A Moment for Healing

Posted on May 21, 2013 by krisgetshealthy

Friday nights, quite possibly the single best night of the week for me now. The end to a 50-plus hour work week, the prospect of 2 glorious days without an alarm clock to go to work. As bad as a Friday at work can be, it can be over when I shut the door to the office look up and the sky take a deep breath and walk to my car.

This past Friday was a shining example to me of a life I never thought I would have. After work I headed off to the store to scoop up things for a dinner party, but not a party at my house… not yet. We were celebrating change in the life of a woman dear to me. A very close friend had just finished a grueling course schedule, along with a super demanding job, and is getting ready to move! Talk about a reason to party. I loaded the car with all kinds of stuff, chicken, cake, tons of veggies, booze, flowers, and hit the road windows down!

I sang and danced in my car in traffic, yes I am THAT person. I sang loudly, I laughed at the people getting angry as people did the zipper merge, I felt the sun on my skin through the open windows. Life was good. I pulled up to Manda’s place with the radio cranked up singing. We laughed at the amount of stuff piled in my car… Kelly was there, she helped by steadying the shopping cart as we loaded it full of stuff… As I parked my car I smiled, this is my life. Friends. As we unloaded the stuff and I situated things around the place, I got a call wanting to know if I was still going to need help… friends… people who help when you are in need… My heart was heavy, one of my very best friends was too ill too attend. I respect her need to be home, I was happy to have shared a chat on the phone with her earlier in the night. I busied myself in the kitchen, everyone was hungry. We were going to eat in stages on this night. Diving into food it was so funny to watch everyone laugh and chat and come together as a group.

We are all so different, from all over the country really, some native to MN, some have been here since they were kids, brought here from the west coast others landed here from the east coast. All different strengths and weaknesses, so different yet so much the same. We all walk the same path, we all struggle, and lift one another up in our time of need. This is family, friendship, love, and strength. This is what community is about. When they say it takes a village to raise a child… this is what they are speaking of.

I watched Sean dance with a young girl, Manda give horsey rides, and I watched newer friends meet older friends. I did what fills me with so much fulfillment, and cooked with love for my family. Served up with love! I think it made Manda a bit uncomfortable that I was serving people but it is what I do! Advice, discussions, silliness, and sincerity continued late into the night. I hated to leave at the end of the night.

I was the last one to leave. I lingered in the parking lot talking to Manda long after everyone left. I didn’t want the night to end. There was a time when my weekend nights involved sitting home playing xbox live… those people were my friends. They knew I laughed loudly, and flirted outrageously, and had a big personality… and a heart to match. They didn’t have to see me, I never had to see them… I was protected, I was safe.

I don’t have to live that way anymore, I shouldn’t have had to feel like that was the only way to live before. I am so blessed to have so many freakin amazing people in my life right now, and I know I would never have found them without going through all of the crap that I did. I am so thankful for each and every friend I have, I wish there was some way for me to show, or tell those in my life ow much they mean to me, but there isn’t. There are no words to tell those that you love, you changed my life, gave me hope and make me a better person to the degree that my friends have made me.

My friends are my family, and I would lay down my life for them. I never thought I would find so many people that I could love like this, but I wouldn’t trade them in for all the money in the world. This is who I am… I do not recognize myself, my heart is healing from the hurt and I am finding that I am okay with that.

Quitting Weight Watchers

Posted on April 30, 2013 by krisgetshealthy

So since July I have been doing Weight Watchers. I have done as I promised myself, I gave into the plan. I followed the weird math, I did the plan as it was intended. I didn’t use my weekly points, I used my weekly points. I used all, I used some, I worked out a lot, I worked out a little. I ate my target daily points, I ate less than my target points and here I sit, fluxing the same 15 lbs up and down.

Now there is something to be said about staying close to the same weight for a long period of time after having regained a bunch of weight, however I am not happy with this. I wrote, I believe last time, maybe the time before, about how I am switching to VERY low carb, and gluten-free eating. I would love to continue my Weight Watchers membership to get the meetings and the weigh in’s (I prefer to weigh in on someone else’s scale that doesn’t move around as opposed to mine that gets tossed in the closet after I weigh) however almost $50.00 a month is not worth getting on the scale 4 times. I will miss seeing the excitement and progress others are making on their journeys, and I haven’t told anyone goodbye or why I am leaving. I know my leader will be sad to see me go, but it isn’t working for me.

That after all is what this whole process is about. Finding what works for you, not what works for everyone else. I can’t sit here and say, oh such and such worked for Emma and blah blah worked for Joe, because when it comes to these things, I am not them I am myself. I have never been one to follow the crowd, actually that is something I pride myself on. I may have my f2fpack, but I never run with the pack. I follow my own drum and listen to what my body tells me is right. I did far too much damage to my body when I was young by not eating enough thinking that was the only way. Now with the wealth of knowledge available to me I know there are hundreds of ways to do things and I need to find what works for me.

I do know that tracking is the answer, however I think that tracking calories isn’t my answer. That led to a very dangerous world for me. I know that when I track calories I become so hyper-focused on tracking every crumb and every morsel that it becomes a sickness. I start to lose my grip on reality after a while. It didn’t happen luckily when I was tracking points as much, but it was still there. I think somewhere in my mind I just want so badly to succeed that I cannot let anything go.

I know that it takes time to get where I am going, and like everything worth doing it is worth doing well, and the right way. So I bump along, wondering how anyone ever loses weight working full-time (50 hours a week minimum), squeezing in working out, and trying to maintain a relationship with loved ones, and friends. It truly is no wonder I feel like I can’t ever catch up sometimes.

I find my center as I close my eyes, my bedtime is my time. It is the commitment I make to myself. It is the way I show myself respect, to let myself have rest. When someone asks me how much sleep I got the night before I like to be able to answer 7 or 8 hours. I could take time from that to keep up with everyone else… but it is not worth the expense. I am doing what I need to do for me… and in the end, no one else can do this for me, or do it like me.

Hoop De Do!!!

Posted on March 13, 2013 by krisgetshealthy

So yesterday I was feeling mighty crummy. Between my fibro, and my ehlers-danlos I don’t want to move. Work stress isn’t making my life any easier, I can only imagine that some of the pain in my shoulders and back is due to the “weight” upon my shoulders which included coming into work to fix a crisis over the weekend. I received much thanks from my customer for my efforts, however not even a thanks from my boss. :/ Makes me feel like crap, makes me wish I didn’t care so much, but that is who I am. The shipment I worked on after my bedtime on Saturday night was something near and dear to my heart, and I would not change what I did. I just wish I could feel better.

My weight continues to fluctuate right around 300 pounds. I am not happy with it. The option of surgery lingers in my mind, lingers as a last resort, teases me with its simplicity, I would finally know for sure hunger. I do what I need to do, and the progress is slow, I would SEE progress with surgery. However I truck along on the bumpy path where I fight to find satisfaction. I know I can do anything, you can do anything. There are answers out there for all of us.

Yesterday was set to be one of my gym days, with my chronic pain I fight to keep a set schedule, I made myself go to the gym with the intention to just soak for a short while. I wanted/needed the heat to try to get the muscles in my body to relax. I put my headphones on and sunk into the hottub for just a little while. The heat is dangerous for my E-D. It makes my joints more lax and prone to injury. So I took my whole time slow. While getting dressed I saw a woman with the shiniest pretty hula-hoop! If you know me, you know I love glitter and sparkles. I joke that I am a five-year old kid, but in every joke there is a grain of truth. I am a grown up kid. Do you remember my post about why we have to workout instead of play?

I commented on how much I liked the look of the hoop to my fellow locker room woman, and she told me she makes them. It was like fate had taken hold and pushed me into the gym yesterday because even though I didn’t work out, I met someone amazing!

I would like to introduce you all to someone amazing! Her name is Theresa she blogs over at <a href=”http://hoopwoman.wordpress.com/”> Hoop Woman She is a motivational speaker! She is a Hooper! I have been intrigued by hooping for a long time but I think I am just too big to hoop. In my mind I have the Your Momma jokes in my mind about a hulahoop being a belt. I think about my size 32/34 pants and how big I was and how far I have come and think… someday I want to try it.

We chatted a bit about all kinds of things and Oh My Goodness, Theresa is Amazing and we seem to have very similar outlooks on so many things! Turns out she is a Ted Talks speaker! She showed me some of her hoop skills, and I was amazed. If you have some time please check out her talk! http://youtu.be/OgZVRV7jqWc

I left the gym feeling like I had been put there by the universe for a reason. A reminder that I just need to keep going, that just like I tell everyone else not to give up, I must not give up. I keep pressing forward to be amazing, to do amazing things. I am on the right path, it just takes time for things to get into the right places.

I am a puzzle cube, you have to keep turning the puzzle around, sliding pieces back and forth, rotating the puzzle, trying things, and eventually the answer becomes clear, but you cant just give up or nothing will ever become of it.

I get it universe. Thanks for the reminder… and thanks for the new friend!

Gaining… a foothold.

Posted on January 25, 2013 by krisgetshealthy

So here I sit, it is almost 5am. My neck and back are sore, my body aches, but we are coming to an understanding. Since Saturday I have been to the gym (well including Saturday) 4 times. I have had FOUR 45 minute water walking sessions in the vortex pool. This isn’t just regular water walking, this is against the current. One of them I have had company for, one I had the pool all to myself for. I find myself mostly just counting my steps to about 110 then realizing I am just counting and then trying to focus on something else, and then find I am counting again. It isn’t bad, it is just a thing. Yesterday I focused hard on the things that are super difficult for me since the vortex was mostly empty for the 45 minutes I had available. Walking backwards, with my pelvis/spine properly aligned, not hyper extending my knees, and with good posture. I would do a few laps of that, then do some sideways focusing on trying to get my feet to orient the “normal” way. My hips aren’t normal, and that contributes to some of my back issues. It is all connected, and I can clearly see that with my body. When the problems start below the percolate up, just as water drips through coffee grounds to make things change.

I already feel like I am regaining a bit of strength as I return to the water. Perhaps it is all in my head, perhaps my body knows that I am not ready to give up this fight. I have always done my best work in the water. After all I could swim before I could walk (#Waterbabies4life!) The water was always good for my fibro, and its the safest place for my ehlers-danlos. I am not going to rush myself onto land anytime soon. While I feel pressures to try and workout with my friends, and make my workouts and schedules match theirs, I know that this isn’t about anyone but me. I have to do what works for me, for my schedule, I live a crazy life, it is hard. The more I flex my schedule the harder it is on my body and I can’t do that. I can’t keep up. This is my reality.

I am grateful this week that I finally got to have dinner with a friend whom I had not sat down to talk with since last January. He and I went out to dinner at Matt’s Bar. (Home of the not diet friendly JucyLucy!) A Burger stuffed with cheese! I counted my points all day long, and I did just fine. The burger was awesome, the company made it even better. I laughed, I nearly cried, nothing shot out of noses, not even boogers THANK GOD! We are going to try and work on a more frequent than once a year catch-up session. (I can only hope for this, as hard as it is to see some of my friends, this guy is the hardest one to nail down it seems!)

So I feel like this week so far has been a success, I am getting the swing of things and moving forward with my progress back into the swing of exercise. I do have a 5k walk on the books for July. I signed up for the Minneapolis Color Run, I plan to walk it, as we discovered running is quite possibly the worst thing for me. (Maybe speed walking?) I wanted a goal on the books, other than the obesity 5k in April with Gary from Charities Challenge. So yep, that’s where things stand!

Happy Thursday!

Sharing Circle

Posted on August 10, 2012 by krisgetshealthy

So in going to my meetings at Weight Watchers I have been forcing myself to talk, or rather, perhaps a better way to phrase it is that I have found myself opening up to the groups I have been with. Offering suggestions tips and tricks of what has helped me along the way so far. In my mind I can feel the members that have been there a while rolling their eyes at me, because I am new to their program, but I have been at this a while and have seen measurable success on my own.

I have been going, on average to two meetings a week. The leader I didn’t care for at first has grown on me, I think it was more the people at that first meeting I didn’t click with, and I think that had more to do with the weather, and the bad parking that weekend in the are around the location, and the fact that I was kind-of ignored and dismissed while I sat there.

I guess one of the things I am really enjoying about the program is actually the meetings. I like going, and interacting with other people that are trying to do the same thing I am. It isn’t that I feel alone, or lonely in the battle to get this weight off, I have concluded that there are very few people in the world that have never struggled with weight in one way or another, I just like hearing what others have to say. I like that it gives me a feeling of community, it sparks my thought process for things like lunches and dinners, even if I don’t take the ideas and use them that week, I know they are planting seeds in the back of my mind for the future. I also hope that what I have to share, in insight or past stumbling blocks for myself can help someone else there. For example we were talking about tracking food last week, and how a “3 month tracker” which is a paper tracker shouldn’t last more than 3 months. I use an electronic tracker now. When I first started I used paper. I liked paper, it was safe, I could erase things, I could reward myself on the paper with stickers if I was under my caloric goal for the day. I had a whole system that I used, and it worked for me. Eventually I went electronic because it was faster, and easier… and easier meant I could be lazier! Eventually I stopped tracking and I was one of those people who could have made that 3 month tracker last a year! I am bring very diligent and deliberate now with my tracking, and I know if one isn’t working I need to switch to the other. I offered the hint/tip that I learned from a PriorFatGirl event about recording life events, special occasions, thoughts and feelings in the margins of your tracker. It helps when you look back to identify patterns and stumbling blocks. Everyone seemed to really like that idea, so I know that I am offering the group something not just taking.

However I can’t help but feel like I am playing teachers pet when I talk. I am certainly not trying to be, but I want to be helpful to others where I can be. So I hush myself, until I know that I have something that is truly helpful and applicable to everyone in the room, or a goodly majority and then I go from there.

Do you go to meetings? Do you talk? Do you feel like you talk too much? How do you strike a balance with it? I would love to know what you think!

If Only

Posted on July 31, 2012 by krisgetshealthy

For the last year I lived here in a world of “if only”. If only I got a different job, if only I could have weekends off, if only a million different things. Well guess what, something changed Kris. You are in a full time job now, you work hard, you have a VERY busy life, and you have had to sacrifice things that you truly had passion for, you no longer get to go to the gym at your leisure for hours at a time, or do water aerobics 4 days a week, or go to trivia, it isn’t conducive to your new life. Things did not go according to plan, and once again the list of If Only’s becomes pages long. You are learning that sometimes as much as it pains you sometimes you have to say no. You have to miss out of things that you love. Weekdays become a time where you work, workout, cook and sleep. There is no time for much else right now because of your goals. If only there were more hours in the day, if only if only.

I have to continually remind myself of what I want out of my life right now… and what my goals are because I seem to have lost focus. I WANT to be healthy, I WANT to be happy. Yes I want to be with my friends, but there are other pieces of the puzzle that need to fit in too.

I have to think back to the story from many years ago about the jar of pebbles and sand. If you want to fill a jar with both pebbles and sand, you can’t put the sand in first then add the rocks, you must build the foundation in the jar with the rocks then add the sand to fill the jar making the most of the space. there is no other way to make it work and fit everything in. So like the jar I must put the building blocks into my schedule. These things are my job (obviously) and my workouts, and my meetings. They are also things like prepping for meals, so that my battle plans for eating stay on track. It seems silly but if I start letting one area slide I know it will only be a matter of time before others slide. I will take help where I can, for example, chopped up fruit, some of it, but not all of it because it just doesn’t hold long enough, or it isn’t worth the price of convenience.

So I am here, taking a personal inventory of my list of if onlys and trying to do away with them one at a time because truly excuses are not going to help me along the way.

Random-Stuff

Posted on February 20, 2012 by krisgetshealthy

So several days ago… maybe more than a week at this point… Mer, over at Making over Merbear tagged me in a post… I saw she did, but with my nutso work schedule I didn’t really have a chance to sit down and respond to it. So lets take a moment and not be *that* person and I’ll share a bit about me!
Post 11 Random Facts about yourself, then answer 11 Questions….

Random Things about me!

I broke my hip twice as an adolescent
I am a supertaster
I could swim before I could walk. (I was part of that controversial water babies program back in the 1980′s)
I still look online trying to find my best friend who moved away when we were in second grade.
I wanted to be a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon when I was growing up, I read medical books for fun. I still try to keep an eye on new medical developments and read medical texts for fun.
I have a scar on my left leg from where my brother put an axe in my leg when we were kids. He was trying to build a playground in the garage with an axe on the cement floor… It ended in tears… mine not his.
I have ehlers-danlos, a “rare” genetic connective tissue disorder. It is a medical zebra condition.
I had never had a Hostess or Little Debbie product until I was in my late twenties… and when I finally had one, I didn’t like it.
I carry a mens wallet
I collect sheep (if only I could keep real sheep in the city!)

Mer’s Questions for me:

1. What is your main reason for living a healthy lifestyle?

I thought I was going to die, I have too much life left to live. I was in so much pain physically that I didn’t know what I had left to lose. I wanted to be able to spend the time I had left enjoying life, not suffering through it.

2. What would you say is your “go to” quick emergency snack?

I don’t do much as far as snacking, but if I am in need of a snack usually there is some kind of veggie in my fridge, either carrots or cucumbers and hummus. There is also generally a bag of frozen peas in the freezer. Thaw those out and I love to snack on them!

3. What is your favorite exercise and why?

Probably swimming is my favorite exercise. Sadly my new gym lacks a pool, but those are the breaks. I really enjoy the ease of the elliptical and my ability to just zone out. My new gym also lacks those, but has arc trainers as a substitute. They are very similar and just take a bit of getting used to.

4. Why do you blog?

I blog to let others see that there is hope. There is always someone out there that is going through the same thing. There is someone who started where you are, or is going where you are, or who can provide feedback support guidance, which is all awesome. At the end of the day it is all about me. I blog for me. I want a record of my struggles, I want proof that it wasn’t easy, I want proof that it didn’t happen overnight, that there were more successes than failures, and that it was worth the work.

5. Dogs? Cats? Both? Neither?

I love both, I had both growing up. Now I have neither and desire either!

6. Have you “given up” any foods for healthiness reasons? Will you ever have it again? Why?

I have not given up anything 100% for the sake of my diet. There are things that I don’t eat, but that’s in general stuff I didn’t ever really eat like McDonald’s. I still go there for two things. Coffee and a cone. I find that deprivation diets set you up for failure. This is about a lifestyle change and what I wanted from this was to find a way to live my life the way I wanted and I will not get through life pretending things I wanted don’t exist.

7. Are you doing or have you or are you considering a paid-for weight loss program? Which one? Why do you do it or how did it help you? If not, what are you doing on your own?

I would love to try something like slimgenics or medifast, but the cost is super prohibitive for me. I am sure if I did the math with what I pay for my food etc would make it all work out, but I just can’t justify spending money on something that I can do on my own. I cook my own food workout on my own and pretty much play by my own rules. It worked for the first bunch of weight… although it looks like it may be time to find something new.

8. Tell me about a dream vacation, one you’ve been on or one you’d like to go on.

I have been to Alaska twice. Once was just a cruise, and once I went for a cruise and land combo trip. Both were amazing for their own reasons, and I would love to go back again. The first trip I met a boy, we had a shipboard romance, crazy teenage love. It was awesome, taught me a lot about being who I am, and being comfortable about being myself! The second trip taught me a lot about being alone, I was with my mom and it was just as my divorce was final. The scenery wa amazing and it is just a whole different world up there.

9. What do you use to blog mainly? Mac? PC? iPad? Phone? and where do you find yourself when you are blogging…desk, couch, coffee shop, bed, kitchen table?

I used to blog from home, on a pc, I blogged a few times from the WordPress app, two of those posts got eaten! (Horrible I know!) Now in general I blog only on the weekends, from the comfort of a coffee shop, usually a caribou coffee with a latte and a hot tea. It is my decompression time.

10. Introvert (recharge with alone time) or extrovert (get energy from people)?

Both! I find i strike a balance between the two. I get lots of energy from being around my friends, and other people but at the end of an outing I need to go home decompress and find some time alone to process and recharge myself again. It’s very hard to explain.

11. What is your favorite quote that keeps you motivated?

Choose your hard. Everything in life is difficult… you always have a choice… you choose how you want to do things.

Do you comment on my blog and have a blog? Repost and let me know! Hey #f2fpackers I want to hear from you! Post this to your blog!

One Breath, For My Roots

Posted on January 24, 2012 by krisgetshealthy

The second person to speak at #OBOS was Philly D, who I had never met before, mostly because my schedule has never allowed me Friday nights to go hang out with all the cool kids at hot yoga. Happily that is changing and I will soon head off to my first Hot Yoga class in the near future! Anyway, Phil had me in tears for most of his discussion. He shared some very personal stories about his sister and some volunteer work that he does at a Children’s hospital with cancer patients. A boy who communicates only by RAWR-ing because he thinks he is actually a dinosaur… because they are strong… I can relate. #rawr.

Do you know what the difference between being and doing is? So many of us say I want to be BE healthy. The dictionary defines being as something that exists. That is something that I did for SO MANY YEARS in my life… I existed. If you look back on this blog you see me talk about feeling like I was watching life pass me by because it was. However doing is defined as action, performance, and execution. I don’t know about you all but I sure want to be doing not being.

Remember the human doing project at Mall of America last year… they had him DOING… so think about that… to be healthy you have to DO. There is a local health insurance company here that has a DO campaign and they truly have hit the nail on the head. To be healthy you have to DO.

I am sure you are sitting there going so what Kris… we all know we have to workout, so Phil said go do Yoga right? He owns a studio this is what he wants you to do right? No. It is hard to explain exactly what he was talking about in general or specific terms if you have never had that moment that wakes you up from that dark place, so forgive the bulleted nature of this. I am going to try to not weep as I think about how much impact his words had on my heart.

Phil’s wish for each of us is that we can learn to be more awake in our lives, that we can me more aware of what is in front and around us. In order to Rise Up and meet life, you must first wake up to your surroundings. You must tune into yourself, make deliberate choices about your breathing, and movements, feel your body, feel your breath.

As you move through this life and become more aware of things you will know when something feels wrong, and when something feels wrong you will learn that you need to step up and stand up for others. As you rise up you will see things that are unfair and unjust and you cannot ignore them. They will not change unless someone speaks up.

As you rise up you must reach out and down to others, this is part of why Jen (@PriorFatGirl) shares her story, and a very big part of why I am so open and honest on my blog about my struggles. When you reach out to others you let them know that there is hope, help and strength.

Be what you love in life, and use what you love to make a difference because it isn’t actually the length of your life that makes the biggest impact it is the width. The more people you reach, and they in turn reach creates waves and ripples that will effect more people than you ever intended.

He also spoke about how important it is to be aware of your word choices, which was also something Mary spoke about. The words you choose to define yourself, your life your goals and the things in your mind can really set yourself up for success or for failure. Do you remember my Can’ts Won’ts and Don’ts post? Go back and read it… I felt like they both took a page right from my blog and were telling me to go back and read my words… Kris make sure you are picking your words correctly.

After hearing both Mary and Phil speak about how can’t and and won’t and don’t are so often confused I really felt like I had a grasp on something strong. I know when I first had that moment of clarity about those three words back in August it really was something amazing. It really becomes a more about DOING what you have to do and less about what you want. I can’t cook healthy meals for my family is actually I don’t because my family won’t eat them. Well guess what you CAN because you make those decisions. I can’t workout because I don’t have time is really I don’t workout because I would rather watch tv, and I won’t give up that addiction to finding out what happens on that next episode of Lost (okay, I am out of touch but so what!) You get it right?

Who has control of your life? Do you have control? Who did you give the control to? Are you ready to take it back? Only you can!

One Breath, One Post

Posted on January 22, 2012 by krisgetshealthy

So for most of my long time readers you know how my life has been since, well since I moved here. I worked some crazy hours. Not that my hours now would, could or should be described as normal, but they are more normal than they were. I have weekends off, and I sleep during the nighttime hours… mostly.

Saturday outings were almost always things that I missed, opportunities that I wanted to take, and would often pass on, with one exception. When I saw a random tweet from @PriorFatGirl I knew destiny had taken a hand in my life. I started following her blog, and twitter, reading back, learning. Last year I asked to have someone cover my Saturday shift for a few hours and would pull an amazingly long few days (2pm Friday until 4am Sunday) to have the opportunity to meet some amazing people. Happily I got some sleep during that time and slept after only being up for 30-some-odd hours. That is neither here nor there. That was one of the first ventures into meeting people from the blog community here in Minneapolis.

It has been an amazing life changer. Shortly after that conference/get together/whatever is when I started blogging again publicly thanks to Jen. There have been several One Step One Breath get togethers since that one, some formal, some just coffee and chat sessions, and I have not missed a single one. I rearranged my schedule to make them possible, never sleeping before them due to my work schedule. Well things have changes now and yesterday I had the opportunity to go to one without the added stress of thinking about the people who had to take over work for me.

I am so grateful for the people who I get to see at these events. My brief encounters with my old friends, and chance encounters with new people are just so enriching to my life. I foster so many friendships in such a short time I am so thankful to Jen for reaching out to all of us and giving us a safe space in which to share our struggles and feelings.

So really… I know why you are all here… You want to know what was covered right? You know Jen was there, after all it was her event, and Mary, from over at Fit This, Girl! was also there to speak. Elle She has an amazing story to tell as well. We also got to meet Philly D! Who is a yogi, and owner of the Moksha Yoga Studio that is the ever popular Friday night hang out for so many of my friends! The rest of the speakers were US! Believe it or not I count everyone that attends these events as a speaker! From Ann who spoke a bit about how to dress for outdoor running to Liz who was talking about some Weight Watchers things.
What you take away from these events is more than the two pages of notes that I have scribbled down (which I will get to don’t worry!). You take away emotion, you take away a little less, “Aloneliness” knowing that you were in a room where every single other person there has at some point crossed or will cross a similar struggle that you have.
So if you shared your story, or took part in listening to mine yesterday thank you. We are all learning and growing together, and I hope that you took something away from the event that is exactly what you were looking for.

So what did I take away from the event… Stay Tuned!

May 2013
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