Walk Down Memory Lane

OK so yesterday did not agree with me - one bit..... Today I feel rough as but there is always another day and I sure will not be breaking my diet today! *laugh*

When F finally wakes and vacates the bed, I will be sneaking back in and pulling that duvet up over my head.

Today though, after a little reminder about working on memory on Lisa's blog, I am going to get back on it. The first two techniques combined well to create visual hooks to hang words you wish to remember on to. They combined to give me twenty hooks. I actually find myself using this technique a fair bit. I mentally create my shopping list as I find things I need to buy.

Oh I need rice milk, that's the second thing on my list. Number two is a swan from the shape of the number.... I think my swan is swimming in a lake of rice milk today. So we end up with snakes eating cottage cheese and monkeys spraying under their arms with fry light. One really hard one was Oatibix bites which happened to be number ten which is moon over water. The moon was not a person this time but a wild horse (who had had too many oats) that was trying to bite. I like that image....

The hooks were made in the following way - 1 to 10 were choosen as they relate to the form of the number, so one is a candle, two is a swan, three is a book left open with curling covers etc. 11 - 20 are choosen for rhyming, so fifteen (five) is jive, sixteen (six is sticks), seventeen (seven) is heaven. You choose whatever images work best for you. Seventeen led to one of my favourite images. Halloween pumpkins sitting on clouds with halos.....

So the next technique is to make a memory room and it got put off due to the wedding. I need to sit down and plan out my room and the route that I will take around it and the various objects in it. When you want to remember things you alter the state of things in the room. I will fill it full of things I like that have significance to me. So maybe a drum, a horse, some magpies, definitely a big schoshy sofa and a tree. And some doors. Eventually I might make my memory room in to a memory house with this room set up as the entrance hallway. Until then the doors can be open or shut and show views on to different places.

One really interesting thing though, is that in Katherine Kerr's magnificent set of books set in Deverry, one story has considerable use of this technique. Not only does he manipulate things in the real world by it but it is fluid, so things change in the house without him doing it. He might have a statue of a significant person and depending on what is going on with that person the statue changes by itself. I have no idea if any of that is possible! You can be sure I will look out for any minor changes though!

I have also been continuing reading about the Alexander Technique. It is clear that some lessons would help with understanding this all in relation to my body though. Still I intend to find out if my Podiatrist thinks any particular leg muscles need to be worked in the gym to assist with the exercises he will give me. I know I am using my legs poorly. I have knock knees, flat feet and one leg is longer than the other. Currently we are using support and exercises to correct my flat feet.

In the gym yesterday, sauntering along on the treadmill ( well a saunter for other people, a workout for me), I was opposite a mirror. I could see quite clearly that as I walk, I place my shorter leg's foot straight but my long leg's foot is turned outward. My short leg ankle has been troublesome this past year and the foot has not gained strength as quickly as my other foot. There is a lot more work to be done.

Last time I went to the gym, they had to show you every machine and I ended up with a giant unwieldy routine that was unworkable. The emphasis has changed considerably. I went on three pieces of cardio equipment and that was it, and will be it for a little while. I am hoping that the podiatrist will give me a few machines that would beneficial - and then the gym staff can show me them too. Music is going to be key in my gym experience though....

I am at my fattest ever now, fatter by far than last time I went to the gym, quite a few years ago. The interesting thing is, quite a few people recently have said that they think I have lost quite a bit of weight. I personally think it is about confidence and happiness. This year has been so much better inside my head. This next year is about my health, fitness and weight. Making my body match my mind.