How Do You Deal With Feeling Overwhelmed?
Last week, I sent an email to the Nurturing Hope email list with a link to a survey with questions related to our thoughts about clutter and emotional eating. I was amazed at how many people took the time to respond — thank you!
One question asked, “What is the single most challenging issue you face in relation to clutter and/or emotional eating?” Over 80 people answered this question. As I read through the answers, a strong theme stood out:
I just get so overwhelmed with it all, not knowing where to start or where to put things.
How I Found the One
Our Wedding - 2005
This is really a Friday Fun post, but it’s a day late 
)
In my early adulthood I didn’t have a clue about men or love. I made a lot of bad decisions. And then, shortly after I turned 30 I began adding Tweaks or positive habits to my life. Gradually, I began to realize that I am a worthy, precious person and I slowly started to treat myself accordingly.
Magic started to happen. I got happier and it showed. Men started to notice me. It dawned on me in a blinding realization that fat does not mean unattractive. I was an attractive, vibrant woman even though I was still very heavy. Read more
A Treat for Valentine’s Day
Jimmy Moore
I have been a fan of Jimmy Moore for years now. Jimmy and I have something in common. Like me, he too was once super morbidly obese and he has lost an amazing 170 pounds. His life’s work is to show others how to achieve the weight loss success he has had with low carb eating, and he shares his message at the popular Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog.
What I love most about Jimmy is that everything he does is an illustration of his enthusiastic, joyful approach to life.
This week, Jimmy interviewed Karly Pitman about Valentine’s Day and how to show love to others and, even more importantly, ourselves. Jimmy calls this interview “a soothing, hot bubble bath” and I could not have said it better. I hope you take some time today or this weekend to immerse yourself in this comforting and empowering message. Click here to listen to Jimmy’s interview with Karly.
Click here to get updates and information about the NurturingHope.com Tweaks System by email, FREE.
Click here to find out more about our private, supportive Member Forum.
Celebrate Your Progress
It’s so easy to focus on our shortcomings and ignore the amazing progress we make on this journey. This is called discounting the positive, something a lot of perfectionists tend to do. Many of us who clutter and emotionally eat definitely have perfectionistic tendencies. I sure do!
It’s like a gift when I have a flash of insight that turns my perception of reality upsidedown. Most of the time, I love those moments of sudden clarity and today I had one of them.
It’s been just over a year since I walked away from diets and eating plans. A year of eating whatever I want. And I’ve still been slowly and steadily burning off the extra fat my body carries. Some people call this intuitive eating; my goal is to eat what I really want when I’m hungry and stop eating when I’m full. It sounds easy, but of course it isn’t. Read more
You Are Enough and You Have Enough!
If you subscribe to the free Nurturing Hope newsletter you may have noticed that I frequently remind readers, “You are enough and you have enough!” This is an affirmation that I was given by my wonderful life coach, Bill Baren.
“I am enough and I have enough,” immediately resonated with me. Many times in my life I had found myself trying to make up for a sense of inadequacy by putting other people’s needs before my own. In the workplace, I worked long hours and took on unreasonable responsibilities. I got into relationships with people whose addiction issues ensured that I’d be called upon to rescue them. Instead of taking the time to truly nurture myself and put my needs first, I ate as a shortcut way to comfort myself. I ate when I was tired, I ate when I was angry and I ate when I was sad or lonely. I tried to make up for my perceived inadequacy by spending money and buying stuff. Read more
An Excellent Documentary About Hoarding
POSSESSED from Martin Hampton on Vimeo.
This is a short documentary (a little more than 20 minutes) that you can watch in its entirety. Four people in the UK with hoarding issues talk about their lives and their problems with stuff.
Two moments that really struck me:
- A book hoarder expresses his guilt about the idea of parting with some of his books, “It’s almost as though you’re betraying them.”
- A woman who feels unable to throw her garbage away says, “It might be a lot of rubbish but nobody is allowed to touch it.”
What were your reactions to the documentary?
Read all the other posts about hoarding here.
Click here to get updates and information about the NurturingHope.com Tweaks System by email, FREE.
Click here to find out more about our private, supportive Member Forum.
Did Fat Acceptance Help Me Lose Weight?
In 1998 I became aware of the idea of “fat acceptance” and it may have changed my life. I say may have, because it was not until a couple of years later that I started making even the tiniest positive life changes that eventually led me to where I am today, over 100 pounds lighter than I was at my heaviest weight and finally living in a clutter-free, functional and peaceful home.
Have you heard of the fat acceptance movement? It is a loose affiliation of individuals and organizations uniting around the idea that fat people are unfairly targeted for discrimination and hatred in our society. Of course, any of us who are or who have been fat know the truth of this like we know our own names. The revolutionary idea, to me at the time at least, is that this is not okay. Being reviled, discriminated against and treated poorly simply because we are fat is not okay. And, conversely, it’s okay to be fat. Read more