And So It Begins

Don't you just love it when life comes full circle?  When I was a kid growing up on Lancaster County farm land (forever ago...back in the '80s!) we didn't have cable television.  On a good day we could pick up 5 channels with the rabbit ears: NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and WITF.  My love of the written word came from watching LeVar Burton on Reading Rainbow. Decades later my son watched Teletubbies, Sesame Street and Dragon Tales on WITF while I was in love with Brit-coms, Celtic Woman and Dr. Wayne Dyer.  So it is truly an honor and a privilege that the station that formed my love of art and culture has allowed me to blog for them. 

So who am I?  Hmmm, good question.  I can tell you my social labels and let you decide the rest for yourself.  I am a 37 year old single mother to a cyber-schooling 13 yr old son.  I am a daycare center cook, a writer, an avid reader, a reiki practitioner, a student with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and I have struggled with my weight since elementary school.  Oh...did I mention I am also a Chocolatier with a home-party business? 

Some think I have conflicting interests.  I think I've got range.

Now, the bigger question: What is this blog about?  It's about real wellness in real life.  It's about losing weight without losing my mind.  It's about offering a window to my soul so hopefully someone else will see themselves and feel less alone.  I can't even begin to count how many times I've attempted to lose weight.  I've succeeded many times before but never permanently.  I've even started other weight loss blogs, however, the community that read it was so small I really felt like I was a crazy person talking to myself on a park bench.  I was looking for a bigger audience and, hopefully, I've found it. 

When I say I'm trying to lose weight I mean A LOT of weight.  I stand at 5' 4" and my highest weight that I actually saw with my own eyes was 265 lbs a few years ago.  I have managed to wiggle my way down a bit from there and have been sliding back and forth between the 215-250lb ranges.  Yeah, I know, yo-yoing is NOT conducive to well-being in any way.  I have always been interested in fitness, food and weight loss, reading anything I could get my hands on.  Yet, success eluded me.  It has taken many years, diets and bouts of depression to finally understand why but that is a topic for another time.  That is where the Institute for Integrative Nutrition came in.  It is a recent and VERY exciting addition to my education and personal growth.  It was a leap of faith to enroll but the synchronicity that occurred to put it into place as I was simultaneously accepted as a weight loss blogger for WITF was just too obvious to deny.  I am helping myself as I learn to coach others in overall health and wellness and that is something I have wanted to do for a very long time. 

Along the way I will tell you what I have learned, what I am experiencing and I will even do a weekly weight in and measurement check so we can all see what works and what doesn't.  My goal is to eat real food, ya know, the stuff that walks, swims and grows.  I plan to strengthen my body without rendering myself incapable of simple tasks like walking down stairs, putting my arms over my head or getting off the toilet without breaking the towel rack. 

Tomorrow, I will post the stats and the BEFORE picture and we will get this-a-here party started,  I know it will be a challenge with a son and a busy schedule but it will be fun, too.  Hey, when all else fails, laugh at yourself. Then get up and try again the next day.  It's part of the learning process.

I hope some of you out there will join me in this.  I can't offer you a cash prize and a state of the art gym like on Biggest Loser but we can certainly cheer each other on.  And there will be A LOT less vomiting and cursing.  I'm looking at YOU, Jillian Michaels!