Since March 29 I have been attempting to remain focused on two things: diet and exercise. And since then I have lost more than 8 pounds. This is a real success for me but I could not do it alone. I've had occasional encouragement from many friends and a lot of my family. Thank you all!
Best of all, I am getting stronger. On March 29 I nearly passed out after doing 5 minutes on the stairstepper. Now I've worked my way up to 12 minutes on the stairstepper, 30 minutes on the bike and either 10 minutes on the rowing machine or treadmill. I am also doing strength training two days a week and I am getting significantly more powerful as I lift weights, work on the weight machines or do these horrible exercises called planks which all my fit friends seemed to know about and which I have just learned about.
I am encouraged. If you are reading this, and you face a challenge in your life, you should be encouraged too. If at 50 I can start shedding pounds and adhering to a new routine, anyone can!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Lessons from my windows
A couple of weeks ago I was experiencing computer problems at work. The unit would shut down suddenly, or take forever to respond to the simplest commands. You know the drill. It's as frustrating as listening to a dripping downstairs faucet as the night creeps toward dawn.
But this time, hitting the reset button did nothing. Finally a techhie came in and spent about four hours one morning at my desk, scanning for viruses and looking for major malware infestations. When I came back to my desk in the afternoon, I found him wrapping up the session.
"What was the problem?" I asked him.
He slowly swiveled my chair around and examined me.
"When's the last time you emptied your trash?" he asked me.
I stared at him, stupefied. Because I couldn't remember, I said, "What do you mean?"
"You had 3 gigs of trash in your trashcan," he answered. "It tends to slow things down."
"But what about the viruses? The malware?" I sought to find some respectable reason for having taken up four hours of his time.
"Just trash," he answered. And smiled. And walked off.
The reset button on my computer tends to be my go-to device. Can't get the browser to respond? Hit the reset button. Files running inordinately slow? Hit the reset button. Getting a strange and repetitive error message? I hit the reset button.
But this time, hitting the reset button did nothing. Finally a techhie came in and spent about four hours one morning at my desk, scanning for viruses and looking for major malware infestations. When I came back to my desk in the afternoon, I found him wrapping up the session.
"What was the problem?" I asked him.
He slowly swiveled my chair around and examined me.
"When's the last time you emptied your trash?" he asked me.
I stared at him, stupefied. Because I couldn't remember, I said, "What do you mean?"
"You had 3 gigs of trash in your trashcan," he answered. "It tends to slow things down."
"But what about the viruses? The malware?" I sought to find some respectable reason for having taken up four hours of his time.
"Just trash," he answered. And smiled. And walked off.
Sometimes I feel like I've spent days trying to climb away from or out of the shadow of negativity, often through my own mistakes. Last week was one of those weeks. Nothing seemed to go right at work, and I spent way too much time trying to fix or mitigate problems. In fact, many of the problems seemed to haunt me day in and day out, coming back just when I thought they were gone. I think that for most of us this experience is pretty typical.
Like my computer, I, too, have a reset button. But it fails to work, sometimes, too. But it occurs to me now that in the future, if the reset button fails, I should try emptying the trash.
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