I was a fat kid...Why I am so passionate about health and fitness!

I've had many people, over the years, ask me why I'm so passionate about health & fitness and fighting Childhood Obesity, so I figured I'd tell you all in one post...

I was a fat kid. I was the kid who was picked on because of my weight. It's funny to look back on it because I was so into fitness growing up - I LOVED me some Jane Fonda and Mouseercise and my "Get In Shape Girl"! I was into fitness and sports, I did move, I didn't sit in front of the TV, we didn't have video games, etc - so how was I so overweight?

For my family, it was about food.

I come from a short and round family, from both my parents. Obesity runs rampant on both sides. My family is one of the most supportive and loving family I've ever met (not being biased, they truly are!). We celebrate our family...with food. While it's not the healthiest food, I could never imagine a family holiday without baked beans, deviled eggs, mayo based potato salad, etc.

Growing up, we'd have the standard snacks in our house (sugary fruit snacks, highly processed granola bars, chips, soda, etc). We'd have the standard dinner, which usually consisted of a ground beef based meal (my dad was, and still is, a Meat & Potato kinda guy!) with veggies from a can (tons of sodium) and maybe some buttered bread. We celebrated our days at dinner time with comfort food, like most families.

But the one thing I didn't learn from my family, from no fault of their own, was portion control and how to stop eating when I was full. Although I don't remember it ever being pushed on me, we didn't have a lot of money, so you finished what was on your plate, possibly with seconds, because that food cost money. There was never much talk about eating till you were full, eating when you were bored, eating healthy, etc. This resulted in a Fat Kari.

I remember my parents always had Kudo's bars (granola bars covered in chocolate) in the house, and I remember sneaking 2-3 Kudo's bars into my room to eat every day. I realize now that I was snacking because I was bored.

Luckily, my Mom and I enrolled into Jenny Craig during the summer between 5th & 6th grade. 5th grade was especially hard for me. I was constantly teased about my weight, never really made any solid friends, had gum spit in my hair, had a girl cut my hair in the back during school, etc. At the time, I don't think I fully realized why my Mom enrolled me into Jenny Craig - I just remember her saying, "Hey, lets lose weight together this summer!" And so we did! I will forever be grateful for my Mom realizing that I was suffering as an obese child and thankful for her taking the steps she needed to to help her child. Love you Mom!

Unfortunately, for my Mom, her weight didn't stay off like mine did. Both my parents have been yo-yo dieters my entire life. Luckily, they were both able to get Gastric Bypass surgery because their weight was affecting their health. And, although I recognize the daily struggle they still have with food, they've been able to maintain their weight loss (within reason) for almost 6 years now! YAY Mom & Dad!

Because of the challenges I faced as a child, I have vowed never to let my children face those same challenges. We don't stock our cupboards with fattening, highly processed, full of sugar foods. In fact, my best friend famously commented "Josh and Kari NEVER have food in the house!" Not true. We have food, but we have what we need to maintain and some healthy snacks for snacking like Whole Raw Almonds, Fruit (there's ALWAYS fruit in my house), low fat string cheese, etc. We're also really big on portion control (although my husband is still big on a Big Dinner!) and eating for fuel, not for fun!

This is turning out to be a difficult lesson for our 5 year old who's starting to want to snack because she's bored. We simply tell her that it's not healthy to continuously snack and that we eat meals to fuel our bodies. We're also establishing an importance of fitness with her. Not a day goes by where she doesn't see one of us working out in our home gym (aka garage). We make sure we include her in our workouts (here's a video my husband took of her working out to ChaLEAN Extreme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF7-Kj0YNdM) and we try to make sure she understands the importance of fitness and healthy eating.

For me, I struggle with my food, and weight issues, on a daily basis. I've recognized that this is something that I will probably struggle with for most of my life, like some of you. In our house, its not about depriving yourself of the food you love or enjoy. It's about recognizing that a little bit goes a long way - we still enjoy our steak and potatoes, just on a smaller scale!

Fitness and eating healthy doesn't have to be difficult. Making changes in your diet and fitness routine shouldn't be something you fear, or something you feel will stop the Earth's rotation and make the Earth rotate in the opposite direction. Yes, a little dramatic, but for some people, when they're faced with making these changes, that's what it feels like! It's the little steps you make that make the biggest change:

1) Stop eating out! Eat dinner, as a family, at the dinner table, with no interruptions. No TV, no radio, even turn the ringer to the phone off if that's what you need. You should be fully engaged in your family and the food that you're putting into your mouth. Enjoy your food, enjoy your family, and talk!!! Talk to each other about your days, talk about your fitness and what forms of exercise you did that day, talk about your food choices and be supportive of one another.

2) Eat as natural as possible. Try to not eat from a box. Yes, my husband is a HUGE fan of Hamburger Helper, but it comes from a box and is choc-full of preservatives so I've nixed all Hamburger Helper from our house. If the meal comes from a box, you won't get it in my house! No boxed mashed potatoes! If the earth grew it, you know it's healthy!

3) Cook with your Kids! Get them in the kitchen with you and help them learn how to cook. How does the saying go: "If you give a man a fish, he'll have a meal. If you teach him how to fish he'll never go hungry" (or something like that, don't quote me here, people, LOL!) Point is, teach them what goes into their food, teach them how to cook and not rely on fast food for their meals, teach them what's healthy. You are their future. Trust me, I know that sometimes it's easier to have them out of the kitchen and not in your way when you're cooking, but this is SOOOOO important. They are GOING to learn about food choices. Don't you want them to learn them from you?

4) Move your body! Fitness is just as important as healthy eating. Get your family moving! Take a walk after dinner - which is a great way to help with digestion, and to help you avoid after dinner snacks. Go outside and play with your kids! If you normally play "Madden" on your gaming system, put it away and play football with your kids outside. Toss a baseball around. Fly a kite. Trust me, they'll appreciate you playing with them outside much more than you playing a video game with them.

5) Don't sweat the small stuff. We all have slip ups, it's inevitable. Stop obsessing, and start over. If you have a too big of a meal, or an extra snack, or a large Caramel Iced Blended with whip cream from The Coffee Bean (who, me???), don't beat yourself up over it. Just hop back on the wagon, and maybe exercise a little more that day. I've seen all too often someone who fell off the "wagon" for a meal, or a day, or a week, who then feels like it's all over, throws their hands in the air and quits - or freaks out saying "Now I have to start all over again!" Stop! No you don't, just pick back up where you left off! Another thing, if you fall off the "wagon" on Tuesday, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT wait till the following Monday to hop back on! No excuses, just results!

To wrap up - I was an obese child. My mission in life is to never allow another child go through what I went through. I recognize that this change needs to start at the parents level.

As American's we need to retrain how we think in regards to our food and retrain our minds. We need to step away from the computer/Twitter/Facebook and TV/American Idol/Lost and start moving our bodies, otherwise we're setting ourselves, and our children's future, up for an epic fail.

I'll leave you with a quote from the Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA VADM, USPHS:

"Our nation stands at a crossroads. Today’s epidemic of overweight and obesity threatens the historic progress we made in increasing Americans’ quality and years of healthy life..." “...This future is unacceptable. I ask you to join me in combating this crisis.”

Reversing Childhood Obesity starts with YOU.

Fitness, Foods and Moods: Keeping Your Family Fit

We all want the best for our families. We envision healthy, physically fit and happy children. Yet in today’s hectic world, it can be difficult to meet our ideals. During stressful, busy times, healthy diet and exercise often fall by the wayside.

We know that good nutrition and regular exercise are essential for physical health. Likewise, our mental health also depends on proper diet and exercise. According to the National Institutes of Health, regular exercise can improve mental health and enhance energy levels. And the American Dietetic Association warns us that poor diet can compound stress and depression.

Try these simple steps to keep your family healthy and happy:

Create a family fitness plan.

Without a plan, family fitness can easily become another resolution never fully realized. Assess

your family’s interests and abilities, and choose activities to match. For instance, if everyone likes water and knows how to swim, head for the pool, lake or ocean for a workout the whole family can enjoy. Set fitness goals, such as reaching a healthy weight, reducing cholesterol levels or exercising a certain amount per week. Your doctor or other health professionals can help you set your goals.

Get everyone involved.

Make getting healthy a family project and find ways everyone can participate. Take turns selecting a family fitness activity each week. Involve friends and relatives in your fitness activities, and ask for their support in reaching fitness goals.

Get moving.

Medical experts recommend at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise three times per week for optimal health. Luckily, there are hundreds of ways to exercise. Find the best ways for your family to exercise. Whether you play basketball or take a walk in the park, get moving!

Eat and sleep well.

Include a healthy diet and sleep schedule in your family’s fitness plan. Avoid high-fat, sugary, salty, and processed foods. Skip fast food. Aim to get seven or eight hours of sleep every night for good health.

Have fun.

Exercise doesn’t have to be tough, inconvenient or dull. By having fun and being creative, your family is more likely to stay with the program. Try a family “treasure hunt” at a beach, park or your backyard. Collect items in the environment, like seashells, pine cones, leaves and rocks. Or have fun creating a family dance routine—record it with a video recorder or perform for relatives.

Changing lifestyle habits isn’t always easy, and fitness hurdles can be difficult to overcome. If you need help, I'll be there! Contact me today!

Is Beachbody Coaching a Pyramid Scheme?

When I signed up to be a coach back in July one of the FIRST things I did was Google: "Is Beachbody Coaching a scam". I went out LOOKING for people who had negative experiences with it - and guess what - I didn't find any glaring negative reviews of the coaching program. There was no hidden fees, no feeling of being trapped, no stories of "they just kept charging me" or "I have a garage full of product I can't sell".

The other day Carl Daikeler posted a short note on facebook about having a conversation with someone about coaching. The conversation went something like this:

Carl: Have you thought about coaching?

P90X user: Nah, I don't want to get involved with a MLM

Carl: Well, let me ask you this, have you ever recommended P90X to anyone?

P90X user: Yeah, I recommended it to people ALL the time

Carl: So basically you are doing it already, just not getting paid for it.

I want to share this with you if you have doubts about Beachbody Coaching and clear up some fiction with some facts.

The following I can't take credit for, and unfortunately I can't give credit where credit is due as I don't konw who the original author is, but it is too good not to share! So enjoy!!

One of our problems is dealing with the negativity surrounding the reputation of the phrases “pyramid scheme”, “network marketing”. “multi-level marketing (MLM)” or “direct selling business”.

First of all, the grand daddy of them all, Amway, went under very serious, expensive and prolonged investigation into this sort of activity back in the early 70’s. The results proved that Amway was not a “pyramid scheme” (which is illegal) and paved the way for the whole multi-level marketing industry that has boomed over the past 35 years.

In Quixtar’s (the current name used for the Amway distributor business) Business Rules and Regulations it states:

“A pyramid is a scheme in which an individual pays for the right to recruit additional persons into the scheme who, in turn, receive the same right to receive profits from recruiting others.

Three common elements of a pyramid scheme have been identified as: (1) a large, required initial investment or purchase of inventory: (2) direct payment for recruiting additional persons into the scheme; (3) heavy emphasis on recruiting additional persons, with little or no emphasis on selling products to consumers.”

Beachbody certainly has none of the above components of a pyramid scheme. Anyone who refers to Beachbody as a pyramid scheme is talking out of ignorance combined with obvious negative past experiences with MLMs in general or, perhaps, an illegal pyramid scheme. In fact, I was duped into one such scheme because the Chief Economic Advisor of the Reagan administration, Art Laffer of the infamous “Laffer Curve”, was on the Board of Directors of this company. That company did have several of the components mentioned above.

In fact, Beachbody is squeaky clean on this one as: (1) Beachbody has no required inventory, period; (2) there is no direct payment for recruiting in Beachbody, period; (3) Beachbody is all about products to consumers.

In fact, on the last point, Beachbody is currently paying $90 million this year for new customers that it passes on to Emeralds and above. I am not aware of any other MLM that does this.

Another interesting fact is that Beachbody was not created to be an MLM. It was already a very successful company before adding a network marketing component. I am not aware of any other MLM company that has ever had such history before becoming a MLM. Are you?

There is no question that adding a coaching program was in the best interest of Beachbody’s customers. If you were the executive of Beachbody would you have created a coaching program with all the overhead of adding a coaching division within the company (the salaries of the coaches, office space, additional phone lines, computers, etc) where the employees true incentive was to keep his job. Or would you opt for the brilliance of the network of independent coaches where:

1. There is no additional employees with additional salaries
2. The only way a coach can be successful is to be a product of the system
3. Being a product of the system he/she is a few steps ahead of the customers and any new coaches that he/she sponsors
4. There is a non-salaried advocate of the company to create new customer activity and to advise existing customers of different or additional products to improve their fitness goals
5. Because, in essence, coaches get paid to be fit through the system of sharing, existing coaches will help the whole system grow. As the coaching network grows Beachbody will have a tremendous impact for turning around the greatest epidemics in the history of the US - Type 2 Diabetes because of a grossly overweight society.

Our opportunity is unprecedented. There has never been a greater need for a fitness and health system that works. And I have never been exposed to a fitness and health company that works as well as Beachbody. Most people will not get involved because it is a network marketing (MLM) company and/or opportunity. I believe the reasons they will get involved will be one of these:

1. To personally improve their physical appearance
2. To look and feel healthier
3. They were convinced that Beachbody has superior products to achieve their weight and fitness goals
4. Because a medical advisor or doctor told them that they must loose weight (this will be big soon with the coming Type 2 Diabetes product)
5. That they needed a motivation or reason to be fit other than number 4 above (I was in this category)
6. They want to be part of society’s weight solution instead of part of the problem
7. They want an at home business that makes sense
8. They like the idea of getting paid to be fit.

It is my opinion that after someone is involved and really understands this company’s vision, that they will stay in this program for most of the above reasons.

The company desperately needs additional active coaches to succeed in its mission. In my opinion, that is why they are having current recruiting contests and, most importantly, that is why they are going to get new coaches the same way they know how to get new customers - infomercials.

By: Mandy Horan

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Contact me for more information on this exciting opportunity! karimoore_pt@yahoo.com or www.COACHKARI.com

Yoga and Weight Loss

by Margaret Furtado, M.S., R.D. a Yahoo! Health Expert for Nutrition

Yoga... it means union of mind and body, and you probably know what sets it apart from stretching or calisthenics: the deep and distinct connection with your breath.
Did you know, though, that even gentle yoga can help with weight loss? Scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center showed that regular yoga practice helped:

• prevent middle-age spread in people of healthy weight
• promote weight loss in those who were overweight

Along with colleagues, Dr. Alan Kristal, a professor of epidemiology at the Hutchinson Cancer Center, developed a study that looked at yoga's effect on people's eating habits (and therefore on their weight). The researchers first developed a questionnaire or feedback form, which determined how mindful and focused each participant was while eating. By filling out the questionnaire, participants could see when they were eating while distracted, eating despite already being full, or using food to mask emotional distress.

All the participants were physically active, following regimens that included walking for at least 90 minutes per week, and one group regularly practiced yoga.

Simply put, what the scientists found was that a consistent yoga practice was strongly associated with mindful eating. In fact, the study found that yoga--regardless of whether it was practiced vigorously or not--was the only physical activity consistently associated with attentive eating.

So what's so great about mindful eating, you ask? The researchers explained that the people who ate mindfully were aware of why they were eating and were thus more apt to stop eating when they were full; that is, focused eaters tended to eat because they were hungry and not because they were trying to mask anxiety or depression. The yoga participants also weighed less, had lower body mass indexes, and were less likely to be obese than were the subjects who were not as mindful while eating. (In fact, the lower a participant's BMI was, the higher was his or her awareness rating on the questionnaire.)

I've mentioned in the past that if you're eating mindfully, chances are you're eating more slowly. And if you're eating slowly and paying attention to what you're doing, you're going to be more apt to notice when you're feeling full--your brain gets the stomach's signal of fullness more promptly when you're paying attention.

This study is one more vote for including yoga in weight-loss programs, over and above its ability to reduce stress and lower blood pressure.