The Sunday Salon (Jan.13)

I hate being between books… I finished reading “The Art Forger” by B. A. Shapiro sometime last week, and ever since, I just haven’t known what I was in the mood for.

I guess I’m not totally between books, as I started to re-read Holley Gerth’s “The Do What You Can Plan” {eBook} two nights ago, and am almost finished it. It’s only 56 pages, so it doesn’t take long. But I am re-reading it as I wanted to take notes from it, and get the questions from each of the 21 days so that I can start working through them. See, that’s the trouble with reading on an e-Reader — if you don’t have a notebook handy the first time around, you basically have to re-read the entire book to find everything you had wanted to remember the first time you read through it. Sure, there’s a bookmarking feature on my Kobo. But, I’d have had to bookmark almost the entire book! LOL. {and, yes, it’s THAT good, so go get yourself a copy! At only $1.99 for the Kindle version, you can’t lose!}

Anyhoo. My last day of work was Friday, and it went okay. But, why is it that, when you’re out of money, everything has to start going wrong — you get all of the big, expensive things start to happen? For example, we’ve had a water-spot over our bed in the master bedroom ever since we moved in. But, we’ve never had enough money to fix the roof — which is the real problem. Basically, when we moved in here, we were escaping foreclosure because my husband had lost his job. Shortly thereafter, we had to file for bankruptcy. And, we’ve been living paycheck to paycheck for most of these past ten years, as we’ve struggled to keep jobs — through no fault of my husband’s … various things have happened to keep him moving, like “restructuring” with layoffs. Not his fault, but not something he could avoid, either. And, when we were both working full-time, and actually making some money, my son’s teeth were really awful, and we didn’t want him getting made fun of, as he’s getting older. So, we gave that money to the dentist to start the process for braces. Ugh. We just can’t seem to catch a break!

Okay, so back to the bedroom water spot… Last night, it was raining pretty hard here. And, there was thunder & lightning (yes, in January!). The thunder woke me up after only 2 hrs of sleep, and then I heard a drip-drip-drip… I flicked the light on, to find that the ceiling was leaking… and right over my bed! The other half of the bed was pretty soaked, so I ended up having to get up, and shove the bed over against the wall in order to put a bucket down to catch the water. And then it took me 4 hours to fall asleep (the dripping was loud, and I just couldn’t sleep with the noise). Sigh.

So, yeah… Needless to say, I’ve been back to grinding my teeth in my sleep from all the stress. I am trying to trust that God has a plan up His sleeve, and He’s going to work things out. I know, from past experience, that He will… I just don’t always love His timing, ya know? Oprah once said, “When you’re down to nothing, God’s up to something.” So, obviously, God is workin’, and I just have to wait and see.

Perhaps all of this is why I haven’t really been reading much. My mind doesn’t focus well when I’m stressed out. You’d think, though, that reading would be a nice escape from all of it… and, it can be. But, I have to be able to get into the book, first. And, that’s where my issue has been the past week.

On a happier note, I’ve been working at intuitive eating, again, to try and lose some weight, and it’s working! Just by not eating until I’m actually hungry, and by taking less at dinner (not exercising, yet), I have already lost 4 lbs in 2 weeks! Whoohoo! I so love this method, as I can still eat my chocolate, and cheeseburgers and pizza… and yet, I lose weight. It’s just a matter of telling myself to wait, and then being a bit more disciplined at dinnertime (not being greedy, and eating more than I need). I lost twenty-five pounds in six months the last time I did this. So, if I can do that again, I’ll have the excess weight off by Christmas. Fine by me… as long as it takes, I’m ready to be done with this battle, and not have to worry about my weight ever again.

Of course, I know it’s not a matter of getting to goal and then letting go of everything I’ve been doing. That’s what happened the last time. I figured I’d reached my goal, so I could ease up. Nope. Then I gained a few pounds back, which made me depressed, so I ate… and then I got more depressed, and ate even more! The stupid cycle. And I ended up with double what I’d lost. Not fun.

So, this time, I am bet and determined to keep at it for life. This is a lifestyle change, not a quick fix. And, the beauty of intuitive eating is that it is sustainable, because I’m not eliminating anything but the excess. I can still eat everything I love, but I just have to eat it within my hunger and satiety boundaries. It’s the most natural way to do things, and I truly believe that this is the way God made our bodies to function (just look at any toddler’s eating habits to verify this!).

I have cut out sodas, though. I get too addicted to them, and then it causes a host of other problems — lack of sleep, racing heart, etc. I don’t need them. And, maybe eventually I’ll get to the point where I can have one, here and there (like on holidays or birthdays). But, overall, I needed to eliminate them from my diet. So, I’m working at it.

This is going to be a good year, at least weight-wise. I can feel it.

Are you working on any goals this year? If so, what are they, and how are you doing, so far?

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