Ruby's Journey

One book I definitely recommend EVERYONE to read is Ruby's Diary: Reflections on All I've Lost and Gained. I read this book a couple months ago and my heart just went out for Ruby. When I first started reading her book, I really didn't know a lot about Ruby or her journey. I read this book within two days because I just couldn't put it down. It was so inspiring and so interesting to read how she feels about everything she has been going through. I am currently watching Ruby: Season 2 and I just love seeing her amazing smile and her dedication to losing weight. I get so motivated when I watch her show and just know that if she can beat her monster within, I can to. If she can lose all the weight she has, I can to. I love the theme song for her show as well. The song is called "I Can" by Johanna Stahley. If you have not heard this song and you are on a weight loss journey you NEED to listen to it! Actually here it is listen to it now!

If you have not heard Ruby's story, please look it up right now and read her story, her book, and watch her show! It will change your life!

Book Review Chapter 1- Accept Yourself Today

This is my very first book review for the Book Fit from With: 101 Simple Secrets to Change Your Body and Your Life- Starting Today and Lasting Forever. 

Chapter 1: Accept Yourself Today

"If you don't accept yourself, you won't live fully, and if you don't live fully, you'll need to get full some other way."


This chapter is probably one of the most important chapters I have read thus far. Just reading the main quote from the chapter really sums up what it has to say. You can't accept yourself tomorrow, after you lose x amount of weight, when you get married, have kids, finish school or any other excuse. You have to accept yourself NOW. Today is the day.


We all know just how difficult it can be to accept ourselves for exactly who we are, especially if we feel like we need to lose weight. As the book discusses, today's media definitely doesn't push individuals to want to accept themselves as they are, with no changes. Everyday almost constantly we are bombarded with images of very thin, rich and "beautiful" women. Our perceptions of what success, beauty, wealth and ultimately happiness are very jaded by the media. There are millions of weight-loss products, pills and diets thrown our way everyday and as an overweight person, it is a constant reminder of how much I do not fit the "media ideal body". And speaking of "ideal" body, we are taught throughout life we need to be within a healthy weight range that is set by others based on our height and age yet the media gives us the implication that even people that are within their "normal" weight range still are not thin enough. It is terrible that those are the messages we are receiving daily from our society. It is very unfortunate these are the words that reach our ears and are embedded in our minds because many eating disorders stem from being constantly reminded that we are unattractive in the eyes of the media. We have to be stronger than the media messages, we need willpower to look past them. Willpower is something that I have struggled with a lot, but that is another post another day.

It is difficult to accept ourselves if we have self-defeating thoughts which can lead to self-destructive behavior like overeating and avoiding the gym. Learning to accept yourself today is vital. Learning that you have today to change the whole way you look at your life is almost mind-blowing. This week as a re-read this chapter in the book, it was like something clicked for me. Something changed in my head and went from saying "I can't accept myself and this weight, it's embarrassing!" to "I may be overweight, but I control my life, I control what my weight is, no one else can do that for me and today I chose to better my life, to life my life." It is very empowering. Try it today. Change the way you think about yourself.

To end this post I will leave you with another quote from this chapter: "Acceptance gives you peace of mind in the present and makes changes possible for the future."

Some Missing Days...

OK, so it looks like I am missing some days in my postings as far as food diary goes. This is because I just today (like and hour ago) created a new blog for my journey. The other one I was using was outdated and I didn't like the appearance or the title, so I wanted to change it. I am very pleased to announce that I love the looks of this new blog which I spent forever designing with all the cute colors and stuff.

I am so excited about writing this blog. It is going to be such an amazing outlet for me and like I said, I hope it helps others in similar positions. To give you all (whoever you are) and idea about what my blog has to offer within all of it's contents I will explain what I have planned. First and foremost, I will blog everyday (well almost everyday). I will be posting stories, inspirational quotes, pictures of food and myself, book reviews (first book up is Fit from Within by Victoria Moran), recipes, my successes as well as the many obstacles I will face along my journey. I would love it if anyone decides to follow my blog if you would comment or subscribe just to let me know who is out there and hopefully I can lend you some support as well.

As far as the book reviews go with this first book it is broken down into 101 mini chapters. I will discuss what each one covered and then write a little about my personal experience on that topic. I think by doing this I can truly get the full meaning of the book and really take a deep look into myself and the relationship I have with food. I have read to about chapter 33 so far so I will sit down maybe tomorrow and write out several of the overviews with discussions then. I really recommend this book to anyone who has struggled with food at any point in life. It makes you step back and analyze the real reason you eat, don't workout and continually make excuses for the reason we can't lose weight. It is a very honest and to the point book. I hope you will pick up a copy for yourself.