For me Zumba is joy, happiness and fitness and freedom of expression through dance. I'm attending Lily and Susanna's Zumba classes for more than a year.
I was suffering from Arthritis and had achy joints and restriction in my movements. Now with the Zumba dance I regained my health and flexible body back.
I highly recommend Lily and Susanna's Zumba dance classes.
The excitement level is building around my upcoming trip to New York City and appearance on Today with Joy Bauer's Joy Fit Club segment . At the same time it builds, I'm doing my best to stay aware of how emotions affect my embrace of the fundamental elements that have brought me this far.
My former unhealthy relationship with food has many more years personal experience than the relatively new relationship I enjoy today. And I recognize that the unhealthy relationship of the past wasn't primed only in tough, turbulent times. As a first class emotional and stress eater--it didn't need to be a bad experience to trigger the dependency that kept me over 500 pounds for so many years. The good times and positive emotions could and would do the same in equal measure. It's this knowledge about myself that makes this beautiful experience one that I'll certainly enjoy--but also one where I'll be exceptionally on guard with an elevated awareness and commitment to the fundamental elements I embrace each day.
Today was insanely busy--but fun. News Channel 4's Lacey Lett and photo journalist Kevin Josefy made the trip from Oklahoma City for an interview/feature story about this experience and my weight loss story, in general. It's expected to air on Friday evening. The most challenging thing for me in these kinds of situations is condensing answers into a short and sweet delivery. Brevity isn't my strong suit. I like to communicate--and explain things in ways that best articulates the perspective shifts involved. Simply saying "I kept a calorie budget, exercised and wrote a blog page every night," doesn't begin to touch the consistency building dynamics involved in the process. I would imagine Lacey and Kevin are expert editors. It'll be great!
I stayed very well connected with support friends via texts throughout the day and a fantastic call this evening. Accountability and support are critically important tools. None of us should try attempting this stuff alone! If there's one piece of advice I can't ever forget to mention--it's this: Establish accountability and support measures with the same importance level you apply in developing your method/plan. These two things work together. One without the other doesn't work well.
My goodness, my breakfast this morning was beyond satisfying (see Tweet below)! I'm almost out of the homemade tomato juice gifted me recently by Jon in Wisconsin. Jon, expect a call from me soon asking for instructions on how to make my own! The tomato juice was incredibly filling. It enabled me to easily get by until lunch without a mid-morning holdover something... except for coffee, of course. I love my coffee!
I got a pre-NYC haircut this afternoon and a much needed afternoon nap before handling production work a little later--stuff I missed earlier in the day, in consideration of the scheduling challenges.
I met Kristin at my favorite Mexican restaurant for a celebration dinner of sorts. The "celebration" part had everything to do with our conversation about all of these happenings of late. My food, as you'll notice if you're a regular reader, doesn't need to change or become indulgent in the name of celebrating something. That can work well for others and there's nothing wrong with occasional celebratory indulgence, but for me, given my history, it's best I celebrate in non-food ways. Kristin is incredibly supportive of what I do and I truly appreciate this from her. The daily reverence I apply to my fundamental elements--yeah, she "gets it."
Update: 4/8/16 This story has been updated with comments from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News
On Feb. 29, Gov. Matt Bevin's administration launched a new one-stop-shopping website for state benefits that was designed to make life easier for the one-fourth of Kentuckians eligible to use it. Instead, it caused an unprecedented disruptions of services after thousands received erroneous letters notifying them they would no longer receive their benefits.
Deborah Yetter of The Courier-Journal has reported extensively on the problem, with stories of Kentuckians who have lost their benefits and found it nearly impossible to get help because of hours-long waits in the state benefits offices and a phone system that tells them to call back later.
The website, called Benefind, can be used to apply for Medicaid, the Kentucky Children's Health Insurance Program (KCHIP), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, once known as food stamps) and Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program (KTAP).
The problem goes beyond those programs. The 500 paid Kynectors, who help Kentuckians use the Kynect health-insurance exchange, have not been able to help because federal regulations require participants who use multiple services to first go though the Department of Community Based Services, the state agency that manages Benefind. As of now, Kynectors can only help Kentuckians who have never received other state benefits.
Health advocates have called the launch of Benefind a "disaster." At a March 31 news conference, Bevin, along with health officials from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and a Deloitte Consulting official, acknowledged the widespread problems and said they were working tirelessly to correct them.
�Our primary focus is to ensure that we deliver, as seamlessly as possible, as safely as possible, as expediently as possible all the benefits that folks expect and need from the Commonwealth of Kentucky," Bevin said.
State officials at the news conference said they had worked with federal officials to extend benefits through April, so that no one should be cut off from Medicaid or SNAP if they qualified for those benefits in March. The state has also stopped automatic letters generated by Benefind.
In addition, they have updated websites and changed the phone message to better explain what is going on; extended the re-certification time frame for SNAP benefits from six months to 12 months, allowing those cases to continue with a simple review instead of a client interview; hired an additional 185 people to help with the deluge of telephone calls and visits to the local state benefit offices; and Deloitte has assigned trainers to every county to help the DCBS staff.
Officials have encouraged the public to log on to the Benefind self-service portal at https://benefind.ky.gov/ to ease the burden on processing centers.
So, what happened?
Deloitte built Benefind under the administration of Gov. Steve Beshear at a cost of $101.5 million to replace an outdated eligibility system. Deborah Sills of Deloitte said at the news conference that they believed the system was ready to launch at the end of February, but "there were some issues that didn't present themselves until after the system went live."
However, Ryland Barton of Louisville's WFPLreported that on Feb. 25, a 27-page "Worker Portal Defect Workaround Guide" was distributed to DCBS staff showing that the administration knew there would be problems with the rollout.
But the cabinet says a guide like this is standard procedure.
"Deloitte says a guide like that is standard operating procedure when you�re dealing with a huge system rollout like this," Doug Hogan, spokesman for the cabinet said in an e-mail. "It�s a new system and (this was) a guide to help staff navigate the system better and help them work though issues they might encounter. Additionally, there were these same types of documents for the original rollout of Kynect."
Bevin's administration explained that the problem has been caused by an automatic review of cases where information from Kynect and the old eligibility system didn't match.
�Cases where information between the Kynect case and legacy case did not match (for example, household composition or income) are required to be managed by a state agent before they can be acted upon by agents or Kynectors,� Jessica Ditto, Bevin�s communications director, told WFPL in an e-mail. �This constraint has been placed to protect program and data integrity � plus, this is required by federal law.�
Ditto told Barton about 51,000 cases are under review, and noted that once the conflicting data has been reconciled, "the cases will become open for Kynectors and agents again, just as before.�
Sills told reporters that Benefind had not been altered in any way from its original 2014 design and affirmed Bevin's stance that the move to Benefind had nothing to do with his administrations decision to close Kynect and move to the federal exchange.
"None of these issues are caused by any changes the current administration has made to the system's purpose or design," Sills said.
However, Beshear said in a news release that Kynect and Benefind were meant to work together, not for Benefind to take over signing people up for Medicaid.
"The Benefind program was developed to complement Kynect, the state-run exchange," Beshear said in the release. "Although he attempts to blame the 'prior administration,' Governor Bevin�s administration mismanaged the launch of this new system, and in doing so, created a disastrous situation for thousands of families in Kentucky."
Bevin and Deloitte say the system was always designed to support Medicaid enrollees. "Benefind is Kynect, Kynect is Benefind," Bevin said at the news conference.
Not really, says Kentucky Voices for Health, a coalition of groups supporting Kynect, "For people needing Medicaid coverage and other social benefits right now, there is no right door for access, let alone 'one door'," the group said in a press release Wednesday. "Kynect was built to provide access to health insurance and Medicaid enrollment; and Benefind was built to enhance Kynect with additional social services benefits. While they�re part of the same system, they provide different essential functions."
However, Hogan noted in the e-mail that page 15 of a training document for Kynectors originally posted November 2015 "clearly shows that Benefind was intended to process all Medicaid plans, even Qualified Health Plans...it was truly designed to process all benefits."
Beshear and his advocacy group, Save Kentucky Healthcare, have also released a one-minute video entitled "If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It" criticizing the Bevin administration's rollout of the system.
April 5th, 2016 I'm Going To Be On The Today Show!
I'll never forget the excitement I felt on the evening of November 12th, 2010, when I found this in my email:
Hi Sean,
My name is Michelle and I am an Associate Producer for The Rachael Ray Show. I came across your blog and would love to talk to you more about your amazing story. If you could please call me at ***-***-**** or leave a number where you can be reached at, I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks so much and I look forward to speaking with you!
Best, Michelle
My brain immediately starting racing into all the possibilities this might create. I was four days away from hitting my initial goal of 230 pounds and wow, what perfect timing, I thought. I couldn't call her fast enough, so the next day--after telling pretty much every family member, friend and casual acquaintance about how "I might be on Rachael Ray," I made the call.
She asked a lot of questions and I gave a lot of detailed answers. She then explained a little about the idea for a segment and how my participation might work well. Then... nothing.
Days passed, then a week--then two--and the questions from family and friends came, "Hey Sean, when will you be on The Rachael Ray Show?" Uhg... I shouldn't have said a word!! Naturally, I blamed myself. Then, I proceeded to torture myself with thoughts of what did I say? Did I come on too strong? Maybe it's because my approach isn't attached to a big plan/system/product or maybe my philosophical explanations of the perspective shifts I implemented were just too much--maybe I sounded crazy!!!! Oh, I bet that was it-- I sounded like an overly passionate lunatic!!
Life Coach Gerri Helms came to my emotional rescue with some sound advice and perspective. I don't remember the exact quote, but I'll paraphrase-- Let it go. Whatever happened very likely had zero to do with you. They probably ditched the segment idea and you were no longer needed. Don't take it personal. Stop that. Yeah--it was something very close to that right there.
It's now over five years later. And the truth, in hindsight: I wasn't ready for that show in any way, shape or form. I hit goal and found that the very thing I thought would "make me happy," didn't.
My perspective, my expectations, my focus--was all wrong. I still had much to learn--and I'm still learning to this day--that doesn't stop, ever.
I had a year and a half of maintenance in front of me. I also had what has turned out to be the best thing I could have experienced--The humbling of a one hundred sixty-four pound regain. Yes, you read that correctly-- the best thing. What I learned about myself during that period and what I've learned throughout the last two years of this turnaround from relapse/regain, has provided me the most beautiful gifts. I restocked my toolbox with some different tools. I've experienced epiphanies on self-worth/identity that continue to resonate in life changing ways, every single day. The fact of me being at a weight more than twenty pounds less than my initial goal--a weight I haven't experienced since ten years old, is really the least of my blessings.
I'm no longer searching for validation, acceptance and love--because I found it. Funny, it was within me the whole time--but I was convinced I had to find it externally. It's like searching for lost keys only to find them later, in your pocket.
(For more about "epiphany day" and the "secret of happiness,"--read the archived entries from May 15th and May 19th, 2014)
Now, my perspective is very different. And that's a very good--and an emotionally healthy thing. Now, when things come my way--I don't approach them the same way. For instance...
The Today Show called yesterday. After three relatively short conversations, they invited me to be on the show Monday April 11th. The flight was booked today.
I'm honored to be invited into Joy Bauer's Joy Fit Club! I am super excited, as you might imagine!!
But I'm also grounded. And that's refreshing.
It will not be about my book or blog--and I don't expect that at all. It's about The Joy Fit Club--my story and a few minutes of questions, answers and maybe some kind of cool visual aid display. There will be dramatic "before and now" pictures--and I'll be right there, in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, taking it all in with an excited calm and clarity.
My expectations are as follows: A free trip to New York. A driver holding a sign with my name on it at the airport (I've always wanted to experience that), a nice hotel room and an appearance on an amazing show. That's it.
It's an honor to be invited and I'm immensely grateful for the opportunity! I still can't believe it! You know, I've watched others on this segment, some I know from the world of weight loss blogging --and it's always fun, and I'm always so happy for them. And now I'll get to see what it's like, firsthand!
I'm thrilled. Holy crap--I'm gonna be on The Today Show!! ------------------ Today was a great day in many ways. I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I prepared some fantastic food, I remained abstinent from refined sugar, I exceeded my water goal, I had a great workout, I was active in one on one and group support interactions--and I had a very productive day at the studio. I'm hitting the pillow feeling the peace and contentment of another solid day. I'll do my best at aiming for the same, tomorrow!
Today's Live-Tweet Stream:
Fast: two cups water- 20 push-ups - 10 squats, before coffee. Takes literally, 4-5 min. Feels great. In a hurry!! pic.twitter.com/wMx96Hvg8I
This often occurs due to poor project planning, overconfidence, underestimation of complexity and even incompetence, that drives up electronic records system costs way over estimates.
It's happened again:
Southcoast Health cutting dozens of jobs on heels of expensive IT upgrade Mar 30, 2016, 11:25am EDT Updated Mar 30, 2016, 11:31am EDT
Stung by losses linked to costly technology upgrades, Southcoast Health is laying off 95 employees just a year after finalizing a similar staffing cut.
The cuts represent 1 percent of Southcoast�s 7,251 workforce, and will happen across the care provider's three hospitals in Fall River, Wareham and New Bedford. All levels of hospital staff will be affected, officials said.
Southcoast employees were notified of the cut Wednesday morning. The cuts come as the hospital negotiates a merger with Care New England, a four-hospital system in Rhode Island.
The care provider said the cuts stemmed from training costs associated with the installation of a $100 million records system, known as Epic.Similar operating challenges have been reported by other Massachusetts care providers in the midst of Epic upgrades and installations.
I note that $100 million can purchase an entire new hospital wing or facility.
Training costs, of all things, should have been factored into the original project plans. It's not as if this issue is an unknown in an industry and product extant for several decades now.
Also, IMO the word "challenges" should be altered to "challenged" to describe the institutional geniuses responsible for debacles like this.
Training costs for the system, which went live in October, contributed to a $9.9 million operating loss in the first quarter of fiscal 2016, which ended Dec. 31. Hospital executives said similar expenses have impacted the bottom line in the current quarter, which ends Thursday.
So, training costs for the EHR devoured profits from an increasing revenue stream as below, plus consumed enough to leave a near $10 million loss. Stunning.
�These financial challenges are attributable to higher-than-budgeted operating expenses, largely a result of our Epic implementation,� said Southcoast president and CEO Keith Hovan, in a letter to employees. �During the first two quarters of this fiscal year, revenue has grown positively at a rate of 4 percent � a significant accomplishment, particularly given the lack of a flu season. However, expenses have grown at 6 percent during that time, which is an untenable variance that must be corrected.�
I note that the hospital system might have realized their cost underestimations via reading the literature a bit, including but not limited to my completely free academic site at http://cci.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/cases (in existence in various flavors since 1998), and this very blog.
Hovan went on to ask employees for recommendations to reduce costs, going so far as to tell employees to reach out to him directly.
How about reducing IT expenditure and laying off IT personnel responsible for the cost underestimates? Costing is supposed to be a core competence of management information systems (MIS) personnel in those IT departments.
... Approximately 70 people were let go in October 2014, and another 35 were let go in January 2015.
The hospital still has 339 job openings for a number of clinical roles. Cohenno wouldn�t detail what kinds of jobs the hospital was eliminating, but said employees affected by today�s layoffs will be encouraged to apply to open positions.
Some consolation for being fired to maintain the good health of a computer.
The solution to this problem is for hospital executives to actually learn more about what they're getting into in HIT acquisition, implementation and operation, instead of simply believing the marketing hype coming from the HIT industry and its cybernetic hyper-enthusiasts.
That means reading far more than typical industry marketing BS, a.k.a. performing robust due diligence.
With the advent of the internet, people are swamped with information about cancer and some of it is not based on "sound scientific evidence" or is "at best, anecdotal," which can "hamper efforts to prevent and treat" it, reports Curt DellaValle, a cancer epidemiologist and senior scientist at Environmental Working Group. He writes about some of the most common misconceptions about cancer:
Misconception #1: Getting cancer is almost completely out of your control: DellaValle recognizes that some cancers are caused by genetics and "bad luck" and notes that the World Health Organization reports that20 percent of cancers are thought to be caused by environmental factors such as pollution, infections and radiation, but he also says "as many as half of cancers may be preventable," noting that smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise are major contributors.
Misconception #2: �Everything� causes cancer: "Not all chemicals, pollutants or guilty pleasures will lead to cancer," DellaValle writes, while also noting that the amount of exposure to the carcinogen plays a role. "The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a research arm of the WHO, has looked into nearly a thousand suspected causes of cancer. Of those suspicious substances and activities, they have concluded that just about half are known or potentially carcinogenic.
Misconception #3: Exposure to a known carcinogen will give you cancer: "Known carcinogens" are substances that have strong evidence that they can cause cancer, but it is important to recognize that the risk between them differs. "A person exposed to a known carcinogen is not 100 percent certain to develop cancer, not by a long shot," DellaValle writes. For example, he writes that there is a difference between asbestos exposure, a potent carcinogen, and eating processed meats, which is also a known carcinogen, but one that only modestly increases your chances of getting cancer.
Misconception #4: Natural products are safe and synthetic products are harmful: DellaValle writes that "arsenic, asbestos, formaldehyde, radiation and tobacco occur naturally and are known carcinogens." His advice is to "arm yourself with information" and "know what you're buying and don't assume everything that says 'natural' is harmless."
Misconception #5: Chemicals that the body absorbs and retains for a long time are more dangerous than those that are quickly excreted or metabolized: "The hazard of a substance is determined not just by the degree of exposure but also how it interacts with the body," he writes. For example, nitrates and nitrites in food and water can change into compounds that cause cancer in the body, while chemicals that are excreted quickly, like pesticides and heavy metals, can also cause cancer.
Misconception #6: The cancer risk you accumulate is irreversible: DellaValle writes that certain harmful exposures, like to radiation, does not allow full recovery, but damage from many environmental exposures can be partly reversed with elimination or significantly reducing the exposure. "The Surgeon General�s report on tobacco concluded that quitting smoking at any age reduces a smoker�s risk of cancer by up to 50 percent in just five to 10 years," he writes.
Misconception #7: Mammograms cause breast cancer: "The risk with the very small amount of radiation emitted during a mammogram is minuscule for most patients," he writes. However, "women who are pregnant should avoid mammograms and X-rays that their doctors don�t consider necessary. Radiation could harm the developing fetus."
Misconception #8: Cell phones, wi-fi, microwaves, power lines and airport X-ray machines will cause cancer: DellaValle writes that cell phones, wi-fi, microwaves and power lines "emit non-ionizing radiation" and is less invasive than "ionizing radiation" that comes from X-rays, sunlight and uranium. The WHO considers cell phone radiation a possible carcinogen "based on a suspected association between cell phone use and brain cancer,: DellaValle recommends holing your phones a few millimeters away from your body to "drastically reduce exposure" or use hands-free devices and texting. He does say that it is a good idea to keep wireless routers a few feet from places where people spend long periods of time, though he notes that there is little or no evidence to support that wi-fi signals cause cancer. He also notes that it would take about 1,000 trips through an airport X-ray scanner to equal the radiation exposure from one medical chest X-ray.
Misconception #9: Artificial turf sports fields cause cancer: The jury is out on this one. DellaValle says, "No data exists at this time to say that artificial turf causes cancer, but scientists are just beginning to explore the question. In the meantime, you should play on artificial turf in well-ventilated areas, avoid hand-to-mouth contact while playing and limit direct contact between turf and skin."
Misconception #10: Residential pesticides are safe: DellaValle writes that many of the pesticides suspected to cause cancer in farm workers are being sold for residential use and notes that some evidence exists that they increase the risk of cancer. While recognizing that homes would use these products less often and at a lower dose, he did caution to not use them around children or pregnant women. He noted that studies have found that children exposed to pesticides while in the womb and in infancy face an increased risk of childhood cancers like leukemia and brain tumors.
I spent most of the evening working on an assignment associated with a very big announcement I'll be making as soon as possible! I'm super excited. As soon as I get the green light to mention it here and on my other social media platforms, I will.
Today, I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget. I remained abstinent from refined sugar, I exceeded my water goal and I remained in active support communications. It was a very good day!
Letting the Tweets take it the rest of the way.
My Tweets Today:
2 cups water, 20 push-ups (2 sets of 10) & 10 squats, done. I hereby earn my right to this morning's coffee. pic.twitter.com/1vaUPH4h6X
