The Itsy-Bitsy Spider...

The other day I hear this shriek coming from the bathroom, so I run in to find Jack looking over the sink crying and yelling. I peek over the sink, well because I'm a little scared to see what he's looking at, and I see this tiny little spider crawling around the inside of the sink. Jack is just freaked! He just stood there, refusing to move, refusing to kill it. I told him, "Jack, you're bigger than that spider, it can't hurt you!" So I did what any mom would do, I turned on the water and drowned that spider! It was an easy task for me because I know that it was harmless and within seconds we could take down that spider. Jack, on the other hand, just couldn't see it for what it was. I don't know exactly what he was thinking, maybe he was afraid, perhaps he didn't know that he could kill it by turning on the water.. or maybe he just didn't want to do anything besides allow it to keep walking around the sink and letting it scare him. I, of course, was able to relate this to some areas in my own life. I spent many many years trying to battle my weight. I bought different books, tried different diets I even joined a workout facility at one point. But time after time, I seemed to fail. It wasn't until I realized that I was bigger than the battle I was fighting. You see, once you can see that, then the battle is much easier. We have allowed food to control our lives for so long that it has become this GIANT object in our lives and we just sit there and allow our food habits to consume us. I don't believe that food is the problem. I believe it's how we handle our food. It's the role we allow it to play in our lives. So many of us allow it to comfort us, allow it to be our entertainment when we're bored, allow it to be a part of every celebration we have. Some of us have allowed our eating habits to be like that spider, and just sorta stay in our lives because we're either afraid to change our habits, possibly due to being afraid of failure, or we really don't want too change. If you really want to change and you really want to finally conquer this mountain in your life, then I know you can! It's pushing through those moments that you feel like you're not going to be able to do it. Those are just thoughts, they aren't facts. The fact is, it's just a little spider that we've allowed to look like something bigger than what it really is. The fact is you really do have the ability to turn on the water and drown it! You have the ability to walk away from the dessert table if you need too. You have the ability to throw ice cream in the garbage if you need too. You really can get up from the dinner table and not have seconds or thirds or... It just takes you realizing you can do it! So here's my challenge to you.. Don't be like Jack. No longer stand there and allow these "little spiders" to consume your life. Drown those suckers!!! ;-) Stop allowing yourself to be defeated by your bad habits. I'm rooting for you!!!! I know you can do it!!! :)

Slow down and smell the chocolate fountain

As some of you may know this already, but I am an assistant wedding photographer, so I get to attend a lot of weddings. This past summer I got to shoot pictures for about 27 weddings. So yes, I've seen my share of cake! I happened to be at this particular wedding that had one of THOSE DELICIOUS looking chocolate fountains! Of course our table was located right next to this wonderful-flowing-fountain of chocolaty heaven! Not sure if you can tell or not, but I am a fan of chocolate :) Lucky for me, though, my Weight Watcher leader had just talked about chocolate fountains in one of classes prior to this wedding. Thankfully I listen in my class!! She said she had a member in one of her classes that worked at a banquet hall that offered a chocolate fountain and the majority of the "chocolate" is made up of vegetable oil to keep the "chocolate" oil flowing. So now it's chocolate oil. Not just chocolate. It was kinda disappointing to me. Honestly, in my life pre-weight loss I would've still eaten from that fountain. I would have heard the information, probably even said, "Oh man, that's terrible!" and then forgotten about it and still ate some anyways, just saying! I had decided I wasn't going to even try it. I didn't really want it unless it was straight chocolate. But something else happened, as the chocolate fountain started flowing I started to smell this odor, sort of like sweat. I am serious! Of course I had to investigate where this smell was coming from and I discovered the smell was coming from the chocolate fountain. I was shocked, "Why hadn't I smelled this before?!" And just so you know, I was at another wedding later on in the season that had a chocolate fountain and it smelled bad too. You know why I never smelled it before? Because I never slowed down to even smell what I was eating. Eating carelessly, not even thinking, that's how I used to eat. I saw something I wanted and ate it. I can't even remember paying too much attention to the nutrition labels. Can you relate to this at all? Shoving food in your mouth and barely even tasting it. Finding a balance in life is important. Eating food that you find to be delicious is perfectly fine! I am still a food lover! But being aware of what you're eating AND enjoying it, is important. So slow down, smell the chocolate fountain. Read what's in your food. Find out what you're eating before you put it in your mouth. And enjoy ;)