Life is Healthy

Meet Lucy (she's the furrier one, on the right).

She's a Tibetan Terrier and she has just joined my family.

TTs can live for as long as seventeen years.

How ambitious am I?

We really wanted to get a dog from a shelter or a rescue organization (J-Dog is a rescue and possibly the best dog in the history of dog-dom). But we needed a dog that is healthy, good with kids, other dogs and cats (we almost adopted a wheaten terrier from a rescue group during winter but when the dog met a cat, he tried to eat it. Literally).

And hypoallergenic (D. is mildly allergic to both dogs and cats and we couldn't in good conscious bring another dog into the house who would irritate his allergies).

We also needed a dog who would happily come on long walks or runs with me when I am well and take it easier on the weeks I have treatment. After a year of cruising the internet and working the phones (I reached out to rescue groups across Canada and into the US), I reluctantly admitted defeat.

So we chose a dog from a very responsible breeder and a relatively rare breed with few genetic health problems.

And she's really sweet and cute, too.

I am almost as exhausted as right after my kids were born.

And very nearly as blissed out.

And, for the record, if something does happen and I am unable to take care of this sweet puppy (who we are all working very hard to train), T. and the boys will take good care of her. And of J-Dog. And even of our belligerent cat.

Because when this family adopts an animal, it's for life.

A lot gets written by people who are losing or who have lost weight, me included, about their clothing sizes and how great/wonderful/awesome it is to get to a certain size. But I thought today, as I was working out with my hand weights: what about the jewelry?

I don't like to wear much jewelry. On the rare occasion when I put in earrings, I develop an infection once I take them out. My wedding ring is bent out of shape because of the 25-pound weight I hold when I do a particular ab set because I always forget to take it off.

I do, however, wear a braided white gold bracelet on my right arm. My daughter gave it to me when I was 300 pounds. I couldn't wear it then, but I'd try it on periodically, as I lost weight, and once it fit, I never took it off. Wait. I take that back. I took it off on Oprah because they asked me to. But I slipped it into my boot and put it back on as soon as the taping was over.

That bracelet is a constant reminder of where I've been and where I am. It dangles on my arm with every movement, like a whisper in my ear: "I will always fit your wrist if you stay the course and treat yourself with respect."

My massage therapist moves it aside when she works my arms. I let it roll back and forth when I lift weights. It doesn't match every outfit I wear, but I don't care. It's a symbol, like a tattoo, and I love how it feels rolling around on my wrist.

My wedding ring is an important symbol, too, albeit not because of weight loss, but because of love. I had it re-sized at every significant weight loss because I couldn't be without it. I went from a size 9 finger to a 5, and the gold is probably very worn and couldn't stand much more sizing, but I needed it there on my left hand to remind me that my best friend was always rooting for me.

Next up, I have to re-size my mother's ring. My kids bought it for me when I weighed 260 or so, and it's too big for my ring finger yet too small for my middle or index finger. I'm feeling a strong need to wear it, though, so one of my errands this week is to our jeweler downtown.

Do you have jewelry like that, too? Is there some significant piece you like or need to wear?

P.S. I didn't feel as ooogie watching Oprah today as I did in November. Whew!!

For some reason I couldn't sign on this morning. This is the first time I've been able to get through. Anyway. . . .

The work of the Cricklewood Liberation Army continues in this Nagorno-Karabakh of north-west London. I am not sure if this was done at the same time as the sign around the corner, but it does look like the same handwriting and pen. So maybe instead of "Army" it is just "Lone Nutter".

If I hadn't seen the other sign first I would have dismissed this as a random tag, but a closer inspection reveals that the 10 has been crossed out and a 2 written beside it. It's admittedly even more hurried than the last effort, perhaps because this road is busier with passers-by, and so it's not great propaganda for the cause, what with it being totally indecipherable to anyone passing. Except of course I am now giving this/these terrorist(s)/insurgent(s)/freedom fighter(s) (delete according to your political persuasions) the very oxygen of publicity that he/she/they obviously crave. I can see why the Chinese are so keen to clamp down on bloggers - imagine how the CLA's cause could be advanced with the exposure to the half-dozens of readers of this post. Their ranks could be doubled in no time.

All this defacing is a bit like seeing signs for Londonderry in Northern Ireland. What next? Murals of Cricklewood heroes (eg Dennis Nilsen or Patsy Kensit) on gable ends? Hunger strikers? Willesdenites demanding the right to march in bowler hats up Cricklewood Broadway? A letter-bombing campaign? Though with this last one they would have to put the correct NW10 postcode on the envelopes as a defiant NW2 might result in the bombs being returned to sender, address unknown.

So my 30 day challenge, how did it go?
Badly, in a word! I managed about 8 days without coffee then Sandra insisted "I take coffee" as I was very irritable. But I have cut down as it obviously affects me
--> see picture

As for the rest simply enough but I think one task at a time is better, once one thing went I lost interest.

So what next... ...30 days without sex??
I REALLY DONT THINK SO!!!

As I had "30" days without, the next challenge is 30 days doing something, so I am actively going to be positive, no negative words, thoughts or swearing!
Harder than you may think, I'm sure

Wish me luck ;-)

Chartered health psychologist Dr Kerri McPherson, a former lecturer at the Capital's Queen Margaret University, believes restricting your food intake and banning certain foods is a recipe for disaster. Not only are fad diets bound to fail, she says, but ultimately they are more likely to lead to weight gain. She also points the finger at our eagerness to accept the idea of comfort eating. How many people haven't, for instance, turned to a piece of chocolate cake to help heal the wounds of a relationship break-up?

Dr McPherson says: "When people, particularly women, are over-weight, there's a tendency for them to feel pressure to lose weight. We know that people who engage in yo-yo dieting are more likely to be over-weight.

"Restricting food intake is more likely to lead to people being over-weight and lead to disinhibition when a diet is broken.

"That cycle through restraint and disinhibition usually results in weight gain. People who diet cycle usually get stuck in a rut where one week they may have lost a couple of pounds then give up the diet and put it back on again.

"We see dieting very much as a short-term fix rather than seeing it as a long-term solution."

Food and nutrition experts encourage people who tend to fall off the wagon to try to identify the reasons which lead to them pandering to certain cravings.

IF stressful events leave people reaching for the biscuit tin, then they are encouraged to be aware of their emotions, and have a plan B on standby.

Dr McPherson adds: "There's a point after lunch every day where stress at work is high and we would encourage people to have healthier snack options available to them.

"There's a link between sweet food, and in particular chocolate, and the release of certain chemicals in the brain which assist with feelings of comfort.

"The way that we talk about comfort eating is as though it's widely accepted."

Dr McPherson also believes that people are piling on the pounds because of a genuine lack of knowledge about which foods are healthy and which are bad for you.

Again, she says, the diet obsession is encouraging people to buy products which claim to be that they think will help them lose weight, which is not always the best thing for them.

She says: "The reality is that people just don't know what is good and bad because nutritional knowledge in the UK is bad.

"The marketing of particular types of food as healthier options can be misleading for people."

With around three quarters of women admitting that they have been on a diet at some point in their lives, Emma Conroy, a nutritionist with Edinburgh Nutrition, says it's important to put it into context.

She says: "It's important to remember that being overweight isn't necessarily a health concern, it depends on what sort of fat makes up the excess weight, and where it is stored in the body."

Simply weighing yourself, she explains, does not paint a clear picture, with measuring your waist-to-hip ratio proving a more "crucial factor" in deciding whether your weight is a health risk.

She also stresses that women must remember that due to the demands of pregnancy and breastfeeding, the female body has evolved the capacity to store substantial amounts of fat, safely, giving a pear-shaped figure.

She adds: "Apple shapes beware. Fat that is stored in the abdomen, around the organs, is more metabolically active.

"It's put there for short-term use, readily laid down, and readily re-entering the blood.

"Fat stored away from the organs – in thighs, buttocks and breasts – is there for the long-term.

"That's why it's so much harder to shift, but the plus-side is that this more inert fat poses far less, if any, health risk."

Source: NewsScotsman.com

Last night I was watching a little video clip of the Jack LaLanne show. LaLanne was an advocate of strength training and whole foods nutrition whose TV show ran from the 1950s through the 1980s. In the clip, he describes how his father died an early death due to heart and liver disease. A quote that really stuck with me was when he said his father died due to "disregarding nature's laws". That pretty much sums up my philosophy. Live in a way that generally mimics what our genes evolved to thrive on. Why did our paleolithic ancestors have strong, healthy bodies? Why are there still cultures that are free of chronic disease to this day, even into old age? Because they are following nature's laws. Break the law at your own risk.

Jack LaLanne and I do differ a bit on what constitutes a natural diet. For example, I don't throw out my egg yolks... But hey, the man is 94 and going strong. Here's another quote of his: "If man made it, don't eat it". Words to live by. Quite literally.