Spring Cleaning

I couldn't decide whether to call this post "Spring Cleaning" or "Backsliding!" Spring is finally here (although some of you may still have snow in your future), and we're thinking about opening our houses again, getting rid of all the accumulated dust of winter.

If you're like me, dust isn't the only thing that has accumulated over the winter. It's so easy to backslide from your health program when the weather is cold. You may not be able to get outside and exercise the way you can in the warmer months. Gardening can be out of the question.

Along with lack of exercise, you may have succumbed to a lot of comfort food over the winter. Hot chocolate, pizza, chili, anything warming and yummy can be just what you need when you come from a cold day. Healthy eating may fall completely off your agenda.

The good news is that we can start making our healthy choices again. We can spring clean away the excess weight that has found us over the winter.

One of the best ways is with the Bod*e system. The Bod*e Challenge has helped many people lose weight, but one thing everyone loves is how easy it is. Marsha needed to lose weight. After only 15 weeks on the Challenge, she's already lost 25 pounds! She dropped 4 pant sizes and 2 top sizes! She says: "The weight loss is visible. You start drinking Burn and following the program, and you'll start losing weight!" She looks great and feels wonderful.

The Bod*e program comes with an amazing phone app that gives you recipes, exercises, tips, and, best of all, encouragement from Chris & Heidi Powell. Available for iPhone and Android, this will be a huge help to your weight loss program. No more going it alone! Not only will you have a fitness coach, but your own take-it-with-you-everywhere guide to help you stay on track!

How easy is it to get the Bod*e program? Just email your contact information (email and phone) and the best time to reach you to me marionlaird @ gmail.com (no spaces), then message me here to let me know you're interested. I look forward to helping you find your best weight!

Good Nutrition and Medication

If you've been following my posts here or on Facebook, you know my opinion of good nutrition. The FDA won't allow any nutritional company to make health claims, and rightly so. However, more and more research is being done regarding the positive effects good nutrition has on our health.

In the meantime, people are getting great results from taking healthy nutrients into their bodies. 

Jacki in California is one happy example. She's been on medication to control her diabetes since 1998. 

Admitting that she's hard-headed, she shared with us that she didn't listen to her doctors and ended up having to have even more medication. 

Finally, something clicked, and she realized she was going in the wrong direction. Jacki got started with Vemma, taking the delicious liquid multivitamin juice twice a day. 

At a regional event in Las Vegas, she met Dr. John Edwards. He advised Jacki to increase her dosage from two ounces twice a day to three times a day. He told her he thought she'd see results in the next couple of months. Immediately, she followed his advice. 

Over the last six weeks, Jacki's sugar levels have been consistently much lower. They are so much improved that her diabetes doctor has lowered her medication dosage! Jacki's advice: if you have diabetes, don't walk, run to your nearest Vemma person and get this ordered immediately.  

Vemma never claims to cure any disease. However, when your body is getting the nutrition it needs, it can function the way it's designed to do. The products are all natural. If you take more than you need, your body eliminates it. You can't overdose on it! So, if you aren't getting the results you're after, you can feel free to take extra. 

Want to know more? Email your contact information to marionlaird @ gmail dot com, or click HERE.

Crunchy AND Nutritious?

Well, yes. Kashi has made crunchy and nutritious possible! How? Good question. The answer: hummus and whole grains.

If you're like me, hummus was not a regular part of your diet. I've always thought of chickpeas as a great ingredient to 3-bean salad! (I also think of them as garbanzos, but that's another story.)


When Bzzagent gave me the opportunity to try Kashi Hummus Crisps for free, I was curious to see if they'd live up to the buzz. I knew they wouldn't taste like potato chips, and I was right. They're better than potato chips! The texture is different--thicker, crunchier. My free bag was the Sea Salt and Olive Oil. I was so impressed, I went out looking for the other two flavors.

At first, I could only find the Caramelized Onion. They reminded me of a crispy friend onion snack I used to eat before becoming so health-conscious. I was so pleasantly surprised. They're delicious.

The next shopping trip, I was able to find the Sundried Tomato, Basil & Feta. To me, they taste like crunchy little pizza crisps.

The only caveat is this: you'll need to watch how many you eat. A serving size of around 27 crisps comes in at 120 calories. That's pretty good. However, if you like them as much as I do, you'd better measure them out in advance to avoid going over your calorie limit. They're so good, you could probably eat an entire bag at one sitting!

Change is in the Air!

Whether you're in the Northern or Southern Hemispheres, change is in the air! If you're north of the equator, Happy Autumn! If you're south, Happy Spring! (I know. I'm a week late. Chalk it off to the change of seasons!)

The changes of season can be a time of change for us, as well. While change can be challenging, or even difficult, it can also be good for us.

Let's consider the change of the seasons. As the earth orbits the sun, it wobbles on its axis. It's a gentle wobble, fortunately for all of us, but it still makes the sun seem to move north and south of the equator. Seasonal changes can seem sudden, like the cooler fall days that just popped into my neighborhood, practically overnight. Most often, however, change is more subtle.

Say you go on a diet and lose twenty pounds. Maybe it came off quickly. Maybe it took a while. Either way, you hit your goal weight and you think, "Aha! I'm there! I can relax now!" "One cookie won't hurt." "Yes, thank you, I'd love seconds."

Sure, you won't put on twenty pounds overnight (unless you have a serious medical condition beyond the scope of this blog). However slow it may be, however, once you stop your diet, the scales may start to creep upward again. A subtle change. Soon you may be back where you were before, or even worse than when you started.

That's the problem with diets. As I stated in my last post, the entire dieting mindset is based on its being temporary. Something with an end-date.

What you need is a life-style change. A program that will give you tips on how to change what you're doing now, so that you can live your life at a healthy weight.

The Bodē plan from VEMMA is just such a plan. Not only is it simple & easy, but you get smartphone support with its award-winning app that will message you when it's time to eat, give you recipes, exercises, and the best vitamin and mineral combo in the business. With the great nutrition you'll be getting, not only will your weight improve, but you'll get more energy for living!

What about it, then? Are you ready for some positive change in your life? Check out the Bodē products today!

Why Diets Fail

How many diets have you been on since you were old enough to know what a "diet" is? If you're like me, you may not remember. Diet fads come and go like leaves on deciduous trees. And with them, the weight. It goes, and then, when you quit the diet, it comes back. And usually the pounds bring their friends.

First off, the modern definition of "diet" is inaccurate. A diet can consist of anything and everything we eat. Calling a program to lose weight a "diet" is restricting the term, and gives us a "temporary" mindset. That is, we think, Okay, this is only temporary. I can do this for a short time and lose the weight and then I can go back to eating all my favorite foods again. Thinking like that is sure to sabotage any long-term weight loss and maintenance goal.

What put us into the overweight category? If you're like me, it was probably a lack of portion control. It's so good---maybe I'll have just one more... And one after that, and another one, and then, surprise! The package is empty.

Another thing that can tip the scales in the wrong direction is a sedentary lifestyle. Believe it or not, standing in one place all day has the same effect as sitting at a desk. My last work-outside-the-home job had me standing for hours, and I put on something like thirty pounds. I was drinking lots of sugary coffees and sodas to give myself enough energy to get through the day. To compound that, I wasn't getting nearly enough exercise. Who had time? It was always (a) get up early & get ready for work, (b) grab breakfast, (c) get to work, (d) get through the day until break or lunch and grab something high-calorie to see me through until the next break, (e) have a highly caffeinated beverage to give me enough energy to get through the rest of the day until quitting time, (f) run any errands, (g) go home for a meal and try to get enough rest to tackle the next day. And on Sundays, in addition to church, sometimes store meetings had me getting there at 6 AM before opening, and then heading to church afterward for my organ-playing job.

Did I have time to exercise? No. Did I need exercise? Oh, yes. Badly. I also didn't need all that excess sugar and caffeine from artificial and non-organic sources.

If you're currently in a sedentary lifestyle, as I was, you can't expect the weight to stay off when it comes off, unless you keep restricting your caloric intake. And, even if you do keep the calories down, a lack of exercise makes it much harder for your body to burn the calories that you take in. As we get older, once past that golden age of development, our bodies begin to lose muscle, unless we stress them on a regular basis. By stress, I mean exercise.

Exercise comes in different flavors:

• weight-bearing, such as hand weights, weight machines, barbells, push-ups, etc.
• aerobic, which increases heart rate and lung capacity and includes such activities as walking, running, calisthenics and jumping rope, to name a few 
• stretching, like Praise Moves,  Pilates, etc.
• deep muscle movement, like Callanetics or Chicometrics 

Each one of these is good, but the best course is to mix types of exercise. Try to do weight-bearing exercise 2 or 3 days a week, but never two days in a row. Lifting weights makes tiny tears in the muscle, and taking a day in between lets the tears heal, which strengthens the muscle. If you're a woman, don't worry about developing a Popeye or Mr. America physique. Unless you're taking steroids, it won't happen. 

Walking can be done every day, as can stretching, because unless done at a frenetic pace, they're gentle. Aim for at least 30 minutes at least 3 days a week. Those 30 can be broken down into increments of 5. Note that if you do, you won't get as good an aerobic result, but it will still increase your metabolism.

Deep muscle movements, like lifting weights, should be done only every other day, to let the muscles recuperate.

Whatever exercise you do will be beneficial, and aid in your journey to wellness! As always, be sure to check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

For a complete weight loss/maintenance program, complete with recipes and an award-winning phone app, visit Bode. 

Little Steps

Little steps. It sounds so basic. Maybe because it is.

We don't have to take giant steps to succeed. In fact, if we try to take giant steps, we're very likely to fall on our faces.

One small change for the better can start an entire chain of events.

People who run in races train first. They don't suddenly wake up one day and run twenty-six miles without preparation. The name "marathon" came from ancient Greece. There are conflicting accounts of whether Pheidippedes ran to Athens from the plains of Marathon to tell of victory over the Persians, or whether he ran from Athens to Sparta to seek aid. Either way, not having trained to run 26 miles, he dropped dead after delivering the message. The moral of the story? Train first.

Preparation is important for almost everything in life. (I qualify it with "almost" only because if I don't, someone is sure to correct me about something they just jumped into and succeeded effortlessly.) When it comes to getting in shape, you'd better start off small. And, if you're very out of shape, see your doctor first!

Changing the way we eat doesn't have to be instantaneous and overnight, either. Just making small changes for the better can improve our health and the way we look and feel. Here are a few suggestions for some small steps we can all take to improve our health.

• Swap out unhealthy fats for healthy ones. Transfats (partially or totally hydrogenated oils of any sort) should be eliminated completely. This means taking most margarine out of your diet completely! Even the saturated fat of butter is better for you than most margarine. Saturated fat usage should be cut down. Healthy fats like those found in nuts and peanuts (a legume) should be the ones most often used. Diets advocating the total elimination of fat from the diet should be avoided. Our bodies need a balance of protein, simple carbohydrates and healthy fats for optimal health.
• Cut down on simple carbohydrates. If you eat potatoes, which are a starch that turns into sugar rapidly in the bloodstream, be sure to eat a healthy fat with it, to slow its absorption into the bloodstream. 
• Be careful which artificial sweetener you use. Some turn into formaldehyde when ingested. I don't know about you, but that's a preservative for dead things that I just don't want to eat!
• Calories DO count, but if you are balancing your diet with healthy foods and not overeating, you shouldn't have to count them.
• Do some moderate exercising. The latest studies have shown that even breaking up the recommended fifteen to thirty minutes a day into five minute segments will have a marked improvement in your overall condition. 
• Find a mentor. Having someone encourage you as you take on the challenge of living a more healthful life can help you through the rough spots (for example, at birthday parties when people offer you a second piece of cake). 
• Be patient. If you're badly out of shape or have a lot of weight to lose, don't expect to meet your goals overnight. The human body isn't designed that way! Besides, remember that those little steps add up to make a big difference.

Meal replacement can be a good way to add in necessary nutrients and effect a slow but permanent change. Find one that gives you the right amount of vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients so that it will help you become healthier, not just thinner.

The VEMMA bodē products are some of the most healthful meal replacements in the marketplace today. They contain no artificial ingredients, and support a healthy diet. The protein and fiber help you feel full longer.

All the facts are available here. 

Like what you see? Start your healthy life at
www.enthusiasmpays.vemma.com today!

Staying Positive

Sometimes our biggest challenge in getting or staying in shape is just keeping a positive attitude. It's easy to keep going when things are going your way. When it gets hard, however, staying positive becomes more difficult. It's also when you need it the most!

What keeps you focused on your goals? Your health & well-being? Fitting into a smaller size? Being able to "be there" for your family & loved ones?

It's so easy to lose track when everything else is clamoring for your attention. And, once you stop paying attention, those sneaky pounds can come right back! It's happened to me. It can happen to you.

I know it's hard to stay focused and positive with so many terrible things happening around the world. Hearing someone say "keep a positive attitude" when you are distraught over a loved one in a war zone, or in the midst of a terrible wildfire, or challenged by tornadoes or hurricanes, can be like a slap in the face. You may feel insulted or angry.

I don't mean to do that to you, truly. If you're facing monumental challenges, feel free to ignore me. Give those challenges to God and come back to my blog when things are better. I'm praying for you.

If you're just in a slump, however, I'm here to cheer you on. Just because we get into a slump doesn't mean we have to stay there. Just because we lose our dietary focus and put on a few pounds doesn't mean they have to stay with us forever. We CAN lose them again. We just have to make that decision, for our health!

I'm deciding to do better again. How about you?