When I lose all this extra weight, I’m going on vacation!

When I reach my goal weight, then I’ll try swing dancing.

I know I need new clothes, but I’m not buying any until I lose weight.

I’ll get back out there and start dating, but first I need to get back down to a size 10.

Do any of these ring a bell?  We had a discussion this week about putting life on hold until we reach a specific number on the scale or get back into a certain clothing size.  It made me sad that so many people were expressing this same plan of waiting to do things in life because they felt like their weight was holding them back.

Granted there may be some things that aren’t possible at the moment due to our current health/weight status, like running a marathon if you haven’t been training.  However that should not limit us from doing the things that ARE possible.  Punishing ourselves by not buying clothes that fit, refusing to treat ourselves to vacations, or avoiding social situations may actually prevent us from achieving our health and weight loss goals.

Depriving yourself of these simple pleasures could create a situation where food is our only source of pleasure or it could trigger eating out of frustration or negative body image.

Is there anything you’ve been putting on hold until you’ve lost weight?  Is it possible that you could do this now rather than waiting for life to start at your goal weight?

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I went shopping this weekend for some new workout threads and was reminded how invigorating it can be tossing out the old and bringing in something brand spanky new.  Even exchanging my dingey socks with a fresh pair of crispy white ones can put a skip in my step and help me stay the path to a healthy lifestyle.

Not to overstate the importance of socks, but replacing old tired tees and tennies with ones that are comfortable and better suited to your workout really can make a difference.

I think it is important to ‘gear up’ for exercise the same way you do for any other event that’s important to you.  I don’t mean going out and buying the most expensive athletic wear you can find just to prove how serious you are.  Or waiting one more day to engage in your favorite activity because you don’t think you have the right clothes.  I’m talking about making a commitment to your new active lifestyle and more importantly your body, in an effort to keep you moving for life.

Here at Green Mountain, we appreciate that shopping for good athletic wear can be challenging., so I’ve included a few links where here are a few links that could assist you in gearing up for your next fitness adventure might be just a little more empowering.

Enell

Danskin

Ladies Only Sports

Shop Fitwoman

What are some of your favorite spots to shop? Do you have a best kept secret that works for women who come in all shapes and sizes?

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Body image problems can start at a very young age.

We began and end the week with wise words from Ellyn Satter.  Today, we focus on her message to Michelle Obama to stop talking about childhood obesity.  Ellyn encourages instead a focus on helping parents set up a healthy feeding environment that will support their children’s natural abilities to choose what’s right for their health.  Her feeding dynamics model which I posted about Monday and which you can read more about here will help do that.

A few snippets from a message she sent to Mrs. Obama via http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact:

• “Research shows that children who are labeled overweight or obese feel flawed in every way–not smart, not physically capable and not worthy. Parents who fear obesity hesitate to gratify their child’s hunger for fear s/he will get fat. Such labeling is not only counterproductive, it is unnecessary.”
• “Provide, don’t deprive.”
• “Optimize feeding and parenting, and let children be children.”

If you don’t understand the specifics of what Ellyn is recommending, read her newsletter discussing all this.

Ellyn also encourages us all to mount an email blizzard to Mrs. Obama at the same url and gives these tips for making our voices heard:

• Call it a policy/other and put To: Michelle Obama and Re: Child Obesity; Help Without Harming in the message box and post your message.

• Keep it short—somewhere on the order of 250 to 400 words. (Actually, 2500 characters—about 400 words—is the maximum the site will accept.) Your short, heart-felt message will have an  impact.

• Start off with a sentence that summarizes your message, then develop it.

• Address one aspect of the topic. Each of us will choose different aspects and together, we will cover what is important.

• Send this newsletter to your fellow travelers (that is, other proponents of the feeding dynamics model), and encourage them to post their message.

Will you join Ellyn in ecouraging Mrs. Obama to help our children without harming them? I did.

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The happy animals of Derry-Aire Farm, Mt. Holly, Vermont (courtesy of Millicent Johnson)

If you’ve visited Green Mountain at Fox Run in the past few years, you might be familiar with one of our dinner servers, Millicent Johnson.  She deftly delivers the evening meal to our guests several nights a week.  But what many folks don’t know is that Millicent owns Derry-Aire Farm (you have to just love that name, right?) and a growing dairy bacterial testing business in nearby Mt. Holly with her husband, Jim.

One of the great side benefits of living in Vermont is that it is easy to find local farmers like Millicent who can supply you with wonderfully delicious and fresh food.  The Johnsons raise dairy and beef cattle, pigs, heirloom turkeys, and roasting and laying chickens, and I am happy to be a loyal customer.

The fact of the matter is that animals that are raised on small family farms by people like the Johnsons just taste better.  Maybe it’s because they were happier in life than the animals you see in the terrible video footage from the big factory farms.  Maybe it’s because the people who are raising them genuinely care about each one of them, let them run around in fresh air, and feed them well (Millicent’s animals often get the produce scraps from the GMFR kitchen).  Maybe it’s because they are treated like animals, not like products.

The French have a wonderful word that doesn’t translate well to English, but is a good term to know:  Terroir.  It refers to the flavors imparted into something (usually referring to wine) due to the ground in which it is grown, the air in which it flourishes, and the weather it experiences.  This word flew into my head a couple of weeks ago as I experienced my first taste of one of Millicent’s pigs.  Unlike the pork found at the supermarket which is often so lean it’s flavorless, this was full of delicious fat.  (Mmmmmmmm.)  But it also was full of the “terroir” of the farm.  Just like the turkeys and chickens I have enjoyed from the Johnsons in the past, it tasted like mountain air, clean water, good grain, and good earth.  In other words, a mouth full of heaven.

In addition to having a freezer full of delicious pork (which I will more often than not be pairing with some lovely legumes, I swear ), I also feel great knowing that I am giving my money to a local family I care about instead of some nameless corporation.  You don’t have to live in Vermont to find local farms near you.  Many states have organizations and websites to help link small farms and farmers’ markets with hungry people.  Try this site to find farms near you, or if you’re in Vermont, click here for some listings.  It might be a little more effort than running to the supermarket, but it is worth it – you’ll have good karma for giving back to the community as well as wonderful experiences in your local terroir.  And you will also be more aware (dare I say Mindful?) of exactly what you are eating.  Do a taste comparison sometime, and I swear you’ll never go back to the supermarket.

Do you have a favorite local farmer or farmers’ market to which you’d like to give a “shout out”?

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Do you look forward to anything on your to-do list?

Finish all tasks on daily to do list – check.  Wrap up a hectic work day – check.  Pick up around the house – check.  Deal with kids, bills, making dinner, pets, etc….  – check.  Now it’s “me time” and it’s going to be me and food.  How often do we go to food to wind down or relax?

One type of hunger we talk about at Green Mountain at Fox Run is Spiritual Hunger.  In a nutshell eating for spiritual hunger is  using food to fill a void.  That void could be filled by a variety of things: friends, family, pets, sense of community, religion, connecting with the natural world, taking the time to self-nurture through hobbies, activities, or anything fun.  Probably my favorite description of spiritual hunger is John Mayer’s song, Something’s Missing.

If food is the highlight of your day, it might not be a bad idea to assess what else could serve that purpose.  I have so many things to look forward to each day that I’m much less likely to go to food for comfort or nurturing.  The things I’m passionate about are music, stained glass, painting/drawing, animal rescue, continuing education, gardening, dancing, sewing, and being with my family and friends.  I do something related to any of the above each day; they give me more to look forward to than food.

How about you, what are you passionate about?  Do you take the time to get involved in your passions each day?

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