New Day

Holiday weekends are not known for being diet friendly! The extra holiday day just seems to turn our heads to mush and we eat foods that we normally resist, and portions that are large scale! Many of us started out today with renewed thoughts of finally getting this weight game under control!

Today, I watched the first installment of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. I usually do not like these shows because they are not real life. Most of us do not have an army to back our weight loss. This show was different. There will be eight chosen clients, who will strive to lose half of their weight in a year. Each show is about a separate client and their year long process. So you get it, the year is over. They are not competing with anyone. This weight loss is for them. They are doing it for them. They have help in the beginning for one week, because they must learn what they need to do, and then they are on their own for the next year. They are reweighed every three months and their progress is registered. If they lose half of their weight by the end of the year, then they qualify for skin surgery to take off all of the hanging skin from their weight loss. Seems like a great deal!

Last nights show was about Rachel, a PE teacher. She was 220 pounds overweight. She had been the homecoming queen in high school, as well as valedictorian, an overachiever in other words. She was tired of being disappointed in herself. She started out at 369 pounds.

I do not want to give the show away. It is worth watching. What I loved about it is:

• I liked that they showed Rachel as so vulnerable. She said of her weight, "This is all about the mistakes I have made and all the things that I have done to myself"
• They showed how difficult weight loss is and how family often brings you down. Her family was behind her, but not supporting her in their actions. They left all kind of junk food out and around and did not buy healthy foods. It took a few months and tears for them to come around completely!
• Rachel only met her first goal completely. She almost met her second goal, but was 5 pounds off. She only lost 3 pounds from 6 months to 9 months but was still given the weight loss surgery. She ended up losing to 208 pounds and looked amazing. She was still 23 pounds above her original goal to lose half of her weight.

Even though Rachel did not meet all of her goals, and one time only lost 3 pounds in a three month period, she was honest and dealt with it. Together they solved her problems honestly, and gave her more training in nutrition. I loved that. The show was real. Most of us are not machines. We are real people. Weight loss is complex, but do able. It is about figuring yourself out. Practicing honesty with yourself. Even though Rachel did not make every single one of her goals, she pressed on, and she was rewarded for her persistence and looked wonderful. I loved that. Do not give up when you feel like it!

Memorial Day Memories

Today is Memorial Day. The usual holiday wish of Happy, as in Happy Memorial Day, just does not fit. This is not a happy day for many families of service men and women who have served, but not come home. Wives, husbands, kids, parents, friends, and the rest of us mourn with those of you who have lost a loved one. Our wishes, prayers, and thoughts are with you today! This will be a day of remembering!

My Dad was a Lt. Col in the Army. He served for a year in Korea and two years in Vietnam. He was a pilot who flew reconnaissance missions in Korea, flew supplies to troops in Vietnam on one tour, and was in charge of an airfield for his second tour of duty! He was gone from home when I was in first grade and ninth grade. Very difficult years for me and my poor Mom, who was left caring for unruly kids who needed their Dad! We are the lucky family though, because our Dad came home and is still with us and doing well.

My heart is with all of the kids without parents, whose parents are serving right now. It is a heavy burden to live with daily, wondering if your Mom or Dad is okay today. Kids are too young to understand what is really going on. My encouragement to everyone is to reach out to these families right now. Do not wait until they have lost their loved one. Reach out right now. Offer what you can. Invite military kids to your father-son camp outs, if their Dad is gone. Mother-daughter activities also! Do whatever you can to help military kids to make it through! This is a way you can greatly serve military families! It could change a kid's life in the process too!

It is easy to honor bravery with kind words but it is another to take action. Take action this year and reach out to military families and include them in your family, your family celebrations, and reach out to their kids! Be a surrogate Mom or Dad in any way that they will allow! Let's celebrate Memorial Day each day this year as we honor those brave servicemen and women and their families!

Thoughts and Prayers for Military Families! Kerry

Food Guidelines of the Herbfarm

This morning I was checking through my facebook business pages and I ran across "Food Guidelines of the Herbfarm." For those of you who do not live in the Seattle area, "The Herbfarm" is the gold standard of restaurants. I personally believe that we should all be able to make comparable meals at home, so I was excited to see the tenets of their beliefs! Their chefs totally rule!


THEIR BELIEFS:

• No dish can be better than its ingredients and that the best ingredients are usually local! Yeah!
• Chefs who cook with local ingredients develop a more complete understanding of the foods they use and this understanding can give rise to great expressions of the food, its prep and enjoyment.
• Supporting local farmers, foragers, cheesemakers, and fishermen, helps preserve local foods. 

THEIR CREED:

• They will not use products that can only be grown in another climate!
• Foods should only be used in season when they taste better, and if they are not in season should be dried or preserved locally or by the restaurant.
• They should showcase herbs! (I believe herbs are their secret ingredient!)
• Menus should flow in a balanced progression without repeating foods or flavors (translation: lots of variety)
• Menus will delight all.

Well, I started thinking of their beliefs and creed, and imagined a world full of home chefs cooking this way! Don't we all love amazing delicious foods? Why has food developed into something that comes in a bag or box? Are we really that busy? Do we really enjoy those processed salted cardboard foods? Have we lost our ability to taste? Have we really believed advertisers that these fake foods taste great? Why don't we strive to cook delicious foods? I don't know. I do know that fresh foods, full of herbs, are mouthwatering. I deserve to eat this way. I will buy farm fresh local foods this year, grow my own herbs, grow my own specialty lettuce crop in my garage hydroponic set up, and fix delicious fresh local meals!

 The best ingredients do make a difference! Join me this season in cooking organic local farm fresh foods and herbs! Check out your local farmers market or join a CSA this year! Happy Cooking!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Wow, it is that time again! Do the years keep going faster or what? Here is to hoping that you all have a wonderful holiday weekend full of family and friends. This said as my husband just departed for a weekend away with his fishing buddies! I rate! Seriously, I hope to have some big girl play dates with friends! Maybe see a movie. I am forcing this on myself because I would prefer and could choose to spend the weekend slaving away on my website and making it so pretty. Life is short and we all need play! So I will play!

This morning I intended to finish up a few lose ends but I started reading twitter posts. Hours later, I am so confused. I have read many new things and lots of contradictory information. How can we begin to know where to start on weight control when even experts are torn. So sorry to all of you. My goal is always to make information meaningful and clear and to use balance! Please always correct me if I am off base ever! Here are some of the interesting and confusing things that I read:

• From the government, I read that we are burning 150 less calories per day than in 1960. This corresponds to our countries' weight gain. (No mention of increased intake of processed foods and that we do not eat and buy real foods anymore)  Think of 150 calories a day, times 50 years worth of days, and that is tons of extra calories and weight gain. They say it is all about calories. If you put in more than you burn,you will gain weight and we have. That is it and they solved the obesity problem. The government is amazing! You need 150 minutes of exercise per week and 3 out of 4 of you are not doing this! You might be in the 2/3 of people who are overweight or obese. Lack of exercise is where it is at! Weight control is hardly that simple, even though exercise definitely plays a part.
• There is a new Food Pyramid from the USDA that is due out on June 2 and it is supposedly super simple. It will benefit all of us. It must be the half plate rule, which is simple. I can't wait to see what the government says I should eat. It can only be an improvement because the current food pyramid is very confusing and hard to understand. Do you guys even look at the food pyramid to make your choices? Do we even have nutrition education at most schools? I sure hope this will change because the obesity crisis is really a crisis of worldwide concern!
• There is a new group of Diet Bully's in our nation! You know those people who do not what you to eat what you love but change everything you eat and follow their diet! They must bully because people are wising up that diets do not work long term! But making a new diet is one of the quickest ways to become a millionaire. So they resort to bullying! Do not buy new diet books. Learn to eat for health and learn to eat what you love sensibly!
• Health writers should track the money behind medical studies! Do not even get me started on this one or I might rant and I promised I would not! I lied! Funding done for studies often has strings attached. If a study is funded by a pharmaceutical company, it will more likely have outcomes that favor the sponsor. If they do not favor the funder, the money will dry up. Health writers are lulled in and quote the results and we all buy them hook, line, and sinker (Fishing on my mind from my husband tying flies all week.) 

Weight Loss is not Easy. New amazing studies will not make it easier. A new food pyramid will not make it easier. Adding more exercise will help but is not the total answer. No one is going to bully you into weight loss. You must become the expert and find what works for you! We are all different and one size does not fit all! Healthy Diet Habits and Lifestyle Solutions to correct your problem areas and habits works!

Healthy Eating for Kids

Happy Tuesday everyone! Hope that all is going well! Today is another day of random thoughts from me. Too long without blogging!

 I got up this morning and someone had posted a disgusting picture of something that looked like pink frozen yogurt but was really a goop of meat that had removed from the bones. The goop was recolored and flavored and used in hot dogs, salami, chicken tenders and the like. Gross. Jamie Oliver did an experiment showing American kids that chicken tenders were made from this goop. American kids were happy to eat the final product. British kids were grossed out. Jamie Oliver was blown away that American kids were not grossed out. Why are our kids culturally different? These kids looked 7 or 8 years old? How is there hope for the obesity epidemic in this country if even young kids do not care? They said they would eat it because they were hungry. I have been saddened all morning. But I will keep plugging away because I want to change people's thinking if possible.

I dropped my son off at school and then went to Trader Joe's. I carefully purchased my products. Organic veggies and foods that were not genetically modified, even though that meant spending a little extra money. I had a nice chat with the checker and we chatted about the wonders of cabbage and all that you could do with it. Stir fries, salads, and literally anything that has mixed ingredients could take a helping of cabbage. We also talked about how filling it is. How cabbage is the greatest food item to keep you full. I was starting to feel better. Maybe people do care about what they eat! She also blew me away by saying she was eating the frozen wild salmon patties and cabbage salad for dinner tonight. Very few people menu plan and to find someone that had planned a healthy dinner was heartening. She was a young girl in her twenties! Yay!

My thought for today is: Food choices matter to your health. Plain and simple. If you eat crap, you will feel like crap. If you eat healthy food, you will feel better, have more energy, think better, have less food cravings, have better control of your weight, less chance of heart disease, and diabetes. I could fill an entire page of the other health benefits of healthy eating. Please take this information to heart and feed your families and yourself well. 

Happy Healthy Eating All!

Blogging vs Websites

Great Monday Everyone! I hope the weekend went well for all. Mine was party city! I went to a Young Life Capernaum end of year party, followed by a graduation/birthday/goodbye to Beirut party! Too much fun and too much eating! No so good for a Healthy Diet Habits blogger and website maker!

 I have not been around in the blogging arena for the past three months and I have so missed blogging.  I have been developing a website about healthy diet habits with my lovely sister. I have seen diet after diet fail and this is disheartening.  Being overweight is about both, "what you eat" and also "how and why you eat", which is rarely examined in dieting. I have a great start on a website dedicated to this with over 150 pages so far and into the top 1% in Alexa. I thought I would spend a few minutes talking about website writing vs blogging, in case you are thinking of doing either one!

Blogging is simple. Find a topic you are passionate about, and share your thoughts and feelings about it. Try to make people think and laugh at the same time. Get your point across in a positive manner without offending anyone, although every now and again a good kick in the pants is okay. You can be random, scattered, and jump all over the place, as long as people can follow! Blogging is a blast! The key to a good blog is great organization. People need to be able to find your blog post again. It is good to enter excellent key words and have great titles. Clever titles may be good for a laugh, but may not allow the blog reader to find your post again! Blogging is personal and can be about sharing your story. It's about teaching but being known to others, and letting them see the real you. You can be in the story which is fun. I love blogging because I love to give details in story form. Just ask my poor husband!

Websites on the other hand require planning right from the start. For those of us used to blogging, they can be a serious challenge. There is no sitting down and just writing to your hearts content. There has to be a plan. An overall plan. Where are you going, what are you including, what are your keywords, what is your tiered system. How are you going to link all of your pages together and how will they relate. A good website leads readers from place to place and is easy to follow. This can get difficult and complicated when you add hundreds of pages. And once you get started and into your topic, you should have hundreds of pages! You have to. You have to find a niche within your topic that will give people what they need to know. They must like your website to come back. You must build great content, content, content which will drive more readers to your site. The trick is to provide this great organized content in a manner that is entertaining within your framework. I think most of us want practical information but most websites are not practical. What good is information if you do not understand how to use it. I have tried to keep this in mind as I have written my website. How can I make this topic practical for my readers who want to get off the diet treadmill, eat for health, lose weight, and keep it off longterm. It is a tall order but doable. My site is a work of love in process so check it out! http://www.healthy-diet-habits.com/index.html

Great to be back! Hope that everyone has a great week!

Kerry

Farmers Market Guide

Happy Saturday Everyone! Saturday in Woodinville means only one thing! Which farmers market do I wish to attend? Hummmm? Woodinville or Redmond? Today Redmond won out. It is bigger with more venders and at this time of year when fresh veggies are still sparse, bigger is better! Grabbed the go to guy, Dan, and off we went!

Why would we want to spend part of our weekend at the Farmers Market? Plain and simple. Fresh food tastes better and we want to be healthy. We want to support our local farmers and encourage them to keep growing the fresh food that we love!!! Plus we wanted to pick up the 2011 Puget Sound Farm Guide that just came out. It has everything we need to locate local farms, CSA's, Farmers Markets, Food Co-ops, and all of their information such as times and dates. Worth the trip to the market alone :)

This time of year at the market was sparse as expected. My favorite fresh fruits and veggies were not very abundant yet! But the atmosphere was still exciting. We had a great lunch of a fresh tamale and French bread stuffed with sausage, onions and tomatoes. Both were great! I love simple fresh ingredients and the sandwich will become a staple at our home. Just stir fried sausages, onions, and tomatoes stuffed in a French baguette. Super easy and my kind of a meal. Just fun to be outside and to get excited for what the next few weeks will bring.

The market also brought the motivation we needed to get our own garage hydroponic garden up and running. Seeing how much money we could save growing our own specialty lettuce spurred us on to renew our vision for our own harvest! I hope to have my own fresh salads in a few weeks! Yeah!

All in all a great day at the market! Can't wait for next Saturday! Be sure and grab a 2011 Puget Sound Farm Guide and check out all of the farmers markets in your neighborhood. You, like me will not be disappointed!