HomeSpunHealers

I was listening to the radio on the way home from work this morning when I heard the radio announcer say that a new study states that obese women have an exercise phobia.  The study revealed that the phobia stops them from being active because they are self conscious about how they look while exercising and fear injury.  The reasons are real and are far from an excuse to just be lazy.  It seems they also fear failing so that won’t even try, have minor aches and pains that make exercise unpleasant, and consider exercise hard strenous work.   This may sound like a bunch of lame excuses for those who do not suffer with extreme obesity, but the problem is very real. Otherwise, we would not be a nation suffering from obesity in epidemic proportions.

I think it would help considerably if we not only had support groups that encouraged obese women to love and accept themselves as they are, but if there were health clubs and gyms that catered to the special needs of those who are obese.  It would be a more welcoming enviroment and eliminate a lot of the self consciousness that obese women feel.  Since that is not likely to happen anytime soon,and the need is immediate, there are some steps that can be taken in the meantime.

Deb emailed me last night and offered some good suggestions that I will list here:

• Walk.  You don’t have to start out walking a mile, or even a half a mile. Find your tolerance level and begin there. If the best you can do is walking from the house to the end of your drive way, then begin there. Do that for a week, and gradually increase your distance week by week.
• Exercise while sitting in your chair. Deb mentioned that she remembered seeing a program on TV where a woman was testifying how much Tae Bo helped her.  She said she was so sick and so out of shape that she could barely get off the couch to walk to the bathroom, but she just started watching the tapes and sitting on the couch and punching her arms a few times to begin with.  That wore her completely out.  But she kept doing that and then a little more and then standing and doing it and pretty soon, maybe after a month of easing into it on a daily basis, she was ready to try doing the routine as it is shown on the tape.  And she literally over a few months got herself physically able to move around in the world again.  I think that’s a great testimony to how much a little at a time can mean.
• Do not use your weight to measure your self worth. What does your weight have to do with your self worth?  You are so many things that are special and unique to only you, and it has nothing to do with the measurements of your waist and thighs.
• Count your blessings. You have so much to be thankful for: a loving family, a beautiful day, a new coat, or a roof over your head. The heart and mind that is filled with gratitude has little room for self pity. So, you don’t wear a size 2? Neither did Marilyn Monroe or Mae West and they were sex symbols.
• Stop playing negative tapes in your mind. When your mind start playing those negative thoughts, hit the eject button, and find something positive to replace them. It will take some effort, but you can do this.
• Don’t use all or nothing thinking. No one is a complete and total failure. Just because you make a mistake or take a wrong path does not make you a failure. It means you are human. You have learned what doesn’t work,and this will enable you to try again a new way.
• Remember the glass is half full. You probably eat well most of the time. Learn to build on your successes.

The important thing is to begin somewhere. Take baby steps and go from there.  Little by little it will get easier and you will get stronger.  Trust me. Try it and see!

(Saturday)

I was talking to a friend a few days ago about all the fun childhood games that we use to play when we were just kids.  Things are so different now.  You don’t see children playing “Hide and Seek”, ”Freeze Tag”, or ”Kick the Can”  until the street lights come on.  I can’t even tell you the last time I heard little girls reciting rhymes while jumping rope, saw little boys all “knuckled down” for a game of marbles, or girls playing “Jacks.”  

 Computer games have changed everything, and because of it children are not only socializing a lot less, but they are exercising a lot less as well.  Not only that, they are missing out on so many fun memories.  We didn’t have it like that. We had to make our own fun.

I not only have fond memories of playing until dark with cousins or neighboring kids, but I have the war stories and battle scars to prove them.  :)  I remember playing freeze tag one day with all the kids in my neighborhood.  I was the only one that wasn’t “frozen”, so it was my duty to “rescue” all of my frozen playmates and free them from their frozen state.  So, I ran like the wind.  Well, at least until I tripped and skidded, what seemed like a quarter mile, down a gravel road on my knee.  I will never forget my sister’s screams when I sat up and she saw the skin on my knee all rolled under, or the visit to the emergency room that soon followed.  At least,  I have something to tell, and I have a ton of fun memories to go with them.   What kind of stories will today’s kids tell?  They got Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from sitting alone all day playing their computer game?  How interesting is that?

I wonder too about families that have forgotten how important it is to play together.  There is a time to be serious and all “grown up”, but do we have to act that way ALL of the time?  Taking time out to play with your family is some of the best bonding time you will ever have.  The children in your family will appreciate it. For all that goes, the adults in the family will enjoy it too.  So, the next time you call all of your family over to share a meal, don’t just decide what to serve on the menu, figure in some fun activity as well.    

(Sunday)

Be forewarned. You are getting ready to experience a photo explosion of all of my pumpkin painters on Sunday. *laughs*

I had some of my family over on Sunday for dinner. I deep fried fish, had cole slaw, some of the best corn bread that I have ever made ( I will post the recipe), lima beans, baked sweet potatoes, and for dessert I made that 1930’s Lemon Pound cake I told ya’ll about awhile back.  

We took the kids to a pumpkin patch on Sunday also and let them pick out pumpkins to paint. They really enjoyed doing that. Then, after dinner, I took them outside and taught them how to play “Kick the Can.”  Now that was a hoot!  My 25 year old daughter decided to be “It” at one point,and I didn’t know she could still run like that.  :)  She was in the wind trying to kick the can to get those kids in “jail.” *laughs*

So without further adieu, I leave you with the rules on “Kick the Can.”  Be sure to play it the next time you have a whole pile of kids over and not enough computer games to go around. However, the game can be played with as few as three.

HOW TO PLAY KICK THE CAN:

• Select an object to serve as the “can” - an actual can, a ball, or a small, taped-up box.
• Select someone to be “It.”
• Select an area to set the can - a clear space about 20 or 30 yards across.
• Select an area to be the “jail” - a comfortable place close to the can, but not blocking the can.

IF YOU ARE “IT”

• Stand by while another player kicks the can as far as possible.
• Retrieve the can and put it back where it was in the beginning.
• Capture players by calling out their names and their hiding places while you’re stepping on the can.
• Look for players, but try not to stray far from the can.
• Race back to the can if you see an uncaptured player headed for it.
• Step on the can and call out that player’s name if you get to the can first.
• Run after the can and put it back again if that player kicks the can away.
• Continue until you have all the players in jail.

IF YOU ARE NOT “IT.”

• Select someone to kick the can as far as possible.
• Hide.
• Race back to the can and kick “it” before It gets there.
• Go to jail if “It” steps on the can and calls out your name and your correct location.
• Wait in jail until you are rescued - that is, until someone kicks the can.
• Run away and hide again when the can is kicked and you are released from jail.
• Be It for the next game if you were captured first.

There ya have it. Now get out there and play “Kick the Can!”

Deb has told me for years that she wanted to study alternative healing methods in order to help herself and others.  Her husband, Jim, has supported her dream, and even took Reiki classes with her.  Today, I am proud to announce that they have finished their classes and courses of study and are both now Level 2 Reiki Practioners. How’s that for walking a dream through to reality! 

Quite appropriately, I got this email from “The Universe” today and so I share this here with you:  ”It’s as if the stars have aligned, the word has been spoken, and you’ve won the cosmic lottery. This is it! There’s never, ever, been a better time for you to touch, teach, and heal millions of people. Consider it done, give thanks, and tonight… CELEBRATE!”

Hat’s off to both of you!

Much love,

Rita 

We all know the story about the lil Princess who kisses the frog and he turns into a Prince, right?  Evidently, some of us actually took that story to heart, and believed it, because there sure is a lot frog kissing going on.  So, I am here to set the story straight.  Go ahead and sit down, because the truth ”ain’t” pretty.  

Many women like to kiss frogs.  Some even become chronically attracted to them after kissing so many of them. They see so much good in them. They are often quite charming.  They often exude lots of charisma, power and strength. They promise you the sun, moon, and stars.  Never mind that they also excel at hopping from “lily pad” to “lily pad” with the greatest of ease, and deliver so much pain, anguish and suffering. The words they say sound so good.

Unfortunately, until we fix whatever is broken within our own selves, we will continue to attract and kiss frogs. Even after we have dealt with those characteristics, we still may have an attraction for frogs, but we won’t allow ourselves to be drowned in the pond with them. 

In a nutshell, beware of frogs. They don’t don’t turn into princes. They only make a princess feel like a toad.

(Two Matriarchs. My Aunt Angie and my mother.)

I read a poem today that I have read many times. I love the poem “Imagine A Woman” by Patricia Lynn Reilly. Every time I read it, I examine the areas of my own life in each verse.  I check to see if I am “there” yet. 

I am still working on the last part of that poem that states:

“Imagine a woman who honors the face of the Goddess in her changing face.
A woman who celebrates the accumulation of her years and her wisdom.
Who refuses to use precious energy disguising the changes in her body and life.”

I want to be THAT woman.  I am not there yet. 

I am too busy ridding my body of white hair that springs up ANYWHERE. Coloring what can be seen and shaving what cannot.  I am still in a full fledged battle with wrinkles, bags, and sags.  Buying expensive anti-aging face cream, zapping my face daily with an electrical device to stimulate my skin, and smearing down my eyes at night with vaseline to lock the moisture in to keep the wrinkles out.  It can hardly be said that I am honoring the Goddess in my changing face, and refusing to use precious energy to disguise the changes in my body and my life.  

Still, I admire mature women (or “women of experience” as I prefer to call them) who refuse to color their hair, who are so comfortable with who they are inside that they don’t feel compelled to yield to society’s idea of beauty. Never feeling the need to appear younger than they are, but instead feel confident in their years. Their beauty shines from within rather than from without. They are comfortable in their own skin.  I don’t know how they arrived at that place, but I hope one day to get there, because one thing is for certain, physical beauty is fleeting. No one can hold onto it forever.  A pretty face will only go with you so far, and once it disappears, you need to be able to look in the mirror and still like who is looking back at you from beyond the wrinkles.

Speaking of being comfortable in your own skin…

I read an article today that states a survey shows that Americans are losing interest in dieting.  It’s about time, don’t ya think? Especially since it’s been proven over and over again that dieting does not work!  It becomes a vicious cycle of deprivation, weight loss, bingeing, and weight gain. Sometimes you end up weighing more after the diet than you did before you began.  At least that has been my experience.  I think moderation, exercise, and common sense are the keys.