As I get older (hitting 41 next month), I’m becoming more aware of the passing of time and my own mortality. It’s at this time for most men my age that we have the mid life crisis thing and decide we need to buy things to make us feel younger (like Harley motorcycles or a shiny sports car of some sort) I have not succumbed to any of these Marlon Brando/James Dean personifications of male vitality though I did visit a Harley showroom a few months ago just to kick at some ‘hogs’ with a friend of mine of the same age. I looked, sat on them and admired the power of these bikes but it was a fleeting moment. My friend, on the other hand, was deeply affected by the showroom for he decided a week after our cycle visit to tattoo his left upper arm…a bike purchase is surely to follow.

I believe I had my mid life crisis 4 years ago when I decided to buy a guitar (my personal personification of youth) and began learning to play rock classics from my youth on it. All I can say is that the first 6 months of lessons were filled with continuous frustration (I was always very tense around my instructor) and bloody fingers. I was not progressing at a pace I was used too (can’t really quantify it for you...sorry) and almost gave it up. Looking back, these first months with my 6 strings, was like a yellow beacon of light telling me to slow down. Was the pace of my daily existence going too fast or was I continuously thinking of the future too much too really notice the present? I think the later was the cause of the former.

I experienced the same sort of frustration and uneasiness the other night when a friend of mine took me to a tango instruction class. She has been taking tango lessons for some time now and maybe thought I would enjoy it or take to it. I was eager and open minded about it or so I thought. If anyone out there has tangoed, the male is the one who leads the dance and the female follows or anticipates the shift or movement of your forward weight. It is the kind of dance that really makes you listen to the music. It is also a dance that requires you not to get excited…it asks you to slow down (another yellow beacon?) your inner workings. My inner workings were in 4th gear because I was thinking too much of how my dance friend would react…what was she expecting of me this first time? (I think I was more troubled with what I was expecting of myself). I also felt intimated because there were some very good male dancers on the floor). I survived my first lesson and thoroughly enjoyed watching the other dancers as well as my friend dance the tango.

For those of you starting the BTD dance, listen carefully to your body as you start taking avoids out of your diet and introducing more beneficials. When it comes time to eat and deciding what foods to put in your mouth, slow down your thoughts so you can make good conscious decisions as to what to put in your mouth. For those of you who have significant others who have been on the diet for some time, and you have decided to follow the diet, do not think you can master their level of compliance so quickly…give your self time to adjust and set your own pace.

My tango teacher told me something the other night when I worried about my dancing. She said ‘ I would rather you do two steps all night as long as you do them well’. That’s good advice for anyone starting a new discipline.