Am I Ready for Some Feedback?

The other day, I had a meeting with my lovely friend Antoinette. I say “meeting” because while I’ve known her (off and on) since second grade and I consider her my friend, this was not just coffee talk. Antoinette is a business coach, and I had booked an hour of her time.

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5 Things I’ve Learned About Weight Loss

Everyone has their own way of getting through a workout.

Since giving birth to my daughter in December 2015, I’ve lost fifty pounds: an amount I never really thought I’d have to lose. I’ve spent much of my adult life battling the ten to twenty “extra” pounds I usually carry, and had thought it a huge triumph when I once lost twenty-five pounds in one go. Now, I can barely fathom that I’ve shed so much. Nursing is a big part of it. But I have to acknowledge some of the lessons I’ve learned in the past year or so, and apply them as I push forward, trying once again to shed the last ten to twenty pounds. (This may be the first of a multi-part post; new thoughts occur on this subject quite often.) And since it’s the diet and exercise season, I thought I’d share them with you.

30 for 30

The one in the orange is me.

When I was fifteen years old, my New Year’s Resolution was to get involved in the theatre. Within a week or two I was sitting in on rehearsals at a local community theatre, where I became an assistant stage manager, and then a stage manager, and then I auditioned for a couple plays, got a couple roles, and I was off. I was pretty much always involved in one show or another for the next five years. Then lots of things happened to dissuade me from pursuing an acting career, but, you know, I did it.

I haven’t followed through with something like that in a long time. Not completely. But I also haven’t always set realistic goals. So I’ve decided to make a list of things I’d like to do before my 31st birthday. Because if I don’t set goals, I have the tendency to accomplish nothing. So I’m going to be inspired by my fifteen-year-old self and decide to do some things with the next year of my life.

(The following are numbered to help me keep track of them, but in no particular order):

Thirty

Birthday # 29. I blew out all those candles.

In one month, I will be thirty years old. That means I have one month to do a whole lot of things I wanted to accomplish in my twenties.

Visiting all 50 states is not going to happen (not counting states where I’ve only been inside an airport, I think I’ve been to fifteen). Even if it was finished and submitted and magically accepted for publication right now, my novel would not be published by October 19th–I can’t even say it will be finished by then. I don’t have time to join a roller derby team, and since I haven’t been on skates since the second trimester of my pregnancy, I would probably fall and break an ankle first thing (I’m an enthusiastic but untalented skater). Not even an extreme crash diet would bring me down to my ideal weight that quickly. I can play maybe five songs on the guitar but I can’t even remember which strings play which notes and it’s going to be quite a while before I can play an F#minor.