mr365 asked: you've probably answered this, but what does your tumblr-name mean?
Actually, I haven’t! And I was meaning to, so good timing.
It is not a reference to how much weight I want to lose (though we’ll see when we get closer) nor is it a reference to my goal weight (as an adult 94 lbs is not a healthy weight for me!) or my birth year (I was born in the Orwell year).
Short answer: It’s a silly phrase from a kids’ movie that has taken on motto-like importance for me, reminding me to not give up on changing the habits of a lifetime.
Longer answer: There’s a scene in this semi-lost Disney movie I love called “The Emperor’s New Groove” where the evil queen’s henchman is skipping rope with a bunch of kids, playing one of those playground counting games. She wants him to hurry up and he calls back to her “Sure thing, but I still have 94 monkeys to go.”
It’s a funny phrase, but seriously… When I decided I wanted to get healthy this time, the 500,000th time approximately, I was the fattest I had ever been in my life. It wasn’t a question of cutting out dessert and taking the stairs. Maybe I had been that close to good shape once, but I sure wasn’t a year and a half ago. To get to the shape I wanted to be in, a shape that was healthy, would not only be an uphill battle but an uphill battle with a backpack of angry cats on my back, crocodiles nipping at my heels and possibly a charging rhino in the distance.
“But I still have 94 monkeys to go” became my shorthand for, This may take a while. Or, Maybe I’m not there yet — but that’s okay. Or, I haven’t done right by me, but I’m doing a little bit better.
I wouldn’t call it a mantra or anything, but maybe a catchy slogan? I’m sure some of you have them.
So that’s how this blog came to be called 94monkeys. Bit silly I know and it doesn’t reference health or fitness directly, but then again, I’m a little offbeat. And as this blog has stretched to include sort of general life-reinvention stuff, I find it to be pretty malleable.
