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  The other day I was surprised to discover that even with the bizarre month of July I’ve had, I still lost a little weight this month. Four pounds, to be exact, bringing me up to a total of fourteen pounds since May. I’m going to tell you how I began to lose weight, and how, miraculously, I continue to lose and the weight isn’t coming back. It may not work for you, but it may help you decide what your needs are and how to achieve your own nutritional goals. I hope it does!
Because of my friend Andrea’s continued updates on her trials and successes in this department, I decided to create a little post of my own on the subject of weight loss and healthy nutrition in general. I may even make a series of posts. Yes, I know how envious you are of this demonstration of my organization and planning skills. Don’t grovel. It’s unattractive.
A bit of history and background on my fat, and/or lack thereof, in a convenient bulleted list:
- Anyone who knows me will know that I was obsessed with weight. In fact, I still probably am, but I’m working on it and get better every day. In the past , I spent years thinking I was “fat,” when I wasn’t. I dieted all the time. I worried all the time. Part of this was body image, and part of it was just, well, who the heck knows? Anti-depressants and mood stabilizers seem to help.
- When I got married eight years ago, I was heavier than I had ever been before, due to quitting smoking, being depressed, and later taking lithium for bi-polar disorder. I gained a total of 35-40 lbs. This was not awesome, but worse, I couldn’t lose it. I lost some before the wedding, but it popped right back on again because the diet was ridiculous and un-maintainable.
- The only way I started to lose weight was a) by accident and b) by focusing on health and a lifestyle change that I can maintain. I highly recommend that everyone focus on health first. As Count Rugen correctly asserts, “If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.”
Continue reading On Health And Weight Loss
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 If normal behaviour is increasingly being categorised as mental illness th en that creates a burden on individuals, families and on society as a whole.
Judging from my blog, I must think I’m the poster child for mental health or something! The quote above comes from an article in BBC Health News about the changed diagnoses in the upcoming DSM-5. I have actually been thinking about “overdiagnosis” a lot, but not necessarily by psych health professionals. I’m not really qualified to comment on whether or not the new definitions in the DSM-5 will lead the psych community to diagnose the wrong people. What I am more concerned about is whether people will “diagnose” themselves or others, which they seem to do now just fine, with no outside help from professionals.
Continue reading Mental Health Myths
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 “Achieving Your Goal, or The Care and Feeding of Your Elephant: Part Three of How I Fight My Mood Disorder Every Day “
 It’s pretty hard to live with an elephant, even one that doesn’t sit on your head. They’re really large. They’re moody. Ok, well, they have moods. In any case, they’re often inconvenient, impossible to ignore, they leave a mess, and boy can they eat! My mood disorder is on a similar scale, and I admit that I occasionally doubt my ability to manage it and still be able to have some semblance of a life.
It’s a sticky situation: if I don’t manage the disorder, I have no quality of life, but if I do manage my disorder, will it take all of my time and energy? Will I have anything left for my family, friends, pets, or hobbies? The short answer is, “Not at first.”
Having More Good Days Than Bad in A Million Easy Steps
There is no simple path to your goal. You can’t do one, three, or five specific tasks a day and achieve mental health. Mental health, similar to physical health, is a lifestyle. If you, like I did, lived for a long time undiagnosed, un-treated, or non-compliant, getting healthy will be pretty difficult, feel strange, and take a long time. I found myself relieved at first, because feeling anything but bad was so new and wonderful to me. A relatively short time later, however, I began the old “why me?” pattern. Sure, I felt better, but it was so much work. I was on the way to stabilizing but wasn’t there yet, and I was both impatient and at the same time wondering if it was worth it. I have learned, however, that I need to maintain certain habits in order to keep my hard-won mental health. Continue reading The Elephant on Your Head Part 3
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 “Making Peace With Your Elephant: Part Two of How I Fight My Mood Disorder Every Day”
When I was 21, I had been in treatment for depression on and off for about six years. At one appointment with my psychiatrist, I told her, “Well, I feel miserable. I feel like something is terribly, horribly wrong, and I’m  so angry and sad I can hardly move. But I know there’s nothing really wrong!”
She looked me straight in the eye and said, “Christine, something is wrong, and it has been for a long time.” I was devastated. I went home and cried for a long time. Even twelve years later, I have trouble with the idea that a mood disorder doesn’t simply mean that your emotions are all “messed up” and your feelings aren’t “all in your head.” What? Of course they’re “all in your head,” because emotions are run by chemicals in your brain! Sure, but that perception is inaccurate: just because your brain chemicals are “messed up” doesn’t mean that your feelings are any less real than anyone else’s feelings! Continue reading The Elephant on Your Head Part 2
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 Or, “How I Fight My Mood Disorder Every Day: An Article in Three Parts”
I was originally going to complete my site makeover before I made this post, but I keep having great ideas about points to make in it. Because of a few conversations I’ve had with more than one friend lately, I think it’s time to get these words out into the world!
I’ve been diagnosed with a mood disorder of one kind or another since 1992 or so, when I was first diagnosed with situational depression due to trauma. In all honesty, I believe that my mood disorder is partially genetic and partially due to repeated life trauma (i.e. both nature and nurture). Since that time, I’ve been diagnosed with chronic depression, ADHD, and finally bi-polar disorder. Before I was properly diagnosed, and even for a couple of years afterward, I could have been named the poster child for “How Not to Properly Manage Your Mood Disorder.” Continue reading The Elephant on Your Head
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Ok, I held out for three days. Maybe that’s a record of some kind.
So what have we learned in 2009, Christine?
Well, Non-specific Writing-Persona Addressee, we’ve learned many lessons in the past year. In no specific order whatsoever:
Craft beer is an exciting and rewarding hobby. It’s also not as difficult to get [...]
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I have four words for the masses regarding the swine flu, and they are: “Give me a break!”
I admit, that when the whole thing began, I was a little nervous. I would be fine during the day but then I would go home and see the news, and people were totally wigging out. Last week, many drugstores here sold out of their supplies of anti-virals. That means that doctors here were prescribing them for people who weren’t sick and might not even become sick.
A few schools have been closed here, to the point that my students haven’t been coming to class, even though it’s adult education and we just use the building of a school that has not been closed.
Sure, I got a little creeped out when I saw the reports about how fast the virus was spreading, but I managed to get over it. More and more the evidence is that if you take reasonable precautions (wash your hands! don’t touch your face!) you will probably be fine. My issue is that otherwise reasonable people are jumping on this bandwagon.
Continue reading Just wash your hands!
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I got an email on the Austin Zealots‘ Yahoo group today. (The Zealots are a local hombrewing club here in Austin, and a great bunch of people.) A member was expressing his disappointment with the contents of this article:
Austin home to a few good brewpubs
I read the article, and went to reply on the list, but as usual I waxed verbose and was forced to move my opinions to a forum in which I (mostly) reign supreme. I did this to avoid spamming the list with my copious rants and opinions. I’m sure people everywhere are grateful I have my own website.
In short, I share the disappointment of my fellow Zealot. Allow me to elaborate. Continue reading Establish Your Writing Authority
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I would love to make my first post in a very long time one of clever insight, great content, and pithy sayings. Instead I will whine about how other people whine on their blogs.
****I am a big fat meanie in this post. You have been warned. If you don’t like it you can’t [...]
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My Birthday "You can only perceive real beauty in a person as they get older." -- Anouk Aimee
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