Shipwrecked & Comatose

So I survived my first phase of getting my fitness back and moving my body forward. The first week felt pretty good.  I started my Piyo workouts and my new habits on a Sunday morning.  The workouts were both easy and difficult at the same time.  The workout consisted of simple moves that I have done all my life, but I haven't done them much in the past year.  My body hasn't moved in certain ways for a long time.  I really had to struggle with some of them.  However, muscle memory began to kick in after two or three workouts and they felt more comfortable. Midway through the first week, I was tempted to check in.  I wanted to see if I had made any progress at all.  I found myself staring at my scale and tape measure, wondering if I'd see a difference.  Is that crazy or what?  I wanted to see if I had results after 5 days?  After all this time trying to learn that my body is going to change slowly and on its own time, I still want...

I see memes like this all the time around the holidays.  These are usually posted by well-meaning liberals who just want everyone to get along.  I understand the sentiment.  "Stop this War on Christmas crap!  Stop being too sensitive if it's not your holiday.  Can't you just take it when someone wishes you well?" Here is my take on it.  We can all just get along fine, but being forced to feel the love whenever you receive a holiday greeting is not required to get along. Every year around this time of year someone passes around this little bit by Ben Stein, Republican speechwriter, character actor, and the Token Jew of the Religious Right. I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.  It doesn't bother me a ...

I almost titled this post, "Getting My Body Back," but I realized it's not a good post title. I didn't lose my body.  The body I have spent the last ( number deleted ) years living in is still here, where it has always been.  I can't even say I want a previous version of my body back.  That is not quite right.  My body is always changing.  I may not be able to make it look the way it did two years ago.  That time is passed.  My body will be what it's going to be.  As I have learned so painfully in the past year, there are going to be times when I have limited control over how I look and feel. I know these paragraphs have nothing to do with the main subject of this post.  I wanted to say it anyway, because I realize I'm not the only woman who has referred to a change in diet and exercise, hoping to slim down, as "Getting my body back."  In other words, women often feel the body they currently inhabit is somehow not the correct one....