TheFATladyBlog

Getting the FAT Lady Back in Shape with a #TwitFit Campaign

My goodness! This poor neglected blog is a reflection of the of my personal fitness - neglected, ignored, shunned, and shortchanged! It is time to update and implement new strategies both for the bod and the blog.

Joeann Fossland, Queen of Bliss, posted a note on Twitter today looking for a Wii Fit partner to share weight loss accountability. I found myself drawn to the notion of an accountability partner but I do not have a fancy Wii machine.

My favorite technology tool these days is a TweetDeck desktop client (shown at right) for my daily Twitter fix. There must be a way to use Twitter to lose weight and get in shape! I responded to Her Royal Blissfulness with another thought about accountability design: How about a #TwitFit partner? I can dust off my Fat Lady blog and play here with links and reporting. Can u Wit Fit with TwitFit?

So here it is ... I am launching a weight-loss program via Twitter. I created a new hashtag, #TwitFit, for people who want to play with me. I'll find a scale somewhere and weigh in ... will post that news later. I commit to posting each day ... steps I take toward better health and fitness ... changes in eating and exercise ... and the fun and challenges. I will post here and on Twitter, of course! Let's get TwitFit!

What A Way to Launch A New Job Announcement;Who's the Plus-Size Hannah Montana in the Video?

Courage in Women Is Often Mistaken for Insanity

Miriam Bell is a fellow Tucson REALTOR who shares political inspiration with her friends (author unknown). She shared this with us today:

"This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

"Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

"The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

"And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic'.

"Lucy Burns - They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

"Dora Lewis - They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

"Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.

"For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food - all of it colorless slop - was infested with worms.

"Alice Paul - When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

"So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because - why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

"Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie Iron Jawed Angels. It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

"All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

"My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was - with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

"HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

"It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized ... And it is inspiring to watch the doctor
refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.

"The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity'."

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote Democratic, Republican or Independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.

Rigid Exercise Regimen Starts With 2-Minute Smile

A 30-day plan to harness the Law of Attraction begins with a two-minute smile designed to increase serotonin levels in the brain. Coach Joeann Fossland is getting ready to launch another Relax and Attract teleconference series based upon the works of Esther and Abraham Hicks of The Secret fame. I have attended the teleconference series three times ... it becomes more powerful each time!

Leading medical experts concur with the premise that smiling is good for one's health"

“When you are stressed and have anxiety, there’s an activation of various stress areas in the brain.  This alters the concentration of various hormones in blood.  These stress hormones have a variety of impacts on health – you feel stressed, they impair your ability to think over time, they increase cholesterol in the heart, and they change how the immune system functions,” says Dr. Bruce Rabin, director of the Healthy Lifestyle Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Joeann's Law of Attraction energy is also a special focus of No Blogger Left Behind, a blog coaching Webinar series that we co-present. It leaves me smiling . 8-))))

Developing New Eating Habits Is Adventuresome;Following Advice of My De Facto Health and Wellness Coach

My sister Linda may be the most outstanding nurse on Planet Earth. (She is shown at right on her son's arm at his recent wedding. His dad, Linda's husband, walks alongside.) I've decided to start listening to her. It's silly to disregard the advice of a fantastic coach!!!

She suggeest some changes to my diet. These changes include:

• Morning shake with skim milk, three tablespoons of flax seed, and a cup of blueberries
• 10 almonds or walnuts (more than that in one day is a diet buster)
• Substitute egg whites for whole eggs.
• Brisk, low imact exercise each day
• A baby aspirin each day

I think it is funny that this all makes such good common sense and yet it is so profound on so many levels after such a long period of neglect. Better late than never.

I see the doc tomorrow and we are going to review a plan for betterness ... I feel great ... better will be awesome!!!

The FAT Lady Still Ranks #1 on Google!

Three and a half years after The FAT Lady Blog posted a humorous story about an airport mishap and delay she is still triumphant with a first-place ranking in Google. A frequent search finds this blog top ranked, followed by 2,199,999 posts collected after a web visitor types the ever popular keywords "blogger boobs."  My older son tells me that "this information is useful trivia you do not need to share with my friends," so I ask my readers to keep this little nugget of information just between us!

Web analytics point to similar results with "plus size boobs" and also some traction in languages that I cannot identify!

Still, it makes me proud! LOL

Makeover Task: Category Cleanse MLM Links!

Despite the fact that I still get web site visitors coming through keywords like "Goji" and "Freelife" I am going to go through my archves and remove category links to those crummy multi-level marketing links. I think that Freelife makes good vitamins, but my present-day thinking has changed about a business built upon juice that is marked up a gazillion percent.

So, I will eschew the nutaceuticals and the "cleanse" products that are hawked without scientific study. I am going to stick with research-based information and clinical studies over at DrWeil.com. I expect to complete a blog category "cleanse" this week!

Makeover Underway at The FAT Lady Blog;And Then The FAT Lady Goes Out for a Walk and Swim!

WELCOME to the NEW skin of The FAT Lady Blog!

The long overdue makeover of this poor, neglected blog commences today. I kept a shot of the old skin (shown at right)for posterity. I think I like the blue template and the wider text column width. I LOVE the ease with which I can accomplish this. I have to work on a header for the top of the page, but I think that this is a good start. I have to work on some of my other blogs, work on a Clean Sweep -- remove some old links, and bring them up to speed.

This blog is going to get a lot of my bloggy attention in the days ahead as I focus on health and wellness and fitness, and it needs a fresher appearance.

What do you think about the color? I welcome all ideas and suggestions about format AND health!!!

I am going to blog at one of my other blogs and then I am going out for some exercise!

Get Ready for Extreme Makeoverfor The Fat Lady AND Her Blog!

I got a wake-up call last week. I learned that my cholesterol reading is 278. My weight is back up to 248 and that also needs to come DOWN!

The doctor wants me to take Lipitor, a cholesterol reducing drug but I have decided to pursue another plan of action for the time being. I am gong to commence a 60-day plan to reduce my cholesterol naturally by 20%.If that plan works, I will continue the plan in 60-day increments and check my blood levels at the end of each of those periods. Here is the plan:

1. I will exercise for TWO HOURS each day for five days a week, concentrating on low-impact aerobic workouts.
2. I will be highly intentional about each morsel of food that I place in my mouth with thought about the nutritional consequences of each bite.
3. I will check in daily on The FAT Lady Blog and commence a blog makeover at the same time.
4. I will add large measures of prickly pear to my diet. There is much discussion about the cholesterol reducing properties of the prickly pear in books and scientific research. This appears on Care2.com:

"A daily dose of 5 to 9 grams per day of prickly pear fruit pectin may be effective in the prevention or reversal of a hypocholesterolemic condition, though some studies showed that lower doses of 2.50 g of prickly pear pectin demonstrated effectiveness.

"Bulk: The average-sized fruit contains approximately 3.60 g of dietary fiber. Eating 3 fruits per day would double the minimum treatment requirement. This dosage would then not only help to satisfy daily vitamin and mineral nutritional requirements, but would also serve up a healthy dose of flavonoids."

A Year Ago Today ...

... Thor and I got into a car in New Jersey and pointed it West. We landed in Tucson. We never looked back. We have found Paradise in the desert and friendship with the winged creatures and the small scaly reptiles. Life is very good.