Starting the next chapter in my life

Hi All,

 

I’ve finally come back to writing my blog again. There are times I take time off from writing it because I get so busy with work I don’t have time for anything else but to sleep and eat. Now that I’m changing jobs after 6 years I can finally have my weekends back to spend on doing my hobbies and “me time” things to take better care of myself. For the last six years I’ve spent focused primarily on my job working at Weight Watchers as receptionist and personal coach.  I’ve been ready for change in my job/career for the past two years. For the past 18 months I’ve been tremodous amount of pressure to find a place to live and my job at Weight Watchers constantly changing.

Last fall I got the opportunity to interview for a job working with the federal government. The interview went great. It’s taken six months to get the job. The federal government likes to put people though lots of hoops before they hire new people. I start my new job on Monday 2.8.16.  I’m looking forward to starting this next chapter of my life.

I’ve already moved house twice in the last 8 months. Now I’m changing jobs. It’s a great new employment opportunity to do something completely different than what I’ve been doing for the last six years. I’m ready to do something completely different. I’ll get to have a set schedule and location to go to five days a week. Currently, I don’t have an exact set schedule or location I go to every day. I travel a lot for my Weight Watchers job. I go to one location or another. I take the bus everywhere. It can take it’s toll physically and emotionally after while to travel all over Seattle and North Seattle to get to different job sites.

I’m very happy to now being working at one job site Monday thru Friday.  40 hours a week with a set schedule. I only have to take one or two buses to work and back home. That will help with my fatigue and stress level by not having to travel as much for work.

I still plan on keeping my foot in the door at Weight Watchers by working one meeting and either being a personal coach or 24/7 chat coach. That way I can stay connected with what’s going on at WW but have some distance to focus on my other job and pursue my pleasures outside of work.

2016 is the year of change for me. I’m looking forward to this new adventure in my life.

The Art of Letting Go

marisapurplebutterfly

Hi All,

I’ve been going through lots of changes lately. I’ve moved twice. I now with roommates that aren’t my mom. I’m continuing to try figure out my place in the world. One huge thing in my life that is still a work in progress is the art of letting go. For most of life I’ve held on to a lot of negativity instead of just letting all of it go. Letting go is hard and challenging for me. I used to be a person who would hold onto grudges or resentments until I got so angry I felt like I was going to explode. I let all the negativity control me. I’ve had a lot of heartache and disappointment in my life due to how I grew up. I have forgiven both of my parents for the dysfuntionality of our relationships to one other. But it has taking me…

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The Art of Letting Go

Hi All,

I’ve been going through lots of changes lately. I’ve moved twice. I now with roommates that aren’t my mom. I’m continuing to try figure out my place in the world. One huge thing in my life that is still a work in progress is the art of letting go. For most of life I’ve held on to a lot of negativity instead of just letting all of it go. Letting go is hard and challenging for me. I used to be a person who would hold onto grudges or resentments until I got so angry I felt like I was going to explode. I let all the negativity control me. I’ve had a lot of heartache and disappointment in my life due to how I grew up. I have forgiven both of my parents for the dysfuntionality of our relationships to one other. But it has taking me years of therapy to do so. To be completely honest I still hold on to things for far to long but I’m slowly starting to learn to let go. I don’t want to live  surrounded by negativity for the  rest of my life. I want to have joyous, happy and fulfilled life. As I inch closer to 40 in two years I think about what I want to do with the rest of my life. I know for sure I don’t want to be marred down by my past, resentments and negativity I won’t ever be happy or fulfilled.

For me letting go is about seeing my past as history, not holding on to resentments but instead moving forward and beyond to become a better version of me. One way for me to do that is be more of an open communicator with my mom, family and/or whomever comes into contact with me about my feelings negative or positive to let them go and focus on other things. Another way is to become more Zen on how I approach negative feedback, thoughts or people. Instead of fighting back like a child or animal over petty and trivial things I can choose to pick my battles and take a timeout to reassess and take some learning tools for the negative situation or problem I got myself into.

I have the power within myself to let negativity bog me down or not. Yes, I’m still very much a work in progress. I’m a huge complainer. I freely admit it. I’m a work in progress. I’m an emotional person who likes to talk about her feelings. I do have a hard time confronting people about habits or behaviors I don’t like or find annoying because I don’t like conflict.

I do however have a huge heart which I wear on my sleeve sometimes where it can get my in huge trouble (or bite me in the butt). I do want to be less of a complainer and more of optimist with positivity surrounding me. I don’t mean I would totally stop complaining forever but be more touch my mind, body and soul energy that brings light, love and happiness. (Jeez, I just got all new-agey just then. Yikes! not my intention).

Life is about letting go of all the negativity holding me back. Life is about letting in more opportunities that bring new adventures and positivity into my live.

The Roommate Experience

Hi All,

I’m writing about my new adventure the roommate experience. I hadn’t ever lived with roommates before now. I used to live with my mom. It’s the first time for me living with new people I hardly know who aren’t my mom. It’s definitely a challenging time for me. When you have lived with the same person for as long as I had you tend to have similar ways to do things and a comfort level with each other. I’m completely out of my comfort zone with roommates. I haven’t every lived with two straight mid-30’s guys before. That’s all very new to me. And one of them has his girlfriend living with us.All three tend to be more night owls, only because they are currently unemployed and looking for work. Mostly they stay in their rooms, listen to their music loudly all before 10pm at night and have friends over. At times it feels a little too close for comfort for me. We are friendly towards each and conduct small talk now and then but overall we just keep to ourselves and have our own lives.

I was not sure what I was expecting living with roommates going into this new situation. I’m learning as I go along. I’m a much quieter and shyer person than they are. I haven’t had many friends over yet to my new adobe. My mom and Aunt are the only ones so far who have come to see it and have met my roommates.  My three other roommates are nice and friendly enough. I’m used to have some peace and quiet on my downtime outside of work to myself. It’s been somewhat of an adjustment not to get as much time by myself to get refreshed and ready to face my next day. I just make quiet/alone time in my bedroom to have zen time to myself.

I thought I was messy and cluttered but when it comes to the kitchen space one of my male roommates puts off doing the dishes to very last minute and lets them pile up in the kitchen sink. It’s gross. He will do his dishes when asked and mostly put them in the dishwasher to get washed. Yes, I do leave my bedroom quite messy and cluttered. I do try to pick up after myself and clean up regularly in my bedroom. You share kitchen, living and dining room space it’s common courtesy to pick up after yourself more often so it doesn’t look like hoarders live there. Additionally, the one roommate who doesn’t do dishes often he and his girlfriend are eating my food and borrowing stuff without asking. I find that very immature and rude behavior. We are all grown ups. It would be great if they could act like it. I’m sure it’s going to happen any time soon.

From my experience thus far male roommates are quite different from female roommates because being clean in shared spaces and going to work every day are their first priorities. It was awake up call to me. I do have quite a flexible work schedule working at Weight Watchers. I do go outside the house to work at different meetings locations during the week and do some work from home as a personal coach. I just don’t want to be home all the time. I like to go out in the world and be a part of it. Living with them is okay/good it’s not great though. I like my landlady a lot. She has been very supportive and helpful. I’m slowly getting used to living there with more people than I’m used to. I’m learning to be more of an open communicator wtih my roomies and what I want out of shared living experience together.

I hope to stay for a little awhile until I can get a bit more financially stable and have a better paying job that is more set and structured. Don’t get me wrong I’m passionate about the Weight Watchers program. I love helping people. It’s time to try something new in terms of my job and career. I love and adore some fabulous people who work at Weight Watchers with me.  Have made a few close friends, others have been great mentors to me and others still have taught me the what I don’t want to be as co-worker and as a person.

***Ideally, if I could live alone or with a signficant other that would be ideal. Right now that’s not possible because financial reasons and I’m not currently in a relationship.

I’m my own Wonderwoman

Hi All,

I’ve been loving all the topics we have been covering in the Weight Watchers meetings in the last 4-5 months. They have really spoken to me. A topic recently “The Best Version of Me” has great meaning to me. For the last almost 8 years I’ve been transforming from the “older” version to the “newer” one. I sort of thinking of myself as Wonderman. For the past 6 years in November I’ve been working darn hard maintaining and staying at my lifetime goal. For the past 2 years I’ve been struggling up and down with 10 pounds. I’m now slowly getting back on track to where I want to be weight wise. It’s not easy having to be a role model. I have my moments now and then where I don’t feel like being a role model because I feel it’s hard to live up to at times. I believe those are the times when I need to dig deep inside myself and remember how far I’ve come and continue to go. I realized I don’t have to be a “perfect” role model. It doesn’t exist. I would rather be a flawed “Wonderwoman” than a perfect one. That I struggle as a lifetime member at goal makes me more human.

I think what I allowed to happen was let my stress and a few old eating habits dictate the way I was eating and not exercising enough. Now I’m taking back control over my stress, eating and exercise. The more I can focus on what I want out of life in terms of my health, fitness and me time the better off I’ll be. I like to think of myself as Wonderwoman. I work hard and play hard. I strive constantly to want to improve myself in all aspects of my life; whether is doing the Weight Watchers program, standing up for myself by being assertive and not aggressive, voicing my own opinions (even when they aren’t popular or there isn’t agreement) and not letting my limitations get in my way.

I’ve definitely learned a lot in the last 10 months about life. I realized my life is my own and no one else’s. I’ve quite of few ups and downs over this period which could have stopped me in my tracks but thankfully just made me a strong, more confident person. I’m learning to be more honest with myself who I am and what I want. My friends and family who know me well know I’m my own hero who makes mistakes and has failures but keeps on going. My “Best Self” is my own version of Wonderwoman.  My superpower(s) include; “Zesty, Intituitive, Sensitive, Strong, Persistent and great sense of humor of how I handle difficult life situations and find happiness in my life. I’m still continually learning to not take things so personally when I deal with challenging people in my life. Those types of people are great learning tools for me to gain experience about what kind of person I don’t want to be as I age and continue to become a fully realized adult version of myself. I use them as building blocks for changes I want to make within myself.

End quote: “It’s about progress not perfection.”

Learning to take better care of myself

Hi All,

I thought I would talk about taking better care of myself this week. The last few months I’ve been having a hard time fitting in time for myself. I’ve been so focused on personal stuff (which has been super stressful) I haven’t had time to really focus more on myself. I realized I need to have more “me” time because I end up feeling depleted and not myself.For me taking better care of myself has been one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn as an adult. Sometimes I’m very challenged with taking care of myself and other times I’m great at it. I think it varies so much for me because of the nature of my job and how I spend my time throughout my day when I’m not working. Taking better care of myself is the good kind of “selfish”. What I mean by the good kind of “selfish” putting my internal and emotional welfare first above other peoples needs and wants from me.

**Examples of: me time can be anything you want it to be. For example, doing yoga or meditation to relax from stressful situations, traveling around the world, taking ten minutes out of your day to just do to deep breathing to feel more relaxed from a long day. It’s all about choices and doing me time stuff you actually like doing.

Ways I’ve fit more me time in lately have been-coloring in an adult coloring book, writing this book, going out to exercise, hanging out with friends and sleep. Yes I said, “Sleep.” I was getting run down and exhausted from lack of a good night’s rest. When I get a full 7-8 hours of sleep I feel rested and ready to go about my day. I exercise because it helps with my mood, energy, fatigue and overall sense of well being. I color in my adult coloring book because it’s mediative and it relaxes me. I write this blog because it’s my creative outlet to express myself.

Finding more “me” time is important because it can fuel you mind, body and soul. I usually feel so much better when I take better care of myself and get time for myself during my day and week. I highly recommend it.

Marisa

About Me!

Hi All,

As you read in my first new entry in my WordPress blog I’m starting over. That was my welcome entry into my new blog. This blog entry is really my first entry about me and who I am as person.

About me:

On first impression of meeting me (all from my perspective): you either like me or think who is that weirdo. There are times when I can be a very shy and reserved person because I like my privacy. Another times I’m a huge open book. For my job I’m pretty darn friendly, warm, kind and compassionate.That’s my public persona. My public persona is only a part of me.

My private persona is who I am most the time.I’m a big talker. I love to verbalize. I can be loud, obxinous and curse “like a sailor.”  Most people love me as I am or don’t give me the time of day. There are still others who are “middle of the road.” I freely admit I’m not the easiest person to live with or be friends. Once you are my friend and really know me you’ll end up being my friend for life. I have my dark side just like everyone else. If you can put up with all facets of me you are good peeps in my book. My close friends and family accepted as I am. I can be very zesty, funny, snarky, weird and unusual all rolled into one.

Other aspects to me:  I’m a very high sensitive person who at times takes things way too personally. I’m learning to not to take things as personally and go more with the flow. Sometimes I can be super shy and reserved when I’m in an unknown/new situation to me and not sure how to be with new people. I don’t like being controlled or censored. In my past I had to put up with a lot of that can behavior from people around me. Now I don’t stand for it. I also don’t like be around bullies because I’m not in middle and high school anymore. When I was younger I was somewhat of bully to protect myself from getting hurt and I ended up hurting myself more by hurting other people around me.  I don’t like bullying of any kind. That’s why when I come in contact with people in my live who have bullish behavior I tend to not have contact with them or let them know I won’t put up with it. When I feel I can’t be myself or feel excluded from a group because of “Queen Bees” or other women who feed into misogny I hold my head high and choose not to become friends with them. Because I don’t want that kind of negativity in my life.

I am now trying to live a more positive and optimistic life not a “Debbie Downer” one. I am who I am warts and all. Love me or leave me. I don’t want to be anyone else. I don’t want live my life over and redo my regrets. I choose now to have no regrets. My past is in the past. Where it should stay. I’m looking forward to the rest of my life however it plays out.

Marisa

Starting over

Hi All,

A bit of an overview: If you brand new to my blog. I used to write a WW blogs on blogspot (via Google)  for a few months.

Biography of Blog author: My name is Marisa. I currently work at Weight Watchers as receptionist and personal coach. I’ve lost 117 pounds and have kept it off for six years. I’ve been working at Weight Watchers for five and half years. My hobbies include: writing, reading, watching tv or movies on Netflix or Hulu and hanging out with my friends. My fitness activities include: walking, hiking, cleaning and whatever type of fitness that hits my fancy.

Starting Over-Hitting my Reset Button

I’ve taken a long hiatus from writing my blogs because I had huge writer’s block. Over the last few months I’ve been going over and over in my head whether or not to start again. I decided to hit the reset button. I want to take a different approach to writing my blogs. Some week’s will be about Weight Watchers related topics. Other weeks might be opinion pieces or about being more positive and taking better care of oneself. I’m in charge of my own blog.

When I get stale or bored with things I stop and take a break for a while. I needed the time to decide if I still liked writing the blogs the same way or if I needed to try something new to get my creative juices flowing again. I basically felt I was writing the about the same stuff over and over again it a slightly different way each time and I got bored and stuck. I felt very limited by what I was writing because I wasn’t allowing myself the freedom to write about whatever I like whenever I liked. No more. Now is the time for me to let my wings spread and explore new ideas and have new adventures.

My first steps to redesigning my blog were to get a totally new look and start a different website. I want to write about what interests me and not just about what I do for a living. I want share my thoughts and ideas on a variety of subjects in order to let my creative mind flow. Life is ever changing and evolving. I want to be one of those people who ride their wave of change to wherever it leads me. Please come along on my journey.

Marisa