FatBlogger

FatBlogger Recognizes National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM). Since the program began in 1985, mammography rates have more than doubled for women age 50 and older and breast cancer deaths have declined. 

This is exciting progress, but there are still women who do not take advantage of early detection at all and others who do not get screening mammograms and clinical breast exams at regular intervals. 

·          Women age 65 and older are less likely to get mammograms than younger women, even though breast cancer risk increases with age.

·          Hispanic women have fewer mammograms than Caucasian women and African American women.

·          Women below poverty level are less likely than women at higher incomes to have had a mammogram within the past two years.

·          Mammography use has increased for all groups except American Indians and Alaska Natives.

 “If all women age 40 and older took advantage of early detection methods – mammography plus clinical breast exam – breast cancer death rates would drop much further, up to 30 percent,” says 

“The key to mammography screening is that it be done routinely – once is not enough.” 

For more information about NBCAM, please visit www.nbcam.org.  For additional information, please call one of the following toll-free numbers: American Cancer Society,

(800) 227-2345, National Cancer Institute (NCI), (800) 4-CANCER, Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, (800) 221-2141.

 The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month program is dedicated to increasing public knowledge about the importance of early detection of breast cancer. Fifteen national public service organizations, professional associations, and government agencies comprise the Board of Sponsors, who work together to ensure that the NBCAM message is heard by thousands of women and their families.

Get MORE in March!

You have heard the expression less is more? I have a new one...more means less.

Perhaps I should explain...but first my monthly report: I lost 3lbs last month, bringing my total weight loss now at 5lbs. Yeah..big whoop. For two months that is really not much, 5lbs below my goal. I am eating better, have not binged in two months, I average about a mile of waking a day, but at this rate it will take me two years to lose the 60! The plan is working...when I am on it, which is only about 50% of the time. The problem is two fold.

1. Counting calories is a bitch. Just the very act of counting makes me want to eat more and find excuses to put off the "diet", even though I am not on one. I am just trying to cap my calories at a level I need to maintain the weight I want to be. This is a conundrum, a mental twist of habit and not anything related to real physical deprivation. It just seems that way.

2. Activity is lacking in effort. I am basically only walking on average about 4-6 miles a week. I walk 2-3 ever other day. The reason? I could blame Baby B for this, but the real culprit is... I have not been seizing the opportunities to exercise when I get them and I have not been more forceful in demanding time for myself to go to the gym. Also I am usually dead dog tired.

The solution? More. I am going to keep on doing what I have been doing, only I am going to make an effort to do it better, and with just a twist.

This month I am giving myself a challenge; concentrate on getting more of what I need for good health, rather than on being less of what I am right now. I don't even know if that sentence makes sense...but you get the general idea right? When I wake up every morning my first thought (other than peeing) will NOT be, "I can't eat this or that today", It will be "I must eat more SuperFoods"!

I have two goals this March;

1. Try to eat as many SuperFoods as I can each day, at the daily recommendations. They are beans, blueberries, broccoli, oats, oranges, pumpkin, salmon, soy, spinach, tea, tomatoes, turkey, walnuts, yogurt, or their "sidekicks". If  I am still hungry after that, eat more of them. If I am still hungry after that, enjoy a massive amount of healthy popcorn and a diet soda. If I am still hungry after that...eat whatever I feel I need to feed the beast. Hopefully it will be so late that everything will be closed. No counting allowed.

2. Double my exercise effort...do something everyday and try to do it for at least 30 minutes total. If that means walking stairs with the baby for 10, walking the dog for 10 and doing sit-ups for 10, then so be it. Exercise just has not been a priority, it has been an afterthought. I need to make it a priority. Counting is allowed.

My thinking is thus; in with the good, out with the bad? Will filling the gaps first with the good stuff,  while allowing myself the indulgence of the bad stuff if I need it, keep the pressure of perfection and procrastination at bay? Maybe. A little diversion for a month at any rate and we will see what we see.

I would add two more goals here, get more sleep and get more sex, both great for your health...but alas with a 9 month old...lets be realistic. Perhaps that will be my April Challenge?

I am going to keep a journal of sorts atop the blog, so if anyone wants to join me in getting more this March, with whatever YOU need to get more of to improve your health,  you are welcome to come along. As always, I enjoy your company.

What do you think?

think more, not less. think more not less. think more not less. think more not less. think more not less. think more not less. think more not less. this is the mantra for the month of march.

Get your RED on!

Today is National Wear Red Day! Support the education and prevention of the #1 killer of American women, heart disease.

Commitment

You can have plans, ideas, even be resolved, but they are nothing without commitment. I feel it is the single most important element to achieve any goal, long or short. Going into any endeavor without commitment is like sailing without wind, you are going nowhere. Over the last 20 years I have had many plans, many good intentions, believe me...many. Some of them have been good and healthy and realistic, some of them have not, but the bottom line is that none of them worked for long because I lacked the commitment to follow through.

What is it exactly? If I had to sum it up into one sentence it would simply be;

An act of faith in yourself.

You have to know that what you are about to do is important to you. You have to believe that you can achieve it. You have to understand that nothing good in adult life comes without sacrifice. You have to invest in yourself now, for the possibility of a better, brighter future.

It is boring, it is hard, it is painful, it is drudgery... it is commitment, and the payoff can be tenfold what you put into it. Like anything else in life, it is a risk, one many of us shun so we can't fail, but the irony is... that fear IS our failure.

This is not my first rodeo, I have been on this horse before... and been thrown, I know what is out there, waiting. There is a brick wall before me that I can not climb over or run through, it has to be chipped away, piece by piece. That takes time, and effort, and patience.

I won't be without weapons, I have a few good books and web sources of information, and inspiration. I won't be without an outlet, I have a good plan. I won't be alone, I have my family, all of you, and so many more like minded souls to meet on the journey.

Most importantly, I have commitment to see it through, and that is all I really need.

Resolution

According to Websters...

Main Entry: res·o·lu·tion
Pronunciation: "re-z&-'lü-sh&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English resolucioun, from Anglo-French or Latin; Anglo-French resolucion, from Latin resolution-, resolutio, from resolvere
1 : the act or process of resolving : as a : the act of analyzing a complex notion into simpler ones b : the act of answering  : SOLVING c : the act of determining

Notice the word "act" and how prevalent it is? Interesting. Resolution is a word that can, simply by saying it out loud,  steel ones actions, or terrify into paralysis. To me it means "it is final", cast in stone...a juggernaut of desire that can't be stopped. I have had very few resolutions in my life, very few things I really cared enough about to find that resolve, save my family. I am resolved now to improve my health and attempt to stave off serious disease. I am resolved to increase my energy and stamina.  I think most important of all, I am resolved to remove this  anchor that holds me so firmly in place.

My official resolutions for 2007! (revised on New Years Eve!)

1. To get my weight below 200 pounds
2. To get my cholesterol below 200
3. To eat better, healthier food (Super Foods!) most days
4. To exercise more often than not
5. To support and help others on the same journey

Yeah, maybe it is trite and a bit corny, but we have a whole year ahead of us...an empty canvas just waiting for us to paint...something. How about you? What are your resolutions for 2007?

Solstice

It is now the shortest day of the year, the true beginning of winter, and yet somehow I am reminded of summer. I think it is because from this day forward sunlight begins to grow in the smallest of ways... just two minutes a day...everyday until June 21. Slow and steady, everyday just plugging along adding just a few more minutes of sunlight until the sun is high and blazing and we are sweating and sweltering. When I think about it, that is pretty powerful stuff, to go from winter to summer with such small steps is remarkable. We don't ever think about that extra two minutes a day, but we certainly think about the difference between 32 degrees and 90. I think it almost goes without saying, seasonal change is a lot like losing weight, or any long range goal really, tiny increments chained together over time, can yield remarkable results. I will have to remember this when I am sweating, and swearing,  my ass off this summer...30 pounds lighter!

Inertia

To quote Wikipedia;

Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight ahead, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by forces impressed. [Cohen & Whitman 1999 translation]

A post or two ago, Tonya made the comment that pushing past inertia is the thing she needs to focus on. It got me thinking about inertia, physics, Newton and how much our bodies are part of science and nature.

Losing weight, or for that matter changing any habit, is a lesson in inertia. Dieters often face a HUGE mountain of resistance. We wonder where it comes from; Is this part of my past? Is this just being lazy? Does my body really need (insert favorite food here)? Why is "tomorrow" so appealing? Inertia seems like a Great Wall of Blubber that we just can't scale, pass through or around. I imagine it is no different for smokers or drinkers or any number of other things people just can't seem to stop doing. Sometimes I think it is more about momentum than actually loving that thing you want to stop or control. It is just plain easier to keep going the way you are, keep the status quo. Like electricity following the "path of least resistance", so do our lives and habits very often. We don't want a fight unless it is thrust upon us, or unless something gets in the way and forces you to move in the other direction. Some "outside" force" is often needed for us to break inertia and get moving in a different direction.

Knowing this makes me feel better, believe it or not. It makes me realize that I am normal and that this habit of overeating I have is a function of physics and the natural world. I would not have this habit for decades if it did not serve some purpose in my life, fill some need. Bringing that to a halt and changing direction in a day is simply impossible.

Take for example the popular TV show, "The Biggest Loser". All those people got fat over months and years of overeating, and probably still would be today had not a massive force come in to push them in a different direction. The show, the support, the personal trainers the lack of food all converge on them like a hurricane.  They either take "shelter" and quit, or stick it out and weather the storm.

Most of  us do not have that kind of force coming to us. Some of us get bad news from the doctor, like a blocked artery, diabetes 2, hypertension or cancer, and we change our ways. Some take a look at their lives  and the impact it has on their family and want to change. But the vast majority have none of that, we simply are faced with trying to overcome inertia on our own. We must trade the option of the "outside force" for the "inside motivation".  A difficult task to be sure.

Only through the tinniest of motions, an hour... then two, then a day... then two, then a month... then two...can we build that kind of Big Mo. It takes us months, years, to get fat, yet we all want to take it off in days and weeks. Why don't we want to give ourselves at least as much time as it took to get where we are now. Think of it as a long, long walk. One day you realize you have followed a path that brings you nowhere, you are lost. If you want to get back home all you have to to is begin to walk back. It is going to take some time, but each day brings you closer not further. Of course at some point along the way you might even feel like jogging!

So I say to fellow fatties out there who struggle, don't despair. You no longer have to hate yourself for the slip, the fall or the slide. Blame it all on science. You are up against a seemingly immovable force, but one that is movable. 

Paradoxical Intent

Victor Frankl was truly one of the great ones. Here was a man tortured and beaten in a concentration camp by the Nazi's for three years, he lost his parents and his wife, but not his dignity, his mind or his will. After his freedom, he became one of the preeminent psychologists of his era, writing over 30 books and developing logotherapy,  the belief in the "will to meaning".  He came to the conclusion that our main motivation for living was to find meaning in life. He was convinced that the worlds people were divided into only two categories, decent and in-decent. If you have the time and do not know much about this man, do yourself a favor and click on the links above, I think humans like this are put here on Earth to shame the rest of us into getting off our asses.

I came across a quote of his about paradoxical intent, "The harder we try not to think of something, the more difficult it is to forget it". I immediately put that into the context of my own life, in so many more ways than just losing weight. For that particular obsession however, it certainly seems to ring true, with a refreshing bit of perspective. Maybe we are getting fatter as individuals and as a nation simply because we are trying to avoid it so much. Perhaps if we want to lose weight, we should try to get fat?

This seems to come eerily close to the conversation I had yesterday with my "alter ego". Maybe I will give this a try and see how it works out, if successful I can write a diet book, "Lose the Fat Trying to be Fat". 

Well, its a working title anyway.