Asking the question "Why?"

Kelly: Earlier today, Holly and I were at our favorite coffee joint having a conversation that carried over from one that started this morning. I was reading on a website I like called Makes Me Think where people post their thought-provoking stories. Some of them are sad, funny, and mostly very inspiring. A few weeks ago, I read a story where a young lady was at her wedding when she was in the food line and her 10-year old cousin was in front of her. It mentioned that the food was a buffet style, but the 10-year-old said she didn't want to eat anything because that's how she would stay "skinny and pretty." 10 years old. Just let that sink in. I remember not too long ago I was taking my roommate to the grocery store, and I was in a t-shirt and sweat pants. This was on a Sunday, because after I got home from church I took my nice clothes off and put on those. She asked me why I did that. I had never really been asked that before, so I replied that I just wanted to be comfortable and that I really don't like dressing up...which is true. She then said that she was more self-conscious than us because she said "I would never go out like that." Which is fine. It's all fine. Some people are like that, and that's fine with me.

As most of you all know, Holly and I have continued to maintain our healthy eating/walking habits for a little over a year now. The improvements we have seen and felt in ourselves have been excellent! For my new job I had to take a new employee physical; to be honest I was a bit disappointed when I saw that my weight had gone up a bit from the last time. But after this morning's conversation, I was much happier. I'm still at a healthy weight for my age and height. I'm continuing to feel good and feel better about the way I look; I found myself perusing bikinis at Old Navy yesterday, thinking that I would probably look ok in one. I guess the point I'm trying to drive in is that we didn't do these changes to get back into bikinis; we did them because they were doable and we wanted to just be healthier. I am so thankful that God has brought us this far and has gotten us to the point where we are comfortable with the way we look. So what if I'm not in a size 2? I don't WANT to be in a size 2; I just want to use the body that God has blessed me with and make it a bit healthier. Life is too short. But for some people out there, that's what they want. They want to be "skinny and pretty." I just want to be happy with the way I look, and I am.

Holly: My message to the female population is this: STOP OBSESSING.  Just stop it.  It's not healthy!  You are beautiful the way you are.  Seriously.  Please stop.  It breaks my heart to see so many beautiful women beating themselves up over one mistake, one pound they didn't lose, one season in which they weren't "bikini ready", one extra snack they had in the day, etc.  Instead of focusing on where we could be, how about focusing on where we are now?  

I remember back when my clothes first started fitting a little looser, I immediately found myself in that mindset; that mindset of "oh, how much can I lose?  How far can I go?  What do I need to do to keep losing, keep losing, keep losing?" I truly believe if our main goal is just  losing weight, then you're setting yourself up for failure.  Be realistic.  Focus on being healthier...the rest just comes naturally!  Trust me on this one.

I bought a couple pairs of shorts yesterday.  They are a size 8.  I haven't been in single size pants since high school.  I'm not going to lie, I did do a little happy dance in the fitting room.  If you thank God for who you are, who He has created you to be, and for where He has brought you to, it all just comes naturally.  We discussed this in an earlier post...this one, to be exact.  That's why I do what I do.  That's why we do this blog.  We don't do it to keep gaining followers, we don't dig through mounds and mounds of sources to try to tweak it, we don't go out of our way to build our reach.  No, we do it because, almost 2 years ago, God laid it on us, and we just enjoy sharing life with people.  I don't need validation  in the form of a typed comment or a new reader to know that people read what we write, because I've had numerous conversations, face-to-face conversations, from people saying they enjoy what we write.  If you want to chime in, great.  If not, well then, we're going to keep writing.  No snot off our noses.  And that's why I continue these healthier changes.  Yeah, don't get me wrong, it's great to see the physical changes, and to receive compliments, but in the end, I just give it all back to God.  Our bodies were designed for Him!!!!  I think it hurts Him when He hears us ragging on and on about how we constantly want to fix something about ourselves that we don't like.  Just think about that the next time you wake up with a large zit on your forehead, or you skipped your workout, or you gained an extra pound.

30 Days of Writing: What you ate today

Kelly: Decided to break in my routine and go to BC&T for breakfast. Had a cinnamon roll along with my World Market coffee. It's caramel cream and it's yummy.

Got my water bottle to the side. Probably will drink 1.5-2 of those today.

Leftover BBQ chicken and mac and cheese for lunch. Yummy! Work supervisor also bought drinks for us all since it's 3000 degrees Fahrenheit up here. A sweet tea for me, please :D

Dinner: Not that hungry. Steak strips, stir fry veggies and brown rice. Ate one of sis's sour patch grapes. Ick.  Hello birthday chocolate!!

Holly: Had 2 cinnamon toast waffles and a cup of caramel cream coffee for breakfast.  Went on break at work at about 11:30 and ate leftovers from last night's dinner: BBQ chicken and mac and cheese.  Yum! Along with frozen grapes.  And water.  Chugging that water.  Went to my interview; was a bit early, got a Vanilla Chai blender from Hastings.  SUPER yum! :)  Din: stiry fry (steak strips, veggies, and brown rice).  And some sour patch grapes.  And vanilla ice cream!

You must have vanilla ice cream.

Coffee Talk

Holly: No, I'm not talking about the SNL Linda Richmond sketch...although it is quite humorous.  "Like BUTTAH!"  Anyway...

I got off work a wee bit early today so Kelly and I met up at our usual favorite coffee spot and we had cinnamon hazelnut coffee and just talked about life and all its grandness.  She brought up something that she had read earlier today, and I'm going to share the link (Yes, I KNOW it's about our favorite illustrious Brit Mr. C, but before you groan, roll your eyes, and call us a couple of crazy twitty fan girls, just read it):

Article here

Basically, our twin consensus boiled down to "Uh...for real?" I don't think circumstances or behavior have anything to do with how people perceive us.  In some situations people can't help the way they were brought up.  And just because you come from an upper class family, as Benedict Cumberbatch seems to have, it doesn't mean you're a posh snob.  Or just because you come from a working class family of educators (like myself) doesn't mean we're poor or teachers pets.  For me, I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt because we have no idea where people come from and what their stories are.  I think it's really sad that a man of great talent (and I'm sorry, but in my opinion he is a BRILLIANT actor) is considering leaving his own country and coming to ours just because he's tired of all this mud-slinging.  It's not even an issue of getting tougher skin, as one commenter put: it's like bullying, straight up.  Bullying: yeah, that's something to get my blood boiling.  I mean, kids are literally killing themselves over what others say about them.  It's sad.  Really, really sad.

I know I digress a lot, and I apologize.  I guess my point is as simple as a cliche, which is don't judge people.  I read a quote somewhere: If you judge people you have no room to love them.  It's all about love, folks. Love people, love yourself.  Or, like Kelly and I, love some Mr. C.  Whatevs.  Off to trim my child's claws (while she's sleeping!).  Cheers!

Kelly: I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but after reading this it sort of hit a nerve. Having been in similar shoes such as his, it's very frustrating. People just make assumptions about other people for no reason  just for the sake of hearing themselves talk. Living an ordinary life is just too ordinary; some people have to get a rise out of staging a coup in other people's lives. And it's so sad. The question I kept thinking to myself was: is there an end in sight? My answer. I don't think so. Another unfortunate truth. Maybe I'm over thinking this or reading into it too much. Or maybe this is just one of the steps that I as a civilian am trying to take to put an end to this petty nonsense.

I was then thinking about stereotypes...slipping a bit into some things I learned in my summer class. It goes back to that quote that Holly mentioned. And we do it. We ALL do it. We make assumptions about people before we even know them. Though we have absolutely no way of knowing what is going on in their lives as soon as we start hurling those assumptions in our heads. I'm in no way not trying to preach or put myself above the common folk; I'm speaking for myself as much as anybody else who reads this. This is something that I am going to try to work on myself...shut off the assumption filter in my head. It's not easy and I am going to start....now. But I will close with this; just because someone is "posh," "poor," or whatever does not mean that its one size fits all. We are all not a one size fits all.