I found out a couple weeks ago that I'm officially diabetic. Because of the other stuff I've been dealing with, it was really just a matter of time, so this was not a shock. What was shocking, however, were the foods that make my blood sugar rise. Foods that I used to think were good choices, like wheat bread and carrots and potatoes, shoot my blood sugar up faster than a handful of peanut M&Ms. So, I got out my old Sugar Busters book and went shopping. Again, I was in for a surprise. How hard can it be, I mused, to find sugar free condiments and whole grain bread without malt or sugar. Surely there are lunch meats without sugar added and rye bread at Safeway! I really want to do this without getting the sugar free stuff since the artificial sweeteners (excluding Stevia and Xylitol) leave a really metallic flavor on my tongue. I finally had to settle on a loaf of 12 grain bread that had sugar on the very bottom of the list and some turkey that had it listed nearly last and cheese. Lots of cheese, mostly because it was the only thing on the list in the book that I was able to find that didn't have any sugar added. The experience was a little disconcerting and very eye-opening for me. It got me to thinking about the column I did a few weeks ago about America's top model and the issues that most of us seem to have with body image and self esteem.

I went to the shelf here at the library and started looking at what resources the library has on self esteem. There are some really wonderful books for teens and adults that are designed to help a person really look at themselves and see the good that exists and be more objective about the things that could be improved. Some of the ones that caught my eye were Choosing Happiness by Veronica Ray, Be Your Best Self by Thomas S. Monson, Healing your Emotional Self by Beverly Engel, The Inside Outside Beauty Book by Barbara Barrington Jones and Sexy Girls by Hayley DiMarco. I've not read all of them, but liked what little I did see in the ones I flipped through. Wendy suggested some good ones as well, including 25 Days to Better Thinking and Better LIving by Linda Elder, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum, What Do You Stand For for Kids by Barbara A. Lewis; Girls Who Rocked the World by Michelle Roehm, Life 101 by John-Roger McWililams, and Every Girl Tells a Story by Carolyn Jones. These are just a few of the resources the library has on self esteem and building a positive self image. Online and printable there is also a resource for moms and daughters to work on together, a workbook designed to get you talking about how you feel about how you look, how you feel and life in general. I was looking through it and will most definately be working on it with Kaitee when she gets a little older. (http://www.dove.us/#/makeadifference/downloads.aspx/)

I've been overweight since Junior High and morbidly obese since sometime around college. There are things about me that I not only would like to have changed, but things that I need to change to be healthy. I think the trick, though, is being objective and only comparing yourself to you and nobody else. So many kids and teens, though, are being hit with pressure to be skinnier, prettier, more cool, sexier and bombarded with images of gorgeous people who don't exist outside of Photoshop. How hard is it, for all of us, to look in the mirror and take a true stock of what we like about ourselves? Maybe that's the first step in finding out how to combat the self-image issues we all seem to have. I can stand in front of a mirror and list 20 things i need to change (or more)...maybe instead I should list ten things that I like about me. Try it this week. See how many things you can list that you like. If you have children, maybe you can do this with them...it's never too soon to start building them up and teaching them to be confident and self-assured. Feel free to come and look at the books that I've listed and others like them in the 150s in the nonfiction sections and if you don't have access to the internet, we can print a copy of the Dove Campaign for Beauty workbook for you to have.