Gossip

Mildred, the church gossip and self-appointed monitor of the church's morals, kept sticking her nose into other people's business. Several members did not approve of her extra-curricular activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence. She made a mistake, however, when she accused Frank, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his old pickup parked in front of the town's only bar one afternoon. She emphatically told Frank (and several others) that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing!

Frank, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just turned and walked away. He didn't explain, defend, or deny. He said nothing. 

Later that evening, Frank quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred's house … Walked home... And left it there all night. 

You gotta love Frank!

Cronometer Welcomes SparkPeople Users

I've decided to start logging my food and activity over on the free version of Cronometer. While I was messing around to familiarize myself with the site I spotted this:

 Cronometer Welcomes SparkPeople Users 

https://cronometer.com/blog/cronometer-welcomes-sparkpeople-users/

Imagine my surprise!

SparkPeople certainly was a force! Having to say "was" makes me sad.

But, we've had long enough to grieve, moving forward.

“One of the happiest moments in life is when you find the courage to let go of what you can’t change.” – Unknown

“Life moves on and so should we” – Spencer Johnson

Final SparkBlog Posted

I've just posted my final SparkBlog. Don't see any reason to stick around over there any longer.

I heard that the food tracker is up on Spark360. Just checked in over there to see what's going on. You can track activity and you can track food, but you're in a bubble. No human interaction is possible on Spark360. It's a lonely place. - Pointless.

I've also joined the Spark Alumni Group on FB. Also pointless. 

Suppose I'll be drifting for a while.

SparkPeople: I'll Always Be One

Instead of creating something new I'm dusting off this old already existing blog.

Though very sad, I really appreciate that SP has given us a nice chunk of time to transition away, and the time has come to get my feet wet.

I also appreciate the Google group that was formed to keep us connected. 

SparkPeople has been part of my life since 2007, SparkFriends are precious. 

Keeping the Spark alive!

Die Fat or Get Tough?

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a book that really intrigued me: “Die Fat or Get Tough” by Steve Siebold. ‘101 Differences in Thinking Between Fat People and Fit People’.

Steve Siebold is a professional speaker, teaching mental toughness. As per Steve, acquiring and possessing this mental toughness is the key to a successful life, no matter what you strive for. It can be applied to all aspects of your life, and is necessary to achieve your goals, be it for successful weight loss or financial prosperity.

What is mental toughness? 

Here are some definitions:

• Mental toughness is doing whatever is necessary to get the job done.
• A mentally tough person is self-motivated and self-directed. He/she does not need to be pushed from outside as he/she is controlled from within. 
• Mental Toughness is having a physiological edge that enables you to be consistent, confident, focused, and determined during high-pressure situations in order to perform at maximum potential.

“Die Fat or Get Tough” is not politically correct literature. It is blunt. It probably will offend some. It’s not written to make you feel good. It’s written to cut through your delusional thinking. It’ll make you take off your pink glasses, and take a good hard look at yourself.

“Die Fat at Get Tough” bluntly states that getting fat is your fault (unless you have a medical condition or psychological disorder). There really is nobody else to blame. Step one is to own this and stop blaming everybody else.

Does this intrigue you or does this offend you?

If you’re offended by this intro, please don’t come back here.

However, if this piques your curiosity, and you’d like to explore the differences in thinking between fat people and fit people with me – more to come, please stand by.

Taking the Good with the Bad

Last Sunday I was in a complete funk, thus no blog.

Amazing how things can turn around in a rather short amount of time. Guess we'll just have to work through whatever it is we need to work through.

I am in the process of completely revamping my healthy living program. Picked up the book "The Female Body Breakthrough" by Rachel Cosgrove and got inspired.

Now Rachel is all about weights and strength training and puts steady-state cardio (e.g. aerobics) at #3 of her workout hierarchy. #2 being HIIT (High-intensity interval training) and #1 ST (strength training), of course.

HIIT and steady-state cardio (can't we just name that SSC?) to be an add-on to your ST sessions, not a substitution.

Interesting concept and well worth pursuing, especially since I've hit a wall with my current program of SSC almost exclusively.

I'm sure I'll report back on my progress.

Please don't ask if you don't really want to know!

Yesterday I had a phone call from a friend. It started with: "Hi, how are you?" My answer: "Fine, thank you, and how are you?"

After having posed the question I went and listened to the news my friend had called to tell me about; threw in some questions, and some ahs and ohs.

After a while my friend asked: "And how are the kids?" I didn't even get halfway through my first sentence when I was interrupted, and the conversation went back to her topic. So clearly she was not interested at all in my answer. (How silly of me to think otherwise...)

Why ask if you don't really want to know?
You might think it's polite, which it would be if you listened to my response.
As it stands I just find it rude. It's just another rhetorical question, and I guess I was expected to say: "Great, thank you".

In this fast-paced world, are we going from caring and engaged individuals to shallow, superficial and self-serving creatures?

I can't speak for anybody else, but I'll be sure to watch myself next time I pose the question: "How are you?"