Food & a Butt Lift

Some of you may know that my new doctor recommended that I consider food as the source of my weakened immune system, chronic fatigue, anemia, ... (the list continues). My report arrived last Friday, and I have spent the week trying to figure out HOW IN THE WORLD I am going to feed myself - not to mention the rest of the family. I'd stopped eating wheat/gluten about a month earlier since it is a likely culprit, so I was prepared for my report to possibly list that along with maybe one other thing. As long as I could eat corn (no chippies+guac = sad Holly), I was sure I could handle anything else.

Until it said soy.

(source)

Freeze. Soy? I hadn't considered this possibility AT ALL and was completely unprepared. What chippies will I buy now?! What salad dressings? What juices? What...FOOD????

And it wasn't just soy. In fact, apparently my lovely lymphocytes also reacted to pecan, broccoli, salmon, lima bean, lime, garlic, baker's yeast & calcium propionate (food preservative).

So the past week has been a little bit rough. There is one silver lining - baker's yeast is not brewer's yeast. I may not be able to eat a lot of things, but at least I can drown my sorrow in beer. Not that I drink much beer, but maybe I will, and at least I can. Ugh.

I have been exercising though. A run here, some bike trainer there, and now I have a new addition to my routine.

Not very long ago a friend of mine at work decided to extend her group fitness hobby to her colleagues and offered to lead those interested in weekly or twice-weekly workouts. Yesterday was the third day that I was able to attend. The first was a fitness test five days after the half. My legs and energy were still recovering, and after the test I could barely move for days. The second day was an Insanity workout, and my calves screamed at me for nearly a week. Yesterday she led us through "Brazilian Butt Lift". So far so good on that end. (HA! Immediately I think of my favorite dome friends.)

Imagine for a moment that you are standing in a school gymnasium with several coworkers. You are following a video that is projected onto a large screen with an amplifier attached. As you follow along squating, jumping, and rotating hips and shoulders, a Borat-lookalike video instructor provides instruction and encouragment exclaiming, "Now really squeeze your BUTT!"
If I had any shame, I'm pretty sure that I conquered it. I can't wait to see what she has for us next week.

Oh and word of caution - for the sake of providing a photo for your blog friends, do not Google Image Brazilian Butt Lift and think that you may see Mr. Borat Impersonator Video. You will not. You may be scarred for life.

I better live to be 100.

An Accidental Athlete

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine told me that she had a book to loan to me and put it into my hands.

What. A. Gift!

John Bingham's book, An Accidental Athlete, was written for me. Forget about the hundreds of thousands of people (millions?) who may read it. It was written for ME. I cringed, and I cracked up, and more than anything I nodded my head in agreement.

As to my own personal journey, here are a few more serious thoughts of his that resonated well with me:

This book is an invitation for you to discover the accidental athlete in yourself.

Yes sir... keep talking. This year has proven to me that I've needed more than just an occasional activity. Yes my physical body needed to get moving, but my psyche has needed purpose, fun, goals, and camaraderie.

The only thing worse than having never been an athlete is having been one and given it up.

Too... too true. A few years ago when my father relocated, he dropped off a few boxes of my old medals, trophies, ribbons, framed photographs, etc. After looking through everything and feeling like a pathetic has been, I put it all in the dumpster. There was nothing good for me in that stuff, and I was actually pretty embarrassed by it. I wonder if I had continued competing - through college and beyond as I assumed I would - whether or not I would have chucked those things. My guess is that they wouldn't have bothered me. That I diverted from that life at all - that is what has bothered me.

I was discovering the joy and magic of an active lifestyle. I was discovering that even though I had been living a life of sedentary confinement, I had the power to release myself.

I have had so many emotionally rewarding experiences in this past year. My first triathlon was so much fun, I was very grateful for my 9/11 5K, and my dreaded birthday was fantastic. Little by little, I've been reawakening.

I know that every step is a step in the right direction, taking me closer to who I want to be.

Dude. Every step IS a good step.

I told you he wrote this book for me.

Maybe he wrote it for you too. ... Maybe.