C.: Hi, d.c. I’m here for my workout.
d.: Cal.E., today was a rest day on your schedule. You can just do something that will serve as an active recovery day, though. Maybe walk around the block quickly and do some calisthenics. Just take it easy today. I seee you've started by riding your motorcycle next door.
C.: No can do, d.c. I want to win the all-around cat rodeo title, because the prize is a lifetime supply of catnip.
d.: I thought that you were on the wagon.
C.: I am, d.c. I’ve been clean for over a year now. I was an addict, so I can’t consume catnip anymore, no matter how much I crave it. I don't want to go back to the way I was when I was eathing catnip. Those were some rough days...
d.: Then why is it so important for you to win the Cat Rodeo’s all-around title this year?
C.: I want to win the lifetime supply of catnip for Tucker. He can handle it. He’s been eating catnip every day since his six month birthday, and he isn’t hooked on it. I want to win for him.
d.: You must really love El Gordo Gato, then. It would take a lot of catnip to satiate a 42 pound cat!
C.: You know that Tucker is sensitive about his weight. Please don’t call him when you next see him.
d.: I won’t Cal.E., I promise. I know what it’s like for people to judge you by the way you look.
C.: How so, d.c.?
d.: When I was in middle school, I had an early growth spurt, so I towered over most of my classmates. When I stopped growing, I put on weight on purpose to play football. It was hard to take it off when I stopped playing football, though. Then,I lost a lot of weight in my twenties, and that attracted attention, too. When I put on weight again, it frustrated me. That’s part of the reason I started training for endurance sports. I started to enjoy doing that, and I liked the positive attention I got. From the way it made my body look. Of course, when I could no longer do my epic workouts due to health concerns, I put a lot of weight back on because I hadn’t changed my eating habits.
Also, because I sometimes stutter when I’m nervous or searching for the right word, some people take that as a lack of intelligence. I read a very interesting article about that last week. The writer said that most people who draw that conclusion about a someone’s intelligence due to their speech patterns are usually uneducated and probably not very bright themselves. That rung true for me. Most people I’ve known who judged me for my speech patterns had never darkened the door of an institute of higher learning.
C.: It sounds like you had a lot of back and forth weight gain and loss, d.c. Most health experts say that yo-yoing with your weight isn’t a good idea.
d.: That’s true, but a lot of actors lose and gain weight according to the roles they’re playing in a movie or TV show. It can be done, if you do it carefully. I never gained or lost more than ten pounds a month. It’s usually safe to lose that much weight in a month, but, if you keep doing it, it can be detrimental. I liked the attention I gained by getting in shape. It increased my self-confidence, which made it easier to ask women out on dates when I was single.
C.: Is that when you met Eudora?
d.: It is, and without her organizing things for me and doing research for me, I don’t think I could have accomplished completing an Ironman distance triathlon or finished nursing school. Her support was very important.
C.: Well, I hope that Tucker can do the same thing for each other. Now about that workout…
d.: Just run around the block six times. That will equal five miles. That’s a good workout for a light day.
C.: Slavedriver!