Change your mind... change your life.

This really awful photo was taken in the summer of 2010. As you can see, I was fully immersed in my frumpiness.

Summer 2010

My reason for posting this terrible photo is to prove that even small changes in what you eat, how you dress, and how you view yourself can make a lot of difference in your life. After seeing this and the other photos taken on the same day of a woman I hardly recognized, I started making small changes every day. Within three weeks, I began to see a difference. Within six months, I had lost almost forty pounds!

Summer 2012

I stopped thinking of myself as invisible and old, which subconsciously allowed me to stop caring about how I looked. A positive attitude is so essential. I started going for more walks and eating only vegetables, seeds, nuts, and whole grains, along with a few fresh fruits. (Read the book "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman for more information on what to eat and why.) I stopped wearing loose-fitting dull clothes.

I still weigh 143 pounds at five feet six inches tall. Yet, I am 58 years old in the photo above, and I am so much happier than I was even in my thirties and forties.

I don't do any special exercises, but I try to walk more and sit less each day. I don't eat meat or processed foods.

I am sharing all this with you as an example. (There are so few of us over fifty gals in advertising.) I want to show you that even small changes in your life can make you much healthier and help you feel better about yourself. I also want to encourage you to go out and enjoy all that life has to offer. My fifties have proven to me that life really does get better.

I sincerely hope that you will make a firm commitment to yourself to be the most positive, happy, healthy person you can be. You deserve it!

Jazz Up Your Salads!

Do you get tired of eating salads? So would I, if limited to just leafy greens, but they are among the most nutritious foods we can eat.

Leafy baby greens are almost always the largest portion of my lunch or dinner, but I also have steamed, baked, sautéed, and fresh raw veggies. Baked sweet potatoes are full of nutrients and a great addition to any meal, but I also enjoy having wild rice, quinoa, or other grains. A portobello mushroom cap, zucchini, green beans, asparagus, and squash are also included here. Beans and lentils are an excellent source of protein, and they keep you feeling full for longer.

During the summer of 2011, I was facing serious health problems along with numerous possible surgeries. A dear friend suggested I read the book "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. By changing my food choices and taking a few walks every week, those health problems have been reversed, and I have lost more than forty pounds.  

After reading my Power Porridge breakfast recipe, many of you have asked, "What do you eat for the rest of the day?" I have a combination of the pictured salad and vegetables for a late lunch every day with an occasional glass of wine. Water, almond milk, green tea, and wine are my only beverages. I rarely eat dinner, but I try to choose an entree close to this salad and vegetable plate when I do. By adding a variety of vegetables in season, you will always be able to enjoy an evolving selection of flavors and textures to add to your salads.

I like to create a full of flavor veggie stir-fry to serve as the base for my soups and salads. Start by adding some chopped sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil and rosemary to a thick-bottomed sauté pan. Add chopped onions and mushrooms on medium-high heat until the onions start to get tender, add whatever chopped vegetables you want, and turn down the heat to medium. Add chopped garlic near the end of the cooking time to keep it from becoming bitter. The combination can be used as a seasoning base for cooking vegetables or making soup. I use some unsalted vegetable stock instead of oils to keep stir-fry from sticking. When the sautéed items are tender, I spread them on a beautiful plate to cool while cutting up the fresh vegetables such as cucumber, tomato, celery, and sweet red pepper. I use organic baby greens, triple washed, and layer them over the cooled sauté. I top the salad with the fresh chopped veggies.  

Notice that I do not use any dressing, cheese, bread, croutons, or crackers. I add a little aged balsamic vinegar and good olive oil.

Below: those are cannellini beans and hemp hearts with sunflower seeds atop lightly steamed fresh organic broccoli, frozen organic peas, organic red pepper, sliced avocado, and cherry tomatoes, all on a bed of organic baby lettuces. I have some variation of this type of meal almost every summer afternoon.

For me, being healthy means eating this way 95% of the time. If I am a guest in a friend's home where they serve chicken, I enjoy it along with everyone else. At my next meal, I return to eating plant-based, non-processed factory packaged foods.

Frumpy No More

This is me in 1998, forty-two years old, five feet six inches tall, and weighing two hundred pounds. Those pants are a size 18.

My life was crumbling, and sadness oozed from every pore. I hated my job but was too deep in debt to start over in another. My then-husband was having an affair with a much younger and more fun woman. I was grieving for the children and family I would never have. In short, my life was a big mess! I cried every single day... sometimes all day long. 

When I hit rock bottom, I decided to change everything that I had the power to change. I started to eat more vegetables and fewer heavy late-in-the-day meals. I started walking. At first, I had difficulty walking to the end of the block. Soon, I was walking for a couple of miles every day. The weight started to come off, and I began formulating a plan to survive this difficult time. 

After the marriage ended, I moved to the New Orleans area. Of course, that was not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but it was an immensely better life than the one I left behind in Virginia. I made new friends and joined two gyms. My walks turned into five-mile runs, and my time in the gym filled the massive void in my life. 

This photo was taken at the peak of my bodybuilding obsession. I'm forty-five in this photo, weighing one hundred and thirty-five pounds. I'm still an empty shell of a human, but at least I look better!

In 2003, I left New Orleans and returned to my hometown in the mountains of east Tennessee. Some bumpy roads were still ahead, but I was home with my family and owned a successful business.

I'm telling you my life story for a reason. I hope you will read this and say if she can do it, I can! 

Change it if you are unhappy with some part of your life or body. Take little steps every day. Soon, you will be running (if not literally, then figuratively). Think of food as the fuel it is. Don't let it be your comfort and your entertainment. If you want to be healthy and thinner, you must make wiser choices about the foods and quantities you eat daily. The other twenty-two hours a day are worth making a few changes in your food choices.

The photo above is a more recent photo taken just before my fifty-sixth birthday at one hundred and

forty-two pounds. Those pants are a size 4!

My life truly began at fifty. I've never been happier or more healthy than I am right now. Not that being thin is the answer to all life's problems, but when you can sleep well at night without being in pain or struggling to breathe, you can make better choices during your waking hours. Sometimes, things are better than they seem after a good night's sleep.

I hope my story touches the lives of people going through something similar. I share fashion tips and my personal tragedies and triumphs, hoping to inspire you to improve your life. 

Happier and Healthier

The person you see in the first photo is very unhealthy and unhappy with her body image on all levels. That's me in the Spring of 2011.

Spring 2011

Fast forward a year to the second photo. After I lost more than forty pounds!

Spring 2012

I was about to outgrow size 12 pants in the first photo. In the second photo, I'm comfortably wearing size 4 pants. 

In 2010, I averaged two migraines per week. I rarely have a headache now, and the inflammation of joints that caused pain with every movement is gone. A backache that kept me from enjoying working in my flower gardens is gone. I no longer take medications of any kind. My lab test results are now perfect. 

Everyone who sees me for the first time in a few months is amazed at my transformation. Of course, the first question is, "How did you lose so much weight so fast?" My answer is always, "Read the book "Eat To Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman" to learn what to eat and why.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I have continued maintaining my weight since 2011.

~~~~~~~~

While researching the world's healthiest foods, I found many of them in what I have for breakfast every morning. This is a hot cereal breakfast that keeps me from thinking about food until late afternoon. I'm sharing the recipe along with my story in hopes that I can inspire you to be a healthier, happier, more energetic person.

Susan's Power Porridge Breakfast

1 cup of hulled, organic barley (soak overnight and cook for one hour). Use filtered water.

1/4 cup of organic farro (cook for 40 minutes)

1/4 cup of brown organic lentils (add to the farro and cook for another twenty minutes)

1/4 cup of old-fashioned organic rolled oats (cook for about 10 minutes.)

2 Tablespoons brown flax seeds (I grind them in a coffee grinder) Stir as soon as you add these ground seeds.

2 Tablespoons sunflower seeds and sesame seeds

2 Tablespoon of raw organic pepitas (no shell pumpkin seeds)

2 Tablespoons natural raw walnuts

2 Tablespoons raw pecans

1 tablespoon of turmeric

1 tablespoon of Red Star Nutritional Yeast (Not brewer's yeast.) It supplies B vitamins.

Add cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, or ground cloves to taste.

4 Large dates (pits removed) cut in half, then diced

1 sliced banana and 1/4 cup of blueberries or any fresh fruits you like.

Cooking instructions: Cook the barley in a separate pot uncovered. Add as much cooked barley as you want to the cooked farro, lentils, and oatmeal. The other items are added as desired until warmed through. Put in a bowl and add the fruit. You can save any extra to warm up for another breakfast.

 (You may find these items on Amazon.com or BobsRedMill.com if unavailable in your area.)

Packed with high nutrition, this breakfast will help you feel satisfied well into the afternoon.

It's been more than twelve years since I began this journey. I haven't had so much as a cold since I started eating this breakfast, followed by a sizeable vegetable-loaded salad late in the day. I drink water and eat fresh, in-season fruits and vegetables daily.

I still share a dessert with Mr. Mickey occasionally and have a glass of wine with food. But, 90% of the time, I eat whole-natural foods that have not been processed in any way other than perhaps being steamed. So, mostly, I just wash, chop, and enjoy. 

Countless people have asked me, "How do you continue to keep the weight off?" This is my secret!