My son, my hero

After work Monday night as I was hounding my son about homework again, he pulled a 180 in the conversation.  I am sure his brain was moving at warp speed trying to think of some way to get the spotlight off of him and anywhere else.  Here is how he did it:  As he is sitting on the floor with his feet tucked under the sofa he said, "Mom, remember?  Remember?  You always say we're going to get in better shape.  How about now?"  Seriously, how do you turn that down?  What kind of excuse could I come up with that wouldn't make me look like a complete jacka$$ in front of my 11 year old?  (Also, he was already done with his homework, so there's that...)

We discussed how many sit ups to start with.  He said that he will do 50 because he can do 80 in gym class (kid logic).  I on the other hand, said I wasn't sure how many I could even do (adult logic).  He looked at me with total innocence and said "do you think you can do 5?".  Dear me, I can't even fool him anymore.  And I thought I was doing a decent acting job.

He starts in and whips out his 50 sit ups in about 2 1/2 minutes.  That's my boy!  As I go to sit down on the floor he tells me to wait and folds up a blanket to put under my back so I don't hurt myself.  Awwwwww...that's sweet...I think.  Maybe he's just worried that my old brittle bones will break and he will have to take care of me forever.  I'll have to think about that one.

My hero steps over me to straddle my legs, looks at me, holds out his hands and says, "Here, hold my hands.  That way if you can't do it I can help".  Sniff, sniff...how did I get such a good boy?  And it was a good thing he was there.  I did the 5 all on my own, but found that had he suggested I do 10 I may have been in trouble. 

My first step has been taken on the road to better health and I have a mini-guilt tripper mini-coach to keep me motivated.  What ever works, right?  We'll see how long his interest lasts.  Who knows, maybe I can teach him something along the way as well.

Today I will be doing 7 sits ups all by myself.  :-) 

Birthday Reminder

Last week I celebrated a birthday.  One of many that I would rather not count.  Mentally, I feel about 25.  Physically, closer to the half century mark.  Apparently, that says something about my maturity level.  I prefer to call it "thinking young".  I believe I am relatively professional when necessary (maybe), but in my personal life I am all about laughing and can find the humor in just about any situation.  Humor is how I deal with things.  Some people get it, some don't.  Luckily, my loving husband, my amazing son, and most of my family all share this attribute.  They make it easy for me to be me.

So up until this point I have always tried to laugh about my unhealthy lifestyle.  Seriously, the only bad habits I don't have are drinking and doing drugs.  Coca Cola is my drink of choice and food is my drug.  And because I read a lot (I mean a lot) and I love me some reality TV, I don't exercise enough.  Alright, alright, you got me.  I don't exercise at all.  Oh, and to top off that impressive list of bad habits, I smoke.  There, I said it...I smoke.  Granted, it is half a pack a day, but that is half a pack a day too much.

Which brings me back around to the title of my post, Birthday Reminder.  Last week I celebrated a birthday.  As you travel into your mid-forties, a couple of things start to work themselves out of your sub-conscious and into your conscious thoughts.  First, I probably have more birthdays behind me than in front of me.  And second, I need to do something about staying around as long as possible. 

There are many issues that I need to address in order for me to live the long and healthy life I seek.  I am not sure yet which one to tackle first or if I should just jump headfirst into fixing everything at once.  Believe me, I know this is going to be difficult, I'm not naive or stupid.  I just don't know where to start.  It's just that I like to drink Coke, it's my coffee.  And I like to eat, sweets especially...oh, and salty foods, too.  Smoking...well no one likes smoking.  Anyone who says they like smoking is not telling the whole truth.  We like the mental pleasure we get, but hate the habit and side effects.

The next few days will be spent taking a good long look at myself and how I got to this point in the first place.  I'll share my thoughts (funny, sad, pathetic, whatever) next time.  BTW,all of this is going to be hard enough as it is, so please use the following rule in when commenting:  " If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all". 

You are welcome to tag along on my journey.  I guarantee it will not be filled with rainbows and unicorns every day (heaven forbid) but I hope you find it enlightening, entertaining and maybe even funny at times.  Enjoy the ride!