Keep On Bloggin...

Tonight was my first time speaking in public to a group of strangers about Go Red and my Survivor experience! It was a huge rush! The event was at Sip, a local wine bar in Issaquah. Sip is donating a percentage of their February Sales to Go Red for Women. Tonight was their monthly women's networking event. Gene Juarez was there doing services and it was a huge crowd. It was also my husband's birthday so I had him meet me there after work. One of my favorite friends, Kelly, from High School and one of my Best Friends, Terri, came to support me. Which was great, because I was really nervous! I had a whole 5 minute speech ready to go. The event was in full swing, as it approached time for me to speak I said to Kelly how in the world am I going to get up there with a microphone and expect a room full of dynamic women to stop socializing and enjoying wine to listen to me talk about Heart Disease killing a women every minute. Talk about a Debbie Downer SNL skit! But I did it! No alcohol was needed on my part and I didn't hear the Debbi Downer sound effect when I paused. I did not follow my script at all, but just winged it! I was told it went well and I met so many amazing women. There was even another Bionic Woman there with a pacemaker. One wonderful gal that I hope emails me with her information said that she owned a spa and planned to offer 20% off to any customers that wore Red on Friday! If everyone at the event follows our call to action and tell five friends than we made a huge impact tonight towards the Go Red cause.

This past few days I have been feeling the tide shift and my enthusiasm and commitment to losing weight and taking care of myself has been waning. Now there are a whole bunch of new people that may be reading the blog! Talk about throwing myself under the bus and being accountable! That is so me. I told my cousin, Sandy tonight I am going to start posting her weight on this blog too so I am not alone.

The encouragement I have gotten from people early on was really motivating. How can I not continue to go to Hot Yoga. I feel like I have an obligation to report back my observations! My favorite story so far about "inspiring others" is from Kelly. Kelly went to Hot Yoga and gave it a try. Similar to my husband, hers may have underestimated the difficulty of this sport. So the challenge was there, so not to be outdone by Scott, Mike has now gone twice to their local studio! According to Kelly, he is a fan! He even had his shirt off in the first class. But my favorite part was that in the second class he stripped down to his underwear! Now they were hiking sports style boxers, but I almost peed my pants tonight laughing when she confirmed that his "shorts" had the "access" in the front! The visual image of one of the guys in these classes having more to show in the "tree" pose really cracks me up. I am fairly certain Kelly may have pretended not to know Mike. I was happy for her to confirm a few things that seem universal in this sport. It's Hot. Too much Naked in the dressing rooms. She is also fascinated by the beads of sweat rolling off her body. And at their studio folks come in all shapes and sizes, sounds like I may fit in better there!

Scott, my "athlete" husband went to his third class on Sunday. Yeah Scott! I went too but didn't enjoy it as much. I found the instructor way too perky for me. I felt like she should have pom poms, she was like the head cheerleader of Hot Yoga. So I am pretty sure my bad attitude started in that class. The voice in my head was distracted from the heat because I was busy screaming "shut the bleep up". So maybe that was a good thing. Probably was not positive thinking or the best attitude when I flipped off Scott during corpse pose or stuck my tongue out at Lori during a twisting pose. I found out Lori just finished up doing 60 days of Yoga. I am equal parts amazed, jealous and seriously concerned about her sanity. So I will try again tomorrow. Maybe I will have an attitude adjustment.

Speaking tonight about Go Red was just the start of my crazy week. Some how in the past week I have gone from hiding out and denial to very high profile public events. The next one is Thursday. It started as just sitting in the audience wearing red at the taping of our local Seattle morning show. My enthusiasm for the cause had me saying yes to now being a part of the segment! I will be a model in the Red Fashion show representing survivors! One of the other people in the show is a fitness trainer. I saw today during my Macys fitting the dress she is wearing (see above photo)! When I saw it, what there was of it, I quickly turned down the form fitting Calvin Klein dress and decided I should represent the casual suburban Mom. This is definitely NOT one of those "if you can't beat them join them" moments. I am hoping that the outfit they chose will not make my butt look any bigger because I am pretty sure next to the little red dress gal it is going to look huge! What was I thinking? I feel some guilt for hoping the other survivor in the show is bigger than me! You know Karma is going to nail me for that one and I am going to trip or drool on local television. At the fitting appointment today I was a little offended when I mentioned trying jeans for the segment and the personal shopper kept bringing me "mom jeans". She also was bringing me sizes too small. So maybe my own delusional opinion of my true size some how projects on others, like mind control!

My wonderful Hair Stylist (Tiffany at Mollie Michelle) came in on her day off to fix the damage I did during my "turning forty" crisis. Note to self, cutting your own bangs because you are upset about the gray hair you finally noticed, bad idea. Ambien may have been involved. But at least, thanks to Tiffany my hair looks great, maybe that will distract the camera from my ass.

On Friday, because either I can't say no to the cause or I am becoming a total attention whore, I will be interviewed on a different news station for Go Red Day. Add the Boy Scout Pine Wood Derby, a dance team performance, finish making my 50 calls to get people to vote for our school levy, a Go Red Event at Macys on Saturday, two kids birthday parties to attend, an Open House on Sunday to market the house I am trying to sell for my parents. This should be a fun filled week. I hope I have the stamina for it!

I plan to take the advice I was given by a lovely woman tonight when we were talking about my nervousness about Thursday. She said "You have to Own It, girlfriend". So I will put my big girl panties on, slap on my bracelet that is engraved with my favorite quote "Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History", quit whining and "Own It".