Dealing Effectively with Major Changes in Our Lives

Being a mom today can be exhilarating, joyful, maddening and anxiety ridden–often all at once. We deal with demands from various corners of our communities including our families, our clients, our employers, our girlfriends, our neighbors and ourselves.

Most of those demands and issues we can address without too much inner stress. But how well do each of us manage major transitions in our lives?

We all experience significant changes at various times from having a baby, to starting a business, to ending a marriage - major life changes can take many forms. Sometimes change drops into our lives unannounced and at other times it is as inevitable as the rain. What is certain is that life transitions can affect us at many levels–sometimes causing physical symptoms that serve as a wake up call.

How we deal with the impact of this kind of change can be very important to our health, our happiness and our families. Today’s show will examine 6 ways to deal effectively with major life transitions in our lives.

Don’t forget to listen for the “secret phrase” - this is the last week to enter Moms Talk Radio’s May ipod contest. Once you hear me say the secret phrase, write it down and enter it in the “Listen to Win” form at the bottom of the page at www.momstalkradio.com. Good luck!

Tags: Family Life, Featured, Health, New Urbanism, Podcast

Losing Weight - Virtual Support

So many of us go to online communities for practical information, social and business networking and even genuine friendship. So I guess it’s no surprise that many women are also going online for support in areas like weight loss.

Just this morning I logged onto one of my favorite networking sites and joined a weight loss group. I had never done that before, though I had been aware of similar groups for years. It’s just that it now finally makes sense to me. It didn’t before.

The Boston Globe reports that there are many websites catering to women like me seeking the Internet as the medium of choice to support weight loss efforts. Weight Watchers reports that they get between “8 and 10 million unique visitors per month” on their site.

While Weight Watchers charge a fee, there are free sites like fitday.com and sparkpeople.com. It’s probably a good idea to investigate the choices that are out there. Among the fee based sites offering interesting programs are southbeachdietonline.com and eDiets.com both of which charge for a three-month package.

The Globe poses an interesting question, at least for some:

One question that plagues weight loss sites is whether you can succeed online without being accountable to anyone. Research studies are scant, but those that have been conducted have shown mixed results, with participants losing some weight, but not more than if they had just followed a diet plan on paper.

Well as far as I’m concerned I think I prefer the online approach. In my twenties when I sought to lose a few tincy wincy pounds here and there I could care less about coming into the weekly meetings to weigh in and discuss my progress with the group.

But now that I’m a…ahem…healthy mom of teens I’m a little more reluctant to make a trek into a church hall for a Weight Watchers’ meeting to discuss my slooow progress at dumping that testy “pregnancy fat” that has hung around 15 years longer than it should.

Tags: Health