When Gump and I married almost seven years ago, he was really stressed out about taking on a new mortgage well into in his fifties. Consequently, he named our home ‘Debtwood’ (yup-he’s quite the romantic). Well things are really buzzing at Debtwood today. It is Sunday, lovely blue skies and 9:30 in the morning. Outside there are seven men from the HOW Foundation chopping down 3 dead trees, sawing up the wood for firewood, and working very hard. Gump is in his element – as he walks by me beaming, I can almost smell the testosterone. The power saws are humming and the crew seems happy to be outside in the sunshine, the only ones sulking are the guys who don’t get to play with the power tools. Gump is out there every five minutes, he looks like an excited puppy that wants to play with the other dogs, but is not allowed as he’s not part of their pack. But Gump’s still in a wonderful mood, so thrilled to get things crossed off his big ‘to do’ list – I’m just happy that my accident-prone husband isn’t cutting down the trees while dismembering himself at the same time…..
The other workmen are still in residence, of course the job they are doing is taking much ,much much longer than originally estimated…..and I have been trapped at home while they work – I have been so unproductive. The first couple of days I was on a roll – but now, all I seem to do is listen to the grinding compressor they use, the banging of their nail gun, the whine of the paint sprayer, and the constant comings and goings…..but I am getting really good at playing Bubbletown….
The bookshelves are built, but Gump (as I type this) is busy putting another coat of paint on them to make them look better. I am ok with this, but chomping at the bit to get my books in there, my office straight and to get on with my writing. I feel pretty good about the situation and optimistic too!
Tuesday….I met with a fitness instructor at my new gym to go over the results of my physical assessment test from the previous day – all this to determine my abilities now I am going to the gym. My results were dismal. My body is almost totally made up of fat and chocolate. I have no muscles anymore, and my hip-waist ratio is absent due to the measurements being the same. I have lost half an inch in height, I weigh more than I have EVER weighed, and I need to lose 35 pounds….oh, but I scored high for my age group on my ‘core strength’…..
Thursday…..I am proud to announce that I have survived three…that is THREE consecutive days at the gym. I’ve been taking a class which is basically low-impact aerobics. Initially, in my head, I was secretly being a snob as I appeared to be the youngest one in the class. I took my place at the back of studio ‘B’, and figured I would graduate to the higher impact class in studio ‘A’ (at the top of a flight of stairs) pretty quickly. There was a little commotion the first day, the class members were making a big fuss as one of the ladies had a birthday……her ninety-fifth birthday. Huh? Ninety five? This caused me to ponder if I was in the right class – I looked around; the median age of this group was probably 65-70. Should I really be here?
Forty-five minutes later, my hips felt like I had given birth to a small calf. I was sweating, and ninety-five year old Ann (the bitch) was full of beans and out-exercising us all……wow – I felt old, tired, and far removed from the high-impact aerobic/lap swimming/thirty-five pounds lighter person that I was before I married. As my eyesight is also going down the toilet, I was barely able to see my reflection in the mirror in the front of the gym, but the grey and white blob that I could see looked awful. I looked like Sponge Bob square pants with trailer park hair and a face that needed a good iron. I felt pretty bad actually – not a particularly good specimen for my age of fifty-six……I was deep into this vein of thought when the lady next to me said hello, she looked a lot like a miniature version of Lucille Ball in her seventies, and I made a little small talk with her. As we launched into the final part of our work-out, I suddenly stopped feeling so depressed. I looked around the studio which had roughly 35-40 women taking the class, and I looked at them, properly…this is what I saw.
Women of all different shapes and sizes, a few with obvious physical issues…some who had been pretty, some not so much. I studied all of those different bodies, bodies that have carried countless children, nurtured them and given them life. The pairs of hips that have struggled through labour, the aging breasts that once were the subject of male admiration, and then suckled babies so that they could thrive. I looked at the strong arms that have rocked children and grandchildren to sleep, or held another human being in their embrace, perhaps even comforted a spouse as he left this life. I saw wrinkled hands that have worked to feed a family, clean a home, sew buttons on a shirt, cut flowers in the garden, rolled pastry, petted their pets, wiped a tear. I watched this room full of women in the last chapters of their lives and I felt a bud of pride blossom in my chest. For they have all led lives that I will never know anything about. They are probably all retired, yet none of these women were sitting on the couch letting the rest of their lives pass by aimlessly, they weren’t slovenly or unkempt. Regardless of their physiques these ladies were part of an exercise class and happy and energized to be there. They were smiling, laughing and thoroughly enjoying their work-out. There was Ann, ninety-five with the beaming face of a sixty year old, who has a reason to get up every day and receive love and respect from her fellow sex, and all the others exchanging smiles and gossip. I kept looking around at all the different faces, each with a story just as interesting as mine, and suddenly I didn’t mind so much that I was in the old lady class – in fact I felt privileged.
Diet front Friday – My niece and I are trying to lose fourteen in fourteen….that is, we want to lose fourteen pounds in fourteen weeks…..and hit that goal by June 4th, which will be the second anniversary of losing my mum. Now I have shared that with all of you, I shall be accountable! Today is Friday, and weigh-in day….here is my progress…..
Chocolate eaten – yes
Calories counted – no
Days at gym (Mon-Fri) – 4, and other day walked 3 miles with dear friend
Weight loss/gain – 1lb
So not stellar, but I can see a few wobbly bits are moving around, so that’s good. This next week I have to start being good about what I put in my mouth – no rude thoughts here girls!
If you want to join in the 14 in 14, we are only a week into the challenge – feel free to do this with me and Maz! If you do, email me your results by Thursday evening each week and I’ll put them on the blog!
Speaking of weight, Gump is getting very unhappy as he is fast becoming a candidate to wear my bras. A long-time fitness nut and relatively slim guy (jerk) he is putting on weight for the first time in his life. He used to run, but can’t now because of a back problem, and that is changing his metabolism etc. Of course I do empathize with him, but at the same time I am secretly grinning on the inside and pleased that his pooch sticks out a little further than mine. I feel the same way when he gets a zit on his nose too. Gad I am so callous…
NEWS……I have a couple of things to tell you. I want you all to be a part of my website, well we’ve always been kind of a big club right? So in the next week, I will send you an email with some updates to the site that I want to share with you. It’s nothing weird….I have ideas that would include your participation that you might be interested in. It warrants an email to explain things, and now that l can actually sit at this computer and get back to business, I can get caught up! So, I will send that out next week and make some changes to my site….stay posted……
Have any of you tried out Trader Joe’s yet? Wowza….I went yesterday, and I was so happy – I found English Tea Bags, crumpets, steak and ale pies, and frozen ‘easy to fix’ curries. All these items are not the best to purchase when dieting, but hey, moderation right?
Well dear friends, enough drivel for the day. Happy Friday to you all and I hope you have a glorious weekend. I am having my Curry Club British friends over for a Sunday roast (English style)- oh oh…..there goes the diet again.
Jude