Weight

I must start this out by acknowledging that I am NOT a Doctor. What I write here is based on personal opinion and experience...I have no medical expertise. Thanks :)

Not everybody is made to be a size 3, a size 6, or even a size 8. Furthermore, no one can ever look like Barbie, there have been actual studies done on it. So, once i was able to decide what I didn't NEED to look like, I took the preassure off myself. There are three things i don't do in order to be happy with the body I have...

1. I don't diet
2. I don't have a scale in the house
3. I don't look at fashion magazines

There are also three things I DO in order to be happy with the body I have:

1. Enjoy what you eat
2. Eat freequently throughout the day
3. Take lots of deep breaths

Now, there are several other things I do as well, that help; those are just the main three.
Anyway, starting with what i don't do...

When you "Diet," your mind is trying to remember everything you DON'T want to eat so that you avoid it... but the more you're trying to remember that you don't want to eat certain things, the more you're tempted...because you're thinking about it all the time.

It's the perfect "recipe" for failure, I think. You resolve not to eat something, and just when you're about to chew the uppolstry off furniture, you replace that with the food you didn't want to eat (at least that leaves a good taste in your mouth). :)
There's a second reason I don't diet, and that's because I've read in several books, that when we don't eat frequently, our brain tells our body to store up fat because... who knows how long it will be before you eat again... you're starving yourself because you're dieting, right?

It's a survival thing... your body doesn't burn the calories because it might need that energy for later...it stores it up.
I've read that if we eat smaller meals throughout the day, the energy is burned more frequently, rather than stored in the body and turned into fat.

Scales are not found in my house because I will not set myself up for disappointment. I don't weigh myself. This way there's no let down... no disappointment... no depresson. The numbers I look at are Bible verses and ingredients in recipes... because these numbers give me joy, rather than angst. "But how will I know when I've actually lost weight?," you ask.

I knew when people started telling me! To me, the word of mouth was a lot better than the scale! :)
(Maybe the numbers that give you joy are lottery numbers; find something you can "add up" that has nothing to do with the scale).

Pictures in "Women's" magazines are airbrushed and cropped. In other words, they are altered and unreal. Good news! That means it's not necessary to try and shoot for their unrealistic standars-- not even the WOMEN in those pictures look like that!

(Men, keep that in mind, if you would :)
Find some "National Geographic," "Smithsonian," or even some good recipe magazines! Keep these on your coffee table instead. Start a travel journal, or put together some photo albums... these make great conversation pieces, and the pictures are real!

Now for the things that I do...

Enjoy what you eat! I cannot stress this enough! Allow yourself to love food! Don't punish yourself for doing something we not only have to do to live... but we were meant to enjoy...

"Eat, drink and be merry!"

It breaks my heart when people punish themselves for eating: They call themselves "Pig," or "Bad Girl," and say "I really shouldn't"; or they go on about how their diet is wrecked. So sad, because then eating becomes this terrible thing. Some punishment that they hate, but they must inflict, because who can live without eating, right? Even worse, they'll make bargains with themselves: " I'll spend more time @ the gym," "I'll skip dinner tomorrow", and then they'll eat more calories so they don't feel deprived-- but it's been my experience that this isn't good for the body or the mind.

Okay, I've read it in books and seen it on many talk shows: Stress causes Cortisol (stress hormone) to build up, which is connected (aparently) to weight gain. I think if we're always worried about gaining weight, we stress ourselves out, right? And the body stores up fat, because we're "worried" about gaining weight. We create what we fear, right? So enjoy what you eat! :)

Eat Frequently throughout the day. I think usually when people starve themselves, they feel as though they are telling their body to behave. They imagine all the weight they believe they are losing, and it's (in a sense) empowering. But I've heard many people say that they are trying to loose weight, they are skipping meals, and it doesn't seem to be working. (in fact, they gain weight). Eat little bits throughout the day. This is what I do, and I 've never felt deprived, and my weight has remained reasonable. Another advantage is that you're not starving yourself, so... when I eat M&M's for example, I don't "overload"on them because I'm not starving to begin with On that same note, i think a mistake people make is that they try to compensate; meaning that they will load up on unhealthy food NOW meaning to spend extra time a t the gym later.
I feel that eating more frequent meals (smaller meals) keeps us fuller, and so, we can avoid the guilt.

Take deep breaths... yes... you're reading that right. Deep breaths help us relax. Having done a lot of singing, this is something I certainly know to be true. Take breaks dring the day, and intentionally concentrate on your breathing for a few minutes. Inhale as deeply as you can, through your nose, rather than your mouth. You'll get a much deeper breath through your nose; air coming only from the mouth is actually very shallow. Let the air actually fill your diaphram... let it expand, and slowly let it out. Just take five to ten minutes at a time, and do this a couple times (if possible) in the day. This, for me, has been the most amazing stress reliever, cleanser, refresher... and it seems to help the body repair itself, and keeps my stress level down; which helps me maintain my weight.

A few other things that work for me are:

Not going grocery shopping when I'm hungry. This way, I don't want to buy and eat everything in the store... too much temptation!

Laughing... A LOT!! No kidding, I once heard on the news that 100 "Laughs" (ha ha ha) is equal to 10 minutes of rowing. Don't know who made up the stat... bu the good news is, it can't hurt you :)

Eat REAL stuff, rather than artificial whenever you can. According to Dr. Don Colbert, we are the most over fed, undernourished country there is, because we fill our bodies with so many artificial things. Ironically, the food that has the most artificial stuff in it, is usually the "diet" or reduced fat stuff. Real ingredients are stripped out and replaced with that which is supposed be lower in sugar, fat, calories, etc., but our bodies are not able to properly process these things. This is also according to author Kevin Trudeau "Natural Cures" and "More Natural Cures"
(They don't want you to know about).
(Don Colbert's book is called "Toxic Releif").

Here's one that will shock you: I never exercise right after I eat.

I once heard on TV that when we get really physically active right after eating, all of our oxygen and energy goes toward our mucsels that we are working so hard to keep from gaining weight. Apparently, the trouble is that we can't propperly digest the food we just ate, so it sits in our digestive tract, and actually...is stored as fat! I've heard that it's best to rest a little bit 25 to 30 minutes (Don Colbert). Take a little nap, kick back a little, then become active again after that. This way your body can digest your food first.

One last thing that works for me: Have one or two "pleasures"... not "guilty" pleasures... PLEASURES. Mine are chocolate and Pepsi (regualr, never diet). Yep. This way, I/you have something to look forward to, and there's no feeling of desperation... for me, there's no anxiety about eating too much of it because I haven't denied myself in the first place. For me. the mind set works. I know it's "allowed," so there's no need to go overboard with it.

But i think the most important thing is really to set reasonable goals for yourself. I've had to learn to have patience with myself and allow myself to be imperfect (join the human race :) But ladies, celebrate who you are... and be proud :)