16 years ago my Mom lost her battle to cancer.

She passed away of cervical and ovarian cancer. I can remember 18 years prior to her passing, she, and her (our) Cousin Carol Ann, were talking in the dining room, and my Mom mentioning to our cousin how she “wasn’t feeling right down there". Cousin Carol Ann asked my Mom if she has gone to the Doctor to check it out, and my Mom’s reply was “Oh No!! I don’t want to hear the “C" word"!!  - for you young ones, the “C" word isn’t what you think – it’s means CANCER. Well my Mom ignored all the signs.

Fast forward about 15-16 years later, and one day I found my Mom “sleeping" in bed, very weak (not like my Mom). For some reason I pulled back the covers to her bed only to find her sleeping in a pool of blood from “the lower area". Of course she was rushed to the Hospital, tests were taken – and it was discovered she had cancer of the cervix and uterus. They operated, they said they “got it all out" and she recovered.

A year later she relapsed, and for 2 years she was on/off drugs and eventually chemo. The cancer finally took her life. She was 54. The Doctor told her (and us) that if she had come in 18 years sooner there is a very good chance she could have beaten this and lived longer.

As a result, my Mom never got to meet her only Grandchild. And the death of my Mom hit my Dad so hard it eventually killed him too. Not to mention my sister and I, who miss them both (daily).

Now why am I posting this? Not because I want you to feel sorry, or send condolences replies, but because you're special to me, and to remind you of a few things:

(01) If you don’t feel well, GO SEE A DOCTOR!! I know, we’re all scared what the Doctor may say but early diagnosis is the KEY to BEATING a disease.

(02) IGNORING IS IGNORANT. Your body is your best friend. IT won’t lie to you. It will tell you when something isn’t right. Don’t be an ostrich and stick your head in the sand. Listen to your body. Remember, everything in life can be replaced – except YOUR OWN HEALTH/LIFE!!

 (03) NO ONE HAD CONTROL OVER YOUR BODY BUT YOU!! Many state that their family member is “not on board" with their medical decision. WELL GUESS WHAT – only YOU have final say over your own health. NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEING ALIVE.

(04) DEATH IS FINAL – Yes going and having an operation may cause you to be temporarily incapacitated, and it may put a temporary strain on your family. But when you’re dead, the strain and pain on the family is much greater.

If you’d like to honor my Mom’s life, please learn from her mistake, get healthy, and pass this along to anyone you think who will benefit from it. If you do, tell them it’s a present of love and concern from you, and Margie (my Mom’s name).

http://www.turnthetownsteal.org/

Some of us (me include) believe scales should be used only for fish or piano ... However, many others like to weight themselves regularly. They feel it helps keep them on track.

Many compare their lost to someone else’s, and get discouraged. The amount of weight lost is affected by many factors. Everyone loses weight at different rates. It has to do with age, gender, one’s weight, exercise, etc.. A 10 pound lost to one person could be as affected as a 40 pound lost to another. Think of it this way: If a 400-pound person loses 40 pounds; a 300-pound person loses 30 pounds, a 200-pound person loses 20 pounds, and a 100-pound person loses 10 pounds – the 400-pound person didn’t necessarily lose more weight than the others. All three lost 10% of their body weight.

With that in mind, I found a very good site that will calculate the PERCENTAGE of weight loss.

It's http://www.fi****ch.com/qkcalc/calculate-weight-loss-percent age.html

So before you get blue because Person A lost X pounds, and you've lost Y pounds, try to find out where they started from. You may be surprised to see you results are just as good, if not better.

Some other things to ponder:

Sometimes it is not the number of pounds that someone loses in a specified period of time that is important. Remember, if you are toning up muscle – your weight loss may seem to have slowed (or stopped), when in fact you are replacing fat with muscle. Muscle is heavier then fat. Someone weighing 200 pounds with a body fat percentage of 25 is carrying around 50 pounds of extra fat. That same person weighing 200 pounds with 10 percent body fat would be carrying only 20 pounds of fat. So it’s not the number that is important.

Remember there are other “scales" you can use to monitor your success: your constant hunger reduction (eliminated); reduced clothing size; increase energy; re-familiarizing yourself to body-parts unseen for years (errr… toes) ; “common" activity becoming easier (walking, climbing steps), just feeling good about yourself; sleeping better (reduced snoring); the mirror; better medical exam results (lower cholesterol and/or blood pressure); etc.

Finally, we are a generation of instantaneous results, however remember we didn’t put all the weight on at once, it took years. So don’t you think losing it would take just as long? This isn't one of those miracle instantaneous weight loss programs. Those types of programs always fail. This is a way of life. Plus in all my years of losing weight I’ve come too realized with instantaneous weight lost comes instantaneous weight gain.

Nowhere does any of the literature state you will lose x amount of weight in x days. Think LONG TERM. That’s what I am doing. My outlook is  “Slow and steady wins the race".  Even if it take me over 5 years to lose all the weight I want to, I know in the long run I will be happy and healthier. My doctor firmly believes the slower you lose weight, the better chance you have of keeping it off. My doctor reminded me that each pound I gained took time to put on, and it’s going to take some time to lose those same pounds. Try to remind yourself that even if I lost only 1 pound per week, in year’s time I’d be 52 pounds lighter.

Be proud of your lost. No matter how small it may seem. Remember, it’s better to lose not a pound than to GAIN a single pound.