Dear Diary,

Today has been maybe the best day ever so far this month. For sure the best of the week.

At the mall, I saw the fro-yo guy PLUS a boy who I swear looked exactly like Justin Bieber, only way taller plus blond. 

Then I found the super-cutest socks with the super-cutest little pompoms sticking off them. They will be tot-dorable with my pink skirt and the super-cute bunny sweater.  I got a pair for Heather too.

Fraleigh always complains about her sister, but I love Heather and not just cuz she drives me to and from the mall even though she won’t go in. She is super fun and funny and has the best ideas about how to wear your hair. 

She says she “hates shopping”! But I know it’s because she doesn’t like to try things on because she thinks everything makes her look F-A-T. 

She is so not fat, not that she listens to me. She just rolls her eyes and says I wouldn’t understand because I am a little peanut who never worries about what she eats. 

That is so not true. 

I worry about what I eat. I won’t eat baby animals, and I won’t eat things that smell weird.  Food shouldn’t smell weird, right?

The problem, if you ask me, not that anyone ever does except you, Diary, is that Heather needs to pay more attention to important stuff like how funny she is, how she gets good grades without having to study hard like I need to, and how Brandon could ask out anybody but today at the mall he asked me if she is going to be home tonight because he wants to ask her out.

You know what this means, right?????

Brandon Phillips knows who I am.

Oh, and also, that Heather is awesome, so I am right about that and Heather is wrong, so she is totally going to pay for our new socks.

/////////

This has been another edition of the Cyrano Series (Archive 1 & Archive 2), where intrepid and mysterious LK member Cyrano de Bergerac shares her unique perspective on life and LifeKraze. Be sure to visit her profile to say thanks!

I found out about LifeKraze when Dolvett Quince tweeted about it.  I thought it was a good idea to participate because one of my rules for success is “seek like minded people and use their support” LifeKraze is a community of people celebrating the Healthy, Active Lifestyle I seek to be a part of.

My journey to health and improved wellness started with the death of a loved one, on New Year’s Day 2012.  We had suffered the unexpected loss of a what we considered a healthy 68 year old family member and while we were at the funeral home grieving, just a few hours after her death, the coroner had stopped by to talk to the family.  I requested that an autopsy be preformed since we had no idea how she died in the middle of the night.  He asked, in a very matter-of-fact manner, if I would be paying for the autopsy, since the state would not pay, as her death was not a medical mystery?  Very puzzled I asked him to explain how this was no mystery? After all, she was only 68 and the only medicine she ever took was for a now-controlled high blood pressure.  Again, in the very matter-of-fact manner, he said “I am sorry for your loss but she had high blood pressure over the years, she is overweight and she smoked over 20 years, her death is no mystery PERIOD.”  At this time I felt like I had gotten kicked in the chest.  Here I stood, an ex-smoker of 20 years with blood pressure running consistently 190/110 and was untreated because I did not want to affect my medical insurance for my family so I stayed away from the doctor.  I weighed 306 pounds and I thought about my kids having to decide if paying for an autopsy was worth the money since I also chose to not take care of myself.  I decided even if I could not do it for me I had to do it for my kids. I was only 40 and there was still time to change my health.  I went on to lose 127 pounds and my blood pressure runs 107/65 now!

My latest challenge is really about a switch in my mind set - from WEIGHT LOSS to FAT LOSS.  I have worked very hard the last 15 months to lose weight, which I did through tracking everything I ate.  There is the saying “Weight loss is 80% nutrition and 20% fitness.” I was VERY serious about the 80% part and had no desire to work out at all.  I was maintaining a minimum of 35% calories from protein sources and a maximum of calories determined by a body analyzer, keeping my calories about 200-400 calories under my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). Doing this allowed me to lose 127 pounds and 30% body fat.  However, I am still at 18% body fat and have a goal of getting into single digits. This made me look into the dreaded 20% fitness thing….. as well as increase my calorie intake and stop being concerned about what the scale says I weigh.  It may sound weird but eating more calories and disregarding the fear of weight-increase was a VERY scary thing to overcome.

To overcome my concern of adding calories I came up with a workout routine that included cardio and weight training. This was all very new to me so I did a ton of research on the internet and I joined a gym.  I decided to gauge my results weekly with a body analyzer measuring my % of body fat and % of muscle and not judge anything by weight alone.  If I did not see % of fat fall and % muscle rise I would adjust calories accordingly.  So far, this has started working for me—in the first 4 weeks the numbers are moving in the right direction and yes I have gained 7 pounds but I am ok with that.

I am so excited to win this equipment and utilize it on days when I just cannot make the time for the drive to the gym. Particularly because I’ve undergone a number of knee surgeries that have prevented me from running in the past, this will offer me one more tool in the NO EXCUSES game I am trying to play!

Change is incredibly hard but you have to find your “WHY” and have a laser focus on it each and every day.  Put reminders on your mirror in the bathroom, on the refrigerator and screen savers of your electronic devices.  Seek like minded people and use the support of others to get through those tough times when you may want to quit.  Don’t forget that it took an incredible amount of time to get you to where you are and that where you want to be is not going to happen overnight.  Allow and count on failures, they happen so use them to strengthen your resolve not derail it!

 I had about three hours’ sleep last night. I know that even if I can go home later for a nap, my bedroom will be flooded with sunlight that, without a blind on the floor-to-ceiling sliders, will have turned that room into a terrarium. Even without the blind that tumbled down last night and the stuff stacked up for the Last Word Yard Sale coming up on Saturday, my house could pass for a pig-stye—only not as comfortable. This would be in some measure due to the fact that money woes forced us to let go our housekeeper a few months, okay, maybe a year, ago.
     I finally paid someone to pull out the weeds in the front lawn because one of the neighbors said something snarky about the proliferation of dandelions in her lawn—that would be due to money woes that forced us to let go the gardeners more than a year ago—and I’m meeting a landscaper (a stranger? yay! another expense? yippee!) in the morning to talk about what we can do out there that will not cause some sort of reality show to break out on my parkway (“Lawn Wars,” anyone?).
     While I consider all this, I am sitting snoddy-dosed and head-stuffed in an office at a desk at a temp job I didn’t want. Even though I knew it was temporary, filling in for a guy on medical leave, I was shocked to learn that tomorrow is my last day. I was even more shocked to find that it makes me sorta sad.
     And that’s in spite of the fact that I really need to not work here anymore for two big reasons: First, because not only am I behind in my freelance work—having missed my deadline on not one but two client novels that should have been edited and returned by the end of April, which, a quick glance at the corner of your screen will reveal, this is not. And, second, because the job is really getting in the way of my daily walking and making it harder to eat healthy.
     And that’s why I’m happy.
     Which brings me to Week 3 of the four-week class I am taking called, endearingly, “One Week to a Happier Life.”
     Week 3 is about giving and gratitude, two of the biggest warm-fuzzy ways to mainline joy. Being appreciative of what—and who—you have makes you happier. (It makes the appreciated feel pretty good too.)
     Throw in the benefits of altruism—it’s better to give than to receive—and you’ve got yourself a recipe for creating deeper meaning in your life, which is closely linked with happiness. Even if you already think you’re a pretty good person or think you have so many needs that there is nothing you can offer another, you can in fact develop greater altruism and cultivate more gratitude in your life.
     You don’t have to be an Oprahciple to appreciate the value of a gratitude journals. (Yes, as a matter of fact, my go-to tool always is the pen.) If you simply write down every day what you are grateful for, you will be putting the concept of gratitude into greater practice, and your little heart will swell, a sort-of metaphoric shift in ballast that will also shift your perspective.
     How do you know if you have the attitude of gratitude? Ask yourself this: Do you have what you want? Do you want what you have? Research shows that wanting what you have brings at least as much happiness as does having what you want — good news for those who are working on their appreciation of things.
     What are you grateful for? What in your life do you value most? What little things bring you the most joy? What makes you happy? What would you miss if it disappeared?
     If you want to share your answers on LK, give them a #grateful hashtag; you’ll not only be sharing a bit about yourself but also potentially reminding someone else to be grateful for something in their own lives that they might otherwise take for granted.
     As for random acts of kindness, in general I don’t see the need or point in telling others what good deeds you have done, because they shouldn’t be done for praise or self-glorification. But for this week, I’d like to know some big and small acts of kindness you’ve done lately as well as what acts of kindness have been done to you? Use the #giving hashtag if you want to share and maybe give someone a great idea.
     So, back to me, despite how crummy things feel in the Land That Ate My Mom’s Mother’s Day Present, and despite the fact that I cannot hide under the comforter that needs to have cat vomit dry-cleaned off of it, I am grateful for the nascent desire to try a little harder to be a little healthier. Crazy but true. And the discovery of that thought is simply happy little accident and something else about which I can feel grateful.

This has been another edition of the Cyrano Series (Archive 1 & Archive 2), where intrepid and mysterious LK member Cyrano de Bergerac shares her unique perspective on life and LifeKraze. Be sure to visit her profile to say thanks!

It’s National Teacher Day and here’s how we’re celebrating - the first 10 people to email us the receipt for flowers that they bought with one of the following LK Rewards will receive a $10 DonorsChoose Gift Card!!

Give some Champion Daylilies, for 20% off, with THIS REWARD.
Give any kind of flower you want, from The Flower Factory, 10% off, with THIS REWARD.

We won’t force you to send the flowers to that teacher (hey, your mom might like some, too), but we gotta see that you’ve actually bought the flowers, in order to get the gift card! So forward those receipts to chester@lifekraze.com, and start letting those teachers know how much you care!

Here at LifeKraze, we’re always searching for new ways to Reward our fantastic, enthusiastic, and just generally good-looking members.

But we don’t know everything. And that’s why we’re asking for your input!

Starting today, we’ll be diligently watching for all uses of the hashtag #LKreward. On Twitter, on Google+, and especially on LifeKraze, we’ll be on the lookout for new items that strike your fancy.

Shopping and see something you want? Post it with #LKReward.
Going through your closet and notice something that you’d really like to replace? Share it on the interwebs and use that hashtag. 

But that’s not all.

As time goes by, we’ve discovered that LK Members are exceptionally skilled at doing great things, when a reward is on the line.
John and Ben each started a 6 month daily running streak (yep, they’re still going) to win a treadmill.
Matt moved the world and invited dozens of friends to join LK, to win free airfare.
And Mike shared some amazing recipes to inspire others and win an elliptical! 

So, with that in mind, we’re ready to reward you for helping us reward you. That may seem like a vicious cycle of rewarding… Actually, it definitely is. But here’s the point: each time we release something with a new Reward partner, we’ll check to see if anyone has suggested it… If so, the first person to have suggested it will get that Reward for free! Yep, we’re instituting a finder’s fee, so go go go GO! GO POST!

However, even if you’re not the first person to suggest something, if you want something, we hope you’ll make a #LKreward post anyway… the more we see a particular item, the higher the priority we’ll place on making it available, so keep ‘em comin’!

So what are you waiting for? Tell us: What do you want to be the next #LKReward?

I’m gonna run by you an idea that at first might seem pretty out there, but I want you to keep an open mind.

As a matter of fact, I myself am not terribly adventurous about—. Well, about anything, really. I don’t do heights. I don’t wear yellow or green. I don’t ride public transportation.

I am especially not adventurous about food. I have a verrry limited taste palate that happens to complement an even more limited food-color palate: I like beige food. And chocolate. Period.

So although I have heard for a while about this custom of a certain group of people, I never seriously considered trying it any more than I would consider trying, say, squid. Or mealy bugs. Or cauliflower.

Thus you can imagine the huge shock to little ole sheltered me when first I heard there were people who ate food in the morning. After sleeping. No, not merely “after” sleeping but within one hour of waking!

I know, right?

You might just as well have said mealy bugs taste like chocolate. Bon appetite, birds!

So hard was it to wrap my mind around this idea that I immediately dismissed it as a hoax. Only to one day and quite unexpectedly witness it myself.

I accidentally had to be someplace important shortly after waking. Once there, I accidentally ate food. Later, I felt better and was more alert. I realized I was being less cranky. And when I got home I didn’t attack the fridge like a yuppie at a Brooks Brothers sale.

At first I was reluctant to connect the cause-and-effect dots. Anomaly, I thought. Coincidence.

But then just the other day I got out of bed, wandered to the coolerator and before I knew it found myself enjoying a cool, smooth, delicious yogurt… and being glad of it.

I liked how it tasted. I liked how it felt sliding down into my insides. And I liked how I felt 2 and 4 and 6 hours later. As did the colleagues who normally fear me after 2 p.m.  

Turns out they call this thing “breaking the fast.” And I think they might be on to something.

This has been another edition of the Cyrano Series (Archive 1 & Archive 2), where intrepid and mysterious LK member Cyrano de Bergerac shares her unique perspective on life and LifeKraze. Be sure to visit her profile to say thanks! 

We asked you to #StretchYourself in April, so we’re stretching ourselves (and asking you to do the same) to extend the principle for (at least) one more day!

Tonight, we interviewed Teresa Herrera and she came up with this challenge, on the spot, when Ben asked her what she would like our community to do, to start May off right:

I would really really love to see everybody eat healthy! Three meals (and snacks) of all healthy foods. Majority of it greens … I’d love for them to post it, because I’d love to get ideas. Because I have my routine, and I get stuck on my routine, so I think it’ll inspire me and I think it’ll inspire everybody.

Let’s all eat healthy, tomorrow, for one day and then take photos of our food. And post it, and hashtag it #MayDayChallenge. And tag LifeKraze [if you’re not already posting it on LifeKraze]!

So there you have it! Get your healthy eating in tomorrow (May 1) and share it on LK to inspire Teresa, and inspire each other!

But what’s a challenge without a prize? Complete this challenge, and we’ll give you a special discount on LK swag from the LifeKraze Gear Shop! More details to come, but you won’t want to miss out!