One of the most healing things you can do is recognize where in your life you are your own poison.
“
| — | Steve Maraboli (via creatingaquietmind) |
Land of the lazy
I am fed up, frustrated and just plain sick and tired of people right now.
Over the past couple of months I have had a lot of people comment on how much weight I’ve lost and how much healthier I look. They all want to know what pill I’m taking or what diet I’m on. They want it to happen for them … until I tell them it is because I went vegan.
God forbid they have to give up their Big Macs and French fries. God forbid they have to make a lifestyle change instead of starving themselves for 2 weeks. All they want is a magic pill to fix everything.
Of course, this wouldn’t bother me except they then tell me I’m crazy for being vegan. Yes, they actually say I’m crazy. I’ve had a coworker who follows Weight Watchers and looks up every single food and writes everything in a little book call me crazy for not eating animal products. One lady who actually did the grapefruit diet called me nuts. My mother, who has tried every diet in the book, can’t wrap her brain around a vegan diet.
Don’t ask me what I am doing to be healthy and then tell me I’m wrong.
I have just fallen in love :)
(via girlpower)
Such adorable, sweet little piggies! I just want to kiss those noses.
I adore this song!!
It makes me smile everytime I play it :))
Vegan song :)))
When I tell people I don’t eat meat, fish or dairy
They look at me strangely
They don’t realise I eat a very wide varietyI will never stop listening to this song.
This makes me happy.
This is actually good
Kathryn’s Wild Ride
So much has happened this past week I am having trouble taking it all in. I feel dizzy … and a bit sick … but I’m elated at the same time. I just need some time to let it all sink in.
For the past year I have been sinking - trying my hardest to keep my head above water and failing miserably. I had no idea what else I could do to bring in more money, but I needed something to pay the bills. I was just exhausted from all of it. Well, about a week ago I sat down to meditate. I just had to let my brain mull things over and try to come up with a solution.
While I was letting my mind wander, a phrase started running through my head: “I’m caught in the undertow.” I could see it: I wanted to get to shore, but I was swimming against the current. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t make any headway against the water. I was exhausted and drowning and was just getting swept farther out to sea. And by picturing it that way, that’s how the answer came to me. I’ve lived in LA and I learned ocean water safety. Basically, if you’re caught in a current, you don’t fight it. Instead of fighting to get to shore, you swim parallel to the shore until you get out of the current. Then you can swim in. Such a simple concept. I had to make a lateral move and get myself out of the destructive current. Then I could make some headway.
The next morning I decided the best lateral move I could make was to change my job. I didn’t necessarily need something better, just different. I had to get rid of the hotel job, which was exhausting me but payed almost nothing and had irregular hours. I posted on Facebook that I was looking for a new job to replace my job at the hotel. Within a couple of hours I had a reply saying that the animal clinic in town was looking for a front desk person. Within a couple hours I was in town putting in an application and having a first interview with the staff. I would have to wait until Tuesday to talk to the main vet because he was out of town, but it looked promising. I was swimming parallel to the shore.
And that was when the wild ride really began. I got a text from my boss at the magazine asking if I’d gotten Monday off because the ladies had planned to take me out for my birthday. Instead she had a lot more planned. On Sunday, she told me to pack for an overnight stay and bring hiking clothes. She wouldn’t tell me where or what. Her only hints were quotes from “Where the Wild Things Are.” At first I panicked a bit, but I decided I trusted her and I would go with the flow.
Monday we met and went for a ride. We ended up on the back side of Zion National Park and it was a wonderful day, full of peace and love and wonderful vegan food. (I’ll post more about the trip later, I promise.)
On Tuesday I woke up to a chorus of bullfrogs and a sunrise that couldn’t be beat. I spent the day with the wonderful magazine girls and got home exhausted but happier than I’ve been in years. Maybe turning 40 wasn’t such a bad thing.
When I got home Tuesday evening there was a message from the animal clinic wanting me to come in Wednesday morning. I went in Wednesday morning and they called me Wednesday afternoon and offered me the job.
Thursday morning I went into the animal clinic for a few hours to see how the place ran and on Thursday afternoon I went into the hotel and put in my notice.
Friday was my day off. I woke up a bit panicked. I still wasn’t sure how I would reconcile my new 8 to 5 job with the magazine job. But the wild ride continued. I went into town to go grocery shopping and to meet an old friend for lunch. The lunch turned into a 3 hours catch-up session that ended with her sitting down with me and my boss at the magazine to talk about her possibly coming on board to help cover my job.
Now I’m waiting for it all to catch up with me. I’m pretty sure I left my stomach back somewhere on the fifth turn and my head is spinning. And I’m trying not to panic over how fast things have changed. But it feels good … it feels really good. And as icing on the cake, I just talked to my magazine boss and she said she would basically give me a couple weeks to settle into the new job, then we would re-evaluate whether I wanted to step back from my managing editor job or stick with it.
So here I am a million miles from where I was a week ago. I am exhausted and shaky and I can’t seem to keep my blood sugar up. But I am so happy my cheeks hurt from keeping that silly smile on my face.
Life is good.
Forgive the panty shot, but I wanted to find a way to demonstrate just how much weight - and how many inches - I’ve lost since I went first vegetarian and then vegan. The white panties were bought a year ago and I was wearing them up until about 4 months ago. The blue ones were bought today. It blows my mind - in a good way.
