Amy Hanley, Santa Cruz California
Amy Hanley is a 44 year-old wife, mother of three and (gasp!) soon to be a grandmother. She lives near beautiful Santa Cruz, CA and works as a Marketing & Communications Director for a small firm. When her three teenage and young adult children are ignoring her or making her crazy she loves to take long walks on the beach or in the redwoods with her schnoodle Jackson. She is also attempting to reverse her life-long loathing of running and turn her non-runners body into some version of a runner. She will be running her first five-mile race in May.
Both food and retail therapy have been coping mechanisms to life’s big and small challenges for Amy. In 2009, Amy made some significant improvements in her eating and lost 25 pounds and has been supplementing her wardrobe with the rationale “But nothing fits….” This was a long-standing rationale that also worked when the scale was increasing, along with, “it was on sale” and “you can never have too many black shirts” or “I can always return it.” When her husband saw an article about the Great American Apparel Diet, he suggested she consider the idea. After five minutes of laughing in his face at the craziness of the idea, she gave it a moment of consideration, and then another. When her husband promised to go to the gym three days a week while she restricted her clothing purchases, Amy decided she had to give the diet a try.
Amy’s goals for the next nine months begin with “I want to stop spending money I don’t have on clothes that I don’t really need to give me a fleeting sense of satisfaction.” She also notes that she would like to stop “focusing on other people’s opinion of my appearance and become more secure in who I am on the inside.” Amy wants to better understand a “want” versus a “need” and stop impulsive and emotion-based shopping patterns. Lastly, Amy hopes to “stop wasting time purchasing and returning and “virtual” window shopping online (without actually purchasing anything). I think this will free up 'brain space' and physical time for more productive thoughts and activities.”
Even though Amy is jumping on board so many months after many in the group, she knows she will benefit from the knowledge, experiences and wisdom of those that have gone before her. Amy has decided that it will be easier to go cold turkey and not confuse the situation by allowing purchases of shoes and accessories. However, she will be allowing herself accessory and shoe purchases on a trip to Italy in June.
Posts by Amy
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