Margo Dill's Weight Loss Win

All weight loss experiences are unique and should be tailored to an individual's needs, desires and lifestyles. Guest blogger Margo Dill recently lost weight she had gained during her pregnancy, She used Weight Watchers. Her determination is to be credited. Many women, who put on weight during their child-bearing years, let themselves go after giving birth. They let the larder lure them to continue addictive habits picked up to satisfy pregnancy cravings. Many friends of mine fell under the spell of being the nurturing mom, while nurturing their appetites along the way and they have struggled with this weight gain for years until they just gave up.

Margo is stopping the incremental weight gain Hydra by cutting off the central head: immediately ridding herself of the baby fat. Find out from her post how Weight Watchers really helped Margo take authority over her eating habits. 

MARGO:
I recently became a Lifetime Weight Watchers member. I did it in 4 months, and I lost 41 pounds. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t as terrible as many people make dieting out to be. I truly believe this is because of the Weight Watchers plan. It lets you have a normal life. You can go out to eat with your friends. You just get a chicken wrap instead of the burger.

I chose to go to Weight Watchers in January 2011 for two reasons. I was turning 40 in February; and I had just had a baby in October 2010, and I had gained 60 pounds with the pregnancy. Since I was nursing, I easily shed 40 of that. But I was overweight when I got pregnant, so I wanted to lose the 20 pounds left, plus 20 more.

So, in January, I went with my mom and my daughter to Mommy and Me class, and started learning about making healthier choices. I also got out my walking shoes and went mall walking—it’s too cold in the Midwest for winter walking with a newborn (especially a preemie!).

Here are some things I learned on the Weight Watchers program:

1. Go to meetings. Find a leader that you like and that inspires you, and go get yourself weighed each week. Go with a buddy if possible.

2. Stock up at the grocery store on foods you need to eat. Weight Watchers wants you to eat plenty of fruits and veggies and lean meats and get your dairy in. If you have apples, oranges, and bananas at your house for snacks and NO CHIPS, you have to grab the fruit.

3. Track what you eat and figure your points. The number one thing I heard people not having success say was: “I never write anything down.” I wrote EVERYTHING down—even two M&Ms, and I estimated points high if I didn’t know them.

4. Weigh yourself just once a week. Women have it harder than men, in my opinion. We retain water like no other. If you eat salty foods one night, you could retain two pounds of water. You might get discouraged if you weigh yourself every day. 

5. Life happens. When my 40th birthday came, my husband and friends threw a surprise party. Did I follow Weight Watchers? NO—I went to White Castle drive-thru at 11:00 p.m. on the way home. But I got right back on the next day. I didn’t wait until the next week when I went to Weight Watchers again.

6. Your family will bring home things that you shouldn’t eat. It’s going to happen. Kids have Halloween candy. Husbands go to the store and grab chips. Try to have healthy alternatives when they are chomping on things that you shouldn’t have. I got some of those Weight Watchers bars and chips when they were on sale. 

7. Plan ahead when you eat out. Most restaurants have nutritional value available, so you can figure out what menu items are the best for you AHEAD OF TIME.

8. The biggest thing. . .it’s all about portion control. You can eat pizza—just have two slices instead of four. Pay attention to how many crackers are in a serving size. 

So far, I’ve been keeping off the weight. I’m very active with a six-month-old daughter who loves to go for walks, and I’m still nursing. I practice healthy eating tips I learned. I eat fruits and veggies for snacks. I measure my meat and my ice cream treat at night. I eat other side dishes besides chips and fries. I also continue to go to meetings. It’s become a part of my life, just like eating a half bag of Lay’s potato chips used to be.

Margo L. Dill is a freelancer who lives in St. Louis and writes for children, teachers, librarians, and parents. You can find out more about her at http://www.margodill.com/. 

Fat Relativity: Along the Racial Divide

LAST WEEK'S SURVEY RESULTS

In response to last Tuesday's survey question and my discussions with other women and men, those I spoke to strongly agreed that if a High Fashion Runway model was an average BMI (what doctor's use to measure obesity) she would be considered FAT by those in the Fashion Industry. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know this. We've been brainwashed to this fact for decades. And it doesn't look like this phenomenon is going to change any time soon. Just watch Project Runway for a season. Our cultural assumptions about FAT appear to be relative to profession and industry.

Is the definition of FAT also relative to race? Weeks ago, a literary agent (heavy and Caucasian) who shall remain anonymous told me that she went to a party in Manhattan where there were heavy and obese Black Women who were all decked out in their gold jewelry and colorful, high-end caftans. They looked beautiful, they carried themselves well and were confidently attractive to the Black Men who circled them. The agent then sighed to me, ruing the fact that for heavy, "beautiful" White Women, the story is the opposite. I agreed with her and unable to resist hyperbole, I expressed amazement that heavy or obese white chicks (completely out of fashion) were invited to ANY Manhattan parties at all. However, I think her point is well taken. Where the racial divide is concerned, Black Women can get away with being heavy. White Women Can't Jump That Divide.

What do you think? Is the definition of FAT also relative to race? Is it "easier," more overlooked, more accepted for Black Women to be overweight and/or obese than for White Women?

Next week we'll discuss the survey results and discuss the opinions across the racial divide when a black celebrity of the weight of Jennifer Hudson using Weight Watchers reconfigures her image, body and appeal.

Puberty: Another Word for Nothing Left to Live For?

Puberty is ugly, though of course, it's not phat to express how ugly, and teens are supposed to be "tuff," especially in front of their peers. But there ain't nothing gangsta about hormones raging, budding sexual identity, aloneness and the fear of being unlovely and unlovable. When I think about my junior high school days, from 7th-9th grades, in plain speech adults can understand, it sucked! And when I'm told it was easier "back in the day?" To that I say (evoking Stanley from Tennessee Williams' Streetcar Named Desire because it is soooo apt.)  Ha! Ha! Ha! (In case you don't realize, I am not laughing.)

If you mean "back in the day" of grandmothers and great grandmothers whose marriages were economically arranged for them in their early teens (my Italian grandmother's marriage was arranged) and they didn't have a choice, puberty still sucked. The point is even with our current instant access to information online, with all the chitter and chatter and friending networks and parental love and support this doesn't always help teen girls get through the angst of questions like "Am I like other girls my age?" when they already know the answer is a resounding, "No!" This is especially true if the framework has been set by other pubescent self-loathers, i.e. bullying, abused teen boys who are scared of their own sexual shadow and look to unload  their wrath on a sheepish target, a fat/overweight girl. Even if the girl is thin, if she has a feeble self-worth, the wolfish predator will smell her out and pounce. I know, been there, felt that. And I know from my experience teaching. I've taught and discussed this with my female students who have discussed feeling the alienation of American cultural beauty standards crushing them because males use such standards to manipulate for sex, for money, for car rides, you name it: and these are the thin ones. If they're overweight/fat, if they're resourceful, they resort to weapons of self-defense: humor, friendly personality, intellect, friendships with others perceived to be like them. But in the case of Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz from Minnesota, their only defense was suicide.

By now you've seen the videos and read the blogs. But there is some information you may not have been aware of. The Wisconsin Gazette noted that the two girls had been bullied about their "romantic" relationship. I wonder at the monstrosity of the bully/bullies who probably had questions about their own sexuality and spewed forth to quell their own "fearful" otherness, sliming them with choice slang words for lesbians currently being used by the teenage underground. (http://urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lesbians) Their parents, only knew about the other bullying elements, claiming the girls had been bullied about their weight and Haylee about her red hair, and since she was upset about her "big" nose some jocular fellow had probably hauled forth and verbally slammed it. However tragic and incomprehensible it may seem to me that Haylee and Paige took their lives, to them it made utterly logical sense to stop the horrific pain. For them "tuffing it out" wasn't a viable option. Love wasn't enough. How many other teens are out there at this very moment being pushed to the verge by their classmates? Girls take it out on themselves. Boys take it out on others, that is some boys. That's another post for another day. (It infuriates me that less reasoned, more aggressive males embrace machoism as a right and virtue, when it has been the cause of torture, maiming, killing and destruction throughout history.)

I am an adult. I do not float in the air above teens in junior high schools to watch their interactions. Neither do their parents. Only the teens know what is going on, and then there is a mile high wall of silence to climb to shout out the hurt and injustice of the humiliation of a damaged identity which is still being formed. The victim must also overcome the sense that he/she caused the abuse through his own fault. It reminds me of how rape was dealt with in the past; the woman "lured" the rapist and he had "no choice" but to fulfill his needs.

In educational settings oftentimes, teachers are out of the loop unless they can establish a rapport with their students. But they can't do it with every student. Many will "fall through the cracks." All schools public and private need mandated bullying policies and students should be able to report, like whistleblowers, without fear of retribution and further sliming by the bullies. Above all, the bullies need extensive counseling; as their disturbed personality left unchecked may come back to haunt society in the future with violent acts (http://www.pluk.org/Pubs/Bullying2.pdf)  or their victims may gain revenge on their bullies, i.e. like in Columbine.

There is much to be said for parents learning how to teach their kids coping strategies, arming them with the weapons of warfare against the equally victimized victimizers. The Presidents' Conference on Bullying Prevention is a necessary first step. I also know that if I were given classes in analyzing the cultural media's standards of beauty using critical thinking to critique their basic underlying biased assumptions, this would have helped me and my peers by offering a leveling perspective, instead of arming any lurking wolves ready to sink their jaws into my fat flesh (which they did at various times until I managed to "Friend" them in my own way. But the pain and hurt remained for years). Teens must be actively taught and retaught critical thinking skills which reduce such assumptions to absurdity and remove their power as weapons for bullies.

50 Ways to Leave Your Blubber

Today is Silly Sunday, a day for the ridiculous regarding the fats, healthy alternative lifestyles, mega eating and whaling out, skinniness, all of it. It's my day to laugh at myself, making sure I'm not taking all of this soooo seriously that I forget to see the forest for the tress, and don't smell the roses which are beginning to bud and bloom in NYC botanical gardens, home gardens, patios and terraces.

Courtesy of Paul Simon's savvy, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," I've reconfigured Simon's lyrics toward my fat and fatties everywhere, throughout the world, though there are probably enough in North America (US, Canada) and Oceania-Australia to compensate for most of those on other continents, i.e. Africa. The song is for encouragement ONLY. Enough said. I'm a big proponent of "she who laughs at herself first, laughs the loudest and the best at the last."

                                                         50 Ways to Leave Your Blubber

"The problem is all inside your head," God said to me.
"The answer's easy if you take it logically
I'm going to give you strength to fight obesity
There must be fifty ways to leave your BLUBBER."

God said, "It's really not my habit to intrude.
I hope my meaning won't be lost or misconstrued
But I'll repeat, at risk of being crass and crude,
There must be fifty ways to leave your BLUBBER.
Fifty ways to leave your BLUBBER."

"Just shut the fridge door, Flor
Make a life plan, Fran
You're not a yo-yo toy, Joy,
Of obesity."

"Hop on the health train, Jane
And stop the complain refrain
Just switch to Fat-Free, Bea
And get yourself free."

God said, "It grieves me so to see you in such pain
I know there's something that will make you smile again!"
I said, "Thank's, God, and could you please again, explain,
About the fifty ways?"

God said, "Why don't you end your inner struggle with the Night
And just have Faith that you'll begin to see the Light,"
Then He empowered me; I knew that He was right.

And now I see the 50 ways to leave my BLUBBER
Fifty ways to leave my BLUBBER.

"Just shut the fridge door, Flor,
Make a life plan, Fran,
You're not a yo-yo toy, Joy,
Of Obesity."

"Hop on the health train, Jane,
And stop the complain refrain,
Just switch to Fat-Free, Bea,
And get yourself free."

"Just shut the fridge door, Thor,
Make a life plan, Stan,
You're not a yo-yo toy, Roy,
Of Obesity."

"Hop on the health train, Rain,
And stop the complain refrain,
Just switch to Fat-Free, Lee,
And get yourself free."

I do apologize to any atheists out there who are reading this. I do not mean to offend you, but I was having difficulty thinking up a convenient monosyllabic word. If you have any better ideas, you are welcome to post them. But then you'll have to reconstruct the entire fatuousness of the song and make it more serious, losing the point of FOOLISHNESS. After all, for me, this IS Silly Sunday. For any Christians or religous persons who are upset at the above, you should know better! And if you don't, I can't explain it to you.

As for the guys who need to laugh at their BLUBBER, I am not female chauvinistic. The second choral refrain is for you!

You see, blubber is not as frightening as it is made out to be.

C. Di Tosti, May 15, 2011





                                              

E...is for Eataly: NYC Restaurant

If you are ever in NYC, don't walk, run to Eataly, creator Oscar Farinetti, Lidia and Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali's Italian food version of The Circus Maximus, an admixture of piazza-style European market and food-bling themed cafes under one humongous roof. I took my brother Gabe and sister-in-law (and best friend) Est there when they came up from Florida this past April. I had been there before with other friends a number of times and knew what to expect. A veritable "movable feast" for the senses. I figured that my brother who loves anything local, organic, vegetarian, health-oriented would enjoy Eataly because it offers all that fare and quality.

After slogging and wriggling through the Saturday Manhattan market day shopping crowds, we pressed in to touch the hem of the hostess' garment and she accommodated us reasonably quickly at the "Le Verdure" section and there Gabe ordered the special of the day, a large combination plate, including a cup of soup, two different salads and lightly cooked vegetables. Est ordered the Asparagi Alla Milanese with a glass of wine. Both enjoyed the home made peasant bread, dipping it in an excellent extra virgin olive oil, imported from Tuscany. I had the Insalata Primavera, delighted that the dish was Vegan, not produced with any animal products. My brother was contented that he was being served delicious vegetables and salads that had not been processed, prepackaged, chemicalized in their growing process, chemicalized and overseasoned during their light cooking process, and generally a dishonor to the planet and those living on it. Eataly respects its products, its patrons, its producers. And this is what I love about Eataly. Not only were our portions creditable, the food well executed and beautifully presented, in its totality, those dishes represented everything that their website boasts in their Manifesto.

If you are not a Le Verdure fan as my brother and Est are, then perhaps you would like to try one of the other speciality cafes: La Pizza & La Pasta, Il Pesce or eat at La Piazza pulsating with human vibrancy in the heart of Eataly and representing the true Roman enoteca experience. There standing or sitting at a marble topped bar you will go mad (if you love this sort of fare and I do) for the enjoyment of various Formaggi and Salumi, wine, salad with generous slices of speciality cheese and peasant bread. I love it at La Piazza; youth, passion, wine, cheese, vitality, Buzz! What more do you want? What more can you need? A more formal dining experience? Then you will make reservations at Manzo. Currently, they are offering a 7 course Spring Tasting Menu for $90.00 w/o wine which sounds out of this world and is in the old Roman style dinner with everything from soup to dessert, including meats, fish and pasta. I was raised on the old Roman style dinners at holiday time; they are fabulous. But as a responsible eater, now, you must only taste the dishes and not EAT them in their entirety!!! But if this is too much food, then they also offer an a la carte menu beginning with "Antipasti" on page two of Manzo's menu.

After Gabe, Est and I ate, we sauntered through the various speciality areas (wine, beer and beverages, salumi and cheese, fresh and dry pasta, bread, meat, seafood, etc.), There if you are "on the go" you can order take out from La Rosticceria (roasted meats with  accompanying veggies) Paninoteca (paninni sandwiches) or get some dessert at Pasticceria or the Gelateria. Eataly offers a wide variety of quality local and imported products from Italy, including beverages. The cheeses are to die for, but then I adore cheese, any type, even Philadelphia Cream Cheese. (I hate Velveeta which is faux, plastic cheese.) And they will give you samples to taste. I had to be yanked away...I would have been there all day. The produce is local and fresh. Gabe who gobbles down cilantro by the bunch (it's a purifier, detoxifier and chelator) chomped into some he bought there without washing it. I nearly had a cow; but it looked crisp, cool, freshly picked and washed (not limp in the package like Trader Joe's cilantro up the block). And to date, with no ill effects, the man is as feisty  as ever he was, and his liver and kidneys continue to be well scrubbed and happy.

Est and Gabe bought some lovely dark chocolate from the dolce section. Did I mention THE dolce section and La Pasticceria? Well, all the pastries, all twenty-five to thirty different types from the various regions in Italy are home made there and the cannoli are not like the ones the nuns made in Godfather III or like Clemenza's cannoli when he  orders Rocco, "Leave the gun, take the cannoli." No! You want to identify the difference? The dough section on the Scilician cannoli bubbles when it's fried. Does the Pastry Chef Luca Montersino use a unique recipe and technique? Well, if his philosophy is less butter and sugar brings out an explosion of flavor, then, "Si." The result is visible; the cannoli are subtle, darker, smoother, thinner, more fragile and delicate, not exactly fitting for a guido and guida of Jersey Shore and The Sopranos. But it's definitely Italian, the cannolis, I mean and not a derivative. Now, I can say that because I am probably more Italian than you (first generation-both parents off the boat) and probably even more Italian than the casts  of both shows.

Back to home made: the bread, the pasta, the mozzarella, the cafe food selections, the pastries, the cakes, the dolce, including the gelato in the Gelateria! Then there is the local produce and meat, natural, without hormones, grass fed. And finally, and I am a connoisseur, the Caffe Lavazza cappuccino bar (with seating) and Caffe Vergnano (w/o seating a la true Italian style) are absolutely lovely. If I lived across the street in one of the high rises in the area near Madison Park, I would visit every day instead of having my requisite Starbucks cappuccino. I am a shareholder, and I appreciate everything that has done to advance the company and turn it around. Mr. Schultz, you are brilliant and socially responsbile, but Eataly's cappuccino is "the real thing."  And if I asked for organic milk, from picturesque, happy, grass-fed Vermont cows, they would give it to me for that's all they use. We need to have a talk!

It's always fun at Eataly. Maybe you can only relax at the very end of the day or the early morning because of "the noise of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd" (that's an ancient title of a Broadway show everyone has forgotten, except for me...I'm a big fan of Broadway). But let's face it. That's also the fun of NYC. There is no place like it in the world. And like its hometown, there is no place like Eataly.

If you'd like to see some lovely pictures of Eataly, visit Elissa's blog at http://elissaunsweetened.blogspot.com/2011/02italy-is-eataly.hum  For the "expert" review of Eataly right after it opened, there is http://www.insatiable-critic.com/Article.aspx?id=1411 . And if you happen to be in NYC, let me know. I'll meet you there for a cappuccino.

The Laws of Fatology

You've all heard of Murphy's Law:  "If something can go wrong it will go wrong." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//Murphy's_law/ ) And O'Toole's Commentary on Murphy's Law:  "Murphy was an optimist!"  (Murphy's Law and other reasons why things go wrong, Bloch, 12)  Well, I've read three of Arthur Bloch's books (http://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Bloch/e/B001IQWBRO/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 ) and I've come away from the enjoyable reads in reflection upon my life as a chubbasaur.  After heart-rending meditation, I've created my own variants of Murphy's Law as it has applied to my experiences yo-yoing, dieting, losing weight and gaining weight each time to higher and higher levels, achieving maintenance and TRYING TO LOSE THOSE LAST 10 POUNDS (still not there yet)! 

Out of the ashes of my utter fat frustration and despair, this phoenix has arisen: The Laws of Fatology! (and there are other categories of laws as well) It's my way of laughing at myself to better cope with The Second Law of Thermodynamics (entropy) as it applies to my weight loss. (Though I am now "thin," the battle is still raging.) Most importantly, I use these Laws of Fatology to remind me of the perils of my unconscious wish/desire/need to overeat emotionally and physically as a food addict. For me, they serve as the ULTIMATE PREVENTATIVE to deny the inevitability of my return to obesity. Call it what you will, it is my "vodoo cure" against the "fats," and it has no dangerous side effects.

Legend has it that aerospace scientists who applied Murphy's Law to their engineering feats, looked for every potential way "something could go wrong" in their designs, locating them before they blossomed into defeats. So be it for me, in my ongoing chapter of "Obesity Wars." If I am reminded of the inevitability of fat cells filling, then PREVENT, Carole, PREVENT! (It's like defensive driving around any fat relapse-accidents.)

For those of you like me (I Just Want to Testify) who have yo-yoed, gained weight and lost it, and gained and lost and tried every diet conceived of from our cultural ethos' brain and even bought prepared foods to help you lose weight (and then gained it back) you will relate to these laws. What's fun to know is HOW they relate to you:  i.e. a specific experience you remember. If you have an additional take on any of The Laws of Fatology, share it. The law's corollary will carry your name! These truisms are out there in the nether reaches of our fatscape just waiting to be identified.  At the very least our list will offer humorous encouragement to elude entropy (the tendency to let all our weight loss fall down into rabbit hole of fatness).

Definition of Fat as it relates to the Laws of Fatology
       1)You are Overweight or Obese and above on the BMI Calculator.
       2)You look in the mirror and see unsightly waist bulges, or your GAP 29-30 jeans are too tight (and   you're not pregnant).
       3)You are in a profession which demands your BMI to be Underweight and you register Normal.
       4)You wish you could get into a)your wedding dress, b)the size you wore at your thinnest, c)a bikini



                                                                  THE LAWS OF FATOLOGY


First Law of Fatness

        If you can be fat, you will be fat.

Corollaries of Fatness

           First Corollary of Fatness


                You will be fat at some point in your life,
                          
                             1)until you join the millions of dieters to begin the yo-yo cycle of weight loss,weight gain, weight loss, weight gain, etc., ENSURING A LIFETIME CONTRACT WITH YOUR FAT.

           Second Corollary of Fatness

                If you have a genetic predisposition to be fat, chances are you will be fat.


Well? I know the laws are rather gruesome, but so is entropy (as it relates to the material world and our flesh). Do these ring true at all for you? If so, when did they? If not, that's good, isn't it?  On a positive note, if you've successfully lost weight, then keep reminding yourself about The Second Law of Thermodynamics (entropy) or if you will permit me, these Laws of Fatology any time you feel like resorting to repetitive, unnutritional, high caloric eating habits! Prevent!!!

Theory of Fat Relativity: Cultural Assumptions

Have you ever noticed how the definition of fat is relative? I'm not just referring to your feeling "fat" when you roll out of bed in the morning after a luxurious night of partying and pigging out, knowing that you've exceeded the maximum possible weight gain in a day for any human (10 pounds). And I'm not pinning down the concept that fat "is in the eye of the beholder," which is an understatement. (Of course it is, especially when you, your husband on a bad day, a snide relative or vicious co-worker is doing the beholding.) And I am not referring to the clinical definition of fat/obese/overweight as registered on the BMI calculator. (http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ )

No! Actually, I think that how fat is defined depends upon culture/ethnic background, race, region of the country, economic class, profession or industry and population density of an area, and maybe even sexual preference (though I am not going to go there at this point). Don't think this concept has validity? Well, let's see. Each week I will cover a different category. Depending upon feedback and any research contributed by viewers, or myself, we will gauge the variations. It will be fun, and the perceptions and attitudes may be surprising.

OK. Let's begin with the Fashion Industry. Using the BMI calculator categories for Underweight, Normal, Overweight, Obese, Morbidly Obese (http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi) what would you imagine would be considered "fat" for a High Fashion Runway model? So the cultural assumption question would be:

A High Fashion Runway Model needs to register "Underweight" on the BMI calculator to be considered normal for the industry, with the given that her height is over 5'7". If she registers "Normal" on the BMI calculator, she would be considered "too fat" to be hired.

a)strongly disagree   b)somewhat disagree   c)somewhat agree      d)strongly agree   e)unsure


Well? What do you think? With your response, if you would like, include any demographics about yourself that you think would help gauge American perceptions, attitudes and values.

Next week, I will discuss any comments/results and pose the next question related to another category.