Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Sitting and Tasting

I skipped the Weight Watchers meeting last Tuesday. Since I was bombarded with nasty cold symptoms, I worked through my lunch break, trying to get a few essential tasks done so I could come home early and be sick in peace. That didn't work out so well for me. After getting off work about 4:30, I went to my friend Fred Meyers, stocked up on soup, juice and cold medicine, came home, ate my soup on my recliner, then slept until 11:15 when Will woke me up to go to bed. I stayed in bed sleeping or dozing until 2 pm the next day except one brief visit to the lavatory. After I got up, I lounged on my recliner for the rest of the day. Anyway, I sat around a lot last week. No exercise Tuesday through Friday. Wow.

So it is interesting that the WW meeting topic this week was "The Unhealthiest Thing You Do". Any ideas what that might be? Yep, it's sitting. They say the amount of time you spend sitting has the biggest impact on your health - the more you sit, the greater your risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other ailments. So they encourage those of us with desk jobs to try to get up once an hour and move around. In fact, the goal is to get us walking five minutes of every hour.

How much do you sit? I have a desk job, but the printer is in the workroom next to the office. So is the coffee pot. I  also have to go in there to fill up my water container. Of course, the water and coffee consumption means I have to visit the little room down the hall. And then there are the copy machines that have paper jams and run out of ink, so I am frequently called upon to exercise my expertise in this area. I occasionally get to walk a kid with a bloody nose back to the health room, or go back there to get ice for a wimpy child with an ouchie. Once in awhile, I even provide outstanding service and walk a purchase order down to a classroom for a teacher (but more likely just to their mailbox!) or personally deliver a note to a child in a class. But enough about me and all my fascinating daily activities. The truth is, I spend a lot of time sitting at a desk. And in the winter, I spend a good bit of my evening on my recliner. So I will try to get up and move around more often.

Well, I lost 1.6 pounds in the past two weeks, which brings me to a total of five pounds lost in the past six weeks. I'm trying to track my food first thing in the morning, filling in what I'm planning to have for lunch and dinner. That really helps me know how many points I have left when other things come up during the day.

My sister Hope and I were talking this week, and I was surprised to learn that food still doesn't taste very good to her. It's been nine months since she fell and broke her neck, and I guess I just assumed that with all the amazing progress she has made, the taste buds would have recovered as well. (She's not very good at complaining!) She was saying that Pepsi is the one thing that tastes really good, and really salty foods are about the only thing that's really tasty.

I think about her a lot now when I'm eating something that's satisfyingly yummy! Which leads me to want to pray for her.

"Oh loving Heavenly Father, thank you so much for making food so delicious. Thank you for the ability to taste it. I am so grateful for fully functioning taste buds!  I don't understand why that blessing has been taken away from my sister, but I thank you for her attitude of thanksgiving and gratitude to you for all the gifts she does have. I ask that you would continue to heal her body and bring complete restoration and function to all the damaged nerves. Thank you that you are the source of strength, healing, and joy. Help us all to learn to be content with what you have given us."

"I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength." (Phillipians  4:11-13)



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