Hi everyone! I want to introduce you to my new “Finding Fritzie” series of posts. I have been on a journey of positive change this year and I thought it would be fun to share what I have learned so far.  This will run the gamut, everything from my weight loss journey (I’ve lost over 50 pounds so far, yay!), getting rid of clutter (yes, I have a LOT), how to shop for healthy foods on a budget (and I have a VERY limited budget) and about learning new things in general.  This new “Finding Fritzie” series will be about anything that falls in the category of learning new things, anything that helps me learn and grow along the way, which covers a whole heck of a lot. I feel like any new knowledge I gain will only help me discover myself, my “whole” self and I thought it would be fun to share the tips I learn with all of you along the way!

A Little Bit about My Journey So Far…

I have a confession to make. I’ve been pretty lousy when it comes to dealing with my feelings, in fact, I would say I pretty much sucked at it for a really long time.  I have always been a “Stuffer”. When problems and issues popped up in my life, I just neatly stuffed them all away in my “mental closet” to deal with later. The thing about that closet though, is that much like my weight and the clutter in my life, it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger until it was just bursting to capacity.  As I struggled over the last few years with various issues  (including losing loved ones, dealing with the Joplin Tornado and it’s aftermath, financial struggles, etc), I continued to stuff all those emotions away in that closet. My health spiraled downward, my weight ballooned to an all-time high and  so did the stress in my life. I just kept getting more & more depressed, but something inside of me finally said “Enough”.   I came to a realization that I was worth more and that I was fully capable of making positive changes in my life.  And I was long overdue to do so. It was time.  It was time to stop selling myself short, it was time to find myself, it was time to start allowing good things to come into my life, it was time to give myself more time. Time to heal, time to grow, time to be a better person, time to get more out of life. It was just TIME!

Since I set about making positive changes in my life earlier this year, it’s been so very empowering as I make strides in my life. It’s amazing, even after a few short months, I am so much happier than when I first started this journey. I’ve always been a bit on the shy side, I’ve never really shared a whole heck of a lot and I thought this would be a great way to open up the conversation a little bit. There’s lots of different things I’d like to tackle, but have been afraid too, but now I’m open to them. It may be something as simple as how to pick out an eggplant at the grocery store or it may be tackling much bigger issues. That’s the great thing about this journey that I am on, there is no particular destination. The focus is on the journey itself. So, please, come join me. And if there’s something you like to share or something new you’d like to learn, feel free to leave a comment, I’m happy to tackle just about any topic. And by the way, I just want to take a moment to thank my readers. Some days can just flat out be a struggle and inevitably on one of those really tough days, I will get an email or a message from a reader letting me know how much they appreciate my site. I can’t tell you how much that means to me except simply, that it means that world to me. I love you all and it is my hope that my new “Finding Fritzie” posts will be helpful to some of you as well.

Anyway, stay tuned for my Finding Fritzie posts, where I detail my successes and my mishaps along my journey to become a more complete person and to live a better, happier life!