Post to come

I had a little birthday this Monday which has kept me very busy for the past several days. :) But I will update soon with some pics of my bday loot. Squeeeeeee!

Positive Affirmations

Greetings!
How's life and stuff? Good... good. Well, I wanted to take a moment to talk about a subject that is near and dear to me.... affirmations. It's no secret that I struggle with self esteem, feeling good enough and in general loving myself. Hello? That's why I have a weight problem. Protecting myself much? And since I am still unable to afford insurance at the moment going to speak to a qualified person is out of my budget. So I turned to the person I have been turning to for years now, Louise Hay. If you are not familiar with this amazing woman please check her out.

I have usually "done" affirmations willy nilly in the past. However this time my discipline has been more focused. I am actually doing the mirror work that is required when you first start. Mirror work is when you sit in front of a mirror or hold one up to your face and speak the positive affirmations that you want to be true in your life....even if you don't believe it. There is something very powerful about looking into your own eyes and telling yourself that you love you just as you are. You do feel silly and fake at first but once you really dig deep that's when the emotions come up and the powerful changes begin to occur. Man, I should do commercials for this lady.. I sound like a salesman. ;)

So that's what I have been doing. You know what the cool thing is? I have started saying them all throughout the day. Whenever I catch myself thinking something negative I follow the thought up with a positive affirmation. The subjects may not even be related but that's okay as long as I am thinking something that puts me in a more positive frame of mind. Give it a try, see if it works for you.


I am willing to change
I am loving and lovable and I find love everywhere
I am one with the power that created me and this power has given me the power to create my own circumstances
I listen with love to my bodies messages


I love and approve of myself
I love and approve of myself
I love and approve of myself......

Chico, Border Collie Extraordinaire

I thought it about time I posted a picture of the cutest schmoopy in the world... or at least in my world.
Check out his hypnotic blue eye.... look into his eye.... listen to the soothing sound of my voice... you are getting sleepy... sleepy....

Anthony Bourdain

Yes, this handsome dude. He and I have a date September 23rd (along with a few hundred other folks) at my local University. I cannot wait! Our love will finally be made public and the naysayers will no longer deny our heavenly union. Sigh. *dramatically whispers* "I love you."

Sucked It Up

I had my boo hoo, sucked it up and got my jiggly wiggly butt to the gym. And I am going again tonight. Yeehaw!! :)

"Self-approval and self-acceptance in the now are the main keys to positive changes in every area of our lives." ~ Louise Hay

Feeling Your Fat

Okay, I think I have been doing really well with the staying positive stuff, doing things that make me happy and trying to accept myself for who I am. However, some days (like today) I really and I do mean REALLY feel every last jiggling pound of my fat. In fact I would say that the "pressure" of feeling all this fat has been lying on my chest for almost a week now. It seems to be popping up in most conversations with friends, on tv, at work etc. etc. etc. I am clearly not the only one out there that feels this way or else the diet business wouldn't be so lucrative. It just sucks, ya know?

My work and social schedule have been so topsy turvy this past week and a half that I myself feel topsy turvy. My gym plans have taken a back seat to last minute work appointments, friends coming into town and let's face it just plan laziness on my part. I just can't seem to get the energy to work out at 8:30 or 9pm at night. And going before work is sometimes an option but since I have moved my gym is in a completely opposite county from where I live. That makes it very inconvenient. I know what most of you are probably thinking, that if I really wanted to I would find a way to exercise whether it's in a gym or not.... and you would be right. It's this never ending cycle of excuses that keeps me from achieving my goal.

The truth is I just don't want to work out somedays and sometimes those somedays turn into a week and then two weeks and the next thing you know it's a month since your badonkadonk has seen the elliptical. Then, after a while I get the itch to get back into the gym and manage to keep it up for several weeks. But those excuses sneak back in eventually and then I am right back where I started. I don't know how to break the pattern. I don't know how to love and accept myself longer than a few weeks before the negative thoughts start to rear their ugly freakin' heads.

Let me take a break from this poo poo post and say thanks to all of you for sticking by me. I really appreciate it. I know that patterns of highs and lows can be frustrating and I have really been trying to keep at a more even keel but sometimes I gotta vent and you (lucky, lucky readers) get to share in all my crazy a$$ glory. So again, thank you pookies!!

On a more positive note a good friend of mine, who normally lives in Chicago, is cooking dinner for about 14 friends at my house tomorrow night. Why is this spectacular you ask? Because my friend just spent 3 months in Italy studying the cuisine before he graduated from culinary school. So yeah, this should be awesome! I am gonna try and shake off my mood by tomorrow morning so that I can really enjoy my friends, the food and the wonderful memories that I know we will create.

March Madness

Or should I say End of February Madness? Whoa! I guess I wasn't the only who was tired of being cooped up inside during our back to back snow storms. Business has been BOOMING. I can't believe that two weeks have flown by so quickly. When I saw that my last post was over two weeks ago I dramatically clutched my pearls and gasped, how had I let that amount of time pass without so much as a drive by posting?

So here I am, waiting for my next client to show up and typing furiously in the hopes of completing this post before the next wave. BTW, they are calling for snow again. Hopefully not much accumulation but still....I'm a little sick of the stuff.

To clarify, the baby in the last post is just a pic I found on the interwebs and couldn't not put it up. That baby is adorable but I don't know that baby, it doesn't belong to anyone I know. It's just a good wish to a friend who is hoping to adopt a baby in the future. But my oh my that baby is sweet!

Okay, Food Rules by Michael Pollan. I read it in less than an hour, not because I am a fast reader but because it is a super easy read. In fact I would go so far as to say that it is more of a guide or Cliff's Notes to his other books; The Omnivores Dilemma and In Defense of Food. It is perfect to tuck away in your purse, kitchen drawer or office. The rules are simple, easy to understand and follow and are pretty humorous. If you enjoy reading Pollan's books and are interested in the subject matter he often discusses, may I suggest also reading anything by Mark Bittman and Real Food by Nina Planck which I am currently reading. They all have the same message. Eat real food, be environmentally responsible and listen to your body.

I have slowly been incorporating the above messages into my daily life. I only buy meat from my local butcher now because he informs me as to where my meat is coming from, he tours the facilities and if they don't meet with his approval then he doesn't order from them. I have also started buying milk and butter from him as well since he is carrying my favorite semi-local brand, Trickling Springs Creamery. I now bake my own bread thanks to Baking with Julia, or I buy from my local bakery. I will be attempting my very first garden in a few months. Wish me luck, cause this girly sometimes has a brown thumb. So far there hasn't been much change to my grocery budget but I am hoping that will change with the summer and with growing my own veg.

It's amazing how creative I feel cooking my own whole foods and baking my own breads. The process is amazing, not just the outcome plus I get to practice food photography. I hope to get up a post one day of all the yummy stuff I have been making.

I have a couple of new ideas and plans in the works and as I fine tune those I will share. But for now, I hope you all have a wonderful week and if the weather in your neck of the woods is nice then for gosh sakes get out there and enjoy it.... for me....please? :)

Oh, I almost forgot! Have you guys seen this? Whatdaya think? Exciting huh?!