Quote du jour: Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. - C.S. Lewis
Site du jour: You've probably already seen this, but I appreciated this informative and useful procedure on how to put on a sports bra. (Thanks to K D James.)
Goal for the month: 30 days of a sort, shred, file or purge fest.
Goal for the week: Go to bed by 9 p.m.
Exercise du jour: 30 minutes rowing. Walking to/from work.
Week 1 day 3 of the 200 squat challenge. 5 6 5 5 7 Done!
Failed on everything but the squats. Got home and had to spend the next two hours and thirty-seven minutes helping my mother upgrade her anti-virus software. TWO friggin' calls to support. I mean, I've been working in the software industry for over ten years, and I've never had an install that was this badly bungled. Argh!
Site du jour: $20 to check the man out before you start dating seriously? Is that wise or foolish?
Goal for the month: 30 days of a sort, shred, file or purge fest. Done. For today. 28 more days to go. Turns out purging involves actual thinking. That's going to slow progress down a bit. Still, it was good. I got into a rhythm, going through boxes and assigning things homes.
Goal for the week: Get out of the house by 7:30 damn it! (Going to conquer this one.) Fail. Oh, just shoot me now and be done with it. Got to sleep by 1 a.m.
Exercise du jour: Rowing 30 minutes Done!
Walk to/from work Semi-sorta done. I mean, I walked at lunch. Does that count?
Week 1 day 2 of the 200 squat challenge. Done! 5 5 3 5 5
Yes, I've done that before. So why repeat myself? Because lame is the name of the game 'round these parts I need to find something that will help guard against my worst problem -- doing too much too soon.
It's weird. In the past, I did C25K to get me started running, now I want something that will tell me when to stop. Preferably before I hurt something. I need to work on stopping.
Yesterday, for example, I kinda sorta didn't hear the podcast guy say "stop running" so I ran through a walking section and onto the next run interval. When I was a couch-newbie, I wouldn't have missed his saying "walk now" -- hell, I'd have been listening most intently, almost begging him to say it. I'm not saying that I like running (stop laughing, Marie!) but... well... it is awfully nice to get into a groove and keep going. But that doesn't mean I enjoy it or anything like that.
Move over, Xenia, there's a new archaeologist in town.
I was originally supposed to go into work this weekend, but they pushed that off until next weekend. And since this was a traditional dark and stormy night weekend, I thought I might as well do something useful while I was listening to the rain.
So I spent most of the weekend sorting through the layers of stuff in my garage. Like a tell, you can tell* a lot about my life by looking at the stuff I've kept for so many years.
Sorting through a heap like this involves time travel. I'd hit certain boxes that were micro-capsules from the past, mini-representations of entire eras in my past. It's tiring to sort through things; you end up re-living the memories and sometimes you dig up some pretty heavy stuff. I have always set great store by my storage, and it's traditionally been very hard for me to get rid of things.
Now, however, my biggest question, with most of this stuff, is "why?"
This weekend, I got rid of things that I'd kept for 10, 20, even 40 years. In some cases I have no idea why I was saving them. Is this a sign of old age? Am I evolving into a more spiritual being, detached from material possessions?
Or maybe my psyche is starting to feel like I'm on a sinking ship and I need to lighten the load.
p.s. Xenia, why don't you warn people that a large part of archaeology involves fighting off big, ugly, scary-looking spiders? I do feel someone ought to have mentioned that somewhere along the line.
Exercise du jour: 30 minutes rowing.
Fail. Fail, fail, fail, fail. There are times when life gets in the way, and then there are times when you look at the schedule and say "WTF? Who scheduled this in today's list? Even Superman would have said "The heck with this," and gone back to the drawing board. In other words, goals created in theory had no basis in tonight's reality. Not that I'm all that much in favor of reality, in general.
*Hey, it's Punday. You're supposed to make puns. Nobody said they had to be good puns.
You're not the only one who's happy it's Friday...
Study du jour:
Interesting. A study from Stanford suggests that people who feel pain but also have a strong sense of being in love are better able to cope with pain than people who are isolated and do not feel loved and appreciated.
"It's important to recognize that people who feel alone and depressed may have very low pain thresholds, whereas the reverse can be true for people who feel secure and cared for.
All the pieces are starting to fit together rather neatly...
Goal for the week: Yes, again with the getting up early and out the friggin' door. I just know this is going to become second nature. In another decade or so.
Jennifer Grey is making me think resentful thoughts.
Not only does she have a pinched nerve in her foot, like me, she's also got bolts holding her body together and even so she's kicking ass on Dancing with the Stars. She's screwing up the curve for the rest of us. I can't even mow the lawn without my foot feeling like it's on fire, and she's rehearsing every day on the dance floor.
How do I know this if I haven't been watching the show? A friend told me. The conversation went something like this:
Friend: So, why aren't you running? Me: The pinched nerve in my foot hurts. I need to rest the foot to get it better. Friend: Jennifer Grey has a pinched nerve in her foot. It hasn't stopped her from dancing every week.
Maybe I'm being over-sensitive, but I seem to hear a bit of an accusation in those words.
I am bothered by the idea that pain is something you're supposed to overcome. Pain is your body telling you there's a problem. If you ignore the warning and "suck it up" you're not solving the problem. The only thing you're doing is bolstering your ego: "Hey, I'm tough. Sure, I broke my foot in three places, but that doesn't stop me doing a marathon every week. "
I read blogs written by Josie and Tricia. They're not giving up because the foot hurts, but they are listening to their bodies and modifying their workouts. And they certainly are not wimps; they're women who've worked hard to become thin and fit. And they still have to face injuries like mine.
Update: Ha! I actually watched a few minutes of Dancing with the Stars, but that was long enough to hear one of the judge's warning that Jennifer Grey needed to be careful or she was going to end up with serious injury.
Hmph. Bet my friend didn't see that bit.
Goal for the week: Get up crack o' dawn and be out of the door by 7:30 a.m. For me, that's a challenge. Done? Well... okay, not quite. Out the door by 7:50. But that's a start.
Exercise du jour: No running. No walking. Just rowing. Patience, grasshopper. Done!
Obligatory footnote: Yes, I'm sure Jennifer Grey is a perfectly nice person and she's certainly entitled to do whatever she wants with her own foot. I just don't like being compared to her, okay? Not that my friend reads this blog; I'm just venting.
We tend not to question our beliefs, our perceptions, and our patterns of behavior, even when they are causing problems for us. The same homeostasis that protects us from change also makes it more difficult for us to transform even when it's in our best interest to do so.... Part of the value of pain is to help motivate you to change. - Dean Ornish
Goal of the day: Pay attention. If I find myself wanting to eat something unhealthy, ask myself why I want to do this right now. Done! Of course, in this case the answer was "because I want to stay awake and alert so I can finish the project even if I am working on it at 11 pm due to someone else's lack of planning not that that bothers me much I'm just going to vent about it here and maybe grind my teeth a bit."
Goal of the week: Final day of the week-long yoga challenge.
Anything that helps you to transcend your isolation will help you to lose excess weight and keep it off. More than that, though, transforming and transcending isolation is the essence of real healing. - Dean Ornish
Even if surrounded by people, if you feel disconnected than you are isolated.
Goal of the day: Today, I'm going to contact a friend I haven't spoken to in a while. Bridge the gap. Done! We're having lunch on Friday.
Goal of the week: Yes, I'm going to keep up the yoga. I'd like to try getting to sleep earlier, but it's the only time I can guarantee yoga time. And I suspect that yoga is helping me drop off rather than lying in bed for an hour or so. Done! Though I didn't get to done before 1:15 am.
Exercise du jour: 30 minutes rowing. I do find myself liking rowing. I suspect it's because it's an exercise you can perform sitting down. Done! Okay, not quite. When I saw that I couldn't start until after Midnight, I compromised and only did 20 minute on the rowing machine. Still think it's worth the dang star, especially because I stayed up late to get it done.
When we understand the benefits of our choices, then they become easier to make. What appears like self-restraint can become self-empowerment. Ultimately, it's a choice between true freedom or being a slave to our compulsions. - Dean Ornish
Today I am focusing on the idea that it's freeing to eat green leafy vegetables rather than grab something pre-made at the Deli. I chose the freedom of eating healthy food.
Goal of the day: Today, I make a vow. No sugar, no alcohol, no meat. I almost said "no caffeine" but I think three "no"s are enough for the day.* Fail. Note to self: do not make stupid vows when you're up the night before until 1:30 a.m. trying to get everything on your To Do list done already. I was so tired at work today that I kept making stupid mistakes (as opposed to my more usual intelligent mistakes) and even coffee wasn't keeping me awake. Hello sugar!
Goal of the week: Day 2 of the week-long yoga fest. Done. Again, after Midnight. This bodes ill for the morrow.
Exercise du jour:30 minutes with Michael Rhoda-Bhote. I'm starting to get the hang of this rowing exercise stuff. Or at least I'm feeling comfortable about the delusion that I'm starting to get the hang of it. Done. Finished the rowing at 11:03 p.m.This week, I am nothing if not consistent.
*Okay, also no Twilight movies. I promise. All day. Okay, a baby star for keeping this vow as well.
Pet Peeve du Jour: I wouldn't mind people dropping in unexpectedly, if it weren't for the fact that they expect me to drop what I'm doing to entertain them.
Excuse me? You want free entertainment, find a television. You want to know if I'm free to go do something fun, ask me. Don't just suddenly take it into your head to "drop by because I was in the neighborhood" and then expect me to stop what I'm doing when I need to get these things done today. You stop by my house because you're bored, I'm likely to put you to work.
The trouble with friends or relatives who are retired or out of work is that they have a lot of free time and haven't had to do the 9-5 stuff in quite a while. From my own experience, I can vouch that it's easy to forget that other people have deadlines when you do not. All the same, they could try to see the other side of the picture.
Okay. Done now.
What did people do before blogging? This is a great medium for venting about irksome irritations that aren't major enough to write a novel about, but are frustrating enough to poison a perfectly good day.
Exercise du jour: 30 minutes with my rowing machine, whom I've been informed is actually male. The full name is Michael Rhoda-Bhote.*
Done! Finally. Okay, to the more technically-minded this might seem like it was completed on the next day, given that I finished exercising after midnight. But there are times when it pays not to be too technical, and this is one of them. It's done.
*My apologies to anyone who just got a 60's flashback/earworm. P.S. Thanks Gina for christening the rowing machine!
Quote du jour: The Charities, that heal and soothe and bless, Are scattered at the feet of Man, like flowers. - Wordsworth
Prayer requests du jour: If you've got any prayers, positive vibes, or good thoughts to spare, could you send them to Lakeland Jo at the Life in Windermere blog? Her goal is to live to see her son's 18th birthday, and she's undergoing a tricky operation today to try to achieve that goal.
Exercise du jour: 30 minutes rowing. Fail. I got no good excuses. I hang my head in shame.
To me, metatarsalgia sounds like some kind of pasta. But apparently it's doctor-speak for 'pissed off foot.' Doc said the foot is not fractious, just hella swollen. The hammer toe is causing undue pressure on the joints, hence the problems.
He doesn't want me doing anything that will 'overuse' the foot. Like bicycling. Or jogging. Or walking. Or taking the stairs. Or taking a bath. Or pretty much anything else besides sitting, (unless it's sitting in a bathtub, which is verboten). He taped up my foot with a pad thing, which supposedly is going to make my foot feel allll better sometime soon. I can't take it off for a week, so I don't think Doc and I agree on the same definition of 'soon.'
I can ride a stationary bike if I don't use the ball of my foot to pedal. Thankfully, he's given the thumbs up to ellipticals and rowing machines and thankfully I have these in my life.
Frustrating -- I have to give up, at least for now, on all the goals I've been training for. No more 5ks this year. And it's boring to have to track progress by how many minutes I spend sitting on a machine. No matter how fast I row, I'm never closer to shore.
Exercise du jour: 30 minutes rowing. Done! Two days in a row of rowing. I hope that doesn't cause a row.
Blogging is a great way to excuse slackness. Sorry, can't keep planting trees, have to blog about my doing so. And, of course, taking pictures of the activity.
The evidence
It sounded so simple, in theory. Dig a hole. A whole hole. How hard can that be? Well, when the yard is rife with tree roots (from erstwhile trees), it can be quite the workout. I was reduced to hacking at the roots with an ax. Great for the arms, works up a good sweat, but it takes forever. Probably a young, muscular man... with blond hair and green eyes, nice tan, good build... hmmmn... could deal with this in two minutes.
The accomplices
Exercise du jour: 30 minutes on Ellie the elliptical. That, at least, I know I haven't misplaced.
Too hot to ellipt. 30 minutes rowing instead. The rower is in a cooler room
Done! I really, really didn't want to exercise tonight. Blog guilt works.
Several eonsdecades years ago, my aunt gave my mother her old rowing/skiing machine. My mother said "thank you" with great politeness if not great sincerity, and stuck it in the nearest closet. Where it lingered until I managed to excavate it and take it to Oregon so it could be appreciated.
However, since the dang thing did not come with instructions, or even hints, I had to wait until my mother could find where the instructions had been hidden so I could figure out what went where and also how to get the seat to move. (Not intuitive. Trust me.)
Amazingly enough, damn foot still hurt a bit when I rowed. Nothing that would stop me though. It is wonderful to feel that I can exercise!
Exercise du jour : 30 minutes with Rhoda.
Unpleasant task du jour: Made an appointment with a foot doctor for Monday. Have read all the preparatory paperwork -- they warned me to break open a bank vault and bring heavy sacks of gold with me to the doctor's office. Good to be prepared.
Done!
