moonbeam65

And it’s not mine. It’s my husband’s. He is skinny, fit, full of energy because he walks with me everywhere.

I remember at the beginning of the walking challenge number 1 (participants: Ellen, Matt, Zina, and I) he would grumble and even sabotage the walking routine. He would tell me that yes, he would join me for a walk and then would find thousands of things to do… and I would wait and wait and wait for him, boiling inside until I would storm out of the house and walk without him for miles and miles taking giant angry steps.

Fast forward to today: who is the first to be by the door with walking shoes on and fully equipped? Not me. It’s my husband. Impatiently tapping his watch and making faces at me. Who insists that we should still walk even in the rain when I suggest that we may drive? Who lost bunch of weight and looks great? Not me either!!!! It’s all him.

Well, I am not complaining.

Don’t forget to engage your family members, friends, and coworkers (yay, Sam!) if you make healthy changes in your lifestyle. Prepare yourself for their resistance at first but keep asking them to join you. They will. Eventually. Those endorphines will kick in and they will run ahead of you.

My husband and I decided to challenge ourselves in walking everywhere and quit using cars for three days. It means we have to shop in stores that are in walking distance, walk to the post office, to work, to school, everywhere. No cars. No pollution. Just walking. Benefits: save money by not paying for gas and parking, improve fitness because we have to walk uphill a lot, and spend more time holding hands, talking, and exploring interesting ways to go places in downtown.

And, in a few minutes, we will be walking 2.5 miles to the silent action dinner for charity. And then back uphill.

The slave driver (that’s what Jennifer calls my 4′8 tiny trainer) was away and I went to the REAL gym. Fancy machines, loud music, big screen TVs, and people on a mission to become fitness models. I wanted to belong. I wanted to …. show off! I made a huge mistake. I ran on a treadmill for about 7 minutes. It was on Friday. It’s Tuesday now and I still walk limping. The pain in ankles returned with vengeance. The knees hurt too.

There is this unwanted friend in a closet, an orthopedic boot I wore last fall when I overdid walking. I was told by a doctor that there will be no running or jumping in the future if I want to keep moving. That boot should’ve come with a voice activated machine saying, “no running!!! Listen to your doctor!!!”

Today’s lesson is acceptance. Acceptance of physical limitations. Getting an understanding that yes, I am different and can’t do what other “normal” people do, things like running and taking an aerobics class with jumping.

Walking is better than limping in the orthopedic boot. Walking pain free is better than running 7 minutes on a treadmill. Walking is joyful and it is an exercise I can continue doing.

Dale Fletcher, M.S.

What the Research Says:

When we harbor resentment and bitterness toward other people our spiritual, emotional and physical health can be impacted upon in a negative way. Anger that comes from holding on to these negative emotions can lead to health problems.

In the book Anger Kills, the authors, Redmond and Virginia Williams refer to numerous studies that indicate that on-going anger can lead to heart disease. Don Colbert, M.D., in his book, Deadly Emotions, says that when chronic anger is present, the body has a steady drip of the hormone cortisol. This excessive presence of cortisol can cause the immune system to become confused and to attack itself, causing autoimmune diseases. This increased level of cortisol can also contribute to diabetes, WEIGHT GAIN, bone loss, impaired memory and other health problems.

In The Healing Connection, Harold Koenig, M.D., writes, “The research indicates those who can’t get past these hurt and angry feelings of spiritual discontent may soon be in big trouble in terms of their emotional and physical health.”

Jon Gordon, Ph.D.:

While some people share their favorite sayings with car bumper stickers there is a horse farmer in North East Florida who shares his own profound quotes by posting signs for thousands of drivers to see on the way to and from work. This past week he posted a sign that said, “Forgiveness is the Ultimate Weight Loss”.

Sure there are many diets out there trying to help us lose weight but what many of us need to go on is a NEGATIVE ENERGY DIET. If you’ve ever ended a negative relationship or quit a job you absolutely hated or forgiven someone… you know what it means to remove negative energy, the kind that weighs you down like a ton of bricks, from your life.

One of my favorite quotes says, “Holding on to resentment and anger is like grasping hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else. You are the one who is getting burned.”

Resentment, anger and negative energy also slows you down, limits your true potential and truly causes you to feel heavier. It’s no wonder weight gain accompanies the most difficult times in our lives. Sure, stress hormones, emotional eating, and lack of sleep are the mechanisms that pack the pounds on but underneath the hood, underlying all physical and chemical processes is ENERGY. This is a scientific fact. So if we want to be lighter, freer and happier we must change our energy. We must go on a negative energy diet and clear out the negative energy that is weighing us down. And the best place to start is to FORGIVE. When you do you will experience the ultimate weight loss diet.

Action Steps

Ask Forgiveness Questions: Ask yourself today who do you need to forgive. Who are you still angry at? What negative experience are you still thinking about? You may not even realize that you are still angry with someone until you really think about it. Think about who or what is holding you back.

Make the decision to let go: For example: If you are Janet Jackson, decide to let it go. It happened and you can’t do anything about it now. Forgive yourself. Forgive Justin and move on. But seriously… forgiveness is a choice. It’s not easy but you can ask your heart and your mind to forgive. Even the central park jogger chose to forgive her attackers who left her for dead because she wanted to live a new life instead of die every day.

It’s for YOU. Remember you don’t forgive because you feel bad for someone. You forgive because you know that holding on to anger and resentment only hurts you. The person you are forgiving doesn’t even have to be alive or accept your forgiveness. But by forgiving you release all the hate, anger and pain that clouds the light that wants to shine inside you.

I thought about Jo and Jane who both are very busy with family business and decided to post this.

From Oprah’s website:

Imagine if exercising 10 minutes a day were enough to improve your health, cheer you up, and help you maintain a steady weight. Well, it is, even though most experts stubbornly insist that you need 30 to 60 minutes daily to see results. The case for shorter sessions has been building for some time, but earlier this year results from a watershed study made the point loud and clear.

Researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, reported findings from a study involving 464 women who weren’t exercisers. After six months, a group who walked an average of 72 minutes a week at two to three mph—that’s about 10 minutes of mall-pace striding a day—had significantly improved heart strength and general fitness, nearly matching the efforts of women exercising almost twice as long. “Your body responds very positively, very quickly to even small amounts of exercise,” says lead study author Tim Church, MD, PhD. “If you’re sedentary, you’ll see a lot of your greatest gains going from zero to 10 minutes a day.”

More exercise is definitely better, but based on Church’s findings and the studies cited, there’s evidence you can take your time easing into those longer workouts.

I read it somewhere and thought that it was applicable for our site as well.

I think I’m going to sue Betty Crocker. It’s all their fault.

I started making a cake today. I read half of the instructions, but it soon became apparent to me that they had written them for general use and not for my very special, unique circumstances. I quickly revised a few things to meet the needs of my situation.

I got some things out to do it. The recipe said that I needed 3 eggs. I only had one, and going to the store was very inconvenient. I decided just to use the one and a package of Egg Beaters.

I got out a bowl. It wasn’t a mixing bowl like the instructions said. It was just a plain old soup bowl, but that should have been good enough. I mean, really, what do they want?

Since the cake takes so long to make and bake, and I didn’t want to wait that long, I just kept dipping my spoon into the mix and eating it as I went along. I set the oven to 500 degrees and turned it on to preheat. I added 4 cups of olive oil and my eggs. The package said vegetable oil, but olive oil is so much better for you that I decided to substitute it.

I got out my electric mixer like the one pictured on the package and turned it on the highest level. (I mean, HELLO, I want this sooner than later!) Well, let me tell you, the stuff went flying EVERYWHERE! WTF were they thinking?! Since the mixer obviously wasn’t working, I just got out a spoon and stirred my mixture a few times.

I poured the mixture into the exact pan size that they said, and it didn’t even cover the BOTTOM OF THE PAN, so I transferred the batter to a smaller pan that was 3 inches deep. I like thicker cakes, anyway.

I put the pan in the oven, and go to watch some TV. Who wants to watch something bake? I have better things to do…

Well, 45 minutes later I go to check on my cake (cause it was NOT smelling good) and I notice black smoke everywhere! The batter had oozed all over the side of my pan and burning on the oven’s heating element! The rest of the cake was completely charred, there’s no way I can eat that. I doesn’t even look like a cake.

The box DID say to only bake it for 25 minutes, but really, should that be MY responsibility? Shouldn’t the cake just KNOW when it’s done and stop baking? Come on, it’s the 21st century.

So, here I am standing in the middle of a mess with a worthless burnt cake. My oven is almost ruined, I’ve got cake mixture on every surface in my kitchen, and I didn’t get to have my cake, let alone eat it too.

I don’t advise anyone here to buy Betty Crocker products. They are nothing but a fraudulent rip-off. Your kitchen could be ruined.

And I’m suing them. It’s all their fault.