Finding your voice

I think I can safely say that we all like to be heard.  Whether its as a mother telling your child to listen 100 times a day, or expressing feelings and thoughts to a friend or partner, its important that we are taken seriously, that we get feedback and that we feel like in some way, we have made a contribution to a conversation, or a thought, or an emotion even.  I always felt like I had something to say about everything, large opinions and ideas that were just bursting out of me, but with no real outlet.  I realise now that in order to truly find your voice, you need a medium to express that.  But I also realise that saying something and doing something are two different things altogether, that part of finding your voice is having the guts to actually "do as you say" not "do as you do".  The old adage rings true....Ding, Ding!

In one of those lightbulb moments of an epiphany at 3am when I'm running through all the lists of things to do, Ive also figured that part of this finding your voice story is deeply embroiled in where you are at in your life and also finding the time, no, scrap that....MAKING the time to make your voice heard.  The same applies in a relationship.  I sometimes sit back and realise that myself and my husband haven't really talked....you know...TALKED...for about 2 weeks. Yes, we talk about everyday stuff and we live parallel lives and we co-exist happily and we raise our child together, but sometimes we don't actually make the time to sit and talk.  You have to make it a priority.  The same as this blog.   Here I have the perfect opportunity to make myself heard and share thoughts and feelings, get feedback, and the last time I blogged was pretty much a month ago!  Shock, horror!!!  

I think finding your voice is also about finding the confidence to share things about yourself, making yourself vulnerable as it were, so that either you feel validated in yourself, or that maybe someone has identified with you and don't feel so alone in what they are going through.  I especially think that issues of the weightier kind are hard.  Hard to deal with, hard to talk about and hard to share.  Who lately has come to you and said "I'm so sick of weighing 120kgs"......yep, thought so....ain't gonna happen.  So we sit and stew about it, and we think we are the only ones with the problem and we get depressed and we most likely sit down to a lovely large slab of choccie to feel better.  Ring true?  I thought so!  This is why shared experiences are so important.  So here I am, waving my flag from my island to yours....come, share, speak, I'm listening, we are all listening!  

So, as part of my voice outreach programme, wink, wink (!) I'm glad to say that my love handles are shrinking, and hell, they really ARE shrinking *pinch myself hard* and I feel fantastic!  As someone with PCOS, food has always been an issue, then I feel bloated, then I have the runs, then my blood sugar drops, then I am so ravenously hungry that I could devour a pizza.....and I used to do just that (blush)....but just admit it, I was not the only one!!  But with #LCHF the quality of my life has improved ten-fold.  Honestly, I feel for the first time in forever, that my life is not governed by food.  You know when you are on a diet, and all you think about is food...the old joke about being on a "seafood diet" ....all food I see, I eat? Well its so true.  Usually when you are starving yourself, or counting points or weighing food, all you can think about is food, and what you're NOT eating.  I can truly say its not the case with #LCHF.  The food is so divine and filling and the coffee with cream so delicious....but even so...for the first time in my life I am not thinking about food.  I often skip a meal, simply because I am not hungry.  When I remember to grab a quick snack like a handful of nuts at work, or a quick salad, great.  In terms of weight loss, I stopped losing for a couple of weeks, but amazingly, my clothes were still getting looser, so I was still losing centimetres.  Then, suddenly 2 kgs dropped off just like that!  And now my weight is on the downward spiral again.  Yay!  Admittedly I have been struggling to MAKE the time (note: not find the time, ahem!) for exercise because of late nights at work and a sick child and other commitments, but I am not punishing myself for that because this is not a crash course diet, its my life, and as long as I know I have set my goals for exercising, and I will get back on track, then I am cool with it. Plus, I have my sisterhood that will give me a swift kick to the backside if I don't!

I have a reason why I brought up the idea of finding your voice...its cathartic, enriching and joyous!! You can't see me right now, but I'm smiling, I promise!! :) And believe me, once you start talking, you're gonna want to start doing....BEWARE!!!! #justsaying

Yours in love handles,

xxx