Eat

Hi. I'm Jasmine, a jewelry artisan and freelance writer/marketer in Portland, OR. I opened this blog in 2008/2009 and eventually went on to create a standalone site. This site sat reader-less for years, and I rediscovered it in 2013, by which time I had quit blogging. I've quietly started writing here again in a journal format. 

I'm older and not quite as energetic as I once was, but it sure is fun for me to look at this blog and read about my adventures. If you want, read below the dotted line to see the story as I wrote it in 2009. I believed back then that I was an "after." I know now that there is no such thing. There is only the process. Cheers...

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I am flesh and blood proof you can change your life with a little courage and a lot of hard work.

Hi! I’ve had a complicated love affair with food since childhood. By the time I was six years old, I was wearing my mom’s jeans with the legs rolled up. I was a fat child, a fatter teen, and, eventually, a super morbidly obese adult.

At the age of 22 years old, I made the decision to undergo gastric bypass surgery. At 350 pounds, I was more than 200 pounds overweight (I’m only 5’1.). It was a drastic choice that I made after nearly a lifetime of dieting. I knew then that dieting didn’t work, but I didn’t realize what would.

It took me two years to lose the weight. I lost it faster than others because I worked out 2-3 hours a day and ate as few calories as possible. I took in maybe 7-800 calories a day at the time. All I cared about was my eternal quest to be “skinny.” I didn’t even know what skinny would feel like. Before I could walk, I was overweight.

Down 40 pounds.

On my 24th Birthday. Down 180 pounds.

My quest to lose the weight changed me and took a toll on my marriage. I survived my caloric stupidity, but my first marriage didn’t. I had married a wonderful man, but I was no longer the same person.

Divorced and still not “skinny,” I hit my lowest point. From there, I began to get real with myself. I started to study nutrition, and I began to consider my health. My whole health. The kind of health that includes your emotional well being. I realized that I’d lost all the weight, but I was still as shattered and insecure as ever.

I decided it was time to eat the right way, to make a move for me (a cross country move, in fact), and to focus on my writing.

In July of 2007, I moved to San Diego, CA.

July 2007. San Diego. Down 200 pounds.

Since that time, I have dedicated myself to EATing well, to exercise and positive, forward MOVEment, and to becoming the best WRITEr I can be. I now eat better than I have at any time in my life. In March of 2009, I married the love of my life. And, in August of 2009, I left my full-time job to pursue my greatest dream: I am now a 100% self-employed professional writer.

My own journey has inspired me. I believe that anyone, at any moment, can change their life. All they have to do is re-write their story.

What's your story?

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Read about my life philosophy at MOVE and my writing life at WRITE. Want to contact me? [eatmovewriteATyahoo.com]