Personal Success

Appetite

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My husband of twenty-one years decided to lose weight. At 6′, he was at his all-time high of 220 lbs. The impetus for change? He saw a picture of himself that a friend took and didn’t like what he saw.

There are several ways to slim down: cut calories, increase physical activity (exercise!) or both. Hubby is choosing to cut calories.  Through research, he’s discovered that in order to reach his target weight of 180 lbs, he cannot go over 2,000 calories.

2,000 calories to a man who has eaten anything he wanted whenever he wanted is a drastic change.

In the past two months, he has stuck to this limit most of the time. He’s now down to 204 lbs. and finds the sacrifice worth it.

As with most things in life, what you do consistently will yield results: both good and not so good. When he chooses to eat a big slice of cake or ice cream, he foregoes dinner.

Doing the right thing is most painful when we think of our appetites in terms of what we are sacrificing, but we usually succeed when we focus on what we “gain.”

Saturday Suggestion (A Cure at Last!)

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My daughter has had chronic stomach problems for as long as we can remember. Often, she has to lie down for an hour or two after eating and it doesn’t matter what it is she ate. Sometimes gluten is bad, sometimes it’s OK. Sometimes fruit is good, sometimes it causes her immense pain.

It got to the point that she’d have stomach pain before she ate in anticipation of the digestive problems.

Of course, stress and anxiety did not help matters.

She took TUMS and every other medicine she could possibly take after eating.

We took her to Children’s Phoenix Hospital and ran tests. No ulcers and no cause could be identified except “sensitivity” to certain foods. It was frustrating.

And then her friend’s father told her he has IBS too, and that these enzyme pills helped him a lot.

And they do! She’s still trying to figure out the timing: take pills half an hour before eating? An hour? And it’s challenging to remember to take them before eating…but they are definitely better than not taking them.

They are also pricey. This bottle of 90 pills cost $68.45 on Amazon. But the smile on her face and the newfound energy makes it worth it!

 

 

Gimme

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There are a number of ways to draw new customers to your business:

  • Advertising
  • Coupons
  • Word of Mouth

Word of Mouth is powerful because it means others can vouch for the quality, service, and value of what you’re selling.

Advertising might be necessary just to get your store/gig/restaurant some attention. But if you are stellar, Word of Mouth will take care of it.

However, coupons often draw the worst customers. They come in expecting something for (close to) nothing. These “clients” will use a $30 coupon towards a $33 meal and leave a 75 cent tip.*

Is this the kind of clientele you are seeking?

*This just happened to my daughter, a server, and I’m pretty sure they were supposed to spend more than $33 to get the discount…but she’s 16 and new…but the point is, the coupon drove people like that to the business.

Utopia

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Watercolor, The Giver pages, ink
“You are way off of baseline.”
from Blade Runner

About this piece:

I watched the scene regarding baselines from “Blade Runner” the other day. I started thinking about society and laws and citizenship and what true self-determination might be.  What is patriotism? Citizenship? What are our obligations and how does the individual contribute to the mass?

The Body

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Sitting around or lying around all day makes you weak. (Livestrong.com)

With the pervasive use of screen time, people are being increasingly physically passive. I heard this quote the other day that rang so true to me:

The body will become better at whatever you do, or don’t do. You don’t move? The body will make you better at NOT moving. If you move, your body will allow more movement.

— Ido Portal

Exercise, we all know, is good for the heart and the bones. It keeps your blood pressure in check.

 

As we train our newly adopted pitbull mix, I wanted to ensure we handled aggression in her properly.

“Dog exercise burns the dog’s excess energy and helps maintain the dog’s healthy state of mind. This is important because, in order to talk to the mind, you need to remove the energy from the body.”

Cesar Milan

I can totally relate to this! I need to exercise and (re)move energy in my body so that my mind can work better as well. Perhaps more humans (especially in cars and on the Internet) would be less aggressive if they exercised daily.

In the end, you only have one body and it’s your sole vehicle for moving about in this world. Help your body take you where you want to go.