“Focus plus daily improvement plus time equals genius” – Sharma

When I read that quote, I realized why I haven’t attained genius status yet. I haven’t applied all three to one goal – ever. What should I apply that formula to??? Maybe my fitness program. If I focus totally when I exercise and I feel a little improvement every day and I continue it for a month, I’ll be on the road to greatness in that area. We’ll see. I did end up weighing myself. Mistake. But I wasn’t depressed long. I’ll be a different person in less than a month. And today was another good day. I focused well on my dance routine, I added pretty good arm movements (daily improvement) and added one more day to my program. And I heard geese fly overhead.

My fitness program is coming together. I like my dance routine—a tape that includes Latin dance moves and ballet. It was my second time to follow these exercises and I find a bit of improvement in my ability to follow the foot movements—my arms are still flailing a bit erratically—I’ll figure that part out later. A friend of mine told me she doesn’t do the exercise tapes because it’s too hard to learn the steps. Of course, I immediately decided I would not stop until I COULD do them—my pride again. So—I’m doing my dance routine every morning. I’m going to fit in the treadmill or a walk outside every day. Just before bed, I’ll be doing “Yoga for Chickens.”

So today I danced. I felt good afterwards—all invigorated and alive. I loved it. I came up and took a shower. Then I had a gourmet lunch of shrimp linguini, spinach salad, sugar snap peas and large red grapes with a small glass of wine and Italian music in the background.

This is an experiment in following a “Fine Living/spa” lifestyle for a month to see what comes from it. I hope to lose weight and trim up, but my greater goal is just to feel wonderful and healthy. I’m not weighing myself, I’m not counting calories or depriving myself of good food and I’m not following any diet. I’m doing what I love and I’m going to love everything I do. This will be a month of bliss and pampering. It officially started today.

"Pride cometh before the fall"

I was having a little feelings-hurt moment because I was teased about staying in just because there was a little snow out there. I grabbed my veggie scraps, slipped on my treadless Birkenstocks and headed out to the compost pile with annoyance, when, "Whiz, plop!" the veggies flew in one direction and I flew in the other-- right on the ice. Well I'm 61. I've heard all the old stories about the "broken hip" when you become "elderly." So I picked myself up and carefully checked out all my parts. It seemed the only injury was to my wrist. A large bump started forming. That was a week ago. No more knitting, no more chopping and slicing for my gourmet-cooking hobby, nothing that took both hands--and it was my RIGHT hand. At first it was nice--I put my feet up and read and watched movies and my husband brought me tea. But I got restless and. . . my first blog was born. As soon as I could use the computer with both hands again, I called my daughter and, with her help, I am online.

I'm not sure yet what I'll be writing. I've started a fitness routine (without arm exercises at the moment) and will be developing it as I go. I love to cook, knit, and garden. I'm currently taking some time off from my career as a Chemistry teacher and never know what I might be doing next. I'm always reinventing myself and might be doing some of that right here. My adventure begins.