Perfectly Healthy vs. Pretty Healthy

Hey, FFGs!

I just blogged (on the Spryliving.com site) about this new book about getting off the perfection train and making our goal to be "pretty healthy" instead. I love this idea! Totally in line with what I so annoyingly preach about getting rid of that all-or-nothing thinking and all that. Read my post here!

Remember ... INO!!

Lisa D

Women's Wellness Weekend in Nashville!

Hi, FFGs and Future FFGs!!

Join me at the Women's Wellness Weekend in Nashville, February 26 and 27! I'll be giving the keynote address Saturday morning and will hang around all day to sign books and chat. Hope to see you there! Check out this cool video invitation, and pass it around!

Lisa D

The Numbers Game

So I think you might know (from my annoying attempts to promote it) that I have an email newsletter that comes out every other week. (And if you don't ... and want to subscribe ... here's how/where!)

Last week, I wrote a particularly insightful missive about finding your healthy weight. The gist of it was that experts say you only have to lose 5-10 percent of your current weight to make a huge difference in your health ... cholesterol numbers, blood pressure, blood sugar, all that. And that maybe, as we in the media celebrate people who have managed to lose half their weight or more (aka The Biggest Loser types), we are discouraging people because they think they have to live a boot-camp existence just to get healthy.

(It read much better than this summary, I promise.)

Why am I telling you all this? Well, after the newsletter went out, I got an email from the CEO of my company. The Big Cheese. I don't hear from him much so as soon as I saw his name pop up, I clicked. As all good managers do, he started with some nice comment about the newsletter. And then the dreaded BUT. It turns out that I had written ... in BOLD type, no less ... that you "only" have to lose 50 to 10 percent of your current weight to make a huge difference in your health. That sneaky little zero ... damn it! How did it get in there, and how did I miss it? My boss was OK (or so he said) ... just pointing it out. And luckily I had written it correctly two other times in the piece. But I am STILL red-faced over that one. Mortified. Struggling to move on.

See, if you've read my book, you know I'm a huge perfectionist, and think that perfectionism is one of the unrecognized reasons why Fat Girls are Fat Girls. We abandon entire exercise plans because we miss one day. We will eat an entire box of cookies because we give in to our cravings and eat just one. And some of us, like me, shy away from challenges, afraid to make a rookie mistake.

Now that I've worked through my journey, I am much less likely to allow perfectionism get the best of me, especially when it comes to eating, exercising, and staying healthy. It's the other stuff, though, that I struggle with more: Owning my mistakes at work. Opening myself to criticism without spiraling into self-loathing. My tendency is still to wallow in my own inadequacies, to think that I'm never enough. But this whole FFG journey has given me many of the tools I need to combat that, to forgive myself whether it's for a typo or cookie binge, and move on.

I didn't get a chance to send out a correction--our web administrator thought it would confuse the thousands of email newsletter subscribers on our list. I wanted to. I wanted to own up to my mistakes, to admit that I'm not perfect, because as I see it, that's part of my program. So I'm confessing here (good Catholic that I am). Owning it. And moving on.

Lisa D

Get Inspired!!!

I am SO excited about this event I'm doing at Studio B, a completely cool/beautiful place in Florida. It's the perfect time to grab a girlfriend, get in the car, and roadtrip away for a weekend just for you ... to explore your creativity, to shake you out of your routine, and to learn a little something about how enjoyable healthy food can be. Please come! I'm counting on a good representation of FFGs!

Lisa D

Dueling Blogs!

Hi, FFGs!

It's National Yoga Month, and I've decided to try doing yoga every day for the month of September. Follow along as I downward dog my way through copious classes, DVD sessions, and my own personal poses this month. I'm blogging about it on my other site, spryliving.com.

Join me on the 30-day Yoga Challenge!

Lisa D

Inspiration is EVERYWHERE!!!

Hi, all--

Today is the deadline for Spry magazine's Inspiration Awards (details here). We're choosing three people for a weekend in Florida and an opportunity to share their stories in the December issue of Spry. I want the judges' decision to be as tough as possible!!! Already, we have a ton of great stories, but don't let that keep you from nominating someone in your life.

I am a big believer that there are opportunities to be inspired every day, as long as our antennae are tuned into them. For instance--on my route home from work, I drive by a house where just about every day, there's a woman walking with headphones on, up and down the slope of her driveway. Now, you may think that sounds crazy, sort of OCD, borderline psycho. If this woman was a stick figure, I would totally worry. I look at her and think ... well maybe she's got kids in the house and can't leave them for a walk around the neighborhood, or perhaps dinner's in the oven, or maybe she's just intimidated by the whole idea of walking in a neighborhood without sidewalks (understandably especially here in Nashville, one of the deadliest cities for pedestrians in the country). And really, what's the difference between doing that and walking on a treadmill? I would argue that she's at least outside, breathing fresh air, getting some sunlight on her soul. Anyway, sights like that inspire me, because she is obviously committed enough not to care what passersby like me think. Her commitment makes me more committed, every day, to move more, eat well, share a smile, strive to be kind and gentle to myself as well as others.

Are there moments like this in your life? I bet there are ... you just have to look.

Lisa D