Let's pandiculate!

Pandiculate may or may not be a verb. In any case, it has very little to do with a panda and, if it did, the meaning would be obscene.

According to dictionary.com, pandiculation is a noun and pandiculated is an adjective. There's no mention of a verb, but there ought to be. The noun and the adjective refer to the instinctive stretching (as while yawning) or is used to describe something that is stretched.

Pandiculate must be the verb form meaning to stretch. As long as this word is apparently my own creation, I am going to expand its meaning (to pandiculate its meaning?) to include going beyond one's comfort zone, to reinvent oneself as smarter, more important, and more, uh, pandiculated. To pandiculate is to be more useful, to more of service.

This was the message to Americans in Obama's Inauguaral speech. Beyonce tearfully said, "He makes me want to be smarter." I want Beyonce to be smarter, too, smart enough to not degrade women by looking like the women that some of the rappers are degrading. Anyway, I do understand what she was saying. I'm sure many of my own generation said something similar after John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." This country has been yearning for a leader that asks us to give up our childish ways, to do something for one another. In other words, we should pandiculate.

So, let's pandiculate!

The Biggest Loser

The "You on a Diet" doctor/author got my attention

I was watching PBS when it featured one of the doctors of "YOU" fame (You: an Owner's Manual, You on a Diet, You Beautiful You.) It wasn't Dr. Oz; it was the other one. Let's call him Dr. R. So, Dr. R. said, "If your waistline (measured across the belly button) is larger than xxx (nevermind what that was; I don't want to fully self-disclose), then your health is as much at risk as if you were just told that you have breast cancer." Then he went on to say that if a woman received that diagnosis, she would want to immediately take some action, anything that is required. (He had a similar paradigm-shifter for men, but I don't remember what it was.) I have heard all the health crap from my own doctor, heard it in the media, read it in articles, but this statement by Dr. R. got my attention.

Then I watched The Biggest Loser last night and Bob the Trainer (kind of like Bob the Builder but taller and thinner) looked straight at me and said "America, why are you watching this show while eating ice cream? Put it down!" And he kind of yelled at me a little. So, I put the lid on the jar of peanuts. (I know better than to keep ice cream in the house.)

By the time I was watching Biggest Loser, I had already written a "food plan" to automate my eating as Dr. R. had suggested. Peanuts were on my plan as a snack. (Chewing reduces one's appetite and peanut-snackers lost significant weight during a study at Duke University. To rationalize further, I eat very little meat so I need the protein.) Nevertheless, Bob did not have to repeat himself. I heard him the first time, so I didn't have another bite to eat for the rest of the evening.

Julian the Trainer yelled at me too, but I think she is so hot and so cool (makes sense to me) that in my fantasies, she and I could share a banana split. However, neither Bob the Trainer nor Dr. R. are my type (yes, I do like men but not necessarily those two.) I'm not attracted to authoritative men, but I usually respect them as long as they remain authoritative and not too authoritarian. So, I respect both Bob the Trainer and Dr. R.

I also found it appealing that the Biggest Loser had pledged to donate to the nation's food banks, matching the pounds that Americans pledged to lose. I was conservative and pledged to lose 20 pounds by the end of April. I didn't want to fail in meeting a larger pledge because Bob the Trainer might yell at me again.

If you can be supportive in my weight loss without yelling at me, I'd like to hear from you.