An Enemy of the STATE!!!

Recently I was watching a television news program that reported 1 in 5 black women are overweight. On the surface it would seem that black women need to eat less and move more. However, since I am a part of that number I thought to myself, "I am constantly moving more and I never get to eat. It seems like I'm always running around somewhere hungry..." For those examining that statistic from outside of the community it may lend to a belief that black women are simply greedy and lazy, but that can't be it. It caused me to do some real evaluation of my own situation and led me to create this series. A few years ago while at National Council on Black Studies conference I listened to a presentation about black women's lives in East St. Louis, Mo. The poverty level in this area is greater than the national average. The study found that black women work harder, get paid less and are responsible for more people and this trend holds true regardless of geographic location. These conclusions caused me to do some tretrospective thinking in my own life regarding weight. I've identified some "Enemies of the State" in terms of black women's health and wellness that apply to me but the many women I've come in contact with over the years from many parts of the country. The thre main recurring themes in black women's lives that may contribute to an ability to maintain healthy weight are a.) disorganization, b.) stress and c.) poverty of course these three things are not the only reason however; many of the underlying issues can be attributed in some way to one of these things.

In order to successfully attack weight issues women who carry so much responsibility are going to need to choose a different apporoach from the conventional methods and understanding. We are not simply cattle who can be fed less and trotted around the barnyard more and voila we're healthy. We have a connection to the earth and spirit that no other woman has. We were here first and we carried mankind from the tip of South Africa to the southern tip of South America on our backs and in our bellies. From the time the Creator formed a human regardless of your world view that woman was black and without us there would be nothing and nobody. Now let's unpack this together.

DISORGANIZATION Black women lead communal liees despite the political climate of the day or the influence of Western culture. In my oppinion it would be abnormal for black women to proclaim an independence from being an integral part of the lives of people around her. When you hear people give the message "you have to break away," in order to succeed they are usually trying to impose a western world view on you. You are "Superwoman" and anything less than honing your super powers is nonsense. We can't live our lives on the life lessons of white women because we are the creation that brought woman hood to town. We have and will carry many burdens. Why do you think so many of our gospel songs in the Christian realm carry messages of a day when burdens will be over? Because we are carrying burdens, you are not likely to sing of burdens unless you have them. The problem with carrying the world on your shoulders is that you are constantly juggling... Imagine a juggling act in a circus... The juggler starts out with three balls then adds a couple more... then releases 1 and ands 2 more without stopping the movement. Our lives as black women can become quite chaotic indeed. How many times have you been disturbed in sleep or in leisure because one of the people or situations in your life (balls) has entered or exited? We're going to get organized together in this series! And this is the perfect time sisters as we approach the holiday season. Regardless of your spiritual beliefs and practices you are more than likely required to honor the traditions and beliefs of others. Even if Christmas and Thanksgiving don't fall on your doorstep more than likely it occurs for people you love and all the chaos and tress caused by these holidays is enough to cause anyone to end up with some unwanted weight gain in the end. We are going to identify chaos and how disorganization effects some of our eating habits and try to tackle those issues.

STRESS - Emotional eating - I do that and We are going to keep a journal throughout this to address those things. No matter what you weigh stress is a killer and I beleive that alleviating stress is necessary to weight loss and quality of life. This thing is going to be a deep and personal inventory. I'm going to share my personal battles with you and I'm hoping that each of you share yours with me.
Stress is also a belly fat creator. I recently watched a speech given by Dr. Harris-Lacewell a black scholar from Princeton who is ofte called to speak on cable news networks about the black perspective. This particular speech she spoke about how negative thoughts and feelings create an increased production of cortisol and cortisol increases belly fat.
Stress also creates a breeding ground for stress related illnesses like hypertension. You can't just stop eating salt and then inadequately handles stress and expect hypertension to be alleviated.

POVERTY - Black women are the least paid and the hardest worked. We are required to care for more people with the least resources. We are going to learn how to work with what we have to achieve our goals. Sometimes transportation to stores that serve healthy foods is an issue. Sometimes we have to sacrifice quantity over quality.

Of course there is an element of truth to portion control and exercise. We will of course integrate those things into our personally and tailor made "Home Improvement" program. After all Home is where the heart is... And of course we will have guest bloggers which have areas of expertise in helping us to achieve our goals.

Here's the plan ladies... Monday mornings we will have our initial weekly post... not just boring me blogging about my particular issues but, we are going to involve guest writers who have something to add to the discourse. Monday mornings are going to be a time of thought provoking discovery of the weeks topic and we will have a small assignment. NO BIG ASSIGNMENTS WE HAVE ENOUGH TO DO ALREADY. Wednesday we will check back in together and discuss how this weeks post is applicable to our to our lives and what changes we can make to integrate a new approach in order to build a better ME! Then we will check back in together on Friday to see if the things we decided to change are practical and work for our daily lives and how we can insure that we can put these to work in our lives forever. Now mind you I am not a guru. This is a path we will walk together and we are going to take it slow. We will commit to losing 1 lb a week and if we make it ok and if not oh well we are healing our total selves 1st and I'm hoping that everything will come together from there.
This post is rather long because it is the 1st of a 52 week series... We don't have much time I know so there won't be many long posts...

1ST ASSIGNMENT --- A BUTTERFLY JOURNAL I like to think of this journey as that of a catepillar turning into a butterfly. It's easy to invest in 1 a few sheets of paper stapled or a spiral notebook. You can decorate it or choose one decorated for you. Make sure it's one that you will enjoy looking at and look forward to using week after week. Wednesday write down how each of the 3 EMEMIES OF THE STATE come into play in your life regardless of whether or not they directly affect your weight. Let's check back in Wednesday to get some responses!

Peace!