300 – A Haunting Reality and Harbinger of Change

I have a very odd relationship with my bathroom scale. It’s like one of those on again/off again love/hate relationships you see in most bad daytime TV dramas. If the numbers on it are moving down it’s my best friend. I visit it constantly, happily stepping on it multiple times a day and jotting down the falling numbers. If the number is moving up however it’s a totally different scenario. I don’t return any of it’s calls and only step on it when I’ve had too many drinks and it’s 3 in the morning and I shouldn’t be stepping on it ether way. No matter what the number is though I can normally step off the scale, rationalize the result somehow, and continue my dysfunctional relationship. Every once in a while though, I hop on there and get a number that results in a knock-down, drag-out, change my relationship status on Facebook to single, and lock myself in a room kind of funk. I think there is a number for all of us, that number that makes us look at ourselves grimly in the mirror and utter terrible words like, “fat-ass”, “gross”, or “disgusting” in our subconscious mind. For me that magical and evil number that makes me want to scream and yell at the universe for hours on end is 300 pounds.

Written by  Kenin Bassart

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HOW FITNESS SAVED MY LIFE AND CONVINCED ME TO START A REVOLUTION

If teenager me could see the present me, she’d be horrified.

“You became a new-age hippie jock, you traitor!” she’d cry dramatically, then storm off in her pyramid-studded belt and spiked collar.

I’m quite different than who I was back then, and not just because I don’t dress like Sid Vicious anymore.

My life now has everything to do with my life then. I’m no longer that depressed, over-anxious girl who was sure she was alone in the world, but it’s because of her that I’m on this mission. The 30×30 Project to inspire hope through movement was born from my life’s struggle, and my mission to help others realize their own strength, inside and out.

Written by Amy Clover

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Overweight child star of Nike ad finds ‘greatness,’ loses 30 pounds

The overweight child star of a controversial Nike ad that aired during the 2012 Summer Olympics has shed 32 pounds in the past six months, and credits in part the “Greatness” ad that made him famous.

“I would never have changed my lifestyle if I was never in this commercial,” Nathan Sorrell told TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie on Thursday. “That’s not the only reason, but that really did help.”

Now 13, Nathan was 5 feet tall and weighed 232 pounds last year when he shot the ad, which showed him slowly jogging down a country road, panting and sweating heavily, while a voiceover declared: “Greatness is no more unique to us than breathing. We’re all capable of it. All of us.”
Written by Eun Kyung Kim, TODAY contributor

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How To Put Yourself First: 8 Tips For Health And Happiness

Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it. –Hardy D. Jackson

But you must also listen to yourself to know what it is your heart needs to be in, and then have the courage and commitment to move towards that.

Every day, we are pulled in so many different directions; from your kids to your boss, the pulling rarely ceases. Sometimes I daydream about what it would be like to throw in the towel for a week and hibernate until I got some away time and recharged my batteries.

It’s mentally draining. It can suck your lifeblood and leave absolutely no time for anything else. Forget working out, eating healthy or even just sitting down to read a book that interests you. Basically, there is no time or energy left for putting your needs into the equation.

Written by Ashley Johns

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