Good Mood Diet Blog

It’s that time of year again when so many set New Year’s resolutions. The big four resolutions are losing weight, getting out of debt, quitting smoking and getting organized. Believe it or not, losing weight and getting organized have striking similarities. For starters, the end result of each will make you feel great!

I often compare the two; you go on a diet, you lose weight, you feel great and then you must work to maintain that weight. If you don’t - well, you know what happens. Getting organized is no different. Living an organized lifestyle is a choice. After you’ve made that choice and you’ve worked at eliminating the clutter and chaos in your life, you also must work to maintain the new systems you’ve implemented. Without maintenance, the clutter will come back, just like the weight if you don’t work at it a bit each day.

In my latest book Eliminate Chaos - The 10 Step Process to Organize Your Home & Life, I list the 10 important steps. Step 1 is to “make time.” Just like you spend 20-30 minutes a day exercising, schedule 20-30 minutes a day, to organize parts of your home or office. The feeling of accomplishment will be extremely rewarding. You will feel like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders and you will feel more “in control” and “less overwhelmed.” Step 10 is to “maintain” what you’ve created, which should just take a few minutes each day.

It's best to start small. A great place to start is with your junk drawer or pantry. It might just be time to clean out some of that food you’re not going to eat, now that you’re taking a closer look at what you eat. Donate it to someone who will eat it. Start now and enjoy all of the benefits of living organized in 2007.

Laura Leist
Business & Residential Organizing
Eliminate Chaos, LLC
www.eliminatechaos.com

Adapted from Lou Schuler’s blog and Web site, Male Pattern Fitness.

I have dubbed January 2nd the National Day of Retonement. It's not listed on calendars yet, but that's more a function of my unfortunate obscurity than any inherent problem with the idea. NDoR is the opposite of a holiday. It's the day you start paying the price for all the holidays you've just celebrated.

I spent most of my NDoR working on my next book, which should be out about this time next year, with a great midday workout designed by the incomparable Alwyn Cosgrove. This is the first book I've written for women. All I'll say is that the workout may be designed for women, but it's sure not for sissies.

Speaking of books, when Time magazine, in its December 18 issue, previewed the top five diet books of Retonement Season (I figure if I keep using the word, someone else will pick up on it, obscurity be darned), it listed The Good Mood Diet.

Having worked with Sue for many years – starting when I was at Men's Fitness – I was surprised to see her recommending a specific macronutrient ratio, especially one as ubiquitous as 40/30/30. Since that's also my favorite ratio, for a variety of reasons (the main ones being that it works and it's easy to use), I asked how she arrived at it.

The Good Mood Diet recommends a dietary formula of 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat, which makes it more effective for weight loss while maintaining its potent mood-elevating properties.

"A diet with less than 40 percent carbs is depressing, literally," she told me. "Forty percent is also better for weight loss. A diet less than 25 to 30 percent fat lowers stress-coping skills and raises anxiety/anger/hostility. The higher healthy-fat intake may also enhance body-fat loss.

"For weight loss, I was looking for about 2 grams of protein per kilogram per day, which in a 1,600-calorie diet for the average overweight person comes out to about 30 percent."

My favorite section of the book is her list of "feel-great foods." You'll find the usual things that appear in just about every book on healthy eating (green tea, nuts, spinach, strawberries), but she also comes up with some surprising choices:

* egg yolks
* lean pork
* garlic and ginger
* low-fat or nonfat dairy
* chocolate
* caffeine

Any book that says good things about pig meat and coffee is all right by me. The fact it's also a well-researched book integrating the latest science on how diet affects mood with the somewhat better understood principles of eating for weight loss makes it a winner three times over. If you ask me – and I'll confess almost no one does – it’s the perfect nutrition book for this season.

Lou

Lou Schuler is an award-winning journalist, author of several fitness and nutrition books, and is certified as a strength and conditioning specialist (C.S.C.S.) by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Dear Readers,

Today's blog comes from an original Good Mood Diet Club member - her thoughts as shared with Dr. Kleiner. We welcome your thoughts as well. You can send your ideas to contact@goodmooddiet.com (even though we may not be able to respond personally to every message) or join the Good Mood Diet Club in the chat room to share your thoughts with other readers.

For me, another great day of eating healthy! And I am making sure on most days to get in my 10,000 steps.

Just some thoughts - I can see that doing well on this diet requires taking care of ourselves and that takes extra time: having the right food in the house, cooking more than usual, and in my case cooking separate meals for myself and different foods for pickier family members. Following through requires spending time on ourselves, and to do that we have to feel that we are worth all that effort. I think that many women fall down when they simply do not value themselves enough, and therefore do not put the necessary effort into themselves.

When dieting, committed athletes seem to be in a different grouping, motivated by big goals that keep them going, goals that take them out of themselves. Perhaps they have been trained to be more disciplined and determined than the average woman. Probably they are less dragged down by the ups and downs of their emotional lives. I, as the "average woman" want to find a way to tap into that same determination and pursuit of goals. Hopefully, I can remember and believe this as I keep going forward: that I am worth spending time on myself. I do feel so excellent when I follow through with the diet plan/exercise and other personal goals important to me.

Dear Readers, It’s “guest blogger” Wednesday and I, the editor of the Web site, decided to add my two cents. Usually I edit the entries from Dr. Kleiner, our experts Alice and Bob, and long-time Good Mood dieters. Today, I’m writing to you as a “newbie” Good Mood dieter.

For a few months, since I started working with Dr. Kleiner, I’ve been making sure to add in a few of the key Feel-Great Foods, such as flax seed, an egg a day, and more seafood. But even though I could tell that these small changes helped eliminate mood swings and even though I was impressed with Dr. Kleiner’s smart, “no deprivation” approach, I resisted following the meal plans, and certainly didn’t keep a food and exercise log.

Well, you can’t read other people’s success stories – and you certainly can’t read Bob’s and Alice’s straight-forward and humorous articles and blogs – and stay resistant. So last week I printed 20 copies of the log (from the GMD Club page) and started using them religiously. I have been following the meal plans for the first two weeks.

Wow! It’s true. I feel better. I don’t get tired so early in the evening. I track details better. I keep noticing things that, even though they are discussed in the book, seem so much bigger and better when I experience them myself. So here’s my list of My Favorite Things About The Good Mood Diet:

1. I actually like to fill out the food and exercise log. This surprises me. I find it satisfying to write down the positive things I’ve done each day. And I don’t feel the least bit guilty when I write “a slice of pizza,” or “two cookies.” I observe that I ate something that might not help me toward my goal, and I look at the connection between what I ate, what I hadn’t eaten earlier in the day to help avoid the craving, and how I felt.


2. Real foods taste better. I don’t understand this yet. But I have observed that carrots with peanut butter (even a mere 1 tablespoon of the delicious spread) are scrumptious. Apricots stuffed with almonds: nectar of the gods! Yogurt with berries and ground flax seed: Yum! I love the textures! And those cookies I had the other day? They were only so-so.


3. I feel good. I mean really good. Clean on the inside. Especially when I exercise. I’ve been alternating between yoga, aerobics and strengthening classes. It had been too long since my last class and I started out stiff and unbalanced. But I’m amazed at how quickly my conditioning has improved.


4. I like knowing that I get to relax with a cup of hot cocoa or warm almond milk every day. This is one of those connections I hadn’t made at first. I understood the fact that milk contains L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid that helps you sleep. But didn’t understand the comfort of knowing you get a treat each day, no matter what else you ate. Often, knowing the comfort drink is coming at the end of the day helps me turn down less beneficial treats.


5. I love the tips and support from the smart Good Mood Diet Club members in the chat group. People have been sharing really good ideas and recipes. And it’s helpful to check in when looking for a little motivation. There’s a slew of success stories out there!

As the editor of the Good Mood Diet Web site, I have heard many discussions about choosing to use sugar and artificial sweeteners. Here is a summary of what I've heard.

One of the key aspects of The Good Mood Diet is paying attention to how foods affect your body and mood. There's a lot of leeway in the program to balance what you know about yourself with your goals.

The use of artificial sweeteners one area of personal choice. Plenty of people feel strongly about the taste and about the safety of various products. Dr. Kleiner recommends Splenda in recipes to provide a good calorie-reduction choice, but also advises that each person should make the appropriate choice for their own bodies, goals, and opinions.

People who are diabetic or who have strong reactions to sugar should avoid sugar. If using sugar keeps you from achieving your goals, then you may find it worthwhile to adapt to the aftertaste of another sweetener. If you are morbidly obese, using artificial sweeteners as part of a healthy diet is probably less risky than not changing your diet or undergoing invasive surgery. If you can use a little sugar in the morning and still feel good and meet your goals, then that's the right solution for you.

Dr. Kleiner does not recommend using artificial sweeteners in excess. I know this sounds vague, but really, it all comes down to knowing what works for your body, what your goals are, and... moderation.

The members of the online chat group have a lot of good ideas about sweeteners. Check messages 77, 80, and 82 from January for their comments, including a post from Dr. Kleiner.

Liz Diether-Martin,
Editor, The Good Mood Diet Web site, professional technical communicator

Here’s how it happens. There you are idling along, serving samples of your product, and answering routine questions about the St. Jude tuna and its special qualities. Then a certain customer approaches the display and suddenly the questions become challenging. “How do you avoid the contaminated albacore that is present in other widely available products? Why would your omega-3 content be higher than that of albacore in general?”

As the questions continue, it becomes clear that this lady is on an investigation. Suddenly your answers are being judged at a new level - her eyes are intent on yours, looking for hesitation or uncertainty. Break out the bright lights and handcuffs, Susan Kleiner wants to know about your food! I have encountered no one like Susan. After that first encounter in 2002, she took my answers home and researched my replies, then returned with more specific questions.

As individuals, we just can’t seem to find the time to research what we should be eating. Virtually everyone knows the language of our bodies when the message is “I’m hungry. Eat!” Some of us have imposed on that basic message the interpretation: "Eat right!” so that instead of chips or a cheeseburger, we look for “something healthy.” As it happens, I have made a lot of errors in choosing that “something healthy.”

If you have difficulty deciding just what “eat right” means, let Susan help; I know she has done the homework.

Joe Malley,
co-owner of Fishing Vessel St. Jude

Dear Readers, As you know from reading Dr. Kleiner's books and articles, tuna products vary wildly in their health benefits and contamination levels. I asked Joe Malley, owner of Fishing Vessel St. Jude, to tell me more about how he discovered the benefits of troll-caught tuna. Here's Joe's reply:

My first experience with troll-caught, cold-packed canned albacore was before it was a widely known commodity. Among fisherman, “home pack” albacore had a fabulous reputation for its gourmet flavor. People talked it up so much that we decided to have some fish canned in Astoria Oregon in 1987. The cans came back to the boat delivered in a shopping cart. We loved the tuna and the responses we got from those we shared it with were so positive that we knew there was a future in it. Even then we didn’t know these cans were also outstanding in terms of their health benefits.

Sometime in 1999, I happened to hear early rumblings about mercury in tuna. The report I read worried me so I brashly approached the scientists who had done the study. At first, I just asked if the study had distinguished the mercury content of smaller (troll caught) albacore from the larger fish that predominate in the big cannery products. The person I spoke to was then the Director of Public Health for Maine. He said they had no way of knowing what tuna were in the tested cans, which were selected at random from grocery store shelves. I then asked if he felt it was likely that the younger fish might have different (lower) contamination levels. He said he would expect that.

This was enough for me to begin testing our tuna. Fortunately, the test results were clear and I never had to face the connundrum my wife posed, "Hey genius, what are you gonna do if the results are bad?"

Joe Malley,
co-owner of Fishing Vessel St. Jude

Dear readers, Today we're publishing an e-mail message from Michael Catalano in Houston.

For the first 30 years of my life, I had horrible eating habits that date back to an Italian Mother and Grandmother who were offended if you didn’t eat everything that they put on your plate. Although very tasty, these foods like lasagna and baked ziti, in large quantities, were not the road to a healthy relationship with food. The only reason why I stayed in shape was that I exercised for two hours a day and had the benefit of a sub-30-year-old's metabolism.

For the last 14 years I have tried every single “fad” out there to compensate for never having established a healthy eating program and have been woefully disappointed by the results.

The Good Mood Diet book has changed my life, the combination of principles that make sense along with an easy-to-follow plan, even at restaurants, has resulted in more energy and less hunger than ever. I feel 15 years younger. I am so excited!

I have lost 11 pounds in 2 weeks and I am so convinced that I will be following your program for the rest of my life. Thank you so much, Susan, you are a life changer and I’ll never forget you.

Michael Catalano,
Houston

The Good Mood Diet tells us that eating well helps us feel well, improves our moods, and increases our energy and ability to deal with stress. This all makes sense and I have absolutely noticed that my brain is less fuzzy when I skip the refined sugar and have plenty of fish, complex carbs, fruits, and vegetables. But I hadn’t noticed the coping with stress thing.

Recently, I proved these mood-elevating and stress-relieving benefits to myself. Only, I proved them by proving the opposite: that if I skip meals and snacks, don’t combine carbohydrates, proteins and fats as well as I should, and if I enjoy too many sugary treats, my mood deteriorates and my ability to cope with stress evaporates.

Here’s what happened: I’d been happily following the GMD guidelines and feeling well. But I had a very busy week in which I ate poorly. Then came a nearly fatal blow: I called technical support.

You know how it goes. I was having problems with a brand new computer. I called technical support, waited on hold for a half an hour, spilled my water glass trying to accomplish something by organizing my desk while I waited, and when I finally got connected, I could barely hear the “customer service representative” because the connection was so bad. We struggled for an hour, trying one unsuccessful tip after another, until the rep finally decided the problem was not with his software – it was the computer manufacturer’s problem. I made two more calls, strikingly similar to that one. Finally, I called the store where I bought the computer. When Friendly Fred told me “I know a technician who can come to your home at a cost of $110/hour,” I lost it. I screamed. I cried. I sobbed.

Okay, the phone calls weren’t fun and the lack of success was frustrating. But my reaction was waaaay out of proportion. I mean, nobody ran over my dog – and there are far worse problems in the world.

After I calmed down, I laughed at myself and went for a walk. I thought about why I became so frustrated. So, it’s back to eating right and exercising regularly. But I think I’ll give myself a little more time before calling technical support again.

Liz Diether-Martin
Editor, The Good Mood Diet Web site

As I read Alice’s blog yesterday, I was inspired by her Twister Lessons to write my own blog about really good reasons for taking care of ourselves — more reasons bigger than fitting into smaller-sized pants or feeling attractive at the high school reunion. Here are some lessons I’ve learned:

The Stroke Lesson

When my mother-in-law had a stroke at an early age, the damage to her brain was devastating. The lack of oxygen to her brain left her literally speechless and immobile. She had to relearn the alphabet, relearn how to use a spoon to feed herself, and she attended physical therapy for months to be able to speak and walk again. In our efforts to help and support her, we learned about brain injury and recovery.

We learned that, much like excellent strength and aerobic fitness helps Alice’s husband live well with diabetes (LINK), the more you do with your mind, the better equipped you are to recover from injuries. By keeping your brain active, you build neural pathways. If you suffer a brain injury like a stroke, you’ll probably recover better if you have already tried new and challenging activities, done puzzles, learned a new dance, or changed jobs.

The Torn Ligament Lesson

One of the very first times my husband and I left our baby with a babysitter was supposed to be a chance to celebrate. We traveled to a friend’s new house in the suburbs (that’s where houses are big enough to hold ping pong tables inside the house). So we dusted off our old ping pong skills and enjoyed a few rallies before, Pop! — my husband slipped and twisted the knee that had been bothering him for many months. The pop sound was the tearing of his ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament.

The good news is that, as a part-time bicycle commuter, his leg muscles were strong enough to prevent even more tearing. Those strong leg muscles also enabled him to hobble around until his surgery, where the surgeon discovered the ligament was so badly damaged that it was only his muscle tone that kept his knee from moving in very disturbing directions. After surgery, he was instructed to do strengthening and stretching exercises several times a day. These exercises take discipline and endurance. Having trained for sports and having done many challenging hikes, mountain bike rides and thrilling ski runs, my husband knew how to stick with the exercises and work for a goal.

With months of dedicated physical therapy, he recovered 100 percent of his strength and range-of-motion. It was hard work, but it would have been much, much harder if he wasn’t already in good shape and hadn’t before worked toward a challenging goal.

It’s not just to live longer that we take care of ourselves; it’s to feel better while we’re alive. With that, I’m off to clean some vegetables for tomorrow and have that hot cocoa.

Liz Diether-Martin,
Editor, The Good Mood Diet Web site

As you know from reading The Good Mood Diet and from this Web site, Dr. Kleiner strongly recommends incorporating fresh-ground flaxseed in your daily diet. The benefits of flaxseed go way past adding a nutty flavor and a bit of crunch. Says Dr. Kleiner:

Flax is a very good source of plant-based (EPA and DHA) omega-3 fats. And ground whole flax seeds contain an important fiber, lignin, that isn’t found abundantly in our diets. Flax is a good source of lignins. Lignins are known to contribute to gut health in a similar way as probiotics, the good bacteria found in yogurts. It stimulates the immune system of the gut, along with adding a healthy fiber for general gut health. (You won’t get that fiber from flax oil.)

Well now Dr. Kleiner has found a great article by Rosie Schwartz, a Toronto-based consulting dietitian. Fabulous flaxseed details the health benefits of ground flaxseed and gives good advice about buying and storing flaxseed and incorporating it into your diet. Among the benefits cited by the article: improvements in blood sugar and cholesterol levels, antioxidant properties, improved artery health, and protection against hormone-sensitive cancers.

Happy reading,
Liz Diether-Martin,
Editor, The Good Mood Diet Web site

Parents, let’s have a quick raise of hands; who has used the television to buy yourself some time to breathe, think, talk, cook or bathe? Certainly a large portion of us. My hand is up. My daughter and I used to cuddle up and “watch” Arthur shows. Honestly, I was taking delicious, delicious naps while she watched.

But here’s an alarming statistic: Forty percent of 3-month-old infants are regularly watching TV, DVDs or videos and that number jumps to 90 percent by age two, according to University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute researchers. Among those who watched TV, DVDs or videos, the average daily viewing time jumped from one hour per day for those children younger than 12 months to more than 1½ hours a day by 24 months.

The number of regular watchers jumps to an astounding 90 percent of 2-year-olds, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

“Exposure to TV takes time away from more developmentally appropriate activities such as a parent or adult caregiver and an infant engaging in free play with dolls, blocks or cars,” said Frederick Zimmerman, lead author of the study and a UW associate professor of health services. “While appropriate television viewing at the right age can be helpful for both children and parents, excessive viewing before age 3 has been shown to be associated with problems of attention control, aggressive behavior and poor cognitive development. Early television viewing has exploded in recent years, and is one of the major public health issues facing American children.”

“… We discovered that many parents believe that they are providing educational and brain development opportunities by exposing their babies to 10 to 20 hours of viewing per week,” said Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the UW’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences and co-author of the study with Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrics researcher at Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute and a UW associate professor of medicine.

“But parents should feel confident that high-quality social interaction with babies, including reading and talking with them, provides all the stimulation that the growing brain needs. It’s not as though TV or a DVD provides an extra vitamin of some kind in the first two years of life, where we concentrated our research in this study,” continues Meltzoff.

The researchers conducted random telephone surveys of more than 1,000 families in Minnesota and Washington with a child born in the previous two years, and found the median age at which infants were regularly exposed to media was 9 months.

Even though educational content was the top reason given by parents, only about half the infant viewing time was reported to be in what researchers classified as a children’s educational category. This included educational TV programs such as “Sesame Street” and “Arthur” and DVDs or videos such as “Blue’s Clues.” The remaining viewing time was roughly split among children’s non-educational programs, baby DVDs or videos and grown-up television.

You can learn more about the study from Newswise and University of Washington News.

Also, our own Bob Condor wrote a column citing this and another study on kids and television: Living Well: Tune in to your children's TV habits.

Liz Diether-Martin,
Editor, The Good Mood Diet Web site

I have been blogging that I hear from Good Mood Dieters about how they feel now that they're on the plan. Here's a letter that I just received that is really uplifting.

Dr. Kleiner,

I wanted to take a moment to tell you how much I love the Good Mood Diet. I am sure you have heard it many times, but I wanted to say that I have tried so many different diet plans throughout my life, from no carb diets to counting points, and none compare to your plan. I am totally amazed. I am such a skeptic when it comes to diets, and let me say, to call your plan a diet is really an injustice because it is more a life style with perks! Diet should be one of those four letter words that shouldn't be used.

After just one day on the plan, I felt a world better! World is the key word here, because it was just days before that I was feeling really sorry for myself. I told my husband that I was beginning to feel like I was my own planet and that I was doomed to steadily gain weight the rest of my life. That is truly a sad feeling. I had no will power, or at least I thought I had no will power. Thank goodness I found your book at our local library and read it cover to cover. One of the best things it taught me was that these diets that eliminate favorite foods from my diet were what was making me lose control. I would deprive myself of those things that I really love and then as soon as my mood hit rock bottom, I'd throw my hands in the air and "pig out" on whatever it was that I was holding back on and didn't care. Now I know that my body needs things from all the food group, even carbs. I love that I get an egg every morning for breakfast (I used to skip this meal, thinking it would jump start my weight loss for the day), and hot cocoa each evening.

Now, after only 2 weeks on the plan, I feel so good about myself and the perk...I have lost 8 pounds! What's even more, I am never hungry and always happy! I can't believe the difference and how easy it all is. Dr. Kleiner, this is my new way of life! I won't be my own planet! I can't thank you enough for your wisdom.

Thank you so much!!!

Sincerely,
Kathy Jo Ramlee
Frankfort, KY

(about me: 35 years young, 147 pounds, with a goal to lose 17 more)

I am one of the lucky six who worked with Susan Kleiner in 2005 for the series of articles in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. My main reason for wanting to work with Dr. Kleiner was to help with the winter blahs. At the time, I noticed a big improvement in my management of stress and began to see some of the patterns that influenced my food intake--especially regarding food portions. Although weight loss wasn't my main objective, I lost 11 pounds. While I wore a pedometer and changed some habits to increase my activity, I just never managed to get the exercise part of the plan up and going. But I knew I would eventually.

Shortly after completing the three month test program in the P-I, I learned I was expecting my second son. With a new baby and a preschooler, I cut myself some slack but set a goal to be exercising regularly within a month after finishing nursing. In April I started working out with a personal trainer. Soon after my dad invited me to run a 5k with him on the 4th of July. I had never been much of a runner but it seemed like a good way to focus my exercise time so the trainer put a 9-week program together for me. My goal was to run the whole way and to beat 12 minute miles and I managed both (my time was 35:29). And now I am hooked. I ran another 5k this weekend and came in at 29:24--3rd place for my age group!

One of the fun outcomes of the exercise is that I am doing it with my boys. My older son rides his bike with me on the running trail and thinks it's fun when he rides faster than I am running. My younger son is very happy when I suggest we go out in the jog stroller and has been a very patient passenger.

With all this activity, I don't really track my food intake like I did during the test program, but I also think it is more of a habit to balance my food choices. I am still a devoted Daylight breakfast eater. My grocery list always has eggs, milk, nuts, olives, and lots of produce on it. And I buy my tuna by the case from the good folks at FV St. Jude. I think for me the program is a touchstone that I return to when I notice my stress levels rising or my pants feeling a little tight.

From the Happy Runner,
Paula Burke

A very important part of healthy living is attending live performances. When you watch TV your eyes go into “ocular lock” which means your eyes go into a staring mode and your brain shuts down. However, when watching a live performance your brain is fully functional with all synapses firing!

Live performance is a complete body–brain experience. Emotions are highly engaged, social skills are activated through this communal experience with other audience members, imaginations are piqued, cognitive skills are developed as you think about the meaning of the performance, and even the kinesthetic intelligence gets strengthened as you relate “physically” through mirror neurons to the performers’ movements on stage.

I founded Kaleidoscope Dance Company 27 years ago so that people of all ages and backgrounds would have the experience of seeing appropriate and engaging LIVE dance performance. The Gift of Dance Concert, December 9 at 3:00 at Shorewood High School in Seattle is particularly engaging because the dancers are young people ages 7-16 who have been collaborating together to choreograph dances inspired by works of visual art from the last two centuries. The pieces include a wide variety of styles, content, costuming, and music!

The Gift of Dance Concert is appropriate for all ages - from toddlers through elders. It is truly an intergenerational, brain-compatible, and very moving experience!

Please join us in celebration of the season.

Anne Green Gilbert
Founder and Artistic Director
Creative Dance Center and Kaleidoscope and Mosaic Dance Companies

For all of you who have avoided the Good Mood Diet Yahoo chat group because of the annoying spam... your wishes have come true. Group member Debi has offered to be the moderator. I can see she has already been rallying members, encouraging the community to stick with the group for the great support it provides.

Debi recently started the Good Mood Diet. Here's her story:

"I'm in my mid 50's, a single mom and tax professional. I think by being moderator it will give me more accountability with the program. I need that! I really need the feedback and support from the other group members.

"My daughter and I both need to lose at least 100lbs. She's 20, still lives with me and has recently had some medical problems because of her weight. I was diagnosed with chronic leukemia a little over a year ago and it's about time I set some boundaries for both of us. Maybe it's not too late to lead by example."

Thank you, Debi, for your enthusiasm and positive leadership!

The Good Mood Diet web site editor