Wildflower Writes

I sent out a silent plea to my bathroom scale to read under a certain number (a lady never tells).  The scale laughed at me.  "Yeah, right," she said.  (Of course it's a she.  I'm in my bathroom!)  "Aren't you the same person who ate half a box of Thin Mints last night?"  "So?"  I asked, indignant that she would even bring up such a thing.  What I consume in the privacy of my own bedroom is my own business.  I got on the scale any way, and lo and behold, it was five pounds over my requested number. What really stinks is that I had set a goal at the beginning of the year to be at my ideal weight by my birthday next month.  Alas, I still have 10 pounds to go.  I think that's where I started in the first place. I'm not sure why I'm surprised.  I was supposed to start running again at the first of the month.  I don't like running outside in the cold and I haven't saved up for a treadmill yet.  So, I exercised... o...

As I was perusing the articles at www.happynews.com , I came across a fantastic idea for everyone who has “lose weight” as one of their New Year’s resolutions. For the last two years, Weight Watchers has had a “Lose for Good” campaign in which Weight Watchers members donate one pound of food to their local food pantry for every pound that they lose. In a 7- week period, the organization donated approximately two million pounds of food to local food drives. I invite everyone who reads this article to do the same thing this year. For every pound you lose, donate a pound of food to the local food pantry. A pound of food is a can of green beans, a box of cereal, or a jar of peanut butter. It will help keep you on track for your own goals, and help you realize that food is primarily for sustenance, not necessarily for comfort or something to do or something to celebrate. If you’re in, please join the Facebook group, Pound for Pound, Lose for Good. I was going to start my own, but Jo...

Fox is coming out with a show called More to Love . It’s a version of The Bachelor with plus size participants. Although I am glad that this is a reality show with large women that is not trying to make them lose weight to be more attractive, the ads show women who talk about how they just want to feel beautiful, loved, and wanted. So they decide to compete with 19 other women for the love of a stranger on national TV? Ladies, ladies, ladies! First of all, the ladies they profiled were already beautiful. They don’t need a man’s approval to feel that way. Secondly, everyone wants to feel loved, but if you don’t feel lovable, you’ll never accept love from someone else. Our society is messed up. In America, women strive for thin and busty with tanned, clear, wrinkle-free skin. The few women who are able to meet that standard go to great lengths to achieve it, including surgically altering their bodies. Why do we let a few magazine publishers and TV producers determine what we sho...

There’s a picture of a pizza on facebook. It’s caption asks me if I want to “become a fan.” Now, all I can do is imagine a piping hot pizza, with spicy-sweet tomato sauce, thick slices of pepperoni or ham, flavorful veggies, and loads of gooey cheese all on a thick, chewy crust. Two slices would be be equal to about half my daily calorie needs, and would include all my daily fat allowance. I’d still eat it if you put it in front of me, even though it’s past 9:00 at night, and I just had dinner three hours ago. I read a lot about health and fitness. Maintaining good physical health makes it possible to do all the things you want to do in life. In my head, I know this. I have a little trouble practicing what I preach. I was an athlete in high school. Now I spend a lot of time at a desk. Two kids and 15 years later, I have a little extra baggage. I’d like to get rid of it, and theoretically I know how to do that, but my execution is weak. I’ve never been able to go on a stringe...