Happy New Year!

A New Year Blessing

I hope for you in this new year ...

That the single, most significant dimension of life is your relationship with the Source of Goodness who never ceases to sing love songs to your soul


That you find meaning, purpose, and vitality in what you do daily


That you treasure your loved ones and let them know how dear they are to you


That you make choices and decisions that reflect your truest self


That you look in the mirror at least once a day and smile in happy amazement


That you remember relationships are what count above all else - more than work or money, or all the material things we spend so much time tending


That you live in an uncluttered manner, enjoying the freedom to be content


That you keep your sense of humor when things don’t go the way you want


That you find adventure in each new day and marvel at the wonders of creation
which constantly present themselves to you


That you never give up on yourself when others turn away or do not understand


That you are attentive to the health of your body, mind and spirit


That you take risks and accept the growth-full challenges that come to you


That you draw on your inner strength and resiliency when you are in need


That you carry peace within yourself, allowing it to slip into the hearts of others
so our planet becomes a place where violence, division, and war are no more


© Joyce Rupp January 2004

Merry Christmas!

Directionally Challenged

Today I tried out a water aerobics fitness class for people with arthritis. Boy am I directionally challenged! "Start with your left foot," says the instructor and I'm moving my right. "Go this way" and I'm going the other way. Outward is inward and I follow my knees backward. Oh well. I had fun and got a pretty good workout. My biggest challenge was balancing myself--the other members of the class say that will come with time and practice. I'm not sure about being off step though...that's been a lifelong thing with me. I never did learn to polka because I can't get the 3 step movement down.

I need to do a lot more water aerobics to work off everything I've eaten in the last couple of days though. It comes off so slowly yet comes back so quickly!

I won't give up!

How easy it is to fall...

My youngest had a Christmas party last night and invited 8 friends. We went shopping for party stuff the day before ... cookies, chips and soda. I was able to resist it all until the bags were opened. About 3 hours into the party, I was into the chips and cookies, mindlessly and voraciously. :P

All I can do is get back on program again and go work out...and I'm taking my son with me. He's home from college for the break and he brought back more than the "freshman fifteen" too!

Happy

I lost another .6 this week. I wish I'd lost more but I look at it like this: I'm going in the right direction again. Since joining WW again in the beginning of October, I gained and lost 3 pounds, plus an additional 4.6. I won't rag myself about gaining the 3 pounds. What matters now is what I'm doing today. I'm also really happy because I think I am down a size--I'm back into a pair of jeans I couldn't wear anymore because I gained so much weight! Yaaay!

Best Laid Plans...

On Saturday, the girls and I met with Jason the personal trainer at the club. I learned some useful stuff! Apparently, I have been curling my toes when I pedal and that will cause spasms. I also had the arch of my foot centered on the pedal and that's not the correct way to do it. Once I had the balls of my feet on the pedals and the toes relaxed, I was able to do a good 20 minute workout. I was very happy! I also did some stretching and strengthening exercises on some of the other machines.

The big drawback was the stupid left ankle which is now hurting and burning in new areas. Jason suggested I put ice on it and I did, it helped. I am not going to give up my exercise program!

Yesterday, Heidi and I went down to the gym again. I must have picked up something in my rear tire and then rubbed against the curb because we heard a loud POW as we were pulling into the gym parking lot. The tire was flat even before I pulled into a spot. I called TB, who called AAA and they arrived immmediately to replace the tire.

Meanwhile, I managed to get in another workout. Heidi got tired and pooped out early but I wasn't about to. My ankle throbbed and burned again and I had to put on more ice. It's very frustrating to have that happen!

TB called around to get a new tire for my car...and it'll need to be tomorrow. It's a drag because I planned to try and work out again. I was going to go into the pool and swim. Well, it'll work out somehow. I'm not giving up!

Motivation

I lost another 1.2 pounds and I feel good about that. I've been talking myself out of going to the gym and I do not feel good about that. I have got to really push myself and get my butt over there tomorrow come hell, high water, or snow!

Intuitive Eating?

I was just about to do a post on how I have to schedule exercise like it's a doctor's appointment when this article caught my eye:

Professor Loses Weight With No-Diet Diet By BROCK VERGAKIS, Associated Press Writer
Sun Dec 4, 5:17 PM ET



SALT LAKE CITY - When Steven Hawks is tempted by ice cream bars, M&Ms and toffee-covered almonds at the grocery store, he doesn't pass them by. He fills up his shopping cart.


It's the no-diet diet, an approach the Brigham Young University health science professor used to lose 50 pounds and to keep it off for more than five years.

Hawks calls his plan "intuitive eating" and thinks the rest of the country would be better off if people stopped counting calories, started paying attention to hunger pangs and ate whatever they wanted.

As part of intuitive eating, Hawks surrounds himself with unhealthy foods he especially craves. He says having an overabundance of what's taboo helps him lose his desire to gorge.

There is a catch to this no-diet diet, however: Intuitive eaters only eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full.

That means not eating a box of chocolates when you're feeling blue or digging into a big plate of nachos just because everyone else at the table is.

The trade-off is the opportunity to eat whatever your heart desires when you are actually hungry.

"One of the advantages of intuitive eating is you're always eating things that are most appealing to you, not out of emotional reasons, not because it's there and tastes good," he said. "Whenever you feel the physical urge to eat something, accept it and eat it. The cravings tend to subside. I don't have anywhere near the cravings I would as a 'restrained eater.'"

Hawks should know. In 1989, the Utah native had a job at North Carolina State University in Raleigh and wanted to return to his home state. But at 210 pounds, he didn't think a fat person could get a job teaching students how to be healthy, so his calorie-counting began.

He lost weight and got the job at Utah State University. But the pounds soon came back.

For several years his weight fluctuated, until he eventually gave up on being a restrained eater and the weight stayed on.

"You definitely lose weight on a diet, but resisting biological pressures is ultimately doomed," Hawks said.

Several years later and still overweight at a new job at BYU, Hawks decided it was time for a lifestyle change.

He stopped feeling guilty about eating salt-and-vinegar potato chips. He also stopped eating when he wasn't hungry.

Slowly and steadily his weight began to drop. Exercise helped.

His friends and co-workers soon took notice of the slimmer Hawks.

"It astonished me, actually," said his friend, Steven Peck. "We were both very heavy. It was hard not to be struck."

After watching Hawks lose and keep the weight off for a year and a half, Peck tried intuitive eating in January.

"I was pretty skeptical of the idea you could eat anything you wanted until you didn't feel like it. It struck me as odd," said Peck, who is an assistant professor at BYU.

But 11 months later, Peck sometimes eats mint chocolate chip ice cream for dinner, is 35 pounds lighter and a believer in intuitive eating.

"There are times when I overeat. I did at Thanksgiving," Peck said. "That's one thing about Steve's ideas, they're sort of forgiving. On other diets if you slip up, you feel you've blown it and it takes a couple weeks get back into it. ... This sort of has this built-in forgiveness factor."

The one thing all diets have in common is that they restrict food, said Michael Goran, an obesity expert at the University of Southern California. Ultimately, that's why they usually fail, he said.

"At some point you want what you can't have," Goran said. Still, he said intuitive eating makes sense as a concept "if you know what you're doing."

Intuitive eating alone won't give anyone six-pack abs, Hawks said, but it will lead to a healthier lifestyle. He still eats junk food and keeps a jar of honey in his office, but only indulges occasionally.

"My diet is actually quite healthy. ... I'm as likely to eat broccoli as eat a steak," he said. "It's a misconception that all of a sudden a diet is going to become all junk food and high fat," he said.

In a small study published in the American Journal of Health Education, Hawks and a team of researchers examined a group of BYU students and found those who were intuitive eaters typically weighed less and had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than other students.

He said the study indicates intuitive eating is a viable approach to long-term weight management and he plans to do a larger study across different cultures. Ultimately, he'd like intuitive eating to catch on as a way for people to normalize their relationship with food and fight eating disorders.

"Most of what the government is telling us is, we need to count calories, restrict fat grams, etc. I feel like that's a harmful message," he said. "I think encouraging dietary restraint creates more problems. I hope intuitive eating will be adopted at a national level."

___

On the Net:

National Institute for Intuitive Eating http://www.intuitiveeating.com

Well, doesn't this sound swell? It also seems to make some sense...but what about people who binge on junk because they think they feel "hungry"? What if the "stop" button doesn't work? This is a concept I'd love to try but I'd be afraid to buy certain red light foods like chips and chocolate.

The other thing is...the article says that exercising "helps". I have a feeling exercise plays a more important part than is being given credit for here. I wonder if these people would have weight loss if they didn't exercise?

Wouldn't it be nice if it did work, though? One good point I think made was that diets ultimately fail, mostly because of all the restrictions. Whatever it is we do has to become a permanent change in our lives, a whole lifestyle change.

More on Intuitive Eating:

The concept of intuitive eating is an anti-dieting philosophy that replaces external eating with a hunger-based approach. It has come to include several keys:


1. The ability to clearly recognize the physical signs of hunger, satisfaction, and fullness. The intuitive eater only eats when physically hungry, and stops eating when satisfied—well before fullness is reached.


2. The intuitive eater is capable of sensing the nutritional needs of the body. Since there are no restrictions on eating, the intuitive eater considers the full range of food possibilities and carefully weighs available choices against physical promptings. On any given day a chocolate shake may be desired, while on another day it might be cream of broccoli soup. In either case, the nutritional urgings of the body are honored without reference to emotional states or external plans.


3. For the intuitive eater, the physical effects of food consumption are carefully monitored in terms of satisfaction. Food is not consumed unconsciously while driving through rush hour traffic, but is instead fully appreciated as it satisfies the nutritional and hunger needs of the body.


4. The intuitive eater has come to recognize external motives for eating (environmental, social, emotional) and has learned to effectively manage such situations to avoid emotional overeating and/or deprivation. Emotions are no longer dealt with through consumption of food and environmental and social eating occasions are managed through hunger-based eating with an emphasis on avoiding feelings of deprivation.

...

There's more there, why not check it out?

Now I better go make an appointment to exercise!

Abdominal Fat

I need to pin this up where I can see it all the time.

Getting Rid of Deep Abdominal Fat

The fat that contributes to diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease accumulates around abdominal organs at a pretty fast rate but can be reduced via regular exercise. A study of overweight sedentary adults published in the October 2005 issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology showed that brisk walking can help you hold the line on the accumulation of deep abdominal fat as long as the total time you spend walking adds up to at least three hours per week. The study also showed that for reduction of deep abdominal fat, three hours of brisk walking worked as well as two hours of more vigorous exercise. Study participants who performed various types of exercise gained no additional abdominal fat, but participants who didn’t exercise at all registered a nine percent gain in abdominal fat over six months, reported researchers at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. Those in the study who got the most exercise – the equivalent of jogging 20 miles per week – lost both deep abdominal fat and more visible layers of fat.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9672891/

Causing my own problem

My daughter and I are still hanging in with Weight Watchers...and we've been to a gym to work out three times. Hmmm...we need to do better but I guess everything is baby steps? Still, I feel like I need to push myself. I've been saving this bit of inspiration from Beliefnet and it's very timely for me:

Are You Causing Your Own Problem?

A wise person once told me "You're holding on to your excess weight." Can we talk candidly about that?

For many people with weight problems, the truth is we are simply holding onto and continuing habits and psychological hang-ups that keep us fat. There's some part of us that is MAKING OURSELVES FAT.

Get to the root of this, attend to it, and you will no longer have a weight problem.

For me, I discovered that I was avoiding intimacy. Being obese is an excellent, effective way to avoid intimacy and committed relationships! As a teenager, I was terrified of expressing my sexual desires. This is because I had had some traumas in that area as a child. I unconsciously made myself weigh 400 pounds. Through a lot of work, some therapy, a lot of spiritual surrender, a lot of risk taking in letting myself be who I was � I have been healed of this terrible problem. It took awhile, though, and it was a lot of difficult work.

Facing the truth about yourself takes courage and diligence. It starts with the desire to really unlock the mystery behind the symptoms.

I encourage you to rally the courage in you, and face your demons. God is here, with you, with all of us, and will always help.

When I was younger--a teenager--I think I wanted to stay fat because I could avoid intimacy. I remember that as I lost weight and young men expressed interest in me, I felt really scared. I think it's one of Heidi's issues but when I brought the subject up (talking about me in those years), she didn't really respond and so I let it drop for now. I told her about how people's attitudes toward me changed once I lost weight and she seemed to get annoyed about that. Maybe I shouldn't put that idea in her head!

As for what's going on now...it's not fear of intimacy anymore. There's something else going on, a sense of fatigue and a "oh, what's the use?" I think it's because I tried and failed so many times I've set myself up for that again. I have to change that or it'll just be a self fulfilling prophecy.

I joined the exercise club hoping I would feel motivated to go and work out now that I'm paying for it. I'm finding that I'm going to have to keep pushing myself. It would be too easy to come up with reasons not to go...

...it's too far
...it's too cold
...I'm tired
...I've got so much else to do...

I've got to do what the newsletter says and give myself a big kick in the tush!