
* Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
* Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
* Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)


Photo courtesy of mateoutah.

100% Fail. I had such high hopes, very pretty high hopes that got thrown down and stomped on by the demands of other people. Push the run back to Saturday, shrug the rest off. Tomorrow is another day. I hope.

Made it through the 3rd week of the 200 Squat Challenge

see more Very Demotivational

Quote du jour:There is no value in life except what you chose to place upon it, and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.
- Henry David Thoreau

Goal of the month: 30 days of throwing stuff out. I don't need all these possessions.
Done! The pace goes much faster when I'm not sorting through paperwork. Each time I hesitate about keeping something, I tell myself "It's okay to let it go" and put it in the Goodwill box. (Note to self: use this mantra on pounds of fat as well.)





Goal of the week: Out the door by 7:30. In the a.m., not the p.m. It can be done.
Maybe I should change this goal to simply getting out the door. Some days that feels like enough of a challenge in itself.
Exercise du jour: 200 squat challenge, week 3
15
18
13
13
18
Done! Geez, squats can really get the heart rate going. This is a good exercise to do in my cubicle.

Jogging along through week 4 of the C25k

Quote du jour: I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.
-Maya Angelou

Goal of the month: Day 17 of my 30 days of throwing stuff back. Or out. I don't need all these possessions.
Done! Not as much as I'd like, but considering I got home wet, bedraggled, and grumpy, some is better than none.


Goal of the week: Out the door by 7:30. In the a.m., not the p.m. Sounds so simple.
Fail. Not nearly as bad a fail as yesterday (8:30 rather than 9:30) but still, worse than the day before (8). Wish I could report success on this goal, but I'm still struggling.

Exercise du jour: C25k week 4.

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Done! Plus, a couple miles walking. Through the frackin' pouring rain. With, of course, the obligatory car splashing through a puddle lake and drenching me from head to foot in freezing cold water. Which maybe burns more calories than being drenched in warm water. What the hell. It's possible.

I don't fit

I don't fit in at Weight Watcher's. Last time I went to the local meeting, I realized I have a completely different focus from everyone else in the group. (At least, from everyone there who spoke up.) I really want to get fit while eating moderately. As far as I can tell, the focus for the rest of the gang is to diet, i.e. just get rid of these pounds as quickly as possible. Don't worry about exercising, don't worry about eating healthy food, just lose the weight NOW.

Covert Bailey makes a good point. "If someone told you the store was offering a sale of 10 pounds for 10 dollars, your first reaction would be '10 pounds of what?'" Likewise, I don't see why the emphasis is on getting rid of pounds regardless of how you do it. If you're not going to exercise while losing weight, then you're losing muscle as well as fat. If the emphasis were on losing a percentage of body fat, then I would be all in favor of this idea.

The local group has a lot of people who lose a lot of weight at the start. We're talking at least 5 pounds a week, every week. That is really not a radical amount for someone who's quite large. What bothers me is that the meetings start to feel like something out of The Biggest Loser competition:

A woman stands up and says "I lost 5 pounds this week!" Applause from the group.
Another woman stands up to say "And I lost 7 pounds this week!" More applause.
A third woman gets to her feet to proclaim "I lost 10 pounds this week!" Wild applause from the audience.
Then a smaller woman gets up and mumbles that she lost two pounds that week. The group claps perfunctorily a couple times.

It bugs me that -- probably unintentionally -- they end up comparing and judging people by the amount of weight lost. With people of different shapes, different physical conditions, and different starting places, how can you compare their progress at all? I always feel that getting fit or losing weight is a competition against yourself and no one else. But at these meetings, it feels like I'm competing against other people, or rather it feels as if they're competing against me. That makes no sense. It's not as if there were only one prize going to be handed out at the end -- we can all win.

Also, I have noticed a pattern. The women who come in and lose lots of weight right away seem to be doing so by stringent dieting, not by eating unprocessed foods and exercising. (I'm basing that on what the women themselves have been saying in the meetings.) The pattern seems to be that these women lose a lot of weight at the start. Then they stop mentioning how much weight they've lost. Then they stop showing up at the meetings. They don't come back.

One woman mentioned that she made it a goal to try to exercise for 15 minutes a day. "I don't actually do it," she said with a laugh. "But I do try. Sometimes." I don't know if the words on the page quite convey the tone in which this was said. I came away with the strong impression that no, she didn't really try. Or care. It was something she was 'supposed' to do, but there was no commitment to actually try.

Compared to this woman, I must come across as an exercise fanatic. On the other hand, I'm not fit enough to keep up with people who actually are in good shape. I don't 'fit' there either. I jog along at my slow pace, nodding at the people who pass me. If I were in better shape, being passed would be annoying. As it is, that's part of life and I accept it without a qualm. I just wish there were someone going my pace.

Okay, whine done.

Goal of the month: 30 days of throwing stuff back. Or out. I don't need all these possessions.
I especially don't need to save the diary from when I was 17. You cannot imagine the exquisite embarrassment that comes from reading such a document. And you never will, 'cause that sucker is now in a million tiny pieces. It's served its time. (Why does that sound like a prison sentence?) It was good to let it go.

Goal of the week: Out the door by 7:30. In the a.m., not the p.m. It can be done.
Yeah, maybe it can be done, though I'm starting to have serious doubts that it can be done by me. Luckily, I have friends (hey, don't look so surprised when I write that) who have kindly volunteered to nag me to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Which I'm going to do. No, really. I don't want them mad. You wouldn't like them when they're mad.
Exercise du jour: 200 squat challenge, week 3
13
16
11
11
16
Done!

Look, I've already *been* through high school once

Quote du jour: Those who face that which is actually before them, unburdened by the past, undistracted by the future, these are they who live, who make the best use of their lives, these are the ones who have found the secret of contentment. - Alban Goodier


Probably all of you still have a file containing English Grammar lessons from your 5th grade class... right? (Um, I didn't hear you chime in there. I'm going to assume it was my poor hearing.)

And I'm sure that everyone else knows their exact SAT scores, as I now do. (No, you don't really want me to say it. I ... um... well, I don't want you to feel inadequate, okay? Sheer thoughtfulness, that's me.)

Going through years decades of saved paperwork is like taking a walk down memory lane... except that rather than a walk it feels more like I'm on a treadmill that will never come to an end. No more! Please, I don't want to look at any more papers. I mean, dear Lord, that file of angst-filled high school poetry was ... okay, look, let's just forget I even brought the subject up, okay? It never happened. Plus, all the evidence has been shredded. Very, very thoroughly shredded. So there.

Goal of the month: Still complaining about making my way through the 30 days of purging excess Stuff from my life.
Ugh. Spent tonight throwing out cards and letters from old boyfriends. Why did I have to save everything?


Goal of the week: I want to aim to get out the door by 7:30 a.m. I actually managed to get to bed, if not always to sleep, by 9 p.m. last week. Let's see if I can manage this one.
Well... kinda... sorta... not. I think it was actually 8 a.m., but I'm not sure since, like a coward, I stopped looking at the clock by that point

Exercise du jour: C25k week 4. Something I would never have dreamed of doing in high school. See? I'm evolving. And I promise never to write poetry about a boy ever again. Honest. Cross my heart and hope to never experience H.S. again.

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Done! Plus, walked 4-1/2 miles

A brief philosophical interlude on habits, exercise, and paving the road to hell

Quote du jour: We are what we repeatedly do. - Aristotle

Why on earth would anyone write such a boring blog as this one? All I do is track exercise and log my ignoble failures. What's the point in that?

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. - Samuel Johnson (attrib)

The reason for these goals and whatnots is that I'm trying to develop habits. Good ones, I mean, not the come-home-and-eat-something-deep-fried type of habit, which has always been so appealing in the past. While I vary the type of exercise that I do, I am getting into the habit of doing something exercise-wise six days a week. And with the tracking of habits designed to make more more organized, space-wise and time-wise, I'm making sure that I can have the time available and the space needed to concentrate on exercise.

It is so easy to get to the end of the day, having spent the whole day rushing around trying to keep up with everything I'm "supposed" to do, and then realize at the end that it's too late and I'm too tired to get any exercise in.

[That sentence is way too long and disorganized in itself. Skip it and move on.]

A habit is something you do without thinking; I still have to think, and prepare, and goad myself to get things done. It is hard not to feel tied to a To Do list sometimes.

On the plus side, I am getting better at getting back into exercising after a slump. And I've grudgingly conceded that sometimes vegetables aren't all bad. Even been known to eat my green leafies.

Why do good habits seem so boring? That's another question. I'm just aiming to get to the point where I don't have to think about making time for exercise and healthy food.

Goal for the month: The 14th day of the 30-day purge of stuff.
Did a leeetle bit today. Okay, maybe 20 minutes' worth, if you want to be honest. Yesterday kind of burned me out, organizing-wise. Tomorrow, she is another day.



Exercise du jour: 200 squats challenge, week 3.

13
16
10
10
13
Done! Somehow, this seemed harder and easier both. Does that make sense? Of course not. But it's true: the knees seemed to accept what I was asking them to do, they're bending more and complaining less. At the same time, the amount of repetitions seems a lot more than last week, though the difference between last week's high and this one is only 5 squats. Which ain't squat, frankly. (It's going to take a while before I stop making squat jokes. Bear with me.)

The good news is I found the remote that I'd packed away 3 years ago

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Goal for the month: The 13th day of the 30-day pUrGe Of StUfF fRoM mY lIfE.
Did 10 hours worth of purging, shredding, procrastinating sorting and getting rid of things I no longer want in my life.

Size does matter?

see more Lol Celebs

Study du jour: The bigger the trees, the smaller the crime rate? Houses with big trees have less crime.

Huh? I want to believe this, 'cause I don't want any delinquent squirrels getting up to anything criminal in my yard. But it still seems like a silly study.

Goal for the month: 30 day purge: Still going through the endless piles of stuff that I took out of the garage so I could actually... brace yourself... park my car in the garage. Sometimes it seems like I'm not actually making any difference to the pile; I'm just taking it on faith that things are going to get better. Kinda like when you eat right and exercise and the scale just sneers at you, refusing to budge. Keep going anyway.





Goal for the week: I swear, nose to pillow. 9 p.m. Me.
I'm going, I'm going! Okay, so it's 9:01 p.m. That's close enough, isn't it?
(Whaddya mean, 'no'? Sheesh, talk about strict... )

Exercise du jour: Walking to/from work. Yes, even if it rains. Sadly, I won't shrink in the rain. (Or there'd be a lot more people coming to Oregon for weight loss visits.)

Remembrance

Quote du jour: "Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die." -G.K. Chesterton

Goal for the month: 30 day purge 30 days of sorting, purging, donating, filing, or shredding the excess Stuff I possess.




Goal for the week: I swear, nose to pillow. 9 p.m. Me. Keep the dream alive.





Exercise du jour: Walk to/from the Max station
Done! Plus, the C25k that I'd put off from yesterday



Plus, at lunch, the 200 squats, week 2

7
11
7
7
11 !!! Ack! This seems a lot more than the last time
Done!

Photo courtesy of Beverly & Pack