Category: Thursday Throwback

Bring the world to you

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About 6 years ago, I took to the treadmill. It is a story all its own on how I started that. Today’s special chapter is about how I took running to the next level and realized something about the world. Treadmill running is great. The aesthetic downside is that the view stays the same. Yes, there are fancier versions with screens, but you get my point. So, if you ever drove a car and paid attention to how long a mile is, it feels pretty long. Like, “that was one mile?.. and the sun is 93 million of those away?!” On the treadmill though, you develop your fitness to run a mile pretty quickly. You also get curious about what running that distance outside for real feels like. My train station was about a mile away. I drove to it every work day to commute. One day I thought I would run there for kicks. I laced up. It was about an hour before dusk. Off I went. On the way there, I realized that the suddenly banal daily route was fascinating. Every crack in the concrete, slightly overgrown shrub, and garden gnome that I came across was vivid and interesting. You might think that this was the most interesting part. But there’s more. Even more profound than the new life of the world around me was the new sense of scale that I felt. As I arrived at the station (slightly out of breath because I was still fairly new to running and because I often ran faster than I had any right to), I was surprised to feel that the mile that I just ran was…short. The ripple effects of this followed me everywhere that I went and has profoundly changed my view of the world. Suddenly everything was very close and accessible. Neighboring towns were just around the corner. Bridges were short. Highways were merely a few dozen laps around a track. I could suddenly understand how a hobbit could pack supplies and trek through a mountain pass to fight evil. (It’s just a short mountain pass folks!) The world really became much smaller and brighter for me that day.

running on the beach is also pretty great

Add a little color to your life

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Two years ago we decided to to do a staycation of sorts. We live in Connecticut. About a 90 minute train ride from NYC. We often go to NYC for fun to catch a show, go out to eat or see something new and it’s usually just a day trip. But this time we booked a hotel and stayed for an extended holiday weekend and spent time doing lots of things! Not having to ride back on the train totally exhausted from a day chock full of activity was a bonus!

One of our outings was to Color Factory! They are also in Houston and opening a third location this winter in a new city that has yet to be announced! If you ever get the chance to immerse yourself in color I highly suggest it! We had a blast! I’m totally into fun, unique and creative activities and this one didn’t disappoint! Bring your camera, be silly, have an open mind and enjoy your walk from room to room exploring color!

Give it a go

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I see people ask how one starts on the path of healthy living and eating nutritiously (mainly for the purpose of losing weight). I think it has to grow from within yourself if it is going to work. It’s an organic growth that starts with the idea of wanting something. Maybe it won’t work the first time, but if you try it enough, something will catch and then you will be on your way. I remember hearing that it takes an average of seven attempts to quit smoking for one to actually succeed. I don’t know if this is a real statistic. I do like the notion that if you keep doing something, then at some point probability glances your way, favorably, and you succeed. So don’t give up. Keep trying. Have faith in yourself until it works.

A helping hand!

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If you ever get an opportunity to volunteer for any of your kids school activities I would definitely recommend it! Way back when my daughter was in the Girl Scouts…well, Daisies that is…the troop needed 2 leaders. I was reluctant to volunteer because I was worried that I had no idea what I was doing and I wasn’t sure that I would be able to find the extra time to do what was needed to be done. But, I decided to volunteer and I was so glad that I did! I was able to get to know my daughter’s friends a little bit better, I enjoyed planning fun activities for the girls (and they seemed to really love what we planned) and it was nice to spend some extra time with my daughter too! I’m not going to lie…sometimes it was tough fitting in the extra time to plan and prepare for the meetings but it was so rewarding in the end.

Take the opportunity when you can to pitch in and go the extra mile. It is so easy to drop your child off to an activity and pick them up when it’s over and go on with your day. But, I can tell you from experience that when we planned activities and parents would come in to help out… their children were so happy to see them!! And it was so helpful to us to have parent volunteers as an extra set of hands to help out. Even if you can only volunteer in a small way it sets a wonderful example for your children that volunteering and giving a helping hand is what you do when you live in a community. Another added bonus is that it is a great way to meet other people in your community. I am pretty introverted and it really helped me to get to know the other parents better by talking to them at the pick up or working with them on projects. Setting that example early on plants a seed so that one day when your kids are in your shoes they will instinctively help out!

The adorable girls I got to spend time with!

Today is a good day to try something new…

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You know what’s one thing that I love about little kids? They are more open to trying new things. No fear! When my girls were little I tried to expose them to lots of new things. I wish I had realized this sooner but I did my best when it finally hit me! I thought if my girls tried something new they would see if they had any interest in pursuing it further.

For about 7 years I worked at a local ice rink. I worked in the office and often brought my girls there when they had a day off from school or it was a school break/vacation day. It was helpful for me and they had fun figure skating and running around the arcade, café and chatting it up with my coworkers. One day it dawned on me that it would be great for the girls to try ice hockey! They were open to it and soon we were borrowing gear from friends and the rink! The girls got all laced up and went on the ice! Quickly they discovered figure skates and hockey skates were very different! After about an hour on the ice with one of my coworkers they got in the rhythm and then they tried hitting the puck around. In the end it wasn’t a sport that they ended up loving but they did try out a few clinics and I loved how they were open to the idea. The older they get the harder it is to try to get them to try new things. Teenagers get so concerned about what their peers think that they tend to shy away from something new for fear of embarrassing themselves. If you have little ones get them used to trying new things and explain to them that nobody is the best at anything right off the bat! It takes time and this is just for fun! Hopefully, they’ll find something they love to do and maybe you’ll discover you like it too!

Finding Fit…

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I like to recall when I originally discovered how I went from overweight to fit. Knowing, what worked, as well as what didn’t helps me to change and drive my improvement.

Me. Back then.

At my peak, just before losing weight, I was around 175 pounds. Not wildly large by any measure, but my feet hurt daily and joint pains were starting to develop.

Me. More recently.

After losing nearly 50 pounds in a year, my foot and joint pains disappeared. The asthma that I had for the past 20 years was gone as well.

I discovered weight loss by accident because one day I decided to not eat anything that resembled “sweets or snacks” for a year. Out of the blue. For no reason. Not even for weight loss or fitness. It was just to see if I could. For fun. — A little background might help. I had gone for an entire year with water as my only beverage. Just for kicks. But that’s another story. — So Cookies and donuts = nope. Chips and cheese puffs = no. Those were the easy ones. If I had to even think about it (e.g. pretzels), it was out. About a month later I felt my pants fit more loosely. I jumped on a scale to see what was up and it was 169. Periodically I would get on a scale because we had one and I hadn’t seen a sub-170 reading in a while. “Interesting,” I thought. By the second month it was 164. A second similar drop in weight was no coincidence. This hit me like a ton of bricks. Immediately I felt that I had discovered a leprechaun pot of gold. I knew instantly that I was on to something and that if I was careful, I could mine it for all it was worth. Perhaps for the first time in my life I understood what people meant when they said, “if you can believe it in your mind, you can make it happen.” Sayings like this always sounded hopeful, at best.. and glib, at worst. On that day, in my mind, the loss of all excess body fat had already happened. I was merely waiting for time to pass and catch up to this fact. Truly, this was my experience that day. The very next thought was, without hesitation, “fight club.” This, I decided, would be my final form. Actually.

So, the reality is that it took me about 8 months to lose a ton of body fat, and my prescience was accurate to that point. Also the reality: merely losing body fat will not automatically give you the physique of an underground street fighter. That pursuit is another story.