Since recommitting to healthier eating and more exercise on March 31, my pants fit better, I feel stronger and leaner, and I’m down 6.6 pounds. On my frame, that’s pretty nice. Not noticeable to the eye or enough to drop a size, but still noteworthy.
As of my last weigh-in, I’m 0.4 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight … and that feels great. I gained 34 pounds this time vs. 25 last time. So nine months on; 6.5 months off (whereas last time, four months off). Continue reading “progress …”
Check out my latest blog post over at WeAretheRealDeal here or after the jump. Continue reading “What Are YOU Thankful For?”
Thanks to the amazing beast that is Google, I just read the leaked script of Buried, the indie flick my “crush” Ryan Reynolds is supposedly filming in Barcelona right now as we speak.
If you’re not familiar with it yet, you will be in 2010 when it’s released — and there’s plenty of buzz about it now.
It’s the one-man film of an American contractor in Iraq whose convoy is ambushed by Iraqi insurgents.
Kidnapped and buried alive, he comes to in a coffin … with only a dying cell phone, a lighter and a knife … oh, and desert sand trickling through a tiny hole in the wooden box.
Reading the 80-page script, I felt nauseous and sick, as though I was in his shoes myself.
I won’t say anything more about the plot, other than that this movie is going to make its audience squirm — that is, if they can sit through an entire film shot in one very claustraphobic location.
I bring this film up not because I adore Ryan Reynolds (and I do) but because Ryan’s character — Paul — is facing the absolute of fears: certain, imminent death.
He’s literally trapped, and he has no way out … unless by some miracle he gets rescued. Continue reading “Facing Fears”
This is not an original image, but I saw it over at Roni’s Weigh and just had to share it here, since it is so on-message, I think, with my blog, too.
Talk about a powerful message.
I read it several times and let it sink in. So often (ok every day), we’re bombarded with images that make us feel like we’re not good enough, not thin enough, not pretty enough. That we aren’t ok how we are. Ads tell us our skin is too splotchy, it’s not dark enough, we have “thunder-thighs” and we’re covered in “unsightly” cellulite … (ok, what woman DOESN’T have it?!)
We can choose to be bold and ignore these images and say, “I’m ok with not being a size X” and “I love my thick, muscled calves.”
Or we can look at magazines, movies, images and hate on ourselves, wasting hours of our day in a narcissistic bubble. Continue reading “Quoteworthy”
I don’t know what it is about a sexy LBD (little black dress), heels, and fun jewelry … but this weekend I felt good in my own skin. Confident, even.
It doesn’t happen often, but I know that when it does, I ought to embrace it and capitalize on it. I haven’t weighed myself in a really long time, but I don’t really care to, either — especially with my monthly guest, which arrived Monday.
The thing is, I shouldn’t necessarily need a fancy dress or an occasion to spark confidence. That magic can stick in my daily life, if I listen to my body and remember how good it feels to feel good and obey my hunger queues, obey my body’s limits, obey my cravings. Continue reading “Happy Times”
I think you’d have to be living under a rock to not know who Susan Boyle is, the Scottish woman who has won the hearts of millions around the world with her emotionally-charged rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from one of my fave Broadway shows, Les Miserables.
Like everyone else, I was absolutely blown away with her stunning performance … and had I not seen her video, I — like anyone else — would probably just think she was another amazing Broadway star with awesome pipes.
But when we see Susan, we see an ordinary woman who you’d pass on the street and probably not give a second glance to; a woman who admits she’s never been kissed and lives in the house she grew up in, who took care of her ailing mother until she passed away. A woman, just like you or me.
And what is bothering me the most is how she’s being coined “the unlikely star” … simply based on her physical appearance. Continue reading “Commentary: Living a Dream”
This month’s SELF magazine, which focuses on the notion of finding your “happy weight,” has a great quote about body acceptance that I shared a couple weeks ago.
“Life is far too rich, interesting and short to waste on hating your body.”
I re-read the magazine in its entirety last night at the gym … and seeing that quote again just reinforced the message of really loving yourself as you are … hard as it may be for me (and so many of us) some days.
As I read, I found myself drawn in particular to two articles.
The first one (which I can’t find online) features six nude (but modestly/strategically covered up — it’s not pornographic or sexual at all) women of all different shapes, races and body types.
As I looked at each woman’s shape, I was able to see a bit of myself in each of them … in spite of their own variance. Continue reading “To Thine Own Self Be True”
I thought I’d share this inspirational quote today in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
I found it in Courtney Martin’s book, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, which I finished this past weekend and probably will be talking about quite a bit going forward.
The quote was in relation to one young woman suffering with an eating disorder who finally one day snapped (in a good way) and “woke up” during a yoga class when the instructor shared those six small words with such ginormous meaning.
“Meet your body where it is” Continue reading ““Meet Your Body Where It Is””
Let There Be Light 