I joined the Pound for Pound Challenge 8 weeks ago because I wanted to lose 20 pounds…I won’t lie that 8 weeks ago when I joined; it was all about losing 20 pounds so I could fit in a size 6 again and look fabulous this summer.  It was quite superficial of me.

I gained the 20 pounds because I stopped focusing on living a healthy lifestyle and got carried away with living like a tourist on an endless vacation in New Orleans…lots of indulging and because of injuries, no exercising.

For the last 8 weeks I’ve also been blogging about health and fitness every day…and had my own awakening moment about my size and health.  During those 8 weeks; I’ve stopped indulging and refocused on living a healthy lifestyle. Although I’ve lost little weight, I can say that I’m living a healthy lifestyle. I eat healthy. I get my daily recommended fruits and vegetables servings, I eat a low sodium diet, I drink a gallon of water a day and I take a multi-vitamin each and every morning.  I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and I haven’t had chocolate in weeks (that was my vice).  I’m exercising, meditating and getting my 8 hours of sleep a night. I am healthy; low Blood Pressure and Cholesterol and not currently at risk for any kinds of health diseases.

I was at a networking event a couple of weeks ago and a lady who was sitting next to me (although I had already introduced myself to her) made an announcement to the table about this fabulous diet supplement, which was supposedly all natural, she had heard about.  I simply had to butt-in and talk about how important it is to focus on life changes and living a healthy lifestyle – NOT quick fixes or solutions because losing weight is a result of living a healthy lifestyle.

An estimated 80 million Americans go on diets every year, spending more than $30 billion annually on programs and products. I’d love to take a survey of those 80 million Americans to find out how many of them are actually putting their health has the #1 reason for wanting to lose weight??

Thankfully we are in LA – Louisiana and not L.A. – Los Angeles so we don’t feel or have a huge pressure in our community/city to be stick figures with a perfect tan, but there is still a big stigma attached to being big so there is still societal pressure for wanting to be slim.

What society needs to put pressure on and what we need to focus on in New Orleans are: living healthy lifestyles, having healthy habits and enjoying good health and healthy bodies, minds and spirits.

Being healthy is what prevents:

Diabetes
High Blood Pressure
Hypertension
Obesity
Heart Attacks
Cancer

It’s not being slim or slander.  A skinny person isn’t necessarily healthy – for all you know he or she might be smoker with high cholesterol on the verge of having a heart attack or lung cancer.  We normally don’t think that when looking at a skinny person…but slim does not equal healthy.

No matter what size you are, living a healthy lifestyle will prolong your life and help you enjoy life a lot more.  Make changes and create new routines and habits that support living a healthy lifestyle.  If  you happen to need to lose some weight – living a healthy lifestyle will take care of that along the way!! And Yes, you better believe it that we’re right here with you to help!!