I've Fallen and I WILL Get Up (Week 9)...by Liimu

PMS hit me hard this month. I swear, I turned into a whole new person. I was so tired, I was counting the minutes to bedtime before I'd even finished breakfast. Literally. I was craving salted chocolate balls. I found myself getting weepy as I watched my kids do their homework. Worst of all, I had no idea I was suffering from PMS. It all seemed like I was just entering a new, horrific, emotionally charged phase of life and so I decided to just go with it.

When I finally realized what was happening, the damage had been done. I had already woken the sugar monster, and so I now find myself struggling to get the nasty critter to go back to sleep already. (The bowl of cereal with raisins I just ate to sustain my writing of this blog did not help matters any.) I have a wonderful, miraculous angel of a friend who is helping me to learn how to work with the Law of Attraction, seeking only joyous eating and exercising experiences. I'm still not sure how to distinguish between joy and comfort, but I am working on it.

I went to the gym today and literally looked around as if I had just hopped off the bus at Port Authority after never setting foot out of Podunk, Iowa. You'd think I had never seen a treadmill, let alone spent 6 days a week at the gym for the past 15 years. I'm not sure what's happening to me, but I know it's good. Change is always good. I've always been passionate about getting in my best shape and now is no different. It just seems to be taking shape in a different way than what I'm used to, pun intended.

As a huge fan and advocate of the Law of Attraction, I get and read daily messages from Abraham sent by Esther and Jerry Hicks, co-authors of the wonderful book, "Money and the Law of Attraction." This one I got a couple days ago and it really resonated with me:

"Don't try to recreate peak experiences. Instead, just accept them as the gift that they are, and don't beat up on yourself for not being able to stay there. Because if you stayed there, they wouldn't be peak experiences. They would be normal, every day in time hum drum boring, experiences. So, savor the peak experiences and compliment yourself upon your achieving of them, and expect more of them, and leave everything else out of the equation."

I've been trying to recreate the past experiences I've had of losing weight successfully, and I'm clear now on the fact that however it's going to happen this time, it's going to be completely different from times in the past. It's going to be joyful, gentle, and awe-inspiring. I will continue to share it with you!

BodyFit Update: Still wearing the BodyFIT band, though I don't have many steps to proclaim this week. I was interested to see that I got more exercise than I thought I had on my days "off." This weekend is the big 1/2 marathon for which I've been faithfully training all these many weeks. I look forward to wearing my arm band and logging all my steps. For more information on the BodyFIT armband, click here.

It's ALL good by Liimu

I have friends who never tell their kids about anything they have planned for them until the last minute, because they don't want them to be disappointed. Me? I am raising kids (I like to think) who go with the flow because hey - disappointment is a fact of life. Plans change, and we adjust and go with it and in my experience when my plan isn't the same as God's plan, it's ALWAYS because God's plan is better. That's what I'm trying to teach my kids and so far so good. Take our upcoming shore trip as an example.

As a believer and follower of the Law of Attraction and the Teachings of Abraham (Esther and Jerry Hicks), I find myself on many occasions taking leaps of faith that others don't understand and wouldn't try themselves if they were in a similar situation. I live my life from a place of abundance, even when that's not the reality of my situation. Fortunately, my husband is on board with this way of thinking. We would have big problems if he weren't. Earlier this year, as loyal readers may recall, we took a trip to Italy for ten days. At the time, we were far from loaded, but it was my 40TH BIRTHDAY and I was not going to let fear of financial insecurity keep from celebrating it exactly the way I wanted to. I was going to have faith that the Universe would work it all out. My faith wavered slightly when we got back to an anemic bank account and little project work on the horizon, but I had faith. So much faith, I booked the two-week trip to the shore at the end of August. Okay, maybe that was a bit over the top but I did have faith that the work and more important, the money to fund the trip was going to be there.

When work continued to trickle in slower than anticipated, I figured it was time to use some common sense, and I offered to put one of the two shore weeks back on the market. No luck. How could not a single person want a fabulous shore house for the week before the week before Labor Day? (I did NOT put the week before Labor Day back on the market. I'm not DUMB.) Weeks went by with no activity, and I actually started to warm up to the idea of going to the shore for two weeks. Then, two big contracts came through and suddenly I could actually afford to go. Only problem is, now I had to work. All this time, I'm telling my kids, "We're going for two weeks...well, definitely one week, maybe two....we're going for one week (when we heard that a lovely couple was going to actually rent the place and was sending the deposit)...we're going for two weeks but we're going to let So and So use the house for a couple days so I can work (when said lovely couple bagged out at the last minute)."

You get the picture. A bit of a whirlwind, but I've been totally going with the flow. Then today, I finally got word that the house had, in fact, been rented for that first week and we are getting a nice chunk of change back. My first thought was that I wouldn't have to worry about whether or not I could work while I was supposed to be enjoying vacation and we could actually take the kids on another smaller trip the weekend before, even, if we wanted to. Truthfully, I felt nothing but relief because everything had worked out perfectly. But perhaps best of all, was the reaction I got when I said to my daughter, "Guess what? We're going to the shore for a WHOLE WEEK!" She was thrilled, because in her world anything can happen. And it's ALL good.