If you’ve been around with me for a while you know how I like a CHALLENGE. We’ve done Lent Challenges, Workout Challenges, Push Up Challenges, Stretch Challenges, and an 8 Weeek Challenge, to name a few. I thought with the beginning of a new month and the beginning of a new Season, I would like to mark it with a new Challenge. You’ll find it at the end . . .
Friday Finds!
A SIGN:
First of all, while driving from my local YMCA after teaching this morning I saw a huge sign posted by the road saying, “REMEMBER TO STRETCH“. I WISH I could have taken a picture, but I would have wrecked for sure. What a great reminder! Couldn’t have said it better myself!
A BULLY:
Then there was all the controversy over the internet and news about the facebook photo posted by a mom of three boys. She’s looking pretty awesome and fit, and captioned the photo with “What’s your excuse?” Well, unfortunately, some took it the wrong way and lashed out at her calling her a bully and that she was fat shaming women. She wrote her apology, that wasn’t really apologizing for working hard, having priorities and trying to encourage. All the firestorm got her spots on morning talk shows, too. I thought she was pretty honest when she showed off her $7.00 Target dress! This girl is not a personal trainer any more, but lives healthy and obviously makes fitness a priority. I’m a mom of three boys, work in this fitness business and don’t look like her – but I’m glad I don’t think she’s a bully. We all have our own ways of motivating ourselves and others. Why waste so much energy on the hating . . .
By the way, we have Britney singing to us to “Work B****” to look hot or buy a mansion or whatever she’s saying in that song and nobody’s calling her a bully. . .
The next one has had me thinking all week long. If you haven’t seen this photo and read or heard the story it’s okay, just check it out. It’s also okay if you cry. I’m sure you know I did.
The next couple of Finds are more on the lighter side.
OREOS:
Did you hear the latest findings that Oreos are as addictive as cocaine? What’s that all about? Apparently, Oreo cookies were found to be as addictive as cocaine in a recent study where a research team at Connecticut College in New London conducted an experiment on rats using a maze with rice cakes on one side and Oreos on the other. Obviously, the rats didn’t really care for the rice cakes but couldn’t stop eating the Oreos. AND, they eat the creamy center out first! “The researchers also studied the pleasure center of the rats’ brains and found that the Oreos activated more neurons than cocaine or morphine. ” “Our research supports the theory that high-fat/high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do,” Schroeder told the Connecticut College News. “It may explain why some people can’t resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them.”
Check out more here: http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-oreo-cookies-addictive-cocaine-20131016,0,3166408.story
STINKBUGS:
I thought when we moved into our new home that we had bought a stinkbug infested home. Little did I know that Georgia has been a inundated with this pesky little bug. Yuck! If you live in Georgia, have you noticed them? They have migrated here from Asia three years ago and are here to feed off kudzu leaves. Since kudzu is dormant right now they are attracted to light colored objects. They won’t sting or bite, but if you kill one on your freshly painted wall it will leave a mark, and an obnoxious odor!
SLEEP:
I shared this on my Facebook page yesterday. It was a cartoon in this week’s New Yorker magazine. Let me know if you can relate!
Now on to the current stuff from me.
I have a Challenge to share with you and it has nothing to do with food, exercise, stretching or working out. I personally want the month of November, as the month of Thanksgiving and the start of the Holidays, to be the month of focusing on an Attitude of Gratitude. I will focus on something for which I am thankful each day this month and share it with you. My hope is that it will be a reminder for my attitude, those around me, and that you will join in. I’d love to hear your own bits and pieces, big and small. Don’t you know sometimes it’s just those tiny things . . . making a green light, that first cup of coffee, being able to take the dog for a walk, getting over a cold. . . that we need to remember. There is always something to be grateful for regardless of what turmoil might be going on in our own worlds.
So, today is November 1 and Day 1 of the Challenge. This morning at the close of my body sculpt class , I shared my Challenge with the class. I told them that today I was sharing how thankful I am for them. This group shows up every Friday morning, rain or shine, ready to work hard, grunt and smile. They challenge me to work even harder, stay fresh and creative and always lift my mood. I’m thankful for my Friday Morning Body Sculpt Class.
Join Me This Month Being and Sharing our Thankfulness and Gratitude!
Check it out here, my Marla-Deen-Fit Facebook Page (www. facebook.com/MarlaDeenFit)
and Twitter- Marla-Deen Brooks@MarlaDeenBrooks
HAPPY FRIDAY!
Marla Deen
As promised…..
http://watchbillygraham.com/?
Options for rebroadcast or online viewing. Best, Jim