Bill Fisher
Last year at my annual physical exam, the doctors told me I was overweight and my cholesterol was slightly above normal. So, on December 27th, I decided to start a wellness program and contracted Crystal (also bilingual) to help me improve my overall health and appearance. The plan she advocated needed to be holistic if I wanted to lose body fat, strengthen my muscles and skeletal system, which inevitably would make me feel stronger, more energetic and appear much younger. We developed an eating plan because as she told me it is senseles to exercise and at the same time put poor quality food and drink into my body. She also told me that dieting (reducing my food intake) and not exercising at all would lower my metabolism which would cause my body to go into “starvation mode” and...
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Love Yourself to Life
I really enjoyed reading the August 3 weight-loss article written by my colleague, Liz Montes, in which she drives home two salient points which are key to maintaining any successful weight loss battle: AEROBIC: regularly maintaining a cardio program of moderate (30 minutes of brisk walking/swimming x 5 days per week) interspersed with vigorous (1.5 hrs jogging/aerobic class) intensity. ANAEROBIC: Strength training twice per week (using machines or any other weight-resistant object.) She mentions BMR (basic metabolic rate) and shows how the relation between our ancestors (hunters/gatherers) and our modern day metabolisms are intertwined inextricably by the myriad of cellular activity much like furnaces which need nutrients to burn more efficiently at higher rates; which is like saying people who have higher metabolisms are burning more calories in a more efficient manner. The inverse is also true: those who...
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Cancer: Embracing Your Twist of Fate
Communicating as we do from time to time via Facebook, catching up on the trivial, arcane and sometimes the trials/tribulations of life as we live it, has continuously bound Wendy and I together although separated by countries and borders. Borders never existed between us. If we didn’t reach out or “touch in” within a block of months, as soon as we emailed, our dialogue was as fresh and provocative as the first time we met, as most of my experiences have been with Wendy. I had only seen Wendy one time in the last seven years since moving to San Miguel de Allende and that was for my 20-year-high-school reunion. We ate Sushi together with Kenneth of course and I introduced them to my novio at the time, Greg, outside of my social obligations. Kenneth and Wendy seemed to...
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You’re Never ALONE but ALL One
Here I am again, in my solitude and thoughts, trying to avoid feeling anything which provokes the inevitable from happening. The inevitable is that I have just turned 43 (January 23) and I am still single with no kids, (SWNK), I am paying off someone else’s mortgage, I am still working full-time (and not more efficiently.) I am fiercely independent, obstinate and extremely open-minded while at the same time I live under constant emotional turmoil; dying inside because I feel like what and who I am is not good enough. I want more but I can’t be filled with less. Quite simply… I am feeling DESPERATE and super-needy. I feel “blacklisted from the private parties and jet-streaming adventures of the “rich and famous” here. I am ever becoming the hermit I’ve always feared of becoming and shirk having to...
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Margah Lips
In early 2010, my husband and I arrived in San Miguel for our usual three-month sojourn in sunny Mexico. We own a house here and have been happy part-time residents of this beautiful city for several years. I mention the three-month time period because it is an important part of the story of my “Crystalization”. Unbeknownst to my family and friends, I had resolved to make my three months in San Miguel into a truly transformative experience. In the preceding ten years, I had gained weight and was seriously out of shape. Both my cholesterol and blood pressure numbers were too high. My dress size had gone from a 6 petite to a 12 petite. I wouldn’t think of putting on a bathing suit and I avoided full length mirrors altogether. At five foot three inches with a light...
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