The Hills have Voices

Ok, so the new job has taken its toll on my weight loss plans due to the fact that I sit all day long. I get up in the morning and get on the elliptical and work out for 30-45 minutes before showering and heading to work but let's face it - when one sits in a car and then in a cafe for eight plus hours a day it kills the metabolism.

This weekend we had our yearly girls weekend in San Francisco! It was a ball and I got a workout - walking 16 miles from Friday to Sunday. My calves feel like petrified wood. I loved every minute of it. The sun, the salt air, the hills - it was glorious.

So the challenge will be ending in ten days and I haven't made a whole lot of progress. I won't take the purse home but I am not giving up on keeping this body in shape - or getting this body into shape as the hills of San Francisco told me!

Another great week! I am really enjoying this new role at work but I think it may be like jumping off that steel bridge! You know, the one that has the sign posted saying "No Jumping or Diving from Bridge! " But your young, its summer and everyone who's cool in your high school is watching you hang off the edge. You can't back out now. You'll be branded a chicken. So you jump and then it happens. You fall and fall and fall and you realize it is, if I may say, one helluva long way down. Upon impact, your swim bottoms are catapulted so far up your rear you're just glad you have 40 feet of water depth to retrieve them in some semblance of privacy and time to wipe the excruciating look of pain off your face before rising to the surface. LOL
So I have jumped and it is exhilarating! I have no idea what is really awaiting me when I hit that proverbial water!

Post Script: I never did jump from the Arlington bridge. I never even got the never to climb on the other side of the rail. I did shove my sister off. Does that count?

Laughter and Belly Flops

Wow! Today I worked hard and laughed a lot. Laughter has such value! I find that I laugh hardest when I am laughing at myself. Like when I make a faux pas I typically laugh very loudly and people will turn to gaze in frowned wonder, which in turn makes me laugh even harder. When others laugh at me I am just naive enough to believe they are laughing with me as I laugh at myself. Gotta love it. Life is good.

At this moment I am staring up at the artwork above my desk. It has lemons and lemonade in the drawing with the words below it: "It'll cost nothing to dream and everything not to". It kind of sums up my attitude...I love to jump in with both feet and find out later if I am truly in over my head! For I know I can swim. Why not just jump?! If I do a belly flop, then I figure out where I went wrong last time on the way down and tell myself how to correct course. Next time I'll point my toes and plug my nose!

As for the challenge, I have lost two more pounds. (does it matter than I had gained them back last week and re-lost them? Is re-lost a word?) I am exercising and sleeping on a routine. Eureka!

Toasting With a Monk

The Dom is in the fridge and it is only 70 minutes until Dean turns 21. Wow. Sunrise, Sunset or what?! We have had a tradition for the last 12 years that when a monumental milestone in a life is achieved we buy a bottle of Dom Perignon and toast the success, blessing, and celebration of life with that person. Mainly it has been reserved for great achievement at work but we decided to signify the celebration of Dean's life with the special champagne tomorrow. I love relishing the moments of daily life because that is all we have....daily life. I can't afford to waste the daily moment by waiting for the "special moment"!

In preparing for the festivities tomorrow I once again forgot to eat after 10 am this morning. It was 8:00 pm when I was out running errands and realized I was famished. I didn't want to grab anything substandard through a drive-thru so waited until I got home to eat dinner at 9:20! I hardly think it matters if you eat something mediocre at 9:20 or garbage at 8:00. The outcome is the same: fat cells enlarge! FYI: I have gained 5 pounds. Double dang.

Well in the morning I will exercise and anticipate toasting with the monk, Dom Perignon.

Sad.

I am in Seattle at my parents home and in an hour we will have to leave for the memorial service. My friend of 41 years has lost her husband to pancreatic cancer. I awoke in the night and thought how hard it must be to have to prepare her two boys and herself for today. I prayed that somehow God would comfort her and see her through this. I don't especially like to cry in public but I know that there is no way out of this one. I just want to make it inside and sit down before I start to cry.

Under stress I can tend to turn to food so I have been very aware of that fact on this trip. I picked up a magazine in the airport with a couple really good articles in it on how to retrain your brain regarding food. I want to pick up the book and read more called, When Food Is Love by Geneen Roth. Maybe a needed, albeit vulnerable, book club book!

Moonwalk

I woke up today with renewed energy and ran down to Starbucks (well - walk/ran) to get a doppio and ran back before showering and heading to church. Whenever I run on the street I wonder what in the world is jiggling that I can't see. I don't want to be one of those women you see in the grocery store who have no true friend to tell them, "Oh Child, did you know that your bum looks like the face of the moon in those pants?!" Maybe I need to ask my BFF to drive behind me as I run just to make sure it is not an obscene sight! I can count on her. She would tell me Lawdy, Lawdy, Miss Claudy change your outfit!

It is only three weeks to my first 5K run (benefiting the Salvation Army Women's Shelter at Lodi Lake) and I am not ready. I will have to be diligent this week. I am meeting my friend (not Jack) at 6am to run in the morning. I know it is important especially on Mondays for me to workout before hitting the store since I really need to be present for those who need to talk with me.

Sundays are my free days to eat whatever I want. Today it was popcorn and white wine and cheescake. Yes, cheesecake. I even bought a bottle of Dom to share with Dean on his upcoming 21st birthday! I absolutely think it is the best champagne in the world and haven't bought it in years. Every month I walk by it in Costco and think how fun it would be to just drop it in the cart. Today I did!

Training like an Olympian

I hadn't realized it had been a week since my last blog. I'll blame work. What day is it? What time is it? Is that am or pm? Geez. I really ask those kind of questions! When 9am seems like 3pm and Thursday evening like Saturday afternoon I know its time to regroup. So I make dinner and work out while the chicken is in the oven and tell Jack not tonight. When life gets this topsy he can only join me on my Friday workout, which when one works split days off, can be twice a week! I met Jack when I was sixteen and he was so sweet. I was hooked. I turn up the music and keep lifting the weights and moving. Jack sits on the workbench waiting for my next break. He steeps in the sweet marriage of carbonation and pop and keeps me company. Yes, I enjoy Jack and diet pepsi during my workouts once in a while. Oh, PLEASE, as if you were so pure. I think I read somewhere that the Olympic athletes use Jack in their training routines. Yes, I'm sure of it. So far I am down 9 pounds. Jack says, "Go Tess!"