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TIMOTHYNOHE's Recent Blog Entries
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Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Age ain’t nothing but a number. Seriously. Go with either that birthday, your calculated “body age,” or simply roll the dice! A lot of people will lie downward on their age. "I'm a little over 50." OK, 58 is a little over 50, right?
My mom, mother to 13 children (yep! I am number 5 about 10 years from the top and 10 years from the bottom), used to lie about her age the other way. When she was 47, she would say she was around 50. People would tell her "Well, you don't look a day over 40." Smart.
Here is something I found today: Smiling can keep us young, at least at face value. A study suggests that people associate smiling faces with positive, attractive, and youthful qualities, and that flexing muscles in the face can conceal what we really look like.
Mile 18 of the Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon and I am tired, bored out of my gourd, and ready to quit. Ah, by my children pointed a camera at me. SMILE!
The study was one big guessing game: 154 men and women were asked to identify the ages of over 2,000 faces that showed varying emotions, like happiness, fear, sadness, disgust, and plain old indifference. Subjects guessed correctly most often when faces wore a neutral expression (ever wonder why people are told not to smile in a passport photo?), but people were most likely to underestimate the age of a smiling face. And for the ladies out there, here’s a fun fact: Data revealed older female faces looked more than three years younger than their male competitors.
And did you know that your smile comes through on the telephone? It's true! And since smiles can be contagious, the next time you get a service rep on the line and they seem a little surly, smile on your end and see if they don't become a little more pleasant.
Monday, April 09, 2012
All my whining aside. I got back on the street today. I almost didn't go.
My routine of late has been, on Monday and Wednesday, to run to the Y, meet the trainer, run home, do chores and such, and after lunch go for a medium length run. I have been doing about 10 miles a day that way. Fridays are reserved for my long runs.
I started today not able to find my watch and I obsessed about it so much, I didn't have time to run there and be there on time so I decided to drive.
Of course I couldn't find my keys! Five minutes of looking and FOUND 'EM!
But it was so windy today and chilly. COme lunchtime when I should have gone out, I looked out the window and my brain said "Nope. Not gonna do it." Then around 3:00 I went out for the mail and son of a gun, it was pleasantly warm. Windy still but comfortable.
So I ran for more than 7 miles.
It felt so good.
Sunday, April 08, 2012
What a glorious, beautiful day today.
After brunch with the kids, we went home and started preparing for dinner. We had lamb chops, twice baked potatoes, and asparagus. Followed by apple pie. Mmmm.
I watched myself. I watched my portions.
I exceeded my calories and fat limits for the day. We cooked on the grill, ate on the patio. As the afternoon progressed, the fountain that was just delivered yesterday, became a terrible distraction. A constantly shifting gusty breeze brought in clouds. It was pretty when the afternoon started, but then things got chilly and the fountain was splashing everyone, so we turned it off.
But oh wow the lamb was good! The company was great.
All in all a good day.
Saturday, April 07, 2012
... Long Slow Distance ... silly.
This has been a tough weekend for me so far as my workout schedule.
My plan yesterday was to do my Friday long run, run some chores and errands, then go to the baseball game, then to Good Friday services. But (do) this, (do) that, and (do) the other thing conspired to keep me from running. I did get my chores done and, hell yeah, I went to opening day.
Today we had tickets for the matinee of 'Memphis' at the Hippodrome in Baltimore City. Excellent show if you get the chance. But once again, my long run got killed because of a delivery I had to wait for. Grrr.
Tomorrow is out, being Easter and all. Somehow on holiday weekend, my life is not mine.
Ah, well, a good rest won't do me terrible harm. I will get started back on my running program on Monday.
Friday, April 06, 2012
And how they might tie together.
I was a busy guy today. I had certain benchmarks I wanted to hit on my attic cleanout project and I made good progress. But I was too busy to track.
Of course it was Good Friday, a day of Fast and Abstinence so tracking would have minimal anyway.
While working today, I was thinking about forgiveness, redemption, and hope. My thinking went to my Weight Watchers program, though Spark ties in quite nicely to it too. In losing weight, there is an element of self forgiveness necessary. We are frail humans. We fail often. We break the rules. If the rules say drink all your water, eat like this, workout 10 minutes a day, and we don't, too often we beat ourselves up about it. We are so hard on ourselves about this stuff.
"Oh woe is me. I will never lose this weight because I just can't stay out of the potato chips for more than a month at time." Then we give up.
But we don't have to give up. In the Christian tradition, we acknowledge our sins (failings), seek forgiveness, promise to do better, and start over.
In our weight loss journey, we acknowledge that we binged or skipped our exercise, we forgive ourselves, resolve to get back on track, and start over.
Wow!
So there I am later at the Orioles season opening. I love Opening Day. It's like New Years to me. In this town, it's almost like a holiday even if you don't go to the game. It is a big deal.
The last time the Orioles had a winning season was 1997. They have just been getting worse and worse while everyone else in their division has been getting better. There may be four teams in the AL East with winning records and the Orioles. I am expecting them to lose more than 100 games this year. They signed nothing but mutts in the off season.
We have little hope. I know: "Try being a Cubs fan." Yeah well at least you cannot even remember when your team was a winner.
Today they won. That is the wonder of opening day. Before that first pitch, everyone in the division is equal. Today after that win, the Orioles are tied with the Yankees for first place, and a full game ahead of Tampa Bay.
Baseball is another experience that turns on forgiveness. The very best hitter fails to hit the ball 7 out of 10 times he bats.The manager calls on his closer in the late innings and if he blows the "save" the manager usually doesn't throw the bum out. He calls on him again tomorrow.
And on opening day, no matter how hopeless the 162 game season look, there is always some hope.
In the Christian tradition, on Good Friday, we celebrate the death of Jesus for the redemption of our sins. There is hope. No matter how frail we are as humans, ho many times we fail, there is always some hope for us. It like OPening Day of a new season for mankind, full of hope and forgiveness.
OK, so maybe my theology is a little faulty. Maybe it's just a game. Maybe it's just a weight loss program. But I pulled some meaning out of it.
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