's motd Saturday Aug 6, 2011

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MONOPOLY

Saturday, 06 August 2011

At

926 St. Louis Street back home in New Orleans, on Friday

nights, after eating crawfish, fresh crab and fried

shrimp, our family would clear the dining room table and

set up to play the game, Monopoly. I wasn't

much on board games but Monopoly? I could play it for

hours. I loved to roll those little dice and oh, those

game piecs were so cute. (Remember the little ish

Terrier?) You'd roll the dice then hop from square to

square. The aim was to amass as much property and money

as you could...without going to jail! Hmmm, sounds like

that movie, Wall Street starring

, doesn't it?

Anyway, people have given me very clever versions of the

Monopoly game over the years. There're so many and the

game is an American classic. And you know what? Every

time I open my closet and see one of the Monopoly games

I've collected, I can still hear my mom, dad, my brother

Lenny and I all laughing as we rolled the dice and moved

our game pieces around the board. Don't land on Go

To Jail, Shirley! LOL.

But

what does the word "monopoly" mean? Well, you know me,

I looked it up and here's the definition: exclusive

control, possession or use of something. Hmmm.

Okay, put your thinking caps on as you run that

definition through your heads again. (I'm going

somewhere with this.)

And here we go...does food have a monopoly on

your life? Does food control you? Does food

possess you? Okay, I like to be honest with

you. See, there was a time in my life when I would have

had to answer yes to all of those questions.

Years ago, almost all day, my mind was

possessed...thinking about food. And yes,

food did, without a doubt control me--and

my weight.

I've read millions of letters over the years and in

them, people have told me how, at times, they used food

to mask the hurt in their pasts. They use food to

soothe their emotions.

Now

you know what happens when food has that kind of

monopoly over your life, don't you? That's right, you

end up gaining weight. You start out overweight, move

on to becoming obese and, in the most severe cases of

food's monopoly of their lives, a person can end up morbidly

obese.

Sadly, I have seen this process repeated in so many

people's lives over the years. But the bottom line is

that food should not be allowed to control your life.

YOU should control your life!

You're

the one who has to use your brain, determination and

guts. Stand up to the food, show it and show

yourself that you are in charge of your

life. You must say NO to the food,

especially to those foods that are loaded with sugar,

grease, salt and calories. And the more you stand up

to the food, the stronger you'll get and before you know

it, food won't have a monopoly on your life anymore.

If you haven't begun working to take control of the

food, it's time you did just that. Get

yourself a FoodMover to help you

with eating the proper portions of the right foods

you should be eating everyday.

Hey,

it's time to use your Get Out Of Jail Free

card and don't give food MONOPOLY over your

life, ever again!

Love,