Laughter: The Great Tranquilizer

Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects. --Arnold Glasow
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This past Sunday, I was having a bad day.

I have been a stay-at-home Mommy for over a year now, but for the first year we were living off of money that we had put away in advance. However, over the summer, we finally finished off those funds, and it was time to find a job, once I decided not to return to teaching. Being a Mommy to my baby girl is not something I'll ever be able to do again, so my husband encouraged me to leap at the chance while I could. Actually, what he said was, "Leap, and the net will appear," which is one of his favorite sayings.

Anyway, it took me a while, but I finally landed a job in one of my favorite book stores. I am currently undergoing training, but that didn't start until after the first of September--which means the end of the month is going to leave me a little short for my mortgage. That has been stressing me out, needless to say.

Do you want to know any of this? Probably not. But we've all been there--short on funds and not sure exactly what we're going to do next. Even if relief is just ahead, life often throws just one last hurdle in your path, and that hurdle may seem insurmountable.

So this is the mood I was in: tired (because the baby keeps waking up in the middle of the night), irritable (because I was stressed), annoyed (because I wanted to run but I didn't), and frustrated (because I hadn't been exercising daily as I planned, and I was losing motivation). Toss in a tiny pinch of despair over finances, and you pretty much have me last Sunday.

Kent told me to go ahead and go for my run, but I just couldn't get my act together. I didn't want to run--I was afraid that if I started, I'd find I couldn't run for some reason, and the next thing I'd know, I'd have lost my belief in myself.

So I waffled.

Finally, I decided that I would ride my bike instead. That seemed like a good compromise--I would get out, do some exercising, but I KNOW I can ride my bike because I've been doing it for so long. I've been a runner for such a short time, I am still not used to being able to run four miles.

So I put on my helmet and gloves, made sure my iPod Shuffle was on securely but not too loud (so I could hear traffic), loaded my water bottle with a Gatorade/water mix, and tossed into the bike pack my wallet, cell phone, nutrition bar, and the keys to my mother-in-law's condo in case I needed to go inside, as I was riding in that direction. Sunglasses on, I headed out.

The first few miles went by fairly painlessly...in fact, I decided to make it an even longer ride, and planned to ride 25 miles instead of just 15 or 20.

Pretty soon, I passed my mother-in-law's condo--mile 7.2--and headed toward Mother's Beach, in Kennebunk. I was doing well, and the music was lifting me out of my bad mood, as was the pretty day and the cool weather.

Soon enough I was tooling along at Mother's Beach, looking at the sand and surf and enjoying my ride. By this time I was motivated enough that I had started moving a little faster, at close to a 15 mph pace. All of a sudden, a trolley car passed me. These are the tourist trolleys that cruise through Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, Maine during the summertime.

Unfortunately, the trolley got caught in traffic, and suddenly I found myself riding next to the trolley while a poor tourist was trying to take a picture of the beach! I had to hang back and cruise along behind the trolley. Suddenly, it hit me how silly this was--here I was, on a bike, going at the same rate of speed as a tourist vehicle, trying valiantly to stay out of the pictures a tourist was trying to take!

I don't know WHY it was so funny, but it was, and I found myself grinning at the situation.

Later on, I was riding away from the beach when another silly thing happened:

I got attacked by a mutant killer butterfly.

The monarch butterflies are out in force, and as I was riding, one suddenly flew straight at me! I didn't have time to react, and it ended up smacking me in the chest and fluttering around there for a moment! I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I kind of sat upright on my bike and moved my head back, and whoosh! It was free.

I felt AWFUL! I know you aren't supposed to touch the butterflies because the little "feathers" of color come off on your hands, and here this poor butterfly was, flapping all over my shirt! Once it had finally gotten free, I looked back, certain I'd see it fall to the ground--but no! It was happily fluttering off toward the bushes, apparently uninjured and unconcerned.

The silliness of being attacked by a killer Monarch suddenly struck me, and I started to laugh out loud.

At that moment, the irritation, the stress, the frustration and the annoyance completely lifted, and all I felt was light and happy. I stopped thinking of the bike ride as being a job I had to do (for my triathlon training), and instead felt more like I was enjoying my hobby.

That feeling allowed me to finish the last 9 miles of my bike ride, and I came in at 25.5 miles in 1 hour and 45 minutes exactly.

The best part is that I was so relaxed that I decided to go for a "brick" workout. A "brick" is when you string two or more types of triathlon exercise together--for example, a swim and a run, a bike and a run, or even all three--swim, bike, then run. I decided to do the bike/run combination, so as soon as I got home, I jumped off my bike, guzzled what was left in my water bottle, and took off to run just to the park and back--a half mile in all.

The funny thing is that the "jelly legs" phenomenon, which usually strikes when you get off a bike and start to run, went away really quickly this time. Usually it takes me at least a quarter mile to start to feel "normal", but this time, it wasn't even a tenth of a mile and I was running comfortably. In fact, I felt like I could go forever.

So I did.

Well, I didn't exactly go forever, but I did run four miles, without stopping.

And to think that, earlier in the morning, I was convinced that there was no way I could run at all, let alone 4 miles, which is the farthest I can currently run without stopping. I felt so good, I could have kept running past the four miles, but I figured that a 25.5 mile bike ride followed by a four mile run was good enough for the day.

The best part is that by doing this, I now KNOW that I can do the triathlon. The swim is the easiest part for me--I've been swimming since I was little--and the bike is the next easiest. The run was the only thing that was scaring me. I was CONVINCED that I would never be able to jump off my bike and run a 5K, because I tried it once and could barely run a half mile.

So what happened this day? Training, I'm sure, is the biggest part of it. But I know that the sudden outburst of laughter definitely played a part. That was when I relaxed and let go of the remnants of my mood, and just began to enjoy myself. And when I did that, I had the best workout of my life, and proved to myself that I have all the skills to do this triathlon.

After all, I biked 25 miles and ran four; the triathlon requires biking 14 miles and running 3.2.

I am ready.

And when I'm in the middle of my triathlon, I'm hoping that maybe--just maybe--a certain funny little Monarch butterfly will come along again, and remind me to laugh.


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Disclaimer: Look, I'm not a doctor. However, I am a teacher certified in both California and Maine to teach science curriculum, including the human body (and health/nutrition) to kids in grades K-8. This blog is my attempt to wade through the current thinking on weight loss, and to present it in a way that makes sense to everyone. As a woman who is successfully recovering from obesity herself, I feel it's even more important to help others understand what I did to lose the weight; what worked, what didn't, and what the struggle has been like as I went from morbid obesity to fitness. It doesn't mean that I have all the answers, however. If you want to lose weight, by all means, read my blog--I think I can provide some help and clarity. BUT, please know that I am NOT a medical expert, and you should most definitely consult with your own doctor or family physician before undertaking any weight loss efforts yourself. Weight loss is a personal journey. I'm making mine visible to the world, but each of us has to take our own steps with our own doctor's guidance; please make sure you check in with yours before you try to do anything I have done. Good luck and God bless!