Pardon me while I get serious for a second. And a little bit cheesy. I love Cathy Zielske. I do. Her books are a big part of why I fell in love with this hobby.I love her sense of humor, her willingness to laugh at herself, her talent,her taste in music…okay, i think you get the idea. Geez,could I sound any more lame? HA!
But it’s true. I’m blessed to be able to call Cathy a friend. She has been a great encouragement to me, and brought me MANY laughs.
I am thrilled that she agreed to do a guest post for my lovely things series. Thank you SO much, my friend.
♥♥♥♥♥♥
Change. (Have you heard? It’s the new self-love.)
Quick: what do Weight Watchers, running and marriage counseling all have in common?
If your first guess was torture, try again.
Need a hint?
The thing they all have in common? Love. But not just an all-encompassing, garden variety kind of love. No, these things are a bit more focused. The over-arching thread? Self-love.
Not seeing the immediate connection? Let me tell you three stories.
Story Number One: In 2006, I wasn’t living the healthiest of lives. I smoked a pack a cigarettes a day, lived on as much fried food as I could wrap my lips around and the idea of exercise involved clicking my television’s remote control. I had just turned 40 and it was time to face the music: the way I was living was really out of line with someone who purported to “love” herself.
I mean, really. Think about that level of self-destruction. Nothing in the way I was living actually reflected the idea of self-love. Nothing in my life at the time was congruent with someone who actually cared for herself.
So I made changes. Hard changes. I quit smoking, I joined Weight Watchers and I decided to get on the wagon of self-care. It’s taken a while for this lifestyle to stick, but making the effort to change some of my bad habits was a tremendous gift to myself and my potential longevity.
Story Number Two: After quitting smoking and making some real positive changes, I had to go and introduce some not-so-positive ones. I decided to try some new ways of not loving myself, namely, to abuse food. And oh, once I got started on that one, it was hella hard to stop. I ended up packing on a good 40 pounds to my 5’6 frame and in 2009, I knew: something’s gotta give. Believe it or not, I decided to start running.
In my life up until this point, the only thing that would cause me to use my legs to run would be something like an oncoming avalanche, or a wild boar chasing me down the street. Running was something I decided back in the 7th grade—when a lap around the track caused my heart to beat so wildly against my chest that I was convinced I would surely be the first 13-year-old to suffer cardiac arrest in P.E. class—was not for me.
But guess what happened? I ran for one minute then walked for four. Then I ran for two. And then three. And in about two month’s time, I was up to running for 30 minutes non-stop and something really big started to happen: I started to view myself as person with fewer limits. From previously believing running was something only insane people did to realizing that I had the strength and stamina to run a 5K in under 40 minutes, I experienced a mental (and eventually physical) transformation.
I changed the way I viewed myself and in the process I realized that if this was possible, what other things could I do that I’d previously deemed unattainable?
Story Number Three: After 20 years of marriage, my husband Dan and I were tired of the same old fights and the same old scripts. We knew that a) we had something special, but that b) it needed a little tinkering. So a few years ago we jumped in feet first to work with a developmental therapist to tackle our issues.
Imagine my absolute shock to learn that the way I’d learned to be in the world wasn’t exactly conducive to living a responsible, adult life. I had thought counseling would be a lot like refereeing. You get this. He gets that. You do this. He does that.
But the core of what I’ve been learning (and still am in the process of learning) is that in order to really develop a loving and caring relationship with my husband, I need to change a lot of my attitude and my processes and my purposes in life. But by doing the work, and making key changes and understanding the hows and whys of who I am in the world, I’m able to work towards being a loving and wise person who offers love and understanding to myself and others. This will be the key to a fulfilling life and marriage.
These three stories link because they all share something in common: change. Specifically, the willingness to change, which is rooted deep within our attitudes and beliefs about ourselves.
I’ve learned that if I’m truly offering love to myself, the only way this will happen is to be willing to look at some of the inadequacies in my life and take the necessary steps to make the changes that are needed. At the same time, realizing that any time you step out of your comfort zone in the name of making a change that you need to make, you are ultimately doing a really brave and valiant act of self-love.
Make no mistake: change is not easy. Change takes work and commitment and focus. But change can be a way to give yourself a new level of love and understanding you may not have previously experienced.
When I think of the changes I’ve made over the past several years, I’m often flooded with a sense of love and pride and self-worth. It’s something I would wish on everyone I know.
Who knew that self-love would be such a huge byproduct of change?
I’m happy to say that now, I do.
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Cathy Zielske is a graphic designer, online instructor, fitness afficianado and blogger who writes about life, love, scrapbooking and less chub on her blog, found here... She likes to pretend like she’s looking off into the distance, laughing at something funny that someone said when in reality, there’s no one there at all.
I love her “voice” in her writing! Such a great post, very encouraging, thank you.
I love Cathy Zielske too!
I am an avid blog reader/stalker of her artwork/admirer of her strenght…cz is were it’s AT! Thanks for letting her voice be heard here so others can realize what an amazing woman she is!
Always enjoy reading/hearing Cathy. Another admirer here! Thx for asking her to guest post.
for the love of cathy z ! she has had such an impact on how and why i scrapbook.. (but i don’t think i will ever follow her on the running craze… good for her though!) 🙂
Cathy z. I love you~!
tara
Thank you so much for sharing this with us!!! It is very inspiring!!!
Very inspiring! I have all three items on her acheived list as “To-Do”s. I’m going to head to Cathy’s blog now to give her a shout out as well!!! Thanks for the feature on her!
I too am a huge fan of Cathy… what a great set of words! I love that you share so honestly and see things from different perspectives all in the means of improving oneself.. We all change and need this attitude to do so. Peace and love… and Cathy… damn.. you are looking good girl.. even if you are laughing at invisible people’s jokes! Ha 😉
Peace,
Kim
Wow what a brilliant post – some things to really think about doing – and that last photo she looks amazing! I haven’t seen a picture of her for some time and boy what a difference – I think she has just given me the kick up the bum I needed! x
Great post!! TFS 🙂
thank you for sharing.admire zest to make things work.
#1 CZ fan here 🙂 Love her inspiration, humor & candor. Her books were the first I purchased to learn how to scrapbook and I still love that style.
Thanks for this post! Love CZ!
Thanks for this post. I am doing Cathy’s Move More Class at present and it is literally changing my life. She is so inspiring. Thank you for sharing her message. Two of my favourite scrap stars in one place …. Fan girl heaven.
Wow. One of my favorite bloggers blogging for one of my favorite bloggers! So much respect for both of you because of your honesty and humility.
Wow! I’m truly impressed! Those are some of the hardest changes one can embark upon! I’m really inspired to keep working at my own! A few years ago I took on the weight loss journey and lost 40 pounds. Over the years it’s been a struggle to maintain. It will forever be a work in progress. I’ve gained 10 of those pounds back, but I’m still within a healthy range. My biggest hurtle will be in the exercise department. I hate it! I’m a weather wimp…I don’t want to get out and exercise in extreme temperatures…hot or cold. This attitude makes it impossible to keep up a routine! I need to work through it! Thank goodness I don’t smoke or drink…those are habits only the very strong can kick. At our home, we’ve been on a journey over the past couple years to eat healthier. Our diets weren’t terrible to begin with, we didn’t live on fast food or eat out a lot, but we did buy a lot of convenience and packaged foods. Now we make our meals from scratch and we’re working at a majority of fruits and veggies in our diet. We’re trying to replace simple carbs with healthier complex varieties, like quinoa instead of rice and soy milk instead of regular milk. This healthy eating journey has been easier than I would have thought because healthy, whole foods are so delicious!
This will be added to my list of “re-read when I need a boost” posts. I sometimes forget that it’s never too late to make changes and take care of myself. I appreciate the honesty and humor here, it will keep me going I’m sure.
I am a HUGE fan of Cathy since way back when. I have a little C.Z. binder of all my favorite pages torn out of magzines about her style. I love the way she scraps/tells her story/ her fun attitude. Noone makes me laugh like she does. I love how honest she is and inspiring to others.
Most of all I’m thankful for Cathy sharing her journey into a better healty life. I had tried going to the gym many times just to quit after a few weeks. I wanted to lose weight but couldn’t find any exercise program that made me stick with it.
Then one beautiful day Cathy walked outside and shared it with us and I thought no way will I go outside. She shared it again and then the next day I put on my old beat up tennis shoes and hit the track at our school. I was in love before I left that track. Everyday I went back after that and each day got easier and while there Cathy’s voice of encouragement was in thoughts pushing me to keep going. I’ve been out of the running loop lately but know for sure that once it’s warmer my feet will hit that track again and I hope to do even better then last year.
So Cathy holds a special place in my heart and helps me take care of my heart. Thank you Cathy, YOU ROCK!!
Thanks Stephanie for having Cathy share her amazing story with us.
Such an inspiring, uplifting post….this really “spoke” to me as I can relate to her stories. I will be looking up Cathy’s blog and subscribing for sure!!!
{heart} Cathy Z!!
Great guest post!