So here's the new hair. Got 'er done last weekend. I went a little warmer on the color--guess we upped the lowlights or something. Wearing the new jeans we got during the shopping excursion I described in my Romance By the Blog outing on Wednesday. Actually struck this pose for Michelle's blog, but she used a different photo--one of the shopping excursion showing the "after" body but the "before" hair. Kinda like:
Okay, in case you missed it, here's the "before" body, almost exactly one year and 50 pounds ago:
Yes, that's a rope, and, no, I wasn't that depressed. Off to the left is an Indian cowboy on a mechanical horse showing me he can still drop a loop over me just as delicately as you please. This was taken on the Big Island of Hawaii, where we celebrated 35 years of marriage. The picures spoke to me, and I made the New Year's vow shortly thereafter. The keys to my success: less eating, less eating out, less food on the plate, less food in the fridge, and more exercise. And I really had to go cold turkey on the sugar.
Okay, you've heard enough on that subject, but I did want to finish the hair story with an "after" photo.
What I really want to offer today is a follow-up to Michele's Best and Worst lists with some of my thoughts.
First, BEST DVDs I'VE RENTED LATELY:
An Inconvenient Truth - should be required viewing for all human beings. I put it off because I thought I'd have to be in the mood for a lecture. Wrong. I found it riveting.
Lady In the Water - liked the setup, wish the storytelling had lived up to what was really a promising concept. Originality and Paul Giamatti held my interest.
Little Miss Sunshine - wonderful! Cast, characters, script--it's all good.
The Devil Wears Prada - Streep is great
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - Great redemption story, love Tommy Lee Jones and Barry Pepper (the sharpshooter in "Saving Private Ryan")
The Libertine - Michele and I have discussed this one and I totally disagree with her. Johnny Depp is great as always and this is just a fascinating historical piece (Restoration England) with the main characters loosely based on real people.
TWO OF THE WORST: Talledega Nights and The Pacifier. Don't know how they got into my house. The former is a one trick pony, and the trick is lame. The latter--I wanted to see who this Vin Diesel was. Now I know.
BEST MOVIES I'VE SEEN IN THE THEATER LATELY:
Children of Men - Clive Owen (yes!) and a very chilling bit of futurism
Flags Of Our Fathers - can't wait to see the flip side in Letters From Iwo Jima
Bobby - a big event in my life, good script, good cast
The Good Shepherd - length didn't bother me, found it engrossing, beginning to end
Babel - very well written, good performances
Stranger Than Fiction - quirky, but what can I say? I'm a writer.
Dream Girls - great cast, loved the Broadway feel, loved the music
I agree with Michele on Marie Antoinette--great costumes and set decoration, definitely worth seeing on the big screen, but imo not as interesting as The Libertine.
Gotta say Sly had me cheering for ol' Rocky again in Rocky Balboa. I figure if he can still run up the steps of the Philly Museum of Art, I can still do aerobics to "Eye of the Tiger."
But I thought The Holiday was mediocre. I was most interested in Cameron Diaz's hair. I'm not a big what's-his-babyface fan. But Jack Black was quite sweet.
NEW ALBUM:
The only one I've bought recently is the new Beatles "Love." I'm such a Boomer. If you haven't given this a listen, do. George Martin remixed from original tapes--took pieces from differnt songs and put them together seamlessly with Paul and Ringo's blessing. Good stuff!What have you seen or heard lately that you can recommend or warn against? Am I on target with these picks or all wet?
5 comments:
Congratulations, Kathy! You look wonderful! But even more important, you're probably a lot healthier and will be around to entertain and enlighten us with your books for a long time to come!
Yes to the less food, yes to the less food in the house. . . and a big old YES to the "no sugar." I'm on a moditied Adkins/Southbeach myself-- mostly protein and veggies with a few Cheerios/oatmeal carbs thrown in here and there. Rex is on the same and has now lost 38 pounds. . . to my measley 9. But the best part is I'm walking more and exercising. . . so I'm going more slowly with the loss, but I feel great and am looking better. I think this will be the way I eat for the rest of my life. Strangely, I don't even crave carbs. . . which has always been my downfall in losing weight.
What'I'd really like to ask is what else was transformed along with your weight? What else did you learn about yourself? What else did you shed/change/evolve about you? Because a change this big has to spawn other changes, too. . . right?
Also, what do you enjoy most about your newly transformed self?
I'm so proud of you, Kathy. You're my new role model!
:) Betina
I want to have a before and after picture just like Kathleen! So I'm really trying hard this year. Already modified the diet last year. Improved my cholesterol by bunches, but didn't lose a pound. Really need to move this body. I have my indoor Gazelle Glider now, and I'm doing half an hour a day. Maybe I can post pics like Kathy's by summer! Go, Kathy!
Had to speak up about the LIbertine again. I realize I said it was Johnny's worst. I should have stated the MOVIE was the worst, but, as usual, Johnny is always beguiling in any role he takes on. The movie bored me, but Johnny, especially the last half hour, did shine. He has a tendency to take on the weird stuff (Ed Wood and Dead Man, just to name a few) and always acts his heart out. (Well, I'm not sure about The Astronaut's Wife.) But anyway, I can get behind Johnny's acting, but not the flick.
Now there is another movie called The Libertine, put out about five or six years ago, starring Vincent Perez as Denis Diderot (father of the first modern encyclopedia, and libertine) and that one is excellent. All in French, no subtitles, but if you can find it, rent it!
M
Kathy-- You look great! I knew you'd lost weight but seeing the transformation is inspiring!
Best new albums/cds around here? Clapton and Cale's Road To Escondido. I wasn't familiar with Cale. So now we have a couple of his cd's too. Fabulous stuff, especially if you like guitar.
Ah, Betina, always the hard questions. What else did I shed, change, learn about myself? At this point in my life I sometimes think I know myself pretty well, which leads to complacency. I have to rediscover the stuff I know and take a look at it in different ways.
For example, I have one or two judgmental bones in my body, and I can be judgmental about other people's compulsive behavior. I can't make changes is my own compulsive behavior until I see that I'm acting compulsively. For most of my life I took it for granted that I could eat the way I wanted to and not worry so much about gaining weight. When other people remarked about it, I shrugged it off, felt pretty smug, actually. But compulsive snacking really wasn't my thing. Then it was. And without that old metabolism, the pounds gradually piled on. I can behave just as compulsively as the next person. In recent years snacking hasn't been my only compulsion. I also got seriously hooked on E-Bay. I had to look my behvior square in the eye.
One thing I know about myself that I had to rediscover and put to use in this effort is that I'm an achiever. I'm not a perfectionist--a true perfectionist rarely completes anything for fear that it won't be perfect. I'm not "gifted." (Yes, I do believe we all have our gifts and our talents, but I'm talking about those prodigies who really do have special needs that our regular school programs don't meet.) No, I'm an achiever, and I'd venture to guess my fellow Riders are also achievers. That's why we're able to take on the daunting task of writing a book, start to finish. We're smart, but we got good grades in school because we worked hard at it. We set our own standards and we kept plugging away to meet those standards. Of couse, the trick is to set achievable goals AND goals that are worth the effort, wherein lies the rub sometimes. (I'm also controlling. One of my downfalls is that I tend to try to set goals for other people. Whole 'nother story.)
So I really had to rediscover myself as an achiever in this effort. I had to rediscover the strenths I've discovered and rediscovered before, and I had to remember how to use my strengths and deal with my weaknesses. With the added weight I hardly recognized the face I was seeing in the mirror. I felt as though I had disappeared. I'm now seeing someone I recognize. It's an aging face, but it's MY aging face. "Oh, yeah, I know you. You can be hard to live with sometimes, but you can get things done. And you're not done yet."
And that's way more than you wanted to know about that tune....
Wow, Kathy. I connected so potently with much of what you said. Thanks for being so open about it with me--us.
It's so true that as we go through life we have to relearn and rediscover things we thought we already knew. . . like who we are and what our strengths are. Oh, and weaknesses. And I, too, have had that look in the mirror and ask "who is that creature" moment. The interesting thing is: now, I get to answer every day a different way. There are parts of me I choose to work on and others I decide to let lie fallow for a time. . . or ferment so that they become something else altogether by the time I examine them again.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to share and to encourage us all by your example! You're the berries.
:) Betina
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