Tag: Rituals

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General Weight Loss Tips

Hand Me a Tissue

I don’t want to start this blog out by saying “I’ve been sick”, because that’s just not fun. It’s April and like clockwork, I’ve got a stuffy nose, itchy ears, piles of tissues everywhere and a cough to come. I haven’t tasted or smelled food in days. Many, many days. It takes the fun out of eating. Lately I just eat because I’m hungry and I have to. That’s a concept!

Last week I started emailing my daily food and calories to my dear friend of a million years and it felt so refreshing to say to someone “guess what? I had two smoothies and a subway sandwich today” without a return comment about balance, or how I should be eating more of this or less of that. Sometimes that’s all I want, peace with imperfection and less justification.

I know that for me, as soon as I start creating rules and rituals about what I should and should not eat, I get into obsessive eating trouble. Not that I don’t aim to have better eating habits, it’s just that so often I find that I create them more out of the approval of other people rather than my own belief system which is balance and moderation.

And that’s that. Moving on.

Edit: And of course, after writing this I go and read this wonderful post by Andie from Can You Stay For Dinner? Her post is so good, and so well written that I want to go to Seattle and give her a parade. Read: The Weight Loss Dilemma. 

My favorite line:

“Please know that there is nothing wrong with eating as cleanly as one can. (If you do and if you strive to- I applaud you.) There is similarly nothing wrong with having Skinny Cow ice cream bars in your freezer beside organic frozen vegetables. (Tell me you have Cool Whip?) There’s nothing wrong with any of it and my bottom line remains: Judging others’ eating styles and deeming food choices as inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad’ only leaves us feeling and looking ignorant and unenlightened. 

The point of this post, as always, is to let you know that there’s middle ground. And also that I don’t want this blog to exclude anyone who’s hungry. My table serves Kit Kats and kale chips in varying amounts.”

Thank you Andie!

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What November May Bring

I spent the weekend in good ol’ West Virginia. Equal parts to see my family, go to the Dunbar fall festival and to see my best friend Jasmine for her 29th birthday. We’re all turning 29 in “the group” of girls I’ve known forever, and we like to tease Jasmine, because she’s the oldest and it means 30 is right around the corner for us all. 30 seems so big and scary. I know I will love my 30s, I’ve heard rumors that they’re great, but I’m embracing the heck out of 28 for now. I also feel a lot of motivation to leave my excess weight in my 20s.

Me and Jasmine posing at the farmer’s market.

My hometown feels haunted to me. Every corner has a specific memory, even the outside scent takes me back to the years prior to college. To high school, when driving around with the music up and the windows down, was the height of excitement for us.  I’m not sure what it is about fall, but I feel nostalgic. The scents, the leaves, the chill in the air. It’s magical to me and a feeling I hope I never lose. I have fall rituals, that probably sound silly, but are incredibly comforting. Such as fall scented candles and car air fresheners in scents like pumpkin, cinnamon or fireside. I like wearing hoodies with flip-flops. I have mix CDs with my favorite fall music going in the car.  I start cooking food like curry and chili for dinner. And I fill my porch with mums, asters and pumpkins. All of these are traditions are incredibly important to me. Am I alone here?

Do you have any fall traditions?

November! I found out a couple of weeks ago that I will be traveling to Los Angeles the first week of November. I will have more details on this trip, as it is blog related, in the coming weeks. But, for now, I am super excited and motivated to continue with my weight loss efforts. I have six weeks before the trip and I’m setting two goals that go along with my September goals. The first one is to exercise everyday with one day off. This means sticking to my exercise schedule of Zumba, c25k, Jillian’s 30 day DVD and stregnth training. I’m also re-setting the goal of tracking my calories every single day for the next six weeks, including the weekends. I struggle tracking on the weekends, because I’m out and about and not able to track on my phone, but this shouldn’t be an excuse.

Ultimately I would like to lose 2-3 pounds a week, but I’ll be pleased with whatever weight is lost from my actions.

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She Like to Party

This weekend we went out for Floyd’s version of Mardi Gras, a benefit for the local alternative school. I purchased the tickets weeks ago, but was having a hard time getting motivated to go out. All day we were hemming and hawing over the event. Should we go or shouldn’t we? Going out always has it’s challenges for me, mostly out of insecurity–public dancing (I usually quickly get over this and love it) and what will I talk about? What will I wear?

Looking for a way to get more excited about the evening I decided that we should just go all out (at least for us) with our outfits. I went the makeup root and searched on youtube for mardi gras makeup. I picked up a big green glittery butterfly from the local fabric store. By the time I finished I was so proud of my drag-esque makeup and ready to go. Can I just say that false lashes are awesome!?

Do you have any pre-party rituals?

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