Tuesday 12/17/24 Damn, it's been awhile

 It's been a month and a half since I last wrote! Holy crap! I have to admit though, I haven't been spending much time in my office as of late (which is a shame). I've been doing other things. Like reading and cleaning and going through a stop-binge-and-emotional-eating program. I've missed being in my office. I cleaned it up, got rid of a bunch of crap, and organized it, so it's quite nice to be in. I've just been . . . busy, I guess. I haven't done any artwork in about a month as well (and my last artwork was a doodle). 

So. My eating program. It's set up so that I do a module a week, and each module is anywhere from 4 to 8ish videos chock full of info on emotional and binge eating and how to overcome it. I mostly emotionally eat (when I'm stressed, sad, anxious, bored, happy . . .), but this sometimes turns into binge eating. It mostly happens at work, where I just can't seem to control myself. So I've been doing this program. Tomorrow I'll unlock week 5. And I must say, I've been doing better. And not beating myself up when I have a slip up (which is something I was doing on the regular). I'm proud of myself. I've also been exercising consistently on my days off from work, doing yoga and weights. And I freaking LOVE yoga! I recently bought myself a nice yoga mat, which is a game changer (the mat I was using was a cheap foam-ish mat that I slipped on). So yeah. I've been doing good on that front. I haven't lost much weight - in fact, I've gained 9 pounds since being off the semaglutide. However, I don't really care because I'm feeling so much better. I didn't realize how horrible I felt on the semaglutide until I stopped it. It was awful. 

Mood wise I've been fabulous. I've been stable for, I don't know, over a year? I'm having normal emotions and a normal range of emotions, which is spectacular. I feel good. I don't really get anxious anymore, I haven't been depressed, haven't been irritable . . . I'm just doing so freaking good! It's a breath of fresh air, you have no idea. There is, however, one thing I really need to work on. And that's my impulsive purchases. I'm bad about that. Really bad. And it makes me feel guilty. With black Friday and cyber Monday I kinda went overboard. I bought several bracelets, a necklace, a new hoodie (which I did need), a new collar for Moya (which she did need), some artwork, a yoga inspired shirt, and various other little things. The small purchases add up. I know this. And yet I still do it. Funny thing, I feel I did good. Because I didn't buy half of the stuff I wanted. But still, it needs to stop. I'm going to apply the techniques I'm learning from my food course to spending, see if it helps. I'm hoping it does. Because yeah. Sometimes I think Jer wants to shake me because of this. 

Anyhoo, that's about it for now. Toodle loo.

Thursday 1/4/24 New Year

 Welp. It's 2024. Pretty crazy. I worked new year's eve day, which was fine. Even got off a little early (5:45pm), which was nice. I was in bed by 9:30 I think and then woken up by neighborhood fireworks at midnight. So, technically I rang in the new year awake ;) 

Monday and Tuesday was homework all day. Tuesday night we (hubby, son, and myself) met up with my stepmom, her hubby, and my stepsister and her family for dinner. Then on to Cripple Creek for the Ice Castles, which was crazy cold and pretty nifty (it was around 20 degrees F). It was nice to see everyone and hang out, even though it was freezing cold. Yesterday was work and today has been reading the last few chapters in my textbook. Which I am now done with. Yes, done. Over 1500 pages in my gigantic, 10lb textbook read over the past 7 weeks. Holy crap. That's a lot of reading. Next week is my last week of class. I have 2 discussion questions (and 4 replies) and my final exam to do and I'm officially done. 

I thought I'd feel more like a failure for taking one class and giving up. I thought I'd be beating myself up more. But maybe there's too much relief in being done. I've really, truly been struggling mentally and emotionally with school (not that you'd be able to tell from the outside - I'm good at hiding it). And who knows, maybe I'm finally mature enough emotionally to not need to beat myself up. Thanks, therapy. I still feel guilty. Because of the money we've spent. New desk, laptop, printer/scanner, accessories, textbook, the cost of the class . . . that's a lot of money that I feel like I'm throwing away. That I didn't deserve to have spent on me. Okay, maybe I'm beating myself up a little bit. I can't help it - it's in my nature. 

In other news, I've been working out. Not every day, not yet. But 3 days this past week, and I'm proud of myself for that (keep in mind I haven't worked out for the past 4 months). So 3 days consistently is big for me. I'm trying to get back into the groove of working out. Getting strong, increasing endurance. I need to, desperately. My goal is to do yoga on the mornings I work and lift weights/cardio on my days off. I need to build up to that though because I'm so freaking out of shape. I'll get there.

My eating is slowly getting better as well. Not as much binging on junk, which is huge. I've been doing hypnosis sessions (recorded, online) and I think it's helping. Finally. Because the binging was getting out of control. But now, not so much. 

Anyway, there's not much else going on. I'm quitting school, trying to get in shape, and getting back to making artwork (maybe there's some paper mache in the future). We'll see.