Not as Nice to My Husband

One of my favorite things about Fresh Market is their selection of specialty chocolate bars.  I don't shop there often, so when I do, I usually pick up a goodie for each family member.  Yesterday I had 5 assorted chocolate bars in my cart, and I headed for the checkout.  I thought about how much I love my husband and three children and I enjoy being nice by bringing them a treat.

Then something occurred to me.  I flipped my husband's bar over.  It's 2.5 servings in a bar at 190 calories per serving.  Now, these are rather large bars and he probably would eat it in 2-3 servings.  However, he recently got back from a 2-week backpacking trip where he lost a good inch on his waist, and he has mentioned that he would like to keep it that way.

I realized that maybe it wasn't so "nice" of me to bring him this candy bar with an extra 475 junk calories that he didn't need in his weekly diet.

So I said to myself, "I probably shouldn't be quite so 'nice' to my husband."  I put our two candy bars back, and instead bought a little single-wrapped peppermint patty for him and a dark chocolate salted caramel for myself.  The calorie count for that serving was much lower than the chocolate bar.  Plus, once it's gone, it's gone.  No leftovers to tempt us.

I know I could have bought nothing for all of us, but as I said, I don't shop at Fresh Market often, and neither my husband nor I believe in total denial.

In many cultures, providing lots of yummy food for consumption is a sign of love.  However, there are plenty of other ways to love and support our family and friends - including simply providing a little less food!  I'm glad I was able to step back and realize that what I initially thought of as being a "nice thing" to do would really only sabotage my husband's goal.  Hopefully he'll keep his belt on its new notch and I will continue to think twice when choosing treats to bring home.

My Little Portion

If you ever want to feel your blood pressure go down, just spend some time talking to a Franciscan.

A young woman from our church entered the religious life several years ago, and every summer when she comes home for a visit with her parents, I am struck by how calm and happy and worry-free she is.  I've met several Franciscan nuns and friars since then, and they've all got the same serenity.  Last summer, my husband and I spent a few days at a Franciscan retreat center and it was very life-giving.

I'm not unhappy.  I'm happy, but it can be a tense kind of happiness at times.  I guess that's mainly because I'm quite busy.  I've always got stuff going on in the back of my mind, thinking about what needs to be done and also what I'd simply like to do.  I'm sure many others are the same way.

Today Sister said something to the congregation that I have pondered all day.  When you're feeling stressed out, just follow the example of Saint Francis and see what is your "little portion."  You don't have to do everything.  What is the little portion that you are called to do?

I could expound more upon this, but then I think I'd be going beyond my little portion.

So I think I'm simply going to throw this out there and share it in a simple way.

Don't try to do everything.  Let others help.  What's your little portion?

"And Up" - I'm nearly there???

A few weeks ago, I took a Praxis exam to see if I had specific knowledge and expertise to add another endorsement to my teaching certificate.

After I received my (passing) score via email, I got a second email asking me to take a brief online survey to evaluate my Praxis experience.

I finally got around to taking the survey today, as I sit at home, sick.  When I got to the final question, it asked my age.  There was a pull-down arrow, and I expected to see age "groups" - like 20-29, 30-39, and so forth.

I was surprised that the pull-down generated a list of individual numbers.  I had to scroll a while to get to 47.  When I did, I was surprised by what followed.

48
49
50 and up

50 and up?

As someone who hopes to be a lifelong learner, I was a bit taken aback, like... do so few people over 50 take these tests that they just lump them all together?  Why?  Are we over the hill, intellectually?

Of course, that's not what it means.  I suppose by the time most people hit the age of 50, they're not looking at career changes.  Therefore, there are probably not many people that age who need to take these tests, and you might as well lump them all together in one category.  But still, it was kind of a shocker to see an age so close to my own being listed as "and up."

My mother and I have run races together for the past two decades.  I'm now in the age group she was in when we did our first one together.  So we've been slowly moving up through the age groups over the years.  This weekend, if I'm well enough, we will do another 5K race together.  I'm in the 45-49 age group and she is, for the first time in her life, in the "70 and up" category.  It's a strange feeling, knowing that she's part of such a small group of people that they lump them all together as "and up."

If you look at my mom, you sure don't see some feeble old woman on the decline.  If you look at any of the local 65-69 ladies in these races, they look just as good.  I try to remember how many women were racing 20+ years ago in my current 45-49 age group.  Maybe there weren't as many, and I bet they weren't as fast as the women in that group today.  Did the top age group used to be 60 and up?  It may have been, as I know my mother once won an award years and years ago for being the oldest woman in the race.  She must have been around 60.

There is a saying now that "50 is the new 30."  I think there's something to that.  I remember my grandparents at 70 and they were nowhere near as active as my parents.  Maybe if we all stay active as long as we can, mentally and physically, we can keep moving that "and up" category further out.

A quick Google image search yielded this book, so apparently the "Dummy" people believe there's enough of a market to publish a book on changing careers later in life.  Never stop learning and growing, forever onward and UPward!!

The Hardest Work of All... REST.

A few weeks ago, on the morning of the semi-finals of the Boston competition, I woke up with a horrible, itchy rash all over me from the neck down to the mid-thigh.  Here's a small sample of what it looked like.

Fortunately, many amateur pianists are also doctors.  They thought it looked like contact dermatitis, and I *had* been using a different soap for the past three days, so it seemed logical that that was all it was.  However, there was also this problem, which looked like something completely unrelated:

Long story short:  I was given prescriptions for prednisone and Augmentin.  I figured in a few days, I'd be fine.

Well, now it's over two weeks later.  The rash has faded quite a lot but is still there, and still itchy (although the itchiness might be a little better each day.)  The things that looked like infected bites on my arm are also faded somewhat, but still there.  

One possibility is that I contracted some virus that caused my rash.  However, throughout all of this, I have felt fine... until this past Friday.  I woke up not feeling right, like I was fighting a bug.  I couldn't really put my finger on it, and I wondered if maybe it was just anxiety, worrying about why my rash wouldn't go away.  I didn't run that morning.  I just walked instead.  Saturday, I felt better.  I did a shorter run of only 4 miles.  Then by Sunday afternoon I was not feeling well again, and this time I had some stuffiness/runniness in the left side of my nose.

I woke up at 3 AM today with a stuffy/runny nose and a headache, and now here I sit at the computer.

What's the first thing I think of?  My exercise.  I've been doing really well this spring and summer, getting back into shape.  I've got a SparkPeople "streak" going.  I don't want to break my streak.  I'm doing the local fitness challenge and I don't want to see my mileage stand still.  I've got a 5K this Saturday (the 6th race in a 7-race series), and I want to continue to work toward my goal of running every race in the series as hard as I can.

The logical part of my brain tells me, "Girl.  Stay home from work today and rest.  Call the doctor.  Go in and get some tests done so they can figure out what's going on."

The goal-driven part of my brain tells me, "It's still probably something totally non-serious that they can't do anything about, anyway.  You probably just caught a cold on top of whatever you have.  You'll be fine.  Go for an easy run.  You always feel better when you run.  You have obligations at work today and for your volunteer gigs tomorrow.  You've bothered your doctor enough.  Don't be such a wimp.  You are Wonder Woman!"

I know what I need to do, but I'm finding it really hard to do it.  I'm sure I'll get support from the SparkPeople community in the comment section, and that will help.  My guess is my mother will be one of the first to chime in!

BHAGs

This past Saturday I ran the fifth race in our summer race series.  Only ten hours earlier, I had arrived home on a train from a 10-day trip to Boston and New York City, so I was tired.  The sticky heat of Virginia seemed oppressive.  And here I was, standing at the starting line of a 5-miler in the early morning, remembering my goal:  to run all seven races in the series and to run them hard, to the best of my ability.

As I stood there trying to muster up enthusiasm, I couldn't help thinking, "You know, I couldn't have simply decided to DO the series?  I had to say I'd race it hard, too?  I had to set that extra hard goal??"

It took a lot of self-discipline, but I ran as hard as I could and thus, stayed on track to achieve my long-term summer goal.  I ran a 40:05, for an average 8:01/mile pace, and I am proud of how hard I worked for it.

Today as I practiced piano, I set a new summer goal for myself:  to learn all the notes of Liszt's B minor Sonata by the end of July.  I think it's an attainable goal, but it's not an easy piece and I will have to be very disciplined to get it done... just like with the race series.

After I finished practicing for the day, I posted my latest goal on Facebook.  One of my pianist friends made a comment about my BHAG and wished me good luck.  I had never heard this acronym before, so I googled it.  BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal.  It's "a long-term goal that changes the very nature of a business' existence."

I think SparkPeople might just be the largest online community of BHAG-setting people.  As I peruse the community feed or member blogs, I am struck by how many people have made or are in the process of making huge changes in their lives.  Some people are trying to lose a lot of weight.  Others are trying to cut out a bad dietary habit.  Others, like me, are trying to raise their fitness level.  Even though we all have different goals of varying degree, there's one thing that's all the same.  We're trying to change for the better the very nature of our existence.

Let's all embrace our BHAGs!  We can do it!