FIGHT THE FAT REMOTIVATION PROJECT DAY 1: Working on the Mojo in "Self-Control Focus" Week...Activity #1 is 5-minute Meditation.... Activity #2 Scary Science Reading about why I need to get rid of this fat and just reminding myself that EXCESS FAT KILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For me, this is like a new day. I decided to get up and make this "FIGHT THE FAT  REMOTIVATION PROJECT" Day one in Princess Dieter Land.

Okay, so I'm trying to find that "sweet wind" again. Besides the "Activity #1" of meditation I mentioned yesterday in my vlog update, I'm planning this week to read the kinds of things that motivated me in 2010. The scary butt things. That's Activity #2 in the project. The fat-terror stuff. Things like Allan's rants about "Fat is cancer."

He was and is right. Fat is like cancer. It kills. We gotta get rid of it!!!

Fat is not this benign padding keeping us warm and making us feel cushy. It's been discovered that it acts like an endocrine organ. It releases cytokines that cause inflammation. And it's not just this awful belly/visceral fat (which I am of the body type that really likes to accumulate belly/torso fat, damn, stupid DNA of mine).  Even that FAT PADS ON YOUR KNEES do this!!!!

Extrapolate this. If the fat pads on your knees add pro-inflammatory chemicals to your system, what do you think 50 extra pounds around your middle do? 100? 200? It's a time bomb.

Fat cancer.

Excess fat is NOT your buddy, not my body. It is destroying us in this country. Look around when you go out. WE ARE A FAT COUNTRY!

We're scarfing down junk, living sedentary, and wallowing in our own cytokines...and paying the medical price.

Worry about not having insurance when you're obese? Oh, yeah, bet you do. I did. I do.

Fat hates us. It's not something to happily accept and let sit there. It's something to FIGHT. (As well as we can, and I don't mean you need to be twiggy or Kate Moss, cause, genetically, we ain't all blueprinted that way.)

I need to scare myself again. So, I looked for a read like those that got me going to begin with.

Like this article.

It reminds me why I can't go back to eating crap, EVER EVER EVER (and no, I have not had a sweet roll or donut, not in a long time, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't LOVE to, mind you). Here, a cardiologist traces the way a crap food like a donut raises inflammation and leads to heart disease.

But he also explains why BEING fat leads to inflammation and heart disease and other deadly and dreadful conditions. I ain't obese anymore (barely). But I am fat. Overweight. And this is what that does to me, says this heart surgeon who has operated on thousands and seen what a bad diet and being fat does to the arterial walls:

To make matters worse, the excess weight you are carrying from eating these foods creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having high blood sugar. The process that began with a sweet roll turns into a vicious cycle over time that creates heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and finally, Alzheimer's disease, as the inflammatory process continues unabated.

People, the reason I got my mojo going on losing weight was cause I didn't want to DIE OBESE. I didn't want to have failed to conquer obesity and be on my deathbed with the huge regret of DYING OBESE. And the main acute motivator--the one that was right there in my face and terrifying me-- was that I had Metabolic Syndrome/Pre-diabetes and was well on my way to becoming a full-blown diabetic with all the horrible complications that cascade from THAT condition.

So, my blood sugar has been blessedly normal. My blood pressure pills got tossed last June.

But if I regain and go back to bad habits, I get all that crap again...and MORE. And WORSE, cause the clock stops for no one.

So, that was the first thing I read, after waking up, before breakfast. It's time to scare the bejeezus out of myself again to get my butt in gear and act together.

This fricken wall is coming down. I'm my own obstacle. I gotta get out of my dang way.

I'm gonna do my 5 minute meditation. I'm gonna ponder my arterial wall damage as I look at my big belly, that belly pouring out cytokines into my bloodsteam and screwing me up inside.

Okay, off to eat, move, do some chores, then pick-up my organic goodies. And I really need me some berries right now. Got a craving. :D At least, it's not for a donut.

If you want to REMOTIVATE right along with me, you folks in the doldrums of dieting or in the regaining conundrum or apathetic or backsliding, then join me. Just do the same stuff--the 5 minute meditation blocks to clear the mind and exercise the self-control "muscle", the scary reading (blogs, articles, books, whereever). Put up your own idea and let me know. Maybe I'll do it, too. The point is to do the things that got you going mentally, got you IN YOUR GAME. The point is to find the fire again. If you want to post your remotivation tricks and if they work, do so. Let me know. I'd like to read your efforts.

And for those undermining themselves, here's a word: Akrasia.

Fight the fat.

Be well...

What is it with restaurants and salt? Give Beth Some Hugs, Would Ya? And Remembering that FAT KILLS! aka time for another Royal Rant!

Yesterday, I had my Pilates, did a 35 minute walk with hubby, and finished NATIVE STAR, which was great. Too bad it's another typical "pick on religious folks, pick on republicans, pick on big corporations" message...which is sorta cliche these days, but other than that, primo,great fun, romantic in parts, and I'm gonna start the sequel soon. :D

Today, I pick up my organic coop share. Hubby will be happy there are gala apples, broccoli, potatoes, and bananas. I'm happy there are grapes, arugula, local avocado, and local eggplant. Some other stuff, but those are my faves in the share.

Yesterday, I allowed myself multiple carbs/starches with dinner, so I'm staying away from the scale. Starches/more carbs = water retention for me. I had black beans and hummus. My half cup of beef veggie soup (from a Lebanese restaurant, as was the hummus) had a bit of rice, too. I also had extra fruit with dinner. And lowfat Greek yogurt with some walnuts. A lot of carbs yesterday with supper. But I just wasn't in a meaty/poultry mood.

It was half a cup of soup, not the full share, cause it was TOO DAMN SALTY. Geesh. 9 out of 10 times I have soup in a restaurant, it's like someone opened up the Morton's and just went to town in my mouth. What is it with that? Maybe Allan knows, as he's Mr. Restaurateur Supremo.

Crazy.

The hummus was salty, too, so I didn't hit it much, which is fine. It's just for a little flavor.

If a genie gave me 3 wishes, I think 1 of them might be: "Every restaurant in the world will only sell healthful, nutritious, real, organic food without additives or excessive salt."

I know. I ain't getting that wish, but it might lead to world peace if everyone was eating sane. Who knows? :D

We had rain again, and I may leave walking for tomorrow and do something indoors. Dancing. Some calisthenics. Weights. Not sure.

But I am sure my blogging fatfighting buddies, who well understand the power food can have and how hard it can be to refind one's groove, will want to go and give some commenty support to our pal BETH of OBESITY STRIKE blog. She came back to us after a long hiatus. Let's send good wishes, prayers, vibes...and let her know she has the power to overcome this setback!

Saw as I was reading a few blogs (been bad at keeping up with everyone, sorry) that one blogger lost a babysitter due to obesity.

Fat kills.

Fat kills.

Fat kills.

I'm not talking about a little fat. Some healthful dietary fats. I'm talking about obesity. I'm talking about excess fat.

FAT KILLS!

If you think that chocolate bar or that cookie or cake or that double meat pizza or lasagna or drive-thru supermeal is benign, you're kidding yourself. If we have weight issues, those foods are killing us if they are not helping us lose weight. Period. And hey, they might be killing you anyway, with whatever nitrites/preservatives/additives and crap is in there if you're sensitive to it--diabetic folks, gluten-intolerant folks, soy-sensitive folks, preservative sensitive folks, hypothyroid folks, autoimmune folks, binge-eating triggered-folks, I'm talking at ya, stop eating crap you know you can't handle physiologially or psychologically!

Your desire to eat too much is destroying you. It was totally destroying ME. I know it.

Stop it.

Right now.

Find the sane place inside you and grab hold and put down that food you're about to trigger a binge on or go over your alloted calories with. PUT IT DOWN!!!!

We already have people dropping dead all across our country from eating too much. Kids getting diabetes. Adults, too, who only are getting it cause they got fat. That was me...heading right to diabetes cause I ate too fricken much.

Adults getting cancer.
Shortened lifespans.
Orphaned kids, cause their parents couldn't say not to Dominoes or McD's or the Chinese Buffet.
Despairing seniors whose children predeceased them due to obesity -related illnesses or complications.
People being sick and unproductive due to poor nutrition and lack of exercise.

It affects a whole society. Not just me and you. EVERYONE pays for this.

I lost a nephew, who'd probably be well and alive today if he'd gotten a handle on his weight issues. It complicated his medical treatment that he was morbidly obese.

FAT KILLS.

Don't let it kill you anymore than it already has. Yep, who knows what damage WE ALREADY DID to ourselves. Irrevocable damage. Done and not to be undone.

Don't do more. I don't want to mess myself up anymore. I want to heal.

Let's heal.

Put the damn crap down. Spit it out. Refuse to buy it. Refuse to spend your hard-earned bucks on anything that is not NUTRITIOUS and on YOUR (and my) acceptable eating plan.

Live longer, love longer, be well longer....