Blog Archives
5 – 6 – 7 – 8 — UPDATE! Woo Hoo! Dancing is upon us!
Isn’t that CUTE?!?!
Get it?
“5-6-7-8” as in the count off which dancers use to start dancing and then…
…TahDAH! “Update” Woo Hoo.
I think I shall keep it and use it as a standard “Quickie” header for a four point update post.
Whatcha think?
Five…
You may have noticed a theme in the last few posts and a flurry of activity…
Yes, you have correctly noticed that I’m kinda freaking about about MONEY! It is because I need it and I don’t have it.
Why? Well we are in the Fall.
And “Fall” is when I have to do an oil change on my truck, a tune up on my truck, get my truck inspected and pay the annual registration taxes/tags to the State. It is also when my AAA (American Automobile Association) membership renews each year.
AND it is one of two times a year (every six months) when my auto insurance renews.
And this time $#@#$@@##$@@!!!!! Progressive, which is otherwise a pretty good insurance company, RAISED MY FRIGGIN INSURANCE RATES FOR NO APPARENT REASON other than the money sucking fat cat capitalists want to GET EVERY LAST penny out of people like me who live below the poverty line!
Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!
Yes, I’m stressed. And I need money, so I’m trying to sell some stuff and yes, I’m begging for donations (which no one has ever actually done…) sigh
Want to be the first? The donate button is always over there in the right hand column…
Or you can buy a cool design from my online store: TxCowboyDancer Designs
And check out “My Online Garage Sale” — There will be more stuff added to it over the next little while. Most of the stuff will be dance related in one way or another. — No, I can’t have an “actual” garage sale. The complex I live in has rules against that kind of thing. SIGH
Six…
2010 Worlds – Line Dance World Champion! — Yes, that’s me in the top spot! Graduating into the Advanced Division!
However, the “once a year bills” are not the only money stressor.
There is a bigger one that is directly related to my long-term goals of getting fit and healthy.
(By the way, I use big words – once a gain my spell check had no idea what a particular word was. In this case — what a “stressor” was. I had to add it to the dictionary on my computer.)
I admit defeat. There. I said it. I will never ever “exercise” for the sake of “exercise.”
I hate exercise. I will. NOT. Do. It.
But I do love to dance!
Dance is not exercise.
Dance is fun.
Dance is passion.
Dance is what I miss MOST from “before” my health went to crap.
Dance is what I love to do — which my body “thinks” is “exercise” but which my mind and my heart sees as “fun”
Cycling is the other one, but DANCE has the potential to also enable me to MAKE money eventually and dig myself out of this financial hole that I’m in because once I get to a certain level of fitness, I can start TEACHING dance again! So Dance gets priority over cycling.
And, “dance” is what will help me become physically fit and healthy again! Who Hoo! Woot even! and YeeeeeeeHawwwwww!
But for now, at the outset, Dance is also a money-stressor. sigh
Why? I’m glad you asked. 🙂
I need choreography…
One thing that is adding to my stress levels is that I need money to pay for Choreography.
As part of my (1) return to dancing and competition dancing and (2) as part of my efforts to become fit and healthy, I want / am planning to / strongly desire to compete in Showcase Line Dance next year.
I can choreograph, but my choreography, compared to a talented professional choreographer is like a child’s finger painting compared to a Picasso or Monet.
I have only begun to play around with choreography and that is what my choreography looks like – a beginner’s efforts.
And folks you don’t “win” at Worlds with choreography that looks like a beginner’s efforts! A major portion of the scoring for Showcase Line Dance is the quality of the choreography!
I need the help of a Pro!
I have my first choreographer lined up. She has agreed to do it for $80 per hour. She is an amazing dancer and choreographer with years of experience. She has even choreographed for Hollywood and Broadway!
She thinks it will take 3-4 hours do to it which means that I need between $240 and $320 to pay her for the choreography.
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Today is a “Scary Day” and the importance of doing a single solitary “thing”
Brace yerself…! What I want… …and why is it a “Scary Day”…
Brace yerself…
…because I’m about to free associate and just let the thoughts poor out onto the page. That means, friends, neighbors, fellow dancers, that you are about to get a peek into Tony’s brain. Eeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkk!!!!! Or you may laugh so hard that there will be tears leaking outta yer eyes…
But either way, this post is going to be somewhat disjointed. And weird. And well.. just keep reading. 🙂
And pay no attention to the typos… ..or the grammar or lack thereof… …they just add character. 😉
What I want…
…is for lots of you to send me emails, comments, likes that all add up to “You can do this Tony! I believe in you!”
Yes, that is a blatant appeal for support, mostly emotional, seriously that kind of stuff means a LOT…
…but if you feel so inclined, buy something from my store or hit that donate button over to the right. No one ever has donated, but I keep hoping. *sigh*
Seriously, this month is the toughest financially that I’ve had in a long time. Lots of out of the blue expenses have made it hard to make ends meet.
Why is it a “Scary Day”?
Well this is where that free association thing is gonna start. Because I know I can be wordy…
*GASP* OK, ok, the thunderous shock of in-drawn breath from you, my faithful readers, was NOT necessary! 😉
Now, where was I?
Oh, yes….
…it is a scary day because today is Saturday and that means…
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The future is looking brighter…
Yes, I’m aware that it ain’t gonna be easy…
…but for the first time in a VERY long time I am optimistic that I will actually get fit, healthy and dance again! What’s that? Do I hear the teeming masses asking “But why do feel this way Tony?” I thought I did… 😀
Brace yourself, you’re about to enter Tony’s brain…. where you’ll see a chain of thought that will mystify and amaze you!
But first because I’m in SUCH a good mood, I’m going to give you the “short version” — I’m going to tell you the ROOT SOURCE of all this awesome positiveness:
The diabetes medications I’ve been taking for a little over two weeks now are working.
Which means I’m not as hungry all the time.
Which means I’m loosing weight.
Which means I’m feeling better, both physically and psychologically.
I’m moving more. I have more energy. This morning, I saw a number on my scale that I’ve NOT seen in a long time… [drumroll please] … 310 lbs! Yay me!
One of the most frustrating things over the past couple years has been working to get fitter and healthier and NOT seeing any friggin results!
Who knew that there was this underlying obstacle called “diabetes” which had to be dealt with first BEFORE my hard work would produce? Well, now I know. Now the meds are doing their job. Now I’m working at getting fit. And best of all… …Now I am seeing results. Life is good.
About that tour of my brain…. heh he he heh
I updated my Event Calendar / Schedule
You can clicky click on SCHEDULE any time up in the menu at the top of my blog from any page in my blog. Or if you are really not into scrolling you can click this awesome link I put here just because I like you: SCHEDULE / CALENDAR
I have spent most of today updating my calendar, looking at the events listed on the IAGLCWDC website, the UCWDC site, the ACDA site, and the World OutGames site, evaluating them, looking at the dates and considering costs, timing, etc.
Toss in a few side trips to AmTrack, to Southwest Airlines, Eurorail and American Airlines, well you kinda get the picture of what I’ve been doing since I got up: day dreaming about competing in dance again!
Well, not really day dreaming, exactly.
Let’s be generous and call it “long range planning” and “goal setting” and “motivational imagery.”
I love that last one… “motivational imagery.” Sounds cool don’t it?
Goal Setting
When setting goals you need two kinds: Read the rest of this entry
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Macro, Micro, and Meta-Mucil
There is actually a “Method” behind the madness…
If you’ve been reading my blog recently you know where I’m coming from:
333-335 lbs at my heaviest,
not healthy in any sense of the term,
and certainly not fit!
But I’ve not really talked very much about where I’m going.
And I’ve not talked very much about how I’m getting there.
Oh, I will… I definitely will. Watch for future posts on specific techniques.
For now, so you have some context in which to place this post you are reading, I have to very briefly give you a broad overview of what is going on as I make this journey to Health & Fitness.
Basically, I’m applying organizational skills that I acquired from my former life as a librarian to the task at hand. Business practices like Gantt charts, procedural assessments, time management techniques, task efficiency studies, task check lists, etc.
The reality “on the ground” is that my life is in a certain state (one which I don’t like).
I strongly desire it to be in a radically different state! Getting from here to there, Read the rest of this entry
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Some Additional Steps to Get Me to My Goal
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the methodology of “getting healthy” and “living healthy”. And why so many people fail at the effort. An’ jus fer der record, I jus used a 14 dollar wurd! “METH-o-DOLL–O-gee!” So thar! Take that! Texans can too speek rail AngLish! 😉 But I digress; back to the post at hand:
I’ve also given a lot of thought to how you fit any new effort into an already busy schedule. Take a look at the lists of “Related Posts” at the bottom of this article if you want to go back and read some of the articles as I’ve worked through these particular chains of thought.
To that end, I’ve been creating a prioritized “to do list”. A variety of things are going onto the list, all of which I believe will get me closer to my goal of living a healthy lifestyle. Some of them are relatively small and can be easily accomplished, others represent a major change and contain many smaller steps. Many of them represent a change where I replace an “unhealthy” behavior with a new “healthy” behavior.
As I’ve been working on the list it occurs to me that what I’m doing is HUGE! I mean, stop and think about this: basically I’m making changes that will affect EVERYTHING in my life. Some, indeed most of these, are not “do it once then forget it” things. They are “do it for the rest of your life” things.
I’ve created a new page I’m calling “Check List Check Off” where I’ll list all of these items and check them off as I do them. I’ve mentioned that some of the tasks are actually composed of smaller tasks. Check out my post on “Making my morning coffee more healthy” if you want to get an idea of what I’m talking about.
So, on the “Check List Check Off” page, I’ll tackle one thing at a time. But as I do so, that “one thing” may explode into dozens of small things when I tackle it. And as I finish each step, I’ll mark it *DONE*!
Some More Steps
I’ve thought of a couple additional things that I either need to do or want to do that will hopefully move me toward my goal.
- Track my weight and body fat percentage. I know from past experience that if I weigh in on a daily basis that I am more prone to sticking with any fitness effort. It also gives me a concrete measurement of how I am progressing.
.. - Take regular progress photos. This also falls into the category of keeping myself on track. But I also know I’m something of a performer. Knowing that I’m “performing” for an audience, even if it is for the four people who are actually reading this, makes me more likely to keep moving forward toward my goal. Just ask any of my friends. They will readily tell you that given any opportunity, I’ll go into performance mode. LOL
.. - Reduce Stress. This topic is so huge that it would require a whole book in and of itself. So for now I’ll leave it simply as “reduce stress.”
So, there you have it. I’ve made a start. I’m moving again.
See you on the dance floor!
Related Articles:
- Healthy at every size! (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
- Getting Healthy is complicated and it takes time… …lots of time! (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
- Getting Healthy is complicated… …and it takes sleep, if you can get it. (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
- Getting Healthy is Complicated… …so do it one step at a time. (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
- Step by Step (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
- Step by, *prioritized* Step… (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
- Check-List, Check-Off (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
5-6-7-8 Dancing My Way to a Healthy Me! 