Saturday, October 3, 2009

Weigh Down Work Shop



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.



It just seemed so dramatic to watch this. I know this woman may seem corny some, but think of it like this. Have you ever heard some of those cliché sayings like .

Vincent Van Gogh: Inspirational Quotes on Greatness
Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

It is like, we all know this, how cliché, but then if you apply it to your life all these crazy good things happen to you. Many people dismiss things cause of the box they are presented in but when I saw this video I was floored. I can’t say I have never seen any diet clinic do this. In fact I read a book on Weight Watchers once, and it talked about how most of those people that loose weight with them gain it back as soon as they leave the program.

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





Friday, October 2, 2009

Why are thin people not fat?


I am putting these here cause I plan to watch them later.














Got sick!!

Convention sketch from Mo-Kan Comics Conspiracy


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.

God Bless
~Arie

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Running Experiments


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?

~Arie

Set me on FIRE!!!





“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on FIRE!” ~Arnold H. Glasow

Heard this on the Chui stream last night.

I am trying to set myself a blaze! I have to be successful. I am thinking of signing up for Stephen silvers class on Self publishing. It is $40 but I think it will be worth every second cause I want to start really getting into book publishing and stuff; learning more about it. I wish it was on DVD! I hate the idea I have to watch it on the school ism site and I can’t like just buy it and own it for myself.

I did another Chiu Stream tonight. I drew a Fat Drooling Zombie; inspired by going to see Zombie Land. IT WAS BAD ASSS! I really enjoyed it. What a fun movie. I got free tickets at the comic shop and though it was for 2 people I went alone because I couldn’t find anyone at the last minute to go. I took the day off because I had been staying up till like 4 every morning for like the last 4 days and not really sleeping the way I should for the last week. Tomorrow I will be back on the grind.

Funny thing; Someone walks up to me today when I was in Family Dollar getting tissue for my nose where I caught a cold, and told me I looked so sad and asked what they could do to make me feel better.

Sometimes I get really intense in thought and I think my face just goes blank and people mistake it for sadness. I have had that happen before. I just get in this zone thinking about everything I want to do and it really causes me to blank out. People will stop me and ask me what I am thinking about or why I look so sad.

I guess when you lead a very solitary life where you don’t interact with a lot of people you have habits that you develop that you are unaware of. Unfortunately that can sometimes be the life of an artist. Hours at the easel working, but not talking to people or leaving your house. No wonder people think artists are weird.

Hope you guys are inspired today.


God Bless

~Arie


Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Are You Passionate?


I have been questioning myself about what I am passionate about these days. How much do I really love art? Even more importantly how much of myself am I really putting into my work? Am I striving to be the best or am I striving to communicate who I am with my art? Which one is most important? Are the both important?

Ask yourself today, what do you spend most of your time doing and do you really love it or are you just trying to make it through another day. They say passion in your work is what truly opens doors. Are you passionate?

“If you are called to be a street sweeper, sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” ~ Martin Luther King

“I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.” ~ Martin Luther King

Monday, September 28, 2009

Love Supreme and Rudy Gutierrez


Punching out the demons in my mind.


I needed some motivation to really pull me into drawing today.

It is a strange problem I have and something I have discovered a pattern in within myself. I don my best work when I stay open minded about being myself and just let it flow out of me.

It is more like god has his hand on the pencil pushing it around more so than me. I say this cause when I really try to force things to be what they want they never turn out as I think they will.

Good example, the recent wonder woman drawing I did was actually a crappy quick sketch in my mind. I didn’t think about it to much. I pulled up some reference and kind of worked with no real idea in mind of anatomy or how it should look technically.

I thought it was a bad drawing honestly and people enjoyed it.

The same thing happened with a project I am doing with a friend.

The harder I thought about it and the more frustrating I found it to actually start drawing. Not only that I kept having this thought in my head this is going to be the best drawing I have ever done and honestly it was killing the art work.

I sent him some sketches a few days ago and he said his wife loved them and I think I suddenly realized they just want something that I could create not the most amazing beautiful crazy good thing I could do but I think what I interpreted was just art work in my style, what ever came out on the theme at hand.

So I put on some Sidebar http://www.sidebarnation.com/my_weblog/ because it is a great motivation for me. I love listening to the artists talk about there work and experience in the industry. I adjusted my attitude and I actually prayed a bit over this artwork that t would just come out of me. I sat quietly and asked God to take the burden away and just let me create and I have to say I actually liked 3 out of the 5 illustrations. I think it is the best stuff I have created in a very long while.

I am not saying it was effortless by any means. I worked some long hours today. But I actually had to come to terms with the art and let it be what it was. It was slow getting started but it slowly eased out. And I thought man I wish I felt like this when I created all my art.

I wished I felt like myself.

Sometimes I just so tied up with wanting the end product to look got that honestly it looks nothing like I would have wanted and I wish I could do better. Or do it all again. I even find myself just not having fun.

I compare it to other people’s work I want it to look like theirs. You want to know the biggest hang up of working on my own comic; it is not knowing what it will look like. Will it be great, beautiful, and professional enough? I talk myself out of even beginning to write it.

So while I was listening to side bar I come upon the interview with Rudy Gutierrez. http://www.sidebarnation.com/my_weblog/2009/08/rudy-gutierrez.html

I never felt so uplifted artistically. He talked a lot about how when you stay true to yourself I your work you never ever find yourself walking down the wrong path. In fact you find things happening to you that may have otherwise never happened. If seems following his own artistic path had never steered him wrong. When he worked for other people though and did what they wanted and expected he found himself in odd circumstances. You just have to listen to it honestly. It was inspirational. I learned amazing lessons this evening.

Then they started talking about John Coltrane and they mentioned love supreme. I have not listened to much jazz though I like it. I am thinking Love Supreme; this must be some ode to sex or something. God was I wrong!! I had a spiritual experience I am not kidding you. It was indescribable. I can’t put it into words.

I got up I tunes to see if I could find maybe a few podcasts with his songs on it and I found one where they talked about Love supreme and the psalms that were included in it how his music had lyrics and the saxophone played the words. And man my whole body shook. I felt vibrations run up my spine. It was like seeing into something infinite. He sang all Praises to God with his saxophone. I can’t even describe it with out it sounding weird.

Many people think I am crazy as it is. I will have to do some posts on some of my other past spiritual experiences. I often wonder if other people have experienced things like this. Everything from seeing demons to …. I will just have to touch on that later.

I feel like I knocked down a wall today, or at least chipped away at it a bit. I hope to chip away at it more.

~Arie

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Went out last night


I went out and did some dancing with friends last night. Hung out with one of my friend from the African dance troop. She is like in her mid 40s but has the body of a 18 year old. I always think it is crazy to hang with her cause it reminds me that no matter what age you should take care of yourself.

Very motivating.

It is crazy though. We were at a club called lucky strike and all the people there looked like they were like 15. I know they were 21 and all but I just kept thinking to myself and I saw all these girls in tight mini skirts and little short dresses and stripper heels.

I don't remember me or any of my friends dressing like that when we were 21. I think I was one of few that weren't showing any skin.

~Arie

Arie's Sketch Dump