Amazing Women, Amazing Weekend.

You don't have to search to find out who you are, you have to get quiet and remember who you have been all along.

YogaFit level 5 training was held this past weekend in Longwood, Florida.

I have been to everything from a Yoga Bikini Boot Camp to a silent meditation retreat and trainings in between and have never been on a bad yoga weekend. Some experiences are more interesting than others, but I always manage to get something out of them even if it is in retrospect. This weekend was different right from the beginning. The required reading for the weekend was Deb Shapiro’s ‘Your Body Speaks Your Mind.'  About self-care and listening to what your body is telling you about your life and health. We also received Eckhart Tolle’s ‘The Power of NOW’. How to identify your ‘pain body’ and cast it away to make room for the light that is already in you that your pain body cannot survive in, (Spoiler alert! You are the light!)

We were 19 women all together, 18 trainees and 1 trainer. The collective energy of our souls recognized what we had in this room before our ‘pain bodies’ did. Within an hour of coming together we felt comfortable enough with each other to share our stories on a very personal level. The room in the ballet school that the training was being held in was a cozy little Shangri-La and fears, competition and judgments were left on the steamy sidewalk outside.

Women of all ages, shapes and sizes welcomed, supported and gave helpful advice to each other over the course of the two days together. I hesitate to speak specifically of what was said because that belongs to the people who were there. The stories that were shared ran the spectrum of difficult times to unthinkable tragedy. We rallied around each other the way only a room full of strong women can do. (Pero), It wasn’t all Lilith Fair, we had a lot of laughs and I had a great dinner at the hotel with Janet our fearless leader, who shared a lot of her own personal stories of life. Using her own stories and encouraging us, (not that we needed encouragement!) to share ours in a way that related to the text at hand was an easy and enlightening way to understand the material on a deeper level. We can all relate to the human experience since we are all after all, human. Culminating this training into being the most personal one, for me, to date.

Of course during a guided meditation where we had to repeat affirmations it was all I could do at the end to not throw a Stuart Smalley in there and yell out, “And dog gone it, people like me!” But, I bit my tongue and giggled to myself. Someday I will be a grown up.

At the end of the two days we had listened, laughed, wept, danced and we were somehow transformed into someone else than who we were when we arrived there. We realized it is not what we learn that enlightens us but the pain from our past that we let go of LIGHTENS us. Amazing people, and a truly amazing weekend. 

Letting GO

"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be." ~Lao Tzu 

We are all guilty of recreating the emotional environment of our early home lives one way or another. If you grew up in a relatively regular, (not normal but regular) household, then your parents did the best they could do and you probably have your standard run of the mill to down right severe neurosis. What becomes normal or feels like “home” later in life is a direct result of how we grew up. We attract what we know. It is rare for someone who hasn’t ridden a bit of road to know what not to do when forming a life of his or her own. If your mother was domineering maybe your friends or partners are too. If your Dad was abusive maybe that is the pattern we tend to take in our own lives. The devil that you know is better than the devil that you don’t know. We feel comfortable with our own crazy; it is our “normal”.

When we get into a relationship that is toxic we don’t always see it for what it is. Husband didn’t come home one night, wife verbally abusive in a social setting? Mm mm this feels right!

By now everyone knows Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity…doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Aren’t we all guilty of this at some point in our lives? When negativity occurs in your life and you start hearing yourself say things like, “why does this always happen to me?” Or even if something happens once and you think “why me?” Its time to recognize your pattern and ask yourself what responsibility do you have in whatever is going on. Carolyn Myss wrote a great book called Sacred Contracts that explains that before we are born we sign on for the lives we get to live and everyone and everything in it.

Basically we sign on for whatever we “need” to shift us to the next level of consciousness in this lifetime.

 Now if you buy into this theory (which I do) then it makes getting through the hard times a little easier to manage. OK God, I signed on for this for some reason, let me see what I need to see. Our responsibility to ourselves is to recognize our patterns and change the paradigm to see the forest through the trees. By responsibility I mean our ability to respond to any given situation that is happening in our lives and a much needed and valuable lesson directly sent from God. (Or Higher Power, the universe or insert belief system here)

If you are willing to change the lens and look at a “problem” as an opportunity to learn something invaluable to your life then you are one step closer to living in your truth. As I have said before most of us live a life of unrequited self-love. We are just hiding who we really are but only to ourselves.

In any given situation your body will tell you when something is not right. Tight chest, lump in the throat, heart racing? Listen up people…you already know the answers if you’re ready to listen! Your own body will tell you the truth you are seeking. Not seeking truth you say? Then the universe will give you what you need to know like a gift. God’s up there looking at us saying “Hey uh Peter, Tom is going through life seemingly happy as a clam, let’s give him a car accident to live through so he starts to see what he needs to see.” Uh, Thank you?

Pondering a life question? Say it out loud and notice how you feel. When you speak your truth your body will feel at ease. When you don’t you will feel that too.

You don’t even have to have anything “out” with anyone. Closure is for the birds. Who needs closure? That means your looking to be “right” or justified. “I just have to see that lying cheat one more time so he can tell me why he did that and then I’ll have closure.” Newsflash he did it because we are all victims of victims and he doesn’t know any better because he is living with his own pain.

 If you are willing to forgive or even willing to think about forgiveness than eventually it will come, that feeling we call being ‘light hearted’ is the feeling of living in your truth. Set them and yourselves free of your judgments and expectations and live your life with ease. Dis-ease comes from a state of unforgiving or being unwilling to forgive. You don’t have to wake up one day and say OK, I choose to forgive every jerk who ever wronged me, but if you choose to at least be open to it and willing to get there someday than the universe will do the rest. And one day you may wake up to that feeling of being light hearted that you haven’t experienced in so long you can’t remember what it feels like. Recognize that that is who you really are living the life you deserve to live. The truth shall set you free. 

Off to See the Wizard

Wherever you are, you are there.-Buddhist Saying

I always loved this time of year. As a kid Easter in my book was second only to Christmas. Halloween was too scary and the other lesser holidays, (Valentine, St.Paddy’s etc) really did nothing for me. Easter was the promise of a new dress, Easter baskets, furry bunnies and little chicks. What little girl wouldn’t love that? Throw in a unicorn and a rainbow and its really all any girl could ever want in a holiday. The only bad thing in my kid perspective was that every year at Easter time The Wizard of Oz was shown on TV. Because nothing says Christ has risen like a scary witch. I have no idea why they chose April to always show this movie every year but I would start to feel the thrilling panic rise in my chest all the way to my throat that soon the movie was going to be on and you absolutely had to watch it. There would be discussions at school and there was just no missing it since you would be taunted with “YOU HAVE TO WAIT A WHOLE YEAR TO GET A CHANCE TO SEE IT AGAIN!!” There were no On Demand or DVD, heck there were no Beta max or VCR even!! (It was practically Little House on the Prairie times! Our children really have no idea what we lived through.)

Year after year watching through my fingers wondering why on Earth Dorothy just didn’t ask Glinda to stay with her the entire time? I would never leave her side if I were her! Let me in your bubble! I’m coming with you!! Then when she tells her she could have gone home all along but she didn’t bother mentioning that because she knew Dorothy wouldn’t have believed her? Are you kidding me? And Dorothy isn’t even mad! I was outraged for her! She wouldn’t believe you? Try her! If your house fell into a Technicolor world of flying monkeys, witches and munchkins I am pretty sure she would have taken what you said for face value. Dumb witch. I think I hated her more than Green face for the sheer betrayal factor.

I remember one year when it was going to be on being at my cousin’s house and my parents and my aunt and uncle were going out to dinner and the babysitter was coming. That in it self was enough to start my heart beating. My mother and father would not be in the actual house when  scary green  came on the TV? I don’t care if she is the kindly old Good to the Last drop! Maxwell house lady now, she still is freakin scary and I need my parents at least in the home if not the very room that I am in while I view this movie. My eyes were wide as the music started and our parents came in to say goodbye. I admitted to my aunt I was a little afraid to watch it, my cousin didn’t seem phased in the least, which I could not for the life of me understand. (UH, HELLOO?! Green face scariest person ever is about to terrorize this girl and her PUPPY for the next two hours and we have to watch it without parental supervision?!) My aunt very matter of fact said, “Don’t you know the secret to the Wizard of Oz?  (No apparently my parents enjoy my terror year after year too much to let me in on the little secret.) Then she told me, probably what every other kid already new hence my feeling of isolation in my fear, “The Scarecrow needs a brain but he is the one with the big ideas, the tin man a heart but he is the one who needs to keep the oil can handy because he is always rusting up from crying, the lion needs courage but he protects Dorothy and she has her slippers that take her home. They all are already everything they are looking for. Its not scary.”

REVELATION! Oprah ah ha moment before Oprah was Oprah! The relief flooded my body and I watched that year from a whole new shift in my perception. They all have everything they need and they have had it all along. They just didn’t know it.

There have been many books written about the theories, symbolism and hidden meanings of the Wizard of Oz. From the political, (yellow brick road is the monetary system the US is built on and OZ is the abbreviation for ounces which is the way gold is measured.) To the New Age and even Buddhist perspective where everything in the movie from the Cyclone to Toto has a bigger meaning. All of the interpretations are at the very least interesting. Here is what I know…Should Dorothy have let Toto run through Gulch’s garden? No, but maybe subconsciously she needed a catalyst to propel her on her spiritual path. She needed something as drastic as a cyclone to get her on her ‘Yellow Brick Road’ to her truth. And Glinda was right, like any self respecting teenage girl Dorothy would never have listened if Aunt Em said, “Listen to me, I know your living in a black and white dirt farm with no parents but really all you ever need is here.” Dorothy would have told her dear Aunt Em to stick her basket of eggs where the sun don’t shine.

So if not for seemingly the worst thing that ever happened to her, literally getting thrown into another world from a cyclone! Maybe she would have ended up married to Zeke, bitter and unfulfilled. (Like so many dirt farmers in the 30’s were. If only they could have now the real meaning of the story! Enlightenment for all!) Inevitably she was able to change her perspective and saw herself as the whole person that she was meant to be. At one point she even says, “I want to get out of OZ ALTOGETHER” A Whole person. She needed the journey to realize everything she needs is already found not on a farm or in OZ but within.

I think of this story often as my children enter adulthood one by one and I hold myself back from giving them all they ever need to know according to me. Its there Oz now. I’m like Glinda, watching from afar knowing they already have everything they need but if I told them that, they would never believe me.

Courageous Kids

Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.- John Wayne.

Every Tuesday I teach yoga to middle school students. Every week there is a different theme to the class and today's class is COURAGE. What does it mean to be courageous? One of my own personal favorite story of a courageous act from a group of kids is from my daughter MaryJane.
 MJ's soccer team was in the finals of the Waldbaums Cup  when she was in the 8th grade. She had been playing on this team for years. Same girls, same coaches, same parents. As she said they were all great athletes, (most anyway), but they played on the C team because although they liked to win there was still alot of singing and twirling and laughing out on the field at any given time. Not exactly a killer instinct. (which I like.)
 So MJ is in goal and its double overtime the girls had been playing their hearts out and with 20 seconds to go at the end of the second overtime the ball was kicked to the goal MJ was tending. It was a great kick she jumped up arms outstretched but the ball skimmed the top of her fingertips and sailed into the goal. They had lost. Everything was still for about 5 seconds and then MJ realized what had just happened and sunk to the ground her hands over her face, she was crushed. Her team mates who had been standing for those 5 seconds in their places with their mouths open ran over to her and knelt down hugging her. They were quiet for about 20 more seconds and all of the sudden you hear them start to collectively say something. One Dad looks over and says, "are they singing?" and sure enough they get a little louder and you hear that Chumbawumba song, "I GET KNOCKED DOWN BUT I GET UP AGAIN, YOU AIN'T NEVER GONNA GET ME DOWN." That same line, over and over until they all get up and start jumping up and down singing at the top of their lungs smiling and happy and laughing. Next thing you know all the parents on the sidelines are laughing at our beautiful, goofy, C team players. Proud of how far they came but so much more proud of how they were handling their loss. They lined up and shook hands with the other girls who had won who kind of stopped their own celebrating to look over at our singing girls. When the teams lined up to receive their first and second place trophies the other team clapped for our girls as loud as our girls clapped for them. All the parents left hugging all of their daughters team mates telling each girl, including the goalie, how well they played and how proud they were of them. We had the end of the season party at our house and we had so much fun.
We moved shortly after that so MJ didn't play with those girls again but she still talks about them and remembers that team as one of the most fun and happiest times on a team.

I like to open up each yoga class with a quote. So while searching for a courageous kids quote I found this great resource for parents about teaching kids to be courageous. Its called Lion's Whisker and its filled with inspirational stories for every age. They write about 6 kinds of courage physical, social, emotional, moral, spiritual and intellectual. it is a great website to look at by yourself or with your family with links to speeches about life that will provoke great family discussions. Check it out. And if you want some motivation at the end or beginning of your run, download that Chumbawumba song. You can't help but have a smile on your face when you hear it and it will remind you to get moving and don't give up.
Lion's Whiskers

Teach your Children

And you, of the tender years can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth, they seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well, their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix,the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,

So just look at them and sigh and know they love you. -CSN

My youngest daughter turned 13 last week. Its official, I have only teenagers and adults now. What a strange and wonderful feeling. I have spent a lot of time writing about my role as a mother. It has been the most pivotal role of my life. Profoundly continues to shape and mold all that I still am yet to be. As much influence as I have had in my children’s lives they have equal if not higher billing in mine. My Kung Foo Masters, each of them.

Kelly is a brilliant, funny, beautiful, strong willed, kind kid who brings so much joy and just as swiftly can bring you to your knees. A fiery personality she has not always been so easy to mother, but as I always say, nothing worthwhile is easy! And she is definitely worthwhile.

I go back to the beginning of my mothering career when Beth was born and the Gulf war was soon raging. I was afraid for her future. What did we do? Bringing a new life into an unstable world. What was the world going to be like for her? Then I remember thinking that I am sure since the beginning of time mothers have thought this about their children’s lives. The fact is life is hard. It was when they came to this new world and had to physically build the country from the ground up. As it is today as modern technology presents a whole new slew of “problems” we could never imagine our children having when we grew up. Time moves on and again, it is how we deal with what is thrown at us that matters.

I received an email from my Dad today from a friend of a friend who is currently living in Japan. I don’t think they would mind if I put it on the blog as its message is a hopeful and positive one that even when the worst thing you could imagine happens life moves on in love and light.

Hello My Lovely Family and Friends,

First I want to thank you so very much for your concern for me. I am
very touched. I also wish to apologize for a generic message to you
all. But it seems the best way at the moment to get my message to you.

Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed
to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is
even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We
share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined
up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm,
friendly, and beautiful.

During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes.
People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens,
or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has
water running in their home, they put out sign so people can come to
fill up their jugs and buckets.

Utterly amazingly where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in
lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an
earthquake strikes. People keep saying, "Oh, this is how it used to be
in the old days when everyone helped one another."

Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes.
Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often.

We got water for a few hours in our homes last night, and now it is
for half a day. Electricity came on this afternoon. Gas has not yet
come on.

But all of this is by area. Some people have these things, others do
not. No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are
so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this
peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct,
of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of
me, but of the entire group.

There are strange parallel universes happening. Houses a mess in some
places, yet then a house with futons or laundry out drying in the sun.

People lining up for water and food, and yet a few people out walking
their dogs. All happening at the same time.

Other unexpected touches of beauty are first, the silence at night. No
cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are
scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole
sky is filled.

The mountains are Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see
them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.

And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack
to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity
is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no
idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to
door checking
to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if
they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or
panic, no.

They tell us we can expect aftershocks, and even other major quakes,
for another month or more. And we are getting constant tremors, rolls,
shaking, rumbling. I am blessed in that I live in a part of Sendai
that is a bit elevated, a bit more solid than other parts. So, so far
this area is better off than others. Last night my friend's husband
came in from the country, bringing food and water. Blessed again.

Somehow at this time I realize from direct experience that there is
indeed an enormous Cosmic evolutionary step that is occurring all over
the world right at this moment. And somehow as I experience the events
happening now in Japan, I can feel my heart opening very wide. My
brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening.
I don't. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that much
larger than myself. This wave of birthing (worldwide) is hard, and yet
magnificent.

Thank you again for your care and Love of me,

With Love in return, to you all,

Anne

So all you who have worried about the future, please don’t.  It is what we make of it. We can cry and complain or we can see things through a different lens and find the beauty in everything that happens. I am happy and confident that I am preparing my children and myself to know that they will not go through life unscathed but hopefully learn to deal with what they do go through with grace.

BLOGS I FOLLOW

I added a link to Frank Bice's blog at the bottom of this page. Frank is an inspiring person who speaks of making your cross your gift. By seeing things through a different lens you have the ability within you to live a joyful life through faith, hope and love no matter what your circumstances. During a football game in college Frank suffered a spine injury that rendered him a quadrapalegic for life. Yet he still considers himself one of the luckiest people on earth because everything he had hoped and prayed for in life has come true. Truly an inspiring story. Check it out!!

Satsang

It is impossible to be hurt except by your own thoughts.-A Course in Miracles

I went to a Satsang on Tuesday night. It was amazing. A Satsang is translated as a 'truth group'. A community of people who come together to discuss heartfelt topics. (sign me up!) This Satsang gathered at the Kula Yoga Shala in Jupiter, Florida. A really great place where different yoga teachers hold all kinds of classes on a donation basis. So whatever your practice is worth to you is what you pay.

This Satsang meets on Tuesday evenings and it is dedicated to A Course in Miracles. It was so timely that I went for the first time that night. (oh that's right there are no coincidences!)

Recently a very good friend of mine said to me, "Are you still writing that blog?" At which I skipped just a little beat but quickly recovered answering "Why yes I am!" For a split second my feathers were ruffled that such a good friend didn't know something that was so important to me, (writing) was and will always be a part of my life. But the moment passed and I thought that I had let the feeling go as quickly as it came but I thought about it again the next day, (so clearly my ego had gotten the best of me.)

I know that everyone is busy and I write this not to feed my own ego, (I thought!). I write this blog because if something resonates with me than I am sure that it must resonate with someone else out there as well and we learn from each other,(truth). TAKE NOTHING PERSONALLY!

The discussion at the satsung was The Attainment of Peace. The gist of the course if your not familiar with it is that the Holy Spirit is in all of us and forgiveness is the path to truth and truth is love. The ego is the source of fear and everything that stems from fear, (like feeling offended) Everything the ego is, is an illusion. It is not reality. This is not something we need to learn but something we need to remember!

Eckart Tolle has an iPhone app and a podcast discussing the Course. Marianne Williams made a career out of explaining the course. Its pretty interesting. I left the evening forgiving myself for being human and seeing things from a different lens. On the TODAY show they showed a web video of a father and his baby. The father is tearing up a rejection letter and the baby is laughing so loud and hard at him doing this it makes you laugh right along with them. What a lesson! The baby knows! The rejection letter and the feelings that come with it are the illusion. Laugh in the face of fear and move on to love.

Baby Laughing

Course in Miracles Quotes

Becoming Whole

"Meditation is painful in the beginning but it bestows immortal bliss and supreme joy in the end."- Swami Sivananda

Watching Oprah's interview with David Arquette yesterday was interesting. If you follow this sort of thing, (and these days the "news" usually reports celebrity breakups as if it were actually newsworthy so you can't help but know these things.), David and his beautiful celebrity wife Courtney Cox Arquette, were separated a few months back causing David to spiral out of control very publicly. Tabloid photos of him leaving night clubs extremely intoxicated or hearing parts of radio interviews where he sounds terrible and shares very personal and private stories about his marriage were becoming commonplace.
Yesterday on Oprah his sister Patricia revealed that she and Courtney staged an intervention for him that he gladly and willingly accepted since he now knows he was screaming out in pain and asking for help for quite sometime.

It was revealed that the Arquette's had grown up in a very unstable life. Living in a commune and having actor/poet parents. There was alcohol, drugs, drama and abuse in their household. David became the perfect child. Sweet, kind, funny. The sisters described him as being the perfect little boy but they said, not even a perfect kid could make everything in their house all better. But of course he could not. Then he married and became a father and was now defined by this new role. Now I am a father and a husband, I will play it perfectly. But still not having dealt with the pain of childhood of course he soon began to unravel and his family broke apart. Thus beginning his public downward spiral.

I was fascinated by his story and was moved by his honesty and his obvious heartfelt and authentic wish to now be who he really is, a whole person. I to struggled to be a good girl for my parents. Doing "my part" was all I could do to control our out of control lives. Be sweet, be good, be pretty, be smart. I tried my best but inevitably failed to keep my family together. Fear, embarrassment, confusion, anger, resentment were shoved down beneath the surface of the smiling, happy good girl I was. I became a wife and mother very early on and FINALLY found what I had always wanted. Control over my own life. I was still a good daughter, now adding to it good wife, good mother, good friend, perfect household. I was so busy being all of these things I didn't realize that I still wasn't being myself. I would live a life of unrequited self love for quite some time to come.

The time, as it tends to do, went by very quickly and I found myself still young with almost grown children. As I have said before my role went from from manager to consultant right before my very eyes. It was quiet for the first time in my life. And in the stillness I began to notice things I never did in the noise I surrounded myself in. Things came to the surface that I didn't even know were down there! The road to being a whole, real person is not easy. When you live the life of the "good child" you don't feel worthy. A lot of women I know even justify sitting down during the day. Most women, even if they have some free time, wont use it to sit down and read a book or have a cup of tea or do some meditation. Most women will justify sitting down only if they are on the computer or have a load of laundry to fold in front of them. Sitting down is a decadent luxury. I urge everyone, men and women, to sit in quiet everyday. It is not easy! Your mind will wander, you will start to jump up remembering a million things you just HAVE to do. You will start to notice things you may not like. About yourself or others in your life. Being honest with yourself is not always easy but to be who you are truly meant to be needs honesty. Ain't no way around that. Release control, you don't have it anyway. I am fortunate beyond measure that I have a great partner who is understanding and learning all of these new facets of life with me not against me. Coming to this place is a journey two people can't always get to together. Everyone at some point starts to feel the shift. And you either open your heart and embrace it, or you start putting walls up and shutting it out one way or another.
So if you are starting to feel the shift, you are not alone. There are great books out there to help guide you through these uncharted waters. The one I just recently read and LOVE is Elizabeth Lesser's book Broken Open, how difficult times help us grow. I highly recommend it. I am excited for the future, a whole person lives a much richer life than running around just trying to be "good" all the time. David ended the interview showing us voyeurs into his new whole life. Not surprisingly yoga and meditation is a part of his daily life. He said it gets a little lonely sometimes but he is figuring it all out. Sometimes life is lonely. Can you sit quietly in the silence or do you need to fill it up with noise? Its how you handle things, not what happens to you that makes the difference.

Water, Consciousness & Intent: Dr. Masaru Emoto

GLUTEN FREE PART 1

The greatest wealth is health.  ~Virgil

Ok, this is big. It’s not only a big self-discovery that may resonate with you but it’s big that I am admitting this. Last week I did something that I never thought I would do. I went to the bookstore and purchased a book. (That’s not it) I went home and put an Oprah magazine in front of the cover so not even my husband would know what I was reading and I read this book from cover to cover. The book is called ‘Sexy Forever’ by one Suzanne Somers. Yes, I am taking advice from Chrissy Snow. And you know what? It has already changed my life for the better. (That is what I get for being a judger of former sitcom stars giving health and lifestyle advice. If Henry Winkler comes out with anything I’ll be first in line)

Ms. Somers claims to be able to help you ‘fight fat after forty, Shed the toxins, shed the fat’.  She had me at fat.

I saw her on The Today Show, (YouTube it!) And what she was saying made sense.

What she said was what I have been hearing from my Dad for years but I really didn’t think it was affecting me at all. I felt good, I looked good. I am young(ish) and I exercise and eat well 90 percent of the time. (Possibly 85) And all of the sudden over the past 8 months it’s like someone found an air valve and started to slowly blow me up. I looked sort of the same, my clothes still fit although not really comfortably depending on the TIME OF DAY. (That’s important) Even my watch, that used to slide around on my wrist like a bracelet was tight and leaving a red mark on my arm. (For how long until I actually noticed I have no idea.) I was so busy trying to find inner peace; I didn’t see that my outer body was going into crisis mode until it was glaring.

Suzanne asked Hoda and Kathilee are you tired of eating salad and killing yourself at the gym to either maintain status quo or not see any results at all? (I think Kathilee said something like, “I know Hoda is!” wink, wink) And all women for years have gotten is that standard line given to women of a certain age, ‘That’s what happens!’ My mom used to say to me all the time, ‘By the time you hit menopause they will have invented a cure for it.’ (Well, btw we are still waiting for flying cars too.) Not that I am menopausal, BECAUSE I’M NOT! (Defensive?) But apparently I am….its hard to even type it, peri. BLUCH! It sounds awful doesn’t it? Well the good news is according to my new BF Suzanne is even if it may sound awful, it doesn’t have to be awful.

She explains that the ‘thickening’ that happens to women after a certain age where there boobs get bigger and their backs get bigger and the weight that just seems to keep coming and doesn’t come off so easily is not “Just what happens” and we don’t have to suck it up and kill ourselves at the gym to still not be where we want to be. Its actually a body bloated with toxins from this ‘environmental assault’ she says, we are living in. She goes on to explain that our body has a job to do and everything we put into our bodies has to be used, stored or eliminated. Toxins are foreign substances that the body doesn’t know quite what to do with so like all well meaning annoying over zealous do gooder it says, “I’ll store this in your fat for you!” Gee, thanks.

So our deodorants, shampoos, face creams, cleaning products, pesticides, synthetic pillows, mattresses, air pollution chemically enhanced food, nutrient deficient soil we grow our food in and everything else we live with on a daily basis is making us fat. When we spend so much of our lives ingesting all these toxins we develop intolerances to certain foods or at least things that are in certain foods. Our body is TRYING to tell us what to do and we are not listening.

These days we are all living until we are in our 80’s and 90’s but our quality of life is leaving us much earlier and it doesn’t have to. As we age we lose certain estrogen related hormones that keep our metabolism up. Combine that with our toxic food and world we live in and our bodies start screaming to us that something isn’t right! Hormonal health she claims is the way to weight loss.

She goes on to talk about natural hormone replacement therapy but my head wasn’t in that yet although I plan to keep this book handy for the future. What I was interested in was the skinny factor. (Hey, sorry I am human and I want to look good. If good health comes with it…BONUS) So she says have blood work done and find out what you are allergic to or have an insensitivity to and you can eliminate those things from your diet, eat organically and you’ll be thin. VIOLA! So I am giving it a try.

I admit that I usually will mindlessly eat because if 1 slice of pizza is good then 2 will be better! Life is short, I justify, I don’t care no one is going to dictate what I eat I am going to enjoy myself! But at my own expense. Then I ignore the side effects of my body saying to me please don’t! Like feeling bloated after I eat a harmless turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread and suddenly the pants I put on in the morning feel bad by 1pm.  Or my “bathroom time” is out of whack. There are a million signs telling us what is wrong. We just have to listen. So I haven’t gotten the blood work done yet but I will. I did however talk to my friend Cathleen who is very knowledgeable and mindful about such things and we also share a lot of similar ‘ailments’ so we compared notes and I realized I might have gluten intolerance. She asked me do you feel like it effects your breathing as well? And I was quick to say, “No, I don’t think so.” Because I wasn’t calling because I was interested in my health I was interested in my pant size. And then I actually thought about it for more than my 2-second attention span that I usually give to my body’s mechanics and I said, “Actually, I do struggle with my breath but I just assumed that’s just the way I am.” Isn’t that funny what we just accept things that we really shouldn’t in so many aspects of our lives? Mother’s especially, I think, don’t pay enough attention too themselves they are always spending time taking care of everyone else to notice what is going on in their own bodies until it becomes to late.

Cut to the chase, on Thursday I cut glutens, (anything with wheat), out of my life and four days later I have lost 5 pounds. Thrilling isn’t it?  I already try to purchase organically grown produce and meats, etc. What is the best part is that I now have a better understanding of how this mind, body, spirit connection thing really works. I put milk in my coffee and noticed my stomach went crazy. Could dairy be next?? (Or GASP coffee??) And I don’t feel like I am depriving myself of anything because there are so many alternatives out there. I have passed by boxes marked ‘GLUTEN FREE’ forever and never gave it a thought. If I pay attention to my health my body is happy and if my body is happy then my mind gets happy. If my mind is happy then no matter what happens in life, I can face it. Strong body, strong mind, happy heart. Thanks Chrissy Snow, you wise sage.  Mr.Roper had you all wrong.