I have my own story with regard to weight, and I hear daily from clients, friends, and colleagues – other over-50 women – about their trials and tribulations with slowed metabolism, weight gain, difficulty with weight loss, etc.

So, after some research, and a long talk with a nutritionist colleague, Diane Solomon DipI.O.N, here are some powerful factors involved in the whole weight issue. DARE to approach this with new eyes!

Why on earth can’t I lose weight and keep it off?

 Are you having a hard time keeping weight off? Or losing weight in the first place? Do you eat like a bird but can’t drop any pounds? Is your energy low, and you crave food, sugar, chocolate, carbs, or coffee to get you going?

There are several key issues that may be in play. These may be factors your doctor does not know, or does not think of, that can explain your problem. A good nutritionist can help! And there may be a fix as simple as a blood test, followed by a nutrient supplement or a diet change.

For now, let me give you a few of the factors that may be creating a cog in the wheel of your determination to lose weight.

1)     INSULIN ISSUE: Do you crave food? Do you crave sugar especially? Seems the more weight you gain, the hungrier you are? This could be an insulin problem. You’ve heard of insulin with regard to diabetes, but many Americans are in some stage of pre-diabetes with its fluctuating blood sugar and resulting fatigue, hunger, and weight gain. Researchers have found that people who secrete high insulin levels have a far more difficult time losing weight than those secreting lower levels of insulin.

If this is true for you, what does this mean? Your insulin receptors have stopped working effectively. You have begun to secrete too much insulin, which lowers blood sugar. When your blood sugar is low you feel hungry and tired. So you reach for sugar, or caffeine (which raises blood sugar and wakes you up), and more insulin pours out to deal with this spike of blood sugar, and you are in vicious cycle – downward!

Solution? Keep your insulin levels low, by reducing sugar intake, processed carbs, and keep up your exercise – walk, cycle, jog, sweep out the garage! Park a long way from the grocery store and walk! You can test your insulin levels by asking your doctor for a simple blood test.

Also, an important tip: take Chromium, preferably in the Glucose Tolerance Factor version (GTF), or chelated Chromium. Many people with insulin issues are deficient in Chromium, an essential mineral for the entire blood sugar/insulin process. It comes in 200mcg capsules/tablets, and Diane suggests her clients take one, three times a day, with food, for three months, then two a day with food, for three months, then one a day long ter

2)    ALLERGIES: If someone asked you what your favorite comfort is,  you might say, with stars in your eyes and a yearning in your voice, “Bread, cereal, pasta…”  Oddly enough, if you have weight issues that will not resolve, and you crave a certain food (in this example, wheat) you may be allergic or sensitive to that food. Wheat, corn, and dairy are among the highest allergy foods in the USA. And many people do not know it.

When people complain of migraines, IBS, depression, skin rashes or eczema, bloating, etc., it is important to eliminate food allergies as a possible cause. The same applies to weight gain or weight that is hard to lose. When they come off a food to which they are allergic, they very often drop a few pounds without doing anything else, and their food cravings diminish rapidly. Funny, though, for the first four days off the offending food, they wander down food aisles in the store drooling and sighing over the foods they can’t have!

We should not crave a food – it is a sign of potential allergy. If you crave a food, you may be addicted to it.  Just as an addict suffers symptoms when the substance they crave is withdrawn, allergic people experience symptoms or discomfort when they stop eating the suspect food.

If you think this may apply, ask a Nutritionist or a Registered Dietician (R.D.) about trying an elimination diet to pin down the offending food.  Or research the method online and give it a try. There is no down-side except a few days without a food that you believe is your friend. It may not be!!

In PART TWO:

Do you have a hard time losing weight, feel tired, have low blood pressure, feel dizzy if you stand up to fast, have cold hands and feet? You may have an adrenal exhaustion issue, check back for Part Two of this article, where we’ll look at Adrenal Fatigue, and Leptin Resistance/sleep factor, two other major issues that can be involved in weight loss issues.

 Check back for PART TWO:

1)    Adrenal Exhaustion, and

2)    Leptin Resistance and the sleep factor.

:

If all you’ve ever DREAMED & DESIRED isn’t what you want for your life now or in the future, Go DARE!

Do you DREAM of losing weight to get healthy? DESIRE to move to a different city? DREAM of starting a new career or starting a company over 40? DESIRE to master the guitar? Whatever your own DREAMS & DESIRES, they’re well within the realm of possibilities for women over 40 that want to pursue DARE-ING endeavors.

There are millions of other women over 40 who feel the same way. It’s all part of our innate DESIRE for individuation, to look that identity crisis right in the eye, and to get out and DARE to discover. So, assert the right to your own reinvention, and if anyone challenges that right, be prepared to retort “How DARE you suggest I’m too old to DREAM & DESIRE!?!

To get in touch with your grown-up DREAMS & DESIRES, you need to put your “inner editor” on hold, and indulge your “free-association” muscles.  First, you need to capture them for future reference. Just let your mind wander, take notes, or clip, click, draw, paint, paste or doodle them – whatever works for you.  Don’t worry that they may seem unedited, disorganized, or grandiose.  Don’t dwell on how you’ll make them happen.  Here are just a few ideas:

1.     Put some index cards wherever you hang out for more than an hour, so you can jot down some ideas that come into your head when you least expect them. Instead of fuming about being stuck in traffic, or complaining to yourself about how boring the elliptical machine is, let your mind wander to explore DREAMS & DESIRES. When you’re focused consciously on something else, that’s when your sub-conscious spits out longings you didn’t even imagine you could have.  Jot down your impromptu ideas on your index cards, and put them aside. After a month or so, take them out, and note which ideas seem appealing enough that you could envision DRIVING them to fruition.

2.     On your laptop, start a journal, and password-protect it, unless you truly want to share your innermost thoughts with everyone in the free world. Write in it daily – at least three pages, but no more than ten.  Write as soon as you wake up, or right before you’re going to bed, because that ’s when your mind won’t be so alert that you’ll edit yourself.   Write down all the things, people and places that are making you happy or driving you crazy. Write for at least 20 minutes and you’ll eventually generate ideas for what you want and need to accomplish. When you go back and re-read your entries weeks and months later, you’ll see a pattern of DREAMS & DESIRES your subconscious is bringing to the surface.

3.    Go With Your Flow. The landmark book, Flow, by renowned psychology professor, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, became one of the most popular books ever on the topic of tapping into our deepest DREAMS & DESIRES.  The author defines the concept of “flow” as a state of such intense concentration and immersion in a pleasurable activity that you completely lose track of time. To tap into your own flow state, take note of the next time that hours seem to fly by without your thinking about food, water, or the fact that your husband hasn’t fed and bathed the kids (which would otherwise be obvious if you looked up long enough to see they are eating the contents of a 20-gallon drum of Costco popcorn right from the floor).   Then note the following:

• What activity are you engaged in?  Is it work-related, or completely different? If it’s work, does it feel like work, or is it too pleasurable to be considered work?
• If it’s not work but has engrossed you in fun for several hours, is it something you could see DRIVING?  Write it down.
• Here’s an exercise that’s just as powerful – note when you feel you’re in torture doing a work or extracurricular activity. If you have to endure it, what could you change to help you make it a more optimal experience now, or to replace it?

4.    Break out of your rut. Harvard Medical School scientist Dr. Herbert Benson is renowned for his 30 years of respected research on stress, productivity and creativity.  His best-seller, The Breakout Principle, has helped millions get unstuck and land on new solutions and even “breakout” discoveries.  Try these four simple exercises:

• Set a time to immerse yourself in the problem, challenge or task you’re trying to achieve, with both sides of the brain in focus;
• Then, move away from the task, and do something right-brain oriented, such as dancing, skiing, having sex, eating chocolate, etc.;
• Talk over your challenge with a reassuring source of comfort, either a friend, your spouse or a pet (hey, you know who you are and it’s perfectly normal);
• Eventually, return to the challenge, with a fresher perspective that often leads to a “breakout” idea.

5.   Your life’s an obstacle course?  Take a different course – go back to school! Surf course catalogs from the college, university or vocational school of your choice.  Let your eyes wander, and click on courses that appeal to you simply by their titles.  Read through them quickly and print those you want to consider further.  Don’t be concerned right now about any prerequisites, what the costs are, whether you’ll have time, or whether there will be anyone as “old” as you in class. (As a college professor, I assure you there will be classmates as old as you, and much older).  Put the print-out aside for just a few days.  Then take it out, read through the list of courses again, and decide on at least one you want to take.

Then, Go DARE! Start exploring the next batch of DREAMS & DESIRES that could change your life!

DARE-INGLY yours,

Liz DiMarco Weinmann, MBA
Chief DARE-ING Officer,
The DARE-Force Corporation



Next:  February’s focus will be on your Deal – how to maximize strengths and opportunities to achieve your DREAMS & DESIRES.

© The DARE-Force Corporation, 2011.

by Liz DiMarco Weinmann, MBA , author of the upcoming book, Get DARE From Here!â„¢ – 12 Principles and Practices for Women Over 40 to Take Stock, Take Action and Take Charge of the Rest of Their Lives..

All rights reserved.  Please note:  all of the content on this website and in the other content-driven products and services of The DARE-Force Corporation are based on sound business principles and practices of strategy, operations, leadership and marketing, as well as current and emerging trends in those business principles and practices.   None of the content is intended to be, nor should it be perceived as, or applied as, counsel, diagnosis, or treatment for mental, emotional or physical health conditions.

For some women the reality is that, regardless of our intentions to get a good head-start in January, by December we realize how hard it is to get there from here. Something or someone (maybe even ourselves) puts up virtual roadblocks in our lives.  We hit a traffic jam, or we’re still in “park” or, worse, we’re stuck in “neutral.”  Well, DREAM on!  It doesn’t have to be that way!

Sometimes it’s fear that DRIVES us to fulfill a resolution.  In other cases, pride (aka “vanity”) is the DRIVING force.  Sometimes, we just need better DREAMS & DESIRES.  If what you’re seeing in your rear-view mirror these days are the ghosts of resolutions past, maybe you need some new and thrilling DREAMS & DESIRES to DRIVE you! Whatever is DRIVING your resolutions, or hopes, or goals in 2011, we hope you truly believe that you can get there from here.  Or, more to our point: Get DARE from Here! What’s more, we’re here to tell you that you can actually enjoy the DRIVE!

Whatever the force, anything that DRIVES positive change over 40, can also be fun. It also makes you resilient.   I know this because if it weren’t for fear, pride and enrolling in Weight Watchers online two years ago, I never would have lost 60 pounds in the course of 12 months.  I also committed to following a calorie-blasting exercise regimen.  To do all that plus everything else I was juggling in my life, I needed exceptional DRIVE.  As my destination became more visible, I began to enjoy the DRIVE.

Guess what?  So can you! It’s no coincidence that DRIVE is the very first of the principal tenets that inform our work with women over 40 at The DARE-Force Corporation.  In fact, the “D” in DARE-Force is all about DRIVE.  (DARE stands for: DRIVE, ADVANCE, RULE and EXPRESS EXPERIENCE & EXPERTISE Over 40).  If you really want to accomplish something meaningful in your life you have to have DRIVE. If the fulfilling, meaningful goal you want to attain is also a difficult one, then you can’t begin to accomplish it without exceptional DRIVE. That means you have to want to DRIVE.

Yes, we know that’s easier said (or blogged) than done.  The practices inherent in DRIVE at The DARE-Force are focused on Dreams & Desires (your aspirations) first and foremost, but we’ve lived long enough to know that over-40 women have to Deal.  Your Deal comprises the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that affect your Dreams & Desires. The third priority for DRIVE in women over 40 is a vision for realizing your Dreams & Desires – a Design – which helps you maximize your strengths and opportunities in spite of your current Deal, so you have a long-term view of your ultimate goals.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who inherited Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat early in 2009 when the latter officially assumed office as United States Secretary of State, is a quintessential DRIVER who obviously has a long-term view of her ultimate goals. She came to the Senate with strong Dreams & Desires to affect – and effect - important legislation. She had to Deal with many challenges, not the least of which being that she was presumed to lack sufficient EXPERIENCE and credibility.  Undeterred, she set out to Design a vision for achieving her legislative priorities.  By the end of 2010, Gillibrand’s DRIVE resulted in bringing about landmark legislation, including the 9/11 healthcare bill that provides benefits to the heroic firemen and police who were first responders at the World Trade Center disaster.  She was also pivotal in the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy that discriminated against gay members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

A recent article in The New York Times praised Gillibrand’s DRIVE:

“Her efforts have won grudging admiration from critics, adulation from national liberals and gay rights groups, and accolades from New York politicians across the political spectrum, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who once shopped for potential candidates to oust her.  Even her relentlessness, which once drew mockery, is now earning the highest compliment of all: professional jealousy from her more senior colleagues.”

Now that’s a DARE-ING woman over 40! DRIVE on, Senator! DARE On!

For the next three months, the principle of DRIVE in women over 40 is going to be the focus of this blog, and January is all about DREAMS & DESIRES.   So, if you’re ready to DRIVE new and exciting things for yourself over the next year, let’s get going!  First, you must be DREAMING! Ignite some fire in that DESIRE!  Push past the roadblocks and think hard about the DREAMS you want to pursue over the next year, and what you DESIRE for this year to be different.   Focus on purpose, on the things that could really DRIVE you.

You can Get DARE from Here! In fact, Getting DARE now that you’re over 40, really is half the fun!

DARE-INGLY yours,

Liz DiMarco Weinmann, MBA

Chief DARE-ING Officer,

The DARE-Force Corporation

Next: Why you NEED to DREAM On!

© The DARE-Force Corporation, 2011.  Based on the upcoming book, Get DARE from Here™! – 12 Principles and Practices for Women Over 40 to Take Stock, Take Action and Take Charge of the Rest of Their Lives, by Liz DiMarco Weinmann, MBA.  All rights reserved.  

All of the content on this website and in the other content-driven products and services of The DARE-Force Corporation are based on sound business principles and practices of strategy, operations, leadership and marketing, and on current and emerging trends in those referenced business principles and practices.   None of the content on this website, nor in the other content-driven products and services of The DARE-Force Corporation, are intended to be, nor should they be, perceived as, practiced as, or applied as, counsel, diagnosis, or treatment for any implicit or explicit mental, emotional or physical health conditions.

On that day, I was elated.  As my name was called to go up on the dais to receive my MBA diploma,  the program administrator looked at my photo, and then back at me, and then at my photo again.  She kept saying, “But that’s not Liz Weinmann.  It can’t be Liz Weinmann.”

On the day I turned 57, the scale confirmed that I had lost 57 pounds.  Take that, meno-fat!  I went from a size 18 to a size 10 in six months, kept the weight off for an entire year, and I’m still dropping pounds.

As you think back on all the achievements and accomplishments of your life to date, weren’t some of those the experiences that involved a REVOLT on your part, even if just a little one – against the usual, beyond the comfortable, toward the unpredictable?

If you’ve never REVOLTED, this might just be your year to Go DARE! Need help?  Get DARE from Here!

By April 5, I had lost 20 pounds.  Which was also the day  I was so energized that I over-did it at the gym and then had to stay in bed for nearly a week.  Talk about wanting to REVOLT!

Then, I posted an online question to the Weight Watchers community about how I could do some kind of exercise while I was waiting to heal.  Boy, did I get a resounding REVOLT from them!  Their advice was to stop whining about how much weight I still needed to lose and focus instead on the fact that I had really hurt myself and my body was justifiably in REVOLT.

What I learned is that—duh—REVOLT goes both ways. 

As you stage your REVOLT to recharge your life, career or community in a positive way, make sure you’re prepared to deal with setbacks that could halt your progress.  Need help?  Get DARE from Here!