From Here to Healthy at 50 and Beyond....A VLOG!

So I did it! I stepped so far outside my comfort zone that I may need a rope to pull me back in. A little history here.......I HATE TO HAVE MY PICTURE TAKEN! This goes back to my first memories of my mom putting one of those cameras with the big flashbulbs in my face and clicking away. Perhaps it was the fact that I would continue to see blue flashes long after the picture was taken or maybe it was because I just never felt comfortable seeing myself on film. Whatever the case, there aren't a whole lot of pictures of me floating around. Video was even worse. I can probably count on one hand with fingers left over how many pieces of video there are out there with my face on it. I guess you could say that I am camera shy....and this is at the best of times. Right now, I certainly don't feel that I am at my best or even anywhere close to that, but in the last couple of weeks, I have begun to understand that in order to change things, you have to love some aspect of who you are. I am working on that as we speak!

Recently, thanks to some picture happy friends of mine, there have been quite a few current and not particularly attractive pictures of me going around Facebook. I say not particularly attractive because quite honestly, I don't see the person looking back at me..... as the person I envision myself to be. The woman in those pictures has a lot on her plate and a lot of years left to live and I want her to be as healthy and happy as possible. Right now....she is neither, and the whole world sees this. Those pictures were hard for me to look at, but very very necessary.

Feeling somewhat empowered by being able to look at those pictures and not untag myself or put a hit out on the photographers, I took it to the next level and took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. My son Z helped me to film it, and although I had just mowed the yard, looked like hell and then had water and ice dumped on my head, I put it on Facebook. That was one of the hardest things mentally I have done, but I had to do it in order to challenge myself and propel myself into a new chapter of change in my life. I also figured that ALS was a cause worthy of pulling me out of my photographic shell and I don't regret a second of the filming.

Today....I break down the walls of my comfort zone even further. I am stepping outside myself and taking the first steps into either dealing with looking at what I have become and being satisfied with who I am and the consequences of my current lifestyle from here on out....OR....making the necessary changes in my life to be the person I want to be for many many years to come and have documentation of the journey. That's right. Today I started a 30 Day VLOG (video blog)! I made up my mind that I don't have to change, but for the next 30 Days.....if I don't make changes, I have to be accountable for it..........on film! You have no idea how I am cringing inside right now just writing this.

Okay....all this being said, I would not be embarking on this stripped down bare journey, if I didn't have every intention of kicking butt and taking names. I have no illusions that in 30 Days I will be exactly where I want to be, but I do know that in 30 Days I will be much closer to where I want to be and much healthier and happier to boot. It is a win/win with failure NOT being an option.

Okay.... today is a new day and in Lisaland.....a huge leap outside of anything remotely comfortable to me. So come on over to my YouTube page and join me in my journey....From Here to Healthy At 50 and Beyond!

Stay Tuned.....

So what do YouTube, a size 8 and guest bloggers have to do with each other and most importantly....ME? Well standby and you will be finding out. I am not ready to divulge too much just yet, but know that this past weekend was the catalyst for a new way of thinking. Instead of my life being about everyone else, I have decided to pull back a bit and start thinking a little more about....ME! Crazy you say?! Downright selfish! Or perhaps.....It's about time! Whatever your thoughts on the matter, you will be hearing more about all of this....very soon!

As women, it seems to be in our nature....to nurture. We take care of the husband, the kids, the grandkids (if we are of a certain age), the house, the job, the laundry and even the dog.....and everyone of those people, places or things come with baggage that we must also take care of. Through it all, we often forget to take care of the most important person involved, and that is ourselves. No that is not ego talking, that is fact. Without us, who would take care of everyone else? In order to be that person for everyone, we have to put ourselves first every once in a while. This includes but is not limited to: getting plenty of rest, relaxing ever so often and sitting down to actually enjoy "good" food instead of just grabbing junk and running. We are worth it you know! We do deserve to take care of us, or God forbid.....be taken care of, every once in awhile.

I have been that person for everyone in my hemisphere (whether they wanted it or not) for many years. Through it all, I forgot about, or simply just discarded myself, my wants and even my needs trying to take care of everyone else's wants and needs. Where has it gotten me? Exhaustion, 70+ pounds over weight and quite frankly.....it has left me not very happy. Now I am realizing that if I don't take proper care of me, then I can't take proper care of everyone else. Oh....and here is the real kicker.....brace yourself, I think I realized that maybe everyone in my hemisphere really doesn't need my constant care. I guess there is a line where it is no longer caring and it becomes more hovering and enabling. Yeah...I'm THAT mom! Don't judge me!

There is also the issue that if I don't take care of me now, when all my needy peeps are gone, I won't be able to enjoy my life and my time. Not taking care of me now, could quite possibly leave me riddled with health issues in the future. I don't want the tables turned and someone else having to take care of me. That is definitely not the way I want to spend the next half century of my life. And yes, as a matter of fact I do plan to live to be 100ish! That alone should scare quite a few people!

Well, changes are happening. In fact, they are happening as we speak and while weight loss is obviously a necessary change, there are many other aspects of my life that must also change, and none of  it can happen unless the heart and mind are involved too. Just so you know, the heart is on board and the mind is hatching a plan. So again....stay tuned because you will be hearing from me again, much sooner than you think!

Weight Watchers....1970's Style

Back in 1963, a woman named Jean Nidetch founded a group where women went to weekly meetings to help each other lose weight and to stay on track during and after the weight loss. Of course I am talking about Weight Watchers. The diet itself came from a diet clinic in New York state, but the comradery and team work were all Nidetch's idea. After losing 20 lbs, she needed that group effort and support to keep off the weight. Little did she know her efforts would lay the groundwork for the futures of Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig and other diet programs.

In the early 1970's, I had a very dear aunt who had a heart condition caused by childhood rheumatic fever.  After having her children, she had never taken off the weight and by the weight standards of those days, she was overweight. I remember going to her house one time and seeing her. She was obviously uncomfortable with herself and her size and in a day and time when women still wore house dresses, hers was large and loose fitting. I remember my mother and my other aunt talking about her on the way home and being upset because they were worried about her and her heart.

It was a year or two later and we made another trip to see family. There was my beloved aunt. No longer was she wearing a loose fitting dress. She was wearing slacks and a top and she looked like a million bucks. She was the talk of the trip and if I remember correctly, she had lost somewhere between 30-50 lbs. This was the first time I ever heard the words....Weight Watchers(WW). At the time it was still a young program, but success stories like my aunts were popping up all over the place. My aunt was an avid devotee to the program. It literally changed not only her life but the quality of her life. For the rest of her life (almost 30 years)she was on the maintenance program and never did she put the weight on again.

Later in the 70's, my pencil thin mother began putting on weight. I guess divorcing and being uprooted will do that to you. First there was 5 pounds, then 10 and when the 20 lb mark was hit, my aunt gently persuaded my mom to find a local WW chapter and go to a meeting. I still remember her first day. She took my brother and I with her to the meeting and she got all of her stuff. We left the meeting and drove promptly to a Mr. Swiss which had awesome slushies. My mom went in, got a grape slushie and said...."This is my last treat until this weight is gone," and she stuck to that. Once that slushie was gone...she never looked back.

The WW program of the 1970's was nothing like the program of today. They were given a scale to weigh their food on, right down to the very ounce. They got the program which was a little pink brochure like pamphlet with maybe six pages and they got their weekly sheet in which they wrote down every mouthful of food that passed their lips. The foods were pretty basic with a lot of chicken, fish and liver (good for elasticity in the skin), fruits, veggies, milk and they were pretty stringent on three meals a day with a couple of small snacks in between.

It was at this time that my brother and I learned to, if not like vegetables, then to at least eat them. We also ate tons of tuna. Mom wasn't big on chicken or many types of fish, but tuna she would eat. This was also where I learned that not all milk was created equal. The first time I tasted skim milk I thought I might actually die. Obviously I didn't but it sure took some time to get used to that watery substance they were laughingly calling milk.

After six weeks and not one "illegal" food (back then on the program you had legal foods and illegal

foods) my mother had shed 25 lbs. She looked phenomenal and for many years, she too was on maintenance. Not until she shattered her leg and ankle in the 1980's did she ever start to put it on again. The fact is though, people really lost weight on the old school program and you could find a WW meeting in almost any town you went to. I think the reason for this was that their were very few "diet" foods back then. Diet pop had only in recent years made its debut, but other than that, "diet," "lowfat" and "fat free" were not common words nor were they common foods. The foods eaten on the old program were "real" foods. The program was about eating real life foods and portion control. Portion control in turn taught self control. It really was both a healthier time and a healthier program.

Today Nidetch is still alive at 90. Perhaps that might not be the case without WW. In 1978 she sold WW to the H. J. Heinz company for a very tidy profit I'm sure. Since then, WW has taken on a very different face. What started as a program book, a weekly planner and a scale has turned into a billion dollar enterprise. The program has changed to the point that I doubt Nidetch even recognizes it. WW now has a line of foods, books, multiple programs, workout equipment and all sorts of weight loss bells and whistles to help you lose and manage your weight loss. They even came out with an online program in 2001 for those who don't want to go to the meetings but still want the support. Instead of a few women sitting in a circle supporting each others goals, you now have people from all over the world to cheer you on. My question though.....have all these changes really made it a better program?  

In my book, WW is the only "real" program out there. With all of the weight loss program competition today, WW is the only one that in my opinion teaches you how to eat and lose weight in the real world. While it can get pretty pricey if you buy all the books, equipment and extra's that they pull out at every meeting, if you stick to the basics and just go to the meetings, it is one of the most reasonable programs available. The program consists of real foods that you can make and manage yourself which means you aren't paying for prepackaged food and you are eating things you actually like, know where they came from and how they were prepared. Of course for those who like prepackaged, WW has those too. The key to the program though is two fold. First the meetings. They keep you accountable and give you support for both the good and the not so good weeks, and second and possibly more important, you must still write down every mouthful of food you eat. This makes you aware of what you are eating, when you are eating and sometimes even....why you are eating. It is simply another way to hold yourself accountable and keep yourself aware of what you are putting into your body. As Dr. Phil always says...."You can't change what you don't acknowledge," and with WW you have no choice but to acknowledge.

So why all the talk about WW? Because I am thinking I might just go old school.....1970's style. Stay tuned!

Marijuana and Seizures

Since this blog is about health and wellness, I am going to talk about something a little different this week. I am going to talk about pot! I know there has been controversy over the use of this substance for years and currently in my state (Kansas) it is still illegal.

Personally, as a recreational substance....I am not a fan. I have debated, argued and had down right fights with family and friends over this drug and my view of the drug of its recreational use. Now I am not a hypocrite. I did try weed when I was young. For me, it never did anything but make me sick. To this day, I can smell weed on someone and it will immediately give me a headache and make me nauseous. My reaction to it though is not why I am not on the weed bandwagon. My reasons come from what I have seen it do to people personally. I have a couple of friends who are now my age and started smoking in high school. For them it was not a passing phase. For them it became a lifestyle choice that has affected their lives all these years. One has kept and maintained the same job all these years because he works in a place where they all smoke weed. He smokes before he goes to work and the second he gets off work, he heads straight home to spend the evening......with just he and his bong. He doesn't date, he doesn't go out and the only friends he has are his pot buddies who on occasion come to his house and get high with him. He turned 50 this year and one time when he was not high, he told me that he hated his life because he was so lonely. When I suggested he give up weed and get out in the world, he became very angry with me. We haven't spoken since.

Another friend who started in high school....just to be social, also has never stopped. She has lost marriages, her kids and jobs....all because of weed and what it has done to her. She has been in and out of the courts and jail due to drug charges, she has used money that was suppose to go to bills and the house payment to buy weed and random drug tests have caused her to get suspended or  lose jobs. It has been thirty years of this and still she chooses weed over everything else. And they say it is not addictive. 

I have had other run ins with weed and people I care about. It changes their attitudes, their incentive and their ambition if they use it regularly and the sad thing is.....they simply don't see it. They deny to the end that it affects them and make excuses for the fact that one day they wake up and the only friends they have left are their pot buddies, they can't hold a job for more than five minutes and they don't have the ambition to get off the couch. They go into defense mode and defend the new love of their life weed and get beyond angry if you don't both see their view and agree with it. Eventually, weed becomes the barrier between them and the rest of the world and they never see it.

While I could go on for days and pages about what I know to be true about weed, I know there are going to be those out there that take offense and become defensive over just reading this. Let's suffice it to say that I don't think pot should be legalized for a lot of reasons and because of the above personal experiences, I don't see that ever changing. That being said though, I do feel differently about medical marijuana(mm).

I know that mm has been used by people with cancer going through chemo for sometime now. It is my understanding that it helps the pain and other side effects caused by both the cancer and the chemo. My interest in mm though was peaked when I started hearing about cannabis being used to help seizures. I had been hearing about it for awhile and after the first of the year when my son David's seizures had come back with a vengeance, a facebook friend of mine was asking me if I had heard all of the advances they were making with the use of mm on seizure disorders. I decided to start doing some research.

I learned that there are different strains of cannabis and the strain that is used in mm to help seizures is cannabidiol. This strain has a non-psychoactive ingredient that targets the brain without making the user high. The mm can be given in pill form, liquid form or in edibles such as brownies, cookies and candy for kids. The research showed that there was great promise with mm and seizure reduction in epileptics and people with all kinds of seizures. Learning this, I decided to go to the people I consider experts in the field. So the last time David had a neurology appointment, I cornered the physician assistant and asked about mm. I was surprised at what I learned. According to her, mm is currently being tested on seizure patients as a last ditch effort, meaning patients who have been tried on a whole cocktail of different seizure medications and still have found no relief from their seizures. What they have found is that cannabis does in fact give these patients relief from their seizures and in many cases makes them seizure free.

The possibilities behind mm helping and even saving lives in seizure patients are endless and amazing. Even in those like David, who have their seizures controlled by medication, the side effects can still be awful. They can cause extreme drowsiness, weight loss, weight gain and aggression just to hit the tip of the ice berg. Apparently cannabidiol has none of these side effects. Currently though, if a patient has seizures controlled by medication, they won't even consider putting them in a trial for mm. Right now it is only for those who can't be helped any other way. That is why several that I know who suffer from seizures are making the trek west to Colorado and self medicating that way. It is not the safest route to go, but to them it is better than continuing to suffer and quite honestly.....I can't fault them a bit.

Please don't get me wrong. I think cannabis has great possibilities in the medical world. I have also read that not only is it helpful with chemo and seizures, but it is looking like it could help eradicate certain cancers in time. No...I would not support the legalization of pot for recreational use (go ahead and say what you want about me) but if it ever became legal in Kansas for mm to fight seizures, you can bet....I would have David at the head of the line!

Put it Down, Look Up and Move

There are some fundamental steps required to change your life, whether it be losing weight, exercising or simply getting your life organized. Each requires the exact same first step.....getting up and getting started! 

I saw a video today that was the catalyst for this particular blog piece. It was about the fact that each of us is given only so many days, minutes and seconds in this life and from the second we are conceived, those moments start ticking down. We should be making the most of each, but instead we are being swallowed up by cell phones, computers and video games. We are short changing ourselves and our precious moments of life by replacing the real with the virtual. It really hit home in a fundamental way to me. 

While technology such as workout apps, Weight Watchers apps and even organizational apps can accessorize our lives, it seems like technology itself has taken over and overwhelmed our lives. I never go anywhere without my cell phone and on the rare occasion when I do happen to forget it...I almost go into panic mode. It has become a part of me and the very thing I use to educate myself, entertain myself and more importantly pull myself into a lazy and anti-social abyss. 

If you think about it...if there were no TV's, computers, video games or cell phones, what would we do? We certainly wouldn't sit on the couch with a bag of chips and stare at a blank wall nor would we be bleary eyed and semi-coherent after staying up all night trying to achieve the next level on some overly violent video game. We would no longer have 1,000+ "virtual" friends so we would actually have to go out and socialize. No more would we sit in the same room with and ignore our real friends while we madly texted to our virtual ones how much fun we were having. I've seen this done time and again and what is worse is that I myself have done it. 

I won't go so far as to say that technology has made us fat and unhealthy, but I will say that because of technology, many of us have chosen to live in a virtual world instead of getting up and living in the "real" one.... complete with actual movement and real friends. We have basically allowed technology to overstep its bounds and in some ways....rule our lives. I mean, if you think about it, without technology there would be a lot less identity theft, catfishing would be non-existent and there would be no cyber bullying. People would actually pay attention to their kids and spouses, there would be a lot less accidents as people would pay more attention while driving and not worry about texting or talking on the phone and kids would be playing kick-the-can outside by street light instead of Assassins Creed planted firmly on the couch in the basement not moving for hours. And don't get me wrong. I don't blame technology itself. I blame people (myself included) for allowing technology to take such a hold on us. We gave ourselves to technology....body, mind and in many cases....soul. Quite frankly.....it is an overwhelming thought when you stop and wonder just how many moments have I missed or lost because my face was stuck in technology? In a way, it is almost too sad to actually comprehend. 

So do you want to change your life? Do you want to lose the weight, gain back your health, get organized and more importantly.....take back your life? Then take that first fundamental step and get up! Put down the cell phone. Turn off the TV, the video games and the computer and GET UP! GO to the gym! GET UP and join a walking group! MOVE and organize! And if your goal is to simply have a happier life....face the real world one on one and give the virtual one a much needed rest. 

In case your are wondering about the video.....here it is. It is well worth those virtual moments to watch it!

Oh Diet Mt. Dew....I DO Love You (An oldy but a goody)

Celery Girl here! So today I am crunched for time. I was going to talk about one of my many vices.....diet soda. Well, diet Mt Dew to be exact. I could literally write pages about this particular vice, but I really don't have that kind of time. Then it dawned on me, I think I have been down this road before. I went through the archives and sure enough, there was more than one ode to my favorite vice. Imagine that!

So I decided to grab an oldy but a goody and share. From February 9, 2011, I give you....Oh Diet Mt. Dew...I DO Love You! I hope you enjoy reading about my struggle! (wink)

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Oh Diet Mt. Dew.....I DO Love You!

Well it has been 3 days since my mammogram and still no word. I will admit that I am in a crappy mood. There are many reasons for this mood but mainly I hate coming face to face with the facts about my health and my own mortality. Yeah I know, none of us gets out alive, but some of us push our health to the limits.

In my younger, wilder days I will admit that I liked to drink a bit, and for about 30 minutes I smoked, but I never did drugs and once I realized that smelling like an ashtray was anything but sexy....I never touched another cigarette. Basically since the mid 90's, my drug of choice has been food but only since about 2003 has it been a vice. Probably though, my worst addiction is diet soda. Yes, we will call it an addiction because truthfully....it is. I literally crave it. Yes, I have heard the studies that it can cause cancer, and then the ones that say you would have to drink a case a day for it to do so. I have heard that it actually stimulates appetite rather than curb it, but today was the kicker. My mother in law called to tell me that my most favorite beverage has now been linked to heart attack and stroke. WHY?????????? Why did she have to call and tell me? Why couldn't she have kept that little tid bit to herself?????

Fine! I know that anything with as much artificial junk in it as diet pop cannot really be good for me, but come on.....I don't drink, smoke, do drugs or basically have fun of any kind, so can't you give me diet soda? Apparently the answer is.....only if I want to die of either cancer, a heart attack or a stroke. Where is the justice????

Logically, which I am not fond of logic, diet soda has many draw backs. It is as I stated above, loaded with artificial additives that apparently kill small lab rodents when they ingest 60 times their body weight. It is also expensive and I do tend to believe that it doesn't do much to deter the appetite when you see people order a double whopper, large fries and oh....lets not forget the diet soda. Even I am not so delusional as to think the zero calories in the diet pop are going to magically cancel out the 2000+ calories in the rest of the meal. Nor do I think after drinking the diet soda that I am no longer going to be hungry for the rest of the high calorie meal. But I LOVE diet soda. Most especially.....Diet Mt. Dew. It has been an ongoing love affair for many years and the few times that I have walked away from the Dew, it has always graciously taken me back when I realized the error of my ways. Now I am thinking that maybe this delicious Dew is just evil in disguise. Maybe it is time once again, to say goodbye to the Dew.

So here's the deal. I am not foolish enough to say I am going cold turkey because we all know that would be a lie. Starting tomorrow (my weigh in day) I am going to start tapering back. I will limit myself to only one a day and then every other day and so on until I run out at home. Then I will buy no more. I want to go for one full month without a diet pop of any kind and I want to see if I feel any different. They say the artificial sweetener can cause headaches, body pains, etc (but then again,...so does being over 40) so we shall see.

Regardless of the results, will I ever be diet soda free? Who knows but I do like tea and I drink a lot of water, so the tapering off while not fun, should not have me sitting on top of tall buildings aiming my sling shot at unsuspecting passerby's below. After all., the whole point of this year is to have a positive life style change and honestly diet soda is probably not one of the more healthy things I put in my body, so why not at least give the change a try?


Okay....so I have drank almost a whole 20 oz. diet Mt. Dew as I wrote this and I am really trying to feel guilty but it is just not there. I will however make tomorrow a starting point. I still feel crappy, I still don't know my mammogram results and I am still not happy about my mother in laws latest news flash, but I guess all this too shall pass.


So here's to more water, less soda and a healthier tomorrow. This is all a good thing....right?!

The Diet Liar

Okay....so I am trying this "new" thing called honesty. Don't get me wrong, I am not a liar.....normally. You can ask me almost anything at anytime and I will give you a full on, meet you eye to eye, as honest as I can possibly be answer. However, there are a couple of things that I find nearly impossible to be completely honest about, let alone look someone in the eye while trying. I am referring to my height, my weight and depending upon what I ate last night..... what I ate last night. That's right, my name is Lisa and I am a Diet Liar!

More about that in a minute, but in case you are just tuning in....yes the Celery Girl is back. You will now be hearing from me every Thursday as I am doing daily blog themes for the summer. Thursday is my health/wellness/diet/all about me day. I will put a link to this blog from my other blog so no matter which blog you read....you will be able to find this on Thursday's.

So back to me being a Diet Liar. It isn't pretty but I am. Even when I was at my smallest (which was pretty darn small), I was never a fan of telling others just how vertically challenged I was and as far as the number on the scales? Fugitaboutit! Then as time passed and I got old, tired and really lazy as far as the kitchen goes....what I ate after 8 p.m. became a secret I would take to the grave. Why all these secrets you ask? Because quite frankly.....except for the height thing which I really don't have any control over.....the other things don't exactly have me coming out looking like a pillar of strength and self control. I know....like the world can't see my ever widening behind and don't suspect that some sort of high calorie antics are going on before, during and after 8 p.m. Denial is a powerful emotion.

Among the colloquialisms that Dr. Phil McGraw likes to use, my favorite has to be: "We can't change what we don't acknowledge." Thanks to my long time love affair with denial on this matter, I really haven't acknowledge much until recently. Now in other aspects of my life, I have been doing some soul searching. Many chapters in my family life have been opening and closing over the last few months as well as some life changing events have occured. Real change was starting to happen in my children's lives as well as my own and I was starting to view life differently for the first time in a long time. One of these changes though was that due to months of fast food and junk food, even my "fat" jeans were too tight on me. This told me that if I were to step on the scales stripped down to my tattoos and even sucking in everything from my neck to my knees, I would likely weigh more than I had ever weighed in my life. The very thought had me avoiding scales like they were land mines.

Finally, one day recently as my fat jeans were cutting off my circulation, I decided that since I was already on a role with the whole change thing, perhaps it was time to get serious about my weight, my health and my back fat. It was time to stop making excuses about why I couldn't go to the gym and just go! I also decided that I needed to know just where I was at weight wise in order to know where I needed to be. Apparently I have a sadistic streak a mile wide, so not only did I go to the gym, but I also made myself accountable. Look at me being all grown up and honest! I marched in and had the whole analysis thing done including weight, measurements and percentage of body fat. Let's just say that no fast food or junk food is worth the way I felt as each number was worse than the last.

Now there was a time when those numbers and the whole experience would have put me into a tailspin that might have ended up with a bag of gummies, a carton of Cherry Garcia and a Lifetime movie. Instead though....I sucked it in, sucked it up and hit the elliptical. Yes, the whole experience truly sucked but it was a bit liberating too. There is nothing like having your highest weight ever, announced to you by the fit male personal trainer at the gym. It made me realize though that I never wanted to feel like this again. In fact, the next time I hit that scale, I want to own that sucker! Or at the very least....have lost a few pounds.

So here I am being honest. It was time and I am ready to make even more changes as the summer wears on. As for the scale....don't expect me to be divulging those numbers anytime soon however, I am pretty sure that the after 8 p.m. refrigerator raids are a thing of the past. I know the path will be slow and difficult at times but my goals are doable. Goal #1....breathing in my "fat" jeans! And who knows, maybe with all this new found honesty......the Diet Liar will be gone for good!