Egads. August 19, 2007
Posted by kimayars Arena Work (Horse)
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Today I decided to take my metrics as my “lifestyle change” begins tomorrow. I got down my dusty sewing kit (the only time it sees the light of day is when there is an emergency repair on a stuffed animal) and pulled out my measuring tape. I bravely positioned it around my midsection and looked down: 37 inches. Egads, that can’t be right. I checked the positioning. Yup, it was at my natural waist. Hmmm… I must have the wrong end of the tape measure. I tried again: 37 inches. Egads. I sucked it in a bit. 36.5 inches. Ay yi yi…
I knew I had let myself go, but I didn’t know I had let myself go 7 inches. The last time I took that measurement six months ago, I was 30″ at the waist. I guess it wasn’t my imagination that my jeans were tight. It was the perfect example of how slow change can sneak up on you. I call it “The Boiling Frog Anaglogy”. If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, he’ll immediately jump out because it’s, well, boiling. If you put a frog in cold water and slowly turn up the temperature, he’ll eventually cook because he gets comfortable with the small changes. Not that I’ve ever tried this, but it does get the point across. I am a cooked frog.
Egads.
So here are my initial metrics:
- weight: 149.2 (pounds, not kilograms)
- waist: 37 inches
- hips (2″ below navel): 40 inches
Anyway, I am all prepared for tomorrow. I have my shopping list, I have my workout planned, and I have my cute new Lululemon clothes laid out, ready for me to slip into them at 5:30am. Woo-hoo.
As for today, Rasyn was a bit of a nut while I was mucking stalls. He would sprint from one end of the pasture to the other, throwing in gleeful bucks whenever he could. It was raining today, and after not having been on him for a week, I decided to play it safe and lunge him. I got walk/trot both directions via voice (which took about 10 minutes), and turned him back out to pester his pasturemates. He really was a good boy, and I was able to send him out further on the lunge line, to about 15 feet (our furthest so far).
Tomorrow he will have a training ride/tune-up with my trainer, which will be very good for him. It’s his chance to learn something new and solidify the foundation that we’re building on with someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
37 inches. Egads. Ribbit.
Comments
Funny . . . but true. It’s also the “what gets measured is what gets done” syndrome.
If you haven’t been measuring it, then change creeps up on you. The good news is that the reverse is true - measure your results and record the steps you take to get there, and you’re sure to succeed.
Works for me anyway - I’d never really used a training logbook before, but the Sweat365 logbook has kept me more or less on track through the summer, which being as I’m of Celtic descent (red hair, and skin so pale that ‘blue’ is probably a better description than ‘white’) is usually the time of year that I wimp out.
So good luck with the change, and in the meantime, stay away from French restaurants!
Thanks! The only French cuisine around here is French Fries! So if I can just avoid those…
The boiling frog analogy is interesting. I would never do that to a frog though! Egads!