Hi Catherine, thanks for mentioning my article, Weighing In With A Plan and A Purpose!

You asked us to chime in with any advice re: losing weight.....the best thing I can say is to remember that short term dieting doesn't work in the long run. It really takes lifestyle changes to lose the weight and keep it off. You can start off small if that works for you.....let's say if you're a big Coke drinker, cut down to one a day for a week, then one every other day, replacing all of those with water. Then start adding in lean proteins, fresh fruits and veggies, exercise, etc.

Whether you make one change at a time or several at once, it's something that has to be a habit for life, otherwise you are likely to regain what you lost. I've experienced that myself, although for me, I need to stay off of refined sugar and flour completely, otherwise I'll get back into overeating and food cravings.....no fun and I put the weight right back on then.

I do believe that it's possible to change and get on the healthy track for life if you really want to do it. It usually goes deeper than diet and exercise though, and if you're an emotional eater, you'll need to heal the reasons behind that, too.

Well I've gone on long enough here. :) It really comes down to the fact that for most people, the issue of overweight and overeating isn't solved as easily as by just going on a diet, otherwise there wouldn't be so many repeat dieters out there. ;)

All the best to you this year Catherine, Happy New Year!!

Having recently been diagnosed with PCOS, my January small goal is to make sure that I take my medicine every single day. Along with that medicine I'm on South Beach phase 1 because essentially the doctor told me that if I don't stay away from sugar on the medicine, it will likely make me very sick. I'm also trying to get exercise in more, I had really fallen off the exercise wagon. No more excuses allowed, 30 minutes most days of the week, no questions asked. But it comes down to I basically now know I have less room for error than most people and if I want to be healthy, v low sugar and no refined carbs for me.

I haven't blogged about the diagnosis yet, mostly because I haven't told my mom (I'm fairly sure she won't find me over at blogher) and I don't think most of the interweb should find out before my mom. Though I'm processing in my mind for an entry.

Healthy Manifest

Truncated respnonse, taken from my JUST CAUSE blog

Even though any rational person would look at me and say that I am in great shape, (at least for a woman "of a certain age" who has given birth) I still look in the mirror and think, "hmmmm, when did that happen?" By "that," I mean the fact that my inner thighs touch, my outer thighs are wider than my butt, my breasts are apparently running for cover in my navel and my stomach is still proudly proclaiming "a baby lived here once." Hmmmmm, indeed.

I struggle, every day, with loving my body for the things it can do and not for how closely it resembles what the beauty industry says it should.

Let's look at some statistics provided by National Eating Disorders Association:

* 10 million women are fighting life-threatening battles with Anorexia and Bulemia.
* 80% of women report being dissatisfied with their bodies
* 40% of newly reported cases of Anorexia & Bulemia are in girls 15-19 years old
* The rise in these cases has been 30% annually since the 1930's
* 42% of 1st - 3rd grade girls want to be thinner
* The average American woman is 5'4" tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American model is 5'11" tall and weighs 117 pounds.

When I look at numbers like that, it is hard for me to come to any conclusion other than that women and girls body image is shaped by media messaging. And that makes media messages - even seemingly stupid and innocent ones like the one from Sephora - really important in shaping not only the bodies but the body image and self-esteem of at least half our population.

People who are in fact overweight need to lose weight to get to a healthy weight for their body. In which case, that should be framed as a resolution to get healthy, not to lose weight.

Look, I do want to lose 5 pounds. Really. But, here's the deal. I'm having a blast in this body exactly how it is. This body - complete with a few extra pounds - has taken me to Mountain tops, finished triathlons, held my daughter, made love to my husband, walked miles with friends and can still put on a fun costume and party all night. This body does not define me, but what I do with it does.

We need to be healthy. Not too big, not too small. We need to be who we are, not what magazines tell us to be. We need to support each other in our efforts to be healthy, secure and proud of ourselves.
___________
Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
make some good news!
www.JustCauseIt.com