Quotable Friday: Annoyingly Cheerful Quotes

Well, it's Friday again, and I've neglected the usual feature for long enough. Today is about annoyingly cheerful quotes...ones that I like, anyway. Do you have any to share? Please, do!

Actually, I couldn't find very many off the top of my head. Here's the one from my Good Earth tea bag that made me think of looking for annoyingly cheerful quotes:

"A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck." ~ James Garfield

This sounded kind of funny-but-painful to me. I guess I do have a mean streak after all...

"Optimism is the cheerful frame of mind that enables a teakettle to sing, though in hot water up to its nose." ~unknown

And finally, this one might just be plain annoying, since true; for some reason I kept it around in a folder full of old Dilbert clippings. Applicable for both running and writing:

"Never mistake a clear view for a short distance." ~ unknown

Have a nice weekend!

Quotable Friday

Today's topic: Change

"Grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me." - Author Unknown

"The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them." - George Bernard Shaw

Those quotes jumped out at me today. Over on Roni's Weigh this week, the Question of the Week was "Do your friends and family help or hurt your efforts?" Many people commented about understanding their close family's or friend's bewilderment and sometimes resistance, because "I'm the one who's changing, not him/her/them."

Oddly enough, I was on the flip side of that earlier this year. My husband had some health issues and, while they turned out to not be serious (*whew*!), he was advised to lose weight. (That's a lifelong struggle that we both share.) So he started, and while I did my best to be supportive, I also felt a bit scared and defensive, because darn it, *I* wasn't ready to change! The contrast between our food choices wasn't pretty...and my plate sure as heck wasn't the pretty one. So that did start me in the right direction, making small changes, starting to read lots of weight-loss stories and blogs...then came diabetes, which led to my big sprint that left him probably feeling the same way I was feeling.

Sometimes changes happen, and while there are many I still would not deliberately choose, I'd have to say that the following is true for me:

"We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance." - Harrison Ford

And then this one reminded me of all the mind-work that goes into change, especially changes relating to food and fitness:

"If you want to truly understand something, try to change it." - Kurt Lewin

Finally, because it's Friday and I refuse to be totally serious on a Friday....

"I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed." - George Carlin

Quotable Friday

In honor of running the Pumpkin Run 5K this weekend (the first race I've run since I was a sweet young thing in high school), I was just going to post the ubuiquitous "Just Do It" slogan. But then I was checking out the blog of my new "motivational buddy" from MizFit*'s Bumbling Band, SeaBreeze. It's on the side bar under "Inspiration," and it perfectly summarizes how the fitness part of things feels for me. Glad to know I'm in good company. (Might work for you, too; see how it works when you substitute "running" with your personal challenge-de-la-vie.)

"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp, or are you going to be strong today?'" —Peter Maher, two-time Olympic marathoner from Canada

And I also found via MizFit this quote from Jack LaLanne, which struck me as being laugh-out-loud funny for some reason...maybe because I'd been feeling guilty about not stretching enough before and after running.

"Fifteen minutes to warm up! Does a lion warm up when he’s hungry? ‘Uh-oh, here comes an antelope. Better warm up.’ No! He just goes out and eats the sucker. You gotta get the blood circulating, but does the lion cool down? No, he eats the sucker and goes to sleep. And that is the truth." - Jack LaLanne, on warming up before working out (I don't think nutrition and exercise are the only reasons he's still around at age 94, he's one of those fiesty people! ;-)

Then again, cats of all sort do spend a lot of time stretching, don't they?

Hope you all enjoy a "just go out and eat the sucker!" kind of weekend!

Quotable Friday!

I felt a little under-the-weather last night, so I decided to try my rainy-day alternate workout. I popped in a walking workout DVD. "Wow," I thought to myself. "This seems kind of easy. I guess I have developed some endurance." I did break a sweat, and I enjoyed going for a full 60 minutes and felt a little fatigue on the strength training portion. But overall, it seemed pretty easily done. That was a really good feeling.

So today's theme? Endurance. Seems rather timely in a general way, too.

"Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory."
- William Barclay

"Endurance is patience concentrated."
- Thomas Carlyle

"Life is an error-making and an error-correcting process, and nature in marking man's papers will grade him for wisdom as measured both by survival and by the quality of life of those who survive."
- Jonas Salk

"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome."
- Booker T. Washington

Wishing everyone great success as we endure the coming week!

"Hot for the Holidays" challenge update: I lost another pound between Tuesday and today, so down 3 for the HFH challenge. I'm hoping it will be "Halfway for the Holidays" for me, since I'm 11 pounds away from my halfway-to-goal point. And in another 25 pounds, I will shed the "obese" BMI label! Yippee!

Quotable Friday!

Today I'm featuring Ashleigh Brilliant, reigning king of the pithy aphorism. (Hmmm...maybe I should call this $.25 Word Friday instead?)

Here are a just a few of the many gems by Mr. Brilliant:

"It's not easy taking my problems one at a time when they refuse to get in line."

"For your own safety, please stay behind the line I have drawn around my supply of chocolate."

"My life has a superb cast, but I can't figure out the plot."

"I'm just moving clouds today - tomorrow I’ll try mountains."

"To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and, whatever you hit, call it the target."

"By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task completely overwhelm me."

"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once."

Happy Weekend! And, as Mr. Brilliant would say: "Keep smiling! (but not so much that people begin to wonder if you are mentally unbalanced)."

Quotable Friday!

Or, "Great Quote! (Whoever said it.)"

Attributing quotes correctly is a tricky thing, especially when proliferated via the Internet. Just take a look at snopes.com, there are whole articles that circulate the Internet that were never written by the person they are attributed to, and often that person is angry that such pieces (often complete "glurge") are attributed to him or her.

For example, here are my two faves from my Weight Watchers days:

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
~ Attributed to Goethe, most likely because William Hutchinson Murray quoted him as saying such, based an embellished translation of Faust.
Like many, I though this was a Goethe quote.

"Success is getting up one more time than you fall down."
~ Attributed to Oliver Goldsmith, but derived from a Japanese proverb
Although on my Good Earth tea bag on Tuesday morning, it's written "Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up" and described as a Chinese proverb. Which is really weird, because I had always thought this was an Eleanor Roosevelt quote. She has a great many interesting things attributed to her, but this was not one!

I like this one from the home page of "A Woman's Right to Lose" blog:

"Although no one can go back and make a brand new start,
anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending."
~ Several people (mostly WW folks) cite Roberta Brenick, although I've seen university web sites (mostly continuing education pages! :-) attribute Carl Bard with this one. So maybe it's not too late to become a librarian....

P.S. Yep, I walked at lunch yesterday and felt much better. I made some less optimal choices at dinner, but then Thing 1 and I rocked out to a cardio kickboxing workout and Thing 2 laid at my feet wailing because she wasn't the center of attention...kinda hard to do those kickboxing kicks with a 40-pound preschooler adhered to your ankles...Eventually she got it into the spirit of things and she and her brother ran laps around the living room and punched a balloon on each pass. "Let's make our living room into an exercise gym!" cried Thing 1 as he charged around the table. Every so often he'd drop and do a pretty decent push-up. I was duly impressed. I've got to get them some hand weights that are less than 5 pounds, though, they're going to hurt someone. "Children! Mommy's hand weights are NOT a shotput." I think next time, I'll just put on some music and let them take turns being the instructor, that way they won't feel like I'm paying more attention to the buff Aussie woman on TV.

Aaaarrrrggghhhhh!

"...Hoist up the mainsails and shut down your brain cells,
They only would get in the way,
Avast there, me hearty, we're havin' a party,
It's "Talk Like A Pirate" Day!" - Tom Smith, "Talk Like a Pirate Day" official song

Ahoy, me hearties! Happy "International Talk Like a Pirate Day" to ye!

"Take what ye can! Give nothin' back!" - Pirates of the Caribbean

Cap'n Wordswench here, I be hijackin' this blog in honor o' t' day! (Me crew thought we was raidin' t' grog, not t' blog. They be daft, t' scurvy dogs.) [Cap'n Wordswench rolls eyes.]

Seein' that it be Quotable Friday, I'll be sharin' a few o' me favorite pirate quotations with ye:

"Female pirates are allowed some exception to rules concerning hygiene and garmentry, but must make up for it by using twice as much profanity." Rule #47 of Pirate Laws!

"How do you know if you are a pirate? You just 'Arrrrrrrr'..." - Pirate Laws web site

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - Henry Lewis Mencken, 1880 - 1956

"Both are ways to make a good, dishonest living."
- Keith Richards, referring to vocations of rock star and pirate

"Remember, in a pirate ship, in pirate waters, in a pirate world, ask no questions. Believe only what you see. No, believe half of what you see."
- Vallo, The Crimson Pirate

Much o' it pains me ter be borin' ye w' book talk, Pubsgal agreed to walk t' plank only if I added t' followin' quote. Rum lass, t'at un.

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island and at the bottom of the Spanish Main... and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life." - Walt Disney

Fair winds, mateys!

Quotable Friday!

"Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for." ~ Earl Warren (1891-1974)

I like the sentiment, although my "worthwhile" stuff is pretty tame and not the type you catch hell for...unless you count Thing 1 and Thing 2's sassy moments.

Well, I had started out writing a maudlin post. I'm sure many of you know feeling, that "I've-come-so-far-but-I'm-still-toting-that-large-Baskin-Robbins-
Peanut-Butter-and-Chocolate-shake-from-2002-on-my-left-hip" mood.

But I pressed the Delete button. Who the heck wants maudlin on a Friday?!?! I felt a little bad for letting down the "Hot for the Holidays" crew over on Baby Tea Leaves. Zero loss this week, but you know? I'm gonna stick with it and be the comeback kid next week. Unless I've totally jinxed things by joining a group weight loss challenge in the first place...but that would be superstitious, now, wouldn't it? Do you have any weight loss superstitions?

In other news, less than 6 weeks until the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Run!

"I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready-ready-ready-ready-ready." ~ SpongeBob SquarePants

(That's going to be my spec-of-a-head way in the back of the photo in the 2008 picture, baby!) Just feeling a residual endorphin high from running today. I ran 5K for the first time since high school this morning, just to be sure I could do it for the big day (and in less time than it would take for everyone to pack up and head home). I did it in 55 minutes AND then got home and helped pack lunches and get kids and self out the door. I bring home the bacon AND fry it up on an electric griddle, too, now that I think of it.... (The pan's too darn small for my merry bacon-lovin' crew.)

And I'll sign off with this cheerful thought:

"What do those of us who aren't tall, flawlessly sculpted adolescents do? Answer: Console ourselves with how relative beauty can be. Thank heaven for the arousing qualities of zest, intelligence, wit, curiosity, sweetness, passion, talent, and grace." ~ Diane Ackerman, author, from her book A Natural History of the Senses

Have a ZESTY weekend!

Quotable Friday!

"You have to sniff out joy. Keep your nose to the joy trail." ~ Buffy St. Marie

In my case, I'm keeping my wheels to the "joy trail" and sniffing the salty sea air! I went on a bike ride yesterday morning on our local coast trail, and this time I took a few photos to share. They're a little blurry, because I was using my iPhone rather than a proper camera, but you can see why I enjoy my weekly ride and will miss it when the mornings get too dark to use the trail. Oh well, that's what weekends are for, right?

This:

Plus this:

Equals This:

"Joy is the feeling of grinning inside." ~ Dr. Melba Colgrove

"When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness... all the good things." ~ Maya Angelou

"One joy shatters a hundred griefs." ~ Chinese Proverb

I'll try to keep the next three in mind next time I'm flossing my teeth....

"Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing." ~ William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2

"Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing." ~ Phil Jackson

"Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile." ~ Sir Wilfred Grenfell (1865 - 1940)

And finally...

"A sense of humor...is needed armor. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life." ~ Hugh Sidney

Hope you enjoy the weekend!

Quotable Friday*!

*because, by the end of the week, I can't think of anything clever to say myself!

A common theme in blogs I'm stumbling across this week seems to be this: Don't wait until you've arrived at your health goals to enjoy life; do the things you like to do now. So true! Where are my plane tickets to Hawaii?!?!? Oh, er, right, the day job and back-to-school and all that....I've been really impressed by the other truths and humor in blogs I've been reading lately. I might ramble more on that later, but for now, the quotes:

"We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm." -Winston Churchill

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely." -Rodin

"Life is tough, and if you have the ability to laugh at it, you have the ability to enjoy it." -Salma Hayek

"The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed." -Sebastine Chamfort

"When a think thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth." -George Bernard Shaw (<-The hidden truth? Do not fully trust your spell-checker.)

Quote Day!

I love collecting quotations. Here are a couple of favorites from Mae West:

"You're never too old to become younger."

and

"I only have 'yes' men around. Who needs 'no' men?"

Happy Friday!

Quote of the Day

I was contemplating my rate of weight loss, and looking ahead..."Let's see, by the end of the year, I should be 194...by my birthday, 184...." (Although I'll just be happy to break 200 by the end of the year and to be in the simply "overweight" range vs. the "obese" range by my birthday...I know that plateaus happen.)

After lunch, I ripped open a packet of Good Earth tea, and read the quote:

"He that can have patience
can have what he will." --Benjamin Franklin

Perhaps that title should be "Answer of the Day?"

"Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods." -Japanese proverb

That cryptic post to my blog-that-fell-in-the-woods is the sig on my iPhone. I was testing emailing a post to this blog.

That quote is my all-time favorite. Two important things I'd like to ensure as I change: (1) Not becoming insufferable and annoying in my recasting as one of those healthy people, and (2) Keeping my sense of humor.