This is a tough issue for me to write about because I’ve known girls and women that have to deal with this. I’m told it is a little like being an alcholic because one never quite recovers.

In this post I will recall my observation and intersperse some video on this topic. I don’t really expect [...]]]>  

This is a tough issue for me to write about because I’ve known girls and women that have to deal with this. I’m told it is a little like being an alcholic because one never quite recovers.

In this post I will recall my observation and intersperse some video on this topic. I don’t really expect any solutions to come from this post but I hope that some might be interested in what I’ve seen. Here is an overview video to start.

It was interesting to me to see the girl at the end of the video saying she did not have the energy to get out of bed.

First off let me say that while I’m focusing on gals – guys have eating issues too. I’ve noticed more issues in gals so I’ll focus on issues surrounding them in this post.

Disclaimer – I don’t fully understand the issues as a guy and not feeling the pressure to look a certain way.

What I mean to say is guys are the beasts – and gals are the beauties. At least that is the perception many seem to have. At my heaviest I’ve graced the beach communities with my body wearing swim trunks. While I gave the local walrus’s a run for their money – I did not care and still went body surfing.

I’ve noticed that gals really care how they look. The media seems to focus on how women look to sell magazines, movies, and lodes of snake oil (beauty products).

While I have nothing against anyone wanting to look their best – I question the logic of perpetuating the myth that losing a few pounds to keep up with the Jones will make any difference in social standing or such.

I’ve witnessed gals experience peer pressure to be skinny. Take high-school gals for instance. Can anyone honestly believe that guys like skinny girls over girls with some curves? Well maybe high-school guys (who are not well muscled yet as men are) might at times due to the same social pressure but this is not the real world.

Girls with curves and guys with muscle are the gold standard when one grows up. The reason I’ve mention high-school is the seeds of thought must be partially implanted in school when girls and guys don’t really have any standards. I mean if skinny is good – why not like twiggy? For those of you who have not lived through the 60’s… Twiggy was a sickeningly thin model I believe that was all of the rage for a while – much like the seemingly sickeningly thin models today.

So what I’ve seen is when a girl or woman falls to peer pressure because of unkind words of friends and or family – she really believes that she is fat when in fact she is already under-weight!

There is not amount of logic one can tell the girl or woman at this point because she sees herself as fat!

One sad case was one of my favorite singers off all time, Karen Carpenter. Here is a video of her singing.

Karen Carpenter while one of the golden canaries of all time, had eating disorders that eventually led to her death. Here is an overview of her life in wikipedia.

 As I recall in watching her story – no one was able to convince her that she was beautiful the way she was. She just did not believe anyone. How sad for her, her family, and the world!

While I could go on with many more stories about how people have been messed up by peer pressure, media pressure and such – I would like to focus on way that one might affect a change around you.

Tell the girls and women in your life how beautiful they are – just as they are. No matter if they are over or under weight or just in their ideal healthy weight – let them know they are perfect!

What? Yes unkind words can and do have unwanted effects on people in many cases. It takes a lot of work (if it is even possible) to undo unkind words so making your children, friends and acquaintances know that you see them as beautiful might just counteract some peer or media pressure at a key point!

No matter – you will be seen as a friend and supporter of the person and even if your input is ignored – you may be able to help her someday if she needs a friend!

One point to remember – if you are ever are trying to motivate a person to lose weight to be more healthy – focus more on the healthy life style. Do not talk disparagingly to her about how fat she is as that (negative comments) will stick around for a long time.

Be positive to your friends and family – you have nothing to lose (even if you are not a positive personality) and everything to gain! 

A kind word can go a long way. That is my wisdom (hopefully) for you today. Now go forth and be positive!

Well on surprise to me is I am getting faster at running! I start out slower than a walk (in fact some walkers have passed me), and I [...]]]> Here is a quick update on what has been happening. First off I have been trading off with jump-rope/bag-work & katas with jogging about five days a week.

Well on surprise to me is I am getting faster at running! I start out slower than a walk (in fact some walkers have passed me), and I end up the three miles (my middle run distance) almost at a flat out run!

My body is responding to exercise! Now the fat/weight loss is holding its own at about 230 as I’ve been eating a little more at the weekly dinners, our anniversary, and Oktoberfest but that is my goal for now – to hold on to the gains I’ve made this year!

Now for you business minded folk, there is a cost-benefit analysis to very equation. Should you do what you know is best for you or get carries away by circumstances and let yourself go? I’ve reasoned that my major goal at 52 years old should and is my health. Being obese is not sitting well with me so I have had to make some changes.

The first noticable change for readers of my blogs (LeanAnMean.com and MySelfDefenseBlog.com) is I am not posting as much. You see I like writing and taking my time researching a topic before I find the most interesting approach to use. Often times the process can take four or five hours of prime evening time!

Evening time is also the time I devote to working out, dinner, TV, honey do’s and keeping up with the yard word/dogs. To make matters worse I was obligating myself to to 10 post on my self-defense blog and four posts on LeanAnMean. There is a financial incentive based on traffic and paid links that is motivating too!

A new twist is I am thinking about going back to school for a second Master degree! I will probably do that as I have reasoned on the tech track at work – I will have a better job to retirement but I have just over-obligated myself!

I have a plan here though – I am only doing five posts a month over at my self defense blog (lesser to normal effort) and three to four easy (speaking about what’s happening more so than a high-research) posts.

Here are my priorities now:

• Health – read workouts
• Family – read don’t be a stranger to my wife
• School obligations – not sure about this yet – trying a new college
• Blogs – this may suffer some but the easier posts should be ok
• Chores – this will suffer but my school program is only a year

Just in case you have not read “About,” I have a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and a Masters of Business Administration. I’m thinking about a Masters of Science in Information Systems degree to be on the technical fast track for better (suited for me) jobs at work.

That all for now – this post was completed in 30 minutes.

I believe people were more fit [...]]]> It is now the 21st century in case you have not heard. Yes, we all have new pressures our grandparents had never heard of! Back when my grandfather was young, men were expected to work hard to earn a living. There were not too many white collar jobs.

I believe people were more fit as they were a generation or so from living on farms and many of them were first and second generation Americans! Women had to cook from scratch! Even in the cities! Morbid obesity was nearly non-existent in the 1800’s. According to Lorens Helmchen of the University of Chicago,

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the fraction of Americans considered to be obese has reached “epidemic” levels, as a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association put it (Mokdad et al. 1999). “National survey data show that between 1976-80 and 1988-94 the age-adjusted prevalence of obesity … increased by 8 percentage points, from 14.5% to 22.5%, in the U.S. adult population ages 20-74.” (Flegal and Troiano 2000). According to the study, the percentage of Americans considered obese ranged between 12.5 for males ages 20-29 to 35.6 for women ages 50-59 in1988-94.

Ok by now you must be wondering where I am going with this post? I am going to highlight how being out of balance in ones life can lead to obesity! Take a look at this neat photo I found of Ying and Yang, a concept we will explore.

From the opening I tried to make the case that we are out of balance in this century. We have wealth, food, luxury but not balance in our lives. When things are out of balance, one part you your life can run uncontrollably where others seem to be in check.

One activity in my life that seems to always take a back seat is working out. I find that when I work out I feel better about life in general. When I do not work out often I start getting aches an pains from sitting too long at a desk. I find that I eat more when I am lazy, then I start to think I cannot get fit!

As you can see working out has a correlation to how much I eat. Another great thing about trying to achieve a balance is that stress is greatly reduced. Whatever happens during the workday is soon forgotten while I am punching the bag. I remember why I am not pigging out whenever we go out for dinner. I like feeling fit.

Now sometimes things will get you down and if eating and being lazy is how you deal with things… you will have some setbacks! No big deal I say! You are still in the game until you are not… meaning if you gain back some fat and lose some hope… just think – you have it way easier then probably about 50% of the people in the world.

Count your blessings and get back up and try to bring your life back in balance. Ying and Yang is a concept with many meanings. Click the link to see some of them and if you truly try to balance your life’s activities – you will be successful! There is simply no way you can fail. I heard one of these self help specialists once that said, “A person will be about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.”

So wake up tomorrow, count your blessings and go be as happy and balanced in you life as you decide to be tomorrow!