Spotlight Theater and Arts Group, Etc. (S.T.A.G.E.)

First, let me acknowledge another writer whose ideas I freely borrowed from:  Ellen Debenport, my good friend since Bonham Junior High School.  Ellen is a former political journalist-turned-minister.  She wrote a book, The Five Spiritual Principles, and in it she had a question-and-answer section in which each question started out, “Yes, but what about….?”  I liked that so much that, ok, well, I stole it.  Then I told Ellen about it after the fact.  She was gracious, and I promised to give her credit for it and mention her book to boot.  You can order it at www.unity.org. 

The dinner theater last night was delightful. 

S.T.A.G.E. (Spotlight Theater and Arts Group, Etc.--I can see why they added "Etc." to complete the acronym) is part of a whole network of small, non-profit theaters around the country.  The idea for this particular theater started when Earl’s wife got bitten by the acting bug, as she put it, when she was in a community theater production in the Eighties.  She knew then what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.  She told Earl, “Build me a theater!”  and that’s what he did, right next to his towing business and junkyard.. 

I didn’t know what to expect when we walked into the modest structure.  I certainly didn’t expect a life-sized mannequin dressed to resemble Genghis Khan.  There was also an old piano, a table covered with clippings and reviews of theater productions, and photos of someone's German ancestors on the wall.  The front half of the building served as the dining hall.  Food was homy fare and included  meat, potatoes, gravy, salads, plus a tempting array of homemade pies and cakes.  It was set out cafeteria style on tables against the wall.  A cashier seated at a card table collected money as the diners exited the food line. 

The theater section was separated from the dining area by a huge curtain.  A teenager in sneakers and t-shirt led us to our seats, which were tabbed with post-it notes bearing our names.  We were about half an hour early, but pre-play entertainment was provided.  A middle-aged woman stood on stage, microphone in hand, singing Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” as people found their seats.  After “Crazy” she sang “Crocodile Rock.”  Part of the back row joined in on the chorus.  Then came “To Sir, with Love.”   By that time I was singing along.  She ended with “What a Wonderful World,” in a dead-on impression of Louis Armstrong.  Talk about range. 

Then the curtains pulled back jerkily, and the play began.  It was a clever comedy called Marrying Terry.  I thought the acting and production was excellent for community theater, certainly on a level with what I’ve seen in San Antonio.  Afterwards, the cast formed a reception line at the door.  I thought that was a nice touch. 

I’m glad we finally checked out this little theater.  We’ve driven by it so many times and said, “Let’s try this place,” and, after six years, we finally did.  We’ll be going again, that’s for sure.  Even if we have to dodge the occasional deer, raccoon, or skunk to get there. 

No Flogging

Some days it is just not possible to post a blog.  I'm not going to flog myself if I miss a day.  This morning I worked frenziedly on the humane society newsletter (almost done!) then drove to town for my dance class.  Today we learned a few seconds more of Miss K's choreography to "El Sekka El Ghalat."  "El Sekka" is a rap song in Arabic, and you can actually find it on iTunes.  In the unlikely event there's more than one version, this one is sung by Jad Choueiri.  (I couldn't find "Jemilleh" on iTunes, which sorely needs to beef up its Middle Eastern repertoire.)  I can't honestly say I like the song "El Sekka," plus it's fiendish to dance to.  It gets slow, then speeds up maniacally, then slows down again.  Miss K, however, likes it so much she's going to dance it with us in the "recital." 

This afternoon I went to the shelter to spend some time with the little dachshund mixes.  They are so shy and need gentle human contact to lose some of their fear.  Hans and Franz came up to me and hung around the whole time I was there.  They climbed into my lap to eat morsels of Swiss cheese out of my hand.  Franz then decided he wanted to chew on my flip flops, then nibbled my toes.  The other two, Fritz and Beethoven, didn't even venture out of their doggie door.  People who are cruel to animals--they are the ones who should be flogged. 

Now it's after 5 o'clock and I need to get ready for tonight.  We have tickets to the local dinner theater, next door to Earl's Towing.  The theater is, in fact, owned and operated by Earl's wife.  I've never met her, but it's hard to imagine that Earl would be married to a woman who runs a dinner theater.  He's a crusty old guy.  This should be interesting.  Stay tuned.  

FAQ's about My So-Called Diet

Yesterday I said I’d provide the name of the book and author I mentioned.  The book is In Defense of Food:  An Eater’s Manifesto, and it was written by Michael Pollan.  He also wrote the bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and several other books.  His main interest seems to be food.  Also, I misquoted him.  He said “Eat food,” not “Eat real food.”  I added “real” for clarity.

OK, here are some questions that you might have about my eating program.

Why do you need to eat several times a day?  Isn’t that fattening?

Not if the meals are small.  The point is to keep from getting too hungry.  At the first twinge of a hunger pang, go eat something.  If you’re hungry again two hours later, have another snack.  If you wait too long and get really hungry, you’re going to pig out on whatever you can find.  I’ve always been a grazer, so eating several times a day came naturally to me.

Yes, but what about going to restaurants?

One really nice thing about my “diet” is that I can go out to lunch occasionally and eat pretty much anything I want.  If I had to stop eating Mexican food, I’d shoot myself.  Just set down your fork when you’re satisfied.  And try to eat out at lunchtime, so you have the rest of the day to burn it off.  If your job requires you to eat at restaurants more often than once a week, choose sensible meals.  I don’t need to tell you what they are.  Grilled instead of fried, green beans instead of loaded baked potato, blah blah.  Or just a salad with dressing on the side.  Avoid croutons, bacon bits, crackers, and other junky add-ons. 

Yes, but what about cooking dinner for my family? 

Go ahead and cook dinner for your family.  Just don’t eat it.  Dine on your plant food.  If you must, have a few token forkfuls of the dinner you cooked.  If it’s something you really like, save a portion for yourself to eat for lunch the following day. 

Yes, but what about at the office? 

Bring your lunch and snacks, if you can.  To head off random hunger attacks, keep a stash of almonds in your desk.  It’s easy to nibble unobtrusively on almonds.  Or peanuts or unbuttered popcorn, things like that.  Fresh fruit is good but not recommended to eat at your desk.  Sooner or later you will get juice or bits of food on Very Important Papers.  I know.  I’ve done it. 

Yes, but what about my sweet tooth?  (or craving for salty snacks, pizza, pork rinds, whatever) 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that once I got out of the habit of eating sweets, I didn’t crave them anymore.  This is true of any other food you think you can’t live without.  If you really must have some chocolate ice cream, go buy a one-dip serving of it, sit down, and savor it.  Just don’t go to the store and buy a half gallon of it. 

Yes, but what about alcoholic beverages?

I often have a glass of wine in the evening.  A mixed drink, including, alas, a margarita, contains more calories than a beer or a glass of wine.  At parties, assuming you don’t party every night, have two or three drinks.  If you need more than that, then you have an altogether different problem that’s too big to address here. 

Yes, but how do I keep motivated?

It’s very motivating when the pounds start to melt off.  It may take awhile for your body to let go of that extra weight it has gotten comfortable with.  Then one day you’ll find you’ve lost a couple of pounds.  Then another.  Your pants fit better.  You look and feel better.  You have more energy.  People notice the difference.  That’s motivating. 

The most important thing is persistence.  If you go berserk and eat an entire batch of brownies (I’ve done that, too), just climb right back on the wagon and carry on.

On Jemileh and My So-Called Diet

Jemileh, Jemileh, ohhhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, Jemileh

In tonight’s class we are learning the choreography to “Jemileh.”  It’s a slow, haunting ballad.  The lyrics are in Turkish, but consist mainly of the name “Jemileh” sung mournfully over and over.  I can’t tell whether the singer is lamenting a lost love or pining for a love he’ll never have.  Either way, it did not turn out well for him.  Sigh.  Such is life. 

We are learning beginner-level choreography to “Jemileh.”  The hardest part so far is a shimmy that goes on for the first 60 seconds of the song.  It is really difficult for me to maintain a shimmy for that long.  In fact, I can’t.  But I’m working on it. 

Miss K calculates about 15 seconds of choreography “learned” per class.  Yes, it takes an hour for the average class to learn 15 seconds of steps well enough to dance them in time to the music and with a marginally acceptable level of competence.  As time goes on, of course, you repeat the steps you’ve already learned many times.  After the whole choreography is taught, then rough edges can be smoothed.  Some dancers (but, alas, not all) will eventually be able to perform the dance with some fluidity and grace.  It’s a long process.  People don’t realize that it takes months to make a 3 or 4 minute dance presentable. 

My So-Called Diet

All the bad things I ate over the weekend caught up with me, and the cheeseburger and fries I had last night didn’t help.  I have regained 5 of the 12 pounds I lost.  They reappeared practically overnight.  But I’m not too worried.  I know that I just need to get back on track, and it won’t take long to re-lose those 5 pounds.  Think positive! 

A friend of mine, one of the few I have told about my blog so far, begged me to tell her my dieting “secret.”  So Nancy, this is for you.  I hope others may find it helpful, too. 

Let me say, first of all, it’s not actually a “diet.”  I am constitutionally unable to diet.  And my program is not a secret.  It’s based on the tried-and-true formula of eat less and exercise more.  But my system works for me, because I can stick to it without much effort and without feeling hungry or deprived.  I didn’t even start this “diet” program with the intent to lose weight.  I just decided to start eating better.  My new program just happened to have the happy side effect of causing me to lose weight.  So here it is.

My eating plan is based on three simple rules set out in a book whose title and author escape me.  (I’ll find out and provide that info later.)  The rules are: 

Eat real food. 

Not too much. 

Mostly plants. 

“Real food” means unprocessed food, food that is not canned, packaged, or frozen.  All those processes involve a lot of sodium, chemicals, and, often, fat and calories to add taste.  Fast food is not real food, either.

“Not too much” is self-explanatory.  If you push yourself away from the table announcing you’re stuffed, you’ve probably eaten double what you need to feel satisfied.  Most of the time when I go out to eat, I bring home half of my meal and save it for lunch the next day.

“Mostly plants” means your diet should consist mostly of vegetables, fruits, and grains.  You know, stuff that originally grows as a plant. 

In practice, this is what I did and still do:

1.      I don't eat beef, except the occasional cheeseburger when I crave it.

2.      I eat several small meals a day.  I’m naturally a grazer, so this comes naturally. 

3.      I have a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast every morning.  I buy those instant packages, regular flavor, if you call that a flavor.  I also have coffee with some evaporated milk as creamer.  Oh, and I add some slivers of real butter to my oatmeal.  Yum.

4.      At lunch I eat a homemade sandwich (small slice of turkey or chicken, slice of Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mustard on whole wheat), plus--my guilty pleasure—some potato chips.

5.      At night I have plant food only.  I eat a big salad with a variety of fresh vegetables cut up in it.  I put regular dressing on it—a tablespoon or so is sufficient to make it tasty.  I'm partial to dried cranberries and toasted almond slivers sprinkled on top.  Or I eat cut up vegetables dipped in dressing. 

6.      I don’t eat later than seven o’clock, or three hours before I go to bed.  I might feel a little hungry by bedtime, but I figure I’m going to be asleep soon anyway.  And I’ll wake up thinner. 

7.      For snacks between meals I'll have some fresh or dried fruit, almonds or peanuts (or almond or peanut butter on a half piece of bread), dry popcorn, stuff like that. 

8.      I drink mostly water.  I don’t drink sodas, diet or otherwise.  I drink very little milk.  (Don’t worry.  I take my calcium tablets.)

One more thing:  I don’t eat “diet” anything, except mayonnaise, and that only because I can’t tell the difference between the diet and real mayo.  I don’t like the taste of diet foods, they harbor all kinds of chemicals, and I swear they make me feel hungrier.  People tend to eat more of a diet food than they would the non-diet version, which defeats the purpose, and it doesn’t even taste good.  So what’s the point?  In the end they feel deprived, and will eventually make up for it by binging on the good stuff.  So eat the real food to begin with.  Eat real butter.  Use real salad dressing.  You’ll eat less and feel more satisfied.  That's my rant on diet foods. 

Tomorrow I’ll answer some FAQ’s about my eating plan.

On DVD's and YouTube

Yesterday afternoon I practiced belly dance moves using a DVD I bought online:  Bellydance Basics and Beyond, with Jenna.  Jenna is a professional belly dancer and instructor.  She explains posture and proper form thoroughly.  She goes through all the beginning isolations and combination movements I know, and then some.  I read in a review of the DVD that it’s over two-and-a-half hours long, although I haven’t gotten that far yet. 

I think it’s good to get input from different sources.  One person’s explanation or demonstration may make more sense to you than another’s.  I particularly liked Jenna’s way of teaching reverse undulations, which were really kicking my behind.  A reverse undulation showed up unexpectedly in one of the choreographies we are learning, and I was caught unprepared.  I tried to imitate Miss K’s movements, but my version looked more like a seizure than a dance move.  

I went home and searched YouTube for a step-by-step explanation on the proper execution of a reverse undulation.  Naturally, a number of people on YouTube explain reverse undulations, and each person has a different take on it.  I’m finding that’s not unusual in the belly dance world, even though the end result looks about the same.  The problem with YouTube is that the videos are so brief and fast that it’s hard to break down the dance moves, much less practice them.  So Jenna’s DVD helped on the RU’s.  I spent my hour of belly dance practice with Jenna yesterday. 

All this will come to fruition eventually.  Progress seems to come to me in spasms.  I’ll struggle along with something, like a reverse undulation, that feels completely foreign and awkward for weeks.  Then one day, it just flows.  Overnight it magically becomes graceful and fluid.  Those are the moments that keep me motivated.  Those and the costumes.   

Why I Didn't Blog All Weekend

I’ve already broken my vow.  I have not blogged every day.  I did not blog on Saturday.  I did not blog on Sunday.  To put it more delicately than the more common phrase, life happens.  Last week I promised to pick up four dachshund mixes to take to the shelter.  These four young males had been seized from a hoarder in Mission, then wound up at the dog pound in Kerrville, where a dachshund rescue group found them.  The rescue group deals only with purebred “doxies,” and these were mixes.  The shelter/humane society I volunteer for agreed to take them.  On Saturday morning, I met with this kind lady who drove all the way from Kerrville with the four little dogs.  I loaded them up and headed back to the shelter.  It was 10:30 in the morning. 

At the shelter, there was another emergency.  A sick puppy needed to be taken to the vet right away.  I tucked her under my tee shirt to keep her warm and drove her there.  An hour later I was back at the shelter, with instructions to get her body temperature up, start her on antibiotics, and get her some nourishment with bottle feeding.  I covered a heating pad with a towel and wrapped the puppy in it.  Soon another volunteer arrived to take the puppy home and provide round-the-clock care.   

It was a typically busy Saturday, and not my usual day to volunteer.  I arrived home tired and hungry.  Instead of staying home and writing my blog, we went out to eat and to see a movie, The King's Speech.  (This was my second time to see it, and I enjoyed it even more.)  

On Sunday I worked on the spring edition of the humane society newsletter for a couple of hours.  Then I took a break for lunch.  In the freezer, a frozen blackberry cobbler caught my eye.  It had been languishing there since Thanksgiving.  I took it to the kitchen and announced to James, “We need to make this before it goes bad.”  I squinted at the expiration date.  “Yep, it expires in September 2012.  No time to waste.”  So I baked the blackberry cobbler, one of my favorite desserts.  After it cooled a bit, I cut a piece, added a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and was briefly transported to food heaven.  Then I had another piece.  I tried to go back to work on the newsletter, but my eyelids had become heavy.  I ended up in the hammock in a pastry-induced coma for the rest of the afternoon.  

So that is why I find myself here on this bright, sunny Monday morning, writing my blog after an unexcused absence of two days.  In those two days, I didn’t do any belly dance practice, either.  Nor did I go to the gym.  Plus my eating habits were atrocious.  I not only indulged in blackberry cobbler, but I finished off a box of vanilla wafers, ate a heavy meal at a restaurant on Saturday evening, ate pancakes on Saturday morning, and made French toast on Sunday morning. 

I started out this morning intending to make up for the weekend.  But my efforts keep getting derailed with interruptions.  When I turned my cell phone on, there were three voicemails from my daughter.  Her purse had gotten stolen (not for the first time) and she asked me to Fed Ex her extra set of car keys. 

Then I logged on to see where in the hell my mail-order meds are.  My health insurance company changed again--which is getting to be an annual event, heralding higher premiums and lower coverage--so now I have a different prescription-by-mail pharmacy.  The change in pharmacies came with the requisite delays and snafus.  (My doctor’s office insists they faxed the prescriptions; the mail order pharmacy claims they never got any fax).  So I got online to find that the status of my prescriptions is “in process.”  They have been “in process” since February 22.  How freakin’ long does it take, and what does “in process” mean?  And why is it that the choices on the automated phone system never include what you need?  If I could find it on your website, why would I be calling your sorry telephone center?  I decided to put off dealing with the pharmacy situation until this afternoon and started on the blog again.  Then my husband telephoned.  He had to leave his truck at an automotive shop up the road and needed a ride back to his office. 

Finally, I am back at my writing desk.  I don’t do well with interruptions.  When I’m concentrating, I shut out everything else, and it’s hard to get back on track.  Those questionnaires that are designed to determine whether you are an introvert or extrovert always include a question about interruptions.  The question goes something like, “Are you annoyed when you are interrupted in the middle of a task, or do you welcome the interruption?”  I am annoyed.  Very annoyed.

 

I Took Two Classes in a Row and Survived

Last night I took two belly dance classes in a row.  The first one was easy even for a beginner class.  The students signed up through the community education program last fall and are at a more basic level than the classes I usually take.  It was nice for a change to be the most advanced dancer in the room, even though that isn't saying much.  We take our encouragement where we can.

For you frustrated beginning belly dancers, let me assure you that you will improve with time.  At first I felt completely uncoordinated and awkward.  Even though I've danced a lot in my life, this is different.  You have to train a whole new set of muscles--several sets of muscles--to do things you never asked of them before.  Like anything else, it takes time to do it well. 

So the good news is eventually, you, too, can learn to shimmy!  I am still working on my basic shimmy.  Some people seem to shimmy effortlessly right off the bat, while others (like me), find it very difficult.  I practice my shimmy every chance I get.  When I take the dogs outside to do their business, I will stand there shimmying as I wait.  Lucky for me, our neighbors are far enough away so they can't see me, unless they have a set of binoculars handy. 

The bad news is as soon as you feel you've mastered one set of moves, Miss K. piles on more.  I acquired a newfound respect for belly dance when I realized how many body parts a belly dancer has to keep moving at the same time, often at different rhythms and in different directions.  Like patting your head and rubbing your tummy times 20.  (One of my classmates says she takes belly dance because she is naturally uncoordinated, and it helps her coordination.)  Then comes "layering," when just one body part is doing two things at once, like shimmying while executing a hip circle. 

Back to taking the two classes in a row last night.  As mentioned, the first class was pretty easy, although I was still a sweaty mess by the end.  The second class, the "beginner intermediate," happened to have some more advanced students in attendance last night, so I think Karen cranked up the level of difficulty.  She threw in some moves that I flat out could not do in any recognizable form, and my attempts were laughable.  But I hung in there until the last 5 minutes.  I was so out of breath I had to stop.  Plus a wave of nausea had come over me, probably  because I hadn't eaten anything since lunch.  I'm one of those people who grazes every couple of hours, so going without sustenance for several hours took its toll.  Next time I'll bring a protein bar.