The LaidOffCamp Phoenix website describes it this way:

“Laid Off Camp Phoenix is an extension of a national effort to help people find work — full-time work, freelance work, volunteer work, or whatever’s next for them. Like other LaidOffCamp events, it is a locally-based, community-supported effort to offer resources and reassurance to job seekers.”

Over 200 people attended LaidOffCamp last weekend. At first, I felt a bit funny going to something called that, but it was a great experience. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting many new people and getting some new ideas. Everybody there was friendly, helpful, and excited about being there. I definitely felt uplifted by the day, even though I was exhausted by the end of it.

Amazingly, the entire thing was free to all participants. The City of Chandler graciously donated facilities. Local businesses donated food and drink. The speakers all spoke for free. Many volunteers kept things running smoothly. Susan Baier coordinated the entire thing and did an awesome job. Many kudos to Susan for a job well done. If you’re on Twitter, search for the #locphx hashtag to see what people are saying about it.

We were treated to a wonderful array of presentations and discussions. There were sessions for job seekers, budding entrepreneurs, and anybody who is wondering what to do next (which is or probably should be most people). I had no trouble finding sessions to attend and had to make some difficult choices between ones happening at the same time.

In addition, several highly qualified people offered their time and energy to help people one on one in a variety of areas, such as with resumes, insurance options, taking photos for avators, and signing up for Twitter and Facebook.

Like many other people, I have dreams of someday being my own boss, of managing my own destiny, and of following my own passions. I feel encouraged by the many examples of other people here doing that, and I am grateful for their willingness to share.

Are you interested in moving out of a corporate job and working for yourself? What are you doing about it? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Robyn

P.S. I realize I have been a total slacker with this blog for the last couple of months. Life has been pretty hectic lately. More about that later.

Confusing the words loose and lose is a very common mistake. I don’t want to offend anyone, but this has become a pet peeve of mine. The idea of “loose weight” brings horrible images to my mind. I imagine fat getting all lumpy and muscles hanging loose. Not a pretty picture, is it?

The dictionary defines the verb to loose as “to make less tight; slacken or relax.” That’s the last thing you want to do when you want to reduce your weight. I think what we really want to do is to lose weight so we end up with loose clothes.

Often when people cut their calories but don’t work out, they lose muscle as well as fat. Their bodies end up looking very loose and even gaunt. The right kind of exercise can counteract that and make you look firmer and slimmer.

Tighten Up, Not Loosen Up

You should have the three following components in your plan to get to a healthier, fitter you:

• Cardiovascular exercise, such as jogging or aerobics, is important for burning fat and losing weight. Most people seem to know that.
• Strength training is also very important, but it seems to be more controversial, especially among women. Strength training builds lean muscle tissue, which is much more active than fat. Muscle burns extra calories even while you sleep. Women don’t have enough of the hormone called testosterone to get bulky (unless they take steroids), so you don’t need to worry about that. Instead, it will give you a tighter, more defined look, especially once you’ve gotten the extra fat off your body. Michelle Obama is a good example.
• Proper nutrition is the third leg of this stool. As I’ve stated in other articles, you need to eat a well-balanced, calorie-controlled diet, too.

In summary, you need all three of these components–cardiovascular exercise, strength training, and proper nutrition–in the proper amounts to lose fat, get stronger, and improve your health.

So, please watch what you wish for and watch your language. Don’t say you want to “loose weight” when you really want to “lose it.” In fact, you should actually say you want to “lose fat.” You don’t want your weight loss to include muscle loss. In fact, gaining muscle is a good thing. However, realize that you’re probably not going to gain a lot of muscle, so don’t use that as an excuse if the scale doesn’t budge.

What language do you use when talking about this? What do you think about strength training? Please let me know in a comment bleow.

Robyn

photo by ste3ve

Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced publication of a study about
trends in obesity among US adults between 1999 and 2008. The study states that the prevalence of obesity was fairly stable from 1960 to 1980, but it showed striking increases in the 1980s and 1990s. This current study indicates that we may have entered another period of relative stability, perhaps with small increases in obesity, although future large changes are still possible.

The study uses a common measure called body mass index (BMI) to classify people as normal weight (BMI 18.5-24.9), overweight (BMI 25-29.9), or obese (BMI 30 or more). BMI is a calculation based on a person’s height and weight.

The obesity rate for women has remained fairly level over the last 10 years. For men, it has been steady for about the last 5 years. Another study showed that the incidence of high-weight children and teens has also stabilized, with one exception. The data showed a still-increasing rate among boys ages 6 to 19 at the very heaviest weight levels.

Even though this is good news for most U.S. adults and children, it doesn’t mean we can relax. The rate needs to go down significantly.

“We’re at the corner with obesity, but we haven’t turned the corner,” said Dr. William Dietz, director of the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. He said the data may reflect increased awareness of the problems caused by obesity. As a result, people may be adopting healthier habits. On the other hand, he also said, “I don’t think we have in place the kind of policy or environmental changes needed to reverse this epidemic yet.”

As I mentioned in a previous post, like most studies, this one has some limitations. The data was obtained through surveys, which could be subject to errors. However, this analysis is based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is considered the gold standard for evaluating the obesity problem in the U.S. It is an extensive survey of people whose weight and height are actually measured rather than being self-reported.

For me, I’m willing to be cautiously optimistic based on this information. But there are still a lot of really heavy people out there. I know it’s just a TV show that’s designed for ratings, but if NBC’s Biggest Loser is any indication, this country has a lot of work to do.

What do you think? Is this good news, or not-so-good news? Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Robyn

photo credit: Lars Plougmann

In the previous post in this series, Learning What Works, I talked about sorting through all the conflicting advice to figure out what works for you. This post discusses the last of the five phases I went through. It’s the phase I still consider myself to be in–a new way of living. As a quick recap, here are the 5 phases I’ve identified:

1. Gain the weight.
2. Understand the impacts.
3. Get on the path to weight loss.
4. Learn what works in losing weight.
5. Find a new way of living.

You May Not Want to Lose Weight Quickly

You can find a lot of people selling you ways to “lose weight quickly,” but you’re probably wasting your money. As frustrating as it may seem, the real key to a more permanent weight loss is to lose weight slowly and consistently. Many studies have shown that slower weight loss is more likely to be lasting weight loss. Rapid weight loss often leads to rapid weight gain shortly afterward.

You can’t maintain your loss if you can’t integrate the changes into your normal lifestyle. Both your body and your mind need to get used to a new way of living.

Studies say you should aim to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week, on average. Some weeks may be a little more; some a little less. When I was losing weight, I consistently averaged 1.5 pounds per week. That seemed very reasonable, and I looked forward to getting it off safely but fairly quickly. In hindsight, however, I wonder if that was still too fast, even though it fell within the “recommended rate.” In some ways, I might have been better off losing it even more slowly.

Get It and Forget It?

Getting to your goal weight isn’t the end of the line. Losing weight isn’t a one-time thing. You can’t just assume that once you lose it, you can go back to your old habits and be fine. It doesn’t work that way. It really doesn’t. You have to remain aware of what you’re doing every day.

It’s like decluttering your house. You can go through a big effort and get rid of all the excess junk in your house that has accumulated over time. However, if you’re not careful about stopping clutter from piling up again, you’ll soon find yourself in the same mess. Yo-yo decluttering in your house is bad enough, but yo-yo dieting is much worse. It puts a real strain on your body and makes it harder to lose weight in the future. It can really mess up your metabolism.

Change Your Likes. Change Your Life.

Changing my likes and dislikes is one of the major secrets to my success at losing weight and keeping it off. I didn’t just “go on a diet.” That phrase implies a temporary change that you put up with for a while. To most people, the very notion of a diet conjures up images of deprivation and pain. It’s not fun. No wonder we “go off our diet” so often. Then we wonder why it’s not working.

Instead, work on changing your lifestyle. Develop new likes and dislikes for food and physical activity. That way, you don’t need to think so much about being “on a diet.” For example, I made the following changes in my life:

• I used to eat snack chips and white bread. Now, I eat fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains instead, because they make me feel better and they’re more satisfying.
• I used to drink a lot of Coke and Diet Coke. (I hesitate to admit how much I loved Cherry Coke. I would drink one every morning instead of coffee.) Now, I drink water instead of soda because I prefer it. I can’t even touch a Coke now because it tastes awful to me.
• I used to sit on the couch and watch TV. I couldn’t even walk around the block. Now, I exercise because I love it and I can. I’m even a triathlete and runner.

You definitely need to eat better and exercise more in order to lose weight. However, when I say diet and exercise are important, I really mean improving your nutrition and the amount you eat on a regular basis. I found the following two dictionary definitions of the word “diet” as it relates to food:

1. what a person or animal usually eats and drinks; daily fare
2. a special or limited selection of food and drink, chosen or prescribed to promote health or a gain or loss of weight

The second definition of diet is what helps you learn discipline and how to eat a new way. However, it ultimately comes down to changing your diet as defined in the first entry. It just becomes the way you like to eat.

What are you doing to develop a new lifestyle you love? Please let us know by leaving a comment.

Robyn

photo credit: E. E. Piphanies

Articles in the Series:
Losing 100 Pounds – The 5 Phases
Losing 100 Pounds – Gain It First
Losing 100 Pounds – Waking Up to Weight Gain
Losing 100 Pounds – On the Path to Weight Loss
Losing 100 Pounds – Learning What Works
Losing 100 Pounds – Finding a New Way of Living

This post discusses the fourth of the five phases I went through. As a quick recap, here are the 5 phases I’ve identified:

1. Gain the weight.
2. Understand the impacts.
3. Get on the path to weight loss.
4. Learn what works in losing weight.
5. Find a new way of living.

Conflicting Advice

How do we learn what works? Unfortunately, when it comes to losing weight and getting fit, there must be a million or more suggestions. You need to sort through it and figure out what works for you.

Have you ever thought, “Why can’t the scientists ever make up their minds? Why are there so many diet plans out there? How can I know what will work for me?”

It can be very tough to know. You often see advice on diets, fitness, and health that is completely contradictory. You can read one article that says one thing. Five minutes later, you read another article that says the complete opposite. This is true whether it comes from the popular media or from so-called “diet experts.”

For example, I’ve seen some articles that say what you eat is the most important for weight loss, and exercise doesn’t really matter. Others say exercise is more important. How do you choose between the two? Personally, I believe in a third choice, you need both nutrition and exercise together.

The Harvard School of Public Health has some great tips for cutting through the confusion about various studies reported in the news. In Nutrition Research and Mass Media: An Introduction, they describe how and why researchers often come up with different conclusions when studying a particular issue. The media often makes matters worse by reporting on a single study, usually one that runs counter to current recommendations. Controversy sells, and the media knows it. They give advice to help you decide how important an article is for you. For example, are they reporting on only a single study? How does it fit into the bigger picture of recommendations about the topic?

Weight loss science is very complicated, and researchers discover new information every day. They have looked at questions about how genetics, medications, types of food eaten, blood types, and even viruses can impact your ability to lose weight. I caution you not to get too bogged down in all of this confusing information, especially when you’re just starting out. You’ll make yourself crazy. Keep it simple.

Try Different Things

My best advice is to keep trying different things out until you find what works for you. Just be sure you’re trying out reasonable ideas, not crazy off-the-wall ones. For example, decreasing the amount of sugar you eat is a good idea; eating only cabbage soup is not.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of diet plans out there. The same with exercise plans. Each one has probably worked for somebody, and now some self-proclaimed expert thinks they can make money by selling it to you.

It may not matter what the diet plan is. You could pick one of several that would work. In fact, it could work for reasons that have nothing to do with what it claims. Have you seen how many expensive machines, pills, and powders you can buy that promise amazing results with little or no effort? Have you looked at the fine print that says “when combined with a good diet and exercise plan”?

Why don’t you just eat better and exercise more, and save your money for new clothes in a smaller size instead?

Some Common Recommendations

Even though you can find people who will argue about anything, a lot of sources do agree on some common recommendations:

1. Combine changes in eating habits with exercise. Exercise, including both cardio and strength training, is critical when trying to lose weight. Cardio helps burn calories and improve your blood circulation. Adding muscle raises your metabolism and reduces “jiggle.”
2. Reduce the number of calories you eat, but not by too much. (see below)
3. Choose a diet you can live with. Most people who lose weight will gain it back, especially if they lose it by following a diet they can’t live with in the long run. Eventually, they will break down and slip back into old habits. Can you imagine living the rest of your life without any ice cream or chocolate at all? Learn to allow some in moderation, so you don’t go on a binge someday.
4. Avoid crash diets. The recommended rate of weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week. This rate is the most likely to result in sustained weight loss. If you lose more than this, chances are you aren’t making sustainable lifestyle changes. Don’t get too anxious.
5. Work on your mindset. Thoughts and emotions surrounding food have a huge impact on your weight loss efforts. For example:
   • get support from other people who understand
   • identify “food triggers” and emotional eating situations
   • focus on the positive aspects of improving your health, not on the restrictions and deprivations

Your Calorie Deficit

To lose weight, you should reduce the number of calories you eat and increase the calories you burn. The total is called your “calorie deficit.” If your deficit is 500 calories per day, you should lose approximately 1 pound per week. A pound of body fat equates to 3500 calories. Don’t attempt to lose more than 2 pounds per week (a 1000 calorie-per-day deficit).

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that you never drop below 1200 calories per day for women or 1800 calories per day for men. In fact, these could be too low based upon how active you are. Therefore, cutting down to 1000 calories per day is probably counter-productive. Reducing calories by 15 to 20% below your daily calorie maintenance needs is a useful starting point. Use these as very general guidelines. You will need to experiment to determine what calorie level works best for you. Also, realize that they will change over time as you lose weight and get stronger.

Determine how many calories you are eating now, by checking your intake on a few typical days. You can get information about the calories in your food from nutrition labels (watch the serving size!) and several websites. You can also get information about calories burned based on the amount and type of exercise you plan to do from websites.

To Summarize

The bottom line is use some common sense. Don’t get caught up in the latest fad, figure out what works for you as an individual, and make a series of small changes in your lifestyle that you can sustain over time. You should do fine.

Please remember that I am not a doctor and not a source for medical advice. Check with your own doctor before starting or changing any diet or exercise plan.

Robyn
photo credit: alancleaver_2000

Articles in the Series:
Losing 100 Pounds – The 5 Phases
Losing 100 Pounds – Gain It First
Losing 100 Pounds – Waking Up to Weight Gain
Losing 100 Pounds – On the Path to Weight Loss
Losing 100 Pounds – Learning What Works
Losing 100 Pounds – Finding a New Way of Living

I’m more concerned that I lost my way with food and exercise a little bit while I was there. I wasn’t too bad, but I certainly didn’t follow all the suggestions I’ve written about here–at least not completely. My eating and exercise weren’t quite up to snuff.

I also got out of the habit of writing on this blog. It’s funny how it doesn’t take too much sometimes to get off track. But I’m back.

The lure of good food and wine did get to me at times. In general, I kept my wits about me, but I must say I also enjoyed myself at times. I gained 3 pounds during the week, but that was a lot better than I have done on other trips to Las Vegas. And I have managed to get a couple of them back off since returning.

I’m glad I wrote my last blog post about Healthy Holiday Articles. I learned some things myself from them. I especially found the article on Quick Workouts for Busy Times useful. I found myself having to fit some quick workouts into some short time frames. A couple of times, I dilly-dallyed about getting ready to go out, and didn’t have time to go for a workout. I was able to fit in a few reps of the five exercises in that article, before heading out on the town. It wasn’t a lot, but at least it was something.

We stayed in a timeshare (the Wyndham Grand Desert) while we there. It’s a couple of blocks back from the Planet Hollywood as seen in this photo.

The Wyndham has a really good fitness room. It has cardio equipment, machines, and free weights. I ran on the treadmill and lifted weights a couple of times while I was there. That made me feel better about all the good food and wine I was eating.

I’ve wanted to beat myself up about this a bit, and I have succeeded to some extent. However, when I think back on it, I don’t believe I really was all that bad. I had a good time, remained aware of what I was doing, and I didn’t really feel deprived. A few years ago, before I got smarter about all of this, this trip would have had a much more disastrous effect on me.

I know I won’t get my $20 back from the slot machines, but I know I am giving back the pounds I gained. I’ve decided that, instead of forgiving myself, I should congratulate myself.

It’s a new year, and like everyone else, I plan to make some improvements in myself. I liked the fact that I got some more workouts done while on vacation. That felt good, so I’m going to do more. I also really want (and need) to get better control over my time and productivity if I want to accomplish everything I want to. I don’t think it’s going to be a major transformation, but more of a getting back to what I know really works for me.

I also thought of several new ideas for blog posts while I was gone. I had hoped to write some of them up, but haven’t done that yet. *sigh* I’ll get to them, though. I’m still working on my transformation to become a real blogger.

So how did you spend your Christmas and New Year’s? Let us know in the comments. Do you have any regrets? If so, can you find a way to forgive yourself and move on? Or, can you congratulate yourself and move on? Either way, the past is past, and we need to keep looking forward and living in the present day.

photo credit: http2007 on flickr

I don’t suggest, expect, or want anyone to completely deny themselves the pleasures of this season. Obviously that includes eating and spending time with family and friends. Just try to stay aware of what you’re eating; stay in the present moment and really enjoy what you’re putting in your mouth. You don’t want to feel sorry in the long run for overindulging. Likewise, you don’t want to feel sorry in the long run for what you’ve given up.

I want to share three articles with you. I think they give some useful advice for getting through, and more importantly, enjoying the holidays. Holidays are meant to be enjoyed. No one wants to feel like Mr. Scrooge (from Charles Dickens’ classic story, A Christmas Carol), who hated Christmas.

One article provides some reasonable alternatives to high-fat, calorie-laden foods you might eat at a holiday party and still enjoy yourself. The second provides a quick 12- to 15-minute exercise routine you can use to burn off several of those calories and give you a head start into the New Year. The third one busts some myths about holiday eating that are often quoted as absolute truths.

I like these articles because they recognize you have choices. You don’t have to be a “victim” of the holidays, unable to withstand the onslaught. Likewise, you don’t have to be a “hero” either. Just be reasonably sensible.

1. Usable Eating Tips for Holiday Parties

I just read a good article about how to cut 1500 calories and a lot of fat from your Christmas meal. I saw it in a newsletter from eDiets.com. It was written by Susan Burke, a frequent eDiets Contributor and someone I know and trust. She starts off this article by asking:

How can you stay healthy throughout the holidays? It’s easy, when you’re a little creative, and a little disciplined too.
– Susan Burke, MS, RD, LD/N, CDE

Susan says a few simple substitutions can save you hundreds of calories and many grams of fat. She then goes on to offer examples of how to do that throughout a meal, from appetizers to dessert.

2. Quick Workouts for Busy Times

For some good advice about how to fit in some exercise in a quick timeframe, I suggest you read Simple Workouts for Busy Women. It’s targeted to women, but men can use it too. This was written by Raphael Calzadilla, who is the eDiets Chief Fitness Pro. He is an amazing source of inspiration and advice for anyone trying to lose weight and/or improve their fitness. I have been a member of the eDiets.com community for several years, and I met Raphael in person a couple of times.

Raphael has written many similar articles, but I particularly like this one for the holidays, when we are often very time-crunched. Here’s how he describes this series of five exercises:

No hour-long sessions in the gym or long bouts of cardio and no living with the guilt of dreading the thought of exercise. Just a realistic alternative to all the “noise” in the world of fitness that makes us hate exercising. No anatomy lessons today, simply something you can do in your living room. The only weight you’ll need is your own body.

This series of movements will take about 12 to 15 minutes. Yep, you are reading correctly. You can do them three to five times per week, and your entire body will be stimulated, and you’ll feel rejuvenated.
– Raphael Calzadilla, BA, CPT, ACE, RTS1

Raphael describes several variations you can do to make each if the exercises both easier and harder, depending on your fitness level. I think he explains how to do the exercises more clearly than many other articles I have seen written by others. If none of these sound doable for you, he gives you some other alternatives as well.

3. Busting 3 Myths

Finally, I found a good article from Cooking Light magazine’s website. It discusses three of the most common myths, describes the reality of them, and suggests “eat-smart” strategies to fight them.

Myth #1: Most people put on five to seven pounds during the holidays.
Myth #2: Eat a lot of turkey, and you’ll be snoozing shortly.
Myth #3: Great cooks and festive parties place our willpower at risk.

I hope you have a joyous and healthy holiday and a happy New Year!

For disclosure purposes:
I have been a member of eDiets.com for several years. It’s a member site that provides excellent advice on both nutrition and fitness. I’m just a member; I don’t have an affilation with them that would make me any money from writing this–at least not as of the time of writing.

cat photo credit: Per Ola Wiberg (Powi) newspaper photo credit: alancleaver_2000

Growing Up in New Zealand

Mom’s life included some truly major transformations. She was born and grew up in New Zealand, an incredibly beautiful country on the other side of the world from the United States. It was the setting for the stunning scenery in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Mom’s birthplace was Dunedin, which is the second-largest city in New Zealand’s South Island.

Her father was a mining engineer. As a result, her parents lived and worked in many parts of the world. Mom and her two sisters lived in some difficult mining locations while growing up. They also attended a girls’ boarding school for a few years while their parents were out of the country working.

me, cousins Murray and Geoff, brother Andy, aunts Lesley and Evelyn

After graduating from the University of Otago in Dunedin, she took a teaching position in Auckland, which is New Zealand’s largest city. She taught home sciences (roughly equivalent to home economics in the U.S.) in a high school there.

Meeting an American

In 1956, at the tender age of 23, she married my father, Robert Wanamaker Seaton, in a small ceremony in Auckland. Dad grew up in Manhattan, Kansas. His father was the Dean of Engineering at Kansas State University there.

So how did a guy from Kansas and a young lady from New Zealand happen to meet and marry? It’s actually a pretty romantic story.

My dad worked for the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office. He was part of a project to map the magnetic fields around the South Pole. The plane had some mechanical problems, so the team had to stay over in Auckland longer than they expected.

The story that my mother always told was that a friend invited her to a party. Her friend wanted to introduce Mom to a man she knew. Mom reluctantly agreed to go to the party. She didn’t actually care that much for the man she was supposed to meet, but she also met my father. To say the least, they hit it off.

Six weeks later, they were married. They stayed together for just over 50 years. Mom passed away nine days after their 50th wedding anniversary.

I have a letter that my dad wrote to his mother in Kansas a couple of days after he and Mom were married. Here are some excerpts from what he said:

We were married six weeks to the day after we met, and these were a busy and magic time. She had never given a thought to living in the U.S., and long-standing reluctance about such a kind of life had to be overcome.

Wilma is a talented young lady. She is not only a very fine seamstress, bur also a good and imaginative cook. She and I like the same things in the details of living [...] She has similar likes to mine in cultural and intellectual pursuits, and so you can see why I was so enthusiastic to leave behind the old imagined independence of bachelorhood.

At first, they didn’t get to spend too much time together. My dad had to continue on with his mission. It took a while before my mom could finally join him in the States. They had to get all the immigration paperwork sorted out.

Life in a New Country

Mon’s world was turned completely upside down. She went to Kansas first, where my grandmother lived. The flat wheat fields of Kansas were completely different from the mountains and ocean around her homeland. My dad liked to say that she had no idea the rest of the world didn’t look like New Zealand. It was quite a shock to her.

Eventually, they moved to Washington, DC, where my father’s office was located. He continued working for the Naval Oceanographic Office until he retired. I was born and lived there until I moved to Arizona in 2008. They both enjoyed living in the DC area.

However, my father’s office moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the late 1970′s, so they moved there. That was another major culture shock for both of them. The laid-back attitudes of the Gulf Coast were completely different from the hectic, high-powered world of DC. It took some getting used to, but eventually they settled in and built a beautiful house right on the beach. (It was on a lot that Hurricane Camille had cleared. Later, after they had sold it, Hurricane Katrina destroyed my parents’ house.)

On the Road

My parents, my brother Andrew, and I used to go on family camping trips for most of our vacations when I was growing up. We traveled around the country visiting parks, national forests, and other wondrous places. After my father retired, my parents decided to live “on the road” as full-time RV’ers. For several years, they lived in a trailer that they pulled behind a truck around the country. They loved seeing different places and meeting new people.
Eventually, they found a small “park model” mobile home (about half the size of a traditional mobile home) in an RV park in Benson, Arizona. Although they still spent most of their time out on the road, they liked to stay there when they wanted a break. Benson is east of Tucson in southern Arizona, at the turnoff for Tombstone from I-10. It’s a fairly small town and completely different from New Zealand, DC, and the Gulf Coast.

My father developed Parkinson’s disease, and my mother took care of him up until the end. She took over the driving and all the heavy work of traveling with the trailer. They were dedicated to it and continued as long as they possibly could.

Cancer

My mother used to say that they would be fine as long as she continued to stay healthy. We always thought that she would outlive Dad by several years. Unfortunately, she developed colorectal cancer in 2006 at the age of 73. Although she was in pain, she didn’t get the colonoscopy her doctor suggested until it was too late. I was still living in DC and believed her assurances that it was just a minor problem. I wish I had known and done something about it.

After she was finally diagnosed, I made several trips to Arizona to visit with them and help out as much as I could. I moved them to Tucson, where they still stayed in their beloved trailer.

Mom underwent chemotherapy and radiation. It was a roller-coaster of successes, set-backs, and uncertainties. We were always waiting for the results of the “next test.” Throughout it all, she kept up an amazing sense of humor and courage. She also continued to do most of the work to take care of my father, who was almost completely bed-ridden.

For a short while, it looked like she had conquered the cancer, but it came back. Finally, her oncologist in Tucson said the only option was major surgery. My brother, husband, and I all came to Tucson to be with her and Dad. We found the best nursing home there for him that we could find. I was at the hospital when my mom had several organs removed.

After a few weeks in the hospital, she came to the same nursing home as my dad to recuperate. They were together for Thanksgiving and their 50th anniversary, although neither was very joyous. We were all there for that, too.

I flew home, thinking that the situation was improving. It was tough knowing I was 2000 miles away, but I had taken a lot of time off and had to get back to work. Several days later, she got a blood infection from a line inserted in her arm at the hospital for medications. Her doctor kept assuring me that they would get it under control, but it advanced extremely rapidly. My brother, who lives in Portland, Oregon, and I raced back but were unable to get back there until it was too late. One of my father’s sisters, who lived part-time in Tucson, was with her when she passed away. Aunt Mardie and her husband Wally were a huge help during all of this, spending lots of time with both Mom and Dad.

Back in New Zealand

Mom’s two sisters and one of my cousins came from New Zealand to Arizona for my mother’s funeral. My brother, father, husband, Aunt Mardie, Uncle Wally, and some close family friends also attended. We had a small, quiet ceremony in which we all told stories about her life. She had always continued to be the “fine seamstress” and “imaginative cook” that my dad had written about. We displayed several examples of her handiwork, including clothes with incredible free-hand embroidery she had recently made, intricately knitted sweaters and other items, and delicate lace she had made by tatting.

My aunts and cousin took my mother’s ashes back to New Zealand and buried them in a Dunedin cemetery on a high hilltop overlooking the ocean. My father, brother, and I felt it was fitting to return Mom to the place she first called home and bury her with her parents. Andrew (my brother) was there along with many friends and family members.

My father only lived for another seven months after my mother’s death, passing away one week before his 81st birthday. He stayed in the critical care section of the nursing home because of his Parkinson’s. Andrew was able to work remotely and spent quite a lot of time in Tucson with Dad, for which I’m very grateful. Dad also developed colon cancer, which is listed as his cause of death, but I think he died mostly from a broken heart.

Andrew, my husband, and I took my father’s ashes to Dunedin a few months later. We wanted Mom and Dad to be together in the country where they had met and fallen in love 50 years earlier.

I had been to New Zealand twice before, once when I was in second grade and once about 15 years before when my parents were also visiting. She showed me many of the places she had grown up in.

Although parts of this trip were very sad, it was also good to stay with family and tour the country again. I enjoyed showing it to Doug, my husband. It helped me to appreciate and understand more about the many changes my mom had gone through in her life.

Growing up with parents who were willing to take big risks certainly had an impact on my willingness to take risks as well. Transforming your life is hard work, and it takes dedication. They both showed me that.

Robyn

map photo credit: timmenzies

This is the fourth post in my Losing 100 Pounds series, and it discusses the third of the five phases I went through. As a quick recap, here are the 5 phases I’ve identified:

1. Gain the weight.
2. Understand the impacts.
3. Get on the path to weight loss.
4. Learn what works in losing weight.
5. Find a new way of living.

Before I go any further, I should give you a warning. Many of the methods I used may fly in the face of some popular thinking about diets and weight loss. However, I don’t think I ever did anything that might be considered particularly extreme or weird.

I’m not here to sell you a magic milkshake or “fool-proof” diet plan. If you want something like that, you’ll need to look somewhere else. I’m sure you can find lots of places to take your money.

Instead of looking for a miracle answer, I just used my own common sense, feeling my way along one step at a time. At first, I didn’t even follow a specific diet plan. I didn’t think I would be able to stick to a plan in which someone told me exactly what to eat. Besides, I had enough bad habits that changing some of those would have a big impact.

To start my weight loss journey, I made three changes. Each was fairly simple to understand and remember. And because they were simple, cheating was pretty obvious. My new determination, and my fear for my health, made it easy to stick with them. Here are my first three changes:

• walking
• changing drinks
• logging my food and exercise

Walking is an easy exercise for most people to start with. All I had to do was get a pair of walking shoes and head out the door.

At first, I could barely walk a quarter-mile. At that time, I worked in downtown Washington, DC. It seemed like everyone, including both young and old tourists, passed me. But I kept remembering what my nurse practitioner had told me about diabetes and stroke, and I kept going. I walked during lunch at work, and I walked up and down my street at home on the weekends. I kept increasing the time, distance, and speed. After a few weeks, I was able to walk a whole mile without stopping. I remember how thrilled how I was.

Changing drinks had a big impact on my calorie counts. It meant changing ingrained habits, but it wasn’t really all that difficult once I thought about it. I don’t like coffee, but I did like some caffeine in the morning. So, every morning when I got to work, I drank a full can of Coke–usually Cherry Coke. Of course, I’d then have some at lunch or other times during the day as well. I didn’t drink as much Coke as some people I knew, so I figured I was fine–but I wasn’t. That habit cost me hundreds of extra calories each day. I switched from soft drinks to water and tea. Surprisingly, that soft drink habit was easier to break than I thought. Soon I didn’t miss it at all. After being off Coke for a couple of months, I tried one again as a test. I couldn’t believe how awful it tasted to me.

Logging my food and exercise helped to cement the other two changes. I made up a chart with blocks on it for each day of the week. I had blocks for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and exercise. I started writing down everything I ate or drank and all my walking. At first, I just wrote it down. Later, I started adding in calorie information, but I didn’t do that until I was more comfortable with the idea. Remember, one step at a time. Just knowing that I had to write it down made me much more mindful of what I was eating. I found it naturally much easier to avoid chomping on a cookie or munching on potato chips, because it made me stop and think first. Writing down my exercise also encouraged me to do more of that. I could see the progress I was making.

Many people find writing down food and exercise like this really difficult. However, it helped me so much that I kept it up. It was and still is a huge contributor to my effectiveness at weight loss. I kept it very simple. For a long time, I just used pencil and paper because it’s very portable. You can write down things immediately and not have to rely on memory.

You can also use computer programs and online services for tracking your food,. They can provide more information but can also be more difficult to use. I use one of those now, but I just carried around a piece of paper for a long time. I tracked food (and eventually calories), but I didn’t worry about things such as grams of carbohydrates or the ratios of protein, carbs, and fats.

Over time, I added a lot of other techniques and learned a lot of other things. But these three are what really got me started on the path back to good health. Once I got them down, I never looked back. Having that “alarm clock” moment that made my problem become all too real to me is what gave me the courage to do something. Starting with some relatively simple steps made it easier for me to find that something to do.

Does any of this make sense to you? What simple steps can you think of to take? Let us know in the comments.

Robyn

photo credit: prakhar

Articles in the Series:
Losing 100 Pounds – The 5 Phases
Losing 100 Pounds – Gain It First
Losing 100 Pounds – Waking Up to Weight Gain
Losing 100 Pounds – On the Path to Weight Loss
Losing 100 Pounds – Learning What Works
Losing 100 Pounds – Finding a New Way of Living

This is the third post in my Losing 100 Pounds series, and it discusses the second of the five phases I went through. As a quick recap, here are the 5 phases I’ve identified:

1. Gain the weight.
2. Understand the impacts.
3. Get on the path to weight loss.
4. Learn what works in losing weight.
5. Find a new way of living.

As I said in my earlier post about gaining the weight, I ended up at over 240 pounds and wearing size 20 clothes. Of course, I knew that, and I wasn’t really happy about it. But it was always something I thought I could worry about tomorrow. It was too much trouble today.

I would get out of breath and have to stop while climbing up a one-block-long hill across from my office. I had a hard time walking around the block. My knees hurt in the morning when I went downstairs.

I knew this wasn’t good, but I didn’t really know what to do about it or where to start. The whole idea of “dieting” just didn’t sound very possible to me. So I didn’t really do anything.

Who’s Obese? I’m Just a Bit Chubby

By this time, I was well beyond overweight; I was really obese. I plan to tell you more about a measure called the Body-Mass Index (BMI) in a future article, but for now I’ll say this. It’s a measure that considers your weight and your height together. Even though it has its drawbacks, it’s more useful than looking at weight alone. In very general terms, the theory is that taller people are expected to be heavier than shorter people. Scientists use BMI to classify people as underweight, healthy weight, overweight, and obese.

In my case, I was well into the zone of obesity. I had to lose at least 50 pounds just to be considered overweight. It would take another 30 more to get down to the top of my healthy weight range.

The very sound of the word obese makes me cringe. Maybe because it rhymes with grease. It’s a bit like fingernails on a chalkboard. The meaning and its implications are even worse. It means a higher risk of severe illness and death. In more practical, immediate terms, it meant I felt lousy and couldn’t do a lot of the things I wanted to do.

The Last Straw

I have always been pretty good about getting annual physical exams. Doctors had said I should lose weight and get in better shape. I would agree, but it never had that much impact on me. They never really gave me much practical advice, or at least not anything I thought was useful to me.

In early 2004, I saw a nurse practitioner for my annual exam, who I hadn’t seen before. Unlike many of the doctors I had seen before, Mylene was willing to spend some time with me. She finally got through to me and helped me see the error of my ways. Frankly, she scared the absolute heck out of me.

We ran the usual blood tests. She said my bad cholesterol was a bit high, and my good cholesterol was low. But the thing that really did the trick for me was how high my blood glucose (also called blood sugar) was getting. It had been steadily creeping up, and I was now in the “pre-diabetic” stage. That meant I was clearly on the way to getting type 2 diabetes. I was also at increased risk for stroke, heart attack, and other nasty things.

Right then and there, I decided I was not going any farther down that path. I refused poke needles in myself to inject insulin several times a day. I knew several people who had to do it, and it definitely wasn’t something I wanted to do.

The American Diabetes Association provides a lot of good information about pre-diabetes on their website. According to them, if you have pre-diabetes, you can and should do something about it. Studies have shown that people with pre-diabetes can prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes by up to 58 percent through changes to their lifestyle that include modest weight loss and regular exercise. The expert panel recommends that people with pre-diabetes reduce their weight by 5-10 percent and participate in some type of modest physical activity for 30 minutes daily. For some people with pre-diabetes, intervening early can actually turn back the clock and return elevated blood glucose levels to the normal range.

The Next Steps

Now that I knew how bad things could really get for me, I had to figure out what to do. As I said before, I knew I should do something, but I didn’t really know how. Mylene, my new nurse practitioner (and savior) gave me three bits of advice and told me to come back in 6 weeks. She said:

• Start walking, even if it’s just for a few minutes to start. Keep trying to walk a little more each time.
• Start a food and exercise log. Write down everything I eat and everything I do for exercise.
• Follow a diet plan. She gave me sample plans for 1200, 1400, and 1600 calories per day.

I started walking that day. It wasn’t far, but it was a start. I had tried this before, but now I had extra incentive.

I also started logging all my food in a journal. I had never tried this before, and it ended up being some of her best advice for me. I still do this. It really helps me keep on track, and it made me much more aware of what I was doing.

I couldn’t really handle following a strict diet regimen at that point. So I put that off, but I did start trying to adjust my diet somewhat. The very fact that I had to write it all down helped make me more aware of what I was eating.

As they say, two out of three ain’t bad. I actually started feeling better within a few days. I was finally on my way to feeling better. In my next post in this series, I’ll describe more about the first few weeks of this new project to get on the path to regaining my health.

Have you reached the tipping point yet? If so, what was your last straw? If not, what do you think it might be? What would it take to wake you up to your situation? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Robyn

Articles in the Series:
Losing 100 Pounds – The 5 Phases
Losing 100 Pounds – Gain It First
Losing 100 Pounds – Waking Up to Weight Gain
Losing 100 Pounds – On the Path to Weight Loss
Losing 100 Pounds – Learning What Works
Losing 100 Pounds – Finding a New Way of Living