NaNoWriMo-Chapter Ten

Once again, a reminder that this is a very rough draft of the book I'm writing for National Novel Writing Month. To up my word count I don't generally use contractions, after all I'm trying to write 50,000 words in thirty days. Not easy, but lots of fun.

Chapter Ten

Speaking of Books

In the preceding chapters I have referenced a few of the books I have read and use for reference. I would like to formally introduce you to all of my favorite books for this subject.

Change One – The diet & fitness plan, Lose Weight Simply, Safely, and Forever

The Official Diet of Reader’s Digest

Set for Life; Eat More…Weigh Less…Feel Terrific

Jane P. Merrill and Karen M. Sunderland

Low-Fat Lies, High Fat Frauds and the healthiest diet in the world

Kevin Vigilante, MD MPH and Mary Flynn, PhD

Flip the Switch, Proven Strategies to Fuel Your Metabolism & Burn Fat 24 Hours a Day

Robert K. Cooper, PhD, Recipes by Leslie L. Cooper

How to Help Your Man Lose Weight, A Guide for the Concerned Woman

Jerry C. Sutkamp, M.D. & Ted Mason

Healing through Exercise, Scientifically-proven ways to prevent and overcome illness and lengthen your life

Jörg Blech

The Sneaky Chef, Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals

Missy Chase Lapine

The Volumetrics Eating Plan, Techniques and Recipes for Feeling Full on Fewer Calories

Barbara Rolls, Ph.D

8 Minutes in the Morning for Extra-Easy Weight Loss

Jorge Cruise

You would think that with having read all of these books I would be slim and fit already. Well, surely you understand the problem: knowledge is not the same as action. I will defend myself in that I have adopted some of the knowledge that I have gained, I have resisted some temptation, otherwise, I would probably weigh three hundred pounds, like many other women who are stress eaters with no self discipline. I am just grateful that I have had only a 2.6 pound average weight gain over the years. I could have done much, much worse.

What I have learned from each book.

Change One, The Official Diet of Reader’s Digest

The Diet and Fitness Plan – Lose Weight Simply, Safely and Forever

The best thing about this book is all the success stories of real people who have used the diet. It is encouraging to see the before and after pictures of real people, male and female, and read their stories. I want to be one of those successes. I like the plan because it takes things slow and steady, changing one thing at a time, and addresses all the things that can derail a change of eating and exercising habits. There are meal plans and recipes and lots of great pictures. The exercises are basic and simple to begin with, increasing in complexity as the weeks go by.

Set for Life, Eat More, Weight Less, Feel Terrific

Jane P. Merrill, Karen M. Sunderland

The authors of Set for Life lay out three points for balancing life to bring success; those points are 1) Positive Living, 2) Regular Exercise, and 3) Good Nutrition. Much of the book is given to recipes for healthful foods. When I first got the book I tried many of the recipes and some have become family favorites and traditions. Others, well, let’s just say that our tastes differ from the author’s tastes and leave it at that. Some of the recipes my husband didn’t like while I did, but since I am not interested in fixing two meals I opted to fix things my husband will eat. I found early on that if he didn’t like something he would politely eat a little bit and later find an excuse to go somewhere, and while out he would stop of a fast food joint and fill up. Fast food is bad for the wallet as well as the body, so I try to fix things he likes.

I have struggled with positive living, having a happy attitude, since I went to Junior High. I do not remember being unhappy during childhood. I liked going to school, I had friends, and I felt good about myself. When it was time to go to seventh grade my parents made the decision to transfer me from the local school where we lived to the school where my father taught. I went to orientation on the Friday before school was to begin and was immediately plunged into despair. I do not even remember looking at the boys, but the girls were all well dressed in the latest mini-skirts (This was 1969), already knew each other from elementary school and wore nylons! I was dressed in a homemade dress (not that that was bad, my mother was an excellent seamstress) with bobby socks and lace up suede oxfords. I was a first class dork and totally embarrassed. Plus, I had curly red hair, freckles and fair skin (and still do, well except the freckles are much less now), and did not fit in, in any way shape or form. I became despondent and during ninth grade had stress headaches so often and bad that my parents decided to take me to the doctor. I believe those years were the cause of my continuous struggle with feeling inferior and unhappy. Even now, it is difficult to be optimistic and hopeful. But I keep trying. The authors are both slim and energetic so that says something, especially since they are both mothers of more children than me.

Low-Fat Lies, High-Fat Fraud and the healthiest diet in the world

Kevin Vigilante, MD, MPH and Mary Flynn, PhD

This book exposes the propaganda of the collusion of science and government, as well as teaching about a truly healthful way of eating. Dr. Vigilante (how’s that for a name?) has an engaging writing style and lots of well researched information. The recipes are good, a little on the high-brow side of things, but they are instructive as to what constitutes this healthy diet.

Flip the Switch – Proven Strategies to Fuel Your Metabolism & Burn Fat 24 Hours a Day

Robert K. Cooper, PhD, Recipes by Leslie L. Cooper

I’m still wading through this one. It is heavy on the science and research, but still manages to be readable. It explains how our bodies work, which is helpful to know. It has straightforward suggestions about what to do to rev up your metabolism. I know they work, because it is basically what trim, healthy people do. Like I said before, knowledge is not the same as action. But this book is motivating.

How to Help Your Man Lose Weight – A Guide for the Concerned Woman

Jerry C. Sutkamp, M.D. & Ted Mason

If you want ideas on how to change your man’s eating habits, this book is the one. He has some great stories and anecdotes from his patient’s lives. I don’t agree with all the non-fat, reduced fat ingredients used in the eating plan, but it can be a starting point.  One of the most valuable parts is his explanation into the male psyche; understanding the way men think about food and body size is really helpful to understanding strategies that will help them lose weight.

Healing through Exercise – Scientifically-Proven ways to Prevent and Overcome Illness and Lengthen Your Life

Jörg Blech

This is one of my favorites because it explains how beneficial exercise is for our bodies; not just exercise in a gym, but an active life versus a sedentary life. When I need motivation, this is the book I turn to. I want to live a long, healthy life and exercise is an important ingredient in achieving that goal.

The Sneaky Chef – Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals

Missy Chase Lapine

This book is downright fun to read. Missy has the best ideas for hiding foods. I have tried them and they work! Even if you don’t use her exact ideas and recipes, the concept is easily transferrable to your own recipes and it is fun to get creative. Lots of nice pictures too.

The Volumetrics Eating Plan – Techniques and Recipes for Feeling Full on Fewer Calories

Barbara Roll, Ph.D.

This is a sequel to her original book The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan. Dr. Roll is associated with Penn State and has done extensive research there on nutrition, diet, and eating habits. These books are wonderful! Solid scientific information in a readable format; good recipes, and in this book there are lots of pictures so you can actually see the difference her methods make in size of portions. It is astounding. Give it a look-see.

8 Minutes in the Morning for Extra-Easy Weight Loss.

Jorge Cruise

I had seen Jorge’s books for years before I bought one. I got this one because the premise is that you don’t need any equipment for the exercises. You can do them in your pjs in your bedroom first thing in the morning. He also includes an eating plan that is very generous and a buddy system plan that helps with accountability and encouragement. The book is a good one and I like to read his explanations for everything. He too has studied nutrition and exercise science and uses the latest findings to guide is advice. Another great feature is personal success stories from many participants. See real people succeed encourages me.

And there you have it. The books I refer to most for information, recipes, exercises, and encouragement.

Want to know something odd about me? When I have cravings for sweets, or food in general I can satisfy those cravings by reading a cookbook. Reading a cookbook does not induce cravings, it satisfies them, mostly. Sometimes the cravings are such that I end of making something, but generally I can find relief by simply reading yummy recipes. Weird, I know. Hand me that book with the pie recipes, will ya’?

NaNoWriMo - Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Adjusting Recipes to Lower Calories and Other Useful Strategies

Low-fat and non-fat have been a huge business for the past couple of decades. I am not a believer. Non-fat cheese just does not have the same appeal and the real thing. I would rather choose carefully where I reduce calories and splurge on the good stuff.

It is possible to adjust favorite family recipes to be lower calorie and higher nutritional value without sacrificing taste and texture. This is done by adding and subtracting various ingredients, and/or substituting one kind of food for another.

Think of my example of the Korean Noodle Bowl. I tossed half of the noodles and added almost two cups of fresh veggies to cook with it.

Here is another example of lightening up a recipe. Years ago as part of an annual leadership training meeting of a woman’s group we put on a breakfast. Our president gave us a recipe and ingredients and we made the breakfast casseroles. For my own family I lightened it and liked it much better.

First the original recipe:

Prepare the night before -  

12 slices bread , remove crust, butter each slice, and cut into 1 inch cubes

½ pound cheddar cheese, grated

1 pound cooked, crumbled sausage (or bacon or ham)

1 dozen eggs

3 cups whole milk

Put buttered bread cubes in a greased 9x13 baking pan; sprinkle grated cheese over bread. Layer cooked sausage on top. Beat eggs and milk together, pour over prepared dish, cover and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, bake at 350° for one hour.

I put these ingredients into a calorie calculator and found that a serving, based on this size pan serving 12 people, is 429 calories per serving.

Here are my adjustments:

Skip greasing your pan, do not butter the bread, use ¼ pound of cheese, ½ pound sausage, and 1% milk.

These adjustments make each serving 215 calories, a 50% savings in calories.

(Calorie calculator at http://www.caloriecount.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php)

The breakfast casserole still has a rich flavor, but is less fattening. Adding a cup of chopped onion and bell peppers would make it even more nutritious without adding to the calories. Served with a bowl of fresh fruit salad it makes a great breakfast for special occasions. In fact, the original recipe is called Brunch Souffle. I have served it for years on Christmas and other holidays.

I did not substitute any ingredients, just reduced or eliminated them. I figured that with cheese and sausage it didn’t need any butter on the bread or grease in the pan. It hasn’t. Reducing the amount of cheese and sausage didn’t affect the flavor or texture of the casserole, except perhaps to make it less greasy, which is a good thing.

A great reference book for doing this is called The Volumerics Eating Plan; Techniques and recipes for feeling full on fewer calories, by Barbara Rolls, PH.D. This book even has pictures to show the difference in serving size between the original and the Volumetrics recipes.

If you cannot or will not reduce the calories in your foods, then it is even more vital that you reduce the portion you eat. The Volumetrics plan is attractive because you can eat more food and feel fuller and satisfied while taking in fewer calories. It’s like magic.

But all this takes some work at first, educating yourself on what adjustments work for you and your family, practicing the cooking and allowing enough time for shopping, preparation and experimentation. It would be worth it though, don’t you think? To be able to eat more and enjoy good tasting food while still losing weight? I think so.

Here is a very old recipe, from my Nana Rose (1887-1969) that is tasty and nutritious.

Nana’s Boiled Raisin Cake

From the kitchen of Rose Hansen

Grandmother of Rozann Thoelke

In sauce pan place:

2 cups sugar                          2 cups water or apple juice

¼ cup Cocoa                         1 lb. raisins

¼ cup butter

Boil for 5 minutes, cool, (prepare in the morning and bake later in the day or prepare in the evening and bake the next morning).

When cool add:

3 cups flour (I use 2 white, 1 whole wheat)         ½ tsp cloves

1 tsp salt                                                                    ½ tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder                                               ½ tsp allspice

1 tsp soda                                                                  1 tsp cinnamon

Grease and flour cake pans (2 8x8 square, 2 8” round, or 9x13), pour batter into pans and distribute evenly.

Bake ½ hour at 350°, and ½ hour at 325° or until done, when a toothpick comes out clean.

This cake is so moist and good it doesn’t even need frosting!

If you would rather not use it, leave out the butter, and add ¼ cup oil after the liquid cools and with the dry ingredients.

As you prepare meals allow enough time to think through ways to eliminate calories. Do you have to cook those vegetables with butter?  Does that recipe need mayonnaise and sour cream?  Determine what your favorite fat is (mine is cheese) and see where you can eliminate other fat calories to allow for your favorite. It is not necessary or healthy to give up all fats. Our brains and bodies need some fat to function, but any in excess of our needs goes straight to our waist, hips and thighs. If you want to trim the fat off of those places, take the time to trim the fat off your cuts of meat. Ask the butcher to do it for you too.

I do not believe in trying to find a way to make my favorite desserts low fat or low calorie. We can get much more mouth satisfaction out of the real thing. The trick is to limit portion size and eat slowly to savor each tiny bite. Use your prettiest dishes, a small dessert fork and let each bite linger in your mouth for full flavor and texture enjoyment.

It is possible to eat everything we want, just not in the quantities we are used to. Choose your indulgences carefully and limit portion sizes. Fill up on low calorie foods first. And for goodness sakes let’s not wait until we are desperate and out of control. A binge does not do anyone any good. But, when those times happen, we can look forward to the light of new day and begin again.

NaNoWriMo - Chapter Eight

Just in case you've noticed that I don't use contractions in my NaNoWriMo writing, it's because contractions count as one word so to up the word count, we silly writers don't use them. This is one of the tricks of the trade to reach 50,000 words by the end of the month. Have you ever tried to write 50,000 words either as a story or about one subject? Try it!

Chapter Eight

In Which I Discover My Sin

Do your thoughts ever skip across your mind like a stone across a pond? Recently mine did and it was an enlightening journey. Somehow I got thinking about a woman who joined the Mormon church a few years ago and is a blogger. Her arms are completely covered in tattoo sleeves. She is a wonderful woman, loving, optimistic, faithful, and eternally grateful she found the gospel. But as I thought of her and her tattoos I thought how sad it was that she had defiled her temple.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (See 1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

I thought next that, of course, when she had her tattoos done she did not know any better, and I firmly believe in repentance and forgiveness, so she is safe, I can be accepting of her. The next thought, which came from outside myself, was “you’re not better than her because you have defiled your own temple by letting yourself get fat and lazy.” Ooooh, that hurts. The truth hurts, especially when I am guilty as charged.

No one else is to blame for my condition. I ate the food. I sat on the couch. I let it happen. Darn. It would be so nice to be able to blame someone else.

I do not know who said it, but in the back of my scriptures I wrote, “Abandon all hope of a better past. Repent, move forward, and have hope of a glorious future.”

Have you ever thought about overeating as a sin? Probably not, as most people don’t. But if our bodies are temples shouldn’t we treat them as such? Maintaining them in as good of a condition as we can, fueling them with the best we can procure? And avoiding contaminants and detriments? Can I get an Amen on this? Amen!

In the United States we are surrounded by eating temptations. Shopping at regular grocery stores or stores such as Walmart is a minefield of snacks and candy displayed to tempt us with cheap thrills. Actually, almost every store we enter has snacks and treats displayed for purchase. On the other hand fresh produce seems expensive, and where I live, limited in variety. As for eating out, restaurant portions are gargantuan as well as laced with too much fat and chemical flavor enhancers. Sometimes, as a way to save both money and calories, I will get my husband to split a restaurant meal with me. When we do that we feel better, lighter and fully satisfied. Try it, and surprise yourself.

I have not watched broadcast television at home for twenty-five years, but on a few occasions when I have been in a hotel and turned on the TV I have been bombarded with commercials showing all manner of tempting foods. Not to mention drooling over all the delicious, and sometimes exotic, meals on the Food Network, this being our children’s favorite channel to watch when we are staying in a hotel. It seems that we cannot escape seeing food, hearing about food, reading about food in every magazine, or smelling food wafting from the thousands of restaurants and bakeries that surround us. What would our pioneering ancestors think of all this readily available food; and so much of it junk? I believe they would be astonished beyond all measure. (When we eat out, we regularly give thanks for the convenience of restaurants as we pray over the food.)

How long has the simplicity movement been around? A couple of decades or so? I have read a several simplicity books and do not recall anything about food or eating; but maybe my memory is shredded. I do know that we could save a billion calories (by save I really mean eliminate) each year by simplifying our meals. I also know that if towns and cities were more pedestrian friendly we could use a billion calories by walking more. What’s not to like?

Our bodies would love us. God would be so pleased that we are maintaining our temples. We would be healthy, fit, trim, and beautiful. Beautiful in the sense of a strong healthy body, which is the best kind of beautiful there is.

Portion control is another change one thing at a time example. We have become so accustomed to large portions that we don’t realize how much too much we’re eating. Here are some strategies to re-educate ourselves to correct (meaning healthful) portions.

1. Read labels – how many or how much is a portion, and what is the calorie count. Not that we are counting calories (that’s too tedious) but we are looking at how much is recommended. You can always eat less than the recommended amount, in fact, I highly recommend eating less! But we should not eat more. Prepare to be surprised. I love Fig Newtons and was totally shocked to find that a serving size is one cookie. WHAT? Yep, just one cookie. Information like that leads to adjustments in eating habits. We can no longer sit reading a book, mindlessly eating newton after newton. (Did I just give away another of my sins?) And what about ice cream? Do you know what a half cup of ice cream looks like? Tiny, very tiny, but that is a serving size.

With homemade foods, like casseroles or things that are a conglomeration of foods, we can be safe with guesstimates. Think about how much you normally eat and reduce that by half. Fill the rest of your plate with steamed vegetables or fresh vegetable salads. We can never over eat vegetables.

2. Use measuring cups and spoons, and a kitchen scale – until you have a good idea of what portion sizes look like in a bowl or on your plate. It is surprising how small portions should be because we are so conditioned to over or super sized portions. Practicing this at home and becoming accustomed to what the amount looks like leads to success at restaurants. Measure out cold cereal and milk.

Once I met a woman in line at the commissary (military grocery store) in Virginia. She grabbed a few bags of chips from the display, they were the small, one serving size, and said to me, “These are diet chips.” I must have looked skeptical as she went on to explain that she and her husband would share one of these bags, therefore cutting down their intake and a few chips was just enough to satisfy their craving for crunching and salty. Eating it together kept them honest. Sounded good to me, and I think of her whenever I share a small bag of chips with my husband. By the way, she looked slim and fit, a great advertisement for her practice.

3. Use smaller plates and bowls – so our smaller portions don’t appear so lonely and, well, small. This is a very old dieting trick, but it can work. A half cup of ice cream in a tiny bowl or old-fashioned sherbet cup looks great. The same amount in a cereal or soup bowl looks ridiculous, and we instinctively fill the bowl up to look appealing.

The only time to use a bigger plate or bowl is when you’re having a vegetable salad. I have made myself salads the size I would normally serve to my family with dinner, and eaten the whole thing for lunch. Vegetables are so low calorie and so dense with nutrition that we can eat loads without danger of over eating. Just measure the dressing you put on it. That is where the calories are, along with toppings like cheese, bacon bits, sunflower seeds, beans, and things like that. Measure those things, but don’t worry about too eating too much chopped vegetables.

4. Do not drink your calories – sodas, fruit juice, milk and any other drinks, other than water, have calories. Read the labels and put limits on how much you drink. Hydrate with pure water. And do not think that drinking calorie less sodas, or sports drinks is helping. Those chemical cocktails are bad business. Avoid them as if they were poison, because they are.

Those are my main strategies for portion control. Read labels, use measuring tools, use smaller dishes, and do not use up calories on non-nutritious drinks.

NaNoWriMo - Chapter Seven

Just a reminder - This is a rough (very rough), quickly written, draft for a month long writing marathon called National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo.

Chapter Seven

One Small and Simple Change

I do not remember giving much thought to how much water I drank before I got pregnant the first time. I think I just drank fluid when I was thirsty, and water was something I drank when there wasn’t anything else. I grew up drinking lots of milk at the table, and water from the water fountain on the back porch that my parents installed to allow us a drink without dirtying another glass.

When I was pregnant I learned that I needed lots of water to “keep the swimming pool full” for my growing baby. We acquired one of those dispensers that held the five gallon bottles. I drank more but didn’t keep track (that I can remember, it was a long time ago!). I do remember learning to like the refreshing, clean taste of plain water. I got used to it. They say that beer, wine, and hard liquor are acquired tastes. I would not know because I have never tasted them. But if them, why not plain water? Our tastes can become accustomed to just about anything we eat or drink repeatedly.

Over the years I have tried different strategies to count how much water I am drinking each day to ensure I am getting sufficient for my needs. I have made tally marks on a paper or sticky note put up near the sink; I have used a pile of beans to move from one side of the window sill to the other (that did not work so well because with all the interruptions from little people I would forget which way I was going since I thought it would be easiest to alternate each day, oh bother); the best device or system I have come up with is to fill a gallon jug each morning and drink it by the time I go to bed, which is easy in the summer, harder in the winter. I have the jug on the kitchen counter with a glass next to it and anytime I am in the kitchen I pour a glassful and guzzle it down. In the winter when I don’t feel as thirsty I set a timer so that I’m drinking a glass of water each hour. The glass holds about ten ounces (to where I fill it) and it takes twelve or thirteen swallows to get it all down. I drink it all at once, then smack my lips! It tastes good and is like watering a droopy flower, very reviving.

When the water from the tap is not the tastiest I have added a slice of lemon to the gallon jug to make the water more palatable. Some like their water ice cold, if so, store the jug in the fridge with a big sign on the front of the fridge to remind you to actually drink it during the day. This is one habit I have down pat and I notice the difference if I don’t get enough to drink.

Why is water so important to our health and especially do losing weight? Funny you should ask, I will tell you what I have learned. Jorge Cruise, of the “8 Minutes in the Morning” fame explains:

   When you increase you intake of water, your stomach never gets empty. Consequently, you will not have to eat as much food to feel satisfied. Bottom line: Water is an essential, calorie-free secret to feeling satisfied and happy throughout the day.

   Why else is water so critical to your weight loss? Well, remember what I said about vegetables being water rich foods? [No, but go on.] A glass of water obviously counts, too. And remember that in order for your lean muscle tissue to burn fat, it needs oxygen to help convert the fat into energy. When you drink a glass of water, you will dramatically increase your oxygen levels, improving your metabolism.

   And probably the most powerful side effect of drinking more water is that your body will operate more efficiently and properly [something we all want, right?]. We all have a series of blood vessels that carry nutrients and oxygen-rich red blood all over our bodies. When you are dehydrated, you start to feel tired because your blood thickens and your heart consequently must work harder to pump blood throughout your body. End result: Oxygen and nutrients don’t travel as quickly to your muscles and other organs that need them.

   Here’s something else. Anytime you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. You simply can’t rely on your thirst to tell you when to drink a glass of water [this thirst mechanism dries up, if you’ll pardon the pun, as we age so it is even more important to have a system to remind us to drink more water!]. That’s why I recommend you drink one glass of water each hour throughout your day [followed by a trip to the potty each hour]. When you do this, you will boost your energy level and decrease your appetite.

   Though you may have seen recommendations to drink eight-8 ounce glasses of water a day, I suggest you drink much more. Rather than an 8 ounce glass, use a pint glass (16 ounces) and fill it every hour. That is a total of 128 ounces [one gallon] before you leave work and head for home.

   That might sound like a lot, but your life will change for the better, and your waistline will soon see the difference [especially if you give up sodas at the same time].

   Of course, with all this extra water consumption, you will be making some new visits to the bathroom, [ya think?], but that is good. Think of those extra trips to the bathroom as walking time, as your bonus stress reducer, and workout for your heart!

(8 Minutes in the Morning for Extra-Easy Weight Loss, Jorge Cruise, pgs 99-100)

We have a family joke around here that no matter what is wrong with you, Mom will tell you that you need to drink more water. Headache? Drink more water. Stomach ache? Drink more water. Broken leg? Drink more water. I told you it was a joke. Except that I do preach unceasingly that water is the key to health, and I set a good example by drinking a gallon a day.

One rule of thumb (where did that phrase come from?) is to take your weight and divide that number in half; that is the number of ounces of fluid you should have each day. So I weigh 198, well, actually today is Saturday and I weighed in at 196, so I will use that number, divided in half is 98, so 98 ounces of fluid. Not quite a gallon, but in this case a little more doesn’t hurt you, especially when it is warm or when we have been exercising vigorously as we should be.

Water rich foods like vegetables, fruits, and clear soups (as opposed to cream soups) all count toward your quota each day. So if you don’t like to drink plain water, add lots of veggies to you plate and that can help make up the ounces. (But don’t ask me how much.)

Carbonated sodas are almost the worst drink you can have. Diet sodas are probably the worst drinks. New studies show that diet sodas cause problems with the gut bacteria which in turn causes insulin resistance, which causes obesity and diabetes. Why would you drink that stuff? Look it up, the information is out there. Nasty, nasty stuff.

I do not imbibe coffee, tea, or alcoholic beverages so those are not a problem for me. Use wisdom and calorie counts to keep track of how much you can have. (Coffee and tea don’t have calories, but the things you add to them do, so carefully count them.)

Likewise I will not weigh in (what a phrase) on whether or not to drink milk and what kind. I drink 1% store bought milk. If I could, I would buy whole, raw milk for its beneficial properties, but it is illegal to sell it in Iowa so I do without. I feel better when I drink milk as I seem to need the calcium. Yes, we can get that mineral from other sources, but I like to think of cows as calcium concentrators. She eats a ton of greens and concentrates their calcium so that I can get it in an eight ounce glass of deliciousness.

The first change to your habits can be a simple one, straight from the Mom’s mouth: Drink more water!

NaNoWriMo - Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Signs of the Times

When I visited our daughter in Korea I was impressed with some motivational quotes she had up on her mirror. I copied them into my notebook and made up my own signs when I got home.

The one that impressed me the most was this one:

Fitness is 20% exercise and 80% nutrition. You can’t out run your fork!

Amen, sister. Especially as we age and our metabolism slows down. It takes less to keep us going but we continue to eat what we did at a younger age and all that excess food ends up as excess flab hanging from our arms, rolled around our torso, and blobbing down our legs. It is not a pretty picture.

There are formulas to figure out how many calorie you need to maintain your current weight. One of them stated that if you aren’t exercises vigorously for more than 30 minutes, five or six times each week, you have a sedentary lifestyle. Yep, that’s me. And sedentary bodies need far fewer calories than marathon runners.

Consider this: a regular sized candy bar has somewhere between 200 and 250 calories in it (depending on which one you choose). You’ve got to walk for a whole hour at a three mile per hour pace to burn that off. What if I eat an extra 1,000 calories? Who has time to go for a brisk four hour long walk? Not me, that is for sure. It takes too much exercise just to stay even, let alone try to lose the excess, if I keep overeating. This is where portion control is valuable, and I will address that in more excruciating detail later.

Another motivational sign above Liz’s sink said “There is no diet that will do what healthy eating does. Skip the diet and just eat healthy.” I will add “And not emotionally,” which is what I tend to do. A “diet” can be thought of as a hare approach, swift, but not permanent. The tortoise approach is a slow, steady change of habits that is permanent and a winner. What makes this difficult is there is so much information available that it is challenging to read or study it all and so much of it is conflicting that who knows what is correct.  We will get to that later too.

The third motivational sign was a good one for me: If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results. Now we are talking! It reminding me a verse in the Book of Mormon that could be paraphrased to say “. . .by small and simple changes are great results brought to pass.” (See Alma 37:6) This fits with the concept of the tortoise plan, slow and steady changes. If we stop and think for a moment, we didn’t suddenly wake up one day and look at ourselves in the mirror and say “Where the heck did all of this come from, I won’t fit in any of my size _____ today. What happened?” No, it crept up on us ounce by ounce barely noticeable at first, but after ten pounds or so our clothes were tight and we bought a bigger size. And so on until we are an enormous size and wishing it was not so. I have often fantasized about going to sleep one night and waking up in my former body, the slim and trim one I used to have. Nice fantasy right? Not going to happen, but hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?

In all my attempting (or trying) to lose weight I studied a bit about habits and how to change them. I think I have found that it is about the same as everything else. What works for one person does not necessarily work for another. The only constant being a firm commitment to the change, and a persistence beyond momentary failure.

When my children have struggled to learn a new skill and complained that it is hard, I have reminded them that they learned how to both walk and talk. Did they give up when it was hard to learn those two things? No. Did they quit with the first stumble or stutter? No. Okay then, you can do hard things and persistence and consistency will win in the end. Oh, good advice for me.

As I was pondering one day about what other habits I have that give me what I want I decided on this one:

I want a clean kitchen so I do dishes daily.

I want a slim, fit body so I eat nutritionally and exercise daily.

That is my own motivational sign. Getting what I want is a matter of doing what I have to do to get it. There is no magic fantasy granting fairy god mother to wave her sparkly wand and wake me up in the body I want. I have to do it myself, day by day. Because of that thought I came up with another sign for my wall of motivation.

The choices I make today determine what I will look and feel like tomorrow.

My goal is to be a healthy, active woman, wife, mother and grandmother.

(I am not a grandmother yet, just planning ahead.)

My outcome is a result of my choices. I have made other good choices in my life, such as protecting my fair skin from the sun. I have used sunscreen and worn broad brimmed hats and long sleeves for all my adult years. Several doctors have told me that my skin is in beautiful shape for my age. They marvel that there is so little sun damage. So I know I can do things that are good for me. It is simply a matter of choice.

The last sign I have up is made of three reminders. I will try to explain them and their importance to me.

The first one comes from a talk by Clayton Christensen telling about being on the basketball team at a university in England where he was studying and having a winning season. They got to the playoffs and the game was to be on Sunday. Previously he had made a decision to not play on Sunday. Now he was under pressure to do so. He pondered and prayed about it, finally deciding not to play, but to honor his commitment to keep the Sabbath day holy. As he thought about playing he tried to rationalize that it was just this once and it was extenuating circumstances so it was justified. He felt the Spirit whisper to him that there will always be extenuating circumstances and that it was better to just be obedient. So he was, and his team won without him. For himself he was strengthened for all the subsequent situations of extenuating circumstances where he was tempted to violate the commandments and standards that he had covenanted to keep.

1. There will always be extenuating circumstances.

The second reminder is from my Book of Mormon hero Nephi. When his father, the prophet Lehi, tells him of the commandment of the Lord to return to Jerusalem and get the Brass Plates, unlike his older brothers who complained of the difficulties involved, Nephi submitted and said “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” (See 1 Nephi 3:7) Nephi went and did and was successful. I can do the same.

2. Be like Nephi: “I will go and do!”

Another hero of mine is the modern prophet, Joseph Smith. He was an instrument in the hands of the Lord to restore and re-establish the Church of Jesus Christ in its fulness. Joseph faced tremendous challenges and persecution, finally being martyred at the age of thirty-eight. He remained cheerful and steadfast throughout. He accomplished more in his short years than most in double or more the amount of years. At one point when persecution was especially bad he wrote a letter, while falsely imprisoned, to the saints outlining their duties. He concluded saying:

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, for his arm to be revealed. (See Doctrine and Covenants 123:17)

I do not have power over others (like my husband and children) to change their desires and eating habits to be more compatible with mine. I have to allow them the freedom to choose and act according to their desires. I cannot change the weather so I can go for a walk outside every day of the year. I cannot grow a garden year round or grow citrus or other warm weather fruit trees here in Iowa. In fact we move so often that I have not lived in a place long enough to plant a fruit tree and see it reach maturity. Still, there is much that I can choose to do to be healthy if I choose to do so.

3. Be like Joseph: “. . . let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power.”

The other papers on my motivational wall include an enlargement of the size measurement chart from a sewing pattern envelope to show me where I am and where I want to be; and a graph-paper chart of my weight taken each Saturday morning of the year. That has been helpful as a visual of my ups and downs. I would have liked it to all be downs, but at least I know where I am. It was a first step to changing habits, and I will make a new chart in January and keep going, with greater hope for the consistently downward line I want to see.

Each of has to find the interior motivation that best suits our personality. For me it is a challenge to meet the needs of my family which differ from mine, but at least if I acknowledge the differences I can do what is necessary to accommodate those differing needs.