Well Done, Grace Batterberry!

Tags

diet, exercise, Facebook, Grace Batterberry, inspiration, Ireland, Operation Transformation

Normally, I would have posted this on Grace’s Facebook page, but, alas, I gave up Facebook for Lent. So, if I am lucky, Grace will see this when the notification comes up that it is published on my FB page.

Grace was one of five people selected to be leaders on the Irish television show, Operation Transformation. The program follows the five leaders for seven weeks documenting their diet and fitness successes and shortcomings. You are encouraged to follow one of the leaders as an inspiration for your own transformation. I chose to follow Grace, the 32 year-old postmistress from Castletownroche in County Cork. Part of the reason I followed Grace is that when she started the program, she discovered that they not only expected her to change her diet and exercise levels, but they also expected her to quit smoking. I quit smoking many, many years ago and know how hard that is to do. I still some times get a whiff of cigarette smoke when I pass someone smoking on the street and think, “oh, I wouldn’t mind some of that.”

So I followed Grace’s progress each week by watching the program on the RTE 1 Player, because it is the only way I have of watching Irish television programs in Texas. (Why I am obsessed with Irish television is the subject for another day.) What I loved about this program is that they follow the leaders in their lives each week. Unlike the American program, The Biggest Loser, these leaders undergo their transformation at home. And no one gets voted off or plots how to get rid of other contestants, nor is there the any money to be won at the end of the program. They are there as leaders to those who watch the program and then will hopefully follow the program themselves. There is a web site where you can get the daily workout and weekly diet plan for the leaders. And, of course, the requisite phone app as well.

There are no fancy machines or daily appointments with personal trainers. There is a fitness expert, and nutritional expert, and a psychologist who set the weekly goals and give them encouragement each week. The majority of the time it is up to the leaders to follow the program as they live their everyday lives. In Grace’s case, she moans about giving up the cigarettes. She also has her partner and son supporting her efforts. What  I enjoyed most was seeing the support she got from her Father, who ended up losing quite a bit of weight himself.

One of the things I have come to love about Ireland is the community spirit. It is a country of a few big cities and many rural communities, villages and small towns. The population of the whole country is about 25% less than the population of the city I live in. In Operation Transformation, I saw Grace and the other leaders supported wholeheartedly by the communities where they live. Friends, coworkers, and neighbors accompanied them on their daily walks and cheered them on.

i sent Grace a ‘friend request’ on Facebook because I wanted to be able to offer my support. As I live 4500 miles or so away, it was certainly the easiest way. Every Wednesday, I watched how Grace and the other leaders had fared in the previous week. They work out at home, sometimes using bottles of water or canned goods as weights. They struggle to adapt to their new diets and lifestyle changes. Last Wednesday was the finale. The leaders, who at the start of the program had not been able to run further than 200 meters, run in a 5k race in the rather appropriately named, Phoenix Park. And then we see them strut their transformed selves down a catwalk. Grace looked stunning in an electric blue dress. Not only had she lost weight, her skin glowed and she looked radiantly happy.

After everyone had walked the catwalk and watched a video review of their transformation, they were joined by two members of the Irish Defense forces. Each week the leaders had met with Sergeant Mick Mulcahy and Lieutenant Gemma Fagan for weekly army-style team challenges aimed at pushing them further than they felt they could possibly go. They were there to present Grace with the “Laoch na Sraithe” – Hero of the Series Award for her spirit and inspiration to others.

Before the series finale, Grace was invited to launch a new quit smoking campaign by the Irish Cancer Society. It is a campaign aimed at getting young women to quit smoking. I would guess that Grace’s life has been transformed far more then she might have dreamt it would be when she embarked on this journey.

So, well done to you, Grace Batterberry. I will miss seeing you on Wednesday but will think about you when I take my dog for a long walk in my neighborhood each day—something watching Operation Transformation inspired me to do. I can’t wait to check on your Facebook page Easter Sunday to see what you have been up to!

A few of the episodes are still available to watch on RTE. If you would like to check them out, go to http://www.rte.ie/player/. You can also access the Operation Transformation website from there.

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What to Give Up For Lent

Tags

Facebook, Lent, Rachel Ray, Signs

Somehow the Lenten season crept up on me this year. On Fat Tuesday, someone asked me what I was giving up, and I didn’t have any idea. My friend, Chris, is giving up chocolate, I’ve already done that. I have another friend giving up bread and pasta, but I am already on a diet that restricts bread and pasta to very small amounts, so that seemed a little bit like cheating. My friend’s husband is giving up alcohol. Hmmm, no. I thought I might add something charitable. In recent years, I have made weekly donations to my church food bank and loaned money every week on Kiva, but I couldn’t decide what my charitable deeds might be this year.

All this thinking about what to add or give up, made me think about what I gave up growing up. I honestly can’t remember. I have in my mind that what you give up should be hard to give up. And it shouldn’t be something you should give up anyway. You can’t give up ice cream if you are overweight, or give up smoking if you are a smoker, etc…So surely I gave up candy at least once. Every Sunday after church, we went to a little store to buy the Sunday paper and we got to buy some kind of candy–and if we were really lucky a, comic book.(Yes, I’m old.) But it was the highlight of my week and that is the only thing I can think up that would have been hard to give up then.

The other thing I remember is that we were  given mite boxes in Sunday School when Lent started. We were to put money for the poor in the boxes. They were made of thin cardboard, it seems like they had a little peaked roof on top. They were heavy enough to hold up to the weight of the coins we put in them, but light enough that they might tear if you were to try to retrieve a coin from them. I think you could go house-to-house to collect, but I was already traumatized by having to go house-to-house to sell candy for school. So it was whatever change I could cajole out of my parents or any change I might have left over from my allowance went in the mite box.

It was hard for me because it seemed like my allowance evaporated shortly after I received it. It must have been really hard for my sister, Michelle, because she was incredibly good at not spending a cent unless it was absolutely necessary. Which is also why I had inhaled all my Easter candy by the end of Easter Sunday eating myself into a sugar coma, while my sister might nibble on an ear of her chocolate rabbit and would still have candy weeks later.

I don’t know why I give so much thought to what I give up now. There were a number of years that I gave up Lent for Lent, which is still a popular option for many. But as I have gotten older it has seemed more important to honor the sacrifice that has been made for me by making a real sacrifice.

Later that evening I was on Facebook still pondering what to add, when I saw my niece, Anna’s post saying she was giving up Facebook for Lent. Under the influence of a glass of wine, I decided to do the same thing. I posted a message letting my friends know I would not be wishing them Happy Birthday, ‘liking’ their status, or know what was going on in their lives (at least via Facebook) until Easter Sunday. Two of my friends immediately indicated they ‘liked’ my status. So, too late to reconsider and delete my post. OH MY, I AM GIVING UP FACEBOOK. It made me wonder if my friend, Laurie, was right. She said her priest told her Lent really lasts more than 40 days, so you have Sundays off from what ever it is you have pledged to give up. At the time I thought it was a little too lax, but now I am reconsidering.

Today was Day One of no Facebook. I don’t post that often, but I heard on the news this morning that it is National Margarita Day. I had the urge to post something about how that seems like it should have been celebrated on Fat Tuesday instead of Ash Wednesday. No posting today. In fact, I was only on my computer for seven minutes this morning to check my e-mail. It made me think about the mornings that I was just going to get on Facebook for a minute and then looked at the time and realized I had been on for 45 minutes, or an hour, or maybe longer. I love reading my friend’s posts, watching the videos they post, ‘liking’ their status, and occasionally adding my two cents to someone’s post. I IM my 14 year-old niece and play Wedding Street with her. But maybe I do spend too much time there.

I attended a session at a Job Ministry this morning and the subject was Identity Crisis and how your identity is revealed. One of the points, the L in reveal, was Life Details and how God uses signs to lead or redirect you to your purpose. Later I went to church, and the Ash Wednesday homily was about signs. The outward sign of the ash cross on your forehead, and the other signs of God and faith. He even talked about the Five Man Electrical Band song “Signs.”  That made me smile…‘Sign, sign, everywhere a sign.’  I started to sense a pattern. I think I’ve been redirected away from Facebook to focus on something else in the next few weeks.

I haven’t heard “Signs” in a long, long time. So I looked up the lyrics and smiled again when I read the last verse:

And the sign said, “Everybody welcome. Come in, kneel down and pray”

But when they passed around the plate at the end of it all, I didn’t have a

penny to pay

So I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign

I said, “Thank you, Lord, for thinkin’ ’bout me. I’m alive and doin’ fine.”

Wooo!

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind

Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

Sign

Sign, sign

So, I’ve given up Facebook for Lent and I’m looking for signs. Let me know what you are giving up for Lent, just don’t post it on Facebook because I won’t see it for weeks.

PS For my first Lenten meal I made Red Snapper Livornese from Rachel Ray’s recipe. It is super easy and, more importantly, I am a reluctant fish eater and I loved it! Here’s the link to the recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/red-snapper-livornese-recipe/index.html