This Life by the Numbers
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Original graphic and quote: Stephanie DelTorchio
Is Your Brain Burning Calories?
Fun fact: Your total calorie burn for the day is 2,000 and approximately 400 of those calories burned are from brain activity — 20%*.
And the harder your brain works, the more your brain consumes in calories. Shoot, after 40 minutes on the spin cycle I burn a disappointing 150. If I do nothing but think harder about…my favorite gelato flavors…that might mean in no time I should think my way into a bikini without breaking a sweat.
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*This information is from actual scientific data written by real science people. I’ll be they burn more than 2,000 calories a day. That’s a lot of ice-cream.
Original graphic and quote: Stephanie DelTorchio
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Carpe Your F*cking Diem
Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “We are always getting ready to live but never living.”
Stop over-planning. Stop wasting time. Start living.
BE F*CKING AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic and quote: Stephanie DelTorchio
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Life Is Not Lost By Dying
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Original graphic: Stephanie DelTorchio
Quote: Stephen Vincent Benet
With These Two Hands
“Today is the clay that becomes my tomorrow. It’s up to me to take it in my hands; to shape it and mold it and create something I am proud to show the world.” Stephanie DelTorchio
Every day we alone are responsible for how we shape the day.A string of days becomes a season. A string of seasons, a life.
Mold it any way you want, into what ever speaks to you. Do it with intent. By grace. With faith. Know that whatever you choose to create is the visible representation of your purpose on this planet. WHOA…right?
But on the days when what you mold ends up looking like a piece of sh*t…there’s GOOD NEWS!! The beauty of your daily lump of clay is that it bends and twists and becomes whatever you will it to be.
You get to fuel that frustration and smash it flat. And start again. And again. And again.
BE F*CKING AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic and quote: Stephanie DelTorchio
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Live Your Truth Today
Nobody can do it for us. And we, the collective Universe, want you to live your truth. Not somebody’s version of what we THINK is expected of us. Nobody can do you like you. Go …
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Original graphic: Stephanie DelTorchio
Live Your Life Like A Movie
You can motivate yourself by living your life as if leading up to a movie ending. Think about the scene just before the final credits run. Yep, that life.
The three best moving endings are:
- POSITIVE. This is a general ending. Nothing wrong with this one. It’s nice. Satisfying. You enjoyed it.
- SURPRISE. A good ending. More than expected. You’ll talk about this one. So will others.
- MEANINGFUL. A great ending. One that gets talked about for years. It stays with others long after your gone.
It’s up to us to live the life that leads to the ending we want.
BE F*CKING AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic: Stephanie DelTorchio
Be Smart. Be Safe. Keep Your Head On.
I‘ve uttered these three little sentences countless times. Mostly to teenagers. Or younger work colleagues on Fridays at five o’clock. Occasionally as fair warning to a wayward comrade. Often to myself.
It’s an amazingly simple request from a parent to child as they run out the door and into a car full of other equally clueless classmates. Of course they are smart. Ask them. Be safe I say to eye-rolling. Keep your head on is met with: Where else would I put it?
You really want to know?
But when you get the call at midnight or hear about the party the next day you wonder…did you hear me? I know you did. But did you listen?
Then I’m reminded that giving advice, even loving, caring, all-knowing, all-seeing parental advice, drifts off almost as soon as it’s said.
“Wise men don’t need it and fools don’t heed it,” goes a paraphrased quote from Benjamin Franklin.
Be Smart. Be Safe. Keep Your Head On.
It’s going to be printed on a t-shirt. Or tattooed to someone’s forehead. Do you hear me?
Original graphic and quote: Stephanie DelTorchio
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Show Me Yours and I’ll Show You Mine
“No matter your battle, no matter your scars — visible or invisible — there were times when you were in a worse place and survived. Enjoy this day.”
I started this blog as a survivor’s celebration. One man. One woman. One family.The purpose here is to share with you how to find the awesome in every day. Like I know, right?
But this is big news. The other day marked a huge anniversary of receiving a life saving bone marrow transplant — 17 years. This is stupidly remarkable.
The day we learned of the cancer prognosis was the worse day of our lives. If we were betting people we’d not have taken a two dollar bet to survive one month. Yet here we are. And a good reason why we don’t gamble.
Rewind a moment. Almost immediately we dug our heels in deep and vowed to fight like hell. “Finding the awesome” was a noble idea, a head fake to mask the truth when the world as we knew it felt twisted and rung dry.
That silver lining, the one everybody says to look for? Yeah, I didn’t find it most days. In real time my life imploded by the minute.
Here’s what I learned: A change in attitude is possible if you try really, really hard. But it ain’t easy when you feel bombarded and confused and out of your element. When everything you believed was your future and everyone you trusted to support you, suddenly folded up their tents and moved the circus out of town.
You hurt and bleed, and in time, regroup and carry on. As many times as necessary. But the scars are deep, and on days when they still itch I wear long sleeves.
Time heals all wounds? Whoever the f*ck said that has never even had a paper cut. Time may mask all wounds. Time may crust over all wounds. But the scar tissue remains deep under the surface. What you see on the outside fades to thin silvery white streaks barely noticeable to the normal eye. But you know. You carry them with you forever.
I totally forgot about this scar on my kneecap until the other day. Weird I thought. Where’d I get that? Then the day came back vividly. Hovey School playground. Third grade. I was wearing brand new red tartan cotton pants — just had to wear them after school because they were new. The boys and I raced around the schoolyard on bikes. I slid on a patch of gravel and hit the pavement hard, knee first, dragging my leg few feet under the bike. Ripped pants, lots of blood and a flap of skin.
The silver lining? The bike was okay. The boys made sure I was okay. I held it together as I walked the bike home, my leg killing me but not wanting them to see me cry.
I had totally forgotten about it but when I rubbed my knee, just like that the memory came back.
The other night in bed, watching the eleven o’clock news, my husband just drifting off to sleep I remembered something. I leaned over and gently shook him: “Happy Birthday,” I said. “Seventeen years.”
It took him a minute to open his eyes and smile.
“Really? I totally forgot.”
“You did?”
“No, I think about it everyday…I just forgot it was today. Unbelievable, huh?”
“Yeah.”
BE F*CKING AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic and quote: Stephanie DelTorchio
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9 Fun Kid-like Things To Do In October
9 Fun Things to do in October
It’s time to stow the flip-flops up north, but on borderline days I’ll still wear them for spite.
When the weather starts to chill it’s a good excuse for grown-ups to do fun things — with or without children — and channel their inner child.
Here are a few of my favorites:
- Carve pumpkins (roast the seeds)
- Tailgate with friends (have a chili cook-off contest)
- Bake an apple pie (or make caramel apples — use seasonal apples)
- Go leaf-peeping (or take a long walk through a park where the leaves are in full-color)
- Go apple picking (See #3 on what to do with them. Also drink fresh cold cider & eat hot cider donuts)
- Sit around the campfire (Halloween night we do this, with a glass of wine, waiting for trick-or-treaters)
- Plant spring bulbs (Clean up the yard and “Think Spring!”)
- Munch on Halloween treats (save a few good pieces for yourself)
- Get lost in a corn maze (use a smartphone app in case you get lost!)
What are some of your favorite things to do during the fall?
BE F*CKING AWESOME TODAY!
Original graphic: Stephanie DelTorchio
Cornfield Maze photo credit: By Hugho226 – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30724285
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