Food & Fitness

Life Lessons: Winning by Losing

I’ve been tagged again- thanks CP! This time we’ve got a music meme:

Music to cry to: Viva la Vida by Coldplay. No joke, every time I hear this song it brings tears to my eyes. One day I was driving home from boot camp and this song came on the radio, and I burst into tears! I have no idea why this song affects me so much. It’s beautiful.

Music to make you scream out loud with the joy of a thousand spring mornings: I’ve Just Seen a Face by the Beatles. I love the version by Jim Sturgess in Across the Universe. This song just makes me smile. Not sure I’m so much screaming. But smiling for sure.

Music you know you won’t like: most country type music. Really bad boy bands. Hedley. It just doesn’t do it for me.

Music to fill your head and block out bad thoughts: Astair by Matt Costa; one of the prettiest songs I know of.

Music to jump to: Arctic Monkeys! (If that music doesn’t get you dancing, nothing will. Especially Cigarette Smoker Fiona).

Music to run to: Immaculate Machine or The New Pornographers… somehow it’s the kind of music that inspires you enough to make you want to just keep on going. But I don’t think it would be quite so good for strength training. Now AC/DC, that’s some quality music when you’re strength training!

Music to transport you: as in, road trip? Matt Good, hands down:) But otherwise in a more transport-mind-from-body way, it would have to be Josh Ritter. All of his music is great. Wandering Daughter by Kimya Dawson does this for me as well.

Music to just sit to: Do I Leave My Heart Here by Oliver the Penguin, and just about anything by Cat Power- soft and quiet.

Go check out all of those fantastic artists! And leave me a comment with some songs that you really like. I know next to nothing about music and feel the need to expand that.

Are you Winning or Losing?

This happened yesterday in class- we were doing group work and my group had finished, so the conversation turned to random chitchat:
Jordan: Ugh, I lost my $60 bus pass and my student card the other day.
Me: I lost my wallet with $60 cash, my student card, drivers license, health card, debit card, visa card, and a whole bunch of other cards.
Jordan: Oh.
Me: Yeah. I win.
Alex: It’s funny how you can somehow win by losing.

The concept can be used in many different ways. It can just be an ironic twist. It can be, in a way that applies to lots of people working to get healthy, the notion of losing weight or inches. And sometimes you’re losing out in the short run so that you’ll win in the long term. To me, winning by losing is indicative that there is a positive side to everything. You can turn that negative stuff right around and make it something positive- just to spite it!

(We’re all about the optimism around here).

What does winning by losing mean to you?

16 Comments

  1. the Bag Lady

    The Bag Lady is afraid to admit to the type of music she likes….sadly, she is so out of touch that she has never heard of most of what you mentioned.

    She’s so weird, she likes old stuff. Big Band music from the 1940’s. Music from Broadway musicals.
    and the unmentionable country music.
    Sorry.
    *skulks away*

  2. seeleelive (for the love of peanut butter)

    Oh yeah, I have a good story for this. Like, we registered for classes yesterday, and freshman got last pick on classes and times, cause yeah, we’re freshman. well all the hubble buzzle around campus has been about schedules cause each freshman is assigned a specific time. everyone is b!tching and whining and their times.

    Lauren: I can’t register until 11 am tomorrow. I’m not going to get any of my first pick classes.
    Ashley: WELL, I’m not registering until 1 in the afternoon.

    **like, feel bad for me please!!!! I beg of you my life is so sad!!!***

  3. Lance

    Good stuff (and some new-to-me stuff — cool!).

    Winning by losing: I figure – you do something, you try…and maybe you fail (losing part) – but it means you’ve found one way not to do that something – and then you try again (winning part). And the cycle continues until you get to the ultimate win – success by not losing. If that makes any sense…

    The wallet thing…sorry…I’m not seeing the winning here yet…

  4. Sagan Morrow

    VeggieGirl- I like that spin! And feel that way too.

    Bag Lady- that kind of music is so classic! But country music, tsk. Kidding:) Some of it is alright- I just never really got into it.

    MizFit- Google away, he’s fantastic! I don’t listen to much music. I kind of forget about it sometimes. But I like it when I do remember.

    Lee- heh that’s funny. And for the record when this conversation occurred it was very tongue-in-cheek!

  5. Liz Turtle

    For the wannabe weight-losers around here, the winning-by-losing connection is fairly straightforward :).

    Thank you for your most recent comment on my blog, btw! It really got me thinking!

  6. tokaiangel

    I love country music! And I hate Coldplay. But I REALLY love Josh Ritter and Cat Power and ADORE AC/DC. In fact I once sang in an AC/DC tribute band – I had to do it in girl to boy drag! I should do this music meme, I was tagged too!

    Turning negatives into positives just makes life and easier and more fun ride. We all have so much to be grateful for that its easy to get the little things that go wrong all blown out of proportion (like dresses that don’t look right… hmmm!!)

    TA x

  7. Sagan Morrow

    Lance- practice makes perfect! As long as we keep trying different things we’ll always learn from our mistakes.

    Liz- heh, yes. It’s become particularly prominent these days!

    Jolene- thanks for the song! I’m not a music person either, to be honest- my parents know more about artists and song titles than I do. It’s sad.

    TA- with your music background, it would be very cool to learn about your music tastes! Music meme music meme music meme please:) And much agree about putting it back into perspective (we’re still on for shopping, right?). Heart Josh Ritter:)

  8. catms916

    Loves it! I am so into music and totally agree about the AC/DC for strength training. I also may through in a little “Crazy Train” and some Guns ‘n Roses stuff in there too when I’m lifting.

    Adorable banner by the way!

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