I am going to be sharing with you a 7 part series on the best presentation I have ever seen on why our society is becoming so obese and unhealthy.  Bring your family together to watch this 12 minutes.

Here are some of my takeaways from this:

-The past 4 decades we have seen an almost triple increase in obesity

-This is a societal problem, not just an individual problem

-Calories aren’t created equal (finally this is coming out)

-If we don’t change our policies and the environment we are creating, we are in for severe problems

-There are likely dozens of things contributing to the epidemic

-Reducing fat doesn’t make you skinny

-Carbs and sugars are the major nutritional problem

-Obesity is a marker for the diseases under metabolic disorder, but aren’t the cause

-75% of health care expenditures are going towards the 8 metabolic diseases

-Non communicable disease is killing more people in the developing world than infectious disease

I did a 75 minute live webinar that received so much positive feedback from the viewers that I have decided to share it with everyone.  Please note that the first 15 minutes or so the slides weren’t being recorded properly, so please bear with it, the content in the audio is great, it just doesn’t like up with the slides.  It gets straightened out later in the video.

At the end of the presentation I give an offer for anyone to join our FM4L coaching program which consists of a monthly workout and nutritional DVD, along with a private online support group, and eating plans, just to name a few.

This is a cute video to remind us of a VERY serious and not cute problem, more like an epidemic the world is experiencing.  Below is from a recent excerpt I wrote in my newsletter.

Today I wanted to share with you two different stories from the past couple days that tie into one another.

I had a MamaToner come up to me after class and ask me why I don’t talk about cigarettes like I talk about alcohol.

Then yesterday one of my best friends and I went out to lunch and he has such a high disgust level with soda and diet soda. I do too, but he is even more passionate about the subject than me.

How do these two stories tie together?

I told my client the reason I don’t talk about cigarettes is because it is now socially accepted that smoking is not only stupid, it is offensive in many cases to those around.

Getting back to my convo with my best friend….

He was saying that soda and diet soda are where cigarettes were in the 60′s, 70′s, and 80′s. It was socially acceptable and even seen as cool back then to smoke.

There just hadn’t been enough time and research to prove just how toxic and damaging smoking was.

My friend predicts that in the future soda and diet soda, will become like smoking and be looked upon as so stupid that we won’t even need to be having this conversation.

Now the obvious difference here is that you drinking a soda doesn’t directly cause me harm.

But in a way it does…

Excess soda is possibly the greatest culprit of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and so on. Which jacks up all our insurances, which DOES affect us.

So I don’t know if my friend will be right or not. I hope he is, but until that day comes, I will do my best to help soda addicts stop their addiction which is controlling their lives.

I have been fortunate enough to at least have contributed in hundreds of people stopping their addiction once and for all.

I would say 90% of those I talk to after 6 months or more of not drinking say that they don’t miss it, and they feel SO much better because of it.

This is seriously the easiest way to lose weight; don’t drink your calories and don’t substitute fake sugars. That includes in your coffee, tea, or juice.

So my challenge for you this week is to either stop cold turkey, or to cut your consumption by half. Not only will you feel better, you will be doing your body and your teeth good.

I thought it would be cool to read about some women who have made amazing transformations through Fit Moms For Life.  As many set resolutions,I hope these stories will inspire you to make 2013 YOUR year.

Keep moving,

This time of the year pomegranates are one of the more popular fruits.  Sure you can go and buy POM and drink the juice straight, but eating the seeds just adds a little more excitement to the experience.  Up until a couple years ago, I dreaded trying to get the seeds out.  It was an explosive mess of staining juices.  Two years ago my life changed when I discovered a better way to get the fruit out.  Enjoy the video.

Mary is someone I have yet to meet but hope one day to.  She has been a faithful follower of the Fit Moms For Life workouts and eating plans for a couple years and the results are very dramatic.  I really like the part about her story where she shares about being overweight her entire life.  Many people believe that when you are overweight at a young age, you are doomed to a life of obesity, it just doesn’t have to be that way!  Enjoy her story, and write any comments or questions below.

Here is Mary’s story…

“I have been overweight for the entirety of my life.  I have no memories of ever having a flat stomach, not even as a child.  My childhood friends commented often on how my body looked different; one little friend in particular loved to make it a point that I understood that she was so much smaller than I was.

Along with being overweight as a child, I have no memories of a time when I was not following some diet.  My parents would encourage me to exercise and eat healthy.  I read magazines full of fad quick fix diets and I would make real effortful attempts to follow the various diets that I read about.  But despite those efforts and my parent’s encouragement to eat healthy, the kitchen always had Twinkies, ice cream, potato chips, crackers, and sodas on hand… you name it the kitchen had it.  As a kid, and even as an adult, it’s hard to not eat foods that you crave and love if they are so easy to get to.  So despite whichever diet I tried to follow, I was not successful at keeping away from the junk food drawer…yes, my parents had a designated junk food drawer.

I was pretty active as a kid.  I rode my bike a lot, got into inline skating, and walked with my mom.  Billy Blanks came out with Tae Bo when I was in middle school, but despite the exercise that I did, I was still always pretty chubby.

When I was in High School, my parents took me to a weight loss specialist.  I followed the plan that the doctor had put me on religiously.  I was only allowed to eat 900 calories a day, I was taking oral medications that sped up my metabolism and suppressed my appetite, and was even given weekly injections that would boost my energy levels.  While in this program, I lost about 45 pounds and I lost it very quickly.  When I went off to college I was thinner than I had ever been, and I was very happy about it.  However, leaving the doctor’s program with no more appetite suppressors, no more medications that would speed up my metabolism, and no longer eating only 900 calories a day, I quickly gained back the 45 pounds that I had lost, and… by the time I graduated from college I had gained another 40 pounds on top of that.  And, I gained that weight back plus some even while exercising.  I was walking and running consistently through my college years.

I am not a tall girl, I’m somewhere between 5’2”-5’3”, and by the age of 23, I weighed in at 215 pounds.  And I was so ashamed of myself.  I was disappointed that I was unsuccessful at keeping the weight off that I had lost, and was so sad that I was still the fat girl.  For a couple of years I kind of just gave up and resolved that I was just the fat girl and always would be.  But again, I was so ashamed of what I looked like.  I did everything I could to hide myself and disappear.  I wore a sweatshirt and jeans everyday, even in the summer!  I never did anything with my hair, I actually wore baseball caps most of the time.  I NEVER wore makeup. 

I spent the next 2 years living very isolated.  Eventually I got to the end myself in this area; and when you get to the end of yourself, you either choose to fight, or you give up all hope.  I knew that I couldn’t live life the way that I had been living it, and I wanted to live my life as fully as I possibly could.  So when I turned 25, I became flat out DETERMINED that I was going to take some of my excess weight off.  I decided that enough was enough, and I was done living in such unhealth.  I wanted to be able to ride a bike, to be able to hike in the mountains without stopping every 50ft to rest.  I wanted to be able to play and run and have fun.  I wanted to be able to live a physically active and physically playful life.  I decided that I was done isolating, done moping and hiding and wishing that things were different.  I decided in a moment that I was going to combat my unhealthy lifestyle and beat it no matter what it took (never underestimate the power of a choice).

I joined a gym, an all women’s gym because I did not want men to see me.  My parents very generously paid for my membership and also bought me an elliptical machine so that I would be able to exercise on the days that I couldn’t make it to the gym.  I went, yet again, on another diet where I ate things that were low-fat, sugar-free, frozen Smart Ones and Healthy Choice meals, diet sodas, etc… the whole works (right?).  I ate this way, and exercised consistently at the gym and on my elliptical for 6 MONTHS… and I didn’t lose a single pound.

One afternoon, I had just pulled into my driveway after returning from the gym, and I melted down crying in my car.  I was DESPERATE for some breakthrough, for some results for all of the time and effort that I was putting into this.  I believe in God, I love Jesus (I met Jesus when I was 23 years old and got to give my heart to Him), and I was begging Him to help me, to give me something anything that would help me to lose some of the excess weight and get my body physically healthy.  After I was able to get myself out of my car and into my house, I went to my computer and decided to log on to Facebook (which I RARELY do, I have yet to get on board with this whole social media revolution.  I can barely use my cell phone and it’s just a basic flip phone dumb phone device).  But on Facebook, an old friend of mine had tagged me in a notice (or whatever you call it) about Dustin Maher’s fitness program.  What she wrote about Dustin’s program captivated me, so I went to the website.

Click image to learn more about this program and to sign up

I couldn’t believe what I found there.  As I navigated my way through the website, I read about how doing cardio for exercise was ineffective for weight loss.  I absolutely believed that because it had proved to be so true in my life!  He explained how strength training and building muscle was effective for weight loss, because the more muscle you have on your body the more fat you burn.  Everything I read seemed to be true, so I started to get a little excited, I got my hopes up, and checked out what DVDs he had to offer.  Dustin was running a deal on one of his DVD series called Fit Moms for Life, where if I paid for shipping, I would receive the first DVD free.  Now, I am not a mom, but I figured if busy moms could do this, than absolutely I could do this.  So, of course I ordered it.  When it arrived, I saw that I needed a set of dumbbell weights and a yoga ball, so I went to the Wal-Mart and purchased 5lb, 8lb, and 15lb weights to start.  And after the first month, I had actually experienced some weight loss!  I was dying for the 2^nd DVD, I couldn’t afford to buy them, but my parents really do love me and support me however they possibly can, so they paid for all 12 of my DVDs.

Mary now, 74 lbs lighter!

Each DVD also contains a nutrition lesson.  These nutrition lessons are solid gold to me!  I discovered that I knew nothing about nutrition!  After watching a few of them, I realized that the low-fat, sugar-free, Healthy Choice frozen dinner eating plan was ALL WRONG.  Nothing that I knew about food was true.  So, over the past 2 ½ years, I have been on a journey where I’ve had to unlearn everything thing that I’d ever learned about food, and relearn it all from scratch.  I needed to change the ways that I thought about food, so I did just that. I took Dustin’s nutrition guidance very seriously and did some research of my own.  With Dustin’s help I taught myself nutrition, stopped eating frozen meals, and taught myself to cook.  I experienced many MANY kitchen fails, but today I can say that I’m a pretty decent cook.

I paid attention to myself and learned what my food traps were.  For example, from September-May, the Reese’s Company infiltrates the grocery stores.  In September out come the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup pumpkins.  And the day after Halloween, the pumpkins go on sale, and the Reese’s Christmas trees come out.  Then, the day after Christmas, out come the Valentines hearts, followed by the Easter eggs… and the grocery store sells them individually right by the checkout line so that you can grab one (or 5) to have to eat on the drive home.  I know ahead of time, before I even go into the store that these are going to be there, so they don’t catch me off guard and I can avoid caving in.  I decide in advance before I go into the store that I’m not going to buy them, and if I know that I’m experiencing weakness in my food choices, I make it a point to shop at a different store that I know does not sell them so readily.

Also along these lines, I would to go to a party or a get together with friends where lots of salty snacks and baked goods were available.  I would spend all of my energy and thoughts trying to eat as many cookies or chocolates that I could possibly eat without people noticing that I was eating so many.  I wasn’t able to invest in my friendships because I was only thinking about the food.  So I adopted a motto for myself of “enjoy the one”.  I taught myself how to eat only one cookie and one piece of chocolate.  It took a while to learn how to do this, but I can now go to these parties and get togethers, enjoy my friends and invest in my relationships, and I can eat that single cookie that I love, enjoy it, and not be left longing for 12 more of them.

A helpful tip Dustin encourages for your healthy lifestyle is to follow an 80% 20% eating plan.  Eat healthy and wisely 80% of the time, and the not so healthy foods 20% of the time.  This 80/20 gage is so helpful and SO DOABLE.  I spend my 20% primarily on dark chocolate with sea salt and kettle corn.

Over Thanksgiving last year I gained a few pounds, so after that holiday, I journaled about it.  I went over all of the places that I went, what I ate, the food I consumed while I was cooking (you know what I mean; those harmless little bites and taste tests…uh huh).  I learned myself though journaling these things out.  I saw what my traps were, the places where I tripped up.  And after seeing those things and pinpointing where I went wrong, I made a game plan for the Christmas Holiday.   And… I actually lost weight over Christmas last year!  My game plan actually worked.  I ate all of the seasonal foods that I enjoy (I’m one of those weird people that loves fruit cake), but because I had this game plan, I didn’t overdo it.  I know how to handle the holidays without packing on weight and without missing out on the holiday goodies.

I have been doing Dustin’s Fit Moms for Life  program for 2 ½ years now.  I get to use heavier weights now than the 5lb-15lb weights that I started out with.  I now use up to 45lb dumbbells.  With the workouts that Dustin takes you through, his guidance, the encouraging stories of the women featured on his DVDs, and the nutrition and knowledge of food that I have learned… over the last 2 ½ years I have lost between 70-75 pounds, and have kept it off!  I am smaller now than I was during my first few years of college.  My friends and family can’t believe how different I look and encourage me all the time.  I can’t believe the energy that I have and how different my body feels.  My knees don’t hurt nearly as much now THANKFULLY.

I know how to eat.  Without following a diet, I know how to eat healthily and successfully.  I know how to fit a workout into a busy day.  I know what my food traps are and I have a game plan to overcome each one of them.  The way that I think about food has flipped a complete 180 degrees and I don’t see food the same way that I used to.  I don’t worry about gaining back the weight that I have lost.  And I’m actually not finished dropping weight yet, I have about 15-20 pounds left to lose but I know that I am going to lose those remaining pounds.  I feel set up for the rest of my life to live as a healthy woman.  I hope to be a wife and mother someday and I feel set up to be a successful mother in the area of healthy nutrition and exercise (I WON’T have a designated junk food drawer for them).

I am so thankful for what I have learned through the Fit Moms for Life program.  I don’t feel like or worry that I will fail in this area again ever.  Of course, I will have my days where I don’t eat as well as I could have, especially on those days right before my period…yep.  I don’t believe in perfection but I do believe in excellence, so I don’t expect myself to be perfect at this, but I do know how to be successful.  I know how to be successful in the day to day, and in the long run.  I would absolutely recommend this Fit Moms for Life program to everyone; to moms, single women, and I would even recommend it for men.  It’s possible, it’s doable, and it’s sustainable.”

-Mary

I would like to share with you a story that is a few years in the making, but well worth the wait.  As you will read below, Jill and I have spent a lot of time together, going through an entire pregnancy and seeing her kids grow up.  What impresses me most about Jill is her intensity in her workouts, and her consistency at showing up.  I think one of the biggest takeaways you will discover through her story is the same one I say all the time, it is what you put in your mouth that matters most when looking to lose weight.

Here is her story…

“I was always one of those girls that was “athletic,” but never “skinny.” Even while playing high school sports, I could gain the muscle, but always had that extra layer on to keep me from feeling thin and confident. I look back at pictures from that time and think that I was crazy to ever feel dissatisfied with myself. I would give anything to be that small again.

A lot of negative self-image thoughts along with a demanding college work load led me to gain a few pounds my freshman year. Sophomore year was a few more. By senior year I had put on about 20 pounds, even with working out regularly. It was the emotional eating that did me in.

I went through a lot of self-esteem issues the next several years. Lost a few pounds here and there, but then always put it back on again when I couldn’t handle things emotionally. The story of my life.

Jill Before

I was around 160 pounds when I got pregnant with my first child and gained the average 30-35 pounds. I was pretty happy that I was considered “average”  and hadn’t gained more than that because I was actually trying to eat well. But when you step on the scale, pregnant or not, and see it hit the 190s, that is scary. After having my baby in January of 2008, most of the pregnancy weight actually came off fairly well just from delivery, but I still wanted to lose those last 10 pounds and then some.

I had been a member at Supreme for a few years and heard about Dustin’s new MamaTone class. Yes, I’ve been doing this for almost 5 years now! (Can you tell I like the class?) Dustin and I exchanged a few emails, and I started my first class in May of 2008. The first class was humbling to say the least. I was out of breath easily, could feel things jiggling that just shouldn’t be, and I think I peed myself doing ladders. One would think that this would send me screaming for the door, but actually it did just the opposite. It made me want to try; to do this for myself and my daughter, even though I felt guilty knowing my baby was away from me and crying. I knew the other mothers in the class were there for a reason too and that we could all support each other in achieving our goals.

As months passed, I gained muscle, confidence, athleticism, and more weight. What!? How could that be!? Yes, as an emotional, nursing mother I continued to eat like one too. I was eating better so to speak, but I now know that what I thought was “healthy,” just wasn’t really. I spoke with Dustin about it, and he suggested I start food journaling. It was the best thing I ever did, and it worked amazingly. I finally started losing the weight and muscle started showing through. Once I saw what I was eating and how much of it, I could see where I needed to make adjustments and what was working for me.

I continued on with the class because I enjoyed it so much, and by 2010 I was down to 150 pounds. Still not where I wanted to be in the long term, but a stronger, leaner, happier me. I continued to challenge myself during class by lifting heavier weights, boosting the treadmill up, and began more positive thinking. The combination worked wonders.

Jill After

And then my husband and I decided to have another baby. Here we go again. That time around was a different experience. I ate much healthier, and I still gained 30 pounds, but I did MamaTone up until the day before my second baby was born. The pregnancy weight came off quicker, but those last looming pounds stuck with me through the year. And then there was the holidays.

January 2012 I was back up to 163 pounds and feeling like I’d been stuck in this rut for far too long. With no more excuses and a new year to motivate me, I did the programs Dustin put in place: 30 Days of Awesomeness, did another 30 days on my own, Little Black Dress Project. In 6 months I lost over 30 pounds, 22 inches, and am down to a size 4.

I have learned so much over these past several years through these classes and food challenges: don’t judge yourself or others, think positive thoughts and surround yourself with positive people, never give up hope, challenge yourself with realistic goals, be supportive and others with support you, write down what you eat and you will be amazed at what is going into your body, be a role model for your children, find time for yourself. By sharing what I’ve learned about myself and this process, I hope that someone else out there can relate in some way and to bring them encouragement to turn their life around.

Thank you so much Dustin (and your trainers) for believing in me and giving me the tools to help me help myself. I’m feeling like the real me again. A more confident woman who now knows that being labeled “skinny” isn’t what’s important. To me, it’s about a healthy physical and emotional lifestyle: being strong, fit, eating well, feeling like a good person. The person I always imagined I could be, but just didn’t know how.”

-Jill

Hi! My name is Ahndea May , a busy mom of 5 littles, including 1 year old twin girls, a Fit Mom’s For Life and whole health advocate, and a million other things in between, while trying to laugh as much as possible, create memories with my family, and continue to learn and dream as we navigate everyday challenges. I hope to bring you some encouragement, tips, motivation and hopefully cheer, through my spattering of writings documenting this ride we call life! And of course it starts with food! My favorite thing! On these brisk winter days my family loves the warmth of soup! Chicken noodle is certainly at the top of the list.  Chicken broth or stock is one of the most healthy things you can eat.  In fact, it’s known to build immunity and we certainly need that during flu season!  Now… I am a busy mom and appreciate the convenience of just grabbing the best looking picture on a can of soup at the store and still do it, but it would take a dictionary with words like “disodium guanylate” to know what your actually eating and usually homemade is just better! Making homemade stock is super easy and the health benefits are worth it.  Sally Fallon writes in Broth is Beautiful “Good broth can resurrect the dead”  she tells us it is a cure-all in traditional households, a healer to sore throats and to the soul.

I have come up with a super easy recipe for natural Chicken Noodle Soup and Chicken Stock.  You can make the soup with or without noodles.  After cooking you can freeze any unused stock for future recipes, or even if they don’t, you can add it to your potatoes or use it to cook chicken, veggies etc. 

If you don’t have a slow cooker I recommend getting one immediately!  It is such an essential item in our home and saves me tons of time. I can put any meat I want to make in the morning and by 4pm I have a wonderful base to work from. Makes my life much easier with 5 littles.

1 whole chicken – organic is best especially for the quality of stock

1 bag of carrots or chopped long carrots

1 large white onion

1 bag small celery stalks

A bunch of fresh dill chopped

A bunch of fresh parsley chopped

2 tbs of apple cider vinegar

Sea Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

8 cups of water or more enough to cover your chicken and veggies

*Egg noodles can be prepared and added to the slow cooker an hour before serving

*you can add a few slices of fresh lemon if you like citrus

*you can also split the water with organic chicken broth for added flavor

Cook on low all day at least 8 hours.  Slowly cooking will get the best quality and nutrient filled stock.

Once cooked remove the whole chicken with tongs and set into a baking dish.  The meat will practically fall right off the bone. I use the tongs to gently pull off all the meat and then place back into the soup.  If you are just making stock, you now have delicious chicken that can be used for sandwiches, wraps, salad etc. Once the chicken is added back into the soup, I then make the egg noodles separately and add those to the soup as well.  It tastes best if you let all of these marry together for another hour before serving.

I am a huge bread fan (all in moderation, right?), especially the dense grainy kind from Great Harvest Bread Co.  I also made a little butter spread with unsalted butter, parmesan cheese, garlic powder and sea salt.  This was a very yummy addition to our soup for sure!

This was Sharon BEFORE kids (Sharon on Left)

If you missed part 1 of Sharon’s story CLICK HERE…

This is Sharon today

A very smart person told me once ”if you drop your phone, are you going to smash it or pick it up” well I’m not going to smash my phone and I’m not going to smash my health just because I fell off the wagon for a treat or two.  That’s what keeps me going.  And my great kids, how they know I’m strong, and they see what I’m doing everyday.  And those are the footsteps I want them to follow.

Snack – I always have a snack with my kids.  Often it is on the run.  Often it is my coffee.  But when I have time, I usually like sliced apples that I share with my kids and cheddar cheese.  My kids like cereal bars, so I’m trying to find a substitute for that – home made protein bars sort of thing.  I’m working on it!  We also do a lot of smoothies, I often let my kids pick the color and do my best to make it.  Call it a challenge   they like hulk so green is a big one!

Feel free to write a question in the comment section below and Sharon will answer you.

In this 60 minutes interview that aired recently, Sanjay Gupta investigates what is causing the obesity and disease epidemic of the past century.  For those of you who are avid readers of this blog, none of this information will come as a surprise to you… It is what I have been so passionately sharing for close to a decade.  It is great to have something that people believe to be credible (60 minutes and Sanjay) backing this up and making it known to the world.

Check out the video

Some days I feel like I am hitting my head against the wall, swimming upstream, trying to get people to “get” this to the point where they make lasting changes.  I don’t get why it is so hard to change until I am reminded that sugar is as addictive as cocaine for some.  For many it is not enough for people to stop excessive sugar consuption despite the fact they know it will most likely take many years off of their life.

Click here to discover the brand new 21 Day Rescue Diet Plan I helped create

I believe the plan ahead for us is simple…

-Less Sugar (this is a powerful link)

-More non starchy veggies

-More healthy fats

-More unprocessed natural sources of protein

-No soda, coffee (that has added sugar), sports drinks, or any other sugary beverage

-No Soda or diet soda (yes I repeated it for emphasis, but click this link, different then the above one)

-Less grains

-More water

-More strength training

-More burst training

-More sleep

-More smiling and fun

If we ALL did this, just think about how different the world would be.

Our health care system would go from the brink of self destruction, to a place that dealt more with injuries rather than disease.  Our economy would pick up because less people would be sick, so they could work more, less disability insurance, less spent on drugs, and less spent on health care.  We would have more energy to do the things that we love to do and would be proactive with our bodies and health instead of being reactive.

Now it is your turn.  What do you think about this video and my remarks?  I know I am taking a strong stand the will upset some people, but that doesn’t bother me.  When I believe something to be the truth, based on all the information I currently have, and it involves your well-being and health, you can be sure that I will speak my mind and give you all I have.  Love you all!  Dustin

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