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Positively Weightless

A healthy life not only means physically healthy, but mentally as well. Healthy eating, healthy exercising habits, and a positive attitude are all important and help maintain balance in life. I decided to combine my love of writing and my positivity to change the world in hopes that any reader can also become positively weightless, and lead them to a healthy life.

I know I have said it before, but I do a lot of thinking when I drive. I am alert and am careful while I drive (trust me I didn't wait so long to get my license out of fear to end up a reckless driver), but some of my best ideas come to me on my way to or from work. This post is no different. I am very aware that this post in some ways is just reiterating topics from previous posts, but I have been so inspired to write this one lately. 

It started while I was listening to the song "Change" from Charlie Puth's new album Voicenotes in the car (featuring James Taylor). I have literally been listening to nothing but this album the last few weeks, but that is beside the point. The reason this song got me thinking so much is pretty obvious from the title. I got to thinking about the many changes in my life, my personality, and my heart. The song's lyrics talk about making a change to realize we are all truly the same and equal as human beings. The reason that lead me to be inspired to write this post is that it truly is so amazing how one small change really does start a domino effect to so many other positive changes in your life and your heart. 

Years ago as many of you know I decided to make the change in my attitude and look at life in a positive light rather than a negative one. I really didn't realize until recently just how much that decision changed me so much more than what appeared on the surface. I used to hold onto grudges with dear life. I used to let so many things bother me and get me down. I used to obsess over such small details that most people probably didn't see or remember at all. It truly is a maddening way to think and live. I really didn't realize that I had slowly grown out of that until this past week. You can think and act as positive as you want, but if you don't allow yourself to move on from all the things you need to and allow your heart to grow instead of stay stuck in the same place then you really are not fully committing to being a positive person. 

Try new things and step out of your comfort zone. All week this past week I was absolutely dreading a session with a personal trainer I was talked into. I was stressing about it so much that I was basically having a mini panic attack in the locker room before going out to meet the trainer to start. Fast-forward to today, three days later and I am planning on signing up for once a week sessions tomorrow when I go to the gym. Allowing yourself to step out of your comfort zone and allowing old feelings of hurt and anger to slip away is an absolutely freeing feeling. You just may surprise yourself with the outcome. 

Give yourself a few minutes to look back on the person you were a few years ago. Is this the same person you are today? If so is that a good thing or a bad thing? Do you wish you were more positive or do you wish you were able to let certain things go? Make an effort to change. One change will lead to another then another and so on. Once you make the big step to being the person inside and out that you wish to be, you just may be surprised as to how everything else lines up. Make that change.
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When I do my cardio at the gym I typically watch YouTube videos. Quite honestly it is a way to help kill the time faster and distract me in a way. I am so deep into the YouTube world it is honestly a little embarrassing to admit. I watch so many different types of videos and so many different creators. Makeup tutorials, haul videos, video game playthroughs (usually because I am too lazy to play games myself), and even some "drama" videos from time to time. I still watch those here and there of course, but for months now I have been loving Shane Dawson's videos. I especially love when he releases videos that are around thirty minutes since they take up my full cardio.

Now you are probably wondering why I am bringing this up. Well I am finally writing my next book review for this page that I have been hinting about for a while now. Shane Dawson has two books that are both collections of essays about his life. I was going to read them both and do one big review, but decided after finishing the first I didn't want to wait to do that. I have been so eager to write about this book for my blog that I am so happy I can finally do it today.

Before I get into the book too much I wanted to talk about Shane very briefly. Shane Dawson has been on YouTube for ten years now and has well over thirteen million subscribers (getting very close to fourteen). Surprisingly, I really only started watching him in January of this year. When I came across him on YouTube, I knew his name sounded familiar and he looked familiar but I never really watched him before that. I think it is safe to say I absolutely adore him now. Anyone that knows me will probably agree with that. His story is so relatable to me and so similar to things I have gone through in the past, but I will get more into that in the review. I love watching his videos and especially love watching them at the gym to help me push through the workout as I mentioned. Honestly, I probably look crazy laughing out loud on the treadmill or even in some cases (like during his series with Grav3yardgirl) cried while on a machine. I even make what I'm sure are some pretty humorous faces during his conspiracy theory videos. I honestly just love his videos so much and am always so excited for the next.

Now that I have spent three paragraphs gushing about the author, lets get into the book. I Hate Myselfie by Shane Dawson is a collection of essays all written by Shane himself. All of the essays are stories from his past and experiences he has had in his life. If you are someone who reads my posts frequently I am sure you are confused by the title of this book since I am always writing about positivity and self-love and reviewing books that help us achieve that, but I will get there I promise. If you are someone that has struggled with their weight and body image like I have and write about here often, I know you will be able to relate to this book. This book actually came out in 2015, but I thought it would be such a good fit to write about on my page here.

I found almost every story in this book relatable in some way. The many mentions of being overweight as a kid and teen completely hit home to me in a way I never really expected. I read the pages of this book and laughed a lot, and all the while thought of so many similarities to our stories. Now, I am sure not every one will be able to relate almost fully the way I did, but I am sure there are bits and pieces in there for you as well. So many of the stories ended on such a positive spin as well that honestly truly show what kind of person Shane is. One example that stands out in my mind is *spoiler alert* when he is working at a weight-loss center after losing a lot of weight himself. He realizes that a customer is someone he went to high school with that was more or less a bully to him. He sees that she has gained a lot of weight and the idea is presented to him to sell her into joining the center only to be sabotaged to gain more weight. He decides not to do this and instead gets her the help she truly needs with her weight. Be kind to people always, even when you are tempted the other way. There were a lot of examples of this, and even if it is disguised in a way, the message in a lot of his stories are pretty positive. Whether or not this was intentional I am not sure, but that is what I took out of it.

Just one example of the chapter artwork. This is on 
page 93 of the book, and the artist is Sophie Lubos.
The way the book is set up makes it so easy to read as well. Each chapter is a new story and although they are essentially all related because they are all about the one person's life, they all stand on their own. This makes it nice if you are a shift reader like I am and only read a bit of one book at a time. The artwork in the book is so fun as well. Each chapter has a piece of art from a different artist (who is cited on the next page and given a little biography) and each picture is pretty unique. I found this to be pretty fun and gave the book some unique character as well. To be honest, he has some pretty shocking humor at times and I will say this book is not for those that are easily offended. He uses strong language and says some pretty shocking things at times. If you are familiar at all with his videos you will know exactly what I mean. I personally have no problems with that, but I suppose some people would, so I wanted to mention that briefly. 

"I shouldn’t even be looking at myself that much, because nobody really cares about how I look except for me." (Page 199)

As someone that has been heavy all my life, lost a lot of weight, gained a handful of that back and am now just working on being a happy and healthy me, I found so many relatable pieces and lines in this book. I laugh a whole lot, and I even cried a few times (warning the story of his grandmother's passing triggered some full blown ugly crying out of me) and I honestly enjoyed this book so much. I highly recommend it to anyone that could be struggling in the same ways. Like I mentioned before, he tends to put a positive spin at the end of his stories and I found that to be such a great thing. As someone who lives my life one day at a time, trying to be healthy but happy as well, trying to be as positive as I can be, I found this book to also do that but in a very different way.
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Now that the warm weather is here in the area and summer is right around the corner, I think it is pretty common for people to be a lot busier. Between summer sports games with the kids in your life, to bonfires with friends, to summer parties, I feel there is usually always something going on in the summer. That is great and it is always great to be around people you love and enjoying life, but I also think me-time is just as important. 

Taking some time to just be with yourself is very important to me. Me-time can be so many different things as well. Reading, writing, painting, or even just quietly reflecting on things to yourself, are all great examples. I personally love to go out to my garden. Just today after going to brunch at a friend's house I went out to my garden to plant a few more seedlings, did a little weeding, checked on all the plants already out there, and gave it a nice drink of water. Ten minutes of my time was really all it took to go out and have a little time in my thoughts to do something I enjoy doing. I am not in the room alone as I write this blog, but even I would consider this me-time as well. I am quietly writing on my laptop to myself focusing on something I love to do. I used to be pretty anti-social and admittedly took too much time to myself. Now I have a nice mix and spend time with friends or family, but I also make sure to work in some time to spend with myself as well.

I find this to be so important for so many reasons. The first and most obvious reason is to get to know yourself. That may sound like a silly concept, but you may be surprised how much reflecting on yourself will really teach you. Do some yoga, mediation, or just lay down and close your eyes and reflect on your day. Those are some great calming examples of spending time with yourself and to really become aware of your feelings. The key to leading a positive life and loving yourself is to really be in touch with yourself and knowing yourself very well.

Me-time also gives you some time to do some things you may not normally make the time to do during your busy week. I know I personally haven't been reading nearly as much as I would like to because of my busy schedule. I go to work, to the gym, get home and have dinner, shower, and then soon after it is time for bed. Setting some time aside on the weekend works wonders for being able to make time for things when your schedule is just as packed. Every Sunday I sit and write for this page and that is also a great example of time I put aside to quietly reflect on whatever topic I choose to write about while doing something I love to do.

My main message I want to really get across is to not feel guilty if you want to take some time to step back from your busy life to do something you enjoy. I know so many people have such busy constant schedules that they do not normally have time to do this, but if you find some here and there it will work wonders for you. I highly recommend doing so and taking a small amount of time out of your week to sit back and relax from everything else that is going on. I promise you will not regret it and I am willing to bet you will learn a lot about yourself along the way.

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I honestly have a bit of writer's block today. Now that I am updating this page every week, I am needing to come up with more topics for posts more often. I actually have many plans in mind, but most of those I need more time and work dedicated into before I can post about them. One example is the next book review I want to do. I am so close to finishing the book and will review it as soon as I do, so I obvioulsly couldn't do that this week. I also have a few ideas for recipes and meal posts as well, but those also need a little more preparation.With all that being said, I thought today would be a good day to write about goals.

Goals can come in many shapes and forms. For example, the different topics I have in mind for posts are goals. Each post idea I have is one small goal for my writing and for this page. The obvious goal to cover on this page would be weight loss goals. Another goal could be being more positive. Getting a certain project for school or work done by a certain date is another. I really could go on and on. I have set myself a number of goals in my life, and I have learned some lessons along the way.

First let me talk about weight loss goals specifically. Back when I first lost the weight, my main goal was to get down to a healthy weight for my height. Between 170 lbs and 150 lbs is the weight I should ideally be for my height, so that was my goal and the entire time my aim was for that number. I find this problematic now that I am a few years older and I suppose a bit wiser. First of all, it focuses on the number on the scale rather than health. Sure those numbers are a "healthy" weight for my body, but when getting healthier focusing too much on the number on the scale can be detrimental to your journey. I found myself weighing myself far too much. It became a habit to check the scale at one point almost daily. I am better about this now. The second reason I think this was not a good goal to set was because it was such a big goal to set for someone just starting out on their journey. This time around I decided to set myself smaller goals through this path, and that is not just for the number on the scale.

My first goal I set for myself this time around was to lose 30 lbs. This would put me under a certain weight and I thought this was a reasonable number to aim for at first. I am just about 10 lbs shy of that right now. Once I reach this I will set another goal for myself to reach. Another goal I set was to continuously go to the gym 3 days a week every single week. That started with just cardio and 20 regular squats as a warmup. I then set the goal to add weight training. After I met that I set the goal to do 40 sumo squats as my warmup. Now I am doing all of these things together, and I am going 4 days a week instead of 3. This is a perfect example of my suggestion in setting goals. Start with a small goal and slowly build on that. Sure I am struggling a bit to get to my first 30 lbs goal, but I know I am on the right path. All these goals work together to eventually line up so you can achieve the bigger long term goal. I know that if I stay on this path and keep doing what I am doing while fixing the things that still need work, I will eventually reach the original goal I set for myself a few years ago.

Setting goals of course does not only apply to weight loss and health related goals. Set goals for yourself for your job or your relationships as well. Small goals that will help you eventually achieve a bigger goal. Maybe start working on that big pile of filing you have been putting off at work day by day. Maybe call that family member or friend once a week until you can build back up the relationship to how you hope it can be. Maybe it is school as well. You could take fewer classes than you have been in order to concentrate more on less so you can boost your GPA. I mentioned positivity goals as well. If you are looking to be more positive, start each day with a positive quote and say it out loud to yourself. I am guessing that will eventually influence you to be a lot more positive. You are on your own personal timeline, so do not be in a rush. 

I started this blog in 2014 and hardly ever updated it. Last year I decided I wanted to write more. I love writing as you all probably know, and I loved writing for this page, but I also did not want to bite off more than I could chew. I vowed to update every other week and that worked out for me. So much so that I now am aiming to update every week. Right now that is my goal and who knows maybe in the future I will build on that even more. 

Set goals in your life. If you have something worth working for and something to look forward to, working everyday to get to that will have a hugely positive impact on your life. Set small goals for yourself that are achievable rather than seemingly impossible. If you build on your goals one day you just may achieve what you think is impossible right now.
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About me




29 years old. Graduate from Buffalo State College with my B.A. in English. I am just looking to hopefully change the world through my love of writing and my positive attitude.

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