LaToya M. Davidson-Perez

Most days I struggle to pack myself into my size 14 jeans (or twelve depending on the designer) and try to conceal my muffin top or, as my mother puts it, my unmentionables. On the rare occasions that I go to the department store I gasp at the number of small and medium clothing on display. Seriously, they expect me to fit into that? When so many of us are, by medical terms, overweight, why is this the case? Indeed, our eating habits and lack of doing the necessary exercise has Super-sized us. After hearing more about the controversial Georgia initiative to stop childhood obesity I thought more about how obesity affects me.

There are projections stating that by 2019 obesity will overtake smoking as the number one cause of preventable deaths in the US. This is attributed to the long line of ailments that are often caused by being overweight. The list includes but is not limited to type II diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and disability. Let that just sink in a little. Read the rest of this entry »

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. It is the defined day of the year in which we express our love for that special person in our life. For some it is truly that, for others it’s just another commercialized holiday that’s more about hype. For me, as I usually spend it alone, it’s a day to express how much I love me!

The thing is, I’m among the many single ones who can’t celebrate the romantic love of the holiday. However, unlike previous years where I’d mope about not having a Valentine I’m going to take the time to acknowledge the things that I love about myself. We’re often so critical of ourselves, nitpicking at the numerous things that we’d like to change. Thus, this year I’m going to pay more attention to the things that I love about me. And certainly not in a vain way. My best friend says I don’t need a day, year or month to declare the celebration of myself, as I am always of the mindset that it’s all about me. Even so, I know that I can very often lose sight of the things that I love about myself and the things that make me special and unique. I can literally adore myself one minute and detest it the next. Read the rest of this entry »

The 1961 Connie Francis song laments about love, waiting and finding the one. With the divorce rate for first marriages holding at 50% for the past decade and the divorce rate for second marriages being around 65% I’d say the boys (and girls) are divorced and picking up the pieces. It would appear that most people are now far more familiar with divorce and even repeated divorces than those who are succeeding at their marriages and relationships. I have to wonder, is the institution of marriage now less sacred, less important? Is it worth getting married at all?

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My best friend often scoffs at the entire notion of having New Years resolutions. It is his belief that New Years Day amounts to an arbitrary day of the year to make promises and goals that we give up on days later. To some extent I agree with him. However, every year I dutifully make a list of ten items that I’d like to accomplish by year’s end. While I do often achieve one or two of the goals, like so many others, I fail to do the majority of my list. In recent years I’ve tried to scale the list down to five goals. That doesn’t seem to work either. Regardless, I’m again going to make my list and try yet again to accomplish it. The difference this year being that I’m aiming for five attainable goals.

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I recently had someone mail me something in the mail. A reader actually took the time to share their thoughts. I suppose I would have been more accepting of their comments if they’d taken the time to give me their address. Upon opening the suspicious envelope (I was tentative in doing so as it’s not often that I get unaddressed mail), I found that someone had sent me a copy of one of my recent articles, Don’t know ‘nothin ’bout birthers.’

Here’s the thing, I really don’t mind criticism, but it is unfair to chastise me on minor grammatical errors. Honestly, I think the point of them sending the thing was because people can get crazy about their politics. I don’t intend to respond to every comment via a full article, as I’ve received both positive and negative criticism before, but I did want to say, “Get a grip.”

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