I need to be healthier but also to set an example for my husband and kids….it’s not about me anymore. With 2 small children who will be developing and learning their eating habits from the home (from a career dieter, no less), and in an environment rampant with a culture that fosters childhood obesity…I have to take control of my family’s nutrition now instead of sleepwalking through this critical crossroad in my children’s lives. I know that there will be many ways I as a parent will dramatically influence my children—getting the food relationship right (for all of us) will be one of the best gifts I can give and set the stage for them to grow into healthy adults.

Have you ever had a hobby that you’ve done for a good part of your life? Are you an avid reader? A swimmer? Have a love for football? I can honestly say that managing my weight has been my second job for the past 30 years…longer than anything else I’ve ever done. I have always had a love/hate relationship with my body, and have been dieting since childhood. (My expertise is in deprivation techniques.) However—what I WANT…and is completely in my power to have through the Best Life Diet, is a new way of eating that is inclusive and normalizes food…where food is celebrated and creative…it is just chosen more carefully. This is the only way to sustain a lifestyle of healthy eating—making it normal.

Just two months ago I was in the process of taking out an extra life insurance policy since our family has grown. Since I am 38 years old, the requirements included a medical questionnaire and exam, blood test, the works. I’d always just had insurance through my jobs so this was a bit new to me. As I was going through the questionnaire with the agent on the phone and we got to the “weight” question, after I had given my weight the agent got quiet. He told me in a very unsympathetic and monotone voice (anyone overweight has high emotion when discussing their weight—so I was already getting worked up) that in the eyes of the insurance company, I was considered a significant “health risk”…therefore my premiums were going to be very high. I tried to explain that I had just had a baby and yes, I wasn’t back at my normal weight yet, but I would lose it soon, etc….it didn’t matter. What’s more is that even after I lost my baby weight, the insurance company would still consider me 12 pounds overweight. My “good” weight really wasn’t a “good weight”!  This was my wakeup call. A company that leverages people’s health risks for a living called ME a significant risk…at 38. And to add insult to injury, I have to pay more to be unhealthy! Though my husband and I have talked in general terms about being “healthier” for our kids—we hadn’t yet made changes that would make an impact. It all begins now—before it’s too late. 

I am not very happy with my body (surprise surprise)…my body is not very familiar to me right now—it’s fleshy, untoned and like a lump of clay. As any mother knows, the post-partum proportion your body takes after birth could make you cry every day if you let it (but you don’t because you let the raging hormones make you cry instead.). I remember having a meltdown recently in a store dressing room as the sales associate brought me every pair of pants they carried in the largest size they had…and kept asking me through the door “How’s it going? You doing ok?” and in my depressed, choked up delirium since nothing fit, I was only hearing “Everything ok, you BIG FRIGGIN COW?” Making this change will make me so much more confident as a mother and wife…I will feel that I’m in control of my health and that will benefit both me and my children. I will look better and feel beautiful. Oh yeah, and I’ll also get my life insurance policy fee adjusted too!