Is a Personal Trainer Worth the Expense?

Personal trainers aren't cheap and in these economically challenged times most of us think carefully before we spend our hard earned cash. I've been indulgent and have been going to a trainer for the past 8 months. Do I think it's worth it?

If you are seriously committed to achieving your goal of having a healthy, well-toned body, the right trainer it is worth every penny. Mine happens to be the best - a cross between a mother hen and a drill sergeant. Stephanie hovers over me, making sure I am doing each exercise correctly and with the proper form. She rarely takes her eyes off me, as though I'm her baby chick. The next moment she is all demands, the stereotypical drill sergeant, pushing me to work harder than I thought possible, and then unrelentingly ordering me do it all over again... and again! Just when I am able to do a task well, she makes it even more difficult! She knows exactly what I need.

Stephanie isn't my first trainer but she's by far the best. Perhaps a woman understands what my body needs more than a man and she doesn't push me further than I am able to go, stopping just at my limit yet constantly challenging me.

South of the Border Goes Healthy

Since we are all looking for good things to eat on our diets, I thought I'd try something different this week. Here's a recipe which has been requested by almost everyone who has eaten my enchiladas. They were my contribution to a family dinner and even the non-vegetarians loved them. Low in fat, low in calories, high in flavor, the fiber rich whole wheat tortillas are wrapped around oven roasted vegetables, enhanced with corn sauce and cheese and topped with green salsa . This post is dedicated to Nicole, who's been waiting a long time for this recipe.

Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas

Burn Those Britches Behind You

You are losing weight! In fact you are getting smaller every day. And if you are anything like me your closet is an veritable shopping center with an array of sizes to choose from. I saved my "skinny" clothes and everything in between. Slowly, very slowly, I have gotten back into a descending number of sizes and have reached the smallest number, a number I never thought I would wear again. And now, wonder of wonders, that teeny, weeny size is getting loose!

So I have a ton of clothing that doesn't fit. I'm glad I saved my clothes when they were too small to squeeze into - a motivation to lose weight. But now, my friends, we are faced with a new challenge -what to do with our large sized clothing. Do we keep them, just in case? Or do we say "out with the old and in with the new"?

Eat Big or Go Home!

Are you ready for this one? You aren't going to believe it. In this day and age, when most of us are striving for good health and attempting to take off our excess weight, in a time when we are extremely conscious of being politically correct with every group of people whatever their race, gender, disability, age or size, a restaurant exists called Heart Stoppers. The waitresses, wearing scanty nurse's uniforms, serve up a menu filled with staggering amounts of fat, cholesterol and sugar.

Your "prescription" is written for such artery clogging fare as Chest Pain Fries (cooked in lard) and served in a bedpan (yuck), Death by Burger - a 3 pound killer which is wheeled out on a cart with an IV bag attached, Second Opinion Sausage Sandwich, Deep Fried Twinkies and a Purple Hematoma ice cream soda, all administered by your nurse. The decor includes a defibrillator, blood pressure machines, wheelchairs and other medical equipment.

To make matters worse anyone weighing over 350 pounds eats free. And if you want to shorten your life you can make a spectacle of yourself and sit in a wheelchair under operating room lights and polish off one of their three pound burger and fries. If you do it in record time, you get to have your photo on their Wall of Shame, oops - I mean Wall of Fame, either that or in their City Morgue gallery.

Not only does this restaurant exist just a couple miles from my south Florida home but there's a similar one in Arizona and they are engaged in a battle of trademark infringement or rather a fight to see which one has the legal right to be politically incorrect and morally deficient.

I haven't linked to their website and apologize to anyone who is offended by the very idea of this restaurant (myself included). Some people will do anything for $$$. Making light of health problems and obesity is in extremely bad taste, no matter how good the food might be.

Heart Stoppers - SHAME ON YOU! It's time there was a change in attitude toward obesity, the last thing we need is someone making fun of a serious problem.

Be Yourself

"To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing it's best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting," are words written by poet ee. cummings.

The wisdom of these words can be applied to almost any battle. I find them appropriate at this stage of my weight loss journey and take them to mean that I might be trying to push myself into a mold that really wasn't made for me and there is no way I will ever fit. Like many of us, I have been brainwashed into working toward a goal which may actually be unattainable.

Is there really any ideal weight, any ideal body? Will my arms ever be Michelle Obama toned? Will my thighs ever not jiggle? My tummy absolutely flat? I think it's time to reevaluate my goals. What is right for me? Will I know when I've reached the point where I am happy with myself, with my body, my weight? I've always dreamt of being thin, of walking down the street, holding my head up high and being proud of how I look. Can't I do that now?

Being just six pounds from my goal, I look like a thin person. I could fool almost anyone into believing I am thin. But I don't fit the image in my mind. So I think it is time to take a second look, time to learn to be happy with what I have accomplished, to appreciate how I look. My current battle is with my own perception, I need to stop fighting to fit into the Tyra Banks, Barbie doll, Victoria Secret molds. Watch this video and see how what we are striving for isn't even real. Perfection doesn't exist.

How will you know when you have reached your weight loss goal? Is it just a number or is it more than that?

Photo Tag!

I've been tagged by Patsy at Musings on a 100 lbs+ Weight Loss Journey.

Here are the rules of photo tag:

1. Go to your first photo file and pick the 10th photo in it.
2. Tell the story behind the photo.
3. Tag 5 other people to do likewise.

This is a photo of one of Yoko Ono's notorious art projects, the Wish Tree. It was taken in November 2008 in one of the trendy plazas I stumbled upon while wandering around the streets of L.A. Twenty-one myrtle trees were filled with white tags on which people had written their fondest wishes. Outdoor tables held baskets of blank tags and pencils, so without hesitation, I sat down and wrote my own wish.

And That's No Lie!

Since many of you have been waiting with bated breath to find out the truth about me, here it goes:

1. True. I did live in a thatched roof beach house in Samana, D.R. It was a self-sufficient, island paradise where I lived out a dream.

2. True. If the Jefferson County Fair counts, I did win a blue ribbon for my Black Forest Cheesecake. It was a rich, creamy indulgence, now a distant memory. Boo hoo.

3. True. My first taste of real food was actually chocolate. I can't really blame my wonderful mother for giving in to my longing looks as she was enjoying a Hershey Bar. She caved in and let me lick her fingers. Although I gave up Hershey's for the "good stuff", I went on to become a card carrying chocoholic.

Crash Course in Accepting Compliments

The truth finally hit home today, I don't know how to accept a compliment. My boyfriend mentioned this several times and I dismissed it as just another one of his complaints but today, when my hairdresser exclaimed at how much weight I've lost, I poo-pooed it as no big deal. Being the outspoken Trinidadian she is, Debbie set me straight. "You should be proud of what you've accomplished, girl," she said in her typical Caribbean style. And she is 100% correct.

So I ask you, since you are slowly becoming thinner and more lovely ever day, do you know how to accept a compliment? Do you feel good having people tell you how terrific you are looking, or does it make you a tad uncomfortable. Just as we look in the mirror and still see fat (no matter how many pounds we've lost), maybe deep down we somehow feel that we don't deserve such compliments.