My Eating

Eating has always been hard for me.  Most often I have eaten too much.  That is why David Levithan makes me so sad.  Sometimes I have eaten too little, and with the help of therapy, I am trying to get a hold on that problem.  

About 18 months ago I started a new part-time job.  I loved it, but it was a very stressful job for me.  I gained 30 pounds.  But the thing is, I am SUPER obsessive about weighing and measuring my food, counting my ounces of water, tracking my running and exercise and counting my steps.  

I hadn't made any changes in that time.  I have it all tracked.  

For whatever reason, I gained 30 lbs.  Three weeks ago I left my part-time job.  It was hard to do, but new demands at my full-time (I love that, too!  I am SO BLESSED work-wise and always have been and I am SO grateful) I knew I had to quit.

Well, in three weeks I have lost 14.5 of those extra pounds.  I can't explain it.  I haven't done anything differently, except leave my part-time job.

I did read The Mayo Clinic Diet:  Eat well.  Enjoy life.  Lose weight.  And I really think it is excellent.  But I haven't applied it.  But it is good to know that if I don't continue to lose weight, to get back to my pre-new-part-time-job weight, I can try this!  

And then maybe David Levithan will find me acceptable!  

I have 10 more pounds to go to get back to the weight I was when the photo on the right was taken.  I am trying, Mr. Levithan!

To be Honest...

I really couldn't assign any stars to To Be Honest, but it wasn't because I thought it deserved zero stars, it was just that I don't know how I feel about this book.
Let me just say that I KNOW David Levithan would burn this book!  I mean, the cover alone would make Levithan and Lagerfeld have heart attacks!  (Even though they are SUPER healthy and SUPER fit, I am sure!)
There is one thing that I didn't feel mixed about, that I just plain liked and appreciated, and that was Savannah's sister being gay but it not being a big deal!  Because love is love!  So that part was very cool.  Very cool.
But the weight issue was hard...
Admittedly, I have my weight issue.  I also feel it is very funny that NOW body acceptance is in, where was it when I was heavier!  hahah!  And I love that when I go to stores I see kids clothing in all sizes, that is just really neat.   And I can't imagine what it would have been like to grow up that way.
But...
yes, there is always a but with me, huh?
I do think that the book is super tough on Savannah's mom.   I get Savannah's mom.  I do.  I am Savannah's mom, except I did the weight loss the "right" way, it taking nearly four years to lose 217 lbs.
This a very good piece.
I just don't know how I feel.  I really don't.  I think that this book is just a hard one for me. I would love to hear from others. 

WOW David is gonna HATE this!

While I loved Puddin', the companion to Dumplin' I just KNOW that David Levithan would hate, hate, hate it! Author Julie Murphy has written about yet ANOTHER young girl who is comfortable being a person of size. 
Can you believe it? 
Fantastic. 
I might even like it more than Dumplin' but I don't know...maybe just the same.  I loved it. 

The F Word

I really, really resonated with Bad Feminist in a lot of ways.   The book isn't just about feminism though.  It deals with a lot of issues.  One of the things that kept running through my mind was that this was written in the Pre-Trump days.  Things were bad then, but they are even worse now for women.  No, for humans!  Dr. Gay is brilliant.  Witty, too. 

Thinking about Eating

Mindless Eating:  Why We Eat More than We Think is fascinating. Fascinating.  Even if I didn't have the whole weight loss, eating disorder whatever thing going on, I would be fascinated by Brian Wansink's book which is part psychology, part market research, part everything.  Great stuff. Really helpful too, for someone who is going to battle the weight war forever.

Little Dumplin'

Dumplin' was recommended to me by my dear, dear friend Kara who always recommends fantastic books to me.  And this one was just fantastic.  Not only does the main character, Will(ow) love Dolly Parton, who I believe is an angel walking on earth, but she is fat, like me and man, could I relate to this story.
Dumplin's mom is a former beauty pageant winner and my mom could have been, had she not been so shy and had she lived in pageant country like Will(ow)'s mom.  Texas is pageant country, Southwestern PA is not.
I wonder if Julie Murphy is a person of size because she really hit the nail on the head with this book.  Dumplin knew just what it is like.
Just a great, great story that doesn't fall into predictable traps.
I bet David Levithan hates this book!

Under the Cover

Remember the horrible Gary Paulsen covers?  The Cat Ate My Gymsuit has had the same trouble. The cover was the total reason that I never read this book until now.  Here are the terrible ones:

But here are some good ones, that I didn't see until now.

This book is about a lot of things!  Self-esteems, equal rights, all kinds of stuff.  I never, ever knew what it was about because I just couldn't read it because of the cover...and maybe also because I was (and am) a fat person and man...it just was too painful then to get into it with a book.
This book is from a time and a place that I don't remember much about from experience, but it was back when women really didn't work outside of the home.  When it was weird for a woman to refer to herself as Ms.  instead of Miss, if she wasn't married.

Ms. Finney is Marcy's new teacher and she is really looked upon with suspicion by the school administration because of her "unusual" tactics and her "untraditional" dress, but what puts her job in jeopardy is her refusal to say the Pledge of Allegiance.  I went back in my blog to see if I had written about this before and I had, back here, two years ago.  Now the gal I wrote about back then was different from Ms. Finney.  In the book, she stands and salutes, but won't pledge to the flag because she believes that our country doesn't offer "liberty and justice for all." and she will keep working to see that it does, with that hope that it will one day do just that.  She also says that she loves her country.  So it is a little bit different from the 13 year old that I railed against two years ago.
The thing is....at the time that I was listening to this, I was (and still am) listening to Hitler Youth:  Growing up in Hitler's Shadow.   Hitler made folks pledge the flag.  He made them pledge him.  And the truth that is even deeper, is that as a Christian, we really aren't supposed to pledge our allegiance to anyone but God.
Now I am a patriot.  My last night at karaoke, I sang, as I have many times before The Fighting Side of Me.  I won't buy anything but a Ford, GM or Chrysler.  Well, I have never bought a Chrysler and I probably will stick to Ford from now on, unless maybe someone wanted to give me a Caddy or a Corvette.
But I am a Christian first.  The man I used to pastor with back in the day, he never said the pledge.  I can see why now.  I pledge my allegiance only to my Lord.
Ah, I have gotten off track again!  Shocking!
But I did enjoy this book, though I don't know if kids would be in to it today.  But maybe to read it in addition to American Girl's Julie books.  Yeah!  Like Meet Rebecca and All-of-a-Kind Family!   Yeah!  Hooray!
Also, TCTAMG has a sequel, There's a Bat in Bunk Five.  I am going to read that, too!