's motd Friday Feb 26, 2010

[Guest guest]

THE CAROUSEL GIRLS

Friday, 26 February 2010

Everyday, I try my very best to motivate people to lose weight, whether it's through an e-mail or over the phone. And across the years, since my General Hospital days, I've stayed in contact with so many of my friends who've followed me on TV. I always ask how they're doing, how much they weigh now, how much weight they've lost and how their overall health is these days. Some of them have lost weight and have kept it off for years.

But then I have that group of ladies I call my Carousel Girls. I've told you how much I liked carousels when I was a kid back in New Orleans. But I don't like carousels when it comes to weight-loss. Yep, these ladies have been riding those wooden horses with their weight going...up and down. I mean, sometimes I talk to them and their weight is up. The next time I call, their weight is down. But three weeks later, their weight is up again. And the worse news is that these ladies have been riding that wooden horse with their weight for 10-50 years!Sometimes when they've gained weight, they don't correspond with me at all. Oh I know, they're embarrassed about their weight-gain and so don't want to face me. Sometimes when I ask what they weigh, I get silence on their end of the phone. If that happens, I say to them, "If you can't tell me what you weigh, who're you going to tell?" I ask if they tell their husbands what they weigh? Do they tell their kids? I ask if when they're out driving, do they roll down the windows of the car and shout to everyone on the street what they weigh? And oh, I don't stop there. I want to know if, when they get to work, do they announce what they weigh to their coworkers? Well, I would say the answer to those questions would be a big NO.

I remind them that they can trust those private numbers with me because I know personally what it's like to be overweight or obese. I've told you before that I rode the carousel for a very long time...too long! But then one day, I was wise enough to hop off that wooden horse and...I never looked back!When you constantly gain and lose weight, you're playing a game with your health. And as I tell you all the time, you're only here on this earth once and that body you have now is the only one God gives you. So you ask, how did I just get off that wooden horse and walk away? Well, I'll tell you. I just got so sick & tired and disgusted with myself for being such a wimpy quitter for so long. I decided I was stronger than that and had to stay on program or I'd end up riding the weight-loss carousel for the rest of my life. And I didn't want that!

I promised myself that I wasn't going to skip any more meals, which I used to do often. I began going into my kitchen and preparing my own healthy meals rather than living off fast foods. I made a list of all the vegetables I liked and concentrated on eating five to six portions of them a day. Back then, I was guilty of not drinking enough water but I began having my eight, 8-ounce glasses of H20 everyday. And I didn't skip even a day of exercise. I stretched in the mornings then did my cardio and toning workouts. And all the while I worked out, I told myself that I was very proud of myself for sticking to my guns...just like Annie Oakley! So listen up, if you've been riding the weight-loss/up & down carousel, it's time to hop off that horse now...just like I did! Walk away from the carousel and start getting stronger everyday so you can consistently stay on your weight-loss plan, all the way to your goal!Love,