Tuesday, February 21, 2006
It's your body!
The last couple of weeks I have been cooperating with a guy at work whom I've never met before. There are around 200 employees in the Organisation I work, and I barely know 1/3 of them. This is a cure guy, very small and funny, and he has lived for 14 years in Brussels, which gives us a lot to talk about (I lived in Brussels for a year studying for my Master).
He usually comes at my office, in an attempt to follow the etiquette - he is a consultant, I am a director, he has to come to me - but yesterday I went to his office because I simply despise this kind of ettiquette (right...how many t's in there?)
In the door of the office, which is shared among 4 people, there is this print out sign saying "Smoke Free Zone". So after an hour and a half full of numbers, and since it was just him and I left in there, I asked him: "Do you mind if I smoke?"
His reply shocked the hell out of me!
"Not at all. It's your body!"
!!!!!!!
It's your body.
These three words have been ringing in my ears since yesterday, constantly, all the time.
Dont get excited just yet, I am not considering quitting smoking now. But a million things have crossed my mind since I heard him saying this yesterday. All in the form of questions really...
What does it take to look after my body the way I look after someone I love? Can I honestly remind myself that this is MY body I'm putting crap into before I actually eat or drink the crap and not afterwards? If this is my body and this body is the true indication I am alive, how important this is for me and how this can be honoured? What does it take for me to take full responsibility of the very thing I am the only responsible person for? You know, noone else is responsible for my body or yours, but me and you. Can I stand naked in front of the mirror and say with love and pride "This is my body"?
This week will be all about the quality. The goodness. It becomes more and more aparent now...
In other words, I was hungry all day yesterday. Its funny, the more meals I have a day the hungrier I am. When I wake up and just have coffee and then more coffee and water and smokes at work, and forget to eat, I can come back home at 9 in the evening and just begin to feel hungry. And Im certain this happens in a very pavlovian way. I know its dinner time, I start feeling the hunger. But with breakfast and an apple as a snack a couple of hours later, I suddenly got ravenous for lunch yesterday. This is what I ate yesterday:
red apple and 4 walnut halves
a pink lady apple
a slice of whole grain sourdough bread
100 gr tuna in spring water, tomato, cucumber
an orange and a red apple
240 gr of cooked bulgur
onions, shallots, brocolli, peppers, mushrooms, garlic, cabbage, zuccinis (stir fried with a tad of olive oil and sesame oil) and a bit of hoisin sauce.
A fage 0% with 2 tsp of the grape spoon sweet
22 points worth of goodness.
After all, this is MY body we are talking about!!!
I just had a banana and half a slice of bread for breakfast and Im bringing more fruit to work, along with leftover bulgur and veggies for lunch. Dinner will be tricky since I won't be home before 10, but hey, if I defrost 2 beed fillets now, how lond will they take to cook eh?
I'm boring talking about my meals, but I need to do this now.
I swear, his voice still rings in my ears... it's your body!
He usually comes at my office, in an attempt to follow the etiquette - he is a consultant, I am a director, he has to come to me - but yesterday I went to his office because I simply despise this kind of ettiquette (right...how many t's in there?)
In the door of the office, which is shared among 4 people, there is this print out sign saying "Smoke Free Zone". So after an hour and a half full of numbers, and since it was just him and I left in there, I asked him: "Do you mind if I smoke?"
His reply shocked the hell out of me!
"Not at all. It's your body!"
!!!!!!!
It's your body.
These three words have been ringing in my ears since yesterday, constantly, all the time.
Dont get excited just yet, I am not considering quitting smoking now. But a million things have crossed my mind since I heard him saying this yesterday. All in the form of questions really...
What does it take to look after my body the way I look after someone I love? Can I honestly remind myself that this is MY body I'm putting crap into before I actually eat or drink the crap and not afterwards? If this is my body and this body is the true indication I am alive, how important this is for me and how this can be honoured? What does it take for me to take full responsibility of the very thing I am the only responsible person for? You know, noone else is responsible for my body or yours, but me and you. Can I stand naked in front of the mirror and say with love and pride "This is my body"?
This week will be all about the quality. The goodness. It becomes more and more aparent now...
In other words, I was hungry all day yesterday. Its funny, the more meals I have a day the hungrier I am. When I wake up and just have coffee and then more coffee and water and smokes at work, and forget to eat, I can come back home at 9 in the evening and just begin to feel hungry. And Im certain this happens in a very pavlovian way. I know its dinner time, I start feeling the hunger. But with breakfast and an apple as a snack a couple of hours later, I suddenly got ravenous for lunch yesterday. This is what I ate yesterday:
red apple and 4 walnut halves
a pink lady apple
a slice of whole grain sourdough bread
100 gr tuna in spring water, tomato, cucumber
an orange and a red apple
240 gr of cooked bulgur
onions, shallots, brocolli, peppers, mushrooms, garlic, cabbage, zuccinis (stir fried with a tad of olive oil and sesame oil) and a bit of hoisin sauce.
A fage 0% with 2 tsp of the grape spoon sweet
22 points worth of goodness.
After all, this is MY body we are talking about!!!
I just had a banana and half a slice of bread for breakfast and Im bringing more fruit to work, along with leftover bulgur and veggies for lunch. Dinner will be tricky since I won't be home before 10, but hey, if I defrost 2 beed fillets now, how lond will they take to cook eh?
I'm boring talking about my meals, but I need to do this now.
I swear, his voice still rings in my ears... it's your body!
Posted by Argy at 8:18 am
About Me
I have spent all 36 years of my life loving life itself and this will never change. I am a great lover of the smallest things. I am addicted to smells and I attach them to people and events. It is impossible for me to wake up without ice in my coffee.
I have spent all 36 years of my life loving life itself and this will never change. I am a great lover of the smallest things. I am addicted to smells and I attach them to people and events. It is impossible for me to wake up without ice in my coffee.
Stats
Age: 37
Height: 1.68 cm
SW: 130kg/286lbs
CW: 86 kg/189.2lbs
GW: 69 kg/151.8lbs
Lost: 44 kg/96.8lbs
Left: 17kg/37.4lbs
Previous Posts
- The plan
- More on the "carrot"...
- It has been a while again. Work got too unreal the...
- 3 pounds of thick sea salt
- Weigh in...and something for Airlie!
- A binge is a binge!
- Ahhh...it is the weekend!!!!
- Blues out of the blue? Nahhh...
- The anniversary...the confession...the decision
- Done!
Links
Kimba
dietgirl
Cat
Denise
Kate
ms ralph
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it's your body, indeed! and what a very wholesome day of eating, miss argy :) sounds delicious.
12:42 pm
You can smoke at work? You are kidding me. You don't have to huddle under a tiny awning in the rain and wind? Can I move there? Smoking is banned nearly everywhere in Australia, and if not, they are talking about banning it.
It's funny, about bodies. I think being overweight, you try to forget you even have one. Even when you think of all the little things that go on inside us all the time - just breathing and pumping blood and renewing - it is mind blowing. And then all the things we take for granted - like walking and talking and functioning - things that some people lack. You are so right, our bodies are amazing and we should look after them.
I'd still love to smoke at work though :)
1:14 pm
What a great mantra - and how are you going to treat your body today? I know I need to remember that my body is a temple and I should treat it as such.
Smoking is banned a lot of places here. In California, you can't smoke indoors at bars. It's a good thing they have such nice weather. Here in Minnesota, in certain counties you can smoke in bars, but they are considering a statewide ban. Since having surgery, I've noticed I am really sensitive to smoke... But I try and not have a stick up my butt about it.
4:16 am
I did start writing about "giving up smoking was the best thing I've done" yadda yadda. It sounded preachy and not supportive like I wanted it to sound. Blah.
We all need our vice though don't we? You are doing an exceptional job eating wise right now. It is your body and it's the only one you will ever have.
11:48 am
What a profound thought...thanks for sharing!
12:03 am
Wow - i can't believe places exist that allow people to smoke in workplaces!
Where we live, no one is allowed to smoke in public places including restaurants, gov't offices, and bars. ....
I hope you find what you need to find, in order to quit. My mom stopped about six years ago, after smoking almost 20 years and she said it's the best thing she could have done for herself.... not for others, but - for HERSELF... :)
Plus, she smells a lot nicer now!
(hope this wasn't preacy!)
1:57 am
What a great day of food you have had. Sounds delicious - though I will have to look up what bulgur is. You and Cat talk about it but I don't know what it is.
It is your body Argy and you can do whatever you like as long as you take the consequences. That goes for all of us. For every mouthful of food, every sip of alcohol, for every cigarette, for every drug we take. It is up to us. It is our body and we only get one.
Don't you love it when such a simple statement can shake you to your roots and help you to reevaluate the things you do. Brilliant.
Have a sensational day Argy xx
4:38 am
It is your body indeed. I don't smoke anymore so not to sound like a converted Christian, I am moving on ;-)
Good going with all the food! Your hours do sound really tough so I'm glad to read that you are thinking about what you are eating and not going for a quick junk option.
9:23 pm
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