by Tish MacWebber | Aug 24, 2017 | Trust Your Gut
The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name. If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story. The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors. I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.
This week I am pleased to share another of my own stories.
Here is Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 27
Summer is slowly sneaking past us, and soon it will be fall. I have seen other people do challenges, and I have a few things I need to get back on track with. One of them is my zig-zagging on the path less travelled to living a healthier lifestyle. I don’t have kids, and I am not going back to school. But September can be a new start for this and other areas of my life that are lacking commitment right now.
In THM, there are many different groups to belong to. You can join based on food types, health issues, location, budget friendly, beginner, very fluffy, the main THM group and allergy issue groups. There is even one for people that Blog about THM. I am involved in several and have not been contributing much lately. I can share my Blog stories on their pages, but not if that is the only thing I am contributing. I think that is fair.
I do write this to keep myself accountable, and also to help other people. If you don’t have the same issues I have with being morbidly obese, then reading this Blog might help you learn how to be a better friend to someone like me. It may even help you figure out what you can do to help them.
Let’s go with a big one. Do not be the food police. Every person that is capable of feeding themselves is also capable of deciding what to eat, what not to eat, and how much of that they are going to eat. If I am having a piece of cake at a social gathering, and someone makes me feel bad about it, I am going to eat two or three times the amount of cake I allowed for with my meal plan and insulin doses. Saying nothing and judging by silence or a look is no better. I eat the guilt instead of feeling it. That is a dangerous option for me. I am trying so hard to make better choices, but a simple thing like me having chocolate to get through a rough work day can compound to a box of chocolates at home later on. Yes, a box, not one or two pieces. If I bring them home, I want to gobble them up so they aren’t there to tempt me anymore. When I think about that, it is really messed up. But it is how I think.
I hid being a type 2 diabetic for a long time. Now that I am open about it, I feel like people are always watching what I eat, and judging me. If I was realistic, I would think that I am not so important in other people’s lives that they spend time critically thinking about what I am eating. I have answered a lot of questions regarding what I am eating for lunch at work, and when it is a healthy recipe, I am proud to share. Even if the cauliflower that I had to heat up is stinky, or someone is grossed out by the way I am assembling my cheeseburger pie. If it tastes good, fills me, and doesn’t make me feel bad after eating it, then I am happy to share about what I am eating, and even share the recipes I love if people want to try them.
Back to September coming up. I am going to focus more on me, and the THM plan. What do I mean? It is going to be hard. I am going to have a 30 day no cheat challenge. Eek! I have commitment issues when it comes to being 100% on plan, but it is about time that I really put an effort into it. At the same time, I am going to post in the groups more in September, so that I can share the blog posts that relate to THM in the groups more. Finally, to get myself on track and stay there, I will have to prep cook. That also needs time and energy. If it is focused, it does not have to take a lot of either, because I am prep cooking for me, and sometimes for my husband, not an army. Leftovers are handy for lunches, as long as I have the means of storing them properly.
One thing that concerns me is maintaining a solid balance of my blood sugars. I am worried about lows and treating them while staying on plan. That is a tricky path in the brambles and may require bending of the rules a bit. If I have to pick a quick source of the wrong kind of sugar to avoid a hospital or death, I am going to have to be OK with that. Before I start, though, I am going to hang out in the THM Diabetes group and ask some questions to make me feel better about how to treat the lows. I am giving myself time to do this, before the official start. I will need to start recording my blood sugars, insulin doses and keep a food diary to make this work because if I don’t know what the patterns are, it is hard to manage the blood sugar highs and lows properly. This sounds like work to me, but if you do something consistently for 30 days it becomes a habit, and I am trying to develop better habits for a healthier lifestyle. I wrote it here, so now I have to follow through.
Accountability. It is time to take things seriously again. Writing it all down every day will help me track patterns and find out how different foods affect my sugars. I know I am not going to be 100% on plan, being me, but if I can give it my best attempt, I will have something I can be proud of working on. So I am going to make a real effort in September. I need to refocus on a few things, and this is one of them. Time to start planning. Anybody else getting ready to start fresh in September? I will cheer you on as I share my progress every week, here. It’s time to refocus.
#TrustYourGut
by Tish MacWebber | Aug 21, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
I don’t have any “plans” this weekend. I am going to do that Bouncing of the House I didn’t do last weekend. I will catch up with a friend and maybe call another friend. This weekend I am going to be alone while the hubby is at work. Sometimes that is just what I need.
I will crank the tunes and get some things done tomorrow. I am happy to say he did some work around here this week, so it isn’t a total disaster waiting for me to have to do everything. It helps to have a partner with the chores, even if we work better in tandem than together on some projects.
I have to say it, and I don’t want to. I have had another generation of ants in the kitchen. I also want to put it out there that mint plants are needy divas. They are happy or parched or dying or perky. There is no happy medium, only the hour after they are watered, it seems. I am struggling to keep them alive, and losing the battle with one already. I need them to live to chase the bugs away. I have seen spiders and ants, so maybe it is not a reliable theory. It was worth a shot, though.
The problem with having a completely free weekend happens when I don’t have a reason to get the chores done. It is much more fun to procrastinate on the computer and binge watch TV all day. I know I am crawling out of bed in the morning to get the car. I have not decided if that will happen Sunday, or not. If I stay home, I don’t spend money. That is a good rule of thumb for me. I do have errands and so I need the car tomorrow. I don’t like being home without it if I don’t need to be. What if I need something? I need the car to go get it.
Then a whole other list of things happens, I blink, and the day is gone and I have nothing to show for it. So I think this weekend I will make a list. Sometimes that is the only way for me to stay on track.
I have one day of the Brand Story Challenge I have participated in all week left. It is over on Saturday, and I am looking forward to trying to put it all together. There are prizes, and I feel like I am putting myself out there, much like I do here, and just going for it. It may not seem like I am working hard at this if you don’t know me, but there are parts that are shared publicly and parts that are just for you and the members of the challenge. So I have been sharing it all in the closed group. I feel like if I put it all out there, maybe I have a chance to win something. I can work hard, and hope. I am trying to get below my outer layer and see what I am hiding inside that can help propel me forward. It is making me think about things differently, and that is OK.
With Sunday morning there came a lack of sleep, due to humidity and some inspirations! I have just filmed my first ever Facebook live video and created a scavenger hunt for the first contest I have ever launched for Tish’s Treasures. I am really hoping it steps up my entrepreneurial game, and I am already planning my next contest!
I did get the car Sunday too. I spent too much time trying to get in a nap, so this is causing my posting here to be late. I have had so much to do, but my body needed to rest up before the dreaded Monday appeared. (Oh no! It’s here!)
There was a bonus round for the Brand Story Challenge. It is not quite ready, but will be shared all over the place really soon!
I am going to leave a link for my first Facebook Live Contest video HERE! It is open to anyone that completes the requirements. If you enter, best of luck to you! There is a prize!
I am feeling drained after this weekend. Humidity is not nice when you are unable to sleep through it. I got a lot done, though, so I am calling it a draw…today was not as productive as it could have been. How was your weekend?
by Tish MacWebber | Aug 18, 2017 | Trust Your Gut
The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name. If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story. The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors. I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.
This week I am pleased to share another of my own stories.
Here is Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 26
Struggling with a weight issue is hard. It is hard to stay motivated all of the time. It is hard to commit to making the changes needed to see results. The results don’t happen overnight, and there is no quick and easy fix.
Words matter. Whether they are good to hear and provide encouragement or not, a person that is struggling with weight issues has deep rooted insecurities that can make a little comment pack a punch that hurts so bad that you want to give up.
I am writing this week to tell you to keep going. I am writing to tell myself the same thing. Sometimes the little monster inside is making the biggest racket and causing you to doubt yourself. Other times the damage is done from someone that you would least expect it from, and when you are blindsided by hurtful words, it can cause a setback in your progress.
It is easier to give up. It is easy to blame someone else. Neither option is the right one, though. I am working on choosing my battles carefully right now. There will always be petty, jealous, mean people out there. I need to choose to be the bigger person. Yeah, I just wrote that, but it is how I am supposed to say it. I don’t mean physically, of course. If it was that easy, I would just eat so much that I would sit on the people that hurt me. Oh, that would be nasty. Fun to think about, but not very realistic.
I guess I could rephrase that into being the more mature person. Fat or old. I don’t think there is a real winner here.
Being practical about what I choose to believe is something I am working on. I am an emotional, hormonal, creative, over the top, learning to believe in my own skills woman. That is a lot to deal with, and it can all happen in five minutes or less. If my hair is frazzled, it is expressing what is going on inside. If I am quiet, I may be mulling something over in my mind, or too angry to speak without a filter. That brain to mouth filter gets a little less effective as I am getting older. Sometimes it is a good thing. Other times it is not.
As a creative person, I embrace my emotions. ALL OF THEM. Which means that sometimes when someone is mean, I OVERREACT. I over think, over analyze, and get overly upset. If it is something that is mean, I may focus on it for a really long time. This is not healthy and it is not helpful.
There will always be people who think they know more than I do and think that they are experts because of their own education, opinion, or life experiences. I am confident that I am unique and a one of a kind. If I am not an expert on me in my own life, well there is just no way that I can accept someone else’s opinion about what I am doing to better myself. I am living my life, not just existing in it. I am making changes, and not just letting things happen. I am not perfect so I will make mistakes along the way. But they are mine to make, and I am going to own them. All I can do is admit when I am wrong, and learn from the mistakes. That is all anyone can really do about it.
Tackle something with me this week. Let the inner glow out of the cage. Shine as bright as you can from the outside in. Believe in yourself, and prove to yourself that you are worth it because you can take one thing that is hindering you and just let it go. Release it.
I once did a group relaxation exercise in university. We were to go to our happy place inside our mind. Check. Then we were to imagine taking all of the negative and stress causing issues we have and put them inside something so we could leave them locked up and not worry about them anymore. I am sure it was supposed to be an imaginary box or trunk or something that we could close, lock, and throw away the key for.
I shoved it all in a blender and turned it on. Man, that felt good. It made me giggle, and that was the point. To make it all go away.
Find your blender, and pulverize the negativity out of your life. Theoretically, of course. Then dump it out and clean it so it is ready for your next concoction. If it is nasty enough, flush that negative smoothie down the imaginary toilet.
It works for me. How do you make the things that are weighing you down leave your mind to be clear?
Trust Your Gut. It knows you want to shine. Have a bright and glowing week!
#TrustYourGut
by Tish MacWebber | Aug 13, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Here comes another weekend. I am relaxing with a bottle of wine on this fine Friday night. It is well deserved and has been in the wine rack for a while. I kept it so that when I wanted to indulge, I would enjoy it. I have, indeed.
What else did I do? I started an Orphan Black Marathon of season 5. It is the last season, and it ends tomorrow night. Oh, how bittersweet it will be.
Saturday will be a full on, all out Bouncing the House day. I need to get some cleaning done, and except for the washing of my delicates tonight while I enjoy the wine, I am falling behind in the housekeeping department, and I need to give it some TLC. My husband will be drafted with a “Honey do list”, and we will get some work done here tomorrow. Update: I am visiting a friend on Saturday, and I caught up with another friend while running an errand.
Sunday involves a volunteer event. I am working with the Boston Terrier Rescue Canada group again. I am an official volunteer, and we will have a booth at the Fredericton Pride Parade. I have signed on for the walking time in the parade because if I am going to be there, I want to get some exercise. Walking is good for me. BTRC needs fund raising by people like me to help the non-profit group rescue more dogs in need, foster them, and hopefully place them in homes where they will be adopted.
Volunteers ready to walk in the parade
These t-shirts are hilarious like the bandanas
Flags and phone covers and bling!
Magnets and information about the BTRC Recycling program
Bandanas for the dogs
One of the BTRC bandanas.
The chocolate cupcakes were delicious. They also had popsicles and pup-sicles!
Just like MasterChef! Hands in the air! All done setting up!
Action shot! There were a lot of people out, it was the best turnout ever for Fredericton Pride Parade day!
The Booth is ready for business!
Katie and Sally, all dolled up and riding through the parade in style!
I made it after walking in the parade.
I met some new volunteers today
Face painting success!
As a Catholic who believes in science and that the unexplained mysteries of how science and religion mingle will not be fully explained to me until I reach Heaven (which I sincerely hope to do, but realistically I expect to land in purgatory because nobody is perfect) I try to live my life guided by the church and the bible. That being said, I have spent many years in conflict with myself.
I have come to terms with how I am able to be friends with different people. That is the secret. They aren’t fat or skinny, male or female, black or white, young or old, gay or straight. They are people. And as people, we all have our own belief systems. Mine happens to be based in the Catholic Religion. It teaches us to love one another, and also not to judge. With these simple rules, I leave the rest to God. I am able to be friends with some wonderful, incredible people, and because I do not judge them, I think I am a better person for leaving the judgements aside and letting more friends into my life. Like I said, nobody is perfect, and when it is not up to me, I am free to be true to myself. I am able to open my eyes and see people as they are, people. Like me.
-
-
Lynn showing her t-shirt and flag she wore for the parade
-
-
Truck for the parade
-
-
Ambulance for the parade
-
-
After the Parade, before the Thunderstorms
-
-
They must be at the start!
-
-
People in the parade
-
-
Fire in the parade
-
-
People in the parade
-
-
Matty & Me
-
-
BTRC Group!
-
-
BTRC group!
I don’t usually write about my faith and religion. I am not attempting to erase the past wrongs done by the Church, or by other Catholics. I am only responsible for myself and my own actions. I do try to be a good person, and live my life by example, with the 10 Commandments as my guide. When I think about the state of the world today, I feel concerned. I am not confident that humankind will survive the future of what might be. I decided to write about it because change is possible. It starts with one person. I am putting this out there and making it known that I do not tolerate evil, no matter what form it takes. Hatred is evil, and there is no room in my life for it. If I had my way, there would be no room in the Universe for it.
The weather is iffy for tomorrow. There is a chance it will rain, and maybe there will be thundershowers. Not the best forecast for a parade. It will happen, rain or shine. I will try to dress for any weather (that will be challenging) and my sneakers are the best I’ve got for walking. I am thinking about wearing something fun, in support of my friends. I don’t have a costume, like some people, but then I am an ally. It’s not about me. It’s about allowing people to be true to themselves and to celebrate their acceptance of themselves and each other. Together. The way people are supposed to be. United in a common cause and belief, in a peaceful celebration. I hope it does not rain on the parade.
It poured! There was a thunderstorm indeed, complete with rolling thunder and lightning. This happened after the parade, though. People packed up as quickly as they could and ran for cover. Imagine it, if you will. I went to the Fredericton Pride Parade, and I left all wet! A little (or a lot of) rain never hurt anyone.
Laughing in the rain!
YES!
Before heading home, we stopped at the Tiki Iced Tea Bar. Yes, it was shaken, not stirred, and wonderful!
The city has implemented a rainbow crosswalk downtown. I think it is nice, and living in such a diverse city, and country, it fits in very well.
-
-
The rainbow crosswalk
-
-
The other end of the rainbow crosswalk
Feeling the love after the rain at Fredericton Pride Parade, 2017
That’s a wrap for another weekend! I won today, but the house did not get bounced properly. I will say the weekend won Saturday, even though I still had a great time meeting up with friends, I did not accomplish what I set out to do. This weekend, it was a draw. What did you do this weekend?
by Tish MacWebber | Aug 11, 2017 | Trust Your Gut
The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name. If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story. The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors. I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.
This week I am pleased to share another of my own stories.
Here is Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 25
I had a rough week last week. It was one of those “hard on my head” kind of weeks. I am struggling to dig out from under the stuff that was dragging me down. It is hard to focus on living a healthier lifestyle when the world is crashing all around you, and pulling the rug out from under your feet. This week was not much better, but I am turning things around. I have made some decisions.
Sometimes there are too many things to deal with and I get overwhelmed. Or frustrated. Or angry. I did some thinking this week, and I made some decisions. My anger may have got the best of me in the last two weeks, and I am still finding ways to deal with it. Eating is not one of them. I have struggled to make healthier choices when it comes to food. I went to Zumba. In Zumba, I realized my abs were not going to be happy with me the next day. I decided that was OK, because I am really not too pleased with my abs, either.
Instead of spiralling out of control, I spent some time dealing with my feelings. They are not all resolved, but I decided that I was not able to control some things. I also realized that there are some things that I can control. I did some cooking. Tonight I made Bangin Ranch Drums. THM is a source of healthy recipes and food. I have been making some of the recipes over and over, and I need to get back to it.
Tonight was a good start. A week from tonight, I will meet my new doctor. I finally made an appointment. It will be good to get it over, and I am hoping that it will be a good experience. If not, I will ask for a different doctor in the clinic I go to. I am really hoping that it works out.
I do not have a lot of information or inspiration this week. So I will just encourage anyone that is reading this to keep going. Keep fighting for yourself. Keep working to let your inner beauty shine so bright that the monster doesn’t stand a chance. Because it is a never ending struggle, and no matter what your issues are, we can only tackle the ones we have a chance at winning. That doesn’t mean that you should throw in the towel and give up. What it does mean, is that sometimes you have to choose your battles. This week I took my time about it, but in the end, I picked me. And that is the best choice I can make.
#TrustYourGut
