What's the scoop on cat litter helping you lose weight

The other day I bought some cat litter at the store. The 28lb Scoop Away was on sale so I decided to scoop up two. As I lifted these heavy vessels into my shopping cart I thought to myself - wow this is really heavy. Then I thought how grateful I was that I didn't have to carry that heavy container around with me because I had a cart. Then I thought ... wait a minute - how much extra weight am I carrying around on my bones. I did a quick calculation and I thought - 'darn, I am carrying the equivalent of this container of cat litter around with me. It made me take a minute and actually pick up another container of the litter and just hold it so I could fully understand the sense of what the extra weight on me must feel like to my body.

So, the next time you are in the grocery store, take a visit to the pet section and pick up a container of cat litter and just let it sink in about what the stress of carrying around that much weight can do to your body. No wonder our backs, knees, ankles and feet sometimes hurt. Remember that the next time you reach for seconds or think you'll take on pass on exercising.

Let's get to be that "size healthy" Queen Latifah talks about and make ourselves a little litter, er... lighter.

Having an exercise buddy helps you stay on track

I don't know about you, but I do better when I have someone that I have to be accountable to. I have been looking for someone who wants to be a "size healthy" as Queen Latifah says and I finally found someone. His name is Richard and he just had by-pass surgery. Part of his rehabilitation is the need to exercise. He lives about 2 hours away so we email each other daily to report our exercise progress. Some days we have to report that, alas, we did not get in the desired workout/s. BUT, there are other days, like yesterday, when I heard from Richard that he walked 4 additional blocks because he knew he had to report to me. Being accountable to me was his incentive as is my committment to report to him is my incentive.

So, find someone who can either work out with you or who will be your email buddy. Someone that you can check in with on a daily basis. It really helps. Since I started this email program with Richard I have only missed one day of exercising. How cool is that??!!!

Soothe Your Inner Child

When I was a kid my mom used to tell me ... "Don't eat that it will make you FAT." So when everyone left the table I shoved as much of "that" as I could down my throat. I was being defiant. I was about 12 years old at the time. So, that 12 year-old is still inside of me and still defiant. I think that "inner child" thinks she will die if I stop eating the foods that are making me unhealthy.

In Eckhart Tolle's book, The Power Of Now, he writes that our constantly chatty mind - which blares things from our past and fears about the future - is scared of our being "In The MOMENT" because, to "be in the moment" means death to the mind chatter.

Similarly our inner child is scared too and she/he only feels safe when she's making us eat defiantly. So how to we help our inner child know that she won't die? It is our job to soothe that inner child and let she/he'll know that they won't die if we resist eating defiantly. Let that inner child know that the food cravings and unhealthy face stuffing is unhealthy for us and that it is time for him/her to relax and be loved by us. They can be free and once they experience that love and peace and freedom they will feel calm and wonderful. Keep soothing them because they really do feel like they will die if you resist that addiction to food.

Whitney Thompson says flaws are what makes her different

I've learned to take my flaws and [realize] they're what make me different. I've got my mom's thighs, you know? Southern! My mom has big thighs; my grandmama has big thighs. God forbid I look like every other robot-cookie-cutter girl out there! You're going to find someone who loves your gian nose or thinks your skinny arms are great!

I think one of the things that really helped me most in middle school and high school as cutting tags out of my pants--that way, other girls couldn't say anything. When someone goes, "What size are those?" you can look and say, "I don't know." Wear what fits-it doesn't matter what the number is. Seventeen Magazine July '08

Study Shows that exercising in teen years can protect girls from breast cancer

Study: Active teens reduce risk
Exercise said to shield against breast cancer
By Lauran Neergaard | Associated Press
New research shows exercise during the teen years — starting as young as age 12 — can help protect girls from breast cancer when they're grown.

Middle-age women have long been advised to get active to lower their risk of breast cancer after menopause. What's new: That starting so young pays off too.

"This really points to the benefit of sustained physical activity from adolescence through the adult years, to get the maximum benefit," said Dr. Graham Colditz of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the study's lead author.

Researchers tracked nearly 65,000 nurses age 24 to 42 who enrolled in a major health study. They answered detailed questionnaires about their physical activity dating back to age 12. Within six years of enrolling, 550 were diagnosed with breast cancer before menopause. A quarter of all breast cancer is diagnosed at these younger ages, when it is typically more aggressive.

Women who were physically active as teens and young adults were 23 percent less likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer than women who grew up sedentary, researchers report Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The biggest impact was regular exercise from age 12 to 22.