Given all my “dietary indiscretions” this past month, the following words certainly caught my attention this morning. . .

“Late-breaking study reveals how to NOT pay dearly for dietary indiscretions… and slim down, plus improve your insulin sensitivity. The trick? Just do your workout at this time of day. Results so amazing, it’s almost criminal…”

Since just last night I made a vow to myself to get back to the 5:30 am Jazzercise class (starting this morning), I was ripe to hear about amazing, almost criminal results.

The article found on www.mercola.com reveals a study demonstrating that exercising in the morning, before eating, can significantly lessen the ill effects of a poor holiday diet.

“Researchers recruited healthy, active young men and fed them a bad diet for six weeks. A group of them that exercised before breakfast gained almost no weight and showed no signs of insulin resistance. What’s more, they burned the fat they were taking in more efficiently.”

Why do I exercise before breakfast? One simple explanation: because I don’t trust myself if I don’t. If I exercise as soon as I pop out of bed, I get it done while I am still sort of unconscious. I can have all the best intentions to exercise later in the day, but a flurry of excuses about “no time” always sabotage my plans.

Nice to know there are side benefits for just getting it done and out of the way.

The article scientifically explains how exercising on an empty stomach will effectively force your body to burn fat. It emphasizes another important key is to only consume water while exercising, not sugary drinks.

OK, ready to join me in setting the alarm tomorrow morning? We can get it done while we are still unconscious and enjoy all these side benefits.  :  )

It is now four days since Easter. Have you yet had the courage to look in the mirror at your face, your belly when you step out of the shower? Did you finally get up the courage only to become totally distraught at the image before you?

Two articles on today’s oprah.com caught my eye. The first one said, “Go Ahead and Eat That Easter Candy,” relating that chocolate can be good for us. On the opposite side of the page appeared the title  “Weight Loss Roller Coaster,” the story of Kathrine Lee who in 2002 showed off her 175-pound weight loss on Oprah’s stage. She kept the weight off for seven years, but slowly the weight crept back on.

Four days after Easter I felt more inspired to read the latter article. “Finally, at 300 pounds, Kathrine had an aha! moment. After reading Geneen Roth’s book Women, Food and God, Kathrine learned losing weight is not about punishing or depriving yourself—it’s about embracing yourself. ‘Kindness is actually what heals,’ she says.”

If you keep clicking through the article, you come to an excerpt from the book, which includes the following:

“We think we’re miserable because of what we weigh. And to the extent that our joints hurt and our knees ache and we can’t walk three blocks without losing our breath, we probably are physically miserable because of extra weight. But if we’ve spent the last five, 20, 50 years obsessing about the same ten or 20 pounds, something else is going on. Something that has nothing to do with weight.”

“The bottom line, whether you weigh 340 pounds or 150 pounds, is that when you eat when you are not hungry, you are using food as a drug, grappling with boredom or illness or loss or grief or emptiness or loneliness or rejection. Food is only the middleman, the means to the end. Of altering your emotions. Of making yourself numb. Of creating a secondary problem when the original problem becomes too uncomfortable. Of dying slowly rather than coming to terms with your messy, magnificent, and very, very short—even at a hundred years—life. The means to these ends happens to be food, but it could be alcohol, it could be work, it could be sex, it could be cocaine. Surfing the Internet. Talking on the phone.”

“The Sufi poet Rumi, writing about birds learning to fly, wrote: ‘How do they learn it? They fall, and falling, they’re given wings.’”

“If you wait until you have Toni Oliver’s eyes and Amy Breyer’s hair, if you wait to respect yourself until you are at the weight you imagine you need to be to respect yourself, you will never respect yourself. To be given wings, you’ve got to be willing to believe that you were put on this Earth for more than your endless attempts to lose the same 30 pounds 300 times for 80 years. And that goodness and loveliness are possible, even in something as mundane as what you put in your mouth for breakfast.

Beginning now.”

OK, I now make a note in my planner, “Get Women, Food and God by Geneen Roth.”

Beginning now…quit beating yourself up for what you did in the past. Just last night a friend reminded me that the past and future are all about the ego.

Just stay put in this present moment. Now is the new beginning.

An excerpt from today’s message from Neale Donald Walsch gives further emphasis on the now…

“Is it love, or is it fear?

Everything you express emerges from one of these two

starting points. Yet you can return to love, as Marianne

Williamson famously wrote, at any time you wish. For

each day, each moment, offers a new beginning.”

Maria Robinson said, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”

Here’s the challenge for today: Go back to that mirror. Stand up straight, proudly square your shoulders. Look yourself in the eye and return yourself to love, self love.

Just think, a new beginning…beginning now. How exciting.

Have you ever looked at life as an adventure? You know, you get up in the morning and with the magical wonder of a kid, you create a chest popping excitement about where the day might take you?

Could it be that merely holding this thought attracts adventure to you?

As I walked down the stairs at my local airport, headed for Book Camp in Salt Lake City last Thursday, I had the thought, “What if I look upon this trip is an adventure? I wonder who I will meet along the way? I wonder what great things might come into my life as a result?”

I wasn’t disappointed.

The display set up right next to my book table belonged to an incredible person I was destined to meet. She introduced herself and commented that she didn’t know about the event till the evening before, so her being there was a miracle in itself.

The display belonged to Vicki Talmage, www.vickitalmage.com. Almost immediately she was asking me about my book, Stop the Needless Suffering, and I was asking her about her “Simple Solution for Optimum Health” display.

We hit it off immediately. She told me her story of how her life took a turn, launching her unexpectedly into a passion that became her lifetime career.

She was all set to go to Med School when she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. Her diagnosis led her on a search for health and living. Thirty-two years later, she is still passionately teaching people around the world about the significance of food and colon health.

“Our bodies are gauges to determine the level of our health. They will manifest on the outside what is either working or not working on the inside. If we understand that healthy functioning bodies and emotions are essential for optimum weight, we resist the temptation of fad diets or starvation programs.

It may be time to take a look at how we are living our lives and make the necessary adjustments to take care of ourselves.

In the hectic pace that we have chosen to live in, we have to learn again how to take care of and respect ourselves. Scheduling time into each day to eat our meals and making a conscious choice to eat high quality foods will improve our quality of life and clarity of mind.”

I purchased her book, From Bin to Banquet, and read it on the flight home. I devoured her pamphlet on colon health. Now the buck stops here.

To hold myself accountable, and to share my new learnings with you, I will devote a series of upcoming articles on the information that Vicki taught me.

“I wonder what great things might come into our lives as a result?”

Check out the wisdom in today’s message from tut.com: “You don’t take ‘baby steps’ for the distance they cover, Rosie, but to put yourself within reach of life’s magic.

Just like you don’t hoist your sails to move the boat, but to put yourself within reach of the wind.

Hoist, baby, hoist, baby, 1, 2, 3, 4 -
    The Universe”

[Side note: if you love this guy as much as I do, Mike Dooley, who brings these invigorating messages to us every day, help him out by purchasing a copy of his new release of the long awaited text edition of Infinite Possibilities: The Art of Living Your Dreams! Go to www.tut.com to read all about it… Amazon extends 34% off and B&N 35% off today! I don’t get anything for promoting his work. I just love starting each morning with his pearls of wisdom, that’s all.]

Back to the baby steps…it is those baby steps that put us in reach of life’s magic. For example, reflect on your day yesterday. What baby steps did you take at work, in your home, with your kids, with your health? Maybe you took them and didn’t really think about them?

I’ll toss out a few examples to consider. Want to do something about improving your health? Maybe just start with a baby step.

Perhaps the first step is purchasing a bath scales. I know, gross. That will lead to the next baby step that takes tremendous courage: stepping on it. I promise you, once you do, you will be on your way. Actually, perhaps the first baby step is to decide. Decide to purchase that scales. Decide that today is the day to take that baby step towards the magic of your good health.

Speaking of scales, I am having fun with the one I just purchased. For $39 at WalMart, you can purchase a “Healthometer Body Fat & Hydration Monitoring Scale.” This scales will give you not only your weight, but also your % body fat, % body water, % bone mass, and your BMI (Body Mass Index). A brochure is included that explains the normal ranges for males and females.

Take another baby step…post a calendar by your scales and start recording your numbers. The numbers will be an incentive to keep you on your path. Among other things, this simple step somehow stimulates the RAS in your brain – the reticular activating system – that causes your subconscious mind to keep pushing towards your goal.   

Another baby step is to put Dr. Joel Fuhrman on in your car, your automobile university, as you travel to and from work. Thinking I have no time right now to read, I recently purchased his Eat for Health and Eat to Live audiobooks. Well, forget that, I ordered the books yesterday, so intrigued was I over the excellent information I am learning on his CDs.

Dr. Fuhrman’s CDs are full of little baby steps. For example, he teaches the importance of adding foods rich in micronutrients to your diet, such as found in deeply green leafy vegetables. Taking that one little point, here’s a funny little baby step.

Yesterday Dr. Gabhart and I met at my house to work on our book. When it got to be lunch time, we decided to have some tuna and some mouth watering cherry tomatoes, fresh from the garden. I prepared my tuna with nothing in it. Meanwhile, Dr. G. is rifling through my spice drawer.

“Here, put these Marjoram Leaves and Basil and dried Tomato & Garlic mix in that tuna. What do you think all this is? It’s your green vegetables. This is good for you! Where’s your onions? And put a little olive oil in there. You can’t eat that tuna plain!”

Oh my goodness, when she got finished with that tuna, I thought I was at Thanksgiving dinner – and all because of the addition of a few herbs – no egg or mayonnaise – just the healthy micronutrients that I heard Dr. Fuhrman talk about earlier that morning.

Little baby steps… Mike Dooley, you are right! Thank you for helping us see we can put ourselves within reach of the wind!

What baby steps can you take today to put you within reach of life’s magic?

“Goodbye to the old, hello to the new. You’ve finished one part of your life, and now a new and even better part is beginning.” My morning message was one I randomly selected from Doreen Virtue’s work. What a perfect message to share with you as I wrap up a week that has been devoted to the good, bad, and ugly about certain foods and fake foods – largely about impacting our kids’ lives with food.

This week I have spotlighted the work of several authors, particularly Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Disease-Proof Your Child. When I first read his book, I was overcome with sadness and regret – that I didn’t know or apply this information for my own children as they were growing up, much less myself. I initially felt such deep sadness that it was “too late” for me. But…I eventually turned that feeling around to, “No! It is NEVER too late to become the healthy person you want to become.”

Remember me mentioning the physician who held up the book saying, “Get this book. If you don’t have children, get it and read it for yourself”? There is liberation, hope, freedom, and belief in that statement. No matter where you are today, this is the moment that counts and you can create a beautiful, healthy new you! Wasn’t it Jack Canfield who said not to worry about how to get to California in the dark – just shine your headlights and focus a few feet ahead of you, and you will eventually get there?

I love this teaching from the Budda:

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for
the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate
troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

It is in this moment that you can release an unhealthy old pattern. Today is a new day. All that matters is this moment.

Don’t worry about changing everything at once. To do so would be overwhelming. Empower yourself to pick one or two areas and really focus on them. And, wa la, just like that, one day in the not too distant future you will be amazed at what you have created.

Love yourself for the beautiful being that you already are, just as you are. As Doreen Virtue constantly reminds us, “You are perfect, whole, and complete, and you are very, very loved.” Compliment yourself for caring enough that you have now decided to take even better care of you.

Once you have decided, it’s all over. You are on your way. You have finished one part of your life…and now a new and even better part is beginning.

Blessings to you for a wonderful weekend!  :  )

Dr. Campbell writes in The China Study: “Dairy products are particularly rich in calcium, so the dairy industry eagerly supports efforts to boost calcium consumption. Something is amiss, though, because those countries that use the most cow’s milk and its products have the highest fracture rates and the worst bone health.”

Dr. Campbell goes on to explain:

• 70% of the fracture rate was attributable to the consumption of animal protein.
• Animal protein, unlike plant protein, increases the acid load in the body.
• In order to neutralize the acid, the body uses calcium, which it pulls from the bones, thereby increasing the amount of calcium in the urine.
• A high ratio of vegetable to animal protein consumption was found to be impressively associated with a virtual disappearance of bone fractures.

Dr. Campbell advises: “Eat a variety of whole plant foods, and avoid animal foods, including dairy. Plenty of calcium is available in a wide range of plant foods, including beans and leafy vegetables. As long as you stay away from refined carbohydrates, like sugary cereals, candies, plain pastas and white breads, you should have no problem with calcium deficiency.”

Another problem of too much animal protein and calcium intake is the negative effect it has on Vitamin D in our body. Dr. Campbell asks, “So what food substance has both animal protein and large amounts of calcium?  Milk and Dairy foods.”

For a complete explanation of the mechanism of action, please refer to The China Study. The bottom line is this: the Vitamin D process that occurs in our bodies is directly correlated with prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, osteoporosis, and autoimmune diseases. As discussed in yesterday’s blog article, recall also that the ability of cow’s milk protein to initiate Type I diabetes is well documented.

Dr. John Lee and Virginia Hopkins write in What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause that adequate calcium intake can be accomplished by any good diet, even without milk. “A cup full of spinach contains 300mg, and a tablespoon of cheese contains 300mg. Tofu, black-eye peas, leafy green vegetables, and broccoli are good sources of calcium in the diet.”

Dr. Joel Fuhrman also advises in Disease-Proof Your Child that good calcium food choices include vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds. “We can eat greens directly for calcium, the place where cows get it to begin with.”

Dr. Fuhrman also advises, “The fat in our children’s diet should mostly come from avocadoes, nuts, and seeds, not cows.”

I will write more on this topic tomorrow, but for now, let me leave you with this eye-opening comment from Dr. Fuhrman:

Our body is formed from the foods we have consumed in our life. A body made from refined foods, white flour, oils, sugar, and other highly processed ‘fake’ food develops into a sickly human, with allergies and autoimmune diseases, such as colitis, psoriasis, lupus, and asthma, who suffers from indigestion, reflux, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, fibroids, tumors, and fatigue in early adulthood. Serious diseases that interfere with one’s quality of life are born out of our childhood diets. Junk food isn’t cheap; we pay a steep price for it years after consuming it.”

This week I have been talking about “releasing weight” slowly over time. A little effort over a period of time = amazing results.

This morning on my walk, I listened to a recorded call by Robert G. Allen, best-selling author of The One Minute Millionaire. Bob explained it this way:

Take $1 a day, each and every day, and put it away under your bed (no interest). In 66 years you will have $25,000. Wow, that’s a lot of money. But wait, what if you compounded the interest?

$1 a day at 3% interest (wish we still had those rates!) would equal $75,000.

But, if you increased the interest just 2% more and made it 5%, now that amount would equal just under $200,000. Big difference from the $25K!

 Now let’s say you decide to double the interest to make it 10%. That amount would grow from $200,000 to $2.75 million – ten times the result!

What if you added just 5% more? At 15%, you would now grow that number sixteen times, taking it from $2.75 million to $50 million.

But now, what if you put in just a little bit more interest to make it 20%? That $50 million would now become $1 billion, or twenty times the growth.

Just a little bit extra, increasing the interest by a third, creates huge multiples of interest.

Now what if you take that interest and look at is as time? And then, what if you compounded the effort? What would happen in your life?

If you figure that you need eight hours to sleep and an hour a day times three for meals and an extra hour for incidentals, then you have roughly twelve productive hours in your day. What if you spent 3% of your time on something? 3% of twelve hours would be about 21 minutes. What if you spent 21 minutes a day on something for 66 years? What would happen?

Now let’s say you decide to put in just a little bit more effort? Say you decide to spend 5% of your day on one particular thing. 5% of your productive hours would come to about 36 minutes. Would increasing the time from 21 minutes to 36 minutes a day x 66 years make a difference, considering the compounded interest example?

Now let’s say you decide to double that effort. Instead of 5% of your productive hours, you decide to spend 10%. Now you are spending 72 minutes a day on your decided project.

Think of all the areas in your life, all your interests, all your dreams. Is there something you’d like to compound the interest on? Back to releasing any excess weight, over time, that one meal at a time, one day at a time, one week at a time, compounds the effort and the results.

Never, ever, ever give up. If you fall off the wagon, pick yourself back up. Just remember the interest rate you are growing. A little effort over a period of time will = amazing results!

I have been writing the past couple days about “releasing” weight. Today my mind is swirling thinking how it all happens. At the 5:30 am Jazzercise class today one of the participants made a comment that me stop and realize that it was the baby steps that led to a noticeable result. “How much weight have you lost? You look great!”

 Two months ago when I started, releasing 20.6 pounds seemed so far into the future. Then, all of a sudden, today it is here. How did it all happen? Baby steps.

 Yesterday’s message from tut.com speaks such wisdom:

 “The real reason that so many have trouble with the baby steps, Rosie—doing all they can, with what they’ve got from where they are, no matter how humble or seemingly futile—is because they haven’t yet grasped that the baby steps trigger unseen forces that throw wide the floodgates of unstoppable momentum, infinite abundance, and eternal life.

 Just some tiny steps,

????The Universe”

 Perhaps the place to start is with self love. Yesterday Dr. Gabhart and I traveled to a spot a couple hours away that reminds me of the Smoky Mountains. We decided we don’t have to always work on our book in an office, we can go to a beautiful place in Nature. 

 While there, in a little Christian bookstore, sitting there for me on the shelf was a beautiful little book titled Your Captivating Heart, Discover How God’s True Love Can Free a Woman’s Soul. I was immediately drawn to the cover. Listen to these words: “Femininity is depth and mystery and complexity, with beauty as the very essence. Every woman has a beauty to unveil. Every woman.”

 You, me, every woman…just as you are, right now, this very minute.

 The next step is to make sure that physically you are in balance, that a hormone imbalance will not hinder you once you decide to release the pounds that you no longer need. I am grateful to Dr. Gabhart for helping me in this regard (www.whitneygabhartnd.com).

 Next comes a faith and a belief. In a little coffee shop yesterday there on the wall was a small beautiful stone wall hanging that now lives on my wall where I can see it every day: “Miracles happen when you BELIEVE.”

 Next comes the courage and determination that I have been talking about this week…and a sensible, healthy eating plan. The one I am following is the one I wrote about in my blog article on July 10, “Only Open Door #1.”

 You know, what comes to me is that every dream is like this, not just releasing those no-longer-needed pounds. It all starts with little baby steps.  In time, bit by bit, those tiny little steps will create momentum and then, sure enough, your miracle presents itself.

 What an exciting time to be aware, to be alive, to take the little baby steps, enjoying each step along the way…

A funny thing happened at the upscale restaurant this weekend. As I examined the menu for the lowest carb item, I asked the waitress for her recommendation. “Sounds like you’re on the same diet I’m on!” was her reply.  Feeling confident I was now in good hands, I immediately took her recommendation and ordered a tilapia dish with a big long name that I couldn’t pronounce.

 Imagine my reaction when out came a big serving of fish completely smothered and buried under a pile of moist bread crumb/tomato/parmesan coating. By the time I scraped off the breadcrumb goop, I had a pile as big as the size of my fish. Wonder how many carbs were in all that mess?

 A couple days before that, I accompanied my granddaughter to the day care on her 2^nd day of school. Sierra was so excited to eat breakfast at the day care. Guess what the breakfast was? I stood in stunned shock as a piece of white bread was slathered in butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. That and a cup of milk was “breakfast.”  

 Sierra was so upset with me when I told her I had to go get her some breakfast somewhere. “No, Grandma! I’m not wasting this good piece of bread!” What nutrition is in a white piece of bread??  Plus, it breaks down into simple sugars…carbs and no nutrition.

 An employee overheard our commotion and offered that Sierra could eat the school breakfast if she wanted. Ah, big relief since we didn’t have much time till the bell rang! What was the menu? Biscuits and gravy, orange juice and milk. Biscuits?  More carbs and more simple sugars and no nutrition. And milk…that’s another topic for another day. Check out what Dr. Joel Fuhrman has to say about milk in Disease-Proof Your Child or Dr. Campbell inThe China Study.

 “Releasing” weight is a S-L-O-W process. Imagine how much slower the process is when you add all those carbs to a meal. It takes courage to search the menu for the lean meats and low carb vegetables, particularly when the people you are dining with order the breaded appetizer, the hot rolls, and the tub of pasta. Try to find a menu anywhere that isn’t loaded with carbs. We have a serious carb crisis in America. Carbs are making us fat.

 It also takes discipline to record every single item you consume in your food journal. What a pain to look up the number of calories, fat, protein, and carbs for each item. The pocket sized Calorie Fat & Carbohydrate Counter makes the job easier, but it requires discipline indeed.

 But you know what? Before you know it, you are pretty educated on the number of carbs and calories in food items, and the process takes less and less time. Plus, there is something about holding yourself accountable to record every single item. Less likely to “cheat” that way…and oh, the reward is so very sweet.

 Yes, it takes time to release 5, 10, 15, 20 pounds, but you’re going to be here 1, 2, 3, 6 months from now anyway. Might as well be 5 or 10 pounds lighter and feel good about yourself. Imagine not having to carry that 5 or 10 pound bag of sugar around with you everywhere you go.

 Tut.com had a pointed comment yesterday…

 “One of the trickiest things about life, Rosie, is that, at times, it happens so slowly.

 Yet…if…it…happened…any…faster…you’d…already…have…everything…you…ever…wanted…without…learning…to…enjoy…the…ride.

Beep, beep…

The Universe”

 Want to hear still yet another blessing of counting carbs? You learn to choose your food wisely, and the flavors literally burst in your mouth. You find yourself having a whole new appreciation for the substances that you put into your mouth.

 Oh, yes, enjoy the ride. The thrill of victory is sweet – even without the carbs!

A friend and I have made a long term commitment to eat a healthy diet, monitor our carbs, and slowly “release” the excess weight. We don’t want to “lose” it. Subliminally speaking, when you “lose” something, you are always looking for it, wanting it back. Not so in this case!

 Now that Dr. Gabhart has my hormones in balance, it’s a doable thing. I have found from personal experience if your hormones are out of balance, the pounds won’t come off. It’s s a slow process, but the victory is so sweet. The following Chinese proverb pretty much sums it up:

“Be not afraid of changing slowly; be afraid only of standing still.”

My friend shared this wonderful analogy with me. Maybe it will be helpful to some of you:

 “I am down another 2 pounds . . .and that alone, dear woman, prevents me from a frozen margarita drunken binge!!!” (Can you tell I am always talking about my Friday night margarita? Incidentally, I find I can still indulge in this one weekly toxin adventure, as long as I don’t consume the entire restaurant along with it.)

 She continues: “I am on the path of weight loss. This morning makes 12 pounds . . . my next tiny goal is 5 lbs from where I am. I do the mental thing like this . . . think of it like hiking. It is uphill. It is a trail. I have a backpack. Every so often I sit down for a couple of minutes. Those are my tiny goals. Next I have my larger goals, and that is where I open up my tent and rest overnight. Then I do the small goals again where I just sit a couple of minutes and so on . . .

 It helps me to break it down for the whole goal which is to reach the destination point where I will have a permanent cabin, with resort accommodations. My goal is to live there!!!! At least at my first plateau, I can pitch my tent for a while and rest!!!!”

 One meal at a time, one day at a time, and darn if the scale doesn’t eventually change. It takes courage to step on the scale every morning and write that number on the calendar. BUT, what sweet joy when you get to write down a number that’s a little lower than the day or week before.

It is a S-L-O-W process, but oh, how your body will love you for the extra care and attention you are giving it. . .

 Your heart thanks you…it doesn’t have to pump as hard to get blood circulated to all those extra pounds!

 Your lungs thank you…oh, how much easier it is to breathe!

 Your hormones thank you…oh, to get back in balance again feels so good!

 Your joints, legs, veins, and feet thank you…the load to carry is so much lighter!

 An eye opening experience for me during this ride has been the incredible carb overload facing us each day, no matter where we turn. Stay tuned in tomorrow when I share some of those experiences!  :  )