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NOTE: This is from my bi-wekly article in the Evansville Courier and Press BUT Anyone…Anywhere can use this info. Americans in general are in BIG trouble and need a wake up call! Enjoy… 

I have lived in many wonderful cities — Dallas, Santa Monica, Hollywood — but there’s something about good ol’ Evansville you just can’t replace. I have wracked my brain trying to pinpoint what makes my corn-fed friends so much friendlier and why I choose to live here compared with the excitement I used to experience in the bigger cities.

In the end, I always come back to the people. Evansville to me is family. People here are focused on family, friendships and living a “good life” away from the crazy life that the larger cities bring. However, there is something we miss that could impede that quest for a good life.

We are so busy working hard for our families, running here and there trying to raise well-rounded kids, worrying about new stadiums and parks that we are losing sight of the one thing that allows us to enjoy it all — our health.

Indiana has an adult obesity rate of 26.8 percent, ranking it the ninth heaviest in the nation, according to a 2004-2006 study by the Trust for America’s Health. Even scarier is that our childhood obesity rates aren’t much better. Can you say, “Monkey see, monkey do”?

My Evansville-area friends, you simply must give yourself a reality check and ask some hard questions:

-Are you at a healthy weight?

-Are your blood pressure and cholesterol rates within the normal ranges?

-Are you raising your children to make healthy choices? Do they even know what healthy choices are?

If you answered “no” to any of these, you need to take a long hard look at what your future, and your family’s future, will look like if you don’t make some changes.

I don’t say this to scare you, but maybe that’s what you need. It’s what I call “a big fat kick in the pants to healthier choices.” We have this mentality of “oh, it’s only one Big Mac” or “it’s just a Pop-Tart — they are kids, you know.”

Come on — take a look around next time you’re at the mall. I think you’ll realize that those Big Macs and Pop-Tarts are adding up.

We are getting too comfortable in our laid-back Midwestern lifestyle. If we don’t do something, we will continue to climb that national obesity scale, and, folks, Hoosiers are better than that. We are not lazy people, but the numbers are indicating something a little different.

Let’s make some healthy changes together and help Indiana slide down the obesity scale. How? It all starts with choices.

You must choose to change. To help you here are a few great resources:

-I challenge you to go to www.in.gov/inshape/ and take a look at Gov. Mitch Daniels’ In Shape Indiana program. This is a top-notch free resource. Learn how to quit smoking, eat healthy and exercise, regardless of whether you are 8 or 80 years old. There’s also a way for you to e-mail questions to the site’s nutritionists and personal trainers.

-At www.sparkpeople.com you will find healthy living information as well as a support community. You can sign up for daily e-mails and join online support groups in the Evansville area.

-Need healthy recipe information? Look up www.foodfit.com for meal ideas.

-If you still have questions, come by my Web site, www.lifechanginghealthysolutions.com, and submit your questions. I would be honored to help my fellow Hoosiers and to see that No. 9 obesity ranking plummet.

As a personal trainer and healthy living expert, I make it a point to never talk to my clients about my own personal health problems. Those of us in the health and fitness industry are supposed to be super-healthy at all times and never have a down day, right?  

Look - kids get sick, we all have busy schedules, and many of us have health battles (some much more serious than mine). Life’s crud happens! It’s up to you to do everything within your power to create the healthiest battleground possible. Take control by taking action – by exercising and eating healthy. That way, when life places one of those nasty, mystery cream filled bombs in your path you can simply spit it out in the trash and get back on your happy and healthy way!

I have never been one to give up easily. I think it’s a combo of the hard work ethic my parents instilled in me and good ol’ ‘I am woman…there’s nothing I can’t do’ that is my personal motto.

Well, I may have met my match! I stink at skiing!

That’s right…skiing may just be the stinkin’ hardest thing I have tackled in recent years. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I could break my neck speeding downhill, out of control on two small, narrow strips of fiberglass. Or if it’s the frustration of having 3 year olds waving as they effortlessly pass me on the way down the run. Geeze.

Truth be known I have never been a sports player or all that great at taking instruction when learning something new. (Tennis didn’t go all that well for me either…but I’ll keep trying). However, this annual ski trip is important to me. It’s the one time of year we get to take time off away from the kids and enjoy the company of a couple who we consider to be the best friends ever. So learning to ski is a must.

I could just throw in the towel, give into my fears and say ‘the heck with it’ and stay in the lodge sipping on cocoa. Nah…not my style. Nope, I’m going to keep at it. Actually, this year as I lie, upside down, snow packed into my goggles and skis crossed from a very ungraceful wipeout I couldn’t help but compare it to many of the challenges we face in life.

We want to better our career so we’ll educate ourselves to get a better job. We have a illness then we go to the doctor to get to the bottom of it and treat it so it goes away. It’s really the same with weight loss and working towards a healthier lifestyle.

So many times we expect to just eat a few health meals and exercise when it’s convenient and then get angry and frustrated when we don’t see results. Truth is weight loss is just like skiing. You aren’t just going to jump on and immediately know how what to do. It’s a learning process. YOU WILL FALL DOWN! And you will eat snow from time to time. You may even need lessons on exactly how to eat, exercise and maybe even an istructor to really get you flying downhill with grace and ease.

So, don’t quit and keep on working at all this healthy living stuff. With consistency and persistence YOU WILL conquer this thing. For me, well, I’m definitely going to sign up for lessons next year. I obviously am not a natural and I’m humble enough to admit when I stink at something. But one thing is for sure…they have their work cut out for them. LOL

If weight loss for you is like skiing for me (you stink at it-lol) then get yourself a lesson…check out my Healthy Grocery Store Tour. It could be the thing that allows YOU to speed down the mountain and finally conquer this healthy lifestyle thing once and for all.

Good luck and…break a leg.

Darlene