A very wise friend once said, “You can never be too rich…or too 29!”.

As, I’m about to turn 29…again, 🙂 I can’t help but think back to a time, many years before the 1st 29…when my life was so far from what it is today and I deeply feared that things might not “turn out” – I might never find a fulfilling career, find my soulmate or even really matter in the world (I’ve always had a huge desire to feel needed). I refer to that time, almost exactly 15 years ago as my “pre-mature mid-life crisis”. My birthday was coming up. All of my friends from my small town were already married with children. I wasn’t…I moved across the country far from my family and I hadn’t found my career. I was “searching” – heck, at the time, I would have settled for the right job, forget career. I was (unbeknownst to me at the time) at the very end of my weight/body image struggles, but, at the same time, really battling my head (I had lost my weight; my head just hadn’t caught up). I remember kayaking with my friend Helene who mentioned that one of her friend’s who wasn’t even a chef randomly got a job as Quentin Tarantino’s private chef. It was back in the days where Tarantino was one of the hottest new directors. I remember thinking, “Really? She’s not even a chef?”…and being so frustrated knowing that I could be a great employee to the right person…who likely really needed me.

15 years later, I look back on those days and realize how lucky I was to be discontent. It pushed me to figure out my dream…and go after it. And it worked. Today, I feel so beyond blessed to be confident that I will not gain my weight back…and to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I can help others. I feel lucky to realize that, although it’s important to be healthy and make clean choices more often than not, life also isn’t life if every meal is a sentence to eat a salad..or a plain chicken breast. It’s NOT about being a size 0. I feel blessed to receive letters and emails from YOU telling me that you liked a recipe or something I wrote helped you get to the gym…or into the kitchen…or that it helped you get out of your own way and finally lose the weight you’ve been holding onto. And I’m insanely tickled every time I see that one of you asked their friends to “like” me or follow me if they need help.

Yes, I still have challenges like every other human…more at times than others too. But I wanted to point this out so that anyone out there who is struggling who thinks I look like I must always have been in shape or must have always known what I wanted to do might be inspired here. Because I wasn’t. And I didn’t. In fact, I questioned whether I ever would…and that belief went on for what felt like forever! Every day is gift. Every birthday is a milestone. Today, I choose to “be” 29…and to read my dream every morning with the belief that if I know, intimately, what my dream is, I’m a heck of a lot more likely to be close to it.

Are you struggling? Have you ever put your dream to paper? Do you use it to inspire you every day? If not, maybe it’s time to let go (of obstacles, excuses, weight or whatever it is that’s holding you back) and write it down? You might just look forward to your birthday (like I truly am) instead of dreading it (like I once did)?

Sending tons of love and THANKS for all of your support…and for your participation in my dream!!!

Xo
Dev