Baby Stepping my Way

Close-up of female girl exercising by aerobic walking
Originally uploaded by mikebaird

Well, it took awhile, but I finally tried Jillian Michaels again. I did just a few of the remote exercises this morning. Would you believe I actually got a "Good job!" from Jillian? I know! I couldn't believe it either! I find the exercises are pretty quick, which is good and bad. I like getting them over with, but they are so fast, I feel winded when it is done and it's hard to keep up with her.

I was starting to feel like there was no point to trying anymore. It seemed that whether I tried or not, I was gaining weight. It didn't seem to matter what I ate or what I didn't eat, the weight just kept creeping on. Then I found a blog during the Ultimate Blog Party that gave me some inspiration, so I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep at it. I'm thinking of re-joining Weight Watchers online; still in the thinking stage right now. And this week, I'm going down to the YMCA to find out about memberships. I don't want my kids to get stuck in the same rut that I have been in. Here's to a healthier week!

You Have to Take Your Inspiration Where You Find It

As a writer, I often find inspiration in strange places. As a writer with depression, I know that inspiration is fleeting and writers' block is not, so when inspiration does strike, I try to run with it. Such is the case this evening. I was researching for an article on my parenting site and was getting frustrated by the lack of information that I was finding. I took a break, posted on Twitter and saw a post from "Weird Al" Yankovic and followed his link to a video. I laughed through one of his fake "interviews" with Avril Lavigne and then watched quite a few other videos. It was the theme song for Al's movie UHF that threw inspiration my way tonight.

If you have never seen "Weird Al's" UHF, you really should. It is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. My younger brother is the one who first introduced me to the humour that is UHF and to this day, either one of us can quote a random line from the movie, and the other will completely understand the reference and will usually respond with another line. I don't have the movie handy at the moment, so pardon me while I quote at will some of our favourite and most used lines:

"It's your favourite, a Twinkie-weiner sandwich!"

"Look at that face! Would you look at that face?"

"Am I ever red. Just call me Mr. Butterfingers!"

"You so stupid!"

"Wheel of Fish!!!!"

"What is inside the box? Nothing! Absolutely Nothing!"

"Supplies!"

"Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers!"

"Today we're teaching poodles how to fly."

"Don't you know the Dewey Decimal System?"

That's not a complete list of the lines we use, but that's what I can come up with at the moment. What can I say, my brother and I have a strange sense of humour, but I believe that humour is one of the things that helps me deal with having depression. I can choose to look at everything negatively, or I can choose to find the funny side of things and have a laugh or two. It's not always easy to choose to laugh, especially when symptoms are aggravated or I'm under a lot of stress, but those are the times when I probably need to laugh the most. I guess having a sense of humour even on the dark days is something I learned from my brother (don't tell him I said that though, it will just give him a big ego--after all, I am the big sister!).

So how was that for taking inspiration where I found it and running with it? I really wasn't sure what direction this was going to go in, but I'm feeling pretty good about it and I've got a smile on my face--all in all, that makes for a pretty darn good day.