40

40

          At the ripe old age of 28 a doctor informed me that my current stress levels were quickly making my 30^th birthday a pipe dream. He suggested exercise. So I drafted a will (just in case), joined a gym and started exercising. I loved it!

I made it to 30 and to top that milestone won a national beauty pageant to boot. For the next 365 days I traveled the world and had the time of my life. I went through so many different airports that I started keeping a journal of the best places to eat. FYI Chicago has the best meatloaf! And being a polite southerner, I never passed a cocktail party buffet without becoming personally acquainted. Unfortunately, exercise began a slow descent down my ladder of priorities. To compensate I learned the tricks of the trade. Spanx became my new best friend. If I had one too many appetizers at the Victor Awards I would just slap on an extra pair. Ever in denial, after a while I convinced myself that the lack of circulation to my lower extremities gave my face a nice girlish flush.

After my pageant days were behind me I found a new gym and attended regularly. However, much like church, attendance alone does not success guarantee. If your heart isn’t in it you are simply wasting space. I rarely left the gym having generated enough sweat to trigger my super strength deodorant much less my metabolism. Then on April 27, 2011, an EF4 tornado destroyed my gym and I gave myself permission to sit on my bum and wait for the construction of its replacement. By the time the grand opening invitations were mailed, over a year, and a good ten pounds later, I was firmly embedded into what I declared to be the most comfortable couch in America where in November 2013, I greeted 40.

 Over the Christmas holiday a friend suggested that I try Adventure Boot Camp. The class runs on a 4 week cycle and meets at the Mary Ann Phelps Center in Tuscaloosa. Up until that point I defined adventure as shifting from my sofa to the big chair and ottoman on a commercial break but I could no longer ignore the fact that none of my clothes were fitting. Among those straining at their threads were the suits I have to wear for court on a daily basis. Suits are not cheap to replace and in my opinion are frumpy by nature. I prefer to devote my hard earned dollars to great shoes and so I decided to give boot camp a shot.

Although the camp is made up of women at all different fitness levels it is designed to allow you to work at your own pace. Every workout is different which, having the attention span of a gnat, I love. The constant change also keeps the muscles from learning where you are headed and cheating-which they will do if given the opportunity.

I’m now on my second cycle and excited at the progress I have made. Saturday I played in an alumni basketball game at my old high school (Seniors v Senior Citizens) and actually made it to the end of the game without emergency intervention. Today when I zipped the pants of my suit I could swear I heard a sigh of relief from the zipper. I can feel and see that my body is changing. However, I’m still having issues with my energy levels. It could be my age but I think the more likely culprit is my horrible eating habits. So I’ve decided to start a 30 day nutritional cleanse program with Isagenix. Don’t get grossed out…it’s not one of THOSE cleanses. I’ll keep you posted!

Every Woman for Herself

     Planet Fitness (destroyed April 27, 2011) has announced YET ANOTHER delay in it's grand re-opening. At this point I have gone from a body that is a little soft here and there to a body that actually resembles the shape of a Hostess Twinkie.
     Yesterday, as I flipped through my April edition of Glamour Magazine, not while trudging away on my now dusty treadmill mind you, I noticed that Harley Pasternak, fitness trainer to the stars, had posted Lady Ga Ga's workout.
     Predicting results in only ONE month, the cynical lawyer in me MUST prove him wrong. And so, my 4 faithful readers, I started the Ga Ga Challenge yesterday (because yes Sunday is the first day of the week) and plan to update my progress here. You gluttons for punishment feel free to work out along with me. However, if like me, walking to the sofa each evening tires you, please check with your physician first. I can't afford to lose any of the 4 people that follow me. :)

The first week:
1. Start with 5 minutes of cardio like jogging or jumping jacks. Then, without resting....
2. Do 30 reps of a lower-body strength move like squats or lunges.
3. 30 reps of an upper-body strength move like push-ups, biceps curls, or shoulder presses.
4. And 30 reps of ab move like crunches (still no rest!)
5. The do a 15-second cardio burst of "phantom" jump rope.

Repeat steps 2-5 two more times (for 3 total sets), swapping in a different upper-and lower-body move and abs exercise for each step. Finish with another 5 minutes of cardio.

I TOLD YOU SO!

Ha! Ha! Everyone laughs at the Safety Girl. Yuck it up people, and afterwards, and please review my previous blog on shark safety and awareness. :)

http://www.huliq.com/10473/bull-shark-caught-georgia-freshwater-second-shark-escapes-video

xox,
The Safety Girl

Cool Earrings Are Attached To This Rant!

   I have this friend who always gives perfect gifts. I won't call her by name for fear of embarrassing her but she is one of those people who goes away for a weekend trip and ALWAYS returns with the perfect little trinket that reminded her of you. I love her dearly yet sometimes feel the urge to strangle her for setting the gift giving bar so high. Well DARN her, this is one of her recent finds on a weekend trip to NOLA.
   The vendor is "Gore's Art" and I am attaching pics of the earrings, which are made out of recycled materials, as well as the earring holder just because it is cool. If you are in NOLA anytime soon track this cat down!

From Alabama Alumni Extra

Alabama Alumni Extra

Remembering What’s Important

Posted on June 8, 2011 by admin

by Haley Herfurth

Julie Love's office before the tornado

When Julie Love arrived at the building that housed her law practice, Julie P. Love PC, in the Alberta City section of Tuscaloosa, Ala., on the morning of April 27, 2011, she had no idea it would be the last time she’d step through the front door. In the aftermath of the tornado that ripped through the city later that day, Love found her office leveled; however, she also found an outpouring of support she never expected.

Love, who graduated from The University of Alabama in 1996 with a bachelor’s in theatre, and her office manager, Yushonda Milligan, had debated whether to leave early that day. However, they had closed up early in the previous weeks because of storms, so they were hesitant to do so again. After much debate, Love decided to shut down and head to her home in Druid Hills, about a mile away.

What was left after the storm

While waiting in the basement for the rough weather to pass, along with her husband, Shawn, their 12-year-old son, Logan, and two friends, Love occupied herself with painting a chair, not realizing the severity of the storm. “I had been paying little attention, because our cable had been out since the April 15 tornado, so I couldn’t follow the weather,” she said. After receiving word from a friend in Birmingham, Ala., who was watching live coverage of the tornado on TV, Love finally absorbed how serious the situation really was.

While hiding in a closet under the basement stairs, they felt and heard the tornado rush over them. It pulled a large tree from their front yard completely out of the ground, and threw it over the driveway with “such force that we actually felt the ground shake,” she said. That was the only harm done to their home. Love said that she and her family were blessed; their neighborhood and the surrounding area had sustained a lot of damage. “I have been through tornadoes, and can honestly say that for the first time in my life, I was close enough that I was terrified,” she said.

Love's law degree was found, still framed and unharmed.

After the winds calmed, Love and her husband, a 2001 UA graduate, set out to find a friend of hers, with whom Love had lost contact during the storm. Since the family’s cars were blocked by the tree and her friend lived only two miles away, she and Shawn went into the fray on bicycles. On the trek, she ran into a fellow lawyer. “He grabbed hold of me as I came past him, and all he said was, ‘I was in the gym,’” she recalled. “I shook him off and said I was looking for someone and had to go. I later found out he had been in Planet Fitness [destroyed by the storm]. I will never get the image of Alberta immediately after out of my mind. People were covered with dirt and debris, and some were bleeding and holding all they owned. It looked like something from a war movie.”

Love said that despite riding past the location of her office she hadn’t focused on the fact that it was now in ruins. “Because my office laid in between my home and her home, she was the top thing on my mind,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, it registered as I passed the building, but it took a while for it to sink in.” In the end, she was simply grateful they hadn’t been there. “When it was all said and done, I was thankful that Shonda and I had gone home,” she said.

The office sign was located amidst the rubble.

Milligan, who lives in the Palisades apartment homes on Hargrove Road, about three miles from their office, said that she had planned to return to work that afternoon, but eventually decided against it. “I figured we would get some heavy rain and winds, but nothing too severe,” she said. “Thank God I didn’t go back, because I would have been working at the time the tornado came through Alberta City.” That evening, she received a text message from Love with a picture of their law office attached. “I immediately dropped to my knees and began crying, thanking God I wasn’t there.”

Since the devastation of her office building, Love said that Wright Hale, a fellow Tuscaloosa attorney, has provided them with work space. She also said that while she has always loved the Tuscaloosa Bar, she never expected the amount of support she has received from the group. “Lawyers and judges alike have called, e-mailed and offered everything from office space to copies of files,” she said. “[District] Judge [Joel] Chandler even showed up with a bulldozer and helped dig. Clients and friends have also been so supportive and helpful. One of my favorite quotes is from the movie ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ when Clarence left the inscription for George Bailey, ‘No man is a failure who has friends.’ I have never known that to be more true than now.”

A tree fell in the family's front yard.

Milligan said that while their office was destroyed, she knows that both she and Love and the entire area will come back stronger than before. “It will take time for everyone to recover from this, but as a community, if we continue to work together, we will rebuild Tuscaloosa,” she said.

Love agreed, saying that a positive outlook is important in these trying times. “I could easily look at the storm as a sign that I am not supposed to be in this line of work,” she said. “But I could just as easily look at the fact that in all that rubble, we pulled out all but three of our files, including 1,000 closed files, and that not one picture of my father, who practiced law for over 50 years, was damaged, as a sign that God smiled on my little law office.”

They're back!

     On March 15, 2011, I blogged about my jalapeno pepper stealing squirrel situation. (See blog, "I guess my thumb is more chartreuse than green.") Captain America scoffed at my crazed squirrel theory. Just the same, I stopped attempting to grow vegetables, other than the occasional compost pile accidental onion and what do I discover on the patio this weekend? They have taken to eating press board!
I give you Exhibit "A."

Addendum to nail tech shout out!

I went back to see Elaine today (Tuscaloosa Nails and Spa at Midtown, station #4) for a second gel manicure and this time I took a picture to show you the goods. My last one lasted over two weeks, and probably would have lasted longer if not for that blasted file clean up. This is the portion of the blog where you feel sorry for me. :) Ignore my man hands and just focus on the excellent job she does.
GO SEE ELAINE!