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Articles
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Current Articles:
Consequences of Obesity
Learning Weight Loss at Playground University
It has been said that we don't quit playing because we're getting older. The truth is we grow old because we quit playing! Here are five great lessons from kids to get active, have fun, and become both healthier and happier.
By Carolyn Allen
The Best Measure? Small Pleasures!
When we decide that living healthfully is a happy thing, with many small pleasures along the way, then there is peace, followed by wise choices, followed by success to be measured on many levels. Here are some healthy pleasures to plan for and indulge in right now.
By Carolyn Allen
"There Is No Tomorrow, But Only Today."
We each have just one body for our one lifetime experience on earth. Find the strength and power to make healthy decisions today with the perspective and experiences of some important friends of mine.
By Carolyn Allen
May Angels Surround Us
Our Heavenly Father has provided more support than you can imagine to enable wise health choices. Here’s how to find and enlist it!
By Carolyn Allen
The Difference between "Nowhere" and "Now Here!"
The difference between “nowhere” and “now here” is just a little space! Here are 16 easy weight loss tricks that will create space and comfortable wiggle room in your clothing, mind and heart.
By Carolyn Allen
Three Months to Live
For each of us, there are a few split seconds in our time on earth where the river bends and life proceeds in a new and very different direction. Perhaps it's meeting your spouse, when a child is born, or when you discover the gospel for yourself.
By Carolyn Allen
Picking up the Pieces
Is there one of us that does not relate to Brooke White on “American Idol” last week? We're prepared and ready. We've prayed and done absolutely everything possible for success — then something happens. We lose our instincts and our way, and then we have to pick up the pieces.
By Carolyn Allen
To Life, To Life!
Although genuine happiness, health, peace and joy may seem in scant supply, there is always an abundance of genuine problems — and food! The pleasure that comes from eating seems to make the problems go away, at least for a while, so we eat, and eat, and eat.
By Carolyn Allen
Spring Clean Sing and Fling
Our wise and wonderful Father in Heaven has provided every delightful thing to make the challenges of earth life bearable: Sunrises, sunsets, babies, puppies, flowers — and spring. Here are five great tips for spring cleaning your health and fitness with a smile and a song. Is there any better time to start anew?
By Carolyn Allen
All Made of Hinges
Healthy living is all about flexibly finding satisfying alternatives as we “eat to live rather than live to eat” so that we won't CRACK! These alternatives are literally the hinges that open the doors to a healthy weight. Here are healthy tips for movie night fun.
By Carolyn Allen
My Life is a Gift; My Life has a Plan
Spring into fitness with three easy gifts to help you increase your levels of health, energy and joy.
By Carolyn Allen
“”Thou Shalt Not Want
Along with holidays with too much candy and the consequential sales afterwards to clear out the store, will there ever be an end to the onslaught of news articles about the obesity crisis getting worse instead of better? For all the talk, education, programs and funding, the statistics for improved health seem almost non-existent.
By Carolyn Allen
Distinguishing Wants from Needs
Whether we're genuinely hungry and it's time to eat, or we find ourselves with food on our minds and in our hands and mouths when it's not time to eat, the question, “What do you need?” will instantly elicit life-sustaining bread, and not rocks.
By Carolyn Allen
Ten Ways to Kill a Sweet Tooth
When you have a craving for sugar, here are ways to distract you from those sugar cravings. Even more important, there are ways you can fill yourself that have nothing to do with food.
By Carolyn Allen
"Out of Small Things"
Does the weight loss process bore you or annoy you? If so, see what the scriptures have to say. You may find a whole new dietary incentive.
By Carolyn Allen
Signs of the Times
How easy it is to forget, with our disturbing news reports and headlines, that these are marvelous days and times in which to live! How easy it is to forget to be of good cheer and to rise to our potential as witnesses and key participants of the last days.
By Carolyn Allen
To Shine for Him Each Day
February often means that our windows look out on gray skies and dreary days. With love and prayer, here are three short stories about children that may serve as personal windows, even magnificent stained-glass windows, into healthier living, smart food choices and self-mastery.
By Carolyn Allen
“”Standing a Little Taller
President Hinckley, whose longevity and sparkling energy were testaments to his good health, often asked us to “stand a little taller.” He told us, then lived his own counsel: “This is a season to be strong, to move forward without hesitation and to be found knowing well the meaning, the breadth, and the importance of our mission.”
By Carolyn Allen
Return and Report
The same method that ward leaders use to determine the status of the ward can be used as we keep track of our weight loss progress.
By Carolyn Allen
The Strength to Love
The rewards of healthy living come one day, one pound and one choice at a time through little changes, like the dimes, pennies and nickels in a $100 bill.
By Carolyn Allen
The Courage to Change
The peaceful, happy glow that radiates from Helen Luksan, a seminary teacher in Seattle Washington (down 48 pounds since April of 2007) is a testament to the power of the gospel to heal.
By Carolyn Allen
A Man of Faith and Action
A stake president shares how he lost weight and got rid of diabetes by eating healthy foods in 2007.
By Carolyn Allen
Christmas is a Promise Kept
Countless stories and parables involve the element of time, suspense and waiting. Of what value is the extended waiting, the yearning, the seeming appearance of failure, the lack of tangible evidence for a desired and righteous outcome? Christmas Day, December 25, 2008, is exactly one year away, and we can make it worth waiting and working for.
By Carolyn Allen
Little Lamb God, Bless Thee
Yes, there's an abundance of holiday food and too much to do, but there's also an abundance of opportunities to quickly, immediately and lovingly feed His sheep, once we ourselves have been fed. What a wonderful way to celebrate the season!
By Carolyn Allen
Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room
Christmas and the abundance of celebration foods provide countless opportunities to prepare room for Him. Could it be that a beautiful and effective way to prepare our spiritual hearts for Him this Christmas would through self-mastery and respectfully addressing the needs of our physical hearts?
By Carolyn Allen
Three Gifts for Christmas
Even as the Wise Men brought three gifts to celebrate the Savior's birth, here are three life-lifting, light-giving gifts we can give ourselves that say “Merry Christmas” to our bodies as we learn to say “No Thank You” to the overabundance of food and stress that the holidays bring.
By Carolyn Allen
A New Christmas Carol
The easiest way to lose five pounds is to not gain them in the first place! Though we may have lived holidays of the past as a non-stop eating festival that lasts from Thanksgiving through New Years, Charles Dickens provides an easy path for our healthiest and happiest Christmas ever.
By Carolyn Allen
Come Ye Healthy People Come
Is a healthy Thanksgiving a plate of food or a state of mind? Let today's article help guide your choices for the holiday journey ahead.
By Carolyn Allen
Sing Away the Pounds
The Savior and His disciples sang a hymn before entering the Mount of Olives. Could that be a clue to the value of music in facing life's challenges? Here is how to make music an easy and important part of losing weight and gaining peace.
By Carolyn Allen
Changing Leaves, Changing Lives
Fall is a time for change. The season tells us so! The last chapter has NEVER been written and today's thoughts set the tone for your best holiday season ever.
By Carolyn Allen
Precious Keepers
Halloween unlocks the floodgates of opened candy bags everywhere. It will be in our homes in greater abundance if we have children or offer treats on Halloween night. After Halloween the stores will slash the prices, making it nearly impossible not to buy a bag or two.
By Carolyn Allen
…"But If Not"
Articles about “thinking positive” to lose weight when it is medically impossible are a slap in the face. This is especially so to those who are doing everything possible and living healthy eating programs to the letter, yet carrying extra pounds as if they ate three meals and all snacks at McDonalds.
By Carolyn Allen
A Choice to Rejoice
For those who struggle with their weight, they may be surprised that food is not the enemy. The enemy may be much closer to home than the family refrigerator.
By Carolyn Allen
“”Know Ye Not
Fall is a time of harvest, and surely the bountiful personal harvest that has just come to us once again with the October general conference will provide many rich zero-calorie feasts and snacks for our minds and spirits in the winter months to come.
By Carolyn Allen
No More Weight Loss Resolutions
Wouldn't it be great to start the New Year without starting a new resolution to lose weight? Today’s Weight Loss Made Easy article will show you how!
By Carolyn Allen
A Long and Healthy Life
Today is a perfect day to commit to leaving our posterity a personal legacy of health choices that make a difference today and for years and generations to come.
By Carolyn Allen
A Vacation in the Heart
It's mid-September. The beach towels are put away and the duties of real life greet us once again. How to face the endless stress without turning to food and overeating? With endless optimism and a weight-loss-made-easy get-away vacation spot.
By Carolyn Allen
Back to School Weight Loss ABCs
Whether or not you've got school-age kids, September also means a fresh start. If you slid off the dietary wagon this summer, do not despair! Just hop on the wagon again.
By Carolyn Allen
Laboring toward Greatness
Is there any word that describes the LDS people better than labor? With the industrious honeybee and its hive as our mascot, every active Latter-day Saint I know uses “labor daily and serve” as an unwritten creed to govern the rich and active lives we enjoy as Latter-day Saints.
By Carolyn Allen
Hurricane Scales, Richter Scales, Bathroom Scales and Other Natural Disasters
In light of the hurricane season, is the potential danger level for your own natural health disaster becoming stronger or weaker? Today's article will help you step outside the refrigerator to bring comfort and relief to someone very worthy of the kindest relief efforts — you!
By Carolyn Allen
Lessons from Katrina
Even as the five foolish virgins were left behind because they had not prepared and filled their lamps, the anniversary of Katrina and other recent natural disasters serve as priceless, lifesaving warnings. Today is the first of two articles on health lessons from Katrina that provide extremely easy motivation for healthy living and a new perspective on emergency preparedness.
By Carolyn Allen
“”Surviving the Yucky Harms of Life
I was sunk. I was out of sorts, sad about nothing I could put my finger on, and generally irritated with everything and nothing all at the same time. When my mood didn't shake within the next day or so, it dawned on me that it had arrived at about the same time as the cereal. This was a light bulb moment.
By Carolyn Allen
Hold Fast to that Which is Good
The first part of August is a time to treasure. Though the return to school and regular schedules may be approaching, it's still down the road far enough for us to make the most of slower days. Even in the dog days of summer, however, there are times to take action as quickly as possible.
By Carolyn Allen
Seventy times Seven
Meridian readers Joe and Liz Langston have lost 115 pounds since January 1 and share how humor and forgiveness may be the best weight loss tools of all.
By Carolyn Allen
The Power to do what is Expedient
If finding the strength to make health choices feels overwhelming and/or easier to just ignore, the tools of a telescope, a microscope and the scriptures might be just what you need. We can convert negative behaviors into both positive long-range goals and easy, applicable short-range actions.
By Carolyn Allen
—A Labor to Perform Even in Summer!
Do you remember the Aesop's fable of the hardworking ant and the foolish grasshopper? Using the true meaning of the word "diligence" and Mormon's counsel to his son Moroni, the harvest of smaller clothing and bigger smiles await us this winter.
By Carolyn Allen
The Ultimate Freedom
Most of us who struggle with our weight could easily change the lyrics of George Gershwin's song "Summertime and the livin' is easy" to "Summertime and the gainin' is easy." At no other season other than Christmas is it as easy to casually discard our new health habits like soiled paper plates after a picnic. Here are five easy ways to return from a summer holiday at the same weight — or less!
By Carolyn Allen
Seek Ye Earnestly
With a baby's pure spirit to guide us back to a time when we were in the presence of our Heavenly Father, the sacrament can be a time to seek what He would have us do and be as we become our healthy best.
By Carolyn Allen
Facing the Truth in Eating
If our weight keeps creeping up, are we looking at our eating habits realistically. Here are some ways to think about what you're eating and how you're eating it.
By Carolyn Allen
The Tools at the End of Our Arms
Only infants and those who are seriously ill or aged are fed. The rest of us put every bite into our bodies ourselves. This is more than obvious, of course, but once we acknowledge the powerful tools at the end of our own arms, weight loss success is literally at our fingertips.
By Carolyn Allen
Dream Catcher
As summer begins, how do you eat wisely during those unstructured days ahead?
By Carolyn Allen
Let There Be Light
Without costing a cent or taking any time, there are motivations that can light our way to healthy choices that will help remove the load of both the extra pounds and the discouraging emotional, social and spiritual woes that accompany excess weight.
By Carolyn Allen
Miracles in the Making
When you think about it, it's as hard to live with the extra pounds as it is to face the hourly challenge and lose them. And even if you think losing weight is impossible, the Lord allows many seemingly impossible things to come to pass.
By Carolyn Allen
Keep the Change, Please!
The U.S. Postal Service is going to make a lot of money over a two-cent price increase. Easy little two-cent changes in not only what we eat but what we think and say to ourselves add up, too.
By Carolyn Allen
The Higher Road
In modern society, fast food and junk food are literally available every few blocks. It's easy to respond to our physical appetites for these foods and pretend there's a green "go" light that makes it acceptable to move ahead with the general flow of human traffic that is indulging without restraint.
By Carolyn Allen
Creating Beauty from Ashes
If losing weight would open doors to achieving goals or making important, eternal memories for ourselves, then there's rich soul-food for thought. It converts a casual "want to lose weight" (or guilt-ridden and ineffective "should lose weight") into a burning, long lasting, life-changing "need to lose weight."
By Carolyn Allen
Planting Good Seeds in the Rich Soil of Our Bodies
As we watch the world come to life again through flowers, trees, shrubs, and gardens, we can be inspired to make the Parable of the Sower a part of our own health and well-being.
By Carolyn Allen
The Art of Procrastination
When motivation wanes, as it often does when changing health habits and the old ways beckon, creating a deadline of sorts can be a source of long-lasting, burning motivation. All successful accountants master how to use essential tools of the trade and so can we.
By Carolyn Allen
The Blessing of Water
Water is truly one of nature's most powerful catalysts for positive change on many levels. Without it, no seed — whether it is a seed to grow a plant or a seed of hope to lose weight for the right reasons — will grow.
By Carolyn Allen
'Tis A Gift To Be Simple
If thoughts of Easter inspire dreams of caloric cakes and muffins and candies, there are ways to steer our thoughts in more worthwhile directions.
By Carolyn Allen
Choosing the Right in Diet and Health
We can prayerfully ask the Creator of our bodies, our Heavenly Father, to help us graciously change our health choices from passively knowing what is right to actively doing what is right and powerfully change our own lives for good.
By Carolyn Allen
Weight Loss Encouragement Helps Dieters Reach Their Goals
If your determination to lose weight has melted like winter's snow, this new column will give you the support and encouragement you need to get back on track.
By Carolyn Allen
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