THIS is what you call a LEAF.

Bug size increasing exponentially!

Lol Cat of the Week... of How I Feel About Fake Cheese

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Biggest Bug I've Ever Seen

The Last Worthless Evening

For ten years, I have struggled to lose weight. Well, that is not entirely accurate. I have lost weight easily several times, but failed miserably at keeping it off. Since the turn of the millennium, I have lost over 100 pounds at different times, and put it all. back. on. every. single. time.

I’ve “attempted” umpteen diets and detailed them here.

I’ve learned to love my body, extra pounds and all, and detailed that here and here.

I’ve made peace with exercise and have come to actually enjoy it. I detailed that here, here, here and here.

I ran a marathon. (This was before I was blogging...)

I cooked healthy meals. (Glorious One Pot Meals)

But when push comes to “shovel,” I shovel it right on in. Put me in front of a bowl full of noodles and suddenly my arms are not long enough to reach my pause button on my fork. My mother calls this the “Hand to Mouth Disease.”

If you go to a Weight Watchers meeting, you will learn that this behavior is not uncommon… I should know. I’ve been around the block with WW more than once… some might call me a Weight Watchers floozie… I know all the tricks and tips and hot buttons. It is such a great program and easy to follow… until it’s not.

That is where I always get tripped up. I fizzle out and the “energy storage” (as I’ve taken to calling my excess body weight) creeps back on. I simply fail to make the necessary changes to my lifestyle.

When I say necessary changes, I don’t mean giving up carbs or becoming vegan or subsisting only on the chaff of wheat grown in Kansas… I mean simply journaling my food intake and exercise. When I journal, my angel of goodness who sits on my right shoulder will almost always beat the devil of temptation on my. But if I’m not keeping track, there is no angel…. and there is no devil either, because I probably already ate what he was tempting me with!

“Well, what’s new?” you say. This: I’m going public. I’ve always approached my weight loss journey in silence, sharing my successes and failures with few so that I didn’t have to endure the pain of failing in front of many… so that I didn’t have to be fully committed. But I’m thinking I need some support. I need for someone to reply to this post in October and ask me if I am still journaling my food… to see if I’m still letting the angel win. I need someone to share my daily triumphs with. THAT IS YOU!

I am not going to make this about the pounds. My goal is follow the WW plan and to make this about successes – both small and large. My ultimate goal is that this is the last time the yo-yo goes down.

What can you expect from me? Moment-by-moment success reports on my Twiitter feed. (Need to get on Twitter? Click my link on the top right of the screen.) I’ll also give periodic updates here.

I appreciate your support as I walk this journey, hopefully for the last time. Also, I’d love to hear YOUR success story. You can leave it as a comment, or if you prefer, you can e-mail me at salwonthewest@yahoo.com.

Up on the Roof

Justa Swangin...

Where I'd rather be, and what I'd rather be doing...

Sometimes...

When sadness wraps around you like a blanket, your favorite music can feel like your best friend.

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Grow Young

10 Things I Liked About Eclipse

Ohemgee. I so enjoyed this movie, and all of the anticipation of waiting for it since November made finally seeing it that much sweeter. I could drone on for an hour about all of the things I appreciated about this movie, but to keep you interested, I'll just stick to 10.

I'm not pointing you to any synopsis or overview this time like I did for my review of New Moon. If you don't know about the storyline of the Twilight Saga yet, you probably don't care and are never gonna. In that case, you may now be excused.

So here goes:

10 Things I Liked About Eclipse

10. The new views you see of the Cullens' home are beautiful, even if the exterior is nothing like it is described in the book.

9. Jacob rocking the James Dean/bad boy vibe. All I knew was that I want to be the girl on the back of that bike when Jacob rides away from Forks High... but would Bella really have skipped school to hang out with Jacob? It seems unlikely, but it has been one year since I read Eclipse, so I could be wrong.

8. Alice finally got some better clothes! The reigning fashion diva of the Cullen family was costumed so hokey-ly (is that a word??) in New Moon. The Eclipse wardrobe is much kinder to Alice.

7. "Little" Seth! He is like a cute and fuzzy little puppy skittering around at your feet! And of course, when the rubber meets the road, he is as tough as his older and larger brothers... and purer too.

6. I like how this one showed a little more of Bella and Edward just hanging. They were cute - almost normal - in the meadow, doing their homework, making out, acting like teenagers generally do.

5. I really liked the coloring of the meadow. It has the purple flowers that remind you of the meadow in the original Twilight, but I really love the addition of the golden browns and greens they infuse in there as well... it plays so prettily in that soft focus.

4. The soundtrack is most enjoyable. My favorite song is My Love by Sia. I checked her out because I was interested in buying more of her music. However I didn't because the rest of her music sounded very different than this song... I love the simplicity of the song's instrumentation and also the almost Asian, lilting melody. I did not like the way the score had the main song of the soundtrack [Eclipse (All Yours) by Metric] woven into cheesey, sentimental strains throughout the rest of the movie... it might not have been so obvious to me if I hadn't been listening to the soundtrack since June 8 though.

3. The comedy. There were some truly funny moments in this flick... wouldn't have thought there would be, but it's nice to give your face a break from the wide-eyed worry of all of the action scenes.

2. The emergence of the femme fatale - Leah. While not the most likeable character, she is played well in the film.

1. Edward's new hair. I really hated that crazy straight up thing he had going before. His new hair is much more normal.

Flower Power