Happy Holidays!

Hey everyone!  Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!  Hope you are enjoying this holiday season and I hope it's filled with much love and joy!  I'll see you all in the new year and you know what one of my resolutions will definitely be!Haha!

Update Time!!

      Hello to everyone who happen to be reading this entry. Just wanted to give you guys a quick update this entry on how my progress is going from when I first decided to try losing weight again. I'm down 6 pounds from the time I first started this blog back in November, which is not as much as I would have liked to lose but considering it is the holiday season, I am just happy that I lost weight. Right now, I am still working on the things that I have already talked about these past few entries as well as a weight loss plan/strategy for this upcoming new year. I hope that you all are doing well especially if you are trying to lose weight this holiday season. Remember to think positive and believe in youself :)

Holiday Help!!!

“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places.”~ Unknown

     Hi everyone! Well, I know that we are admist of what I call the “Triple Threat” of the year when it comes to weight loss. It starts off with Halloween, goes through Thanksgiving, and even before you have a chance to let your pants out, you have to deal with the holidays. I guess all those dinners, parties, goodies, and temptations that we are faced with and often give into are one reason that many people put down “lose weight” when New Years finally comes around. I know that I'm going to have to keep in mind some things this holiday season if I want to avoid gaining even more weight.

     One of the things I'm going to do is if I'm invited to a potluck party, I'm going to try to make a personal dish that I enjoy and is also on the healthier side. That way, if there are no other healthier dishes that I can put on my plate at the party, I know I can always fall back on my dish rather than only having less healthy options to choose from. If there are other healthier dishes at the party, I can also fill my plate up with them and by doing so, I'll be better at practicing my second strategy, which is moderation.

     I'm a big advocate of moderation for the simple fact that life is too short to not occasionally indulge in something you enjoy, including certain foods, even if it may not necessarily be good for you. However, the key to this notion is to try to practice moderation when it comes to temptation. This year, when I go to any holiday parties, I'm going to try to devote the largest portion of my plate to the healthier food options while leaving a little room to sample any “guilty pleasures” I know I really want to try. I think this strategy will allow me to get a taste of some of the more indulgent foods, such as desserts, without completely blowing my weight loss efforts.

     A third technique I'm going to try this holiday season is to drink atleast one glass of water right before I eat at a party. Water helps me feel fuller before I eat so I am more likely to eat less. It will also keep me more hydrated in case I do decide to drink an alcohol beverage at the party.

I hope that these three little tips will help me from gaining weight during this holiday season. If anyone reading this entry has any waistline-friendly recipes or weight-loss tips that they would like to share, please feel free to leave it in a comment below :)

The Power of Change

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”~Albert Einstein

       Change can be scary. For that reason, it is understandable that most people seek out and rely on consistency and stability, which we definitely need in certain areas of our lives. However, being unwilling to change in other areas can leave us stagnant. Sometimes we need to just let go of our fears, take a deep breath, and EMBRACE CHANGE in order to grow or improve ourselves. When it comes to weight loss, if you have been eating or exercising (or both) a certain way for awhile and have not been able to drop anymore pounds, it may be time to consider trying some changes. Our bodies are remarkable in their ability to adapt or become accustomed to certain things such as the same exercise routine. The same goes for “bad” habits such as eating junk foods or not eating enough and putting your body in a “starvation” mode. When we need to make changes in our lives, we need to also remember that it does not always have to be big or happen immediately. Much like we did not develop certain patterns overnight, we cannot expect to necessarily change them overnight. Also, sometimes even small changes can make a big impact.

       For me personally, I know there are several areas in my current lifestyle that I need to change and improve upon if I want to progress in my weight loss. In order to help me develop a strategy for successful lifestyle changes, I wrote a list of my weight loss goals, both short-term and long-term, and the changes, both small and big, that I needed to make to help me achieve those goals. I know that these positive changes may not be easy or happen instantaneously, but, in the long run, I feel that they will be worth making. For this week, as a short-term goal, I am going to focus on cutting back on eating out and start to learn how to do more cooking so I can make healthier meals for myself. Next week I plan on focusing on developing a regular exercise routine that will work with my personal and work schedule. Good luck to all of you who are also planning to begin making any positive lifestyle changes! Remember to be patient as well as stay positive and believe in yourself!

The Start of SeriouslyHere4U :)

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”~Lao-Tzu

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog! The main reason I started this blog was that I wanted to show our patients that just because I am a medical provider it doesn't mean that I can't be affected by the escalating obesity epidemic. In other words, wearing a white lab coat does not mean that I don't have challenges battling the numbers on the scale or my waistline. As some of our patients may already know, I stopped my medications for several months and 20 pounds slowly but surely crept up on me. Being barely 5 feet tall, this extra 20 pounds feels more like 50 in terms of how I look and how I feel so I decided to restart the same medication regimen that many of our patients are on in addition to some personal lifestyle changes. I already know that losing weight is not an easy or quick task at all so I figured it might be helpful to some of our patients if they could see my challenges and struggles as well as strategies that I may use to try to overcome them. Since it is coming from both a provider and patient perspective, this blog is going to mainly be a mix of personal and educational aspects associated with obesity and weight loss. However, I have to say that any opinions expressed within any entry are strictly my own. I plan to try to update this blog atleast once a week and in the end, I hope that it helps not only me with my weight loss journey but other people as well. In the meantime, try to stay positive and believe in yourself!