Life Update: Starting 2019 at the End of January

January 30, 2019 No Comments A Well Crafted Life

Guys, life is interesting. So interesting that I’ve dropped in and out of this blog for a bit now and I just now jumped on the train for 2019. I figured it was high time for a life update and an update on how things are moving forward in this little corner of the interwebs.

Rather see parties? Check out the post I shared earlier this week on Galentine’s Day ideas. Hanging in there for the no-holds-bar update on life in the world of this blogger… read on! It isn’t a short one (over 1,000 words!), but I appreciate you reading!

Some background…

I’ve been blogging here for nearly nine years now. I started this blog well before kids were in the plans and I needed a creative outlet like WHOA. This blog has opened SO many doors for me including my current career in brand development. Blog readers that have stuck around from the beginning have followed me from being a bartender and party enthusiast to full-time blogger, blogger with full-time marketing job, two kids, and three moves. The latest move being from Portland, Oregon to Spokane, Washington.

Our new home…. in Spokane, WA! I said I’d never move from Portland…
here is me eating my words!

So, that is where we are now. I moved to Spokane this past July, all while continuing my career. I’ve been trying to make my house a home, keep my job, make sure the family is surviving, and trying my damnedest to create fulfilling relationships here all while missing my social circle from Portland. January came around and I felt… nothing. I had no goals other than SURVIVE. (Yes, a tad melodramatic.) But, now that we are at the end of January things are looking up. Before I get into PLANS let me share a bit about the past that is influencing these plans.

Health: Fibromyalgia

I always feel slightly uncomfortable sharing my health stuff online. (Though I have dabbled in it to raise awareness for issues such as anorexia and skin cancer.) However, I also feel grateful when others share their experiences with health issues that I share. So…here it goes:

One of many…many doctor’s appointments trying to get to the source of pain.

I’ve been struggling with pain and extreme fatigue for years now. I’ve been diagnosed with PPD and Hashimoto’s Disease in the past. While I don’t doubt those are accurate (especially since my thyroid levels are hard to argue with) I still was dealing with pain even with treatment.

Sometime over the past year or two, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and began a very long and frustrating path of finding treatments that would work. The most successful treatment of Fibromyalgia (according to my doctor) is frequent aerobic exercise—which sounds easy… but, I was unable to even walk the recommended steps in a day without so much pain that I couldn’t bend down to go to the restroom. There were a few nights I honestly didn’t know if I was going to live until the next day— the pain was so bad.

Self-care and awareness are essential to managing life with fibromyalgia. Stress and overdoing can set me back weeks. I can look at my blog and literally see when my fibromyalgia began messing with my day-to-day, times when I got it under control, and times I’ve over-done it.

August to November change in weight after decreasing carbohydrates for pain management. Weight loss = 26 lbs.

I’ve made a lot of changes to my life over the past five months including cutting out a LOT of carbohydrates. I’ve found that extra sugar in my diet causes inflammation and thereby causes excess pain. Have I been perfect? HECK NO. Pizza is my downfall. 😉 But, it has helped. It has ALSO helped me drop 35 pounds so far (26 pounds pictured above). The weight loss has gone a long way in allowing me more room to exercise which has in turn seriously helped with the pain of fibromyalgia. (BTW– looking for a low-carb pizza alternative… check out Caulipower pizza. SO GOOD.)

New Town, Meet New Girl

Dear lord…moving to a new town is HARD. I came into this move with eyes wide open, knowing that it wasn’t going to be easy. I had spent a LOT of time and effort building the friendships that I had in Portland. However… I had a lot more energy then! I didn’t have two kids (at least not the entire time) or a full-time job and a new house. I also had the benefit of being very similar in beliefs to those around me in Portland.

Enter Spokane… where, literally everyone I’ve met has been lovely. But, at least in the beginning, I was wondering if I’d have any friends that would share the same belief system I did or value the same things I valued. We don’t need to be the SAME, but we needed to have at least one or two things in common to build a friendship.

One thing that Spokane seriously has going for it—and perhaps there are these same resources in Portland but I didn’t need them at the time— are some great meet-up groups for women! I’ve encountered mom’s groups, business groups, and just women’s groups that have introduced me to really fantastic women who make me… I guess the word is HOPEFUL. I’m hopeful that I’ll find people that will eventually become my Spokane peoples.

Looking forward

It has been difficult for me to look farther than the week ahead while trying to control my pain, manage my home, and not fall into the depths of despair (Anne of Green Gables fans… anyone?). However, after three weekends of…

little to no pain
engaging moments with new friends and
news of old friends visiting my new space

I’ve finally been able to make some decisions and plans. I’ve decided that I’m not quite ready to move away from this blog. I love sharing ideas, stories, and DIY content. I’ve also decided that while I want to strive for regular content, I’m not gonna let that stress me out. I know that regular content will grow my blog to where it used to be or beyond. I know that readers like to know when I’ll be posting. However, I also know that right now… that isn’t super realistic. I’ll aim to hit my goals, but I won’t be fussed if I don’t meet them right now because my focus right now has to be my health and my new life in a new town.

2019 Goals & Blog Plans

My 2019 blogging goals are simple:

Blog at least every Monday and Wednesday— I’ll aim to post a party topic every Monday and a lifestyle topic—including beauty, fashion, parenting, self-development, current reads, podcasts and more!—every Wednesday. If I’m feeling extra frisky I’ll get in a Friday post. 😉
Post more in Instagram/Facebook. Gosh… I work in marketing and social media… I KNOW how important it is. I think sometimes COMPARISON is hard and wanting to SHARE is hard. I don’t really want everyone to know every detail of my life… so, I struggle with WHAT to share and how often. However, I do know that I enjoy other people sharing so I am aiming to share daily on these channels at least throughout the week.
Share my house stuff on my house blog. What!? I can’t keep up this blog yet I started another. Yep. That’s me! Anywho… while I’m sure to share some of the new house updates here, I did start a blog called A Well Crafted House where I plan to update about house projects.

Kids in living room looking at fire in fireplace stars projected on ceiling — Being more present as a mom is a personal goal of mine.

My personal goals are a little more important/ harder:

I’ll continue with my health journey to decrease overall sugars and increase exercise. It’s f***ing hard. But, it is making an overall difference in how I feel, so I gotta keep with it.
I want to be a more present mother. I’m tired of my kids hearing, “Mommy doesn’t feel great.” While true… I want to make the times that I am engaging with them to be fully engaged.
I want to indulge in creative pursuits. I love painting. I love writing. I truly enjoy decorating. I want to intentionally focus my time in these areas.

Enough about me…What about you!?

Okay, so you’ve read about ME, ME, and more ME. I’m pretty much bowing down that you’ve hung on this far to my indulgent update. But, I promise you… that all of this ME isn’t without wondering about YOU. Tell me… what are your goals this year? What are you prioritizing? How can I help? Because, I seriously would love to help!

A Well Crafted Lady

Health & Fitness: College Years with Weight Gain and Accidental Anorexia

July 30, 2013 12 Comments A Well Crafted Lady

This post is a part of a series on my health and fitness journey. The series posts are coming along much slower than I anticipated… they are much harder to write than I thought they’d be! Confronting my past health and fitness issues as I am working on my present issues has not been easy. I still plan to continue writing about my story in hopes in hopes of reaching out to others, motivating myself, and confronting some hard truths about myself. Bare with me! My first post in the series was, “Childhood and Teen Self-Image and Food Relationships.”

Junior Year of College (Sorry about the fuzzy image!)

My college years were likely similar to many other people’s college years. My freshman year I gained the freshman 15 as usual. I started college my freshman year at 130 lbs and left around 150 lbs. College was a hard transition for me because I was working three jobs, taking a full course load, and living eight hours from all my friends and family. By the end of my Freshman year I decided to move back to my hometown and attend college near family. The Summer of my Freshman year I spent working, losing some weight, and trying not to feel like a failure. (If you don’t know me by now… I’m a tad dramatic.)

My Sophomore year was a doozy. I worked three jobs, found many good friends, declared a major in Journalism, and met the man that would someday be my husband. It was a wonderful, whirlwind of a year. Throughout the year I became much more serious about my health and about writing. I’d write for hours and work out for hours. I rarely slept. My roommate never saw me.

How I Accidentally Became Anorexic

Unfortunately, likely due to not being well-educated in food and health, I didn’t understand much about calories and exercise. I *knew* I was supposed to eat 1500 calories a day. I *knew* that burning calories meant I was going to lose weight. So, I’d work out. I’d burn 500-700 calories a day while maintaing a food diary that would hover around 1500 to 1700 calories a day. I’d punish myself if I went over my goal by working harder. My mind was constantly counting calories. I was losing weight—I made it down to my goal weight of 125. (By *knew* I mean I thought it was a truth and later found out that while there is some truth to both those statements, there is much more to it all.)

I wasn’t happy though. I felt like I was hungry ALL the time. I began to have stomach problems, my hair started falling out, and I was tired all the time. My nickname at work was “Chiquita” because I bruised as easily as a banana. I went in and out of the doctor’s office several times until they discovered that I was anorexic. While I was losing weight, I was also losing muscle mass and making myself sick.

“Anorexic? Me? But, I eat!”

It wasn’t something I did intentionally— It was accidental anorexia. (I don’t think that is a clinic diagnosis!) Not understanding how calories worked in my body made me make mistakes with my body that could have been even more harmful than lost hair and bruising.

I didn’t stop eating or begin working out because I was desperate to be skinny. I wanted to be thin, sure, but I thought I was getting healthy. My idea of health came from reading hundreds of magazines that explained the “way to lose weight and get healthy!” It was from well-meaning, but not understanding friends who would not so subtly suggest I not eat something. It was from friends handing me their “fat” clothes as hand-me downs all the while saying, “I’m never going back to that size.” It was from giving away my skinny clothes to a pregnant girl to wear around her round belly. It was from not understanding about the differences in people’s body types, how foods works in the body, and what burning calories does to the body.

I thankfully was able to catch myself in time to not do any permanent damage. In the end I maintained a weight around 135-145 throughout college. It was a rough realization that I needed to actually pay attention to my body and what I put into it. I learned to eat more for sustenance. I ran myself ragged in college. My senior year was spent prepping for a wedding, working four jobs, and going to school full-time. I didn’t have to really watch my weight because I rarely had time to even think about it. I was always on the move.

Me at my smallest adult size. Please excuse the bell bottoms!

Looking back, I was a beautiful size. At the time I was fixated on the fact that my jean size was a 10 instead of an 8. Now I know that was likely be the smallest that I will ever be in my adult years. However, I still aim to be a healthy weight and to focus on my health.

Some notes:

Even at my smallest adult size I was not a small lady. I had size 9 feet, I had wide shoulders, I had hips that weren’t getting ANY smaller. Judging yourself (or others) on the size of their clothing is just wrong. I’ve learned I need to love my body without worrying about my clothing. I needed to learn how to make me HEALTHIER not smaller.
It is funny now to look back and see how uneducated I was about something as straight forward as calories. I am a fairly intelligent woman, always did well in school, etc. Our food relationships and what we are taught as children matter when it come to things like body-image and weight loss. What people write online and in magazines matter. What we say to ourselves and others matter. It is complicated, but simple all wrapped into one.
I don’t believe that FAST weight loss is healthy unless under the supervision of a doctor. I am not a doctor, nor am I an expert in this field. Please talk to your doctor before making any huge life changes.
For more information on Anorexia Nervosa or related disorders visit the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Related Disorders website.
I’m currently writing about my fitness journey over on the East Side Athletic Blogas part of a partnership. I’d love for you to check out the blog or like the East Side Athletic Club Facebook page.

What lessons about weight and health did you learn in your college years?

Health

Health & Fitness: Childhood and Teen Self-Image and Food Relationships

July 9, 2013 17 Comments Health

I’ve been going back and forth about whether I was going to post about my health and fitness journey on the blog. It is such a personal and, often, frustrating part of my life. But, I figured that posting about my journey may do one or all of three things:

Let someone else know they aren’t alone
Motivate me to do better and stay on the right track
Show a real-life (non fitness/health food guru’s) health and fitness journey.

This series will cover my image issues and fitness journey. I am beginning in my childhood and teen years and traveling up to adulthood. I feel that many of my food issues and my self-image realities stems directly from my childhood and teen self-image and food relationships. I will still be posting recipes as per usual… I’ll just start including some of my healthier meals in addition to my butter and pie loving posts. I’ve had weight and body issues my entire life, so I am pretty much aware of what I am doing right and wrong and when I am doing it. I am a strong believer in EVERYTHING in moderation. This view is not shared by everyone, but it is what I’ve found works for me (when I stick with it!).

In addition to writing about my journey of a healthy self-image and life I am writing a 6-week fitness series. I’d love for you to visit and read about my fitness journey. I received membership to East Side Athletic Club in exchange for work I’m doing on their website and am telling my fitness story on their blog. I’d love to hear what you think of it!

Childhood and Teen Body Issues

Image Issues in Childhood & Teen Years — Me in my Sophomore year of high school. At this time I was a size 6 (US) approximately 115 lbs and thought I was overweight.

I was a tall, lanky adolescent. Mainly I was ALL limbs. I played softball (though, I hated running) and enjoyed chasing after all the boys on the playground when I was in elementary school.

However, after elementary school I stopped playing sports and started becoming more and more studious. I was often found with a book in my hands or in front of a computer chatting with friends or creating HTML websites. You might have called me a nerd. (Some still do!)

The lack of activity in addition to puberty made me gain weight. I was taller than a lot of the girls. My feet were larger. I felt awkward all the time. And, while, looking back, I was thin and still quite lanky— I felt FAT. Though I had a flat belly and long limbs… I wore shorts and baggy t-shirts over my bathing suit. I slouched when I walked. I covered my waist with my arms when I sat. The me I saw in the mirror made me sad.

One story that often comes to mind from this time in my life was, of course, one where I was trying to impress a guy. I was at a summer camp leaving the cafeteria with friends. I had a donut and a cup of yogurt in my hands. The guy I had eyes for was walking towards me and my group of friends. In a flash I threw the donut into a bush and sucked in my (non-existent) belly.

I look back now and wish I had appreciated my body more. I was thin! I was agile! I was YOUNG!

Image Issues — At prom my sophomore year with my besties— Jamie (left) and Stacey (right).

Binge and Starve: My Circumstances Shaped My Food Relationship

My food issues stemmed from a lot of different places. First, my grandmother was very overweight and suffered from diabetes. I had to learn how to give her injections just in case her blood sugar levels dropped. I feared that future more than anything. Second, we were very poor. We were the kids that had free school breakfasts and lunches due to income…. and, we wanted to go to school because we knew we would get two full meals in the day. Sometimes our pantries only held white bread and peanut butter.

So, while I feared getting fat… I also ached for food. This often led to overeating when food was plentiful and letting myself go hungry when food was scarse. I often would get stomach issues and cramps that sent me to the restroom for long periods of time daily. I began to love the taste of PeptoBismol. Food was my savior and enemy over and over again.

Food and Body Awareness: The Role of Adults

I had wonderful, loving role models. They never called me fat or belittled me. They tried getting me access to healthy and plentiful food. They did their best But, they were not the best role models for what to eat or how to take care of the body. The adults in my life at the time didn’t know the best ways to approach food and body issues.

I don’t want my son to have the relationship with food that I had. I want him to get to enjoy his food and see how it can nourish the body. I want him to be able to enjoy the way rich, wonderfully prepared food can taste. But, I also want him to learn that those items are not for the everyday.

I know that my example is going to be the most distinct way that he will learn about food. I hope to provide a good example so that his childhood and teen years don’t resemble my own. I also plan on actually talking about food and nutrition as he grows older.

Body Image Issues — My senior photo— cheesy as all get out— but, looking back I think I looked great!

Did you have issues with your food relationship when you were a child/teen? How do you plan on teaching your children about food?

Thank you for reading about my health & fitness journey. To read about my current fitness goals please check out my post over on East Side Athletic Club’s brand new blog. I’d love your support as I work on getting healthier!

** I received membership in exchange for my work with East Side Athletic Club. I did not receive further compensation. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

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