Taking a Break - from Blogging not dieting

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that due to my strange schedule the next few weeks I'm going to take a hiatus from blogging until after Christmas, and possibly after New Year's. I will try to still update my weight everyday, but I won't be blogging daily.

If you're interested in what I'm up to during this time, feel free to email me at losingweightforadummy@gmail.com.

Have a great holiday season, happy Christmas and New Year!

'Julie & Julia' Please Parallel Me

Tonight Mike and I rented "Julie and Julia" the movie based on two true stories including the life of the famous Julia Child. For anyone who isn't familiar with the basic storyline of the movie, a woman who is unsatisfied with her career and stuck in a rut found solace, a new beginning and her life in the book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," Julia Child's masterpiece and launching point. The movie parallels the modern-day cook, Julie, who cooks all the recipes in the book in one year and blogs about it while giving an in-depth look into Julia Child's life. Although a bit long, the movie was great because the two stories are incredible. Learning to cook brought Julia Child to life and taking on the cooking/blogging adventure brought Julie back to life.

While I was watching the movie, and I have a feeling while Mike was watching it as well, I kept thinking about myself and how some of this plot is similar to my life, but the amazing parts of

this movie aren't paralleling my life well enough. Is it too much to ask for the movie to please parallel me? I'm just kidding.

One of the most important things I have realized lately, whether it's because of my weight loss or poor eating habits, my job or my daily routines, is that life is better when I'm blissful. Amy Adams' character in "Julie & Julia" goes through extreme ups and downs that follow the patterns of her everyday life. When cooking isn't going well, she's arguing with her husband and her job is at its worse she has breakdowns, gets ill and wants to give up. On the other hand, when her chocolate cake is perfection (and looked delicious I must say), she lets the stresses of her job drop off her shoulders and laughs hysterically to Saturday Night Live while cuddling with her husband, she's not only blissfully happy, but healthier too.

When I'm in my highest states and singing merrily to the holiday carols, I eat healthier and in better portions, I laugh more, my back hurts less and I'm motivated to do anything and everything. Adversely, the exact opposite happens when I'm in a bad mood or my overall state is low. My mood is having much too great an affect on my weight loss program. Now don't worry please, for anyone who may actually be reading this, I haven't gained back all that weight and I'm still extremely happy that I'm at a stable 202 lbs., but when I'm having a bad day it's still really hard for me not to eat an entire box of snow caps plus a bag of popcorn, dinner and some frozen yogurt. I refrain quite well, but it's getting harder and harder to be strong as my mood becomes lower and lower this holiday season.

Amy Adams reaches a breaking point in the movie where she has "breakdowns" one after the other and eventually comes to verbal blows with her husband. She stops cooking, omits things in her blog and is really depressed. When she comes out of it however, she shines like the brightest star in her personal endeavors and that radiates clearly into her professional life, her relationships and her cooking. It's really inspirational.

This holiday season is kind of rough for me because I don't actually feel like it's the holidays since we're spending it away from the snow-covered Midwest. That combined with a few other personal factors, and I'm not my normal, sarcastic and happy self. I'm close, but not quite there. So hopefully this is my low and it takes a little bit of inspiration, a visit with my parents and a few days off work on the holidays to rejuvenate my weight-losing spirit to get back (completely) on the right track -- a proverbial turning of my frown upside down.

It's kind of ironic that I've found inspiration in a film that focuses completely on cooking and eating, when my own blog focuses on refraining from over-eating and controlling food and weight. Now, if only I could get the same following from my blog that Julie was able to get and that whole publishing deal wouldn't be too bad either ... hehehe.

As Julia Child's famously crooned, "Bon Appetite!"

I Think I Can, I Think I Can, I Think I Can

The hardest thing about trying to lose weight during the holiday season it turns out, isn't avoiding snacking on delicious Christmas cookies or gorging myself on stuffing and mashed potatoes. My problem is much more simple than keeping away from sweets, it lies in my will power and motivation.

I am seriously lacking some motivation right now and it doesn't help that Slim Fast just issued a major recall on all of their shakes. I usually have a Slim Fast shake for breakfast and dinner, but now what do I do? I know, I know, there are hundreds of solutions for this itty bitty problem, but I'm a creature of habit and I prefer not to add change to my daily routines.

It's been almost two weeks of me staying steady at 203 lbs and all I want to do is push beyond that weight and make it to that nagging 200. It sounds simple enough, but I still can't really exercise due to the disc problem in my back and without that exercise, motivation is definitely on the decrease!

It is Dec. 7 and I have only 18 days until Christmas and 18 days until my parents are in Las Vegas visiting me and my fiance for a long weekend. I really want to be at 200 pounds or below by that date. I know I've had the 200 lb. goal for a long time, but it's really time I hit it. That way I can enter the new year with a new perspective, more motivation and keep on trucking down the weight scale.

For all of you lacking motivation at this time of year, don't worry, you're not alone. We all just need to help keep each other moving in the right direction!

Sluggish Friday

I'm feeling a little sluggish and unmotivated today. I don't really know what else to say about it, other than I hope I can just push past the mental side of feeling unmotivated and work hard through the weekend to drop past 203.4 -- the weight I've been for 3 days straight.

Nothing's really making me feel unmotivated and there isn't any significant reason why I'm a little blue, but I could use a little holiday cheer. Send it my way please!

A Good Laugh

It's not every day that I can look in the mirror and laugh at myself, but it happened to me this morning. When I say laugh, I'm not referring to a slight giggle, but instead a full-on outburst of laughter mixed with a couple of tears.

This morning I walked into the bathroom in the master bedroom to get ready for work. I turned to walk into the closet and caught a glimpse of my little beer belly in the mirror poking out from above my pajama pants and below the hem of the tank top I was wearing. Four months ago that would have made me cry hysterically on the floor, but this morning it made my laugh uncontrollably. Something about seeing the actual roll of fat that I'm attempting to combat, and picturing myself on peopleofwalmart.com made me absolutely lose it.

I don't really think this is normal or even healthy, and I know for certain that it looked horrendous, but it made me realize that the image I have of myself is changing. I've said before that it's changing, but it's one thing to say it and believe it, and entirely another thing to actually practice it. I haven't lost 75 pounds yet, and I still enjoy a couple of slices of pizza every now and then, but I have improved so much from August until today. And I'm extremely thankful for that.

I know today's post was nothing profound, but I have been thinking about my laughing fit all morning so I thought I would share. I did add two photos of me today. Enjoy!

I Survived the Radio

Morning everyone! I just wanted to say thanks to all of you that tuned in to The Last Cookie Club radio show last night from 4-5 p.m. on KLAV 1230 am. Former Las Vegas casino owner and author, Gary Mahoney invited me to be on his show to talk a little bit about my weight struggles and the journey I've been on since August to drop the excess fat. I think it went great!

If you missed the show and are interested in listening to it, you can visit www.lastcookieclub.com/podcast.php. This will link you to all of the Last Cookie Club archived shows. If you have any comments about things I said, or the show in general, please leave them here or send me an e-mail to let me know. I thrive off feedback, and reading comments from all of you is what really keeps me moving forward.

Also on yesterday's show was a friend of Gary's named Greg. Greg is not overweight and does not have a problem with overeating, but he's no stranger to addiction. Gary brought him on the show to talk about how he's recovered from his own addictions and to bring up the power of meditation. Both Gary and Greg use meditation heavily to help with their addictions and recovery processes. For me, I've never really tried meditating, beyond what teachers may have had us do during various college-level classes. I've honestly never really been interested in it, but I think it may be worth trying.

The most important thing that I've learned through all of this is that each one of us, regardless of our addiction or problem, recovers and moves forward in a different manner. Meditation may not work for me because I need to share my thoughts and feelings in order to move forward, but maybe it will help me focus. I think trying new methods is important, but the key is to not use everything all at once so it all gets jumbled.

I learned yesterday that talking about my story on the radio made me think a lot more about how exactly I came to be the way I am. It was extremely thought-provoking and I'm grateful for that because there are some aspects of my weight-gain and weight-loss that had never crossed my mind before. I think I have a lot more thinking to do, and maybe Gary will even invite me to be on his show again sometime soon.

I hope all of you had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday and are back in the swing of work and school and standard schedules. Happy Holidays everyone!

Christmas Card/Holiday Photos!

Now that the holidays are officially upon us, it's time to revisit one of my favorite passions: photographing families! If you live in the Las Vegas area and are interested in having someone take family photos for Christmas or holiday cards, or photos of your kids to develop for gifts for relatives, I can do that for you at extremely low rates.

I've included a few photos from a shoot I did three weeks ago with a family who are using the photos to not only document the age of their new baby, but for this year's Christmas card as well.

My services include the shoot, photo editing and a disc with the images for

a flat, low rate. If you'd like to have photos ordered as well, I can arrange

that too, based on vendor pricing.

If you're interested in more samples or more information, please email the address linked to this blog (to avoid putting my phone number up for the world to see) losingweightforadummy@gmail.com.

Last Cookie Club Radio Show

So I thought some of you may be interested in listening to the Last Cookie Club radio show this afteroon. I have been asked to be a guest on the program from 4-5 p.m. (pacific time). You can click "listen live" at www.klav1230am.com to tune in.

Former Las Vegas casino owner and author of "The Last Cookie Club" hosts a weekly talk show that focuses not only on weight loss, but on the ups and downs of maintaining weight and being on a weight-focused journey. We're going to talk about my journey so far, how to handle the holidays and anything else he may come up with!

Feel free to listen if you get the chance!