Welcome to NPM!

Can you believe it is October tomorrow?????  Krikey!  Where has 2012 gone????  Since tomorrow is Ocotber 1, I thought I would talk a little about NPM, known to many as National Patty Month!  My birthday is the 8th.  When we married, my hubbie said the 8th was National Patty Day....so sweet, no?  Then we discovered that one day is simply not enough, so it switched to National Patty Week and, over time, has evolved to be NPM!

Why the childish focus on my birthday, you might be asking?  Well, I am one of those rare women/people that embraces birthdays with a passion!  Simply put, I believe that having a birthday beats the crap out of not having a birthday! 

17 years ago I lost my BFF to breast cancer.  She made me promise, literally, to make a big deal about having my birthday, because she knew she was not going to have anymore.  Of course, it was wildly sad at the time, but now I honor Monica by making a big damn deal every year when October rolls around!

Clearly, aging is not for the faint of heart.  The challenge to be healthy only accelerates as the years fly by.  I once heard a comedian say that if you are over 50 (which I am) and you wake up in the morning and say that nothing hurts, you are either lying or you are dead!  Ha-ha.  (queue the drum rif in the background!) 

You need to keep monitoring caloric intake because our metabolism slows down.  You need to keep working out even more to combat the metabolism thing, even in the face of creaky joints.  You need to find ways to get a good night sleep and laugh in the face of menopause interupted sleep........and the challenges don't end there.  Nonetheless, I still LOVE my birthday. 

So during Ocotber, please join me in enjoying your workouts, eathing healthy to promote greater longevity and being good to yourself, because you are worth it!  We all are!!!!

Desire to celebrate my birthday.  Dedication to a healthy journey to generate more birthdays.  Discipline to celebrate my birthday with moderation.   

Brussel Sprouts on a Stick!!!

Brussel sprouts on a stick sounds like something deep fried at a county fair, right?  It brings to mind...corn dogs on a stick and all the other super unhealthy food that is inedible! 

Well, yesterday, my hubbie went to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things on our list.  In the produce section, they were selling fresh stalks of brussel sprouts that had not yet been harvested from the "stick" or stalk it grows on.  He brought me home 2 full stalks.  I was over the moon happy!!!

While he was in Trader Joe's, I was in Jimbo's, our local organic "health food" store.  Brussel sprouts were on my list because I wanted to roast them as snacks to watch today while I watch the Emmy arrivals (yes, I am back to eating very healthy to shed my vacation jelly belly!).  Jimbo's had brussel sprouts.........are you ready.......wait for it.......at $7.99 a pound!!!!!  So, needless to say, I did not buy them.  Too rich for  my blood!

Imagine my surprise when Allen said "I bought you a present!".  And imagine my subsequent delight when he presented me with 2 stalks of fresh brussel sprouts!  Hurray.  The real back story is that he does not like brussel sprouts, so much so, that when we married, I had to promise to love, honor cherish and promise to never bring brussel sprouts (or cauliflower) into the house. (His Mom used to murder brussel sprouts and cauliflower and he is not ready to let go of those food memories.)  Over the past 25 years, we have made great strides!  Now he is buying me brussel sprouts!  YOOOO-HOOOO!

As I type this post, I have 3 trays of veges roasting in the oven - brussel sprouts, onions and butternut squash.  Not only will I have great healthy munching for the Emmy arrivals show, I willl have yummy roasted veges to go with my dinner all week long!

Desire to snack while watching a favorite TV show. Dedication to preparing something nutritious.  Discipline to get right back on the healthy eating horse.

Lobstah, Lobstah, Lobstah - Get in My Belly!

I am posting from the front porch of the ocean front Beach House in Kennebunk, Maine.  It is a stunningly beautiful sunny day.  We walked into town and back, a five mile walk.  At least we had a little exercise!  We stopped for lunch and I had a cup of lobster stew which was just a milky broth loaded with lobster meat.  Then I had a lobster roll.  Ridiculously delicious!

I know I will have lots of vacation calories to work off, but this land of lobster is worth it!  It truly is something we cannot get at home!

Thank goodness for this perfect weather.  We will walk into town again for dinner, which will likely involve more lobster!  Monday we fly back to San Diego where I will embrace unlimited veges and lean protein again.  For now, I have two more days of vacation decadence to enjoy!  It has been an amazing 25th anniversary celebration.  We will not forget it!

Desire to be decadent on vacation.  Dedication to enjoying local fare.  Discipline to return to real life.

Sacred Time At Sea

That is the name of the 2.5 hour spa treatment I had today. I was sugar scrubbed, soaked in a tub, painted with mud, showered then rubbed.....and every minute was pure bliss. I just wanted you to know how completely grateful I am for my life's blessings. On Wednesday, Allen and I celebrate 25 years of wedded bliss. I KNOW that he is a major reason that my healthy journey has been healthy and continues to be a blast, challenges and all.

My wish for everyone is that you find love, peace, health and happiness on your journey

Desire to share my happiness with you.  Dedication to my husband for the next 25.  Discipline to let go and enjoy.

A Little Less Laboring Please

I don't know if it is the hot weather, the increased stress at work, the addition of one more weight training session a week or just too many sun spots....but I have had to drag myself to my workouts for the past couple of weeks.  My workouts have become a real drain instead of an energizer.  I don't like that feeling!  The good news is that I have, in fact, drug myself to all my workouts, meaning I have not missed any, even though I felt like missing a few!

So, perhaps it is a good thing that we are going on vacation.  I know that many experts tell us that taking a break from our normal routine can have beneficial effects.  My intention is that this vacation will give me some time away so I can return refreshed and invigorated. 

Now, you know me by now.  I will not avoid exercise while on vacation, in fact, I plan to work in something vigorous everyday.  We will be on the Cape, so lots of opportunity for beach walks and swimming abound!   Besides, I have to stay active so I can enjoy the culinary treats (lobster) that Massacheusetts offers!

My goal is to channel, Sarah, one of the members of our community.  She went on vacation and lost weight!!!!  I KNOW!!!!  If that isn't an awesome accomplishment, I don't know what is!

So feel free to send me some relaxation ju-ju.  I will accept all that comes my way!

Desire to relax and enjoy.  Dedication to stay active while on vacation.  Discipline to become Sarah and return lighter than today!

More on Motivation

I have been talking about motivation with some of the members of our community.  It is an interesting and complex topic!  What motivates us to want to reduce our weight?  Increase our fitness level?  Change our eating habits?  Drink less alcohol?  Get more sleep? Get off of a drug that isn't healthy for us to use?  Minimizing or stopping any behavior that is not healthy should be easy, but it's not, is it????

Classic motivators can be categorized as intrinsic (coming from within) or extrinsic (external influences).  Some people say that all motivation can come down to two categories: fear and greed.  Other  researchers say that motivation is more complex involving motivators such as recognition, money, autonomy and other things.  The one thing everyone agrees on is that motivation is highly personal to each person.  So, if you are trying to find motivation to begin your healthy journey or to jumpstart a stalled healthy journey or to just keep going on your healthy journey, in my eyes, the only answer is to look within.

You have to ask yourself some tough questions.  How is my behavior serving me? Because, when we choose to repeat a behavior, it is serving us in some way.  If you are eating a bowl of ice cream or a plate of french fries or (insert your favorite example here) when you know you should be avoiding that food,  then you are serving something inside of you that needs your attention.  So ask yourself, are you feeding the little child inside who was denied treats?  Are you feeding some emotional need that you have yet to come to terms with?  Food motivators are almost always connected to emotional needs. 

So often your hear advice that we have to learn to love ourselves.  Could it be that easy to have greater control over food if we simply love ourselves more than we love an unhealthy food choice?  I think so.  So next time you are facing temptation, ask yourself - do I really want to eat the "Snickers bar", or can I put it down and decide I love myself more than I love the "Snickers bar" instead.  That definitely falls within the intrinsic category of motivators!

So keep asking yourself the questions.  The answers will emerge for you when you are ready to hear them. Just know that you are worth the time and the effort.  You have the answers within you.

Desire to figure it out.  Dedication to learn your triggers.  Discipline to keep asking the good questions.

Reverse Psychology of Temptation

I am sharing this column by Peter Bregman.  I enjoyed reading it and I think you will too, especially if you have people in your life who try to tempt you with poor choices!                

"Oh this is delicious, Peter. The ice cream is homemade, the perfect consistency, And this lemon cookie on top, mmmmm. Are you sure you don't want some?"
Tom smiled devilishly as he reached across the table to hand me a spoon. Tom is my client, the CEO of a $900 million company. I was in San Francisco to run a two-day offsite meeting for him and his leadership team. We've worked together for almost a decade and he's become a close, trusted friend.
We were at Greens in San Francisco, a vegetarian restaurant Tom had chosen because he had seen their cookbooks on my shelf in New York and knew I would love it.
Tom was teasing me because earlier in the meal I told him I was off sugary desserts. There's no medical reason or necessity for me to avoid sugar; I simply feel better when I'm not eating it. But he's seen me eat large quantities of sugary treats in the past and knows my willpower can be weak.
"It does look good and I'm glad you're enjoying it," I said, "but you're on your own. There's no chance I'm eating any."
"C'mon Peter, these desserts are healthy, and all we've eaten is vegetables anyway. It would be a real missed opportunity if you didn't at least taste the desserts at Greens; it's your favorite kind of food."
He took a bite from a second dessert he had ordered just to tantalize me — a berry pie — and rolled his eyes in mock ecstasy, "Ooh, this is good. And it's basically just fruit. Go ahead, have just a bite." As he edged it closer to my side of the table, the red caramelized berries dripped juice over the side of the plate.
The reasons to taste the desserts were compelling. Even putting aside the fact that Tom is a client and there's always some pressure to please clients, his rationalizations were the same rationalizations that were floating inside my head.
But here's the interesting thing: the more he pressured me to eat dessert, the stronger my resolve not to eat dessert grew.
My reaction caught me off guard and offered me a surprising strategy for helping people sustain change: if you want to help someone stick to a decision, try tempting him out of it. In other words, enticing someone to break a commitment can be a great tool to help him maintain his commitment.
Here's why: Going into the dinner, I had one reason I didn't want to eat dessert. But Tom's taunting gave me another reason: I was embarrassed to break my commitment in the face of his teasing. I didn't want to be the guy who caves in to peer pressure.
Maybe it's just my rebellious nature, but when my wife Eleanor reminds me that I don't really want to eat that cookie in my hand, I quickly try to stuff it in my mouth before she can stop me. Even though I've asked her to help me, my feeling is, "I'll eat whatever I want to eat!" It becomes a fun game, a challenge. Somehow, when she's helping me, I become a little less accountable.
But when Tom was egging me on, the tables were turned. I was fully responsible for my own actions. I knew I was on my own. And I also knew that the stakes were high; If I ate the dessert I would never live it down. The brilliance of the psychology is that Tom made it more fun — and free-spirited — to not eat dessert. And successfully withstanding his pressure built my confidence in my commitment.
This approach has broad application. Do you have a colleague who wants to speak less in meetings? Try egging her on. Someone who wants to leave work at a decent time? Prod him at 5pm with his incomplete to-do list. A spouse who's trying to stay off email at night? Dangle her BlackBerry in front of her at bedtime.
There are two conditions necessary to make this an effective strategy and keep it good-natured: The commitment the person wants to make needs to be self-motivated and the person doing the ribbing needs to be a trusted friend who doesn't abuse positional power.
What happens when the prodding is over? It turns out that the motivating impact of that dinner has lasted long after dinner was done. Usually, offsite meetings are particularly dangerous for me as far as sugar consumption is concerned. But this time I didn't eat any sugar during the meeting and I haven't eaten any since. It's been a month since I stopped eating sugar — a month that included a week-long vacation with my wife Eleanor in France — a month filled with opportunities to eat delicious-looking sugary treats.
But each time I'm tempted, I pause, remembering that dinner with Tom, and I think "if I didn't eat dessert then — with all that pressure and temptation and lots of good reasons to eat dessert — why would I eat it now?"