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.

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.

So much fun, even I might stick with it. I’ve wanted to learn for several years. It’s been my “intention” to do so, but 2010 is the year!

I listen to a lot of electronica music and started seeing hoop dance performers at shows. Since that first show I thought, “I want to be that girl.” Here’s one of those girls I saw at Burning Man 2009. I was at both the FreQ Nasty and Bassnectar shows. Unfortunately, I never made it to the Hoop Jam.

Thanks to a little Karmic Coincidence (KC) – my friend, neighbor, and belly dance troupe pal Sharon sent me an invite to today’s class, and just to make sure I signed up, KC arranged an encounter with our other mutual friend, neighbor and troupe gal, Melissa, clear across town at a random Starbucks I’d never set foot in! I hadn’t seen either of these lovely ladies in a very long time, so I thought, “Okay, I can take a hint, Hoopin’ is my destiny.”

I thought I’d get a little jump on the class and grabbed my daughter’s hoop. I was mortified to be utterly unable to hoop it up. My 10 year old was visibly disappointed and dismayed, since I do generally have the rep for otherwise shaking the proverbial booty quite well, despite not doing so as often as I should. She could keep it going forever, but my hula hips just weren’t having it.

After considerable frustration, I googled “how to hula hoop” and was delighted to learn that when it comes to hula hoops, size does matter. I was hoping that this would be true and that I was not doomed to hear the constant clatter of my hoop on the floor.

So when I got to class, I picked one of the larger hoops, and what do you know? First try, I came out swinging and kept it going for a good long spin.

Surprise!ingly, we learned a number of other cool moves in this first class. Here’s a peek – from my very own instructor, Surprise! aka Katie Desmond.

And guess, what – she’s also a Yoga Instructor! Very cool. I’m totally psyched for the next 4 weeks.