Trying new stuff

So now that my sleep pattern has once more become a pattern, I've been busy doing things like cleaning. I have made list upon list of tasks that needed to be done. At first, not much got done. Perhaps this had something to do with the irregular sleep patterns. But then I had a reason to clean. More about the primary reason in another post. The secondary? The new furniture. How could I have new stuff delivered to a messy home? And I've really been scrubbing stuff so it's my hope that after weeks of hardcore scrubbing that I'll be able to do maintenance easily. I guess this is all a result of the organizing that I did back in November and December. Oh, and let's not talk about all of the stuff that I have dumped. I even dumped the burned magazine rack. The beauty of living in Berkeley is that I can put stuff like that out on the curb and it's gone within hours.

But I've been making some other changes as well. While I may be considered thin, I am in horrible shape. Evidence of this is the fat layer that has started to develop across my midsection. Yes, it is there. The reason why you don't see it is because I know how to camouflage with the right clothing. But I forgot to do so when I went to brunch with my mother recently. Her reaction was, "So. Am I going to be a grandmother soon?" Thanks mom for saying what has been going through my mind over the last few months.

When I posted my last post, something that I had written a couple of weeks ago, it was in lieu of another post that I had written at that time. Because I was disgusted with myself. And I came really close to sticking my finger down my throat. Because, hey, that worked in the past. But then I started thinking about the treadmills at work. (Yes, there are three treadmills at work.) And when I went into work on Monday, the replacement for my old position sent an email to all the women. The guys in the office at work are doing a "Biggest Loser" kind of weight loss challenge. We women were banned because they said that we were already thin. But we're not in shape. So today at lunch three of us women spent 30 minutes on the treadmills. I did a mile and a half. Not bad for a smoker who hasn't been getting regular exercise in at least a year. I'm hoping to up it to two miles in that same amount of time. So that I can burn some fat.

My mom tried to discourage me on this at first. Perhaps because she remembers the former me. I pointed out to her that if I do crunches and weights, all that I will end up with is muscles under a layer of fat. The only way to get rid of the fat was to do some cardio. Because I'm built like my dad's family. And as they age, they put on fat around the midsection -- and the face. Nowhere else. Just those two places. Picture that. A woman whose midsection has become a size 12 or so but whose body elsewhere is a size 4 or 6. So not right in my opinion.

Don't ask me what I weigh. The only time I get on a scale is at the doctor's office. And even then, I try not to pay attention. Instead I look at how my clothes fit. And many of them have been pretty snug in the waist lately. So I'm going to be walking at lunchtime until they stop feeling that way. And then I'm going to keep on doing it so that I won't go back.