I went to get the mail this morning – something I quite enjoy doing as I review books, am a member of PostCrossing, and do swaps with people from all over the world – and I was disappointed to find a single letter. A bill (most likely). For my husband. (Mwhahaha… Oh, we both pay the bills. Hrmph.)

Well, that little bit of disappointment got me thinking that it can be the same way for many of our virtual mailboxes on our blogs.

And I plan to solve that.

Welcome to the first ever Monday Mailbag. This is where you pick up your weekly letter from yours truly, answer it on your blog, and leave a note here so everyone who participates can read your response. Easy peasy! So consider this your first reader letter.

This week’s reader question from YOUR Monday Mailbag is this:

When and why did you get started on the journey to lose weight/get fit/tone up/the whole nine yards?

Tell me the date, time, epiphany, reason, episode of Oprah, whatever was involved to start you on your way. Go into as much or little detail as you want.

And remember to leave a link to your response in the comments section! The whole point of this is to reach out, connect, and find out more about

If you are going to participate and would like another graphic that is smaller, just let me know. I am happy to put some different sizes up.

After making a promise to myself and my readers on The New Australian about Blogging Naked – meaning blogging with more honesty and openness – I’m making good on that promise. I’m talking about what is going on instead of disappearing from my blogs.

When I don’t post, it’s not because I have nothing to say.

I stop posting for two reasons: I get busy or I’m struggling with depression. Lately? It’s a lot more about the latter than the former.

Like way too many people, I had a childhood that left me like a particularly large onion: a lot of layers. For a long time, since before I came to Australia, I have worked through these layers. In an effort to become a better person and figure out the reasons for my less pleasant behaviours.

As you can imagine, the process is not easy. Who wants to face the lies they have told, excuses they have made and chances they deliberately missed out of fear/anger/stubbornness/etc? Even so, I’ve kept on.

But with each layer I peel back and discover, feelings come pouring out. Because of the circumstances that made these layers, the old feelings are often negative. Nothing is more heartbreaking than the fear of a little girl, even if the event happened years ago.

Feeling those things over again, exposing the raw wounds, often sends me into depression. I can handle those things better now that I am an adult, but the pain still exists. And when it’s hard to get myself to take a shower, blogging isn’t my highest priority.

I’m dealing with things the best I can, even if it means crying, interrupting my husband at work with a phone call or just plain admitting to myself (and to my husband) that I’m having one of my ‘crazy days’.

I choose not to be medicated because, frankly, I think going for the causes instead of masking the symptoms is the way to go. I know my depression stems from my past. I know that dealing with all the things I have dealt with so far has made me a stronger, happier person.

Sometimes it’s all about saying the words to someone and getting them out of your head. Some days I need a cuddle. And some days I just can’t blog or get out of my pyjamas or face the world because it’s just too much.

On other days, it’s blogging and the friends I have met online that get me through the toughest times of my life.

For that, I thank you more than you will ever know and thank you for your understanding during the quiet times.

Starting: 264
Last week: 226
Current: 226

Let’s break it down bullet style.

*Weight… Weight has not been my priority lately, and I’m feeling the affects of it. I’m feeling more sluggish, most days I have a runny nose all the time and I just don’t feel right about myself emotionally. I’ve decided I’m sick and tired of letting myself bullshit away all this valuable time. The only person who can lose my weight is me.

*The New Template – I’m trying out this new template. Do you like it? I think it’s okay… I loved the old template, but I could not get the words to appear any bigger and it was driving me nuts. I’m still on the lookout for a nicer template, but I’ll see how this one goes for a while first. I’m definitely open to suggestions.

*Tuesdays – I’ll be checking in on Tuesdays from now on so Monday can have just Monday Mailbox. It doesn’t make much difference to me, since I’m usually running late and checking in on Tuesday anyway.

*The Universe… is trying to give me a hand, I think. After having to walk all over the suburbs because I’m a penny pincher and didn’t want to get a taxi both ways to the hospital and having to walk heaps more than usual because of my doctor’s appointment the next day, I am very sore. However, I think it’s the Universe forcing me to get through the sore stage and get used to more exercise!

I know, it sounds a bit wonky. But instead of letting this progress (aka soreness) go to waste, I’m keeping on with it. I walked to the post office and back today and plan on prodding The Bloke into a walk after work.

It’s the best start I never wanted. Haha.

…

And that’s it for now. I have more to talk about, but those topics are for posts rather than bullets.

I will be starting this… just next week.

Glandular fever, or mononucleosis as it is known in the States, is an infection by the Epstein Barr virus which is a herpes family virus. And, like other herpes viruses, it stays in the body even after you have ‘defeated’ it.

Glandular fever becomes dangerous when it causes swelling of the liver and/or the spleen. However, most people get ‘really bad cold’ symptoms for one to four weeks and then it goes away. For the majority of the population, the first time is the only time they will ever have to deal with it.

But I wouldn’t be making this post if I was in the majority of the population, now would I?

About 6% of people get glandular fever more than once. A relapse or recurring glandular fever means that the immune system is less than ideal and needs to be strengthened in to keep the glandular fever symptoms at bay.

The thing that pushes me into glandular fever zone is stress. If I have an Achilles heel, it’s stress. I’m not good with dealing with it, letting things go and all the other coping mechanisms. I have been careful since being laid up for about two months last year and made an effort to keep my stress levels from crossing that line.

Unfortunately, I internalized a lot of stress this week and look! Crimson crescents (a sign of GF) have appeared in my throat along with the exhaustion for no reason and bloody blazing headache.

Greeaaaat. And I was just getting back to normal after being completely healed from gallbladder surgery.

The good news is that I know what to do now. I recognize the symptoms, have caught them early and am now dosing myself with plenty of rest and heaps of vitamin C. Given that I now recognize what’s going on, I have no doubt that I won’t be laid up for as long as I was and it won’t get as severe as it was last year.

It’s always something, isn’t it?

Some of you will remember Mailbox Monday from Finally Getting Fit. Do you think I should revive it here or let it rest in peace?

(If you’re not familiar, it’s just me asking one question a week about health, weight loss, exercise, etc.)

Starting: 264
Last week: 222
Current: 226

That is what you get when you spend a week in a pub eating pub food and not drinking as much water as you should because the local water is gross and you don’t have the money for buying heaps of water.

Actually, when I weighed myself Sunday morning (I got back home Saturday night), the scale said 230. But I’ve been drinking heaps of water to hydrate (I got so dehydrated that my skin got itchy), so that probably has something to do with it.

However, the bounce down in the scale brings up something Jenera and I were talking about that I wanted to talk about here: scales.

There was some sort of blogger movement earlier this year during which a lot of health bloggers I read gave up their scales for good. A rare few kept fast, defending their scales, but most cursed the things and threw them out the door.

Frankly, I am understanding the decision to chuck the thing more and more.

From about late August to the end of 2009, I stayed the same weight. Yet, lo and behold, the next time I measured, I’d lost five inches (between biceps, thighs, hips, waist, boobs). But I’ve known for a long time that you should not go just by the scale for shows of improvement.

What really hit me, though, was coming home, seeing 230 on the scale, and shrugging. No longer did the number seem so important. I was dehydrated and I’d eaten pub food (delicious and non-fried, but still rich) for a week. Plain and simple. I knew that at least half the pounds I had gained while away would disappear once I got my body hydrated.

And it was in that moment that I knew I’d moved past letting the scale dictate my happiness or my view of myself. Finally I had mentally and emotionally put the scale where it was meant to be.

At this point, the only reason I keep my scale is because 180 is the magic number I have to get to before my husband and I start trying for a baby. Some days I hate that number with a passion (why not start trying at 200? It’s bound to take a while…) and some days it’s a good goal. But truly, that is the only reason I keep the scale.

Do you still have your scale?

About the Book

We all know that diets don’t work, yet most of us continue to be swayed by their promise. After all, who doesn’t want to be a little bit thinner? Who doesn’t want to zip her skinny jeans without (literally) holding her breath? You can’t blame a girl for trying even the most desperate of measures.

As a fashion and beauty journalist, Mimi Spencer spends much of her time surrounded by the catwalk elite, engulfed in the culture of thin. Fed up with years of deprivation and dieting, she created the anti-diet. In 101 Things to Do Before You Diet, Spencer shares her strategies for trimming and flattering every inch of your body and shows you how she finally lost those pesky last few pounds – and how you can, too.

The Long Story

This is one of the very few books I have bought after reading someone else’s glowing review.

Mimi Spencer has taken on the world of trying to get ‘trim, taut and terrific’ like many others, but she has done it in an anti-diet way through common sense. Flitting through everything from how to cut those extra calories to bum and tum flattering apparel, Spencer takes an all-around approach to getting you looking and feeling great.

I have to say, as someone who is used to reading books about either what I should be doing with my body or how horrible I’ve been to my body without realizing it, it was a relief to read a book that treated me like a person. And a woman.

The best part about this book is that Mimi Spencer knows that no matter how good or bad you look on the outside, you will never be the woman you want to be without feeling sexy on the inside. This is a point that so many books just plain ignore, and is something that really made me feel comfortable ‘listening’ to Spencer’s tips.

The ‘101 Steps’ layout of this book makes it a great ‘pick up, put down’ kind of book. While that doesn’t work for fiction, it does for this because it gives you plenty of time to really think about what Spencer is saying.

I couldn’t agree with all her suggestions – Tip 27: Buy a Corset should have ‘if you have $200 to spare’ attached to it – and found some of the fashion parts to be a bit boring. I don’t care if pointy-toed heels are fashionable; I think they look horrible. I also don’t have the money to get the clothes she suggests.

However, despite my brief boredom with a few fashion tips, I quite liked this book. Her tips are common sense and don’t leave you with any excuses while still being sympathetic because it’s all coming from a woman who knows. I look at Spencer’s picture and wonder what in the world she has to complain about, but the words say more than just looking at her ever could.

As a credit to how many studies she quotes and the kind of studies, I am not handing this book off until I get time to investigate some of them. A lot of the things quoted are recent and fascinating, and I’m looking forward to doing more reading.

The Short Story

I highly recommend this book from the standpoint that it focuses on self-love and common sense tips in all areas of beauty – both inside and out.

***
101 Things to Do Before You Diet: Because Looking Great Isn’t Just About Losing Weight
Mimi Spencer
http://www.mimispencer.com/
ISBN: 9781605298481
Length: 234 pages

Yawning and probably flirting heavily with the thought, “Maybe I could just skip today…” Having successfully gotten yourself out of bed, now it’s time to get dressed even though the bed seems to be calling your name… You are finally outside or at the gym, and now it’s tempting to just do a short workout instead of a regular one… Time to get exercising…

It’s often quite hard in itself to get yourself exercising, let alone sticking to a routine. Because of this, an injury might be a relief to you mentally, but it can be devastating to you workout routine. Any injury sees you with the possibility of not getting back into exercising after you have healed. One of the most frustrating things I have been dealing with after my surgery is the ‘six weeks no strenuous activity’ rule that I have to obey.

The best way to keep yourself from giving in to giving up is to stay as active as you can even when you are injured. Doing that is easier said than done…

Here are a few ways you can exercise even if you have injured a part of your body:

*Do stretches. Stretching is a great form of exercise that often feels so, so good.

*Concentrate on what you can move. If you have injured your upper body, do exercises with your lower body, and vice versa.

*Try new small exercises. There are foot and hand exercises, neck exercises, ankle exercises… Start doing some investigating to see just how much you can do.

*Remember that everything counts. From tapping your toes to tightening and then loosening your muscles repeatedly, every little bit can help – even if you are keeping up the mental aspects of exercising regularly.