Terrapin Station

Varidesk Day One

So, I tend to be a woman of enthusiasms. I tend to be a bit impulsive with GREAT! THINGS! THAT! WILL! FIX! MY! LIFE!

So, when I first read about the Varidesk last fall, I set the idea aside. "Think about it,"I said to myself. "Save the money."

As we all know, sitting is the new smoking. And I've had a career that's kept me at a desk for 8 hours per day for the last 25 years. I vowed to get up and move around more. I vowed to get back to exercising, anyway! Neither of those things happened.

When I get up after a few hours sitting, my back and legs are not happy with me, and let me know it. That can't be good. Also, I wear a Fitbit every day, but I seldom get anywhere near my daily goal of 10,000 steps. I have a recumbent bike at home, but I was not using it enough.

When I saw a Varidesk on an Ebay auction in December, I jumped...and I won the auction. The cost, with shipping, ended up being nearly what I'd have paid for a brand new one. Ah well, recycling is a good thing, right?

So, Tuesday I finally got the thing up to the office and set up. I also bought Varidesk's standing mat, as you can see.

Here it is in the "up" position.

and here it is "down."

It's taking a little getting used to, but really not much. The mechanism moves super smoothly, and there's a little app to put on the computer that reminds you when to stand and sit.

The company suggests you start with 45 minutes sitting and then 15 minutes standing. I've done that all day today, and it's been great. When I get a "buzz" and the notice to change position, I don't even need to look away from what I'm working on...just need to grab my chair and pull it in to sit, and move the keyboard and mouse. I'll be switching to cordless versions of those peripherals, just for ease, but it's not really necessary.

When I posted on Facebook about this, a friend said she'd be interested in my take on it after a month. So I've calendared to come back then and tell you how it's going. Oh, and I burned 418 calories by standing today. :)

 

So, what's new?

Robin is putting together a Wednesday Festival at RevGals and wonders what's new with folks. Soo:

This is an exciting week for me, because my EFM program group is starting tomorrow! We take the summers off. I've completed one year of this four-year program, and I wrote about it here, in April. I love the program because of relationships we form...the learning and reading and study are important, too, but the relationships are the key.

Also new: I'm doing a weekly study of Brian McLaren's We Make the Road by Walking with a dear friend.

And, I've joined a Mastermind group that meets for accountability once a month and shares goals, ideas, and support. :) Great fun. Helping me get on track to get healthier!!!

Coming attractions: new episodes of TV shows I love, including Mom and The Middle.

My parish has a search committee looking for a new rector and that person will hopefully be called soon. Our interim time has been fruitful and we are ready to move forward.

I have a new old car! It's a 2000 Buick Park Avenue and it's been greatly improved by a car wizard friend.

Okay, and finally: my granddaughter, Nash, is still really new (4.5 months), and I'm never going to miss an opportunity to show you a photo of her:

 

BlogHer's NaBloPoMo

Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Bob Marley asked: "Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living?"  How would you answer him?

(My beautiful home with lots of potential.  Wonderful dogs.  Landscaping by Awesome Husband.)

In the main, yes.  

I have a loving husband who is getting WELL after over a year of being so, so sick. 

I have a beautiful home with lots of potential (read: OLD) for beautification projects. 

I have a loving and supportive extended family and dear close friends.

I have a wonderful group of RevGals who I consider my sisters. 

I have a job I enjoy, that provides for me.  Including retirement savings and, especially, health insurance, which has been a concern all my life. 

I adore my dogs.  I adore the public library. I adore my small Texas town. 

Are there some things I would change?  Sure.  We could use more money (aha, everyone thinks that!)  We could use a heck of a lot less STUFF.  My body could use to be much healthier and less...fluffy. 

So there are things to improve.  But I am happy.  And that was what I always wanted. 

 

Friday Five: The A-Ha! Moments

Kathrynzj says at RevGals: 

This past holiday season is not one I will soon forget, but not for the reason some may think. Certainly, it was a busy one for those involved in the life of the church. The 1-2 punch of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on a Sunday brought more than a few of us to our knees (or hopefully to a more comfortable napping position).

In the midst of the holiday season I had one of those moments where a path suddenly was made clear - A-ha! This experience has prompted me to wonder what some of your A-ha moments may be.

They can be mundane - a realization that you like/don't like a certain food or that you really look good in that color you never had the guts to try. They can be sacred - a way to better pace your day clicks into place or finally a devotion or meditation practice that really works for you. They can be profound - the moment you realized he/she was the one (or wasn't)or the moment you realized where your deepest passion could meet the world's greatest need.

Please tell us - what are five (more or less) of your 'A-ha' moments. Where have you had a moment of clarity?

Be sure to let us know in the comments when you play so that we can learn about your moments of clarity! Can't remember how? Here's a reminder on making that pesky link.

Happy New Year!

1) At some point(s) when a child I realized that a) if people got shot, they weren't automatically dead & 2) if someone broke an arm (for instance) it didn't break OFF.

2) Leaving my grandparents' Florida house at about 8 and realizing that I might not see them again, and crying because of that.  We only saw them once a year and every year after that, I cried when we left.  (As it turns out, they lived until I was 26 and I was with my grandfather when he died...just goes to show you that worrying about things doesn't get you anywhere.)

3) in grad school, I stood by a copier and asked desperately, "Oh, God, what I am going to DO with her!?" 

and God said, "I'll grant you the serenity to accept the thing you cannot change."  Understanding FLOODED me and I laughed! 

The person next to me said, "what are you laughing about?" 

"I can't CHANGE people!" I laughed.

"Well, of course not!" she said, practically.  "Why would you want to try?" 

"Oh," I said, "you have no idea."

That was the conversation that allowed me to experience and believe in God in a new way, too.  That was big. 

4) Realizing in energy work therapy that my body holds old (and new) memories, angers, fears, regrets, and that I need to clean those things out periodically.  And also work on not holding them as much, if possble, through some specific daily practices. 

5) Realizing that there were different theories of the Atonement and that I didn't have to accept the one I was brought up with.  This was good, because otherwise I was thinking I was going to have to leave the church. 

Bonus:  Realizing that I had to let someone I loved, go, to make his own mistakes and that furthermore, there was no point in worrying about it.  Before that happened, I also realized that I had to exert my power and anger and fight back against him on something.  It was a difficult situation for this Enneagram 9, but truth was spoken.

Today

Yesterday was a pure and tee misery.  Today is a new day (Jennifer Hudson, get out of my head with that song!!!) and we are glad to be alive. Looking ahead to a 3-day weekend is a great bonus.

I've been fighting a sinus infection (first time in a long time) and feeling really punk.  Ken, of course, is 11 days out of radiation treatment and has been feeling worse than ever.  What is THAT about?  Actually it's reasonably common.  but it SUCKS.  74 degrees out this morning, we sat outside briefly til the mosquitoes drove us back in.  Our dogs loved it. 

So, we're looking for some new options on nutritional counseling for him; we have to get him built back up.  Superfoods!!!

How Long Will You Live?

Found this on Dotti's Weight Loss Zone: 

The Longevity Game

It's a very cute little interactive thingy that tells you, given your current circumstances, how long you are projected to live. 

It says I will live to be 95. NINETY-FIVE.

Y'all, I'm not sure I WANT to live to be 95. 

Egads. 

I am the Carb of Life

Not to be flip, but thinking about what bread obviously meant to Jesus and the people around him: it was THE staple of their diets. 

This week's Gospel (John 6) includes this, vs. 48-51...

I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

Image:  Kristin Malcolmberry

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I have family who have spent a long time on the Atkins Diet.  Ken and I tried that one time and I always say, it's a good thing that was before we married, because we might've divorced over it.  We lasted 4 days. 

I've been on Scarsdale, Weight Watchers, etc.  Ah, the diet craze. 

Recently I talked with a friend, who mentioned that a mutual friend and her spouse are on the Caveman Diet. 

The essentials of the Paleolithic Diet are:

Eat none of the following:

· Grains- including bread, pasta, noodles

· Beans- including string beans, kidney beans, lentils, peanuts, snow-peas and peas

· Potatoes

· Dairy products

· Sugar

· Salt

Eat the following:

· Meat, chicken and fish

· Eggs

· Fruit

· Vegetables (especially root vegetables, but definitely not including potatoes or sweet potatoes)

· Nuts, eg. walnuts, brazil nuts, macadamia, almond. Do not eat peanuts (a bean) or cashews (a family of their own)

· Berries- strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc.

 Try to increase your intake of:

· Root vegetables- carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, Swedes

· Organ meats- liver and kidneys (I accept that many people find these unpalatable and won’t eat them)

This friend also said that the plan she is following says one should NOT do cardio, because cavemen didn't do cardio. 

I say, but we are not cavemen!  We live MUCH longer than cavemen; our general daily activities are entirely different; we are raised on antibiotics!

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Well, Jesus wasn't a caveman.  He ate a First-Century diet.  But we don't live then, either, now do we?  We live in 2009....

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The friend also mentioned an eating plan where one would eat no processed food.  The rule of thumb is:  If your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize it, don't eat it. 

This sounds a small amount more reasonable to me, as a rule of thumb, anyway.  Maybe microwave popcorn and Weight Watchers desserts and all the stuff made out of chemicals could fall away?  Not a one of us needs any of that stuff that I can see (but feel free to disagree here...)

Maybe I need to put up a photo in the kitchen of my Gramma Etta and consult with her before I snack...or take her to the grocery with me, taped to my coupon caddy?  Wait...coupons are almost all for processed food.  Hmm. 

I could do without carbs, but do I want to do that for my whole life?  Uh-uh.  I want a diet/lifestyle that feels like the bread of life. 

I'll keep you posted.

Awake, Awake To Love and Work..

...but no lark is in the sky...

it's 4 am.

I don't want to go back to sleep lest I miss the early exercise class to which I'm hoping to re-accustom myself.

I have an all-day meeting today, or more specifically, a day filled with four different presentations.  Yesterday was so busy and so full, with so many different things left unfinished, and I felt that I was going 90 miles an hour.  Then today I have to come screeching to full-stop and sit and listen. 

The last year has been such a growing year, personally and professionally.  I feel like a pecan - do you know how they grow, in a big husk that starts off green but turns brown:

then the nuts fall onto the ground where you pick them up.  And it's a smooth and beautiful nut shell:

but guess what, it's still a shell.  There's more way to go to reach the promise in the middle:

Enough-ness

Over at RevGalBlogPals' Preacher Party, folks are talking about the Gospel of John  (6:1-21), the feeding of the 5,000 with the five loaves and two fish in a little boy's lunchbox. 

I love this story, for the presence of a child and the consideration of his meager offering (no offering is to small, no assistant too weak).  Ah, the immense providence of God as I understand God!

From The Message, vs. 10-14:

Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." There was a nice carpet of green grass in this place. They sat down, about five thousand of them. Then Jesus took the bread and, having given thanks, gave it to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish. All ate as much as they wanted.

When the people had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted." They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves.

The people realized that God was at work among them in what Jesus had just done.

In a comment at the post, regular contributor Diane shared this:

Here's a story from my pre-seminary lay service days.

We were having an evening Vacation Bible School that year, with a supper planned each evening before our lessons. However, no one stepped up for the last evening, so someone suggested that we do a Loaves and Fishes potluck, have everyone bring a bag supper, and put them all together to share. When the time came to open up all the bags, one little girl had taken a great big bite out of her peanut butter sandwich, because she was afraid that she would not have enough if she shared.

However, others brought in surplus, and it turned out that there was more than enough to feed all, even a couple of strangers who appeared off the street (something sort of rare in our neck of the woods.)

So many times in my life, I am the little girl with the sandwich: will I have enough?  How will I get enough? 

Yes, I mean this metaphorically, in terms of security, money, love, retirement accounts...but also literally, in terms of food.   I've struggled all my life with disordered eating and body dysmorphia.  My "enough" is broken.  Also my "hungry" and "full."  In the part of this society where I live, there has never been a question that there will be enough to eat.  Unlike in Jesus' time, I do not go to bed hungry for lack of food...but for much deeper and creepier reasons. 

While I am much better than I have been in years past, things are not great right now.  I know some of the steps to take, and one of them is to be honest about it.  We're only as sick, as they say, as our secrets. 

If the little girl at the potluck had understood the concept of the Loaves and Fishes meal...that all the food would be opened and shared, and that everyone would see that she had bitten the sandwich...I'm certain she would not have done it.  She thought, I imagine, that she was borrowing from her OWN sandwich.  A perfectly normal thing to do.

People who have a strange relationship with food like mine do not want to admit it, and they certainly don't want to be seen in public with it.  Mine tends to ride on my shoulder and whisper in my ear...and it does so almost exclusively after my DH has gone to sleep of an evening. 

I wish it was as easy as this cartoon:

If it were, I'd have been done with this crap years ago. 

As it is, I will be pondering "Enough-ness" and how to feel it.  Pray for me, if you would. 

This guy I knew in third grade...

I have a profile on Classmates.com.  When I set it up, a long time ago, I dutifully filled in not only my high school but my junior high and elementary schools also. 

Just the other day I got a notification from Classmates that Max Smith (not his real name) had created a profile.

Oh - my - gosh.  Max Smith.  I have thought of him and wondered about him often.

We were in third grade together - I don't remember him in any other grade but maybe we just weren't in the same class.  It turns out he did move to California eventually. 

We were in a class taught by a near-retirement and fairly incompetent teacher.  I think she was having some personal problems...her husband died the next year...but for whatever reason, things could be really chaotic in her class.  My mom told me much later that she spent 15 minutes in a parent-teacher conference with the teacher explaining all about Mary Beth's work in a workbook.  Then she closed the workbook and it had someone else's name on the front. 

(That might not be so hard to do, but I was one of about 4 kids in that class who were doing an entirely separate language arts curriculum because we were advanced.  So you'd think she would have caught it.)

Anyway, Max.  He was the saddest, and the saddest-looking, kid ever.  His head looked too big for his body and he was real pale and skinny.  I think that a lot of boys teased and made fun of him...I don't remember too well but I know he was kind of a sad sack and I always felt real bad for him.  Did I ever do anything to defend him?  Absolutely not.  It never occurred to me that I could.   I was never that courageous as a kid, and I was also way too conscious of my own weirdness (see "advanced class," above). 

I also remember that repeatedly he came to school without a lunch or lunch money.  Word was that his parents were super rich doctors and travelled a lot?  it sure didn't seem like they cared much.  I have a memory of the teacher saying, meanly, "Well, you don't have lunch money again, Max?  I guess you'll just have to go hungry."  Kids would share lunch items with him, but what a criminal lack of care for him to endure. 

Max was kind of the embodiment of how I felt inside, a lot of the time.  Not that I had a lack of care at home, not at all...but I was conscious of keeping my head down a lot, at school and at home.  Things weren't easy then.

Anyway, Max is doing quite well now.  Not surprisingly, he was bullied a lot through high school (as he mentioned on the Classmates page) and spent a number of years not very productively.  He had a daughter, who he's raised alone since she was 1 and obviously adores.  He turned it around, went to college, has a good job, seems happy. 

I'm not sure why I'm writing about this; maybe the Friday Five question about "where did the 13-year-old me go" got me into this mood.  I do know that it feels like a healing and a release to know that that particular pitiful little boy, whose name has always been synonymous for me with someone who was tormented and un-cherished, has grown up happy and found his way.