January/ February !ntuition Magazine on Shelves Now

My latest baby has been born.  Or at least that's what it feels like each time !ntuition lands at newsstands for you to enjoy.  Each issue is handcrafted, sweated over and given much love.  I hope that's what you feel when you pick it up.

As always a reminder, they go fast, so grab yours while you can.  Here's a link to our website, so you can find a place to pick it up.  And the cover you are looking for.  Aren't these two sweet?  I was ready to stay, they were both a lot of fun.  Of course, once again, Paige Peterson did a great job on the photography.

This is our First Anniversary Issue!  My column issue is about taking hold of 2011 by the collar and making it mine.  You will find other great articles that should help you do the same.

Next up: 'Feedback and a Snack', a meeting with a few readers in Des Moines to look at what the future holds for the magazine.  If you are just dying to be there next Saturday, because you are an avid reader of !ntuition, hit me with a message and I will hook you up.  Just a note:  I have limited room.  :)

Yours in Health,
Kate

This and That and the Other Thing

The last 48 hours have been a blur.

Work has been crazy, but we put the next edition of Intuition Magazine to bed this afternoon, so that was huge.  Really like this issue, it's fun, very holiday.  The cover is beautiful, which has everything to do with our model Lindsey, great photography by Paige and design by Jolene.

One of my bosses and dear friends is leaving, we had her going away breakfast this morning.  I ate too many eggs AND had hash-browns - I know, I let my emotions eat for me.

Yesterday, I had a strenuous workout with Gwyn at the YMCA Healthy Living Center.  Tomorrow I am going to find a video of the torture exercise she likes to have me do, um, it's hard.  Whine. But I also know my abs greatly benefit, so I am torn. ;)  The day before that it was a water workout.  Those are really hard, but I love them.  I have even taken to doing an almost identical one at least once over every weekend.  I am seeing nice results.

Today, no workout, but then Thursday has become my day off.  Tomorrow it's back in the pool or maybe upstairs with weights because I missed Monday.  (No voice.)

I just finished writing a press release for a special concert that will be announced tomorrow morning.  That's all I can tease, but I promise details over the weekend.

Okay, that was enough rambling for three people, so I am going to wrap up and finally go home.  Good night.

Yours in Health,
Kate

September/October !ntuition Magazine

The current edition of !ntuition Magazine is on shelves now.  Hopefully there are still a few out there for you to find.  (We print 8,000 copies and they are usually gone within two weeks!)

I am particularly proud of this one because it's the "Teal & Pink" issue.  It's about the two most pervasive cancers for women - ovarian and breast.  September is Ovarian Cancer month and of course, October is Breast Cancer month - most people know the latter, but not the former.  When I say the issue is teal and pink, people (including women) say, "Why teal?"

I wanted to make sure we educated about ovarian cancer equally with breast cancer for a number of reasons:

1. Women who get breast or ovarian cancer are more likely to get the other one - so they are related.
2. Ovarian cancer has few real signs.  While you can find a lump in your breast, the symptoms of ovarian cancer can be mistaken for anything from simple exhaustion to irritable bowel syndrome.
3. The Komen Foundation has done a wonderful job of raising awareness through the media about 'turning pink', I think it's important the media take up the job to do the same and turn September teal.
4. My mom is an ovarian cancer survivor, I recently had exploratory surgery to be sure I didn't have it - this is personal.

Those are just a few reasons, but the most important one is knowledge.  Knowing everything you can about your body is power and those facts can literally save your life.  So, whether it's a monthly self-exam for your breasts or saying something to your doctor if bloating in your abdomen lasts too long, you need to take care of yourself.

Here is a link to try to find our magazine, which is also available in our front lobby Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  And here are links to key ovarian cancer and breast cancer sites to answers other questions you may have.  This is one area where you need to come first in your life.

Oh, and here is the cover you are looking for:

Yours in Health,
Kate

!ntuition Magazine - July/August Column

Today we have the final installment of my past columns in !ntuition Magazine.  This is July/August and continues my new life path.  If you want to find the current edition, September/October, look here for locations to pick-up or come to our offices at 1416 Locust St in downtown Des Moines, we have them in the atrium.  

Life’s Journey By Kate Garner

On the Road Again

I feel so much better when I workout.  You forget that when you are ‘off the wagon’.  You forget that it boosts not just energy but self-esteem. 

I am working out five days a week at the YMCA Healthy Living Center.  Three of those days are with my rockin’ trainer Gwyn, who in the process has introduced me to kick-boxing, which equals awesome!  The other two days I go it alone, and I like that too, because it proves I am committed. 

As for food, it’s my struggle.  I am taking a class called Intuitive Eating at the Mercy Center for Weight Loss and Nutrition Center.  The idea is, basically, to take your eating habits back to when you were a kid – you ate because you were hungry and you ate what your body needed.  (Example – Milk or an apple sounded good, so that’s what you ate.)  This was before anyone said ‘clean your plate’ or ‘you must like beets’.  The class is helping me listen to my body better and not beat myself up as much about food missteps; though I am still making plenty of them.

And that’s the most important thing I am reminded of – I am not perfect.  I didn’t become obese overnight and I won’t lose the weight overnight.  But with help from ‘Team Kate’ and a belief in myself, I can go down the road to health again step-by-step.  And even catch my reflection in the window on occasion with pride.

P.S. – I weigh 257 lbs (a 13 lb loss) and have gone down a pant size and bra notch!

2010 Outstanding Women You Should Know

So, now you are all caught up, except for the current issue, which is on stands now.  Tomorrow I will tell you what that issue is all about - VERY important for women - and give you a taste of my crazy week.

Yours in Health,
Kate

!ntuition Magazine - May/June Column

Today we continue with my past columns in !ntuition Magazine.  This is May/June and introduces a new aspect of my life.  If you want to find the current edition, September/October, look here for locations to pick-up or come to our offices at 1416 Locust St in downtown Des Moines, we have them in the atrium.  

Life’s Journey By Kate Garner

Meet “Team Kate”

I am a stubborn person.  I can do it myself – no matter what it is.  I am Superwoman!  I am up to 270 pounds and that’s proof, that I am… wrong.

Like many people, after a measure of weight loss success, I got busy.  Translate that to mean – ‘no longer time for self, ooh, is that a brownie?’  Needless to say, it was time to admit defeat. 

And then serendipity. At that same time I was ready for help, the Mercy Weight Loss and Nutrition Center and their home, the YMCA Healthy Living Center, were looking for someone to help them get the word out about their combined effort.  They saw !ntuition and thought I would be a great choice.  I researched them and they are a great choice for me too!

Now, Superwoman has allies in her battle to be healthy.  A quick introduction:  YMCA Physical Therapist Kristi with able assistance from Kara and Ed; YMCA Personal Trainer Gwyn with a hand from Lisa; Nutritionist Katie with her back up team at MWLNC.

You see, that’s the awesome thing about this new facility, it’s medically integrated.  I do physical therapy for my knee in the same building where I workout.  Plus, I always have my nutritionist down the hall for questions.  This is the only place in Iowa with every weight loss option AND workout guidance under one roof.  It is my hero. 

So, look out world – no more platitudes.  Instead, controlled calorie intake and five workouts a week.  My calendar has an appointment on those days that says, “Time for workout”; it should really read, “Time for change”.

Our May/June Cover Models

Tomorrow it will be the July/August column.

Yours in Health,

Kate

!ntuition Magazine - March/April Column

I promised a surprise and here it is - I am going to post all of my columns from !ntuition Magazine throughout this week.  I posted January/February's here in March.  But I haven't posted any of the others.

As a number of people have noted, it's hard to find !ntuition once it hits stands - they go quickly. The other thing is a number of readers for this blog are outside of the Des Moines metro.  So, here is the March/April column:

Life’s Journey by Kate Garner

"A Quiet Moment"

I want to start by saying Thank You for all the great feedback on this column.  Many of you have shared similar stories, I appreciate your honesty and I plan to maintain mine.

As I sit here writing, I weigh 255, that’s 5 pounds down from last column, but not where I wanted to be.  My family went to Disney World, vacation food added 5 pounds.  I also injured my knee, stretching my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). 

My knee is getting better now.  So, instead of walking I’m doing some upper-body work.  I am also retooling my diet.  Fruits and vegetables at center again with whole grains and lean proteins.  Still, there’s that evil voice; I named her Luci (Lucifer), which wants me to eat three instead of one.

It’s that kind of negative block that has me seeking light.  Right here in !ntuition we have Deb Engle, we sat down to talk meditation and journaling.  She explained benefits of both, the main thing is that they can bring clarity to situations that have long plagued a busy mind. 

There are several kinds of mediation - CDs or group or yet others are way to rest your mind for 5-minutes.  My favorite:  In a quiet place, breathe deeply and relax – now go into your mind’s garden.  Look around, what do you see?  Flowers?  Bushes?  Other people?  What you see says a lot about where you are in life.

I’m journaling for specific things, but this meditation gives me great peace.  I did it again last week and for the first time my garden had purple flowers in it.  I looked up the meaning of purple and found what I hope is a hint at my path to come – it represents wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.  I know I am going to need all of the above on this journey.  

March/April Cover Girl Stacy

If you want to try to find the current edition, September/October, look here for locations to pick-up or come to our offices at 1416 Locust St in downtown Des Moines, we have them in the atrium.  

Tomorrow it will be May/June.

Yours in Health, 

Kate

Finally Friday

I don't know about you, but even though this was a 'short week' due to the holiday, it has felt awfully long.  I have to work both Saturday and Sunday but I am going to try to keep it under four hours each day and hopefully that will boost my attitude.

I am finishing the web articles today for Outstanding Women.  I have decided to do shorter ones for the web and more details for !ntuition Magazine.  That means I can more details about the women and that's a very good thing because it's hard to summarize amazing women in just 300 words.  :) 

My need to write 90%of my day means I will not be working out today.  But I will be making up for it tomorrow.  As soon as I am done with work I am going to hit the YMCA Healthy Living Center and spend quality time beating the bag and doing cardio.  Trainer Gwyn and I agreed it is time to step up cardio.  It's one of the reasons the scale isn't moving much.  I am putting on muscle and losing inches, but the fat isn't shedding at the rate we might hope, so it's time to work harder.

That is actually right on track with my knee.  Therapist Kristi and I agreed to take my PT down to every other week unless something happens and I end up in pain.  It means more exercises at home and increasing what I do with Gwyn, but I am excited, because it also means that running will be a real possibility once I get enough weight off.  (I can't go pounding on my knee at this weight.)

Tonight I am doing a remote broadcast at the Blank Park Zoo, it is their first Family Fun Night of the year.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate.  Right now though I better hit the shower - I stayed home this morning to write.  Yea for writing in my nightgown!

Have a good day!

Yours in Health,
Kate

Trying to keep up with Myself

My day started at 3 a.m., I had to run the broadcast for Ken & Colleen's Kids, our Children's Miracle Network Radiothon on STAR 102.5.  It's a great cause, the program helps make the kids more comfortable while they often fight rare or life-threatening diseases at the University of Iowa Hospitals.  If you would like to give, call 1-800-456-2772.  All money raised stays in Iowa.  So, I ran the board, then off to do two interviews for LITE 104.1's Outstanding Women You Should Know. 

Then to PT with Kristi at the YMCA Healthy Living Center.  We agreed that I have made great progress.  In fact, after my hard weekend last week, I did very well with pain, it was a huge step forward!  So, we are cutting back to once a week.  They will happily tape my knee between visits if I need it.  But otherwise I am going to continue my exercises on my own and my workouts with Gwyn and hope to keep moving forward.  Yea!

After PT I went back to work to finish up a couple of hours and then headed off to my third interview of the day for Outstanding Women. (These are last year's awesome women.)  The point behind OW is to acknowledge the women who are the fabric of our community, the ones who work behind the scenes and are unsung.  It's a real honor to meet these women and get them to open up about their stories.  They are always flabbergasted that anyone thinks of them this way and don't' believe they are really out of the ordinary.  But they really are a wonderful part of our community. 

The website will be updated a week from Monday with our 2010 Women and then they will make an appearance in a special section in the next !ntuition Magazine.  BTW - This a is a great way to directly market to women, call our director of publishing Kari Elbert if you are interested in putting an ad in the issue.

Well, I better go, another way too early morning tomorrow.

Yours in Health,
Kate

Um, What?

I just spent 11 hours in bed and I am still tired.  I am at work and trying to muddle through with edits to Intuition Magazine, but I am struggling.  I even got an extra shot of espresso in my Sunday latte at Starbucks, not really much help.  I continue to be achy and last night had a bought of the night sweats.  It kind of reminds me of how I was before they put me on thyroid medication. 

I will give this a couple of days to pass and hope it is just some weird virus.  It won't keep me from going to the gym though.  I have a PT appointment and personal training tomorrow at the Mercy/YMCA Healthy Living Center and barring feeling contagious - I am there.

I do need to e-mail Nutritionist Katie though.  I am craving carbs fiercely, I assume it is connected to not feeling well, my usual m.o.  What do you suppose the healthy equivalent is to stuffing yourself with bread or chips?  :)  Gonna guess there technically isn't one, but it's worth an ask.

Well, I better go finish my shift on LITE.

Yours in Health,
Kate

January/February Intuition Magazine Article

Now that the March/April edition of Intuition Magazine is hitting the stands today, I can share my article from the last issue.  You can find the new issue at about 300 locations around town - see our website here.  Otherwise, here is the article that began my journey again.

Walking a Mile in My Own Shoes - Jan/Feb !ntuition Magazine


I used to weigh 260 pounds. I used to weigh 150 pounds. I weigh 260 pounds. Those are hard words to write – but nothing but the truth will do.

A quick background:  July 2006, I began an 18-month journey of eating right and exercising, and went from 260 pounds to a healthy, happy 150 pounds. Then, things began to fall apart. October of last year I injured my knee, in December/ January I had a cancer scare, I injured my knee again in the spring, I had knee surgery in July – and I ate my way through every stressful moment while being banned from exercise.

Now, I am back at the beginning, morbidly obese and miserable.

So, it’s time to begin again. My plan (this time), is to follow the plan from last time and become even more of a knowledge junkie with regards to exercise and healthy eating. Only to mix things up I am going to seek out new things to help. For example – I am terrible at 'positive talk' – I am the first to be 'mean to me'. My answer? I am going to talk to an expert about meditation.

This column will follow my journey to health. In between Intuition issues you can read about my efforts to fight the fight that millions of Americans fight daily – to beat obesity – by visiting my blog. Feel free to stop by and share your stories too, because weight-loss journeys can be quite lonely without someone to share the road.

So, there you are.  That's as blunt and honest as it gets.  :)  Check out the new issue to see where I am.

Yours in health,
Kate

!ntuition is in Bed, why aren't I?

We finished up all of the edits on the March/April edition of Intuition Magazine today.  The cover is just as beautiful as I wanted it to be.  There will be no mistaking - it screams SPRING!  The issue will hit stands starting March 11 and we wanted to give everyone hope that this winter will abate. 

When we had that original conversation, in October, we were thinking it would be just a couple of weeks to spring when the magazine hit stands.  Sadly we realized today that it's actually going to be at least a month, quite possibly six weeks before we lose the last of our snow.  Some of the snow the city of Des Moines has had to hoard away at their dry lake probably won't melt til June. 

This is crazy, I mean more snow last night?  And more forecast for tomorrow?  I was talking to my friend Amy Sweet today and we have decided it's time to just set the damn record already.  I mean, before last night's snow, we were about 15 inches away from the snowiest winter ever.  Now, we're about 10.5.  I would hate to have suffered this much without something to cling to. 

Look at it this way, if we do hit the record, our grand children will all get an earful of what our grandparents gave us - "You think this is snowy, well it's nothing like the winter of 2009-2010..."  I mean some things are meant to move through the generations right?  Of course, we can't really compete with the uphill both ways thing, but we can say cell phone reception was horrible and the satellite dish crapped out - that will scare future generations.

Oh dear, I just read back through that, I'm a little punchy...  I think it's time to make like Intuition and go to bed.

Yours in health,
Kate

Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Proscrati-Nation

!ntuition Magazine goes to bed on Friday.  Again, I am waiting until the last possible minute to divulge the devils inside my soul.  This time though it's not because I can't figure out how to start, it's that there have been several things happen and I am not sure what to tell.

I am hoping to journal a bit tonight and that it will just reveal itself through my putting pen to paper.  Wish me luck!

Yours in health,
Kate