Did you know that~Exercise Keeps Your Mind Sharp

A recent study from the National Institutes of Health found that the most sedentary individuals (i.e. couch potatoes) are 2.5 times more likely to develop dementia than regular exercisers.

Dementia is a condition of declining mental abilities (especially memory) that affects your personality, skills (like driving a car), and verbal abilities.

Action Sparked: Stay on a consistent exercise program throughout your lifespan. Try not to view exercise as a temporary means to and end such as weight loss. It is part of a healthy lifestyle, and while it does help you lose and maintain weight, it can ward off plenty of health problems, from heart disease to depression.

Exercise also helps your kids concentrate better in school and sets the foundation for healthy habits that will help them prevent future health problems as well.

Thanks SParks People! www.sparkspeople.com

Shifting Plates~no pun intended

Introducing Salli Addis born 11-10-08 at 1:25pm to Traci (seen above) and my son Jay'son.

Now I cannot tell it, but I am told by some who saw me this summer and see me now say I've dropped some weight, but I am too close to tell, but that's ok too. I am looking forward to see what the next few months will bear and just pay attention to the weigh I do the things I do. But then when I saw the above pictures I can indeed tell my face has thinned out and my ankles are not swelling any longer.

My DIL swears I've lost 30 pounds but the scales did not show that unless I actually weighed more then I initially thought. But whatever it is let me continue to progress to a healthy well being.

Now as my thoughts wander around:

For now I will say that no one would ever no matter how good their plans may be can prepare well for the unexpected. And recognizing what is and what is not in your control is a good way to be. Do what you can and leave the rest alone. 08 has been a year of new beginnings but if I recall some time back when I spoke of the word orogeny, mountain building and the earth plates shift back & forth you will build mountains, but with it comes some valleys too.

Do one stop and stay put? Sometimes yes for a moment. To skip over something is not always a good thing as the shift has to be given its honor and time to settle in place. Nothing is instant not growth, weight release, or life. You remind yourself again and again why you are doing this and keep on. Believing even if it seems hard at the moment. Or painful or exhausting. Or overwhelming frightening ...

Or tiresome...

Or endless.

I know when I started this new beginning this year, of walking on air armed only with hope, faith and determination was not going to be easy, but sheesch I did not expect all this!

But I wrestle and came forward.

These are indeed new beginnings and while I am nestled in this little studio in the woods (or I should say hills) looking out at all of the lovely nature, enjoying clean air, and quiet I feel my creative energy reviving. I am living in a space a fraction of the size I had before with none of my trappings around me and it feels clear & light. There are no distractions that are silly ,foolish or fool hardy. I am in a space where there is a bounty of cultural events and things while not my beloved New Orleans, can hold its on.

How cool is that?B-)
Moon

To Whet Your Appetite~ No pun intended

You could pick up the book "Shrink Yourself: Break Free from Emotional Eating Forever" by Roger Gould. at amazon.com , but please go check out the website:

http://www.shrinkyourself.com annd sign up for the course.

There is a free 4 course you can get too.

Here's a small excerpt:

Article 1: Emotional Eating & Emotional Hunger
When it comes to emotional eating, people aren't eating to feed their body. No one needs a candy bar after a fight to make it through the night. When people eat at times like these, they are eating to satisfy, numb, or avoid their emotions.

And unfortunately, it's all too common.People who are suffering from emotional eating are driven to eat so they won't have to face what's bothering them internally. And in many ways, they become addicted to this way of handling life. They feel compelled to eat in this way and can't control what they eat. That's why diets don't work. ..

Emotional Hunger is what fuels emotional eating. Unfortunately, you will always have emotional hunger no matter what you do. That's part of being human. However, emotional hunger is not so much the problem as how you deal with it.People who suffer from emotional eating usually only deal with emotional hunger by eating. And, since life is rife with emotional turmoil, emotional eaters are normally overweight.

They are so attached to dealing with the ups and downs of life with food that any suggestion that they can stop emotional eating makes them nervous. Many people cannot imagine being able to handle a bad day without turning to food for comfort.

In this way, the tendency to handle emotional hunger with food is no different then a smoker's tendency to handle stress with a cigarette.When you are an emotional eater, the odd thing about emotional hunger is that you feel truly hungry, and at the moment when the craving for food grips you, you can't tell that your hunger originates in your mind, not in your belly. People who are not emotional eaters, who never really satisfied emotional hunger with food, usually eat less when they are troubled by emotional hunger.

Their emotional hunger doesn't feel like physical hunger, just as a non-smoker's stress doesn't give them the urge to smoke.I like to think of it this way: emotional eaters eat when they aren't really hungry because they have two stomachs--one real, the other a phantom. The hunger in your belly signals you when your system has a biological requirement for food. If that was the only signal of hunger you received, you'd be thin. It's the phantom stomach that causes the problems.

The phantom stomach sends out a hunger signal when unruly emotions and unsolved personal agendas start pushing themselves into awareness. A short-circuit occurs, and you feel so hungry that you're compelled to eat.

How about this for "Ah-ha!" moment?

The book is "Shrink Yourself: Break Free from Emotional Eating Forever" by Roger Gould.

The book refers not to dieting the psychology of emotional crutches.The author contends that an immature and overly critical conscience that has avoided developing ways to cope with emotions leads us to feelings of powerlessness, which in turn drives the urge to eat (or insert alternate emotional crutch here).

Gould says that people who have "installed food as a preferred way to cope," stop developing new ways to deal with stress, fear, anxiety, anger and other emotions that they have (for whatever reason) deemed to be negative (the critical conscience). By choosing food, they totally relinquish their ability to deal with their emotions in a mature and empowered way.

He states that emotionally mature people ride out their emotions knowing that they are only temporary and that on the other side there will be relief and resolution.

Food (or other) serves as a temporary comfort and distraction from having to deal with those feelings, thereby impeding our ability to be informed by those feelings and, in effect, stalling our emotional maturation. [Side note: He's not including severe clinically-diagnosed emotions like depression or panic attacks.]

He asserts that a person's powerlessness over the urge to eat is simply a superficial layer, masking what he calls "the five layers of powerlessness" in their lives:

You feel powerless about how to deal with your self-doubts.

You feel powerless about how to get real satisfaction in life.

You feel powerless to insure your own safety.

You feel powerless to appropriately assert your independence.

You feel powerless to fill yourself up when you feel empty inside.

When a person crosses over the line between food as a source of life and food as a source of comfort, all these layers compound one another and food becomes a psychological thing instead of a biological necessity.

As a result, you eat when you feel powerless in one or more of these five ways, because the experience of powerlessness is almost instantaneously transformed into the uncontrollable urge to eat.

And here was the ah-ha for me... Some get so adept at swapping food for emotions that they no longer feel the emotion, all they feel is the craving to feed their addiction, be it food, alcohol, drugs, sex, cutting or other distractions.

What the book purports to do is "help bring the spotlight back to the real issues and take the focus away from food and weight, so you'll begin to see who you really are, what you really want, and how to get it. Once you do this, you'll become like... the child at play who doesn't want to come in for dinner, or the artist in the studio so fixated on creation that he forgets to eat. You will have recovered your power."

It may be something interesting to pursue as a read.

Consistency is paramount

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristole

Personal improvement, whether it’s weight loss or skill building, is about creating or losing a habit. Still, somewhere along the way, it’s become an event. People diet until they lose 20 pounds – and then stop the smart eating and exercise that got them there. Once they reach their goal, they go back to the way they lived before and wonder why the weight comes back. For permanent change, habits need to stick around for the long run. In what way would you like to be excellent? What do people who are excellent in this way do on a regular basis? Can you do just one of those small things today? Of course one act does not build a foundation, but it does get you started. With repetition and time, that one action will seem more normal. Once it becomes a habit, it becomes part of who you are, and the transformation is complete.

Thank you Sparks People www.sparkspeople.com

It's the Little things that makes the difference

“Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs step at a time~Marked Twain


Every giant leap forward is in reality a series of baby steps. For every major breakthrough you see in your performance, don’t forget all the hundreds of little things that had to happen, day after day, for that to happen. Habits are the basis of improvement, but they don’t happen overnight. The easiest – and most difficult – way to improve your life is to make or break a habit. It’s easy because habits are built one single action at a time. It’s difficult because you need to be consistent. It’s much more of a mental game than a physical challenge. If you don’t see progress right away, don’t be discouraged. In fact, some of the habits you have right now have been a lifetime in the making and repeating. They can be as stubborn as a mule. It might take some coaxing to get them to move.

Light it up

Lamp photograph ~Shot at Amtrak Station ~ Greensboro,NC All Rights Reserved JHM©08

“To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.” ~Mother Theresa

While you work to be a spark for others, don’t forget that your light is only as strong as the fuel you feed it. That means food. Good food. Eating well and eating right keep that flame from dying out. When you’re at the top of your game, your body uses up nutrients While you work to be a spark for others, don’t forget that your light is only as strong as the fuel you feed it. That means food. Good food. Eating well and eating right keep that flame from dying out. When you’re at the top of your game, your body uses up nutrients as fast as you can put them in. Starving yourself, even for a little while, takes your flame down a notch or two. Deprive your body long enough and the spark could be snuffed out. And without real nutritional value, junk food is just as useless as no food at all. A healthy, balanced diet is like a constant power boost for your goals. Replenish your energy before you wear out, and your fire will burn brighter and brighter every day. and brighter every day.

Thanks Sparks People www.sparkspeople.com