Category: Lifestyle

When You Are Laid-off Before the Holidays…

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I am unemployed. Those are three words I did not even think I would be saying at the start of the new year. (If anything I thought it would have been more along the lines of , “I got promoted.” ) The unfortunate reality is that the business world lacks humane decisions and when it comes to creating budgets for the upcoming new year they have no problem with making the staff “leaner” by vastly reducing its numbers regardless of the festive holiday season. I, like many others in the world, was a casualty of this practice, which brought on feelings and thoughts I was not anticipating. True, nothing lasts forever but when you have been working for approximately 2 years just get your foot in the door only to have it slam in your face, like I have, it makes you feel like you failed and stand no chance in actually starting a career. You blame yourself even though there was nothing you could do to change the decision, but through it all, here are some things you should remember: Continue reading →

No Longer Sorry

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I have terrible eating habits. Most people will take one look at me and deduce that is the case. After all, I didn’t get to be this size eating salads, right? But that’s not what I mean. I have been a workaholic since childhood, which is bound to happen when your mother enlists a set of high standards, resulting in your becoming an overachiever and perfectionist, all of which inevitably leads to not eating right.

How? Continue reading →

Good For You?

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I remember the first time I was publicly fat shamed. I was a 16 years old and on a class trip to the Jewish Heritage Museum in Manhattan for leadership training.  We were having lunch in the museum’s cafeteria; honestly I don’t remember if I actually ate anything since this was during the time I would skip meals with the goal of getting thin. I do remember that at one point my friend got up to get a second helping of food at which time I asked him to get me a can of soda. He came back with a can of Diet Coke, I looked at the can and then up at him in confusion. He then said, very loudly I might add, “You could stand to lose a couple of pounds.” The entire table and those next to it laughed. I left the soda right in his hand and walked away. No one stood up for me and he never apologized. He claimed that it was a joke. I wasn’t laughing.

Such occurrences only got worse once I got older. In fact,one of my mother’s oldest friends no longer greets me with a, “Hi, how have you been?,” like the average person would, but with a, “You’re fatter.”

comic of double standards with food

“Healthy” does not equal a specific physical appearance.

Continue reading →

The Big 2 – 5 (Final Part) : Getting Over Myself

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As of today it has been a month since I have turned 25. During the past month I have taken the time to  catch up on work I had fallen behind on as well as outline some future posts for the blog, but it also got me thinking about things that I hadn’t for a while.  Like most people I have a list of goals I had to get done with a specific (age) time-frame. I believed that by having a set deadline to meet I would be motivated to complete everything. Originally the deadline was my 21st birthday but since I was a senior in college desperately trying to keep my sanity under the pressure of having all writing intensive courses, I cut myself some slack and decided to push the deadline back to my 25th birthday. Needless to say only one thing came to be from that list and that was graduating from college on time. Continue reading →

8 Self Love Lessons My Mother Taught Me

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Abraham Lincoln once said, ” All that I am or hope to be I owe to my mother.” This is especially true in my case as I was raised by an “old school” single mother who worked tirelessly to ensure that my brother and I had a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs and every opportunity for academic advancement. Everything I ever needed to know about believing and loving myself I learned from her. I am and forever will be grateful for her sacrifices and encouragement which is why I celebrate the woman who have raised, inspired and nurtured me by sharing some of the things she taught me about self love. I hope that this inspires anyone reading to practice self love, which contrary to popular belief, is not based on vanity or pride.

Family pictures0003

Note: Some of these lessons were not directly imparted to me by my mother but rather were learnt based on what I observed of her experience.  Continue reading →