I like to use some of the questions I’m asked on different sites as writing prompts, especially when I really don’t have much to update on. I was asked if I believe in curses and blessings. In the past, I would have been quick to say yes. When you’re going through a rough time it’s easy to feel you’re cursed, just like it’s easy to think, wow, I’m really blessed, when things are going well. 

But when you think about it realistically… shit happens. Shit happens to me. Shit happens to you. Shit happens to everyone. So if I’m “cursed,” so are you. 

Good things happen, too. To everyone. So if you’re blessed, so am I. So I think my answer is that life is full of ups and downs, but I don’t know that we’re necessarily “cursed” or “blessed.” 

It’s kind of the same when I think back and asked myself if there really ever was a neighbor curse on me. Yes, I have had some unusually noisy neighbors and I have lived in some extraordinarily noisy places, and there sure seemed to be a neighbor curse on me throughout most of the '90s. 

But looking at this from a logical standpoint as well… people are noisy. Life is noisy and where there are people there is noise. My '90’s neighbors were definitely extreme, but I have heard so, so many people complain about the same things I had to live with before I moved to a retirement community. Some places are worse than others, but no place is 100% quiet. 

I was watching some videos of Daniel and Kelli of Fitness Blender. I have always loved following their exercise videos as opposed to any other trainers because they cut to the chase and get right down to business without all the frills and extra shit you don’t need. They don’t play unwanted music and they also have a progress bar that shows you how many calories you’re burning throughout the workout. Not having noise in the background makes it easier to hear them speaking, the quality of their videos is good, and I like how they show you a few sample exercises before they go into doing sets and rounds of that particular exercise. That way you will have a better idea of how to do anything unfamiliar to you. 

In one of their videos, they answer questions they often get, and they were saying that you want to aim for a 1000-calorie deficit daily, 500 eliminated from your diet and 500 burned through exercise. It would be easier for me to stand to exercise long enough to burn 500 cals than it would for me to scale back 500 calories from my diet down to 1000 cals a day. That’s like starving! They say you shouldn’t lose more than 2 pounds a week because anything faster than that means you’re losing muscle. 

They have several 1000-calorie exercise vids that last for about 90 minutes, and I’m curious to see if burning as I eat might help me lose weight with Hashimoto’s since I can usually only stand to go as low as about 1200 to 1300 cals a day. If I had a 400-cal meal, then I would do the video until I burned that much, pause it, then wait till I ate again. 

Honestly, I don’t think this will make any difference other than to get me in great shape, making me even stronger, more flexible and more energetic than my 30-minute workouts, but will see. I’m still a middle-aged woman, and even with medication, one with Hashimoto’s doesn’t burn calories like a regular person. It won’t kill me to try it for a week or two, though it’s not good to do HIIT routines every day because they are so kick-ass. I will only do those two or three times a week. Other days I will run and ride, and allow myself 1-2 days a week of rest.