This is who I am.

If you ask me (which many of you obviously haven't) what my life goal is, I am likely to reply, "Change the world" or, if I'm feeling particularly sassy, I might phrase the same end point as "Take over the world" (sound familiar to any of you Pinky and Brain fans?).

But, in all seriousness, that is my goal.  The world that I live in has more disease that is almost completely preventable than ever before.  One researcher stated it's not our eating or exercise patterns that are killing us....it's our decision making skills.  Ouch!

But then here comes Seth Godin to tell us (and there's lots of research to back this statement up),  "...most actions aren't decisions at all".  We take actions to a large extent based on our personal and community culture. 

If you are a person who doesn't like to exercise, it will be difficult to like exercising because it goes against what you believe your personal culture to be.

On the other hand, if you like exercising but your workout on a particular day feels TERRIBLE, you will still exercise the next day because exercise it a part of your personal culture -- it's no longer a decision you make, it's just who you are regardless of how it feels on any given day.

So what's Seth's advice for us?  If we want to live healthier lives, we need to change our personal and community culture.  Surrounding yourself with people making the changes and living the kind of life you are looking to create puts you smack dab into the middle of a culture that will support, encourage, and provide kicks in the pants when you need them and take you in the healthful directions you are looking to go.

It's that culture that will take you from "This is what I do" (whether that is exercise, eating cleaner, or sitting on your couch every evening and only taking breaks to walk to the fridge) to "This is who I am" (whether that is an Exerciser, a Clean Foodie, or a Couch Potato).

So....who are you?  And who do you want to be?  Better find a group of others that are the way you want to be and start hanging out with them.  Change your culture, change your world.

The World is a Candy Store....no, seriously....think about it!

Please rethink your environment!  Yoni Freedhoff is asking us to take a look at what we think is normal.  It may be normal -- but is it helping us be healthy?  Nope.  Are you part of the solution?  Or part of the problem???



Can't see the video?  Click here!

I love this!!! Thoughts on the idea "Strong is the new Skinny"

This whole post by Fit and Feminist was a positive reading experience for me!  I am a firm believer in strength training and this post really resonated with me.  Here's the take home:

We don’t need a new “skinny.”  We don’t need a new beauty standard, nor do we need yet another physical ideal hanging over our every thought and move like a little black cloud of doom.  What we need to do is change the paradigm so that we value our bodies for all of the amazing things they let us do.  We need to expand our standards of beauty to recognize that beauty shows up in all kinds of bodies.  And we need to get over this idea that the most important purpose we serve on is to be beautiful for other people.  We have a right to have healthy bodies, to take up space, to have appetites, to cultivate our strengths in whatever form that may take.  Our time on this planet is precious and we will never, ever get it back, so let’s stop squandering it in pursuit of meaningless ideals we will most likely never attain anyway.  We deserve so much better than that.

Want to read the whole post?  Click here!

HT to Weight Maven for pointing me in this direction!

So you drink diet soda?

Y'all know I am fairly anti-diet soda.  But here's some information based on research (not just my paranoia):

New studies on artificial sweeteners: a puzzle

from Food Politics by Marion

FoodNavigator.com reports two new studies on artificial sweeteners.

The first report says that artificially sweetened sodas do not lead to increased sugar or calorie consumption.

Our study study does not provide evidence to suggest that a short-term consumption of DBs [diet beverages], compared with water, increases preferences for sweet foods and beverages.

If this result proves repeatable, it leaves open the question of why the prevalence of obesity has gone up in parallel with increasing consumption of diet sodas (which it has).

So how come diet sodas don’t seem to help people maintain weight, on average? We still don’t know.
The second report is about a study that links diet sodas to type 2 diabetes. In a study following 66,000 women for 14 years, it found both sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and artificially sweetened beverage consumption to be associated with increased type-2 diabetes risk.

How come? We still don’t know.

One thing seems pretty clear from such studies: diet drinks don’t appear to do much good for most people and aren’t any better for health than regular sodas.

Water, anyone?

I need you to watch this and tell me what you think!

Can't see the video? Click here!

(but then, don't forget to tell me what you think -- is this a more clear message than other PSA's you've seen?  Did it provide you with food for thought that you hadn't considered before? Did the video offend you?   Talk to me!)

What does being sedentary do for you?

There are always consequences to our actions (or in this case inaction). Move less and you'll be able to move less. Move more and you'll be able to move more. This isn't about running a marathon -- it's about being able to live the kind of life you want to live.
Thanks to Frank for the graphic and Yoni for point me to it!

Yoni's Making Sense Again....

Comfort. Health. Being the appropriate weight.  How does it all fit together?  Hmmmm.....


The past 60 years of dieting, both for health and for weight management, have certainly seen a great many different approaches and options. But the one shared commonality is that, for the vast majority of dieters, diets are short-lived, white-knuckled affairs that, regardless of their actual dietary edicts, can be fairly described as planned suffering. And therein lies the rub.

We're not particularly good as a species at perpetual and unnecessary suffering. And just as we have been celebrating and comforting with food since time immemorial, so too have we tended to avoid unnecessary suffering. Ultimately, when life inevitably throws a blindly restrictive dieter a curve ball, dietary suffering tends to fall by the wayside; and when life lets up, the tendency for most is not to pick it up again.

I sometimes think of blindly restrictive dieting like an icy cold lake on an unseasonably hot day. You work up the nerve to dive in and, after the initial shock wears off and numbness sets in, you splash around happily for a while. But once you climb out, the memory of that initial frigidity is enough to keep you warmly on dry land— diving back in is almost never an option.

So instead of adopting a blindly restrictive, icy-cold lake diet, my advice is for you to practice thoughtful reduction. It's not about whether or not a food or an indulgence is allowed; it's whether or not you feel it's worth it to you, where worth isn't determined solely by calories or content, but also by circumstance, desire and the human condition.

This is an excerpt from Yoni Freedhoff's article at Eat+Run (don't you just love that title for a health blog??).  Interested in reading the rest?  Click here!