You know, it has been a challenging year. From leaving freelance to working a job that was taking advantage of me, to months of sexual harassment, then going back to freelance and finding it no less challenging to stay ahead. I am still behind on commissions but I am doing what I can to get them done. I have about 4 more people left on quick sketches and about 6 people with paintings but the Book as I have said before takes up a great deal of time. I am actually looking forward to trying to complete everything.
In other news I want to send out blessings and condoences. In the last 2 weeks to lights were suddenly blown out. I friends from school suddenly took ill and passed away and a family member was killed so the family has been very distraught.
I ask that people out there send there prays out for those that are in morning for the loss of to wonderful souls. The Gibson family and the Marshall family.
Yesterday I was at the Book signing at elite comics. I took lots of pictures! It was a great experience and special thanks to the Elite crew for the warm welcome. I was there with my New friend Damont and we both drew from open to close yesterday as well as greeted people and talked to everyone. It was a fun time! Really got me pumped for NakaCon and Planet con coming in February and March.
ALso thanks to my good friend Daryl for coming out. I am going to be drawing him a massive hulk with the Woomp!! and a Shoomp!! I also got to hang out with Super Girl and Greet lantern and Hawk Girl but she was actually dressed as a different character. I took some great pics with them as well!
It was a real blast everyone! Can't wait to do it again.
Thanks to everyone that has remains supportive over the last 2 months, especially those waiting so patiently on commissions.
I never knew I would have to something so hard as this book. It is literally kicking my Ass up and down the street.
Been working late nights and through the morning sometimes trying to keep up with everything.
One thing I know for sure though is that I hate forcing people to wait that much longer to get their commissions.
It is honestly very frustrating for me. Being the first comic I have actually done for a job, I wish things were easier.
I hope you won't give up on my efforts and that those waiting on commissions can hold out a little bit longer. I have been completing them slowly, but surely by working them into my schedule around the book.
I even flipped my sleep schedule to days so I can work with as few distractions as possible while the rest of the house is asleep.
Anyway, I think something very important in this freelance world is building a balance between work and free time. Sometimes i find myself wanting to work till something is done and not having free time so it leaves me with no personal life. I even cancel on my friends because of projects.
I remember watching one of Steven Silvers Video Pod casts and he was talking about how important his personal time is. He wants to be able to play some halo and eat dinner with the family and all those things. I keep wondering how he does it though because I find myself not only feeling guilty but sometimes regretting taking that little extra time to chill because I feel like I could be getting work done.
I could be loosing crucial time. Of course, then I have occasions where I hit a wall and feel like, oh god I need a day off, and of course I take one but I will still find myself thinking about drawing in the back of my mind. So there is still a need for balance.
One of the things I thought about doing was making a goal schedule for things I wanted to complete in a work day to I could have time where it I am not focusing on work so much once I hit those goals I am can chill till the next day, but I have to stay within those limits.
I think it is easy to get overwhelmed and end up not sleeping for days as you scramble to hit that deadline because you miss calculated your time.
Now if only I could find away to eliminate interruptions. That is a huge obstacle for me. I simple day out to pick up some art supply has, on more than one occasion, turned into a all day fight with time because I had a flat tire or a family member got locked out there house.
I guess that is just how it goes. The art world is a battle field sometimes.
Does it seem like your life is not going forward or backward. do you feel like everyday you are just going through the motions. do you feel like your life lacks zest. Do you ever wonder what your life would be life had you made even just on tiny choice that was completely different.
If suffering in our lives brings evolution in our soul why do we great challenges with anger frustration and fear.
Is not all things that God creates good, no matter if bad things happen or not. I think so. Everyone chooses something in there life out of convenience and well cause we like it but what about that one thing in the back of our heart that we never chased cause it was too hard. How different Our lives would be if we did the hard things or the things we were unsure of.
Today I say be yourself with all your might cause God would not want anything less. Remeber to pray if things get hard.
God Bless ~Arie
I am thankful for... ....the mess to clean up after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends. ....the taxes I pay because it means that I'm employed. ....the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat. ....the child who is not cleaning his room, but is watching TV because that means he is at home and not on the streets. ....the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking. ....all the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech. ....that lady behind me in synagogue who sings off key because it means that I can hear. ....lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home. ....my huge heating bill because it means that I am warm. ....weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means that I have been productive. ....the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I am alive. ....Finally, for too much email because it means that I have friends and family who are thinking of me.
I am trying to get back in the swing of posting daily. I hope you guys can be semi-patient with me.
Currently I am slowly but surely getting the commissions completed. it is a daily process you could say. Also finally onto the final pencils of a comic book I am working on. I really hope to be able to work steadily on all the things going on.
I have become a Ustream addict. A lot of artists these days are doing live streams at they work on there projects and commissions. giving a bit of an inside view of there daily lives. Recently bobby Chiu has been interviewing some great people from the animation industry as well as I Crisis Hour is doing his thing with his family dallying around in the BG. I know that experience is all too familiar. Jeremy really knows how to get the sketch cards done quickly!
I will be having a book signing at Elite comics Here in Kansas City in December. I will give more info on it later. In the meantime I did this art work for the flyer. She will be leaning on there logo.
Is it only through suffering that we can recognize the blessings God gives?
Many time we go through things in our lives and it is a horrible experience, but do you ever have those days when you stop and go "man, if that bad thing had not happened, I wouldn't have had this even better good thing."
Many people don't know this but like most black women I am Obsessed with my hair. I am always trying to find new ways to style it and help it along in growth.Currently my hair is about shoulder length but I can't wait till it gets to be even longer cause I plan to rock the worlds biggest fro.
I actually use to relax my hair. in fact my hair has been relaxed since I was a weee little girly girl with pig tails.
and it grew but it was always very thin and when I finally got to an age where I could do my own hair I hated it cause it seemed like every ones hair was thicker than mine.
Anyway when I turned 26 I moved away and went to school and I stopped getting a perm on my hair. This is when the real education began. it took me about a 2 years to muster up the balls to actually trim off all the damaged hair.During that time I did a few things. One thing I always wanted was to die my hair so I did. On top of my perm and natural mixed fro and man did it look bad.
then one day i got this idea to get on the internet and learn how to style a fro.I wanted more than afro puffs and I was tired of the mickey mouse ears. I was really to old to be doing nothing but wearing afro puffs. I didn't know how to style short hair though. and it wasn't long enough for one ponytail.
Long story short I found lots of other young women with beautiful natural hair and they were giving tutorials on how to take care of it. Like for example. not combing it when it is dry and not using mineral oil because it makes your hair brittle. I was a victim of brittle hair. Oh and not using sulfate shampoo. I buy organic now.
Recently I have been doing research on how to stop single strand knots. They are all over my head and they caused me to form a nasty habit where I rip them out cause they make me so angry and they can't be removed unless i get out the shears and clip individual knots of individual strands. Some call this dusting and it is a fruitless effort cause they come back in a matter of a few hours!!! GRRR!!!
So I would just clip my ends and well that didn't help either cause I clip the ends of damaged hair and they return and I clip more and more and my hair gets shorter and shorter which is defeating the purpose of having long hair in the first place!!
But I think I found the solution. I tried rolling my hair. and this works, but takes hours and the hair reverts in a few days and then I found a site called http://curlynikki.com .
She shows how to do the curly fro where by curling the ends you can stretch them and eliminate single strand knots. Not to mention it is really cute and a nice style for every day wear. I thought I was resigned to ugly braids or 2 strand twists but I don't like them in my hair so this I hope will be my saving grace.
Anyway I found some videos and thought I would share. This girl has great hair! Oh and I also learned that a fro is a great accessory to your clothes.
Sorry I haven't been posting guys. it has been a very rough month. I figured that it was probably best I focus as much energy on commissions as possible but they are still not getting completed as fast as I would like.
I know I haven't spoken here much about it but I have a mentor and I spoke to him the other day. when I am able to animate he looks at my work and critiques things for me. I always feel revitalized when I get to speak with him. He told me anytime I am ready to start getting work He would help me out by putting in a good word for me.
God Bless him and his wife. They are such good people. He told me that he was kinda unsatisfied with the industry for so long, but meeting young people with a fire for animation has helped him feel so much happier and excited about what they can bring to animation in the future.
Knowing he that someone has that kind of faith in your work is so uplifting. It makes me feel like I can do anything no matter how hard. I still hesitate to move to Cali and try yo find work. It hasn't been long since I returned to Missouri and enjoy being able to be around all my old friends and reestablishing those old relationships.
Not to mention I think my mom would be heart broken if I were to move so far away again. I had such rough times when I was in New Jersey. It was so frustrating and lets not talk about Ohio. I question myself if a move to Hollywood for work would be a good choice or not, but at the same time it has been something I have worked so hard for all these years. I mean it could be completely different for me than all the other times.
I am just kinda tired of my life frantically being up and down so much. the chaos is unbearable sometimes.all I can really do is pray about all these things. At the same time I think man if i were on my feet and doing well. Just how much more I could bring to the lives of others around me.
I wonder if other artists have had to make a decision like this. I know moving there wouldn't be forever but no one is getting any younger around here. Especially my parents. It seems like a big sacrifice.
I ended up having to drop some of the projects. It was just to much. It honestly made me feel very frustrated. You get that feeling of “Oh my God I am a failure cause I can't handle everything,” but at the same time it is a big relief. It means for one that it will be much easier to plan out my work without loosing sleep over how many things I can do at once.
I think with the convention and all the work I needed to do to get ready on top of all the money I ended up loosing in order to go I found myself between a rock and a hard place. All my finances for a month went to going to Baltimore Comic Con and that just wasn’t a very smart decision to make. In fact the entire time I was at the Con in the back of my head I did nothing but stress about how much I needed to get done at home and how I should have been working at that moment. Then with a hope and a prayer I was desperately wanting to make back the money I was spending to go and at the off chance that that might not happen I took on more work than I could handle hoping to make up for it after the convention was over.
Long story short, I got some big battle wounds as a result of my decisions over the last 3 months since finally getting back to drawing. But I know one thing this did was to seriously test my mental and physical limits in terms of what I just can and can’t do as an artist as well as how NOT to run a business no matter how much you want to succeed.
I am rethinking my approach to freelancing and recognizing a person just can not fill up every hour of there day. There are to many variables where things can go wrong. Not to mention having the time to eat and sleep and get sunshine on occasion. God bless the remained of my project with the home they go smoothly.
About to years ago I read a book called Autobiography of a yogi. The book was about the life of Paramhansa Yogananda, and Indian yogi that came to the US to bring the teachings of ancient wisdom of India and self realization through Christianity. He has written many books about living like Christ and being of Christ conscience, as well as, analyzing the teachings of Jesus and how they relate to model day lives of man.
My interest in the practice of Yoga began around 5 years ago now when I took a yoga class with some friends. The teacher was actually from Russia I believe and the class was very hard. At the end of the class there is a posture where you lay down on the floor after about an hour of intense work and the teacher walks around the room and he presses your shoulders down and lifts your head into alignment. Some teaches will even anoint your head with oil.
I remember the touch of this teacher. I had never been touched by such soft hands. And in an instant it felt like I was literally floating off the ground like I was not within myself. I had studied a few books on Tao and Yoga before this and read about yogis who float in the air and all these other strange things when I was in high school. All that stuff seemed so surreal.
But at this moment I don’t ever think I had felt so close to God. It was really an amazing spiritual experience. After the class ended and I came back to my senses I suddenly vowed that I would always practice yoga.
The next week I started attending Maya Yoga in downtown Kansas city. I remember be surrounded by vegans and vegetarians and I was on the Atkins diet. I had a few other spiritual experience but non like the first. My body was slowly be sculpted though in to the very agile body. After a while I ran into some financial problems I couldn’t go anymore but I bought books and practiced at home and them soon after that I went away to school.
Then while I was away in NJ and working at Mada Design I started occasionally getting audio books and listening to them. I was going not only through financial problems at the time but also through a purification process of some sort. It was so not voluntary lol. I found myself being tortured by my former experiences, many of them bad. These past memories suddenly flooded my life and I was having daily mental warfare with myself. Not to mention my external battles and coming to terms with the behaviors of others around me. Often I found myself near tears as I walked daily to and from work. I felt like I was under the greatest attack of my entire life. And then I found the audio book Autobiography of a Yogi.
This book helped me through one of the biggest mental hurdles I had gone through since high school. Like most teens high school was like the dark ages to me. I remember at one point asking my boyfriend if Satan really existed because I honestly felt like I was being attacked. (Satan has always been a little obscure to me cause I never really understood who or what Satan was but I do know what demons are.)
Anyway, I really enjoyed the Autobiography cause it was inspirational beyond belief. Because Yagananda lived between the 1920’s and like the 1960’s here in the US it was even more surreal. Actually there was a point when he came to Kansas City Missouri and he had a devotee here that he trained in Kriya Yoga and this man founded a church here that is called Self Realization fellowship http://kcmeditation.com/. I am thinking about attending a service to see what it is like.
I think it was one of the second branches founded here in the US; the first was founded by Yogananga on the west coast.
Some of the miracles described in the book are really otherworldly; especially his stories about meeting other modern day saints. It felt like a story that could only be told during biblical times. Even in my studies on Gandhi I find it strange to know that this man lived in my life time as well as martin Luther King.
The thing that brings all these thoughts of the eternal and human spirit was yesterday while working I was watching this video about a model day Buddha, Ram Bahadur Bomjan. He is saint from Nepal that is practicing something that I had heard about in the Autobiography. He plans to meditate for 10 years without eating or drinking. Him body is fueled purely by the spirit of god.
Before reading this book I was very skeptical of the idea that a man can live without polluting the body with food or drink. Then when I saw this I was really inspired cause I thought maybe these were things that did not happen in today’s time. He started meditating when he was I believe 11 and his goal is to meditate on the salvation of the world that we do not plunge into an even more desperate time of war and hatred. That man kind can ascend from the daily chaos and troubles of the world that we create and manifest from our own mind. To stop killing and eating meat so we can live on the fruits that God readily provides us.
This past summer I grew some of my own food and it was the most spiritual experience I had had in a long time. I remember feeling that is was nothing short of a miracle that anything could thrive on water and sun alone and I blessed and thanked my tomatoes as they grew and still grow in abundance. What a miracle it is to watch a small seedling grow into the monster that dominates my front porch and provides me with nourishment so I can live.
Anyway today is a blessed day. Give thanks for all things in your life whether good or bad even if only for the lessons they can teach.
I think one of the things many of us as artists forget is just how many resources we have at our disposal when it comes to drawing and financing Out career and life. The most important thing we do in this field is creating work that touches other peoples lives and nothing does that more than the art of caricature.
Peoples faces light up when they see themselves drawn as a cartoon. It makes them laugh and even sometimes makes them cry. I will never forget how when I worked at Worlds of Fun my first year a beautiful chunky chick sat in my chair and I made her look so cute. When she say the finish she got so happy and excited that she gave me the biggest hug. It really brightened her day.
Since that day I have had other experiences, good and bad, as well, but that one I always remember.
Yesterday I met with my amazing friend Tom. He is a caricature artist and also does many other forms of art, as well. It was such a blessing to get to spend a few hours with him talking about the state of the world and what it is we really provide as creators when our work is released into the hands of many others.
I need to get back to my roots and rediscover the blessing of caricature.
~Arie
P.S. it can also provide ya with a good way to pay the bills too. lol!
Sometimes I feel like I ma in a constant battle to get ahead in life. It can be tiring I have to say.
I am currently swamped in work. One of the first times that has happened. The problem is that I don't get paid till the work is done so on top of that I have to try and sell stuff to pay bills till the work is done. I am still happy though, this will be the first time I have ever had this many professional jobs on my freelance plate so I know it is a blessing in disguise.
Current Projects include:
26 page comic book 50 sketch card for Moonstone Set(5finity) 80 sketch cards for Fairy Land Set (Sad Littles) 30 quick sketches (Baltimore fund raiser) 10 9 x 12 Painting commissions (from the last year or so)
Total I have about 200 illustrations and the are all due yesterday.
Just this past weekend I completed 50 sketch cards for Mandy card set (5finity) and I took a few days off after that to catch up on sleep. Last week when the BF visited I pulled allnighters every day up until a few days after he left. So I had to take a few days off when the Mandy cards got done. I had no choice I was exhausted.
I feel like a night time warrior. Attacking art when it's not looking. Stalking it and then praying upon it. Or you could also call me a working girl(art prostitute). Honestly it will be interesting to see if I can actually complete all this work.
I have deadlines up through January. After that I plan to take a little break and working on some personal projects.
I guess I am living up to the Drawlikecrazy name these days! :D
One of the things I am constantly doing as an artist especially as someone that does freelance is evaluating my career. One of the main questions I often as myself is if I am happy with the way things are going? Can it be better? Am I making the right decisions?
I like to listen to Stephen Silver and Bobby Chiu a lot as some of you know and the other day Stephen was talking about this idea of experimenting with your career until you find that section or part of the art field that you really enjoy. Then taking that thing and really getting comfortable in it and running with it so that your career is enjoyable. Whether it is character design, animation, comics, caricatures etc, how much do you enjoy it?
So what I decided to do was take an inventory of the parts of my art career I loved the most and try to gear my career in that direction. That way I can not only enjoy my career but also my artistic personal life.
As I was saying yeah, I am swamped and I am not sleeping cause I am swamped. I have 3 cards set, a comic book and around 35 commissions that need to be completed. I am about to commit suicide over here.
so you may not be hearinf from me for a little bit of time as I try my best to complete a crap load of art work amd a lot of it has deadlines.
As a result though I won't have an actual income for over a month. so I need to sell sketch books if I want to actually be able to eat in November Woo Hoo!!
I need sleep!
~Arie
P.S.
The Sketch book is still available on eBay if anyone is interested!
I haven't been posting as much as I would like cause I have been crash busy trying to get quick sketches and commissions completed. I am hoping at the beginning of november we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming.
The sketch book is officially Available for purchase online. I have some up on ebay or you can purchase directly from me by email or message or what have you.
So on Monday I had jury duty and it actually ruined my week. I am still paying for it as we speak. I haven't slept since sometime yesterday afternoon.
I asked for an extension a week back on a project and had completely forgotten about how I had to serve my duty as an American citizen. I asked for the extension till Monday, same day as jury duty, and after getting it I realized I had to be at the courthouse at 8 a.m. They didn’t let us leave until that evening.
I literally sat in a room crowded with over 250 people and did nothing but wait for like 9 HOUR!! Talk about a waist of a day. I brought work with me but there was no room to do anything because of how we were all crowded together.
I doodled on the hand out they gave us, out of frustration. Some of the people there looked just as pissed as I did, while others were happy to have the day off.
To top it all off, they only give you like $6.42 to come in and waist your day waiting to hear if you will be selected. I couldn’t even get a decent lunch in the cafeteria for that much. At the end of the day they told everyone in my group that we were on call for the rest of the week. ON CALL!! WHICH MEANS I MIGHT HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN THIS WEEK!
I often ask myself; why do I keep attracting these situations. I didn’t get any sleep that day and ended up having to make up for it yesterday only to wake up to panic and hysteria because I hadn’t completed everything on Monday. And well, now it is Wednesday and I haven’t slept in a while.
I guess this is just the life of an artist: caffeine pills, racing hearts, and achy fingers.
I guess it is just another lesson from God so I learn from my mistakes.
Sometimes I feel heavy burdens on me. They hold me down and keep me from pushing myself forward. Heavy obstacles and fears that well up inside my heart when I have goals to complete and challenges to meet. Fears that make me question if I can do it or not.
The questions turn into realites when they come to me. They create doubts that hurt my spirit and turn into an inability to complete tasks at hand. I know through God I can over come these things.
So today I prayed my heart out and placed every fear and insecurity in Gods hands and asked him to remove them so I can do what i am called to do in this life. When I did this it felt good. Energy surged through my body and I was ready to start. Fear is a burden that will incapacitate us and hold us back from our potential. It creates doubt and a burden that turns to depression and finally a belief that that we can't do something. We have to believe we can over come fear and believe we can be better than we are and most of all believe we can actually be what it is we desire.
Most of all we have to believe in the power of God and the courage he puts in each and every one of us so we can over come our burdens and never look back.
I don't want to look back. Today I move forward with courage and strength because in God all things are possible.
~Arie
Matthew 11:28-29 (New International Version)
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Ok guys, I have some recovery work to do in order to get caught up on every ones commissions I will be just posting art but I won't be saying a whole lot so please stay tuned for the art work.
Thanks again to everyone that helped me get to Baltimore comic con. I have a few sketch books left I will put up on Ebay but I am planning another run of about 30 books in the next week or so. I will keep you posted.
It is my first day back since the convention And I am exhausted. i am so glad I took a flight instead of the bus or train because I would have still been on the road getting home even at this moment. I slept until like 3pm I was so tired and now I am about to get back to drawing. I have a lot of quick sketches to get done so I want to get on the ball and knock them out.
Thanks to everyone that stopped y the table and that took time to view both me and Sherry's work. Also thanks to those that bought sketch books and prints and sketches at the table. Special thanks to Tom Andress! It was a very special surprise to get to meet him and speak with him at the convention. he has been a long time supporter of both me and Sherry. It was a great honor.
I met so many great artists and talked to so many wonderful people. I also learned a great deal about my work and my audience by being able to have so many people come by and look at my stuff.
Thanks to everyone that helped to get me to this convention by purchasing my work through commissions and on ebay! This has all been a great blessing.
I still have some sketch books left and many prints as well I will be making those available soon to whoever wants them.
. I got the finishing touches on my sketch book and had it printed today. I also got my key chains, charms prints and sketch cards all frames up for the show. God I really hope that Baltimore comic con will be worth all the work. here are a few Pics.
The book was printed locally and I hand assembled it. It also includes a free print to go along with the painting walk through I did a while back. Of all the books I have done I have never included this much Mainasha art. I only have about 16 copies made cause i wanted to see how well things go in Baltimore. after that I wanted to dfo pre orders fr those that would like a copy. The books have a B/w interior with a color print. for your enjoyment. I am very excited about this being done. I also found a store locally that is willing to carry some of my books.
Now I just gotta finish pinups for your pleasure!
Woo Hoo!
~Arie Monroe
!!!!PS. I WILL BE ON A SHORT HIATUS UNTIL THE CONVENTION IS OVER!!!!
I spoke to my friend Michelle today! So exciting she recently finished at Van Arts! She is a great inspiration to me and she made me excited about animation all over again cause I haven't really gotten to be around people that love animation for a very long time.
I watched some cool you tube videos as a result and it really reminded me what being an artist is about. Sometime you just gotta cut the bullshit and get your ass on the grind right.
I thought I would share some of the stuff I watched.
I have a few animations I started but I haven't gotten back to them in a while. I feel like I should.
New sketch book will be available at the Baltimore comic con. I am putting these together by hand for the convention to make sure I can have them at the con. After this I will make it available online.
As an extra surprise there will be a tone of original art and Mainasha stuff in this one. the fan art is actually pretty minimal. There is also a lot of nudity so this isn't recommended for the kids. the book has about 50 pages.
The first 16 books will be hand bound by me so I can have them for Baltimore. After this I will have them available for pre orders. The book has a short painting walk through and will include a color print of the final painting.
I am sure we all have that person in our life that makes everything we do their business. Most of us call them parents. I wouldn't give um up for anything in the world. No matter how annoying lol.
I decided to do a little talking about this book cause I am find it interesting. I started reading it the other day after stumbling onto info on you tube about it.
I hate talking about my weight. I feel like I am complaining about it when I do. I had family members and friends that are over weight and when they try to diet, that is seriously all they can talk about. They become obsessed. My mom is on the Atkins Diet and has been for like 4 years and sometimes she can’t help but complain, “I don’t feel like I am loosing and does this shirt look bigger.” No offense to her or anything. God bless her. I am just happy she is getting healthy.
I have read all kinds of diet books. Including books where the writer tells the story of giving up and accepting they will be big all there life and telling the reader, “You know what, you should accept yourself the way you are.”
So you ask, why am I talking about this weigh down thing.
Well the auther, Gwen Shamblin, makes a few really good points that really rang true with me. She said no matter how much we try to say, “hey I am a big this is how I will always be.” We still deep down long to be thinner in some way, shape. and form. She says the reason for that is because is some way we can’t fight this urge we have to want to be smaller in size. I mean, when I wake up in the morning and my back is hurting and my knees ache when I go up stares and I know it is cause I am over weight I can’t help but think may if only I was 50 pounds lighter. She takes a spiritual approach to weight loss saying that we fill ourselves with food when we really need to fill ourselves with God and that being over weight is just not natural to the human body so how can we never accept it. We can only just live with it.
Let’s think about this. Have you ever met that big girl or guy that claims they accept being big and they own it and that is who they are, but they make those comment from time to time about being fat that makes it sound like secretly they aren’t happy about it. I know I do it from time to time. And when they say those things it makes you personally feel a little bad and you might be fat yourself.
Anyway, she takes scripture from the bible explaining how God doesn’t like it when we over indulge in anything, whether it is low fat cookies or low carb bread or full fat cheese cake. I am not trying to make anyone uncomfortable today by talking about scripture but I am a baby Christian I am learning everyday and trying to be positive and improve my life so for those not liking this, sorry to offend.
Here are some of the scriptures she sights. I took time to look at them in my own bible to make sure she wasn’t just pulling out random things from the bible and applying them to weight loss.
Ephesians 4:19 (New International Version) 19Having lost all sensitivity; they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
Have you ever sat down to a meal and ate so much you couldn’t move and hated yourself after wards. Then turned around and did it again at the next meal.
Our body has natural sensors that tell us when we are full, but sometimes we ignore them to the point that we eat so much so fast that by the time you get done eating you are way past the full mark.
This isn’t the first time I have read this either. It is cause our culture insists on teaching us from child hood, no matter how much is on your plate you need to eat it all.
If you don’t believe me try this experiment. Sit down and eat and put your spoon down between each bite and wait till you have chewed and swallowed what is in your mouth before you pick it up again. And while you chew take time and taste and pay attention to what is in your mouth. You may find it taking you a really long time to eat, but I guarantee you will be full before you actually finish half the food on your plate. If you keep eating ever though you are full, then you are overeating. One thing you may have to even remind yourself is hey, if I put this in the fridge it will be there when I come back and it will taste just as good. (Well if you made it yourself). I actually noticed one day when I went to Wendy’s that I was actually full after I ate my fries and still went ahead and ate the double bacon cheese burger and strawberry milkshake.
Mark 7:14-23 (New International Version) 14Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' "[a] 17After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18"Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.") 20He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' 21For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "
She talks about this in relation to people always saying what you should and should not eat. My mom being the seasoned dieter she it always tells me how many calories is in this and that, but if you look back in history before people knew what calories were people ate what they wanted. Yet today, Americans are bigger than ever even with all the diet food and the diet crazes and the rules an how to exercise.
Basically the author puts it like this, it isn’t the food that is making you fat, it is what you are doing with the food. How you are treating it. She said people who diet put food on a pedestal. They are so in love with it that is controls there whole life. If they stopped and just enjoyed the food and realized it will always be there and they can always have more and they stopped binge eating out of fear they can’t eat that food and just ate whatever they wanted, but only as much as there body asked for they would never have to worry a day in there life about being BIG. I am including this video because she goes through the church to teach people how to re-train themselves on how to eat. This is the result.
Not to mention, the teachings are practically free. I got the book at the library and it talks about everything. They even put the basics of the program online so you can watch the video and learn from it.
Just gotta be open minded.
1 Timothy 4:8 (New International Version) 8For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
Another thing she talks about is exercise and how people try to use exercise to make up for over eating. I use to do this in high school. I exercised for 2 hours a day to work off my junk food and my cheese burgers and my cookies. But, I got tired of living like that after so many years. That is when I began to gain weight and it never stopped. I remember watching my clothes get to smaller and the frustration. I couldn’t fight my eating habits and the more I did the more depressed and obsessed I got. On top of having watch dogs on my ass reminding me of every pound I was gaining. Eating junk before coming home from school so others wouldn’t find out. I have never imagined myself as a food hoarder or hider or a sneak and eat kind of a person but I was. When I got in college I lost my mind. Freedom!!
Colossians 2:16 (New International Version) 16Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink.”
Colossians 2:20-23 (New International Version) 20Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? 22These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
One of the interesting things in this book is that she said she learned how to eat herself by studying the habits of naturally thin people. You know the ones that eat anything they want but never gain weight. My mom use to complain at me that if I eat fruit and vegetables I will gain weight. In fact she still does.
Thin people don’t know why they are thin. In there mind they are doing nothing different from the rest of us. Heck in my mind I am doing nothing different from the average person my own self. One of the things pointed out in her observation was that people that are “naturally thin” generally tend to eat only the things they really enjoy and they never over do it. I remember I had some friends in school that could eat half a candy bar and put the rest away for another day.
It baffled the hell out of me. How can you just sit there and not eat that candy like that!! Candy would haunt me till I ate all of it. It is like an insecurity I have had programmed into me.
I thought everyone lived like this. But apparently there are people out there that don’t need to eat everything on there plate and they get satisfied. How does that happen?
Anyway, I am not saying this book has a miracle cure or anything, I am not saying this is the end of being over weight. I am not saying exercise is bad and that my whole world has transformed. I am just saying, I got a completely different perspective to look at weight loss for a change, is all. Many people struggle all there lives and want to find the answer. I won’t know how much of an answer I have found till I finish the book. I just wanted to share some interesting experiences with everyone today.
If you made it to the end of this GOD BLESS YOU. Thanks for reading my crazy ramblings. This was more like an essay than an book review. ~Arie
I got sick do to the weather change. I slept like 8 hours yesterday and now I am ready to go do it all over again.
Bobby Chiu says that when bad things happen it means something good will happen soon.
I sure hope so. I was so stopped up in my brain today I couldn't hold a pencil. I spent time working on my ashcan for the con instead.
If things go right I will be able to make around 30 of those I want to do a fold out color page inside as well with a tutorial and a pic of my original character Amber Rainstorm dressed as a Skydoll.
Good news. I got word today I will be getting my work into a book of black artists. That is pretty exciting. I was told the book will be in stores and what not. It should be good exposure. I will have to do more Tornado Alley and quiet storm stuff.
Speaking of Tornado alley one of the things in this new book will be lots of Mainasha art. I don't usually do that but I want to start showcasing more original stuff.
Anyway I hope this illness goes away fast. I hate being sick. Have a good day yall.
I have been running some experiments to see how my body will naturally work if I just let it do its thing and work around its short comings while I work on projects.
One of those things has to do with my sleep schedule. I was trying really hard to adjust it so I was working starting at like 6 - 7 am but I still couldn't seem to get to sleep at night so I would hit a low and pass out about 9 - 10 am. Not good. So the last few days I been going to bed when ready and getting up with no alarm and just making sure I work and accomplish daily goals somewhere in-between.
The other thing I was doing to myself was I would get annoyed when I got hungry, it was a distraction so I would ignore my stomach until I couldn't do it anymore. Not a good idea. My mom said she thought I was just dieting. Lol, little did she know.
So I want to start eating when I am hungry even if it is just a little here and there to get me some energy.
I’ve got to keep the body running efficiently. I got sick and I can't be letting that happen now can I?
