Dancing It Up

I have talked about my dance classes as a form of exercise.  But it has become more than exercise.  It is a form of self expression and confidence.  My favorite class by far is Sizemology.  It is designed for all women of all sizes but primarily for women that want to dance but that might hesitate to attend a class due to body issues or confidence or because of their age.  It’s a lot of fun and we alternate jazz and hip-hop music and choreography. 


I have been dancing in the performance troupe and this past weekend we performed at Rossini Festival, a huge Italian street fair in downtown Knoxville put on by the Knoxville Opera Company.  It poured rain, the sound was messed up, the covered stage started leaking, they cancelled the performance due to the risks and problems but some of the troupes decided to go ahead and perform.  Since they had lost our CD of our music, our troupe leader’s husband held her IPhone up to the microphone, hit play, and we performed.

I kept tugging at my shirt because it kept sliding down and exposing about 4 inches of my bra.  You should ALWAYS ignore wardrobe malfunctions because the distraction causes one to miss steps as I found out!  And I am pretty sure no one but me noticed the bra showing.

I had a great time and it felt great.  Would you like to see?  That’s me on the left.

My Personal Relationship . . . With Food

Recently I was involved in an online conversation about food that made me think.  It started innocently enough.  It was not a bad conversation but I realized I had some feelings during the conversation that led to me examining my relationship with my way of eating.

It started with a status update on Facebook (doesn't it always?).  I was in Nashville on business and posted that I was "having a "healthy" breakfast at IHOP before taking on Nashvegas".  It was random and insignificant.

An old friend from high school posted the comment "What can you find at IHOP that is healthy?"  I explained that they have a new "For Me" menu that uses Egg Beaters, Turkey Bacon and Sausage, and they post the nutritional information. He commented that he eats nothing but fruit for breakfast and can't imagine eating like that.  I said that I do better with protein for breakfast rather than carbs. Then he sent me a message.

He advised that I think of breakfast not as an event but rather as just another part of the day.  He then detailed how he has eaten fruit all day for 16 years and feels even better than he did at 15.  He eats fruit first thing in the morning and then eats fruit every 30 minutes throughout the day until later in the evening when he has protein.  I explained how my eating pattern works for me and that although I love fruit, the sugar makes me hungry and it doesn't stay with me for long.  He shared his thoughts on eating and processed food and evolution and the bible, as did I, and then he said . . . "People get so offended when you they think you are trying to change the way they eat when really it's only that you care about them and their health".

Hmmmmmmm.  I thought about why his whole tactic offended me a little bit.  I thought about my personal relationship with food and why I am so protective of that relationship.  I thought about how there is no one right way to eat and how you have to find the way that works for you. 

When we share our way of eating, is it really because we care about others or because we feel the need to share our knowledge.  Or is it our need to be right all the time?

I hope that as you read this blog, you understand that I share what works for me and only me.  I have said that in many posts.  I am definately no expert, just someone who has tried a lot of different ways to lose weight.  I have found a way that works for me but I am learning and trying new things every day.  Some things work FOR ME and some don't.  But I share them because they MIGHT work for you. 

I am thinking about what he said.  I am not going to change to eating fruit all day but I am considering that I do tend to think of meals as events.  Maybe I can get to the point one day where food is for sustenance rather than pure enjoyment.  I'm not there yet. 

Just Move It, Move It

Today, I got rid of Winter.  For the last few very cold, very wet months, I have allowed my back yard to descend into a giant muddy, dog-destroyed mess.  I have 3 large outside dogs.   One is a 13 year old Black Lab, one is a 14 year old Golden Retriever, and one is a 2 year old German Sheppard mix.  The 2 year old belongs to my daughter and he has drug around and destroyed most anything that was outside – dog bowls, chairs, tables, grass, pieces of wood, fencing, you name it.  I spent the winter looking through my windows at the sad state of my yard
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Today was the day to fix all of that.  And it was a beautiful day.  Earlier in the week a tree in my yard had fallen on my neighbor’s fence.  Some very good friends came over to help me with the repairs.  I actually love doing home projects but since I have NO idea what I’m doing, I prefer to be the assistant so that was my role today.  I woke up early – 5:30am and could not go back to sleep. So finally, around 8am, I got busy.  Before they arrived I took the opportunity to drag all the destroyed items from across the yard through the gates so they could be placed at the curb for trash pickup.  Then we all got busy replacing a section of the neighbor’s privacy fence
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After completion, my friends helped me enclose the open bottom area of my sunroom.  A few years ago, a friend of my daughter had closed off a section under the sunroom so the dogs have a sheltered area but it was very haphazardly done and looked really trashy.  I really wanted to fix it so it looked better.  We went to the hardware store for supplies, picked up lunch and then got busy, carrying large sheets of plywood, measuring, cutting, lining it all up and attaching everything.  My friend is a stone mason and he is going to do a stone treatment with stucco and stone to cover the plywood and my dogs now have their very own “condo” under the sunroom.  Very cool!

After cleaning everything up – clearing the built up dog hair and dried leaves off the deck, sweeping the deck and patio and cleaning the cobwebs from every window and door and corner – I headed out to take Senior portraits for my friend’s son and some couple photos of him and his girlfriend.  We had a great time climbing around on the railroad tracks, playing on small hills, standing on benches, walking down paths through the woods.  Move it, move it.

I arrived home about 9pm.  I have hardly sat down all day long.  Moving, just keep moving.  I hit my calorie goal about 6 pm.  Due to my job which involves a lot of sitting – at a desk, in a car - I usually exceed my calorie goal only on dance days and even then, it’s close.  Today, I will surpass that goal by over 600 calories.  YAY!

And my yard looks like a yard again.  I see results.  I accomplished something today.  I was moving.