Saturday, March 17, 2007

Every Time I Set Good Intentions . . .


Every time I set good intentions and lofty goals, I mess up. Remember my holier-than-thou diet/exercise intentions of last week . . . well I did none of it and I'm not going to the Weight Watchers meeting today. I wore my pedometer a couple of times this week and since it was a big, bulky one it kept falling off. One time when I was taking the stairs up to a meeting at work, it fell off my pants and bounced violently down the steps right in front of the Director of my department who almost stepped on it. Shesh!

So I stopped wearing it after Day 2, but wore it long enough to figure out (if it's accurate) that on an average work day, I walk only 2400 steps instead of the 10,000 I need eventually aspire to.

I think I frustrated myself. It was a stressful week and I'm starting to wonder if I'm bound to always be dumpy and matronly in my advancing 40's. Sometimes dreaming of a size 8 (not to mention a size 6) body again seems like an unreachable pipedream. I know, I know!! I'm being negative again.

And while I'm on my negative bandwagon, has anyone seen the latest self-help book that Oprah is promoting? I can't say the name of it because it's a secret. But I flipped through it at the bookstore this week. This author seems to have marketed and repackaged a lot of Unity, Norman Vincent Peale and other positive-thinking and new age thinkers who were innovative. But it's strange that this book is becoming a runaway bestseller just because of its slick marketing campaign and promises of instant wealth, success, weight loss etc - all rolled into one - are more pallatable to folks than the original thought systems that inspired these ideas.

I've been a Unity participant since the early 1980's and because I'm a natural cynic, I'm torn between WANTING to believe their positive thinking and visualizing belief systems and then dismissing them as mere magical thinking. But at any rate, the original promoters of this type of thinking were REAL and unvarnished. Give me Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, Catherine Ponder, Norman Vincent Peale, Wayne Dyer and any of the originals over this slick, watered-down hype that is selling like hotcakes. Sometimes I really do think our society is like a herd of lemmings following one another off a cliff. Okay . . . enough of that. I'm a lemming, too, believe me, I know. In fact, all too often, I'm the first lemming running as fast as I can to catch some shiny object (or newly repackaged MUST HAVE) only to . . . . fall off and go "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" on my way down.

Speaking of fitness, this is a cute story. I adore my husband. He sticks by me in spite of all my foibles. Well, the other day, he was at a seminar at work and he's normally pretty low-key and quiet (computer nerd). The instructor started passing out little freebies. When he peeled open the wrapping and discovered that one of the freebies was a pedometer, he got really excited and burst out with a comment saying, "Oh, this is great!!! My wife has been wanting one of these!!" He knew that I hated my big, bulky pedometer. The one they handed him was a tiny, easy-to-use pedometer. Everyone in the room turned to look at him like he was crazy. And that's okay. I found that story so sweet because I could just SEE my sweet, quiet husband bursting out in enthuasiam over that. So now I have my very own cute, tiny, easy-to-use and non-bulky pedomater. Maybe I'll try it and see how it works . . . but I'm not making any promises this week, because that seems to be the kiss of failure toward my well-intentioned efforts.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm doing weight watchers, but just online. Somehow I managed to lose weight this week...but not sure how! It is frustrating, and I'm with you - sometimes I think I'm just meant to look like this at 45. I tried the pedometer too - I think I didn't even hit 2400! I can be a lemming too - but mostly about knitting - gotta have the latest popular yarn! If you need someone to chat with about WW, let me know!

Elysbeth said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeanie said...

I swear there seems to be some sort of negative vibe in the atmosphere these days. Lots of weird (and negative) stuff is happening to me and my family as well.

Don't give up though. Tomorrow is a new day. Oh and your husband sounds adorable -- you are lucky to have him and THAT is something positive!

Elysbeth said...

Lemming too!

Very sweet story about the hubby. He's a keeper.

ChelleC said...

Jeanne, on the Weight Watchers, I'm not giving up. Granted, I didn't do well this week - butas Jeanie says, tomorrow is always another day.

I didn't go to the meeting the other day because I had a ton of errands, i.e. dog grooming, my eye doctor, tax lady, oil change etc. Today I'm going to be with the sweet husband and spend some time relaxing.

Laura said...

Don't feel too bad about the weight, I seem to be finding everyone else's weight orbiting my waist. :D

I love your not a poncho and am seriously wanting to cast on for a lace shawl. I think I have the flower basket and leaf lace ones, too. Totally color me 'lemming'.