In an article published April 22, 2008 in the New York Times, it is reported that that life expectancy rates for most demographics have increased. Except for one group. Southern Women. Hey, wait a minute! I’m a southern woman! The article attributes the decline of life expectancy in southern women to another alarming fact. Southern women have an obesity problem. This health issue doesn’t just affect our shape, which is now quite round it seems, but also affects our quality of life, our children’s health and our over all self esteem.

In March of 2007, I had a big weight problem. It wasn’t something I had admitted to yet, but a teeny tiny passport picture, blew my cover! I went to a local photographer to get my passport picture made for an upcoming Anniversary trip out of the country. The fat face I saw looking back at me in the picture shocked me back into reality in a way that my larger sized pants and lose fitting turtle necks had yet to do. I had avoided the lens side of the camera for awhile, choosing to always be the one taking the images. But this picture proved what I already knew to be true in my heart and in my plus sized jeans. I was fat and it was time to do something about it.

Here in the south women grow up with a deeply emotional connection to food. We adore it, plan events around it, share information about it, freeze it, cook it, mourn with it, celebrate with it, analyze it and apparently shovel it in by the platefuls! But it’s time to wake up and realize that while good southern cooking may taste amazing, too much of it is changing our shape and our life expectancy.

After the dreaded passport picture, I began a quest to get rid of the fat booty that was following me around. I decided that diets hadn’t worked and I what I needed was some major changes. A diet was something I would eventually stop doing. After much research on why skinny people are skinny, I discovered the Mediterranean way of eating. It’s flavorful, colorful and easy to follow. It’s something I can live with and not fall off of. The process is healthy and safe and is in fact considered the healthiest nutritional lifestyle around!

One of the major changes I made was eating breakfast. It’s amazing to me that fat people are not typically breakfast eaters. Apparently we choose to save those calories in a bank somewhere that collects calorie interest and eat all we can beginning around 10am. The problem is that your mom was right. Breakfast is an important meal. Eating in the morning charges up your metabolism and refreshes your sleepy eyed body with the needed energy to jump into your day with gusto!

But change comes slowly. I still don’t like to eat in the morning and I’m still working on my weight. But let me tell you, I’m smaller than I used to be and I can slurp down a healthy smoothie with the best of em’! Below you’ll find my breakfast smoothie recipe, along with two other recipes, that incorporates some of the Mediterranean rules of eating by including dark berries, loads of vitamins and minerals, healthy low-fat dairy and heaps of fiber.

Breakfast Smoothie

Ingredients:

(Serves 1)

1 cup diet fruit juice

Fat-free plain yogurt

1 cup frozen fruit of your choice

Freshly ground flax seed