Something I've noticed

Labels are sometimes extremely bad.  I think a lot of times they are not necessary.  I had the opportunity the other day to attend a school that I hope to get hired at, and I was sitting in the class listening to the teacher as he asked the students what they saw in the picture. 

Now I'm not one to be politically correct, but at one point the kids said that there was a fat man and a skinny man in the book.  I looked over the shoulder of one of the books, and I didn't see a fat man.  I saw one that was taller and a smaller stick type man.  It was interesting that they chose those words to describe the drawing when those are such negative words in this day and age.

I chose not to be offended but today something else happened. 

It was slow at work as usual and I was perusing the Yahoo news articles when I ran across one that talked about how a President of a fast food chain has on multiple occasions shared his opinion (Some may say, myself included that it was bashing) about his disapproval of same sex marraige, and homosexuality in general.  Among this he is also known for donating large amounts of his money to anti-LGBT clubs, and when I posted on facebook that I didn't know if I should go to that said fast food restaurant anymore I was shocked at the slight argument that started.

I just don't understand the hate the goes on, and the fact that some say that it's just stating your opinion and that we shouldn't take it personally.

I choose to take it personally for one reason. 

I am a human being.  I was born a human being, I go through trials as a human being, I've grown up a human being, and will most likely die a human being. (Go figure!)

That is the same case for EVERYone in the world.  The journey of life of each human may modify based on certain factors, but the truth of the matter is that we're still human beings regardless.

This is a short life, and we need to stop worrying about what groups we need to classify people in.  I figure unless they hurt others through their actions or take away others rights then why worry what they're doing? 

Who cares what our choices in life are?  I know I just want to love everyone and accept everyone, so I try to leave the judgements to whoever created us. 

As I was thinking over this I pondered back on the kids in that room and I came to the realization that labels will never end.  They are how people describe one another, but I wonder if we'll ever be able to change the negativity with a label into a positive.

I don't think I'll see it in my lifetime, but I hope that one day those bad labels will no longer exist, or at least not be so negative.  I hope that people will not look down on others based on their life choices, or color of skin, or weight, or hair color. 

Within my own life I hope I haven't made anyone feel as if I judge them in my interactions with them.  If I have, I apologize.  It's never been my intention and I want you to know that I believe you are worth something.  Whatever I may have done to make you feel that I look down on you, just know that I think you're worth something. 

I wish that I could have always felt worth something.  I fear that I lashed out at others due to my own insecurities, and my feelings of being judged by others.

Even now I notice the labels I give others when they annoy me.  I realize I need to stop.  I also know that not all labels are bad.  There are those that are good.  Kind, Generous, Beautiful, Caring, Strong. 

My goal for this week is to replace negative labels with good ones.  I feel that I sometimes look on things in a negative light, and if I choose to focus on the positive with people it will provide a happier outlook on life, and the people in it.
If you're having a hard time take comfort in knowing that I love you and accept you for who you are. 

Giovanna

Anniversary!

I managed to get out and go for a 3 mile jog a few days ago, like my challenge intended, but stuff happens!

At this point I feel like I'm just making excuses.

I feel like I need to start off smaller because I seem to be having issues working out if I don't do it in the morning, and this week stuff kept happening.  I've decided it's been for good reasons.

I hit my one year anniversary with Jareth. We also had a baby shower that we attended that I made the cake for, and a friend got married on Friday.  

Like I said, busy week.

I may try the same challenge though.  I want to get back into running and I need to have something having to do with running set as the challenge.

So this week my challenge is going to be to run everyday.  I'm not putting an amount on how much I run as I just want to get myself out there.

And if any of you would like to join in it might help encourage me to work harder at this goal.

I have this awesome story!

So it's a few days after Saturday, and part of me felt bad for not posting, but another part of me doesn't really care seeing as I have a pretty good reason why I didn't update the blog.

First thing first: The goal for last week was to follow a healthy meal plan that I created each day.  This was actually difficult.  Some days I wasn't in the mood for the things I preplanned from the day before...It wasn't the best that I probably couldn't have done, so I decided to change it a little bit.  I came up with a few choices for each meal that I could have and then would pick what I'd like to have as I went along the day.  I found that this was a whole lot easier for me. 

That is until this past Thursday when I went on vacation (although I tried very hard to get healthy food when we went out to eat), but before I continue on with my story I need to make a goal for next week.

Jareth brought me a flyer for a 5k and half marathon coming up, and I may not do it as it costs to much money for me, but if I do it I want to prep for it.  So this week I will try to run atleast 3-4 miles every day. 

Continuing on with the story!

So it's my birthday on June 29th and Jareth and I will be together for a year on July 7th.  So we decided we would take a weekend trip down to St George to celebrate.

Little did I know that Jareth was secretly planning a different trip.

We set off Wednesday night around 10 and started driving to St. George.  I realized something was up when we entered Arizona.  When I grabbed the directions from Jareth I noticed that our ending location was Anaheim, California.  It was then that Jareth told me that he was taking me to Disneyland. 

He had surprised me with a 3 day park hopper pass, which by the way, we took full advantage of and completed most of the rides in both parks. 

The first day in Disneyland was my birthday and as we were waiting in the Indiana Jones ride I got a text from my sister Anji.  She wished me a happy birthday and asked if I was engaged yet.   I laughed and showed the text to Jareth who got a kick out of it, and replyed with "Why would anyone want to propose in Disneyland?  Let me text her back." So he sent a text back saying that that must have been what he was doing when he kept saying "I lost it." (Then he sent a text to Anji telling her that she would ruin it.)

Let me preface this with the fact that Jareth said multiple times over the past couple weeks that he would propose but that it wasn't going to be for a couple months. 

We ended up in Fantasyland and stopped at the Sleeping Beauty castle.  If you haven't been, there are books positioned throughout the castle that have the story on it.  At the end we reached the final book, and Jareth said that he wanted to take a picture.  He ventured back upstairs to find someone to take the picture for us, and found 2 little kids that followed him timidly.  He told them to just push the button and I prepped to take a picture only to find that Jareth was on one knee.  He took my hand and pulled out a ring. 

He started to ask me if I would be his princess forever, which only made me think more so that he was being cute and asking me to be his pretend princess for the night. 

I ruined it, of course, and told him that he was holding the wrong hand.

He replyed that I was ruining the moment, and asked me again if I'd like to be his princess, and this time I said yes, and he put the ring on my finger.

It was only afterwards when I asked if we were really engaged and he said yes that I realized he had really just proposed to me.

I am very skeptical over things if you couldn't tell. 

SO it's official that I'm engaged!

I knew I picked a good one! :)

I love you Jareth, and can't wait to spend my life with you!

Goal Club

I'm at work right now, and it is SLOW! Thankfully I have the internet to keep me entertained.  It's been an interesting couple of months.  I know the last post was beyond pathetic, and I'll be honest; things haven't really changed much. 

I'm still having a lot of issues being able to control what I eat, and a boat load of problems with seeing myself as beautiful.  Both of which lead me to feel even more sorry for myself. 

The bright side is that I've started going back to the gym.  It's difficult sometimes.  When I went to the gym before I injured my hip I was able to run 8 miles, and push myself for 2 hours everyday, and I know it isn't like riding a bike where you can just jump back into it.  Even though I know that I get discouraged when I can't do the things I used to.

At the beginning of me going back to the gym I couldn't even run a mile without getting winded, and to think of staying at the gym for even an hour was overwhelming.  Now it's better.  I've got back to running 2 miles easily, and I'm at the gym 3 times a week for an hour.  It's weird to see how fast my body is adjusting to working out.  I thought it would be harder when I first started up again.

I can't believe how amazing our bodies are.  It's funny that I can see all the amazing things about bodies in general, and yet I have a hard time loving mine.

I have strong legs that allow me to run, I have functioning lungs, and the ability to see.  I have a voice that I can sing with, hands that I can play instruments with, and I have the ears to hear all the nice things that my friends and family say about me.  I have arms to hug the ones I love, and the list goes on and on.

In my dreamworld, no one cares about the appearance of other people.  Sadly I tend to see it all over the internet, I hear about it in the news about kids bullying others, and unfortunately I see it in myself.  My view of others is really a view of myself and my insecurities.  I feel like if I could wipe myself from judgement that I would in turn wipe myself of my self-judgement. 

I often ask why I do this to myself, and part of me feels like it's because somewhere in my future there is going to be some master plan where I help tons of people through my experiences.  That in itself is overwhelming, but I feel like it's true.  Deep in my heart I feel like if I can get my story out it will help others, and myself. 

I just don't know how to do it. 

I especially don't know how to make myself happy so how could I help others?  I mean, I'm sitting here at a job that I loathe, and find that I cope with it by binging, and then feeling like my day is ruined, and then hoping that I can just make it to the gym to work off the mistake I made.

I don't know if others feel this way, but I wonder if I feel this way because I don't take the time to do the things I love anymore.  

I want to challenge myself and, whoever is still reading, I'd like to challenge you.

Each week I want to come up with something I want to work on.  Feel free to do this with me, and in the comments I would love to hear about how you're doing.  It could be like a book club but where we choose something we want to work on, and then use the comment section as a place to update each week.

So if you are interested in this, and you feel like it might be a good way to get motivated, leave a comment telling me what you want to work on this week.

Since this is a Wednesday I'm going to make it start today and go until next Saturday.

The goal for me is that I want to make a healthy food plan for each day and stick to it. 

How about you?

Relapsing

I haven't been on this site for awhile. I actually have been having a pretty tough time lately.

Let me paint a picture for you.

I'm upstairs on my laptop lying in bed and feeling sorry for myself. Downstairs there's a party. I hear people laughing, and I hear music. But what I hear most of all is the pounding, negative voice in my head.

I've been exhibiting old behaviors from the days when I binged, and ate my feelings, from the days that I weighed over 200 pounds, and couldn't figure out how to lose it.

I was laying in bed feeling sorry for myself and remembered that I used to have this blog to write out my feelings, so I got on and started reading over my last couple posts. I'm ashamed to say that I started crying like a baby.

I want to know where that person has gone, and how I somehow lost contact with her.

I have an amazing supportive boyfriend, an apartment, a job, a car, two legs to walk, and my family and friends. I have NO reason to be as stressed, or anxious, or paranoid as I am.

About 2 weeks ago I started to go back to my old ways and tonight my friends is the night that I ate SO much junk that my stomach is throbbing and pushing against my ribcage causing some discomfort. This was how it used to be, and I thought that I'd moved on from this point.

I read over my last post and I get SO frustrated because I finally thought I'd beaten this disorder.

I want to go downstairs and join in on the party again, but I can't seem to get my legs to move. I want to take back the last hour and instead of reaching for the burger and chips get a glass of water. I knew when I started getting help that this fight would never truly be over, and yet it doesn't seem fair.

How is it that some people can not worry? How is it that everyone can overeat a night and realize they shouldn't have eaten so much and eat normal the next day?

Yet here I am. I overate this morning, felt sorry for myself, and decided to just eat a small dinner...which turned into a burger with cheese, potato chips, a couple cookies, and some fudge sticks. I know that this isn't really an upbeat post but I just want help...and I feel like this was always a place I could get it...by venting, and by writing how I felt.

I know that I'll be better again, and I know that I'll relapse again, but I just hope that I can get through this hard place and move towards that girl in my last posts. The one that I loved.

Headache!

I have one. And I'm hungry.

The past few days I've finally got myself watching Buffy, and I justify sitting on my butt watching an old show by doing flashcards for Jareth's Series 7 test. My guy is on his way to becoming a stock broker. I have NEVER seen so many definitions before. I'm thankful I'm not in his shoes. It's one thing to make about 500 flashcards. It's a whole different story to have to study them.

I'm getting prepped for my move. I finally decided it was time to move out of my parents house so I'm in the job searching mode. I figure I'll move sometime after I get back from my family trip to New York. We are going to have a small burial type thing for my Uncle and then have a little family time together visiting my dads old house, and Amish country.

I'm getting back to where I was at weight wise before I had my little binging weight gain relapse thing. I forgot how it felt to NOT be sick all the time. I like being healthy. Although the craving for a chocolate lava cake is a little overwhelming at times, but I manage.

I've been going to therapy to get back into a healthy mindset. I go to a group and private session. It's amazing how food addictions and eating disorders are so common. Mainly because there are so many different forms. My therapist says that I am going through these trials right now because I'm meant for more. She's sure I'm meant to help people through my mental and physical problems I've had the past two years.

It makes me happy to think that I could help someone with my experiences, but at the same time I'm anxious to know when I'll finally be better.

I figure just talking about my struggles helps people.

I should probably end this blog here. I think I should try to keep these short. Don't want to bore anyone!

I love you readers!
Giovanna

Life as I know it

So I thought that it might be a nice time to update everyone on my life recently considering I haven't done a personal post in a while.

Honest time?

I lost my willingness to write. I figure that this is the closest thing I have to a journal. The problem with my journals is that I get one, write in it for a day or sometimes I'm really good and write in it everyday for a week. Then a part of me sits back and thinks about how my future children could read it and then I get slightly embarrassed because half the time I'm writing about boy drama, and the other half of the time I'm writing about school or work. None of that sounds interesting, or it makes me sound like a hormonal weirdo. So then I skip a day of writing in my journal which then goes to a year when I buy a new one because I see one in the store that's just "so darn cute," and I feel like I may start writing again. (This has led to about 8 journals sitting in a drawer in my house, and I pick up different ones at different times to write an entry so they're a mess).

So, long story short, I feel like I've accomplished something by keeping this blog alive. It's like redemption for the money wasted on journals that may very well never be filled. Hence the non personal and stupid posts.

If you're still reading by this point I applaud you, and I give you a cyber cookie.

My life has been pretty interesting lately.

After 22 years and no boyfriend I finally met an amazing guy.

His name is Jareth. He makes me smile, and when we're loopy because we haven't slept I laugh so hard that my side hurts. He makes me feel like the struggles I've had in life have made me the person that he loves, and the same goes for him.

I'm not going to go into to much detail because how many of you have posted pictures on facebook and then had to delete all of them when you broke up? I'm not saying we're going to break up by the way...I'm just saying that it's to soon to tell and you break up with everyone but your husband...I guess even then you may have broken up with him at one point to.

And tangent complete.

Just know that he makes me happy, and I only hope for good things from this relationship.

I realized some things from dating though that I don't think people realize until they have a significant other so I'll spell it out for any who may be wondering.

1. Put yourself on the line. Wear your heart on your sleeve, and eventually there will be someone who will gladly reach out and take it to keep it safe.

2. Don't be scared or intimidated by the person you're pursuing or being pursued by. They're human, and they have flaws just like you. Heck, those flaws may bring you closer because you can relate.

3. Having a significant other is cool because if you feel down all you have to do is think about the person that loves you. Family can love you but they have to. To have someone willingly love you for you...well, it's kind of amazing.

4. Don't talk about the other negatively. It does no good, but cause a disagreement. (That one was one that I broke. Not the happiest night. Just don't gossip unless it's to say how amazing the person you're dating is.)

5. Communication is key. Not communication with others (as stated above), but with each other. If you don't acknowledge a problem it won't get fixed. Then it festers, and you blow up over stupid things.

6. Always share how you feel about them. Tell them you love them.

7. If you DO get in an argument then no matter what end it on a good note. Tell them you love them.

8. When you're dating a gentleman and he pays and you've gotten to the stage that you can tell him you love him...tell him you love him.

It's only love if you share it! Tell the one you love how you feel, and I'm not just talking about your partner. Make sure to tell each loved one how you feel about them.

I love you dear readers!