Superstitions

Just because it is SO much fun and  you can't help yourself, let's jump up and dance with Stevie Wonder on Soul Train first!!

                                                                     

I'm not superstitious. I don't believe that certain days or animals or actions intrinsically have bad luck. I do believe you can think  your way into creating bad circumstances, but that they exist on their own in the universe -- no.

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My mother (bless her heart) kept a running list of things that would bring disaster down upon us. You couldn't talk about a dream before breakfast or it would come true. Black cats crossing the road in front of you were portents of evil to come. Never, ever walk under ladders and don't open an umbrella in the house. Breaking a mirror would give you 7 years' bad luck. If you spilled salt, you had to pick it up and throw it over your shoulder. The list went on and on. It was wearisome trying to keep up with everything, and I realized early on that following all the mumbo-jumbo took a great deal of time and sure did keep you from living life.

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So, I hereby declare ArmsWideOpen a superstition-free zone.

That said, I want to unveil on this Friday the 13th our first Famy Friday. I wrote about this in my very first post:

All negatives will be relegated to the "Infamy Netherworld" and you won't find them here. Only famy found here! I'll be having "Famy Fridays," where I'd love it if you would share the positives that happened to you during your week, or that you did for others. I firmly believe it enriches us all to be reminded of the good things in life and share our gratitude for them.

I'll start off:  I signed up for my first half-marathon! I am absolutely terrified, but incredibly excited at the same time. I'll be running May 19 in Jacksonville, NC, home of the Camp Lejeune Marines. The race is Run for the Warriors, which raises funds for service members wounded during the war on terrorism. It's a tremendously good cause, and an inspiring race. One year ago, I ran my first 5k there. That route led through a neighborhood next to the town high school, and the streets were lined with people sitting out in lawn chairs in their front yard, waving American flags and cheering us on. It made me feel I was doing something good and brave and patriotic. I can't think of a place more perfect to run my first half marathon.
                                                               

                                                                 
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It absolutely amazes me that one year ago I ran my first 5k and now I'm going for a half marathon. I say it again, I never exercised AT ALL, and now my life has been transformed. If you want to do something, you can. Don't be afraid. I'm proof that you can achieve things that you never thought were possible. Take that first step!!

So, what wonderful things have you done or seen this week? I'm eager to hear from you! Have an active weekend, and don't go walking under any ladders today. Not because it's Friday the 13th, but because that's just not a smart thing to do under any circumstances.

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This Healthy Stuff Is Killing Me!

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Well, I guess it just feels that way.

 And I know, I know, it's going to get better.


Why do I feel like it's killing me?  Because dear readers, I am doing a LOT of things that are wayyyyyyy outside my comfort zone. And we know from experience, when that happens, it can hurt. Am I right?

Did I mention that, recently, my husband said to me that I was an athlete? And that he was proud of me? I almost cried. See, you have to picture this: when I was growing up, I was tall, skinny, gangly, uncoordinated, and extremely shy. Not the last picked in gym -- next to last. Never did any organized sports. Never won a trophy. Never had anyone cheering for me for anything. So when he said I was an athlete, I wondered, "Holey moley! Am I? I AM!!"
                                       

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                       I don't look like her, I just thought she was pretty...
                              
Well, a couple of weeks have gone by, and I guess that "athlete" remark may have gone to my head. Because soon I was "liking" all sorts of fitness pages on facebook. And then I found myself signing up for several challenges. Sooooo...here's what I am doing right now.
                                                                             

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I am in the midst of training for my first half marathon. I started this in January, but was derailed by a 2-week illness --  I'm just now beginning to regain some of my strength. I'm in Week 6 of the training, which looks like this:

Mon - 4 mi   Wed - 6 mi   Thurs - 4 mi   Sat - 11 mi


I next signed up for 100MileMarch, a challenge in which I have pledged to run 100 miles in the month of March.

I also joined a private group, which is geared toward 90 days of clean eating and exercising more. I have a personal accountability partner that I talk with every day.

And last, I just received my Shaun T Insanity and Rockin' Body dvds.

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                    I don't look like him either, I just thought he looked fiiiine....          

                    
Yep, I MUST be insane. 

As of March 4, I'm already 21 miles into the 100 miles I need to run. If I keep to my training schedule this week for the half marathon, I am well on my way and won't need to worry -- I'll easily make the 100.

It's the eating that's been hard for me. I LOVE the idea of being vegan or vegetarian -- I support it wholeheartedly. But darn it all, I just like meat so much! Before I even signed up for clean eating though, I have been making changes for myself and my husband. My goal has been to have at least 2 or more meatless meals a week, plus 2 fish nights. That leaves about 2 meat meals, and that's usually chicken. I am cooking a bigger variety of vegetables too. I've felt positive about these changes. Clean eating, though, is taking it to a different level. So far, I'm not doing too well with it, but I'm only 5 days in, so there is a lot of hope.

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I'm feeling very good about everything over all even though I joke it's killing me. Yesterday I ran 10 1/2 miles (YEAH -- ONE HALF, do you know how hard a half mile is to run after you've managed 10??) I am beginning to think -- I just may live through this after all...

How's your week going? How are you feeling about YOUR goals? Drop me a message and let me know!

If A Tree Falls In the Forest, Will You Hear Me Scream When I Trip Over It?

This past Sunday, I reached two distinctive mileposts in my running (mis)adventures:
I ran 8 miles.
I fell.

I rejoice at the 8 miles because it's a personal distance record for me. I'm training for a half marathon and clearly am still early in the process. I was doing really well and then came down with a respiratory virus that's been going around here. The crud sidelined me for 12 days, and when I went back to running earlier in the week, I was incredibly tired and just couldn't reach my previous mileage.

                                                                            Here   Sidelined for almost 2 weeks...
So Sunday, I was psyched to get out there and kill my long run. It was a little on the chilly side, which I love, with a pretty nippy wind blowing. Perfect! I don't "glow" as much when the weather is like that. A race was being held at our usual location, a really nice greenway, so my husband and I decided to try a nearby park. We'd never been, but I had heard there was a nice lake with trails in the surrounding woods.

                                                                               Here  Nice wind blowing....
So off we went. Talk about rugged! The trail started out innocently enough, a flat pressed dirt trail around the lake. But once it entered the woods, it became another animal entirely.

                                                                               Here   Like a jungle in there...
Every foot or so were huge, tangled roots. Trees were downed all around, branches and sticks littering the trail. The path was eroded everywhere, so there were large dips and swells to bound up and down at difficult angles. We had to squeeze between trees in quite a few places.

We should have left. But I'm not a quitter, and since I'd been recently sick, I really, really wanted to get a long run in.

That was, literally, my downfall. My desire to run got the better of my judgment. At one point, I was zipping along, picking up speed, and then my shoe caught in a root, and I went sprawling.

                                                                          Here   Just like that....
As I fell, I had nanoseconds to think, "This really isn't good." I'd been going at a brisk pace, so the momentum carried me forward pretty quickly. I slid a good three feet along that forest floor like a Hoover, picking up pine needles, twigs, pebbles, and I think a small squirrel.

                                                                            Here   Pulled out of my ear...
When I hit, I hit hard on my right knee and shoulder. My head bobbed down on impact and my chin started scraping along the ground. In slow motion, I was yelling inside my head, "Nooooooooooooooo, not the faaaaaacccccceeeeeeeee!" So I lifted my head up like a trumpet swan, diving along the rough terrain. Have you seen the old movie Romancing The Stone? Remember the scene where Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas are in the rain forest and start slipping down side of the mountain? That was how I felt.  I slid sideways across the path and finally came to a stop.

                                                                               Here    Only dirtier, and not as glamorous...
I was amazed at how badly it hurt when I hit. When you're a kid and you fall, it's no big deal at all. You jump right up and go on with what you're doing. When you're 53, you lie there a little while, stunned, and then take a quick personal inventory. Anything broken? Don't think so. Chin and hand scraped up, yes. Shoulder hurting like the dickens. Knee-- uh-oh. I can't have anything happen to my knee! I'm running a race in March!!

                                                                            Here   NOT a child anymore!!
My husband, who had been walking the same route that I'd been running, eventually caught up to me and helped me up. My knee didn't want to support my weight at first, but as I limped along, it got better. We decided to leave immediately, and go back to our greenway. The race was over by then. When we got there, I ran an additional 5 miles, slowly and gingerly, but I made the mileage.

After getting home, I took a hot bath with epsom salts and then iced my knee for a while. We had dinner plans so went ahead with them.

That night,  I loaded up on ibuprofen. I gobbed up my backside with some sports creme. Ever see how red that makes you? Reminds me of an orangutan.... But I learned a lesson. At 53, if you're a klutz, forget the path less traveled. I'm keeping on the paved trails for a while.

                                                                             
                                                                                   .Here   Ouch....   

What To Do When Your Children Try To Kill You Off Early

Last year, my oldest daughter, who lives in Boston -- did I mention she is an attorney? < insert image of proud mama beaming like this has something to do with how I was in labor with her for 14 long, grueling, horrendously painful hours with NO epidural, and absolutely nothing to do with her own intelligence> --called to tell me she had started this program named C25k. It sounded vaguely outer-space-ish to me, perhaps because in my uniquely circuited  brain I kept somehow confusing it with  Mystery Science Theater 3000, which is often abbreviated MST3k.

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At any rate, she kept telling me she'd started this cosmonaut program (or whatever) and thought I would love it. I listened with half an ear, as mothers of four are wont to do, until I realized it was a RUNNING plan. "What?? I am 52 years old!! I've never exercised in my entire life! Are you trying to get your inheritance early?" I asked incredulously. "Do you EVER remember me doing anything even vaguely healthy??" She had to demur that she did not. I was pleased with her recall.

But she kept on about it until finally, on New Year's Day 2011, I decided if I didn't try then, I was only going to become more decrepit and wizened and would never be able to maintain my health enough to someday live with each child just to pay them all back for what they put me through in their teenage years. So I climbed onto the dusty state-of-the-art treadmill which takes up a good third of our bedroom, pushed start and -- nothing. I discovered it needed to be plugged  in.

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I quickly realized I was in over my head.  This plan meant I had to actually move!! For minutes at a time!!

Here was the schedule for Week 1 Day 1 for Couch To 5k:
5 minute warm up
Run 30 seconds
Walk 45 seconds
Run 45 seconds
Walk 60 seconds
Run 60 seconds
Walk 90 seconds
And -- most unbelievable of all --repeat this THREE TIMES!! FOR THREE DAYS A WEEK!! AND IT GOT HARDER EACH WEEK!!!
(Then cool down with a 5 minute walk. You should always have a cool-down period.)

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Were they insane????? The people who created this training program must have found directions for torture from the Spanish Inquisition! I mean, really -- I was 52, for Pete's sake! I could keel over and die! I could pull something! I could have to pee! I could.......SWEAT!

Now, there is nothing worse to me than sweat. I was born, bred and raised in the South, and I will die a Southern belle. In the South, we "glow."  During this program, my "glow" plastered my hair to my head, dripped into my eyes, ran down my back, slid over my paunch,  and puddled around my feet. I learned to sling that "glow" off my forehead with a perfected flip that even a professional athlete would have been proud of.

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Side note:  I look absolutely nothing like Vivien Leigh (I could only wish) but if you are going to put a photo of a Southern belle in your blog to represent you, you want the epitome of belleishness. Hey, I'm not crazy, I get to pick the photos.

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 Side note: My husband said in all fairness I should show who I actually look more like.                                                                        
 So, each day I'd venture out into the neighborhood, hoping not to run into anyone I knew (read my "Boo Radley" blog of how I have frightened small children), and,  iPhone in hand, I'd push the C25k app. Off I would glow, gung-ho for the first 5-minute warm-up walk, but then that darn bell would ring, and a voice would pleasantly scream: "RUNNNNNNNNNNNN!"

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Now, running 60 or 90 seconds may not seem much to you. It doesn't even sound that difficult as I type this. But time is a funny thing, my friends. Have you ever noticed how fluid it is? When you are enjoying something, time simply flies by on joyful little sparrow wings. Before you know it, practically before you can even register the pleasantry in your brain, it's over. It has rushed right by you like a barrel over Niagara Falls.                                                          

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Yet the opposite is true for bad things, right? People who are in terrible accidents or have had some type of traumatic occurrence say that time stops for them. We've all seen those horror movies, where the crazed knife-wielding maniac in a hockey mask is approaching the sniveling, screaming, scantily clad slutty girl in slowwwwwwwwwwwww moooooooootion, so slowly she could easily escape, but no, of course not, she is a girl and so the director has her trip and fall over her own stupid feet, not once but maybe three or four times.....ummm, yes, well, anyway, when bad things happen, time really drags, that's my point.

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Those 60 seconds of running became for me a river of Elmer's glue- and wet-cement -laden molasses paved not with tumbled rocks but sticky fly strips holding each foot captive.  I was slogging for a decade through a yawning chasm of glowing, gasping, on-the-teetering-brink-of-death-right-before-you-tip-over-into-it agony by forcing my body to do something it had never done before, 52 years of every ache and pain I'd ever experienced rolled into tiny, torturous, 60-second increments. I hurt. I hurt bad.

But each day, I got out there -- because if my daughter could do it, so could I. More importantly, SHE thought I could do it. What mother wants to let her baby chick down? Oops, didn't mean to show my maternal side, I'm trying show my bad-ass side right now. Raar.

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And an amazing, miraculous thing happened along the way.  Those 60 seconds of running got --- easier. I quit hurting. I began to look forward to getting out there. Each day, I began to think of the challenge as something I was going to push myself to achieve, and best of all, I began to believe I could triumph.
                                                                           
Flash-forward a year. I've run 3k, 5k, 8k and 10k races, and I've won a little age-group bling. Pretty proud of it, actually. I'm looking forward to running a half-marathon soon -- training for it as we speak. So, what I want to tell you is this:

                                                                               
Get out there and make your dream a reality. You CAN do it!! Whether you  want to start C25K yourself, or you want to take a yoga class, or you secretly yearn to run a marathon, my advice is never, ever give up! Because the best revenge when your children try to kill you off early to get their share of the will is -- you'll be in such great shape they'll never be able to catch you.

A Date Which Will Live In Famy

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Oh. Hello there, fellow wayfarers! On this yellow brick road of life, you have stumbled your way, been directed,  or coerced into reading my very first blog post.  Ta da! I welcome you with arms wide open! 

Hmmmmmm...so why am I here, waiting for you?

Because this blog is the culmination of several things --
1) the nagging feeling (the Godvoice) that I could use something I enjoy doing to help others;

2) my slowly distilling philosophy of life that some have found inspirational and motivational;

3) a goodly number of these people mentioning that they would like to read my musings; and

4) the fortune cookie I got yesterday.
Get ready for it.....
Drumroll pleaseeeeeeeee....
(Are you seriously ready for this? It is truly awesome!!)
"Now is a great time to broaden your scope of influence."

                                                                               
                                                   
Well, heck, who am I to turn down opportunity when it is glaring in my face,  after I have cracked it open and eaten its yummy golden cookie deliciousness?  Et voila! Le Blog.

The Name Game
The most important part of a blog is, initially, of course, its NAME. Must be creative, unique, succinct, catchy enough to pique the readers' interest at first glance...must be the epitome of all your talent wrapped into one singular, simple title....must be a nugget which conveys all the myriad topics you wish to discuss... Must, must, must -- Phew, there are a lot of requirements to churning out the perfect name. Having been a creative writer in my youth, then working as a copywriter in an advertising agency, and lastly bestowing four adorable children with equally adorable names, this should be a slam dunk, am I right? But, the more I thought, the more I was overcome with doubts, plagues and fears. I doubted I could nail this, or that I was talented enough to even think  about writing, or even if I was brave enough to put pen to paper (er, pink-and-white acrylic nails to my Acer keyboard?) that anyone would even want to read it....and then plague came in the form of a nasty little respiratory virus that literally and figuratively stopped me cold. However, (Ha! Out, out, damn cold!) I outfoxed it and lolled in bed drinking good hot tea and eating succulent oranges until I came up with the most magnificent idea ever --- I, uh, actually texted my oldest daughter, an incredibly talented and brilliant wordsmith in her own right, and begged her to come to my aid, which she immediately did, as every obedient and dutiful daughter should. Yay me,  mom! Not only did I birth a genius but she's a good girl, too. And a darned handy namecrafter. Kudos.

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Positive/Negative
I'm a big convert to living life positively. I've had some heartaches in my life, which I may share on down the road, but I've wasted a large portion of my allotted time wallowing in sorrow and self-pity. I look back with sadness at that wounded woman, but now also with determination that I will not fritter away one more second of my increasingly brief life. I took up running a year ago and I can honestly say, that trite adage is true:  It DID change my life. I am happier, healthier (despite my recent plague) and, I think, a better person for running. So one of my goals for this blog is to share my challenges and achievements in exercising and getting healthier --especially for anyone who's a little "older" (I'm 53) -- and help motivate you to achieve your own fitness goals.  I also want to encourage you to pursue your other dreams, whether that may be writing, painting, sewing, going to mime school, knitting, Pinteresting (is that a word yet? Remember folks, you heard it here first!)  or anything you think will enrich your own life. I spent many years without a dream, and that's a bleak existence. I want you to dream large, and know, really know, deep down in your heart and your blood and your guts,  that you WILL  reach whatever it is you set out to do. Together, I am convinced WE CAN DO ANYTHING!! So, I will be sharing positive, motivational quotes and posts on this blog, to open our minds wide to the possibilities out there. (The synchronicity of fortune cookies is a topic best saved for a later date.)

Noun

1.

infamy - a state of extreme dishonor; "a date which will live in infamy"- F.D.Roosevelt

All negatives will be relegated to the "Infamy Netherworld" and you won't find them here. Only famy found here! I'll be having "Famy Fridays," where I'd love it if you would share the positives that happened to you during your week, or that you did for others. I firmly believe it enriches us all to be reminded of the good things in life and share our gratitude for them.

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ArmsWideOpen
Yup, this is how I want to embrace life:

Music jacked up,
arms wide open,
head flung back,
eyes, not squeezed shut in fear but
taking it all in,
hair streaming back,
sweat dripping,
screaming at the top of my lungs,
leaping with total abandon
into the great unknown!!

And you're going with me.

You ARE NOT going to be a passive car rider, all belted up tight and watching me drive. Oh no, my friends, you are gonna shove your feet into your running shoes, double knot 'em, and then we're heading off on the journey of a lifetime together, whooping and hollering, delirious with joy, giving it our very best, pushing ourselves to our limit and then breaking free beyond that, achieving, succeeding, living, loving, giving everyone the very best of ourselves each and every day, making the most of this finite time we have here on earth, not wasting one precious millisecond, being the very best person that God has destined us to be, all of us exuberantly living life together and then racing across that finish line with joy on our faces, laughter in our hearts, and
ARMS
WIDE
OPEN.