Happy Holidays from Cranky Fitness! Plus, Very Last-Minute Gift Idea

photo via James Vaughan

By Crabby McSlacker

Whatever winter holiday you celebrate, and whatever your favorite traditions are,

photo via James Vaughan

let's hope it was, or is, or will be, a lovely, peaceful, and joyous occasion! I'll be very curious if any of you are willing to share what your winter celebrations are like.

I've been blogslackin' again, but not just due to the buying-a-new-house-on-a-whim shenanigans. I'm back to working on my novel again. (Yay?)

But not being around as much as I used to be, I've been really missing everyone. You guys rock! You are part of my community, part of my family even, and I know exactly how weird that sounds. And so before I start the whole New Year's Resolution Let's Kick Ass in 2016 yada yada yada stuff, I want to sincerely wish you all the happiest of holidays. 

As you may know, here at the Crab and Lobster household, we are not religious. Nor do we believe that there is a  jolly fat guy in a red suit who circumnavigates the globe distributing presents with the help of flying reindeer. Thankfully, we have no children to indoctrinate with any improbable Christmas myths either. Because isn't that a weird cultural tradition when you think about it?  "Let's all lie to our kids about Santa Claus until they get old enough to figure out that we're full of shit. So when it's time for those "stay in school" and "don't smoke" and "be nice to everyone, even the unpopular kids" lectures, we'll have absolutely no credibility!

But again, no kids here, so what do I know?

So anyway, we celebrate "Christmas" because that's what we both grew up with. But it's a Christ-free, Santa-free, low key version of Christmas. "Christmas Lite."

It's mainly about connecting with family and friends.  And hell, let's be clear: it's also about desserts. And Presents. We've tried to be grown-ups and skip the over-eating and the presents part, but as it turns out? We like stuffing our faces with sweets and getting and giving presents.

Every year we say: "let's not do anything about presents this year!" "Let's not eat a whole bunch of cookies and cakes and candies until we're ready to explode!" And every year, we are totally lying.

Fortunately, we both grew up with the "open presents Christmas morning" tradition, not the horrible alternative, the jump-the-gun, Christmas Eve unwrapping.  I know this is customary in some countries and cultures, but WTF? You wake up Christmas morning and the holiday is already over? No, no, no, a thousand times no! That's just wrong. (For us!) 

We also drag Christmas morning out as long as possible. One person, opening one present at a time. Everyone watches and exclaims. Even if we are just opening gift cards for retailers we have specifically requested ahead of time.

This year, we are more geographically far-flung than usual, which is a bummer.  But we are hoping to have a happy Skype-mas and share the present unwrapping festivities via the interwebs.  (Fingers crossed).

But Speaking of Christmas Presents...

Do you sometimes find it hard to buy something that is useful enough not to be a total waste of money, yet not so everyday-useful as to be a bit... unexciting?

No, actually, they don't.

photo via James Vaughan

I can not recall the last time I fondled my vacuum-cleaner.

photo via James Vaughan

Or maybe you just want to buy yourself a present? But one that would actually reduce suicidal or homicidal ideation during a stressful holiday season?

Well, some of you may be ahead of me here, because as you may recall, I'm a big fan of Rick Hanson's programs, and his awesome Foundations of Well-Being Program is on sale if you sign up before January 1st! Plus, there's a 30-day money-back guarantee if you sign up and then flake out.

Am I an affiliate? Hell yes! But the reason I pimp for Rick is because he is insanely smart and helpful, not because I get an occasional check. I get tons of affiliate offers (God knows why, for an almost-dead blog, but whatever) and I turn 'em all down. Because apparently I'm too stupid to be motivated by money.

I could go on forever about what a great resource the program is, because not only do you get Rick's presentations, there are guest speakers, activities, quizzes, forums etc, plus a monthly live Q&A. 

This stuff really works: you CAN rewire your brain for more happiness.  But gosh, guess what? It takes a little practice, and consistency, and effort. Most people find that without some kind of structured program, it just doesn't happen.  

(Note: if you plug "Rick Hanson" in the search box at Cranky Fitness, you can read a scary, almost stalkery number of posts singing his praises. To sum up, Rick is (a) brainy (b) warm (c) funny (e) humble (f) pragmatic (h) straight-forward (i) entertaining and (j) a hell of a nice guy.

Could you, or anyone you love, benefit from a program like this? Then get a move on, and if you pay for the year upfront before January 1, you get a big discount. More info at the Foundations of Well-Being site.

Of course I can't find my affiliate log-in info, because I am a disorganized nincompoop, and waited 'til the last minute to put this post up. So if the link doesn't work, bear with me, I'll figure it out when Rick's peeps are back in the office. Just let me know if you try to sign up and it ain't happening. Also, I'm not exactly sure how you gift it. There's always the endearing home made gift certificate approach, right? And then you figure out the sign-up thing with your recipient once it's not a surprise. (Or heck, there may be a gift option, but I can't get very far in the sign-up process to test it because I'm already signed up).

Oh, and in other business news, I just wanted to alert and remind anyone who's thinking about going to the Prevention R3 Summit in Austin with me that it's coming up before too long: it's January 15th and 16th.  Remember when I blogged about the R3 Summit? It's a women's health summit with tons of speakers, demonstrations, etc, and now they've added Joan Lunden to the line-up too.  Maybe a little motivation for any New Years goals you may be contemplating? But our discount code has changed, it's now PVNR3SDCRANKY1. (But I'm NOT an affiliate on this one, just attending for kicks and possible free food).

So what do you guys do to celebrate (or not) the winter holidays? Any other good very last-minute gift ideas?

Pack it in, Pack it out!

Guest Post by Jan Bono

Well folks, Crabby has messed up post-scheduling yet again. (Shocking, right?) She should have run this guest post by Jan B much sooner. Why? Well because it contains a December 10th deadline for ordering what could be a nice little Christmas present for a loved one, or hell, yourself! At least if you're the sort who actually aims to give Christmas presents on or before December 25th.  There's still time, but alas, not much. Crabby hereby apologizes and swears she will try not to be such a nitwit in the future.  --Crabby

In Crabby McSlacker’s recent Checkin' In blog post, she invited us to let her know what we’ve been up to, what we might be planning, and what’s on our minds these days.

Yes! She actually wrote that! So I’m taking her up on her invitation and telling you all how I’ve managed to abandon my daily fitness regime, immerse myself in a pool of self-pity, and resent the everyday exercise opportunities that have been forced upon me.

But wait! There’s more!



Regular readers of this blog will remember that Rick, my travelling companion, tech guy, and "forever fiancé," died of congestive heart failure last April.

What followed was a horrid downhill spiraling of emotional and physical pain, and an eventual abandonment of any semblance of healthy food plan.

Rick, as my Tech Guy, had been responsible for setting up my website, making my entire house a wifi zone, and doing the internal hyperlink formatting necessary for getting my eBooks into the “Premium” distribution catalogs.

Without him, I didn’t know if I could even continue writing, and if I did, how would I get my books out there for others to read?

But way back in the farthest, darkest, cobwebbiest corners of my mind, I begrudgingly remembered I had made him a pinky-swear-promise just days before he passed. I had sworn that this was the year I would get the first two books of my mystery series published and available in time for the dreaded “Holiday Bazaar Season.”

Technically, the mystery books were finished last year. But last year, as Rick’s health deteriorated, he pushed me to put “Back from Obesity: My 252-pound Weight-loss Journey” on the front burner. It was a huge undertaking, and just one day before he went into the hospital for most of the final eight months of his life, we completed the book.

But what about the mystery series?

In 1985, I had an idea for a cozy mystery series set along the SW Washington Coast. Write what you know, right? I had the main character, a few secondary characters, and the general plotlines of 8 or 10 books pretty much figured out. But life intervened, and I stuck them away in a file folder in my desk for “sometime later.”

With the advent of computers, and with Rick’s help, I resurrected the dream, and completed book one in 2011, and book two in 2013. But try as I may, I couldn’t find an agent or publisher looking to get behind another cozy mystery series.

“Cozies” are a specific type of mystery. They have an amateur sleuth who works with the police department to solve the crime. They take place in a small town. There’s a quirky cast of characters, and lots of humor. What they don’t have is graphic violence or blatant obscene language. In other words, they’re like “Murder She Wrote,” only on paper.

So after a full year of trying to land my books in the mainstream, Rick and I decided just to do it ourselves. We worked together and came up with what we considered fabulous cover ideas, and we were so close to holding these books in our hands, we could almost taste it. (Sorry for the mixed metaphor, but you get the drift.)

But this time, death intervened, and I just didn’t know if I could, or should, power through it all by myself.

In July, I cleared the deck of every other iron I had in the fire and gave myself the gift of one full month to either “crap, or get off the pot.” I was either going to take these books through one final edit and get them to the printer, or I was going to put the file away forever, and renege on my promise to Rick.

As you can see by these photos, I got the job done. Amazingly.

And now I’m hard at work, and working much too hard, for 10 weekends in a row, to haul the books out of the house, load my vehicle, haul the books and display stands in and out of the bazaar venues, set up, take down, and pitch them to eager, and maybe not-so-eager, readers.

Marketing like this ain’t for sissies, that’s for sure!

But I’m hoping that somewhere, somehow, Rick is smiling, knowing how responsible he was for this turn of events, and I’m grateful for his insistence that I follow through “for him.”

It’s been a tough year, and I’m tougher for it. I’m even building back my muscle strength by carrying all these boxes of books up and down stairs.

And I’m eating better and getting my life back on track in baby-step increments.

  

So.... If you’ve read this far, and you’re interested in purchasing either/or Back from Obesity, first two books in the Sylvia Avery Mystery Series, or all three in paperback form, I will promise to get them into the mail the next day if you order by December 10.

You can go to my website for more details, www.JanBonoBooks.com, and order them there. OR, if you message me directly through my JanBonoBooks Facebook page, I’ll give you free shipping just for being a loyal Cranky Fitness Reader!

Meanwhile, I’ve invested in a hand truck, but wouldn’t you know it, the darn thing doesn’t navigate the stairs!

HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILDREN HAVE A POSITIVE BODY IMAGE

The link between body image and depression, low self-esteem, social anxiety, and eating disorders has been studied as a personal psychological problem for well over fifty years. Because the prevalence of eating disorders and body image based problems have skyrocketed over the last 20 years, the discussion of body image is now being looked at not strictly as a personal psychological problem, but rather an indication of a social problem. This is great news for us parents! As the body image epidemic grows culturally, we can recognize the problem and prevent it from spreading to our own children. But first, we need to recognize it in ourselves, and we need to understand what body image is.

What is body image?

Body image is defined as a person using his or her body to construct a sense of self. The image of who she is becomes psychologically constructed by how she looks, her attractiveness, her sexuality, how her body performs (athletically), or if her body is healthy. In short, body image is used as a gold standard of worth for people who are able-bodied. Are you attractive enough, thin enough, sexy enough, athletic enough, or healthy enough? I like to refer to these as sacred body-righteous standards. They are sacred because they are believed as unquestionable truths, and righteous because the body is used to define the individual morally. If, however, an individual has the misfortune of a disease, a disfigurement, or an accident that leaves her disabled, none of the body image rules apply and the person is free to be and to love herself without condition. But if you are able-bodied, you are held to an incredibly high standard in order to feel good about your body and for it to be approved.

Once an individual internalizes and believes a body-righteous standard is important and required, he is held to the ideal and compared to it in order to define and prove his worth. When he compares himself to the able-bodied gold-standard, the difference between what he believes is ideal and his actual body creates feelings of dissatisfaction and discontent. But if his body matches the ideal he can feel proud, a sense of power, accomplishment, and safety. Either way, someone who uses body image to define his value, sense of worth, or to construct his sense of identity is at high risk for eating disorders, as well as exercise addiction. But again, for all of this to take hold, an image of what the ideal body is must be recognized, understood, and internalized as an unquestionable “sacred” requirement.

The role of media

Corporate-driven media has been a huge contributing factor to the definition of the idealized body image. They use perfected and airbrushed pictures as examples of what should be aspired to. The diet, beauty, and health industries use perfected body images as their main selling point and motivation behind what they are selling. These businesses send a powerful message that beauty, health, fitness, and thinness are the most important measures of life, worth, happiness, control, and success, and the media they use captures the perfected body-righteous standard in such a way that has stigmatized anything other than the ideal. But corporate media only has power if the consumer actually believes the message behind the body image symbol, and that’s where parents have a key role in either contributing to or preventing the problem.

Positive and negative parenting examples

Parents and family can play an important contributing factor when they, too, have internalized, believed, and encouraged these sacred body-righteous standard

s. Most people are aware that making your teen’s weight and diet a focus is an obvious contributor to negative body image and eating disorders. But, they don’t necessarily understand that how parents feel about themselves and how they treat their own bodies can be just as influential.

Parents who openly discuss their “battle with weight,” who openly judge and criticize parts of their body, who publicly talk about their diets, who describe food as “bad/good” or “clean/dirty,” who feel the need to excuse eating, who have to justify what they eat, or who negotiate for food–all of these positively teach moral importance and values of body-righteousness.

Conversely, powerful contributors to poor body image are the parents and people who believe they actually have the power and righteousness of the ideal body that others aspire to have. Many of these people are in the diet, nutrition, health, and fitness industry and they use themselves as the example. They tend to use their ideal body as a measure of their success and have a higher, more righteous standard for themselves and their children.

Children of these “ideal body” parents are often held to a stricter body-righteous standard, have food restricted needlessly, are forced to exercise for fitness, and they often hear their parents criticize, judge, and even shame other people who are fat, unhealthy, or who don’t believe or prioritize the same body-righteousness. The internal family perfectionism without grace inevitably results in their children’s fear of shame and disapproval if their body doesn’t match the family standard. Essentially, these children are held captive by the strict requirement of their parent’s egotistic standard of righteousness.

These parents are more likely to over-criticize their children’s bodies and make them diet out of their own projected fear of being judged for having an overweight child. These children tend to resent their parents, feel bad about who they are, hide food, over-criticize themselves and their body, and, unfortunately, are at a high risk for eating disorders. But this type of body image captivity and fear mongering doesn’t have to come from a parent. It can come from a spouse, friend, significant other, or society.

While parents and families can certainly contribute to the body image problem, they are just as powerful in preventing it as well. When you find a sense of worth that forgives and eliminates body image, you will have more power to teach your children how to do it for themselves.

Tips to encourage a positive body image

What can we do as parents to raise children to have positive relationships with their bodies? Here are a few suggestions that might help.

1. Find a sense of human-worth that is not defined by body image, physical attractiveness, or any cultural ideology.

2. Love and appreciate your body without condition.

3. If the body you are in is alive, it is perfect.

4. Expose the extreme perfectionism used in the media to manipulate our concepts of body image.

5. Expose the body-righteousness and health-righteousness used in the diet industry and body image culture.

6. Recognize that as an able-bodied human, you don’t actually have a problem.

7. Give yourself the freedom to live life as if the ideal body isn’t possible, as if it doesn’t exist and it never will.

8. Exercise for pleasure, not for an image or an illusion of health.

9. Eat a variety of food and eat pleasurably.

10. Do not diet, and do not encourage your children to diet.

11. Do not weigh yourself or measure yourself in front of your children.

12. Do not body-shame others or body-praise others.

13. Do not discuss your judgment of yourself or others in front of your children.

14. Do not make your children’s looks important or worthy of praise/criticism.

15. Eat when you are hungry and avoid excessive fullness, and encourage your family to do the same.

16. Do not judge food morally.

17. Do not food-shame.

18. Give your children the breathing room to express and dress themselves.

19. Take the seriousness out of your own dress code.

20. Get professional help if you believe you or your child struggles with disordered eating or an eating disorder.

By following these tips, you can improve your own healthy body image and serve as a powerful role model to your child.

* * * * * *

Robin Woodall, BS, ACSM, CSCS, ISSA, Egoscue PAS
Health & Wellness Coach

HOW TO END AN EATING DISORDER IN 60 MINUTES

WHY EATING DISORDER RECOVERY IS SO DIFFICULT

office/dressing room plans

Happy Tuesday! How was your Labor Day weekend?  Yesterday marked the 2 year anniversary of my weight loss journey and I really just played it low key.  It's funny how I finished the 30 days of Keto and the closest I came to a cheat meal was a bowl of turkey chili and some watermelon.  Like I keep telling you guys, once you make this your life, your entire mindset on food changes.

 

But all of that aside, today I wanted to discuss my office and soon to dressing room and office combo.  I haven't done  much in the space except for move some things around a few times just to get an idea of what it is I want the space to feel like.  My process for decorating is very drawn out because I really have to look at the space over and over again a few different ways because I can say "ok, I know what I'm going to do."  Here's a glimpse of one side of the room.  I moved my desk up against the right wall.  It was in the middle, but it doesn't make much sense for it to be positioned there anymore.  I brought in my handbags and a few pairs of my shoes already, but it's all go to have to leave for now because I need to finish painting the space.
 

 

Plans for the space are as follows:

 

* Finish painting

* bring in larger French dresser painted black

* paint and bring in mirror

* new light fixture

* swap out the bookcases for single column style (paint them)

* purchase smaller desk

* take out pink dresser from closet and replace with white bookcase

* find another desk chair or paint and reupholster current chair

* style and organize space

 

 

 

The closet in the space currently is home to the pink dresser I mentioned replacing.  Though I love the dresser and the color, it's just not right for the space and it doesn't fit my style anymore.  What I've come to realize about myself is that although I love color, I really don't care for much of it in my closet or in my home.  If I do use colors, I like little pops of it here and there and this dresser is just too much.  I think the white KALLAX bookcase from IKEA will be a perfect swap and I can add woven baskets to it for a little texture.  The new French dresser that will take it's place in the room is larger and I will be painting it black.  It's so funny because it took a minute for me to come to that conclusion because I love it's current color, but again, it's not what I'm going for.  Stay tuned for that!

 

I'll be posting here for most of the week, but probably not on instagram.  I'm just needing a little time for myself.  When you give so much of yourself to others, you need time to refuel.  And though I'll be doing different things around my house and posting here on my blog, it's really a breath of fresh air to do and it's my way of refueling.

 

Stay tuned for more updates!

Lakeitha

 

 

 

 

It's Never Too Late To Start Over

Hi everyone, hope you like my latest motivational gif. I haven't been posting regularly on here for some time (been really busy on my Tumblr blogs), but hope to regain my momentum with some new pics here in the coming days...see you soon :)

Starting slow is still a start. 

Remember why you started.

If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up. 

Everyone starts somewhere…just keep going.    

Every day is a new beginning, take a deep breath and start again. 

Stop saying I wish, start saying I will 

Do what you have always wanted to do, it’s never too late to start.

Start now. Make it happen! 

It’s never too late to start over. It’s never too late to be happy. 

Motivation gets you started habit keeps you going. 

Imagine a new story for your life and start living it.

Starting over sucks, so keep going. 

Stop wishing, start doing.

The key to success is to start before you are ready.

Think big, start small.

You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great!

Life is Full of Obstacle ILLUSIONS

You can either allow the obstacles in your life to be the excuse for your failure or you can make them the reason behind your success.

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Fruit is Nature's Candy

Fruits are nutrient dense, they taste delicious and they satisfy a sweet craving…Eat more fruit!

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Consistency Is Key

Consistency births results...keep going!

You Can Try Again

Every day is another chance to change your life...If you don’t like what you’re getting then change what you’re doing...keep trying and never give up.

A Great Quote About Persistence

Courtesy of the 30th president of the United States...

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." 

--Calvin Coolidge

100 Day Challenge

I posted this on MotiveWeight 3 years ago and today I received a request for it so I thought it would be a good idea to repost it.

The 100 Day Challenge Count-Up card was created by Wayne Bartlet HERE is the Facebook link for it.

(Click the image for a larger version)

Cash in your change at Walmart without paying a fee

So I had $25 worth of pennies/nickels and dimes today and wanted to figure out how to cash it in without paying a 10% fee to Coinstar. Here's a life hack for you: scan something at a Walmart self-service checkout that you have no intention of buying (and costs more than the amount of change you have.) Deposit all of your change into the self-service checkout. Once it's all in, touch the "cancel" button and the machine will give you back the largest bills and coins possible. All cashed in, no fee.

You can also use the MoneyPass ATM to load a Walmart gift card for free, if you know exactly how much change you have before you start. 

Cash in that change without a fee!