Trick or Calculus! The joys of trick or treating

This evening’s Halloween trick or treating was ‘way interesting! One of my kids sprained her foot in karate, necessitating her to be on crutches for the foreseeable future. So! Magnificent mom that I am, I offered to go in her place and bring her back her rightful share of candy.

Enter the MommyMobile – I packed in 5 kids (some friends of my children as well) and we drove to our hallowed stomping grounds. It’s a super neighborhood that has a high concentration of houses compared to landsize – it takes only an hour or so to hit the entire area! And all of the kids prefaced their bag-holding-out routine by saying, trick or treat! All, of course, except moi – I figured, why be boring, so I cheerfully chirped, Trick or Calculus! or hey! Trick or Differential Equations!

Obviously there were some enginners at the homes…I got a lot of positive comments from that. :)

Anywhos, we TorTed for about 2 hours and came home quite exhausted but very happy indeed. I wore my camouflage karate gi (must! show! off! deltoids!) and blended in very well with the other kiddies there. :)

Speaking of karate, one of our beloved senseis gave our class an excellent overview on Halloween safety…about how parents should always check candies, kids should never step inside houses, what a bad guy looks like (answer: anyone), etc. Here are some more resources for that Halloween safety:

Halloween Safety

FDA Halloween Safety

NFPA Halloween Safety

And that was the Ling Halloween,

Barbara

ps – obviously, the best costumes are really:

Quick and easy ways to count calories

Morning,

Ever wish you had a quick and easy way to count calories online?

Bow to the Internet – of course you’ll find lots of resources!

Here are some goodies you can use right now:

Visit the above sites now – you’ll see you can discover just how many calories are in bunches and bunches of different foods, ranging from healthy to yummy to EEEEK! Keep them away from me! etc.etc.etc.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – want some great nutrition things?

Review – Taebo and Billy Blanks anyone?

Morning,

One of my absolute favorite workout DVDs is Billy Blanks and Taebo. Have you tried them out yet?

I really like Taebo because of the martial arts aspect and his motivational commentary during the workouts. Most of Billy’s participants are quite in shape and some of them are rather elderly as well!

Billy Blanks by himself is most inspiring as well. A dyslexic child, he could have given up yet chose instead to make something magnificent of himself. He began his study of the martial arts at the age of fourteen and became most proficient, winning several local, state, and national championships. He emerged as a seven-time world Karate champion, and holds a seventh-degree black belt in tae kwon do.

There are some excellent articles about him such as:

Billy Blanks, Tae Bo creator and motivational speaker, asks a lot of questions: What is physical fitness’s great enemy? What is the most powerful thing in the world? What does man think of man?

But the 50-plus fitness innovator, who became an overnight sensation in the late 1990s, seems to have the answers as he speaks to his large audiences. The Erie, Pa., native knows all too well about self-limitations. It wasn’t until he was 35 years old that Blanks was finally diagnosed with dyslexia, which had impeded his learning ability and his financial success.

Physical limitations also proved challenging for this 6-foot, 185-pound, seven-time world karate champion. Blanks took his first martial arts class at age 11 and discovered how the movements helped him correct a hip joint anomaly which impaired his movement. Short tendons that wouldn’t stretch or exhibit flexibility held Blanks down until he began to push himself beyond his own boundaries through determination, discipline and spirituality…..MORE…..

Want to see what others say about Taebo and his workouts? Check out:

If you’re looking for an extremely challenging workout, do yourself a favor and check them out! You can get great deals on Taebo from your local Freecycle as well as eBay and Craigslist too.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – Want TaeBo? Check out:

 

Going out in a blaze of glory

You know, you can choose to view everything in life as a hero’s journey. It makes the pain and difficulties much easier to bear.

My right femur is getting worse and worse. While I can still walk and karate-ize and sparrize and what have you…when it’s all done, I’m constantly reminded that hey! If I’m consciously aware of it, my physical condition is simply deteriorating. Not while I’m active, mind you….I take great care to ensure I don’t aggravate my condition. But when all is said and done, I’m made aware of the fact that gee, surgery will be a very welcome event.

Put simply, I refuse to accept my limitations. Yes, I’m handicapped. And yes, if I’m at the bottom of a staircase, I’ll look to the top, sigh, and then start pulling myself up via the railing to get there.

Those are facts of my reality…but it does NOT have to be the defining aspect of my abilities!!

Lately I find myself wanting to push myself to the breaking point…simply to assert to the universe, hell, I might be in lousy physical shape bone-wise, but that doesn’t stop me! I shall compensate and I shall overcome. Do you hear me? I will prevail!

And yes, I told the stars in the early morning sky that this morning. The winds were whipping about and the leaves were rustling fiercely and there was Barbara Ling, the tiny speck of humanity standing on on her house deck, shaking her first and declaring to the cosmos in no uncertain terms…you cannot stop me.

And you can’t. From the bottom of my heart, I know this…. in particular…. to be true.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – The universe is huge! Consider:

Honor your poor dieting weight loss choices and then….

Choices.

It’s a great concept.

Yesterday my overly-angsted kid told me, Mom, stop saying I’m making choices in regards to my actions!

?

You know, just think about it. Who controls your mind? Who controls your body? Who holds the knife to your throat and says, okay, go jump into the pool with all your clothing on while the Halloween party is going on in another area….you know, that party you’re supposed to chaperone?

Well?

Methinks the answer is obviously. You do! It’s your choices, your actions, your consequences that you experience. Nobody else’s.

You own your own behavior. And that goes for dieting and weight loss as well.

One of the reasons why I’ve been so successful in my weight loss journey (and life in general!) is that I choose to own all my own decisions, be they bad, good, magnificent, idiotic, etc. This way I am assured that I have only myself to blame (and myself to praise) when my get up and go, got up and went, and was last seen heading towards Nebraska.

It’s tough sometimes to admit to yourself you’ve made lousy decisions in the past. You have to deal with personal embarrassment, with feelings of letting yourself down….it can be very painful to witness and confront.

But you know….I firmly believe everything in life happens for a reason. And some things happen because your guardian angel is telling you, okay, buckle down now and listen….there’s a level of your personal inner strength that you do NOT know you possess. So I’m going to make darned sure you come into contact with it right now!!

After all, that’s what happens when you confront painful issues, right? You have to rally your own inner strength to say, okay, I was an absolute idjut…I admit it….but it’s not going to derail my future steps! Remember, you cannot change the past whatsoever…but you can always influence how the future unfolds.

Like dieting. And losing weight. And getting on your journey to better health.

Accept ownership and responsibility for all of your choices in the past. Those choices are what led you to being the person you are today. And if you’re not satisfied with that….honor your grief. Give yourself a few minutes to feel self-pity and cry it out (I truly believe crying is a catharsis – it gets rid of negative excess energies and frees you to move on).

Then imagine a biiiig suitcase and put all your negative feelings and regrets and embarrassment in it. Walk in your mind over to the top of a huge cliff that towers in your mind and….

Chuck that suitcase over!

Discard and throw away all your pain from before. Give yourself permission to say:

Okay, I’ve made some pathetic choices in the past – that’s okay now. I’ve accepted my responsibility for them…and I’m now moving on to a better and healthier me! Got that?? Nobody but NOBODY will stop my future success!!

You’d be surprised how much more in control you’ll feel when you take responsibility for all of your choices, the actions that resulted from those choices, and the future paths that are waiting for you.

It’s truly a hero’s journey.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – speaking of choices, here’s some dandy ones for Weight Watchers!

I’m not your friend, I’m your mom. That’s my role in life.

Morning,

I think that being a firm parent is one of the toughest things a mom has to do.

Today one of my kids made some very ill-considered choices…so I chose to inflict specific consequences geared towards driving the point home.

The good news is that was certainly achieved…the not-so-thrilling news is that it resulted in major angst…..angst against which I had to stand firm.

Argh. It would be so much easier to simply let things slide….and not form good habits. Argh!

I had to reiterate several times that I’m not your friend, I’m ‘way above and beyond that, I’m your mom and no, I don’t particularly care if you choose to hate me for this fact. Oh, and never try the test of wills; it’s impossible to break me.

“But mom, what if I’m kidnapped and die and these were your last words to me? You’re being sooooo unfair! You’ll feel soooooo guilty!”

‘Tis amazing the guilt trips children will try to harass their parents with. Sigh.

So….the point has been made, and my kid is currently snarling to herself. Ah well. I know she will emerge stronger for this difficulty…and I also know she will learn better choices for the future. But wow, it’s still just plain hell to watch one’s children choose to be miserable. Sigh sigh sigh.

Kids should come with reboot mechanisms. :)

And so the night falls,

Barbara

ps – I wonder if the following are easier to raise?

Another pound bye-bye, weight loss diet plateau broken

Happiness is waking up and seeing you’re 131.8, compared to the 133-135 between which you’ve bounced for the past 3 weeks. :)

Well! It looks like I’m 6 pounds away from my goal weight of 126. As I promised in my book, The Safe and Smart Internet Weight Loss Edge, I am viewing “126” as a “review and consider” goal – heck, I might decide my bodyweight/image looks peachy at 128 instead.

It all highlights the fact that there is no “number” that is magic when it comes to losing weight. Instead, it’s all about getting healthy.

I broke thru my plateau, I think, by mixing up my workouts and eating a bit more calorie-wise (around 1,600 calories/day). The challenge for me was including that excess! I naturally now have zero desire for extra food…I over came that by adding in apples and bananas and (get this, as I do tend towards low-carb) pine nuts with butter too. :)

And my adventure continues,

Barbara

ps – Although I hate scales, I know some folks worship them:

Looking for weight loss and diet success stories?

Morning,

One of the great things about the Internet is you can always find superb support no matter in what area you need!

Consider weight loss and dieting! Here are some inspiring places to check out:

Do mosey on by the above places and read the stories included – they’re all from people like you who have turned the key in their mind…and made their weight loss goal a success.

They’re quite inspirational!

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – Cameras are great for taking before/after pictures:

Believing in your children, believing in your students…believing in yourself

Morning,

Yesterday’s karate class was (as always!) quite an eye-opening experience. Ever since last week when our beloved sensei drilled us until exhaustion (but he didn’t break us!), my family has adored going to Wednesday classes. We view it as an Ultimate Challenge – will we survive without asking for a break? Will our warrior will beat that of our sensei? etc.etc.etc.

Anywhos, alas, yesterday brought a number of newcomers to the class, so the desired “Go ahead! You can’t break me!” test of wills didn’t happen. Wah! But! During one of our drills, we had to kick a pad down the room one way, and then back up the next.

My eldest daughter went against our beloved sensei…and when she threw her first kick, he….

Didn’t budge.

Didn’t move.

Just gave her a look that said, you honestly expect me to believe that’s your best?

It took three kicks before he finally did move. And he kept up that intensity the whole time….resulting in my daughter doing approximately 3 times the number of kicks the other students did.

Now, keep in mind the following. I had given permission for my kids to be tested at the toughest level possible….and wow oh wow, but my daughter finally gave a performance she didn’t realize she had in her.

Simply because….her sensei held her to a high standard.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to let kids know you believe in them…and to shun half-buttocked attempts and demand the very best they can do. My family is really lucky – all of our senseis at our dojo really know how to bring out the best in kids (adults too!).

So! The next time your child whines about something being too hard…and you know they can rise to the challenge – demand it. You might be surprised at the response.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – Need some good study aids? Consider:

Ripping up a first grader’s homework

Ah, the joys of maintaining standards of excellent and self-pride in one’s work!

This morning my first grader brought to me his homework. Now, he is very much aware that half-buttocked attempts at work will result in mommy ripping up the page and having him do it again. Be that as it may, today he chose to write his sentences without any spaces between any words.

“But Mom, I’m not used to it! I can’t do it!” he whined to me when I brought his attention to this fact. Rather calmly, I went to my computer, printed out another blank handwriting page, and ripped up his first attempt.

BAM! You’d have thought the earth had been hit by an asteroid. The tears flowed, the angst erupted, and quicker than a lightning flash, I went to my knees to hug him tight to me and tell him, I believed in him and his abilities…and I KNEW that he could rise to the challenge and succeed no matter what.

It was a calculated move, I will admit…in hindsight, I can see how it might have gone either way. But when I came back to him 10 minutes later…..he had completely redone his work and was beaming with pride. “Look Mom, I calmed myself down and I finished it!!”

Wow. What an emotional roller-coaster. True, while there were spaces now between every word, there were missed capitals and the like….but I didn’t want to focus on that. Instead, I hugged him tight and reiterated how I knew he had it in him, how he should be so proud of himself for not giving up nor giving in….and what an utterly awesome kid he is.

He went to school quite happy!

Ah, the joys of showing you expect levels to maintained…and also demonstrating an undeniable belief in one’s child! I think that knowing someone believes in you is one of the most powerful gifts you can give your kids….it’s the thing that keeps them going and going and going.

You know, being a tough mom is one of the most difficult things I have to do for my kids. Staying the line, refusing to accept poor attempts, letting them cry….it can really be quite devastating. But the rewards at the end (super self-sufficient, confident magnificent kids) makes it all worthwhile.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – Want handwriting goodies? Consider: