Dieting

Confessions of a Massage Therapist
I joined the Southbeach diet on line today. So many of my friends and clients have talked about it. Many have tried it and lost weight. Few have maintained that they kept it up. But then, I tried Weightwatchers online and didn't use it much either. Lost weight on WW last year...about 5 pounds, but then didn't keep it up either. The points are too onerous to keep up. The WW website, although informative was slow to navigate.

I know a lot about diets.Haven't followed many. Have a lot of books... reasonable books on the subject. Why pay money again for a web site? Because I'm lazy...I want a site that will tell me what to do...what to eat...when to eat...how much to eat. I want it to be easy.

I like cooking, but the difficulty with following a diet is eating under pressure...without a plan. I'm the master of the 10 minute meal. I can throw together some pretty tastey food in that time. But if I don't have a plan and the right food in my fridge or cupboard, then my back up plan is rice or pasta based. I also have a problem with quantities. The reality is, I eat quite well but I eat too much. I eat like a 40 year old, not like a 50 + who has just hit menopause.

Who would have thought that menopause would make such a difference to my metabolism? My mother told me that I wouldn't be able to eat as much after menopause, but how frustrating is that? Hence my quest to find an easy diet to follow... A lifelong diet to follow. So, I want the Southbeach website to tell me what to do. If it doesn't, then I'll look elsewhere.

I'll report back on this later. Tell me what your experience has been.

Confessions of a Massage Therapist: Blogging massage!

Confessions of a Massage Therapist: Blogging massage!

I have an acquaintance who is a big blogger... a professional photographer and journalist who raved about the virtues of it. Up until then it had been an idea that clients of mine had been talking about, but I didn't really understand what blogging was. Then one day another friend of mind directed me towards her son's blog from Isreal where he is spending the next year doing mediation work between the Isrealies and the Palestinians...when finally after reading his site, I began to 'get' the concept.

Why am I anonomous? Mostly because I'm not sure yet what I'm going to write about, and I don't really want to have to censure my thoughts because they might be inappropriate professionally. Also because I don't want you to judge me for my horrendous spelling...(is there a spell check with this?) I am university educated after all.

I imagine some of you might find me because you did a search for massage, or perhaps you used the work confession thinking you were going to get something naughty. That's OK, I have naughty thoughts too sometimes, but then, this isn't something I can ever really discuss with my clients since I have to maintain an air of professionalism. (Discussions about naughty thoughts though might pop up later when I feel more comfortable with this site.

Hard that...begining professional. Boundaries, what's that about? I know they're important, but sometimes the rules of the profession become so rigid, you wonder how you can ever make a true connection with anyone.

At the same time though if you don't watch yourself constantly you land up saying the wrong thing to a client and offending them. Believe me, they might seem to be good 'friends' that you've known for years...people who have been entrusting their bodies to your care for a long time...and then one inappropriate remark and you never hear from them again and they don't return you emails.

Most of the time you don't even know what threw them over the edge or indeed if anything ever did. Could be they just needed to stop coming for other reasons that have nothing to do with me...like finances...but on the other hand, they rarely tell you. For example, is it inappropriate to discuss one's own personal concern with body image and weight gain with an obese client?

An obese client would look at me and think that I'm skinny so why would I possibly feel badly about myself? But to me 30 pounds overweight and gaining during menopause is no laughing matter. When you've been relatively fit and reasonably thin all your life into your late 40's and then menopause rears it little head and you begin to gain way more weight than you need or desire...making my wardrobe not fit and my relatively young image of myself turn middle aged...is it insensitive to comment on it? I'm talking about my body, not theirs! They can do what they want to their body.

I have obese clients who are beautiful the way they are...if that's how they want to be. But I don't want to be that way so I can't help it if I'm panicking after 50 watching myself careen out of control as I feel almost helpless at stopping it.

Note I said almost helpless...I have begun to do something about it...but that's for another discussion.

Blogging massage!

How did blogs ever come about? One minute I"ve never heard of them and the next minute I'm creating my own Blog to share my deeper thoughts and secrets about the work I do. If you're looking for something sexy, I suggest you go elsewhere. But then, over time, who knows where the depth of this site will go.