That's Fit

The holidays are both a wonderful and stressful time. It's amazing how the month of December has such a completely different impact on us than does say.........April! It's weird how our culture/society has created such a wild phenomenon where people voluntarily set themselves up to spin out of control. Not only are we spinning, but we plan to spin! Having said that, the fact that you've chosen to read this article means you would really like to avoid ending up dizzy from debt and desserts come January.

You can get through the holidays without sacrificing yourself. Here's how.

• Don't buy things you can't pay for TODAY! Pay cash for gifts, trips and other holiday luxuries. You needn't work the rest of the year to pay off your mistakes this month.
• Don't consume more calories than you can burn off TODAY! Excess caloric intake leads to weight gain, and you shouldn't have to run extra miles the rest of the year to burn off the mistakes you make this month.

Now that we're right smack in the thick of the holiday season it's as important as ever to balance your enjoyment of holiday goodies with maintenance of your waistline. Although holiday weight gain is generally very small (as little as 1 pound per year) the problem is that it is also generally very resilient and doesn't go away. And all those individual pounds are piling up not only on our bodies but in the bills we owe -- they're flat out costing us money. Here's an idea of just how much obesity costs us:

• $800 per person for missed work
• $275 million in jet fuel costs from carrying the extra weight
• $7.72 per meal in costs accrued from super-sizing fast food dinners
• $180 per year in taxes
• Unhealthy foods (sweets and fats) have gotten 14% cheaper, but healthy ones (produce and dairy) have gone up by more than 50% since 1980
  

London Fashion Week may prove quite a disaster this year unless event planners comply with new regulations requiring models to produce health certificates proving they don't have eating disorders and ensuring girls aged 16 to 18 are chaperoned. If these provisions are not made, financial backers may pull their funding.

London's fashion industry was put under fire recently by Beat, the UK's leading eating disorders association. Many say it's important to keep the pressure on the industry -- for the models whose health depends on it and for consumers who need to know the fashion industry is not exploiting anyone as they market products.

What do you say? A step in the right direction? Or a catwalk catastrophe in the making?

I wrote the other day about employers offering financial incentives to staff members for losing weight. And while washing dishes Tuesday night after eating an experimental homemade pizza with fat-free cheese -- it was pretty good -- I stumbled upon NBC Nightly News and a commentary about this very weight-loss reward system. It went beyond the discussion of monetary prizes for shedding pounds, though. It addressed the fact that some employers are punishing employees for unhealthy lifestyle choices.

It was like listening to a parenting expert discuss rewarding and punishing kids for poor behavior. I'm always stuck on the topic -- do I go overboard with praise and ignore defiant outbursts so my kids realize only positive behavior gets attention? Or do I punish my kiddos for poor choices so they learn not to repeat them? Like my confusion on this topic, I'm not so sure about the workplace health scenario.

So some employers are raising insurance premiums for the overweight, for those who won't consent to health assessments, and for those who choose to smoke. It's all in an attempt to lower health care costs, minimize absenteeism, and promote wellness. The whole punishment approach seems harsh. It makes sense too. See how I'm wavering?

What do you think?

The contestants on NBC's The Biggest Loser compete in the ultimate of weight loss challenges hopefully for the sake of overall health and fitness but first and foremost for money. Lots of money. The one who comes out "the biggest loser" at the end of the show takes home $250,000. That's quite a chunk of change. And quite a motivator too.

Money motivates. And employers are starting to capitalize on this fact by paying staff members to slim down. It beats paying medical and absenteeism costs for overweight employees. And it seems to work.

Studies show overweight employees who were compensated for their weight loss efforts lost more weight than those who received no monetary reward. Now it's not clear whether or not participants will keep the weight off or if this strategy will be profitable for companies in the long-term, but financial incentives are surely worth a try. Don't you think?

I'm a big fan of the occasional cheat day, but of course blowing your diet can be hard on your health depending how often and how majorly you mess up. But when thinking about what you'll have to deal with when "falling of the dieting wagon," there might be more to consider than just the cost in "pounds gained" or "efforts wasted." What about financial impacts? What about harm to your wallet and an unpleasant dent in your shopping budget?

Okay, so this chart of costs is a little over-the-top, but it gets its point across. If, for whatever reason, your health isn't enough motivation to get you through a rough patch and keep you on track, maybe focusing on a financial angle will work instead. They came up with $3538.44 in additional costs incrued by giving in to temptation, and you better believe I can think of much better ways to spend that kind of dough than on extra doctor visits and prescriptions!

Managing both a career and being a mother and caregiver is more than demanding. Balancing a job and balancing a family is challenging. The added stress, and physical demands each day wears on a body in the long run and can aid in the cause of many diseases like heart conditions, cancer, hyper tension, inflammation in the body and many more. Women need more flex time, better child care options, benefits for part time work, more paid sick days and family leave without jeopardizing their positions at work if they take time off, and they need better health care coverage that covers more tests on yearly health exams for disease prevention.

The comments to be a "stay at home mom and not work" really urks me because in actuality women who do stay at home work. Being a caregiver is hard work. Many women work separate shifts from their husbands so they can care for children, elderly parents, grandparents, and do household chores during the day and also work in the afternoon and evening. Women are needed more now to help with financial matters in the home to make ends meet. Most women even set up and maintain the family budget so in actuality they are also the family accountants.

The majority of U.S. mothers simply cannot afford to exit paid work because it would devastate their families financially. Additionally, upper and middle income women often are pushed out of their jobs by inflexible work environments that penalize workers who have family responsibilities, not because they blissfully choose to leave. Low income women are expected to work no matter what the circumstances are.

Mothers who do flee the workplace often do so out of frustration. As rewarding as motherhood can be, most women would prefer not to give up their careers entirely. The lack of flexibility at work, childcare issues and societal pressures are what make some women get off the fast-track. Meanwhile, the struggle persists for women who simply can't take the choice to not work because they rely on their jobs for a steady paycheck and health insurance.

I was listening to radio financial guru Dave Ramsey today, and for a brief moment thought I was listening to myself. No, I'm not a man ... nor do I have so much facial hair. But I could just hear myself in his words. His callers call in and make up all of these excuses on why they've charged a bunch of things on their credit cards, and are now in insane amounts of debt and he goes "duh" and "so what." Then he proceeds to give them an exact solution to get them out of the hole they're in.

I do the same thing. Trillions of people come to me with caloric debt. Meaning ... they give me a tons of excuses why they've consumed more calories than they could burn off and now they're stuck trying to get out of the hole they're in. I go "duh" and "so what." And then I give them the exact solution to get them out of the hole they're in.

There are two things you need to be both successful in fitness and in finance. First you need knowledge. If you don't know what healthy eating legitimately is, and how to exercise to your best advantage you can't succeed. Same goes for money. You need to understand how to avoid debt, deal with purchases, investments, and savings to avoid financial distress.

Sometimes when life throws you a bunch of difficult situations to handle and you think you will never get through it all, your inner strength may just need to take a vacation to let you know your body and mind need a complete rest before you totally shut down. Stress. The silent killer. Oh boy was I there the last few weeks and this past weekend my inner strength said it had had quite enough to deal with and was time for a vacation. I had hit that brick wall and it knocked me flat on my big girl pantie butt. Health issues, financial issues, sick family members, computer problems, relationship problems, and the loss of a dalmatian that has been a child in the family for 13 years. No willpower in the world was going to drag me out of bed. I am not a violent person but finally when I did make it out of bed, I just wanted to hit something and cry.

Then it dawned on me all of the articles I had read on boxing and how it relieved stress and not to mention was a good cardio work out. Well I didn't want to go to a gym all puffy eyed from crying for two days and start beating the crap out of punching bags in public. People might think I was waging a war inside toward someone. And actually I was waging a war inside with life's situations that somehow creep up on you when you reach that soon to be 50 mark and responsibilities seem to triple. So I stuffed an over sized pillow case full of towels and blankets and hung it over the door of my closet and whala a punching bag and a huge stress reliever. When I was completely out of breath, I sank to the floor and let the weight of the world fall to the ground. Nothing had been resolved any more than it was 15 minutes before that, but it felt like it had.

Just getting rid of some of the stress let my inner strength back in to start dealing with everything that I faced. I miss my dog "Cally" just like losing a family member but now I am able to focus on the memories we had with her and not just the pain of losing her. I got a letter saying I was accepted into a health program that will give me financial assistance for medical care, and after three weeks of trying to figure out a computer problem, my best friend finally figured out my computer problems with me over the phone and that allowed me to get back into the server to blog. I should have made that make shift punching bag years ago and now I am a firm believer of lightweight boxing and doing something to get rid of stress.