I make oatmeal for my kids. It’s cheap, right? And good to have on hand when you’re out of milk, bread, eggs, everything else. One of those last resort breakfasts that you whip up for emergencies. But me? Eat the stuff? No thanks.

Well, I gave it a try over the weekend. I ate oatmeal — the real kind, not the cardboard one-minute quick oats that my husband can’t stand — but the real, cooks-in-five-minutes oatmeal. And you know what? I was FULL. Stuffed. Until lunch.

My one bowl of oatmeal kept me from snacking all morning. And it contained 150 calories, 1g of sugar, 5g of protein, and 4g of fiber. According to the Quaker Oats people, “eating a good-sized bowl of oatmeal for 30 days will actually help remove cholesterol from your body.” It’s also supposed to act like a sponge, cleaning out my arteries. Interesting.

Oatmeal is cheap, easy to cook, fills you up so you don’t eat junk food, and lowers your cholesterol. So, have you had a bowl of oatmeal lately?

Post from: Blisstree

Ode to Oatmeal

I’ve written about this blogger before, Melodee of Clubmom’s The Amazing Shrinking Mom blog. She’s truly an amazing woman who is on a serious mission to improve her health — and waistline. Since she started blogging about her weight loss goals, she’s lost 48 pounds! She’s done this naturally, through cutting junk food out of her diet and through exercise.

She’s also got a great sense of humor — and is responsive to her readers. Perfect combo for a great blogger! Whenever I feel my spirits sagging and wonder if I should give up on my goals to lose weight, I click on over to The Amazing Shrinking Mom and read about how the little things really do add up — to subtracting those unwanted pounds. Thanks, Mel!

(and we’re all still in suspense about WHY she had a recent glamorous photo shoot, paid for by somebody for some secret reason. She said it’s not for a book … but we must find out soon!)

Post from: Blisstree

Science & Health Channel Theme Day

I found a site claiming Stomach Exercises Resulting In Perfect Abs. Yeah, right, is what I want to say. But, then since I’m a blogger here to report to you all the positive news on improving our health, I’m going to print these exercises off and actually do them. For a month.

There are five exercises here, and I’m putting them on a chart, which I’ll check off each day. See the things I go through for you people? All I want to do is write, and now you’ve got me doing Oblique Floor Crunches and Vacuum Contractions. I hope I don’t end up in the hospital over this blog.

Wouldn’t mind if I ended up with that elusive flat stomach though. Thanks Melodee for keeping me motivated to tone up. This gal has blogged her way to a 40-pound weight loss, y’all!

Post from: Blisstree

Exercises to Help You Obtain Perfect Abs

Now this is not what you think! What it means is she has lots of dieters in her sidebar who are being bold enough to admit their pre-diet weight and update their progress. I didn’t send her my weight, but she added me to her blogroll, so people can check here to see my progress.

I’ve lost 15 pounds since April — from working out at Curves until I hurt my knee in July. Then from the South Beach Diet. Now I’m back on track, getting to the gym for some low-impact classes like cycling. And Curves again! I’ve got about 10-15 pounds to go, and a LOT of muscle toning. I haven’t seen my abs in years.

Thanks to my new cool ClubMom water bottle, I’ll be fueling up on more water while I work out. And check out the ClubMom Health & Fitness tips! I may have to send them one of my own.

Post from: Blisstree

Clubmoms’ Diet & Fitness Tips

Do you find yourself making excuses on the weekend? I do. Here are a few:

1. It’s Friday night. I’ve had a long week.
2. We’re eating out, and this makes it OK to go off my diet.
3. I deserve a break!
4. I have to deal with ___ (so and so) on the weekend, so I need some chocolate/carbs/ice-cream.
5. It’s Saturday. I need a day off.
6. It’s Sunday. My day of rest.

Then you head back into Monday, trying to play catch-up, wondering how in the world your scale went up three pounds over a weekend! Here’s some motivation for you:Barbara Curtis, mom of 12 (some adopted), has been dieting in a healthy way and has lost over 60 pounds. To keep herself going, she posts pictures of FAT people on her refrigerator door. Check this picture out.

Barbara writes:

I’m sorry, but there just is nothing sexy about fat.

I think I’m going to make a collage of pictures like this and put them on my refrigerator door to remind me that no matter how hungry or bored or restless I get during the day, no detours from my diet are worth the results which are sure to follow down the line if I don’t continue to exercise self-control.

Not that my goal is to be sexy. But I am hoping to be more the woman God intended me to be, using food for sustenance and not misusing it for other purposes. Why is gluttony the only sin we pretend is not a sin?

Way to go, Barbara! You rock! Keep up your diet — and we’ll be coming along right with you. (Hats off to Amazing Shrinking Mom for leading me to Barbara. “We link; therefore we love.” Yeah baby.)

Post from: Blisstree

It’s the Weekend. Hang in there!

]]> http://www.blisstree.com/articles/its-the-weekend-hang-in-there-115/feed/ 0 http://www.blisstree.com/articles/blogging-our-way-to-healthy-living-115/ http://www.blisstree.com/articles/blogging-our-way-to-healthy-living-115/#comments Tue, 25 Jul 2006 15:41:37 +0000 Heather R. http://www.livelywomen.com/2006/07/25/blogging-our-way-to-healthy-living/ Post from: Blisstree

Blogging Our Way to Healthy Living

]]> Mary DeMuth of Relevant Blog is hosting tomorrow’s Carnival of Beauty — our topic is “The Beauty of Blogging.” This is my first Lively Women submission, though I’ve been participating from my home blog, Mom 2 Mom Connection.

I’ve discovered a tight-knit community among my women blogging friends — we think alike in so many ways. Since I’ve started blogging for b5 media on women’s health issues, I’ve actively sought fellowship among other health-oriented bloggers.

I love reading about Blair’s exercise and water-drinking goals at Scribblings by Blair, and I thank her for telling all her readers to join me here at Lively Women! She helps encourage me to stick with my weight-loss goals, and that’s why I haven’t felt alone when I jumped into the South Beach Diet last Monday. The first two weeks aren’t easy, but since I’ve been fueling myself on heart-healthy salads and dropping the “bad carbs,” I’ve lost 8.5 pounds in a week, stunning myself and my husband. (My weight hasn’t gone down since June 2005 — even though Baby Girl is now 15 months.)


Thank you also to Melodee of ClubMom’s The Amazing Shrinking Mom blog, who added me to her sidebar along with her other dieting bloggy friends. YEA! We’re all cheering each other on when we order a salad at the drive-thru and pass on the jumbo fries. Since Melodee started blogging about her diet, she’s lost 32 pounds. (And she does it while being a busy pastor’s wife and mom of four.)

I also enjoy keeping up with Alyice’s fitness goals, which she blogs about every week for DM Writes We both recently watched the movie, Supersize Me, and can’t believe how much of an influence fast-food advertising has on our culture. (Great movie, by the way — I hope to review it here soon.)

Nobody can beat HolyMama for her laugh-out-loud encouragement. When she announced her weight loss success (-6 pounds) through the SparkPeople program, half her commenters signed up that very day. I enrolled a couple days later, and got another friend of mine to join in. I’ve learned a lot about nutrition and weight loss from reading through their program — and I’ve enjoyed being a part of the SparkPeople community.

Here at b5 media in the Science & Health channel, we have blogs on over a dozen topics related to health: A Dozen Steps, A Hearty Life, Alzheimer’s Notes, Autism Vox, Baldiness, Cancer Commentary, CFS Squared, Diabetes Notes, Flu Patrol, Genetics & Health, Homely Scientist, Lively Women, MRSA Notes, and Veggie Chic.

Let’s all keep blogging our way to better health and better living!

Post from: Blisstree

Blogging Our Way to Healthy Living

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