Changing My Everything

Today is Thanksgiving in the US and its sucks.  My daughter and I are down visiting my sister in Baltimore.  My sister wants to eat at times that clash with feeding regiment and daughter is behaving like a moody teenager even though she's 22.  I've always spoiled that girl.  She's great, early this week she was awesome but she can be so thoughtless and sometimes just insulting. My son is off skiing at Panorama in British Columbia.  Have I mentioned that he ski races? As a sophomore he won the local JV championships but Junior year wasn't quite as good.  So going into senior year he really wants to shine.  He did summer training at Mt Hood and now Thanksgiving training in Canada.  The season starts in January and could run through March; if he does well, he could ski at that the big state meet which would mean a lot to him. And of course, my divorce was final as of 11/19.  I can't really say I'm sad about that.  Our marriage hadn't be...

For most of the last 15 years I have been trying to loose weight.  My goal has been to get back to what I weighed when I was forty.  But since my separation its taken on a different urgency and a different focus.  I started to worry about my health, my blood pressure and my risk for diabetes, and other long term risks.  I tried diets, smoothies, shakes, a personal trainer, Noom, yoga etc etc......  Some of it was really good for me. I enjoyed my time with the personal trainer.  It set up some accountability and gave me any number of short term goals and challenges. Yoga has been amazing for building strength and flexibility, with a much needed sense of calm.  But I really wasn't loosing any weight. I wasn't gaining any more weight, but I wasn't really seeing the results I wanted.  Then I read a really interesting book called  "Solving the Fat Puzzle".  It was great because it introduced something I think I knew all along.  Intermitt...

First of all, I should apologize to my friends for being so late with this post, but sometimes life gets in the way.  Now as promised a discussion about my face or rather the battle to keep my face from looking my age. Recently I went on a cosmetics shopping spree.  I needed a few things and I'd brought a list.  I was looking for who had the best gift sets to go with the purchases.  Along the way I got a lot of attention from a "beauty consultant" at the Estee Lauder counter.  And this wasn't my first visit.  But I can honestly say I  outdid myself this time. By this point I've got eye creams, anti-aging serums, cleaners, toners moisturizers, lip creams and firming lotions.  And that doesn't even include the makeup.  Primers, foundations, bronzers, liners for eyes and lips, glosses and colors.  All to be coordinated.  It's amazing how much there is to buy out there. I hear there's something out there known as a "vampire faci...

This week I've been thinking a lot about gratitude and forgiveness.  Last June when my soon to be ex-husband began to come clean about his desire to leave our 27 year marriage I had all the usual emotions.  I got to experience the five stages of grief in a very real way.  It was like someone had died.  After the initial shock and devastation, I got around to being very anger with him and myself.  I probably stayed there for some months but I did move on.  But now I have begun to actively do something to address those feelings. At the time they just faded into the background.  I recently remembered something a friend once told me,"People come into your life in three ways, for a reason, a season or a lifetime".  She may have been right about that.  Because at this point I have come to believe that he was in my life for a very important reason.  Without him I would not have two incredible children that I completely adore.  That's a pre...

So we're one week in to my journey to change everything.  This week I think I'll start talking about my health struggles.  Most of you already know about some of them.  I'm overweight and have struggled with that since my early 20'.  Up and down, again and again.  One diet after another off and on for 30 years.  Most recently I started Noom about 8 weeks ago.   So far I've lost a whopping 5 pounds.  But what's different about it is that its not exactly a diet.  No pre-made meals, no shakes, not a lot of measuring - just daily disciple and slowly changing your habits.  Its more about giving you lots of information most of which I've come across before but in fairly manageable daily doses.  It seems to be pushing eating more healthy and natural foods; and forcing you to think before you eat while using daily weigh in and step targets to keep you focused on the process.  So far I've learned to embrace fruit smoothies a...

So here's where we start.  I'm a 54 year old black mother of two mostly grown children, with a great job and a husband who left me six moths ago for some girl he knew in high school.  So everyday I go to work, eat too much and come home to a mostly empty house that I never really liked.  He picked it. I'm done crying about it and I need to change just about everything in my life.  I need to get healthy, athletic even and gain more professional success; because I still have two kids to send to college.  I also really need to meet new people.  I want to meet people who didn't know us as a couple, people who get to know just me as I am now.  When my son graduates I'd like to leave the state.  I moved here is 1990 to be with him.  So by the end of 2020 I will be more than ready to leave. This blog is meant to chart my journey and maybe even get some guidance from others who have been on this path.  My philosophy is that I spent a third o...