When I started my “bajillionth” and last diet in 2001, I didn’t tell anyone except my girlfriend Cathy, my husband Mark, and my children that I was starting something new. I had started so many times before and stopped that I just didn’t want anyone knowing right away. Besides, if I really did stick with it, it would be fun to surprise everyone, especially my parents who were so concerned for my health.
A few years ago (more than I’d care to admit) I went to a parenting conference that challenged the attending moms and dads to ask ourselves, “How young can my child be and still handle a task well?” rather than “How old does my child need to be?” An example they gave was doing their own laundry. "If you carefully go over the steps of proper laundry care, it’s amazing how young your son or daughter can be and care for their own laundry," they said. It made sense to me.
My passion is leading weight loss meetings. I love motivating. I love sharing tips and ideas. But one thing that we get in a meeting that's missing from a blog is the interaction. During a meeting, believe me, I GET a lot more than I GIVE. When you hear one person, you get the views and ideas of that one person. But in a meeting, you get the information and ideas from everyone in the group.
At the end of the summer of 2001 our family went to Camp Spofford for a week-long vacation. There I started walking. It was the first aerobic exercise I’d done in years. Only months before, I had been unable to walk for five minutes without gasping for breath. Now I could move quickly and feel good every step of the way!
I used to hate football season. Actually, I loved football, it was just what the sportscasters used to say that bothered me. I’d be driving along in my mini van listening and their conversation would eventually turn to the immense size of the players – (in my best newscaster voice) “This guy is massive. He weighs in at 250 pounds! This linebacker could take out a tank.” I would sit there and cringe. I was a 5'6” female that outweighed these football players by more than a hundred pounds! Losing enough weight to even get down to a football player’s size, let alone a recommended weight for a woman of my height seemed insurmountable to me. I thought to myself, "I will never make it to goal. It is impossible. I will never, ever be thin.” (excerpt from "FINALLY THIN", RANDOM HOUSE 2009).
“I drove through Huntington Center today. As I approached the green the thought came to me that “I could just stop at the bakery and get an assortment of goodies to eat.” But I was doing so well on my diet – I was determined not to!
Traffic slowed and I glanced over at the bakery window dressed in white wedding cakes. They made some of the best cakes I’d ever tasted. I wondered if they were crowded. I decided to peek and see. I needed rolls for dinner anyway.
Did you ever go out to eat and find yourself sizing up the menu. Not from a price standpoint, and certainly not from a calorie standpoint, but from a QUANTITY standpoint. Because, let's face it ... quantity matters. You take longer than everyone else because you're trying to figure out which dishes on the menu have the MOST food. Surely I'm not the ONLY one who's ever done that! And I'll tell you this, you can't always tell by the description on the menu how large a dish is going to be.
On any given day 84 million Americans are on a diet. Of those, the success rate is staggeringly thin (pun) with less than 2% keeping their weight off permanently. As the December calendar pages float away revealing a fresh new year, countless of us have headed back to weight loss meeting centers and gyms in droves. But what can we do this year that we haven’t done before? How can we make it WORK this time?!
When I started my “bajillionth” and last diet in 2001, I didn’t tell anyone except my girlfriend Cathy, my husband Mark, and my children that I was starting something new. I had started so many times before and stopped that I just didn’t want anyone knowing right away. Besides, if I really did stick with it, it would be fun to surprise everyone, especially my parents who were so concerned for my health.
A few years ago (more than I’d care to admit) I went to a parenting conference that challenged the attending moms and dads to ask ourselves, “How young can my child be and still handle a task well?” rather than “How old does my child need to be?” An example they gave was doing their own laundry. "If you carefully go over the steps of proper laundry care, it’s amazing how young your son or daughter can be and care for their own laundry," they said. It made sense to me.
Okay, let’s face it. We are a fat nation. Well, at least two-thirds of us are. 
At the end of the summer of 2001 our family went to Camp Spofford for a week-long vacation. There I started walking. It was the first aerobic exercise I’d done in years. Only months before, I had been unable to walk for five minutes without gasping for breath. Now I could move quickly and feel good every step of the way!
I used to hate football season. Actually, I loved football, it was just what the sportscasters used to say that bothered me. I’d be driving along in my mini van listening and their conversation would eventually turn to the immense size of the players – (in my best newscaster voice) “This guy is massive. He weighs in at 250 pounds! This linebacker could take out a tank.” I would sit there and cringe. I was a 5'6” female that outweighed these football players by more than a hundred pounds! Losing enough weight to even get down to a football player’s size, let alone a recommended weight for a woman of my height seemed insurmountable to me. I thought to myself, "I will never make it to goal. It is impossible. I will never, ever be thin.” (excerpt from "FINALLY THIN", RANDOM HOUSE 2009). 
“I drove through Huntington Center today. As I approached the green the thought came to me that “I could just stop at the bakery and get an assortment of goodies to eat.” But I was doing so well on my diet – I was determined not to!
Did you ever go out to eat and find yourself sizing up the menu. Not from a price standpoint, and certainly not from a calorie standpoint, but from a QUANTITY standpoint. Because, let's face it ... quantity matters. You take longer than everyone else because you're trying to figure out which dishes on the menu have the MOST food. Surely I'm not the ONLY one who's ever done that! And I'll tell you this, you can't always tell by the description on the menu how large a dish is going to be.
How would YOU finish the phrase, “Time is ______”?
On any given day 84 million Americans are on a diet. Of those, the success rate is staggeringly thin (pun) with less than 2% keeping their weight off permanently. As the December calendar pages float away revealing a fresh new year, countless of us have headed back to weight loss meeting centers and gyms in droves. But what can we do this year that we haven’t done before? How can we make it WORK this time?!