Something’s always wrong a.k.a. my right foot

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You’re not a priority right now.

I have a handler?!

About a year ago (pre-packing up & moving to Oakland. pre-trying to settle us in a new ‘hood. pre-really having any sense of what busy really truly was…) I made a decision to change the way I spoke.

You see, when asked to participate in something (work or pleasure), Id noticed Id begun to respond:

Gosh, school volunteering/book club/starting a girl scout troop etc sounds great—Im just too busy right now.

It wasnt a lie per se as my feeling *slammed* & busy really was the direct result of too many YESes.

(MizFit note: A friend & I like to refer to this TOO BUSY! feeling as ‘being in the corner.’ A shortened, slang’ish version of being backed into a corner. As in “Ugh. Im having a rough morning. Im in the corner.” I love the phrase & its accompanying visual.)

The problem/mental discord with my state of busyness arose—as it often does—-when stepped back and was honest with myself.

I lived with margins. I was busy. We all are, but when I declined an opportunity it was entirely because it was not a priority in that moment.

The realization—while initially uncomfortable—was not necessarily a bad thing.

When I stopped to consider it I was forced to acknowledge Id conveyed the priority sentiment all along each time I said NO.

(Again not a bad thing. Im a big advocate of NOing & believe in drawing boundaries in Sharpie as it keeps me out of said corner.)

The change occurred when I chose to no longer to say the phrase:

Im too busy

And instead replace it with:

It’s not a priority right now

Do you want to join our book club? It’s not a priority right now.Will you come to my twitter chat? It’s not a priority right now.Do you wanna see a movie? It’s not a priority right now.

I never actually used those words as, to me, they felt borderline rude . I imagined saying them, the reaction they’d garner and *challenged* myself to decide if that was really the sentiment I wanted to convey.

Sometimes it was precisely what I meant & needed only to be more gently phrased (it wasnt a priority to see a movie. the Tornado has circus class at the same time. right now she’s my priority).

Other times it was not what I intended at all.

And many times my immediate reaction of being too “busy” was in direct opposition to my striving to live my priorities.

Changing how I phrased my NO’s (even only in my head) served as a repeated reminder life didnt just happen to me. Every action, every commitment, every addition to my ever-growing to-do list was a choice.

all priorities right now

This shift in semantics has been a struggle.

Yet removing my ability to give the ‘socially acceptable’ answer (when did being busy!busy! become an admirable trait?) has immeasurably helped me prioritize my life.

Flash forward to the other night.

Flash forward to my being asked to do something.

Flash forward to my semi-overwhelmed gut reaction being:

I’d love to. It would be fun. Im just too busy right now.

Flash forward to my learned mental rephrasing of:

Im sorry. That just isnt a priority for me right now.

Flash forward to my reflexive (finally! took a year!) internal evaluation/realization of:

YES. Yes Im busy. Yes Ill do this. Yes it’s a priority!

Why am I sharing this today?

Because Im grateful.

Im thankful someone took the time to share the concept above with me.Im grateful Ive made the choice to feel the discomfort that comes from acknowledging to myself what’s a priority and what’s not.I appreciate I learned life “in the corner” is not a badge of honor *before* I missed out on things/experiences. *shes* a priority right now.

In that vein, I give you the Tornado’s elementary school’s new mascot.

RAWRRR…

I learned the hard way, however (oops!), Im not supposed to tell my seven year old friends it’s me.

So…

…or Ill get fired.

Have you swapped the phrase “Im too busy” for “It’s not a priority right now” too?

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Access to water NOT a public human right.

…at least that’s what the former CEO of Nestle, Peter Brabeck, says (see full vid below). Based on his infinite opinion of high cerebral wisdom that exceeds our own, I’ve quoted him on some of the psychotic comments he spewed out of his mouth:

“It’s a question of whether we should privatize the normal water supply for the population.”“The one opinion, which I think is extreme…declaring water a public right. That means as a human being you should have a right to water. That’s an extreme solution.”“And the other view says that water is a foodstuff like any other, and like any other foodstuff it should have a market value. Personally I believe it’s better.”“…the biggest social responsibility of any CEO is to maintain and ensure the successful and profitable future of his enterprise.”

Then he tries to spin it, saying that this success must be so that big corporations can do good in the world. Yep. That’s why corporations are in business — to do good…for their INVESTORS!

I’m still a little confused, because I/we pay for water right now. If I don’t fork over the money for the bill, my human right to water will be revoked in 30 days or less. Yet Brabeck’s “not a public human right” comment just doesn’t sit well with me. I replayed the video over several times. Maybe I missed something? Maybe I misunderstood? Maybe I’m just a flunkie with the comprehension of a 6-month old?

“…not a public human right.” The Brabeck bozo speaks.

Brabeck recently tried to back-pedal in April 2013 when he posted on his blog that his comments in the video were taken out of context. Well, uh, his remarks seem pretty straight forward to me. But I encourage you to decide that for yourself. Although the above video was posted to Youtube in 2012, the actual footage is from a 2005 television program, while he was still the CEO of Nestle. Why did he wait so long (8 years!) to provide supposed clarity to his original comments?

Maybe the new Nestle head-honchos pressured Brabeck to retract his comments? It’s bad publicity, after all. Just in case you’re interested, here’s the complete list of Nestle products and brands.

These big corporations are outta control, and the government massages their ego. What do you think off all this nonsense?

Collecting rainwater on your own property is already illegal in some states. People have even been arrested. Stay tuned for the privatization of sunshine and the air you breathe. It’s coming to a town near you.

I can already see me bitching over the Air-Breathing Utility Bill right now: “Which one of ya’ll dang kids been breathing too much oxygen again? The bill is double what is was from last month!”

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Weekend Quote: Right Not To Care

I’ve been blogging for more than 8 years now. EIGHT YEARS!

That totally blows my mind. How fast times flies and I swear it accelerates when you have kids, but that’s a whole other story.

Today I want to share a quote that really hit home for me. Especially considering I do what I do.

People always have the right to judge you without knowing who you really are. But you also have the right to not care. — Unknown

As someone who has decided to share – probably too much of – themselves online, I have to remind myself of this pretty much daily. The funny thing is, like a muscle, I think one’s ability to “not care” gets stronger once they decide to put it into practice. There’s almost a fake-it-till-you-make-it aspect to confidence, and that’s really what this quote comes down to for me: Confidence.

I used to let certain things/interactions/comments on the blogs really get to me even though I put on a strong face. Now, I can honestly say, I don’t care and mean it.

I mean, really, what am I gonna do?

People are going to think what they think. All I can do is confidently be me.

It only took me 30-something years to figure all this out and now my challenge is to raise my boys to realize it sooner. I don’t want to get too much into it but we’ve had to have conversations about reacting to bullies recently and it’s been breaking my heart.

I’ll never understand mean people.

Anyway, if you’re interested, I’ve blogged about confidence before, most notably in my Exposed Follow Up post and most recently in this post where I talk about ignoring the inner mean girl.

Have a great weekend, guys! I’ll be back Sunday with a good old fashioned Sensational Sunday post. :)

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We Know All This, Right?

Google “Diet Plan” and you get over 20,000,000 results.

Search “Weight Loss Program” and get 11,000,000.

Amazon has more than 31,000 books under the “Diets and Weigh Loss” category.

Needless to say, there is no shortage of eating plans, programs, and supplements for those of us that want to lose weight.

I’m sure there is a percentage of the population that can read one of those books, tweak their diet and drop the pounds they want, but I’m guessing they are the minority.

Ahh screw it…

I KNOW they are the minority.

Do you want to know how I know?

They keep writing books and coming up with new diet plans!

If you did actually read a diet book, put it to practice, and lose weight WHY in the world would you have to ever buy another one again?

Nope. That’s not how it works.

We–yes, WE, if you are reading my blog I’m almost positive you fall into the “WE” here–keep buying the books. WE keep searching for the plan. WE keep coming up with an excuse on why the last one didn’t work to justify buying into a new one.

At least that’s what I did for YEARS!

Here’s the thing… “WE” probably don’t even need a book or a plan. We read them all. We know we should ease up on the fries and get a side of veggies instead. We know we should make fruit our go-to snack. We know reducing carbs and upping lean proteins is a good thing. We know taking a walk burns more calories than watching TV. We know. We know. We KNOW!

We also know the scale won’t change over night, our lifestyle needs to support our weight loss for long term success, and that not everybody, or every body is the same.

We know all this, right?

Note: This week’s question is a bit rhetorical, but I welcome your thoughts. I wrote it in response to two things. 1.) My recent break from Weight Watchers, and 2.) Seeing Bob Harper’s new Weight Loss Starter Kit.

In other news…

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Slow And Steady Wins The Race, Right?

I weighed in yesterday. Considering I was on vacation last week, I wasn’t expecting much. I went in with NO expectations.

To my surprise…

I was down nearly a half of pound!

Notice the excitement “in my voice.”

Part of me wants to be sarcastic about it, but I won’t let myself. I’m owning those .4 lbs. I’ve been making smart choices, working out, and having fun. My weight loss may have slowed down (click here to see my progress to date) but I’m also approaching it in a very realistic, long term way. I wouldn’t mind eating the way I’ve been eating for the rest of my life and that’s key for me.

Slow and steady wins the race, and I plan on crossing that finish line!

No food journal for yesterday, I was on the road and didn’t keep in in real time. It was pretty similar to yesterday’s, I snacked my way through a road trip. The boys and I are spending time with Grandma before school starts in a few weeks. :)

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Something’s always wrong a.k.a. my right foot

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If I could have one wish I think it would be to have a year without any medical problems or injuries. Not a lifetime, just a year! I’d like one sweet, sweet, year when my body would function just as it was supposed to. Alas, this will probably always remain a fantasy. I always tended to injure myself when I was running or training for races, and even though I’m not training for anything right now my right foot is causing problems.

I don’t remember the day my right foot began to hurt (kinda like I don’t remember the moment I got my headache), but it was sometime around late December 2010. I felt a pain in my arch whenever I walked, but it felt fine when standing or sitting with no weight on it. I thought it would just heal with time, but it started to get worse, particularly after I did anything active that required bending my foot, like, oh, WALKING.

I decided I needed to see a doctor, but I waited until February to schedule an appointment because that’s when my COBRA ran out and my state-sponsored health insurance for sickos kicked in. Little did I know that it would take TWO MONTHS to get an appointment with a general practitioner. I might have been able to get in sooner if I’d bitched about it, but the foot wasn’t really an emergency, so I just waited.

When I did get in to see the doctor in early April, she took a look, didn’t find anything obviously wrong and decided to send me to a podiatrist. So I have to wait ANOTHER MONTH to get an appointment with that expert. I wish I’d known all this back in January and had just scheduled an appointment with the foot doctor for February. But I didn’t, so here I am, having walked around on a dodgy foot for four months before I can get an expert to tell me what’s wrong.

It’s particularly frustrating because it makes exercising more inconvenient. Yeah, I can bike or swim or yadda, yaddda, yadda, but the best exercise is the exercise you actually do, and for me that’s always been walking and running. I like that it’s basically idiot proof (though maybe I am disproving that assumption). I like that it’s meditative and gives me time to just think. I like that it allows me to wander about the city and feel more connected to my community. I miss it.

Part of me wonders if they’ll take an x-ray and I’ll learn I’ve been walking on a broken foot all year. It would kinda suck to go to FitBloggin’ on crutches. My doctor said a broken bone was unlikely, though, so I might just end up getting a special insert for my shoe. Or maybe I’ll have to weird really dorky orthopedic shoes. I hope this doesn’t turn into something like Shauna’s dodgy knee saga back in 2006 where I learn if I’d done something sooner I could have prevented more damage and drastically shortened my recovery time.

For anyone who’s about to diagnose me, I don’t think it’s plantar fasciitis. I had a case of that about 8 years ago and my current pain doesn’t feel like that. The plantar fasciitis pain was focused on the bottom of my foot near my heel, whereas my recent foot pain is located in the middle of my arch. Also, the pain from plantar fasciitis goes away as you walk around because you’re warming up the muscle, making it stretch and making it more flexible. This recent pain hurts no matter how long I’ve walked and actually gets a bit worse the more I do walk.

The strangest twist in all this is that my foot feels best when I’m wearing high-heeled boots. Go figure! High heels are supposed to be all kinds of evil for your feet, but for whatever reason they seem to take pressure off of my trouble spot. I’ve been a strong hater of everything high-heeled for most of my life. I’ve always considered high-heels to be uncomfortable and unnecessary since I’m already 5’9? without them. But I was charmed into buying a pair of boots with a 2.5? heel on sale, and now I’m sort of coming around on the issue.

Off-topic: Do people in foreign countries measure heel height in centimeters? I’ve never thought about this before and it now seems rather odd to me. Does this affect shoe production and design?

"Smart, unflinchingly honest, and laugh-out-loud funny."– Lisa Genova, New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice

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Picking the Right Successful and Safe Weight Loss Program

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