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If you told me twenty-two years ago that not only would I be sharing a magazine cover with the lovely Maria Menounos of the Today Show (in fact, the way they designed the cover, I seem to be emerging from her jeans!) but be fit and trim while doing so, I would have fallen over laughing. Ah…how sweet it is when dreams come true.  And how wonderful to remember the day I finally decided changed my life for good and started on the path towards those dreams.

But back to the present! Yes, I’m a cover girl. What a thrill to be standing in the checkout line and seeing myself looking back at me from the magazine, First for women. And Maria Menounos and I have more in common than sharing a cover. We are both weight loss success stories. She, too, has released weight (in her case, 40 pounds) and has kept it off.

As Maria knows, keeping it off is sometimes the biggest challenge. That’s why we need an approach to weight-loss that goes beyond the same diet and exercise treadmill. We need to approach the issue holistically, with self-love, and understand the underlying issues that affect our relationship to food. Otherwise those pounds will creep right back on.

Everyday, I visualize a world where people no longer hate their bodies, make them wrong, feel nothing but appreciation for healthy food and no longer struggle with the scale.

It was such thrill to be interviewed and share my story for First Magazine. Not only did I release 100 pounds (and have kept it off for 22 years) I gained self-love – that’s the only way to create permanent change. My experience made me want to reach out to others experiencing suffering and frustration with their weight and body image. I was inspired to create OnePinky.com and my body image mastery course to inspire, support, and nourish others, while helping them achieve their weight loss goals and master their compulsive eating habits. It’s not just about the weight. It’s about loving your body, who you are, your entire self. But you have to begin somewhere and you need help and support to get to where you want to go. Twenty-two years ago, when I felt unlovable and knew I couldn’t live like that anymore, I started off by loving just one of my pinky’s. Appreciating and accepting that little part of my body allowed me to start someplace until I was able to love it all.

I do not take the ability to heal for granted. Everyday I wake up feeling a responsibility to serve others who need support and love. I was shown a path and want others to find a path for themselves to own who they are and love who they are.

That is the aim and goal here at OnePinky.com and we encourage you all no matter where you are on your path to start by accepting where you are and getting clear about where you want to go. You can get there and I am happy to hold your hand while you are on your journey.

I do not want anyone to have MY life. Quite the opposite. I want you to have YOUR life. The tools and techniques at OnePinky.com will set you on YOUR HEALING PATH and you will have a healthy, strong, powerful life and a body you love if that is something you want…and you can have happy…and my favorite definition of success is HAPPY!!!! –Laura Fenamore

I, Laura Fenamore  drink a ton of tea…and I love my tea sweet.

SWEET GREEN TEA, YUMMY.

For many years I used artificial sweetener until one day I stopped and now love, love, love the sweetness of Stevia…..read on…

What’s worse than something that’s sweet, fake and bad for you (no, I don’t mean Lindsay Lohan tabloids)?

What if you ingested something fake every day to make your life a little sweeter, and instead, it gave you cancer, which is decidedly the opposite of sweet?

That’s just what so many of us do with artificial sweeteners every day.

Take your cute little packets of Sweet ‘n Low. I love pink, so I’m not dissing the packets. But the stuff in them is enough to make you sick—and it does! Made out of Aspartame, which is also found inNutrasweet, Equal, and Canderel , this stuff—found in thousands and thousands of our food products—has actual wood alcohol (paint remover) as an ingredient! It’s been found to cause mental retardation, interfere with fetal brain growth, and may even be linked to Alzheimer’s disease, memory loss, vision loss, depression and seizures. Plus, it can block serotonin production, making us cranky full of cravings!

If Aspartame wasn’t bad enough, there’s also Splenda, the “I’m-so-natural-and-safe-for-you!” sweetener. But the sugar substitute, also known as Sucralose, is anything but—considering it’s actually chlorinated sugar! Side effects of Splenda include joint pain, depression, seizures, wheezing, headache, itchy eyes, nausea, chest pains, skin rashes and tons of other gross stuff we wouldn’t wish on our worst neighbors (at least on Sunday).

The scary thing is, even if you aren’t buying these bad babies in little packets, you could still be eating them since they’re used in many varieties of diet drinks, gum, yogurt, vitamins (including children’s), drugs—and even water!

So what do we do about this granulized version Satan incarnate we’ve been ingesting? Good question. Here are some great, real foods that you can use instead of sugars—and artificial wackiness:

Stevia, an all-natural no-calorie sweetener;
Honey, the bee staple of goodness that we all know and love;
Agave nectar, a neutral-tasking juice from the plant with the same name
Maple syrup, yet another all-natural gift from nature
Date sugar, which is made from actual dates (not referring to smooches from your date)

Your best bet for defense? Check your labels. I’ll say it again—check. Your. Labels. Sure, it’s tedious at first, but once you find out which products you can trust it will be a piece of cake—honey cake that is, not theSplenda-with-sick-side-effects cake!

I care about your health alot and would love it if you did too.

XO, Laura

www.OnePinky.com

Body Image Revolution

This story proves that the power of creating our body image revolution lies in social media! Case in point: I met this wonderful, vibrant , fully alive gynecologist named Dr. Lissa Rankin on Twitter. Dr. Lissa is a gem, and one of those women who has mastered using both the left and right sides of her brain. She is amazing… did I tell you just how great I think she is? :)

Lissa has created a community called Owning Pink. (You may also know Lissa from her work with Betty Confidential.com and College Candy.com. )

She contacted me because she felt we were sisters of PINKY POWER - both dedicated to helping women learn to love and own their bodies. We simply fell in love and a lifelong friendship has begun - from one single Twitter post! Yes, Twitter!

Lissa is a huge OnePinky fan, and she and I will be holding a workshop in September in Northern CA (you cannot miss it) called “Owning Your Body” and we want all of our Owning Pink and OnePinky sisters to join us!

Listen to what Owning Pink and OnePinky gals have to say about these programs:

“The past year has been a journey of discovery for me. I learned more about who I am and how I want to live my life than I ever imagined was possible. Never had I dreamt that there was so much depth to the universe and so much simplicity all the same. I go through each day with the philosophy that ‘thoughts become things.’ Therefore I simply have to imagine what it is that I want for myself and my life, visualize it, feel it, put an action in place that corresponds with my desires and anything I want is truly possible.”
–Megan of Owning Pink

“The big mental shift I have had since the joining OnePinky.com is the glorious realization that my body is a temple. It is loving, efficient vessel that holds all that is me. After that, health is pretty much a given. Prior to OnePinky.com or attending one of free Laura’s teleclasses on the phone, I took everything about my body for granted. Now it is simply a priority and feel today that it always will be, even though I am still young. I am back to working out regularly because regular exercise and conscious eating are important to and for my temple. Emotionally, there has been an awakening of the knowing that I am beautiful just as I am. NOW. Period. All the time. This prompts me to continually affirm this in my mind and heart. As a result, I AM more Free, Open, Peaceful and happy about my body. There is less judgment, pressure and comparing myself to other women. Whatever path my body is currently on is the right one for me. The time for my heart and body is NOW. Thank you Laura. You are a love.”
–Jennifer of OnePinky

Body Love, Pinky Power… Body Image Revolution… a Love Fest… I am blessed… to live in a time when we can connect at such rapid rates… and blend and support and hold one another’s work and movements.

If you’d like to help get the word out about OnePinky on Twitter, please feel free to do so here! Or tweet @LissaRankin …

Pinky Power! Pinky Promise! Owning Pink! YES!

OnePinky sister, Sara, recently wrote this testimony in honor of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month and I wanted to share it with you all:

I like to say that I’m straight, but not narrow. I’m married to a man, but I can appreciate the curves of a woman just as much as I can the broad torso of a man. I might have a crush on Will Smith—but I’ve also had a little thing going for Rosario Dawson for a while (yes, Seven Pounds just made my entire year). And while I’m all for getting married if you want to—or not if you don’t!—for straight couples, I’m completely the same for gay and lesbian couples, too.

In other words, I’m straight but not narrow-minded.

My husband and I think we’re pretty warped people. We are completely in love with President Obama (whom our three-year-old is also smitten with; she even has his trading cards). We believe in science over organized religion—but believe that personal faith, as long as it’s separate from the government, is A-OK. We think it’s cool for boys to kiss boys, boys to kiss girls, girls to kiss girls, and kids to kiss dogs. (But kids shouldn’t kiss turtles. I hear there’s a salmonella risk.)

Why does this have to be “warped,” though? (Besides the fact that it’s a cool word.)

Why do we have to feel so out of place smack in the middle of the Bible belt, attending family reunions filled with country-music crooning and hillbilly hollering and glares and jeers at our bumper stickers and offhand remarks about anyone who isn’t white, straight and a follower of Jesus?

Instead of warped, shouldn’t our views be the norm? More and more states are ratifying gay marriage (what the heck is up with you, California?), and we finally have a President who believes in stem cell research and does not want to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

Yet the only places I can feel really at home with how I feel are online—including www.OnePinky.com.

At OnePinky, my “sisters” all accept everyone no matter their creed, sexuality, color or any other factor. Some of us are Christians; some are rather pagan; some prefer to remain nondenominational. And it’s all okay, because if there’s anything we learn at OnePinky, it’s to love ourselves no matter who we are, just as we are, warts, fat, bi polar, astigmatism and all.

“Live and let live” is what we learn, and that doesn’t apply to just ourselves—it applies to the world at large.

OnePinky.com reinforces the idea of tolerance—and most importantly to ourselves! Acceptance is what we should always strive for, here and now and always.

And we are responsible for owning the loveliness that we are. So it is time that we cease letting anyone make us feel that we are wrong with being who we are.

OnePinky, the community opens the door to talk about religion, politics, and all of the issues that people typically shy away from because of the divisiveness. Why should we fear each other so much? Should we not learn from one another instead, and embrace diversity in all of its beautiful forms?

Let’s celebrate being different. And like we’re learning to love ourselves “one pinky at a time,” perhaps the global community can learn to love each other, one person at a time, one difference at a time, until we reach a climate of peace and acceptance.

How has OnePinky.com impacted your view on tolerance and acceptance? Share your thoughts in the comments.

This is the Casales family of Mexico. They spend about $190 on food each week, which is nearly half of what the Melanders of Germany spend—and they have an additional family member!

So far the Casales family has spent the least amount of money during our food study. The two big questions are:

Have they spent this money wisely? (Is it on junk or healthy food—and how does it compare with the families from last week?)

And, have they spent too much—too little—or just enough, and why?

Let us know what you think in the blog comments, and be prepared for the amount spent on food—and the amount of food that people buy for their families—to get less and less over the week. You won’t believe your eyes by Friday!

Meet the Melander family of Germany, who spends about $500 on food weekly.

While the Manzo family of yesterday has five members, they spend almost half of what the Melanders (a family of four) spend. Note what the Melanders spend their money on.

Which one has more healthy food? Which has more junk food?

Compare both of these families to the Revis family of Monday; is there a general pattern developing with European families versus the American one?

Of all three of these families, who do you think buys the right amount of food? Who has too much, or too little?

Please answer any of these questions and share your thoughts in the blog comments. Stay tuned for some shocking photos next week!

This week, we’re running a series of reports about how much food families around the world eat. Below is a picture of the Revis family of North Carolina, who spend approximately $342 on food each week.

Note how many bags of chips, fast food items, and sweets the family buys, and compare this to your family’s food intake. Are your kitchen’s contents similar?

Compare these items with the green and healthy foods here. Do you think this kind of food distribution reflects the ever-increasing obesity rate in America?

What we’d like for you to do is to try a little experiment. Try monitoring all of the food you buy this week and note what you buy. How much is fresh food? How much is packaged? How much do you spend on fast food, or food overall?

Do you think that this family has more than enough? What about your own family?

Is your food spending wasteful, or frugal? How can you modify what you spend on food to help you during this time of economic instability? Share your answers in the blog comments.

Send your notes and a picture, if you like, to Laura@onepinky.com and we’ll highlight them in our world food week special.

Check in on Wednesday to see how other countries compare with the United States. You may be surprised!

OnePinky.com member Barb sent in this lovely prose recently, and has granted us permission to share it with the community.

“My Truth”

pain, heartache, anxiety and loss are all life’s way of inviting me to grow
it requires me to name my sorrows,
to identify and explore their cause,
to see their manifestation,
to acknowledge the fear and sadness in my response
to what has become a inconsolable longing inside.

I cannot console what I am not willing to acknowledge;
what I am not willing to name.
I can not know what I am not willing to explore
and I cannot heal what I am not willing to release.

suppressing, hiding, denying, avoiding, minimizing,
pretending and stifling are the architects of
my sorrow, my suffering.
suffering comes from resisting, restraining,
confining.

healing comes from listening, releasing,
letting go, disarming, opening, speaking my truth,
naming what scares me,
exploring the root of my fear(s), telling my stories.

healing comes from presence.
awareness.
a willingness to relinquish
the past.
forgiveness.
healing comes each time I am
present in the moment,
each moment I claim what is true for me.
the moments I speak and write, laugh and cry from my heart
the moments I practice transparency,
the moments I am visible and vulnerable,
the moments I admit I don’t know,
the moments I quit pretending,
the moments I am playful
or serious or tender
the moments I know the difference.
the moments when I trust,
and embrace the complexities of my life and
especially my loves.

I choose the moments,
this moment.
now,
to heal
to be whole
to be authentic
to see the possibilities,
set aside expectations
and to love without conditions.

Thank you so much for sharing, Barb.

Do you have a moment of truth you’d like to share? An “Aha!” moment, an epiphany, or just a quiet realization? Share it here.

Remember Phil from Australia, who boldly shared his pink-painted pinky picture with the world? He has even more pinky wisdom to share this week.

My Favorite Day of the Week: Chooseday!

As I wake up every morning I realize that everything that I am about to do on this day will be done as a complete choice on my part.

Yes… everything!

Because I realize that, I do my best to choose wisely, and here are some of my favorite choices:

I choose to feel and be perfectly healthy;
I choose to feel and be worthy of respect;
I choose to feel and be happy and full of joy;
I choose to feel and be loved and appreciated;
I choose to feel and be worthy of the best in life;
I choose to feel and be abundant in every aspect of my life;
I choose to feel and be grateful for how I experience life; and
I choose to understand that what I get out of life is in direct proportion to what I contribute to life; and the people in it!

Making a conscious choice to actually feel and be these things is quite empowering, because ultimately it’s our feelings about who we are, and where we’re at in life, which can make all the difference!

We can talk about it and we can think about it, but when we can actually feel it, it becomes a very satisfying part of us.

And, most importantly, it becomes a sustainable part of us!

If we remember that every day CAN be a chooseday, and get into owning our choices from the time we first awake, then we CAN develop new habits of feeling and being more content and satisfied with who and what we are!

Please remember that this is another process which requires practice and patience at times, and the end results are worth the effort!

Practice makes perfect. So, no matter where you are in the world, choose today as the “first day of the rest of your life”, to commit to a practice. You watch, try this everyday and your life will bloom in ways you could not imagine.

Join this community and watch your life change in ways that you could/would not imagine.

It works.

www.OnePinky.com

Recently at OnePinky.com we had a discussion on daily routines, and how important it is to establish daily habits to make them permanent features in our lives.

OnePinky sisters had lots of positive routines, rituals and daily habits to share.

Danielle writes so beautifully on the message board:

Every day I wake up

Smile at my children

Smother them with kisses -

Give my husband a wet one.

Every day I brush my teeth, drink tea, exercise

I work, have lunch, call a friend

Smile, chase 2 boys, try not to yell

Every day I thank God for my amazing life

For my family, my friends, my joy, possibility.

I try to laugh often, I always read something inspiring, most days I write.

Every day I nourish my body with healthy food, kind thoughts, exercise and rest.

Every day I remember that I am choosing LOVE.

I personally love your routine, gal! Gorgeous expression and beautifully written.

Thank you for sharing, Danielle.

What daily rituals or routines do you have?

Do you keep a gratitude, or blessing journal? Do you move your body a certain way each day—perhaps start your morning with yoga?

Do you meditate, visualize positive things happening to you and set a daily intention? And then let it go?

Do you have one routine you do each day that you could share with the OnePinky sisters?

Perhaps you have a ritual everyone else could benefit from? We would love to hear about it.

Please share your daily routine here.

And know you are blessed.

xo,
Laura