Tammy

Tammy describes herself as Strong willed, honest, kind, adventurous, loyal. She is a mother of five and a grandmother of three, and of those eight people she writes, These 8 people are my whole world! She lives in a small Midwestern town with her two younger daughters and a son home from college. She was divorced in early 2020, and soon after was laid off from the front desk of a community fitness center where she had worked for twelve years. That had a huge effect on my mental and physical health. Travel is her passion, great mental health, and she scrapbooks with her girlfriends. She has recently started dating again.

She sent her timeline as a picture, then named three defining moments in words. She became a mother at nineteen, single: I would change how old I was when I had her / and the situation surrounding it but I would never change who [her daughter] is today! Marriage took her to a small town and lasted twenty-five years: Time just grew us apart and we ended in divorce but I wouldn't change that time in life ever. And her job gave her confidence in myself as a person, friend, co-worker, and boss. There she also learned to love the body I was in!

Her food words are Inconsistent Grazer Food Junkie Good Intentions Trend Follower. She calls herself the typical emotional eater, caught in a loop she describes exactly: stress, sweets and chips, guilt, a burst of effort, then I want immediate results and when I don't get those I can easily fall off the wagon. She eats by mood: when I am sad comfort foods (pizza), when I am feeling chubby (vegetables and chicken), when I am mad (usually no food). Shopping is her most dreaded chore: What alot of work to pay WAY to much money and in less than 3 days here your children say there is nothing to eat! A vegan menu does not tempt her: I would starve if I had to give up meat, eggs and cheese. One reading is that her struggle is less about knowing than about company: at work she was surrounded by people who encouraged Good choices, and the layoff took that away.

Home holds its own weight. Her youngest daughter has an emotional behavior disorder and can bring LOTS of extra stress into our home. Depression and anxiety mean that on some days I have to work really hard to get out of bed. She can feel their is a black cloud that follows me wherever I go most days! and still tries to make lemonade from the lemons I am given.

The challenge she overcame was the divorce, scary, empowering and very challenging all at the same time, and she kept the house so little changed for her children. Her superpower: Organization / Stubbornness / Can do attitude / I truly can only fail when I don't try! Under stress she may curl in a blanket and ask WHY ME? But then I remember I am strong and can get thru anything I put my heart into! Her 2 a.m. person is her best friend, my pizza eating, wine drinking, nonjudgmental friend every girl needs!

On Day 5 she wishes she loved vegetables and water as much as junk food and soda. Her need is CONSISTANCY, and help would be money and An accountability partner. Her letter is ten words long: Just a reminder life is short! Dance in the rain.