Everyone who knows me is aware of my great love of Rotary! I have been a Rotary member since April 1994, and I have witnessed first hand the good that this organization does in the community, in our state, and around the world. Not only have I had the opportunity to serve my club, the Putnam, CT club as a past president, I am also very privaleged to serve the district as the assistant governor for area 5.
This past weekend was a great celebration in the form of the Annual Rotary District 7890 Conference that was held this year in Plymouth, MA. Dear friends Gary and Karen Osbrey worked tirelessly all year planning for this big event! There were checklists for everything, several trips to Plymouth during the year to make sure all the details were right, and finally spending the entire time at the conference working on the schedule each and every minute. And the hard work paid off with one of the best conferences ever! It was the first year that I convinced my husband to join me, and he such a great time that I don't think I'll have trouble convincing him to join me in the future!
On Saturday morning, after enjoying an evening feast dining on 16th century fare at the Plimouth Plantation, I woke early. George was still asleep so I decided that I was going to go for a brisk morning walk. I got into my gym clothes and sneakers, grabbed my ipod, and headed out the door. The morning was magnificant - sunny with a cool breeze off the water of the bay! I headed out towards the bay and found a walk/bike path that parallelled the beach and water. As my ipod played upbeat walking music, I began to jog. Now you need to know that I have not jogged in years!! It is always such a chore to jog on the treadmill and if I do it is only for two minute intervals. Here I was maintaining a slow jog without feeling that same exhaustion! How can that be?
I think it might be the "view"! I was focused on the beauty of the water, the lovely homes along the waterfront, the people walking dogs or biking along the path. I forgot to get involved in all that self talk about how horrible it is to jog! When I returned to my room, my fitbit registered 3.22 miles! Not a huge jog/walk, but not bad either! After the morning Plenary session at the conference, we had the whole afternoon to ourselves, so George and I went out and enjoyed Plymouth! We walked over five miles seeing the "rock", touring the Mayflower II, doing some shopping, walking along the river in the park, and breathing in the fresh air and sunshine!!
Saturday was the most active day ever recorded on my fitbit, and it didn't feel like it at all! I believe that it is because I was enjoying the view and finding a way to make a healthy activity less of a chore and more of an adventure! Now if only I could have that beach scene at my gym...........hmmmm.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Patience is a Virtue
When I left work after 4:30 on Thursday, I was completely spent. I had a full day at the college and was ready to go home, greet my hubby, and then meet our daughter Kristen in Putnam for dinner.
There was a huge construction project on Route 101- they were chopping up the road to resurface as far as the eye could see. Traffic was one lane only and my side had been stopped, but all I could see was a long stretch of lane with the other filled with trucks, bobcats, and equipment. It was at least ten minutes (maybe five but it felt like ten) before I could see cars coming down the lane in the other direction. It took another few minutes for those vehicles (I counted 28) to pass us and for our line to begin moving along.
I was the second car in line. As the cars piled up behind me, I began to feel impatient. I began to think, "What the heck are these workers doing still here at a time when people are trying to get home from work?". Then I looked behind. Some people were beginning to do three point turns to go back and find another route. Others were poking their heads out of the windows, or making gestures. I guess that as a society we are very impatient people. When we get impatient, we want to turn around and find an easier way because "waiting" is hard. As annoyed as I was, I just sat and waited!!
How does this relate to the Follow the Fifty Journey? Well, I believe that one of our worst enemies is impatience. We want to get healthy; we want to lose weight; we want our blood pressure to go down, or our blood sugars to be normal, ect.. We start off like I did when I left the college on Thurday afternoon - ready to get to our destinations and relax. The last thing we want is to be stopped in traffic, or have and obstacle put in our way! We have to learn to be patient. Our bad health habits did not happen overnight, and they won't go away any quicker. It is a process. We have to wait out the bad parts, be persistent, and then continue on our way.
Those people who decided to turn around and not wait out the traffic line probably took longer to get to their destination than if they had sat out the time in line. They may have decided not to go to the destination that they intended and sought out a different place. We do this to ourselves all the time. We turn around and look for something easier. We backtrack. We lose patience.
I hope that my FTF sisters can keep in line, heading for their destinations, and be patient when they hit "constuction", so that we will all arrive at our goal in December together!
There was a huge construction project on Route 101- they were chopping up the road to resurface as far as the eye could see. Traffic was one lane only and my side had been stopped, but all I could see was a long stretch of lane with the other filled with trucks, bobcats, and equipment. It was at least ten minutes (maybe five but it felt like ten) before I could see cars coming down the lane in the other direction. It took another few minutes for those vehicles (I counted 28) to pass us and for our line to begin moving along.
I was the second car in line. As the cars piled up behind me, I began to feel impatient. I began to think, "What the heck are these workers doing still here at a time when people are trying to get home from work?". Then I looked behind. Some people were beginning to do three point turns to go back and find another route. Others were poking their heads out of the windows, or making gestures. I guess that as a society we are very impatient people. When we get impatient, we want to turn around and find an easier way because "waiting" is hard. As annoyed as I was, I just sat and waited!!
How does this relate to the Follow the Fifty Journey? Well, I believe that one of our worst enemies is impatience. We want to get healthy; we want to lose weight; we want our blood pressure to go down, or our blood sugars to be normal, ect.. We start off like I did when I left the college on Thurday afternoon - ready to get to our destinations and relax. The last thing we want is to be stopped in traffic, or have and obstacle put in our way! We have to learn to be patient. Our bad health habits did not happen overnight, and they won't go away any quicker. It is a process. We have to wait out the bad parts, be persistent, and then continue on our way.
Those people who decided to turn around and not wait out the traffic line probably took longer to get to their destination than if they had sat out the time in line. They may have decided not to go to the destination that they intended and sought out a different place. We do this to ourselves all the time. We turn around and look for something easier. We backtrack. We lose patience.
I hope that my FTF sisters can keep in line, heading for their destinations, and be patient when they hit "constuction", so that we will all arrive at our goal in December together!
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Divine women, divine intervention!
I can't even begin to express in words the magic that happened in the Tourtellotte Memorial High School building in Thompson last night. One hundred seventy one women, members of the FTF sisterhood, gathered for the program "Fitness at any Age" sponsored by TEEG. To see the sea of red and white shirts filling the auditorium was so inspiring and uplifting. There was an hour of time before the program to connect with old friends and new friends and talk about how we were doing, what we were doing, and inviting each other to join walks and other activities.
The speakers, were incredible, talking about exercise and movement. The activity was fun (although I did take an aleve before I went to bed LOL), and the information sheets, stress ball, and exercise bands will prove useful over the next few months. At the end of the evening, that ran almost an hour beyond its original schedule - and hardly anyone left - we had the beautiful, energetic, and inspiring Linda Collangelo share her excitement in ways that only Linda can deliver! It was a night of laughing, leaping, and learning!
I couldn't believe that I won two of the raffle prizes! I NEVER win raffles! One of the prizes was a $25.00 gift certificate to my gym. Amy Williams was one of the speakers (she was incredible by the way) and she works for Midtown Fitness as a personal trainer and instructor. She congratulated me and asked me if I needed directions to the gym. Funny lady. But that was when the idea struck me! I am going to use this $25.00 gift certificate to help pay for three sessions with Amy at the gym. I did this five years ago when I first joined, but honestly didn't make the most of it. Now is the time. As I have lost weight I have noticed that (how to put this delicately) I have more skin than body and I am hoping that I can tighten some of it up! I am sure Amy will put me on an intensive program to do that!
I am a believer that things happen for a reason. I think that the raffle prize was really a gift from above to inspire and challenge me to do new things. I'll let you know how it goes!
The speakers, were incredible, talking about exercise and movement. The activity was fun (although I did take an aleve before I went to bed LOL), and the information sheets, stress ball, and exercise bands will prove useful over the next few months. At the end of the evening, that ran almost an hour beyond its original schedule - and hardly anyone left - we had the beautiful, energetic, and inspiring Linda Collangelo share her excitement in ways that only Linda can deliver! It was a night of laughing, leaping, and learning!
I couldn't believe that I won two of the raffle prizes! I NEVER win raffles! One of the prizes was a $25.00 gift certificate to my gym. Amy Williams was one of the speakers (she was incredible by the way) and she works for Midtown Fitness as a personal trainer and instructor. She congratulated me and asked me if I needed directions to the gym. Funny lady. But that was when the idea struck me! I am going to use this $25.00 gift certificate to help pay for three sessions with Amy at the gym. I did this five years ago when I first joined, but honestly didn't make the most of it. Now is the time. As I have lost weight I have noticed that (how to put this delicately) I have more skin than body and I am hoping that I can tighten some of it up! I am sure Amy will put me on an intensive program to do that!
I am a believer that things happen for a reason. I think that the raffle prize was really a gift from above to inspire and challenge me to do new things. I'll let you know how it goes!
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