I saw the movie Secretariat for the first time last night, and I found it to be a very uplifting movie. We all need to feel uplifted now and then, right? I know I certainly do.

Be Who Your Are

The movie was inspiring to me for several reasons. First, it was the story of a woman who was determined to stand up for herself and what she thought was important. The story was as much about the woman who owned the horse, Secretariat, as it was about the horse himself. I believe that most of the story took place in the 1970s, which was still a time when women were often not considered equal with men.

Another inspiring aspect of the movie was the music, which played a notable role in the uplifting nature of the movie. One song that particularly caught my attention is entitled “It’s Who You Are,” by AJ Michalka. The portion of the lyrics that I enjoyed most is quoted below.

Learning to bend and not to break

Living to give more than you take

Dying to live

Living to try

Feet on the ground

Dreams in the sky


It’s never how much you have

It’s who you are

The phrase “It’s Who You Are” can have many meanings, depending on how you take it. The message of the song is that “it’s not what you have, but who you are” that counts. I could add that it’s not how we look, that counts, but who we are. Of course, how we look is a part of who we are. We could also think in terms of our heavier bodies as just being “who we are,” without any negative implications.

A third source of inspiration in the movie was the fact that one of the main characters was played by an actress who does not fit the typical “mold” for Hollywod beauty. She is not very thin or very young. Her name is Margo Martindale, and she is a very accomplished actress. She has had many movie and television roles, and last year (2011) won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (for her performance as Mags Bennett in Justified).

Putting Inspiration to Work

So, while I was still feeling uplifted by that movie, and I was out driving near my home, I discovered that an LA Fitness facility has been opened just a mere 5 minutes away from my house. Wow, that really takes away a major excuse for not exercising at a gym, doesn’t it? Believe me, I can come up with way too many excuses for not exercising. I really, really, really need to get past them, but I guess the biggest obstacle is that it is hard for me to come up with a form of movement that I find comfortable enough and enjoyable enough to motivate me to include it in my daily routine. I’m resolving to work on that as I write this.

I want to add that I gave up on my attempt to acquire a taste for cottage cheese. I have to be who I am, right? Well, I am someone who doesn’t like cottage cheese.

I have had very expired cottage cheese sitting in my refrigerator for quite a while now! I also have some pineapple that I purchased to eat with cottage cheese. I am not too crazy about eating canned pineapple by itself, because it seems too acidic to me, so, I came up with a new idea. I bought a tub of Cozy Shack Original rice pudding to go with my pineapple. Oddly enough, I like the texture of rice pudding, which is not all that dissimilar to the texture of cottage cheese. Of course, I also prefer the flavor of rice pudding to that of cottage cheese.

I hope we all find daily sources of inspiration this week, to uplift us as we go about doing the best possible job of being just who we are! 

My interest in nutrition developed from the weight issues I had in my youth. My sister and I always tended to be heavier than other kids, and we were teased about it, so naturally I wanted to "fix" myself by dieting. That worked pretty well in my teenage years, but adulthood was much more challenging. I started out as a dietitian who advocated dieting, but due to my own experience with my weight and dieting, as well as my extensive study of the subject of weight management, I have become an advocate of Health at Every Size. The first fellow professional who influenced my "conversion" was Ellyn Satter, who is also a dietitian. I got my Bachelor's Degree in Dietetics in 1975, (LSU) followed by a Master's in 1981(Univ of TN), and a PhD in 1997 (Univ of TN). I have worked in longterm care, public health, and one hospital. For the last 8 years, I have been teaching at the college level. I am the proud mother of a 24 year old son, and have been single since my divorce in 1993. That is when I moved to Atlanta from Cookeville, Tennessee. I moved around a lot in my childhood due to my father's job, but my parents grew up in Texas, and that is where my roots are. I lived in Brazil for 3 years as a teenager, and one of my sisters still lives there.