Three Fats and A Skinny: supplements

Monday, March 12, 2007

Sporty: Do you Flax?

This weekend Jill came to visit. We stopped by GNC and encountered a very talkative clerk who shared his wisdom about all things health. Needless to say, Jill and I left with several bottles of healthy living "essentials" including flax seed oil.

I've always heard that flaxseed oil is "good for you". This article talks about the benefits and ways to include it in your diet. Here are the highlights:

Flax promotes colon health
Flax fat can be slimming
Flax promotes cardiovascular health
Flax provides fats that are precursors for brain building
Flax may lessen the severity of diabetes by stabilizing blood-sugar levels
Flax promotes healthy skin.
Flax supplements can boost immunity

WW also recommends including 2 tsps of health oils daily, so I'm going to try to flax. I bought the oil and the pills. I'll let you know if notice any differences.

The Story of Us

Here's a story,of a lovely lady
And three of her very be-est friends...
3 of them were overwe-eight--
The other one was thin...
(To the tune of the Brady Bunch Theme)

We've been friends for 20 years...yeah, we feel old. Back in the day, I (Posh) was the skinny one. I had this gaunt I need more food look. Fortunately, I had some padding in the right places so in the moment it wasn't so bad, in retrospect I looked hungry. Wasn't really into sports but I used to hike a lot (mountains, parks, waterfalls) with the family. Anyway, had a kid and I'd like to say that the whole pregnancy thing triggered off a latent hormone cycle that spiralled me, in the last 11 years, to 209 lbs...but I can't... It sounds a lot nicer, though, than I like to snack a lot and that great food can be the highlight of my day and that I go through intense cravings for cheese curls and macaroni pie and roti & curry (island food) and lemon crunch cake with vanilla ice-cream and that my concept of a "hike" now is my walk across the parking lot to get to work....and well, you get the picture. So that's me.

Then there's Sporty. Since back in the day she's been saying that she was fat. I don't think her size ever really registered for the rest of us. Most we may have thought was that she was "big boned"...cause she is... Think her height (5ft) may have accentuated what was or wasn't there. She's 235 lbs now. We looked at some home videos recently, though and realized that she had a really nice normal size...not too skinny...not fat...Didn't even realize it at the time. She's been the most avid weight-loss attempter. She can organize a weight-loss plan with the best of em... Weight Watchers, Body for Life, Random Weightloss clinic, Weight watchers, Exercise Boot Camp, Weight Watchers... She's gone through a couple of cycles. And when she's on, she's on! Dieting & Exercising Demon... She lost over 50lbs one year....only problem...she gained it back the next! She keeps on trying though...This year's gonna be a weight-loss year for her. She's a good inspiration!

Scary. I guess you could say she's always been the "fat" one... remember when we were really, really young her grandmother making a comment about how she drank too much juice...not sure if that was the actual case, but several years and glasses of juice later she's 238lbs. I think out of all of us though, she's the most comfortable and secure with her weight size. Not that she wants to stay that size but she's comfortable in her own skin. She's been focusing on the health issues of being overweight...diabetes runs in her family...ever the logical one though, she's given herself a deadline...this coming July, I believe...if she hasn't gotten it together and started losing weight, she's gonna get Gastric Bypass Surgery. She says she'd rather deal with those side effects than deal with Diabetes. She wants to choose her health issue!

And finally Ginger (aka Miss Skinny who went from a size 10 to a size 8 because she decided to embrace veganism as a healthier life style and who doesn't drink soda 'cause it tastes so artificial and who likes to wake up in the mornings and go for walks or even a nice afternoon walk....). Yeah, so Ginger...she was always a regular size I would say....had a moment in college where she put on some weight but she became a vegetarian and lost all the weight (just have to insert bitterly that I've been a vegetarian all my life and I'm still 209lbs...but oh yeah, I forgot I have the whole hormone thing going...) Anyway, I think she's been talking about how she's having problems fitting into her clothes so she's trying to do the whole exercise thing (more) this year. I don't even know how much she weighs... Who cares, anyway-- she wears a size 8!! I'd love to fit my size 18/20 self into her jeans! But anyway, in the spirit of best-friendliness: Go Ginger! Go Ginger!

So that's the gang.

Of course we have a few peripheral characters: Scary's husband who wants to be wearing a speedo, with six pack abs on a beach this November (No he's not even close to speedo wearing); Mimi,Ginger's friend and workout buddy (who would never think of using this blog as a way to distract herself from her dissertation writing); Sporty's cousin, Jill, who thinks she can take sexy back from Justin if she loses 20lbs; my skinny active sister, Spice, who always wants to exercise and "lose weight" (yeah, she gets the same kind of bitter comments as Ginger); My son who started reading food labels last year, to remind me of my caloric intake and weight-watcher points (even though I never asked him to, but he says he's just trying to help); and my villainous mother who notices every plate of food I eat and the number of cheese curl bags in the trash and just knows that I'm gaining weight, even though the scale says I'm maintaining and who says that I need to dilute my juice with half a glass of water...

So yeah, The chronicles of our weight-loss begins!

Three Fats and A Skinny

Monday, March 12, 2007

Sporty: Do you Flax?

The Story of Us

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