Weight Watchers for Men?

One lesson I have learned from my participation in the Blogathon is that if I want to increase traffic to my blog, I must maintain consistent themes. In that spirit, Mondays' posts will be dedicated to weight loss.

My decision to join my wife in attending Weight Watchers' meetings did not come easily. I perceived WW as a women's group. Having read the WW Magazine my wife received every two months did little to ease that concern. So I decided to join anyway because I had read that WW has one of the best sustaining success rates of people losing and keeping off the weight. Our daughter-in-law, Kate, has been a wonderful example of what you can do when you stick to their plan.

So I went to my first meeting last week and I counted no more than five men in the group. Ok, so I wasn't going there to make any buddies. Still, I was a bit disappointed until I got home and logged in my new WW code. I had seen Stacey's e-tools and expected to see the same. Instead, I found my e-tools were geared towards men. It gave me hope.

I follow the WW President's (who is a man) blog, Man Meets Scale as an extra connection to men struggling with weight loss. Perhaps his blog and ads like the one below will help remove the stigma that WW is a women's group and more men will feel comfortable joining. I intend to do my part with this humble little blog.

Mom and the Magnolia

Picture of my mom and me circa 1966.

My mother, Adelaida Bedelia Palacios, was the oldest child of twelve. She was a post-World War II baby, so I guess she is considered part of the Baby Boomer generation. When my mom was about twelve years old, her mother Guadalupe died from what we now know was Lupus.

After the death of her mother, mom went to go live with her grandmother as did most or all of the other children.  While living there she got to spend a lot of time with her tia Mary, who worked at a local drug store. Mary would bring home the leftover DC comic books and other magazines.  In those days, the stores would rip off the covers, send those back and throw away the books.  This is how my mother grew up reading Superman, Wonder Woman, Nancy Drew and others.  

This love of reading has stayed with my mom all of these years. I can not think of time she did not have a book with her on the couch or on her end table. I mentioned in a previous post that she was a huge advocate of my early reading. Because of her I was already reading and writing when I showed up for first grade.  That pissed off my first grade teacher, Ms. Pearl, but that is for another post.

A few years ago I was having lunch with mom for mother's day when we started sharing book studies. Then she told me a story that so floored me I just started crying. When I was sophomore or junior in college, I had a semester when my financial aid fell short and I didn't have enough money to buy my books.  Naturally, I called mom and dad asking for help. I didn't know at the time that they did not have the money to help me. My mother started praying for a solution. Around this same time, we had a magnolia tree growing in the front yard that was destroying the sidewalk. Mom had been pestering dad for months to do something about it. The deadline for buying my books was drawing near. At this point, my mother probably invoked the intercession of St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes.

Then there was a knock on the door.  It was a man who owned a landscaping company and he was asking about the magnolia tree. At first, mom thought he was asking for work to fix the sidewalk. Instead, he offered to buy the magnolia tree and remove it.  Her prayers had been answered and she now had the money to give me for my books.  I never knew this while I was attending school. Now, any time I see a magnolia tree, I think of my mother's love for me.

So needless to say, one of my traditions with my mom on Christmas, birthdays and Mother's Day is to give the gift of books and sometimes see a movie.  This year, I am getting her a book, probably Dean Koontz (her favorite author) and taking her to see Thor.

I love you Mom.

Acts of the Apostles - A Model for Today's Christian

llustration by Vicki Schuck

During the Easter Season - between Easter Vigil until Pentecost - the first reading in the Catholic liturgy is taken from the Acts instead of from the Old Testament.

The Book of Acts demonstrates the early Church and how the early Christians provided for each other.  This is a model that may seem impossible to achieve today, a utopia.  St. Padre Pio once said that if Christians everywhere would actually live their lives to the fullest as the early Christians did, there would be no need for government services. Nevertheless, while we may not be able to transform all of society, we can transform our little spheres of influence. I contend when the Knights of Columbus repair a parishioner's fence or build a wheel chair ramp, they are living as the apostles did.

Living the lives of the apostles requires more than simply performing acts of charity, it also means evangelizing.  Most of us are not called to be priests or to the religious life.  Instead, most of us are called to be ordinary people (yes, Joe Catholics) working and living in secular society. It is there that we are called to evangelize by our example.  As the hymn goes, "they will no we are Christians by our love." They will know and want to be like you because they see a positive change in you because of the Lord's work in you, because you have become Christ to others.  It means living and sharing your faith precisely where you have been planted in life.

For more on this subject, I recommend reading the first few chapters of Scott Hahn's book: Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace