winter hikes

In addition to my love of salsa, I have, of late, developed a serious love for winter walks. Weight watchers gives a bunch of tips on the web site for how to get the most out of it, and the three most useful tips I've taken are...

1. Walk at a slow or moderate pace, because otherwise you'll bust your ass on the ice. No, really. You will.

2. Aim to wear three layers, and if you're too hot you can strip items off as you go.

3. Bring water. Wearing all those layers makes you sweat, and winter air can actually dehydrate you faster than warm air. I try to bring a little bag of some sort with me for water bottle, ipod, and clothes that I may want to take off/put on as I go.

....and last but not least, my PERSONAL tip is to bring something with you that is capable of taking pictures. I don't know where you guys choose to do your winter walking, but I often find that natural beauty is heightened by all the drama of ice and snow. I've been known to hate winter, but a tiny waterfall surrounded by snow? too beautiful to hate. I'll try to post some pictures next time I go for a beautiful winter walk.

So, in conclusion, I highly recommend winter walking--it's one of the only things I've found that makes these last few weeks (read: months) of snow bearable.

Think of it this way, if you wish (and ten BAJILLION points to whomever knows where one can find part of this quote engraved around Cleveland):

"I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."

-Wendell Berry

i love salsa. i will put salsa on anything...most recently, the eggs with cheddar cheese that i made this morning.

the only problem with this combination is that eggs have a surprisingly high "points" value, unless you eat only the egg whites...and i can't stand eggs without the yokes. solutions, anyone?

black beans--the king of foods.

a promise

good eve'n, interwebz.

i have just eaten a 1/2 lb cheeseburger and fries.
sooo...i have to go to the gym tomorrow. and i'm having the whole internet hold me accountable. so now, if i don't go to the gym, i will have to apologize to the internet for my misbehavior.

tgif.
Mandy

so, this is me "before"--september 2009
























and this is me last month--january 2011

















I always said I would post pictures, but never got around to it. I thought they might be appropriate. praise me, readers. motivate me.

Starting Anew

I'm back.

but "I'm back" doesn't sound right when you want to start fresh, so I'll try again--

I'm here.

After posting with some degree of diligence on my "previous" blog, I left any remaining readers high and dry at the end of spring semester last year. At that point, I had just joined weight watchers and felt that I no longer had to keep the blog up in order to hold myself accountable for my efforts to get healthy. I considered the blog to no longer be relevant to what I was trying to accomplish. What's more, I was feeling that these days someone creates a blog every other day--as they should--and the existence of so many similar blogs somehow lessened the importance of my own.

I continued to stay mindful of foods that I ate and tried to keep exercising, but I simply lost motivation after a while. I'd reached something of a mental plateau. Of course, my commitment to resume the journey remained firm, but I just kept saying "it can wait until tomorrow."

By re-instating this blog, I hope to re-affirm my commitment to reaching my goal...but I learned from my last blog experience, and this blog will be different. I intend for this blog to be much more personal than its previous incarnation. I don't mean "personal" in the sense that I would use this blog to bitch about petty grievances. I want the blog to be a reflection of my perception of the struggle to lose weight in a world that tells you to do it for all the wrong reasons.

So, when I say "personal," I mean that I will be writing about my daily struggle to form an identity that is neither "fat" nor "thin". Because when you've lived your whole life defining yourself as "fat," and believing that others define you that way too, the struggle to break free of that fatness is far more psychological than physical.

The tone of the blog will definitely be different, because--and this is the most important part--I'm really not writing this for anyone but myself. My hope is that some people will read it, and that those people will read it because they truly give a shit...because I know there are a lot of other blogs out there to read, and mine probably won't have as many pretty pictures and flashing lights as the other ones.

I guess that's the long and short (but really just long) of it. I'm going to try to write every single day...mostly because writing on a blog, no matter how quirky or trite, is a better use of my time than being on facebook.

TO NEW BEGINNINGS!
Mandy