Star Struck Style

I got on the scale yesterday to discover that I weigh less than I’ve weighed in years. That’s quite an achievement considering that I’ve been trying to slim down for almost a decade.

Anyway, I’m happy to get to the end of the year feeling as if I’ve achieved something. If I had to make a list of my greatest achievements in 2025, this one would be near the top. Another one would be reducing my debt load. In two weeks from today, I’ll reach a milestone on that journey that I believed was unattainable just a year ago. Finally, I quit a full-time job that was driving me nuts and got back to doing several things at once: a normal state of affairs for a Jack-of-all-trades like me.

Perhaps that last item is the most important thing on the list. The lack of stress in my life has allowed me to slim down: I’ve discovered the connection between my cortisol levels and the negative physical effects of the so-called “stress hormone.” I’ve also figured out how I cope with stress by spending money I don’t have on things I don’t need. The solution to both these problems has been getting to the bottom of what stresses me out. I dealt with that this past March when I resigned from my full-time position and I haven’t regretted that decision for a single second.

I’m going to keep traveling this new path. I would be thrilled to find a new career that makes me happy, but I’m not going to do anything that makes me unhappy anymore. I’m going to be sixty in a couple of weeks. I’m too old to be fat. miserable, broke and stressed out. I’m going to resolve to spend my golden years running circles around my fellow senior citizens. No one like an old grouch, especially one who has spent their entire life making themselves miserable simply to attain things that they can’t take with them when they finally leave this world.

That’s not to say that I’m going to be a beacon of light amongst the rest of the old people: I’m still a Capricorn, after all. But I’m not going to give up on myself. I didn’t stop believing that I would slim down again after I started to gain weight when I lost my job in 2017, and I still don’t believe that I’ll die penniless. The only way is up when you’re a Capricorn, even when feel like you’ve slid down the mountainside a hundred times already.

2026 is my year. This goat has places to go . . .