It’s been another 10 days or so since I last had the opportunity to sit and write something meaningful for this blog. I am going to get into football shortly, I promise. First I want to update you on the purpose for which this blog was written: to chronicle my adventure in conforming to a new lifestyle that will help me get physically well and beat MS. Think of it like a commercial break. Hopefully short enough to keep you in front of the TV but long enough to be informative. My diet continues to go well and I have been getting to the gym as I promised myself I would every morning that I work from home. Between work and summer travels, I am visiting the gym at least 3 days a week. While I am adjusting to that routine, I do feel better with my fitness level and expect to start gaining strength over the next two months. I have been hesitant to set specific goals for increasing the intensity of my cardio workouts or weights for strength training so I have kept my overall routine simple: cardio and abs one day alternated with strength training of arms, legs and back the next. The summer heat is bothersome occasionally, and I am learning to balance my workouts so I have noticed that some days I feel great and others I feel really sluggish. It seems like it is one extreme or another so I feel confident that I am moving in the right direction but there is a definite sensitivity to overdoing it that I have to be mindful of.
Well, if you’ve made it through the first paragraph, congratulations. Tee hee hee. Now I am going to get into the real substance of this blog post and talk about football. American’s favorite past time. Well, until someone got greedy, that is. I am not going to discuss how I feel about the NFL lock out. I don’t know exactly how I feel about it to be honest. Early on I read the daily articles and people’s criticisms on the subject. I can’t say that I see both sides, because I’m not sure I fully understand the depth of the debate. What I do know is that it is midway through July and there is no hope at this point of any games, any time soon. This makes me sad. I love football and I love the prospect at this time of year of watching the preseason games. You get to see the rookie players and even though they are just “practice” games, for some of the players it determines whether or not they are going to play the real deal. And I always like the surprise in mid-August as summer is winding down thinking, what? Football is on tonight? Yes! The rush of knowing the football season is starting is equivalent to when the first warm day of Spring arrives after a long winter and you know nicer days are ahead.
For me football is associated with so many good things about life. I had hoped this would be my first year participating in a fantasy league. I started to get into football in 1997 and while it took a few years for me to catch on to the game itself, once I was settled into the rules, I started to learn about the players…recognize names, know what position they play, and who they are as players. Can you say, thank you highlight reel?? Not only are sports highlights entertaining they are educational! As a girl I can say, who knew? If you ever saw the movie Something About Mary and you are a girl, you should take a hint from the movie and start watching Sports Center. And it is even fun to still pick teams according to how stylish their uniforms are. Really. You might even start to associate player’s names with the colors of uniforms, it doesn’t matter, the point is, football is fun whether you are just discovering it or a long time fan. It’s social, it’s controversial during and post season which makes great conversation at any time of the year, and there’s like 1/10 the amount of games compared to baseball and therefore, easier to follow in my opinion. But then again, if you’re really into it, football is a major commitment every Sunday. At least 9 hours if you try to watch the 3 scheduled games in their entirety, live. I recommend recording the games and zipping through the commercials. We’re spoiled now-a-days with technology, aren’t we?
Until the lockout is resolved, I have been trying to think of fun ways to still honor the football season. If I could run I thought it might be nice to start up a flag football league. Even the absence of running, I guess I could be the ref. Scary! I am also considering learning footie this year. Some of my very close friends would be thrilled. And what if we were able to watch a season of Replacements? I could fill my Sundays with football themed movies as well. I usually stop there as I don’t really want to consider the alternatives, I want football, real football! And I can't even fathom the fact that some of my favorite players might retire...I am only speculating of course but I feel like some of them only had another year or two left in the league anyway until they made the decision to retire happily and healthy. When football does return it will be very interesting to see what unfolds.
