Doing It Together

Four years ago after the birth of my second son I decided that I needed some help losing weight.  When I walked into that first meeting I felt a flood of emotions including incredible sadness that I had to ask for help and couldn't do it by myself.  I never ask for help.  I'm all about being able to do things yourself.  Self sufficiency, strength and independence were my mottoes for most of my life.

But here I was in this meeting admitting that I needed help.  I cried through the entire first meeting.  It was something I had no control of, I couldn't stop.  It wasn't a blubbering cry, just slow hot tears running down my face as I thought about my life and were I had come to.  I stayed with Weight Watchers for six months and lost over 30 lbs.  I was so happy.  It was mostly the weekly meeting that helped me get to the place that I did.  The leader was just the right amount of knowledge, encouragement and guide.

The months following my departure, I lost a few more pounds which was evidence enough to me that I was "cured."  I could do it myself now.  And over the next four years anytime I felt bad about something I would think "at least I haven't gained the weight back" that's something I was really proud of.

Well, it didn't last forever.  Over the last six months I've gained a quarter of that weight back and every time I've tried to brush it off as "just a few pounds" it's gotten worse and worse.  And no amount of shame and effort has helped me get back to myself.

So today I went back to Weight Watchers.  The meeting leader recognized me as I was standing in line to register.  She came over to say hello.  I shook her hand and said "I'm back after four years."  With those words the tears weld up in my eyes and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop them from streaming down my face.  I cried through my entire registration process (can you say embarrassing?) and for the first few minutes of the meeting.  Again, not a blubbering cry but slow and constant tears.  Everyone was so nice about it and the meeting leader just said, "don't worry, it will be OK, you're home."  I had to admit that I couldn't keep the weight off and that I needed help again.  Man, was that hard!

So it's my first day back and I feel hopeful again and energized.  Now is when the hard work begins to get back to my good habits.  And make the sacrifices necessary to get to a good place again.

Wish me luck! And if there is anyone out there reading this that is struggling with this issue, I say find a good WW meeting, the people are so supportive and the program is reasonable.  It's OK to ask for help.  :)

Social Media Overload

I have to admit that I'm really enjoying being on twitter.  It's definitely goofy and strange but also so interesting in the way that it levels the communication playing field between all kinds of people.  I'm 'following' some really funny celebrities like Ellen (my favorite by far) and Conan and a few writers that I admire like Ayelet Waldman.  Twitter allows us to communicate with people that most of us would never have an opportunity to communicate with on any level.

In addition, it has helped connect me with other moms and women bloggers/writers that are interested in some of the same things I am.  And the icing on the cake is that a few of my close friends are now on twitter so I can stay in touch with them through a different medium, which is fun.  

Besides twitter, I spend most of my free non-mommy&wife-focused time on writing my friendship pieces for examiner.com (the last two about elevating the respect for friendships and what not to do when a friendship ends).  It's been so rewarding doing them.  I get paid in comments, "likes," and feedback and support from readers (mostly my friends, God love 'em!).  That's pretty much my payment and it's awesome.  But if by some miracle in the future I can actually make any real money from doing this I think I might burst into a thousand dream-come-true pieces.  

Getting in to twitter and the blogosphere has also shown me the incredible world of women/mom entrepreneurs.  It's incredible how much these amazing women are doing out there, blogging, writing, twitting, creating, connecting to try and learn, engage and create something substantial for themselves.

I'm in a little bit of a social media love fest!  It might not last long but I'm riding the wave for now.  :)

What do you love about social media?

The Second Guessing Game

It's been really scary for me to put myself out there every week for examiner.com.  Whenever I finish a piece, I post it on Facebook and send it out in a twitter message.  So I basically announce to my friends and anyone else willing to listen (and read) that I've written something that I think is worth reading.

And each time I put one out there I hold my breath hoping and wishing that someone will think it is worthwhile.  I guess that's what writing is about.  You share yourself (or more correctly your thoughts) with your readers and hope that it is of some meaning to them and that they connect with it or you in some way.

But each time I also second guess myself.   What if "they" don't like it?  Or think it's silly or trite?  Maybe this will be the one that turns them away.  Why didn't this person or that person comment on it?  They liked my last one!  Why didn't they like this one?  I could go on for days with my doubts.

I realized today, however, that if I'm going to continue doing this that I have to be a little more thick skinned and have more confidence in my pieces.  Are they all going to be great?  No.  But they might all have something interesting or new that I want to explore and share.

Just like blog posts, you write something that means something to you at the time you're sharing it and sometimes it gets a big response and sometimes it doesn't but it is the collective sharing that is meaningful.

I've been so grateful for the support that my friends have given me in this new adventure.  It's been a real gift.  And I'm working hard to make each piece I put out there meaningful and interesting.

Facebook Friendship Feedback

I'm too much of chicken to ask anyone else.  But I thought maybe you can be my sounding board and give it to me straight!  What did you think of this piece I did for examiner.com yesterday about Facebook friends?


Facebook Friendships: How to handle a hurtful status situation 

Like over 250 million others, you pull up your Facebook page sometime during the day and scroll through the newsfeed, checking out what your friends are up to.  Usually, this is a fun and light distraction from your work or household chores: a funny status update here, a link to a mildly interesting article there--it’s all pretty harmless.  But sometimes, pulling up your Facebook page can end up being much more than you bargained for emotionally. See more...


It's one of those that I enjoyed doing and thought was good (and it had the added benefit of a picture of the back of my friend Kate's head, which I love!) but didn't get as much response as the previous ones I've done and I was wondering if the subject matter of the piece was just not that relatable to most people.  What do you think?

Happy Love Day Y'All

Happy Valentine's day my dear blog family.  Love you lots!

I'm officially on twitter at contactrebecca and am starting to really play around with it.  I got some great tutelage from my dear friends Kate and Gwen yesterday.  Thanks ladies.  I'm still a little confused with all the #s and other non-letter/number codes that people use but for now it seems like something I'm going to use and enjoy.  I'm taking it a day at a time.

There a thousand more things I want to do and learn regarding the whole social media thing but first things first....Google Reader.  Can you believe I haven't had one?  I'm adding my favorite blogs on as soon as I get a good chunk of time and I'd love your suggestions on your FAVORITE God-I-Love-Her-Blog blogs.  I'm branching out girls.  :)

And regarding the writing...I did a short cutesie piece recently on feeling like a kid again on Valentine's Day...check it out here!

Hugs, hugs and even more hugs to you!

I've entered the twittersphere!

It's been an interesting time for me in the last few weeks.  I've missed writing on my blog but now that I'm doing articles for examiner.com I tend to do most of my creative writing over there.  I'm wondering how to do both and be creative but different for both.

As I mentioned two weeks ago, I started writing for examiner.com for my home city webpage doing pieces about friendship.  When they gave me the job they made it clear that it was for their local editorial and that I would need to make my pieces relevant and linked to the city I was writing for.  After two weeks of writing articles on friendship that were most general in nature and had no ties to my city, they switched me to the national editorial of examiner.com.  I was SO thrilled.  I love having the flexibility to write about any friendship related topic I want, how ever many times I want to write it and to also have a national audience....it's amazing.  Please come visit me when you can....I have a new examiner.com home here!  

I've written six pieces so far and I've enjoyed every minute.  The best part is when I get feedback from friends telling me what they think or when they share the piece with their friends.  It's super sweet and flattering.  I just love it.

Also, I've gone and done something crazy.  I've joined twitter.  My twitter name is @contactrebecca (is that how you do it?).  I have no idea what to do next.  I've twitted two things but I still don't understand what the whole thing means.  Is everything on twitter public?  I don't have any friends that are on twitter (that I know of) so no one to gab about and get advice from in terms of this medium.  I'd love any help or advice you might have!  :)

I'd love to get more connected with people but I'm so nervous about doing or revealing too much on twitter.

And for the blog, I'd love to keep doing it but not sure about the scope of stuff that I should write about here if I'm doing all my friendship writing on examiner.com.  I don't want to repeat the pieces here...or is that OK?

I'm kind of all over the place....