Recently, we celebrated by going to a yoga class and then having a picnic lunch of turkey sandwiches, a mix of broccoli and cherry tomatoes along with strawberries and blackberries. After a bit of window shopping, we walked into a popular bakery and ordered a dessert.

Overall, I reduced my middle by three inches; Nzinga lost a half inch and Patrice lost an inch. But while our waistlines were stubborn, we lost more inches in other areas.

I started on a wellness journey over a year ago with fellow We Are Black Women blogger Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb, but I struggled. Last fall, I invited Nzinga and Patrice to join the effort, creating a local support system that each of us has come to rely on when we stray from our goals or when we reach them. We meet at least once a month to exercise together, and usually prepare light lunches at each other’s homes. We’ve had fun. Nzinga recently pulled out some old exercise tapes by Richard Simmons and after we sweated to the oldies, we moved to her backyard to double dutch. Of course, we did more laughing than jumping rope.

For me, many of the lifestyle changes are beginning to feel more comfortable. I wanted to eat some ice cream recently, and instead of going to a favorite creamery where customers can mix in lots of candy and cookie toppings, I stopped by a neighborhood frozen yogurt place for a small cup of a fruit-based, low-fat flavor.

There is no salt in my kitchen. Instead, I use a variety of herbs and spices to season my food. I don’t buy sodas or bring any junk food into the house — cookies, candy and their friends. A good side effect is that my 16-year-old daughter now eats less of it and is accustomed to grabbing fruit or crackers as snacks.

I visit health and wellness internet sites at least a couple times a week and subscribe to a few that send out weekly emails with low-fat recipes and stories about such issues as the new federal dietary guidelines and the perils of eating too many energy bars because of the high levels of sugar.

And, I exercise, at least five days a week. Nzinga and Patrice similarly workout often and have changed eating patterns. Patrice decided for a while not to eat any meat, fish or dairy for a while. But that didn’t work for her so she now eats fish and everything else sparingly. That’s what I do, too.

The three of us feel we’ve got a good thing going so we’re going to go another six months, with goals to reduce our waistlines even more by Thanksgiving. We’re committed to maintaining our healthier lifestyles.

How are you doing on your journey to melt your middle? Join us, create your own support team and share your experiences.

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3. Getting together with friends for exercise and adventure

Pilates is one of several physical activities I’m trying in an effort to reduce my waistline by Mother’s Day in the We Are Black Women Melt the Middle Challenge. Thankfully, I’m in a buddy network with friends Nzinga and Patrice, and we’ve been encouraging each other and sending frequent emails over the past few weeks as we struggled to regain our momentum after overindulging during the holidays. Once a month we get together to exercise and eat. Last month, we were planning to take a hula hoop class but the teacher had to cancel unexpectedly so we  gathered at my place and did an hour-long stretch workout and some abdominal crunches. We’ll do the hula hooping another time.

What I’m learning on this journey to a healthier lifestyle is that it helps tremendously to have friends who are doing it with you. Like me, fellow blogger Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb is aiming to melt her middle along with some high school friends. They plan to have sleeker  bodies for a high school reunion later this year.

Being mindful about food and exercise isn’t easy. I’m reading food labels for sodium and salt content, spending more time in the grocery store as I look for healthier items, getting up earlier in the morning to spend some time on a treadmill or weight machines a few days a week, trying to eat at least three hours before bedtime.  When I’m disappointed about eating something inappropriate one day or feeling excited about losing a quarter inch on my waist on another, I know I can share it with my buddies and they’ll send up a few cheers.

Call up a few of your pals and  join us on this journey. Let me know how you’re doing.

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That’s my vision as the three of us today begin a journey to Melt the Middle, along with fellow We Are Black Women blogger Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb and several of her high school classmates, who are trying to slim down for their 40th high school reunion next year.  Nzinga, Patrice and I, former co-workers who moved to Charlotte over the past few years, already get together for monthly outings featuring exercise and light lunches, but now we’re planning to rev up our routines. We’ll be giving each other encouragement along the way.

Nzinga is already an inspiration.  Over the past 18 months, she has lost 60 pounds — and stopped smoking.  ”It started when Obama was elected and the Yes We Can attitude was going around,” says Nzinga. “I was very motivated. I was ready to do it.” She figured she needed support and joined Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, which offers a 12-step program on how to control eating. And, Nzinga exercises every day except Saturday. She takes classes for spinning, water aerobics, aerobic boot camp and hot yoga in addition to walking several miles a week.

Patrice and I have been less disciplined in our efforts to manage our eating and exercise. “I’d like to feel comfortable and confident in what I put on,” says Patrice. “I go to the gym  but I know I need to shut my mouth and continue to educate myself. I’m hoping that having a buddy system will help me have second thoughts when I reach for the wrong thing.”

I participated in an earlier Melt the Middle Challenge but wasn’t as successful as I had hoped.  This time, I have enlisted the aid of a dietician, provided free through my health insurance. I will be having monthly telephone discussions about ways to reduce calories.

I’m excited about beginning this effort, again, to shed inches and weight, this time with the support and energy of friends. I hope you’ll join us as we Melt the Middle in coming months. Stay tuned for updates on how we’re doing, and I’d like to hear from you about your successes and struggles.

Let’s all get ready to celebrate in spring 2011.

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The three of us are former co-workers and left the Washington area at different times to move to Charlotte. Our initial reunion was a celebration over Jamaican food. Since then, all our other outings reflect a journey toward a lifestyle change.

We’re each eating healthier foods, exercising regularly and striving for health-conscious living. Those goals came up during our first luncheon so we decided to focus future gatherings around exercise instead of indulgent eating. And, while we wanted to eat something, of course, we agreed to meet at each other’s homes and serve up low-fat, low-sugar home-cooked lunches.

We’ve been doing this now every month or so for a year, and let me tell you, it is a wonderful way to get together with friends. It’s been a culinary adventure that we don’t feel guilty about, a chance to experiment with new ways to exercise and, most of all, a time for us to talk.

We have no specific plans, our gatherings are unfolding as we go along. One friend, Patrice, lives in a lakefront community so we walked, briskly, for more than an hour through her scenic neighborhood during our first outing. Back at her house, she served up a tasty salad.  At Nzinga’s place, we walked through a nearby park and then ate some of her delicious  jambalaya. That’s when the recipe-sharing began, and our chats about food tips we’ve learned.

When it was my turn to host, we worked out at a gym in my neighborhood. On other outings, we joined Patrice at a Zumba dance fitness class and Nzinga for a water aerobics class. I got hooked on Zumba and later started taking classes. I ate broccoli slaw for the first time at Nzinga’s home and was introduced to quinoa by Patrice. One friend ate arugula for the first time when I served it one day. Patrice told us recently about a favorite turkey meatloaf recipe with lots of garlic and dried cranberries and we got it a few days ago via email. I sent out a recipe for chicken salad with curry and apples last month.

Recently, we went walking on a crisp, sunny morning, around a former plantation in South Carolina, about an hour away from Charlotte. Historic Brattonsville features a Revolutionary War battlefield site and than 30 colonial structures, including a brick cabin used by the enslaved people who worked on the former plantation located there. (Brick homes for slaves were rare but the owners of the plantation were so rich that they wanted to show off, according to museum docents.)

Next month, we’re planning to take a boot camp exercise class. We don’t know what we’ll do after that, only that it will encourage physical activity and enriching conversation. Call a few of your friends and set a date to go walking. Let me know about your adventures.

Also, the Melt the Middle Challenge returns Nov. 1. Fellow blogger Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb and I set out last fall to reduce the size of our waistlines and didn’t have as much success as we hoped. We’re trying again and hope you’ll join us.

Slave house

Slave house

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I’ve found a trail near my home that stretches for six miles through wetlands and trees. I enjoy the sounds of the birds and crickets and the croaking of animals unseen who live in the wetlands. It’s a time of reflection and prayer.

Here is some of the beauty that I encounter during my hour walk most weekdays and up to two hours on Saturdays. Ah.

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A little more than six months after starting the Melt the Middle Challenge with fellow blogger Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb, my waistline is still too thick.  My journey to reduce my middle has been a roller coaster adventure, and along the way I’ve learned something about myself: I can’t do this alone.

My intentions are good and I know what to do but it’s too easy to slip and slide. Generally, I have a healthy diet and saw my waistline starting to shrink when I gave up refined sugar. But I was naive. I told myself that I could eat a small piece of cake or a favorite cookie or a bit of ice cream and not get hooked again. I was wrong.  Studies show that refined sugar is addictive and I clearly am one of the folks most susceptible.

I’m not giving up. I’m renewing my effort to melt the middle but this time I’m going to build a stronger support network. I will be talking regularly with friends who have successfully changed their lifestyles and joining Weight Watchers or some other group. I walk about three miles every other day but that isn’t enough exercise to really boost fat-burning. So I’ve joined a Zumba dance fitness program,  a high-energy, fun exercise class that uses Latin and international rhythms.

I’m still on the path to a healthier lifestyle, despite the detours. I hope you are, too. This time, I’ll have a village of supporters. Stay tuned.

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My 15-year-old daughter started joining me at the small gym in the neighborhood where we live shortly after the start of the new year.  She went the first time out of embarrassment; she had lost the push up challenge.

For a year, I’ve been doing push ups as part of my exercise routine and feeling pretty good about progressing from being able to do none to doing at least ten without stopping. I was bragging one day about my abilities (okay, I know it’s only a few push ups but at 50-something that’s something to be proud of) and my daughter  told me she didn’t believe I could do it. So the contest began. I won.

Of course, she asked for a rematch.  I suggested she go with me to the gym and she liked the idea. We’ve been walking beside each other on treadmills (she can go faster and teases me about it) and moving up and down on the step machines.  We’ve been doing  push ups, and sit ups.

It’s been an enjoyable mother-daughter time for us, particularly during these teenage years when parents are at the bottom of the priority list. We have a favorite routine while we’re huffing and puffing. We watch reruns of “Everybody Hates Chris,” the comedy based on the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock.

We haven’t set a date yet for the rematch.  (I’m looking around for the Rocky soundtrack, just in case.)

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I’ll admit it, I didn’t stir up much resistance to these wonderful foods and others that filled the cupboards in the homes of my relatives and friends. That meant I strayed from my effort to reduce the amount of sugars and starches in my diet, and ultimately my belly fat. But I exercised every day, getting my sisters to join me every morning for an hour of brisk walking. 

This time, I’m resisting my old pattern. You know how it goes: You start a new eating plan, fall back into old habits and then just give up on the effort.  I’m committed to my new healthy lifestyle and expect that there will be tough patches along the way. 

These next few days will be challenging as I return to a more sensible way of eating. I’m not planning to make a New Year’s resolution about the matter. I’m just going to do it, day by day. Join Soul Rhythms blogger Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb and I as we take a six-month Melt the Middle journey to reduce our belly fat.  If you had a hard time over the holidays, don’t give up. Focus on your long term goal. I am.

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