Nearly Two Months.

It’s crazy how time can slip by. February is always a crazed month for us, but once I let myself off the hook for the daily blogging habit, it was tough to find a new lower intensity groove.

That’s not to say it hasn’t been time well spent, and that I haven’t made real progress or stuck to my stated intentions:

1. Move more.
2. Eat less.
3. Write more.

Number One – Move more

• I’ve continued to hoop, and can now do some pretty sweet tricks, while still proudly embracing my right as a beginner to drop the hoop often and loudly.
• During the month of February I shoveled a full-on shit-ton of snow. Come on, I still can’t decide where I stand officially on the swearing in my own blog, but for anyone who lived thru the Snowpacalypse, there is no other measurement than “shit-ton” to describe the amount of shoveling we had to do
• I was already doing a lot of walking, but we enjoyed several weeks of “rent-a-dogs” during the month of March, so the additional early morning and late night “I hope we make it through the night” walks really chalked up the extra activity points

• 

  Foxes in Boxes Burn Extra Calories

Number Two  - Eat Less

• smaller portions and
• less junk food
• less often
• combined with Number One for a net loss of 13 pounds! Oh yeah! Although it’s kind of gross and embarrassing that I had that much to loose in the first place, and about that much more I’d like to. I’m really loving this.

Number Three – Write more

• This has taken on an interesting twist.
• Where I assumed this would mostly mean blogging, the last couple of months has indeed included a LOT of creative and persuasive writing skills.
• I’ve written some of the most fantastic email communications and invitations to an amazing host of folks, including THE Craig of Craigslist, to create a totally amazing lineup for TEDxPotomac, an independently organized TED event as part of the TEDx initiative, which will take place on May 20, 2010, at the George Washington University Bett’s Theatre.

I happened to meet the lead organizer, Patrick Smith, COO of Market Hardware, a few days before the first organizing meeting for TEDxPotomac. On that first snowy Saturday in December I raised my hand and volunteered to organize some information on the website. Somehow since then I became the lead curator and Chair of the Presenters Committee.

While flying by the seat of my pants and treading in the deep waters of many things I’ve never done before, I’ve met some amazing people. The event may be just one day in May, but these months have enriched my life for years to come. I know I’ve added many new lifelong friends to my circle.

And these friends – some new, some renewed – have inspired and energized me in so many ways. So I find myself, once again here at the literal eleventh hour racing to beat my self imposed deadline of midnight before this next month is up.

My daughter just informed me that I gave out lots of kisses and have been very smiley today. I tell her it’s because I’m happy with all the work I’ve been doing, that hard work makes me happy, because hard work pays off.

But, of course, it was actually really easy.

As easy as 1, 2, 3.

Give or take an inch, or a mile, or a month. Or two.

One of my favorite moments from Burning Man 2009 was arriving at the Opulent Temple to the spectacular madness of Infected Mushroom. (Warning to my webby friends, on this side of the looking glass, this site is a usability nightmare. Why do music groups and DJs insist on weird for weirdness sake?)

I’ve been listening to and dancing to the electronic/DJ music scene for a number of years now, so I was completely blown away by their live performance – vocals, guitars and all. And after four days in the desert at that time, I thought I might actually Becoming Insane myself.

Insanely Opulent Temple

I didn’t choose an Infected Mushroom song for my “tea-dance” today because, like a lot of electronica songs, most were longer than my 5-minute water boiling window would allow.

However, I was super psyched to be reminded of this smile producing Karmic Coincidence:

• Infected Mushroom’s breakout album title – Vicious Delicious!

It takes about 5 minutes to boil water for a cup of tea at my house these days in the depths of winter when the water comes from the tap just warm enough to be considered liquid.

If you have your handy-dandy hula-hoop, uhm, handy, hoop it up until the whistle blows.

According to my handy-dandy DirectLife gadget, I burned about 25 calories during those five minutes. (I repeated the five minute test a few times to get an average read.) Sometimes it’s just enough to complete the goal for the day.

127% for the day

Unfortunately, I also listened to Mrs. Robinson while I hooped. Now I can’t get cupcakes out of my head.

If I walked all the way to one of these places, do you think I could squeeze a cupcake in my pantry without regretting it?

I’m still partial to cupcake pioneer Warren Brown and his CakeLove New German Chocolate.

Oh, look all in-store purchases of Lemon Coconut cupcakes proceeds go to the Red Cross for Haiti.

A delicious way to help Haiti

I know where I’m going now.

How about you? Coo, coo, ca-choo.

Despite a fairly large sample to judge by – one finished with college, one who just started, another turning 16 in a mere four months, and one we’ll be stuck with for another eight years - I thought our kids who had no particular interest in getting drivers licenses were the exception to the rule rather than a national trend. Thanks to my friend Shashi for sending this out today.

Next time one of the kids needs a ride, I’ll just say, “Take the BMW.”

“Now a father of two, Johnson notes that his college-age children still don’t have licenses. “Neither one has risen to the occasion,” he said. “Both have decided that Washington, D.C., is a great place to use their ‘BMW’ — bus, Metro, walk.”

Take the BMW - Bus, Metro, Walk

Where's your mother?

“Spinning” class takes on a whole new meaning with Stranger than Paradise. It was a pleasure to watch this duo interact on the decks.

I’m not a big fan of myspace sites. They’re so ugly and badly designed, but DJs seem to like them.

DJs Navbox and Rosario are Stranger than Paradise.

Looks like they’ll be up to similar antics again on February 12. I’m not so sure about me yet.

As we say in my family – it makes me happy.

“Last year the government spent less on the Ministry of Silly Walks than it did on national defense.”

Typically, I don’t believe my posts will be of a political nature, but this one’s been on my mind for a while. For me, one of the most discouraging and disappointing aspects of the current debate on healthcare reform is the total lack of discussion about personal responsibility in healthcare. For the record, I’m for universal healthcare, but I see no reason why it shouldn’t come at the expense of some “personal freedom(s).”

For instance, if you wanted to use a (non-existant) “public option”, you  wouldn’t be allowed to smoke, and you’d have to be a card carrying member of – a gym! or otherwise be able to prove you make a reasonable and regular effort to get off your butt for a while each day.

Why are we talking about requiring health insurance when we could just as easily require gym membership with better longterm results. Why isn’t the Plastics Lobby rallying for mandatory ultimate frisbee team participation or for buying everyone in America a hula hoop!

I’m perfectly willing to contribute my share of taxes so others who are uninsured can get healthcare coverage. However, if you’re going to to use my hard earned dollars for your healthcare, you better take care of yourself!

Are you a smoker? Yes? Not eligible! Do you walk 30 minutes a day? No? Not eligible!

And yes, I realize there would have to be all kinds of exceptions for people who can’t walk and, blah, blah, but let’s face it, for the vast majority of us, “sitting disease” happens in a deskchair not a wheelchair.

And to that, I’m no exception.

Here’s how I know. About nine weeks ago, I started using this new gadget and website, Philips DirectLife. I’ll write more about it in the coming days and weeks, but during my Assessment Period, sitting at my computer for most days, most of the time, here’s what it showed: Me = Less Fit. Gross.

I sit on my butt for a living

Since then, I’ve been sometimes more, sometimes less successful meeting my gradually increasing activity goals each week, but to illustrate my point of the efficacy of a Hoopin’ Healthcare Plan, check this out:

I bought my hoop yesterday!

But even if we can’t afford the hoops, an amazing free and easy solution to our nation’s activity deficit has been proposed by the MSW. You can’t tell me that we wouldn’t burn a ton of extra calories each day under this administration.

It’s interesting when you’re writing a pseudo-yoga and fitness blog. There is always that debate: “Maybe I should practice, workout, or walk first before I start writing, OR write, then pose.”

But once my fingers hit the keyboard, it’s no contest. There’s almost always just one more little thing I could do or look up before I hit the mat or the door…or the floor. Today has been filled with many little things.

One of them was this great post about what to do if you have writers “block”. I can’t say that I’m blocked, if anything I’m struggling with too many ideas and lack of focus, but I did just see this awesome quote on someone’s sig file yesterday:

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.

E. B. White
US author & humorist (1899 – 1985)

I love E.B.White. My favorite was always The Trumpet of the Swan. I love watercress sandwiches to this day. Nothing like butter and cream cheese to make vegetables go down.

But I digress…so although I know yoga is known to help concentration, I thought I’d do a little research on the best pose or poses for con-centration.

Trouble getting going? Try Yoga!

Yoga for “constipation”? Ew. But if you’ve read about me, you’ll know nothing’s funnier or more inspiring. Speaking of which, I got my tickets for BM 2010 yesterday.

“Let the big booty girls put their hands in the air!”

I gleefully danced and held my hands up high. It turns out new research shows I had good reason to celebrate.

If you happen to refer to your bum as bumbum, as many an amiga of mine is like to do, there’s good news for you too.

If you had any doubts, here’s proof in super slow-mo, but a word of caution – this beauty just might actually give you a heart attack!

And while I was on my BIG walk home earlier today, I was debating about whether or not I actually wanted to keep the trend going by trying a few inexpensive Exotic Dance classes, or Exoterobics thanks to today’s Living Social Deal of the Day.

My health, wellness and, dare I say, beauty kick lately has been greatly bolstered thanks to Living Social Deals and Groupon, sort of a Michelle 2.0.1.0 upgrade plan with hot-stone massage and IPL treatments at Back-to-Health, aVitalize Peel at SKIN in Georgetown, and some yoga classes at Spiral Flight Yoga. (I won’t mention the couple dozen cupcakes from Red Velvet.)

As the steps accumulated up the hill, I realized I had a Groupon/LivingSocial Wellness and Weight Loss plan on my hands. I decided I’ll go ahead and try the Chair Work/Strip Aerobics/Floorwork/Body-licious combo – for the blogging material. Besides, “Chair Work” sounds like a great ironic treatment for “sitting disease“.

I also decided to check out what was happening on Groupon today. Turns out it’s a deal on house cleaning – also tempting, hmmmmm….

However, “Today’s Side Deal” at Groupon – 58% discount on “Weight Loss for Tired People”. Hahaha. Awesome. Made me laugh. Okay, I chuckled.

Either way, the website made me more tired. (Tired-er?)

I hate these long infomercial-style web pages. I’m sure there must be some research out there on the effectiveness of selling this type of service because you see a lot of them, but despite my connection with the content, I’m passing on this one. Just makes me feel how much I’m being sold to. Plus thinking of 12 weeks of something -anything- makes me feel really, really tired. (Tired-er-est.)

And it’s kind of bugging me that “tired” looks like it was colored with crayons. Wouldn’t that be tiring? Is it supposed to embody tiredness just because some kid did a shitty job of coloring between the lines? I don’t know, it probably only bugged me after I had to read that 30 foot long page.

CHC, Eve Colantoni does get bonus points as a Betty Paige look alike, though.

Eve doesn't look tired - she looks like Betty Page

I would definitely take a weight loss class from Betty Page. Hell, I’d probably take any class from Betty Page, especially for 12-weeks.

However, weightlossfortiredpeople.com earns rather disappointing SEO (search engine optimization) especially for a unique business name. Doesn’t make it to the first page of Google results. Perhaps my links will give her a lift even if I’m too tired to sign up for her program, which actually sounds quite interesting.

On the other hand, I’m going to go ahead and pony up the $19 for the Exoterobics, despite The P Spot sporting quite possibly the worst website I’ve seen in a long, long time. A brilliant example of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” web design.

• doesn’t work in Safari
• all those crazy fonts – perhaps I’m not the intended demographic, but even reading glasses didn’t help!
• too many media formats
• a really long list of WTFs from the usability, design and architecture perspective.
• to tell the truth, this site made me tired too…

But it’s only three classes, not twelve weeks.

Besides, momma needs a new pair of shoes. Wish me luck.