Mwahahahaha!

I somehow got Tim watching the Olympics with me last night. He is not into sports at all, and usually if I'm watching sports he goes back into the other room to watch Sci-Fi Channel or something. Last night, I came home and turned on the Olympics and sat down to eat the dinner I just made. (We have no dining room, so we are bad and eat in the livingroom.) He comes in to join me and watches volleyball, gymnastics, and track & field. About halfway through the evening, he says, "How the heck did you get me out here watching this?" Well, I laughed and thought that was his way of saying he was leaving, but he ended up watching them until they ended at Midnight. I told him that all I did was turn on the TV and he's the one who sat there, and that now he knows how easy it is to get drawn into this stuff. If you watch just a little gymnastics, you want to see the rest to see how it ends, right?

Olympics and body image

On the cusp of the last post, I wanted to post something about the Olympics and body image. I'm sure men go through this just like women do, but since I'm not a man I'm only going to go by my perspective.

As much as I absolutely love the Olympics and the athletic ability of the Olympians, I think it's important for us to realize what they go through to have those bodies -- mainly talking about the swimmers, as that was my sport. There seems to be a train of thought out there that all women who are 41 can be in the same shape as Dara Torres, or that younger women can look like some of the other swimmers. Don't get me wrong, Dara is AMAZING and this is NOT a knock on her in any way. However, most 41-year-olds have jobs. Dara's full-time job is swimming, and most women can't swim full-time.

I bring this up because of something that happened a few years ago, something I'd mostly forgotten about until I was watching the swimming again. A few years back, when I was on yet another diet trying to practically starve myself and swim my pounds away, I had a conversation with my older (and wiser) sister. I said I'd taped a picture of Olympic swimmer Amy VanDyken to my fridge because that's the body I wanted and thought I could achieve if I ate right and worked hard enough in the pool. Maureen is silent (on the phone) for a minute, then says, "So, your goal is to look like an Olympian gold-medal winner, and you think this is realistic?" Up until then, I hadn't looked at it that way and that really helped me realize how I was completely unrealistic with that goal. I was in my 30s, worked two jobs at the time, and didn't look like that at my peak performance when I was 18. But somehow I felt I could have Amy's body.

At that point, I could almost hear an audible "click" in my head when I realized how unrealistic I was being. Since then, I've slowly become more comfortable with my body and feel pretty good. I'm fat, yes, but I haven't eaten so well in years. I eat well, don't count calories or any of that stuff that leads me to become incredibly obsessed with food. I currently have different foods to choose from in the fridge -- yesterday I made some rice with edamame and chili made with lean ground turkey and white kidney beans. I have some fruit in there, veggies, chicken to cook, stuff like that. And yes, I had some Pillsbury crescent rolls and I have a little pint of ice cream in the fridge. So sue me, lol.

Olympics - possible spoiler

...although if you haven't heard this by now I'd be shocked. :) Yay, Michael Phelps got his eight medals! I was so thrilled for him last night. Some people seem to be bothered by the hype around this because some of his medals were due to relays. Yes, that's the way these things go. But, if I recall correctly, five of the golds were individual medals and he always gives credit to his relay teammates -- always. Let's give him his due.

What an amazing week in the pool! I knew it would be, but not by this much -- 20 world records broken! They said this was more than the 18 combined broken records in the last two Olympics. I laughed when Dara Torres said she shouldn't have filed her nails before her race that she lost by 1/100th of a second -- same amount by which Phelps won that crazy 100m butterfly race. She was amazing. I really wanted her to win individual gold for herself, but winning the silver is amazing. Her sportsmanship says a lot about who she is.

The all-around gymnastics ended the way it should have, but I would have been ticked if it hadn't. There was definitely something weird going on with the scoring -- I don't know what, but there were some scores that were a lot higher than they should have been, and a lot that were lower. I suppose this always happens, but it's frustrating to see. In the end, it all worked out and I was thrilled for Nastia and Shawn.

So, I probably won't be watching as much this next week, except diving. My main interests in these games has always been swimming and gymnastics because those were two sports I was good at as a kid and young adult.

Someone is trying to make trouble

I saw an article on MSNBC about fake fireworks at the opening ceremony of the Olympics Friday night. I thought perhaps everything was faked, but apparently it's just the footprints. Hello! Bob Costas made it clear during the broadcast that those were computer-generated, not real.

I think it's irresponsible to raise a huge fuss about this when it's not news and China was not trying to pull something on the TV viewers. I feel like people are puroposefully trying to be deceptive. I know, what else is new, but it's not right.

Olympic Spoiler

That men's 4x100 relay was SO AWESOME!!!!!!

I love seeing trash-talkers get their comeuppance. It has nothing to do with what country it's coming from, I didn't like Gary Hall, Jr.'s nonsense either.

I was so tired, keeping myself up to watch that relay. Now I'm wide awake because of it, lol. This is why I love swimming and loved it when I used to do it (nothing ever remotely close to this, of course).

WAHOO!!!!!!!!!

Will note Olympic spoilers

We were discussing posting about the Olympics on a message board and someone mentioned noting spoilers so people in Central and Western US (and other places) know not to read. I'm going to post what I want to post in my blog when I want to post it, but I will note in the title something about Olympic spoilers so if people see that in the title they are warned.

Trying to be thoughtful of others, but I also don't feel I need to wait to post stuff forever on my own blog. :)

Phelps got off to a great start!

So, Phelps has his first gold medal. Yay! I really want to see him win all eight. I also think it was cool that the Korean swimmer won a gold, especially after DQing back in 2004.

I wonder how many Americans are already up in arms about The Star-Spangled Banner. The beginning was weird, and it was cut off at the end. I guess we're the land of the free but not the home of the brave, lol. Seriously though, I'm sure the kinks will be worked out and if Phelps and President Bush can laugh it off, I sure can. :)