Sunday, December 21, 2008

Scale, Observation, and Me

I hopped on the scale this morning and it read....drum roll please....

123.2

I decided to get off, remove my bra, tank, and yoga pants for a more accurate reading.

Big sigh.

124.6.

Huh?? I gained weight by removing my clothes???? The scale did that yesterday too. I was like 124.2 and I got off, got back on and it was at 125. I've noticed that every time I buy a digital scale, the things gets cold and it is no longer accurate. The first time I had one, it was in a bathroom that didn't have heat, so that's how it was cold. Now this scale is in my kitchen on the tile and there's no heat in my kitchen. Could someone please tell me how the cold affects the calibration????

So, maybe I am down to 123, maybe I'm not. Either way, I am not really sweating it. I can look at myself and see I am thinning out. I saw a picture at work that was taken on the 12th and I gasped and said "OMG, my arms are tiny. Why didn't you all tell me my arms are so small." This is a good thing and a bad thing. I am glad they're small. That means I don't have the fat, chicken wing arms. At the same time, I've lost some muscle there as well. I don't want man arms, but I do want some guns!!! I'll save this for the me section.

My child is sick. She woke up the night before last throwing up and she has been coughing since then. I thought she was vomiting because she found a sippy cup with rotten milk in it and might have taken a sip, but as her coughing progressed, I think she may have been coughing which caused her to gag and in turn, vomit. (Although there is a distinct difference in the smell if you have a tummy bug or if you just gagged..and that night it did smell like she had a stomach issue) That just happened to us in Wal-Mart and it WAS because she coughed so hard she gagged. Yeah, gross. I digress. Last night I got up around 2:30 am to get her some medicine. I had to go walk around the house looking for cough medicine so I was up for a good 10 minutes with the lights on. I couldn't go back to sleep after that so I grabbed my blackberry. I decided to read some blogs, check out myspace, and twitter. I have a habit of going to a friends page then veering off and checking out blogs he or she reads, or checking out his or her friends and clicking on others from there. You never know when you might come across a blog you love or find a person that is really cool. But that's not what I found last night. What I found was really pathetic. I found people on twitter begging for more followers. I found people begging others to read his or her blog. I found people on myspace begging others to leave them comments. It's not like it was something personal to another member like "Hey Kelly, stop by my blog, you're going to love my latest post" it was like "Okay everyone, I have a new blog up and you MUST read it." Maybe you don't see the difference in my example but trust me, the latter was pathetic. the thing I observed about these people is that they really think they're cool and or popular because they have a lot of followers or a lot of readers or a lot of comments. The things is, the ONLY reason they have followers, readers, comments, fans, etc. is because they begged people to do it. If I got on twitter and every other hour I was leaving a comment like "Ok guys, get over to my blog, check me out" then I would have a million hits a day. It's one thing to do that and acknowledge that you only have traffic because you're out there selling yourself, but these poor pathetic souls REALLY think they're popular. If you have to ask someone to vote for you, or to read your blog, or to leave you a comment, then you are quite the opposite of popular. You're having to ask for attention because no one is giving it to you because people really aren't that in to you. Again, it's one thing to tell your readers "hey you guys, I posted some pics from my holiday trip in my album, check them out if you want" but is a totally different beast when you're telling people "Okay fans, why don't you go to my page to check out the pics of my rock hard abs" then 20 minutes later you're leaving another message on twitter/myspace/facebook saying "Oh come on, only one person checked out my abs, everyone can see how hot I am on my blog." GET A LIFE LOSER. Also, I've noticed that these very same people are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO condescending to others. Its as if this new found (begged for)"popularity" has gotten to them and they suddenly think they're in a class with someone like Monica Brandt or Jenny Lynn or Cynthia Herndon! I found things like this "It's cold outside, I think I am going to have some hot chocolate" and Mr./Ms. Condescending would snidely reply "I don't dare touch the stuff. You can't have a 6 pack if you poison yourself with that crap. If you want to look like me, you need water and green tea only." Now that was just an example, but there is a much better way to address your thoughts such as "Hot chocolate sounds good. I try not to drink the stuff because it tends to mess with my physique. I am so envious of you--it sounds better than my water and green tea. Enjoy!" Of course, i am not an advocate of being fake either. If you're not a nice person, then don't try to woo readers by being what you're not. With that said, if you come off as a raging bitch, chances are you WILL have to beg people to befriend you or leave you comments. Wait--do you see a trend here??? Those people that are begging others to read their blog, or look at their abs, or leave them comments are the very same people that talk down to their readers. HMMMMMM??????

Truly, I don't care if I have 6000 followers on Twitter (I don't even know if its allowed) or if I have 100,000 hits a day on my blog, or if I have 1200 friends on myspace. For these people, it's all about numbers. They think they're the cool kid if they're being followed. If you had to constantly tell people to read your blog, or ask others to leave you comments or to add you as a friend, then you need to wake up--the ONLY reason you have high numbers is because YOU HAD TO ASK PEOPLE TO FOLLOW YOU ---THEY DIDN'T DO IT BECAUSE THEY LIKE YOU BECAUSE IF THEY DID, THEY WOULD ALREADY BE YOUR FRIEND OR WOULD BE READING YOUR FAKE BLOG. Now, of course, there are people out there that DO have a legitimate fan base. These people are reading their blogs because they somehow stumbled across it and they love it. They're following these people on twitter because they like the person, not because the person asked them. They're leaving comments because they enjoy conversing with this person, not because this person had to ask for the comments. There is a difference there, a BIG difference. The person that asks for attention will soon lose the crowd. People will get tired of the condescending remarks and the constant "hey look at me." The person that has a large following because people actually likes him or her will only get more popular because more people will be drawn in. I really feel sorry for the person that has to beg people to pay attention...

Of course, if one of those people ever read this post, he or she would roll his or her eyes and think I am just jealous that I don't have as many people paying attention to me. You tell yourself whatever you need to make yourself sleep better at night. Hey, why don't you ask more people to read your blog so it can boost your self esteem because heaven knows you really need it.

And to all of you that are reading this blog, thank you. Thank you for coming here on your own accord--whether you like my posts or you just stumbled across me on someone else's page. I appreciate you stopping by. And I sincerely mean that. I am thankful that I've never had to beg anyone to come here. But more importantly, I am thankful that I have wonderful people like you in my life. Each and every one of you inspire me in some way. I could list something about each of you but this post is getting long enough. Thank you.

Now, lastly....me.

I am ready to start working out again. I feel it!!! As you know, I took some time off. Work was hectic, we were travelling alot. But now I am ready. I see that I am making progress by losing the weight and I believe that working out might accelerate that. some of you might be thinking "duh...you would burn more calories and would lose more weight." Yeah, I know scientifically, I should lose more weight if I work out. But there is one little secret you all don't know---I defy science. Well, at least I defy medicine. I will be in the middle of having an asthma attack, the dr. can hear me wheezing from across the room, but as soon as the stethoscope hits my chest, my airways are clear. Hot baths/showers/steam are supposed to help clear up the lungs during an asthma attack--it actually makes mine worse. Humidifiers are supposed to be great during the winter to put moisture back in the air that was replaced with dry heat. Yeah, they give me a nasty sore throat and dry me out. When I was in the hospital for suspected appendicitis, they didn't think I had it because A-my white blood cell count wasn't elevated and B-I had no rebound pain. I guess it was supposed to get worse when the doctor pressed in and let go. A CT scan revealed nothing, as they really didn't even see my appendix. The surgeon said he thought I had Crohn's disease but was going to do surgery regardless because that was their policy that way they could rule out appendicitis if this ever happened again. Needless to say, my appendix had ruptured. Huh??? But you really didn't have the scientific symptoms. The moral of the story is that typically, my body does what it shouldn't do. It would be my luck that I would do cardio, would not eat anything more, and would gain weight. I am dead serious. But...I am not going to let that scare me. I am going to listen to my body and my "cravings." If I have this overwhelming sensation to workout, my body clearly knows it needs it. The same thing applies when I need a nap. That's my body telling me it needs a break. I guess my body is now telling me it feels fat or needs some energy or something;-) So we shall see....maybe I will pose later with workout results.

Have a great Sunday. Christmas is a few days away. Oh joy.

4 comments:

Kelly Olexa said...

Girl, you and I are so right about our weird bodies. And women in general- our instinct, gut feeling, intuition, we KNOW our bodies. Your body does react TOTALLY the opposite of others in many situations. And that's why YOU are the #1 expert on it.
Glad you are back sista. It feels ROCKIN to be back in the swing of things for me. So awesome!! This is going to be an amazing year. I can FEEL it. Big time.

I unfollowed a bunch of people today on twitter. As more business minded yet collaborative minds get on there, they don't need to hook up to the egomaniacs. And it's funny because the really good experts in these fields are all about mutual integration/collaboration for the greater good and all have a common dislike for spam, get rich quick MLM scams and shameless self promoters. As someone who is now consulting in this field, I see some of these new 'old school experts' entering the space with their ego first- and they are crashing and burning. They are totally opaque, they don't interact or engage and thus will not sustain interest in the long term.

On the other hand, I'm just wowed by the GREAT people I have met blogging and through the other sm avenues...really has added to my life.

But YOU my darling were the first!! ;-)~! XOXO

ROCK ON!!! and I hope Mackenzie feels better!! Dang!!

Erin said...

Hey Sherry,

Sounds like you have quite the experimental body, which im sure gets frustrating especially when you read about what everyone else is doing, must be a lot of trial and Error, but you must be doing SOMETHING right because you look fabulous! Hope you have a very MERRY Christmas, and that santa is good to you!

-Erin

Tearose said...

I hope your daughter gets better soon.

LOL about the beggars, people like that are too funny.

And yes WHAT IS UP with your scale? lol, thats just weird.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Great post Sherry! I've often wondered why people would beg for others to read their blog, etc. It's sad really.

I really am glad to hear that you are feeling the vibe again. Wish I was. It will come though. I'm just takin a little snooze. :)

I really hope Mackenzie is feeling better now!