She’s baaack!

Before you say anything…I know I’ve been MIA for much too long. April has been an extremely hectic month! I went back to work after being sick for two months…believe me, that wasn’t (isn’t) easy. I’m still not at 100%, but I’m getting there…slowly…

And, being the crazy chick that I am, I decided to do another Camp NaNo during April…yep, you read that right…writing 50,000 words over the course of the month. I managed to hit 50,378 today…early, well, at least a little early. Some of it’s good, most of it’s not…but the whole point of NaNo is to simply write…and I did do that. And I think I may come up with, you know, maybe 10,000 publishable words from this month’s writing…maybe.

Now it’s time to focus on my health…I’ve got a big, several-hours-long pulmonary test coming up on the 9th and maybe then we can figure out what to do to make it a bit easier to breathe and do something else at the same time…in the meantime, I’m trying to eat healthier and exercise as much as I can without negatively affecting my breathing.

And speaking of eating healthier…let me ask you all, do you use a juicer? If so, what brand? Pros and cons? I’m trying to eat more organic foods and working diligently to avoid GMOs and making my own juices would be another step in that direction.

My January many mini challenges

Naruto Doing Sit-Ups (Photo credit: lyk3_0n3_tym3)

How’s that for a title? Okay, okay, I know it’s a bit lame, but I really just wanted to say many mini…

Anyhow, I’ve eased into the resolution thing this year…thought I’d take a different path.  Instead of jumping in head first, I’m just sticking my big toe in for the month of January…working to re-establish healthy habits.

I’m working on eating a healthier diet…at least 3 fruits and veggies a day…no more than 1 fast food meal a week (haven’t had any yet)…at least a couple of vegetarian meals a week.

Then there’s the exercise thing…this little challenge involves doing sit-ups and push-ups every day, whatever day of the month, that’s how many of each you do on that day.  For example, today is the 8th, so I do 8 of each today…not much, I know.  But again, I’m working to make exercise a habit.  I’ll also be doing 3 days of cardio a week, although I haven’t done a lot since I’ve been so sick all month.  But tomorrow is another day.

I have my mini financial challenge…saving a certain amount of money each week for the entire year.  The first week was just $1, the second week will be $2, all the way up to the last week when I’ll save $52.  Kind of a fun little challenge.

I’ve also challenged myself to write publish a blog post every day this month.  I had to alter this challenge a bit as there are some days I end up writing two or three posts and others where I don’t write one at all.

So far, I’m making a little progress on my many mini challenges. Here’s to a successful January and beyond!

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Resolutions? Did I hear someone say resolutions?

English: New Year’s Resolutions postcard (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You know, every year I decide this is going to be the year…you know, the year I finally lose weight and keep it off, the year I get organized and decluttered, the year I get published, the year I get in shape, the year I give up diet Pepsi…and so on and so on…

I mean I guess I should be grateful that I don’t have to write that this will be the year I quit smoking, or start attending AA meetings, or give up drugs, or stop hording…but while those all seem to be major, life-affecting habits or addictions, whatever we have allowed to keep us from living life fully is a problem we need to deal with.  And it’s likely different for all of us.

For me, the weight is a symptom…I do understand that…yet I continue to try to tackle it like it’s the problem.  Hmm…what was it Einstein said?  Something like “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”  So, with that in mind, I’m going to do things a little differently this year…not going to focus on losing weight.  Instead I’ll focus on exercising three days a week and eating at least three fruits/veggies a day…that’s it.  And write, write, write (privately) about the issues that have led me to use the weight as a wall to hide behind.

The thing about delving into the issues is that it makes me feel worse and then I give up before I make it through to the other side.  You’d think, with all of this insight, I’d have managed to overcome all of this “stuff”…but giving up seems to prevent that (huh, imagine that).  There’s a lesson there for me, I just need to embrace it, learn it, and move on.

I don’t know what this means for my posts for 2013…I want to stay positive, but I’m fairly certain (hmm…can a person be fairly certain?  either you’re certain or you’re not…anyhow) there will be days when I’m not feeling so chipper, perky, happy-go-lucky.  Wait a minute, I’m not sure I’ve ever been any of those things anyhow…maybe things won’t be any different as far as my posts are concerned…guess we’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out.

Anyhow…if you made resolutions, good luck…if you didn’t, good for you!  Happy 2013!!

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2012 in review

Alright, alright…everyone else is sharing the year in review…guess I’ll jump on the bandwagon!  I enjoy reviewing the stats on my blog…seeing who is commenting and viewing, seeing what countries people are from, and what the most popular topics have been…although I have to admit, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought my most popular post would have been about panty hose…yeah, panty hose, really…go figure.

I want to take the time today to thank all of you who regularly follow my posts…some of you (and you know who you are) have been with me from the beginning and I appreciate it.  And there are the family and friends who’ve been with me even longer than I’ve been blogging…again, thanks for all of your support.

So…check out the stats below and join me tomorrow for the start of a new year…who knows what’ll happen?  What exciting adventures we’ll undertake?  How our lives will change?  New people we’ll welcome into our lives and, yes, the people we’ll have to say good-bye to.  No matter how the new year shapes up, it’ll be anything but boring…life is meant to be lived…let’s do it!

 

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 8,600 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 14 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Writing about darkness

English: Emotions Q-sort (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Okay, I’ve been writing my little “darkness” series for a few days (think it’s going to wrap up tomorrow).  This is part of a bigger story that’s been running around in my mind for several years, so you’d think I wouldn’t be affected by it.  Well, I’m here to tell you today, that’s just not how it is.

This afternoon, as I was writing the post to be published tomorrow, I really felt emotional.  I felt so bad for the poor, frightened little boy (Sean…hmm…have you figured this out yet?).  I felt disgust for his father who apparently has abused the child for most of his life (I say apparently, like I don’t know the facts of the story).  And I felt downright hatred for the boy’s mother who was an active participant in the abuse.

Why do you think I felt hatred for the mother, but not for the father?  I mean, aren’t both parents supposed to nurture and protect their children?  Why place a higher level of blame on the mother than on the father?

Does your writing raise questions about what you believe and why you believe it?  Does it cause you to look deeper within yourself to examine why you feel as you do?  And do you want to read books or stories that make you feel uncomfortable?  Thoughts about any of this would be welcome.

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Wow…500 posts!

Writing journal (Photo credit: avrdreamer)

I was sitting here this evening wondering what to write about, thinking about this, discarding that, when it hit me…I’ve published 500 posts on this little blog of mine!  The first few months I didn’t do a lot of writing, wasn’t really sure what to write about or who to write for.   Then I wrote a little more, then a little more.  When I began writing for myself, expressing myself, sharing myself, that’s when I began to feel comfortable with my writing.  Now I’m writing almost every day, often more than once a day.

Writing has become my way of coping with the stress in my life, with disappointments, with loss…but it is also how I choose to celebrate my life.  For me, writing is the dance I perform to the words in my mind.  Hopefully we all find our passion in life…something that puts a sparkle in our eye, a smile on our face, and a swagger in our step.  That’s what writing does for me.  It allows me to examine my life, to become the person I want to be.  But it also allows me to create an entirely different life, to try it on for size…and then to proceed or abandon it, whatever I choose.

So…for all of you who have been along for the ride since the beginning (yes, there are a few of you…I remember how excited I was to have ten followers of my blog!), thanks for supporting me, encouraging me, and sharing this journey!  And for those who have only recently joined the party, welcome!  I hope we’ll grow together and toast our successes.  Salud!

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Perplexing responses to posts

Image via Wikipedia

I imagine that most of us who have been blogging for a while have come across some replies to our posts that had us shaking our heads.  I had that happen this morning.  Several months ago, I posted about the stir that Kate Middleton created simply by wearing pantyhose…that apparently, while I wasn’t looking, pantyhose had gone out of fashion.  https://run4joy59.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/shes-wearing-gasp-pantyhose/

This morning I reread that post, thinking maybe I’d forgotten just what I’d written…the response from a reader today made me wonder if I’d unintentionally insulted women who wear pantyhose…but, after reading the original post, I still don’t see it that way.  I thought my post was poking fun at the fashionistas who were making such a fuss over Kate Middleton’s wearing of pantyhose, that she was somehow committing some kind of fashion faux pas.

This reader didn’t see it the same way tho…his/her comment was…

“If you don’t wear hose, whatever. If another woman does though, why do you dismiss her. Why do you care if she wears? Just like it isn’t her business why you don’t, why is it your business if she does? She’s no more out of date or fashion with her wear than you are with your daily yoga pants self.”

This still makes me smile…my “daily yoga pants self”…I’ve never actually worn yoga pants although they certainly look like they’d be comfy.  And I do find it kind of flattering that people are still reading posts published 5 months ago…At first, I wondered if my writing was unclear…I do tend to use humor and sarcasm and it’s not always easy to convey that in a blog post.  Then I just threw my hands in the air and went upstairs to take off my pantyhose and put on a pair of  yoga pants…

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Seems like I’m kind of slacking…

Image by wZa HK via Flickr

…slacking in several areas of my life…primarily with my writing.  Weird how I was able to write every day when I was working six days a week for the past few months of the year, now I’m back to a “normal” schedule and have missed several days!  What’s up with that?

I’ll give myself a pass on the day I ended up working from 5:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night…although I could have posted from my phone. They’ve updated it a little and it’s a lot easier to write and post pictures, so that’s pretty cool.  I just have to remember to adjust my camera on the phone according to the lighting…guess what I really need to do is take more pictures with it. 

 And I was pretty sick for a few days, so okay, maybe that’s an excuse…maybe…

Sometimes I think I aim for perfection and then am disappointed in myself when I don’t maintain it…when really, who among us can be perfect for very long?  Why isn’t good enough good enough?  Does anyone else have those perfectionist tendencies?  How in the world do you deal with it?

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Another milestone…400 posts published

Actually I think today’s post puts it at 402…but really, who’s counting?  It’s been a very positive experience…I’ve made a lot of friends…I’ve learned a lot about writing and particularly my style of writing.  I’m so thankful for all of you who take the time out of your busy days to spend a few minutes with me…encouraging me as I continue working on losing weight and gaining fitness…laughing at little Spooky’s antics…commiserating with me over all of the work related stress I live with…supporting me as I deal with life’s loses…and just being there for me as I continue to peel back the layers of my life, learning more about who I am and where I want to go…Thank you all so much!

What’s in store for the next 400 posts?  Wow…hopefully I’ll be able to talk about how much weight I’ve lost when I publish that 800th post.  And I have a feeling that I’ll be moving sometime in the next few months…have no idea where…but that just makes it more of an adventure, doesn’t it?  I hope I’ll be able to talk about spending a lot more time with my family and friends.  And of course, I would hope that Spooky will continue to make all of us smile.  None of us can foresee the future…and I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I’d want to…kind of distracts from today.

One of the things I am enjoying is being able to be outdoors in Indiana in January without a coat…this is the little park that’s in my neighborhood.  Live each moment with an attitude of gratitude~

Another blogging milestone…my 350th post today!

I noticed the number creeping up (thank goodness I’m not talking about the number on the scale), approaching that 350th post.  So I began thinking about what I wanted to say about it, about how sharing my health and fitness journey has changed my life (not quite there yet, but still moving forward…haven’t given up and that’s a huge accomplishment for me.  In the past, I’ve done well for a while, then given up when things got tough…not this time…and that’s due in part to blogging about the ups and downs along this road.) 

 I wanted to give recognition to the blogging friends I’ve made along the way.  These people have supported me when things don’t go so well, congratulated me when things do go well, given me advice, opened my eyes and my mind to things I’d never considered (like some music  from my young friend out east), and generally been there for me as I continue the journey.

I also realized that I’ve developed  a consistency in my writing habit over the past several months.  I’m writing every day.  Some days it’s easier than others.  Some days the words flow, other days they get tangled up somewhere between my mind and my fingers.  Then there are those occasional days when my mind is blank.  Thank goodness for photos on those days!

I’m definitely going to continue blogging…and hopefully, by my next big milestone, my 400th post, I’ll be able to celebrate another milestone…the milestone of losing 20 pounds!! Stay tuned!