Losing Weight

After suffering through Moby Dick, I flew through this book, finishing in two days:

It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell

There has been a lot of buzz on blogs about this book. It is the story of how Andie Mitchell, after being overweight all of her life, lost 135 pounds in college. She details her family history (some issues that psychologically contributed to a dependence upon food) her weight gain throughout K-12, and then her dedicated weight loss in college - most of which happened while she was studying abroad in Italy and learning about delicious food! - and the psychological issues involved in maintaining a healthy weight after all the losing was over. I appreciate Mitchell's honesty about how life transitions, big or small, contribute to weight gain, or stall weight loss. This has been my experience, too (not that I've necessarily been trying to lose weight these days). Just being out of my normal routine for a couple of weeks has "allowed me" to be way more active, and way smarter about food choices. But I keep thinking that things will change bigtime when school starts in the fall. I need to figure out how to stay healthy amidst change...

Remember (BFJ) back in the day, when Oprah used to say that being overweight wasn't about the food? And we would retort, "Oh, Oprah. It is about the food!" Well, the older and wiser I get, the more I realize that my food issues have very little to do with food itself but rather with using it for the wrong reasons (i.e. stress relief! eating my feelings! enhancing any and every social interaction!). While this book wasn't a revelation or anything, it was an easy-to-read, interesting, honest, and motivating view into someone else's journey. Plus, it's a great summer book!

In other news, our convo club walked around the park and talked about serial killers last night.

We have not mastered the self portrait. I think all of our arms are too short.

M-Dawg is currently on her way to Ireland and I'm so jealous that I almost didn't include her in the pictures.

Now that all the stupid, life-consuming yard work is done. I just about don't know what to do with myself. Good thing work is starting up. My grueling summer schedule.