My Car Smells Like Pizza

You might be thinking, "So?"

...or saying, "Yum! Sounds good."

 

It was good.  I had enough of it that I can attest to it being very good.

 

The problem with my car smelling like pizza is that I shouldn't be buying pizza or eating it when I want to lose weight. 

It did make me think, "Hmm, I don't ever recall fresh produce smelling up the car for hours like pizza or like burgers and fries do."  No, I didn't have burgers and fries too.

 

You see, I hired a trainer (with my birthday money) to help me be more disciplined and help me get back on track with my eating and workout habits.  My lack of self-discipline has gotten completely out of control and my thoughts were that if I hired a trainer to get me back to taking care of myself, then, in turn, I would be more self-disciplined with my art production. 

That's how it works, right? I take proper care of myself and that discipline spills over into other areas of my life. 

 

So, I said to myself, "It's time to shed the fur coat."  That is what I so lovingly call my fat layer - my fur coat.  I shouldn't love it and I truly don't, but I've hung onto it for years like I love it. 

 

There's muscle under there...or so I've thought until my trainer got me doing a Pilates-type workout.

 

 

It's on Monday's --- my Pilates-type workout.  Yesterday was my second Monday and today is my second 'day-after-all-over-body-pain' day.  Well, not all over.  Just my back and neck and head.  I've heard that if it takes two days to feel the workout you are in better shape.  I guess I'm a weakling. How can 30 minutes of Pilates make me so dang sore?  Especially considering that I workout a lot already throughout the week.  

Okay, truthfully, I have not been very self-disciplined in the department either for the last few months (years for not taking care of myself and my over-eating habits).  I may have been getting one to three workouts in a week for the last few months.

 

So, now that I'm being honest with myself, I realize that I've become completely undisciplined and inconsistent with working out and what I eat.  Not caring for my heath and well-being has worn on me and made me more out of shape than I realized. 

Yah, it's a new type of workout for me, even though I have done it before (ages ago), especially feels new when having a person right there making sure that I have perfect form (which makes it even harder to do) and counting endlessly and saying you have one more minute when you think you already did that minute. Or says, "You have 15 seconds."...which feels like much, much longer. 

Shaun T says you can do anything for 30 seconds.  It's true.  You can.  You can also do it saying ow a lot or wishing you weren't doing it. 
Okay, now you're saying, "Shaun T?  Isn't that the Insanity guy?" Yup, I did a lot of 'beat your body' (Beachbody) products like Insanity, P90x and other stuff like 200 mile bike rides three different times and did it all well.
Except for the 80 mile hill ride that I rode, after not training well for it, and being beat to the finish by two seventy-year-olds riding a tandum bicycle (they were inspiring and I was mortified), I got in really good shape. 
Because I lack self-discipline and have not made a change in my brain about food, when those programs or events were over, I fell back into bad habits.

 

Read this as a warning label:  Don't let yourself go.  Take care of yourself.  It's very hard to get fitness back.  It's very hard to want to get fitness back once it is let go.  And last, but not least, train your brain about what you eat. I haven't lost hope.  I'm not obese and I still like to workout.

I do see how easy it is to slip into being lazy and undisciplined; which doesn't make me feel good in my own skin.

 

I know that I will have set backs (like allowing my car to be filled with the intoxicating aroma of pizza).

 

As the saying goes, Don't ever trust a skinny cook...wait, I meant to say...abs are made in the kitchen.

 

<Holds up a glass of warm lemon water>

 

Here's to trying to smell the fresh produce in my car and not the Costco boxes they are in.

 

Here's to eating healthy foods in healthy portions and not cheating myself.

 

Here's to making it through the holidays without my nemesis, Holiday Jani, taking over my body.

 

Here's to doing for me while everyone in my life is demanding a pound of flesh.

 

And...

 

Here's to my success at learning how to be disciplined.

 

<Holds my back straight and goes to bed>

 

 

 

(I'm really good at the second one.  Especially the screw ups and set backs...just sayin')

More stories:
There Is Something Wrong With Your Hearing
Don't Ever Do This
Mission Impossible-Almost
A Lesson In Fashion Turns Into A Funny Tattoo Story
Curiosity And Other Artistic Traits
Demo Is A Four Letter Word

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Curiosity and Other Artistic Traits Of Creative People - What If I Do This?

I have felt, pretty much forever, that I don't fit into any mold. That I don't fit into societies personality standards very well. For the most part, I've learned to deal with it. It is always refreshing when I come across someone who understands me; which is very rare and usually is another artist.
I recently ran across this article about Ten Paradoxical Traits Of  Creative People and was surprised to find that it fits me to a capital 'T':

1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they're also often quiet and at rest.
2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time.
3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality.
5. Creative people tend to be both extroverted and introverted.
6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time
7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping - When tests of masculinity and femininity are given to young people, over and over one finds that creative and talented girls are more dominant and tough than other girls, and creative boys are more sensitive and less aggressive than their male peers.
8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative.
9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.
10. Creative people's openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment.
(see the full article here)

I think curiosity fits in there somewhere.

An artist has to be willing to say, 'What if I do this?' But that question doesn't have an off button for me. Every once in a while it gets me into trouble. Today, for instance, would be one of those times.

My daughter had a doc appointment today. Once inside the building, we have to take an elevator to get to the doc's office. The elevator door is always slow to close so I always push the 'door close' button, but today, I saw that to the left of that double arrow 'door close' symbol was another white button. Two white buttons; two arrows pointing inward. So, I think to push both white buttons. Maybe both buttons are 'door close' buttons? That was when I realized that I was wrong. The left button set off a bell that scared the life out of me. Thankfully, it only went off for as long as I pushed it; which was only a quarter-second. We were on our way out, so upon exiting the elevator, I looked both ways and beat it to the door and my car. Probably didn't escape the security cameras though.



My daughter said with a plain, dead-pan face at first, "Mom, you always do stuff like that." Than she smirked a smile.

It's true. I do always do that kind of stuff. I can't help it. I'm a very tactile person. One time I grabbed a beautiful, feathery, handmade headdress and placed it on my daughter's head. She protested, of course, but it was so amazing, I just couldn't help it. I saw it when we turned the corner of a display booth. There were about four lined up on the wall behind the booth.
I snapped a few pictures of them first and grabbed the one that I thought was the most beautiful. Well, they were for sale...NOT. It turns out that the man sitting next to it not only made it, but owned it and was going to wear it in the tribal show that was about to be put on for an audience.
OMG! I was horrified that once again, my curiosity got the better of me. I was so embarrassed and apologized profusely to the man's wife. The man just sat there while his wife handled the whole situation.
It is a matriarchal society at this Indian reservation. I probably wouldn't have learned that little tidbit about that reservation if I hadn't done what I did.
Thankfully, she ended up choosing grace after she saw that it was an innocent mistake and I had not intended on being disrespectful.

The man never said a word.

That was a few years ago and it has taken me that long to be able to see the humor in it. That faux pas was a doozy. Thankfully, the big ones are few and far between.

I think I have the picture of the headdress still...

Read more funny stories:
A Lesson In Fashion Turns Into A Funny Tattoo Story
Mission Impossible-Almost