Recovering Food Addict

Food and eating have always been a struggle for me. It's not really a secret. It's been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

Once I turned seven and went in 2nd(?) grade, my mom went back to work full time. My dad worked nights, so he was usually in charge of dinner before my mom arrived home. Dinner consisted of four basic food groups: Wendy's, Taco Bell, McDonalds and pizza.

Food has always been (and continues to be) a reward system in my family. Birthdays, good grades, theater performances...the compensation always came in the form of food. I never really became self aware of my weight until I hit high school. It’s hard enough being a teenager, but being a FAT teenager is doubly humiliating.

I’ve had my ups and downs over the years, from fitting into size 8s my senior year of HS to ballooning out of 18s awhile back.  Lately, I find myself trapped in the middle. It's a constant battle and life's little curve-balls (i.e. stress) don't help. Stress often = emotional eating.

Anyone that tells you emotional eating is curable is full of…well, garbage. It’s an addiction, just like any other. When a recovering smoker is stressed, they want a cigarette. When an alcoholic is stressed, they may crave a drink. Me? When I have a stressful day? I want Edy’s Thin Mint ice cream and a hug from my mom. I am by no means trying to belittle the aforementioned groups. On the contrary, I think ALL are true diseases. Like any disease,if you don't have it, you might not fully understand it.

The point of my post is that, weight loss is a life long journey that twists and turns...we stumble, fall, get back on and repeat the process. No one plan works for everyone.

It's about finding what works for you! I'll let you know when I find out myself :)

Party Planning For Dummies!?!?

Mom and Dad "D" on their 28th wedding anniversary

So, my parents' 30th wedding anniversary is fast approaching. I am contemplating throwing them a shindig to celebrate this milestone, because they are both amazing, loving people who helped to make me the loving, stubborn person that I am today :)

While this is a great idea in theory, this is complicated by a few matters:

 1) My father (who is NOT Peter Griffin, despite popular belief) is a veteran police officer and does *not* like surprises. He threatened to disown us all when my aunts, my mom and I attempted to organize a surprise 50th birthday party. So I run the risk of upsetting him...or giving him a heart attack when he walks in.

2) Money. Money is the root of all evil. I'm not exactly raking in the moolah in my current position. But I want to do this right and not look tacky or half-hearted.

I mean, I have planned an entire wedding before and people still tell me it was the best wedding ever. This should be easy...right?

Finding my voice

Good Morning Internet! 

It has been a long time since I had a blog, so forgive me if I'm a little rusty at this right off the bat!  I work in research and send formal e-mails all day, so conversational writing might require some refresher courses on my part.

I often find myself having to explain the titles or names that I come up with for my online monikers...some which at admittedly less awkward to explain than other (my e-mail address comes to mind). So, I thought it best that my first toe dip into the blogging waters would be a explanation of my blog title.

Shallow (adjective):

  1) having little depth 

  2) having little extension inward or backward 

 3) a. penetrating only the easily or quickly perceived  b.  lacking in depth of knowledge, thought, or feeling 

 

Pearl (noun) :

1) a. a dense variously colored and usually lustrous concretion formed of concentric layers of nacre as an abnormal growth within the shell of some mollusks and used as a gem  

2) one that is very choice or precious

3) something resembling a pearl intrinsically or physically

4) a nearly neutral slightly bluish medium gray

 

Being as I am a very sarcastic person by nature, I take pleasure in the contradiction of having a blog that is equally superficial and complex :) It's meant to be tongue-in-cheek.

Plus, staying vague and not picking a specific topic allows me to blog about whatever topic strikes my fancy when I wake up in the morning (or early afternoon if it's a weekend).

So stay tuned dear reader. And welcome! :)