How Noah's Ark came to play on Thanksgiving day...

Last night I glanced at myself in the mirror as I was sleepily undressed. I often take a visual assessment of my body when presented with the opportunity to do so; nude, alone with a mirror and forgiving light. I murmured to myself, "not bad for 48years old, good muscle tone, no stretch marks and boobs are still up where they should be." All this considering, two 50+ pound pregnancies and giving birth to part Sumo babies via C-sections. The only interventions I've had over the years, have been my passion for exercise, laughter and maybe some good genes.

"Note to self: Need to hit those pesky lats a bit harder, could always use more cardio, perhaps, a triathlon is in order."

This visual scrutiny set off a mental inventory of what I had consumed throughout the last 24 hours of this Thanksgiving holiday. I've never been a big eater and seldom overeat, I simply eat to survive and would be perfectly happy if they developed a full day's supply of meals in pill form. However, I do enjoy those nostalgic tastes of the holidays, which trigger certain memories from the past. There's eggnog, for instance, I love to knock a few back during the holidays. The best and only "homemade" eggnog I've ever had was made by some good friends, it was my first Married Christmas in 1992. That eggnog was so sinfully good, probably jacked my cholesterol count up 10 points just by touching my lips, but worth it!

Pumpkin pie is another trigger for me. I like it warm, with a mountain of whipping cream. Memories of pumpkin pie go back as far as I can remember.

Back to my food inventory...I consumed two small glasses of (alcohol free) pumpkin eggnog (which was to stave off the overwhelming craving for pumpkin pie that I experienced before dinner). After a normal sized dinner that I actually didn't finish, I had that piece of pumpkin pie with that mountain of whip cream. Ah, the day was complete.

"Am I the only one that loves leftovers?" Throwing together a rerun of last night's dinner in minutes, is almost like someone else prepared it for you (in my strange way of thinking). After the leftover lunch, my daughter helped herself to the banana cream pie she had helped her father prepare, this triggered my need for just one more piece of pumpkin pie.

Thinking through my itemized list of indulgences: 2 eggnogs, 2 pieces of pie with mountains of whipped cream and 2 glasses of wine. Interesting (but not "odd"), how everything came in twos? Now as I'm brushing my teeth, the Noah's Ark song pops in my head. You know the one, "the animals, they came on, they came on by twozie, twozies...elephants and kangaroozies..." My mind suddenly flashed back to summer camp where that song and others echoed loudly from the mess hall (and yes, I remember the lyrics to most). Ah, good times...

Now laying in bed with the Noah's Ark song playing through my head, I attempt sleep. When my eyes shut, a vision of two slices of smiling pumpkin pie boarding the ark, followed by two dancing wine glasses with sexy legs, eggnog pulling up the rear, all in sync with the music...ugh, enough! Time to turn off the music, and switch thoughts. "Let's see, exercise...I can counteract the music and dancing food, with thoughts of exercise." I normally avoid this practice, as it always brings up my heart rate and is not conducive to sleep. However, I needed something powerful to kill this ongoing Looney Tunes production. I began envisioning myself teaching my Stroller Strides class, I suddenly snickered, "OMG, it's another twozie...I teach classes every Tuesday (Twozday?) and Thursday at the Carbondale Recreation Center." The music started playing again, only this time, my imagination threw in a double vision of myself. There I was (x2, scary thought, I know), following the dancing food, pushing my BOB stroller up the ramp whilst performing walking lunges (in perfect form, may I add).

Wow! I began to question just what I did consume to trigger these thoughts. Perhaps, personal training and group exercise wasn't my calling after all, fitting in better with the gang over at Pixar, or Disney at the very least?

I eventually did get to sleep last night, and slept soundly after the Ark had finally set sail.

I awoke today, thankful for a healthy life, good memories, a vivid imagination, a career in fitness and the happiness it gives me to share all of these with you...

The New Survivor (Dad's Edition)

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks. Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes. There is no fast food. Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry,and pay a list of 'pretend' bills with not enough money. In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week. Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time. Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment. He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care. He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function. Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times. The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done. The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn himself with jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails polished and eyebrows groomed. During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties. They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting. They will need to read a book and then pray with the children each night and in the morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair by 7:00 am. A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name. Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up. The kids vote them off the island based on performance. The last man wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice. If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right to be called Mother! After you get done laughing, send this to as many females as you think will get a kick out of it and as many men as you think can handle it. Just don't send it back to me. ... I'm going to bed!

Eliminate up to 90% of your junk mail and plant 10 trees!

Tru2Fit

This week's favorite quote:

clipped from www.brainyquote.com Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. John F. Kennedy

It is necessary; therefore, it is possible. Guiseppe Borghese

I literally stumbled upon this quote by using stumbleupon.com. This is their description from their web page:
Channel surf the Internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like and makes better recommendations.
Connect, Meet and Share
Connect with friends and share your discoveries, meet people that have similar interests, and check out what other people are discovering.
I came across this useful tool while making a post on a friend's blog, and I intend to add the fun, little button to my blog just as soon as I figure out how to accomplish that!
I was cautious at first about entering my information and installing the toolbar on my computer. However, with some thought, I asked myself, "would my friend put this on her blog if she didn't trust it?". I've been enthralled with this search gadget ever since.
It's rather simple, just check off the categories (i.e.: fitness, kids, writing, etc.) that you have interest in. Then you push the "Stumble" button in your newly installed tool bar, which reminds me of pulling the lever on a slot machine. The search engine then pulls up websites, blogs, news articles, basically everything connected with your topic of interest. It would take you 15 years to Google all this information on your own!
There are plenty of tools to tweak your searches, and link people to your website and blogs. Between all the new found websites and information I have found and the technical aspects of this web "stuff", my head is swimming and I'm finding it difficult to shut my brain off at night.
These "web thoughts", combined with my endless day dreaming about new exercises, drills and theme workouts I want to incorporate in my Stroller Strides class leaves me exhausted, but exhilarated by the end of the day! Perhaps, this is my version of the full, mind and body experience...

Look at me, I'm blogging now...it's fun to have fun, but you have to know how!

Who would of known, me, a blogger. I didn't even know what a blog was a couple months ago...

It all began back in August, when I took the plunge by buying a franchise called Stroller Strides, a fitness program for moms with their babies. It's a complete Estrogen Powered company, and actually the 17Th fastest growing franchise in the nation!

My fellow franchisees are a tight knit bunch, supportive and nurturing as moms can be. Although we are thousands of miles apart, we are brought together almost daily by an online forum. It was on this forum, I rediscovered and fueled my love for writing.

At first I sat back and read, sometimes in disbelief. These woman were unbelievable, teaching classes, planning playgroups, community service projects, training groups of woman for races, arranging moms nights out with massages, manicures, etc.. And all this with babies in tow, some of them with baby number three in the oven! Surely, my situation paled in comparison, after all my babies are 10 and 13 years old. I would be teaching my class with a baby less stroller, my only focus being the moms and their children.

I felt like a voyeur, reading but not responding, I thought: "Are these woman for real?" "Do they have a life outside Stroller Strides?" Then my humor took over and I began to write imaginary posts in my head like this: "I was teaching my 6Th class of the day and had a big playgroup activity planned, a float for the Rose Parade, when my water broke. Seeing we were on the ground already for abs and cool down, I seized the moment to give birth and turn it into an educational experience for all. Not to worry, the float was beautiful and I was back teaching the next day!"

Like I said, my (warped) humor took over and there was no reasoning. I was also a little intimidated about making a post, after all, I had never been on a forum in my life. So, as I dusted off the creative side of my brain and starting thinking of ideas to contribute, my courage grew and I finally dove in. It was as if I pulled the pin in the grenade, threw it and waited for the blast. Responses were amazingly prompt and positive. As time went on, I freely contributed and unveiled, well, a "lighter" version to the posts. Chat site addiction quickly set in...
When attending the Stroller Strides Annual Conference in October, we all wore name tags that included where we were from. It was interesting to put the name with the face, comparing the imaginary with the real. I became the girl "with the great posts". I wonder if I looked the way I write?
While at the conference, and what seemed everything I read and every business seminar I attended, the word "Blog" kept coming up. After making one of my lengthy, story like posts on the forum, one of the many replies suggested a blog was in order.
So, here I am...aimlessly blogging away. I'm still learning, struggling with the techno details and lingo. Last week, I had to ask a teenager what LOL meant. But look at me now, I can ^5 and say HAND without my decoder ring!