Journey Beyond Survival

Morgan is someone I resonate with.  She is a mom like me.  She is a wife like me.  We struggle, we play. I like her sense of words and space.  I'm grateful to her for helping me out as we go to our family reunion today.  Thanks again!  *** edited to add SORRY I scheduled it for PM instead of AM Morgan.  So So Sorry!!! I am completely in awe at being given the opportunity to take up space on JBS’ blog today. She has become more or less one of my heroes, someone that I find myself referring to in conversation with non-bloggy people, someone who amazes me with nearly every post she writes. So in addition to being in awe, I am also completely somewhat nervous at the thought of needing to live up to some shade of her standard so that you, her loyal friends and readers, won’t want to come after me with pitchforks and torches ala Young Frankenstein (a riot is an ugly thing.) Lately I have been thinking a lot about pushing, and all the kinds of difficult t...

by: mish@eatingjourney.com When your life is crazy that’s when you think that you can’t handle anymore. I don’t know about you, but I think that JBS is one of the most amazing women I have ever met. She knows her faith, loves her family, never gives up hope to help her kids and is always loving on other people. She has written about her struggles and her weight on my blog . Throughout my own journey of healing from a pretty crap relationship and then binge eating and weight gain I have come to the realisation that my own ability to handle what life throws at me is a heck of a lot more than I thought I could handle. I honestly do believe that after getting over the negative mental state that I was in, letting go of some insecurities and moving into a place of calm I realised something very profound. I can endure. Perhaps many of our journeys are ones with horrible stories, awkward stages, heart break, tragedies, abuse, weight gain, lost jobs etc. It is either those stories wh...

This is one classy lady that needs no introduction. She is MizFit . She's filling in for me on MissTHANG's birthday. Thank you, and hugs and kisses! (a brief and honest rant about why I love the iron. People are always always asking me . . . ) When I lift weights I know that I’m not, in that moment, thinking about how I’ll look in my sleeveless top, but focusing upon how powerful I feel. When I lift weights I know that I’m not, in that moment, ruminating on boosting my metabolism and shedding fat, but on how I am growing stronger and *bigger.* How, as a result of my iron hoisting, I now take up MORE space in the world. How I’m far less likely to be ignored or overlooked. Through weight lifting I have shed my insecurities and become more empowered in all areas of my life. I trust my instincts more, I speak up without fear, and I have learned that saying NO and setting boundaries isn’t going to cause the world to come to an end. For me weight training is about...

I’ve said before that JBS and I have a lot of things about us, our lives, and our families that make us different. Things that in other times or places might make being good friends kind of difficult. But isn’t it funny how meeting here, in the blogosphere, in this virtual way, can make our similarities so much more striking and magnetic than our differences? She and I, we both have kids that we tirelessly fret over. We both deal with guilt. We both have darkness in our minds sometimes, and we both fight like mad to stay in the light. We have spouses that have gone with us to hell and back. We have so many blessings, but I think that we both occasionally need a nudge to remember that. I’m here today at her place to help her out. She’s got a lot on her plate, as we all do, but hers is especially heaping right now. Over the months that she and I have grown to be friends, she’s heard me say over and over “you can only do what you can do. Just take a look at what you’ve got going on i...

My friend Ryan   helped me out during this crazy circus week.  Unbeknownst to me he wrote this post an hour before having his gallbladder removed.  He is that Guy.  So, he has the honor of covering for me while Chickadee is having surgery for her G-tube.  (a feeding tube in her stomach-she can still eat)  He also does awesome work at this site of his, as well as that site which he co-authors.  He is completely amazing.  If you like Twitter, follow him @NoMoreBacon , but be sure to pack a girdle, because your abs are gonna ache from the lunchtime belly laughing.  Oh! and he is the one that took my other blog from limping to  fabulous .    I asked Ryan to write about how his son's autism affected his own health.  Please savor Ryan Sullivan of  No More Bacon : Autism May Have Saved My Life Now I know that’s a really bizarre thing to say. How a disorder that affects so many children could have had some type o...

it was a scientific study analysis of emotions at onset analysis of situations  triggering onset analysis of mental states I was stressed Mr. Survival left my treadmill in an un-usable position on the floor I was trapped in a car My kids embarrassed me in public I couldn't go home Mr. Survival had 3 conference calls to make in his office directly underneath my current aka 'old' living room Mr. Survival had a potential new boss coming for a presentation directly below my whole house for the tour the oldest two were home from school Beansprout pooped at 7:30 am without damaging his daily underwear Did I say I couldn't go home? Bottom line:  it is my fault.  There are other things I could have done.  For instance, it would have cost less for me to check back into a [clean, orderly, nice] motel/hotel than it did for me to run ALL of my errands, rent 2 movies, buy Beansprout 2 new pairs of shoes, drive 45 minutes so the kids would watch the freaking movie ...

We got the moving truck rather unexpectedly. It's more expensive than Mr. Survival planned, so we're doing a lot of lifting, cardio, and squats. No. We're not doing the bootcamp in a trailer. We ARE moving things to the new garage, since we can't move in yet, but they're being kind enough to let us dump in a storage manner. Sorry. I'll have to beg your forgiveness and promise to update you. Eventually.