For Mom on Mother’s Day…something really ugly!

My beautiful mother, Kateri DeMargel

Greetings from Texas!

Misti’s family celebrated Mother’s Day yesterday with a fun get-together at her sister’s place. A great time with good people, plenty of food and lots of good cheer.

I’m 1,200 miles away from my mom, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t think about her. My “mom” moment came around the end of the festivities when it was time for dessert. Misti’s sister, Wendi, made something that had “heaven” in the title (well-deserved, by the way) and I volunteered for the responsibility of passing out the plated treat to eager recipients. 

Texas Forever

Misti and her son, Ethan

My exceptionally talented supervisor (yes, she’ll probably read this) routinely accuses me of burying my lead. So without further ado…

I’m leaving North Carolina. I’m moving to Texas. I’m doing it because of a woman.

5 things we can learn from pop culture to make 2014 our best year yet

Funny, but for all of the scholarly quotes I’ve come across and enjoyed over the years, some of the best lessons came to me from fictional characters, disgraced athletes and musicians whose music I don’t even enjoy. Here are five of those quotes we should incorporate into our lives in the New Year.

 

 

7 things I’m incredibly thankful for

Kind of like my life, this list is in no particular order…

Ready for my closeup!

So, my physical transformation has gone national, kind of. I’ve been featured in a syndicated news story about fitness apps and the privacy you sacrifice to use them. So far it’s run at least twice, but may be coming to a station near you (And yes, they screwed up my last name. Some things never change.)

For those of you who aren’t sick of me yet, enjoy!

Here is the two-minute spot from WCBS in New York

And the three-minute segment from KWWL in Waterloo, IA

Healthy Habit #5: Incorporate the ultimate calorie-burning exercise into your routine

Editor’s note: If you’ve been following this series of posts on healthy habits (and based on the analytics, you haven’t!), you know I said I would share 8 Healthy Habits and all of them before I left for the MS 150 today. Well, I blew it. I’m going to stop at 5, but I promise to make this a good one.

Believe it or not, I’m a bit of a cynic. I try to keep negativity out of my social media realm, but trust me, I can be as dark as anyone. I’m yet to find a food I crave that is really good for me. I haven’t made a single investment that didn’t cause at least a little bit of heartache. And I absolutely thought the best workouts to cut weight were the ones that left me collapsed in a pool of sweat with every inch of my body screaming in pain.

Healthy Habit #4: What Popeye and Elvis can teach us about good nutrition

One of my favorite things about MyFitnessPal is that it tracks nutrients as well as calories. You can set a quick view for the nutrients that are most important to you, but all of the major vitamins and minerals are covered, along with carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

Healthy Habit #3: Breakfast is for Champions

A traditional Nicaraguan breakfast. Trust me…they know what they’re doing.

In case it’s been awhile since you’ve reviewed the data on the importance of breakfast, here are some interesting studies done recently about the meal more Americans skip than any other:

Healthy Habit #2: Nutritional Budgeting

I resisted nutritional budgeting for years, but now that I’m on board, I’d say it made the biggest difference in my weight management success. Simply put, it takes the guess work out of losing weight.

Healthy Habit #1: Form Good Habits

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

When I was riding the trains in Europe last year I went through a number of audiobooks, one being The Power of Habit, an interesting look at why we do what we do.

I’m not going to give you a book report here, but if you’re interested, you can listen to the author’s 38-minute interview on NPR. Fascinating stuff, and an important touchstone for many of the other tips I’ll share over the next few weeks.