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.

Salt, Part II

I think everyone who knows me knows I like salt on food.
A LOT of salt!
So when KRAFT foods announced yesterday it was cutting their salt induction in food by 10 % over the next two years, I was actually happy. Do't get me wrong: I'm NOT giving up salt. My blood pressure routinely is 90/60 and my ankles never swell.
But it is beleived that Americans as a whole consume too much salt. And overuse of sodium has been linked to diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, kidney disease and as a precursor to heart disease in general.
In a study published by The Standord University Center for Health Policy, it is estimated that reducing salt by 10 % can eliminate approx. 500,000 heart attacts and year in addition to over 500,00 strokes between the ages of 40 and 85.
Imagine the savings, not only in actual lives, but in Health care costs as well.
I'm sure most of us know someone who has hypertension, or diabetes. Their doctors routinely tell them to eliminate table salt to control their diseases. But even people who don't add any extra salt to their food are still in danger of taking in too much sodium.
It's in everything as a preservative, food addtitive, seasoner, and it's even in contact lens solutions.
I've said this before but it bears restating: be a label detective.
Read the labels, table of ingredients, and nutritional facts on all food items you buy that aren't in their natural states. Obviously some foods contain more salt than others just natually. Bacon and pork products come to mind. But all processed foods have salt in them as well, either as a seasoning, preservative, or additive. READ the labels. The US Dietary Guidelines recommend that the general population consumme no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium ( or 1 teaspoon of table salt) Just as an example, Progesso Light and Healthy Soup has 680 mg of sodium, 1/4 of what you need in a day. If you add some salt to it for taste ( and beleive me, needs it!) you're probably already at the max for the day.
Next time you are in the produce aisle of the market, get a gander at the sodium in a package of OScar Meyer bologne, or any deli ham that's processed.
You may switch to peanut butter and jelly for your lunchs from then on!
In all seriousness, watch the salt. You may not have a problem now, but you never know what the future may bring, and YES, I'm listening to my own advice.

Salt

I never do two posts in one day, but this news was too good not to pass on. Kraft foods has decided to reduce the use of salt in its foods sold IN the US by 10 % over the next 2 years. This could eliminate more than 10 milion pounds of salt from some of the most popular foods in the US, like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.
This is HUGE for the food industry!
Tomorrow's post will definitly be on salt and my love affair with it!

The taste of things...

So I went to a wonderful retirement dinner last night that I made the goodbye cake for. Soft french vanilla cake, with chocolate moouse filling and buttercream frosting. I was soooooooooooooooooo looking forward to having a piece because I haven't had cake in soooooooooooooooooo long. When it came time to dole out the cake, I heard everyone "MMMMMM-ing" when they ate their pieces.
I was disappointed.
It actually didn't taste as good to me as cake has tasted in the past and I was worried the cake was lousy! But everyone else ate every piece, so I have no worries about that.
Have my sweet taste buds changed since I've been on this plan, was my first question. Since I don't indulge in tons of cake and candy anymore, has my desire and natural taste for things like this gone?
It's a double edged sword question, because I'd like to think that if my taste buds HAVE changed, that maybe the weight maintenance won't be so hard. I had the craving for the cake all week but when reality hit, I was not thrilled. This may bode well for my future.
On the other hand, if my taste buds HAVE changed, does that mean that other food will no longer be appealing - food that I should be eating like fruit that's sweet, or sauces.
We'll have to see what the future of my taste buds holds.
Here's a funny side story. Recently I had a conversation with one of my beautiful sisters-in law and she posed this question: if you could be told the exact date and time you would die, would you want to know? I said "yes!" immediately and she asked me why.
My response:" If I knew exactly when I was going to die I would stop dieting immediately and eat everything in every portion that I wanted, because it wouldn't make any difference in the long run to my health or how I looked.."
If that's not screwed up diet thinking I don't know what is!!