My body has a mind of its own...

Notice the hand of the marionette is a puppet itself. So who is manipulating who?

I like to think of my body as a separate entity from myself. Here are just a few examples I can give you to demonstrate.

My body and I have had an agreement for the past 4 years: I wake it up very (very!) early in the morning, get it caffeinated, dressed in workout clothes and then position it in front of a Jessica Smith YouTube exercise video (my body loves her!) to do exercise. My body decides what it's up for. Sometimes it has the energy for a high-powered kickboxing workout, and sometimes all it can handle is a long, intense bout of stretching. As a result, my body has very generously slightly slowed my aging process (not the slowly wrinkling skin, unfortunately, but the rest of me. I won't be a hunched over 70-year-old woman with trouble climbing the stairs. Thanks, body!... What's that? I hear my body's reply... "It's a symbiosis, so thank you, Jennifer." You're welcome, body.)

It's an arrangement that works well for us.

Lately my body has quite viciously taken to waking me before my alarm clock. This has happened almost every day this week and I keep thinking it's a one-off. (Body to Jennifer: "You're very naive if you think this is going to stop anytime soon.")

It's one thing to wake up before your alarm on a work day. It even lulls you into a false sense of pep and efficiency... until you crash and burn at 3 PM because your body hasn't gotten enough sleep and now it's affecting your mind. But do you know how disconcerting it is to wake up early on a Friday morning when you can actually sleep in?!

Another example: I have a horrid tendency to put on weight in winter. I easily fluctuate 20 pounds between my lowest and heaviest weight. (I can actually fluctuate 30 pounds, but that one takes immense effort, both the putting on of the weight, and the taking it off.) The winter, the constant cold (in Israel, it's cold inside buildings!*)... causes non-stop carb-craving. And sugar. And once you start with the sugar, your body cries out like Cookie Monster: "More sugar!"

This winter, I gained more weight than usual. I honestly didn't know how I was going to take it off. I tried and tried. Finally, my body took pity on me. It decided it had had enough of the surplus weight, the back pain, the extra belly fat, the lack of variety in my "fat clothes". And it decided to tamp down my hunger levels. Such a relief, I lost about 9 pounds in 3 weeks, no effort, no joke. I can't even explain how, other than that my body decided it had had enough being heavier. (Now to lose the rest...)

Maybe some people reading this will identify with me in all this. If so, tell me how you and your body manage to co-exist in the same space!

But if you're reading this thinking I'm crazy, please don't say anything; my body might hear you and take offense. I really can't be responsible for how it would respond. (I did take a few lessons in Krav Maga, you know.)



*Israel can put a shuttle on the moon, but we can't figure out insulation!?