A Merry Life | Weight Loss Blog - Healthy Living - Fitness - Food » Books, Magazines, TV

Book Review: Taking Charge of Your Fertility

Mary — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:42:47 +0000

One of my goals this year is to read at least a book a month about a health topic in my quest to better understand my body and make it the best it can be. The first book I read won’t be helpful for everyone, but I enjoyed it. It was Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

I’m not about to turn into a blogger who write TMI posts or blogs about my sex life. That’s not my style since I’m a pretty modest girl, but I do want to share something my review of Taking Charge of Your Fertility because it has changed my life.

Why I Read Taking Charge of Your Fertility

I wish I had read this book months or years ago. Personally I never learned much – or anything really – about my body and how it works regarding my period and fertility. All I knew was every month or so my period came and though it sucked I just had to get through it. I learned all hygiene stuff and the very basics of why it happened but nothing beyond that. I suppose I didn’t need to but the fact that I didn’t learn that then meant I didn’t know it even in my 20s. Reading this book changed all that.

It’s surprising that I never learned much about my hormones or monthly cycles. (Shocking, really.) I remember as a teenager being diagnosed with PMDD [Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a condition in which a woman has severe depression symptoms, irritability, and tension before menstruation aka more severe PMS where I can't control getting super duper sad] and being put on prozac to treat the symptoms until I decided I hated taking medication. Once I started exercising and eating healthier just to lose weight I noticed that it also reduced the PMDD symptoms and medication wasn’t as necessary anyway. Though the symptoms are still around they are tolerable and don’t completely disrupt my life.

Eventually I went on birth control pills because I knew that even though I was getting married I wasn’t wanting to become pregnant early on and wanted to get used them. This ending up being a horrible decision because in my case hormonal birth control pills increased the PMDD symptoms and almost literally made me insane. My history with depression combined with PMDD combined with birth control pills was a recipe for disaster. Crazy insane person disaster!! Much like when I stopped taking Prozac I realized again that I didn’t enjoy my quality of life so I stopped taking birth control. But that left me with a need to figure out something else for birth control.

The Basics of Taking Charge of Your Fertility

The interesting thing to me about the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility is that it is about understanding your body as a woman. This means it is useful either for those wanting to prevent or create a pregnancy. It is focused around the Fertility Awareness Method which involves a women tracking her cycle and changes in her body to know when she can and cannot get pregnant.

The book is broken into several sections that cover your period, your body, how to track your cycle, how to get pregnant, how to not get pregnant, basic womens’ health issues. The main part of the book is focused on learning how and why to track your monthly cycle as it is very important to both sets of goals. The book includes lots of examples and instructions and makes it easy. It also comes with a cd that has software that help you do this on your computer.

It teaches women the basics of fertility that we don’t learn anywhere else. It gives the knowledge and power to the reader and really builds confidence. After reading the book you can take your own fertility into your hands and know that you have a better chance at achieving what you want rather than just guessing.

My Thoughts on Taking Charge of Your Fertility

I’ll admit that this book made me feel stupid. I’m not sure why since I simply never had the opportunity to learn these things, but I definitely learned more in this class than I did in any school sex education (that was one awkward class that taught nothing) or doctors visits. After reading the book and putting into practice it’s method I feel much more confident about preventing and hopefully eventually becoming pregnant.

For me personally it also helped me better understand my body and the hormonal things that happen each month as well. I liked that the book works for both women trying to get pregnant and those trying to prevent it as well as giving lots of information important to all women. It’s a wonderful resource and a

Even if you don’t plan to use “natural birth control” or the Fertility Awareness Method that is described in the book I think this is a great read for anyone wanting to understand more about their body and the process of either achieving pregnancy or preventing it. I’d say it’s even a good read for either teenagers or moms of teenagers who want their kids to be more informed than most.

Obviously my review is positive. I’d give it 5 of 5 stars! ?????

You can buy Taking Charge of Your Fertility on Amazon or in your local bookstore. I got mine at Barnes & Noble (it’s less expensive online).

Book Review: Taking Charge of Your Fertility is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

Podcasts & Exercise

Mary — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:03:19 +0000

I am going to start doing a lot more cardio soon… Boo!

I find lifting so much more fun and entertaining, but cardio is necessary. And it helps with little things like finishing another triathlon. I find it incredibly boring when done at the gym but right now that is what I’ve been doing thanks to weather and other things.

To make cardio at the gym less boring I decided to download some podcasts to listen to. (our gym TVs have no sound and the music they play repetitively gets old fast.) Since I dont know what i like regarding podcasts, I downloaded a bunch of different ones to try:

The Jillian Michaels Show

Underground Wellness

Ben Greenfield Fitness

Everyday Paleo: Paleo Talk

Suze Orman Show

Smart Passive Income

Dave Ramsey Show

This American Life

Coffee Break Spanish

I figure listening to one of each of those will take me a few workouts then I can download more if I like them. I picked a few from random areas of personal interest just to have a lot of variety. I’m sure at least a few will stick.

Do you listen to podcasts? Any suggestions for great podcasts to listen to during workouts?

Podcasts & Exercise is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

Favorite Magazines

Mary — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:40:09 +0000

I love magazines.

Completely.

And forever.

Back in the day when I wanted to be a journalist (all through high school and when I studied journalism in college) I really wanted to work for a magazine. In fact my dream job as a teenager was a magazine writer/editor. I loved reading magazines so much back then. Although my dream of being employed by a magazine is gone, I still love magazines.

I go through phases of liking certain magazines. For instance, when I first started losing weight in college I read Shape & Fitness magazines religiously. They were my best friends while knocking out 30 minutes of cardio at the gym.

These days my fitness magazine preferences have changed.

My current favorite health & fitness magazines are Oxygen and Muscle & Fitness Hers.

It makes sense that as I’ve moved more towards a focus on weight lifting and eating a clean(er) diet with enough protein that I’m reading magazines that support this kind of healthy lifestyle. I really enjoy these magazines as I’ve learned a lot through them and have picked up a few good recipes and workouts. I recommend reading both.

I also read other magazines when I have time/money to do so. My other favorite magazines (and their “genre” type):

Time (News)

Cooking Light (Food)

Clean Eating (Food)

Forbes (Business/Finance)

Kiplinger’s (Personal Finance)

Sports Illustrated (Sports)

Outside of fitness magazines I tend to read more educational/newsy type things. I used to love Seventeen magazine when I was in high school but I grew out of it and never latched on to the gossipy or fluffy women’s magazines. I admit though that sometimes I flip through these kind (usually People) at supermarket checkouts when the line is long.

What are your favorite health & fitness magazines? What are your favorite magazines in any genre?

Favorite Magazines is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

I Have A Big Butt, I Can Not Lie

Mary — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:45:24 +0000

Between burpees and extra squats yesterday… my butt is sore this morning.

Really, really sore. I’ve been stretching the muscles back there and dreaming of a foam roller.

I’ve been thinking a bit about my butt lately because it’s been looking… good. Squats do very good things to your butt, I think. They might make it bigger but they make it more shapely and nice looking. My butt has undergone major improvements lately.

Remember when I posted that picture of myself a week ago? I got quite a few comments and messages about my backside.

My favorite was from Diana at Front Yard Foodie:

Oh my gosh you looks SO good! All flat up front with a sexy badunkadunk. hehe

Her comment made me giggle. (It also made me feel strange about talking about my butt on the internet. But here I am, dedicating a whole post to it. My life feels strange sometimes.) But her comment also made me happy because it’s totally true.

I’m never going to have big boobs unless I go the surgery route (and I highly doubt that will ever happen). I’m never going to have a small booty either. My pear shaped body likes to keep a little extra padding on my lower half. I’m okay with my shape despite the general media consensus that it’s a horrible shape to have.

Seriously, I’ve never understood when girls ask “Does this make my butt look big?” They want the answer to be no but why not let it be yes? What’s so wrong with having a big butt? Or a butt at all? Aren’t there whole songs dedicated girls like us? Sure not everyone finds this body part super attractive but with 6 billion people in the world you will never, ever be attractive to every single one of them. And with curvier role models (loose term by all means) like J Lo and Kim Kardashian (see what I meant about the term “role models”?) the body shape with a bigger butt isn’t all that crazy anymore but instead reached a place of seeexi.

Maybe I watched one too many tv shows recently with the same played out comedy routine of a girl asking if something made her butt look big. I’m over that question being in the media and in our minds. Positive body image is hard to keep a hold of when you are the girl at home watching tiny girls on tv asking why their very small butts look big. That’s part of why I don’t watch much tv anymore and why I’m all about drawing some positive energy from the gym and the blog.

Every body type is awesome, small butts and big butts alike.

I’ve ranted long enough about butts and body image. Now it’s time for you to do something. Or three things.

1) Leave me your thoughts in the comments.

2) Go do some squats.

3) Watch this video.

Have a great day! Don’t sit on your butts too much!

I Have A Big Butt, I Can Not Lie is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

Biggest Loser Season 12: Will This Be The Season?

Mary — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 01:29:36 +0000

Tonight I watched the first episode of The Biggest Loser Season 12. I also followed along with the conversations around the show on Twitter.

Interesting tweet, I thought.

Then after a few minutes of rumination I realized that I could have tweeted this myself. Every season. For 12 seasons (yeah I’ve watched them all even though I dislike aspects of the show). I’ve watched every one of them yet I’m still categorized as obese. I’ve been inspired and I’ve watched them sweat and wanted to do the same but I’m still at a weight just below what could get me on the show (though I’m not totally sure of my weight right now).

I watched all those seasons of The Biggest Loser and wanted to do what they did but I just didn’t. Or at least I didn’t enough. I didn’t reach the same level of success that season upon season of contestant has reached. I lost some weight and stalled. I’ve kept off 40ish pounds (go me!) but I haven’t gotten to my goal yet. There are reasons for it like the obvious fact that I can’t workout 6 hours a day. But really? The only thing that matters is that they have succeeded where I haven’t.

Sometimes this fact, the fact that I’ve not made massive progress when I could have, makes me insecure about blogging. Why would anyone want to read the story of a girl that has taken years to do what some people do in 5 months? Why would anyone want to read the story of a girl who still hasn’t accomplished what she set out to do? Sometimes I wonder these things and I know that people stop reading my blog for these reasons.

But you know? It won’t change the fact that I’m going to keep going.

So I watched the first episode of season 12. It felt different this time. This time I felt inspired in a way that I know will translate into action because I’ve already started down that path.

As it turns out I’m not the only one who has done this same thing and feels the same way. Swim Bike Mom just wrote a similar post about the Biggest Loser this season.

Like Meredith, I’m not setting any goals to be as thin as the competitors by the end of the season. I’m not setting weight goals but I am planning to workout as hard as possible and eat as clean as possible and see where it gets me. I want to be an athlete and that’s what athletes do. Really I’ve already been on my way towards this and The Biggest Loser season 12 just came along with an extra boost of motivation.

Though I’ve done a triathlon and other athletic endeavors I still don’t feel like I can call myself an athlete, yet that is my biggest goal. I feel like I’m right on the edge of claiming that word. Almost an athlete but not quite there yet. For some reason I always feel like people leave the show as an athlete and that’s what I want. It’s a level I haven’t yet reached but I feel like I will this time. I feel like I’m close. Very, very close.

Will this be the season I watch where at the end of the show I’m as athletic as the people who finish? Will this be the season where I transform myself into an athlete? I think it will be.

Will this be the season you finally are inspired to lose weight/get strong/become an athlete?

Biggest Loser Season 12: Will This Be The Season? is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

Reading For Six Year Olds: Maggie Goes On A Diet

Mary — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:27:22 +0000

Someone on Twitter or Facebook (I forgot who…?) linked to something about a book on Amazon called Maggie Goes On A Diet.

The description of the book:

This book is about a 14 year old girl who goes on a diet and is transformed from being extremely overweight and insecure to a normal sized girl who becomes the school soccer star. Through time, exercise and hard work, Maggie becomes more and more confident and develops a positive self image.

Apparently this book written by a man about a young teen going on a diet to reach the land of happiness and self esteem is available for pre-order for the price of $10.85.

Please, for the love of all things holy, don’t buy it.

I obviously haven’t read the book yet since it’s not actually available. But the tags on Amazon from others who have noticed this book’s existence say all there is to say about it:

teaching kids to self-hate(42)

give your children neuroses(38)

sexist drivel(35)

if you hate your daughter(32)

anorexia bait(29)

body fascism(29)

dangerous abusive(28)

talentless hack writer(21)

sick(19)

waste of a good tree(17)

I agree with every single one of those descriptions. A book like this is a horrible idea when it’s targeted toward 6-14 year olds (and possibly younger since the reading level is 4-8) audience. Those girls already have enough problems and worries about their changing bodies. They don’t need to read books like these that give them even more complexes.

The author and publisher probably thought they were doing a good thing. You know, helping all the sad fat little girls caught in the obesity epidemic. But the cover of the book along with the title are enough to make me want to cry for the children who will be forced to read this. Even if the contents do talk about healthy food, exercise, and positive self esteem (all good things!) the packaging and extra messages will speak louder than any words inside the book. It takes very little to trigger an eating disorder and this drivel has the ability to do that in many children.

Dieting is not a healthy choice for growing children. It’s just not. Even throwing the word diet out there to them is unhealthy, in my opinion. If you want to help with the child “obesity crisis” then target the parents. Teach them to make better choices – don’t start shaming children.

Another point that the book seems to make is that weight loss = happiness and success. That is not the case. I know lots of people who’ve lost weight and felt robbed because nothing really change. Happiness comes from the inside, not from your looks.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my future kids and what I want to teach them about being healthy. I want to teach them that food makes your body feel and work good when you make healthy choices. I want to teach them that exercise is fun and something you can enjoy. I want to teach them that no matter what their body looks like, living a healthy lifestyle is still worth it. I want to teach my future kids that self-confidence comes from being a good and strong person, not from what you look like. I want to teach them all the things I had to teach myself, growing up obese in a diet obsessed world.

Since I’d rather look for solutions and what I’d do instead… How about instead of Maggie Goes On A Diet you write a different book?

Maybe…

Maggie Tries New Foods (about eating new healthy foods)

Maggies Plays Soccer (about discovering soccer and becoming a star without dieting)

Maggie Makes Friends (about an overweight girl NOT ashamed of her body, but popular)

I believe it’s possible to teach kids about living a healthy life without shaming them or pushing them towards an eating disorder.

Don’t make or read a book for pre teen girls about body image and dieting. Just don’t.

What are your thoughts on this new book?

Reading For Six Year Olds: Maggie Goes On A Diet is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

Therapy Thoughts: Suffering is a way of being in the world.

Mary — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:11:45 +0000

Being yelled at and called names almost every day for the majority of your life hurts and damages you in a way that is hard to explain to other people. Being in a situation where someone is verbally abusing you and threatening worse is scary, especially when you are younger. When you learn that screaming back, going silent, or doing anything else doesn’t stop it sometimes you find other coping mechanisms. That’s what I did with food. That’s what I talk about when I talk about my family. That’s what I still sometimes struggle with it because in my family the position of chief verbal abuser has been passed down from one person to another until it’s at the last one, but still hanging on. That’s why sometimes when the screaming and name calling and threats start I revert back to feeling exactly like the kid I used to be.

I read a passage in When Love Is Food yesterday that fully spoke to me and to my situation (emphasis mine).

There is nothing boring about being a compulsive eater. You are either hating yourself because you are too fat, giddy with the prospect of being thinner, or ready to rip yourself apart when you binge. Chaos, intensity, and drama are normal in the day-to-day life of a compulsive eater. Suffering is a way of being in the world.

It is as if we act out the parent-child relationship inside us when we eat. If what we heard or thought we heard as children was that we were bad and therefore deserved what was coming to us, we act that out by eating until we are so uncomfortable we can’t move. It is not uncommon for someone who is not a compulsive eater to think it unfathomable to eat so much that she would be miserable. Why would anyone want to eat that much? What’s the point? The point is not the taste or the texture or the smell of the food; overeating is a means to give ourselves what we believe we deserve.

Compulsive eating is a dramatic restaging of the suffering and/or violence that we witness as children in our families. Our relationship to food is a microcosm of all that we learned about loving and being loved, about our self-worth. It is the stage upon which we reenact our childhood. If we were abused, we will abuse ourselves with food. The degree to which we are violent, abusive, self-punishing is in proportion to the degree of violence, abuse, and punishment we received. We learn how to do it by having it done to us.

Boom. Pow. Geneen Roth gets is. I think I knew she would which is why I put off reading her books (and going to therapy for so long). I thought I could just get rid of the eating problems. It turns out that is pretty easy to do, but it doesn’t necessarily fix the root of the problem. So now I’m working on that now.

ps – For the record I’m feeling happy and today is going to be a great day. This is all just stuff that came up from reading my book for therapy and it’s stuff I want to get out and seemed liked a good follow up thought to yesterday’s post. I’m eating well and headed to the gym after work. It’s going to be awesome! Hope you all have a great day!

Therapy Thoughts: Suffering is a way of being in the world. is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!