Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – August 22, 2004

Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – August 22, 2004

Tiger Living – Day 2

Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – August 22, 2004 – Big and I had dinner last night at Dorothy’s. My brother is away for the week-end at a cottage, so it was a gals’ night of laughs, conversation and great food. My sister-in-law is a magnificent cook. She can whip up gourmet fare in a nanosecond. Last night’s offering was olives and marinated mushrooms as an appetizer, BBQ chicken, a rice and apricot dish and green beans.

Key lime pie and fresh raspberries appeared as dessert. What a feast. I kept my appetite in check, with no second servings, although I’m sure I could have finished the pie by myself. I think this is where the extra pounds have come from. Big also did an admirable job of refusing extra helpings. The enjoyment of sharing wonderfully prepared food with good friends is one of the great gifts of being human and my appetite has never been lacking at the dinner table.

I like to eat – I love the taste of food and the sound of dishes, glasses and silverware. Thank heavens I’ve never been prone to eating a leaf of lettuce and a peanut for dinner – think of what I would have missed. I simply need to change my approach to eating but not eliminate the good things. I am not on a diet – I’m changing my habits.

This morning I’d planned to be up before eight-thirty to try to introduce a routine into my schedule, with the hope of achieving a better sleep pattern. I wasn’t successful – but did rouse myself by ten after nine. That’s okay. I did my fifty minute walk on this warm sunny Sunday and then had a healthy breakfast. I not really hungry, but I’m used to eating more than I have for the last two days, so psychologically I think I’m peckish.

I’m going to have a light lunch to keep my eating routine intact. Dinner time will then fall between six and seven this evening and I won’t eat after eight o’clock. These shouldn’t be onerous daily changes to make and keep, and with exercise added five days a week, I hope to tackle the health-weight issue head on.

Now that my computer system is “almost” back on track, I hope to apply the same enthusiasm to my work schedule. Nothing much is happening in Toronto real estate in these last two weeks of summer. I will be busy again in the fall, but by then my changed eating and exercise routine should be on track. If my sleeping pattern has improved as I hope it will, my energy level should go up dramatically as my weight comes down, and the benefits of exercise start to kick in to give me a boost.

The next place I need to apply Tiger Living is to my personal life. Going out more, entertaining and becoming more involved with friends, family and outside interests. I can hardly wait to challenge my anxiety and panic with a few tiger roars. My chicken-self has been so firmly entrenched in my psyche for so many years that it doesn’t quite believe yet that changes are coming around the mountain and down the pike, but feathers are about to fly.

I don’t want to actually kill the chicken because I like parts of her and she hasn’t done a bad job of managing my life to this point – she just needs to share the limelight with the tiger – maybe I’ll become a Chiger or a Ticken when the these two component parts of me are melded together into an amazing, dynamic whole woman. The one I’ve known all along I could be if I wasn’t so afraid of my own shadow. Right now I think I’ll take my tiger-self down to the kitchen for a healthy lunch. My next Progress Report will be on August 31st when I’ll have an update on the next few days of Tiger Living!

P.S. – 2014 – Somehow after all these years of living I have managed to combine the chicken and the tiger. I really am living the life I want to and doing the things that are important to me. Too bad we haven’t mastered these life lessons in our twenties!