CNBC Report

I was just reading the CNBC report on Obesity and America. After a weekend where I spent some time with my friends who have all let themselves go into obesity. The report indicated that our obesity epidemic is costing America $147 billion every year, not to mention the untold amount of lives to this deadly disease. That made me sad and mad. I was sad that our brothers and sisters here in the United States don't know how to lose weight. Fundamentally I think everyone understands that calories in/calories out phenomenon. However, I don't believe everyone knows the amount of calories they are eating and what this is costing them inside. That makes me sad. Then I got mad. Companies using names like Fruit Smoothie for something that is almost as many calories as a milkshake, that makes me mad. The fact that companies are making $60 billion per year on an industry that just confuses the American population and promises that if you take this pill you will increase your weight loss chances.

I wonder if a show that came on everyday that would in a 30 minutes show people an easy recipe for dinner and a simple exercise using their own body would be the ticket to education. I wonder if people would want to watch this show and implement the idea. I wonder if the American population is ready to change. Change is difficult especially a change to improve yourself. You may lose friends or have friends ready to sabotage your efforts in an lame attempt to justify their own bad habits. You may get angry at people who aren't making this change with you. You may feel alone and depressed because everything you know is upside down. These are some of the reasons our weight loss efforts fail.

I was just home for a weekend. My friends have all gained between 30 - 50 pounds since the last time I saw them. My friends wanted to celebrate with me and bought a cake. How hard is it to say no when they are trying to be nice? You don't want to hurt their feelings but you know if they put a huge piece of cake in front of you, you are going to eat it? What do you do? For me I let them put the cake in front of me, I ate a few bites and then covered it with my napkin and pushed it to the center of the table. That was the only way I could think of to not offend anyone and to keep my diet within control. It's difficult but I didn't want to gain back the 20 pounds I've lost in one weekend and I didn't want to hurt my friends feelings. I wasn't going to go into my change in lifestyle with them and make them feel like something is wrong with them, I just am doing my weight loss program for myself. I believe in slow and steady wins the race. Since this is a marathon of life, I'm okay losing it on a slow and steady pace.

Proud of Massachusetts

Today in my reading, I came across an article regarding a study being conducted in Massachusetts. There are 50,000 households in three cities that are on the Federal Food Stamp program. The study will provide a 30 cent discount on fresh fruits and vegetables for 1/2 of these families. The idea is to find out the choices that will be made if more "healthy" foods are made accessible to the food stamp program. Click here for the entire article.

Now my question would be is anyone teaching these families how to cook fresh fruits and vegetables? As seen on the Food Revolution show this past spring, many families are third generation of packaged and processed foods. They know how to pull something out of the freezer and pop it in the microwave but actual cooking on the stove is foreign to them. I know this first hand as just two years ago I taught my 25 year old girlfriend how to peel an onion as she had no idea what to do with an onion.

I believe the program above is commendable but is only half of the equation. Without proper teaching and guidance, we can't expect miracles. It's like the you can bring someone a fish to eat but until you teach them how to fish it's useless. This is the same. You can bring fresh fruits and vegetables to those on food stamps but if they don't know what to do with these items, it's useless. I hope someone is going to teach as well as provide. 

There is no Magic Pill to take

As I sit here reading about our nations obesity rate and the amount of money we spend on quick fixes for our weight problems, I get sad. We (myself included) want to have our weight just fall off our bodies in days without regard to the process it took to gain this weight. When I think of my story, 15 years ago I weighed 142 pounds and wore a size 10 pant. Today I weigh 164 pounds and wear a size 12 pant. So here's what I gather from this information.

1) Pant sizes don't determine whether you are obese or not. I'm just one size up and am in the obese category.
2) What took 15 years to gain will not come off in a quick fix 15 day journey
3) It is bad to gain 2 pounds a year - after 15 years that is 30 pounds (my journey started at 188 pounds)

This is a process. I've been on my journey now for 8 months and have dropped 24 pounds with a goal of 22 more pounds to go. There hasn't been a fast, down and dirty way to lose what I gained over the years. It takes time and commitment. It's a journey that I am enjoying every step along the way. This is my life, my journey and I can walk you through it anytime you want.

But what I wanted to encourage you with is this - Think of your weight loss as a journey, a marathon of life that will lead you to better health, wealth and laughter. Think about your journey and celebrate each little victory along the way. They are worthy of celebration and so are you. God made us masterpieces of his design, our job was to be a good steward of his masterpiece. Let's impress God with our stewardship and commitment to Battle2Heal our bodies, spirits and minds.

Enjoy this journey with me!

Life is Grand Again

So I spent a day wallowing last week and started to get myself out of the duldrums by Saturday night however it wasn't until yesterday that I really got my groove on again. There is something about a productive day helping out with a new venture, cleaning the house and eating three square meals in a day that creates this amazing, amazing endorphin rush.

The day started yesterday with a  little swish and swipe, a load of laundry and making the bed. Then I got energized and vacuumed the entire downstairs before we worked out. Then it was 90 minutes of YogaX which is a crazy intense Yoga workout and jumped on the scale to realize the 2 pound weight loss of a few days ago is still with me (YAY me!) After a quick shower, the work began. We went over two presentations from start to finish, tweaking them for Saturday. We worked on two blog entries. We sent out the email blurb and tweeted. It was an amazing day for this venture operation I'm helping. I was even able to watch a little television with my DH to laugh and relax. It was quite the day ending with reading a chapter in the Girls of Aames and sleep.

So in noticing this - I have decided that taking baby steps to get out of the duldrums is good. I have decided that doing work that brings you joy is essential. I have decided that for me cleaning and keeping a nice house is imperative to my well being. Lastly, I have decided to look at life with a positive attitude knowing that the gifts and blessings I have been given are from God so who can dispute the greatness of them.

What have you noticed about a good day in your life? What made the day good and how can you take this information to make everyday good for you? That is what coaching does. You will learn what is good for you and how to implement goodness everyday. You will have a supporter by your side, throughout your journey and cheering you to victory. Your coach can help you to be the best you!

What are you going to do with this knowledge? Let's make it a great day!

Mexican on a Diet?

The key to eating healthier is to eat a variety of colors. A few posts ago I showed you my grocery cart. It's full of all the colors of the rainbow. Tonight I used some of these colors to make my version of taco salad. Total calories 633. We have red pepper, green pepper, serrano pepper, (16 cal)  lettuce greens, (70 cal)  1/2 avocado (150 cal), 1/4 cup of Veggie Shred Cheddar cheese (70 cal), 10 shrimp (100 cal), black beans (227 cal) My seasoning doesn't include wheat so it's all spices. Now some people would say 600 calories but what you have to realize is that just a year ago I could eat a big mac (500 cal) and a large fries (500 cal) and soda and still not be full so in another hour I'd be hitting the potato chip bag. Rounding out my caloric intake at about 1500 cal so to me a 600 cal dinner that leaves me satisified for the entire evening is a HUGE improvement.

That's the other key - just because your skinny friends can eat a pea and be full, you can't do that yet. It took years to get that weight on us and now it's going to take some time to get it off of us. It's a marathon journey not a sprint. Reducing my caloric intake by half it a huge accomplishment for me and I'm celebrating in style! By going to a Yoga class this morning!

I hope you are enjoying this food series. Another great meal tonight! See you then.

Lunch with my dear husband - after putting up with me yesterday he deserved something great!

Here's the deal - when you eat you should have different textures, colors and flavors.  Being a vegetarian my plate has a California Veggie Burger with Veggie Shred Smoked Provolone cheese, (DH opted for meat, no cheese) home made french fries, 1/4 of an avocado, lettuce greens with 1 Tablespoon flax oil as dressing and a pickle. So this dish was a little heavy on the green side for color but the textures and different flavors are there. Notice the lettuce greens take up almost half the plate, these are great filler foods for a tiny amount of calories. Calorie count for my meal 400 calories served with a glass of sparkling water in a wine glass to complete the setting.

Totally filled me up and got us on with our day. I'll post dinner in a little while as it will be much more colorful!

The Wall

Yesterday I woke up with a weight on my shoulders. I don't know what it was from but it was HUGE. There was no workout, bad food and wallowing involved in my morning. I couldn't get motivated to save my life. I was in a state of depression. Then I started thinking about everyone involved in my Battle to Heal campaign and thought I can't do this. I need to move. Well, let me tell you it took me all day to feel right again. At noon, I got off the couch and moved a little, taking my computer back to my office and opening up the email. However, this proved too much for me. So I tried again with doing the dishes in the sink and then rewarding myself with a 15 minute break. Yes, the break was longer than the task but yesterday that was all I could muster. I then did a quick swish and swipe in the downstairs bathroom and the day started getting better. You see for me cleaning is like soul revival. I get a sense of satisfaction that keeps me going and at the end of the day, I have a clean house. After those two tasks I was able to come up to the office and get some typing and emails done. By the end of the night my husband and I had sent out the emails he needed to get out for his business and I was feeling much better.


I started out the day with eating 10 potato chips (that is all I would allow myself to wallow with) but by the end of the day I was eating fruit and salad. As I started to feel better about the day, my eating got better. In this I realized that I eat or snack out of depressed thoughts. Next time I will work to clean my house and eat a little better, I bet the depression won't last for a day that way.

What I'm telling you is that depression and feelings of overwhelm are inevitable along our journey. Our job is to find the causes and realize solutions that will help us. For me it is taking small steps in organizing and cleaning that help me to feel better about myself thus pulling me out of my depression. I am happy to say that I only ate 10 potato chips and 2 marshmallows (only on hand because of s'mores the other night) during this little depression bout. In the past I would have eaten a ton of stuff and probably headed to a fast food joint. Don't get me wrong, I was tempted but decided the veggie pizza downstairs was a better choice and it was; 600 calories instead of 1000 makes for a much better choice. This is what my journey is about ~ making better, healthier choices thereby losing weight. At the end of the day I celebrate my choices...did I choose a better option for eating? Did I choose a workout that worked for me today? Did I choose to workout at all? Did I choose to drink water? Did I choose to drink beer or wine? Soda or lemonade? These are the choices that will ultimately lead to a healthier lifestyle and a longer life.

This is my journey and I'd love to help you with your journey. I'm human and I do the same things you do - sometimes accountability and empathy are what we need to succeed in your life journey. Feel free to email me at battle2heal@gmail.com and we can chat. I'm a coach that can take you to the places you want to go because I have been there with you, felt it with you and we can surpass expectations together!