Overload

I don’t know about you, but typically we all overindulge ourselves during the Thanksgiving holiday feast. This was the first year I consciously decided not to do that! I went to my son’s new In-Law’s house for the gathering, and I was asked to bring a salad and the ever-so-delicious pecan pie. They have a beautiful new home, and it’s perfect for entertaining.

Since everyone was asked to bring an item or two, you can imagine there was an abundance of food. The spread looked wonderful. Mike grilled a turkey and Alaska salmon. With all this amazing food, I was determined to not stuff myself because I would feel horrible afterward – mentally and physically.

I took small amounts of the foods I wanted to eat. I did not deprive myself of carbs or gravy! I stuck to one plate, and small portions. There were many deserts to choose from, and I took a sliver of two pies. That was it. I drank water with my meal too. I am proud to say I did not feel stuffed or blotted in any way. I was done eating by 4:30pm and that was the end of my eating for that day.

I hope you did not overindulge. It is so tempting, right? When that much food is set in front of us, it is hard to say no.

Most medical reports state the flu season starts after Thanksgiving and in part, may be attributed to overeating all day long and sitting around watching football all day. There may be something to that, I don’t know. I do know that three people in my office were out sick last week with the flu. Knock on wood, I feel great and healthy.

I have dropped 32 lbs in 6 months. I wish the weight would drop off faster, but I remind myself it took years to put on, so give myself time to lose it. I’m very grateful!

I hope all of you are doing well. Be mindful of what you eat and how much. It takes dedication, determination, and reminding yourself of the GOAL!

Here’s to health and happiness.

Deanna

Celebrate the WIN

Celebrate the WIN

Stepping on the scale on Monday, I was happy to see I’d lost 3 lbs! Woohoo! I apprehensively step on the scale at 6am first thing every Monday morning. I must admit, the win set the tone for the rest of the day.

I chose to elect Monday as the one day I weigh myself and keep on track or adjust what I need to do for my health that week. Mondays are the beginning of my work week, and I’ve got a full week ahead. I don’t like Mondays. It’s always the most challenging day to get out of bed after enjoying the weekend, and my mind is full of my to-do list.

I chose to celebrate the WIN and did a little happy dance. The win gave me a spring in my step, a smile, and a renewed determination to continue what I’m doing right! My colleague even said “You look great. I can tell you’re losing weight!” I was over the moon.

Don’t the small wins add up? I know they do!

Don’t you love a win? Of course, you do! EVERYONE does….

Let’s celebrate small wins! It’s a journey to changing habits and feeling better and getting our health back. Keep up the small steps. Do not give up.

CELEBRATE THE WINS!

Here’s to our health.

Deanna

Treat your body as you want to be treated

Our emotions are a powerful driver of what we eat. When we aren’t eating we are thinking of what we will eat for the next meal, or what we will cook. We even snack in between meals when we probably aren’t really hungry, but thirsty! We assume when we feel hungry the need is for food, but I’m sure 90% of the time our body is asking for water! We eat and eat and eat… it’s the western culture. We do not deprive ourselves – even if we eat healthy food.

If you really think about it for a minute, it’s our emotions that drive our eating. Stress, sadness, depression, feeling unseen or heard, the need for love, desire, and I could list 100 more…. Eating with emotions is slowly killing us, making us obese and unhealthy. I’ll write more on this topic later.

Back to overeating. Do you think our bodies need to eat so much? Think about it for a minute. Do you think our ancestors ate like we do? They hunted and gathered and probably didn’t eat for days until they hunted and collected again. Food was even more scarce in the winter – hunting was even harder so eating was few and far between. They had strong bodies and none of them were obese or had gut issues. I could be wrong since I wasn’t living back then, but have to think I have a point to some degree.

Have you tried fasting? Have you tried not to EAT ALL DAY LONG? Our bodies are used to eating so much that the liver and pancreas can not keep up with the demand of their time. They are overworked and tired. We don’t need to eat so much.

If you compare the overworked and tired feeling to your job, then you will begin to get some sort of understanding. I had a job once where I was working 70 hours a week, and in the beginning, I didn’t mind doing it for the “cause” of the organization, but then I slowly began to get sluggish, tired, have brain fog, and didn’t even want to get up in the morning to go to work. It took a heavy toll on every part of my being. I couldn’t keep it up but my boss demanded I do it.

This is the same for your body. It’s tired, overworked, and can’t keep up with the 24-hour pace of the job. But you are demanding your body do it by eating all the time. Yes, you are that boss! You may not want to be that boss, but your eating habits demand it.

I lived in Germany for 3 years and loved the way Europeans feel about work. I was the foreign money teller back when each country had its own currency. I loved the job. When I started, I was given 6 weeks of vacation to start, plus 2 bonuses per year – one in June (vacation bonus) and one in December (Christmas bonus) which was a full month’s salary. That would NEVER happen in the United States. Countries abroad believe in a happy employee. They believe people need a break from their job, promote vacations and in doing so, the employee comes back rested and happy. Happy employees become faithful employees. Happy employees want to show up for work.

Give your body a break. Let your stomach get empty – you won’t die! Don’t eat breakfast and slowly push back your first meal to 11 or 12pm. Eat a big healthy salad with protein. Chew your food 32 times before you swallow it. This breaks the food down so your stomach doesn’t have to work so hard. Take your time when you enjoy this meal. Savor the taste and time away from your job. TAKE A BREAK and give your body a break. Treat your body as you want to be treated. Love and respect.

Here’s to being Happy and Healthy.

Deanna

What YOU put in your mouth

What’s going in your mouth matters! This might be the most crucial realization you face.

Your health and well-being mainly comes down to what you decide to put in your mouth to eat. Every day all of us choose what we will eat. We typically are driven by cravings, how much time we have, how we are feeling, and if we want to cook or not. I’m sure there are many other factors I haven’t listed, but we might make the wrong choice based on several factors.

If I am stressed at work and simply want to go home to relax and release the stress, I usually make a bad choice on the drive home! The dreaded “FAST FOOD” swing in the drive-thru. But there are other weeks when I PLAN ahead, meal prep on Sunday nights so it’s all in containers for me to reheat when I get home during the week. My meal prep is veggies/salad and protein. It’s in those weeks when I’ve planned ahead, I eat better and FEEL better.

What we chose to eat also affects how we feel on the inside. When I have a day of sugar/sweets my body feels sluggish and I want to take a nap! Our bodies are incredible when we really think about it. It responds well when we feed it well. The flip side is the same. When we feed it poorly it responds poorly.

For me, I’m trying to be more mindful about food and what I put in my mouth. “Sugar” is addictive and extremely bad for our bodies. Eat fresh, out-of-the-ground food that you can chop with a knife or peel – not food typically on the inside isles of the grocery store with so many preservatives you have no idea what the words on the label mean.

I know it’s not always easy. My road is an up and down one with my weight and health. I think “it’s never to late to make a change”. Try to plan your meals to avoid last-minute choices. That’s where I get hung up – it’s in the last-minute choices when I make terrible choices!

You have heard all of this before – What I’m sharing is more food for thought.

Here’s to our health and well-being! Keep going….

Deanna

Don’t Make This Mistake

Don’t make the same mistake I did!

NEVER ever stop exercising!

Yes, that’s me on the right with my best friend Ann. We were water skiing that day out in Arizona during our college years. What fun!!

When I was young, I thought I was fat, but I wasn’t at all fat! I swam a mile a day the summer before my sophomore year in high school because I liked a boy! I was friends with his family and his big sister, so she and I swam laps 3-4 days a week for the whole summer. I got SUPER toned in my thighs and arms. I drank lots of water and said no to sweets 95% of the time. I loved being so fit! The boy I liked was on the school tennis team, so I played tennis with him. I had so much fun, and I kept active all the time…. well except during piano lessons! LOL

In my freshman year of college, I went to Arizona State and the campus was bigger than I could have imagined coming from a small school. I had to hustle to get to class, or even ride my bike to the other side of campus felt like a bike race. Walking, biking, water skiing, tennis, swimming, and reading a good book on Sunday afternoons were all great memories of an active life.

Getting married, having kids, and getting a divorce made me eat and lose the desire to be active or exercise. Life happens. Before I knew it, I slowly added on weight. DON’T do that! If you are young, listen to me. You might think it won’t happen to you, but if you STOP moving that great body of yours, you will lose it! Those gorgeous curves will get bigger curves. It’s not healthy and it certainly isn’t easy to get off after you neglect your body yearly.

If I can say one thing, please listen to me on this. Your health is the ONE thing you MUST keep working on. The one thing you never stop working to be better, do better and be amazing.

Here’s to happiness and great health!

Deanna

Eating all day long

In the seventies, we were told to eat three meals a day. Then we were told to eat small meals all day long. – grazing. Today most people eat three meals a day and snack all day. Now 2/3 of women are overweight and obese. Let’s think about this logically for a minute – Do you think our bodies were made to eat all day? Did our great ancestors eat all day long? Heck no! They had to hunt for food and had long periods of time when they didn’t eat. If we eat all day, we are over taxing our organs to try and keep up. They must be constantly working over time to do their job. That can’t be good. Right? I know when I work overtime for a long period of time, I wear out. Why wouldn’t our organs respond in the same way?!

I’ve heard so much about intermittent fasting I wanted to give it a try. I think marketing experts and ad campaigns led us to thinking breakfast was the most important meal of the day. But I’m guessing that was probably a bunch of b.s. When I started intermittent fasting, all I could think about was food. It consumed my thoughts. I felt time was moving slower than normal!! The first day, I lasted until 11am, but I wanted to wait until noon. Now I start to think about food at 11:30am – LOL. It really is a new way of thinking, but it’s worth it. I feel better by not eating so much, and keeping my eating window smaller. I try to only eat from noon – 6pm. Plus, chosing better food to eat.

It’s all baby steps to good health. Try it if you haven’t. See how you feel. 🙂

Here’s to good health!

Love and grace,

Deanna

Stick to 1 Day

I have always been obsessed with my weight. I was a chunky child, lean in H.S. due to exercise and swimming, and back to body difficulty after having two babies. I still have a need to get on the scale to see my weight every day, but I’ve learned to pick 1 day – and stick to getting on the scale 1 day every week.

I grew up in a military family. My dad was a Marine for 30 years, so we had rules and routines that as a family we stuck to. I made my bed every morning after I got up. Saturday was cleaning day. My older brother and I knew every Saturday without fail was cleaning day. We had chores to do before we could even go outside and play with friends. There were no exceptions even when we spent the night with a friend, those chores would have to be done when I got home. My parents picked a day and we stuck to it. Mom did laundry, we stripped the sheets off our bed, I did all the dusting, and my brother vacuumed. Mom folded our clean clothes, place them on our bed, and we put them away. We knew the rules. You’ll laugh, but I still clean every Saturday and still make my bed every morning – without fail. 🙂

I believe the same should be for weighing your body. Pick 1 day, same time, weigh naked, and stick to it. I don’t feel weighing every day is healthy for your mind. As we all know, weight can fluctuate based on so many factors. Plus, let’s face it, we all want that number to go down every day when we are trying to lose weight, and it may be disheartening when it goes up. We don’t want to feel defeated or lose our focus when we weigh – right? Heck no! Pick 1 day – weigh and keep going doing better every week.

Here’s to better health –

Grace and love,

Deanna

Not all things are Equal

Science tells us for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I think we all can agree not all things are equal. I live in a career based on consistency and math so everything has to balance. This got me thinking about exercise… and falling off the wagon.

Toasting the Happy Couple

My handsome and smart son got married this past weekend. His new bride is beautiful, intelligent, and the best part is; she loves my son with all her heart. (A mom can tell) I am thrilled to watch them start their new life together. The wedding was outside beside the largest natural lake in Indiana so you can imagine the backdrop of the wedding was scenic. When the kids began to share their written vows, (kids being 30 years old, so technically not kids anymore) we all sat silently with anticipation of their heartfelt vows to one another. Being the mom of the groom, I had a front-row seat and got my phone out to record this moment in time. My son started his vows, well thought out and meticulously written down so he wouldn’t forget what he wanted to share with her. During this moment, I kid you not, a Jet-Ski whizzes by the wedding venue loud and proud drowning out his vows for a moment. Like any good husband-to-be, he didn’t wavier! They both shared loving vows to one another. However – A Lakeside Wedding Venue does not equal jet ski fun under the sun!

The dinner and celebration continued under a huge tent on the side of the resort/hotel. The guests started out with flutes of champagne and strawberries. My arm was graciously twisted to join in with several flutes as all the guests toasted the happy couple. The meal was superb and so was the desert. Now here’s where every action has an equal and opposite reaction…. Alcohol, heavy food, and sugar will have an opposite reaction to my healthier lifestyle change.

While I loved being in the moment celebrating with everyone, I also felt horrible the next day. All I wanted to do was be lethargic and sleep. I am sure part of that was also due to a very long day from sun up to late in the evening. It took me a few days to feel normal again. Falling off the wagon sets you back. What little weight I’d lost, now back on. I felt sluggish and weighed down. Now I feel I’m starting all over again and my progress was for nothing.

There’s a famous quote I love – “Our jobs don’t define who we are. What defines us, is how well we rise after falling.” ~ Maid in Manhattan, The movie.

Doesn’t that quote say it all?!? I get back up, dust myself off, and do a better job going forward! I do NOT give up! Giving up is not an option! I get back on the proverbial wagon and continue towards my goal.

Here’s to better health!

Love and Happiness-

Deanna

What Happened to my Great Body?

Where did my college body go? What happened to my strong resolve to say “no” when offered a piece of cake? After having two babies, menopause, and postmenopause, fast forward to middle age. My body, while remarkable as God made it, has changed dramatically since my twenties. I’ve made a lot of bad food choices on top of experiencing major life events. The question now is – How do I get my body back? Can I do this at my age? Will my body resist or appreciate the effort to change back to healthy?

My body is different, so a new game plan needs to be figured out. I do think the old “no” to cake or sugar is the first start. Saying no to sugar is always a good plan. This will be week one of my journey. I’m active in walking and moving every hour but I will shoot to add some simple weight lifting twice a week for the upper body and lower body.

I want this to be easy and simple. Week 1 – Say no to sugar. Weight lift – easy sets 2 times this week. Move my body more. Drink MORE water.

I will report next week on my progress. Small repetitive steps are key! Just like doing accounting – it’s about being consistent.

Have a GREAT WEEK….

Here’s to BETTER HEALTH.

Deanna

Exercise is a state of mind

Sit back and let me tell you a tale about one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done in my life.

Many moons ago, I was married to an extremely smart professor who lifted weights six days a week and rested on the Sabbath. I never felt the need to work out (weight lift), but he encouraged me to at least work out 2 days a week with him. One day for the upper body, and the second for the lower body. I didn’t feel my body was that out of shape, but I did give birth to two kids. Ladies, you can certainly relate to how our body changes to accommodate giving birth. But I digress, so back on to the story.

After a few months of working out with the smart professor, my body got firm in areas I wasn’t previously firm. I liked the look, the feel, and boy did it do wonders for my self-esteem. I could wear a mini skirt again! Back then, that was HOT!

One thing I didn’t like was being forced to work out. I had to do sit-ups before bed and in the morning. He’d comment on what I ate if he felt it wasn’t what I should be eating. You probably guessed by now, that he was a control freak. I don’t like the word freak, but it conveys what I need to get across in this tale.

We ended up getting a divorce for lots of reasons. I wished him well and left with two kids in tow. I was grateful for the tight thighs and feeling great about my body, which I owed all that to him and his control. BUT in my rebellion of not wanting to be controlled, I STOPPED working out from that point on! That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. So so wrong…

Fast forward fifteen years, here I am mid-fifties struggling to lose because it’s even harder at my age now! I get up at 5:45 am to get my butt to the gym and work out at least 3 times a week. BUT I LOVE to work out now. I FEEL so much better and have more energy than when I don’t work out. I notice a high feeling on the days I do work on my body. The only difference is – No one is forcing me now. I simply do it for myself and my own health.

I’m glad this tale has a happy ending, but I sure wish I could go back in time and change that stupid moment in time! (LOL) Life is a journey… ups and downs… good and bad.

Exercise is really a state of mind! It’s all in how you look at it.

Love and blessings – and here’s to our health.

Deanna