Books: a Fat Girl's Best Friend

Hello my Lovelies and Gents,



I love to read. I always have. I love classics. I love mysteries. I love historical fiction. I love Christian fiction. I love novels. I love true stories. I love them all.

I could devour books as a kid. I mean hours and hours of reading. My passion for reading only increased as I got older. As much as I enjoy working out in the morning, nothing beats laying in bed for hours on a Saturday morning finishing a book.

Reading is so important. Reading feeds your hunger for knowledge. It helps fuel creativity with imagination. It increases your cognitive thinking. Reading is a good thing. And we readers stick together. To know me and love me is to know my books and love my love for them.

The former fat girl found happiness in books. When she felt down or lonely, she found friends between the pages. When she didn't feel confident about herself she found her voice. When she had problems, she found her solutions.

She did also find some self image problems in books. Her Tween years involved a hundred books of Sweet Valley High books where the main characters were described as "a perfect size 6"...and that led to never feeling good enough because she was not a size 6. I can currently button a 6, but they are a little snug.

The former fat girl would find reading as the perfect excuse not to exercise. Today I can read on the treadmill or bike and that keeps me on for hours. What a difference.

This past week I got an early Christmas present. Ms. Tracy, a fellow book nerd, got us tickets to Verse & Vino. It was an event sponsored by the Charlotte Library. The night included meet and greet with 5 authors, a cocktail hour, dinner, wine, and speakers. As soon as we saw the headliner author we completely "geeked out" as Ms. Tracy would say. The main event was Gregory Maguire. I mean THE Gregory Maguire. If you don't know who he is, then you don't love me. He wrote Wicked.  It's only one of my favorite books of all time.



Many moons ago we read it for my book club. Let me start by saying that I am not the biggest fan of The Wizard of Oz. I know that's shocking, but it's true. Just ask my mom. So I was not in the least bit excited about this. I had a hard time starting it, but once I did, well I just could not put it down. It's the untold story of the Witches of Oz. It follows the life of Elphaba, you may know her as the Wicked Witch. When I read the book I totally identified with her. Her train of thought was so in line with mine. I was super excited to talk about the book in book club. Unfortunately, I was the only one who really loved her and felt that way. It was a little disheartening.

We were so very excited about this night. The suggested attire was Cocktail attire. Um...well I wear spandex all day long. It would be a nice departure, but I wasn't really sure I had anything that fit. But, then I pulled out my dresses and found one that I wore on the cruise and another that I wore at my brother's wedding. I LOVED that dress, but it's a little too dress to wear for just any occasion.  Both dresses would expose my arms so I did extra shoulder workouts for the weeks leading up.

The morning of the event I tried on both dresses. I am about 10 lbs heavier than when I last wore the cruise dress. I didn't love it. BOO. But, I still rocked the other dress. I also was routing for it because I could wear my lower heels. I haven't worn heels in 2 years and with my knee I just didn't want to.

I wasn't sure what we would be eating for dinner so I went light at lunch with a plate full of veggies and a chicken patty.

We planned on meeting early because we were sure that the line for Mr. Maguire would be long. I took my clothes to Girls on the Run (and didn't run because I couldn't sweat) and went to church after to change. I was running late and only managed to get there 15 minutes early. It didn't matter, we were the first ones in line. We are NERDS! I mean I was palms sweaty nervous.

Mr. Maguire was the sweetest and we loved talking with him. We also loved talking with the other authors and then listening to them talk.

We got to have our pictures taken with him and he was adorable. I didn't think it through and hate how my dress fell in the picture. My belly looked huge. I was on a funky angle leaning over. Grr.



Dinner was delicious. There was a salad to start. The main course was a piece of chicken and a piece of steak. The sides were potatoes, stuffing with artichoke, and some veggies. Ms. Tracy had the gluten free plate and her veggies looked so amazing I wished I had it. The sauces and sides to my plate were a little heavy, but thankfully the portions were small.



And then there was the dessert...o...m....g....the dessert. Chocolate cheesecake. I am fairly certain that I licked the plate clean.



I was in Former Fat Girl heaven all night.



Have a Blessed Evening
****Please note****


 If you feel like you are alone on your journey and you just need some encouragement I am here for you! Shoot me an email and I will do my best to check in on you or give you the words of support you need several times a week. The journey is so much easier if you have support.

jhendersonfit@gmail.com 
Check out my Facebook Page for Confessions (there are before and work-in-progress pictures):

http://www.
facebook.com/ConfessionsOfAFormerFatGir

yeah, sorry, I messed up and the "l" is missing....I need an assistant :-)

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