Begin the Beguine

Okey-doke.
Who
What
Where
When
Why
How
Mrs. Heffelfinger, my second grade teacher who taught me cursive handwriting and preached the five W's for our writing assignments (ok, there are six and not all W's), would like this approach to organizing my thoughts and thinking logically.

The WHO: Me, known to my best friends as Nellie, although strangely the only relation that has to my real first name is the first letter....and the fact that it's odd....my real first name is odd.

The WHAT: I need to lose weight. Yep. If I'm harsh with myself, probably 100 pounds, but I would be happy with 75. Oh hell, 50 would make me ecstatic. I am the typical poster-child for the obese. Over my adult life I've tried lots of different times and ways to lose weight but, like the vast majority of dieters, even if I'm successful, I regain. Weird isn't it? Makes one feel a bit insane on a variety of levels.

The WHERE: The physical or psychological 'where'? I'm way too non-new-age to opt for the psychological, so here's the physical: Maryland, not too far from Washington, DC.

The WHEN: Taking 'when' to mean when on my personal timeline, I'd say whizzing past the last few exists, approaching the off ramp.....sixty years old. (OMG - how did that happen. Just yesterday I was raising my kids and running around in a mini-van and thinking sixty was one step away from a nursing home. To paraphrase Titantic's Rose, the experience of it is somewhat different.)

The WHY: In addition to the standard and true and boring, "I wanna look and feel better", I also need to get a grip on some health issues. Getting older means falling apart incrementally (try googling 'Barnacles of Aging' to see just how much fun aging can be), and the increments have added up to something that now either needs attention or a conscious decision to live in denial -- among the goodies are joint pain, zero stamina, high blood pressure, bone density of a sponge, and the fact that I'd love to be able to get up off the floor without a crane. I'm opting for the former.

The HOW: Lately, I've been inspired by following some food bloggers - I love the idea of taking pictures of what I eat vs. logging it and being able to look back over the food day. I think it's much more impactful. We'll see.