Wednesday 30 January 2013

Wednesday weigh in...

Another 3 lbs off!  Annnnnd...

I got my half stone (7lb) award and was slimmer of the week; losing the most out of the whole group over the past 7 days!

Very proud :D

Slimming World is excellent motivation and clearly the plan works when properly followed!  I have tried Slimming W in the past but was quite half arsed about it at times and so it took me literally months to get my half stone award.  So the fact that this time I've got it within the month of starting fills me with enthusiasm and a positive sense that 2013 is the year I will achieve all the great things I set my mind to!

5lbs to the stone award...


Thursday 17 January 2013

Gained loads - except weight!!

Having had a poorly start to the week and probably under-eating on the fruits and veggies front that make up a considerable part of the Slimming World plan I was pleased to have maintained my weight this week and not to have gained anything.  Though we're now on for a loss I tell thee!!

Spirituality wise this past week has been immense!  The group I regularly attend where like minded folks congregate above a beautiful crystal shop on a Wednesday and/or Thursday evening to lead different discussions or share knowledge/healing/do shamanic journeying/do rituals together (I'm very lucky to have found this place on my doorstep, I know!!) has started back up again after the Christmas break and it's been going great.  In fact....  LAST NIGHT I LEAD MY FIRST SESSION. Eeeee!

I was kindly invited to a Druid Grove last year by some wonderful members of this group who I very highly respect and admire and from that intensely magickal experience the Druid bug just stirred my soul and I instantly knew that somehow I needed to incorporate Druidry to my Wicca/Shamanistic based path and began a Bardic course offered by one of the Druid organisations.

Fast forward a few months and others from my local group wanted to know how I'm getting along and what it's all about so I was prompted by one of these exceptional members who introduced me to Druidry to lead a Seed Group, sharing the Druid way with others who are also at a beginners level.  And you can't say no to doing something your practical-spiritual mentor advises, right?  So yesterday evening even though I was exceptionally wary and nervous I lead such a group and it was a wonderful experience!  The people who came along were just the kindest, most lovely, genuine hearts you could imagine and I've had nothing good feedback from the night.  One woman came back from the first meditation I've ever lead crying (and I thought oh dear goddess no what have I done!!?) but thankfully they were happy tears because she'd made a connection to something very meaningful and was overjoyed.  I feel very blessed that it went so well and I had an opportunity to share some of what I have gained from following the Druid path.

It's now looking like this will be a monthly group, with more now wanting to get involved.  I feel very humbled and pleased that the people who came got something out of it.  It's a good feeling.

So I've not lost weight this week but oh boy have I gained a lot in terms of spirit!! xx

Tuesday 15 January 2013

The key


Got all the tools I need!!

:)

Progress?

Been a funny week settling back into normality after the holiday season and yes, I'll admit it, the new year enthusiasm has waned.  Dammit.

I'm not giving up though, I'm carrying on regardless.


I'm not really sure what's knocked my motivation... I've been feeling drained and under the weather this past week and probably a little unmotivated.  I have been trying hard to stick to the Slimming World plan but I think my eye has slipped off the ball more than a few times and truth be told I'm bound to have gained tomorrow.  Shit.

Got to just get myself back up and remotivated though because I WANT this and I've proved to myself that I CAN do this; I mean I can lose 4 and a half pounds in a week when I want to!!

Am I self sabotaging?  Maybe.  This is why I need to keep my efforts in my conscious mind as much as I can so I don't wander in the wrong direction too much.  The problem with me is that is that if I think about something over and over I eventually lose all interest.  So what to do?  Habit.  I need good eating to become a habit and be fully conscious of what I'm doing till I get there.

And regain my enthusiasm.  Blogging has helped with that fo' sure! :)

Keep on keeping on x

Thursday 10 January 2013

1st weigh in...

4.5 lbs lighter in a week!!  :D



Thank you Slimming World! www.slimmingworld.com www.slimingworld.co.uk!  (Will talk more about what this plan entails soon)


Tuesday 8 January 2013

Pockets of smiles and flies!

Oh it's been a day!  I could sit here and type out all the shitty things about it but I don't want to write that anymore than you want to read about it so I was thinking to myself while staring at this blank page; what's been good about it.  And I was pleasantly surprised with what I came up with...

When I got up, before I'd even had my breakfast rather than do my thing of idly browse my emails and FB messages (9 times out of 10 all spam anyway) I made a cuppa and chop-chop-chopped away at veggies to pop in the slow cooker.  Actually, I tell a little lie, I did briefly go online to google how you cook a fennel (I didn't have a clue what one went with!) but once I saw they make good additions tomato based dishes I took my foggy little sleepy head (everyone has that in the first hour of consciousness, right?) down to the kitchen and didn't need to think as I choppidy-chopped.  It was so therapeutic!

My slow cooker is the most recent addition to my weight-busting tools of success and this was the first time I got to properly use it.  Here's a list of what I (literally) threw into it and it made a fantastic, healthy, low fat sweet potato filling:


  • Quorn mince
  • Chopped fennel
  • Chopped celery stick
  • One red and one normal onion
  • 2 big tomatoes chopped
  • 1 tin of tomatoes
  • Dash of balsamic vinegar
  • Dash of soy sauce
  • Mixed herbs
  • A cup of vgetable stock
  • Celery salt and pepper


It cooked a dream and the smell was HEAVENLY as it was bubbling faithfully away.  I literally looked forward to it all day.  And the taste?  Immense!!  I enjoyed every mouthful and I was so impressed with myself for cooking something new and healthy.

Also, amidst the chaos of today I found 20 minute of 'me' time while I was running errands in town.  I slipped into the local Buddhist Centre and sat quietly in the meditation room and for those precious minutes I was in an impenetrable bubble and the stresses and strains out the outside world, which I could still hear bustling away in the background like a mindless fly that almost amused me, just melted away...


We all have rubbish days.  But I'm becoming ever more mindful to the little windows within them that aren't quite so bad, those pockets of smiles that make the rest bearable.  I'm making a conscious effort to give the good stuff more of my attention and to not give the crap stuff any more of my precious energy than it absolutely requires.

We can't check out of life, we can't stop the stresses of it bothering our consciousness but we can occasionally achieve some respite by swatting it away like a pesky fly.  Of course, as is the nature of flies though, they do eventually come back!!




Monday 7 January 2013

Blow away!

With sorting out all kinds of mundane but alas vitally important stuff today - it's been one of those days when you spend half of it in a phone queue and the other half being told you're in the wrong queue...we all have them, such is life! Anyway, it feels like by being inside, another day of daylight, has passed me by!  And that's not a metaphor for life or excitement or joy; I just mean plain ole natural sunlight!

English winters are SO DARK and the 2012 'Summer' we had was an all out cloud-fest.  I'm now badly craving some natural Vit D and some sunshine!!  As a witch who celebrates nature I wish I was one of these people who could roll easily with the weather but I just can't.  I don't get on well with damp weather or that thick muggy grey cloud that looks like the sky has rolled out a mucky duvet...  it's like the stuffing from within it gets inside my head and makes my brain too thick to function.  I need winter sunlight and those crisp, brittle winds to blow away the cobwebs please!

I pray that Mother Nature is listening and feeling kind!




Gut feeling (worry)

Why do we worry?  I have a real problem with this emotion - and yeah, ironically enough I worry about it...


I'm going through some stuff at the moment which is very stressful and incredibly unjust and naturally I'm worrying sick about it all but I don't get why our bodies do this to us for situations that are out of our control?!  Seems a bit mean, really.

You'd think through all the years of human evolution worry could be pacified with some hormone or other being released by the logical sense of doing everything we can about the situation and the rest being out of our hands.  I know worry is a self preservation emotion, to make us cautious and alert to dangers so we don't act recklessly but come on body, give me a break!  I just want to give that knot in my stomach, which is currently curled up like a frightened child, a hug and say to it soothingly; 'I hear you darling, but I promise somehow we'll be OK.  We've made it so far, try to have a little faith that the rest of me is doing all I can.'

Sunday 6 January 2013

My support tools

I draw strength and inspiration from:

The Goddess and God


Meditation


Weekly Slimming World support group


My path of personal and spiritual development


Being fully engrossed and successful in my studies


Writing about my experiences on this blog and in personal journals


My successes!

3 goals for Ostara

In 11 weeks time I will:

1.  Have paid off all debts
(entirely possible if I'm sensible)

2.  Be saving my pennies

3.  Be a stone lighter

I am actually going to do this!!

My 3 positive affirmations

following Tiptoe's advice, the 3 things that I know are real about myself:

1.  I'm intelligent and open minded.

2.  I'm cheery to be around.

3.  I'm caring.

That was harder than I thought lol!  And I could probably write 100 things I don't like about myself...how bad/sad is that!!

Though maybe it can be turned around into a good thing; my eyes are open to what needs to change and I like to think I'm a smart girl who can turn it around...

Time for change

I guess it's only polite if I write a little about myself it's hard to know what to tell but here goes nothing!!

I'm Suzie, 25, live in the UK.  I'm a psychology student and happy eclectic Pagan.  I'm a reader, a writer, a lover not a fighter (lol sorry I just had to - it rhymed!).  I struggle with health issues and in all honesty am a bit on the porky side so in the spirit of the new year and new starts I've decided to do something about what I can do something about and get myself on a diet plan!  I know it sounds cliché but something in my psyche has shifted, like a button has clicked and my mentality has gone from 'I need to lose weight, I should do this that and the other' to 'I'm doing it.  And I'm never looking back!'

For me, that's a huge shift and one I don't really need to understand I'm just going with!!

Tiptoe's vid came at the right time because I'd already made the conscious decision and made some concerted effort to put these mental shifts into physical being and so now blogging about it puts my intention and determination even further out there into the world and I truly believe that this will help to manifest change.

I'm not going to self edit too much here because that takes time and energy away from just 'being' and allowing my inner voice and what it truly wants to say to flow free.

With honesty and dedication to our truth we can all do anything.  And I believe that at this time, with all the energy shifts around that we can harness, this statement is truer than it has ever been.

That scary 1st post

How incredibly difficult is it to choose a blog background/colour template/fonts and all that stuff?  I really ought to just keep it simple and accept whichever format I've given by default and so not to waste hours getting it 'just so'...especially as it has taken forever to come up with this ensemble and I'm still not sure I'm happy with it.

I think it's all just delaying tactics though as choosing colours is a lot easier on the ole grey matter than blogging as this blog documents the starts of a possibly (at times anyway) painful journey of change but one I have (and want!) to make as standing still while life flies past me at 100 mph isn't an option and even if it was I don't think I'm daft enough to take it - thank goodness!!

So here I am, blogging, inspired by the legendary Tiptoechick (http://tiptoechick.blogspot.co.uk/).  I was going to link to the vid in question but I'll add it here because it's so worthwhile to watch, and I very-super-highly recommend checking out the whole channel.  Thank you for sharing your journey Dee, you've inspired me to do the same <3