Choices

Most of you know that I don't drink alcohol. This is a personal choice based on events that unfolded in my childhood.

Enough said about that.

Tonight on the Robert Ferguson teleconference he made the point that putting certain foods in your mouth ( body) is a choice. To whit - you KNOW you shouldn't eat that 6 pack of Twinkies, but you do because you have made the choice to. A conscious, personal, free choice.

Having made that choice you need to live with the consequences - again to whit- excess weight caused by the fat and crap in the Twinkies!

I never ever thought about it that way - that eating to excess, or eating something BAD for you -is a personal choice.

You DON'T have to eat it. It isn't calling your name, or forcing you to pick it up. You have made the free choice to eat it and must live with the effect of that choice.

Let's look at it this way: you NEED to eat to survive. That's a fact. If you don't eat, eventually you will die.

But you don't NEED to overeat to survive. You need a certain base of calories each day to keep you walking around on the planet. Anything extra that isn't burnt off will store and we all know it stores as fat.

So if you eat the correct amount of calories your body needs to just walk around daily, you will maintain your weight. IF you eat less, you will lose. If you eat more, you will gain.

That's kind of simple math, isn't it!

So, if I MAKE the choice NOT to eat something I don't NEED, I can control my weight.

So starting here and now I make the choice NOT to overeat. I make the CHOICE not to eat junkfood.

I make the choice to lose the excess I don't need.

Choice. It's a good thing.

Post Weekend

I survived the weekend and didn't overeat.
Yippie!
Back to work today and structure. I love it.
TV Chef Jamie Oliver has a new show on ABC about getting this country's kids healthy and moving. I watched a clip of it over the weekend and it wasn't bad. 99 % of the kids in this town that has been called the fattest and unhealthiest in America couldn't identify simple vegetables when shown them. They didn't know what a potato looked like right from the ground, having always eaten mashed ones with gobs of butter and salt. Forget eggplants and artichokes. These kids didn't even know what real lettuce looked like.
I felt bad for them and angry at their parents, esp when 99% of THEM were mobidly obese and setting their kids up for the same life.
In a town where EVERYTHING gets fried, including Twinkies, this is a small microcosm of what this country has become. A country of over indulgent, overeating, obese, out of shape and unhealthy citizens.
Fat knows no political parties, gender or nationality. It's basic math for all: if you put more in than you need and don't use the excess, it turns to FAT, plain and simple.
So Jamie is trying to do what Michelle Obama is trying to do and get our kids to push away the tatter tots for colored veges and fruits; put the Ipod down and get outside and play; get moving; get healthy.
When I was kid NO ONE but me sat home and watched TV after school or on weekends. The kids in my neighborhood were outside, skipping, jumping, running and BURNING calories. I was at home with the tv as my only friend and boxes of Entenmann's chocolate donuts to keep my company.
Kids now sit at their computers in their rooms all day and night, typing away. The only thing on their bodies that gets exercise is their fingers from all the keystrokes. No wonder they are the fattest generation in history.
No wonder they are the unhealthiest generation of all time.
No wonder theirs is the first life expectancy that will be less than their parents.
This is and should be a national disgrace.
Do something good for mankind today: if you see a kid encourage him to DO something physical; ask him to put down the Drake's cakes and forgo the sugared sodas.
Make his life better.
He WILL thank you one day. He WILL - hpefully -live long enough to thank you.

Weekends

Why is it that the weekends are always the hardest for dieting?

At least for me.

During the week I have a lot of STRUCTURE. I get up, go to work all day, come home to exercise and then go to bed.

I can keep on track without any real problems.

But on the weekends, when I have more time on my hands, I've also realized I have more time to EAT FOR NO REASON other than I'M BORED!

I can only exercise SO much so I need other mind-controlling things to do.

I've been reading a lot, but that kind of always make me want to snack.

I've been exercising, but that only makes me hungrier!

On the weekends I need to do all the things I can't do during the week due to work obligations, such as grocery shop - there's a diet buster for you! - laundry, ironing, cleaning the house, etc.

After a while, I just want to eat something to break up the tedium.

I realize this is a big problem, because boredom, tedium, whatever name you give to it is definitely a diet killer.

I KNOW I need to keep journaling on the weekends;

I KNOW I need to keep on track with proteins, fast and slow carbs.

I KNOW I need to keep exercising - this is actually getting easier, thank you Jesus!

I know all these things and I still want a cookie.

Does this ever get easier? Will I EVER not want to eat junk?

AM I just being a baby? Shouldn't I do what I tell everyone else to do and just SUCK IT UP! Get on with the program and stop obsessing about what I can and can not eat; GROW UP even!

Okay, that felt better.

Sometimes you just have to yell at yourself to break thru the crap.

Okay, going for a walk now. That will help.

Michelle's influence

Politics and political parties aside, you really gotta admire Michelle Obama. She has made the eradication of childhhod obesity a goal of her and her husbands' administration. They might not attain the goal while in office, but if things keep going the way they have recently, I beleive we can eradicate in my lifetime.
Case in point:
Kraft food has already made the committment to cut the salt in their processed foods by 10% in the nest 2 years.
Now, PepsiCo, Inc, the makes of Pepsi and Frito lay chips has set 2 goals for the next 10 years: they want to cut the average added sugar per serving of their sodas by 25 % and the saturated fat per serving by 15 %. They will also add more whole grains, fruits, veges, and low fat dairy products to their choices.
Mrs Obama has asked the nation's largest food makes to step up and make their food with less fat, salt and sugar. The future of our children's health is at stake. The current generation of 10 years olds is the first generation is hundreds of years that has, at present, a lower life expectancy than their parents.
I am sooooooooooooo happy my daughter is a vegetarian!

Girlfriends

Last night I had the chance to go out to dinner with my three bestest friends. We had dinner at a really nice pub and - yes - I did fine. Had a great spinach salad, a few corn chips and some well deserved chocolate.

As it usually does with women, the conversation at one point turned to eating, dieting, body image, aging skins, all those female type thoughts. Now you all know I suffer terribly with body image and self esteem issues related to my weight. But what I found out from these three gorgeous, talented, successful and THIN women was that I am not alone in my issues. It seems that even women whose body types I aspire to, have "issues" at times with how they look.

Amazing! Got me to thinking: is this our culture, a result of the diet and youth obsessed media, or is it just normal for all of us to feel a little "low" sometimes?

You can't watch tv, open a magazine or even a newspaper these days without seeing ads for diet programs, anti-aging skin care, gyms. The thought you get while watching these or reading them is that you are not good enough the way you are and you NEED to change. It's like a mind game being played on us. Use this cream and your skin will feel better; join this gym and get those abs you really desire; try this diet plan and be the thinnest you've ever been.

I kind of realized I really don't need to be told all that by strange advertisors.

I have my girlfriends to discuss those life things with. Their advice and support and kind words are more productive and supportive to me than any diet plan, skin cream or gym equipment.

Going out to dinner : $30.00

New blouse I bought for it: $ 25

Girlfriends: PRICELESS

Why lose weight?

I listened to a replay of last week's Robert Ferguson 8 weight food challenge teleconference today and he posed a question to everyone listening : why lose weight? What is the single most important motivating factor for you to lose the excess weight and keep it off for good?
For me it's simple. At almost 50 I do not want to go through the second half of my life overweight, out of shape, depressed because of it, and unhealthy. I replay those reasons in my mind every day to motivate myself to keep going.
Has it been tough?
YOu betcha!
Have I fallen off the wagon?
Yes sirree!!
Is it necessary that I do this?
Yesyesyesyesyes!
DO I know I can do this?
Absolutely. IT just takes planning, patience, perserverance and a willingness to FINALLY change.
At almost 50 I KNOW I can do this.
Pray for me and get others to prayer for me too!
I need a weightloss prayer chain going on for me.

A great day.

I had a great day today, foodwise. I was hungry when I was supposed to be; ate what I was supposed to eat when I was supposed to eat it; and I exercised.
A great day.
But I have to admit, it was work. Writing everything down in my journal; planning all the meals; lugging all my food to work with me, including my beverages; having my journal on me at all times.
It requires a great deal of planning and preparation and work to lose weight.
It really is just so much easier to eat what you want when you want.
And that, at its core, is the reason why it's easier to gain weight than lose it!
Lightbulb moment, folks.
When I journal the food I eat, I get to see a snapshot of what my calories and distribution of carbs and protein are. If I just eat what I want when I want with no recording of it, I never know where I am caloriewise or with correct foods. This makes a HUGE difference in how fast and how much I lose weight.
Whenever I have recorded every morsel that has gone into my mouth, I actually OWN the food I've eaten. If I don't journal, it's very easy to just "forget" the foods I ate, including the crappy ones, and make like I never even ate them.
How many ways can you say "Denial?"
Get it?
Okay, Another great day tomorrow! I'm "Planning" for it.