Tea Pots and Toby Mugs

Hello everyone! On this week's podcast, we talked a lot about what is considered a collection. When I think of collecting, I always think of my mom. She always told me that everyone needs something to collect. As I grew older, I began to understand what she meant. Everyone does collect something even if they fail to realize it. My grandmother collected bells, my cousin collects snow globes, my coworker collects Pokémon cards, and my boyfriend collects horror movie memorabilia. What drives us to collect things?

When I was little, I was a novice collector of things such as rocks and crystals, pretty coins, and keychains. When I was in the second grade, my cousin gave me one of her old Archie comic books; I was instantly in love and wanted to read more. Every time we were at the grocery store and there was a new digest available, I would ask my mom to buy one for me. Through those newer comics, there were opportunities for me to order some by mail including back issues of my favorites. I loved everything about Archie and the dynamic he had with his friends and the sweet teen romances he had with Betty and Veronica.

In addition to the local bookstore, my mom would take me to vintage comic book stores to see if we could find older Archie editions. A few years later, I collected over 1,000 comics and various pieces of memorabilia. My friend Stacy and I started our own Archie Fan Club and we would read our books together while listening to “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies. It didn’t occur to me that the comics I collected might be worth something someday. I was collecting these books purely for fun.

As I grew older, I began to share my mom’s interest in antiquing, garage sales, and auctions. My mom was an avid collector of vintage Coca-Cola memorabilia herself. She also restored antiques as a hobby and resold them on eBay. It wasn’t until my mid 20’s that I (accidentally) started my antique collection, which evolved into a greater appreciation of the art of collecting.

I was sitting in my grandmother’s living room one day and I was admiring her teapots. They weren’t my grandmother’s teapots but my great-grandmother’s teapots on my grandfather’s side, and they had always sat on the top shelf of my grandmother’s built-in bookshelf. There were eight of them arranged perfectly, and I always noticed them – even when I was a kid. One was gorgeous (to me), and it had golden polka dots. I told her and my mom that I would like to inherit them one day when she was tired of them. At that point, I had been a casual teapot collector. I had a Snoopy teapot and a Cow Jumping Over the Moon teapot that friends had randomly given to me. I liked teapots, but it was the sentimental value of my great-grandmother’s collection that drew me, especially the shiny polka dots on the one that I specifically noticed.

Zodiac Teacup from my collection

Not long after that conversation, my mom took me to one of the monthly auctions in our hometown of Vernon, Texas. It was an estate auction and among the wares was a collection of vintage China teapots. My mom handed me some money and said I could bid on whatever I wanted, so I bid on those teapots and won. That started my strange journey in teapot collecting. While I do appreciate the art of collecting vintage items for resale like my mom did, this collection journey was purely for my decorative pleasure. Over the years, I have collected teapots from the many antique, auction, and thrift store outings with my mom, and I have been gifted teapots. My tastes also evolved from pretty, shiny teapots to weird and unique-looking ones.

Benjamin Franklin Teapot

In 2017, at an estate sale with my mom, I bought my first Toby Head. What is a Toby Head? According to the American Toby Jug Museum (yes, it exists), a Toby is a ceramic head molded in the form of a popular character, historical, fictional, or generic. Tobys do not have a specific manufacturer. Any ceramic head can be considered a Toby. That being said, I like unique Tobys. Since 2017, I have collected a number of Tobys in many forms from teapots to creamer jugs to mugs. My favorite find was a Benjamin Franklin teapot from a shop in McKinney, Texas called  The Groovy Coop. Recently, I found a pair of king and queen mugs on eBay.

Toby teapot and mug

Some of my mini Toby collection

Last year, after my divorce, I made the difficult decision to downsize many of the things that I had inherited or collected over the years, and my teapots and Tobys were not left unscathed. I only kept the ones that gave me a certain amount of pleasure and the very important ones that my mom and I curated. Now I keep the pure pleasure of my collection to a minimum.

So, what drives us to collect? Is it s psychological need to hunt and categorize or is it the pleasure of just having something sentimental? I believe that it’s both. My mom was right. Everyone needs to collect.

I want to hear from our readers. What do you collect and why do you collect it? Head on over to our Facebook Group: MMC Chat and continue the conversation!

*20 years later, my first-edition near-mint “Betty” comic book is worth $165 according to Nostomania.

When a Collection Becomes an Obsession

When does a collection become an obsession? I ask myself that question all the time. At times, I feel like I know the answer, and at other times, I look around me and wonder. I think I worry more about it than most people simply because I grew up with someone who tended to obsess over collections…and not just her own.

My mother was an avid collector of…well everything it seems. Sometimes the collections were cool, or even useful. Like the glass apothecary jars, she would buy at garage sales and the flea market. She had hundreds of them, in every size possible, but they all served a purpose, and they were neatly displayed on shelving in our kitchen. Used as canisters, they held our flour, sugar, cornmeal, tea, coffee, baking soda, and everything else you can think of, right down to the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper. Whenever Mom bought kitchen staples, she carefully dumped the contents of the box, bag, or can into the jars, labeled them, and put them on the shelf in order by size and priority (flour, then sugar, as per tradition) or alphabetically (the spices). I thought it was so cool. I never gave any thought to the idea that it might be an early warning sign of much bigger problems.

My mother was always a bit obsessive about things. If she had a hobby, she was all-in…at least until she got tired of it. She was even known to record a song over and over on both sides of a cassette tape so she could have it on repeat ad nauseam. I couldn’t listen to the theme song from Grease for years after that torture. We laughed about it then; we thought she was just quirky. 

In the podcast this week, we talked about her obsession with buying collectibles. These collections started for herself…Kiss memorabilia, NASCAR gear (especially Rusty Wallace), and shoes. Oh, the shoes! If she found a pair she liked, she would buy them in every color available. The same went for pants and blouses, too. They would all be identical (or nearly so) but in different colors.

Mom also started collecting things for other people. I think I mentioned on the podcast that she started my sister on a black-and-white-spotted cow collection. After a neighbor gave me a few sunflower-themed dishes, she started buying anything with sunflowers on it to give to me. She did the same with piano and music-themed items for my husband. She even turned a vinyl LP album into a clock for him once. I think, in her mind at least, she knew that he is a musician and so he must love all things related to music. That’s the way her brain works.

In more recent years, as we have learned more about autism, we’ve come to understand that many of these traits are indicators of someone who is on the spectrum, and sometimes a harbinger of things to come. Although she has never been formally diagnosed with autism, Mom eventually started showing the tell-tale signs of memory loss and fixation that come with the mental disorder known as dementia, which, like the autism spectrum, isn’t really just one thing, but rather a lot of very similar behaviors and conditions all lumped together in an easy to label box. Part of me wonders if the two are related, or if not, what impact the two conditions have on each other. Mom’s condition deteriorated rapidly after my father and sister died, and with no one keeping her behaviors in check, she was hoarding. I don’t know if autism and dementia are related, but I do know that autism had an effect on her dementia and vice versa. Autism created challenges in communicating with her about dementia, and because she interpreted everything so literally, she had no understanding of nuance or degrees. Everything was black or white…there was no middle ground. Her dementia made it hard to set routines, an invaluable tactic for people on the spectrum. It also made it useless to reason with her, since the reasoning part of her brain is what has been damaged.

Last weekend, we celebrated my mother’s 75th birthday. We all bought her gifts of the things she is currently most obsessed with: word search puzzles, odd and fun pens, and stuffed animals. She has quite a collection of them all, and my family happily acquires them for her. It’s what she would have done for us. Now, I just hope that the things I collect don’t become an obsession. I look around my office, and I wonder….

Heard it on the Podcast - June 8, 2022

 

 

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. Here's the links for this week:

8-June-2022

S2E24: Collecting and Our Collections

• Toby Jug/Cup:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toby_Jug
• Dreamcicles:  https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/dreamsicles-angel-hugs-heres-hug-405076329
• Sonic Biscuit Records:  http://sonicbiscuit.com
• Asparagus Nightmares:  http://sonicbiscuit.com/asparagus-nightmares.html
• The Groovy Coop:  https://www.thegroovycoop.com
  

  
  

My Collections

Hi everyone, Christen here…thanks for stopping by today. This week on the podcast, we are discussing collecting as a hobby. We also go into the pros and cons of collecting. One of the neat things that we discuss about collecting is the chase. There is a sort of thrill in obtaining the items to add to a collection. I highly recommend that you check out  The Role of Information in a Community of Hobbyist Collectors, a fantastic article about a study conducted in 2009 in which they researched people who collected rubber ducks to varying degrees. The article dives into the psychology and methodology of the act of collecting and how collecting enriches a person’s social life.

I thought it would be fun to show you some of my collections that I have, and how I store my collections. I am not a well rounded and knowledgeable hobbyist collector; I am a novice. Although I do have several small collections that I am pursuing, I have very little knowledge about the items that I collect and the proper ways of storing them. I have not invested much time into the research aspect as I am not a serious collector, and there is no museum looking to acquire my collection, nor will you see my collections on a TV show like Oddities or Pawn Stars.  I am just a passive collector. Someday, I may find that I want to change my methods of storing, or acquiring, but for now, I am happy with my collections as they are.

Coin Collection:

I have approximately 183 coins that I have collected over the years. I began my collection when my grandfather gave me an “Indian Head Penny” and a “Walking Half Dollar”. I always had a fascination with the wheat pennies because they looked different, and I also enjoyed looking at foreign currency. It feels like having treasure, and this is probably why I collect it. It also fascinates me that I can hold a penny from 1919 and imagine that someone else used that over 100 years ago to purchase something. Each coin has its own untold story, whether it be where I acquired it, its possible value, and memories that go with it. I also love putting a penny in the coin machine when on vacation and getting embossed memorabilia to add to my collection; I am sure to get one whenever I see an elongated penny machine. I also keep tokens from arcade centers now, which seems to be a rare item, considering many arcades use swipe cards or free-play modes these days. One of my prized tokens is from Putt-Putt, a miniature golf center, circa 1984. I don’t mind getting coins as a gift, it’s not necessarily a requirement that only I select the coins for my collection, I will gladly take any coins that someone offers to me. I do have to say that one of my fondest memories of coin acquisition was in the early 2000 at the peak of my coin collecting. I worked with one of my dearest friends in the restaurant industry. She also had a passion for coin collecting, being more focused on coins of value and historical significance. She was a great mentor on the types of coins made in the US and their evolution in relation to American history. We would enjoy going through the till together at work after closing and checking for pennies, nickels and dimes, in the search for any that were missing from our collection. Now that I do not use change on a regular basis, my coin collecting has dwindled down to obtaining elongated coins for the most part, but I do look forward to traveling out of the country soon and possibly exchanging currency while abroad.

Stamp Collecting:

Another collection was also inspired by my grandfather who had an extensive collection of stamps and was probably a very knowledgeable philatelist. I never really got a chance to look at his collection as he passed away in 2002 after briefly showing it to me, but I was inspired none-the-less. In 2003, I decided to start my own stamp collection. I was not particular about collecting new or used stamps and I am happy to take any used stamps that my family gets in the mail. It's a sweet and thoughtful gesture when my mom hands me a plastic baggy of postage stamps that she has set aside for me from the various mail she has received. I have a nice book that I keep my stamps stored in. I don’t plan on expanding my stamp collecting knowledge at this time, but it might be something to invest more time and money in later in my life.

Rocks, Crystals and Gemstones:

I have always been obsessed with rocks, crystals, and gems. I also consider them treasure, like my coins. I get great pleasure from looking at them and holding them. I currently have them in a small canister, and a few line my bookshelf, but I recently purchased a neat display box at a thrift store that I am excited to decorate and convert into a mini display cabinet. As for my crystals, this collection is more curated. I specifically go in search of gemstones that I have on my wish list. I enjoy reading up on gem properties and where they can be mined. I get excited about visiting shops that sell crystals and can lose any sense of time while looking for the perfect rock. I am not sure where my fascination stemmed from, except that my mother loves them, too, so I must have gotten it from her. Just last year we discovered that Reyna also had a fondness for rocks. Her favorite is Jasper and I know this because she would come home with pocket loads of jasper pebbles and I would even find them in her backpack. When we took Reyna canoeing for the first time last year, we traveled down the Brazos river. The water was shallow enough at the bank of our campsite for her to play safely. She spent countless hours just playing in the rocks and she brought many more home from the trip. Since she was so intrigued by the rocks, we decided to take her diamond digging at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. We had so much fun digging in the dirt! Sadly the only gems I brought home were purchased from the gift store.

What kinds of things do you collect? Do you consider yourself to be an expert, amateur, or novice? Have you considered investing a significant amount of time researching something in which you already have a considerable collection? Did you find that you had anything of value? Let’s keep the conversation going over in our Facebook Chat and be on the lookout for the podcast coming out on Wednesday.

Wednesday's Child

On Monday, Amber shared information from her natal chart, and we talked about our signs and personality traits on the podcast. I read Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs and Love Signs as a teen, happily absorbing as much as I could about the specific traits assigned by the order of the celestial bodies at the time of our birth. I’ve seen enough in my lifetime to believe it, but still, I have to wonder whether we are somehow influenced by that belief so that it becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. And what about our environment and experiences? How do upbringing, genetics, and personal history fit into the equation? It’s the age-old debate about nature vs. nurture.

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace.

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go.

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for a living.

And the child born on the Sabbath day

Is fair and wise, happy and gay.*

In her blog, Amber mentioned being born on a Monday, and the associated characteristics of someone born on that day. When I first read it, it reminded me of a song I heard as a child, performed by singer Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders. The folksy ballad, renamed “Wednesday’s Child,” played with the arrangement of the words a bit, but the poignant message remained…some of us seem to be born with a little black cloud over our heads. Aside from my love of Paul Revere and the Raiders, one of the reasons this message stuck with me is because I am a Wednesday’s child.

In the song, Lindsay croons, “...but Wednesday’s child is full of woe. Woe, I know, for I am Wednesday’s child.’ Even as a young child, that verse haunted me. I feared it because I didn’t want to live a life of woe, but I felt I was destined for it. And in many ways I have. I was first diagnosed with anxiety and depression when I was 21, following my divorce from my first husband. I’m sure my doctor prescribed the Xanax thinking it was a short-term solution to the situational stress of suddenly finding myself a single parent of a 2-year-old with no way to support us. It only made me feel worse, so I stopped taking it. Over the years, I’ve had multiple doctors prescribe various antidepressants without so much as a suggestion to get counseling or any indication that they understood my mental state was more than “situational.” Even though I repeatedly informed them that my melancholy had been present since I was a child, doctors always treated me as though a few weeks of pills would get me out of my slump and I’d go back to being the happy housewife and productive employee, but it never worked that way.

Throughout the years, I would have happy times and sad times that would cycle like a roller coaster, but through it all, even in the happy times, there was this underlying feeling of disappointment, loneliness, and neglect, often associated with my derelict upbringing. I felt out of place, unwanted, unloved, and desperate to feel better – so much so that I made plans with my sister to run away when I was 10, and I actually did it when I was 15. Was this all because I was born on a Wednesday? Or rather, was I born on a Wednesday because this sadness was my destiny? 

Believe me, I don’t think God or the Universe conspired to make my parents poor, or that they were forced to marry when they were young and immature just so that I would have to live with the consequences. I don’t know if I was meant to be sad, or if the sadness affects everyone who is born on a Wednesday, but I don’t think I willed myself into sadness so that I would fit the lines of some nursery rhyme. There is no doubt that the circumstances of my childhood were fraught with significant experiences that created a profound sense of despair and anxiety.  It was bound to happen. A perfect storm, as they say. And I was born on a Wednesday, as was my mother. Oddly enough, though, Mark Lindsay was not actually a Wednesday’s child, but rather Monday’s child…fair of face (certainly).

What do you think? Do you fit the poem? Do you know others who do? Share your thoughts with us here in the comments or join the conversation over on our Facebook group MMC Chat.

*  Wednesdays Child, Wikepdia.org

My Take on Astrology

Hey guys, Christen here. This week on the podcast we dove into the topic of astrology.  Well, I guess you could say we cannonballed into it. I know that the three of us,  Amber, Cindy and I, really enjoy discussing topics like astrology, numerology, tarot, crystals, and spiritualism. There are so many topics that I know we want to discuss, and during the podcast we  sometimes barely scratch the surface. 

Observing  the Earth’s position with regards to the sun, stars and moon has been a practice for thousands of years. Only in the last few centuries has that science diverged into astronomy, leaving astrology in the dust. Many consider astrology to be a pseudoscience.  There was a strong pull away from astrology when scientists argued that it could not be proven by fact. Ultimately, once we were able to prove that the earth revolves around the sun, the two “sciences” split ways, and astrology became the scientific fact, and anything else is considered pseudoscience and parapsychology. So Capernicus, the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day, decided that he would follow astrological phenomena, and not astrology, and boom, astrology is “fake news”. He was a Pisces (just saying), and he studied at the University of Bologna - no joke! The shift actually happened over a longer period of time, but astronomy phased in and astrology phased out. But astrology has never died. Over the past 200 years, there has been a new wave of interest in the occult, esoteric topics, and parapsychology. In the 1840’s with spiritualism, and in the 1970’s with the New Age movement, many of the beliefs within astrology have seen a resurgence and are still followed today.

Even so, I will sometimes swap out the words astrology and astronomy by mistake. I have always enjoyed the study of outer space and the ideas of the beyond pertaining to astronomy, the study of space and the universe, but astrology is a topic that has piqued my interests far beyond the facts and figures of astronomy. I was drawn to it at a young age. I know we have mentioned that my mom used to have some books by Linda Goodman, Sun Signs and Love Signs , that went into detail about each zodiac personality type. I discovered those books and was hooked. 

When I got older, I bought a book for myself that I highly recommend called The Secret Language of Birthdays: Your Complete Personology Guide for Each Day of the Year by Goldschneider and Joost. This book features a two-page, in-depth personality report for each day of the year. I have lugged this book from home to home, and it was always a favorite when guests came over. I could almost guarantee that someone would open it and take a look. I often would crack it open myself if I met a new person and happened to know their birthdate. It was an easy way to “get to know'' someone without having to be too nosey.

I will admit though that using the book, or any horoscope, zodiac website, or book to discern a person’s characteristics is not the best way to get to know someone. In reality, it can create a biased opinion of someone, and cause you to inadvertently treat them differently than you would if you had met them and learned about them organically. It is like knowing the future or a possible future outcome, and making different choices based on something that might or might not happen in reality. For example, I know that people born under the Cancer sign are prone to be temperamental according to many personality trait sources, however one Cancer in my life that I am very close to is probably one of the most level-headed people that I know; I actually admire her for it. Had I read that she was temperamental, I probably would have avoided her, and missed out on an opportunity to build the relationship that I have with her today. I know another Cancer, and love-her-to-death, she has a volatile personality that is easily triggered. Cool as a cucumber and volcanic emotions are far from similar, yet they both have the same astrological sign. I have to consider Nature vs. Nurture and wonder how their environment and raising come into play. But I digress... astrology is a tool, and just like a hammer, you can build things, and you can smash things, so use the tool wisely.

Another tool that interests me is Witches’ Almanacs. I have never purchased one, but I am thinking of getting one this year. Very soon actually. The LLewellyn’s 2023 Magical Almanac should be available here in July, from my favorite publishing company, Llewellyn. This almanac, like the Farmer's Almanac, gives the reader guidance based on the sun, moon, and stars, but from a metaphysical approach. If any of this interests you, I recommend checking it out. I have used the internet to pull dates and put them into my own day planner in the past, so I look forward to adding this to my planning rituals. 

I will be sure to follow up once I get one and look forward to sharing it with our readers. I would love for you to share as well. We love to carry the conversation over to our MMC chat group on Facebook. I hope that you enjoy listening to our podcasts as well, if you are not listening, then you are missing out on part of the conversation. Be sure to click on the Listen link at the top of this page or find us on Apple Music or wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a YouTube channel where you can listen to the podcast or watch an instructional video.

Heard it on the Podcast - June 1, 2022

 

 

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. Here's the links for this week:

1-June-2022

S2E23: Astrology

• Linda Goodman, Sun Signs:  https://tinyurl.com/SunSignsAmazon
• Linda Goodman, Love Signs:  https://tinyurl.com/LoveSignsAmazon
• Free Natal Charts:  https://astro.cafeastrology.com/index.php

According to Astrology...

I don’t want to just throw out my exact age here since I am considered the “maiden”, but I’m going to because the reason that I am the maiden is that I’m the youngest, I’m unmarried, and I don’t have any children (unless you count my students). I also look at life with a sense of childlike wonder which hasn’t changed no matter how many things get thrown at me. That, being said, I was born on November 28, 1983. Why is this significant? Knowing the predictions behind your birthday can be incredibly important.

What even is astrology anyway?  On our upcoming podcast, we will define astrology and discuss the meanings behind it. Is astrology pseudoscience? Does it predict the future? According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, it is a “type of divination that involves the forecasting of earthly and human events through the observation and interpretation of the fixed stars, the Sun, the Moon, and the planets.” Astrology is very old. It has been around since ancient Babylon (18th century B.C.). I cannot say whether astrology predicts the future or not, but I can tell you what it says about me.

My Life Path Number is 6: Life Path numbers help you figure out where you are going in life and help you understand deeper aspects of your personality. Being a 6, I have the compulsive need to change the world creatively. I have a desire to uplift and inspire others and I am seen as a stabilizer and a problem solver, according to Christine DeLorey of Creative Numerology. You can calculate your number here.

My Zodiac Sign is Sagittarius: Zodiac signs can give you an insight into your basic personality traits (for better or worse). Sagittarius is the ninth zodiac sign and it stretches from November 21-December 21. According to Sarah Regan of Mind Body Green, a Sagittarius is always seeking freedom and adventure but they are also very stable and rational. My strengths are adaptability, generosity, and a great sense of humor while my weaknesses are impatience and the fact that I say what’s on my mind too much.

Sagittarius is a Fire Sign: Each of the 12 astrological signs falls under one of the four elements which are earth, air, fire, and water. According to Sarah Regan of Mind Body Green, fire signs are “passionate, dynamic, and temperamental.” Fire signs are high-energy and tend to move at a faster pace than other signs. Fire signs also tend to be more impulsive than other signs.

The Sagittarius symbol is The Archer: The archer's arrow is always pointing upwards which means that Sagittarius is always aiming higher in life whether it is spiritually, emotionally, or financially. The arrow pointing up also “expresses wisdom and honesty” according to Astrostyle.

My Ruling Planet is Jupiter: Every Zodiac sign has a ruling planet and your ruling planet influences how your sign is expressed. The planet Jupiter, in astrology, is associated with luck, optimism, and positivity. According to Andrea Lawrence of Exemplore, Jupiter influences activities, and encourages goal-setting, chasing dreams, curiosity, and risk-taking. Jupiter is a ruling planet for knowledge-seekers.

My birthstone is Topaz and Citrine: Birthstones represent a person’s birth month. According to Farmer's Almanac, topaz symbolizes love and affection, and citrine can calm and heal. I often wear a citrine necklace or carry citrine with me for personal healing and good vibes. It just so happens that it’s my birthstone, and its color is amber, like my name.

I was born on a Monday: The day of the week you were born can also hold significance according to Vedic Astrology. According to Dr. Pratibha Singh of Eastrohelp, people born on Monday make unpredictable and emotional decisions over practical decisions. People born on Monday are also very creative, romantic, and can be very jealous lovers. Monday-born people can also be quite vengeful if they are stabbed in the back. Oftentimes, Monday’s child thrives in problem-solving careers.

I was born in a Waning Crescent moon phase: According to MoonGlow, the lunar personality of a Waning Crescent Moon is that of a “thinker.” People love to talk to “thinkers” because they make great conversation and are good listeners. Aside from that, people born during a Waning Crescent moon have a creative way of thinking (or overthinking), are artistic, imaginative, and can easily come up with creative solutions to problems.

I was born in The Year of the Water Pig: Per the Chinese Zodiac, “Pigs are diligent, compassionate, and generous. They have great concentration: once they set a goal, they will devote all their energy to achieving it. Though Pigs rarely seek help from others, they will not refuse to give others a hand. Pigs never suspect trickery, so they are easily fooled.” Pigs are also calm in the face of trouble, can handle problems carefully, and have a great sense of responsibility to finish what they start. 

My Lasso of Fate is The Lovers Tarot card: “The Lovers tarot card denotes someone who makes choices from the heart. This is someone who needs to emotionally and intellectually connect to every aspect of their lives,” according to Astronumerology.

There are many debates and theories on astronomy. One could say that you could change aspects of your personality to align with your horoscope. Is this an exact science? No, it isn’t. Is it fun? Yes, it is. Astrology combines some of my favorite parts of divination. If someone who knows me reads this, they would probably say all of the things above describe me. Is it fate? Was I born to be the way that I am? Astrology says yes. It’s all about perspective. Coincidence? You decide. I don’t even ready my horoscope regularly.

I want to hear from our readers. How much faith do you put in astrology? Let’s continue the conversation in our Facebook Group: MMC Chat.

An Uncomfortable Topic

 When I think about the term “weight loss”, I don’t think about the physical transformation that a body goes through. I think of the mental anguish that I have been through in the past. I would not say that it has been traumatizing, but in a way, all of the time spent stressing or feeling bad about my failures with weight loss compiled together can be considered trauma. I don’t think that I suffer from any type of PTSD or anything like that, but I can say that the term, for me, holds a mental association with discomfort and pain.   

Losing weight seems to be the never ending journey that I have been on since I was in third grade. I remember getting my blood work done as a kid, they wanted to make sure I did not have diabetes, as Type 1 and 2 run in my family. I remember my grandmother and my mother being on a diet, and they encouraged me to diet as well. 

Among many of the fad diets and exercises I have tried, two stick out the most in my memory. I remember being on the Richard Simmons Deal-A-Meal diet. He had a system where foods had a color-coded card, and you had a wallet that held your daily food cards. As you consumed certain food, you would move the cards over to the other side of the wallet so that you could keep track of the foods that you ate. I have even been a member of Weight Watchers on multiple occasions. When I was younger and not an official member,  My grandma would photocopy all the reference materials and we would scour the menus of various restaurants together, looking for the meals with the best points.

At some point, I decided that I wanted to have weight loss surgery. I was tired of dieting and failing. I had seen people have great success after their surgery, and I wanted that. I felt that it was my last resort. I researched the different types of procedures, went for the consult, and decided that it was the right option for me. I went to a dietician for 6 months , but even the dietician struggled to find ways to help me lose weight. Once I fulfilled that requirement, along with a psych evaluation, I was approved for the vertical sleeve gastrectomy. 

My surgery was a great success…at first. I had lost about 25 lbs prior to my surgery, and then after surgery, my total loss was up to 90 lbs. I got very close to being under 200 lbs! Then COVID hit. I stopped going to the gym, and my daily steps decreased because I was only moving around in my tiny apartment. I gained some of my weight back, mostly from stress snacking. Since then, I’m back to trying to lose weight again and struggling. 

I guess you could say that it is a sore subject with me. I have tried just about everything from counseling, dieting, and even surgery, but still find it a major challenge in my day to day life. It is really something that I do not enjoy talking about. I find that I'm a lot happier when I am not worried about my weight or trying to lose it. 

I’m sure that many can relate to me. I would love to hear your struggles and successes. We can commiserate and celebrate together! Be sure to check us out on Facebook.

The Ongoing Battle I Fight

Let me get one thing straight before I begin: I LOVE FOOD. My whole life I have been a foodie. I know this may sound weird because I grew up in a small town and the opportunities to try new things were limited. But I collected cookbooks and watched food shows dreaming of food adventures. We would eat at a “fancy” restaurant twice a year for my mom’s birthday and again on Mother’s Day, and I was always adventurous. Nowadays, eating adventurously is the norm for me, especially since my boyfriend of nine months is a chef. However, there’s one problem… I love food, but food does not love me.

Let’s talk genetics. Can we fight genetics? It’s similar to fate, right? I talked about my genetics in a previous blog and how unfortunate they were. For many years, being fat has been equated with being lazy or unhealthy. I can imagine people thinking “all she probably does is sit around and eat.” Until about 20 years ago, genetics wasn’t considered a reason some people were obese, especially healthy and athletic people. According to the article “Obesity and Genetics: Nature and Nurture,” about 43% of the population have the FTO gene that “predisposes them to gain excess weight.” In other words, if you are not careful to balance your life choices, you could easily gain weight. I used to joke that if I even looked at food, I would gain weight. If you looked at my family, you would see that many of them have fought the battle and lost.

These days, it is all about female empowerment and fat acceptance. Women are freer with their bodies, and they no longer feel like they need to cover up or wear a wardrobe that hides their curves. Growing up in small-town Texas, that wasn’t always the case. My grandmother saw early on that I had the predisposition to be a bigger child and she tried her hardest to steer me in the right direction. By the time I hit middle school, I had been through so many fad diets, and it grew worse as I got older. Aside from my weight gain, it was always a struggle to find nice outfits for a large female that weren’t geared toward an older woman. When I hit high school, I had no fashion sense. I wore “big and tall” t-shirts and bike shorts from the men’s section or oversized shirts with outdated flowers from the women’s department. The closest plus-size store for women was three hours away from where I lived, and we could only afford to drive that far once a year. A single shirt there usually cost around $50 and my family struggled financially, so, I made do.

Despite being overweight and bullied for it growing up, I was a pretty athletic child. The only sport I didn’t play (because it wasn’t offered) was soccer. I was even part of a running club in school called the “Elite Fleet.” None of this athleticism helped me lose weight. Aside from genetics, my family was poor, so we didn’t have the healthiest diet. My mom worked two jobs and oftentimes chose McDonald’s or cup noodles over cooking meals at home. If my mom worked late, I usually had cereal for dinner. Needless to say, my childhood was carb-heavy.

Because I was athletic and healthy, I maintained my weight throughout high school and continued to be pushed through fad diets by my grandma. For example, I was taken to weight-loss seminars, and hypnotherapists, and I was even taken to get my ear stapled once because it was said that the ear staple curbs hunger. According to the Mayo Clinic, “proponents of ear stapling claim that the staples stimulate a pressure point that controls appetite, leading to weight loss.” However, the Mayo Clinic says that ear stapling probably won’t work and it may cause ear infections. As I grew older, I developed a sense of body dysmorphia and depression that led to secret binge eating. I began to feel ashamed of my body, which worsened my depression and binge eating.

Throughout my life, I tried a few diets that did work, but they were never long-term solutions. For example, I tried Weight Watchers twice in my life, and both times it worked well. Weight Watchers is all about accountability and fellowship. If you are not familiar with the concept, you track your food using a point system. You go to weekly meetings and have weekly weigh-ins. The meetings and the weigh-ins held me accountable, and I lost weight doing the program. Unfortunately, programs like Weight Watchers can be costly, and after a time on the program, I wasn’t able to afford it anymore. I tried to keep up with the principles after I left the program, but the accountability was what originally kept me on the diet, and once on my own, I eventually lost my way.

Other diets/weight loss tricks I have tried unsuccessfully:

• Am 300
• Garcinia Cambogia
• Stacker 3000
• Adkins Diet
• Genesis Diet
• Juice Diet
• Herbalife
• Levell

 

In 2018, I started a low carbohydrate diet. The bane of my existence has always been sweets. Both of my parents were diabetic, and I knew I was headed toward that path. A low carbohydrate diet has been the most successful diet that I have been on to date. I don’t consider it a diet but more of a lifestyle change. I cut back drastically on eating sweets and added sugars, I focus mostly on getting protein in my diet and leafy green vegetables but that was only the stepping stone on my path to better health. I was slowly losing weight but not quick enough to better my health. 

 

My doctor suggested I have bariatric surgery and it was the hardest thing a binge eater could do, both emotionally and psychologically, which I will talk about in a future blog. Post-surgery I have consistently kept a low-carbohydrate diet and I have been successful at losing and maintaining since surgery, but every day is a constant struggle to go back to my comfort zone.

Things I do to try and maintain and continue to lose weight:

• Meal replacement shakes: This is mainly to keep my protein up, but a high protein shake in the morning helps me have a great start to my day.
• Small meals instead of large ones: Before surgery, I preferred to eat this way as well. If I eat small meals, I can maintain my energy and stay more alert.
• Limit what I drink to mostly water: I try to drink as much water as I can throughout the day. If I drink something besides water, it will be coffee or tea. Getting enough water is important to me because I feel crappy if I don’t drink enough of it.
• Cheat days are okay: One thing I’ve learned over the years is that an extremely strict diet will only backfire. So, I reward myself occasionally.
• If you fall off the wagon, pick yourself up: Every day is a new day! Don’t beat yourself up for gaining a pound or giving in and eating that slice of cake. You can start again tomorrow.
• Stay active even for a little bit: As a teacher, I move around a lot at work, which keeps me active. When I worked from home during quarantine, it was hard to stay active while sitting at a desk all day. Even if you just walk a little bit, staying active is important.

In conclusion, I am still learning the ins and outs of my body as I gain, lose, or maintain. There is never an exact science to weight loss that I have found. There also isn’t a quick fix. My best advice is to stay positive and always leave room for self-care. One of the biggest things I’ve learned throughout this journey is to love myself and the mess my body is and to strive for inner peace and not perfection.

I want to hear from our readers. What diets have you tried and failed at? Do you have any tips and tricks you would like to share? Let’s continue the conversation in the comments and on our Facebook Group: MMC Chat.