moonbeam65

Attitude

There once was a woman who woke up one morning,
looked in the mirror,
and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.

Well,” she said, “I think I’ll braid my hair today?”
So she did
and
she
had
a
wonderful
day.

The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror
and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

“H-M-M,” she said,
“I think I’ll part my hair down the middle today?”
So she did
and
she
had
a
grand
day.

The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her
head.

“Well,” she said,
“today I’m going to wear my hair in a pony tail.”
So she did
and
she
had
a
fun,
fun
day.

The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn’t a single hair on
her head.

“YEA!” she exclaimed,
“I don’t have to fix my hair today!”

Attitude is everything.

As I ramble through life, whatever be my goal, I will unfortunately always keep my eye upon the doughnut and not upon the whole.
Wendy Wasserstein

The rest of the world lives to eat, while I eat to live.
Socrates

Take twice as long to eat half as much.
Anonymous

Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.
Peter De Vries

Your body is the baggage you must carry through life. The more excess the baggage, the shorter the trip.
Arnold H. Glasgow

One way to get thin is to re-establish a purpose in life.
Cyril Connolly

More die in the United States of too much food than too little.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else.
Samuel Johnson

My back is sore, my arms are weak and shaky, and I am moving like an invalid. I gave myself away completely for just an hour… what was I thinking?

 Now that I I got your attention… I had a thrid session with the trainer and she kicked my a**s to the point where I was moaning and begging to stop. She is working muscles I did not know existed. Apparently, it should correct my posture and develop some serious core.  Adriana, my trainer, is very patient and knowledgable but pushy. Somehow she intuitively got that I am very competitive and she challenges me with a smile. I smile back but then I have to do all the insane repetitions in unusual places. I am so looking forward to our next session on Saturday… NOT!

I am walking… Suzanne and Beebee, you guys were right to caution me about not walking up a storm right away… because the pain started coming back… no that much, but I feel tension in my ankles yet again. I am slowing down and not walking uphill anymore. Yes, the doc told me not to use stairmaster and walking uphill is almost the same. It’s not helpful that I live on Capitol Hill in Seattle… everything is hilly. Is this tendonitis with me forever and I will never be carefree with walking? Walking is so natural for our bodies…. how come I can’t do something that is as simple as breathing?

And finally, the confession time. I have been binge-free for 9 days and I binged last night. With nuts and whole grain bread. And tons of fruit. Now I am hurting… and pondering…I think I couldn’t handle reading about others struggling with the same problem… after giving advice on how to handle night time snacking, etc… I gave in myself. It’s a long-time ingrained behavior that serves to alleviate anxiety and depression for me. As Beebee said in her blog, I know, I know, I know… but there is a switch in my brain that goes on and nothing else matters. Chewing, swallowing, chewing, swallowing… until it hurts so much I have to stop. I know this blog is not pretty and people love to read something uplifting and corageous… but it is what it is for me this morning. I don’t hate myself, I am just very sad.

Tatiana

Everything is great with my feet according to a doctor. I can walk and hike, no running and stairmaster though. Tons of stretches and working on the muscles on the back of my legs, they are too weak. Use new inserts and watch my posture. These are her recommendations. I walked back home from the clinic, two miles. The Thanksgiving Walking Machine is back!

I survived three weeks without walking. I wore an othopedic boot. It was so hard. I got depressed, angry, I rebelled, and I binged. Then I started working out with weights and got a trainer. Slowly I lost the weight that I gained during the first week of wearing the boot. I am going down in weight and now, with walking, I am sure it will be easy. I want our team, the rocking Hot Rods, to be a permanent winner. 

 I feel for Kama and Lynn who injured their feet and have to stay away from intensive cardio. Be patient and don’t further injure yourself, OK?

Thanks for your support all my dear buddies. I can’t stop smiling. I want to go out and walk, walk, walk.

See you later,

Walking Tatiana

I want to let everyone know that two of our Thanksgiving Walking Challenge team members, Zina and Matt, successfully finished their 300 miles of walking.  Congratulations Zina and Matt!!!!

When we started in September, 300 miles seemed like an unreal number of miles. And all the team members, including Ellen, Matt, Zina, Ellie, and I kept on walking every day, reporting miles and supporting each other when walking was the last thing we wanted to do.

 I know that Zina reached her weight goal and Matt is very close to reaching his goal. Ellen and I also have been losing weight walking. Ellen is very close to finishing her 300 miles and she even does some jogging from time to time. Ellie joined just recently but this little trooper already walked almost 100 miles in such a short period of time. I am sure that she will keep up her pace and break 300 miles by the Turkey Day.

I was temporarily “booted” out from the challenge because I did not listen to my body and pushed and pushed through pain making the matters worse. I am glad I had this experience; I learned my lesson. Although walking is a gentle exercise, if you go crazy on it, you would pay dearly. Everything in moderation.

Right now there are three members still walking to their finish line: Ellen, Ellie, and I.

Will there be another walking challenge? I don’t know. I loved this one as I got to know great walkers and learned so much about myself. Chipping away miles, not being afraid of big numbers, working as a team, and being flexible. What a gift!

Tatiana

The Power of the Mind (I couldn’t find the source)

The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. “I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

“Mrs.. Jones, you haven’t seen the room….just wait.”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged…it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it “It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away …just for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account you withdraw from what you’ve put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories.

Remember the five simple steps to happiness:

Free your heart from hatred.
Free your mind from worries.
Live simply.
Give more.
Expect less.

Oh, don’t worry buddies, I did not have any. I served this for a birthday breakfast to my husband. He is a carb lover… and I love him. He is happy and feels like a Buddha because he can’t stop smiling from all the comfort food. I had lowfat organic cottage cheese with grapes and one walnut and coffee for breakfast. Our dining table is divided… like two different Universes. One is full of sweets and fat and another is strictly lowfat, healthy, and organic. We both smile at each other from our respected Universes eating our goodies. Life is good. Happy birthday dear husband!

I have been really good with eating well and exercising. Joining Hot Rods kind of replaced the Thanksgiving Walking Challenge for me in terms of accountability and wanting my team to succeed. I am so competitive, I have to do something about it.

I worked out with a trainer and let me tell you, it was the best $$ investment I made lately. She evaluated my posture, muscle groups, and outlined my weak sides. I now understand that my knee problems and even ankle problems started because of the wrong posture, overworked muscles on the back of my legs and weak muscles on the front. The body tried to compensate and strong muscles became tighter and tighter, leading to straining knees and Achilles. Same with my upper body. My chest is very strong and muscles on my back are weak. Hence tension in shoulders and neck, and headaches. Again, this makes total sense to me! I am looking forward to working out with her tomorrow.

I am glad that today is a new day on Buddy Slim… we all are wonderful people and can put anything behind us, keeping the main goal in sight.

Tatiana