Saturday, December 19, 2009

December 19, 2009

This week was our last meeting of W.O.W for this session. We will restart Jan 9th. We hope to see you all here with us! We are excited to have Melanie back teaching classes and she has an awesome new idea for a motivational plan. I will let her debut her plans herself, in January. Let's just say that it will be a lot of fun and may culminate with a neat resolution in May.

Today we also talked about some of our success during the week. A few examples were: being mindful and aware of what we were eating, filling our home with more healthful snacks, and budgeting snacks with Ziplocs and little containers. It felt great to look at things we did well.

Melanie also shared with us some thoughts on service. When we think of Christ, we think of his kindness and love. He was not selfish in his actions. As we look to serve others and provide a healthy environment for our family, friends, and neighbors, we ourselves are immersed in that healthy place, also. We reap the benefit of the healthy food we prepare for our family and the environment of movement that we create in our home. How much more fit would we be if we took those wiggly tots (or teens) out for a walk instead of plopping them in front of a screen? With our hearts turned to others in love, we can feel the hope and forward progression of our own goals. What a beautiful principle. Elder Oakes spoke of this concept in his talk "Unselfish Service". He states the following:

"Our Savior gave Himself in unselfish service. He taught that each of us should follow Him by denying ourselves of selfish interests in order to serve others.

“If any man will come after me [He said], let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:24–25; see also Matthew 10:39)."

Now, there is a difference between being unselfish or humble and being a door mat. The Savior doesn't ask us to have unhealthy relationships. He asks us to turn to him and try to do good things. Health and physical strength are righteous desires and the Lord is willing to give us more help in that area then we are probably able to comprehend. As we turn to the Lord for instruction and guidance he will find ways to lift our burdens and heal our wounds as we look to do the same for others.

Have a Merry Christmas and a healthy New Year!



Monday, December 14, 2009

Weekly class and challenge post

We meet on Saturdays at 8 a.m., though I wasn't able to attend, I wanted to be sure that you knew a little about what our class talked about and what our challenge is this week.

Our Weekly Challenge:

Budget your Christmas sweets. Simply enjoy the season!

Class Time
:

This week we learned about the importance of exercise and how that benefits us during menopause. Kaye, who taught this class, will let me know the article she used in teaching the class and I'll update it here on this blog.

For now, I'll add a couple of related articles from the challenge and class time for you to read below:

Ease into Menopause with Exercise by Paige Waihner

Mindful Eating During the Holidays
by Dr. Beverly Bird, Psy.D., and Gelsie Lessig, R.D., L.D.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Genesis of this blog

I find it interesting how things like this blog get started. It starts with a simple idea:

This information is so great.

I really like what I learn coming to WOW each week!

It's amazing, our progress, isn't it?

We should remember, as a group, what we are doing.

Let's start a blog about WOW!


One appropriately passionate volunteer later to set up the blog and Wa-La! Here we are!

Where we go from here, I hope, is on a path to sharing with others about weight loss and healthy living ideas to keep us all heading in that direction. So far, our group has already had success. Once, I remember, at one of the classes we saw how much weight our WOW group had lost collectively since we started last year. I don't remember the actual number but I thought it was truly inspiring. At least, it was for me.
I've asked others in our group to become authors and share their ideas. One of the best things I like about blogging is that it won't be limited to one geographical location. We'll still have our meetings each week at that location and I don't want this blog to ever take the place of those meetings since they are ultra important. You can expect to find out through this blog what we talk about at each meeting and we'll issue a challenge for the week. Let any of us know what you'd like to see on this blog or if you'd like to share.
As each of us share through posts, comments, reading and following this blog I hope we'll learn that we are not alone. Losing weight is so hard but together I hope we'll empower each other in the most positive of ways.

I'm not sure of the exact date that WOW started but I had been wanting to participate. I knew I very much needed to but I hesitated at first. I waited. My situation was not improving so I started to attend in July 2009. I have been going fairly regularly with a few interruptions here and there. I would like to leave you with an overview through links of what I've learned below:

  • Weight-Management Myths Debunked ~Following "the rules" of losing weight was frustrating to me. I thought it could make sense but I'm glad to know that perhaps it is better to find a way that's going to work for me.
  • Discourage ~ I often feel this way about weight loss. I liked the lesson when Erin had us really think about the actual definition of this word and think about how we might hinder ourselves. She shared this poem: Discouragement - A Tool of the Devil
  • Having a "can do" attitude. Erin shared another poem: A Woman of Strength
  • Food Exchange List ~This may be helpful for some to think about what they are eating more. I know Erin talks about simply stopping eating when you're full a lot as one approach. It's just one of the handouts I had.
  • 6 Tips for Spotting a Fad diet ~Erin shared this short Ensign article by Pauline Williams who is a registered dietitian. It created a lot of discussion when we realize what "fads" we're really up against. I thought it was helpful.
  • Flexibility chart ~In the class, we've talked many times about the importance of stretching. I need to work on this myself. For me, I need to actually see someone do some of these stretches. Something for a future class hopefully...
  • Walking ~Increasing our activity by setting goals or challenging ourselves. One way I did this is by joining a walking challenge. I still have a long way to walk and I'm behind on this challenge really. I do like the information they've shared about their experience with this walking challenge.
I hope this may help you find a place to start. Why weight?

Friday, December 11, 2009

Welcome to W.O.W..

You made it here! Welcome. W.O.W is Word of Wisdom. We focus on healthful living and weight loss. We are here to find support and sisterhood as we wade through the attitudes and obstacles we all face. Everyone has a different plan. We don't discuss diet plans or fad schemes. We do discuss sound gospel principles found in the Word of Wisdom, prudence, thanksgiving, knowledge, and more. We will also all look "WOW" as we lose more excess weight and let more of that Light of Christ out.

How do we do it? Each week, we follow this general template:
  • we weigh in (private or public)
  • pass out award stickers for any losses and for exercising our heart
  • discuss one of our 6 Basic Principles of Health and Weight Loss (A.N.S.W.E.R)
  • issue a challenge for the week
We work very hard to be respectful of each other and keep everything confidential. Remember, What happens in W.O.W, stays in W.O.W! We are meeting every Saturday at 8am and we are out the door by 9. Melanie Johnson is our awesome coordinator. This blog is made by and for and individuals of W.O.W and our experiences that we have in the group individually.Though most of us are members of the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this is not an official publication or website of the Church mentioned. We are not limited to our ward boundaries though and all are welcome. Won't you join us?