Oklahoma! Where the grease and fat come sweeping across the plains...

As many of you know I live in Oklahoma, where our allegiance to God, country and college football is legendary and for some not necessarily in that order. In fact, if you think I am joking I will take you to meet my brother, whose blood type is CC in that he bleeds crimson and cream. He is not a fair weather fan, he has always been there supporting the Sooners through the good and bad times and through all sports, he can quote facts and figures about the team and even has a room devoted to OU memorabilia. It is true the University of Oklahoma is one of only two schools to capture seven national football titles.

My brother Levi (Buster) takes OKLAHOMA wherever he goes!

And if you live in Oklahoma too, you may or may not be aware of something other national statistics. However, these statistics are nothing to brag about or boast in, did you know that Oklahoma ranks near the bottom in multiple key health status indicators? For example, Oklahoma still leads much of the nation with deaths due to heart disease, with only Mississippi having higher rates. Add in high rates of strokes, respiratory diseases and diabetes one can certainly begin to see why our “health report card” is failing. The last report I found online was from 2008, we had F’s in Cerebrovascular Deaths, Chronic Lower Respiratory Deaths, Unintentional Injury Deaths, fruits and vegetable consumption, no physical activity, adult dental visits and current smoking. I also found 2010 information on the Healthy Americans website that indicated we are still failing in fruit and vegetable consumption and no physical activity. Although there has been some improvements made, we are still a very unhealthy state.

Did you know American Indians/Alaska Natives disease rates
are almost 2 to 3 times the rate of the general U.S. population?

Part of the equation as to why our nation is facing an obesity epidemic.
Did you know that this generation of kids could be the first generation not to outlive their parents?

Some of you know that I lost about 45 pounds in 2008-09 by doing WeightWatchers (WW). I have managed to keep 35 of it off, but I am still struggling with those extra 10 pounds that found me again. Well WW has revamped their program with a whole new point system. I was soooo mad when I found out that they changed the point system. I had just figured it out, entered all my recipes in the recipe builder, found the foods that I liked and that fit within my point allowances for the day and then they go and change it! It took every thing in me from not flinging myself to the floor and throwing a big old fit! How rude! Why? Why did they have to change it? Their plan worked, after all look at all those asterisk holding people featured in their magazines. It was a conspiracy I am sure to make my life miserable or they were just out to make more money, it certainly couldn’t be because it is a better way! My plan was to quit all together, I’m sure that would get them to switch back! Yeah, right! So as I faced this disaster in my life I thought what would I tell my children to do? And that is to have a good attitude, because our attitudes reflect our actions and our outlook determines our outcomes. So I picked myself up off the floor and went to the computer and begin the new tutorial about the points PLUS system.

BEFORE WW: See what I mean? We were living LARGE!

AFTER WW: We feel so much healthier

What I am discovering is that the new system is designed to look more at the nutritional values of the food by adding protein and carbohydrates into the equation which takes into consideration how our bodies process these different types of foods. The best part that I have found is almost all fruits and veggies are now zero points! Zero means hero in my book! I love bananas and on the old system they could cost up to 2 points! Now they are free! I am doing my monkey dance! The sad thing is that my all time favorite High protein – high fiber cereal the Original Kashi Go Lean (red and white box only) is now double the points, but you do get more points in a day than you did on the old system, so it works out. I also noticed that I am eating less processed foods and more fruits and veggies.

So let me get to the point of this entire post! I was searching new recipes on the WW website when I discovered Beth! Beth also lost a significant amount of weight on WW and is now successfully removing all processed foods out of her diet. She has some really great ideas and recipes, but to her advantage (IMO) she lives on the east coast (DC area), where they have multiple whole food stores and products to choose from at competitive prices, not to mention DC is a very pedestrian friendly which promotes more physical fitness activity. She was also just offered a job at WW. I really want to try that Ezekial 4:9 bread, she said it is cheap at Trader Joe’s! Oooooo how I wished we had a Trader Joe’s, but good news is I hear a Whole Foods Market will be opening at the end of 2011 in Oklahoma City! Now if we could get some healthier fast food options like Chopt' Salad and if we could have more walking/running/bicycle paths spring up!

The only thing about eating the whole food way is getting my children to follow, I have corrupted their taste buds for years with processed foods and I am desperately trying to correct that.

I usually eat the same thing for breakfast every morning, no variety. What do you eat for breakfast? Or do you even eat breakfast? What time of the day do you eat it? When you first get up or mid morning? What are your thoughts on whole and organic foods? I am still learning about all this and would love to hear your thoughts .

In the meantime I encourage you to check out her blog at http://bethsjourney.com/ and see what you think of breakfast ideas she just posted. They all sound very filling.