Hello again, blog...

Hello again blog. It's been a long time, three years to be exact, since we last saw each other. You came across my Facebook memories this morning and I decided to check up on you and see what 29 year old me had written to you in what seems like another life. So much has changed and yet everything remains the same as I read through my thoughts. It was comforting to see that in three years, a speck in the grand scheme of things, my values have remained intact despite feeling as though I've lost myself in the relationships that have come and gone, the hobbies I once had and the now broken plans that I so painstakingly made and changed time and again. Hidden among the ruins, however, I see that I am still here and these ruins are blocks from a once impenetrable prison of self. I am different but not lost. I am changed but not for the worse. Life has a way of taking us on this meandering path of highs and lows, fears and victories and skewing our view of the journey to make it seem as though we haven't chased our dreams or reached our goals. We're cursed with remembering so vividly how we felt when we lost but not how we felt when we conquered. Looking back on a simple piece of writing I realized, I have arrived at my destination so many times. I've made it. I've accomplished it. Time and time again, I've felt the highs we seem to search our whole life for. I firmly believe that people and circumstances are placed in our lives for a purpose. It sounds so cliche but as I look back, I know that every single obstacle, victory, love, inconvenience, disappointment I've ever encountered is priming me for the next and the next. Hidden in the smallest things are the most profound messages about our existence if we just have the courage to look. As I look back over my younger thoughts, I think about what my older self will need, how she may need to read what was written today just as I needed to read what was written so many yesterdays ago. So I leave you with this, dear blog, in the hopes that you'll save it for the day I need it most: Fate has a way of putting in front of us, that which we try most to leave behind. Don't hide your scars or brush off your failures. Stop hiding from the past and trying to escape the reality of your future. You're okay. You've been okay for a long time and nothing that you experience or endure is going to change that you are good and kind and worthy and valuable down to the deepest part of your soul. No matter what changes, you're still the same you and I can't wait to meet you.

The Magic Pill

Now don't get me wrong, I love all my ladies that sell Zija, It Works, and Body by Vi but I'm going to tell you right now that those products alone are not going to get you anywhere. Women have 1,000,000 excuses for why they can't lose weight. They say "oh I'm just not motivated", "I really like to eat", "I'm just big boned" or "I've tried everything and nothing works for me". You can even witness amazing results in testimonials but you're never going to get anywhere and stay there as far as weight loss if you don't put some work behind  it.  Everybody's looking for the easy way out. A diagnosis, an answer, someone to make them skinny. We pay millions each year to get results that are short lived and impossible to maintain. Seems like people don't want to face the facts and admit that you can't lose weight by drinking an energy supplement when your calorie intake is 4000 calories a day and you sit at a desk until you come home and crash on the couch. There is no magic pill on the market. In the words of Joe Rogan, "that magic pill is just hard work".
I constantly have friends ask me how do you stay so skinny? I usually reply with "I'm just really lucky" and the partial truth is I am. But the thing is I would be wasting my breath if I told them how I keep my body the way I keep it because they automatically assume that I was blessed with good genes and I don't have to work for it. Now I'll be the first to admit that I've never been overweight. However I have had the same problem that most women face . After having my children, 3 of them to be exact, I struggled to lose the dreaded "baby belly". 5 years of childbearing had left my body soft and lacking in muscle. I've always been very active so I've never really had excess weight but I could tell that my body wasn't the same as it was before I had children. Granted I was younger then and probably more active. In terms of weight I was just slightly over my ideal body weight but in terms of body fat percentage, stamina, endurance and muscle tone I was definitely not where I wanted to be. And that's really what weight loss is all about. Being where you want to be in terms of happiness with your body. You can be 5 foot 2 and 110 pounds and still be very unhealthy. Just like someone who is 5 foot 8 and 200 pounds can be very healthy. When I say healthy I'm speaking in terms of body fat percentage, lean muscle mass and unseen factors like cholesterol levels and hypertension. Many people have underlying medical issues contributing to their weight like thyroid issues, diabetes or medication side effects. More often than not, these are in accurate diagnoses or can be remedied by weight loss. Either way, it doesn't have to be a death sentence.
Of course this makes the problem of weight loss sounds very complicated but here's the deal and anyone who knows what they're talking about will tell you the exact same thing and all of us know that nobody wants to hear: the only way to lose weight is limit your calorie intake and exercise.. Wow that sounds really simple right? So why is everybody wasting their money on products to give you energy and eating the same amount of food and doing less exercise. Seems like if this stuff really did what they claim, we'd all be skinny.
Now, just like all these weight loss products I mention, there are millions of complex diet out there and methods to eating healthier, exercising and leading an overall better lifestyle. This makes it easy for us to give up on our goals of losing weight, building muscle and being healthy. Maybe subconsciously we try these methods knowing we will fail so that we can say "see it didn't work for me; I'm a lost cause". Just like anything else, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. I think the key to reaching the goal of watching your calorie intake and exercising more is not the method but just doing it wholeheartedly. There are tons of calorie calculators out there that will help you count your calories and tell you what you need to maintain your current body weight and what you need to lose weight.
Another common misconception is that active people are getting enough exercise. I know plenty of people who are very active as far as their daily lives but the exercise you do to lose weight has to be over and above what you're already doing. Just as no two bodies are the same, no two lifestyles are the same . So if you are an avid gardener and walker who gets up in the morning and goes to work all day then comes home, cleans house, works in the garden and takes an evening walk then that is normal for you. Somewhere in there you have to find time for some cardio or some light lifting. Usually our daily activities don't get our heart rate up enough to actually burn calories at a substantial rate to lose weight. Now with all that information at your disposal what are you going to do with it? I hope that I haven't wasted my breath because this isn't about me preaching about being skinny, it's about all the women, my friends and family included, who have tried all the snake oil they can handle and have seen no results. Ladies, and gentleman as well, we over complicate everything in our lives. Simplify. I promise your actions will translate into everything else you do. Keep an open mind yet be critical of things that suggest you can take one pill a day and lose 10 pounds. That pill is just hard work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-pPOQFHJtk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Somebody should really help that person...but not me.

What is about our society that we don't just help each other anymore? I'm not even going to get into the mushy feeling that comes from doing a good deed because we're all so desensitized to that. We've become such a cynical nation. We look at people and think they look dirty or they need to get their teeth fixed or what are they wearing. Even passing someone on the highway with a flat tire we think "glad that's not me" instead of "I should pull over and help them". No I'm not the only one who thinks these kind of things. Yes, admittedly, I see people all the time and immediately pass judgement. I judge a book by its cover. I'm guilty. I see someone broken down on the highway and pass them by without question. I think "well, they're probably an axe murderer or a serial killer, I hear the words of my mother in my head saying "don't pick up that hitchhiker he might be a rapist". We can say its the media, the rising crime rate, the few who abuse the system, those who have wronged us but we can't change that we keep turning a blind eye to those who could really just use a break, a kind word or a smile. We don't trust strangers and everyone around us has become a stranger. We isolate ourselves by ostracizing everyone else. In a country that was supposed to be founded on the concept of taking in the weak, the hungry, the less fortunate: we sure have come a long way.