By Rachel Langston
I got an iPod Shuffle for Christmas. I wanted one so that I could listen to something at the gym without having to worry about radio reception if I wasn’t lucky enough to get the treadmill closest to the window!
Actually, I prefer listening to talk radio when I exercise (sports talk radio to be precise) but I was willing to expand my musical horizons to help me pass the exercise time. At least I THOUGHT I was willing. That was before I discovered podcasts!
Now, a whole new world has been opened and my exercise life will never be the same. I knew that podcasts were gaining popularity but I had no idea of the number and variety that exist. There is somebody talking about everything (and I do mean everything)!
Now, my exercise time is full of talk on sports, money, business information and strategies, book reviews, movie reviews, sermons from well-known preachers and all kinds of stuff. Using my exercise time to listen to these podcasts is helping the time pass more quickly than it would otherwise AND it is helping me learn things about owning/running my business at the same time. I am actually listening to what is being piped into my ears instead of obsessing about how long I have exercised and how much longer I have to go! I get information from a podcast much more quickly and concisely than I would listening to a radio show and I can listen on my schedule, instead of having to tune in at a certain time to a certain station.
Who knew that I could kill 2 birds with just 1 little podcast?
Copyright, RPL Communications, 2007
By Rachel Langston
I know that Valentine’s Day is still a few weeks away and “American Heart Month” doesn’t officially start until February. We celebrate a little early at our house, though, because we have a heart anniversary that is worth noting!
January 22, 2005 was the day that my, then 39 year old husband, had a heart major attack. It came without warning and with no obvious family history or risk factors. Because of my husband’s attention to his symptoms and his recognition that he was likely having a heart attack, he is alive to celebrate today – the 2 yr. anniversary of good health SINCE his heart attack.
I am not an alarmist, but I have become a believer in education about health issues and doing whatever we can to make ourselves healthier. Because of his heart attack, our family has made some changes. None of them are drastic and, hopefully, all of them will make all of us just a little healthier in the long run.
I encourage you to take just a few minutes today to think about your heart. If it is healthy, give thanks. If it is not, commit to doing what you can to start making it healthier.
Here are a few places to get you started on finding some good information…
http://www.americanheart.org
http://www.heartinfo.org/
http://www.health-heart.org/
http://www.pelinks4u.org/articles/bonello/020103HappyHeartInteractive.htm
http://www.happyheart.com/
http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2000/006/4.80.html
by Rachel Langston
I don’t like to exercise! That is not to say that I don’t like anything physical. I do enjoy playing tennis and swimming and playing basketball (even if I don’t do any of those things very often). I just don’t like the idea of having to do physical things and call it exercise. I would rather think that I am playing a game and getting some physical benefit at the same time. The idea of an organized “work out” makes me crazy. I would almost rather cook or clean house! If you know me or if you have ever been to my house, you know that those things don’t happen very regularly either.
Anyway, I recently recommitted myself to regular exercise. There were a number of reasons for that not the least of which is becoming healthier. So, I worked on my attitude about exercise and decided that it was finally time to do this, even if and when I didn’t want to.
I have been at this since mid-November. I have missed some days but, overall, I have exercised more days than I have missed and I count that as a huge accomplishment. Imagine my surprise when, this past Monday, I realized that the gym was closed for the MLK Holiday and I was upset because that meant I couldn’t go exercise. I think my husband thought that he had come home to the wrong house!
It is not that I like the actual activity (walking, stationary bike, etc.) so much. In fact, I really don’t like to sweat if I can keep from it. What I like, though, is that I gain a sense of having done something when I am finished. It means that I have made a good choice for that day and I have made myself just a little bit healthier, stronger, energetic, etc. Tommorrow, I have to face that same choice all over again. Having made a good choice the day before gives me a little advantage to make the same good choice again.
My husband (a diligent exerciser) has done a great job of not rubbing my face in this, but, truly, there is none more surprised than I!
Copyright, RPL Communications, 2007
By Rachel Langston
My wedding ring is on my mind today so I’ll share a few thoughts about it…
I LOVE MY RING! It is an emerald cut diamond mounted on a white gold band with channel set diamonds across the top. I have a yellow gold band with channel set diamonds on either side and all 3 bands are sautered together.
Even though he knew what I wanted, my husband picked it out by himself (at my request). I wanted him to be happy with it also and I wanted to be surprised about what it looked like and when I got it. I think he gave it to me the day he picked it up because he didn’t think he could keep the secret!
This is, actually, my 2nd wedding ring. My first one was stolen out of my house during my silver jewelry phase. During that time, I had a silver wedding band (I still have it) that I wore on the days that silver jewelry went better with my outfit for work. In April 2000, just 2 days before I found out I was pregnant with my first child, my husband called while I was at work (that was unusual). He had arrived home before me (that was not unusual) and found that our house had been burglarized. When he called, he wanted to know what color jewelry I had on that day. I told him silver and he said, “Well then, I think we have a problem.”
My ring HAD been stolen along with the watch I gave him as a wedding gift and some other pieces of jewelry. Nothing that was taken, except my wedding ring, was terribly valuable but all of it had sentimental value. Thankfully, my original ring was insured so I was able to replace it completely. Actually, that is when we made the change to white gold on the middle band. My husband wanted me to do something so that I wouldn’t feel the need to NOT wear it when I was/am wearing silver jewelry.
I can still get angry thinking about the people that broke in my house and stole my stuff while I was at work. I don’t wear my ring all the time because it doesn’t fit me as well as I would like (remember all that weight I am working on losing). Also, there are still days when I wear my silver ring.
I will never love a ring like I love this one and I pray it is the only one I’ll have from now on!
Copyright, RPL Communications, 2007
By Rachel Langston
What is it about the front door of a pediatrician’s office that turns an otherwise pitiful, lethargic, feverish child into a perky, babbling, vivacious being? Not once or twice, but three times THIS WEEK, I have watched this amazing phenomenon with my own children. Never mind that I only have two children.
We didn’t ring in the New Year in the emergency room but we arrived there about 12:30 a.m. because one of my children had swallowed a watch battery earlier that evening. At first, I was content to just let the battery pass naturally. That was until I started reading about “battery ingestion” on the Internet and realized that there is such a thing as the National Button Battery Ingestion Hotline. I called the hotline and they indicated that I MUST have my child x-rayed so that we could make sure that the battery had not gotten lodged and started eroding. By the time we had the x-ray and saw the Dr., my child was laughing and bouncing off the wall. The biggest impression that the whole experience made was that we stayed up all night and watched TV while we were waiting.
Just 3 days later, I took that same child to the Dr. because he had been running fever. Prior to the trip to the Dr., this child had been willing to stay in bed (and had done so) for most of the week before. After we walked into the office, this child immediately transformed into the most personable person around. There was NO fever, NO cough, NO sneezing. The nurse just looked at me. I am sure she was wondering why I was there!
At 8:45 a.m. this morning, I was back at the Dr. with child #2. While we waited, there was singing, talking, invention of games and an explanation of the pain chart for me. This was NOT the same child that awakened me at 2:22 a.m. with a fever of 104!
I am not one of those mothers that runs my children to the Dr. every time they sniffle. In fact, if our pediatrician is not working that day, I have been known put off a trip until I can see him. In these cases, my children DID need to go, even if they didn’t act like they were sick once they got there. As for the battery, it was not lodged and it passed quickly. Both visits to the doctor’s office resulted in prescriptions for antibiotics so there was some indication that my children actually HAD been feeling bad, no matter what they acted like in the office!
Copyright, RPL Communications, 2007
By Rachel Langston
I am not much for New Year’s resolutions. Mine are rarely realistic and quickly forgotten!
Sometime in the last 2 or 3 years, I started identifying PROJECTS for each new year. By definition, a project is “something intended or defined.” For me, that feels like a better option than vaguely worded resolutions.
In addition to identifying PROJECTS, I have started listing GOALS that compliment the tasks necessary to complete my projects. I have had sick children this week so I don’t have all this fleshed out completely, but here is my attempt at betterment for 2007:
PROJECTS:
1. Finish the interior home improvement projects (including punch lists) that we started in 2006. We are very close if we will just make one final push!
2. Rearrange and reorganize the closets in our house to make them more efficient. This will probably include getting rid of some STUFF and that is OK too.
3. Work through the boxes and piles of labeled pictures and mementos that I have been collecting since my children were born. I have start a baby book for my oldest (now 6), but my youngest (now 3 and a half) still has all her things stored in a box.
GOALS:
1. Lose 26 pounds before my 40th birthday (8/5/2007). This is the continuation of a goal I set in October of this year.
2. Prepare dinner AT HOME at least 4 nights each week. That doesn’t mean cooking from scratch but it woud mean that we eat at home MORE than we eat out.
3. Read at least 15 books.
In reality, there are pages and pages of things that I would like to accomplish in the new year. This list does not include ANY of my career projects and goals! I know, however, that my time does not always get allocated in the way that I think it will so this list is deliberately short. If and when I get through with these things, I’ll revise my list and keep going.
By way of update…
I have stayed even on my weight through the holidays. That is always an accomplishment! Counting today, there have been 50 days in the year since I started tracking my exercise on November 12, 2006. Of those 50 days, I have exercised on 33 different days. That exercise has consisted of 971 minutes of walking for an average of 29.4 minutes per day. Ultimately, I would like to average 35-40 minutes of walking MOST days of the week. Increasing that average and concentrating more on my weight LOSS is all part of goal #1!
