Ask DJ Lyons: The Rapunzel Diet Adventure
63Portion Control Inner Kid
Spiritual Guidance Diet #7- The Rapunzel Diet Adventure
Introduction: Many people might imagine that to follow a plan that involves weight loss plus fitness efforts would be no fun; therefore, we might turn into a character that could be aptly named No-Fun-zel. Instead, let us strive to find ways to make this journey toward slender be as fun as possible. We might even describe it as the Rapunzel Diet Adventure.
To read the introductory stories, please read:
Ask DJ Lyons: Introducing Portion Control Kid
Ask DJ Lyons: See myself as Jesus would see me
Ask DJ Lyons: Getting down to brass tacks
Ask DJ Lyons: A Healthy way to start your day with Healthful Breakfast Muffins
Ask DJ Lyons: Celebrate each sign of success along your path
In 1989, I earned my master’s in Elementary Education with a strong emphasis in storytelling at East Tennessee State University. A fellow student, by the name of Tommy Oaks, told a wonderful story about Rapunzel and her twin sister No-Fun-zel. That image has remained with me all these years. Many people might imagine that to follow a plan that involves weight loss plus fitness efforts would be no fun; therefore, we might turn into a character that could be aptly named No-Fun-zel. Instead, let us strive to find ways to make this journey toward slender be as fun as possible. We might even describe it as the Rapunzel Diet Adventure.
In what ways can be avoid being a No-Fun-zel who whines, complains, and grumbles about the drudgery of trying to lose a few pounds? Much of it comes downs to a matter of attitude and perspective. How do you view the steps necessary to lose the weight you wish to lose? Does it feel like deprivation and punishment? If so, then yes, you are choosing to embark on the No-Fun-zel Diet Regime.
Alternatively, does it feel like a fun challenge? Your body has taken on extra weight for a variety of reasons. There comes a day when you realize that this extra weight no longer serves you. You sift through the huge variety of weight loss philosophies and theories. Which method feels the most relevant and appropriate to you? Which process do you feel like you can align yourself with long-term?
Personally, I did not want to try diet pills or a specific diet where you are confined to eating mostly proteins or mostly carbs. I had observed that people that took short-term measures such as those often lost significant amounts of weight. That was a good thing. However, when I met those same people years later, I noticed that they had gained back all the weight they had lost plus they took on additional pounds. That appeared to be a bad thing. The best course, I felt, was to gradually ease myself into a plan of action that would be aptly called a life-style change. Finding ways to make this life-style change be as enticing and fun as possible is what I will call, for the purposes of this article, the Rapunzel Diet Adventure.
As part of this Rapunzel Diet Adventure, I aim to join with an imaginary inner child called Portion Control Kid. Portion Control Kid would prefer that I take inventory during the course of each day. This inventory process might go something like this.
Perhaps it is the middle of the afternoon or early evening. You realize that you are hungry. You think through the food pyramid and calculate:
* Portion Control Kid wants me to have 5 to 6 ounces of grains today as part of a 1600- to 1800-calories diet. She also wishes me to have two to two and a half cups of vegetables, one and a half cups of fruit, four to five teaspoons of oils, three cups of milk products, and five ounces of food fitting the meat and beans category.
* You take inventory and calculate how close you’ve come to meeting any of those goals. Once you’ve identified a food category that you have not yet completed for the day, then you decide the food you would find most delicious to consume within that category.
For example, tonight, I realized that I had already had happily eaten my full quota of vegetables, fruits, oils, and meat and beans. On the other hand, from the grains category, I had only consumed some rice, an oatmeal muffin, and some stuffing. I had not yet had any milk products.
So the first time I got hungry, I had three cups of hazelnut cappuccino made with 1% milk. That totally fulfilled my milk products category in the most delicious way possible.
Later on, when I got hungry again, I had one serving of pretzels. One serving of pretzels, about 39 pretzels, is the equivalent of one ounce of grains. It was fun to nibble on each pretzel – making each mini pretzel stick last as long as possible.
I followed this up with a mug of hot Green Tea full of healthful antioxidants and seasoned it with 100% Lemon Juice.
Should I find it necessary to eat again, I can once again inventory what I’ve eaten for the day, the food I have available in the house, the time of day or night, and which food category would serve me the best. From there, I make an informed decision of what I will consume next.
The previous night, when I needed to have one last meal, I was proud that I chose to munch on a bunch of baby carrots rather than choosing to eat one of my most favorite desserts - eating one or more pieces of Dove Dark Chocolate. Since I love crunchy foods, munching on the carrots felt really satisfying.
Another part of the Rapunzel Diet Adventure is figuring out a way to work in thirty minutes or more of exercise or movement activities to help burn extra calories. You might wish to join a fitness center or have a membership at the YMCA so that you can “play” on the fitness “toys.” You might want to purchase some fitness toys to use at home. For example, my 25-year-old niece keeps her figure in check by using a hula hoop twenty minutes each day. When I was in my twenties, I really enjoyed going disco dancing two to four times a week.
What fitness activity would you most enjoy doing? In what ways can you make the activity be as fun and enjoyable as possible? Can you work out in front of the television? Can you listen to music as you work out? Can you join with friends and work out together? Can you blog about your weight loss efforts and network with others traveling a similar path?
To paraphrase just a bit from the former Mission Impossible television series: Your Mission – should you choose to accept it – is to take the Rapunzel Diet Adventure – and find every way possible to make this adventure be as fun, as life-giving, and as joyful as possible. I accept this challenge. How about you?
Resources & Helpful Websites:
Rapunzel Books & Products
 | Disney presents a new twist on one of the most hilarious and hair-raising tales ever told. Your whole family will get tangled up in the fun, excitement and adventure of this magical motion picture. When the kingdom's most wanted - and most charming - bandit Flynn Rider hides in a mysterious tower, the last thing he expects to find is Rapunzel, a spirited teen with an unlikely superpower - 70 feet of magical golden hair! Together, the unlikely duo sets off on a fantastic journey filled with surprising heroes, laughter and suspense. Let your hair down and get ready to cheer for "Tangled." Bursting with never-before-seen bonus features, it's even more enchanting on Blu-ray Hi-Def. Amazon Price: $31.49 List Price: $49.99 |
 | Young fans of the animated Disney film Tangled will love braiding the hair of Rapunzel, the film's brave and feisty star. With the help of Rapunzel's forest friends and an easy-to-use crank-powered hair braider, you'll be able to style and braid Rapunzel's cascading hair in endless ways. For children aged 3 and up, the Rapunzel Braiding Friends Hair Braider from Disney and Mattel provides hours of enchanted hairstyling adventure. Amazon Price: $19.95 List Price: $34.99 |
 | Set Includes:. Rapunzel. Flynn. Pascal. Maximus. Toddler Rapunzel. Mother Gothel. Shorty. Hookhand . Vladamir. Additional Information:. Plastic. Up to 4'' H. Ages 3+. Imported. Amazon Price: $35.49 |
 | Disney Tangled Featuring Rapunzel Tower Treasures Doll and Furniture Playset: Inspired by Disney’s new animated feature film Tangled. Girls’ favorite long-haired maiden spends most of her life in a secret stone tower that she brightens with all of her favorite things. Now girls can share in the fun with a Rapunzel doll, authentic bedroom furniture inspired by the movie, an easel and palette with interchangeable artwork, and Rapunzel’s chameleon friend, Pascal. It’s everything girls need to play out their favorite tower scenes from the movie. Includes doll, Pascal, art and music accessories and furniture pieces. Amazon Price: $6.95 List Price: $11.99 |
 | Disney Tangled Featuring Rapunzel Fairytale Tower: Inspired by Disney’s new animated feature film Tangled. For as long as she can remember, Rapunzel has lived in the tallest and most beautiful tower in the land. Now with the Disney Rapunzel Fairytale Tower, girls can re-create Rapunzel's magical world. Standing over three feet high, the tower opens to reveal 5 rooms of play and furniture and includes Rapunzel's chameleon friend Pascal and a secret compartment for hiding her crown. Girls can even reveal Rapunzel's murals by painting her bedroom walls with cold water. And with the included hair extension, girls can make Rapunzel's hair even longer, or let it down from her tower window. Includes Tower, Pascal, furniture pieces, accessories and hair extension that can be clipped onto any Rapunzel doll. Rapunzel doll not included. Amazon Price: $101.19 List Price: $99.99 |
 | Kindergarten-Grade 2-A (relatively) modern take on the folktale. Rapunzel's awful Aunt Esme keeps her locked on the top floor of an abandoned apartment building. The elevator is broken, so when the woman returns from a hard day working at the local school as the world's meanest lunch lady, she hauls herself upstairs via Rapunzel's long, red braid. Roger, the intrepid singer in the school band, discovers Esme's secret and begins visiting the girl regularly, bringing glimpses of the outside world. When Esme discovers the friends' secret, she cuts Rapunzel's braid and turns her out on the street, setting unsuspecting Roger up for an amnesia-inducing fall. The two are, of course, reunited by tale's end, and Rapunzel begins a new career as a wig maker. The book's "groovy" title indicates its late-'70s setting, but the text is free of gratuitous (and to young children, incomprehensible) slang. The reteller relates her plot in simple language, trusting the illustrator to create the `70s feel with his pen-and-ink-embellished watercolor paintings. Adults who remember the period will be amused by the lava lamp, John Travolta poster, and pogo stick; children will likely focus on the cartoonish expressions of wide-eyed Rapunzel and devilish Aunt Esme. Although the quality of writing and illustration ranks this book above sheer novelty purchase, it is unlikely to stand the test of time as well as an ABBA tune.
Eve Ortega, Cypress Library, CA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Amazon Price: $9.50 List Price: $17.95 |
 | Before Rapunzel's birth, her mother made a dangerous deal with the sorceress Melisande: If she could not love newborn Rapunzel just as she appeared, she would surrender the child to Melisande. When Rapunzel was born completely bald and without hope of ever growing hair, her horrified mother sent her away with the sorceress to an uncertain future.
After sixteen years of raising Rapunzel as her own child, Melisande reveals that she has another daughter, Rue, who was cursed by a wizard years ago and needs Rapunzel's help. Rue and Rapunzel have precisely "two nights and the day that falls between" to break the enchantment. But bitterness and envy come between the girls, and if they fail to work together, Rue will remain cursed...forever.
Amazon Price: $2.88 List Price: $6.99 |
 | The classic story of the girl with the long golden locks gets an update in Disney’s Tangled. When the kingdom’s most wanted (and most charming,) bandit is forced to make a deal with the golden-haired, tower-bound teen, the unlikely duo sets off on a hilarious, hair-raising escapade complete with a super-cop horse, an over-protective chameleon, and a gruff gang of pub thugs. Expect adventure, heart, humor, and hair—lots of hair—with this swashbuckling tale.
Now girls can read the story of Disney’s Tangled while using the musical hairbrush on their own hair! The brush has a fun musical sound effect that is motion-activated when hair is brushed, making girls feel like they’re part of the magical tale.
Amazon Price: $11.02 List Price: $19.99 |
 | In older versions of the classic tale Rapunzel, it always seemed improbable that a grown man could scale a tower using only his beloved's hair. Not so in Paul O. Zelinsky's Caldecott Medal-winning version of Rapunzel. Here, Rapunzel's reddish-blonde mane is thick with waves and braids, and cascades like a waterfall down the walls of her isolation tower. In Zelinsky's able hands it's easy to believe that a prince would harbor no hesitations about scrambling up our fair heroine's hair.
Of course, this is not the work of an amateur--Zelinsky's lush versions of Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, and Swamp Angel all earned him Caldecott Honors. His gorgeous, Italian Renaissance-styled illustrations are characterized by warm golden tones and the mesmerizing sensation of trompe l'oeuil. Not only does he have the touch of a world-class illustrator, Zelinsky has also proven himself a master storyteller. We are frightened when the sorceress demands to take the baby Rapunzel, we are alarmed when the flowing locks are cruelly shorn, and we rejoice when the prince and his now modest-haired love are reunited. The notes at the back of Rapunzel reveal his careful scholarship regarding the long history of the story (tracing its origins and transformations from Italy to France and finally to Germany and the Grimm brothers)--work that no doubt contributed to his clean, compelling version of the age-old tale. Children will be captivated by the magical story and evocative pictures and adults will delight in the fresh feel of a well-loved legend. (Click to see a sample spread. Illustration © 1997 by Paul O. Zelinsky, published by Dutton Children's Books, a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers.) (Ages 4 and older) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Amazon Price: $3.99 List Price: $7.99 |
Diet, Exercise, & Spiritual Guidance Links:
- Ask DJ Lyons: Introducing Portion Control Kid
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Introduction: As you approach the end of 2010 and welcome the beginning days of 2011, lets pause a moment to celebrate any success stories you have to share about this weight loss journey you and I are... - Ask DJ Lyons: Can you turn healthy food into comfort food?
Introduction: Should you feel motivated or driven to consume comfort food, perhaps you can at least control what foods or drinks you select. Here are several suggestions for ways you can turn healthy food into... - Ask DJ Lyons: The Rapunzel Diet Adventure
Introduction: Many people might imagine that to follow a plan that involves weight loss plus fitness efforts would be no fun; therefore, we might turn into a character that could be aptly named No-Fun-zel.... - Ask DJ Lyons: Align yourself with your end goal
Introduction: One method to more easily reach your weight loss goal is to fully align yourself with the part of you who already weighs that magic number. The more you align yourself with that being, the more... - Ask DJ Lyons: Grain options from the Food Pyramid
Allow me to introduce you to the imaginery Portion Control Inner Kid. As a professional storyteller, I love stories and parables. I also love analogies. They help me get a grasp on tough topics like nutrition,...
