I don't really believe in diets but I had to do something to lose the extra ten pounds I've gained over the past five years.  A muffin top and back fat have appeared on my body. 

Thanks to menopause every ounce I gain seems to land between my 12th rib and my hip add quitting smoking and my metabolism has changed.  The back fat actually started appearing a few years ago when I dated a guy who was overweight, meaning he was carrying an extra 20-30 pounds, his waist was a good 3-4 inches larger than his hips, and his cardiorespiratory health was lacking.

All of that is contagious.  Gradually I went from a relatively clean diet to eating heavy food that's high in fat and low in nutrition - meat loaf and mashed potatoes, fish & chips, eggs laced with cheddar cheese replaced a bagel with cream cheese and diced tomatoes; turkey with swiss cheese on whole grain bread, and a light dinner.  I was in Rome eating what the Romans eat. 

As a massage therapist, I may burn 300-500 calories per client, depending on the body size.  Playing soccer burns another 500-800 calories per hour.  I used the excuse that a high metabolism and lifestyle required more calories than normal to maintain and I unabashedly bragged that I ate whatever I wanted but stopped when I was full.  All true but I am still carrying around 10 pounds more than I was 5 years ago.  

I'm an all or nothing kind of woman.  Trying to cut down on bread, cookies, carbs, fat, and sugar gradually was not happening, especially since I wasn't eating that much of it anyway.  What was killing me were the times I would walk into the kitchen so hungry that I would stand at the counter eating anything I could put in my mouth while I was cooking dinner.  Something had to change like total abstinence from fat, sugar, and carbs.  Enter the Cabbage Soup Diet.

The Cabbage Soup Diet is a no carb, no sugar, no fat kind of diet that helps you quickly lose up to 10 pounds.  It consists of cabbage soup that you can eat all seven days, and then various days of all vegetables, all fruits, skim milk & bananas, a couple of days that add steak, and a final day of brown rice & vegetables.  Medical opinions say that you lose 10 pounds of water weight that will return as soon as you eat a normal diet.  I frankly don't care if it's water weight - 10 pounds is 10 pounds.  Thankfully I tend to lose the weight wear I put it on - right in the middle.

It helps that a friend is doing the Cabbage Soup Diet with me.  Misery loves company and let me tell you the first couple of days is brutal.  We both ate continuously, gorging ourselves on soup, vegetables, and fruit while simultaneously whining, complaing, and longing for a cookie!  It's almost over though.  My friend has 5 days to go and I have 4.  I've lost over 3 pounds and she's pretty closing to losing the same amount.  Three pounds isn't much if you need to lose 30 pounds but if you only want to lose 10, that means you're a third of the way there. 

In the long run I'm just hoping to detox my system and break the cycle of eating that I've been in for the past few years. 

Stay tuned . . .

I'm not a mechanic.  The nuts and bolts of your physiology and anatomy is not what I'm concerned with during a massage therapy session.  What I'm in tune with is your energy.

Where is the energy stuck in your body?

When I suggest that you take a deep breath, where do you start breathing?  At your diaphragm?  Your gut?  Is the breath/energy stuck in your throat? 

Your body is only the messenger of the information that I receive about you.  No matter what your words are telling me, your emotional brain (limbic system) and your body's responses, tell me the truth.  Your body doesn't lie.

So when you come to me with a sore shoulder, tense hip, stiff neck, those symptoms are only the clues to what is going on with you energetically. 

Sore shoulder?  What are you hanging on to that you obviously should let go of?

Stiff neck?  Are being open minded about a difficult situation in your life or are you in conflict?

Hip issues?  Where are you out of balance in your life?  Are you refusing to move down a new path?

So if you want someone to talk with you about your hip flexors, adductors, or rotator cuff, and methodically massage away your pain, I can do that.  You would just be missing out on the best experience.  On the other hand if you want to know, understand, and learn how your thoughts and feelings create the dis-stress you feel in your body; if you want to take control of your health and well being . . . then I'm the one for you.

Thirteen years ago today in 2004, I was standing  in the den of a home in Lancaster, Ohio.  The man sitting on the hearth had his head against my chest.  Slowly I ran my hand along the middle of his back.

With a slight tone of arrogance he said, "Do I do that to you?"

"What?," I asked.

"Your heart rate is fast."  I guess he should know.  He was a doctor.

"That's nothing.  Watch this."  With focused intention, I drew in a deep breath, held it for a moment, rearranged my energy, and dropped my heart rate to a slow, steady beat.

The man jumped away from me as if he were burned, "Oh my God! What was that?"

The words M-A-S-S-A-G-E  T-H-E-R-A-P-Y scrolled across my mind like a banner behind a plane.

"WHAT?  YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?" I asked silently.

Within a month I was enrolled in school, 2 years later I was licensed in the State of Ohio, and. . . . well you know the rest of the story.