Watch what you eat

The BF (oops I mean BT, betrothed) and I have undergone the brilliant endeavor of joining weight watchers in order to get our eating and drinking habits in check. They have unconsciously gotten a bit out of hand. You know how it is when you’re in love, right? Drinking a little more wine, eating out a bit more, eating larger portions (it’s hard to cook only for two) and generally not paying attention can add on the pounds and make you unaware of what you consume.

That’s where WW comes in. I have always been a huge fan of the weight watchers system because it's all about portion control. You eat what you want but pay attention to how much, which is something I have lost track of. Did you know that a serving of pasta is only the size of your hand? That’s insane. I could eat enough spaghetti to fill both hands and feet and then some. A serving of cheese is the size of 2 dice. Now that’s not to say you don’t eat the entire wheel but know that you’re eating 25 servings.

The tricky thing is how to figure out how many servings you’re supposed to eat in a day in order to maintain health and keep oneself from packing on the freshman 15, or in my case the fiancé 5. Now I have always been a giant believer in mindful eating and paying attention to your body to know when your hungry/what to eat etc. but sometimes when you’re busy it’s hard to pay attention and that’s why the BT and I have decided to enlist help.

There are tons of ways you can learn how much you need to eat. The USDA has a fabulous site called www.mypyramid.gov that explains healthy eating and portion control and there is even a tracker so you can track what you’re eating and pay attention. Most of the time I don’t even realize I’m snaking on food at work unless I am writing it down and actually paying attention. Also I was recently introduced by an awesome colleague of mine (Mary-Ellen Di Paola; the best dietitian I know) to Harvard's own version of the governments' healthy plate. www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/

It is extremely informative and I think Harvard did a great job.

This week I would love everyone to start paying attention to what they consume. Maybe you will find that you don’t eat enough. If you look at your day and realize that your food intake consists of 7 cups of coffee and a muffin until dinner, it might explain those afternoon headaches. Maybe you aren’t reading a label and instead of one serving in your Trader Joe's salad, it’s 2. (I did that)

If paying attention drives you crazy or makes you a neurotic mess then please disregard this message and go back to mindful eating. You can read more about that here: wellnesswithsarah.blogspot.com/2010/05/in-fog.html Otherwise, have a great week and Bon Appétit’

Be Good to your Body, it's where you Live

Piece de resistance

As many of you may or may not know I recently became engaged to be married. It's thrilling. I am overjoyed and incredibly excited to be starting on this new and exciting adventure. I have jumped in with both feet. I bought three bridal magazines and a book entitled, "The busy brides handbook for planning a wedding." I am really good at organizing and hostessing so I was pretty certain that book or no book planning a wedding couldn't be that hard, right?

Wrong! Planning a wedding is incredibly in depth and complicated and anyone who has planned one will undoubtably have some horror stories. From venues to guest lists to favors and vows there are so many minute details involved that it would take a bride of steel not to get stressed out at some point in the process.

The fiance' and I were discussing said stresses the other night and after my regularly scheduled panic attack, I remembered what the wedding is about. We are planning an event to celebrate our love and connect our two worlds and families together. Whether that event is at a BBQ in our backyard or at the country club of the moment, it will still be about connection. Part of that connection is the planning of said day. Doing the prep work to create the piece de resistance.

It's a bit like preparing a meal. Going to the farmers market and picking out the fruits and vegetables. Using your budgeted monies to decide which items to buy. Finding a recipe and washing and preparing the ingredients. Putting love and fun into creating a meal you then share with your friends, family or self.

It's also like the journey of exercise. Our exercise goals don't just miraculously appear. We have to plan them and work at them. We have to get our butts outside to walk and make our way to gyms and sports teams. But is the process of getting there becoming half the stress? If you are stressing yourself to the gym are you negating some of the benefit? I don't know, but it makes sense to me that stressing out over the preparation of health can't be good for you.

It's the same way I am trying to think about my nuptuals. Am I fostering connection and love by stressing out over tables and chairs? Probably not. Am I progressing my health by freaking out over the workout schedule in my day planner? Probably not. Am I nurturing my waistline by being aggravated in the supermarket? Probably not.

This week let's all try (myself as always included) to make the journey part of the end result. Being now by taking some deep breaths and realizing that you are exactly where you should be and each step is part of the meal.

Breaking Bread

I recently finished reading the book, Eating Well for Optimum Health, by Andrew Weil. I found it on a shelf in a used book store and thought, “why not?” It was the best purchase I have made in awhile and it was only 75 cents. It is a great book! Dr. Weil has v few opinions in the book; he just tells it like it is. “This is what we know, and this is what we don’t know.” He goes through the most common fad diets and explains exactly what the scientific pros and cons are and he never recommends any of them. There was lots of practical information for me regarding autoimmune diseases but there was also a lot of really interesting information for anyone wondering a little more about nutrition and how our bodies use carbohydrates, fat and protein. I highly recommend it.

What had to be my most favorite part of the book however was a story not by Dr. Weil but by Ronald Koetzsch from Camaraderie is the Best Diet.

Mr. Koetzsch tells a story of his time visiting friends when he chose to abstain from the frivolity of the meal because he wanted to “be healthy”. He fell asleep listening to the sounds of laughter and chatter and awoke not feeling triumphant or self-righteous but feeling left out and groggy.

Did you know that the word companion comes from the word panis, which means bread? A companion was someone with whom you would “break bread”. There is also a Japanese phrase for intimate companion, which translates to, one who eats rice from the same bowl.

Mr. Koetzsch explains, “When food is blessed by being shared, by being eaten in fellowship and laughter…all food is health food.”

I agree!

How many times do you eat your lunch sharing and chatting with your friends? Is it more likely you will spend it checking emails? How many nights is dinner in front of the TV? How often is breakfast a rushed and hectic affair?

I say, “Turn off the TV! Log off the PC (or MAC if you’re like me) and share your meal with someone close to you or someone you’d like to be closer to.”

Savor the experience of eating instead of trying desperately to get it over with. Granted this is a lot easier at suppertime but I have faith that we can make it happen for other meals too. Maybe you can pal up with a friend from work and offer to bring lunch for the both of you. The next day they can do the same. You will get the opportunity to try something new and enjoy a mini party mid day.

Even if you live alone (me) and there is no one to share breakfast with, you can still savor the enjoyment of eating by paying attention to your food. Actually taste it and chew it well. Put on some music or enjoy the silence and relish the first meal of the day. This is what will fuel you; give it the respect it deserves by focusing on it and remembering it.

“He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.”
— Henry David Thoreau

Health is a Battlefield

Many moons ago my mom gave me some advice concerning relationships. She said, “Sarah, pick your battles.” I looked up at her naively, “But mama, I am never going to have a fight in my relationship, it’s going to be perfect.” Little did I know, even prince charming is going to piss you off once in awhile and now I know what she meant: Not every fight is worth fighting. Sometimes, you just have to let go and give in. Pick the fights that mean something to you, or rather, pick the ones that mean the most something because they will all mean a little something.

I feel the same way about nutrition.

There are so many do’s and don’ts. There are just so many. Can you even digest them all? There is so much information out there and I am reading it every single day. I know you are too. Sometimes you even read it from me. J That’s why I pick my battles.

Stay away from canned foods. Stay away from processed foods. Eat coconut oil and salmon. Don’t eat salmon. Don’t eat tuna. Take more vitamin B. Don’t eat meat. Eat meat. Don’t eat anything with a name you can’t pronounce. Eat fiber, no really, eat more fiber, and why not take a fiber supplement. Coffee is evil. Tea is good. Wine is good. Only drink luke-warm Brita water and food that came from a farm down the street and fruit that wasn’t picked but merely fell from a tree and chicken made from soy that tastes like beef and never forget to eat your acai berries. Or wait, was it blueberries? And for Heavens sake stay away from artificial sweeteners. I am sure you can think of about 800 more.

Do you really want to fight all those battles? Maybe you do. Maybe they all mean a little something to you. But do they all mean a lot of something to you?

I think the way that you mediate between the a lots and the a littles is by figuring out why you are worrying about them in the first place.

Are you trying to lower your cholesterol? Is the number one priority on your list to lose weight or have strong bones? Are you trying to gain weight or muscle? Are you worried about your heart or your lungs? Are you trying to prevent cancer and other illnesses? Why are you worried? Is it because you saw an ad on TV that told you to be worried? Is it because you read a book that said, “be afraid”? Is it because your doctor told you or you read about a study in science daily? Is it just an innate sense of health that keeps you wanting to strive to be the healthiest you can be, or do you just want all around general good health?

All of these questions will yield a different battle.

My battle is with an inflamed wrist that seems to act up when I eat too many processed inflammatory foods. That is a battle worth fighting for me. That means that I am not really that concerned about whether my water is filtered or my vegetables are organic. What I am concerned about is how much sugar and processed chemicals I consume. I recently watched Food Inc and it scarred me for life so now I will only eat organic meat and dairy. I am fighting that battle all the way to the bank (man organic meat is expensive) but I am not worrying about the cholesterol in said meat. I am eating it anyway, fat, cholesterol and all. I love, love, love vegetables so I eat them in abundance every day. As for the processed foods, there are these ice cream bars chock full of chemicals that I absolutely adore. Do I refrain completely because of said wrist? No, sometimes that is a battle I'm not going to fight.

I do not have the time, wallet or fear to eat all organic, stop eating meat, alcohol, coffee or aspartame completely. I eat food out of cans; sometimes I drink soda, most of the time I am pretty healthy…except when I’m not.

See what I mean? Being healthy doesn’t mean fighting every food battle. Sometimes we need to give in, read: eat skinny cow. Sometimes we need to fight and we need to say, no, I will not be having seconds/eating that non-organic potato/drinking that diet soda/eating while watching TV.

The point is that we need to figure it out for ourselves.

We know what we can and want to do. We are the only people in our relationship with ourselves and so we are the only ones who know which battles are worth the fight.

Walking with Lalane

I would be surprised if someone reading this hadn’t heard of Jack Lalane. He’s the guy who was always trying to sell us juicers late at night, right after Cindy Crawford tries to improve my skin and George Foreman insists I start grilling more. I am sure you know him. He’s famous for much more than juicers though. He is the original fitness guru convert. He was a junk food addict and at age 15 heard Paul Bragg (who makes the best salad dressing in the universe by the way) speak and it changed his life. It was all health after that. Jack invented some of the first weight machines and opened a gym in our very own Oaktown. He was a chiropractor, body builder and health extraordinaire. He recently died at the age of 96 (just last week) and in memory of his amazing contributions to the world of health I am dedicating this weeks wellness update to him.

When thinking of what aspect of Jack to write about, a girlfriend mentioned the health of Jack’s wife, Elaine. “Did you know she was a smoker, overweight and eating donuts for breakfast every day when jack met her?”

Jack was so into Elaine that he fell for her, tobacco and all and they started dating. Elaine began to change her habits because of spending so much time with Jack. They would exercise together regularly. She started eating better and eventually quit smoking. I am not saying that in order to be healthy you need to marry a health nut but it makes sense that spending time with a healthy person could eventually rub off on you.

Think about it in the opposite direction. If you are going out to dinner with a group of friends and the majority of your friends want to eat pizza, it’s going to pretty hard to say, “No! I want something healthier.” It’s much easier to say, “Oh, I will just order a salad and have one slice.” You compromise to fit the majority. If you are with a group of health nuts all vying for a nutritious meal, it’s going to be equally as difficult to insist on pizza.

I am obviously not telling everyone to dump his or her Doritos loving amigos. Heck, even I love Doritos every now and then. But if you are trying to exercise more, eat healthier or decrease stress, maybe spending more time with your like-minded buddies is a good start.

This week would be a great time to call that friend who loves power walking and make a date for some chat/walk time. Or have the Smiths over for dinner this weekend (Did you know Laura Smith doesn’t eat sugar?) Maybe you should spend your lunch hour with Donn from down the hall. (Doesn’t he meditate at lunch?)

Ok, here’s the caveat: Sometimes I have negative feelings towards overly healthy people. Yes, it’s true. The person who only eats fruit and nuts that have fallen from the tree and can’t go out to dinner unless the produce is from an organic farm next door and the fitness freak who can’t spend a day just relaxing in front of the TV. Sometimes these people make me crazy. It’s just as detrimental to be fanatical about health as it is to be unfanatical. We all need to be balanced. So if you are the person who can’t go out to lunch with friends because it means missing spinning class, or you are unable to enjoy a bite of your daughters birthday cake because of the calorie content, I recommend hanging out with some oppositely minded people this week. Let go for a day. Have some cake, dance a little, and sleep in. Health is about balance. I think Jack Lalane was great but he may have been lacking some balance, which is why I think Elaine was just as good for him as he was for her.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live

Rituals for Health

As we near closer to Christmas (only 5 days away) I can’t stop thinking about all the rituals in my life. I am a fan of Christmas but whether you celebrate Hannukah, Kwanza or Vesak, you are participating in a ritual and according to scientists, it’s good for us.

Rituals are described as “Who we are” and routines are “What needs to be done”.

I for one have a heaping of routines. I routinely go to bed by 10pm. I drink coffee every morning and tea in the afternoon. I walk my dog. I clean my ears, I take my vitamins… The list could go on and on.

As far as rituals are concerned, I have a bunch of those too. Sunday morning big breakfasts and rainy day movie marathons. Saving the wishbone. Thanksgiving turkey. Decorating the Christmas tree. Addressing my Christmas cards while watching Miracle on 34th Street. Blowing the pollen off a dandelion while making a wish. Holding my breath in the Golden Gate tunnel. These are all rituals. Oh and one more I forgot, exercise. That’s right my friends, exercise is a ritual for me; a ritual I routinely do. It is something I do for my health and it pays me back with a double serving of good for ya. Ideally I would like everyone to start thinking about making exercise into a ritual. Something that isn’t just necessary but something that makes you who you are. You are healthy, not you are being healthy right now. But my advice on how to make exercise into a ritual or at least a routine is for another article.

Today I want to express my hope and wish for everyone during the holidays (whatever you may be celebrating) that you embrace the ritual closest to your heart and know that in doing nothing more than that, you are living a healthier life.

I know that I am going to sit around the Christmas tree and pass out presents and eat too much sugar and listen to cheesy Bing Crosby music and watch It's a wonderful life too many times and take lots of pictures and tell everyone I know how much I love them. I am going to giggle with anticipation at having my presents opened and loved. That is part of my Christmas ritual. May yours be just as perfect, for you.

Be Good to your body, it's where you live!

Holiday Party Survival Guide

Reading the lovely Facebook yesterday, I noticed a comment from a friend of mine, “Why do magazines always tell you to stock up on healthy foods before going to that holiday party? It doesn’t matter how much broccoli I eat before a party, if there are cookies there, I will want one of those too!”

How many of you can relate?

I know that many times in my life I have eaten a meal before going out in the hopes that it will keep me from munching and somehow ended up eating two meals: the healthy meal and the “oh I’m not really that hungry, ok just a bite or maybe 17 meal.

The main problem here is that it’s pretty easy when faced with the delectables of a holiday party to eat when we’re already full. Actually, if I’m perfectly honest, it’s easy to eat when I’m full if there’s food around and I’m near it. This phenomena doubles if I’ve had alcohol.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the sentiment of eat healthy food first but I know that instead of helping me it’s going to make me eat two meals. A better idea for me and maybe for you is just to be honest with yourself.

I am going to Jane’s party. Jane will serve cookies and crab cakes and champagne. I will savor a bite of everything I want. I will enjoy it and truly taste the magnificent flavors. I will go home feeling full but not guilty because I was supposed to eat at the party. Tomorrow I will have oatmeal for breakfast and I will reminisce about how awesome it feels to just enjoy something during the holidays.

Bon Appétit to everyone!

Double Entendre

Although I am a somewhat unorthodox writer (I write how I speak without much bother of proper usage or grammatical perfection. And I have a penchant for slang) I am quite the fan of linguistics, grammar and syntax. I even subscribe to a daily grammar email. Every morning along side of all the spam, facebook updates and groupons, I receive a lovely bit of grammarly advice. Well, it’s not always lovely, sometimes it’s quite dull but on occasion (as happened last week), a gem will appear…

"Sanction" is something called a Janus word--a word with two opposite meanings. Such words are named after the Roman god Janus, who has two faces that look in opposite directions. Other Janus words are "cleave" (which can mean to cling to or to separate), "screen" (which can mean to review or display or to hide or shield from view), and "trim" (which can mean to remove things or add things).

I have never heard this term before, have you? I mean, of course I was aware that there existed words with two meanings; I just didn’t know they had their own name and I love it. Here is a list of other janus words

http://www.fun-withwords.com/nym_autoantonyms.html

Some words that aren’t on that list but also tend to have more than one meaning are:

Fat: Tissue that insulates

Fat: Feeling that deflates

Fat: Avocados

Diet: the way you eat

Diet: the way you don’t eat

Sugar: Good

Sugar: Bad

Sugar: Term of endearment

Health: The absence of sickness

Health: To Thrive

Exercise: Makes you feel great

Exercise: Hurts really bad

Fried Chicken: So freaking good

Fried Chicken: So freaking bad

Fried Chicken: Term of endearment (it could be)

Can you think of any words that you use to mean one thing but really they could mean something else? I know that when it comes to janus words I usually only use one meaning. I don’t think that I have ever used the word screen to mean, “shield from”. I have also never said, “My knees buckled at the sight of him”, however I am constantly buckled in safely while driving. I have never used the word cleave in a sentence, but if I were to, it would be in reference to a split, not a join. I do think that if I take the time to notice both definitions, the meaning I am using becomes richer. Knowing that a bolt can be a securing device and lighting fast action brings a deeper meaning to either definition.

Knowing that sugar can be a delicious treat and something to be avoided makes it easier to enjoy it in moderation. Recognizing that exercise rocks but is also a pain in the $%&* will help make it more doable, even when it burns.

Is there anything you are looking at as only black or white? Have you decided that the stair master is evil? Do you believe that fat is a feeling? If you pay attention to all the definitions of a word, you may find that it loses some of its power or gains a little more.

Be Good to your Body, it's where you Live

Once upon a time...

This weekend I went to a 10 hour intensive on Narrative therapy and how you can use it to treat addictions. It was terribly useful for the work I do at a substance abuse clinic but surprisingly, and not so surprisingly it proved to be incredibly useful for me in my personal life as well.

In uber brief layman lingo, narrative therapy believes that we all have a story we tell ourselves. It is the same story or a spin off of a story we learned from our parents and our friends and our society. Because we are continuing to tell ourselves this story in the thoughts we have, the stories we hear, the actions we take, and the beliefs we hold, we are perpetuating the story. This is super great if our story makes us feel better about ourselves. Unfortunately most people have a somewhat more sabotaging story about many things.

How many of you reading this have ever looked in the mirror and told yourself you were ugly or fat or stupid? How many of you believe it because a parent told you, or because you read it in a magazine or because you have been telling yourself it for so long that you think it’s a truth? What would happen if you started telling yourself something different? I am not saying that it’s easy to stop perpetuating our stories. It’s difficult, so instead of focusing on stopping, focus on starting... a different story.

Think about the negative things you label yourself: I am so fat. I have no control over food. I hate my job. I'm stressed out all the time. Now ask yourself what it is that you get from telling yourself these things. Is it attention? Is it sympathy? Is it laughs? Is it connection? Is it help? All of those things are fine, if you like them and they help you feel good, but if they don’t, then maybe it’s time to try on a new story. I have been telling people for the past few months how stressed out I am and how I am not working out. I have been talking about how little I work out because I secretly think it will make me feel better if they commiserate and tell me the same thing. I also feel like it gives me an excuse for why I look/feel so out of shape. The down side to this is that I have not started to work out again. I am stuck in the story of how I don’t work out anymore and it feels crummy. Last week a friend from work and I were talking about how much we love working out and how it feels so good and how it always makes us feel better. Well, you know what I did this week? I worked out. And now I am telling all of you about how I did it, and how good it felt and how much I rocked it. (Say this even if you feel like you didn't, the feeling will come)

Let’s all take the negative story we tell ourselves and find a time in the past week when, if even for a moment it wasn’t true. Maybe you tried on a pair of jeans and felt good in them, if even for a moment. Perhaps you caught an error that would have cost your business money or maybe you caught an error that no one would have ever noticed. Maybe you finished eating when you were full and took the leftovers for lunch or maybe you took the stairs at the mall. Maybe you got eight hours of sleep last night. If you can’t think of a moment, think harder, it’s there. If it truly is not, then go back two weeks and try again.

All day today and hopefully scattered throughout the next week I would love for y’all to repeat your new story to yourselves and your friends and your family. Tell your co-workers at the water fountain how awesome you felt about yourself when you walked at lunch or how motivated you are or how you had 10 minutes of perfect peace while sitting on your porch after dinner. I am going to tell myself how happy I am when I am exercising.

Be Good to your Body, it's where you Live

Over Indulgence

I have just finished off a long weekend of over doing it. Over eating, check. Over drinking, check. Over not sleeping enough, check. Over not exercising enough, double check. Over sugar, over champagne, over cake, over lazy, over dancing, over staying up late, check, check and check.

Ok, there were some good times too. I would even go so far as to say great. I was at the wedding of a friend of mine in LA. I got to see one of my best friends in the world. I got to see all my college friends who are like family to me. I didn’t have to get up at 5am to go to work. I watched cheesy movies in the afternoon. I ate the yummiest food ever. I laughed a lot, a lot. I played with the most beautiful baby that ever lived. I danced the night away. I appreciated and felt gratitude for the wonderfulness that is my life…

So how come when the wild weekend is over and the party dresses have all been taken to the cleaners, the stuff I over focus on are my over indulgences?

It’s so easy to feel bad about over indulging, but what good does that do anyone? Do you want to know what happens when I feel bad about a wild weekend? I end up not wanting to exercise. Why bother, last weekend was a wash, this one will be too. I feel hungry for no reason and the more I think about how unhealthy I am, the more I crave a big old bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I do not know the scientific explanation behind it, but for some reason the worse we feel about ourselves the less likely we are to change. The negative self-talk we will often have after a weekend of excess or even the holidays can hinder our chances of successfully getting back into our healthy routine. The times when I cherish the wonderfulness of my experience and relish all the goodness it entailed, I end up having tons of energy, wanting to work out and craving cottage cheese.

Who cares if you over everythinged in sight, it was one weekend and it was fun! Don’t negate the goodness of your summer holiday with post party blues. Instead have a little positive self-talk. Tell yourself how excited you are that you were able to get out all of your cravings in one night. Be proud that the pizza was consumed with such vigor. The less leftovers the better! Now you have an excuse to refill that fridge with veggies.

Think about how relaxed your muscles are. If you sat on the couch unbuttoning your trousers and watching baseball all weekend, right on! Your butt needed that break. It was tired. Now it has slept and now it is time for some serious walking. Get that butt moving!

So my friends my hope for you this week is that you will savor and appreciate all of your summertime-overs and you will not feel guilt, anger, annoyance or anxiety about any of it. Instead make it an opportunity to feel excited and ready to live your healthy life!

Be Good to your Body, it's where you Live

Summer Seasoning

Today, for one moment, the earth’s axis was tilted as much towards the sun as it will be all year. Summer solstice marks the longest day and the shortest night of the year, the day when summer begins.

I had the pleasure of sitting outside in the sun today for about 30 minutes while Coco ran around the dog park and there was something special about the sun today. There was wind, yes (it’s San Francisco) and I was bundled up, but I tilted my head and closed my eyes and felt that the sun was there just for me, just for that moment.

In Latin, the solstice is called Sol Sistere, which means, sun that stands still.

Usually you will hear of parties and BBQ’s and giant celebrations for the solstice. It used to be an even more exciting event because it signified all those yummy summer fruits and vegetables were finally here. Now because we have imported peaches all year round, we forget that they are seasonal.

Today while I was enjoying that glorious moment of stillness I started musing about seasonal foods. When we eat foods that are seasonal we are nourishing our bodies with the food that was made from the same sun that nourishes us. Ok, I know that food grown in Spain is being grown with the same sun. There is only one. But when I think about the dirt and the land and the water and the air and all the other factors that go into the farming of a sweet pepper or a tomato, it just kind of makes me smile to think I could be eating a tomato that was hydrated with the same water I drink. Or I could be savoring a plum grown in the same air that I breathe. I wonder which vegetables were being given life by the still sun as it nourished me today? I bet those are some damn fine vegetables.

This week and for the rest of the summer I invite you to try eating seasonally. Eating seasonally doesn’t mean you have to spend your paycheck on organic watermelons from the ferry building farmers market. There are local farmers markets where you can pick up some really good deals. This website local harvest, lets you search for markets in your zip code and then gives you a little description about it. I quite like the one here at UCSF on Wednesdays.

Something to think about is if you are buying from a farmers market you probably don’t need to buy 10 of something. The taste of a freshly picked peach is so exquisite you will probably find that you only need one or maybe two. J

Even if you can’t get to a farmers market, try to eat seasonally and pay attention to how it makes your body feel. There is something light and perfect about a tomato and basil salad, or grilled summer squash or prosciutto and melon or a big slice of watermelon. These are the foods to help remind us that it’s summer and that this is all just a big cycle. We are part of the life on earth and instead of always fueling our bodies with artificial ingredients, why not try giving it what Mother Nature intended.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live

What a waste.

I just returned from a most wonderful Memorial Day weekend in Santa Monica. I was visiting one of my bestest gal pals and her new baby. Well, sort of new (8 months). Anyway, there was a ton of inspiration and you will probably hear me referencing the trip for at least a few weeks.

One of the things I was inspired by was said pals hubby and his environmental ways. He is super green. He never forgets to shut off lights, he unplugs things and he recycles everything! I was uber impressed. He uses the old coffee from the morning for iced coffee in the afternoon (which is now my favorite thing by the way). And he also hates wasting food so he makes sure to eat everything before it goes bad. And this is when I had to pause. Sometimes he will even eat food he’s not particularly fond just so he doesn’t waste it. He has even been known to eat something when he isn’t hungry in order that it not go to waste.

Ok, I don’t like wasting food either. It really bugs me when I can’t finish produce before it goes bad or when I have to throw out the milk because I didn’t drink it fast enough but I would rather waste food by throwing it in the bin than waste it by throwing it down my mouth.

I think that there are many people who share Jorge’s views. Do you have any memories of your mother telling you to finish your food because somewhere a starving person would kill for it? Do you feel obligated to eat food someone has given you so it doesn’t go to waste? Do you clean your plate because it would be wasteful to throw it away? Do you worry about how much something cost and feel guilty if you were to throw it out?

When you eat something because you don’t want to waste it, you are still wasting it. You are wasting it in your body. Why is it better to put something you don’t like, aren’t hungry for or just don’t want, in your mouth than in the garbage?

I am not saying that you should be wasteful and throw food away like it’s sand on the beach, I am just saying pay attention to why you are eating something and think about what I am saying. Whether you put it in the bin or in your mouth, if you don’t want it or need it, you’re wasting it. That is what the green bin is for.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live

In a Fog

Last night I made myself a bowl of popcorn (my favorite nighttime snack) and sat down to watch a movie. I remember the first few bites of the popcorn and then it all sort of became a blur. I don’t remember eating it but after awhile I looked down and all I found were un-popped kernels. I had eaten an entire bowl of buttery, salty popcorn (I am talking about a big bowl, think large dinner party salad serving bowl) without even noticing. I have a vague suspicion that you have done this before. No?

I certainly have. I have finished off buckets of popcorn before the opening credits and wondered where it all went. I have polished off a granola bar on my way to work and then promptly forgotten if I had eaten anything for breakfast. I have stuffed myself at a restaurant while I wasn’t paying attention and gotten full from nothing but nibbles while cooking.

Brooke Castillo (a life coach who specializes in weight loss) refers to this as “fog eating” and she makes the case for why it’s no good. When we eat in this kind of a fog, it’s like we are eating behind our own backs while sleeping. If we can’t remember it, we probably weren’t enjoying it and most likely it wasn’t doing us any favors in the health department (not many people are prone to fog eating broccoli).

Brooke has names for other types of eating too. She categorizes them into four groups; Fuel Eating, Joy eating, Fog eating and Storm eating.

Fuel eating is just like it says on the tin, fuel. Food is meant to perform a job in our bodies. When we hire good employees, (vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, lean proteins and fiber) we get good results and a more efficient healthy machine. You know when you are fuel eating because you are hungry, you are making healthy choices and you feel good when you are finished. I don’t just mean you feel good about yourself as in self-righteous because you ate something green, I mean your body feels whole and healthy and satisfied.

Joy eating is also pretty self-explanatory. It is when you are eating purely for joy. You know the kind. For me it is when I am savoring the goodness of copa mista gelato. For you it might be cheesecake, butter, potato chips, candy or bacon. It’s food that isn’t really helping you any in the health department but is giving you pleasure when you eat it.

Storm eating is that kind of powerhouse eating that happens when we aren’t hungry, we want to stop eating but we feel as if we can’t. Have you ever continued to eat the french fries on the table even when you knew that you didn’t want any more? Have you ever gone a little crazy on trail mix or sees candy and found that even though you were fully aware of your eating and really wanting to stop, you just couldn’t? It’s kind of like fog eating except you aren’t in a fog; you know you’re eating but feel powerless to put the fork down.

I would love for everyone to pay attention to these four eating habits this week. See how often you eat for fuel and how often you eat for joy. If your joy-eating ratio is three times as much as your fuel, you might want to be aware of that. If you can catch yourself in the act of a fog, well you might want to pay a little more attention to that bag of chips. Do you want to eat the whole bag? If you do, then joy away but if you don’t, it’s probably better to be conscious of it. I also think that if you put a name to that french fry munching behavior (storm) you are less likely to feel out of control and powerless against them.

The first step in being mindful of our eating habits is by being mindful. Notice how you eat and how you feel when you eat and you will probably make healthier choices. This does not mean that you are going to stop eating cupcakes; it simply means you will enjoy them more.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live

You can teach a dog new tricks

As some of you might remember I recently wrote an article about how to act like a dog. It had tips for being a little more like our canine best friends and in turn being a much healthier human. Last week I met with a dog trainer to help me learn how to speak dog and I realized that there is so much more I can learn from little Coco. Hopefully he will learn something from me too as the BF and I are running out of shoes.

The trainer went through the usual tips and tricks about how to teach Coco by using a food lure. Say the command, lead with the food, reward. Eventually he won’t need the food or the hand signal and I will have learned to speak dog. Apparently it takes about 25,000 times of doing this little trick for Coco to really know it. That’s a lot of times and a lot of treats. You know a human can learn a new behavior in just 14-21 days. That means that you would only have to do the behavior for two-three weeks in order to stop needing the reward. I am not suggesting you try to get up five minutes earlier for three weeks and every time you do, give yourself a snickers bar but I do think the reward idea is a good one. When doing something produces a reward we are more likely to do it again. Think about slot machines. How often have you ever won? And yet we keep putting our quarters in.

I am not a huge fan of using a food reward. Our society already places too much emphasis on “treats and sweet rewards” and I don’t think it’s helpful to perpetuate that idea. What about another reward you could give yourself? Each time I give Coco a treat, I am giving him a treat the size of my pinkie nail. We are not talking about a T-bone every time he sits down on cue. That means I want you to come up with a reward that’s tiny but still awesome. Here are some ideas:

Are you in need of extra sleep? Well, then every time you go to bed 15 minutes early you get to check your horoscope/favorite website on the MUNI on the way to work.

Are you trying to drink more water? For every glass of aqua you imbibe you get 15 minutes more of your favorite TV show.

Trying to get to the gym? For every 20 minutes of exercise you do, you get 20 minutes of guilt free stare off into space-time.

Watching your diet? Every time you eat a meal that makes you feel good, you get to call a friend to chat or play a game of solitaire on your computer.

Flossing your teethe? Every time you remember you get to listen to 5 minutes of a comedy pod cast.

The list could go on and on and I am pretty sure you get the idea.

We learn, just like dogs, from positive feedback. If we learned from negative feedback I would have stopped biting my nails the 14th time someone smacked my hand out of my mouth. Instead I am going to give myself a reward every time I put lotion on my hands. Soon I will learn that taking care of my hands is something that promotes goodness and by then it will have become a healthier habit.

This week I want you to think about the things you want to change in your life. Don’t think about the things you want to stop doing, think about the habits you want to do more often, drink more water, get more sleep, exercise etc. Write down a reward to go with each behavior. (It really does help if you write it down). Then begin. Try to do each behavior every day for two weeks and each time you do it, give yourself a reward. It’s that simple.

If you are thinking, “but Sarah, I already watch my favorite shows and surf the internet and call whomever I want, whenever I want, what should my reward be?” If you are already giving yourself all of these rewards then you need to resign yourself to only getting them when you have done the positive behavior. Before the dog trainer came into my life, Coco got love whenever he wanted (or I wanted). Now he has to sit before I give him anything. When he sits, he gets a cuddle. Maybe you need to stop giving yourself all that online shopping time and dole out the minutes as you perform the positive behavior. Or you may need to think a little deeper about what your reward will be. Instead of spending all day berating ourselves for not doing the things we wish we were, let’s reward ourselves for the things we do.

Now on your mark, get set… sit, lie down and gimme five!

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live.

Clean Up Your Detox

I got an email this morning all about a special three-day cleanse that will flatten my tummy, put a spring in my step and guarantee I find everlasting peace and happiness.

I am sure you have received some kind of an email like this before. Or maybe you have seen it written in a magazine: “cleanse your colon, clean your system, flush your liver and detox your kidneys”. Or maybe you have actually done a cleanse yourself. I have. When I lived in LA and detoxes were all the rage, I drank nothing but lemon juice with cayenne pepper and honey for 10 days. It’s true; my tummy did flatten… because it was eating itself! I was starving. Do you know what happened on day 11? I ate. And do you know what happened on day 12? My tummy un-flattened.

I have done the cleanses that require you to ingest supplements to “clean” out your system thus requiring you to have access to a toilet for most of the day. I have even tried out those strange footpads that are supposed to suck the toxins from the bottoms of your feet. I have given up coffee, drank nothing but juice for a week, tried bikram yoga and stopped eating carbs. I have tried cleanses that are supposed to make me younger, fitter, stronger, smarter, more present and every single one on them wasn’t as perfect as good old fashioned sleep, exercise and a balanced diet.

Let me break it down for y’all. Detox refers to the process of eliminating toxins from your body. We all have some toxins in our bodies at all times. Every time our cells make energy, they produce some waste (toxins) and then our body gets rid of it. Every time we go to the bathroom, exhale, sneeze, cough or sweat we are getting rid of toxins. Our bodies are really good at this. Basically what this means is that our body is experiencing a full body cleanse at all times. We are constantly cleansing and most bodies do a pretty fine job of it. The best thing to do if you want to help accelerate the already detoxifying ability of your body is to get plenty of sleep, eat a healthy balanced diet containing lots of plants, stay away from the triggers (caffeine/alcohol/sugar/salt), and drink lots of water and exercise. Isn’t it funny how it seems so much harder to do all of that than it does to just not eat for three days?

If you are thinking about doing some kind of a detox try mine first: the patented Sarah cleanse. For one day I want you to exercise for at least 30 minutes, drink 8 glasses of water, eat a plant at every meal and go to bed early. If you want to try the super deluxe Sarah detox then do all of the above plus don’t eat or drink anything with caffeine, alcohol, sugar or salt. Feel free to eat as much as you want of anything else.

That’s it. Do it for one day and then see how you feel. Your body will have all the extra help it needs to do its job. If you like the way it feels then please feel free to try it for another day free of charge. Whenever you are feeling icky and bloated and tired and blocked, make a pact to try the Sarah cleanse for one day. Even if you’re not feeling icky, it’s sure to make you feel better.

Your body has the best detox system available; all you have to do is be good to it. And why wouldn’t you be, it’s where you live.

Vacation, all I ever wanted

Because I am in school all year round I have not had a chance to take any really long vacations this year. I have mostly stayed in the weekend away territory. However because I live in such a glorious city I have the pleasure of playing hostess to many a visitor from far away. Now, while I love playing tour-guide (riding the Powell Cable Car will never get old for me) I have to admit that eating out as often as my visitors want me to, leaves me feeling like I need a vacation. And I don’t think it’s just me who feels this way. My boyfriend’s stepmother said to me yesterday,

“Oh my goodness Sarah, I feel like I have been doing nothing but eat for 7 days straight, by next week I might not be able to fit into any of the clothes I brought.”

I felt the same way and I’m not even on vacation! This got me thinking about summer and vacations and how half the time I come back from a holiday more exhausted, out of shape and stressed out than when I left. That’s why I am going to propose something crazy in today’s article. What if we actually did things that were good for us on our vacations so that when we returned from them we actually felt better, more alive and more willing to take on our day-to-day lives? I know, I am out of control.

“But, Sarah”, you say, “I need to over eat, drink and laze around watching pay per view! That’s how I know it’s a vacation!”

Ok, ok but hear me out. Our every day lives are so jam-packed full of things to do, people to see and laundry to wash that we often don’t have time to really take care of ourselves. People don’t get enough sleep, they eat on the go, they let stress get the best of them, they’re too tired to work out, they’re too busy to relax, and on and on the excuses go. Trust me I have heard every single one of them and I have used them all plus more. So, since we are unable to do all of things that we know will make us feel better (I do know by the way. These things will make you feel better. It is not scientific but I know, you will just have to trust me) in our daily lives why don’t we do them on vacation when we have all the time in the world and we are supposed to be taking a break in order to feel better.

Wouldn’t it be great to come back from a holiday feeling excited to go back to work? Generally the reason we’re not excited or happy to resume our daily lives is because we didn’t actually get a break. We used and abused our bodies just like in regular life. We stayed up late, ate too much, had one too many drinks, rushed from museum to museum, etc. etc. Understandably there may be people reading this who just hate their job and no amount of broccoli, hiking in the Sierra’s or relaxing by the pool will make them excited to come back to work. Unfortunately there is little I can do for you in the confines of this particular article but I do truly believe (as noted above) that a healthy lifestyle will make you less unhappy in your career. Plus what’s the worst thing that could happen? You feel good?

I am not proposing that you plan your vacations only to remote beach towns without radios or T.V. and that while there you eat only steamed fish and vegetables. I am proposing that you customize your vacations to suit what you need most. Are you constantly snoozing in the morning, never able to get up on time? Well you ought to sleep in. Have you been kvetching about never being able to work out? Well, why not do it on your vacation? You haven’t got to work so you might as well make use of that extra time. Do you hate that you never get the opportunity to eat a healthy breakfast? You know what I am going to say, don’t you?

The point is, try to do the healthy things you always say you don’t have time for during your every day life.

I understand that with kids this is a little bit harder because Disneyland is not the most relaxing hot spot for adults (my father excluded) so you will have to be creative. Stop at the grocery store and pack healthy snacks in baggies to eat while at the park. Then you won’t feel bad about having eaten nothing but churros and corn dogs all day. Maybe you are the healthiest person in the world, weighing all your food and exercising every morning before work. Perhaps what you need is to let loose, have some ice cream and skip a week of running.

Look at your life and your regular activities and try to plan a vacation that will actually make you feel better, not worse. Even if you aren’t traveling any time soon, it certainly doesn’t hurt to plan. Maybe if you start thinking about what you really need, you will be more apt to give it to yourself. The Stones had it backwards for today’s society. More often than not people can get what they want, but have trouble actually getting what they need.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you live

You are what you eat

Have you ever heard the quote; “you are what you eat”? I am pretty sure you have. Possibly like me you have never put much stock in it, thinking that to be an ice cream sundae would be far more fun than to be a plate of broccoli. I know if I think too deeply on what I have ingested in the past, I can get pretty grossed out. Nobody wants to think about being a giant Twinkie or a bacon chili cheeseburger with extra pickles. Unfortunately and fortunately, everything we put into our bodies helps to make us who we are. Whether we are energetic or sleepy, whether we are in a good mood or bad. If you down a coca cola first thing in the morning, you are not going to be as sweet come noon.
“In wine it is called terroir: the peculiarities of the soil, the water, the very angle of the sun, the land that makes a wine distinctly itself.”
We are all like terroir. We have the land that we come from, which helps to make us who we are, we have the food we ate as kids and the food we eat now; we have the amount of sun we ingest and the amount of exercise we take, we have the water we drink. We are the land. I have been saying this for ages, your body is where you live, and I mean it. You are the soil, so feed the soil well. That doesn’t mean that your wine wouldn’t benefit from some cupcakes or apple pie. Maybe your wine could use a little sugar. Maybe you are in need of a bit of salt or spice or savor.
You need to think about what would be the best wine for you. What does your body need to be the best it can be? To be the best is different for everyone. If you want to be the best long distance runner then you are going to have a different recipe than someone who just wants to be the best she can be at playing with her kids. What would create the healthiest, most robust, most delicate and sweet but also spicy glass of you? Because that’s what we’re doing folks. We ARE what we eat. We are growing ourselves. Every day, we have the choice to be healthy.
So this week think of yourself as the terroir. What kind of wine do you want to be? Put together a recipe of foods and activities that you want to be a part of you. Then add a little bit of sunshine, a dash of hard work and a sprinkling of love.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live

One Day at a Time

Last week I was having a bit of neck pain. You know that kind when your neck is so stiff that you can’t actually turn to the left or right? It started last Thursday morning and when I had an unexpected cancellation I used the free time to see Deborah (the best massage therapist at UCSF as far as I am concerned). Deborah said the pain was caused by an extreme tightness in my neck, chest and upper back. She informed me that my scalenes and my sternocleidomastoid (fancy words for the neck) were unbelievably tight and then she proceeded to dig with what felt like an axe into my upper body. She worked on my neck in a way that made me feel like I might die, but when she was done and for many days since (it is now Sunday night) I have been pain free. She was so knowledgeable about everything having to do with the body. She said I was having pain because of the way I am holding up my head and how little I have been stretching my neck.
After the pain subsided I was more than thrilled with the massage. But the thing that really had me reeling was how much we can know and yet how much there is still left to learn. How can I fit stretches of the neck into my already packed daily routine?
I love learning new things about my body or about health in general. I mean I really love it. I scan newspapers for the health section. I goggle blogs constantly to find out what other people are talking about. I ask questions and I am not afraid to not know something. However even with all that determination it can get really frustrating when there is one more thing that I am supposed to focus on with my own body. I mean, come on. If I followed all of the instructions of all the things I want or am supposed to do in order to be healthy, I would have no time to work or write this article because I would spend my days doing tai chi, yoga, learning to cook with middle eastern spices, cultivating gardens, enjoying tea with friends, reading, taking vitamins, meditating, stretching every single part of my body especially my neck, strengthening every single part of my body, going for long walks, swimming, petting dogs, writing thank you cards and helping the elderly cross the street. Sounds like my perfect retirement. Fortunately and unfortunately depending on whom you talk to, most of us are not retired yet and therefore cannot possibly think about all of our health needs every single day.
I was musing on this idea last week when one of my clients gave me a Berkeley wellness handout titled “365 tips for better health”. I figured I could read one every morning and that would be the thing I would think about that particular day. This works in theory until I woke up on Friday and read self-care #309: “Think twice before buying an iguana.” Not much of health goal for the day. That’s when I put two and two together.
We all need to make our own daily list of tips for better health. I want everyone to make a list of all the things you have been trying to do for your health. I will start you off with some of mine.

• Drink water
• Exercise
• Take the stairs
• Meditate
• Stretch
• Eat vegetables
• Eat healthy fats like omegas
• Say please and thank you
• Deep breathing
• Volunteer
• Learn something new

You get the idea. Now, focus on each thing on your list one at a time, one day at a time. Tomorrow I am going to think about drinking water all day long. That doesn’t mean that I will want to throw all my other healthy things out the window. I’m not going to skip work, watch Jerry Springer and eat Cheetos all day with the deluded idea that because I am drinking water I am the messiah of health. Do all the things you would normally do in your healthy day. You can still make it to that stretch class or walk at lunch or take your vitamins or whatever, but just pay extra attention to drinking more water. On your vitamin day, maybe you can focus on trying to get all your vitamins from your food. On exercise day, you could try an exercise you’ve never done before. This way instead of becoming overwhelmed of all the things you feel like you need to work on to be healthy, you can just take it one thing at a time. Today I am going to work on stretching out my neck and in order to do that better, I am going to turn off the computer.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live m

Food Rules

I am not sure if you’ve heard of it but there is a new book out called, Food Rules, an eater’s manual. The book is a book of, um, well rules, 64 to be exact of how we should, could and probably would, like to eat. I have yet to read the book but it has been ordered on Amazon so more will come I’m sure. I have however read a few of the more important rules and I have to say I am hooked. I am not normally the kind of gal who falls for food rules as I think that even in the making of a food rule we somehow manage to make ourselves believe that if we don’t break the rule we will surely die an unhappy death.

Take for instance when I tell myself that I am not allowed to eat gelato. That little rule comes slamming back in my face when for some reason I am forced by power much stronger than I to pull the car over to the side of the road and run (not walk) to Holy Gelato (my gelato of choice) to eat that which I have so solemnly sworn will never grace my lips again. What do you call that? I think it’s called the white bear.

If I say to you, “don’t think of a white bear!” What are all of you thinking about right now? Yep. Just what I thought, you are thinking about the one thing I told you not to think about. It’s the exact same thing as me saying to myself,

“Sarah, you are not going to eat gelato I mean it. No gelato for at least two weeks.”

What do I want more than life itself the very moment I say that? Copa mista gelato.

This principle/idea/psychology is why I am not always a fan of food rules. I do however think that this Michael Pollen is onto something and his rules do actually make sense. The trick is just to figure out how to make it seem like less of a rule and more of a decision.

Let’s take a look at one of my favorites:

“Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients.”

Ok, this is a tricky one. This means that I am not allowed to eat salad dressing or Yoplait yogurt or almost anything that is sealed in a package.

Many of you may be thinking, “but Sarah, that sounds like the kind of rule that would make me begging for Yoplait?” Yes, you are right, it does. And that is why I am only half endorsing it.

I thought about this rule for a while. How can I incorporate this into my life? How could this be something I did, because believe me I would love, love, love to be the kind of person who only ate food with less than 5, I just don’t think it’s very realistic.

That is why I have switched the rules around a bit. Here is Sarah’s new and (I think) improved rule number 65:

Every time you are about to eat something that comes from a package, say out-loud or read loudly in your head the entire ingredients list.

You think this sounds so easy my friends? Well please; I invite you to join me. All I am asking is that you read them all. All of them. Even the ones you can’t pronounce, sound them out.

Often times I will look at the nutrition label on the back of my food and I will start to read it, then get bored, upset, annoyed or whatever and not actually read it. So I am going to actually read it and I want you to too. Read every single ingredient and think about eating it, then eat it. By all means, please. I am not a maniac and I am not suggesting you cut foods out this early in the game of rules. I just want you to pay attention to what you eat. I mean, don’t you want to know what you put in your body?

So, everybody clear? This week we are going to read more. Pay attention to what you put in your body and then maybe after you know a little bit more about your diet will you be able to make an informed decision about it. How can I expect you to stop eating something when neither one of us even know what it is?

My hope is that paying attention to what you eat will be like inviting the white bear over for tea. You will then have the power to choose whether the bear will stay or go.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live

Success is Yours

Let us imagine a woman—a real woman or at least a model of one that I’m sure you’ve all met. She worked her way up the ladder going through years and years of tough times, making less money, fighting for more respect, a corner office, her own secretary, etc., etc. She gave her time, her much needed sleep, her relationships suffered, her stress level rose, her feet hurt, her back hurts, she developed carpal tunnel and tennis elbow (without ever playing tennis).

She worked on Saturdays and gave her weekends away; she has weeks of vacation time she may never use. She did all of this while also finding time to get married, have children, buy a home, volunteer for the PTA, volunteer at the soup kitchen, make Halloween costumes, and send the kids to college.

OK, maybe you don’t know this exact woman, but you probably know a variation of her or maybe you are a variation. This person has worked, slaved, given blood, sweat and tears to create a life they are happy with. Now, they have found themselves unhappy with a certain aspect of it; their health, weight, cholesterol, whatever. So tell me why is it that for money and “success” we will work like maniacs, give up everything “good” and work hard for what we want but when it comes to longevity, health, weight loss, more energy, higher self-esteem, lungs that don’t wheeze, clearer eyes, better sleep, glowing skin and a massive endorphin high, we bitch and moan and cry about how hard it is, how we haven’t got the time, how we just “can’t”.

I absolutely REFUSE to believe that you (you who will work like a demon to succeed in other aspects of your life, be it relationships, career, family whatever) “can’t” do anything. You CAN do anything as long as you set you mind to do it. So for the love of everything you work so hard for, work hard for your health.

It isn’t easy! (I’m hoarse from saying that) It sucks, it’s hard, it hurts, you may be sore in the morning, you may be tired, you may hate sweat and gyms and movement and weights and treadmills and bikes, and pools, and stability balls and yoga and Pilates. You may get ill at the mere mention of vegetables and fiber and lean chicken. You may have a bonafide addiction to chocolate and sugar and ho-hos and big macs. You can either find something you enjoy doing/eating or you can suck it up and work hard like you do for everything else in life. It isn’t a holiday so stop expecting it to be.

Eventually, you might find a healthy lifestyle to be fulfilling and actually quite easy. It’s always the hardest to begin; remember how difficult your first job/kid/mortgage/credit card/relationship was? Do you remember anything in your life being difficult? How did you manage to get through it?

If you slacked off at work, left early, spent too much time emailing friends, turned in reports late and generally messed about, well it wouldn’t be a surprise when someone else got that promotion. Why does it surprise you that you aren’t losing weight if you eat whatever you want and never work out?

I am normally not this harsh but sometimes a Drill Sergeant is what people need.

Think about what you want, and what you have done in the past to achieve things you want. Now apply that same determination to your health! Stop moaning and get it done.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live