Healthy, Happy, Resilient People

Aug 16th, 2009

Drop the Fatitude to Lose Weight

Jul 14th, 2009

You might enjoy this great article about weight loss at SparkPeople.  It’s about changing your thoughts in order to lose weight. 

If you aren’t a member of SparkPeople you may have to register to read this article….or you can just read this one without registering.

Team Fitness – Serious about Getting in (back in) Shape!

Jun 1st, 2009

I’ve been fooling around with fitness for too long, and as a 60-year-old exercise physiologist who coasted through my 50’s, it’s time to get serious again about fitness. My walks along the river are no longer enough (understatement).  Resting on my laurels is no longer sensible. 

Join me right here every day for Team Fitness–the 30-Day Back-in-Shape series.  Don’t miss a day…subscribe at the big red button (to the right) or via the RSS feed button so you can hang out with me this month as we explore what it takes to get back in shape after taking way too long off.  If you never were in shape, we’ll be talking to you too!   If you play along with me, it will change the way you age.  That’s a big promise I aim to keep. 

We’ll talk food and fitness….and fun!  I’ll always invite you to tell your story or share resources.   Hearing from you will be the best part of this series…..for me.

To start the series, I thought I’d put my fitness life out there for you the view (the good, the bad, and the ugly).  I’ll tell you why I fell off the fitness wagon for nearly 10 years.  See if you can relate.

The Laurels I Rested On

In the 80’s and 90’s I was extremely active. I biked across Kansas (twice), Iowa (RABGBRI), and Michigan. I was in two triathlons (had to take swimming lessons to do that!) and ran 4 days a week. I was serious about percent body fat so was under water weighed.  (Note:  nobody does this unless they know the numbers will be really good!)For about 5 years in the 90’s I taught yoga to a dedicated group of employees. And of course I walked my dog most days for about an hour. All good stuff.

Then Came the Challenges

No life would be complete without challenges. During this period, my challenges were fatigue and an increasingly demanding job.

Let’s start with the fatigue. I was in an anemia study for female athletes and the doctor prescribed mega doses of iron. I believe the fatigue was a result of iron toxicity but nobody knows for sure. Other doctors just said “you’re getting older and you’ll have to live with it.” At the time I was in my 30’s and thought that was a ridiculous diagnosis. Really ignorant. That’s when I fell out of love with doctors.  I came to the conclusion that the medical model was really good at two things: drugs and surgery. If your problem didn’t fall into one of those categories, you were out of luck and on your own.

My case was puzzling: extremely low blood pressure, low hemoglobin numbers, low energy, mild anemia, and low thyroid function. To this day I’m not sure what all those things add up to besides difficulty losing weight and bouts of low aerobic energy. I’d love to find the “cure.”

When it was clear that my health puzzle wouldn’t be solved strictly by the medical model, I searched for solutions in the alternative medicine arena and found some that helped: acupuncture, fasting, supplements, and energy healing. I’m sure that my strong spiritual connection also made a big difference.

I cut back on my physical activity in the late 90’s but continued to “run” with my running groups, but it was disheartening. I’d have to stop and walk a lot and would eventually be on my own feeling discouraged and puzzled by this powerful fatigue. I often dreamed of clawing the sidewalk on my belly inching along. Aches and pains accompanied the fatigue—nice! This was a combination for exercising less. I became so obsessed and upset by fatigue and pain that I was quietly miserable. At some point it got easier to just stop running. In fact, it’s been so long since I’ve been a runner that I almost “forgot” about this fatigue issue.

Now that I’m gearing up for a more intense fitness program, the question of fatigue and pain is on my radar again—How will I do with energy? Instead of finding that to be an upsetting question, I’m truly curious and pretty hopeful. I have a lot more resources at my disposal now and know much more about taking care of myself and hooking up with talented health care partners.

It has also occurred to me that readers of this blog may provide some of the answers to the puzzles presented here. I know this description of my personal health challenges with fatigue will speak to some of you.

As an aside, I talked with my sisters this weekend and they said they always thought it odd when I talked in those days of fatigue because they said “I could run circles around most people.” Here’s the distinction. After a couple of years of alternative medicine cures….. I had plenty of energy for my daily tasks, but if I put any additional demands on my body like jogging or going for a bike ride, the energy wasn’t there. My aerobic energy was almost nonexistent.

Then my career heated up and job demands increased. So it was a “good time” to just do yoga and walk-–seemed reasonable. And then I dropped yoga—not because of fatigue but because of boredom. It was time for a change and “I had lots of other things I could be doing.” And yoga was so easy for me I figured it wasn’t doing me any good. I wish I could do those easy yoga poses now…..and I will!

As you can imagine I’ve gained weight and my body is stiff. Enter Team Fitness! I’m amped about getting back in shape and I hope you are too. Tune in tomorrow when I describe my new fitness program….and what I made for dinner tonight (all veggie and yum!)  I don’t want to drag this post out any longer…..

What’s your story? Tell us about your health and fitness journey at the comment link below. Eager to hear about it!

Healthy Vegetarian/Vegan Eating!

May 29th, 2009

I received an email from a subscriber, Bill, that I want to share with all of you.  I couldn’t have said it better!

Thanks for your efforts to encourage wellness.  My wife and I have followed a largely vegetarian diet for the past two years and have seen significant benefits. Our original motivation was to save a few animal lives, especially given the cruelty in factory-farm food-animal production and slaughter. The positive health consequences were an unexpected benefit. There is also the satisfaction of knowing that reductions in meat eating will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

(Here’s a bit more of their story from a separate email……)

My wife and I attended a meeting two years ago of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). On the way there, knowing we would be would be having no meat during the conference, we had double cheeseburgers at a fast-food place, and joked whether we would be doing the same following the conference, as we anticipated no long-term change in our eating habits.

Halfway through the conference, we realized what great vegan food we were having and had a better understanding of the cruelty associated with much of the meat industry, and decided we would give vegetarianism a try. We have not been absolute by any means, but the health consequences were dramatic and surprising. I am about 20 pounds lighter and continuing to play tennis and full-court basketball at age 70. My wife Linda saw her previously astronomical cholesterol and triglyceride numbers plummet.

In short, whatever your own eating habits may be, I hope you will include some discussion of vegetarian options in your series on healthy eating.

Any other vegetarians or vegans want to chime in?  Do so at the comment link below…..would love to hear from you! 

How to start a wellness program today

May 20th, 2009

As a member of SparkPeople I get interesting articles on a regular basis.  I thought you’d enjoy this one about how to start a wellness program right now – today.

March is National Kidney month

Mar 25th, 2009

Here are some ways to protect your kidneys:
· Regular Exercise
· Limit use of over-the-counter painkillers
· Maintain Healthy Weight
· Regular physician check-ups
· Maintain Healthy diet
· Know your family health history
· Regular blood pressure & cholesterol checks
· Become knowledgeable about kidney disease
· Avoid tobacco use and alcohol abuse
· If you are at risk, be tested

Want to know what to eat?

Mar 19th, 2009

Because March is National Nutrition month, I wanted to share some healthy eating tips with you. 

I’ve studied a lot of different food pyramids and wanted to make  you aware of Dr. Weil’s version.  His dietary recommendations are very sound.  Dr. Weil’s food pyramid is very different from the FDAs version because he doesn’t have to deal with powerful food lobbyists and can make recommendations he backs 100%. 

If you’re wondering what to eat…and how much of it to eat, check out his anti-inflammatory pyramid.

Lena Loved My Wellness Soup!

Jan 12th, 2009

I got a great audio testimonial from one subscriber who loved my Wellness Soup.  Listen Here.  Lena was going to go out for takeout but got inspired by my soup recipe and decided to stay home and make her own.  She substituted wildly (using what she had on hand and what her tastebuds fancied).  She loved it…you can hear it in her voice.  Listen Here.

This is the picture she sent showing her delicious version.  Click on the picture to see a larger view.  Yummy!

If you missed my Wellness Soup recipe, get it here.

And don’t forget to check out my other soup secrets!

Wellness Soup Recipe

Jan 12th, 2009

While at a local coffee shop with friends, we interviewed each other about our Wild Wellness action.  Here’s one they recorded of me describing Cheryl’s Wellness Soup (50 seconds).

Now here’s a recipe for my Wellness Soup.   If you’re thinking about being healthier and losing weight, this soup will serve you well!

I love to make soup without a recipe.  I call it intuitive cooking.  Here’s a great soup I just made and ate – two bowls!  It was particularly satisfying and yummy–that’s why I’m calling it Wellness Soup.

If you don’t have all of the ingredients, feel free to substitute wildly.  I did not measure anything when I made this soup, but I’ve tried to give you approximate measurements.

Use your intuition (and what you have on hand) to select ingredients that will provide you with optimal wellness–that means it must be soothing, satisfying, and tasty!

CHERYL’S WELLNESS SOUP

Medium sized soup pot
Saute in 2 TBS olive oil (3-4 minutes – onion will look semi transparent)

*2 cloves of garlic
*1 whole onion – sliced or diced
*Portabella mushrooms – sliced or diced

Add broth (I used a 1 quart box of Imagine Organic, Free Range Chicken Broth).  Add an additional couple of cups of water.

Chop vegetables roughly and add to the soup pot (medium to medium high heat):

*Celery – 2 -3 stalks
*Carrots – 2 carrots or a handful of baby carrots – chopped
*Small head of Bok Choy (or other greens like spinach)
*1 zucchini (or summer squash)
*1 can black eyed peas (or other bean)

Cook for 20 minutes or so on medium heat.  The veggies will be soft but not soggy.

You can make a strictly veggie version of this soup or add some spicy Italian sausage.

BTW – some people say that eating black eyed peas and greens makes for a healthy, prosperous new year.

Let me know how you like it!  I’m still smiling and satisfied.

Say, maybe you’d be interested in knowing about Cheryl’s Soup Kitchen.  I loved creating this program.  It’s two audios and an ebook.  We just revamped the web site – check it out here!

In Cheryl’s Soup Kitchen, not only do you get fabulous soup and side dish recipes, but you also learn exactly how to streamline your kitchen, keep a kitchen journal, plan meals and efficiently prepare foods–soups and side dishes in particular.  You get shopping lists, food pantry suggestions, and tons of suggestions for improving your efficiency so you don’t have to spend so much time in the kitchen.

Find out all my soup secrets here.

Stay warm!

P.S. This post inspired Lena West to make her own version of this Wellness Soup. Listen in here.

Why Men Lose Weight Faster Than Women

Oct 24th, 2008

30-Day Self-Care Challenge (Part III) Day 24