BMI Oh My!

Body Mass Index (BMI), is a standard way of measuring height and weight as it relates to body fat. When I calculated mine, the results read like this:

According to the information that you provided, you fall into the Obese I classification. Therefore, your risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease is High.

Wayne Dyer, author of The Power of Intention,might argue that our physical bodies mirror the way we see ourselves. In other words, Because of My Intentions,
I look the way I do (now).

Dr. Dyer recommends we change our inner dialogue to sound like this:

"I'm headed in the direction of perfect health. I have no shame or guilt about myself or my behavior. If I choose to be a couch potato, I'll be a healthy, trim, beautiful couch potato. I love my body. I'm taking great care of it because it houses the sacred being that I am. It is my intention that whatever I eat will be converted to energy that will make by body feel vigorous and strong." (From Being In Balance: 9 Principles for Creating Habits to Match Your Desires.)

BMI - "Be More Intentional" - sounds like a good way to start the weekend.

We Admitted...

Nobody likes to admit defeat. Nobody likes to admit life has become unmanageable.
I didn't really consider - until today - that I have used food to medicate myself in much the same way I used to use alcohol. Bummer.

Here's an excerpt from page 48 of The Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom:

"If you are chronically overweight, I know that your manner of living can be characterized as inert, harried and chaotic. You do not exercise; you are not a member of a gym; or if you are, you haven't actually graced the door of one in ages, and quite predictably, your main leisure time activity is watching television. Even your internal and emotional reactions are keeping your weight-sustaining lifestyle alive. Yes, you have set up your world and chosen your lifestyle in a way that supports staying overweight. You have chosen to live in a way in which no other result could occur."

Ouch, ouch, ouch. Yes, that was me until 12 days ago. But with the help of folks like Bob Greene and Phil McGraw, I'm learning to structure a different lifestyle - one day at a time.

And if I could describe this place of renewed hope, it would
sound like this.

Fill Your Emotional Well

This morning, while preparing to speak to the local genealogical society about how to leave a legacy, I was reviewing some old journals when I ran across this clip I had taped to a page in 2001. (The italics show passages I highlighted.)

"By the time I got to Paris I need no project, no art or architecture to structure my days. I had miraculously reconnected with my oldest friend - myself. I was no longer furious with my body for falling apart on me. During my illness, I had listened to audiotapes by intuitive healer Caroline Myss. She talks about how hard it is to keep promises to ourselves. We say we'll get up and go running, but we don't. We'll bend over backward to keep our word to a lover, a friend an employer, even a stranger. But we let ourselves down.

"When we are ill, Myss says, we tell our body to get better, that we will appreciate it and treat it well, but our body knows better than to believe us. My illness had no simple cause. It wasn't because of smoking or poor diet or anything I had been warned about. But before I got sick, I had never taken my own need for care and attention seriously. I promised myself a million things - to try a yoga class, to stop filling my weekends with a gazillion errands, to get up early and watch the sun rise. I very rarely kept those vows, but I could be counted on to show up for anyone and everyone who asked.

"So in Paris, I made a decision: It wasn't going to take another frightening illness for me to give myself a break, to say no, to remember what mattered most to me. Since then, travel has become more than a respite from the world I live in; it's a way to refill my emotional well." (Sorry, I didn't save the source.)

Back in 2001, I hadn't written the first travel article. But I wanted to. And I have. And I still want to. Now I remember why. And remembering that makes today easier.

What fills your emotional well?