In which Mrs. Dude discusses exercise

I hate "working out." I have never been athletically inclined, and I'm clumsy. Moreover, I would rather read a book or watch TV than go to the gym or play sports.

I like walking MollyB, my dog, but I feel like that doesn't count. I can't not walk her. I mean, I could, but I don't want to end up on an episode of Animal Cops or anything.

I am in the process of trying to lose weight though exercise and eating well. As a result, I go out to eat less and cook and exercise more.

To fulfill the "exercise" part of the plan, I choose to go to a gym.

I sometimes feel bad about it, since I could save money and just go running in my neighborhood instead of going to the gym and jogging on a treadmill.

Remember how I told you I would rather watch TV than exercise?

My dirty secret is that all of the cardio equipment in the gym I go to has TVs attached to them. And the TVs all have cable.

It feels sort of strange to go to the gym and watch TV. But it's the only way I can motivate my lazy self to exercise.

So 3 times per week I go to the gym, plug into a TV, and jog.

I've been doing the Couch to 5K program. It's a 9-week program, but I've been working on it for a year. I guess that tells you everything you need to know about my level of commitment.

I recently switched to exercising in the morning. My gym is overrun in the evening and I hate waiting to use a treadmill. It makes me not want to exercise, and I have a hard enough time getting to the gym without this extra layer of soul crushing complication.

It turns out that the majority of people who go to my gym don't want to get up early to work out. The place is dead in the morning--even less busy than when I've been there on a Friday night. It tells you something when more people would rather work out on a Friday night than get up early, right?

The moral of my story is this: if I can get up early and exercise, you can fit 30 minutes of physical activity into your day. Park far away from the store you're shopping in. Go for a walk with your dog or your kids or, alternately, to get away from your dog or your kids. Find a trail and go for a ride on your bike. Start a recreational kickball team. Go dancing.

Joining a gym isn't necessary to be successful. You might want to do it, but you don't have to.

Just choose to be active.

A blog post in vignette-form

I haven't been reading enough, or listening to enough music, or doing anything crafty lately.

I have "hobby block," I guess. Like writer's block, but with hobbies.
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My blog would be significantly easier to write and much more interesting for you to read if it was written with fewer than 140 characters. Like Twitter. When I write my Tweets, the character limits force me to be so concise and so careful with my words.
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Going to the gym at 6:30 a.m. is much nicer than going at 6:30 p.m. It's quiet and I never have to wait for a treadmill. Probably because nobody really wants to work out that early in the morning.
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My musical tastes have changed over the past year. Over the past year I've grown to love female singers and alt-country.
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The Kanye West song 'Heartless' is almost sad enough to make me not hate him. Almost.

Good deals on digital music? Yes please...

If you're on Twitter, you should think about following the Amazon.com mp3 feed. It links to the Amazon mp3 store which has a "Deal of the Day."

Generally speaking, it looks like Amazon sells digital music for cheaper than iTunes. Not in every case, but generally.

I'm also not sure about DRM with files you get from Amazon.

I don't think that Amazon will replace the iTunes Store for me. I am lazy, and the iTunes store is right in front of me when I've got iTunes open. Still, the Daily Deal is enough to at least make me look at Amazon's mp3 store when I've got an album I want but am not willing to pay $10 for.

I support 'Sound of Young America' awareness...do you?

Did you see the teal ribbon on my sidebar?

It links you to Maximum Fun's website which is kind of the nerve center of The Sound of Young America.

If you're not aware of TSOYA, you should be. If you're not, I'm beginning to think you aren't paying attention to me.

Anyway, click the link and show TSOYA some love.

Profiles in courage: Nie Nie Dialogues

I'll admit it: I came late to the party. I didn't know that Nie Nie Dialogues existed until I saw the "I read Nie Nie" patch on AnonymousK's blog.

I told y'all the other day about my love of blogs whose authors "keep it real." Nie Nie is the queen of Keep it Real-ville.

She's a wife and mother of four kids. She struggles with the same things that all women struggle with, only she seems to do it without breaking a sweat. It's not that these things come effortlessly to her so much as it's that she finds joy in it--even the messy, broken parts. She loves her life and exudes the kind of happiness that comes with true contentment.

In August, Nie Nie and her beloved Mr. Nielson were in a plane crash.

Now Nie Nie navigates marriage, motherhood, and the burn unit. And remarkably, even in the face of adversity, she still exudes joy.

Nie Nie's blog a well-written, compelling story about finding contentment wherever you are. Her blog challenges me to live authentically and to find joy in the midst of manure.

A non-sequiter of an observation

Do you know what I don't understand about athletes who take performance enhancing drugs and then say 'I don't know exactly what it was that I took'?

If you get paid oodles and scads of money based on how well your body performs, it doesn't seem natural to take something without knowing exactly what it is and how it will affect your body.

AnonymousK: blogger extraordinaire

I have this friend, AnonymousK, who writes a blog. In fact, you might be visiting my blog from hers as I was lucky enough to be featured as one of her Valentines.

I read a lot of blogs, most of which are written by people I don't know. I especially like blogs whose authors "keep it real." I like people who are self-assured enough to tell the truth, even when it's ugly. I find people like that inspiring.

AnonymousK's is not only a blogger with the courage to speak the truth, she is also someone I could email and not be embarrassed or fan girl-y about it. See, AnonymousK and I used to know each other well. We were friends 'back in the day.' What this really means is that she knew me at my most awkward and, as a result, has ammunition a-plenty. We lost touch, though, but through the magic of the Interwebs we became reacquainted.

The nice thing is, now we know each other as grown ups. What this really means is that we have decided to not bring up those awkward years and, instead, choose to relate to each other as mature, has-it-together versions of the people we used to be.

AnonymousK totally keeps it real. She talks about her life and her family (as a side note, AnonymousK's husband, Mr. K., was a friend of mine for many years. We were in First Communion class together back when I was Catholic.) She talks about her joys and her struggles. And she does it with a grace and authenticity that make me green with envy.

So go give AnonymousK some love, y'all! You'll be glad you did.

Mrs. Dude and the 'orgy of overshare'

I have this ridiculous love-hate relationship with Facebook.

I enjoy Facebook because I can stalk people catch up with people that I might not otherwise have time to stalk connect with.

The people in my life who are my Facebook friends fall into two categories:
1.People I am currently acquainted with either virtually or "In Real Life."
2.People I was friends with at some point in the past but with whom I will probably not become reacquainted with more than superficially.

There are some people who started out in Category 2 who have moved to Category 1, and for that I am eternally grateful for Facebook.

My problem with social networking is--

Wait? You're tired of hearing people rant about social networking?

Humor me.

--something I'd like to call the 'orgy of over-share.'

The thing that made me aware of this 'orgy of over-share' that Facebook is facilitating was that '25 things' meme that every. single. person. on Facebook is doing.

The gist is this:
Get "tagged" by your friend, make a list of 25 things about yourself that nobody knows, tag 25 of your friends.

I have enjoyed learning more about the people I truly am interested in. I even came up with 25 facts about myself. All of them were true, and most of them were dreadfully boring.

But it's growing tiresome.

There is now a 100-question meme and a meme for mommies about the birth of one's first child.

There's an A-Z meme and an iPod shuffle meme.

It's 'meme madness' people!

This giant orgy of over-share is making me kind of want some time away from Facebook. I like you, but I really don't want to know that much about you.

And I posted a status message yesterday that said something about stopping the 'meme madness.'

In response, my awesome friend Amy sent me a link to this article that included the phrase "virtual narcissism."

And that, my friends, is where we get to the heart of my beef with social networking.

For all of the awesome ways in which social networking helps us connect to other people, it's still just another way for us to talk on and on about ourselves.

It reminds me of that thought in psychology that when you talk to someone, you spend more time formulating your next thought than you do paying attention to what they're saying.

I know that I sounds like a hypocritical Jerky JerkFace by saying all of that after having participated in the 'orgy of overshare' myself.

I guess I just wish that all of us, myself included, were a little bit better about self-censoring and not so keen to share so much about ourselves.

January's epic failure, or, how I should never have resolved this in the first place

You know how I said that I resolved to read one non-fiction book per month?

You know what I'm about to tell you, right? That I'm not even halfway done with my book for January and it's February 2nd already?

I guess I could read two non-fiction books in February to salvage things. But that seems disingenuous somehow.

I'm kind of disappointed, but the truth is that I set myself up for failure. I should've started the month with the non-fiction book so that I had plenty of time to finish it.

In other news, I went on an awesome vacation that I plan to tell you about shortly.