My last post seemed to attract more readers than usual . . . I have the nagging feeling that there are lots of people out there who struggle with their personal fitness and health goals. I guess that is a given in our society: we are all aware of the "supermodel syndrome", the ridiculous expectations that we and society place upon our bodies and personal image, the fact that every woman (and probably lots of men, too) will always have something that she cannot accept about herself. Really, all one has to do is look at the young women around her to see the insecurities and confidence issues that plague the collective female consciousness.

I think that lots of companies are starting to pick up on this problem, and some are even trying to address it and change the status quo. Dove in particular does a great job; I'd encourage everyone to check out the Campaign for Real Beauty website to see tons of videos that feature everyone from young girls to older women talking about their self image and their struggle to come to grips with who they are and what they have been created to be.

Subservient Worker recently voiced some of the problems she faces in my comments section and asked for any advice I might be able to offer. I don't know if she quite knew what she was getting herself into with that request-- I could talk about this subject for hours! But, for the sake of you all, I will try to keep this abbreviated.

SW, I feel your pain! In lives as busy as ours, it often becomes difficult to eat well and exercise. It feels like we only have enough time or willpower to do one or the other, but to keep control of both is far too great an exertion in the midst of work and school and homelife and long distance relationships that depend entirely on webcams. (Maybe that last one just applies to me . . .)

Firstly, though, I want to encourage you that losing five pounds is a HUGE accomplishment, and to say congratulations! It is so easy for us to look at the number five, or seven, or even two, and think "That's nothing! I need to lose so much more than that!", and then we get discouraged. I once had a coworker who was working really hard to lose weight. She had been over 250 pounds for as long as I'd known her, and was just starting to attend a weight loss support group and really work on improving her health and lower her body weight. I remember I was once sharing with her my own frustrations about my body, and she told me something I will never forget, mainly because it came from someone who had clearly faced her own unique battle in this area.

"LM," she said, "when you think of losing five pounds of fat, it often doesn't seem like much, and I understand that you can get annoyed that the pounds aren't flying off. But look at this." She went to our office fridge and pulled out the industrial size five-pound tub of margarine that someone had left in the fridge for everyone's use. "Look at this tub. The fat you lost in the last month, the five pounds you worked so hard to get rid of, would fill this container. Feel how heavy it is. Look at it and imagine how much work it would take to make this entire container just disappear. That is what you have accomplished!"

And even if it sounds silly, ever since then, I have learned to picture my weight losses, small or large, in one pound blocks or five pound tubs of butter or margarine. To be able to look at a physical object and know that I, through sheer determination and hard work, have forcibly removed its equivalent in fat from my body is a huge boost for my self-esteem. It has really taught me to appreciate my own efforts and to celebrate the small successes along the way.

As for the fine balance between keeping up our healthy eating efforts and exercise goals at the same time, I can only share what I find helps me. This method may not work for everyone because we all have different ways of envisioning ourselves and our fitness efforts, but over the last few years, when I really started caring about my health, I have developed this habit which has helped me control this tricky area.

I look at calories. You see, 3500 calories equals one pound of fat. If you were to eliminate 500 calories from your diet everyday, over seven days you would lose one pound. So, I figure out how many calories I need to take in to maintain my current body weight (if you want this formula, feel free to ask/comment/email me). Then I take 500 calories off of the total, and over that week, I should lose one pound. The 500 calories can be either directly taken out of your diet, or they can be burned off by exercise, or a combination of both.

Using simple math like this helps me because it is indisputable fact. If you take away those 500 calories each day, you will lose the weight, no questions asked. To help myself control my eating, I tend to look at the calories I am burning while I am, say, exercising on the elliptical machine. In 25 minutes on the machine, I burn about 350 calories if I am working pretty hard. Later that day, if I am tempted to eat a bar of Swiss chocolate with hazelnuts (my absolute favorite!), I will look at the nutrition information on the bar and see that it contains 300 calories.

Then I think to myself, "I just worked really really hard to burn 350 calories. If I eat this chocolate bar now, will it be worth nearly 'cancelling out' all of the sweat and effort I just put in to burning the equivalent amount from my body?" Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes no. But at least I know that I have stopped to evaluate my choices, and by attaching a real experience (the sweat and pain I endured at the gym) to what I am putting into my body, I have a better understanding of what the food that I am eating will mean to my exercise regime in upcoming days.

I hope this helps. Like I said, some people don't operate by imagining the "trade off" between food and exercise, but this is a really effective tool for me when I am struggling to make good choices for my mind and body.

And my former coworker? She lost about 95 pounds and not only looks amazing, but is healthy and vibrant and able to do so much more than before. May the margarine tub illustration live on!