A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss » About The Site

Happy First Birthday, BGG2WL!

Erika — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:27:42 +0000

Mmm... birthday pizza! (Yes, the recipe is coming!)

That’s right – this weekend marked the one year birthday of A Black Girl’s Guide To Weight Loss!

Break out the birthday ca– er…. granola?

A year makes such a big difference. I cannot measure how helpful this site has been to others, but I know how beneficial it has been for me to write for this site. In a year, my understanding of my relationship with food has changed so drastically. In a year, I lost over a hundred pounds. In a year, I’ve done more conversing about health than I’d really like on any given day… but in a year, every single conversation has made a difference in my life.

In a year, I’ve been able to understand the pathos that keeps women like me from understanding their bodies. I’ve learned that it’s not even about keeping me from understanding…. it’s simply about having access to the resources that help one understand. And even though, for some, its as simple as owning a laptop and hitting up your local free wi-fi spot… there are many of us who can’t even do that.

In a year, I’ve been able to learn about women like me, and the problem with our typical relationship to food. I’ve learned what circumstances can cause the kind of unhealthy relationship that causes health problems and the very diseases that cause our weight gain. And even though we “should know” and we “should notice,” its evident that we do not. Not only do we not “notice,” but we live in an environment where we’re offended if our friends “notice” and actually “speak on it.” Having said that, I’ve learned that instead of chiding people for not “knowing,” the time is better spent doing what we can to make sure that we all learn.

Needless to say, all this talking about health and wellness – as someone who merely does a lot of reading and researching and living – has helped me build a site that has grown by leaps and bounds in only its first year… and I can assure you, it’s going to get better. There are people who have supported #bgg2wl since day ONE, and I feel like I’ve truly bonded with many of you even though we’ve never met. There are the people who occasionally pop up with a question or two about food, and I do my best to answer (or find an answer for you) as best as I can, in hopes that I can help one more person. There are my friends who read the site in secret – you may not want to tell me you read it, but I hear you quoting things from this site when you talk about food, man! I don’t need to call you out on it then and there, because it’s not about me at all, any more… it’s just about the knowledge people can glean from it.

Really, the site isn’t about me anymore. It’s so much more about what the site can do for our community, and I recognize that. That’s why I have both a doctor and a psychologist coming on board, writing columns on specific issues in our community and how we can tackle them together. How we can rebuild ourselves and, in turn, rebuild our communities. How we can help each other. And I’m doing everything I can to keep the information on this site available for free.

The site is getting a comprehensive make-over with lots more amazing additions, so keep your eyes peeled. If you come here regularly, thank you for your support and helping us (because this is your site, too) grow by one more person in one year’s time. If you’ve just recently discovered #bgg2wl, then by all means welcome! Get acquainted with that contact form, and send over any questions you have!

As I’ve written before, a lot can happen in a year. Look at this site – look at me as testament to that. And to think, it all started with a crazy idea one day. Cheers to you, and here’s hoping we can spend another year together healthy and happy!

…and I’ve got a 30-day clean eating challenge coming up – complete with two weeks of preparation and every trick in the book to make it happen, and LOTS of giveaways in the process! Get ready! If you thought year 1 was awesome? Year two is going to be the most amazing ride you’ve ever experienced! Tell a friend, tell a loved one… tell somebody, tell everyone! Happy birthday, BGG2WL!

Let’s hear it!

PS: To those of you who keep e-mailing and asking how you can donate to the site, feel free to use the button below.

My Appearance On LoveTALK Radio

Erika — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:07:18 +0000

Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of doing an interview with LoveTALK Radio to discuss BGG2WL, weight loss, emotional eating and how my lifestyle has affected my relationships with loved ones. If you get a little free time, you should definitely check it out – it was an awesome interview and it definitely doesn’t disappoint!

If you’ve got an appearance you’d like me to make, don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

Calling All Domestic Goddesses!

Erika — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:48:57 +0000

Do you have recipes that are light, simple, quick, and yummy? Do they use only organic and home made ingredients (ie: no bottled sauces, no pre-made or pre-processed ingredients)? I’m talkin’ shopping-from-only-the-outside-perimeter-of-the-grocery-store ingredients!

If you have some to share, feel free to shoot them over to recipes@blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com and share ‘em with the class! : )

Welcome to A Black Girl’s Guide To Weight Loss!

Erika — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:10:25 +0000

Ladies and, well, ladies… welcome to The Black Girl’s Guide To Weight Loss!

Allow me to re-introduce myself. My name is Erika! I’m a young twenty-something single parent, and I have a weight problem. I stand at six feet tall, and once upon a time, I weighed in at somewhere around 328 lbs. Needless to say, I’ve neglected myself and my health because I put everything else before me. School? Before me. Work? Before me. Outside organizations? Before me. My child? Before me. It just made sense. I put myself on the back burner because I believed that giving my all to everything with which I was involved was the best thing I could do.

I put this website together (yes, this is ALL my design work) for a few reasons, but mostly because I realized how prevalent that line of thinking is… and even worse, how harmful it can be to us as human beings.

But if it’s a harmful line of thinking for human beings, why is this site a Black girl’s guide to weight loss?

That’s not meant to be offensive to anyone, and I hope you’re able to see that. You see, I can explain it like this.

As I mentioned before, I live in Miami. A city that I love – first – for it’s cultural diversity. I love the Caribbean, I love Latin America, I love America. I just.. do. It’s everywhere – the groceries, the malls, in little subsections of the city, and apparently.. the gym. One night, as my daughter and I were at our workout center, a gentleman was there working his tail off at one of the weight training stations. A couple of other Latinas were there, kind of just staring at him. I noticed and kind of just LOL’d because I figured they were just checking him out, right? Not at all. They asked him – in Spanish – if he was a trainer (he was,) and if he had any tips for them. He began speaking – in Spanish – to respond to them, until he looked up and noticed that I was paying attention as well. He smiled at me, and began speaking in English.

I appreciated this, because the conversation was SO informative. He discussed workout techniques, tips in execution, and then… there were more cultural references than a little bit. He discussed foods in their culture that were cooked in a fashion that would only set them up for failure in terms of losing weight. (For a fear of seeming or sounding insensitive, I’m not going to go into detail.) He discussed the cultural relationship with food, and how he really was failing himself at not keeping it in check. He then turned to me and said, “I’m certain that you have foods in your culture that, if you thought about it, could be cooked differently or scrapped completely to help you reach your goal, right?”

I couldn’t help but agree with him.

I went home that night, and couldn’t stop thinking about the effect our culture has on our relationships with food and exercise. How many of us grew up in households where our parents put everything before themselves? How many of us look at that and wonder how our parents did so, and still remained fit? Do we ever stop and think about what the variables might be in that situation? Like… say, maybe… the food we’re eating?

So for me, this had to be A Black Girl’s Guide To Weight Loss, because while this site discusses very general concepts that affect us all as people, as Americans and as consumers… there are issues and elements that are very cultural in origin that need to be addressed.. from the perspective of… ta-da! A Black girl.

With any luck, this blog will expose us to different ways of caring for ourselves. With any luck, this blog will show us things that we accept because they’re tradition, and unfortunately are harming us and prohibiting us from being our healthy selves. With any luck this blog will benefit you, the reader, as much as writing it may benefit me.

Be aware: I don’t make mention of my being Black at the exclusion of any other group of people. I mention my being Black because it’s what I am. I mention it because, quite frankly, I can. If that makes you even remotely uncomfortable, not only is this NOT the site for you, but this community – consisting of all races and all genders – will make you loudly aware of that fact. Just tellin’ you in advance.

But… what makes you so qualified to write something like this?

Oh… I took some time to myself, and worked my tail off. I’ve done (and still do) the reading. I’ve done the studying. I’ve done the living. Sure enough, I lost 110 lbs in one year. That a good enough answer?