Graceful Living
Let’s begin this awesome journey together. It is my hope that together we can become healthier, happier, and at peace with ourselves.
Asalamu Alaikum and Hello Everyone,
My name is Lisa Lo. I have spent a lot of my early years struggling with weight loss and self-esteem issues. While I have come to a place where I have healthy self-esteem, I am still on that journey to get healthier and gracefully age. It is my hope that we will journey together towards the goal of health and wellness, physically, mentally and emotionally. My purpose for this blog is twofold. First, I will be sharing my ongoing journey towards weight loss and overall wellness, and in it I will share some important lessons I have learned along the way. I want to save you some time, money, and frustration as you work on your own journey.
Second, I will share a lot of good information, but it won’t be a lot of scientific stuff. I tend to get lost in all of that, however I will make those resources available for those of you who love that stuff, or those of you who need something to put you to sleep at night.
I will share great products I use and provide links where you can get them yourself. Some of the products will be those that I sell, and others that I have gotten from friends that I really love.
I want to provide a safe space for you to ask any questions you may have.
We will talk about life, the highs and lows, and ways to overcome it. My hope is to provide strength and encouragement and add some light to your day.
What you won’t find here is body shaming or bashing of one type of eating lifestyle or another.
Another thing I won’t be discussing is politics. Too exhausting a topic for me to delve into, and frankly this is not an area that I feel I have enough knowledge to give that topic justice.
I pray that this blog will be a blessing to you and will uplift and encourage you.
Let us begin….
11/30/2024
Surviving the Holidays without Weight Gain
A few tips to get you through this holiday season!
Asalamu Alaikum and Good Afternoon Everyone,
This is a challenging time regardless of which of the holidays you celebrate. They all have one thing in common: delicious food and delectable desserts. I am going to share a couple of tips to help you survive it and hopefully without gaining a lot of weight during this time.
Ok, here they are:
1. Drink lots of water – This is huge, and it will help with the mindless snacking. Instead of a sugary drink, keep water with you and sip it. It is so easy to get dehydrated, and this will help a lot.
2. Decide for the day – There is no reason you cannot enjoy the food, just concentrate on the protein choices, the vegetables, and yes rice and potatoes. Fill your plate in that order, Protein first, then vegetables, then carbs. Do not eliminate the carbs, as a matter of fact, when you start eating, start with the carbs and then the vegetables and then the protein. It helps your body to digest protein.
3. Desserts are ok – Thought I was going to tell you to not have it right? The smartest way to go with this is check out all the choices that are available, and then choose your favorite.
4. Enjoy the company you are with. These are times when you sometimes see friends and family that you don’t get to see that often. Relish these moments.
5. If you feel you must exercise, then take a nice long walk after dinner if possible, or early in the day if that works better for you,
Enjoy this time without guilt, and take good care of yourself, and you will do well during the holiday. If you have a bad day, tomorrow is another day!
11/10/2024
Butterflies
Recently I decided to adopt the butterfly as my logo. In looking at my life, it seems to symbolize it, and here is why.
Like the butterfly, my life had a long period of time where I was in a cocoon. I was shy, and afraid to let people know my try self. Even as I began to sing at church, there was so much of myself that I kept from people, and it was also reflected in my weight struggles.
The one time I reached my goal weight, it caused me so much drama from the outside, the cocoon reappeared, and I was there for many years. I spent my time trying to please people, or the man I was dealing with at the time, only to be unappreciated, and eventually that relation would end.
It took me a long time to realize that if I did not value and appreciate myself, no one else would either. I recognize now that I am worthy of being appreciated, loved, and valued. I am beautiful before I lose a single pound, or even if I don’t lose any weight at all.
I am no longer afraid of being the best version of myself and made the decision to begin again in the heathiest way possible. When I get there, Allah willing, I will be strong in who I am, and not afraid of the opinion of people.
For me the butterfly symbolizes coming to my true healthy self, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It also symbolizes my Mom, who loved butterflies, and was the one person who would see me for who I was, in all of my imperfections, and still love me. That also meant that she would get on my case on a regular basis, whether I wanted to hear it or not.
For all of you who are still in your cocoons, be brave enough to pursue what you truly want, and then that beautiful butterfly will emerge, and you will find yourself being strong, confident, healthy in every way, and completely at peace.
11/3/2024
What should you do when you have been working on your weight loss for a couple of weeks and the scale hasn’t changed?
This can be very difficult to deal with. For most of us, the temptation to give it all up and dive into the cookie jar or the ice cream can be very strong.
Before you dive in, consider the following.
There are more measurements of progress besides the number on the scale goimg down. Here are some other things to take note of:
· Are your clothes fitting looser?
· Are you feeling more energy?
· Are you sleeping better?
· Are you less constipated, and more regular?
· Are you having less brain fog?
The numbers on the scale aren’t the only things that improve as you are eating healthier. These things are important markers as well to pay attention to:
If your clothes are loose, you are losing inches, and the pounds will follow. If you are feeling more energy and less brain fog, it means you are giving your body the nutrients to be able to function at its best. If you are less constipated and are more regular, your metabolism increases and therefore helps you to lose the weight you want and process the food to get it to where your body needs it. When you are sleeping better, your body can heal itself, and aids in weight loss.
I know it can be frustrating. I have been in this place many times. When it comes, I remind myself that this is a marathon, not a sprint. I am making small changes, doing it consistently over time, and it will bring big results.
Remember, you are not in this alone, and I can be that Accountability Coach that you need. The reason why I share my journey is to keep me accountable to you, and to let you know that I am going through this journey with you. We can do this!
10/27/2024
Body Image
What comes to mind when you are asked, what is your ideal body image? This is a loaded question I know.
As a teenager, I grew up with watching the famous model Twiggy, and as you can imagine, my body at the time and even now does not match up in any way at all. If you have never heard of her, look her up. You will then see why her image inspire a rash of young teens starving themselves to look like what she came by naturally. It also unfortunately caused a lot of teens to become anorexic trying to get that look, even though they were a perfectly healthy size to begin with.
While this is an extreme example, many of us who looked nothing like her, white, blond, and extremely thin with beautiful big eyes, would look in the mirror and think they weren’t attractive, or when it went to extreme think themselves as ugly and beyond hope.
While I was smart enough to know that she was not my example, I had many friends who were cute, short and petite to cause me a lot of insecurities. I was cute (although I didn’t think so), short, but there was nothing petite about the hips and thighs that Allah had gave me. Even when I was in my 20s and began to get a decent shape, my insecurities caused me to yoyo diet and constantly be in a state of trying to take off weight and then gaining it back only to try some new fad.
What is interesting about when I look at those photos, I look perfectly fine, and right now I would love to be in that place physically right now. At 68, I realize that body was then, and the body I have now has carried two babies and gone through a lot of changes. I am at peace with the body I have to work with, knowing that if I work on it, I will be at my best possible self, even with the baby belly and large arms courtesy of my Dad’s side of the family.
Loving the skin you are in takes practice, positive affirmations are a great way to start. If you need some help, here are some great ones. Be sure to stand in the mirror and say these out loud.
“I am beautiful just as I am.”
“I am worthy of loving just as I am.”
“I am intelligent, strong, and capable.”
“I can and will reach my goals of being healthy, inside and out.”
Let’s do this together!
