Hello Monday

I think today is the perfect day to start a journey. Mondays are usually regarded as the worst day of the week; not so when you're unemployed and looking to start anew.

Today is the day that I commit to me. There will be no more calorie counting, no more flirting with the idea of point calculating, and no more denial. I will eat what I want, how much I want, when I want. How do I expect to lose weight with such blatant disregard to the weight loss rules? Easy, I will simply eat when I'm hungry, and won't when I'm not.

Huh?! Weight loss and dieting has always been about denying yourself of the things you think you want/need. This method has not worked for me, obviously. It's time to do this the old-fashioned way and take it back to nature; do what's natural. Your body, even if it's encased in layers of fat, will tell you when to eat and when to stop eating. We just stopped listening at one point and started eating according to our emotions.

This is not some miraculous solution to the weight loss woes. Losing weight will be slow, which it should be. The possibility of gaining is still there, and will probably happen a couple of times. Nature isn't perfect, humans are not perfect, I am certainly not perfect...there will be many bumps along this new path. Guess what? That's okay! It's not about perfection, it's not about the past, it's not about the future or the what if's; it's all about right now. Making the choices right now. Living right now.

What about exercise? Again, your body will tell you when it wants to move. The body is designed for movement, it needs movement. Listen to it. Trust it! (Fun Fact: Fidgeting helps you burn approximately 350 extra calories each day, so make those legs bounce!)

It all sounds so simple written out like so. Application is the hard part, especially after years spent doing just the opposite. This is my challenge. :)

Lists are fun, especially when they're in 5's

Top 5 Books
5. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
4. Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth
3. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
2. Anthem by Ayn Rand
1. I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

Top 5 Movies
5. Avatar
4. (The) Sound of Music
3.(The) Phantom of the Opera
2. Seven Pounds
1. Star Wars (mainly episodes IV-VI)
If you didn't notice, I love musicals.

Top 5 Video Games
5. Project Gotham Racing (Xbox)
4. Amped 2 (Xbox)
3. Super Mario World (SNES)
2. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
1. Mario Kart (Wii)

Top 5 Foods
5. Macaroni & Cheese
4. Chicken Margherita
3. Broccoli & Cheddar Soup
2. Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal
1. Cucumber Salad

Top 5 Destinations
5. Washington, D.C.
4. Stone Mountain State Park in Traphill, NC
3. Cascade Falls in Pembroke, VA
2. Gatlinburg, TN
1. Rome, Italy

More to come as I think of them.
Make your own! :)

Beautiful Day

My family and I went to Stone Mountain State Park in Traphill, NC today. The views are amazing, it's so hard to capture on camera. Mom took a lot of the pictures because I got so frustrated with the low-quality frames my digital camera was producing. Her $200 Nikon digital is the shit.

Pictures of the hike can be viewed here.

So maybe in the moment it wasn't so beautiful. It was nearly 100°F (at least it felt like it); sweat was dripping from every possible pore, lungs were wheezing, hearts were pounding, legs were shaking....we hiked up a damn mountain people! Well first we hiked down to a 200 foot waterfall, and then we hiked half of the mountain loop (approximately 2.25 miles). The halfway point was where my parents left my brother and I to wait in a parking lot, because the parking lot in which we parked was on the other side of the trail. Personally, I could not finish the hike.

Would you like to know what the other half consisted of?

Walking on top of Stone Mountain, experiencing gorgeous views like this one.

My parents are pretty fit, considering their smoking habit, but they both needed to rest multiple times during this hike. As soon as they pulled into the parking lot to pick us up my mom yelled, "We died! We died and we came back to life." Soon after they left us to finish the hike a couple we had passed earlier joked with us, "I can't believe you left your mom and dad out there." Then, "You're better off though, it's all uphill that way." Yeah, I surely would have died. I'm still disappointed and jealous that I didn't get the opportunity to hike 2,300 feet and walk across a mountain ridge. I will though! It's a goal and a promise.

Fresh

I feel so rejuvenated in a way that's deeper than any physical sensation, because physically I feel like crap. I'm finally taking control of my life and how I choose to live that life.

This freshness is the result of a book I'm currently reading, which I'm sure you've heard of: Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth. I was so hesitant to buy this book. I refuse to jump on Oprah's bandwagon whenever she brags about anything, I don't find myself benefiting from the newest trends, I don't believe in God, and I don't like being told to get something just because it helps someone else. The book was only $14.04 on Amazon.com and I got free shipping, so I thought I would just read it and give it away if I found it completely useless. FedEx delivered the book Saturday (yesterday) and I read up to the 100^th page out of the 211 total.

Women Food and God speaks to those who are addicted to food (and everyone really). I knew I had a horrible relationship with food, it's apparent to anyone who looks at me, but there's just something in the way that Geneen describes this relationship/addiction and how to overcome it. In many ways I felt connected to those discussed in the book, and in others I felt as though "that's not me, but I understand." I like the book, but I also don't like it. It's very repetitive, but I also find it to be effective considering the changes it has me making.

I believe it's worth reading if you also suffer from disordered eating, but also if you want a new outlook on life in general. This book doesn't just speak to those who eat too much or eat according to their emotions, its deeper meaning can be applied to any aspect of life; that's what makes it such a great book. I won't say you absolutely have to read it, but I do recommend it to everyone. I could share details of the book here or on YouTube and save you the money, but I don't think it would carry the same message the way reading it yourself would.

That's my two cents. :)