May 04

Okay...been working really hard at staying positive and using my knowledge to focus and turn things around. Total weight loss so far...28.6 pounds. I'm in the 'writing mode' and have focused on putting my first e-book together. I have a wonderful opportunity to give a workshop to faculty members at the upcoming Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education on my birthday in June and I want the e-book published by then so the participants can purchase it. I am blessed with some awesome past students who have continued to remain in touch with me and one of them, Sakshi, has agreed to be a research assistant to help me find the papers I need to write the e-book.

It is an awesome process. The book will be called "From Dull to Dynamic: 3 easy steps to increasing your effectiveness in the classroom". It is great fun...and a lot of work. I am focusing on finding interactive means to quickly add value to the teaching and help them make the shift from teaching-centered to learning-centered activities.

Also last weekend, I attended a full day of "Strategies for Success" geared toward higher education faculty. It is amazing and a pure blessing to be surrounded by other faculty members from North America who really want to learn strategies for increasing active learning in their classrooms. I learned many new things and reaffirmed some I already knew but just as importantly, I had an awesome opportunity to connect and network with some amazing presenters and keynote speakers. I will be sending them a copy of my e-book and asking them to review it for me. Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could entice these 'seasoned' experts to collaborate on a book with me?

Okay...on to other aspects of my process. It is taking a huge amount of work to stay positive regardng my career when I truly miss being in the classroom but seem to be shutout from UTSC (where I was and officially still am a sessional instructor). I really need to find a place where I can teach a class but also be involved in educational development while leaving time to conduct my workshops, seminars, speaking, publishing, coaching and mentoring. This will mean that I need to position myself as an expert 'everyday scientist'. I found an incredible workshop that would launch me in this direction but unfortunately the cost is very prohibitive. So I will need to allow the universe to manifest the funds for this. This may sound trivial but it is an important key. Our thoughts, feelings, and actions together create our reality. So far, I have somehow blocked financial wealth in my reality. When would now be a good time to change this? How about now? I deserve wealth in all aspects of my life including financial and it is time for it to occur. Much of this philosphy comes from workshops I have taken with James Arthur Ray (the Harmonic Wealth guy). It is time to put these teachings in practice. I deserve it...as does each of us.

Okay...on to another topic...I am totally blown away with the [Usana] products. It is incredible to have such macro and micronutrients that are of such a high quality and still taste so good. They are so easy to impliment into my daily life and a great strategy for when I have to go out to eat but don't want to fall into the old traps.

I am recommitting here and now to create new entries in this blog on a more regular basis. The next one will focus on cellular nutrition and get into some cell biology stuff (for those of you who have been in my cell bio classroom, follow along and see if you agree). It is so important to understand nutrition from a cellular level. From there, I think I will go through the neural pathways involved in satiety and hunger. I then want to talk more about the effects of MSG and other 'common' additives to our North American diet.

Okay..stay tuned. By the way...if you would like more information about [Usana] and would like to take a very quick health assessment, go to www.pattyl.usana.com