Common Sense Living

At work yesterday, I was reading one of those celebrity gossip magazines. In it there was a picture of Oprah in Italy. It seems that again, her dieting has failed.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Oprah. I remember when she first came to Chicago. I remember when she had the Klu-Klux-Klan on her show. I think she’s inspirational – except when it comes to diet and health. There she loses all credibility. Yet every year she’s pushing some new diet plan.

If you want to be thin and healthy for life – eat a balanced diet of real foods and get some exercise. It’s really as simple as that.

Here are 7 things you can start doing today -

Ø Get rid of packaged food.

Ø Limit your restaurant and fast foods – and when you do eat them, make healthier choices.

Ø Cut out pop, even diet pop. Just one can of pop a day equals 10 pounds over a year.

Ø Add more fresh fruits and vegetables everyday, even if you don’t cut out anything else.

Ø Walk 30 minutes a day.

Ø Get enough sleep.

Ø Take your vitamins.

Go ahead, dip your toe in the water and just try these 7 simple things for a couple of weeks and see what happens for yourself. You might be surprised to find that living a thin and healthy lifestyle is not as boring and gross as you thought. 

You might actually find that what’s really gross is eating the way most people eat. And it makes you look and feel gross on top of it.  

Won’t if feel great to start feeling better, look better, and have more energy?

I’m off to buy more vegetables. How about you?

Carole

P.S. If you always wanted to be that thin and healthy person who has tons of energy and is always having more fun than you >>>

You know I’ve been working my little rump off trying to get the beach fit for a human being. It’s been awful. On top of tearing the beaver dams down, which apparently filtered out a lot of stuff – we’re guessing that they did a carp kill without telling anyone. I’ve had boo-coo dead fish. I’ve been burying 10-15 a day. It’s slowed down finally. Probably only 6 or 7 today.

And I’ve been literally shoveling duck crap. What fun that’s been!

It was so bad that the geese wouldn’t even cross it. When I looked out this morning and saw the yard full of geese again, I knew the beach must be in better shape.

We got the rafts out and we were paddling ourselves around looking at some of the neighbor’s houses planning for when we can finally remodel ours. She asked why we never see some of these people. Why live on a lake if you’re never going to come out of the house? Good question, ey?

Want to talk about feeling some muscles you haven’t used in a while? Whew! My abs are definitely feeling tighter.

I put a bathing suit on, which is unusual for me. You know, as we get older, we get funny about silly things I guess. But I was looking pretty hot. I joked with my daughter that if you cut off my head, I could pass for 25.

She complained because I’m skinnier than her. Hey, I was the one out shoveling duck crap. Of course I’m skinnier! Don’t get me wrong, she’s skinny too.

We ate a great lunch – turkey sandwiches with cheese and lettuce and tomato, with some cantaloupe - and then went back out and played some more.

And then came in and ate a great dinner of spaghetti with tomato-pesto-basil sauce, a salad, and garlic bread. We took the dog on his 2-mile walk, came back and cleaned up, and now vacation is over. I have to go back to work tomorrow Bummer…

But there will be more days of fun in the sun.

My daughter was complaining (that’s what 16 yr. olds do…) that at her dad’s they’re always too tired to do anything. Around here, we don’t run out of steam until midnight or later – and the days go sooo fast.

Are you a couch slouch? Or are you getting out and living life? 

Life is too short. Use it or lose it!

Go ahead, cancel cable. I dare ya!

Carole

P.S. Find the basis for a high energy life here >>>

I thought I’d reach out to try to find out what exactly is stopping you from losing weight.

 You see, I know that losing weight is not hard. But people don’t do it, and I don’t understand why.

What makes people want to eat food that tastes like grease and chemicals?

Why do people absolutely refuse to eat right?

 I need you to tell me so I can help more people get over this hump - whatever it is.

 Do you think healthy food must taste bad?

Do you need to know more about how to eat a healthy diet? My mom was not a good role model in this area either!

 Do you think healthy food takes too much time to make?

Do you think that you can’t lose weight?

Are you afraid that people will make fun of you if you make healthier food choices?

Are you afraid of what life might be like if you look great? Don’t roll your eyes - That is a real reason for some people who’ve been burned by love. Many people do find that it feels safer to be unattractive.

Do you have more belief in the power of pills than diet for maintaining good health? Many people don’t believe that you can control type II diabetes, high blood pressure, or your risk for cancers, and many other ‘lifestyle’ diseases by eating right. They believe that they are destined to a life of prescription meds. Are you one of these people?

Or, on the other hand - Do you think you can eat whatever you want as long as you have these pills available to save your life?

Which brings me right back to - Why do people want to eat food that tastes like grease and chemicals?

Tell me your reasons for not eating a healthy diet.

Carole

a.k.a. – ‘Mother’

A new book came out today - “The Fattening of America”

Author - Eric Finkelstein says that people are choosing the obese lifestyle. He basically says that we’re a gluttonous nation and that’s what happens in rich countries. Reminds me of a scene in Fantasia where the fat king is eating and drinking himself silly. But I think he’s wrong.

I think people choose to stay obese because they don’t know how to live any other way. Diets fail them amost every time, and no one has been there to show them a better way of eating and living. That’s exactly why I wrote High Energy Eating.

And even still, a lot of people choose to keep eating the stuff that tastes bad and is making them fat and sick, so I suppose to a point the author is right.

One of the women interviewed about it said “But you can’t say if you quit going to the drive-through, exercise more and eat more vegetables, you’ll lose weight. There are so many more factors involved.”

Huh? You’re kidding me, right?

That does give weight to Finkelstein’s arguement that many Americans “will likely continue to choose a diet and exercise regimen that leads to excess weight, because losing weight requires too many lifestyle sacrifices,” his book warns.

In reality, the only real sacrifice is giving up packaged foods and learning how to cook quick healthy meals that actually taste a lot better. Ok, and maybe some TV time to actually get some exercise. But exercise can be a lot of things that are probably more fun than bad TV.

Think about it. Don’t you like home-cooked meals better anytime? And if you could learn how to make great tasting healthy dinners that don’t taste like cooked straw in 15 or 20 minutes - is that really a sacrifice?

Unfortunately, a lot of people think so, and they will choose to continue eating what they’re eating.

But I’m also starting to suspect that there is something addicitve about the corn syrup, chemical, and fat laden foods that makes people unwilling to give them up. It’s certainly not the taste. They’re totally gross. And it’s not that they really save any time. In the time it takes you to make Hamburger Helper, I’ll have made pork chops, salad, sweet potato, and some fruit.

I think people do choose not to change. I mean, For all of the people who say they want to lose weight, there’s not a whole lot of losing weight going on, is there?

And it’s not that you can’t. I know lots of people who’ve lost weight and kept it off. There was practically a whole issue of People magazine recently, filled with stories of people who’ve lost weight.

Imagine how that must feel. To be able to lose in some cases, hundreds of pounds. To be proud of your body. To live life again.

So why don’t people do it? Probably for the same reasons some of us haven’t quit smoking. Just not ready to do it yet even though you know life would be better if you did. Humans are so weird. Like Spock says - “That is not logical.”

I guess Finkelstein is right. It’s a choice.

Carole

a.k.a. – ‘Mother’

As many of you embark on the January Dieting Ritual -
here’s 13 mistakes to avoid -

1. Believing that you need some magic diet, plan, pill, or weird foods to lose weight.

2. Falling for dangerous fad diets.

3. Not taking enough time to relax.

4. Not drinking enough water.

5. Not eating enough protein.

6. Not eating at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

7. Not eating 3 meals, and 2 snacks a day.

8. Not getting enough sleep.

9. Not getting enough exercise.

10. Filling up on foods with no vitamins.

11. Not drinking green tea.

12. Not getting enough Omega 3s.

13. Depriving yourself.

These mistakes are not only ruining your weight loss results, they are ruining
your health too. If you don’t understand why, or you need help >>>

Carole

a.k.a. ‘Mother’