me me me

I'm just a 30-something girl living in Minneapolis in my own sweet bachelorette pad. 

I'm consistently budgeting, reevaluating my lifestyle and coming up with new projects to keep busy. I am ridiculously, annoyingly dis/organized. I am always reading and listening, often at the same time. I love recipes. I bike as much as possible. I really like bikes and sometimes I touch them with tools. I run and jump and play and climb in literal ways. I am attracted to bright // shiny things and my camera is only a pocket away. I am eco-friendly and have been transitioning my consumer practices to reflect this. I am giving myself permission to let these things seep into this blog, as my life is a factor in my body acceptance and appreciation journey.

I have a lot of ideas. Subsequently, I have a lot of opinions. 

My Fat Story

In the summer of 2003, I joined Weight Watchers for the first time. In 3 months, I shed 28lbs. I was extremely proud of this accomplishment at the time, so proud, in fact, that I believed I didn't need to continue following the program and that I had learned everything I needed to know to get down to my "goal weight" and maintain it.

HILARIOUS! Oh, Me. You're so silly sometimes. 

Four years later, there I am. Tipping the scales at 199lbs and feeling pretty crummy about it. At 5'2"  and the heaviest I have ever been in my life, I became a plus-size. Now, I there is nothing wrong with being plus-size. The women of my family all have "big bones."  We are a hip-y bunch. Obesity runs in our veins. If you eat a cupcake, it is automatically transported into the folds of your thighs, and it was always a goal of mine to never reach this point because I have seen the pain and distress that obesity brought to my family. But, as I watched my neck disappear under many new chins, I had to admit that I had to work at that goal. I couldn't just continue eating as a solution to everything. As I stepped onto the scale I had stolen from a previous roommate, I saw the number 199 and I signed up for WW right away because diet culture was all I knew. 

_______   _________   ________

It's been a hell of a ride. Over the last 15 years I have learned so much about myself.

My favorite thing I've learned is that THIS NEVER ENDS. 

Ever. 

I'll always be paying attention to my body. I'll think about what I eat. I'll care about what I put in my body. I will always want to exercise my body's awesome ability to move me around and do things that are fun like rock-climbing or riding my bike or hugging my Manpanion or more-than-hugging my Manpanion. 

You are here, on this earth, and that is both a joy and a responsibility.