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My friend Tom turned me onto a neat little program at Pandora.com. You can create a station of music based on artists whose music is similar to an artist or a song you specify. Very handy, very nifty, and what a great way to expand my musical horizons!
I'm proud of myself. Beginning January 1, I set out to increase my level of activity and implement an exercise regimen into my life. I started by walking daily and returning to my three workouts each week at Curves. For further motivation, my daughter joined Curves with me at the end of January. No excuses now! To push myself a little harder, I recently started working out with weights, and I've noticed a substantial increase in my energy, my desire to workout and my overall fitness level.
I'm still having a problem with my food intake, however. This is my one weakness, my one ongoing pitfall in my quest to become healthy and fit.
I started out just cutting back on what I didn't need a lot of - hose carb-laden foods that weigh heavily on my buttocks and thighs. I love potatoes, but I was working hard to avoid potatoes. I did well with this initially - enough that it made me push on to the next level of cutting portions. I managed this for a few weeks, and then slowly, I started allowing myself to have a little more of this or a little more of that. And then before I knew it, potatoes had found their way to my plate again. I intermittently try to focus on healthier dietary habits - and I succeed. But then I return to my potatoes and other comfort foods.
WHAT GIVES?
That's my focus now - what gives? Why am I not doing what I know I need to do to achieve and maintain a healthy body? I'm still working on the answer. I know it's about choices - every choice is either good for me or bad for me. I guess I just am confused why I'm sabotaging my efforts.
In the meantime, I'll press on. I'll continue to exercise because I really like the way it makes me feel. I'll remain proud of the things that I am doing and will try not to be so hard on myself for the things I can't quite figure out just yet. I'm working on it one day at a time and that makes me proud.
Today I've been clearing space on my phone's transflash card, thus the following videos for your amusement. Enjoy!
In Warren County, NC - taken October 2005
This was taken on the outskirts of Warrenton, NC, where I spent my teenage years. The field you see at the beginning of the video is next to a wooded area where I would sit I on top of a rock and contemplate life. Across the road from that field, as you'll notice when I swing my phone around to the right, you can catch a glimpse of the building that once housed Warren Academy, the "private" (read: white middle-class kids only) school where I attended 9th grade. I think it's a church now, and that it had been converted into a textile factory before that. Such is rural life in a poor county in North Carolina.
Kung Fu Hamster
Maybe next time I'll get my Joe Cartoon gerbil to perform:
Sphere play
Alas, videos of Jon playing with a clear sphere we bought at the renaissance faire last fall. For more information or to see a good video of what Jon is attempting to do, check here.
Driving with Tori
It was neat to watch this little driving clip this morning and hear The Beekeeper playing in the background. Oh how I love Tori Amos!
Driving Home Series
Here's further proof that I am insane. If you see a big blob in the middle of the videos, that was bird shit on my window. Just thought you should know.
This week I have managed to pull jeans out of the dirty clothes basket on three separate occasions to wear to work. I am not quite sure how it happened that all three pair of jeans that I wear (I own many more in many different sizes) ended up dirty, but they did. Laundry awaits my attention, and soon I'll have all clean and crisp jeans to wear to work.
Lately, I've been dressing up in slacks more often than not because I've been managing a project that requires a lot of interaction with faculty and staff. It feels good to dress up for work again; I realize now that I was falling deep into a slump of "who cares what I wear to work because I just sit at a computer all day anyway." But this week was different - I only had a training class on Monday and the rest of the week has been spent at my desk doing some catch up work. Oh yeah, and some surfing. And some mudding. And general slacking off. It's been great!
I couldn't sleep last night, so I watched TV in the living room for a little while. When I looked up and saw the time, I realized something was wrong with me because it was 3:30 a.m. and I wasn't the least bit tired. So much for drinking two tall glasses of iced tea with dinner. That'll teach me! It was sometime after 4 when I finally managed to fall asleep and around 6:30 when I got out of bed to shower. I'm now comtemplating taking a 1/2 day of vacation, though it may be just as good to sit here in my numb-like state, contemplating the cleanliness of my jeans and writing blog entries about it.
