Last evening as I was coming home from class, I was hit with a couple of ideas on what I wanted to do some shows on. Problem usually is in those cases, I’m driving and can’t stop and write AND, in this case, forgot my voice recorder. Actually, that’s not true… I didn’t forget it. It was sitting on my desk waiting for me to transcribe other recordings I had put on it. In other word, procrastinating potentially caused me to lose some potentially great (well, to me anyway), revvellations which is why I’m up and typing this at 5:25 a.m!!! It came to me that I wanted to share this with you and what I do (when I’m on my game) so that I’ve always got ideas and even sometimes, a whole show ready, at least on virtual “paper”.

I usually get my best ideas when I’m out walking which is very often about this time. Something just pops up and I work it through my head and “try” to remember it yet, by the time I get home, it’s gone. The second place I get my ideas is in the shower. Now, I’ve not gotten a recorder I can get wet yet. What I may do is take the one I’ve got and stick it in a plastic bag and see how that works. The third times I get my ideas (did that make sense? Third times?), is early in the morning when I wake up ~ like THIS morning! Then there’s last night. I had just been in a great movement class and two, not one, but two, ideas came to mind! For some reason, maybe because oxygen was flowing, yet, I got home and remembered both of them and had a chance to get them down so I can (hopefully), flesh them out and create something worthwhile with them.

Two suggestions for keeping your inspirations are: 1) notebook and pen and 2) a digital voice recorder.

For me, the first has been troublesome when out and about because for some reason, the pen refuses to work. It’s not because it’s out of ink, it just doesn’t happne to work when I’m out and about. The other reason is, I enjoy walking about 5 a.m. or, after 8 p.m. when it’s dark, therefore I have to find a source of light, often a street lamp, and stand there and write. If you’re trying to get in a certain amount of steps, this becomes a pita if you keep coming up with new ideas and have to make frequent stops. It IS better than cutting your walk short by feeling you have to go home so you don’t lose your great inspirations!

My second and really best choice is my digital voice recorder. I’ve got an Olympus VN 960PC. Since I got mine many years ago, Olympus has come up with quite a few other options. Mine is quite simple which is what I like ~ simple and easy-to-use.

I just checked Amazon and whew! Olympus has a BUNCH of dvr’s!!! NONE of them, except one, has a full 5-stars. The one with 5 is $210 and has only 3 reviews so that one is still suspect.

My suggestion, decide how much you’re willing to circulate, then review the ones around your price range. I don’t recall how much this one cost ~ I’m thinking less than $50 although, at the time I purchased, they may have been higher, yet I don’t think so.

Consider also, what you want to be doing with it. Do you want one that will transfer everything you say directly into your computer? How much recording time do you need? Will you be using it to record seminars? Do you want to be able to use an external mic for better sound?

Of course, you don’t have to stay with Olympus. That’s just what I have and am currently using. If you find or have something you like better, please share here and tell what you like about yours. Oh! Another thing I like about mine is, it’s so small! I can carry it in any pocket when out walking, along with my cell phone and pepper spray (yes, never leave home w/out pepper spray ~ but that’s another blog post).

Love to hear from you!

Injoy ~

Revvell

Recently I’ve been watching a show called S.W.A.T. (not the long ago t.v. series) and saw how the “negotiators” interacted with those barricaded with or without hostages.

I realize they only show bits and pieces of what’s really going on and what’s really being said yet, from what they show it’s just textbook training, not life. If they talked to me when I was suicidal I’d have killed myself ~ as many of them do. Why? They show no compassion for what’s going on with the ~ hmmm, don’t know what to call him (it’s usually a “him”… so, I’ll just call him “perp” unless I come up with something better before finishing this.)

Himself and I talked about how I’d probably be a really good negotiator ~ left to my own devices, especially having dealt with suicidal depression. Why? Because I know what it felt like to always feel like no one is on your side; everything you do is wrong; what’s the point in going on?

I was considering this and wondering what changed for me? Why did I, all of a sudden, stop feeling that death was the only way out?

Well, one thing was was when I was 13, I was considering ways to do it and I thought that if I had the courage to kill myself, then, I also had the courage to live and find out where my life was going to go. (A thought I remembered numerous times throughout my life.) (Also, if you want to call suicide “the coward’s way out” think about how you are afraid to leave that job or that lousy relationship because your monkey mind is saying that “something is better than nothing” or “being alone is worse” or, the “the next one might be worse”, etc. Even though it’s where we originally came from, death is as unknown to us as life is. It takes courage to die especially by one’s own hand. LMAO! I’m just remembering that I thought I was such a screw up that I probably couldn’t even kill myself right and would end up being a vegetable for the rest of my life. One more thought that kept me alive.)

Not sure where I’m going with this other than one thought was, if one kills him/herself, they may miss that great turnaround where life becomes joy!

Oh! I know why I started this. I was thinking about gang members and how they feel they HAVE to join a gang in order to survive where they are. Many of them are amazingly intelligent, very sensitive and scared.

They often have to create this persona of toughness just to stay alive when in reality, they’re not who they appear to be externally.

What turned my life around was in finding who I really am, not who I pretended to be. When my teacher first told me “you don’t know who you are”, I had no idea what he was talking about. Of COURSE I know who I am. Well, I didn’t. I felt I had to BE tough in order to survive. Well, not true. I have to be me in order to thrive!

Injoy,

Revvell

Bodacious Living

On my last UStream show I mentioned that my husband had left the hatch open on my car so when we were headed out on Saturday (my birthday) for lunch, then to an event, my car wouldn’t start. We were planning on taking both vehicles because he was working that evening and was going to leave the event early and go directly to his gig while I’d get to stay and enjoy the event.

Well, since my car wouldn’t start, change of plans. We decided to take his car, go for lunch, then go the the event and then he’d drive me home.

Now, many people would be a bit upset about that. First, the fact that he’d left the hatch open and the battery was dead; secondly because they’d have to leave the event early; 3rd, the inconvenience of having to get the car going and drive it enough to re-charge the battery.

I know many would have been so angry that they’d ruin the rest of the day… maybe not talking to him… accusing him… saying how stupid he was… etc.

For me, my monkey mind wanted to do all that BUT, my more reasonable self was in charge. He knew he was the last to take something out of the car (case of young Thai coconuts) and knew it was most likely he who’d left it open (not that you could see it but open enough to leave the light on and drain the battery). When I told him, he said, “yes, that’s right”. Now, lil monkey was yelling in my ear… “Is that it? ‘That’s right’? What about an apology???”

My rational mind said “you know, he’s probably feeling really crappy about this and already beating himself up. What’s the point? IF he says he’s sorry… what then? Do I REALLY need to make him “more” wrong? Will that make me more right? And, if so, so what? Ego is fed?”

The point of this whole story is, when coming from love, we don’t need to MAKE someone else wrong. The programmed part of me really wanted to do that but, what would be the point?

What I COULD have done and what many WOULD have done is, get pissed off and spoil the whole day if not the whole weekend! Yell about his un-consiousness and TRY and make him feel bad. Not talked to him for whatever length of time as punishment.

Where do we learn this type of behavior? I’ve seen it SO often in books and on t.v. shows and in the movies where one party becomes angry and doesn’t even tell the other party why. They feel SO in control when the other person keeps saying “just talk to me! Just tell me what’s wrong!” I remember having the conversation myself with ex’s. It’s ridiculous!

I remember a line in the movie “Get Shorty” where there had been a shootout and sometime later one character asked the other, “aren’t you scared?” The other said “I was scared then, I’m not now, how long I got to be scared?”

For me, that works across the board. “How long I got to be mad?”

One time someone told me “In a years time you wont even remember this. Why wait?”

So, why wait? Why not drop the anger (and dropping is NOT suppressing!) and move on! How often have you wondered what the arguement/fight was even about?

IF I had gone the way so many do, I’d have missed out on a lovely lunch with him; hanging out with him that afternoon at the event; riding to it and back with him AND, kissing him before he went off to work.

NOW, what if something had happened to him on his way to or from work? What IF I’d have stayed angry?

See? What’s the point? Anger is a natural emotion. Staying angry is ego. Trying to control someone.

Oh! The second part. Sunday morning I had a class at 7:30. I thought I’d call AAA, have them start the car and the battery would recharge on the way to class. The driver showed up 30 minutes later. My bad. I did say it was a Prius but I didn’t say my drive was long and narrow and a battery pack would be needed if they brought a tow truck.

So, the guy brings a huge tow truck, no battery pack and knows nothing about Prius’. He told me we could roll the car down the drive. Ummm, it’s dead. Without power you can’t even put it in neutral.

So, I decided to leave a message for Himself which basically said, “I’ll be home in 3 hours. Please call AAA and tell them to send someone who knows about Prius’ and to bring a battery pack.” Pretty much was a bit irritated so saying “You broke it, now fix it”. So, I go to class, get home about 10:30 a.m. and my note and key are exactly where I’d left them. I heard him upstairs and knew he’d not even seen it so, I threw it away.

Yes, lil monkey child was at it again. “He’s just getting up??? You’ve GOT to tell him!! He’s GOT to take care of this” blah, blah, blah!

What I did was, go up and greet him. His first words, “would you like to go out for birthday weekend brunch?” Hell yeah!!

So, called AAA again, told them to send someone who knows about Prius and to bring a battery pack. They did. The car started immediately! We went out for brunch, did some shopping and had a truly wonder-filled birthday weekend.

Now! IF I had listened to the little fur-brat in my head, that would not have happened. I’d have maintained my anger; he’d have been feeling bad and we’d have wasted a really great, loving weekend.

Injoy,

Revvell

Bodacious Living

Wow! What an amazing revvellation!

I’d posted a free ebook recently on a forum I frequent on a thread called “Prosperity Now” and, I saw that over 30 people had looked at it and not one “thank you”! Usually when someone gives us something, we’ve learned to say thank you (unless we don’t feel we deserve it or, it’s not something we’re thank-filled for). I mean that’s basic in growing up ~ Receive a gift ~ “thank you”, no?

So, someone basically chastised me because I mentioned it so, I did my thing and explained my reasoning, blah, blah, blah and, as I was doing my morning appreciations I realized, as much as I appreciate the ebook, as much as I’ve shared it with others, I did NOT thank the person who wrote it and gave it to me!!!

So, I went to the original site ~ Attract Money Now ~ where I thought I could leave feedback. Hmph! No contact info, nothing. So, I thought, where can I contact Joe and thank him? I thought MAYBEEE he’s a “friend” on Facebook! Yup! He is! So, found him and thanked him publicly! I’m also going to spread the word about this book which I find extremely useful AND going to do a review of it on my personal blog ~ here! lol

So, what’s the point here? How often do we thank people in our heads? I do. I do it often. Yet, what good is that doing anybody? Certainly not doing the person being appreciated any good nor the appreciator, really!

Now, did I really want or care if I received thanks for the book? Absolutely not! I gave it because I felt it worth sharing YET, since I hadn’t received thanks, it gave me the perfect reason to share some of what I learned which is, when you give appreciation for something 1) you’ll receive appreciation 2) people are more willing to give when they know people appreciate what you have to give.

If/when you share appreciation to a woman for a dress she’s wearing and she says, “what? this old thing?”… do you feel to give more? How about if she said “Thank you! I appreciate you noticing and saying something!” So! Two people go away beaming, yes?

Do I feel to post anything more on that thread? Not really. Kind of a “why bother” right now EXCEPT for the few who did 1) download the book 2) read the book and 3) took action on what they read AND let me know they appreciated my posting it there. Now THOSE people I feel to give more to. Wouldn’t you?

In actuality, I give a LOT and if one person, whether they thank me or not, receives benefit from what I say/do, more the better.

As I’m writing this, I’m thinking about my playbook and one of the quotes I have in it. While looking for it, I came across this one ~ “Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality.” Alfred Painter

Another: “You were given a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?” ~ William A. Ward

Another: “If you don’t appreciate what you have, you wont get anymore… because the universe thinks it’s not important to you, and therefore you don’t need anymore.” ~ T. Harv Ecker

The one I was looking for ~

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” ~ William Arthur Ward

As I’m writing this, I’m overwhelmed with all the things I’m grateful for and never express. I could spend the whole day saying “thank you” to all I have, those I know… wow! Well, living in overwhelm is surely better than living in “whelm” yes?

Thank YOU for reading and any comments.

Revvell

Bodacious Living

I had just finished prepping for my UStream show and gone out for my walk when I realized I NEEDED to come back here and write this up. If I didn’t I’d have said it all in my head and forgotten it by the time I came back.

I’m realizing too that I really need to empty my voice recorders and take one with me every time I go out so I don’t have to cut my walk short. I did get in over 3000 steps before coming home though.

O.k., to the topic at hand ~ being a “Use To” person.

I go to quite a few networking meetings and meet various people and when they see what I eat they’ll ask if I’m vegetarian. When I say “yes” they’ll often say “I USE TO be”.

When I meet people who ride motorcycles, now, I’m a “USE TO” person. Before a friend died in a auto/mc collision and another lost his leg (same crash), I rode. I have to catch myself to not say I “use to” ride so they ask me, why don’t you ride anymore as I don’t want to inject them with MY stuff about riding!

What I like to hear is “I USE TO smoke, drink, do drugs but I don’t anymore!”

Instead I hear “I USE TO do daily appreciations; walk every day; exercise; eat well, etc.” I also know I’m not going to ask them why they don’t any more. It’s not my biz. I don’t want to hear their dreary excuses for why they don’t.

This came up for me recently in an online conversation with a gent who told me his girlfriend “use to” be a vegetarian ~ before she met him. Enough said.

What brought this up for me is a couple of times over the past months I’ve caught myself saying “I USE TO be able to get up off the floor easily” and “before I got married I USE TO go walking daily”.

For me, when I say “I USE TO”, I want it to be consciously attained. By that I mean “I USE TO be a meat eater (well, it’s been 24 years now); I USE TO procrastinate on getting in my daily play; I USE TO be angry; I USE TO contemplate suicide (that’s over 15 years ago)…

See what I mean? Keep the good and USE TO the not-so good. Now, I want to say I CAN get up off the floor easily; I DO get up and move daily; I AM aware of what goes in my mouth and supports MY body.

Comments?

Injoy, Revvell

Bodacious Living

Quite often I find myself throwing away produce because I forget I have it. When I purchase it, I have every intention of making smoozies with it or juicing it or SOMEthing. By the time I get it home and put it away, I often forget my intention or something else takes my attention and I never get to it.

Also as many of us have partners who tend to eat less healthy than we do OR, just keep food in the house we tend to crave, here’s a quick suggestion to cover both scenarios ~

Take sticky notes and, on any food (package) or shelf of foods containing something you prefer NOT to eat, write something on it like ~ “Do You Really Want to Eat This? Options” (depending on what you have available):

Bananas
Apples
Grapes
Green salad w/
tomatoes
cukes
marinated veggies
carrots
beets (shredded)
Olives
Orange juice (maybe you’re really thirsty and not necessarily hungry)
Coconut water
Water with lemon juice
Water

You might also want to add on the note ~

“You’ve just eaten! Are you REALLY HUNGRY?

Also, remember my program “Fit or Fat?” Ask yourself before you reach for “comfort” food out of habits or cravings.

That may give you a chance to contemplate what it is that may be eating you which turns you towards stuffing yourself with food.

Please, comment here and let me know what’s working for you!

Injoy!

Revvell

Bodacious Living

Yesterday, I had a 5-hour kettlebell class. We also had a 2-hour break after the first three hours.

After the class, my teacher (Zenkahuna on YouTube ~ you “may” see me there after the weekend when he returns from the Rancho and puts up the vids) said that he wants to do this 3 more times this year (at $250 times each) and for two hours every month he has a weekend with his students (at $100 each) equaling $1800 for the year.

Immediately my lil monkey starts gibbering in my ear that we can’t do this. Of course we can! That’s ridiculous! lol

I currently have more than enough money to do that if I don’t make another dime yet, it goes to show, old monkey mind habits die hard.

Most of my life it was hard for me to understand that, I’ve always had money. Even when I got fired from my jobs (which was often because I always thought I could run the business better than they could) I’d KNOW I’d have a job within 2 weeks (which I always did) and I ALWAYS had funds to survive in between.

I was going to say it wasn’t until I worked outside, away from the “bosses” that I actually kept jobs for longer than 3 months but, that isn’t true. I worked for one chiropractor for about 5 years until he injured (and failed to take care of) his arm and sold his practice to a very unscrupulous guy who was committing insurance fraud. Being able to do that proved to me how much I’d changed and let others run their own businesses.

Anyway, about abundance.

Yesterday, instead of driving, I got to ride with someone. It gave me a chance to let my mind wander and I was thinking about money.

Many times in the past I realized I was hanging on to my last $20. It actually WASN’T my last $20 because I ALWAYS had funds in the bank but, for me, that wasn’t there. That money was my security and I held onto it for dear life, again stopping the flow and circulation.

So, I strangled that $20 until I really needed to purchase something and, you know what? More came in! Before that, I had so much fear around giving up that $20 and then HAVING to dip into my savings that, I blocked the energy flow.

Yesterday, as I got to be the passenger, I was thinking about abundance and flow.

Think of two people and a doorway. One wants to go out (the $20 I DID have) and, another wants to come in (the abundance I wasn’t open to, although, I’d say I was). One is trying to go out while the other is coming in resulting in blockage or stagnation.

Solution, the one coming in steps aside, so the one going out can go out, then the one coming in can come in. That’s called circulation!

Consider circulating your money, not spending it. Look at the last 3 letters of the word “spend”. The circulation stops! That’s what happens when we hoard our money as well, Now, I’m not saying go out and blow it! That’s sp”end”ing, instead of circulating. What I am saying is, let go of the fear of letting it go! When you strangle it, it can’t flow. I know.

Remember, live bodaciously and always, celebrate your potential ~

Revvell

Bodacious Living

p.s. Right after I wrote this, one of my very long time clients called. He’s been coming VERY sporadically ~ maybe, once a month. Today, he called and is setting up two appointments a month. Nice way to begin the new year, eh?

Well, this isn’t the “tomorrow” I said I would write this ~ sort of “manana” time though.

The problem I’m finding with writing my blog is that I get up fairly early, do some mundane things, then get out and walk. After writing my “How I Gained Weight” blog, the next morning I walked for about 2 hours. The following morning, I walked for 90 minutes (over 8,000 steps). During that time I think about all the things I want to write about including how I eliminated weight.

The difficulty is that by the time I get home, everything I want to say has already been said (in my mind) so, nothing left for me to say. O.k., well, not nothing. I can pretty much always say SOMEthing.

So, here’s what happened.

As you may have read in my previous blog, I had put on about 30 excess pounds. Usually, when I’ve gained weight previously, I didn’t have to do much other than to move! Mostly go to the gym for about 6 weeks and voila! Done! PLUS, I’d be buffed! (I buff easily)

This time however, it was a bit more difficult for a number of reasons. One, menopause. I’ve NEVER had a weight issue I couldn’t eliminate easily yet, my head was wrapped around what others have said about it being harder to drop weight during menopause.

Two, I LOVE staying warm in bed and cuddling with himself which means I didn’t get up and out walking or doing anything else for that matter. No matter how many times I promised myself at night that I was going to do it, in the morning that didn’t happen.

Three, my computer addiction. When I DID get up, I’d turn on the computer, sit down, go through emails, facebook, twitter, RFT, etc., etc., etc. By the time I took care of that addiction it was either too hot out, too late and had to begin work OR, I’d eaten (overeaten) and just didn’t feel to train and remember, it was already hot!

Fourth (last, but not least), he’d be up and asking if I wanted to go somewhere. Uh huh! Yep!

In essence, it didn’t take much for me to be distracted from what I said I wanted to do… eliminate the excess weight!

So, what to do????

I don’t remember exactly what turned me on to it but I’d been hearing about (Emotional Freedom Technique) EFT for awhile. Even though I’ve had training in Polarity Therapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine including Taijiquan/Qigong, reflexology, etc. I kind of poopoo’d that something so basic could really make a difference (which is really funny because all the health I have is from “energy therapy” which is what EFT is.)

One night in class, I noticed that my teacher had some information on EFT that he was handing out to his students. I always figure he doesn’t waste time with something that doesn’t “work” so began using it with myself and my students. WOW!

Then I had a 4-week experimental group with 5 other overweight women who ranged from less than 50 pounds excess to well over 100 excess pounds they wished to eliminate. Each week we’d show up with new stories of how much weight we’d dropped or inches lost.

One woman told us on the first meeting that when she was stressed she’d eat a full carton of ice cream. She was using a sentence similar to … “I totally love and support myself.” She returned one week totally astounded. She said she’d never loved herself which is why she ate and overate yet during the previous week she’d felt stressed and instead of reaching for the ice cream she made some brown rice.. and overate it.

By the end of the 4 weeks, every one of us had eliminated 8-10 pounds. (I had already dropped the first 10 before beginning the study group). Not to say this will happen with EVERYone yet, it’s possible AND, just consider, if we can eliminate even 5 pounds per month consistently for a year, that’s 60 pounds!

So, EFT is one way. Another thing I included with the group were sentence completions which I’d learned many years ago during my training with my teacher. How that works is, we begin a sentence such as “One reason I keep the weight on is…” Then give 6-10 responses which may include “… I’m afraid to be seen”; “it’s too much work to eliminate it”, “I’ll have to purchase a new wardrobe”; “I wont know who I am”, “I’m afraid I’ll feel deprived”; “I don’t know what else to do when I’m feeling stressed”, etc. (All of which are addressed during my “Tap Into Your Ideal Weight” program.)

Two other things I’ve found help a lot are tapping while doing appreciations. I’ve found at the end of classes that when we do this, the women leave feeling calm and not stressed so they don’t go home ~ or out together ~ and eat late in the evening.

The final thing is visualization. Who are you when thin? What will people say? How will you look? How will you feel?

I wrote all this down for myself and am continuously adding to it. As I’m writing, I find how much of my life is interconnected and how it improves across the board.

Some of the things I worked on specifically for myself were ~ getting up and walking or training so, tapping on procrastination. I’d make a list of what I wanted to do and get it done.

Tapping on elimination of the desire for sweets. On the landing page for my program I have a picture of this overweight woman sitting with a place of chips (cookies?) beside her. The next picture is the plate behind her and she’s sneaking the chips. Been there, done that with sweets. I didn’t want the cake, I wanted the frosting! Now, cake with all that colored frosting doesn’t even look like food to me. When I go to functions I barely look at the sweets and when I do, it’s like they’re bugs under a microscope. It’s very weird and interesting. Almost as though I don’t recognize what they are as they seem to be from my distant past.

Tapping on elimination of the desire for what my husband eats including cheese and pizza. One night I was feeling very alone and he was gone so I cooked a pizza. Uh huh. I was physically done eating it by the time I was half-way through yet told myself I was going to finish it even if it made me sick. I did, it didn’t but I’ve not had enough desire to eat it again.

I eat salads! What I’ve found is, I can pretty much have the same ingredients in my salad every single day IF I have a good dressing so, 3 fresh dressings and, I have 2-3 different salads every day.

When going to a buffet, fill my plate with half of what I would normally. I can always go back for more and now, instead of going for pasta, I go for more salad!

When we go out to eat, I ask them to divide the meal and pack half of it to go. What’s good about that is, occasionally I’ll eat it as soon as I get home yet, many times I don’t because I’ve given myself time to know that I’ve been deeply satisfied with what I’d already had.

In the mornings, if I get up around 5, I get dressed (my clothes are either in the bathroom or my office so I don’t have the excuse that I didn’t want to wake him up by turning on the light) and head out.

Lately, I’ve been waking up around 3:30 so, I prepare my UStream show read all my personal emails, take care of Facebook and Twitter, might do daily appreciations THEN head out for a walk.

I’m much more consistently disciplined now that I’ve brought more focus on when, where, why, how and what I eat AND having eliminated most of the cravings, habits and eating patterns I’ve established during the past 6 years or so.

Thank you for reading all of this. It really wasn’t supposed to be this long. Guess I DO have something to say!

With that, I’ll say:

Remember, live bodaciously and always celebrate your potential!

Revvell

I awakened this morning contemplating weight gain. How fun is that? lol

There are a few ways and reasons I gained in the first place.

First was possibly menopause yet, I’m not sure of that one. I hadn’t gained before I got married at 55 and I’d gone into it a few years before OR, maybe I just didn’t notice which we’ll get into in a bit ~ the noticing, I mean.

One thing I’m sure of is going out and eating. Once I realized how much I’d gained since getting married (we could blame the marriage yet, that would be the surface, same as most dieters do ~ blame the food), being me, I had to really look at my habits, my new cravings and my emotional eating patterns.

What happened was, 6 years or so ago, I met a man I wanted in my life forever. I’d ALWAYS said, I saw no purpose in ever getting married and, that was true, until we met.

After knowing him for about 10 months or so, I was headed over to his home country to meet his friends and family as well as visit his country.

A few weeks before going over, he told me that he’d called the embassy about how he could come to the U.S. and stay with me. Their response “Marry her”. When he told me this, I asked “Well, do you want to?” He said “what”? Me ~ “Get married?”. I think he said something like “well, I guess so”. Anyway, he started the paperwork on his end with the outcome being we’d get married in Denmark, then go to Copenhagen where I had to file to get him over here.

So, that’s the background story ~ now, the fat part.

In all my life I’d never been in a REALY healthy relationship. Every relationship I’d been in, I gave up me to be with he meaning none of what I did was as important as what he was doing so, I’d always get involved.

This relationship began similarly. First, I dropped my healthy eating habits. I still stayed vegetarian yet, when we went out to eat, which was often, I’d eat things I normally wouldn’t and I’d overeat. If/when we go to buffets, I felt I had to eat enough to get his money’s worth. Even when full, I’d finish because I didn’t want to leave food I’d chosen, on the plate AND, I’d always have dessert. Not much but SOME!

Secondly, even when we went out to a sit-down meal and was given more than I could eat, I’d finish it because “it’s only a few bites” ~ no matter how full I was.. “it’s only a few bites”. Well, those “few bites” cost in weight gain. If we’d only gone out occasionally, there probably would not have been an issue. Since we went out often…

Thirdly, I use to get up and out walking every morning, first thing. Did not turn on the computer, did not eat, did not do anything but get up, get out and get walking! Where I lived, there was a mountain “loop” where I could go up one side, down the other. It’s about 4.5 miles. When I didn’t do that, I lived in a hilly area and could do a different walk almost every day of the week.

After getting married I loved sleeping in and cuddling with him. I vowed I’d get out and walk later. Well, “later” rarely came. In the summer it was too hot. If I didn’t get out early, I didn’t get out. We’d also moved to a “flat” area which to me, was boring so, I’d talk myself out of walking. If I wanted to train with kbs, ropes, etc. I really needed to take everything to a park. Being the lazy wench I’d become… that rarely happened.

One night in class my teacher said 4 of us, including himself were overweight. I was one. When he asked how much I thought I could lose I said “about 20 pounds”. He said “try 25″. Yikes!!!! (He was being generous. It was actually 30).

One thing I really got was how easy it is to gain and not notice! Previously it was SO easy for me to drop weight. So easy in fact that, I’d not notice until someone pointed it out to me (which is the same thing that happened with the gain). At that time, when I was emotional about something (which was often), I’d not eat, therefore, weight loss! Now, when I’m upset, I’ve developed patterns of eating and overeating; comfort and habitual eating.

If you do it slow enough, when you go clothes shopping and you’ve gone up a size, you can rationalize that it’s a different manufacturer and their sizes run small.

So, between eating out often, eating and overeating for emotional reasons, cleaning my plate and not moving ~ as I use to … weight happened.

Oh! the other thing is, as I’d mentioned, I’d not been in a really good relationship EVER! Think there might be some unconscious “protection” going on?

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about weight elimination. In the meantime, feel free to check out my program and find out how to eliminate weight, stay on a healthy food program and drop the cravings, habits and and emotional eating patterns that lead to excess weight gain and sabotage your new year’s resolutions.

Until tomorrow ~

Revvell

Bodacious Living

I haven’t given this a lot of thought so, writing as I contemplate, yet as I was laying down and resting my eyes from being on the computer so much lately and I began thinking about the various illnesses and diseases I’ve had throughout my life. (As you can see, I’m on the computer ~ again).

One of the first I can remember is getting the mumps. Now yes, most every child has gotten them yet, I get them ~ for the second time after my mother had signed me up for swim lessons. I did get to go in the water, but not with the other children. My thought on this ~ I was VERY shy and the mumps kept me out of doing a class. I learned to swim by watching what was going on in the class.

Next one ~ allergies to citrus especially grapefruit but then add strawberries and asparagus; two items I REALLY liked ~ then. We’d flown down to Florida for a 3 week vacation. I was SO miserable there! I slept on a cot in the front room of someone’s cottage and it was next to a train track so I was awakened every night. We lived on a cul-de-sac in Ct. so it was VERY quiet. PLUS, sleeping on the cot was SO uncomfortable AND, while down there, I got stung by a man-o-war. Think I didn’t have an emotional time?

Hayfever/asthma ~ When I was about 10 years old, my parents took my brother and I to a slaughter house where they purchased a 1/2 side of beef. Of course, bro and I were wandering the grounds and the door to the slaughterhouse was partially open and we looked in and saw the cows being tortured. The butcher’s saw us looking in and scared us away. Across the street was a wheat field. We chose to run through it. By the time we came out I was coughing, sneezing, eyes running. No trauma there, eh?

My father who was my heart died when I was 12 and I was gang-raped at 19. Any wonder I had issues with men, abandonment, etc?

By the time I was in my early 30′s I had asthma so bad it almost killed me. At the time I was lifting weights 4-5 hours a day, 5-7 days a week and also training in Kung-fu. My teacher was retiring. More man stuff, more health issues.

From the time I was 13 until I reached my mid-40′s, I had periods of suicidal depression.

I was allergic to cats, dogs and horses.

The reason I’m bringing this up is, whenever you’ve got something going on, check and see what’s going on emotionally. All of my emotional stuff manifested physically at some level.

Sure, a lot of the asthma and hay fever was resolved by diet change yet once I got a handle on my emotions ~ my fears, my guilt, etc., the rest of it dissolved.

Same thing most recently. I wrote previously about having problems with my heart. I realized I had some unconscious fears and when those were brought to the surface, the heart issue dissolved.

Very interesting how the mind works and how it manifests so many issues and how we’ve learned to cope with them ~ very often by stuffing them down with food.

Many years ago, I had the opposite problem which, I think may have been healthier at one level ~ I didn’t eat. One cannot digest emotions and food at the same time. On the other hand, I had so many emotions, I was pretty much starving myself.

Most recently though, I found myself gaining weight after having gotten married. A few reasons are, we went out and ate often and when I go out, I never even considered eating part and taking half home because my weight never bothered me. Any time I’d gained a few pounds, I’d up my work-outs and be back to my slim self in a few weeks.

Another thing I realized was, this being my first marriage, and never having had a REALLY good long-term relationship and, I guess, I scared the heck out of myself and subconsciously allowed myself to put the weight on as “protection”.

So, this again, was all emotional yet, I was “handling” it differently ~ eating, instead of not. What I found was that if I didn’t handle the emotional aspect of my weight gain, working out as I use to do, really didn’t make much of a difference.

That was a GREAT awakening for me! That was a time I understood how many women have tried over and over to eliminate weight by diet and exercise, very often to lose some yet, very often to gain it back because they’d not dealt with the cause, the underlying emotions, the habitual eating patterns! Whooooo!

As a natural health practitioner of 24 years, this realization is probably one of THE biggest I’ve ever had.

When I was growing up, we didn’t speak about the things we do now. If help was available, we didn’t know about it. Now, it’s out, it’s available, it’s amazingly simple and effective! I am SO excited to have created Tap Into Your Ideal Weight so now women can get to the cause of their weight issues and eliminate them!!! How cool is that?

Injoy,

Revvell

Bodacious Living