Hi there:
I never thought I'd be starting over on my healthy living journey. If you followed my old blog, you might remember me as the budding author who quit smoking cold turkey and managed to lose sixty pounds using Weightwatchers and guidance provided to me by a doctor of Chinese medicine. The information and guidance I received from those two sources were very effective tools for helping me get into “fighting shape” as some like to call it. That term always evokes images in my mind of prizefighters going at it in a boxing ring. But I digress . . .
Losing the weight was fantastic. It changed my life. I had more energy. I had more self-confidence. I started dating more. But the best thing for me was that, for the first time in more than twenty years, I was able to shop in the Misses department of any store instead of being limited to plus size stores or the plus size sections of stores. I was like a kid in a candy store.
Well, a lot has happened over the past two or so years – most of it wonderful. I published two romantic suspense novels that are getting great ratings on Amazon: Just Dreams and Dreams Deferred, and I'm coming out with a third book in January, 2016. I left my job as a partner at a large law firm and opened up my own practice. I toured the country attending writers’ conferences, festivals and trade shows. I even met a great guy two years ago and we've been together ever since. A very sad thing happened during that time as well, namely, the death of my mother.
What with all the effort to get my new practice and my book publishing businesses off the ground, traveling, and dealing with the emotional and legal aftermath of my mother's death, I fell into old bad habits. I stopped working out, I ate out and ordered in all the time and made unhealthy food choices, and I stopped going to Weightwatchers meetings. The end result is that I gained all the weight back and more. I'm the heaviest I've ever been and, to make matters worse, I've started developing weight related ailments like high blood pressure.
It's an old story. We've all had this issue. A diet can only work for so long. If you don't change your lifestyle and your mindset and maintain healthy habits, you're not going to be able to maintain your results.
When my writing career began to take off, I retired my old blog and moved all my posts to my author website. That was a mistake – the first of many I've made over the past few years. I realize now that I need a separate space that's dedicated to chronicling my healthy living journey. I need a space where those who want to follow my journey can come to learn what's working for me and what's not and maybe get a bit of knowledge and inspiration. So now, I'm back.
May you enjoy the ride.
Peace.