Synchronicity..... Got it?

Every now and then, something happens simultaneously with someone you know; when you discover it at a later point, do do do do do -- (you can hear the Twilight Zone theme playing).

This past week has been a rough one for me in a few different ways (I won't bore you with details....), but something came up that brought up old memories for me, and caused a slight tiff with my best friend I call Prof. After three days of sorting through a few things, and of course, trying to get through the other stresses going on as well, things were ironed out tonight. (Yay!)

Sometimes, I like to use a website to toss some i-Ching coins, get a few words of wisdom, maybe a good quote. The one I got tonight was :

"The big river is much stronger than you. That force needs to be respected humbly in order to cross the river safely. Associating with someone. Things go well. There is no mistake. Be well on time, if you're late things don't go well. If you cast an oracle about the nature of this association on its first day, you will know what always will be the situation with this."

Now what that means? Not sure that I have a clue ... but I liked it as a whole, especially the first sentence. It can be pondered and applied to different areas of life, I'm sure!

So here's the synchronicity that we've had between us for a long time: at the same time that I'm off tossing coins, he's looking at a book called: "The Mandate of Heaven: Hidden History in the I Ching". When I told him the quote I got, he said here's the irony... and told me about this book.

I replied... "That's not irony... that's synchronicity!"

Gym Rat ... 11 weeks in

Going to the gym can be a very time consuming thing. It's so easy to slip into the car and drive on home after a long day at work. Most of the time, I don't allow myself to do that. Although, I have to admit the last two weeks, I've not gone (when I should have!) three times now. I keep telling myself its because inventory is coming up at work (true) and I've been working longer hours because of that (again, true). But there really is no excuse good enough to avoid it.

Once I'm there, however, I really enjoy the workout, feeling muscles begin to heat up, burn with exertion. When I start with the elliptical, after I'm about 10 minutes into it, my mind wanders, I try to think of excuses, reasons, why I can stop now and get doing whatever my mind thinks is important enough to give up my time for. But I resist, power through the urge to stop, and just keep going. After about 15 minutes into it, I really start to enjoy it, and think I could do this for another hour! (not really, but the endorphins or whatever that kicks in makes me believe I could!)

So. After 11 weeks of workouts, I finally started to drop pounds, and have lost 11 pounds. When I started, my personal trainer said 1 pound a week was the goal. Guess she was smarter than me!! lol When I didn't see results (via the scale) the first few weeks, I was very dejected; it was hard to keep going to the gym because frankly, I thought I was doing better by just "dieting" and not doing any exercising. Now, I'm glad I kept going, and plan to keep going :)

fit HUGGGGS to everyone!

Family and Vacations

What is it about returning to your family, the home you grew up in, your parents' house, that makes you feel like a kid again? I dashed up to Calif to see my folks for a quick 3 day visit, and was sitting there after dinner at the kitchen table. My sister and I were having a glass of wine. My best friend Melanie was there; we were all chatting about the old days, old teachers, classmates, the usual topics that come up. And I sat there realizing that my sister turned 48, and will soon turn 50. I'm the big sister, so that makes me...... well, even older! Sitting there, it sure didn't feel like we're this damn old! We laughed and joked about how we're a little older than our parents' ages were when we were the teenagers sitting at that very table, talking about school, teachers, classmates. There's no way we're as old as they were with the same chronological number sitting in front of their name...... or are we????? Damn, but that's a sobering thought.

Lori and I joked about how no way we're old, we do too much, keep too busy, to consider ourselves "old". (Personally, I'd like to tell that to my knees when they creak in the morning!) Yeah, there are times when I think I'm still .... hmm.... what would I consider my age now to be? I think I still feel like I'm early 40's.... and she's a bit younger. So 10 years... that's quite a difference.

Personally, I like to say "You're only as old as you feel...." Only lately I prefer not to use the word "old" any longer.... When I ask people their age, I now phrase it "How young are you?" Cuz invariably, they're younger than I am. hahaha

Time seems to know no boundaries when you "go home". Want to feel young again? Visit your parents... they'll love it! Bet you will too.

So there you have it: "You're as young as you feel!!"

Young-feeling HUGGGS to everyone!

All About Numbers, Gym Rat, pt III

Well, its been about 7 weeks now, and I'm still a regular fixture at the gym most days after work. (I actually dislike it when something in real life gets in the way of my routine now!) I think back on my first week of trying the elliptical machine, and how just 20 minutes was an effort, on the lowest resistance. Now, I'm up to 35 minutes, and over 2 miles in the that time, on resistance level 6.

The only real measurable progress in this has been all about the numbers. So that's what I track on a spread sheet on a daily basis. I track my minutes on cardio machines, and weights lifted. At the end of 7 weeks, here's what I have: 82.09 miles, 1570 minutes on cardio machines. And a total weight lifted of 141,425 pounds. (I count number of pounds x number of lifts... lifting a 12 lb weight 12 times = 144). When I track and total these numbers by week, I can get a sense of improvements. By giving myself 1 point per pound, and 1 point per minute, I am able to see at a glance just how much I've improved.

• wk 1 - 11642
• wk 2 - 13758
• wk 3 - 21775
• wk 4 - 170
• wk 5 - 29565
• wk 6 - 13295
• wk 7 - 52785

In case you're wondering, that's not a typo at week 4. After 3 weeks, I weighed in 3 lbs heavier, and thought for certain I was building muscle in places I didn't want .... so I stopped lifting weights that week to see if there would be a difference. Week 6 had a slight downturn for the same reason. Its very frustrating to watch these numbers fluctuate, and not see any weight coming off.

While its not always something I look forward, once I get inside the gym and into my workout clothes, I'm ready to keep working at it... cuz it makes me feel better, even if I'm not showing any improvements on the outside. One of the things I did the last time I charged my mp3 player was load a few different songs to shake up the routine. I have about 200 songs loaded up, so no two days are ever the same. (Thanks, Mike! for all the great stuff you passed along <3u! Banana pancakes played while on the treadmill today, I couldn't help but chuckle, and think of you!)

I also track all of this, plus what I've eaten on SparkPeople, the largest online dieting community and its free! It's a wonderful way to meet up with other people who want to lose weight, get healthy, or a combination of both. (If you join up, friend me! AzGal50 )

hardworking HUGS to everyone!