Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 33

Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 33

by | Oct 13, 2017 | Trust Your Gut

 

Trust Your Gut is a series of stories about real people with weight issues, and complications arising from those issues.  It will explain what the person is facing, what their options are, what they have decided to do to take action, and why they chose the path they are on.  Each person’s story will be based on truth, so it won’t all be happy, but it will be real.  The goal of this series is to get people talking about options that are available for people who have weight issues, on either end of the scale.  If you would like to contribute to this series, there is a contact form linked on my Homepage for this blog.  I know there are people out there that want to help people like them; as I do.

 

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 33

Insulation.  Fat. I have it in abundance.  Someone might think that it would result in me being warm all of the time.  That is not true.

Circulation.  Normally, if you have normal circulation, all that warm lovely blood pumping in abundance in your veins keeps you from being cold.

Diabetes.  The chronic condition that I live with every day.  Making it difficult to do a lot of normal things, like staying warm.

What do I do to combat being cold?  Layers.  Yeah, that’s what the morbidly obese person needs to do to keep warm.  Put on layers.  Make yourself appear larger than you actually are.  Brilliant.

A friend told me that I should try wearing a scarf, especially when I started cutting my hair short.  I have one I wear a lot. It is the first scarf that I knit for myself.  It does help.

If I get up and move around, it helps.  Can’t do that at work.  So I layer up.  I do stand up from time to time and get breaks.  But sitting still for seven hours a day in a generally cold office means I have to take my own comfort control.

I have been cleaning.  I unburied the bathroom scale, and am scared to step on it.  I fear the worst.  It is taking me away from the computer and writing, a bit.  It is also a form of “I am not sitting down I am up and moving around so it counts as exercise.

I went back to Zumba.  I got 4800 steps last night.  That is good.

It has been a long two weeks, and I am up too late again, this time with very little inspiration.  So, I will keep on working on me, my house and my writing.

I think I have hit a metaphorical wall.  There is only one thing left to do.  Get back up and try again tomorrow.

#TrustYourGut

 

 

Treasure Seeker Tuesday #1

Treasure Seeker Tuesday #1

by | Oct 10, 2017 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The unedited Tuesday Treasure Seeker photo, which I took myself, at King’s Landing.

Welcome to the first “Official” Treasure Seeker Tuesday!  I wrote it that way because there was a preview story a few weeks back when I was getting ready to launch this new category.  While I am still holding the reins and the keyboard, I thought it would be great to write about the Treasure Seekers (YOU!) and me.  We can start having adventures together while I am writing my books and working on this blog.

The first one involved thinking up a picture for this weekly category.  I am aiming to make it a weekly story, like Trust Your Gut Thursday, and Weekend Warrior.  I am hoping that it doesn’t become too much for me. Time will tell, as I am managing the blog commitments as best as I can so far, and the previous categories are still progressing. If I need to scale it back, it may be twice a month instead of every week, but we will see how it goes.

The struggle for finding the right picture for this category began with an online search for treasure, gems, treasure chest, maps, amongst other various thoughts and combinations.  While I was looking through many pictures and not finding what I wanted, I remembered that I had the picture I shared above.  It was taken at Kings Landing Historical Settlement a few years ago when I went for my first time.  It is quite the experience, to walk around, and see the farms and the people in costume playing the roles of people from our distant past.  We enjoyed our tour of some of the village and had a meal at The King’s Head Inn Restaurant before heading home.  It was the first time I tried Naughtea, which is a local honey mead made with green tea from Pollen Angels.  It is lovely.

Here are a few pics of my visit that day.

Now you can see where the inspiration for this picture came from.  I think that Kings Landing Historical Settlement is a gem, waiting for people to visit and take in the experience.  Now on to the “official” Treasure Seeker Tuesday business at hand.

I wanted to make a picture that invited the Treasure Seeker inside, to invite us to look for what lies beyond what is apparent in the picture.  This group and category are meant to be about more than meets the eye.  Not just the flash of the bling, but also about what really matters to us as a Tribe.  So when it came down to deciding on this, I reached out to friends and the “Official” Treasure Seekers Group on social media.

I am learning so much as I work on this blog.  I am not the type of creative that needs courses to prove what I can do.  I jump in, and likely because of the way I approach my projects, I feel like yelling and pulling out my hair sometimes, but I figure things out. Usually the hard way, first.  I am neither a photographer nor an editor, but I do the best I can.  Sometimes, people guide me to where I need to find the tools I need to accomplish what I need to do.  Other times, people pitch in and lend a helping hand.

That is what is so great about my whole blogging adventure.  I have friends that I know personally, and friends from around the world that are willing to help me out when I am stuck on something.  It humbles me when people open their hearts and minds to help me figure things out.  It also amazes me when a friend has the very answer I am seeking.  I treasure you all. (See what I did there?  I couldn’t help myself)!

There were a lot of attempts by myself to get this done.  I am now going to insert a slideshow of my own photo editing journey, then I will share the work of two friends that pitched in to help, crediting their work and sharing their online links for you to check out what else they are working on.

Here is my progression:

They are made with two different fonts.  I thought Great Vibes was a really pretty font.  I chose the other font, Lobster Two because it was a bolder font.  The Great Vibes was hard to read for some people, and the Lobster Two seemed to be easier for people to see on this pic.  I was then offered help.

Kirsty Allen, who hosted my first guest blog story, offered to give it a whirl.  You can find my introduction to that guest blog story here.  There is a link to the guest blog story at the end of my introduction story.  Kirsty is an author also.  You can find her blog, The Ramblings of a Madwoman with her writing and tips for other writers in this link.

Kirsty submitted two edited pictures for my review.

She used a different font, similar to the pretty Great Vibes I was working with, but it was even more elegant.  She also shared that she used, “…the wonders of Photoshop. Basically, I applied a filter in the second image, increased the contrast, and played around with the colour balance of the leaves to give them more of a blue saturation.”  I don’t understand what most of those terms mean, but I can see what they look like after she applied them.

Another friend, a former roommate Noa Price, also wanted to help.  She is living abroad now, and we were friends before and after we were roommates.  If she lived closer, I might be seeking her help out more often.  She is an artist, so she has a different background altogether.  She has studied her art in both New Brunswick, Canada, and also in Australia.  Her photo editing programs include adobe photoshop, but she shared that she prefers to use inkscape for illustrator and gimp for photoshop.  After a few trial runs, she sent her edited pictures for me to review.

Noa did some editing work on the original picture to fill in the hedge adjusted the colouring of it. In her words, “I changed it a bit leaving some of the path so people would “come in” and also made 70% opacity just behind the hedge so any text would be easily readable without losing the bush appearance. ”  You can see other examples of my friend Noa’s work at Noa Price’s Designs website.

After I carefully reviewed all of my options and considered the comments from social media gathered after this project, I made a final decision.  It was certainly a process, and as you can see, I am putting a lot of thought and effort into this picture, to get the correct one for this purpose.

This is the one I chose:

tish hedge square lobster

Noa Price 2

While I was working on this project, I played with different fonts.  Lobster Two seemed to be one I kept going back to.  Up to this point on my blog, I have used the font, Lora, with a tiny sprinkle of the font, Cabin Sketch.  I realized that Lobster Two really resembles my own personal handwriting style while working on this project, and I also really LOVE eating lobster.  It is my absolute favourite food on the planet, closely followed by chocolate and pizza.  So for me to see all of these things lining up, I have to go with my gut on this, and it is telling me that this will be the Treasure Seeker Tuesday picture moving forward.  Also, as I am building a new website, I think it is fair to expect a major font change on the new website.  At least until I find a chocolate or pizza font to mix in there. I hope that you agree with this picture as being the overall winner, and I look forward to writing in this category in the future.

If there are any topics or ideas that you would like to explore in a future Treasure Seeker Tuesday, please send me an e-mail or leave a comment below.  I can’t wait to see what we can discover together.

Guest Blog Host Post #1: Tea or Coffee?

Guest Blog Host Post #1: Tea or Coffee?

by | Oct 7, 2017 | Guest Blogging

 

mug-1504439_1920

When someone comes to visit me, I will offer them a cup of tea or coffee, as a host.  I chose this picture in particular because it has vibrant colours.

 

As a Blogger, you generally love to read and write.  A part of the craft is to continually learn and challenge yourself to become a better author.  In doing so, one often subscribes and follows numerous blogs within the community.

I have been fortunate enough to start on this path with a lot of help and guidance from my friends, and peers.  I have enrolled in free online workshops and found some that I think are worth saving up to participate in.  Through one of these challenges, I launched a free Guest Blogging invitation to the world.

While I haven’t been overwhelmed by people looking to share in this opportunity with me, a few people have approached me, and today I have the pleasure of sharing a story that another blogger wrote.  I do think as we are reading each other’s words and having online conversations about each other’s work, that we are well on the way to becoming friends.

I am a member of several different writing and blogging groups and communities online.  I am loving the support that I get from each one, and how they are all unique in their own ways.  I met my next Guest Blog Writer in one of these groups.

Syl DiNada was interested in Guest Blogging when I put out the invitation.  We started chatting, and Syl was more interested in sharing than hosting.  As it is an open invitation, I decided that I would see what came out of our discussions, and reading my new friend’s blog.

Let me tell you, the artwork that is prominently featured in Syl DiNada’s Blog is phenomenal.  I can visit just to look at the pictures.  Truly inspirational and magnificent.  Well worth checking out.  The writing, well, we definitely have different outlooks on life, and that is absolutely wonderful.  I love reading different things, and Syl puts a lot of thought behind the artwork, and consequently the writing for the blog.  I rather enjoy the visits, you should take a peek, and find something to read there.

Here is the Guest Blog share from Syl DiNada.

Wednesday, 25 January 2017
Sharing the Self

Syl 1Z: “Syl, I like your avatar but seriously, what do you look like? Why are you standing behind a mask and yet trying to convey true words?”

Y: “Z, I would just like to say we live in a world where we sometimes put too much importance on how others look. An Avatar can be a way of allowing a much larger audience to pay attention and really hear what is being said.

Personally, not for myself, as I honestly don’t care how someone looks, but I
care what is in their heart and how they convey that.”

Syl: Yes, Y has it pretty much. Although I really do make the majority of my
posts with just me in mind.

But really, at the time I signed up for FaceBook I did not own any pictures of
myself. I don’t use a phone either and had no digital camera. I just don’t
have much interest in personal pics, never have. (Yes, I know it’s hard to
believe in this day and age, but some of us have never taken a selfie.) So I
used this avatar pic of mine. And ofc…”There is More…”

Pictures of faces have a very particular effect on cognition. They instantly
convey an impression of someone. Pictures of faces are limited in what they
can convey, particularly when someone is outside of the typical cognition
pattern. I feel pretty confident that I am very much Not what a picture of my
face looks like.
I mean you will see a fairly regular face. But I think I can say without any ego
that I am not very regular at all. Not better or worse, just quite different. This
is something I know for sure from an objective standpoint.

Syl 2So any picture I put up of me will actually be *Inaccurate.* It won’t, and can’t, tell the whole story. Lol, I struggle to tell my story when I make an effort to do so.

For instance, a friend whom I chat with regularly, asked and made some specific comments about how it all started for me. And well, they completely
miss-assumed how it all began. So I had to explain. Lol, a few hundred thousand words, or half a dozen books later, I am still not done telling that story.

Haha, nothing for me is simple anymore, and that was just a straight-up
chronological story, telling about my early days as a philosopher, as a boy.
(Yes, I was a philosopher as a boy.) So really, I can’t put up a picture, it
would be a falsehood.

And besides, I am not sure why folks assume some other profile pic means hiding, That avatar pic actually says a lot, but that is a whole other post by
itself. I would say my posts reveal more about me than most pages I have
seen.

I am sharing my very essence. That is about as intimate as one can go. To
share what one’s favorite colour and food is, means nothing at all really. In
order to truly know someone, we need to know what matters to them, what
is important, what resonates with their Inner Being, with their Core.

It is knowing what they *Aspire* to. Not even ambitions really tell us about
someone, those are typically relatively superficial, and often artificial. But
what someone’s Heart and Soul truly *Aspires* to, that is *them.* Knowing
someone, one could say, is getting to know their Soul and Heart, not their
temporary and arbitrary likes and dislikes. We have to go past the surface
superficialities to really get to know someone.

Besides, I don’t feel what I Share for the most part “belongs” to me.
Concepts, thoughts, ideas, Perspectives and all the More I Share, belong to
everyone. In this way I feel I am Sharing what is Us. I truly make every effort
to live in Attunement to everything around me, to everyone and everything in
my life. I try with everything I have to live in Attunement with the World and
the Universe. Perhaps I need a picture of a community, a large community,
that would be more accurate. <3 <3
Syl 3***

And well, there is another reason also… I am way too handsome to post my
picture. I would get err….unwanted attention if I did. 😀 😀 😀
However, in amongst all the art in my posts, somewhere, there is a picture that does resemble me. <3

 

Syl DiNada is a Philosopher-Writer focusing on the Application of a comprehensive Practical-Personal-Philosophy.
Creator of: The Philosophy of Appropriateness and: An A+ Philosophy.
Syl 4

Thanks for letting me share your story from January, Syl DiNada.  I look forward to reading more of your writing, and further conversations.  If you are reading this and want to get in touch with me for Guest Blogging opportunities, here is the invitation.

You are cordially invited to start a discussion with Tish MacWebber about Guest Posting opportunities.2

Weekend Warrior # 32

Weekend Warrior # 32

by | Oct 1, 2017 | Weekend Warrior

If you are following my blog, you will know what I was up to yesterday, already.  I will not go into the same story again, but it is still on my mind, of course.

Friday night had me decide to have a bottle of wine.  It was a red wine, and it was truly terrible.  I did not enjoy it at all, and will never buy it again.  I thought about pouring it down the drain, but being half Scottish, I drank it instead of wasting it.  The new wine glass (a 1 Litre Thundermug) fit the 750ml bottle nicely, and I sipped at it all evening.  There were a large number of descriptive flavours on the label, but none of them shone through.  It was muted abundance if that makes any sense.  Hmm.  If I ever make wine, that might be what I call it, but instead of being watery, and too many flavours, I will find a way to take a subtle flavour and enhance it.  Muted Abundance.  Well, at least I got something good out of the experience!

Roy had decided he was up for making tacos for supper.  I think I should warn you that horribly bad red wine does NOT pair well with tacos.  I doubt red wine ever pairs well with tacos.  Had I known where the evening would have ended, I might have chosen to drink some of Susan’s tequila instead.  Hindsight is 20/20. We then sat down to watch The Orville together.  Roy had no idea what I was putting on the TV, but we rather enjoyed it.  The obvious jokes were funny, and it was a show with a spaceship.  We will see if it keeps us laughing, that was the pilot show.  I had my bottle of G2 (Gatorade) chaser when I finished the wine and while I was eating my tacos.  I can say that I had no hangover (yay!) but must confess to a night of uncomfortable indigestion.

Saturday was written about yesterday.  However, after the event, we went out to supper with Andrew and some other friends.  We had a nice meal, and the conversation did steer around Star Trek Discovery and The Orville.  After that, we went to play pool at Dooly’s for an hour or two.  While we were there, a Beatles song came on.  I felt it was a message from Susan, as we were there with Andrew.  “Paperback Writer” played, and it made me feel like we had her blessing to be spending time together as friends.  It also told me that I need to get serious about writing if I am going to get my Fantasy Trilogy done.  I was a little sad that Susan wasn’t able to be with us, but also felt that in a way, she was.

Here I am on Sunday, writing from The Second Cup, in Fredericton New Brunswick, Canada.  I have to pass some time before going to buy fish food.  We are out, and the fishies like it when we feed them. (No, they didn’t go without, we just need more.)  As I am in the same part of town where the store is, it made sense to park in a cafe with my laptop, have my breakfast, and write.  I am so happy with this laptop.  I just had a brief discussion with the city mayor about the wi-fi signal here.  I am in the front corner, far away from the counter, and I suspected that if I was closer to the back of the cafe the signal would be stronger.  The Mayor confirmed this, as he is using his phone, and was moving through the cafe to find out if the signal changed.  It did.  For my purposes, it is a Sunday, and I decided that the location was more important than the speed of my internet connection.  With a little patience, I am able to do what I need to do.  It is a lesson in patience when the internet is slow, no matter where you are, or what you are working on.  Today, I have decided to pace myself and make the most of my day, as tomorrow is another Monday.

Once I finish my errands, I am going to go prep cook and bounce the house.  I plan to have a skype date with my cousin this evening and will be catching a live webinar this afternoon.  I am hoping to meet up with a friend today, actually, there may be two friends I need to see, now that I think about it.  So even though it is a day that I do not want to rush about to get things done, it will be packed full of many things that need to get done.

Weekend Warrior # 32

Weekend Warrior #31

by | Sep 24, 2017 | Weekend Warrior

 

Hello everyone!  I am kicking back and putting my feet up in a hotel in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada.  I have just finished a weekend of helping my friend out at a craft show, with her knitting and her daughter’s crocheting.  It is an annual show, called Windfall Fine Art & Handcraft Market. I have worked at other craft shows myself, and I have to tell you, this one was a little different.

The show is hosted at the St. F. X. Campus in Antigonish, in a section of the arena.  There is an admission fee for the customers, and that is donated to the local Charity that donates part of the proceeds to the local hospital.  The part that really stands out for me was that there was a place for vendors to go and take a break.  Not so big of a deal by itself, until you find out that there is a snack table with hot and cold drinks, biscuits and cheese, and sweets there for the vendors to take as they wish.  It is also run by donation, and all of the proceeds from this and the raffle go to the same charity.  There are donated gifts from the vendors that they sell tickets on, which is what the raffle is for.  I did not win a prize.

We left on Friday.  I took a 4 day weekend, and am using up 2 vacation days to be able to be here.  We booked a room in a local hotel.  I wasn’t sure about it, but it has been a pleasant stay. The hotel is under new management, so there are things that could be improved upon, but these things did not make the stay unbearable.  The bed was good, there are enough pillows and towels.  It is clean.  I have been comfortable here.

We got some groceries to have food during the weekend at the show and at the hotel.  I am getting ready to make some microwave popcorn to enjoy while watching the brand new Star Trek Series Discovery.  I am looking forward to the show.

We ate at a local favourite restaurant tonight.  It is called The Snow Queen.  I knew there was one near Mother Webb’s Restaurant, but I was not aware that there was one in the town of Antigonish.

I was impressed by the food.  I got the pan fried haddock in lemon butter, garlic mashed potatoes, and a small house salad.  I was in the mood for a treat, so I had a chocolate milkshake with it.  I really enjoyed it.  The piece of fish was large, the potatoes and salad were tasty, and the milkshake filled the glass twice.  I felt like I had a haddock Thanksgiving dinner.  It was very good.

One of the highlights for me was seeing a few relatives today.  They didn’t realize I was in town so it was a bit of a surprise for them.  I was happy to see them and to have a few minutes to catch up.  If I come back again next year we may plan more than a short visit. The

The other nice memory I have was of a little girl this afternoon.  She was about 3.  Her mother had picked up a mandala vest, and I told her that I was impressed that she knew what it was.  She did because she had previously bought one for her daughter, who had outgrown it and it was time to get her another one in a larger size.  She got her daughter to try some on and then was deciding on colours.  Her daughter was spinning and hugging it and just looked so thrilled to be getting a new vest. The whole event was simply adorable.

Well, it is time to pop the popcorn and enjoy the new series opening shows.  We are going to get to see episode 1 &2.   I did buy 2 bottles of wine today, to bring home.  It was a  fine way to finish the weekend.

What did you do this weekend?