International Freelancers Day Review

I Went to A Conference Today.

Today I'm "attending" the International Freelancers Day Conference. It's different than any other conference I've ever been to. Why? Well, for one thing, I didn't have to dress up. I wore gray sweats with a stylish but oh-so-casual t-shirt and no socks. Really.

Another difference was that there are none of those little mid-morning snacks or a dinner with seven strangers at a table, with often awkward conversation. The only eating I did was some quick snacks from the fridge and some good cups of coffee.

No, this conference was an online one. And I didn't get to the morning sessions but I am presently going to some of the afternoon sessions and wow, wow, wow!

I listened to motivational speaker called Peleg Top and what a powerful topic. It was entitled "All You Need Is Love: Growing Your Business From the Inside Out" and it sent my mind spinning. What he spoke about was doing work that we love and have a passion for. And staying from work that makes us fearful. And choosing the type of work that comes from love, not fear.


This was so inspiring but also so scary, too. Scary if we don't know exactly how to do that. What this means is choosing the work that actually matches who we are. Not just work to have some money coming in. Wow, wow, wow.

He told us that when we feel passionate about what we're doing, it's not hard to market that. What does that mean to me? This is something I need to find out. I want to start working from love, and not fear.

What about you? Is your work your passion? Are you working from love or from fear?

Stress Doesn't Work For Me

Stress doesn't work for me!

It just has been confirmed. This just in! Stress does not work for me. I know you are probably saying, "well, yeah, it doesn't work for any of us but what choice do we have? It's just part of life!" (Sorry, my husband hates it when I try to mind-read, too!)

But anyway, sorry for my silliness but seriously, stress does not work for me. I found this out these last two weeks or so when I got extremely stressed about what was happening my life. The stress I was feeling made it very difficult to concentrate on the work I needed to do to lose weight. (tracking, exercise, being aware of what I was eating.)

I have to avoid stress as much as I can if I am going to lose weight. This might sound strange to some people, kind of unrealistic but I know that about myself.

I am also what is called a "highly sensitive person" who takes a lot of the world and processes it more than other people. This is a condition that supposed to affect about 20% of the population and everything I've read about it rings true for me. (If you are interested, you can check out the link for more info.) And the thing is, it doesn't matter if other people recognize this as real or not. I know my self and what works for me.

In the last couple of days, things have settled down and gotten straightened out and this morning, the scale started going down a bit again. What was different? Stress or lack thereof. Yes, I was eating better too. But I felt able to concentrate again. 

Stress is very well-recognized as being a big factor in being big. I have always believed that it was a big factor for me, personally. It works in a couple of ways. First, it makes it hard to concentrate on what's needed. Too much stress also creates excess cortisol in the body which is associated with belly fat. So, it's a double whammy.

So to me, rest is another key component to losing weight. By rest, I mean not being too full of bad stress and feeling okay with life. And actually resting: getting enough sleep.

I am feeling way better today. I have decided to continue working at home and have some good ideas of how to market my writing. It's exciting! And the family stuff? Well, we all talked and got things on the table. It now feels more manageable. I just don't do stress well. And I am learning to accept that.

What about you? Do you find that stress is a factor in your weight? How do you deal with it?

Sharilee

Sunday Weigh-In And A Spiritual Perspective

This week, I maintained.

Today is Sunday Weigh-in. I am happy to say that I have maintained my weight from last week, for a total of 10 pounds lost.

I hope to lose some more next week.  I will not give up. I know I have to learn how to be more consistent. For the last couple of days, I have been a bit lax. Not tracking properly. Not exercising.

For me, it's all about learning how to live a healthier life. Replacing bad habits is hard work and requires a lot of resistance. I feel like I'm about halfway there. I create good habits for myself of eating better and exercising but the old life of overeating and being sedentary is always calling back to me with his ugly cry. I am tugged between the two worlds, torn.

But at least I am torn. Not just living in my old life. I hope someday that the old life will not even hold an attraction for me. But I'm not there yet.

When I started walking four months ago, it took me 40 minutes to walk a mile. Now it takes me about 22-23 minutes. I am making progress.

For those of us trying to lose weight, we have to learn to make these habits part of our overall life: to make it the new normal. A  normal we will keep for the rest of our life.  Change is hard.

As a Christian, I see this battle as the battle between flesh and spirit:

Galatians 5:17
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 

1 Peter 2:11
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

The flesh is my body that so badly wants to just eat whatever it wants and my mind that encourages me to stop exercising and be lazy. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit who encourages me to do right: to be moderate in eating and to move my body because that is what is good for my health and well-being. It's a spiritual battle, and a mental battle.  We all know what to do. But we don't always do it.

So I pray this week for strength to keep going in the battle for my mind and body.  I pray for strength to not give up. To not be a glutton. To not be slothful.  For wisdom to balance all of the responsibilities of my life and to include exercise as one of those responsibilities. To not listen to the enemy talk of defeat and depression.
  

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

I can do all through him.  I claim the victory in faith. Not because I'm great but because He is.

Liebster Blog Award

Hi! I wanted to thank Leah from My New Ending has given me an award. Thanks Leah! According to Leah, "liebster" means "friend" or "love" in German. The blog is to do a shout out to us bloggers with under 200 followers. That's me! Thanks so much for giving me that shout out on your blog, Leah.

I appreciate Leah so much for her quiet calm demeanor as she talks about her life and her walk in weight loss. She has already lost quite a bit of weight and is working on the last part of her journey.

Now, I am going to pass this award unto some other bloggers who are also in the under 200 category, that I appreciate. Awesome!

So, let's start the ceremonies. In no particular order, here are the awards. These are four bloggers with less than 200 followers who I appreciate reading very much and women that I consider blog friends. (Liebsters)

Joanna from 

Diary of a Mad, Fat Woman

Melissa from

Little Miss Married: Is Maintaining Victory

Amy from 

Small Steps, Large Leaps

Carbie Girl from 

Carbie Girl

Thank you all of you ladies for being great bloggers. Here is just a little bit on how I know these ladies and why I like them. 

Celebrate!

1. First of all, Joanna. She is a teacher who is actually starting her first year in the classroom after finishing her education. She is passionate about her kids and her career and she is very funny! I actually ran across her writing at Hubpages, where we both write once in a while She wrote an article about blogging. From there, I found her blog and the rest is history. 
2. Next, Melissa. Melissa was the first blogger friend that I made. We met when we were both starting out our blogs. I gave mine up for over a year but she kept hers up and she's one of the sweetest ladies you could ever meet. 
3. The next blogger is Amy. She has just started blogging and she is hilarious. She has joined me in the 100 miles 1 month challenge and we are going to try to motivate each other to walk this month. 
4. Carbie Girl is another very funny blogger that I just recently discovered. She is very creative with her page design and shoots straight from the hip. 

Love them all! I hope you do, too!

By the way, I apologize if any of you have had trouble with the comments. If you have, could you please let me know either through my Facebook page or through my email, located on the "About Me" page?

I have been trying out different changes on the blog in the last little while and I hope you don't mind. I love to experiment and I've been working on making it as an online content writer. It's a huge learning curve! I have always loved writing and took a year of Journalism way back but then did not pursue it further. After that, I went into teaching for about eight years. Now, I am going the writing route again. This blog is my act of love while I experiment with different forms of online writing. I will write more about my writing in the weeks to come.

Also, if you like what you are reading and would like regular updates, please consider following me through blogger and/or liking my page on Facebook. The advantage of Facebook is that is allows people to get blog updates through Facebook where it seems everyone is hanging out these days.

And on an unrelated note, it's GiveAway Weekend this weekend in my city. This is the weekend where everyone can put stuff out on the curb, to be picked up by whomever. Insteaad of a citywide garage sale, it's a curbside giveaway. Cool, eh?

Beautiful Wednesday: How Do I Stay Beautiful At This Weight?

Hi! I hope you can be patient with me as I attempt to get a commenting system that I like the best. You may have noticed that I have had the DIscus system installed for the last few days. I tried it and it's neat because it allows you to e-mail your commentators back, as well as "thread" the responses. I really like it but it seems to be slowing down my blog.

So I am now trying the CommentLuv system for a few days and then decide which one to stick with. I think they're both great. We'll see. 

 Wikimedia Commons: Peter Paul Rubens with his wife and muse.

So, enough of that.

Today is Beautiful Wednesday. Today's question is, how do you feel beautiful when you are 100, or 50, or 130 pounds overweight? You may have read some of these "beautiful Wednesday" posts and kind of thought, "nice thoughts" but how in the world do I do that? "How the heck can I feel beautiful when I'm fat?" "With loads of excess corpulent skin hanging off of my stomach and a butt the size of a dump truck?" (Come on, I know how we talk about ourselves sometimes!)

And that is a good question. How?

Am I just giving you empty words but is feeling beautiful possible when you are feeling fat? I have asked myself the same question. And yes, I believe it is.

I have a friend who is bigger.  (I've known her since we were babies.) She knows she's big and she's okay with herself.  But yet I have never known her not to leave the house looking gorgeous and glam any day of her life. Never. I have stayed at her house and seen how long it takes her to get ready.  She primps. And primps.  She is gorgeous. Her  hair is always done in the latest style. Her nails are perfect. Makeup: check. She looks fine! She accepts herself. I have never heard her criticize her own appearance. (Did I mention I admire her a lot?) She is supremely confident.

Is this helping her lose weight? I don't think she's trying. But you can bet it's helping her not get depressed about being ugly. She knows her own beauty.  And she is beautiful with intense eyes that will stare right into you.

Venus At the Mirror. Wikipedia Commons. Rubens.

What can we learn from my friend? Being beautiful and feeling like a woman is important for all of us. As women, we need it. Will we all be like my friend who rocks the makeup and nail polish?  Not necessarily. We might not be inclined and might tend towards being more "natural" girls.

We all have our own ideas and standards of beauty. But my point is, stick to your own standard. If you have a pretty face and always have, don't give that up. Play up your best features with some makeup. You still have a beautiful face. If you have always been a good dresser, keep dressing nice, just wear bigger sizes. Don't just give up that.

I think sometimes we think that once we are bigger, we think we are no longer worth dressing up. Or making up. We still are worth it. Don't wait to lose weight to consider yourself worth it. Lose weight because you're worth it.

Some beautiful bloggers in bigger sizes I love to read and watch:

Tina from T Minus T Plus. I love her style and clothes! She is my size in clothes(18-20.)

Stylish Curves has amazing, amazing outfits almost daily. Super stylish!

Anna from Bargain Fatshionista is such a cute dresser! Her outfits are affordable: more within my price range.

 Tell me what you think. Try out my new comment system! 

Why I Love Walking

 

I love this video and song, which are all about walking through life. 

Have you ever noticed that walking is so often used as a metaphor for life? 

In my last post, I did one of those "get to know you" posts. One of the questions was, "what is your favourite way of losing weight?" I said walking. Now walking is certainly not very glamourous. Anyone can do it. And it's not as intense as jogging or a hardcore aerobics class. Some might even wonder, is walking worth it?

For me, it definitely is. I have always loved walking. Some of my best times were walking with my Mom, as a child, a teen and then as a woman. When I stayed there as a an adult, she would run into my room at 6:00 a.m. and ask if I wanted to go for a walk. I grouchily said, "no,": but then got up anyway and we had such awesome talks. The last five years of her life were spent battling cancer and she taught me so much during those years. That life must be grabbed and treasured and lived fully. She fully planned on living longer but cancer finally took a fatal blow.

To me, walking is meditation. It is a time for me. My thoughts run free and unfettered. I plan my future days, contemplate my gnawing decisions and dare to dream. Sometimes I pray, too. Asking for wisdom, understanding. Try to give up my problems to my LORD.

I have now lost ten pounds. My sister asked me last night how it feels to have lost ten pounds. It feels great. I feel so much better and it's partly from carrying around ten less pounds and it's even more from getting in shape. My pace has improved from a 40 minute mile when took my first walk three month ago to an average of 22 minutes for a mile. I can feel the muscles in my legs firing off pistons. The last couple of days, I have sometimes included my upper belly in my walk, thrusting forward slightly to include that part of my body. The first time I did that, I had a pace of 17:44 (I only managed that pace once!)

I am craving healthy foods now. My cravings for junk are rare because my body is starting to feel so much healthier that I don't want to mess up with too much fat or heavy carbs. I am sleeping better from the oxygen which is pumping through me and that I am inhaling as I walk. 

My mind is calmer and I feel happier. Ahh, walking, how I have missed Thee!

If you would like to see my training record for the last couple of miles, see my profile. on the Daily Mile. 

Friend Making Mondays #1

Hey everyone! I just got this meme from the All The Weigh blog that I just started reading. The idea is to answer the questions and then post your link at her site so everyone can read each others' and maybe make some new friends.  So much fun! This week's questions about your favourites. If you would like to join in, that would be great. It's a chance to get know each other a bit more.

1) What is your favorite food?  I would have to say my favourite food is still a good bowl of Chili. I love making it and even like the stuff from Tim Hortons. (You Canadians know what I mean!)

2) What is your favorite childhood memory? Wow. It's hard to pick, right? "Childhood" is a long time. One awesome memory I have is going camping every year with my Grandma and Grandpa for two weeks at the lake. It was  a ritual and I just loved all of it: the campfire, the eating outside, sleeping in the tent trailer. (Back then, only rich people had motor homes.)

3) What is your favorite way to burn calories? I have to say that I just love walking. It's certainly not the most glamourous exercise but I have always loved walking and am so glad to be doing it again now. I find walking calms me down and gives me a chance to sort out all the rambling frantic thoughts that tend to rattle around in my brain. Oh, how I missed you, walking.

4) What is your favorite mode of technological communication? You know what? I love all kinds of communicating but I just adore blogging. I love updating the blog, changing the design, writing and commenting. I love reading other blogs, too. I guess blogging is kind of like reading a bunch of really fun diaries and then getting to comment. Very cool. 

5) Who is your favorite actor/actress? There are quite a few actors/actresses that I appreciate and enjoy watching but two that I think are amazing are Sandra Bullock and Will Smith. 

6) What is your favorite lip color? My favourite lip colour is a mocha pinkish colour. I don't know what's it called, exactly, but it's what I usually wear.

7) Who is your favorite historical figure? I read a biography of Michelangelo and it was fascinating! He was completely dedicated to his craft and he never gave up. So I would say Michelangelo.

8) Who is your favorite athlete?  I really can't give one. I don't follow sports AT ALL except if I want to spend time with my husband or try to make conversation with some sports fanatics. HA!

9) What is your favorite TV network? Oh, HGTV, by far! I could sit and watch home decorating shows all day if I had nothing else to do.

10) What is your favorite site on the web? I would have to say right now it's Blogger. I also spend a fair bit of time at Hubpages, where I write articles sometime and like to read articles by others. 

If you want to play along, follow these steps:

a. Copy and paste these questions into your own post.
b. Erase my answers and write your own.
c. Post a link to your post to the original post, in the comments section.
d. It'd be nice if you posted a comment here, too, so we could know that you did it. Thanks! 

Happy Labour Day!

From the Blog Roll ... And a Video

image courtesy of Vintage Collective

Hello everyone! I am going to share some of the good stuff I've read this week from my blog roll. Maybe you will discover something new. Let me know what you think!

First of all, from A Newer Tammy: My Journey to Lose 250 Lbs, a post about what she calls "the hump." She says that she tends to get off track after about 6-8 weeks of good weight loss habits. Me too, Tammy! Her post was great and the comments were very helpful, too.

Ready and needing to be totally motivated this week? Check out this dynamic post called, "You Never Know Unless You Try" from Diane at fit to the finish. She is someone who's made it in the weight loss challenge and still sharing her wisdom with those of us still enroute.

I also read a story from a fellow SparkPeople member that left me outraged. Do you ever find people are rude about your weight and you're not sure what to say? Read how VintageMIssy handled the situation: with grace and aplomb!  Better than I could have done!

And for something unrelated but hilarious! Have you seen this video about what it would be like if we acted in real life, like we do on Facebook and Twitter? Just a hint: what if we "followed" people in real life? Check it out!

 

Hope you're having a good weekend. Take care!

Beautiful Wednesday: What Not To Wear -- A TakeAway

Well, today is Beautiful Wednesday.

Barely! It's 11:30 and I want to get this out by midnight to make if for Wednesday.  Well, I just wanted to do a shout-out today to one of my favourite shows that helps in the area of helping women to feel beautiful: What Not To Wear on TLC.

Not the best picture quality, but a pic of me, last summer.

In case of any of you don't know this show, it's about a woman who dresses badly and is nominated by her friends or family for a makeover. The hosts, Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, then give her a card for $5000 to shop in New York, providing that the candidate gives up her current wardrobe and listens to the show's hosts. A hair and makeup session are always thrown in at the end.

I caught an episode of this today while folding laundry and as always, I was blown away. I always think, there's no way Stacy and Clinton can change her! And half-way through, sure enough, the woman starts to transform her thinking.

And it got me thinking about, "how do they do that?" The person always turns around, no matter how stubborn they are in the beginning. What changes their thinking? It's the actual looking good that changes her. In today's episode, the woman saw herself in the mirror wearing dresses, saw how good she looked and started to change.

Many times, it's nothing short of a miracle to see the person at the beginning, and the person at the end. It's not just the superficial looks that change, but rather the thinking that changes.

And it comes from seeing themselves look good for once. As well as a lot of psychological breakthroughs. (Stacy and Clinton could have been therapists, I think, if they weren't TLC hosts!)

But looking good transforms them. For example, the lady today (sorry, I don't remember her name!) hated dresses and always wore oversized boring clothing. The hosts made her try on 10 dresses in a row. By about the fifth dress, she actually started to like how she looked!

Here's the takeaway. We act on what we see in the mirror and it affects our life. It is a cycle, either way. If we think we are fat, and therefore don't try to look our best, we might be less likely to see our bodies as worthy of being taken care of. If we feel good about how we look, we are more likely to see our bodies are worthy of care and nurture. So, it is worth it to look our best, even when we are 150, 100, or 50 pounds overweight.

I think society preaches an opposite message, though. If you are overweight, be ashamed and get thin! But shame does not nurture and shame does not sustain us. Love does.  We can only keep going on negative motivation for so long.

I had a binge time last week where I started focusing on feeling fat and ugly. As a result, I got down and actually overate. I find that persecuting myself never helps me. Feeling beautiful does. I know I haven't posted many pics of myself, but I want to post some current pics soon, to show the body behind the blog voice. I don't always look my best but I try to. Like any woman, some days are better than others. But I am big believer in discovering our own beauty, at whatever size. Then losing weight will just help make us even hotter! Love you ladies! Be beautiful! And I'd love to hear your thoughts. on this topic or that show!

NOTE: I started this post on Wednesday, but it actually got posted on Thursday. I'm still calling it Wednesday, though!