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FINDING EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ADVERSITY — by Catherine Morgan

When we are suffering it is very difficult, if not impossible, to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But, it is there. You will get through it. And, in time your wounds really will be healed.

Can something good come out of adversity? Often in the face of adversity, we are unable to see anything through our pain. The only thing we can think about, are questions. Why is this happening to me? How will I go on? How will I survive? These are all reasonable questions, and in the depth of your pain you will ask them, and more. But, there are no answers to these questions. Only after you realize this, will you be able to go on, and let go.

We can not turn away from our pain. It is very important that we feel all our feelings during these times of adversity and heartache. Denying our pain, or denying our feelings, will not benefit us in any way. In fact, it will only prolong our troubles. But, if we look at our situation, and face our problems head-on; we will triumph.

You may feel like you are losing the battle; but when you push through your battle, you come out on the other side the winner of your war. That is because you are empowered when you conquer life’s toughest battles. Only at these times of empowerment do we grow into the people we are meant to be. Think about that for a minute…Who would you be right now, if it wasn’t for the adversity you have been through in your life?

For me personally, I wish I had never had to go through many of the painful events of my life; loss, divorce, illness, betrayal, (just to name a few). But, I also know that I would not be who (or where) I am today, had I not. My past heartache, and my past pain, are what make me the compassionate person that I am today. And in retrospect, I don’t think I would want to be the kind of person, who knows no hardships. It’s because of these hardships that I appreciate every thing I have, even the little things that many people take for granted.

I can now see that my past adversity has truly been a blessing in my life. I don’t look forward to future adversity, however I know it will come. When it does come, I will have the knowledge of my past strength to help me overcome, and once again triumph.

My hope for everyone, is that they are able to one day look past their pain, to find their empowerment.

*This was cross-posted from a post I wrote back in January of 2007 for my first blog – Be The Change You Want To See In Yourself

Weight Loss:  It’s Not About The Twinkies, Stupid – (cross posted at BlogHer Health & Wellness)

Here’s what I think about the Twinkie Diet and the professor who claims to have lost weight on it…

In an unprecedented show of nutritional and scholarly savvy, a forward-thinking professor of nutrition was seeking to prove that limiting calories is the key to weight loss.  And incredibly, his theories have turned out to be correct.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, am I being Punked?  Isn’t it already a fact that eating less calories than your body burns is the key to losing weight?  I guess we can overlook that minor detail, because it’s how the professor lost the weight that is so astonishing.

You see, the real excitement of this story is how Twinkies and junk food are finally taking their rightful place in the war against obesity.

Yes, it’s true…

A one-man pseudo-research experiment has proven without a doubt that eating Twinkies can lead to weight loss (just as long as you consume considerably less calories than your body requires).  I know, it’s a shocking revelation.  It’s being dubbed, the Twinkie Diet, and you can actually eat just about anything (candy, cookies, chips, cake. fruits, vegetables) and still lose weight, just as long as you are taking in much less calories than your body burns.

If it sounds like a miracle diet, IT’S NOT.

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It’s no secret that I’m not fond of diet pills, and I’ve written quite a bit about my disdain for “Alli:  The Diarrhea Diet” over the last few years.  And it is now being reported that the prescription diet pill “Meridia” increases a person’s risk of heart attack and stroke.  Didn’t we learn anything from the whole “Fen-Phen” debacle?

When it comes to taking any medication, the first thing you have to do is determine if the benefits outweigh the risks of taking it.  So let’s take a look at the benefits.  It seems that Meridia offers less than a nine pound reduction in weight.  But is this really a benefit?  This is a drug that is prescribed by physicians to “obese” patients (people that need to lose a lot of weight before they will see any health benefits), so a nine pound reduction in weight hardly seems to be worth the risk.

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Are you honest about your weight?  Although I would prefer not to be asked, when I am asked, it never occurs to me to lie about it.

It used to be that women were thought to always lie about their age and weight, but a new CDC study finds that Americans are becoming more honest (at least about) their weight.  To be honest, I didn’t even know that there were studies measuring the number of people who lie about their weight.  It seems a little odd, but who am I to judge?

The new report also found that in nine states at least 30 percent of the adults were obese in 2009. The states were Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Mississippi, the highest at 34 percent. In 2007, only Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee topped 30 percent.

No states met a national goal for 2010 of limiting obesity to 15 percent. Only Colorado and the District of Columbia were lower than 20 percent, and just barely.

It did get me thinking a bit  about why?  Why are Americans becoming more honest about their weight, especially considering that obesity is on the rise?

Could it be that we are finally getting to the point of loving and accepting ourselves, even with our perceived imperfections?  That wouldn’t be so bad, maybe those Dove ads (you know, the ones using average and plus size models) are having an impact on how we see ourselves.  What ever the reason, if women are feeling better about themselves, I think that’s wonderful.  Anyway, that’s my idealistic way of looking at this story, and I think it could be true.

However, it seems the researchers have their own opinion (go figure), and it does make sense.  They believe that because of all the press coverage over the ever growing obesity epidemic (and the health problems associated with it), that Americans are becoming more aware of their weight and therefore more honest.  The benefit to this observation would be that Americans are becoming concerned about the health risks of being overweight (rather than the stigma), and are keeping a closer eye on it.  In the long run (idealistically), this change in behavior may actually prove to be the catalyst to American’s changing their eating habits from unhealthy to healthy, and that would be a good thing.  Wouldn’t it be great to go from a society facing an obesity epidemic, to a society facing a healthy living epidemic?

*cross-posted to BlogHer Health & Wellness

Is it time to start selling birth control pills over-the-counter (OTC)?

The easy answer is, yes.

But is it really an easy question to answer? No. Remember, we are living in a country where many parents are still against condoms being available to students, and where many schools are teaching abstinence only in place of sex-ed classes. I’m thinking this isn’t going to be as easy of a switch as some of these articles make it appear.

From The New York Times Op-Ed — Let the Pill Go Free:

The pill meets F.D.A. criteria for over-the-counter medications. Women don’t need a doctor to tell them whether they need the pill — they know when they are sexually active and want to avoid pregnancy. Pill instructions are easy to follow: Take one each day. There’s no chance of becoming addicted. Taking too many will make you nauseated, but won’t endanger your life, in contrast to some over-the-counter drugs, like analgesics. (There are even side benefits to taking the pill, like reduced risks of ovarian and uterine cancer.)

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Most of the time when we read about diet and weight-loss success stories, we hear how “easy” it was and how “anyone” can do it.   But the reality is, for most of us, it’s far from easy. In fact sometimes it’s so not easy that we just give up. Believe me, I get it. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve worked hard at eating healthy or exercising with little to no results.

Of course, I’m still inspired when I hear success stories of women like Valerie Bertinelli and Marie Osmond.  But what do we do when we are giving it all we got, and we are still not getting the results we’re looking for?

Should we throw in the towel?  Consider ourselves a failure?  Give up?

No, absolutely not.

Rather than looking at where we’ve gone wrong and just giving-up, it’s time to look at what we’ve done right.  That’s what I’ve been trying to do.  Instead of focusing on the fact that I haven’t lost any weight in the last six weeks (even though I’ve been eating healthy), I’m trying to focus on the positive…And you can do it too.

For me, it all started in May, when I decided to get serious about making healthy lifestyle changes.  Not just because I want to lose weight, but also because I know it will make a difference in my overall health and wellness.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to make all the changes I wanted to over night, but I did want to make the commitment to gradually eliminate the unhealthy foods from my diet, while incorporating more nutritious foods.

And now I find myself in the classic half-full or half-empty mark in my healthy eating plan.  I can choose to see my plan as half-empty, because I haven’t even lost one pound yet.   Or I can choose to see my plan as half-full, because I have had success in eating healthier foods and avoiding sugar.  In other words, I can choose to feel good about myself, or choose to feel like a failure.  It’s totally up to me.  And I’ve decided to try something new, and “choose” to feel good about myself and take a closer look at all the ways I’ve been successful.

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Well, I’m here to admit that I was unsuccessful in my Choose You commitment. I don’t really consider it a failure though, because I did meet most of my goals. I’m very happy that I am finally at the point where I am not craving sweets and other junk foods.

I didn’t lose any weight, but I was successful in maintaining my healthier eating habits. I wasn’t even tempted when my daughter brought back a plate full of deserts when we went out last week.

I have no plans of giving up. My next Choose You commitment will be to continue my healthy eating while also integrating regular exercise (specifically swimming) into my plan. Although I hope to lose some weight in conjunction with all of this, I’m not going to hold myself to any number on a scale. If I lose five pounds that will be a great bonus, but I know the most important thing is that I am choosing a healthier lifestyle for myself.

I recently wrote a post about choosing to see the positive when we are working hard at weight-loss and fitness goals, but not seeing many results.

I find myself in the classic half-full or half-empty mark in my healthy eating plan. I can choose to see my plan as half empty, because I haven’t even lost one pound yet. Or I can choose to see my plan as half-full, because I have had success in eating healthier foods and avoiding sugar. In other words, I can choose to feel good about myself or choose to feel like a failure. It’s totally up to me. And I’ve decided to try something new, “choose” to feel good about myself and take a closer look at all the ways I’ve been successful.

Although I haven’t lost any weight yet, I have had the strength and willpower to maintain healthy eating habits (and give-up sugar) for over six weeks. In my book, that’s success.

Anyway, that’s my story. I’ll let you know more about my new diet and fitness commitment next week.

This week the Choose You Blog is focusing on the topic of relieving stress and finding peace. My contribution to this cause comes from several different posts I’ve done over the past few years.

These are posts I’ve done on the many different ways we can reduce stress in our lives.

Did you know laughing is good for reducing stress?

Smile and Laugh Your Way to Better Health…

Diet and exercise are important for good health, but did you know laughter is too? If you want to be as healthy as you can be, than laughter needs to be part of your healthy living regimen. Is it?

Here are some of the Health Benefits of Laughter:

• Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases infection fighting antibodies. It increases our attentiveness, heart rate, and pulse.
• People who laugh heartily on a regular basis have lower standing blood pressure than the average person. When people have a good laugh, initially the blood pressure increases, but then it decreases to levels below normal. Breathing then becomes deeper which sends oxygen enriched blood and nutrients throughout the body.
• Laughter, along with an active sense of humor, may help protect you against a heart attack, according to the study at the University of Maryland Medical Center (cited above). The study, which is the first to indicate that laughter may help prevent heart disease, found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.

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May is Lupus Awareness Month, and even though it’s the end of the month, I wanted to do my part to bring more attention to this devastating disease and some of the brave women living and blogging with it.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that affects many more women than men.  In fact, ninety percent of people who develop Lupus are women.  The scary part about Lupus is that it can damage any organ in the body (including the heart, kidneys, lungs, blood, joints, and skin) causing life-threatening complications.

Here are a few Facts For Lupus Awareness Month…

• The most common symptoms of lupus are: extreme fatigue or exhaustion, headaches, painful or swollen joints, fever, a butterfly-shaped rash across cheeks and nose, sun- or light-sensitivity, and hair loss.
• Approximately two-thirds of people with lupus will develop some type of skin complication. This often is in the form of a rash or sores, most of which will appear on sun-exposed areas, such as face, ears, neck, arms, and legs.
• There is no single laboratory test that can determine whether a person does or does not have lupus. Diagnosing lupus involves analyzing the results of several lab tests that are used to monitor the immune system, along with a review of the person’s entire medical history.
• Systemic lupus is the most common type of lupus. Systemic lupus can affect any organ system of the body, including the heart, kidneys, lungs, blood, joints, and skin.
• In lupus, the immune system loses its ability to tell the difference between foreign substances, such as viruses or bacteria, and the body’s healthy tissue. The result is the production of auto-antibodies that attack healthy tissue.
• Since many symptoms of lupus mimic those of other illnesses, lupus often can take three to five years to diagnose. Symptoms of lupus can come and go over time, which makes a definite diagnosis more difficult.

There are many courageous women living and blogging with Lupus, and May is the perfect time to check out their blogs and show them some love and support.  If you know a woman blogging with Lupus please share their link in comments.

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Did you know that 57.7 million Americans suffer with mental illness?  That’s 1 in 4 of us.  Chances are, if you’re not one of those four, you most likely know someone who is.  I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve had my bouts with depression and anxiety over the years.  Thankfully, I always recognized when I needed to reach out for help, and when I did, I got it.

But because of the stigma associated with it, it’s not always easy for people to reach out for help. That’s why it is so important to shed light on this issue and help eliminate the stigma associated with mental illness.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and on May 18th bloggers were encouraged to come together through a Blog Party and help bring awareness to the issue of mental health.  The goal was to help educate the public, decrease stigma, and to discuss strategies for making lasting lifestyle changes to promote overall health and wellness.

Take a little time and visit some of the blogs that participated in the Mental Health Blog Party…

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