Can you even guess what this blog post is about? I doubt it.
This is not the regularly scheduled blog post of the day. I had to take a moment to embrace the fact that I have a public platform in which to announce that I hate spiders. It wasn’t nearly as bad until I saw that freaking Jeff Daniels movie, I was totally fine before that. Now, now I am a baby, a shell of my former cool self when they are are around. Sure I play it off and try and act like “Hey, I’m cool, no flies on me.” Yeah, no flies on me because there are F**KING spiders everywhere catching them with their freaky spider webs.
Last night, was like any other night. I was getting ready to get into bed, sporting a sexy top and bottoms* with hair done all cute (*see paint stained pants, monster slippers, and facial mask) and I travel into the bathroom to brush my teeth when I see them. Surrounding me on all sides are tiny, quick moving, baby spiders. Apparently a hatch had just took place. What I didn’t realize is some had gotten on me and bit my back. I soon had puffed up, freaked out, and vowed to become OCD to the largest extreme as to never possibly face the chance of this happening again. The horror, oh, the horror.
Long after the incident I was still a blowfish of stress, I got no sleep last night, and discovered that their was spider visitor in the bed, the BED. COME ON! I have holes, a lot of them, that I just don’t want things crawling into people. Get your minds out of the gutters.
Question: “Leigh, we love you, but what the hell does this have to do with fat loss?”
I am getting to it.
Anyone that knows me knows that I am generally pretty chill. Getting me worked up into a state of physical distress is a pretty hard thing to achieve. However, once achieved, it is like explosion of the body reacting frantically to protect me. Remember, our system of stress response is for protection. It has not though evolved to understand the difference between “big bear coming to get me” and “Fred losing the latest account you just worked 2 weeks trying to land.”
What most don’t realize is that stress can cause you to look like ass. Right now I weigh 6 pounds more than normal, my body hurts, my eyes are puffy, I have bumps, itch, and am weak all to hell with lifting. I didn’t get any sleep, I am hungry, tired, thirsty and the last thing I want to do right now is stick to my current “diet”, no what I want to do is find the closest peanut butter and jelly sandwich and go to town. Great, now I am hungrier. Here is the thing, tomorrow I will be fine after good sleep and I am going to treat myself really good today. Nice bath coming up later, good eats instead of bad, I am going to laugh off the bad, work with the good, and get back to it.
Does this sound like you, daily? Are you having a hard time doing that 2nd part? Could it be that you have just as much stress to lose as you do fat? Could it be that your Achilles Heel isn’t exactly that doughnut but fact that you didn’t get but 5 hours of sleep before you saw it?
The body has a stress response that is there to protect you. If you don’t help shut off the alarm though, you aren’t ever going to get out of its hold. We are going to talk about that more again. In the meantime…
Sleep.Love.Eat.Laugh.
Sounds like one hell of a night! I am thankful that you survived.
Sheila
I could not help but laugh – years ago, my sister (who HATES spiders)saw one and as she was moving in a new apt. She went next door and got her neighbor (a man she’d never met) to come kill it. When he came over, he stepped on it. At that point she said hundreds of baby spiders went flying in all directions. She freaked out and JUMPED on the man’s back!! A total stranger!! It was hysterical!! I still laugh and it has been 20 years. I don’t think he ever answered his door again!!! But you talking about baby spiders reminded me of that – be careful stepping on them, they may be loaded!!!
But yes, I am probably 20 lbs heavier due to all my stress! Very good and interesting article!
!!! But the point is well taken!
I am sorry though you had to experience this awful incident in order to have a meaningful blog today
Hope tomorrow is better!
Leigh, my heart goes out to you! The only other thing that I can possibly say is….EEEEEEWWWWW! (and this comes from a person that lives in the desert and our spiders have HAIR!)
Leigh I like you SO much!!! You have such an ability to take something like finding a bunch of baby spiders and turn it into an anlagy for stress and fat loss! I just LOVE the way your mind works!!! I need to start using my own way of thinking to see things more the way you do…what is the lesson in this, what is the bigger picture, how does this relate to my weight? Everything is connected! It’s funny cause just today I was feeling stressed and thinking, I NEED to start OPT on October 17th and I’ve got so much going on, how am I going to do this?? And then here you are pointing it out to me!! I need to chill! I NEED this fat loss, so that I CAN chill!!!
I said it before, it’s been said before, but seriously YOU ROCK!
Thanks for the laugh, Leigh and Missy! I really needed it. You know laughter is a great stress reliever…
Leigh, I hope the swelling and other stuff resolves quickly.
Oh holy cow I can only imagine the freak out that would have ensued had I encountered bazillions of baby spiders and had some on me!!! I would definitely have gone up more than 6 lbs!! I hope that the itching and swelling goes down and that your house is de-spidered! Thanks for another enlightening blog post!
ps–I got to hear the heartbeat today. Yippee!
This is so perfect! Exactly and totally what I struggle with most–this is just where my “just this one…” seems to start!
Poor you with the spiders though! I hope you’re feeling better!
whoa
Wow, you are getting even FUNNIER!!
Sorry to hear about your night. But you are very right. Everyone has had a night like that and the next day all you want to do is go back to your old “comfort” habits. Eating the wrong foods and not doing any activity. Makes me want to go workout right now. Spiders do suck, especially when they are everywhere.
Sheila-Thank you for your kind words during my tragic moments.
Missy-Thank you for your story and making me even more fearful of squashing bugs. PS-You Suck
Rachel-Thank you for never, ever inviting me to where you live.
Mellisa-I like you to
hehe
Pauline-Laughing at my misfortunes is not nice, not nice at all Pauline.
Sinead-That was like the sweetest post ever.
Amanda-It IS hard when we are stressed to not pull the justification card. Even with spider bites ablaze I stuck to the plan of the day. (back down to my normal size by the way;))
Roland-Whoa back at ya
Danielle-Yes, yes I am.
Mark-I find that the more I am face with crap in my day that the more I “buck up” and try to use it to fuel me, the better I feel. I have tried to make acting and laughing the comfort. It helps for sure.
I’m so sorry Leigh!!! I did not intend to invoke more fear!! It was probably a one in a million chance that it would ever happen! Sorry!!!
I’ll try not to suck so bad tomorrow – shheesh, the fact that I suck stresses me and poof! I just went up 5 pounds!!! ; )
lol at you, Missy!
Hey Leigh–the most recent podcast (the 3rd answering questions email one) is not downloading at itunes for me. Is it just me or is that happening to others?
You are not alone…spiders freak me out too!!! Sorry you had to deal with them though *shudder*
I keep trying to remind myself that stress IS a factor! Hmmm…could be a good reason why I have been on this plateau for too freaking long – our home was flooded in June. We are STILL without a home. Yes…I’m stressed. And though I still try to eat right and exercise, STRESS is probably a huge factor of why I’m not LOSING!!! Thanks for the reminder
Leigh ~ Uh…that bed and breakfast you mention in your newest post, yeah, same desert!
Sinead ~ I can’t get it to download either. I thought it was just my computer.
Leigh, Only you can connect spiders and my fat ass! Here’s a little spider humor to help with the stress…
1.) “What did the spider order at McDonald’s? A Big Mac and flies.”
2.) What did the waiter say when the man asked, “Waiter, what are these spiders doing in my soup?”?
Answer: He said: “They’re probably looking for the flies we usually have in there.”! Ha ha ha ha
3.) This big dude walks into a bar with a little spider on his shoulder, as soon as one of the dudes in there spots it, he tells his friends and they all laugh.
The man says: “Laugh while you can, ‘cos this spider is stronger than any of you!!!”
The man making fun replies “I’d like to see that!!”
“Fine, my spider will pick up this bar stool” he sets the spider on the floor and the spider easily picks it up.
“That’s nothing!!”
“But there’s more, now the spider will pick up a table” and the spider easily picks up the table.
The men, not letting the spider impress them, only boo it “Now, gentlemen, this tiny spider will pick up the bar!!” and the spider spits on his hands, rubs them together and makes a great effort, but it picks up the bar!!!
The men, a little impressed ask “What else can it do??” So the man says “Now, it will pick up the bar with everyone of us on it!!” thinking it couldn’t be done, the men start to get on the bar untill there’s like 40 guys on it.
The spider looks worried but starts walking towards the bar with an air of determination. suddenly, a man walks into the bar sees the spider on the floor walking towards the bar, and steps on it “You bunch of babies, scared of a little spider!!!!”
Peace…