Adina’s Cute & Perky Blog!

I had a customer come in to work the other day with a problem.A button had popped off.

THE button.

The one right in the middle of her chest!

She did not know this, so I HAD to tell her. It’s in the code!

“Oh honey! You’ve got a little problem there!”

Looking down she gasped, and then she blushed. “I’m so sorry! I did not know!”

She asked if I had a safety pin. After rummaging through my desk, I had to tell her, “I’m so sorry. I thought I did, but I don’t.”

“Oh no, what am I going to do? I can’t walk around like this.”

Looking around for an idea, I took the only one I had. “If you’re real still, I can staple it for you.”

And at the exact moment of the stapling, my manager walks in! He’s about to say something when I throw up my hand. “You just shush it! I’m offering some stellar customer service here!”

(And I was y’all!)

But what we were doing was nothing but a quick fix. We were simply doing what would allow here to continue with her errands.

Obviously, she would have to address the problem when she got home.

And she might have to address what the quick fix did. Did it create a bigger problem? Did it make a tear?

You know, I lost track a long time ago with how many people asked me what pill I took or surgery I endured to lose the weight.

But I remember each and every sad face looking back at me when I answered, “I did not have surgery, and I did not take pills.”

The road to lose the weight took me two years. Two long years.

But I could not undo over thirty years of eating off plan in any way other than slowly.

And in doing it slowly, I was able to fix other things along the way: I was able to address the reasons I overate, change the way I thought about food, and just learn to live a better life.

When you think about it, even the makers of the pills and the ones who give the surgery warn you that what they are offering you is not a quick fix.

The pills can’t be taken forever, and the surgery does not cure any of the reasons your overeat.

The bad news is, there is no quick fix if you have weight to lose.

The good news is, there is a fix. And it changes your life, one pound at a time.

OK. I’m not the best traveler in the world; I admit it.

So when work sends me away, I’m, well – spastic. There’s just no other way to put it!

My intentions are good. I pack the things I need. It’s just that I don’t always leave my hotel with those things.

Like the day before yesterday, I had left my Oh Yeah! bar in the hotel room, but as can be noted, I made it through my first two meals just fine.

I did learn my lesson; I left the hotel with my bar yesterday. And, OK. I get no points for that. I had to check out. I left the hotel with everything.

But that’s beside the point, y’all.

The point it, I had it with me when the thought came to me, “How often are you even in Dallas? Why don’t you have something neat for breakfast?”

Neat meaning, chock full of calories and not on my plan.

And we don’t have a Krispy Kreme in my whole town, so I searched for one on my Garmin.

Ten minutes away.

That’s it. Ten minutes between me and donutty goodness!!!

So, I headed that way.

But I heard the voice in my head that I always hear when I want to cheat telling me, “Adina!”

That’s all he had to say. I know the drill.

And yeah, the voice is a guy.

So I turned my car in the direction of a place I knew I could get eggs. I parked the car, when I heard that voice again.

“Adina! The portions and the calories will be triple what you need, and you know it!”

And yeah, I did. And yeah, I left.

I went straight to the Conference Center where I had coffee and my bar.

And twenty minutes later I was full, but I wasn’t full of regrets.

For the next half an hour or so I watched people coming in with their fast food breakfasts and sugary donuts.

I also could not help but notice how many of them were complaining about their weight, and as the day went on, their lack of vigor.

And y’all know me. I was sitting there like a yappy, happy, barking dog.

I wasn’t bloated. I wasn’t tired. I walked the grounds during every break.

And I don’t have to complain about my weight any more.

That is a thing of the past.

I learned to listen to the voice in my head long ago.

I am in control. I make the choices. And if I listen to the voice of reason within me, I will not be lead astray

I’m in Dallas this week for some training. I’m eating clean, but I don’t have my regular foods at the ready.

To top it off, I left my Oh Yeah! bar at the hotel yesterday morning.

So I stopped by Starbucks yesterday to grab a quick breakfast. The most reasonable thing there being a little platter I decided I could make meals number one and two out of.

Meal number one was a few pieces of fruit and a boiled egg.

Meal number two was a 100 calorie bagel and a little packet of cream cheese.

When the hour of meal number two arrived, I retrieved the little brown bagel and prepared to spread the cream cheese.

A quick slit and a little stream of brown, gelatinous goo fell on my tiny little bagel.

You know. That package had sat upon my desk all day long.

Clearly it was brown.

And I read the container of my cute little platter o’ food at the coffee shop.

Cleary, it did not say cream cheese.

Yet, I was surprised when peanut butter oozed out of that little brown package. Surprised to the point I couldn’t help but exclaim, “Ohh, nasty!” when I saw it.

And I love peanut butter y’all!!! It’s practically God’s perfect food.

But you know what?

I had eyes to see and read the package, but I didn’t use them.

Certainly I had good sense to determine that white cream cheese was not going to be springing forth from a brown package.

But I wanted cream cheese, y’all. I just didn’t want to put forth the effort to see that I got it.

And I wonder where this is going?!

It’s not enough to want something. If you have a goal in mind or even just a way you want to look, there are things you have to do.

Just spread a little cream cheese on it…

Open your eyes. Look at what you have.

And if it’s not what you want, go to where it is and get it. Whether that be to the deli to get some cream cheese, or the gym to get after it!

Cause nobody wants some brown cream cheese, y’all. That’s just nasty.

Saturday morning was a beautiful day in East Texas, but beautiful days don’t lessen the blow of going to a funeral. Especially not the funeral of a thirty-three year old man.Billy Baker. Brother of my classmate, Beth.

A beautiful, troubled soul.

Leaving behind two beautiful, wonderful girls and lots of aching hearts.
It’s been twenty years since I graduated, but there is no time too long or distance too far to do the right thing.

So I found myself standing at the back of the church, as it was standing room only at his service. So many people there, I feared I would not even get to see my beloved classmate. Half a room and hundreds of people stood between us.

The family members were ushered out to their cars as soon as the service concluded. Again, I feared that I could not get to Beth.

But I was thinking as I walked to my car, “What would I even say to her? What do you say to someone hurting like that?”

And as I strolled down the sidewalk toward my car, pondering what I would say, a window in the car a few places down rolled down and a hand beckoned me over, “Dina!”

It was Beth.

And through that window I could see sad eyes that had shed a thousand tears.

I leaned in to kiss her cheek, and she kissed mine in return.

In unison we said, “I love you.”

Because you know what? That’s all you can say in a moment like that.

The conversation did not last any longer, because a knot had formed in my throat and tears were starting to spill. I wanted to just cry like a baby girl.
But when you reach your lowest point, as my classmate had, isn’t love the only thing left?

And can’t that translate into this diet or gym time you’re struggling with?
When you have hit your lowest point, whether that be your heaviest weight or just general dissatisfaction with where you are, what must remain is love. Self-love.

You have to love yourself enough to make changes. Love yourself enough to push through. Love yourself enough to do whatever it takes.

And aren’t the best things born of love anyway?

My lowest point came while sitting on a couch, in front of the TV, eating Cheetos. It was a low, low moment….that became my finest hour. Because it was the hour I decided I loved myself enough to do whatever it took to reclaim my life.

People ask me all the time how I lost the weight.

I was asked again yesterday by someone who had not seen me in quite some time.

We used to work out together. Years and years ago. When I was still obese and struggling every day, through every workout.

Every single one.

But more than ten years have passed, and I have been at goal for almost three now.

I don’t hate the gym or struggle through my workouts.

And I don’t count it as joy when time does not allow me to go to the gym!

But by far the biggest difference can be seen in my eyes. There is a sparkle there that just wasn’t there before.

I mean, sure, I smiled before, but what was on the inside did not match the outside. My smile led to a heart that was black and a life that was broken.

But yesterday…

As if it were that simple, my friend asked me, “How did you do it?”

I was picking up something for work, so I was on borrowed time.

My mind started stringing together words of wisdom that would take far longer to spill than the few minutes I had available for her.

So?

What could I tell this woman that would give her any hope at all?

All of the thoughts wandering through my mind came out all at once, in one sentence.

“You have to decide you want to do it.”

You see, anyone can eat clean.

Anyone can go to the gym.

Anyone can lose weight.

The true victory comes the moment you decide you are going to be what you want to be.

Once I decided I wanted to lose weight, the other decisions fell into place for me. That one decision led to so many others:

I decided it was OK if I was hungry every now and then. It wouldn’t kill me.

I decided not to eat junk food, or skip workouts.

I decided it was OK to hate the gym as long as I went, and I decided to make myself happy from the inside out.

Doing is not hard; deciding is. But all it takes is one moment in time where you decide you ARE going to do it.

And it’s a decision you’ll never regret.

They say bad news comes in threes, and indeed I was the recipient of bad news three times yesterday.

I live in a small town. Everybody knows everybody. So when there is tragedy, it affects us all.

Early in the morning I heard the news that one of my formers students father had died. More than a year ago he had an accident, and he had been in the nursing home ever since. We thought he was improving, but he took a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse.

Then I got the news a little later that the brother of my dear classmate had died. I did not know him well, but I certainly did her. And I was sad for my friend. So very sad.

Still later I would hear that the mother of one of my son’s friends had fallen. We are waiting to hear more, but the news is not good. Her back is broken.

As chance would have it, I would also run into the mom of one of my former students twice yesterday. Her son, my former student, died in a car wreck just a few weeks after graduation last year.

But in the midst of hearing one sorrowful thing after another, I had the makings of a really good day.

I surely did not have to look very far to count my blessings yesterday.

My kids are alive and well, and so are the ones I hold dearest to my heart.

But I was thinking especially about the one younger than me who could not see through my eyes and chose to end his pain. He hurt so deeply that he could not bear what I embrace, which is life. And happiness. And love. And all things good.

So I was thinking about what he must have endured to make the choice he made. And as only natural, I thought about the list of things that keep me here.

My mind flooded with things. Simple things.

Things like…

I couldn’t wait to call my friend Shane. We play dueling voice mail with each other. Calling when we know the other can’t possibly answer to fill up each other’s voice mail with complete and utter nonsense!

And I had to go see what pictures the guys had left me in Ron’s thread to brighten my day. Sparkly posing trunks and pink cars! What more could a girl want?

And I thought of my doodlebugs! I have cheeks to kiss. Soft, soft, stubbly!

And then there’s the one brave enough to share with me what he’s about to share with the world.

My life is full of simple, happy moments and good people to love and enjoy.

And I am so blessed.

And when I get on that treadmill later today and a tear slides down each cheek, they will be tears of thankfulness, tears of joy, tears of sorrow, and tears of remembrance.

And if you are here reading this, you’re on my list too…because no matter how bad things may get, we’re all in this together.

Don’t ever, ever forget that. Not even for a moment.

I have had the hardest time making it to one of Jonah’s track meets this year.

The first one fell when I was in Ohio for the Arnold. The second one on a day I had a meeting.

The third one was a sad disappointment. Jonah had told me the wrong time. I drive up as the race ends. I didn’t even get to see a second of it. Not one second.

We were both so sad.

He was SO close to placing at that race.

As he apologized for telling me the wrong time he said, “Mama, if you were there I could have done better.”

“Why is that son?”

“You yell the loudest. I would have known you were there, and I would have tried harder. Can you come to the next one? I have to see if I can place.”

“Yes, Jonah. I will do whatever it takes to make sure I am there.”

You see, 7th grade track season is short. If I didn’t make it to that one, I didn’t make it to one at all.

And yesterday was that day.

The meet was on Jonah’s mind as he peeled open his eyes yesterday morning.
He asked me what a runner should eat for breakfast again, even though I have told him many times!

He also asked me if I was still coming with a look of expectance in his eyes.
“Yes, Jonah, I promise I will be there.”

And I left extra early to make sure not only that I was there, but that he saw that I was there.

He found me within minutes of my appearance in the stands.

“Are you going to yell?”

“Yes, son. I’m going to stand right here the whole time. I promise, you will know I’m in the stands.”

Six times as he rounded that track I cheered him on from the moment I saw him until he was out of earshot, and six times he sped up every time he heard my voice.

And when that race was over he emerged the first distance runner from his school to score any points for the team all season long!

His coaches were proud. His teammates cheered. He was grinning ear to ear, and I cried like a baby girl!

But the best part was when Jonah came up to me and said, “See. I told you I needed you here.”

There is nothing wrong with knowing who you need on your team.
And in case you didn’t know it, I’m on yours.

And I yell really loud!