The Ezine For Every Woman Struggling For The Body She’s Always Dreamed Of!

May 19, 2003

Issue # 15

Hello,

Thanks for subscribing to the Forever Slim newsletter. I hope you enjoy the reading!

If you like this e-zine, please forward it to a friend.

In the last issue I asked you which weekday you would like to receive this newsletter. According to the answers, most of you wanted to receive it on Monday. From this issue on I will start sending it always on Mondays.

Even though I am not a morning person, my “slave” (which is my computer) can get up early in the morning and will deliver the newsletter for you at about 6 a.m. !

Contents

1. Help! My pants are shrinking!

2. Richer for it all

3. Lentil Chili

4. 10 Tips for a physically and mentally balanced life

1. Help! My pants are shrinking!

Well, at least this is the only explanation I have. ;-)

About two weeks ago my darling and I were invited to a party and I wanted to put on my wonderful and very sexy but very tight violet pants. The result: the zipper didn’t close anymore!

For me this was reason enough to skip the party and hide behind my closet so nobody would ever see me again. Thanks to my wonderful darling I slowly started changing my mind (he told me, he loves me anyway and I’m looking great.). I was ready to accept my cruel and fat destiny and started looking for a jeans I would fit into and a nice, small top and a leather jacket.

Why do I tell you this? Because at the party something strange happened: even though I felt ugly, fat and horrible, obviously most of the men present thought differently. Some even tried to flirt with me!

Ask me how much this lifted my self-esteem! After I while I started thinking that maybe (just maybe) I am not that fat after all and that with a little bit more sports I would fit into my pants again.

Filled with a positive feeling about my body I started immediately with my “light body enhancement program”.

O.k. this may sound strange to you, but I have tried so many diets and fitness clubs and, and, and…which never worked, because I didn’t like them.

I think, the programs only work, if you really like what your are doing and if your goals are reachable. So my goal for the next 4 weeks is to loose 6 pounds. This doesn’t sound much, but it is reachable. And it will show with my pants! Afterwards, I can think about loosing another 6 pounds. And so on.

The next thing I did was to stop promising myself to start going to the fitness studio from next week on (do you know this kind of promise? I have never ever fulfilled them). Instead I thought of what I like doing. F.e. I just LOVE dancing. This is an easy one: now my darling and I go out dancing every Friday. Off course, without drinking cocktails (with lots of sugar), but instead drinking some fruit juice.

And then I started doing some “everyday-sports”. Which means I do not take the elevator anymore (working in the 5th floor I almost died the first days, but now it’s feeling good).

More small but do-able measures will follow. As I was quite out of shape it’s of no use to start with a 100% but with maybe 10% and then grow stronger step by step. I will tell you about the results in the next newsletter.

Meanwhile try it for yourself:

1. Go out and enjoy yourself

2. Set small goals. Once you’ve reached them, set new goals

3. Start doing things you like, not things you “should” do

4. Implement small steps into your daily routine

2. Richer for it all

Some days are filled with smiles and laughter, while others are full of tears. Some days you move five steps ahead, and other days you fall back three.

When things are going great, enjoy it while it's here. If things are going not so well, you're building more appreciation and joy for when the good times come again.

If there never was any down, you could not ever come back up. If you could never, ever lose, you would not want to win. The bright and sunny days would be unbearably oppressive if the rainy days never came. When night seems at its darkest is when the dawn begins.

What a blessing it is to be alive, to experience all this and more. No matter what each moment brings, no matter how each day turns out, life is richer for it all.

Copyright 2001 Ralph S. Marston, Jr.

3. Lentil Chili

Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients:

- 1 cup dried brown lentils, cleaned

- 2 cups vegetable broth

- 16 ounces unsalted tomatoes, crushed

- 1 medium green pepper, chopped

- 1 medium onion, chopped

- 1 tablespoon garlic, crushed

- 2 tablespoons chili powder

- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

- 16 ounces unsalted tomato sauce

- 2 cups whole kernel corn

- 1 celery stalk, chopped

Directions:

- Combine all of the ingredients except for the tomato sauce and corn in a 4-quart pot, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 25-30 minutes.

- Add the tomato sauce and corn to the lentil mixture. Stir, cover, and simmer for 10-15 additional minutes. Serve hot.

Nutritional Information:

- Serving size: 1 1/2 cup

- Calories: 210

- Fat: 1.5 g

- Cholesterol: 0 mg

- Protein: 14 g

- Carbohydrates: 30 g

- Fiber: 7 g

- Sodium: 230 mg

4. 10 Tips for a physically and mentally balanced life

Every moment of every day, we have the ability to create for ourselves new beginnings and new challenges that will help us reach our full potential, and that all things are possible.

It's easy to get overwhelmed by negative thoughts, people, and circumstances, but we can take steps to understand what it means to live a balanced life. Vital health and peace of mind go hand in hand - you can't be physically super fit without being mentally super fit as well.

And more and more people today are interested in becoming truly healthy - not just physically - but mentally, spiritually, and emotionally as well.

Here are 10 tips to keep yourself in balance:

1. Exercise.

A well-rounded fitness routine includes strength training, aerobic conditioning, and flexibility. Critical to your success in staying balanced is to make exercise a TOP PRIORITY in your life - and staying committed to it. Being fit helps you to enjoy life. It increases mental sharpness and physical endurance. An energized body helps give you a positive outlook on life, plus you look great, feel great, and reduce your risk of disease.

2. Drink 8-10 glasses of water a day.

Water helps transport vital nutrients, regulates body temperature, eases digestion, keeps joints supple, cleans out your body, keeps skin healthy and young. Not drinking enough leads to dehydration, resulting in headaches, fatigue, dizziness, constipation, and foggy memory.

Not drinking enough water can lead to excess water weight, because our bodies will store water outside our cells. That's where you feel bloaty and heavy. Water helps the liver do its job more efficiently, namely in metabolizing fat. If you're not consuming enough water, your liver has to work overtime with its other primary function: detoxifying the body.

Water helps maximizes the liver's efficiency of both jobs, so you keep your insides clean, your weight healthy, and get rid of fat.

3. Life is perfect, even if you don't think it is.

God deals you a hand every day. What you get is what you get. Your job is to do the best you can with the hand you're dealt. That doesn't mean you have to "lie down and play dead." What can you do better to make your life MORE perfect? Know that you can create your dreams, no matter how difficult life can be at times.

4. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Helen Keller once said, "Life is either a series of adventures, or it is nothing." We all have this shield of armor that protects us from some aspect of life. This shield is your comfort zone. And that comfort zone is a haven for disintegration. When you take off this armor, the only thing you're risking is GROWTH, a wonderful life, high energy, and a leaner body.

5. Be a daily visionary.

Visualize your goals and your dreams - every day. Take a five-minute break from your computer, stop off on the side of the road in between sales meetings, and create a motion picture on the screen of your mind of your goals, your dreams, of how you'd like your life to be. Visualize yourself already in possession of your wishes.

6. Feed your body well.

Your diet can help prevent illness and disease. Some 300,000 deaths per year are a result of poor lifestyle choices, and nutrition habits is one of those poor choices. 1) Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day, 2) Eat at least 4 balanced meals a day, 3) Eat a variety of fruits and veggies - in different colors. These colors will give you a greater spectrum of valuable disease-fighting nutrients.

7. Live in the present.

Yesterday's gone. Tomorrow never comes. Be fully present each moment and free yourself from the ball-and-chain of yesterday and tomorrow. Everything is always in the present moment, so live it fully.

8. Live with integrity.

You talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? Being in integrity means you really are who you appear to be. How you live your life is reflected in your commitments, your values, your beliefs, your sense of right and wrong. When you live in harmony with what you believe in, you have peace and happiness flowing into your life.

9. Develop high self-esteem.

You already know how you benefit from a high self-esteem. People who you care about benefit, too. Let go of your emotional baggage, treat yourself with respect. Your attitude - how you think, feel, and act - mirrors how you feel about yourself.

10. Live respectfully.

You are NOT at the mercy of your circumstances. George Bernard Shaw said, "The winners in life look for the ideal circumstances, and if they cannot find them, THEY MAKE THEM." Are YOU letting your present results and circumstances control YOU? Are YOU making things happen?

This article was provide by Garrett J. Braunreiter, CSCS, GHF's Success Coach. Please visit his site at http://www.worldpeakperformance.com

If a friend forwarded this e-zine to you and if you like what your read, please subscribe by visiting: Low Fat Digest.

Comments? Ideas? Feedback? Articles you have written and want to be published? Please tell me. I’d love to hear from you. Just reply to this e-zine and tell me what you think!

Marion