I went to the gym today anticipating doing both kickboxing and yoga classes – back to back. This is the epitome of how I think – no task is too big. Yeah, right! I hate exercising – well, let me rephrase that – I don’t “get” exercising. Only because I never did it growing up and when I had to do it, it was forced upon. As an adult, my mentality is WAY stronger than my willpower and when I think exercising, I think f*** you! But now that I am getting older, I don’t want to continue carrying all this weight that has been with me all my life – I want to be healthy and happy. And you can only eat healthy so much, you have to put forth the effort to move the weight out of here. The class was relatively small, no pressure; the instructor was pumped. And we started and oh boy, I was in HELL! And I realized how uncoordinated I am – white girl can’t dance. 🙂 But it didn’t matter, I was moving and was actually feelin’ the burn. But when I went to get some water fifteen minutes in, it hit me like an anvil – I got mad and eventualy said to myself, “self – in order to be healthy, I will have to do this more often, and come to classes like this until all this weight is gone” and I thought about all the biscuits, chicken fingers, sodas, cookies, pasta, fast food I had eaten all my life and was really angry at them. But what I was really angry at was myself. I just couldn’t fathom doing it anymore – eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Filling myself up with voided food that had no purpose but to calm my inner brat if only for a few moments. You have to get to the point where you say enough is enough.
I returned to the class and worked out for forty-five minutes, until it was time for yoga. If you have never done yoga, I implore you to try it. It isn’t for everyone and it’s something you have to be patient with, but it does work. It was a crowded class, but it allowed me to get centered and calm and I needed that especially after being so pumped at kickboxing. Once yoga was done, I hobbled to my car and drove home. I reminded myself to set aside time for Oprah today because she was doing a two-part series on teens who are overweight and how it has become an epidemic. Once on, one of the first things she said was how it is so bad, that teenagers today may not outlive their parents. Whoa! Those are some deep words. I watched the show and identified with every kid standing there. I remember being teased as a child incessantly and no one really did anything substantial about it. I think the excuse “kids being kids” is overrated and has been our “Hail Mary” pass for too long. Kids are mean because they learn it – whether it’s from their parents, friends, TV, movies, books – and they think it’s cute to act this way when they do not understand the ramifications of their actions. And I know that parents can’t monitor kids every waking moment, but perhaps when they look at themselves and see if they are contributing to their kids obnoxious behaviour, perhaps they’ll have an “a-ha” moment and see where the root is. It is not cool to make fun of anyone, children especially.
While watching Oprah, I shed a few tears. I was so proud of those kids (who don’t know me from Adam). The courage they had to get up there and talk about their feelings was amazing, and inspiring. I love how Oprah said “all kids want are their parents.” That’s it. And it’s so true. We are such a society that is always “on the go” and “I need this, I need that”, so we put all this pressure and demand on ourselves, and we let slip our most precious things – our kids. Our priorities have shifted big time and we need to take control, be pro-active and say “no more.” Seriously – when you or your family are faced with crisis, who is going to hold your hand – inanimate objects or your kid?
Organically Opinionated 