HungryForLife

Clearning

March makes me think of spring cleaning; that month in between winter and spring when I’m antsy from being cooped up indoors (yes even here in Florida!) but the perfect weather days are still fleeting. So I find myself making room in my life for what comes next—it’s the perfect time to clean, clear, and learn: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Visit 31 Days of Clearning to read the definition and then Clearning Made Easy and don’t miss the Clearning Salon!

Stacy Brice is an amazing coach and communicator and I am thrilled to be able to participate in these free calls. If you don’t know Stacy give her a shout on Facebook or Twitter and come join the clearning!

 

Stacy wrote this on her blog about why she offers the 31 Days projects:

Yesterday, in a conversation with a beloved friend, she asked me why I do this thing every month--especially since it takes a lot of time, and I've not monetized it.

The only answer I have is, I love it. I love it and I believe in the power of what can happen when people commit to taking action in one specific direction for a certain amount of time. 

And what's worth more than that?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journals, Chickens, and Zack

Thanks for the loving support and ideas for what to do with my journals. I saved all of my childhood books, and those written for and about my daughter. Then I started with the tough years: the ones with pain and drama that I was definitely ready to let go of. I shredded and waited. Oh there was no regret! I immediately felt released from those bonds and ties of the past. I am complete with what happened in my past, the choices I made, who I used to be. It felt good so I kept shredding! I read a few entries here and there I picked and chose a good sampling of years to keep and filled one crate. I kept many of my smaller gratitude journals as they give a good quick look at what my day/life was like at the time. Huge task complete and it only took a couple hours!

I’ve located a source for organic produce shipped in via a co-op from local farmers and have ordered a free roaming, antibiotic, and hormone-free chicken. They are slaughtered locally (in PA) not at a processing plant—may not be any more humane, what are your thoughts? I’ll let you know what it’s like to eat meat after this whole month; mostly I haven’t missed it.

My daughter (who thinks I’m crazy by the way!) found me this excellent website to locate healthy humanely raised chickens: Just Bare Chicken. Packages of meat have a traceable code so you can track which farm your chicken came from. Unfortunately there are no local distributors for my area but I’m working on that! Their mission:

To provide natural, healthy chicken like nature intended. Unadulterated. Unadorned. Just delicious. With a straightforward, honest commitment to respecting our people, animals and planet.

Our nephew Zack is home with his family! He has a long road of recovery ahead of him and is not ready to see family and friends yet but we think of him and send Zack, his mom Sue, dad Sonny, and brothers JP and Matt all of our love and blessings. I hope you’ll send some love and healing thoughts/prayers Zack’s way. 

Fletcherism

Horace Fletcher, a "health food faddist" from the Victorian Era coined the phrase Fletcherism: The practice of eating in small amounts and only when hungry and of chewing one's food thoroughly. 

Fletcher is remembered in the history books as an odd duck, but I’ve taken his practice to heart. Only eat when I’m hungry. Got it. Chew well. Makes me eat slower and enjoy the tastes of my food. Plus I’m able to recognize when I’m no longer hungry and stop eating. This sage advice coupled with nutritious food and an exercise I will practice equals weight loss. Isn’t it interesting how we take such a simple process and make it SO complicated!?

I had to let go of my stories about being overweight, give up any drama attached to them and deal with ‘what is’—just the facts ma’am! I had been doing ABC to gain weight and when I do XYZ I will lose weight. I started to write ‘if’ I do XYZ or ‘I need to do’ XYZ—those words aren’t attached to the facts and results of actions—if and need are buried in my beliefs that it’s wrong and bad to be overweight—that I am not okay overweight. Those words and that perspective will not allow me to feel worthy or capable of manifesting my dream.

But ‘when’ gave me a choice. A choice free from any meaning or significance I’d created around being overweight. ‘When’ I stop those self sabotaging actions and inactions and make NEW choices and actions transformation will happen. Is it hard work? Yes! Does it take dedication? Yes! Determination? Yes! Will it lead to success? Yes!

Are you ready to loose weight? It’s not significant how much. When is right now! Here’s how I know you can do it—because I did it. It is possible. It is a simple formula. The foundation is absolutely, positively, no holds barred, an act of ultimate self care—loving you and taking the first steps towards transformation one well chewed bite at a time! Thanks Horace! ;)

Me an artist?

I have followed Patti Digh’s blog and Tweets since I discovered Life as a Verb and gave copies of the book to our maven and CVO and her right hand and COO at AssistU's Community recognition Awards in 2008.

When I missed Patti at a book signing a few hours away from me in Florida she responded via Twitter! I was able to order personalized signed copies as Christmas gifts directly from her. Patti rocks!

I have dabbled in photography and desktop publishing over the years and consider myself a creative person but not a visual artist. Yet when Patti announced the opportunity to create artwork for her upcoming book Creative is a Verb I didn’t hesitate to volunteer.

In the meantime a side project was conceived from a Twitter post she wrote that folks loved and Four-Word Self-Help will be birthed this fall. Patti needed art fast and her devotees produced—fast. My prompt was, “Give up toxic people.”

I decided I would stretch myself and trust my creative urges. I gave myself one day to find and edit the perfect photo and here’s my contribution! My experience was fresh, fun, funky, & fabulous! Yes, this is my head in  a bookcase (don't ask!) with some cool Adobe effects added.

What art lives inside you?

Live the questions

I’ve felt inundated with questions these past few months. I’m an answer gal and want solutions and the fix—especially the more I experience mom’s dementia and her daily challenges. Questions like, “Why?” have arisen. Or “How do I do this?” And the tough ones to admit “Will this happen to me?”

Living the Law of Attraction I find that wise words appear for me every time I’m open and ready and this quote shared by Gayle  (thanks Gayle!) was exactly what I was open to receiving:

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked rooms, or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Fifty thousand words and 30 days of thanks

Heather (also known as Rachael to many confused friends) blogged about 30 days of thanks and I read about it here and decided to join in the gratitude parade!

I'm thankful for the opportunity to hold myself accountable and just write! I'm participating in NaNoWriMo. What? "National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30."

Kewl, huh!?

I wrote for one hour earlier and have captured 866 words of my story that didn't exist before today—800 more to go for the daily minimum! I'm especially grateful to my guy, Jeff for suggesting we each stop talking about not having time to write and writing!

Looking beyond the scale

I’m celebrating with pizzazz and gusto because my husband and daughter both joined Weight Watchers this month! Woohoo! They’ve each lost five pounds! They are tracking points, portions, and activity. Jeff and I are biking everywhere now that fall weather is here. Brin found a recipe online for ‘not lasagna’ and cooked for us Thursday night! It was dee—lish! I am beyond thrilled we’re all on the same page about our health and fitness. To the moon and back! For the first time in years we’re doing this together, being supportive, and encouraging each other to keep taking that next step.

Jeff didn’t loose this week and I shared with him not to get fixated on the numbers or the scale. Look beyond the scale. Consider if your clothes are looser; do you have more energy; are you sleeping well? These are all indicators of your health and fitness success not just the scale.

You know when you’ve gone off track and the scale stayed the same. Don’t beat yourself up—that’s your old pattern. Recommit and take a new action. But if you’ve done the plan the way its intended and the scale didn’t move—don’t fixate. Trust that you’re on the right path and keep going. It will move. Getting past stuck for me was often as simple as adding a little intensity on the Elliptical or an extra five minutes; pedaling in a higher gear on a bike ride; raising the incline on the treadmill a degree or so. These seemingly small actions propel you forward out of ‘stuck’ and into the powerful place of possibility.

I’d love to hear how you handle the ups and downs of the scale and get yourself back on track.