Can a Magazine Help you Lose Weight?

Are you a magazine reader?  In my humble observation, most people either read lots of magazines or almost no magazines at all.  My mom loves to read magazines.  She always jokes that if she buys the magazine that says, "Lose 20 pounds before Thanksgiving" after Thanksgiving then she has until next Thanksgiving to lose it.

I remember reading the teenie-bopper magazines for a year or two when I was a young teenager.  After that, I didn't get too into magazines.  I didn't graduate from the teenie-bopper magazines into the many magazines that exist about the stars.  Maybe that's because it's when I was a teenager that I fell in love with the one star that really matters in my life - Jesus.  The rest of the "stars" are just people to me.

When I became a mom I got back into magazines.  I'm frugal so I have a hard time spending money on magazines, but I signed up for every free magazine I could find about raising kids.  That was 14 years ago.  At that time there were plenty of free magazines that I could get. I red most of them faithfully for the first few years of motherhood.  I even read one that wasn't free because my sister-in-law had given it to me as a gift.  After a few years and a couple of kids I stopped reading those magazines. I realized that most of the information was the same I had been reading for the past years and by now I had my own parenting style anyway. It also takes time to read magazines and time is a rare commodity in my life.

In 2008 one of the perks of being a WW leader was that I had free access to Weight Watchers magazine.  I admit that I was hooked.  I read each issue cover to cover.  Since 2010 when I gave up my job with WW, I didn't have free access to the magazine and had not been buying the magazine....did I mention that I was ridiculously frugal?  Last year I got an email from my cousin's daughter for a fundraiser.  She was selling magazines again for school. I like to support the fundraisers when I can but don't like spending money that I wouldn't normally spend or spending money on things that I just, plain wont use.  I almost closed the email without buying anything but then a little voice in my head said, "C'mon Corinna, you want to support her school.  You can find one magazine that you can make use of."  I then remembered how much I like the WW magazine and ordered it.

The magazine comes every other month, which is perfect for me because I like to read as much of it as possible but don't have a lot of time for extra-curricular reading in my life.  It takes me 2 months to read through it.  I admit that I have not read every one cover to cover but have read them all from time to time.  This past month I've taken a special liking to the magazine.  This is a tool that I have in my house that I paid for and I should use it.  I now read it at most meals.  I like reading while I eat.  I've passed that habit on to my kids and poor Bryan can't stand it.  He wants to see plates on the table, not books and magazines, so we don't read at the table for dinner because it would drive Bryan crazy.  We only read at breakfast and lunch.  It helps me to read my magazine because it gives me great tips that I wouldn't normally take the time to find.  This month I was particularly struck by the success stories. It's so nice to read about someone else's success and realize that you can be that successful too.  Those people are just people like you and I and they dug into their lives to change them for the better.

I have also enjoyed my magazine for the exercises.  I have grown bored of my exercise DVD's.  If you have read my blogs since their inception, this is no surprise to you.  I grow bored of exercise easily. I constantly need to change things up or I stop exercising completely. In each issue of the WW magazine they have a page or two dedicated to showing you a workout or exercises that you can do.  I went into my pile of magazines and found the last 3 issues and tore out the exercise pages from each magazines and stapled them together. Now each morning I exercise in front of the TV for 45 minutes and just use these different exercises.  It has been giving me a good workout, keeping me from getting bored and keeping me up to date on life outside by watching the news. Sometimes I vary the exercises the way that I feel like doing them or add weights to them.  I'm feeling stronger and great about my exercise.

I got a lot of help out of these simple magazines because I chose to use them. What tools do you have at home that you could use to help you lose weight or maintain your weight loss?  Is there something that you have forgotten about?  Tools are a great thing.  We need to depend on them to help us with our goals.

Have a great day,
Corinna

"Do not fret because of evildoers. Do not envy the wicked; for the evil have no future; the lamp of the wicked will go out. My child, fear the Lord and the king, and no not disobey either of them; for disaster comes from them suddenly, and who knows the ruin that both can bring." -Proverbs 24:19-22