Oh My Abs!

When Frankie said that we would shred some abs this week, I did not know that he meant it literally. I could barely drag myself out of the gym after doing an abbreviated ab work out with him, Gizmo, and Peter-Peter. Holy cow, those boys are no joke. My body is still abuzz from the shock. I keep this up and I might be worthy of my new bathing suit.

I had lunch today with Red at Pei Wei. Not only is white rice my favorite food in the whole world, but Red may be my favorite lunch date, so it was a guaranteed good time. We spent the first half of lunch plotting and scheming about Friday night's festivities and how to make it amazing. The second half was spent by Red doing her best to be a one woman marketing campaign for Dexter. All my objections fell on deaf ears. I love when she gets on a roll and does her best mom voice. It always starts, "Listen, all I'm saying is..." It is quite endearing.

Tonight I taught my music appreciation lesson at mutual. My lesson was well thought out, organized, and apparently boring as all get out. As I got further and further into the lesson, I could see that the last thing that the girls wanted to do when they came to mutual was sit and listen to me drone on. Other nights we paint, talk about books, and next week we are making mocktails. I can see how my lesson could be the low point of mutual. I am going to have to do something to keep the every diminishing attention span of a room of teenagers.

The lesson did make me reflect on how many lessons I have sat through and not heard one word of, how many lessons I have passed notes, how many lessons I played solitaire on my phone. All the while the teacher, who has spend hours preparing the lesson, continues in hopes that their lesson will touch my heart or invite the Spirit into the room. I have a new appreciation for all those teachers I didn't listen to, but for everyone that I sat back and criticized, secretly made-fun of the object lesson, or derailed their lesson with questions that changed the topic to something I found more interesting. I am sure karma has a whole heap of bored class members waiting in my future.

After mutual, I went to the gym and in case you missed it...Oh My Abs! Over two years ago, after recovering from several rounds of steroids, I joined Weight Watcher and shed 30 lbs that I had packed on. Steroids does just make you hungry, it makes you insatiable. I can remember sitting in Tacodeli and literally drinking a cup of queso. No wonder that by the time I was back on my feet, I was wearing a size 10. I lost 30 pounds on the program, and cannot tell you how much I love by body..

But loving your body does not always mean that you make good food choices. Once you are at your goal weight you are still supposed to eat within you points everyday. Easier said than done. When you have no goal in mind, it is easier to get off track. Chips turn into burgers, which turns into pizza, which into ice cream. You see where I am going with this.

Of all the parts of my body, my stomach is the hardest to keep trim. It is the first place I put on weight. I can go from beautiful and flat to a cresting rise of fat in a week of eating out. Two weeks of eating out can lead to pinchable fat. Three weeks and I cannot fit into my jeans. It is a slippery slope and summer is not the best time to hide in elastic banded bottoms or my scrubs.

I read somewhere that strong abs not only help you with posture and such, but they will also make you look thinner, even when you are carrying a bit of extra fat. This is why I am subjecting myself to such torture. Their workout made me feel like I just go to the gym to watch TV. They make me feel like I might as well be mall walking. It is nice to have someone pushing you. I am going to try to remember than when it takes a forklift to help me get out of bed tomorrow.

Well, it is off to bed I go, with a song in my heart, and my abs decimated. Tomorrow I will report the aftermath of my zeal, till then...