An I’m-SO-Sorry Wednesday Weigh-in AKA Busy Photo Shoot Day!

Hey guys, I’m SO sorry this is late. It makes it even worse that I’m on the West Coast considering it’s “tomorrow” already. Regardless, I’m sorry. I should have had it queued up knowing the day I had scheduled.

And Oh. My. What a day!

I would love to stay up all night telling you about it but honestly I’m exhausted so you are going to get the bullet list version, but before I start I have to ask you a favor. Please forget (or at least don’t mention) what magazine I told you I’ll be in and which show I’m shooting a segment for, OK? I, ummm, really wasn’t suppose to tell you but I did and now I’m doing damage control. So let’s just say I’m working with a major magazine and a national talk show. Mmmkay?

Now that we got that out of the way, this is pretty much how my day went.

1. Morning run. 

I couldn’t help myself. I was up about an hour early and I just HAD to see a little of Hollywood so I snuck in about a mile and a half and caught a glimpse of the Hollywood sign!

2. My fellow bloggers. 

I met up with Erika and Michelle and we become instant buddies. LOVE these women!

3 . Interviews and B-roll

We spent about 2 hours recording a little about our backgrounds and some footage for “the show.”

4. Hair, makeup and wardrobe!!

Boy, a girl can get used to being pampered.

I’m wearing boots and skinny jeans! No, you don’t understand — I AM wearing BOOTS and SKINNY JEANS.

I don’t do boots and skinny jeans. I just don’t.

I may have to change my policy. lol

5. Photo shoot!

We did shots in workouts clothes and dressed up, alone and in the group. They even had our before pictures to pose by!

6. Interviews

We sat down and talked for some time. Unfortunately, you will have to wait until February to get the details. :(

7. Dinner

I didn’t take any pictures but I had a wonderful meal at the hotel with all these amazing, inspirational women!

8. CrossFit

I know. I know. I’m crazy but hey, I’m only here for a couple of days and I’m sucking the marrow out of it. So when Paola reached out and told me she was so close, we just HAD to meet up for a workout.

It was an awesome partner workout, too, and we kicked A$$!

9. BED! 

As in right now. I’m exhausted. I’ve been going non-stop since 6:30 this morning and right now it’s 11 p.m. Not to mention 2 a.m. my time. I know sleep is important but sometimes you just need to seize the day!

Now, I realize I’m late but those who are weighing in with me please post your updates! Late is better than never. :) 

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Cows dont shoot (guest post)

On March 13th Time Healthland tweeted “The deadly dangers of eating red meat” which linked to their blog post “Eating Red, Processed Meat Raises Your Risk of Early Death.” A paper in Wyoming ran “Red Meat Kills.” Questionable science aside, these are, in my opinion, irresponsible headlines. Sending people running from a hamburger as if a cow is going to jump up off the plate and shoot you in the head is not going to improve anyone’s health. Really, folks.

By the next day my email boxed was full with concerns from panicked patients who I had put on a high protein diet based on their own individual risk profiles and health conditions. People were frightened, and for good reason. Death is a scary prospect for most, and when we are told what we are eating is going to kill us, we panic. The truth is that there are far worse things than a bit of grass fed red meat in our diets. But that’s another post.

This kind of dramatic reporting isn’t a rare occurrence. Just off the top of my head I can think of several examples of studies throwing us the final word on what is and isn’t healthy:

The only thing everyone can really agree on is that experts never agree on anything. And truthfully, most statisticians will tell you that results of studies are often massaged to get the answer that the researcher is looking for. Not to mention that studies may never be released if what was set out to be proven, isn’t.

That leaves the average person with the media (including social media) blasting sensationalist headlines often handing us yet another reason to beat ourselves up. What we thought was healthy, isn’t. What we thought was the right thing is the wrong thing. The two most common outcomes of this sensationalism are jumping on bandwagons or throwing our hands up in the air and saying “forget it, it’s impossible to make the right choice.” Extremes. And we all know that extremes are never a good answer.

So what is there to do?

When you’re on twitter or facebook and see the headlines that put you in a panic about your health or your life, stop, take a deep breath, and take whatever it is with an initial grain of salt.Wait a few days to see how the medical community responds to the information. If you’re more holistically oriented, see how the alternative medical community responds to it. If you’re oriented toward Western medicine, watch sites like WebMD.Have a health practitioner who you trust who can talk to you about the actual numbers in the study and how they apply to you, personally. A health practitioner who can work with you not only to treat your medical problems, but prevent problems from occurring in the future. Understand fundamentally that the specifics of what you need are specific to you.Put your logic on. Association is not causation. In other words, just because two things happen together (eating red meat and slightly decreased life span) doesn’t mean one caused the other. If several times in a row your mother calls when you’re in the bathroom, it doesn’t mean that going to the bathroom makes your mother call. Or that your mother calling makes you go to the bathroom.Put the information in context. If there were one diet that worked to keep everyone healthy, trust me, we’d know about it.Remember, most importantly, that we don’t know more than we do know. There’s a universe out there of information we don’t yet know how to gather. The be all and end all today may not be the be all and end all tomorrow.

Dr. Samantha is a licensed naturopathic physician and acupuncturist, health educator, writer, cook and owner of Evergreen Natural Health Center in Portland, OR. These days when she’s not seeing patients she’s either playing with the fam or hanging out on her blog, twitter, facebook or pinterest. She’d love to see you there!

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A Quick Photo Shoot Wednesday Weigh-In

That’s me! All dolled up for today’s photo shoot. It was fun and painless! Everyone was so nice and we were done in a few hours. Even after sneaking the baby in a few shots. :)

I hope to be able to share some of the pictures but we may have to wait until the issue comes out. It will be the October issue of FIRST. I’m not sure I’ll see any before then myself.

Besides the shoot I did nothing except hang out with the baby.

and run 3 miles.

I was planning on a weight training session but I just didn’t have it in me. Maybe tomorrow or Friday.

As for weigh in, the scale read… 156

That’s .6 down from last week. Not bad. Now bad at all! I updated my weight progress page.

ok, that’s all I have. I need sleep and want a snack before bed!

whole wheat English muffin and some blueberriesGrabbed one real fast before the shootI love having leftover pork to make this sandwhich! Out for dinner: edamame, seaweed salad, a brown rice sushi, and some bites of crispy beefWe have a bit of a Wed going out to eat tradition now. It helps break up the week and gives me a break from cooking. could have done better. Off to take vitamin now.

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Wait. A Photo Shoot? WHAT Just Happened?

A couple of weeks ago I received an email asking if I was interested in participating in a piece for FIRST Magazine about Photo Food Blogging. They asked me a few questions and then I received this…

"I just wanted to let you know that your story has been approved for an upcoming issue of FIRST… congrats!"

Wait. What? I thought I was just "contributing." You know, a few quotes, maybe a photo or two, but this was starting to sound more serious. All of a sudden I had a phone interview with a writer and they were scheduling a photo shoot to happen at my house. My HOUSE!

I honestly I don’t know what happened. Normally I’d be super excited about this opportunity but there are a two things bugging me.

I’m still carrying around 10lbs of pregnancy weight. WHY are all the fun opportunities happening this past year when, I dunno, I decided to get pregnant! There was the WW ice cream video and the trip to the NY where I had to pass on a makeover. Geesh people, why didn’t you call 2 years ago! I feel like they are making me fit their already existing story idea. I guess that’s how magazine articles work but it annoys the crap out of me. I actually had a discussion with the writer, who told me their readers wouldn’t relate to my story because I run. Well I do run, what am I suppose to do? Lie? Instead she asked me if I was comfortable with "this" and/or "that." I felt like words were being put in my mouth much like the Woman’s World story (yes I ate pasta while losing but that’s not WHY I lost.) Man they like to manipulate things, don’t they?

So I’m excited I have the opportunity to be in the magazine, but I’m worried. You really have no control over the spin they put on the story. Regardless, they are coming on Wednesday to take some photos. This should be interesting!

Anyway, besides that I don’t have much going on. I’ve mostly been spending time with this guy..

Trying to find a routine and figuring out ways to work smarter, not harder. I miss recording podcasts and having a fairly regular posting schedule here on Roni’s Weigh.

I’m also TRYING to make progress on FitBloggin’12. I can not believe how much work it is just to secure the venue for next year. I’m shooting for a weekend in late September/October. Once I secure, I’ll announce on the FitBloggin’ web site. That is unless someone wants to do it for me. Conferences are a LOT of work!

BlogToLose is on my to-do as well. My plan is to possibly offer weekly online "meetings" where I introduce challenges, give tips, and lead a discussion. I’m not making any promises but I hope to launch this by October with a more official announcement coming this week.

I did post a new, fun summer meal on GreenLiteBites today and I have another dinner idea to share. I whipped something up today that both boys LOVED. I hope to get that up tomorrow. Oh! and I’m working on a GreenLiteBites Cookbook giveaway on all my sites. I have a ton of copies just collecting dust. Why not give them away!

On a more personal note, I signed Little Bean and I up for a class (click here to learn more and see some cute pics) and next weekend we are going to Rehoboth Beach for one last summer fling before school. We found a fairly cheap hotel a couple of blocks from the beach. I’m excited! I can’t wait to get the boys back in the ocean.

Ok, That’s about all I have in me tonight. I have restarted posting my food journal on Twitter (Click here to see my food journal today) which reminds me, I have officially left Weight Watchers. I’m not counting points, I wasn’t getting much out of the meetings and the receptionists weren’t even that nice. Why am I paying them?! So I’m officially on my own to lose these last 10 pounds. I have no doubt I’ll do it. I’m just taking my time and doing it my way. :)

I’ll still be weighing in weekly and tracking on this page. I’ll just be using my own scale.

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My Totally Awesome Yet Completely Insecure Video Shoot

What a crazy day! By 8:30 in the morning there were all these strangers in my house setting up lights…

Today was the day of my Weight Watchers Ice Cream Video Shoot. I’m currently helping them with a campaign as a spokesperson. This is a completely new adventure for me but one I’ve been excited to experience. I love Weight Watchers, I love Weight Watchers Ice cream AND I love to talk about weight loss. It’s like a marriage made in heaven except for the fact I don’t feel much like a success story being pregnant and up 30 lbs but more on that later.

The crew took about an hour to set up while I got my makeup on.

Thankfully they were a fun relaxed bunch.

The morning consisted of filming me over and over and OVER again. It wasn’t hard just tedious and I was SO nervous recording in front of a crew. I messed up a TON. You’d think I would be fine especially after recording 3 years worth of Ask Roni Videos plus cooking ones for GreenLiteBites. All of which I do in one take with little or no editing.

But this is TOTALLY different. There was a script–that I could NOT stick to–lighting, microphones, sounds checks, professional makeup, props and a Director!

Here’s what I learned about myself: I have no problem being natural in front of a camera when I just react and talk but give me a specific script or line and I’m horrible! Let’s just say I could NEVER act. I don’t know how people do it and look natural at the same time.

Thankfully my speaking parts were all done by lunch. Then we did b-roll shots all afternoon.

Half of them were like the shots above and half had me in them do fun things like stealing cookies and arranging magnets on the fridge.

By the end of the day we were exhausted!

It was a long day but super fun. Overall I felt good but very self conscious. I really wish this opportunity happened when I wasn’t pregnant. I just don’t feel very confident in my skin at the moment. I’m struggling with a bit of body image issues. I’ve been self-conscious of my super short hair and I just feel like I’m starting to look, well, old. I’m in the trifecta of self doubt (body, hair, age) and I totally stuffed all these feelings down with pizza for dinner. Too, too, much pizza. Ugh.

Then I hit my inbox to catch up on some work and I read a comment that made a WORLD of difference. Allison left this on my Exposed: One Year Later post.

What a great post. You go girl. Love following along with you. Keep doing what you do, which is inspire others.

Allison totally made me smile and then I re-read my post and cried, in a good way.

I blame pregnancy hormones.

:)

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