My Body, My Temple...

I don't know many people who are happy with their bodies. They feel they are too tall, or too short, too fat or too skinny. They don't like their tummys or their boobs, or their thighs or their legs. Obesity and conversely, eating disorders, are on the rise in North America. I see people who are just teenagers, who are suffering from morbid obesity and I see others who are starving themselves to fit an unreasonable ideal propagated by mainstream media. It is really sad and discouraging. Eating habits are out of control in the US and Canada.



Our serving portions keep getting larger and larger yet the images we see on tv are of men and women who are childlike in their body proportions. It seems that nothing we see anymore is real. The problem in West Virginia is obesity. I eat in the cafeteria at the college here in Glenville and I am appalled at the food selection, but I see the results in my fellow students. I would estimate that about 65% of the student population is overweight and approximately 15% of those are morbidly obese. On the other hand, those that are not obese do not eat any better, for the most part. Cheeseburgers, fries, biscuits and gravy, pizza, cream soups, baked good and sugary drinks are the main items on the menu here. Those items are front and center in our cafeteria. There is a salad bar, but it is usually unappetizing with limp, brown, lettuce and vegetables sliced in unhelpful, awkward portions. And the amount of dressing added to salads is unbelievable. Sometimes I wonder if there is any salad under all that Ranch dressing. It looks like a plate of white sauce. Yuck! All the cooked vegetables are boiled into unrecognition, so all nutrients have been leached out, and then they are stored in an oily/butter water to keep them moist. I never have to add salt to any of the food, and I like salt. Sometimes I luck out and have roast beef or roast chicken, but most of the time I have to turn away from the breaded, deep fried chicken nuggets or what they call "veal parmigiana" and what I call "gross". I fill up my plate with a selection of raw vegetables from the salad bar, munch on a burger that has lettuce substituted for the bun, drink water and look around at everyone eating two cheeseburgers and an entire plate of just fries and ketchup, and gulping down glass after glass of pepsi. Not a vegetable in sight.

Now, I'm not saying I am better than anyone else. I was a chubby kid.


You can't really see it there, but I had some serious rolls.

I have lost about 30 lbs in the last 3 years. I had two kids and had stopped working out and was eating pretty much all the same bad things that I mentioned above. I have pictures from back then and I was obese myself. Here is a picture of me from Christmas about 3 years ago.

Wowsa! And that was just my face. Oh...and I had had a couple drinks, so that accounts for the "rosy" appearance.

I did not like what I had done to my body. Slowly and painfully I started to work out again. My husband was a tremendous inspiration to me and both he and I decided to become scientific about our goal to lose weight and become more healthy. We drastically changed our diets and made exercise a mandatory part of our week. It worked, it is working. But being here, not being able to cook for myself is hard. Working out is easier. I don't have to schedule around my kids or work, so I am lucky that way, but the eating part is difficult.

I am also lucky that my kids will probably never have the problems that I had with weight (I hope). My kids are eating our diet right now and as a result are extremely lean and healthy. We talk about proper nutrition with them and emphasize the fact that exercise should be a part of their lives.

My body is my temple and I am beginning to worship it and treasure it as such. I watch what I put into it, I take care of it and once in awhile I have to make some renovations on the run-down parts. I had breast reduction surgery about a year and a half ago. Once I lost my weight, the boobs stayed the same unreasonable size. Something had to be done. I also had laser eye surgery, which I would recommend to anyone and everyone. It is life changing. I work out an average of 4-5 times a week, hard. I may be older than 99% of the student population here at college, but I will be in better shape than the majority of them.

I still have about 10-15 pounds to go, I figure. I will then weigh what I did in high school, but with a woman's body. Hopefully, then I will possess a body that I will love and be happy with. Until then, I will continue to watch what I eat and hit the gym regularly.


Much love.

Tanya

The Land of the Living...

I am back!

I don't know many people who have survived tuberculosis (are you tired of hearing about it? Sorry, I think the joke is old too. I'll stop).

I'm almost back to normal. I feel ever so much better. Apparently, there has been a couple different illness going around our little campus. One of my friends ended up in the hospital because he needed to get two I.V.'s he had lost so much fluid. But people are on the mend.

So, here is a big, fat, juicy one for all my friends who sent their "get well's"...


Sorry. I didn't know I looked like that when I puckered up. No one has ever complained before. Sheesh...its a miracle I ever got married.

I went to a play this evening. It was our college's rendition of Tennessee William's "The Glass Menagerie". It was quite good. I really enjoyed it. And...one of my friends had a lead role in it and she totally rocked! She hadn't even told me she was in the play, so that was a very pleasant surprised. After the first, slightly depressing play, there was a spoof on the same play that was he-he-he-larious!!! I had tears in my eyes and was holding my stomach from laughing so hard. I will definitely be attending more events such as this in the future.

So. It is Friday night and I am a little bored. Everyone leaves to go home on weekends here. The town becomes very quiet. I've already talked to my family and they are busy watching videos and just being a family. I miss them. I don't really have any plans for the weekend. Just some homework and more recovery from my illness.

In 15 days I will be home for Spring Break. Woot woot!!!!

Until later,

Love Tanya

Things you think about while dying of tuberculosis...

1. I did not know that I could produce so much snot. This roll of toilet paper was one of those "triple roll" ones. I have used this since about 11:00 this morning and I am now down to less than a "single roll" roll should be. I have had to take out my garbage because it was so full of used tissues. The reason I use toilet paper instead of tissue paper? 'Cause the tissue paper is for company!

2. Cafeteria food isn't any better when your taste buds are on vacation.

3. Is it kinda gross that you sweat so much, but you just don't care anymore? I did put on new deodorant.

4. Should I be worried when the bottle says "2 or 3 sprays in each nostril not more often than every 10 to 12 hours. Do not exceed 2 doses in any 24-hour period" and I am past my 9 day maximum in just 8 hours?

5. Being awake for only 4 hours in one day still means that you were productive right?

6. Why don't they just make better drugs?!?

7. I hate being sick, I hate being sick, I hate being sick, I hate being sick, I hate being sick, I hate being sick, I hate being sick, I hate being sick, I hate being sick, I hate being sick, I hate being sick...

8. I miss my Mom. I miss my husband. I miss my kids. I missed my classes. Darn!

9. I think I am running out of things to blog about. Nobody wants to hear about you lying and dying in your room of tuberculosis. Are you crazy? Yes! Who said that?!?

10. You are going to have to get a new "triple roll" soon.

Anyways, I'm still here. Barely.

Love Tanya

Dying of a horrible disease...

I think I'm dying.


Frank tells me that I like sympathy, and I do. I like knowing that people care if I am doing well or not. Anyways, my particular terminal disorder is called "a sinus infection that is dripping down the back of your throat and causing a lot of irritation and coughing. The start of bronchitis." That is verbatim from the nurse practitioner on campus here in Glenville State College. I had a temperature though! And my body feels as if it has been hit by a truck. So it is much worse than she made it sound. So, after filling out pages of paperwork, and waiting for my perscriptions to be filled, I am once again filled with hope. I hope that I survive my bout with tuberculosis (that is what I am calling my disease, it's easier to explain and people feel really sorry for me). I didn't even get to miss any classes, Tuesdays are my day off. You should really feel bad for me now. Anyways, here is a picture of the drugs that I am taking to try and prolong my wretched life...

Mom, do you see the Chinese Laryngitis pills? Well, apparently I have bronchitis, not laryngitis. But I will continue to take the pills. I figure, the more drugs, the better.

So, my question to you, dear reader...what do you do when you get sick? Do you crawl into your ugliest sweats (like me), hole up in your room (like me), sleep more than you should (like me) and basically feel as if you are dying (like me)? How bad does it have to be before you go see the doctor? Do you finish your prescriptions?

Well, I think another wave of tuberculosis is coming on. I will be lying here in my bed, slowly wasting away. If you visit, please pick up a face mask at the front desk (the management) and visit the decontamination unit once you leave.

If I live, I will post again soon.


Love Tanya

I survived...

So, I made it through the week. Both my tests seemed to go well, my presentation was a hit and my paper was read by a non-biology student and declared understandable. I just worked out my "Attack plan for Feb-Mar". The best part is highlighted in pink and it reads "SPRING BREAK". I can honestly say that this will be the most anticipated trip I have made in a very long time. I miss my girls very much. But I have become very good at scolding them on Skype.

On another note, I have posted a movie clip of my two extremely talented friends. Alli (in blue) is an English major and Mary Sue is a Music Education major. They got together one night here at "Slim Pickens" and played for a couple of us. They say they are going to learn some other pieces and play them for my kids.



Mary Sue took me into the Fine Arts Building the other day and she taught me how to play "Chopsticks" on the marimba and even coaxed me into displaying my long forgotten piano playing skills. She is much better than me and the pieces she was playing were unbelievably hard. I finished grade 8 piano but I have never attempted the caliber of pieces she was working on. I plan on attending some of her recitals. She is in so many different essembles that I can't keep track of them but I should be able to catch a few. She is a piano major, but she plays guitar, flute, clarinet, trumpet, the marimba, and sings. She has also had lessons in stringed instruments and confesses to wanting to learn more instruments. Amazing. She is one of those people who can hear a song on the radio and pick it out on the piano. AND...she composes! She played part of an original composition on the piano and I was blown away. Okay...she reads this blog and is probably extremely embarrassed right now (she turns bright red in the face, its quite cute).

Alli is my other bud. She really likes to read and write. We have all these great books that we are trying to get each other to read. Because I have 15 years on her, I think I have a larger collection, but she is a pretty voracious reader and I am sure we will have some excellent conversations in the future. She taught herself how to play the guitar and I swear, if I had more time, I would ask her to teach me.

Both the girls are fun and I am happy that they let me hang out with them. They make the days go faster and I laugh around them alot. I am like an older sister to them and I get to impart my hard earned wisdom. They make me miss my own sisters very much. I am sending out a "Hey Y'all!" to them. And yes, my WV accent is progressing just fine.

So, I think I have taken all the pictures I need to around here. I'm sure you get the gist of where I am living now. I will try to remember to bring my camera to the next basketball game and try and capture the experience for you. It can get quite exciting during a close game.

I have also started running again. My knees have decided they have given me enough grief and have relented for a bit. There was a loop that I used to run, back when I was in Glenville in the '90s. It's still there and the big hill near the end doesn't seem nearly as big and as hard as it did back then. Did I tell you that I ran on the College Cross Country team back then? I even went in the races and usually ended up somewhere in the middle. Considering how I don't like to run that much, I was pretty proud of myself for doing that. Anyways, it was nice to get outside and stretch my legs.

Being around these young kids has made me realize that with maturity (what I have), comes a certain confidence. I am happy that I am able to guide my family and friends and feel very honored when they ask me for help and guidance.

I have done quite a bit of growing up here myself in the last month. Frank and I have been together for so long and he is usually the confident partner in our relationship. He guides me in a lot of things. I usually take a back seat and let him make the first move when we have to make a decision. But, being here, away from him, although hard, has given me the confidence in myself that I should have had before. I think that will be good for our relationship. Everyone has told me that they are very proud of me for doing this. And you know what? I'm pretty proud of myself. When I stand up to receive my degree, I will have accomplished a goal that I had thought I might never have achieved. You can bet that I will have a lot of pictures of that moment!

Well, my homework won't complete itself. Talk to you soon.

Love Tanya

Procrastination: Is that a class I can enroll in?

Hello Everyone,

So, I am procrastinating right now. I will try not to spend too much time on this. I have a big test coming up, actually, 2 big tests, a presentation and a paper due in the next couple of days. So, I am putting it off because I don't really feel like studying at the moment.

To catch you up to date. It has almost been exactly one month since Frank abandoned me here in Glenville. It was tough the first two weeks, but I am getting the hang of it. I have made some friends and my classes are starting to make sense. I am used to eating by myself now. In fact, it is sometimes preferable to making small talk with people. I have had to explain my story to countless people. Everyone wants to know how I ended up in Glenville in the first place, and why the heck I'm back, years later. Sometimes, I just want to eat my salad in peace.

This past weekend I was able to meet up with Frank in Dayton, Ohio. He was sent there by his company to do training. Dayton is only just over 4 hours away. As soon as I got out of class on Friday, I packed the car and took off. I was so excited! I took some pictures along the way and I wanted to share them with you. The first couple were taken, all in Ohio (I figured you had seen enough pictures of West Virginia in my last couple posts). The sunset was spectacular. The sun was this huge fiery ball on the horizon.


It was huge-er and fiery-er in real life.
But before I took the sunset picture, I saw some local wildlife.


Yep, more deer. However, not as many as I expected. I did see these exotic creatures...


Can you make them out? Those are a couple of "ice-fishing red-necks", I'm not sure what the latin name for these species are. Now, here's the thing about bodies of water in West Virginia, and I think, Ohio. There are no natural lakes down here. Apparently, because the glaciers during the Ice Ages never made it this far south, no lake beds were carved out. All the lakes around here are man-made. That just about blew my mind the first time I learned that. No lakes!!! British Columbians can't quite wrap their minds around that. So, these "ice-fishing red neck" are standing in a man-made lake designed for ice-fishing. Weird.


Here is a pretty cool picture I like to call "Tree beside the freeway, in Ohio". I think I will do a scrap page with this picture later. It just looks kinda neat. You can tell this was taken in Ohio because it is so flat, no mountains like West Virginia. Look how straight the road is. And nice big shoulders in case you should fall asleep at the wheel. This is in contrast to the following movie clips, both taken on my trip back to Glenville, in the West Virginian hills.




Very twisty, no shoulders and no possibility of falling asleep at the wheel and being okay. If you listen carefully you can hear me squeaking a little as I try to make some of those corners driving one handed while holding the camera. Oh yah, I forgot that my music was on and since one hand was trying to navigate S curves and the other was trying to document it, that meant there were no hands to turn off Feist. The Locals tell me that these turns are nothing, that "Ya should see the roads back home!" I guess they would know.

The next movie clip involves me telling you a direct lie. Watch...





So, you ask, "How was your visit with Frank?" Well, I will just say that this is a family blog, so no details will be discussed here. Kidding...it was wonderful, too short (we only had about 1 and 1/3 days together), but certainly worth the 8 hours of total driving. We ate really yummy foods, trying to avoid salads if possible, watched videos...oh! We discovered this amazing invention! There are these cool little red vending machines that you can rent DVD's from for a buck! Yah! Amazing huh? New releases and everything. They had them at gas stations and at Wal-Mart. You can return them to any vending machine. What a great idea. Do you remember when you had to practically promise a video store your first born to rent a VHS? One dollar, people! Canada needs to invest in these little babies really soon. Anyways...back to my weekend. It was really nice to spend it with my best friend. I miss my kids terribly, but I really miss just being around Frank. When I dropped him off at the airport and started driving home, this really sappy love song came on and I repeated it 3 times and sang and cried and sang some more. What a sap, huh? Oh well. It will be another 4 weeks before I get to see him and my kids for Spring Break. That seems a really long time, but right now, tomorrow is coming really fast and I need to study for that test. I am done procrastinating.

Talk to everyone soon. Drop me a line and let me know how your life is going.

Love Tanya