Month: June 2012

Did you look in the mirror before you left the house?

The vision- of slobs in sweats

At school, walking away, I see several moms, whom I have known for a long time. They fascinate me. You see here they are, intelligent, attractive, skilled, funny, organized, capable, and they look like total slobs.

Now, you will think I am just being mean, but you see I had my turn a few years ago, when MANY things in my life had gone awry. My life was good you see, but I was in the middle of a LOT of change- my mother had died, my husband had just started a new stressful job, my youngest had just turned one and I was working on my own business.

My turn

This is when a friend came to visit. Someone I admire greatly, her visit was crazy because of my schedule, but while she was here we managed an afternoon together to go clothes shopping. A rare treat for me at the time, to get a chance to go shopping with a woman I admire, with no kids.

We left the house, got the kids dropped off, and made it to Nordstrom’s. After we had found some lovely things to try on in the dressing rooms we went in, separate rooms, but side by side. I had hung everything up in my dressing room and then took a moment to look in the mirror before I tried on what I had brought in. A shocked “oh lord,” came out of my mouth- Jo asked what was wrong and I said “I can’t believe I left the house looking like this!” Her response was a highly relieved “Thank goodness, I didn’t want to say anything.”

A new mission

From that moment forward it became my mission to check myself before I left the house- so I would be dressed appropriately and at the very least if I was going running, it was clear what I was going to do, so it never appeared I had just thrown on sweats because I couldn’t bother to find anything else to where.

I had my time when I was the disheveled mom, believe me, but I realized the main person I was letting down was myself! However, as things moved on and I cleaned up my appearance, I began to remember how proud I had always been of my mother’s appearance. Note to self, your kids are watching- make sure they are watching you take care of yourself! Also- my husband began to comment more on how nice I looked- bonuses on all sides and all because I went shopping with a friend and realized I had been letting myself go.

Do it for you- this post inspired by …

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303901504577462413753945058.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Pecking order of addictions

I come from a family with a history of alcoholism, I have been blessed with a high metabolism and love exercising- it is my vice- what I turn to when I need to work through something. I have always found hard work very cleansing and healing.

When I read this article this weekend it resonated with me- especially these two quotes:

“And there’s your pecking order of unhappiness, in a nutshell. Of all the overwhelming compulsions you can be ruined by, all of them have some potential for some perfected, self-destructive fascination except eating.”

and

“Perhaps it’s time for women to finally stop being secretive about their vices and instead start treating them like all other addicts treat their habits.”

America’s obsession with thin has always troubled and fascinated me. The effort to stay thin seems, on many levels, equal to the effort required to get fat. Anyone who has been overweight will tell you it didn’t happen overnight- and so will anyone who is fit will tell you- it didn’t happen overnight.

So why is it we still love shows like the Biggest Loser- like it is somehow a ticket to fame to get large enough to make it on a TV show to lose weight?

Frustrated that our world is so full of busy and full of food which is bad for us- we can hardly – as a good friend of mine said last week “Live like you give a damn!”

Think I will be taking this motto to heart this summer and remembering it when I look at the Cheezits!

Darkness

So I have gone dark for the past 8 weeks because my training was totally derailed. Turns out my support network was out of the loop for all of May and June and couldn’t come with me to the Tough Mudder race- which made it come off my agenda!

I have started back running/walking and am matching a friend’s goal this summer of 300 miles between June 1 and Sept. 1- to be prepped for a half-marathon in September in the Skagit Valley.

Should be great incentive for training this summer!