Thursday, September 22, 2011

Caregivers Gaining Weight

I was at a meeting for caregivers the other day and several of the women there mentioned that they were upset at themselves for the extra 15 pounds they are carrying.

We are all caring for ailing parents which is a challenge and is emotionally taxing.

Of course it is important that we take care of ourselves and our own health--for us, our families and the loved ones we are caring for. It won't help any of us if we, the caregiver, end up sick and needing to receive care!

Naturally then it is important that we have healthy habits if we want to have a healthy life. What is not important is how many pounds we weigh or what size we are.

I found that many of us are carrying excessive weight because of emotional eating--using food for reasons other than the fuel we need. Certainly food can (and arguably should) play a roll in our celebrations and social events, but we need to learn to feel our feelings and express them rather than stuffing them down with a side of extra large fries or a pint of ice cream (my personal favorite.)

This is especially true when we are in stressful, emotionally charged situations. We don't want to gain additional weight...and if we have put on some extra padding we want to halt that trend.

Becoming aware of what we are doing and beginning to eat consciously is a start.

By recognizing that we are reaching for food instead of allowing the tears to flow we give ourselves the opportunity to choose. And we must make that choice daily, in fact, we must make that choice multiple times each and every day.

This is a time for us to be gentle on ourselves. We are human and if we are emotional eaters, by golly we are probably going to overeat at times like these. But we deserve to recognize what is going on and stop beating ourselves up over it!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Focusing on Gratitude Today and Always

I know I have been away from Refuse to Diet a lot...things have been quite busy here in Loveland. And I have so much to be grateful for. Since tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of 9-11 it seems appropriate to really express my gratitude for all the many blessings in my life. If you are a regular reader of mine, then you know that I believe what we focus on we will get more of...so let's focus on our many blessings rather than our short-comings.

I am grateful for the health in my body and my mind.
I am grateful for my loving family.
I am grateful for the peace in my heart, in my body and in my land.
I am grateful for the abundant fresh and healthy food I have at hand.
I am grateful for all the wonderful people who have helped me to have this fantastic life.

I am also grateful to have been a co-author of the original
The Gratitude Book Project® and as a way for us to express our gratitude to so many others, we have teamed up and written a new eBook that we are giving away as a token of our love, gratitude and appreciation. This book is timed to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9-11 and it is filled with stories of heroes, from 9-11 (including my own mother) and from countless other events of less infamy but no less importance.

Please watch this poignant video by one of my co-authors and then click the link below to claim your complimentary copy of The Gratitude Book Project: A Celebration of Personal Heroes




Thanks Mom, and all the other heroes out there.

Get your copy of this eBook today, and please share it with your heroes.