Wednesday, October 22, 2008

At the Gym

I ran 5k on the elliptical last night!! In 32 1/2 minutes. I don't think I've ever broken 5k on my usual 30 minutes + 5 min cool down. That excites me!!! It is a mark in my progress. It's so hard to tell where I'm making progress when I'm not losing weight. For me it's all about being able to run a little further in the same amount of time. Or even running longer.

Soon I will be starting a workout to increase my core strength. I don't want a 6 pack or anything, but my abdominal muscles all went away (right along with my leg muscles) after my first surgery. Now that my feet are healing all nicely and hurting less and less, I can keep increasing my workouts. :) Yay! I want my muscles back!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Simple Joys

There are some items that can always draw out the little kid in us. These are the things that we say "this makes me happy" about. Not "this brings happiness to my life". But "this makes me happy" with a broad smile and a tilt of our head.

Fruit Roll-Ups. They're not the most nutritious item that General Mills has ever made. With 50 calories a roll and 7 grams of sugar... it even says "Not a significant source of dietary fiber, vitamin A, calcium and iron." Yes, there are healthier snacks options available for my perusal, but how can you pass up feeling young. Almost giddy. There is nothing wrong with returning to our younger years. Some of us are closer to those years than others, but childhood...

Crunching dry leaves that have fallen to the ground, jumping into puddles, attempting the hula hoop, wearing braided pig tails. What are those simple joys that help you remain energetic and youthful?

Simple Joys from the musical Pippin

Sweet summer evenings, hot wine and bread
Sharing your supper, sharing your bed
Simple joys have a simple voice:
It says why not go ahead?

Wouldn't you rather be a left-handed flea
A crab on a slab at the bottom of the sea
Than a man who never learns how to be free
Not 'til he's underground

Monday, October 13, 2008

Getting Organized

Organization is a scary word sometimes. Unfortunately, I like to be organized. I like structure and I like routines. I like small amounts of sponteneity too, but there is no way that I can live bouncing around from one thing to the next without any plans to do so.

My task last week was to re-organize our apartment. With the invasion of bed bugs and the exterminators we got along with them, everything has been in disarray. For a long while, we washed our clothes and folded them onto our dining room table. We slept on the living room floor. We put a bunch of stuff in our storage closet and everything is just ... well, dis-organized. I couldn't stand it anymore. There is a time when you just have to get mad enough to change whatever it is that's not quite right. When you can say enough is enough!

I began by collecting a few boxes and making fabric-covered cubby holes. We purchased some files and file holders. Then I started going through everything. Nothing is passing my hands without having a place to put it. Lots of recycling of paper going on too. I requisitioned a binder for household information such as when we cleaned what, price checks on grocery items, and emergency contact information.

I'm still not done. Sometime I will be able to just maintain. For now it feels like good old fashioned spring cleaning!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Starting off

Where to start? Regardless of whether anybody will ever read this or not, the potential that somebody could come along and read what I write helps me to be accountable.

My life goes in all sorts of directions. Most anybody would agree. My husband calls me an overachiever. My parents said I was a perfectionist. I prefer to think of myself as somebody who likes work done well. I have a hard time doing less than my best. I have a hard time not striving to be better at things. My interests are so varied and vast and I want to do them all!

As I struggle through things, I hope to be able to put into writing some things that I have learned and share a bit about where I am in life and how I am reaching my goals. I don't intend this to be a journal. I have one of those and those are my personal thoughts and frustrations. Here I can put the nitty gritty ins and outs of my life and maybe pick up some hints and tips along the way (hint, hint to my non-existent readers!)...