#anishnaabek love

[kitkat-pattywhack]

Just a cute, shiny little first anniversary present from my beloved. 🕳🥰

[thepenpalhub]

Searching for a Pen Pal!!

Hello!!

I'm Marah, and I am a sixteen year old girl from Ontario, Canada. With all this coronavirus stuff going on right now, I have been craving social interaction... 

Here is a bit about me, but make sure to let me know some of the things you are interested in, because I love hearing about others...

I am Native American and belong to the Anishnaabek people. I am bilingual, probably better in written French than in written English so sorry in advance.

One of my favourite things in the whole world is music. I JUST LOVE IT SO MUCH. I am so here for all those cool little alternative bands, and I really like every genre except opera.

I also am really into art, such as abstract drawing, painting, and dancing. One of my favourite things is exchanging art, or little sketches. I also enjoy jamming out on my ukelele. My singing is horrendous, but my shampoo bottles beg to differ, so take what you will.

I love cracking dad jokes and hearing funny stories, so if that isn't your cup of tea, I recommend scrolling lol.

As for shows, I really love Shameless, Grey's, You, How I met your mother, Gilmore Girls, The office, and just those typical shows that everyone likes. I also really enjoy those shows that netflix keeps putting out with like only one season (When They See Us, Unbelievable, Ted Bundy tapes, etc). This may make me sound a little insane, but I am super into like those crime shows or youtube videos about cults like the FLDS, Jonestown, as well as like serial killers because it just like fascinates me, like the psychology behind it all.

Wow thats kind of ending on a dark note but WHATEVER

Anyways sorry for that long read, but I am really excited to find a place where I can finally find a pen pal (fingers crossed)

Email : Laforgem@csviamonde.net

Insta: marahh.l

Snap: Marahlaforge67

Have a great day!!

Marah

[korralifts]

Alrighty, I’m going to do a little ‘About Me’ blurb huge ass ‘About Me’ as promised, including where I’m at in life, my fitness stuffs and any other fun information I think might be relevant or interesting. I’ll probably stick it on a page on my blog when it’s done, but this will be my official post. 

Well, my name is Janessa, I am 23 and I’m Canadian. I’m from Ontario originally but I moved west to Alberta a year or so ago to be with my boyfriend. My boyfriend is super cool and we’ve been together for a little over two years. He’s Punjabi and we met while he was studying at the college in my University town. He’s working on the immigration process and hopefully once that is done we’ll have a great big giant Indian wedding and it’ll be super fun. 

I have a Bachelors in Indigenous Studies, but currently I’m working as a school bus driver. I hope to get into something in my field in the next few years once the economy goes back up but for now I like my current job. My eventual goal is to be a midwife, although I am a trained doula right now.

 I’m part Anishnaabek (Ojibwe) so I do a lot of birth work through Indigenous traditions. I’m also Scottish and very proud of that heritage as well and I have a huge thigh piece tattoo of our Scottish Clan crest and motto. 

I am a huge tattoo addict and currently have six tattoos and would have more if I could afford it. I also am kind of a writer, I say kind of because I have been my whole life but lately work and adult life has kind of bogged down the creative spirit. I had one poem published while I was in University but I prefer short stories and perhaps one day a novel. 

I suffer from mental illness. I have Anxiety Disorder as well as Depression. Depression is periodical and I am considered “recovered” from my most recent episode. My anxiety however is chronic and unfortunately I am not currently medicated for it as I don’t make enough to pay for the medication and my job doesn’t have benefits. I do prefer life on my medication but at the moment that isn’t an option (side note: In Ontario we had coverage for low income people for mental health medication but Alberta does not cover ANYTHING and is very much like the USA when it comes to this stuff).

I’ve always been a bit “bigger” and tended towards junk food and I found comfort from high school bullying in food. I was diagnosed with EDNOS in high school, around the same time I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression (about 15 years old) but towards the end of high school I had figured out my own healthy eating plan, and although I didn’t go to the gym I took long walks, biked and did archery. Here is me the night of my high school graduation. I was about 160 pounds and my happiest and healthiest.

After high school and during University I went through a lot of issues with an abusive relationship, trying weed for the first time, drinking for the first time, both of which became regular habits for a period of time and I also smoked cigarettes for about 4 years starting at 17 years old. By the time I was 20 I was single, had kicked most of my bad habits, although I hadn’t totally quit smoking yet, but I had put on about 20 pounds. I committed myself to going to the gym and eating better and I took a job as a nanny on an organic farm where I got a ton of vegetables and fruits for free. I also started shopping at the local farmers market and it changed my body a lot for the better.

After meeting my partner when I was 21 and finding out that 3 months later he would be moving to Alberta a lot began to change. I started to falter and after he moved I was really alone where I was living. Most of my friends had moved away and so 5 months later I packed two suitcases and bought a one way ticket to Alberta. I had no job, and no money and for the first 10 months I lived off Maggi Instant Noodles and aloo parathas (basically potatoes stuffed in bread) and not much else. I went from 185 pounds to 235, a massive weight gain in only a short period of time. I kept saying that I was going to go to the gym and that when we had more money I would eat better, but when we had a bit more money I fell back into depression and continued to eat and I spent most of my time sleeping or laying in bed crying. In the summer of 2016 I would try to motivate myself by convincing my boyfriend to go hiking with me. Calgary is right between the Badlands and the Rocky Mountains so there are so many beautiful spots. But between work and our crappy car, we only made it out four or five times all summer.

The picture above is probably my most recent body shot, from a hike we took in the Badlands back in September 2016 and below is a shot from a wedding we attended a month before. 

I had always thought the first time I got to wear a saree I would look beautiful and graceful, but instead I just hated the photos taken of me. My only saving grace in this photo, my biggest motivator, is that look on my boyfriends face. He’s never stopped loving me or telling me I was beautiful. Looking at this photo actually makes me tear up because although I’m doing this for myself, I’m also doing it for him. Because even though I know he’ll love me whether I weigh 160 pounds or 300 pounds, he wants a girlfriend, and eventually a wife who is healthy, who isn’t going to suffer from a heart attack at 40 because she used food as comfort, who is going to be able to teach our kids to have a healthy relationship with food and with activity. 

For the longest time I didn’t care, I just figured it’s my body, the doctor says everything is pretty healthy considering my weight, so who cares if I eat an entire bag of chips after a bad anxiety attack? But he does, and I really should. I love to cook healthy full meals for him, and yet half the time I grab McDonald’s on the way home to cook him dinner, how does that make sense?

And I want this journey to be so much more than losing weight. I’m at a really confusing point in my life, I mean being 23 is hard. This whole thing is about discovering who I am and what works for me, both in life and in weight loss. So I’m here, I’m ready, I’d love to be friends with all of you and I’m ready to do this. 

[korralifts]

Alrighty, I’m going to do a little ‘About Me’ blurb huge ass ‘About Me’ as promised, including where I’m at in life, my fitness stuffs and any other fun information I think might be relevant or interesting. I’ll probably stick it on a page on my blog when it’s done, but this will be my official post.

Well, my name is Janessa, I am 23 and I’m Canadian. I’m from Ontario originally but I moved west to Alberta a year or so ago to be with my boyfriend. My boyfriend is super cool and we’ve been together for a little over two years. He’s Punjabi and we met while he was studying at the college in my University town. He’s working on the immigration process and hopefully once that is done we’ll have a great big giant Indian wedding and it’ll be super fun.

I have a Bachelors in Indigenous Studies, but currently I’m working as a school bus driver. I hope to get into something in my field in the next few years once the economy goes back up but for now I like my current job. My eventual goal is to be a midwife, although I am a trained doula right now.

I’m part Anishnaabek (Ojibwe) so I do a lot of birth work through Indigenous traditions. I’m also Scottish and very proud of that heritage as well and I have a huge thigh piece tattoo of our Scottish Clan crest and motto.

I am a huge tattoo addict and currently have six tattoos and would have more if I could afford it. I also am kind of a writer, I say kind of because I have been my whole life but lately work and adult life has kind of bogged down the creative spirit. I had one poem published while I was in University but I prefer short stories and perhaps one day a novel.

I suffer from mental illness. I have Anxiety Disorder as well as Depression. Depression is periodical and I am considered “recovered” from my most recent episode. My anxiety however is chronic and unfortunately I am not currently medicated for it as I don’t make enough to pay for the medication and my job doesn’t have benefits. I do prefer life on my medication but at the moment that isn’t an option (side note: In Ontario we had coverage for low income people for mental health medication but Alberta does not cover ANYTHING and is very much like the USA when it comes to this stuff).

I’ve always been a bit “bigger” and tended towards junk food and I found comfort from high school bullying in food. I was diagnosed with EDNOS in high school, around the same time I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression (about 15 years old) but towards the end of high school I had figured out my own healthy eating plan, and although I didn’t go to the gym I took long walks, biked and did archery. By highschool graduation I was about 160 pounds and my happiest and healthiest.

After high school and during University I went through a lot of issues with an abusive relationship, trying weed for the first time, drinking for the first time, both of which became regular habits for a period of time and I also smoked cigarettes for about 4 years starting at 17 years old. By the time I was 20 I was single, had kicked most of my bad habits, although I hadn’t totally quit smoking yet, but I had put on about 20 pounds. I committed myself to going to the gym and eating better and I took a job as a nanny on an organic farm where I got a ton of vegetables and fruits for free. I also started shopping at the local farmers market and it changed my body a lot for the better.

After meeting my partner when I was 21 and finding out that 3 months later he would be moving to Alberta a lot began to change. I started to falter and after he moved I was really alone where I was living. Most of my friends had moved away and so 5 months later I packed two suitcases and bought a one way ticket to Alberta. I had no job, and no money and for the first 10 months I lived off Maggi Instant Noodles and aloo parathas (basically potatoes stuffed in bread) and not much else. I went from 185 pounds to 235, a massive weight gain in only a short period of time. I kept saying that I was going to go to the gym and that when we had more money I would eat better, but when we had a bit more money I fell back into depression and continued to eat and I spent most of my time sleeping or laying in bed crying. In the summer of 2016 I would try to motivate myself by convincing my boyfriend to go hiking with me. Calgary is right between the Badlands and the Rocky Mountains so there are so many beautiful spots. But between work and our crappy car, we only made it out four or five times all summer.

I had always thought the first time I got to wear a saree I would look beautiful and graceful, but instead I just hated the photos taken of me. My only saving grace in this photo, my biggest motivator, is that look on my boyfriends face. He’s never stopped loving me or telling me I was beautiful. Looking at this photo actually makes me tear up because although I’m doing this for myself, I’m also doing it for him. Because even though I know he’ll love me whether I weigh 160 pounds or 300 pounds, he wants a girlfriend, and eventually a wife who is healthy, who isn’t going to suffer from a heart attack at 40 because she used food as comfort, who is going to be able to teach our kids to have a healthy relationship with food and with activity.

For the longest time I didn’t care, I just figured it’s my body, the doctor says everything is pretty healthy considering my weight, so who cares if I eat an entire bag of chips after a bad anxiety attack? But he does, and I really should. I love to cook healthy full meals for him, and yet half the time I grab McDonald’s on the way home to cook him dinner, how does that make sense?

And I want this journey to be so much more than losing weight. I’m at a really confusing point in my life, I mean being 23 is hard. This whole thing is about discovering who I am and what works for me, both in life and in weight loss. So I’m here, I’m ready, I’d love to be friends with all of you and I’m ready to do this.