Who Is Watching the Emmy's Today?

My sis and I have this thing where we watch the award shows and text each other when we like an outfit that a star is wearing. Since we live in different cities, it is a fun way to share an afternoon.

I love watching the arrivals of the Emmy's or Oscars, just to see what the stars are wearing. I am always struck by how unbelievably skinny most of the women are. Then there is the occasional "plus" size actor who is probably just a size 12. Even though it is 2010 and we are supposed to be a a more forward thinking society, there is still a massive pressure for women to be thin, not healthy, but thin.

The size of the industry to support "thin" is massive. We continue to be bombarded by countless images, including the Emmy arrivals, of super thin women presented as a positive. I even saw something on an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras (no, I did not watch the whole thing) where a tiny little girl was getting spray tanned and said her Mommy taught her that if you can't tone it, tan it......WTF? A little girl being taught that??????

So, my focus today while watching the Emmy's will be to enjoy the fashion and not the unrealistic size of many of the women.

BTW, I only gained 2 pounds while on vacation and I will take it off! It was totally worth it!

Desire to be as healthy as I can be. Dedication to staying in touch with reality. Discipline to keep on track with healthy eating to fuel the machine and exercise to tone the machine!

Returning to Reality

The new picture was taken off the coast of Port Douglas, Australia. Yes, that is a gold Speedo suit I am wearing! So fun!

My vacation is officially over beginning Monday...at which time I will fully be back on my full program. For the final few days I am easing back into my proper eating plan and exercise routine.

When we landed on Thursday, I jumped right back into the gym for an hour of sweaty hard cardio. On Friday, I met with my trainer and had my butt appropriately kicked...it was fun! This morning, I enjoyed my normal Saturday yoga. I find it very easy and comforting to jump right back into my exercise routine.

I have throttled back on the alcoholic beverages. I really enjoyed them on vacation, mostly wine and champagne, but I do not crave them on an everyday basis. I guess I am lucky for that!

What I indulged in mostly was breads, muffins, croissants and sugar. On Monday I will go back to being super careful with those foods. They are definitely my trigger foods.

All things in moderation!

Thanks to all of you, for being out there for me. It helps me to be accountable to myself and to you as I continue the journey!

Desire to be true to my healthy journey. Dedication to continuing to learn more about myself. Discipline to deal with my triggers in a healthy way!

Holiday Paradise!

Great news to report! We are flying home from another spot of paradise on our planet. Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef was AMAZING! As I got dressed this morning to fly home, I pulled on my size 8 cropped pants that I wore on the flight over. I was very happy that they zipped up and buttoned quite nicely!

I have indulged in many extra vacation calories and was prepared to have these pants be tight, but they were not! Yay! In addition to the vacation treats, I swam a lot, everyday, and yesterday we walked out butts off! What a perfect exceptional vacation! I will post a new photo as soon as we have a chnace to download all the digitals!

Vacations were meant for indulgence. I will go back to my normal pattern very soon!

Desire to experience life to its fullest! Discipline to know when to let go and when to hang on! Dedication to treating yourself well, because you are worth it!

Time to Enjoy and Accept

I had a revelation this weekend. I have been very focused on loosing my final 14 pounds, while rationalizing that I wasn't loosing because I was learning how to maintain. Well, after another week has passed with no weight loss. So, reassessing, I am finally ready to accept "what is" instead of what "might be".....what I mean is that I am ready to truly sit in gratitude for my accomplishments and celebrate how far I have come.

Acceptance and "being in the moment" are such simple concepts that they are easy to skip right over. And yet, embracing "what is" and learning to be in the moment of your life, is what provides so much richness to our lives!

So for now, I am fully present and completely grateful for what is. I am healthy, I am motivated to continue on my healthy journey (good nutrition choices and focused exercise) and I am surrounded by love and abundance.

What more could a girl ask for? NOTHING!

Desire to be and stay in the present. Dedication to recognition and gratitude for what is. Discipline to stay away from future focus at the expense of the present beautiful reality of life!!!

Suddenly Sunday

How can it be that it is Sunday morning already? This weekend is a very full weekend. Friends in from LA, brother and nephew here from NY, brother down from Ventura, niece in from Wisconson and birthday party for Dad and nephew......all jammed into one weekend. So you will understand if I don't spend too much time on this blog.

Just wanted to check in to say that in spite of all the things competing for my attention this weekend, I still managed to do an hour of cardio yesterday and my full 2 hour workout this morning, before going to the birthday party this afternoon!

Last night I served raw veges and hummus, edamame in the pod, rice crisps, grilled pork, grilled ears of corn, grilled wheat pitas and a cucumber cabbage salad. Desert was fresh pineapple from Maui, and boy was it good!!

The birthday party is serving lasagna, which I will not eat. I also will pass on the cake and ice cream. I am conserving calories for my upcoming vacation.....hurray!

Desire to have fun with family and friends. Dedication to planning food choices to avoid caloric sabotage. Discipline to include exercise no matter what the time challenges might be!

Weigh? No Weigh!

The age old love affair (not!) with the scale! For a long time I managed to avoid weighing myself. I even turned around when I was weighed at the doctor's office. I associated the number on the scale with judgment and failure. When in fact....the number on the scale is simply a number on the scale. It tells us where we are on that measurement tool. It indicates a point in time. And, yes, it is a leading indicator of health. I know that people do not have to be bone thin to be healthy, but greater health does positively correlate with lower weights, in most cases.

In fact, many thin people are decidedly unhealthy, with no cardovascular health, an absence of healthful nutrition, no flexibility and lousy coping mechanisms for stress. I am not talking about them. They have their own journey if they so choose.

I guess I am still talking about me, and maybe it resonates with you. When I decided to embark on my journey, I took out the scale, dusted it off and placed it in a position of prominence in my bathroom. I had a talk with the scale (really I did) :-) and decided it represented an important partner in my plan to shed unhealthy pounds from my frame. So this health partner and I get naked at least once a week and go for it....as in stepping on the scale!

I know many people who weigh daily. If that works for you, then do it. If not, determine a frequency that works for you and honor it. It actually becomes interesting to see the fluctuations from weigh in to weigh in. For me the numbers mostly slowly slide down. On occassion there is a slight uptick, which is good to know because it likely means an adjustment would be a good idea. Enough water? Enough sleep? Enough attention to food intake?

I have even made an appointment to get measured in a dunk tank. I am interested to see my true body fat percentage, not just what the scale says. Should be interesting. I will let you know how it goes.

So, is my scale my new BFF? Heavens no! But I have made peace with this device and actually appreciate the value it adds to my journey. BTW, I am also monitoring my waist size. Dr. Oz says that a waist size of 35 inches or below is a good health indicator. I have shed more than 10 inches from my waist measurement and it is well below 35 inches. So glad of that!

So, if you do not already incorporate weigh ins, please consider doing it. Remember the number on the scale does not define you, it is simply one way to monitor a healthful indicator.

Desire to do all you can do to be healthy. The discipline to determine your schedule and honor it. Determination to stay with your journey because you are worth it!

Women Food and God

If you are one of the few people on the planet who have not yet heard about the book, Women Food and God, recently profiled on the Oprah (who else :-) ?) show, you should go out and read it or at least visit oprah.com to learn about it.

For me it represents a compilation of a lot of the principles I have been working with internally. One of the main principles of the book is centered around how to learn to be present, to be in the moment, to recognze what is going on in your life...and to use that awareness to tune in to whatever deeper issues are driving you to eat when you really don't want to eat.

This awareness began emerging for me as I began my yoga practice all those years ago. One of the driving principles of yoga is to be present in your practice. Being present in my life is one of the critical success factors that has helped me achieve the success that I have had so far on my healthy journey. This is also one of the core principles from Echart Tolle's work in The Power of Now and The New Earth (also "must reads").

One of the things said recently on the Oprah show by Geneen Roth, the author of Women Food and God, is how important it is to be full of yourself. It is so common for us to hear the message - "don't be so full of yourself"! When in fact, the opposite it true - we need to become so full of ourselves that we are full to overflowing because that is when we can give the abundance to others around us! One key factor in filling ourselves up is to be present and aware and in the moment so we can more accurately be in touch with ourselves to know when we are full, metaphorically and literally!

The desire to become your best self, the dedication to learn how to be in the moment and the discipline to listen carefully and learn what it means to be truly full!