My sister Natalie is awesome. (Both of my sisters are awesome, of course, but only one of them is relevant to this post.) A dietician by trade and an avid fitness enthusiast, Natalie recently turned me on to an online tool that holds a lot of promise for my future fitness. For a very long […]
fitness
Posted inArts & Culture
A confession
I have fallen off the wagon. I haven’t run in several days, and the interval between my runs has grown lately. I know that exercise gives me energy and confidence while speeding up my metabolism, so why have I let myself get so far off track? I confess to having been lazy, distracted and unmotivated. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Get fit – without going to prison!
Exercise is not everyone’s cup of tea. You get sweaty, you get tired and many of us feel we have to go to the gym to get a real workout. But there are plenty of exercises that don’t require a lot of time, space or equipment. Lately, I’ve been doing the Prison Workout (here), a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Halfwits at it again
When I decided to get my health and fitness in order, I took up running because it was the easiest way to make a change – easier than improving my diet, that is. Since then, I’ve come a long way, and one group in Springfield has helped me achieve something I thought impossible. The Half […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Second Chance at Life – Part Four
Part four, the finale, of Tauna and Jim’s saga: Even after all the changes and efforts to live a more healthy life, Jim still went in the summer of ’08 and received three more stints in his heart. He had been feeling sluggish and was showing many of the signs he did not recognize the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Second Chance at Life – Part Three
Part three of Tauna and Jim’s saga: The next 24 hours were the most dangerous for Jim and the most stressful for all of us concerned. I spent the time rubbing his feet and legs to keep the blood flowing to avoid blood clots and also he was complaining of them cramping. It was the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Second Chance at Life – Part Two
Part two of Tauna and Jim’s saga: While sitting in the garage, Jim realized just how bad he was feeling and even mentioned it to his friend whom he was on the phone with. He couldn’t seem to put his finger on what the problem was, since he had never felt this way before. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Second Chance at Life – Part One
Here’s a story from Tauna King in our advertising department. Tauna is going to share the story of her boyfriend Jim Burke’s experiences with congestive heart failure and his subsequent recovery. We’ll break it up into a couple of posts, so be sure and come back each day. Most people are capable of going through […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Stepping it up
As a young graduate student, I didn’t see a problem with heading to Steak ‘n Shake after a late night out with friends or grabbing McDonald’s in between classes. And even though I had been active in college — rowing competitively with the school’s team and jogging frequently with roommates — I stopped exercising, too. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Fat Pat no more – Part Two
Continued from yesterday… My epiphany finally came when I tried being a vegetarian for a week. I lost 5 pounds in the first three days, and I continued to drop weight at an almost alarming pace. I quickly embraced the meat-free lifestyle, and eventually went vegan, eating no animal products at all. (I must admit […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Fat Pat no more
It happened so subtly that I hardly noticed. From junior high through my college years, I got fat. Honestly, I was in denial. I knew I ate too much, and I knew I ate the wrong foods, but I didn’t care. I had decided to enjoy whatever morsels I wanted, and I would deal with […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Me and food: A love / hate relationship
This past year has been a fairly grief-filled one for myself and my family. Heart attacks, cancer, loss, and a horrific incident that led to my 16-year-old cousin staying in the hospital for over five months and currently re-learning to walk and talk. Needless to say, I’ve needed comfort and that comfort has come in […]
