30 Day Blogging Challenge- Days 27-28

Hey Y’all!

Can you believe that I have more or less kept up with this crazy blogging challenge?  I know…I’m pretty shocked, too. LOL.

The themes for what would be my weekend posts are: a problem that I’ve had (day 27) and something I miss (day 28).

I’m doing these together because, I sorta feel as though they entwined.  My weight is my problem…and  the thing I miss that I have never been care free about my body–especially when it comes to others judging it and what I eat …see, I told you they entwined. lol.

I”m not sure if that day will ever come…because if I was able to get back down to my low weight again, I would always be afraid I would put it back on again…I think this is the part that messes up people the most when it comes to weight issues.  You can’t ever be care free.  You are always aware of what you are putting into your body because it all adds up to extra inches when you aren’t aware.  And no, I am not suggesting that you can’t ever have fun with food or have a treat once you’ve lost weight, I’m just saying you cannot be 100% care free when it comes to what you eat because it will come back to haunt you.

I know some of you will say, this is where the idea of intuitive eating comes into play…but like a lot of things in my life, I tend to over think it.  After so many years of overeating and emotional eating, followed by some strict under eating and some time in a binge/purge cycle, I have really struggled to find the sweet spot of fullness …and so I have a few extra bites to avoid being hungry later.  And, yes, I realize how dumb this sounds, given I live in modern society and you are never more than a few minutes away from food that could be eaten if I got hungry.

It’s funny…because I was chubby all of my life…and it was always a bit of an issue (had a few devastating moments with my dad, who also grew up chubby, and our dreaded scale), there are times where I feel really bitter by the fact that I never felt I could embrace the care free nature of one’s body that you have when you are young.  I was always aware that I was the chubby one and I know I still carry a bit of this in my adult life. I never did go strut around the beach as a youngin’ in a new bikini and flirted with boys as a teen or even wear really fun fashion–I wore over-sized band tee-shirts and I avoided the beach, only wearing a bathing suit when I had to for work (I was a lifeguard and swim instructor).

I even made comments about my food choices if I was eating unhealthfully, in my mind acknowledging that I knew what “they” were thinking as I sipped upon my frappucinno with whipped cream.  It’s sorta like Rebel Wilson’s character in Pitch Perfect calling herself “Fat Amy” to beat the other girls to the punch.  The sad and funny thing is that I still engage in some of these behaviours today…at my ripe old age of nearly 33.

I think that, in moving forward, I need to re-frame the issues.   Yes I missed out on some things as a chubbier young person, but I also did some things that I maybe wouldn’t have if I was skinny.  Food is too silly of a thing to let it have this much power over my body and my emotions…and there is no way possible that I will ever starve in our current society as food is everywhere, so I don’t have to stuff in those extra bites to try to stave off some future hunger that may or may not happen.

And then there is my weight.  I need to embrace the fact that this is always going to be an issue for me and it’s just time to put on those big girl panties and work with that fact–I am someone who gains weight easily.  I will try to do the best I can in managing it and focus more on just being healthy and feeling comfortable in my own skin and not striving for a specific number on the scale and only allowing myself to feel contented when I hit that spot.

Gah…these feels like such a disjointed post.  Oh well…much like eating, I will simply do better next time.

Love, Leesah

30 Day Blogging Challenge: Days 20-22

Happy Monday Friends!

I am a bit delayed as this weekend was a bit of a busy, but self-indulgent one.   My goal was to do as little as possible until Sunday, which was my brother’s birthday.  Needless to say, that mission was totally accomplished.

Sadly, that also means I am a few days behind on my blogging….so I am combining Days 20-22 into one gigantic post to catch me up.  The topics are: how important you think education is; one of my favourite TV shows and how have you changed in the past two years.  I’ll try to keep these brief as possible.

Day 20: How Important I think Education Is

I think it is HUGELY important.  It teaches you so much more than the subject at hand. I have had these arguments with people before about how they feel their degree is useless as they are not working in their area of study…but I think they forget what going through that process to get their degree has given them.

It teaches hard work, discipline, goal setting, time management, critical thinking, team work, interpersonal skills and so much more.  I am definitely believer in life long learning and continuing to challenge yourself in your life both inside and outside of work.

Day 21: One of my favourite TV shows

I think it is safe to say that one of my favourites has really become True Blood…but it’s more than just the show (which hasn’t been overly great in a long time–though the eye candy is still pretty amazing–hello Eric and Alcide!).  The reason why I like it so much is that it is a fun, weekly event among my friends.  It brings a whole new level of enjoyment to the show and makes Sundays one of my favourite days of the week in the summer–even though it means that the weekend is over.  I also feel similar nostalgia for Dawson’s Creek for the same reason–I was the only one of my friends who had the WB and thus, everyone came over for Dawson’s Creek nights.  Such fun.

Day 22: How I have changed in the last two years

Essentially, the biggest change in me over the past two years is that I value myself, because I didn’t 2 years ago.  2 years ago I was in counseling, trying to stop emotional based binge eating (which was a huge role reversal for my intermittent issues with super restricted eating/bulimic tendencies around food during the previous year) and stop crying everyday over the fact that I felt incredibly alone given that all of my friends were with serious boyfriends, husbands, having babies, making new lives and I was left behind.  I was at a point where, if I were diagnosed with a terminal illness, it wouldn’t bother me as I had lived enough and didn’t see anything or anyone worth living for in the future.  Lame I know…but I wasn’t in a good place at the time.

Eventually, I got better.  I still have the odd bad moment, but they are becoming less and less and I feel that my experience has made me far better equipped to deal with anything the future…because if I can comeback from the dark place I was in two years ago, then I know I can truly come back from anything.

So that’s it…that’s my story…er post for days 20-22 of the blogging challenge.  Got anything to share–favourite tv shows?  Changes you’ve made in the last two years?  Your thoughts on Educations?  Let me know in the comments!

Much luv,

Leesah