Just. Breathe.

That's "Lent," not "lint." I'm not blogging for the stuff in my dryer or navel. But I've been sitting this year out on the blogging front, and I'd like to get back into it, so here goes: For the next 40 days, I'm going to post a blog every.single.day.  [I've lost my mind.] That's right, every day I will post something , probably something short, on some random topic. Hold me accountable, people.  Day 1 (or maybe Day 40 if I want to do a countdown): Where Have I Been? She's a brat, I tell ya.  Basically, I've been fighting my inner five-year-old. Read this if you don't know what I'm talking about. I had all these plans to get back on the exercise and right-eating bandwagon, and that little brat just kept interfering. Oh, and so did the weather. Cold makes me cranky and depressed, and the excuses to just sit on the couch and eat chips seem so much more relevant with it's below freezing. And this is in Texas! ...

from tumblr.com I read a great post this week - so great I wish I'd written it. The author lost about 125 pounds over a period of 16 months or so and has kept an awesome online record of her journey. It was really interesting to me that I just found her site but I'm already doing several things she mentions worked for her. The post that has had me thinking was specifically about motivation versus determination. Here's the whole post . Here's what I've come up with based on that post, my own opinion, and doing a little other research. Basically, I think motivation is what we often call "will power" -- and many times it's what we depend on when we're trying to do (or not do) something. I may look for the motivation to work out, to plan my meals, to order the right thing off the menu. The motivation may be a smaller size, a pending weigh-in, or an event. The problem is when the motivation for doing the right thing isn't stronger than the m...

I've been in a bit of a funk today. Not anything to do with food or exercise, just more about life and work and what I'd like to change. A couple of things happened that started my brain swirling and it's just been downhill from there. About three minutes ago, I opened a box of cards sent to me by a friend for Christmas. They're called self-care cards, and the author says she "created these cards to serve as a daily reminder to take special care of your precious Self" and she suggests just picking out a random message every day. The one I pulled out was "Achievement." Hm. Great, on a day when I'm not sure I've achieved anything, this is what I get. Fine, I'll see what it says..."Chase your dreams. You may be surprised by where they lead you." Chase my dreams. I feel like my brain's been pushing me there all day...and now I see it in writing. There are no coincidences, there is only an invisible plan. An hour ago, I'd...