New year off to an educational start

Besides ringing in the new year, I also welcomed my parents back to the family homestead (my mom was volunteering as a park host for over eight months). I thought I was gonna adjust to having them back easily, but I was surprised to find myself doing a lot of changing on my end to factor in their return. One of those things was how we handle personal things.

For my mom and I, we struggle with weight. We both need to lose about the same amount (~20 pounds) and need to do it for pain management (knees and hips for my mom, sciatica and heel issues for me). I found myself struggling to understand why my mom kept badmouthing herself about her weight gain (she lost it only to regain it) and it hurt to see her do it to herself. Even though she does have healthy self-esteem and isn't delusional (she knows she will never have her former teenage weight again, etc.), it still had a weird effect on me. It wasn't a case of "I'm tired of hearing it", despite what y'all might think. After talking about it, along with dealing with some pain issues I had earlier today, we agreed that we need to ease off the negative talk. Weight and food issues are touchy subjects, even between a mother and daughter who are close.

We're gonna goof and likely talk about all this again, but I have hope for my mom and I. We watch what we eat (portion control and cooking simple quality meals), exercise, and drink lots of water. And now since we know our sensitivities to these topics, we can have mature conversations, encourage each other, and lose the weight.

I agree, random manatee!

As for other things to learn about, my mom bought this thing a while back. She calls it the "ant machine" due to the sensation. She swears by it, saying it helped her with her pain issues, as with my dad's. She helped me with using it earlier today. I never tried anything like this, and man, it really makes a difference. I'll invest in one when I move out.

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So there ya go. Two days into 2014 and I learned stuff. Good, quality, important life stuff.

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*memes do not belong to me*