Sometime back in the depths of quarantine, after a couple months of bread baking, stagnancy and potentially having COVID it dawned on me that we might not be getting back to “normal” anytime soon.
My clothes weren’t fitting, I hated my body and my skin looked chalky. These are the warning signs that I’m slipping into depression and quarantine fatness. I knew I needed to take charge of my diet and my exercise before the gyms opened because if I held my breath for that to happen, I’d be 400 lbs.
It started with my biological sisters. We called it “Something is Better Than Nothing” and we would get together for zoom workouts where we would share a YouTube video and all follow along. But one by one (I have three sisters) everyone stopped joining the workouts and decided to do their own thing.
Wanting to continue the workouts—I reached out to the community we have here at Phetasy to see if anyone had any interest. In a hat tip to preparing for the apocalypse, I titled them #SarahConnor workouts and was surprised by how many women were up for it. Not only were they up for it—they were consistently up for it—and that forced me to show up for the appointment even on days I had no desire to do so.
Well it’s been about four months since we started and I’m down 20 lbs (my goal for 2020!) and I feel great in my clothes and sexy in my skin and more importantly, I have a whole new set of sisters. We’ve seen each other through grief and loss and unrest and fear and honestly, these women have kept me sane during an increasingly chaotic time. They’ve kept me motivated. We’ve been there for each other when we were struggling. It’s been beautiful to see and be a part of such a warm group of women who genuinely care about each other.
Thank you to my #SarahConnor sisters. You’ve truly saved me. And if you’re a woman out there feeling adrift or lost or scared or unsure what to do or where to start, find a community and hang on. Or join ours!
All we can do is focus on what we can control. Our immediate relationships. Our diet. Our exercise. Our media diets. Our behavior. And making sure that our ass looks as tight as possible for the forthcoming apocalypse.
The time has come, Pham!! It’s officially the end of our Locals era. This means that starting now, all of our content will be centralized over at Substack and not Locals.
As you can probably see, my life is getting increasingly more bonkers, in the best possible way--but that means dividing my time between two subscriber platforms is no longer sustainable. Consolidating all of the Pham in one place will make it possible to give you more of the focused attention you deserve.
Don’t panic.
Locals is where it all began so the move is bittersweet. I have made lifelong friends here. We’ve done writing prompts together. Worked ...
Hello new followers, I hope I don’t disappoint you. I want this place to feel like home, where we can escape the Thunderdome and process the world. Where we can post dog pics and recipes and book recommendations. Where we support each other as we get sober, lose weight, embark on new business opportunities, creative endeavors, relationships and travels. I want this to be your oasis of sanity and laughter in an increasingly mad world. A creative outlet where you can share your spirit with us.
We might not have any control over the news cycle—but we can control our habits and attitude. It all starts with us. And hopefully a little piece of that will start here.
Pham, I know it’s late for some of us, but I haven’t had a song in my brain in a bit. So, here’s one of my favorite poems instead.
Poem of the Evening💙
“Come live with me and be my love.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44675/the-passionate-shepherd-to-his-love
(Sorry for the delay on this prompt—life happened.)
The writing prompts are back! And since everyone is talking about "what is a woman?" I thought we should dig into our Factory Settings and find out what we learned about this stuff.
