Cathy Zielske's Blog, page 233

Pass.

After reading through all the comments from last week's Move More Eat Less monthly post, I woke up on Saturday morning, walked into the bathroom, looked at the scale and said, "Pass."

I decided not to let a number dictate my worth for the day. I decided instead to focus on some other numbers: the 6-mile run planned for the morning, the yet-to-unfold 24 hours of the day before me, and the nearly 45 years I've been lucky enough to be here on this planet alive and kicking.

And then I thought about some more numbers:

• 2—the number of beautiful children this body of mine has produced.

• 21—the number of years I've shared my life with a loving, supportive man who's never afraid to evolve and change with me.

• 11—the number of years I've been fortunate enough to earn a living by working from my home.

• 5—the number of years since I last sucked hot, deadly, nicotine-laced smoke into my lungs.

For some of us—like me—it's a hard thing to disconnect from, this notion that a weight number equals your value. It's a hard thing to disconnect from because every single drop of your life experience plays heavily into how you view yourself. It's a hard thing to disconnect from when the voices in your head have been conspiring against you for as long as you can remember.

But I'm going to work on pulling that plug, damn it.

I have no intention of throwing in the towel on Moving More and Eating Less (or rather, Eating Less Junk and More Good Food). For dinner on Friday night, I made a huge batch of Bircher Muesli and felt zero guilt at how many points it was going to add to the day. My God, it's oatmeal, nuts, fruit and milk. (And okay, sugar and heavy cream, too.) The bottom line? I savored every bite.

I just wanted to put it out there, this notion of disconnecting from the negative self talk, the I'll never be thin enough talk, the my life would be SO much better with 10 more pounds gone talk, the I don't want to fail talk.

The fact is, I'm here every day, trying my best to be a healthy, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but always grateful to be living this life kind of person.

I'd rather define myself by a new set of standards, ones that come from a place of kindess, acceptance and truth.

Sure, I'll slip up here and there, but I'll come around again. Count on it.

Not a bad start for a Monday.

And the giveaway winners are…

The winner of a spot in Digital Photography 101 with Erin Manning is:

The two winners of a copy of The Scrapbooker's Almanac and a set of (4) handmade cards are:

Ladies, email me at czdesign@comcast.net to claim your prizes. Thanks everyone!

See you tomorrow here on the blog.

 

The winner of the Canon Rebel DSLR Kit is…

Congratulations, Ellie! Email me at czdesign@comcast.net to claim your prize. Thanks to everyone who particpated and learned a bit more about the the Just Ask! Campaign.

Sponsor Giveaways: a workshop from ReneePearson.com and The Scrapbooker's Almanac

Want to improve your digital photography skills? One blog reader will win a spot in Digital Photography 101 with Erin Manning, A one-stop digital photography workshop offered exclusively at ReneePearson.com, running March 21 - April 17 (4 weeks).

ABOUT ERIN: Erin Manning is a professional photographer with a special knack for teaching. Television viewers know Erin best as the digital photography expert and host of HGTV-HD and DIY Network's Telly-award-winning TV series "The Whole Picture."

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP: This four-week class covers the very basics—from exploring your digital camera (compact or entry-level dSLR), to shooting in natural light, and fine-tuning your images with fundamental composition techniques. From megapixels to managing the light, your photographs will dramatically improve once you master these easy-to-understand lessons.

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Two blog readers will receive a copy of The Scrapbooker's Almanac and a set of (4) handmade cards. 

ABOUT THE BOOK: The Scrapbooker's Almanac is brimming with historical events, modern observances, and unconventional connections to life that elevate ordinary days into extraordinary and meaningful material for pages and projects. In no time at all you'll discover stories that must be told nestled alongside the endless stream of dentist appointments, meetings, and other obligations that fill your calendar each month. The book will not only motivate you to scrapbook photographs and stories collecting dust or fading in memory, but it will also challenge you to seek out new stories to tell in unexpected ways. The anniversary of the Billboard Chart debut? Opening Day? American Heart Month? All sources of inspiration for pages. It's an idea book in the truest sense of the word!

ABOUT ELIZABETH: Elizabeth Dillow is a lifelong photographer, dedicated scrapbooker, and lover of office supplies, music, mail, anything Apple releases, and books. She is a co-founder and editor of Write.Click.Scrapbook., an Ella Publishing Co. author, and instructor at Big Picture Classes. She lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming with her husband and three daughters.

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TO ENTER: Leave me a comment today and tell me the subject of the last layout you completed. Winners will be chosen at random on Sunday evening. Good luck!

The Just Ask! Campaign wants you! (and I have a Canon Rebel to give away on their behalf)

 
Do you have a personal or family history of breast or ovarian cancer?

If so, you should know about BRACAnalysis®... a genetic test that can let you know your risk for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) by identifying a BRCA gene mutation. Knowing your risk can help you be ready against hereditary cancer—so you and your doctor can take steps to manage your risk.

The Just Ask! Campaign is promoting awareness of this important testing and today, I'm asking you, my blog readers, to simply visit their Facebook page and "Like" it. For every 1 like they receive $1 will be donated for testing/screening for women who would otherwise not be able to afford it. (up to $25,000).

Now you know I wouldn't ask you to do something without making it a bit more fun, so you can thank the Just Ask! people along with Today'sMama.com for tossing in one of the coolest prizes I've ever been able to give away. It's this:

 

The Canon EOS Rebel XS SLR Digital with 18-55mm Lens Kit.

How cool is that?

TO ENTER:

Go to the Just Ask Facebook page and click "Like" to learn more about BRACAnalysis Testing. Come back here and leave a comment on this post telling us you liked Just Ask. $1 will be donated to provide screening to women  who could not otherwise afford it (up to $25,000) and you'll be entered to win the awesome Canon camera.

I've even got a few extra ways for you to enter:

1. Share this tweet: Your "LIKE" = $1 for Breast/Ovarian Cancer http://on.fb.me/JustAskHBOC Get screened. #justask

2. Go "like" Today's Mama on Facebook.

3. Share a memory or a thought about someone you know who has battled Breast/Ovarian Cancer in the comments section.

Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry on this post, including links to your Tweet!

This contest ends on Friday, March 4th at 5 p.m. M.S.T. The winner will be confirmed and notified shortly thereafter.

Further, you can also check out this post at Today's Mama who are also giving away a 21.5 inch iMac to promote the Just Ask! campaign. Check out their post to find out how you can also enter over there.

At the end of the day, we want to promote this testing to women who might need it, and might not be able to afford it, and just to bring awareness to all of those women with the hereditary markers for these horrible cancers. Advance knowledge can change the way treatment is approached and can save lives.

Good luck and check back on March 5th to see if you're the lucky winner.

Move More Eat Less March 2011

This is the story of a .8 pound weight loss over a period of four weeks, collectively known as the month of February.

This is the story of said month in which I refocused my efforts, stayed the course, moved my body and fed it in keeping with the dietary requirements of both Weight Watchers and generalized good health.

This is the story making some connections about a few very important details in my journey thus far, and that top detail being: losing weight can really be a beyotch.

Amen.

In 2010, save for a few weeks, I lost weight nearly every week as I headed from the mid 170s to the mid 140s. Nearly every week.

Then, as you who follow this saga know, I packed a bit back on over the holidays (normal, I think, to see what you can get away with when weight loss and fitness are still so new and fresh in your daily life), and I decided to get back to basics for 2011.

So far, so meh.

I feel as though I am standing still right now. Some might call this a hiccup in the journey. Some might call it a plateau. Some might call it a less than stellar attitude.

All I know is that I'm way too focused on fitness and food to not be seeing a different result.

Now in the past, whenever I hit this stage—the one where I'm starting to deflate at the idea of having to track every morsel and every ounce for the rest of eternity—it's usually the point where things go South in a hurry. It's usually when that baby flows right out with the bathwater.

I won't lie to you: I am in a critical place right now.

On the one hand, here I am, trying to spark a little fitness inspiration and I feel like if I'm not continually producing results, then people might be scratching their heads, thinking, "Um, yeah… and how's that working for you, Cath?"

On the other hand, I have that feeling again—the one that feels like I'm hanging on to this weight and this healthier lifestyle by the thinnest of threads.

And on the third hand (if I had one), I'm trying to figure out why numbers matter, and why muffin tops aren't okay, and why in God's name I have this image in my mind that very likely I will never physically be able to attain in the remainder of my days.

Know what I'm saying?

Let's take a look at this month's layout, with only one minor swear word tossed in:

JOURNALING READS: I want to start this month's page out with hope and confidence. I want to stand up and say, "I am more than numbers on a scrapbook page." I want to live a life that isn't so damned concerned with every little freaking morsel that goes into my mouth. But today might not be the day I can say any of this with any degree of competency. One month later, .8 pounds less. Is it time that I begin to let go of the whole 140 pound goal weight? For a solid year, save for three weeks, I lost weight each week. And I won't lie: when you see a loss week after week, it's a huge motivator to keep on fighting the good fight. Since I've been re-focused on the new Weight Watchers plan, things just aren't moving. And I'm feeling like it's time I accept where I'm at, and stop striving for some weight number that very likely isn't possible for me and my body at this stage of the game.

I don't know why having a muffin top makes me feel somehow less than. I don't know why this obsession with my physical being plays such a dominant part in my life. I know there are people who might look at me and shake their heads, thinking, "Jesus, what's she got to complain about?" I don't want to waste any more time with the woe is me aspect of all of this. I am tired of waiting for numbers to determine whether I'm confident or awesome, or something less than that. I'm really tired of wanting to display some form of my personal success via being thin. If anything it's clear to me that I've got some serious shit to work out on this issue. I'm not throwing in the towel. I'm just seeking some clarity on the whole gig.

LAYOUT SUPPLIES: Move More Eat Less 8.5 x 11 template (Cathy Zielske) • Just Linens No. 1 Paper Pack (Michelle Martin) • a scan of kraft cardstock • Avenir font

Not to belabor my points here, but a few of my measurements have gone up this month as well. Finding that out was icing on the crap cake.

Still, I am not planning a mutiny here. I'm not planning to say, "Ah, to hell with it…" But part of me is wondering how this all plays out. When will the numbers stop mattering so much? When will I be the awesome example of a woman who is strong and fit and doesn't give a dang what the scale says in return? When will I stop this nutty obsession with every last morsel that goes into my gullet?

I share as I go. Good, bad and everything in between.

Not every report arrives via gold paved Internet roads.

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Want to learn more about Move More Eat Less 2011? Click here to learn more about the concept.

I've also started a flickr group for Move More Eat Less. Feel free to start sharing your pages. You will find the group by clicking here.

Quirks and quotes: an authentic way to tell a story

Some of my favorite scrapbook pages or projects are those documenting both the things that my subjects say, verbatim, or the quirky things they do that make them unique.

I featured one of my favorite albums in my 2nd book, called "Things You Say," a collection of random quotes from my then 6-year-old walking quote machine, Coleman.

Here's a sample spread from that album (click on it to see it larger in a new window):

Quoting your scrapbook subjects is such an authentic and simple way to truly capture a bit of who they are, and it takes no more writing skill that the ability to report what you hear, and give it a bit of context.

To that end, I designed a new set of StoryGuide templates (both in 8.5 x 11 and 12 x 12) to help capture quotes, as well as quirks.

The template includes a journaling block for quotes, as well as one for quirks. I made an updated Cole layout over the weekend.

SUPPLIES: StoryGuide 3a (Cathy Zielske) • Olan Solids (Michelle Martin) • Krafty Ledger Paper Pack (Katie Pertiet) • Distressed Edges No. 9 (Anna Aspnes) • Avenir Font

Next, inspired by the question I asked on last Friday's sponsor giveaway (When was the last time you did a page just about you?) I decided to do a quotes and quirks page about yours truly.

On this layout, I created a hybrid version by turning off layers, resizing text blocks and then assembling it all on my dining room table. (Click on the photo to see it larger in a new window.)

I dipped into my ancient stash of patterned papers for a little swatch of Basic Grey, and I believe those little asterisks are from an equally ancient American Crafts alpha set.

There are a lot of you who do pages about yourself on a regular basis. That makes me all kinds of happy.

However, according to the comments left over the weekend, there are a great many more of you who do not or have not in a painfully long time.

If any of you have read my books or this blog over the years, you know I'm a staunch advocate of documenting the scrapbooker. Yes, all those stories you tell about all those people you love are important, but if you neglect to scrap the main story teller, you're doing a disservice to the craft. I mean it. I really do. This is me, on a scrapbooking soap box. Hear me roar.

Here's a look at my two print outs: one on white cardstock; one on photo paper.

I simply trimmed and adhered the photos and title to the background cardstock.

Here's a scan of my page, written in a second person voice, for those who like to read:

You could do this. You could write about yourself in the second person. There's like zero weirdnes with that. Zero. No, really… zilch.

I'd like you to at least consider the possibilities here.

For the love of repositionable adhesive, you have got to take a page or two and tell people something about yourself. And I don't want to hear the old, "But I'm so…boring…" or the classic cop out of, "I hate pictures of myself."

I've created a 4-page PDF downloadable handout to walk you through the steps of creating this layout. You now have zero weirdness and zero excuses.

Download CZ_HybridHowTo (file is 1.3 mb in size.)

Note: in my step by step, it shows how to drag guides out from the Ruler Bar in PSE 8.0. If you have an earlier version of PSE, you'll simply have to eyeball the repositioning of the small titles and journaling blocks.

My message for you this Monday? Keep your ears tuned to the things people say and the quirky things that only they do. Then be a savvy journalist scrapbooker and document away.

It's so much meatier than any "a good time was had by all" page ever will be. I can pretty much guarantee you that.

Oh yeah, and include yourself in the mix once in a blue moon, deal?

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Find the 8.5 x 11 StoryGuide3a here, and the 12 x 12 version here. Questions or comments? Post them and I'll do my best to answer.

 

 

And the giveaway winner is…

The winner of the the Vulnerability kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out.

Well Pam, I think I know what you can do with this awesome kit. Make that page all about you!

Email me at czdesign@comcast.net to claim your kit. Thanks everyone, for sharing your comments.

Sponsor Giveaway: win a kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out

One blog reader will win the Vulnerability kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out.

ABOUT SCRAPBOOKING FROM THE INSIDE OUT: Join us at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out with the VULNERABILITY kit.  Every kit uses color, design and symbolism to help you tell a deeper story. Our industry-exclusive FREE Inspiration Page each month shares meaningful journaling prompts, a music playlist, quotes, photos and evocative challenges to make your tender heart and creative mind and hands flow. Our kits include all the newest and most sought-after items from the hottest manufacturers, and no add-ons are ever needed—our all-in-one kits bring meaningful and stylish creativity right to your doorstep. Buy your kit here and Explore Your Inner World.

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TO ENTER: Leave me a comment and answer this question: When was the last time you did a page about yourself? I'll choose a winner for this kit on Sunday evening. Have a great weekend!

Whoopsie daisy

So a few days ago, I was dispensing food tips to a friend who asked me, "So which one of those Flatout breads is the one with zero points again?"

To which I confidently replied, "Oh, it's THIS one."

And then for fun, I decided to re-calculate it over at Weight Watchers online.

Imagine my surprise (said ala Jim Carrey's character in A Series of Unfortunate Events) to learn my much loved and oft consumed zero point food item was actually a whopping 3.

WHAT?

THREE?

BUT… HOW?… AM I BEING PUNKED?

Sweet Jesus…I have been living a lie for MONTHS!

I have no idea how I miscalculated this item that has been lock, stock and part of my lunch for over a year now. (And before Points Plus, it was a mere 1 point! or so I thought.)

Needless to say I dropped to the kitchen floor, assumed the fetal position and stayed there for hours until Cole said to me, "Um, Mom… this is getting weird."

Long story short, if a tree falls in the woods, does it make any sound if no one is there to witness it?

Likewise, if points are consumed for months on end, but no one is there to record them, do they really count?

Herein ends our philosophy lesson for the day.

Now if you'll excuse me, my fetal ball is calling.