Blogging

This is my 500th post!!! I can’t believe that I have been blogging approximately twice a day for the past eight and a half months! It has been such an important part of this journey and has helped me on a lot of different levels. I would sincerely recommend the process to anyone trying to lose weight!

When it comes to this online journal, my pattern has generally been to do one entry shortly after I get up and another one just before I go to bed. I have found that the dual posting both sets me up for an on-track day and also allows me to express how I feel that day actually went. Occasionally, I have thrown a third entry into the mix if I had something I felt I really needed to write about, and there have been a couple of times where I have had to temporarily reduce my journalling to just once a day when I have become very busy, but by and large my double posting routine has truly served me well.

But it’s a lot of work. And before anyone starts to panic after reading those five small yet significant words, I want to assure my readers that I will be continuing to write on a daily basis. However, I think that I am going to have to cut it down to generally just one post a day. But, I promise that there is a really good reason for this…

When I was six years old I wrote my very first poem. And with its creation was born a deep-rooted passion for the written word and the lifelong desire to become a writer. I have now been given a small chance to pursue this dream.

A couple of weeks ago I noted that I had gotten some amazing news, but that I was reluctant to discuss it because it hadn’t been confirmed. Well, the details have been sorted and I am now very excited to announce that I have taken a part-time position with a local publishing company writing a weekly online column about children’s activities and other relevant articles as the organization sees fit!

Starting this Friday, my pieces will essentially be published on a blog feed that runs through their website and will sometimes by highlighted in their newsletter as well. It is just a couple of hours work a week, but it still requires some restructuring of my schedule to accommodate the time spend on this new prospect. Hence, why I am having to reduce my blog posts here.

The company, Gumboot Books, is absolutely incredible too and they produce quality children's books with well-written stories which I can't wait to encourage others to read! I am truly looking forward to working with them! Their focus on education and the environment is especially appealing to me, and I am thrilled that I will be furthering their efforts in calling attention to these important elements through my column.

And while I don’t want to get too enthused by things that are not yet a reality, there has been quite a bit of discussion with the publisher about me authoring a companion activity book for a collection of short stories that they printed two years ago. I have been asked to submit some samples by the end of June and – provided they like what I have done – to complete the book in its entirety for next February. They are aiming for publication in the fall of 2011, so I really won’t know anything else on this until then, but it’s hard not to be at least a little excited. (Okay, make that a LOT excited!)

But, again, this whole thing will be taking up a lot more of my free time and something in my schedule just has to give. So, my plan for this blog is to continue writing here once a day, every evening, with an extra morning post on Saturdays to continue reporting my weigh-ins. I am also not opposed to throwing in the occasional extra entry if I have something important to report, but – because of my obvious new time constraints – I think that I will need to limit myself to these guidelines for the foreseeable future.

Dang! Just when I was on a roll… By these new calculations it’s going to take me all the way until July of next year to reach my 1000th post!

FOOD & BEVERAGES:
- 9 glasses of water
- 1 wrap on a soft tortilla shell with deli ham, cheese, dried cranberries, spinach, fat free Miracle Whip, mustard, and pepper
- 3/4 cup fat free peach yogurt with 3/4 cup honey nut granola cereal
- 1 golden delicious apple with cinnamon
- 1 banana
- 3 cups celery with light peanut butter
- 1 fiber chocolate delite bar
- 3 1/2 cups spinach salad with canned shrimp, cubed cheese, croutons, dried cranberries, and calorie-wise Greek feta and oregano dressing
- 1 mug chai tea with honey and milk

EXERCISE:
- 1 hour Body Strengthening class
- 15 minute walk