New Short Story

If you are interested, I have just put another short story on my other blog.  Click on the Short Stories link above right or go to ruthchapin.com

I Love/Hate My Fitbit

I have been wearing a Fitbit since April 16^th, and I am happy to report that I have lost 5 pounds.  That may not seem like much, but I have had a creeping weight gain going on for about 13 years….just two pounds a year, but that has added up.  In April, I decided this had to stop, because some of my clothes were getting tight.  I figured a Fitbit was less expensive than buying a closet full of new clothes.

I have tried to lose just a little bit gradually during the past 13 years.  I tried cutting out chips with my lunch, eating only half a sandwich, not having a morning cappuccino, eliminating ice cream at bedtime.  No luck.  The two pounds a year just kept coming.  Every time I took a few calories out of my diet, they snuck in someplace else.

I like the Fitbit, because it keeps track of the energy I have expended and tells me how many more calories I can consume and stay within my weight-loss budget.  When I set up the account, I told it I wanted to lose 15 pounds and that ½ pound per week was an acceptable rate.  Fifteen pounds won’t get me back to my 25 year-old weight or even my 45 year-old weight, but it will be a quite agreeable weight for a 71 year-old.  Supposedly an old lady like me has a higher risk of osteoporosis if she weighs under 126, so I have no plans to get too close to that.  I have also noticed that senior ladies sometimes get to a point where they just seem to shrivel up and look frail.  I figure that a little padding might be a good idea before I get to that slippery slope.

So, my Fitbit reminds me if I am over, under or in range of my intake goal as compared to my output.  If I am under my calorie budget in the evening, I have a low calorie bedtime snack.  If I am over my budget, I go for an evening walk.

However, sometimes my Fitbit makes me downright angry.  For example, I got my husband a top-of-the-line Fitbit, because he is a runner.  It tells him how many stairs he has climbed each day and seems to do a better job of taking note of his physical exertion.  My Fitbit is a pretty basic one.  It has no clue that I have spent an hour and a half vacuuming, 2 hours raking, 2 hours digging in the garden or most of the day washing windows.  It doesn’t even give me any “active minutes” for these exhausting, perspiration-inducing activities.  Apparently, it doesn’t count steps if one has their arms up pushing a grocery cart.  This hardly seems fair.

Sooooooooo…..when I worked all day washing windows, vacuuming the screens and was up and down the ladder doing all this, I got even.  I had a lovely crème de menthe soft ice cream cone in the evening, and I didn’t tell it!

Men from Issachar

After King Saul, Israel’s first king, was killed in battle, David was the choice of the people to succeed him.  Representatives from all of the tribes of Israel traveled to Hebron, where David was camped, to assure him of their loyalty and to support him.

In I Chronicles 12, a list is given of each tribe and the number of men who assembled to become part of David’s fighting force.  The specials skills of each group are listed…..whether they were adept with spear or sword or all types of weaponry.

In the middle of the list, 200 chiefs from Issachar are numbered among those who assembled.  “….men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”   David’s force included 200 wise strategists. 

Just what we as a nation need!

There are probably 200 men in our country who do “understand the times” and who know “what we should do,” but I’m afraid they aren’t the “chiefs.”  We probably don’t have that many in Congress or in governorships about whom this could be said.  If we have such men, they are apparently not in positions of power, and we aren’t listening to them.

I had hoped that one such person would emerge in the current election.  If we had such a man or woman as president and 199 others in congress, our country and perhaps our world would be changed for the better.

Oh…for a man or woman who understands the times and knows what to do!