Just wondering if you have any opinions about Pilates that you are willing to share. Have you tried Pilates? How does it compare to yoga? Do you like it? There’s a class on Friday that I’m thinking of attending.

Also, I’m interested in yoga tape/DVD recommendations. Anybody know a good one?

Thanks!

They are snugger than when I purchased them, however.

This morning I walked Lucas to the Bennetts’ house and this afternoon I’ll walk back to pick him up again. It’s not much exercise, but it’s what I can manage today. I have work stuff to do and I shouldn’t be writing here right now. Yesterday in the early evening I planted 5 plants, and burned a few calories that way.

The Truth About Easter Food
+ avoided all breads, rolls, chips, cookies, candies, and cakes
+ ate lots of ham and salad and eggs
– ate some canteloup on Saturday and some berries on Saturday and Sunday
– ate 3 cream cheese and cherry tarts on Sunday. (I saved my carbs for those tarts, made by the lovely Tart Lady, Betty Broughton.)
– ate a small spoonful of baked beans – with sugar in them

I love it when my hubby is home during the week! I’m so much happier. Ian’s off work for spring break and Lucas has no school. Ian and Lucas are out at the Discovery science museum. They’ve done fun stuff this week like painting Easter eggs, going to Costco, etc.

Lucas is off for two weeks, so I’m not sure what I’m going to do next week. I have to kick butt on my article now to meet my deadline.

Yesterday evening the three of us got to do two of my very favorite things: We went to Capitol Nursery and bought plants for the yard (thanks for the gift certificate, MIL!), and we went to the library.

Taxes are done and mailed! Refunds are being applied to 2006 taxes, so I’m ahead of the game for this year. This feels very good. I am practically paralyzed by the fear of having a tax bill. My CPA has made this soooooo easy for me.

Easter craziness is right around the corner. We have a completely packed weekend and the forcast makes it pretty clear that it’s going to be raining on Sunday. I am praying that the weather gurus are wrong. I want Easter to be sunny and bright like it is today!

This is a boring post. Don’t have time for more.

What motivates you to do something good for yourself? How do you build good-for-you stuff into your life?

These are some of the questions floating around in my brain today. A little while ago I had a terrific interview with a UC Davis doctor on the subject of the benefits of exercise, even if you have significant health problems. We talked about the Mind-Body-Spirit connection, depression, and self-image. We discussed how it’s never too late to begin to exercise, or to take up exercise again after a long, sedentary hiatus or injury. We talked about how exercise can make us feel beautiful, even if we are only making small improvements over a long time. He says people begin to exude confidence when they exercise. They begin to see themselves as attractive beings: He has seen this transformation take place in thousands of patients of all ages, sizes, fitness levels, and infirmities.

Our talk was so great, so inspiring that I went to the gym immediately after we ended the interview. Nice! Points for Sara! 45 minutes on the treadmill (280 calories, hr avg: 162 bpm) some weights and sit-ups.

I’m working on making some positive changes. There is no question about how increasing my activity level and getting more exercise is a major component of the positive change that I currently crave. Now that it’s spring, I’m feeling the need to renew my (formerly) good habits and develop new and better ones.

I recently went to a conference and found myself in a workshop taught by a life coach. (I didn’t realize she was a life coach at first, or I probably wouldn’t have gone to her workshop.) Nevertheless, I decided to make the best of it. The workshop was on self-care. We did some interactive stuff, shared with our neighbors, and said affirmations, one of which was: “I am a more balanced, whole, and joyful gift to the world because I take care of me first.”

Dr. Davis said something very similar. He tells both his residents and his patients, “You can’t take care of anybody else unless you take care of yourself first.”

Yesterday I interviewed an 84-year-old woman who teaches yoga. She is awesome and my newest heroine. Maybe that will be me at 84.

I warned you I was going all new-agey.

Today, my darling husband is presenting new policies and procedures of his creation to his entire Sacramento staff. It marks the end of a major project that has been consuming his time and energy for 2+ months. And thanks to Ian’s brilliant mind and good connections, a team building consultant is coming to do some neat exercises with the staff. (She rocks!) Good luck, lover! I know you’re going to be great! Just stand in your authority.

It is I who must begin…

Once I begin, once I try—
here and now,
right where I am,
not excusing myself
by saying that things
would be easier elsewhere,
without grand speeches and
ostentatious gestures,
but all the more persistently—
to live in harmony
with the “voice of Being,” as I
understand it within myself—
as soon as I begin that,
I suddenly discover,
to my surprise, that
I am neither the only one,
nor the first,
nor the most important one
to have set out
upon that road….

Whether all is really lost
or not depends entirely on
whether or not I am lost….

—Václav Havel

I was pleased to see the mommies and daddies and have a chance to talk with them a little. So often during drop-off or pick-up, we are too busy hustling our kids in or out of school to chat a moment. Miss Jennifer really doesn’t want parents hanging around because we’re disruptive. But people don’t want to arrange play dates if they don’t know you. Anyway, it seems Lucas is fairly popular. No less that four mommies approached me about play dates with Lucas. Some of them said things like, “Lucas is so sweet. My daughter talks about him at home all the time.” Nice! One poor mother has to listen to her daughter talk about Lucas when she wakes at 3 a.m. I’m brimming with pride.

Anyway, Ian was able to join us at Ancil Hoffman park where we had a class photo, an egg hunt, and a potluck lunch. He looked so cute sitting on a picnic blanket in the grass and sun, wearing his fancy shoes, slacks, dress shirt, and tie! He was by far the handsomest daddy there.

The park looked glorious today. In fact, the whole world is sparkling and new-looking. Today, it actually looks like Spring has arrived.

Yesterday, Lucas came home with his Easter present from Miss Jennifer. It was a terra-cotta pot of growing wheat grass, with a tiny handmade, white wool bunny hiding in the grass. Adorable.

Poor Ian had to work in Fresno yesterday. In fact, he had to work in Fresno until 7 pm. So Lucas and I were on our own for the evening, while daddy drove back home in the rain.

Lucas has been playing “Cowgirl” a lot lately. He has a stuffed rocking horse that he recently named Lily. He has a string into which I have tied a loop to make a lasso. He has a cowgirl hat from Cattlemen’s that Papa gave him. And just a few days ago, Lucas was given a western shirt that’s red with black chest panels, embroidered horse heads, and white fringe. Lily and Lucas have been riding the range a lot; if Lucas gets that pony rocking, he can actually travel all over the house without ever dismounting from his faithful steed. Together, they take care of their herd of two cows, one of which is named Pretty. The other cow is named Not Pretty.

Well, last night, Lucas hitched Lily up to the chuck wagon and we sat down to supper. But not before he fed Lily some hay.

“Lily eats a whole wagon of hay. She can eat even more than an elephant. Even 100 hays!”

“Is the sun going down?”
“Yes”
“Why?”
“Because the sun goes down every night and comes up every morning.”
“What if the sun didn’t come up?”
“Well, the world would change.”
“Oh. How?”
“Without the sun there would be no plants on earth. And that means there would be no animals.”
“Oh.”
“And without the plants and the animals, there would be no people. So the sun is very important.”
“If there was no sun it would be dark all the time, like space.”
“Right. Like space.”
“Would there still be rockets?”
…
“One day, me and Tidoo saw a very strange thing: a salmon driving an airplane, and a sharky driving a car!”
…
“One day, me and Tidoo had soup and soup and soup and soup. She loves soup. One day, I cooked her soup and she even eats soup for breakfast. And for a treat after she eats soup, she gets donuts. And ice cream. Tidoo eats mostly healthy foods.”
…
“One day, me and Tidoo had noodles and raviolis and french fries for dinner. And after dinner, we had donuts and ice cream and vanilla chocolate sticks. And flavor water. And it was a big whole party!”
…
“A rodeo is where the cowboys and cowgirls take their ponies and their cows for training. Is it dirty at a rodeo?”
“Yes, I think so. Dirty, dusty, and maybe even muddy,” I replied.
“No Mom, rodeos are only in summer so there’s no mud, only dust.”
…
“Did you know horses like soup? They do. I have seen a horse eat soup.”
…
“One day, I went on a walk by myself without Tidoo. Tidoo was sick and you guys stayed with her in her bed. I got to do the cow work and go to the rodeo. I just checked out my credit card, but the rodeo was closing. The people were still there. I went there to get my credit card because I left it there last night. And I rode my pony at the rodeo. The thing is, ponies can knock you off. They can!”
…
“At rodeos, horses usually eat oats, barley, beans, um… hay, apples, but not carrots. If you feed a horse a carrot, it will get sick.”
“Actually, I think horses really like carrots,” I offered.
“Tomorrow, I think I will go back to the rodeo. If it’s open, I think I’ll ride my pony there. You know, there’s lots of ponies at rodeos.”
…
“What if people didn’t love me?” Lucas wondered.
“Everyone loves you,” I said.
“Even you and dad?”
“Especially me and dad.”
“But what if people didn’t love me?”
“Well, I can’t even imagine that. You have so many friends and people love you so much.”
“You are the best mommy ever. … I just want to give soft little loves to your nipples.”

There is a blue sky over my house and sparkly sunshine pouring down all around me. The puddles are evaporating! Halle-freakin-lujah!

Who loves the sun? Me me me me ME

I’m reposting this (slightly edited) “Comment” I wrote to Rebecca to my journal because it details some of my thoughts about chronic illness, health, and my own history and relationship with my asthma.

************
4/5/06
“I can see how you could get stuck in all those questions. I don’t know if there are any answers to them. I don’t know about Prozac, but I can relate to some of what you say. I used to go into similar cycles and thoughts with regard to my asthma medicine. I would get sick, the docs would pump me full of meds, then I would get better. After a while, I would start feeling like a healthy person–the kind of person who doesn’t need to take preventive medication (every f—ing day). I would feel good, and NORMAL. I would forget some doses and take others, and eventually taper off to taking nothing. Then I would get sick again. Very sick. I would beat myself up for being foolish, for thinking that I might someday live a normal, nonmedicated life. The cycle would repeat. This went on for many years.

“For a while I tried all kinds of alternative therapies to manage my asthma. I liked the acupuncture, especially, but the acupuncturist was treating me with herbs as well as with needles. The primary herb she had me taking was ma huang, which is ephedra, which was a major component of my asthma drugs at the time anyway. So, I had this great burning desire not to be on drugs, but I was on drugs regardless. It became obvious and stupid after a while.

“We all want to be healthy. We want for our bodies and minds to function normally, without supports or disciplines of any kind (meds, exercise, proper nutrition, proper sleep cycles). We want to be able to call all the shots with our brains. But our bodies are systems–extremely complicated, interrelated systems. When you mess up one part, you throw off all the other parts of the system.

“Eventually, I grew up enough to realize and accept the fact that I have a medical condition that will not go away. My “health” is relative and is on a continuum. I am healthiest when I take my medications–when my various body systems function smoothly. I require those props to function with the greatest degree of balance.

“Prozac may be a different animal, but the pattern seems to be the same.”