The bathroom scale has confirmed something that I haven’t experienced since I was 12 or 13 years old. I am within “Healthy Weight Range” now!

 

I’ve been consistently at 149 for the past three weeks, so I decided that this has become my baseline for now. So, I googled BMI Scale to see how close I am these days to what is considered (in the medical world) to be  “within the normal weight range” for someone my height (5’6″, down from 5’7″ when I was young).

 

It turns out I’m within the “Healthy Weight” category for the first time since I was a teenager!!!

 

Not by much — only by about four pounds.  So, I could lose another 24 to 26 pounds before I’d enter the “underweight”/less healthy category.

 

But still! 

This is a major, massive milestone for me. I’m thrilled to pieces!

 

I read that people who move to Costa Rica Usually Lose Weight

 

From the moment I arrived, I understood why. The food choices are better (when you stick to the tico diet) because there are fewer preservatives and dyes; the food is healthier, tastier (more real), free of addictive ingredients,and therefore more nourishing and satisfying, so there’s no compulsion to eat more than is actually needed.

 

The ambiance here is far less stressful.

 

People are more patient, kinder and laid-back, so you never feel rushed or pressured to do more, be somewhere else, or in some other way “measure up” to high-velocity living. So, comfort food isn’t on my shopping list much anymore.  The small bit that does get brought home (peanut butter, cookies, ice cream) gets consumed far less frequently. What I might have eaten in two sittings now gets eaten in four to six sittings, because the quality is so good and there are no addictive ingredients in them.

 

So, slowly — over six months’ time — my girth has shrunk.  I was wearing size 34 jeans when I moved here. I’m down to size 32, and could wear 30’s if the pants legs weren’t so snug at the calf!  So I wear a belt even on the 32s to hold my pants up where they belong.

 

My calves aren’t at all swollen

 

I’ve just been walking (and climbing!) so often that they’re well developed, probably the strongest part of my physical anatomy! I can walk circles around most of the people I’ve been walking with. (At age 75!) I’m super sound of wind and limb.  Haven’t felt this good in a long, long time!

 

But just to witness what has always been “stubborn weight” coming off me (slowly but surely, at a healthy rate) has really surprised and thrilled me.  I didn’t think that, with my sluggish metabolism, I would ever see 185 again, let alone 145!

 

I’m loving it!  It’s stinkin’ awesome!

 

In Other News…

 

It looks like I’m going to be editing yet another children’s book soon (my 20th or more).

 

I’ve been referring people who want me to write or edit for them to my niece, Sirkka Smith,  who I put through her editing paces to make sure she’ll do as good or better work than I ever did before I felt confident enough to recommend her as my successor. But some of the people who have used me before, or who have become good friends and have read my books and blog posts, simply insist that they don’t want anyone BUT me doing their writing or editing work.

 

Some have said they just feel too unsure or insecure to switch. They are worried sick about losing their treasured manuscripts to (potentially) unscrupulous or less experienced providers.

 

I get that, and I honor it.

 

Case in Point

 

Right now, Sonia Morales — Gilberto Alex Morales’ spouse — in Puerto Rico wants me to edit her English language children’s book and help her publish it via KDP. And she wants me to find an illustrator who can improve the  illustrations that she has created for the book. (That would be Lisa Twining, hands down!)

 

I referred her to Sirkka, but Gilberto all but insisted that I help Sonia if I’m amenable and available.  I have been Facebook friends with the Morales Dynamic Duo for a great many years; he and she have read several of my books and follow my blog, and they know and love me.

 

So, I asked her to send me the manuscript and the illos she currently has when she’s certain she has already made them the best they possibly can be from her end, and I will look them over and let her know if, in my professional opinion, they need just minor tweaking or a more extensive overhaul. She is finishing up the final story — there are five or six in the manuscript — and will send me them soon.

 

*sigh* 

It’s GREAT to Feel SO WANTED!!! 

 

I guess I got my feelings more than hurt when AI came along a few years ago and kicked the stool out from under my copy and content writing business. Not only did I suddenly feel “un-needed” even by long-time, deliriously happy clients who were helping keep the roof over my head and the food in my fridge; I also felt they were shooting themselves in the foot (especially the folks who needed sales copy, since AI is so ridiculously far from a professional persuader!). Which made me mad.  (“If it ain’t broke, why fix it?”)

 

Imagined responses: (“Because I can get stuff done for free instead of paying you!”)

 

(“Stuff that is only good enough for lining the bottom of birdcages!”)

 

So, I just kinda quit the business.  If that’s what they thought of my decades’-long pursuit of drop dead great writing, I wasn’t going to suddenly go on a crusade to convince them that they were making a big mistake.  Let ’em find out the hard way (by going out of business.) I was DONE. (Yeah, that was my pissed-ness acting up!)

 

Getting work before AI was hard enough. After that, it became nearly impossible.

 

But… When You Know, You Know!

 

The people who come to me now know that AI isn’t human enough to create content that people actually WANT TO  go out of their way to read.

 

They know that the human touch is what it takes to touch another human.

 

So, occasionally, I will get another request to edit a book, a short story, or something else from a friend, or the friend of a friend. Sirkka needs the income more than I do — she has a son who’s in college, she’s a single mom, and she’s a consummate editor and illustrator  — but a little extra income will be a good thing for me, too.

 

So, I’ll do the work when someone insists, when someone cannot even imagine anyone else they want doing it more.

 

Loyalty like that feels good.  It feels great.

I feel honored. Trusted. Relied on.

It doesn’t get much better than that, you know???

 

Thank you for insisting, Sonia and Gilberto.  You’ve made my day. My week. My month.  I look forward to giving you all I’ve still got going in my brain as an editor and connector.

 

Let’s do this!