We are going to talk about physical activity today, otherwise known as exercise.
You knew it was coming. It had to. I mean, come on guys, I run, so some post at some point was going to have to be about RUNNING. However, I will spare you running details and simply discuss physical activity in a more general sense.
A lot of people ask me about running. In all honesty it makes me rather nervous when they ask. As stated in Choo!! Choo!! I do not like to give advice, especially on running. You see everything I know in running I have either asked someone who knows A LOT more than I do about it, have researched it in some form or fashion, or I have figured it out through trial and error. And by trial and error, we all know I mean I just kept trying new things after each failure until I finally figured out what worked for me.
When I was first asked about running, I would try to give very in-depth, technical details on how running works. A true heavy-weight response. (Imagine that..lol) Of course very soon after I began the conversation the person's eyes would glaze over and they would descend into some type of conscious coma. The technical explanation of running was not working.
After several conversation induced comas, I decided to try a different tactic with people that asked about my running. I just didn't answer, and if I did it was very short and uninformative. Well we all know how that must have turned out. I came out looking like a stuck-up bitch that didn't want to help anyone. So technique number two got scrapped. (See, told ya, fail, try something new, fail again, try something else.....)
Finally, one day, I discovered what people really wanted to know. They wanted to know how I kept running, week after week, month after month, and year after year. What makes me lace up my shoes and go out the door everyday.
You see I run. I have friends that run. Others cycle and even more weight-lift. No matter our physical activity, we all have one thing in common, we consistently do our activity, day in and day out. What makes us do this activity again and again? The answer is simple. We have found our niche.
We have found the "thing" that gives us more than physical activity, something that makes us feel better both mentally and physically, that makes us want to be better people. It doesn't mean that this niche was easy or that it didn't cause pain. The first month I started running, I was popping ibuprofen multiple times a day and my legs were swelling from my ankles to my knees. But I kept running, even with the pain, because of the way it made me feel. It made, and still makes me feel, alive.
I can have the worst day ever, come home and pull a 5 mile run and my entire outlook on life will have changed. If I miss more than one to two days running I begin to feel depressed. I am easily frustrated and irritable, and my self-image begins to plummet. I need the run. I enjoy the run. Other forms of physical activity do not do this for me. Running is not something that I must force myself to do. It is something that I WANT to do.
You must find your niche and you must want to do this for YOURSELF. You can't want to run or zumba so that you can lose weight and look good for someone else or to fit in a dress for a certain occasion. You will never stick with it if YOU don't want it. It may sound selfish, and it is, but that's the way it works. As humans we are born with a need to satisfy ones self. As infants we cry when we are hungry or uncomfortable. Although we learn to be empathetic and put the needs of others above our own, the need to satisfy ones self still exists. You can't tell me the businessman doesn't feel self satisfaction when he lands the big promotion even though the money he earns helps to feed his family. The same scenario happens when you decide to change your life and become a physically active human. You can become a healthier human for the sake of your family or so that your significant other still finds you attractive, but deep down inside if you stick with it, it is for more than a few monetary reasons. You must like the way it makes you feel and you must want it.
Whatever your niche may be, I hope that it makes you feel as wonderful as running does for me. I hope that all of you find a physical activity that you enjoy and love, for it will make you feel better both mentally and physcially.
Normal Chaos
August 10, 2012
August 5, 2012
Choo Choo!!!
Choo Choo All Aboard...the crazy train! Welcome aboard, I will be your conductor for the day! ;-)
For those of you that read my blog, particularly if you are female, we all know why you read my blog. You read my blog for the same reason I watched episodes of John and Kate plus 8 when the sextuplets were toddlers and so were my own children. You read this and I watched that because it makes you realize that you aren't as crazy as you think!
For those of you that are male and read this blog, if there are any, you do so and realize that your own female counterparts aren't nearly as crazy as they could be. They can always get worse, and eventually be as crazy as me. :-) (Insert pity for Chris here.)
(Overuse of smilies and winkies is the first sign that crazy is really setting in....)
People blog for different reasons. Some blog to give you advice. Some blog to keep family updated, which I believe is supposedly the reason I state that I blog..hahaha..yep, that's funny. And then there are those that appear to blog to let you know their life is perfect.
I try very hard to refrain from giving advice. I do not know your situation. You do not know mine, and I do not have a PhD in psychology. Who am I to give you advice? Keeping the family update..well, hmmm, when you go two years without blogging, you're not keeping the family update. A perfect life??? Seriously??? No one's life is perfect. Mine is very far from it. Unless you call constant chaos and abnormality perfect and normal.
Today's blog was actually supposed to consist of several posts rolled into one. Unfortunately, this chaotic household and my own internal crazy issues at the time have caused me to weed it down to a single post. I am sure the other posts will emerge in the near future.
The issue that made the post deals with women's lib. Some of you have now stopped reading. You are thinking, "Liberal Soapbox Rant Time". Please, if you will, give me a moment. This is not my typical feminist soapbox rant. You see, I believe that a woman has the same rights as a man, that she should be able to obtain the same job with the same pay as a man. If need be a woman can pull the same weight and workload as any man given they are of equal weight and size, that a woman should be treated no differently merely because she is a woman. I have many female friends who also believe in this same philosophy. But here is my realization: Although I and others believe that we should be treated as equals to our male counterparts, why do we still insist on being treated as women emotionally. In general, as women we are the first ones to complain when our male counterparts will not engage in lengthy discussions. We complain when they will not discuss their emotions and feelings. We complain that they do not spend enough time with us and treat us with enough femininity. But are we not the ones who want to be set on equal ground with these men? How many men do you know that look at their female counterparts and say, "Let's discuss our feelings tonight."? Just a thought my friends. Do not fear, I am still and will always be a staunch supporter of women's rights. It simply occurred to me that we as women might possibly be confusing males in this world. We tell them we want to be treated as equals, but at the same time we become extremely frustrated when they do not properly address our emotional needs, which tends to be a feminine quality. They are left looking at us like, "What do you want woman???"
Feel free to leave your thoughts on the issue.
For those of you that read my blog, particularly if you are female, we all know why you read my blog. You read my blog for the same reason I watched episodes of John and Kate plus 8 when the sextuplets were toddlers and so were my own children. You read this and I watched that because it makes you realize that you aren't as crazy as you think!
For those of you that are male and read this blog, if there are any, you do so and realize that your own female counterparts aren't nearly as crazy as they could be. They can always get worse, and eventually be as crazy as me. :-) (Insert pity for Chris here.)
(Overuse of smilies and winkies is the first sign that crazy is really setting in....)
People blog for different reasons. Some blog to give you advice. Some blog to keep family updated, which I believe is supposedly the reason I state that I blog..hahaha..yep, that's funny. And then there are those that appear to blog to let you know their life is perfect.
I try very hard to refrain from giving advice. I do not know your situation. You do not know mine, and I do not have a PhD in psychology. Who am I to give you advice? Keeping the family update..well, hmmm, when you go two years without blogging, you're not keeping the family update. A perfect life??? Seriously??? No one's life is perfect. Mine is very far from it. Unless you call constant chaos and abnormality perfect and normal.
Today's blog was actually supposed to consist of several posts rolled into one. Unfortunately, this chaotic household and my own internal crazy issues at the time have caused me to weed it down to a single post. I am sure the other posts will emerge in the near future.
The issue that made the post deals with women's lib. Some of you have now stopped reading. You are thinking, "Liberal Soapbox Rant Time". Please, if you will, give me a moment. This is not my typical feminist soapbox rant. You see, I believe that a woman has the same rights as a man, that she should be able to obtain the same job with the same pay as a man. If need be a woman can pull the same weight and workload as any man given they are of equal weight and size, that a woman should be treated no differently merely because she is a woman. I have many female friends who also believe in this same philosophy. But here is my realization: Although I and others believe that we should be treated as equals to our male counterparts, why do we still insist on being treated as women emotionally. In general, as women we are the first ones to complain when our male counterparts will not engage in lengthy discussions. We complain when they will not discuss their emotions and feelings. We complain that they do not spend enough time with us and treat us with enough femininity. But are we not the ones who want to be set on equal ground with these men? How many men do you know that look at their female counterparts and say, "Let's discuss our feelings tonight."? Just a thought my friends. Do not fear, I am still and will always be a staunch supporter of women's rights. It simply occurred to me that we as women might possibly be confusing males in this world. We tell them we want to be treated as equals, but at the same time we become extremely frustrated when they do not properly address our emotional needs, which tends to be a feminine quality. They are left looking at us like, "What do you want woman???"
Feel free to leave your thoughts on the issue.
July 28, 2012
An Assortment of Crazy
Now is not really the time that I should be blogging. My brain seems rather muddled and foggy, but I wanted a break from the laundry, dishes, cooking, and general hum-drum cleaning of the house, so I told myself I would create a new post.
(By the way, if you are an English major, I'm sure you just cringed at the last sentence. I do believe it was a major run-on. See, I told you, now was not the time to blog.)
Now let the assortment of crazy begin:
Miss Randi had a birthday yesterday. The big number 12! She received her first cell phone, and she now has a better phone than Chris or myself. We said we would never be "those" parents. Once again, I need to remind myself not to make such parenting statements until that particular time period of parenthood has passed for us, and we did not actually do the thing we said we would "never" do. (Another run-on for you English buffs.)
I attended workshops and YAG writing Tuesday thru Thrusday, and of course spent those days with a couple of heavyweights. Although my original post stated that it must be difficult to live with a heavyweight, I must say that I have grown quite fond of my new found friends. (Of course one cannot turn against there own kind. It would simply be wrong.) I spent at least 1.5hrs discussing the actuarial sciences and nuclear power plants with one of them on Wednesday and an 1.25hrs over lunch on Thursday discussing the lack of rigor within most graduate level education programs. I must say they allow me to be "me". They do not get tired or bored with my conversation. They listen intently and respond as do I to their conversations. I do believe that I am going to like my new working environment. :-)
Speaking of employment. I must say that one of my biggest pet peeves is when people will not do their jobs appropriately or in an appropriate time frame. That is all I will say on that matter. (Please note that this statement has nothing to due with anything or anyone involved in my current employment situation.)
It has come to my attention that I need to work on controlling my frustration. I have noticed that when I become frustrated by a source outside of my control, i.e. someone not doing their job, the frustration begins to control the rest of my day. I become unable to think about other things clearly; I eat uncontrollably due to my stress level, which then of course makes me even more frustrated.
In the realm of frustration, I have also discovered that one conversation with one woman for less than five minutes can condemn my good day to hell. And no, this has nothing to do with work/employment. This one falls to the "family" category. (Told you this post was full of crazy.)
That's about all of the randomness/complaining I can stand for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
(By the way, if you are an English major, I'm sure you just cringed at the last sentence. I do believe it was a major run-on. See, I told you, now was not the time to blog.)
Now let the assortment of crazy begin:
Miss Randi had a birthday yesterday. The big number 12! She received her first cell phone, and she now has a better phone than Chris or myself. We said we would never be "those" parents. Once again, I need to remind myself not to make such parenting statements until that particular time period of parenthood has passed for us, and we did not actually do the thing we said we would "never" do. (Another run-on for you English buffs.)
I attended workshops and YAG writing Tuesday thru Thrusday, and of course spent those days with a couple of heavyweights. Although my original post stated that it must be difficult to live with a heavyweight, I must say that I have grown quite fond of my new found friends. (Of course one cannot turn against there own kind. It would simply be wrong.) I spent at least 1.5hrs discussing the actuarial sciences and nuclear power plants with one of them on Wednesday and an 1.25hrs over lunch on Thursday discussing the lack of rigor within most graduate level education programs. I must say they allow me to be "me". They do not get tired or bored with my conversation. They listen intently and respond as do I to their conversations. I do believe that I am going to like my new working environment. :-)
Speaking of employment. I must say that one of my biggest pet peeves is when people will not do their jobs appropriately or in an appropriate time frame. That is all I will say on that matter. (Please note that this statement has nothing to due with anything or anyone involved in my current employment situation.)
It has come to my attention that I need to work on controlling my frustration. I have noticed that when I become frustrated by a source outside of my control, i.e. someone not doing their job, the frustration begins to control the rest of my day. I become unable to think about other things clearly; I eat uncontrollably due to my stress level, which then of course makes me even more frustrated.
In the realm of frustration, I have also discovered that one conversation with one woman for less than five minutes can condemn my good day to hell. And no, this has nothing to do with work/employment. This one falls to the "family" category. (Told you this post was full of crazy.)
That's about all of the randomness/complaining I can stand for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
July 24, 2012
Life with a "Heavy Weight"
It seems that I have been making a number of realizations these days. Maybe it is due to boredom and more time to think reflectively or maybe it is the simple fact that I am actually becoming a "grown-up"..lol. My father always said you were never grown until you were 30, and honestly once I hit 30 I personally bumped that number to 35. Today's realization requires a short story:
I attended a mathematics workshop today, MSTAR Implementation Tools, to be exact. Now at this workshop there were other mathematics teachers, of course, with the majority being middle school teachers. You will often find people with various mathematical interests at such workshops. You will encounter those that focus predominantly on education and its pedagogy, along with the other extreme of people who focus more on mathematical content than pedagogy. (Sub-realization number one of day: It seems that I am always drawn to those, or at least find myself in close proximity with those, who weigh heavily in the content area realm.)
Those who are content heavy, lets call them "heavy-weights" for lack of a better term, tend to be very passionate people. Not necessarily passionate in the emotional context but in the academic context. What I mean by this is that they tend to know and understand certain aspects and concepts in great depth and detail. They do not necessarily know about multiple areas just one or two particular areas. They find little niches (like mathematics) that they delve into and learn everything they can about it. Once they have done this on a subject matter they tend to discuss these topics at great length. For instance they may be able to discuss the recycling process for PET 1 plastics but be unable to detect when someone is no longer interested in a conversation.
While interacting with a "heavy-weight" throughout the day, I began to ponder the thought of what life would be like had I married a "heavy-weight". Someone who was high strung and who would drone on and on for hours explaining a subject matter that really did not pertain to anything that anyone cared about at all. How exhausting that would be!
Then it hit me......
Oh dear......
Poor Chris.....
My poor, sweet, relaxed Chris, who does not drone on and on. Who finds and explores many interests not just picking and digging a topic to death.
He has to live with a neurotic, high strung "heavy weight". He must endure hours and hours of discussion (usually one-sided, he getting the raw end of the deal) on subject matters he really doesn't care anything about. (Sub-realization number two and three of the day: This is why people do not invite us to gatherings, and if invited to gatherings, I often find that Chris is the only one who can be around me for any length of time.)
How does he do it? How does he listen to me day in and day out? How does anyone co-exist with a "heavy-weight" for any substantial amount of time?
Sigh....
I suppose I should research the matter and discuss my findings with Chris. ;-)
I attended a mathematics workshop today, MSTAR Implementation Tools, to be exact. Now at this workshop there were other mathematics teachers, of course, with the majority being middle school teachers. You will often find people with various mathematical interests at such workshops. You will encounter those that focus predominantly on education and its pedagogy, along with the other extreme of people who focus more on mathematical content than pedagogy. (Sub-realization number one of day: It seems that I am always drawn to those, or at least find myself in close proximity with those, who weigh heavily in the content area realm.)
Those who are content heavy, lets call them "heavy-weights" for lack of a better term, tend to be very passionate people. Not necessarily passionate in the emotional context but in the academic context. What I mean by this is that they tend to know and understand certain aspects and concepts in great depth and detail. They do not necessarily know about multiple areas just one or two particular areas. They find little niches (like mathematics) that they delve into and learn everything they can about it. Once they have done this on a subject matter they tend to discuss these topics at great length. For instance they may be able to discuss the recycling process for PET 1 plastics but be unable to detect when someone is no longer interested in a conversation.
While interacting with a "heavy-weight" throughout the day, I began to ponder the thought of what life would be like had I married a "heavy-weight". Someone who was high strung and who would drone on and on for hours explaining a subject matter that really did not pertain to anything that anyone cared about at all. How exhausting that would be!
Then it hit me......
Oh dear......
Poor Chris.....
My poor, sweet, relaxed Chris, who does not drone on and on. Who finds and explores many interests not just picking and digging a topic to death.
He has to live with a neurotic, high strung "heavy weight". He must endure hours and hours of discussion (usually one-sided, he getting the raw end of the deal) on subject matters he really doesn't care anything about. (Sub-realization number two and three of the day: This is why people do not invite us to gatherings, and if invited to gatherings, I often find that Chris is the only one who can be around me for any length of time.)
How does he do it? How does he listen to me day in and day out? How does anyone co-exist with a "heavy-weight" for any substantial amount of time?
Sigh....
I suppose I should research the matter and discuss my findings with Chris. ;-)
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