Temple repair...

THE LULU CHRONICLES

What is it about new beginnings that instantly turn our attention to the weight loss and good health aspect of new starts? A page in my book has turned, a very important one. I am now a single woman who has lost her husband and feel it’s time to take steps toward a new life. Once I knew I was there, I started contemplating what my new health routines were going to be. I don’t think this is a bad thing, but it’s curious how often weight loss and healthy eating attach themselves to new beginnings.

Of course, my thoughts go to LuLu, my pink bike. As I write this, I am upstairs in my writing room looking out over our three acres. Three acres of snow. The snow is blowing sideways. Not a good day to ride a bike. It’s not a good day to even peek my nose out the door. But I know she sits out in the garage in all her pink glory waiting, waiting for me to get my *cowgirl in gear. If you’re a follower of this blog, you know that it was LuLu, the pink bike, who got me started on this blog journey. My husband gave her to me on my sixtieth birthday. I began chronicling lessons learned on the road with LuLu. Three years later, my great love, my Hubs, is gone and LuLu waits for me. My period of mourning cause periods lethargic and sporadic behavior when it came to bike riding or any other exercise for that matter. As a matter of fact, lethargic just about sums up this whole last year as I was forced to adjusted to the trauma of loss. Everything in my life became hit and miss. For some people, a trauma like this pushes them to obsess and overdosing on exercise and other pain numbing activities. For folks like me who have always used food as an emotional painkiller, homemade bread with real butter melting over its crust became my drug of choice. Both extremes can harm the psyche.

Well, my knees, back and other muscles and joints have had enough, not to even mention my blood sugars. They have all sent up an S.O.S. My Fibromyalgia is also squeezing my muscles and nerves and will soon crush them if I don’t get moving soon. The Grade C miracle in all this is that I haven’t gained any weight, in fact, I’ve lost weight. The harm to my health isn’t about weight as much as deterioration.

Enough of this talk. It’s time to pull out Belle, the exercise Ball, Hildegard, the elliptical, and Rusty II, the stationary bike. Loss. Trauma. Mourning and Lamenting has taken its toll. It’s time to beat them all over the head with some free-weights. Who’s with me?

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” I Cor. 6:19.

*cowgirl code for: rear, butt, bum,