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Start the New Year Right

Great Ways to Get Fit

Three Inspiring People Share Their

Secrets to Success

Here to Help and Ready to Serve

The Red Cross

ConnectedPublished for the

members of

“We Keep You Connected”

January/February 2012

Learning to adjust

Around these parts, if 2011 taught us anything it is that the unexpected happens. We will never know exactly how

many people spent this time last year making plans for the New Year only to see them derailed by the natural disas-ters that were soon coming. FTC was not immune. We had a number of carefully crafted work plans that, frankly, are still just plans. On a personal note, I find that frustrating. I like my trains to run on time. But 2011 showed us that nature is still the boss and there was nothing left to do but adjust.

Some folks are better at planning than others. But I suspect that to some extent just about everyone gets frus-trated when our plans don’t go well. Major setbacks, however, have a way of leaving even the most resilient planners downhearted. It is actually quite easy to give in to a sense of fatalism and just quit planning altogether. But when we do that, we might as well expect a sail-boat to end up in the right place without the sailor ever touching the sail or rud-der. It simply won’t happen.

There is also the problem we often have with the issue of control. Frankly, I like to control as much as possible about my life. However, there is a problem with that. As much as we like to be in control, we have to understand a very significant piece of truth. Since we can-not control everything, we actually have absolute control over nothing. That’s a complex thought, but it is actually easy to understand. Think of it this way: the best laid plans for a picnic can still be interrupted by rain. If we can ever truly

accept the fact of this truth though, we become free to expend our resources on controlling the controllable, namely ourselves and our reactions to our cir-cumstances.

Let me put it another way very sim-ply — we can’t control the rain but we can pack umbrellas.

I have no idea what 2012 holds. Per-haps that’s a good thing. Like many of you, I have some apprehension. Still, I’m making some realistic plans and so is FTC. Will you? Let me challenge you to set at least a few worthy goals for your-self, your family, your company, your church, whatever you find most ap-propriate. Don’t let the uncontrollable, or worse yet, the fear of it, prevent you from setting and pursuing these goals. Make sure your objectives are realistic and attainable. Then grab hold of your wheel, set your sail and go for it. The weather may change from time to time (though we all pray for the absence of the truly bad stuff) but you will be okay. Enjoy the trip and may God truly bless you and yours in the New Year.n

Fred Johnsonis Executive Vice President and GMof FarmersTelecommunications Cooperative, Inc.

is a member-owned corporation dedicated to providing communications technology to the people of Northeast Alabama. The company has over 16,000 access lines, mak-ing it the state’s largest telecommunica-tions cooperative.

ConnectedVol. 16, No. 1 January/February 2012

is a bimonthly magazinepublished by Farmers Telecommu-nications Cooperative, © 2012. It is distributed without charge to all

member/owners of the Cooperative. Send address corrections to:

Farmers TelecommunicationsCooperative, Inc.

P.O. Box 217144 McCurdy Ave. N.

Rainsville, Alabama 35986Telephone: (256) 638-2144

www.farmerstel.com

Produced for FTC by:WordSouth Public Relations, Inc.

www.wordsouth.com

On the Cover:

Fitness Instructor Aki Ishiwatari teaches kickboxing moves to Diane Finch (center) and Vanessa Berry at Body Vision Fitness

& Aquatic Center in Rainsville. (Photo by Tina Thurmond)


General Manager Comments

Board of TrusteesRandy Wright, President

Flat Rock Exchange

Gary Smith, Vice PresidentFyffe Exchange

Danny R. Richey, SecretaryGeraldine Exchange

Lynn Welden, TreasurerBryant Exchange

Kenneth GilbertPisgah Exchange

Gregg GriffithHenagar Exchange

Randy TumlinRainsville Exchange

2 Connected - January/February 2012

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Service not available on Macs or other Apple products.

Your trusted technology partner is now your computer repair partner!

For details or to schedule your PC’s appointment call the FTC Computer Repair Center at 256-638-2144


Connected - January/February 2012 3

Win a trip to Washington, D.C.

Scholarship opportunities availableFTC will be awarding two $1,500 scholarships to local students

this spring. One scholarship will be given to a graduating high school student and one to an individual already enrolled in college. Students must be an active customer or dependent of an active FTC customer to qualify. Applications for this scholarship are due by 4 p.m. on March 12.

The Foundation for Rural Service is also offering a scholarship. This $2,000 scholarship is given to 25 students across the United States. If a high school senior from our service area receives one of these scholarships, FTC will award them with an additional $500. Applications for this scholarship are due by 4 p.m. on February 21. Please note that preference will be given to students planning to develop their professional careers in a rural area.

Applications for both scholarships are available from high school guidance counselors or can be downloaded from www.farmerstel.com.

All scholarships are made available without regard to race, eth-nicity, national origin, religion, gender or disability.

Trip to Washington, D.C.

All expenses paid

Tours of the Capitol and other landmarks

Meet elected officials, hear speakers, meet teens from across the country and take part in many exciting activities

Details about the program are available from your high school guidance counselor.

Applications can be downloaded at farmerstel.com. For more information contact Kim Williams at 256-638-2144.

To be eligible, at least one parent or legal guardian must be a customer of Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative or its affiliate.

FTC is searching for two outstanding high school juniors to represent our area in the nation’s

capital in June as part of the FRS Youth Tour sponsored by the Foundation for Rural Service.

Connected - January/February 2012 5Connected - January/February 2012 5

In a perfect world, there would be no human suffering. There would be no tornadoes to take lives and wipe

away homes. There would be no house fires to destroy in an instant what has taken someone a lifetime to build.

In a perfect world, there would be no traffic accidents or loss of blood in surgical procedures. There would be no need for shelters or disaster relief teams. But the world is not perfect, and that is why the American Red Cross exists.

The Red Cross is not a govern-ment agency and is ineligible for government funding. Therefore, it relies on donations of time, money and blood to bring relief to victims of more than 70,000 disasters each year — everything from house fires to hurricanes.

Volunteers constitute 96 percent of the total workforce for the organiza-tion, with over 700 locally-supported chapters throughout the country. Each year, more than 15 million people are trained by the Red Cross to respond to emergencies in their hometowns and communities where help can be desperately needed.

DeKalb County is no exception.

Blood, sweat and tearsThe American Red Cross was

founded in 1881 by Clara Barton, a visionary who believed in the possibil-ity of providing neutral, humanitarian relief efforts for victims of war. Over the past 130 years, the organization has expanded its efforts to include aid-ing victims of natural disasters, house fires and accidents.

No matter how many changes the organization has gone through, their main objective has always stayed the same — to prevent and relieve human suffering for anyone, anywhere.

In 2005, during the Hurricane Ka-trina disaster, Rainsville’s Carol Laney felt the need to help in some way. In-tending to donate money for disaster relief, Laney visited the local chapter of the Red Cross in Fort Payne.

“The director at that time told me they really could use my help,” she recalls. “So she gave me some quick training, and I’ve been with the Red Cross ever since.”

Laney is now the director of the DeKalb chapter. Recently, the Jackson, Marshall and DeKalb chapters com-bined under the direction of one ex-

ecutive director, Judy Rhea, who visits each office weekly and works closely with each county’s director. Their goal is to be better prepared in the event of another disaster like the tornadoes that ripped through Alabama in April 2011.

The Red Cross is the largest sup-plier of blood and blood products in the United States. They collect approx-imately 6 million pints of blood each year through local blood drives and distribute it to over 3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers nationwide.

“We do blood drives about twice each year in DeKalb County, but we could do more,” Laney says. “Any business that wants to help by hosting a blood drive can call us. We put them in touch with someone who helps organize the event.” Sometimes blood drives are hosted by local schools who use student volunteers to help register donors and also hand out snacks to donors. If there are no other volun-teers, the Red Cross provides them.

Collecting blood represents only a small fraction of the work Red Cross in DeKalb County does each year. “We get at least two tornadoes or really bad storms here every year which create

Answering the call to serveBy Tina Thurmond

The Red Cross


a lot of damage,” Laney says. “The first thing we do is send out damage assessment teams which literally go door to door and record the level of damage to each address — whether it is major or minor. It can be hard at times, but it is something that has to be done because we share that infor-mation with other agencies so people can get the help they need.”

The Red Cross in DeKalb County also assists victims of dozens of house fires each year. “Whenever there is a house fire, the fire department contacts us so we can help the family,” Laney says.

The organization provides fire victims with up to three free nights of hotel accommodations, a small cloth-ing allowance and a food allowance to cover their immediate needs. “We also give them referrals to other agencies who can provide them with further assistance,” Laney says.

“It is heartbreaking to see some-one lose everything,” she adds. “It truly is. Sometimes it makes you cry, but that is what we are here for — to help people when they need it most.”

Volunteer fairCurrently, the Red Cross in

DeKalb County only has about 30 volunteers. In an effort to raise aware-ness to that fact and recruit more help, the local chapter will host a volunteer fair at the Bevill Center in Rainsville on January 17.

“We invite the public to come, and we will be serving refreshments,” Laney says. “We will provide informa-tion on the many different volunteer opportunities potential volunteers can train for. Once the fair is over, we will contact everyone who signed up and schedule a time for them to receive their training.

“Right now,” she continues, “our largest need is for volunteers to staff our office and also to serve on the damage assessment teams. We never want to face another disaster like the tornadoes in April, where we had to call in so many volunteers from across the country because we simply did not have enough people to handle even a fraction of the work that needed to be done.”

Anyone age 18 and up can become a Red Cross volunteer. “Senior adults constitute our largest number of volunteers because they tend to have more time,” Laney says. “But anyone who is at least 18 and wants to find some way to serve their community and help others is exactly what we are looking for.”

There is no set amount of time a volunteer has to put in and no require-ments as to how many events they have to participate in, but all volun-teers must be trained prior to working at any event.

Anyone interested in attending the fair or becoming a Red Cross volun-teer can call Carol Laney at 256-845-0202.n

Red Cross volunteers from across the country helped with relief efforts after the April 2011 tornadoes in DeKalb County. Carol Laney (third from right) poses with some of them.

BloodEach year, around 4 million people give blood to the American Red Cross, mak-ing it the largest supplier of blood in the nation and filling the need for approxi-mately 3,000 hospitals in the nation.

Military servicesU.S. service members rely on the Red Cross to help them stay connected to their families when they are away on ac-tive duty. In addition to helping spouses of service members who may be strug-gling, the Red Cross also assists them with transportation to the funerals of family members.

educationMore than 15 million people each year receive educational training through the Red Cross in effective emergency response. Currently, more than 600 lo-cally supported chapters are staffed by half-a-million volunteers and 35,000 employees.

disaster reliefThe American Red Cross works with 186 International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies providing neutral humanitar-ian services to thousands of victims of natural disasters around the world.

the care behind the cross


21

Three ways to reshape your body in 2012

Aki Ishiwatari has parlayed his love of fitness into a high-energy career that is changing

the way his students look at exercise — and how they look in the mirror. While his workouts are fast and fun, they are also geared to give you the most for your money.

Cardio with a kickOriginally from Tokyo, Aki first came to the U.S. as a high school exchange student. After graduating in Japan, he returned to America and earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and wellness with a minor in nutri-tion from Jacksonville State University. After a year in Atlanta, he worked in Boaz as an exercise physiologist and personal instructor. He joined the staff of Body Vision in Rainsville in Decem-ber 2001.

There, Aki is a personal trainer and teaches a variety of cardiovascular (cardio) exercise classes. Cardio exer-cise works by boosting metabolism, burning calories and toning the body.

Aki specializes in kickboxing and

body sculpting classes. Kickboxing is a hybrid of boxing, martial arts and aerobics capable of burning 350 to 500 calories in a single session. “Kickbox-ing caught on very quickly here,” Aki says. “It’s pure cardio work. We simu-late movements that focus on the core area where everyone wants to tone up. It is great exercise for both men and women.”

On Saturday mornings, Aki teaches a class called Met-Risers which he created from his own experience in the field. “Met-Risers is designed to raise metabolism,” he says. “It is a combination of cardiovascular and weight training which helps tone, burn calories and sculpt the body us-ing light weights to focus on building cardiovascular endurance.”

While his classes are high-energy, they are also low-impact, so they ap-peal to most age groups. “I have a cli-ent who is in his mid-50s and has lost 15 pounds and several inches from his waist,” he says. “If you have a will to learn something, you are never too old. The key is to find something you

love to do and always keep moving.”To learn more, call Body Vision at

256-638-4348.

Shall we dance?For ladies who shy away from

the traditional gym setting, Zumba with Julie may be just what you have been looking for. Besides being very effective at helping people shed those pounds, Julie’s classes also offer an hour of laugh-out-loud fun that makes participants forget it is exercise.

Zumba is the largest dance fitness program in the world, combining ele-ments of aerobic exercise with dance steps from hip-hop, salsa, merengue and more. Set against a backdrop of pulse-pounding Latin music, Zumba even includes some traditional belly dancing and martial arts moves.

Instructor Julie Dunn moved to the U.S. from Erlangen, Germany, in the late 1990s. Julie became interested in Zumba two years ago when she found herself unable to sit down and tie her shoes without holding her breath. “I was overweight,” she says.

Whether you would like to tone up a little or are dreaming of a totally new body, there is no better time to get started than right now. And, thanks to big strides in today’s weight loss industry, you can still enjoy life while saying “goodbye” to grueling diets, boring workouts and unwanted pounds.

By Tina Thurmond


3

“A friend invited me to a Zumba class and I agreed to go, but I told her I would just sit and watch.”

She went to the class after work wearing high heels and a business suit, but soon found herself wishing she could join in the fun. “I saw the ladies’ faces and how much they were enjoying it,” she says. “It looked like such fun. So I took some classes and fell in love with Zumba.”

Julie lost a total of 50 pounds within a few months and went on to become a certified instructor.

Today, along with her day job at Woodson Jones Chevrolet in Fort Payne, she teaches Zumba at night.

“I see myself as an encourager,” she says. “A lot of the ladies come to the class the first time and feel intimi-dated. I’m not a skinny minnie. I’m a woman with curves, and they can see that I am an everyday person.

“I tell my students, ‘We are all in this room for the same reason. No one is watching. You don’t have to be a dancer or a gymnast. You just have to be able to step left to right. The rest is easy.’”

Zumba with Julie classes are avail-able at TNT Fitness in Rainsville. For private classes for groups of five or more in Jackson and DeKalb counties, contact Julie at 256-996-6402.

Body 4 BelieversThere is a joke that the first three

letters of the word diet spell d-i-e for a reason: once you start one, you either think you have, or think you want to.

Diets can be miserable, frustrating and can even lead to serious eating

disorders. But food

does not have to be your enemy, and Greg Lock-lear is living proof. Greg is the creator of Body 4 Believers, a suc-cessful weight-loss program that allows you to stop dieting and shed those un-wanted pounds for good.

“I was over-weight from the

age of three,” he says. “I weighed over 300 pounds when I graduated from high school and eventually gained to 360 pounds. I tried every diet out there and although I’d lose weight, I could never maintain it.”

Desperate to stop the dieting cycle and get healthy, he went to nutrition classes and read all the information he could about weight loss. Within six months of applying the principles he learned, he had lost 100 pounds and dropped his cholesterol 100 points.

Greg went on to lose a total of 140 pounds. He then created Body 4 Believers to share his success with others.

Body 4 Believers classes are taught in churches and high schools on and around Sand Mountain once a week for four weeks by either Greg, his business partner Danny Flora or Dr. Jim Wright, D. Min., author of “Skinny Jim’s Cookbook.”

Each class is free to the public and lasts a little over an hour. “We never charge anyone for com-ing to the classes,” he says. “We’ll teach you every-thing we know and you can buy normal food from your local grocery store. Everything we teach is based on nutritional in-formation that is already out there.

We have just organized it and made it easier to understand.”

The main goal of the program is to stop the body from storing fat. “I never knew how my body stored fat, and most people don’t,” he says. “Insulin is the body’s fat storage hormone. When our blood sugar goes up, our body secretes insulin and that stores fat.”

Greg’s program focuses on keep-ing blood sugar levels from spiking by choosing the right combination of foods at each meal. “We don’t starve,” he says. “We eat all kinds of wonder-ful things like pork chops, potatoes, beans and even peanut butter sand-wiches. But we have to combine those foods in such a way that we don’t get a drastic rise in our blood sugar and end up storing them as fat.”

Body 4 Believers also teaches how to make your body work harder to digest food by eating fiber with each meal. “That fiber slows our digestion down and regulates our blood sugar,” he says. “If you eat a white potato by itself, your body will call out the trash trucks and store it as fat. But if you take a white potato and eat it with broccoli, which is high in fiber, no problem.”

Greg is the pastor of New Prospect #2 Baptist Church in Cherokee County and co-owns the Body 4 Believers retail store in Fort Payne with Mike Howe and Danny Flora. For more information about the program, visit body4believer.com. “There is no ‘s’ on the website name,” he says with a smile. “Someone else already had that, but you’ll enjoy our site anyway.”n

Certified Zumba Instructor Julie Dunn (L) has lost 50 pounds dancing.

Greg Locklear (R), creator of Body 4 Believers weight-loss program, and his business partner, Danny Flora, at their retail store on Gault Avenue in Fort Payne.


&Felix Hamilton

Throughout his childhood, Felix Hamilton of Fyffe struggled with weight problems. By the time he grad-uated from high school, he weighed 287 pounds. Over the years, his weight continued to climb. He tried fad diets, which worked for a little while. He even tried over-the-counter diet pills, which caused permanent damage to his thyroid.

One of the lowest points in Hamil-ton’s struggle with weight loss hap-pened at an amusement park. At 397.8 pounds, Hamilton was asked to leave a ride when it would not move under his weight.

“I was humiliated,” he recalls. “I

tried to laugh and act like it didn’t bother me, but it was so embarrass-ing.”

The experience became a pivotal moment in his life. “I knew I had to do something,” he says. “It wasn’t just my weight; I had terrible health problems, too.”

Hamilton had suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea and painful back problems for most of his life. “I realized that if I didn’t do something about my weight, I could have a stroke or heart attack and would probably die,” he says. “I would not get to see my wife, Carla, anymore. So I decided it was time to do something about it. I had to change my life.

“I had a very big appetite,” he says. “I could eat a large pizza by myself without thinking about it. Sometimes, I would eat an entire cake in one sitting.”

After checking into several weight-loss programs, Hamilton joined Weight Watchers®. He felt he could follow their program because foods are given point values and there is very little guesswork when choos-ing what you will eat. “I started out with 44 points a day,” he says. “It was actually hard for me to eat all of the food I was allowed to have.”

Along with the point system, Weight Watchers is structured around meetings that offer help to dieters

through group support. “I found help at the meetings and I enjoyed seeing myself succeed,” he says. “I learned to take one day at a time.”

During his first week in Weight Watchers, Hamilton lost 13.8 pounds. Encouraged, he began to exercise several times each week at a fitness center after work. “I’ve worked at DeKalb Regional Hospital for almost 28 years,” he says. “There is a fitness center right by there and I’d go in the evenings. I rode an exercise bike and walked on the treadmill for about half-an-hour every day.”

Slowly, things began to turn around for Hamilton. As his weight continued to drop, his health started to improve and his doctor eventually took him off all of his medications. Within 18 months, he had lost an incredible 202 pounds.

Today, at 50 years old, Hamilton is in the best shape of his life. Instead of running out to get junk food, he now runs 5Ks. He still attends Weight Watchers, where he has gained life-time member status by staying at his goal weight. “At one point,” he says, “I was actually 20 pounds under-weight. I just wanted to know what it felt like to be under my ideal weight for once, even though I had to gain that back.

“Losing 202 pounds wasn’t easy,” says Hamilton, “but if I can do it, anyone can.”

LOSING BIGstaying small

FelixHamiltonAFTer

beFore

By Tina Thurmond

Overcoming obesity is one of the most difficult — and most important — challenges you or

someone you love may ever face. FTC is proud to share the stories of three of our members

who lost a significant amount of weight by exercising and following a healthy eating plan.

We hope you will be inspired and encouraged by their victories.


Peggy BrownPeggy Brown is the owner of TNT

Fitness for Women in Rainsville. Origi-nally from Sylvania, Brown was given a wake-up call when her father died in early 2009 due to complications from weight-related health issues. “He was very overweight,” she says. “After he died, I started thinking about how the last 15 years of his life had not been good. His foot had been amputated because of diabetes and he was always sick. I knew I had to do something or I would be the same way.”

At 45 years old, Brown weighed 310 pounds and suffered from many health problems herself. Frightened by her father’s death, she contemplated having gastric bypass surgery. “I had not been to the doctor in years,” she says, “just because I didn’t want to be weighed. In April, three months after my dad died, my friend Sheila Overby talked me into trying to lose the weight without surgery and promised to stick with me.”

The friends started walking a little at lunch and eating more nutritious meals. They walked most mornings throughout the summer of 2009. They lost a lot of days due to rain, so they found a small gym in Rainsville for ladies called TNT. It was close to their jobs and kept them out of the weather. But in October of that year, the gym’s owner announced that TNT was clos-ing.

Rather than lose the one place where she felt comfortable exercis-ing, Brown decided to buy the gym. “I knew I had to have that gym or I would quit exercising,” she says, “and so would a lot of other people. I didn’t want that to happen.”

With help from her friends, family and husband, Steve, she gave the gym a complete overhaul. She purchased new equipment and created a sooth-ing atmosphere for ladies who wanted to unwind and have some time to themselves before or after work. “It’s a different kind of gym,” she says. “One of the first things people notice is there are no mirrors on the walls. I want people to be comfortable and enjoy working out without the stress of wor-rying about what they look like.”

As a client of her own gym, Brown has lost an amazing 130 pounds. She

credits daily work-outs and a careful eating plan. “I don’t go even one day without exercising,” she says.

Her friend Sheila still works out with her. “She kept her promise and has stuck with me every step of the way,” Brown says. “She’s a great friend.”

Staci MillerLosing 50 to 60 pounds is difficult

to do even once, but Staci Miller of Pisgah has proven it can be done at least four times.

“My weight-loss story began when I was a kid,” she says. “I was not significantly overweight, but I was chubby enough to be self-conscious and ridiculed by other kids. I started my first diet when I was in the fifth grade and I was good at it. If you told me what to eat I could do it, but once I lost the weight I would gain it back. I had no concept of what healthy eating was.”

In 2000, at the age of 25, Miller was tired of the constant struggle to keep her weight down. She de-cided she needed a new way of life that would help her get fit and stay healthy. “That is what brought me to Weight Watchers,” she says. “I have a master’s degree in Psychology, and the Weight Watchers point system is the best behavior modification pro-gram I have ever seen – vegetables are free, fattening desserts cost lots of points. That year, I made huge chang-es in the way I ate.”

Miller stopped going to the drive-thru for breakfast, gave up her usual pizza and burgers for lunch and din-ner and learned how to cook. Within months, she lost 50 pounds and six dress sizes. “It completely changed my life,” she says. “I started teaching step aerobics and I became a leader with Weight Watchers.”

For four years, she had no trouble maintaining her weight. “Then my husband, Waylon, and I started our family,” she says. “I gained 69 pounds with my first pregnancy.”

After her son was born, Miller found that it was difficult to lose the weight. “I was balancing a newborn and a career,” she says. “I had to learn what made it work all over again.” She lost 60 pounds, and

for the second time, learned she was expecting again — and then again.

“We were surprised to learn we were having twins the last time,” she says. “Each time it took a little longer to get the weight off, but today I’m healthier and more fit than I’ve ever been.”

As a mother of four, Staci enjoys

encouraging others and sharing what she has learned on her weight-loss journey. “There will be weeks that you don’t lose anything and there will be weeks that you gain. You have to take it day by day. Just get up and do something to move. And make the best possible choices you can. If you blow it, just get right back to making healthy choices at the next meal. You can do it.”n

Peggy brown AFTer

beFore

Staci Miller AFTer

beFore


LoG oN & LoSe IT:How the Internet can help you meet your fitness goals

By Jared Dovers

Using the power of broadband Internet from Farmers Tele-communications Cooperative

can save you money on your way to becoming fit. Websites and fitness apps can show you how to get the results you want without spending the extra cash for health club member-ships or expensive workout equip-ment.

While there are countless resourc-es on the Internet, this article looks at a few of the tools to help you take those first steps toward a healthier you in 2012.

Track your eating habitsOne phrase often repeated by

nutritionists and other weight loss ex-perts is “you only manage what you measure.” That’s the philosophy be-hind My Food Diary (www.myfood-diary.com). The website is designed to help you track all the food you consume throughout the day.

The results may surprise you. Small indulgences such as a piece of candy, a glass of sweet tea with your lunch or a latte from McDonald’s can add up to pounds of fat around your

waistline. My Food Diary helps you control your weight by telling you exactly where the calories came from in the first place.

A similar website that boasts over 5 million users is FitDay (www.fitday.com). FitDay offers free access to its database of detailed nutritional infor-mation on thousands of items. It also has an iPhone app and a PC version that can be run offline.

Build a healthy dietNow that you are able to track

what you eat, it is time to learn how to follow a balanced diet. Several people featured in this issue of Connected Magazine have reached their weight-loss goals. None of them did so while eating snack cakes and half a pizza every night. Reaching your desired weight requires balancing how many calories you take in with how many calories you use every day.

Websites such as Spark People (www.sparkpeople.com) offer a whole month’s worth of meal ideas for people trying to lose weight. You can choose from low-calorie, low-fat and more.

Other sites, such as Greatist (www.greatist.com), offer nutrition information, recipes and tons of tips for healthy eating and living.

Smartphone apps such as Food on the Table (www.foodonthetable.com) offer the same features, but enable you to take your recipes with you to the grocery store. This added conve-nience allows you to buy only what you need for the week, saving you even more money. Food on the Table can even track what is on sale at your local grocery store and build your weekly menu from that.

Now that you are tracking your calories and planning your meals to meet your weight loss goals, it is time to pick up the pan and start to cook. While more restaurants are offering low-calorie choices, the best way to control your calories is to cook at home. Luckily, “The Joy of Cooking” is not the only tool to help you learn how to create great meals. Websites now offer step-by-step video instruc-tions on topics ranging from how to turn on your oven to baking your own bread.

You can start with YouTube (www.youtube.com). You can search

When looking to lose weight and improve your health, most of us need

all the help we can get. The Internet can be an important resource on

your journey — from helping you find a supportive fitness community to

providing structured workout plans customized to your body type.


The Broadband Story

for any cooking technique or recipe on this free service and likely find numerous videos explaining how to accomplish the task.

For those who want more formal instruction, online cooking schools such as Rouxbe (www.rouxbe.com) offer access to professional videos of trained culinary experts. While Rouxbe is not a free service ($300 per year, the equivalent of $25 per month), with a little discipline you could be eating delicious, healthy meals every night without having to spend money at a restaurant.

Get movingDiet and proper nutrition are

only part of the solution when you’re trying to shed extra pounds. Exercise and staying motivated to keep up the hard work are absolutely essential to achieving the body you want.

Starting an exercise program can be overwhelming, and sometimes a little advice and encouragement are all you need to get started. Hiring a personal trainer may not be in your budget, and you may not be able to exercise on someone else’s sched-ule. Websites such as MyFitnessPal (www.myfitnesspal.com) and Fitoc-racy (www.fitocracy.com) allow you to connect with other people who are committed to losing weight and having a healthy body. Each site offers you the tools you need to start exercis-ing with confidence. Other members

can share their stories and advice on questions ranging from how to jog your first mile to how to train for your first marathon and more.

Once you have started exercis-ing, the Internet can help you keep up with your workouts and share your progress with friends. MapMyFitness (www.mapmyfitness.com) allows you to log physical activity, such as running or cycling, and chart your progress over weeks and months. The website also allows you to connect with others, share your exercise routes and download other routes in your area.

Training programs are another, more structured way to start exercis-ing. The “Couch to 5K” program (available at www.coolrunning.com) has helped many “couch potatoes” get up and get moving. Starting with just a few minutes of jogging a day, the workouts are designed to take someone with no previous running experience and prepare them to run 3.1 miles (or five kilometers, hence the name) in just two months. The pro-gram is also available on the Android and iPhone.

Get your game onNo matter what the plan is, or

how much support is involved, some people simply do not enjoy running (or riding a bike, or anything they may have been forced to do in gym class). There are ways to lose weight

beyond these traditional activities. Thanks to the power of modern gam-ing devices, exercising can be a fun, interactive experience and as easy as playing a game.

The XBox Kinect (www.xbox.com/kinect) allows users to play games that give you a workout while you are having fun with family or friends. Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports and UFC Trainer are just a few titles that offer great gameplay combined with intense workouts. These games are designed for adults as well as kids, and many activities — such as dancing or tennis — are best enjoyed by the whole family. You can also challenge your friends using XBox Live, a service that utilizes your broadband Internet connection from FTC.

The Wii Fit Plus (www.wiifit.com) for the Nintendo Wii offers exercise programs for every level of fitness, and provides a personal trainer to keep up with your progress. Players use a stationary board to do pushups, sit-ups, stretches and more. The program keeps up with bench-marks such as how many pounds you have lost.

No matter how much weight you want to lose, the Internet can help you. Getting started may seem difficult, but with the planning and support available through your FTC Internet connection, it is much easier than you think.n


Jim Wright, D.Min., is the author and pub-lisher of “Skinny Jim’s Menus,” a cookbook filled with easy recipes for ordinary people

who enjoy healthy eating. A full-time Baptist minister and instructor with the Body 4 Believers program, Wright also has two master’s degrees in music and a doctorate in divinity from New Orleans Seminary.

Underneath the impressive credentials, he is just an or-dinary husband and father who loves to cook. “I’ve always thought I’d like to write a book,” he says, “but I never re-ally thought my first one would be a cookbook.”

Wright has not always been “Skinny Jim.” In fact, he got the idea for the book after writing a series of blogs which centered around his own weight-loss experience. “I had major back surgery last year and gained a lot of weight,” he says. “I had struggled with my weight for a long time, despite being involved in martial arts. I finally realized that just exercise alone wasn’t going to make me lose weight.”

Wright turned to his friend Greg Locklear, creator of Body 4 Believers, for advice. “We are both pastors and we have breakfast together every week,” he says. “I had watched him shrink as he lost 140 pounds, so I invited him to our church to teach the classes. When he talked about how you can have 104 ‘blow it’ days a year – two days each week – I thought, ‘I can do this,’ and I just really went into it full guns.”

He quickly lost 35 pounds and his friends and church members began asking for his recipes. “I started writing menus and I’d say, ‘This is what I ate this week,’” he says. “That eventually turned into a blog which became very popular. Then Greg asked if I would consider putting

together a cookbook.”Less than three months later, in July 2011, Wright pub-

lished his book. The nutritionally balanced menus include mouth-watering choices like French toast, fried chicken and even pasta dishes combined to accelerate weight loss. “It is healthy eating that forces your body to burn fat,” he says.

In early 2012, Wright, his wife, Laura, and son, Jeremy, will relocate to Carmel, Ind., from their home in Centre, Ala., where they will be involved in church planting and in teaching the Body 4 Believers plan. He will be the first person to teach the program outside the South and plans to publish at least two more cookbooks in the near future.

Skinny Jim’s Menus:a fat-loss answer to prayer

Lean French Toast 2 slices double fiber wheat bread 1 teaspoon imitation vanilla flavoring 1 tablespoon fat-free half-and-half 1/2 cup egg Beaters® cinnamon to taste MCT oil*

Mix egg Beaters, cinnamon, vanilla and half-and-half. Soak bread in mixture. Heat a small amount of MCT oil in skillet. Place bread in pan and cook on both sides until golden brown. Serve hot with sugar-free syrup and a dollop of fat-free or low-fat Cool Whip. Serve with a natural carbohydrate like fruit or berries.


Chicken Mozzarella 1 6 ounce chicken breast 1/2 cup double fiber wheat bread crumbs (see recipe below) 1/4 cup mozzarella low-fat or fat-free cheese 1/2 cup egg Beaters® MCT oil* Tomato sauce (see recipe below)

Coat chicken in double fiber wheat bread crumbs. Immerse in egg Beaters. Coat again in bread crumbs. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Heat pan and cook in MCT oil until done. Sprinkle mozzarella on chicken. Cover with tomato sauce. Serve with a fibrous carbohydrate like broccoli and a natural carbohydrate like a baked potato.

Tomato Sauce 1 can (8 ounce) tomato sauce green peppers, chopped red peppers, chopped scallions, minced mushrooms, sliced garlic, minced onion salt oregano

Add vegetables and spices to tomato sauce to taste.

Salmon or Tuna Patties 1 can salmon or tuna in water 1/2 cup egg Beaters 3/4 cup double fiber wheat bread crumbs (see recipe, right) MCT oil*

Mix first three ingredients and form into patties. Cook in skillet with MCT oil until golden brown on both sides. Serve with a fibrous carbohydrate like broccoli and a natural carbohydrate like sweet potatoes.

Double Fiber WheatBread CrumbsHeat oven to 250º. Place desired amount of double fiber wheat bread slices on cookie sheet, bake for 15-20 minutes or until bread is dry and hard. Break into piec-es, place in blender; blend into crumbs.

* MCT oil is medium-chain triglyceride oil and can be found in health food stores.

Green Goddess Smoothie 1 scoop protein powder 3-4 ice cubes 1/2 cup skim milk 1/8 cup fat-free half-and-half 3 strawberries, frozen, unsweetened 1/2 banana 3/4 cup cold water 1 cup spinach, freshAdd milk, half-and-half, banana and protein powder to blender and pulse for a few seconds. Add strawberries, spinach, water and ice. Pulse until all ingredients are blended. Serve immediately.

“Skinny Jim’s Menus” is available online at body4believer.com, at any Body 4 Believers meeting, on iTunes or in their retail store at 208 Gault Avenue in Fort Payne.


P.O. Box 217• 144 McCurdy Ave. N.Rainsville, Alabama 35986


Lions Club 27th Annual Western Rodeo

Thursday, March 1 through Saturday,

March 3

Northeast AlabamaAgri-Business Center

Hwy. 75 North, Rainsville

Doors open: 6 p.m.Rodeo: 7 – 9:30 p.m.

Siege at Bridgeport ReenactmentMarch 23 – 25

Located on one of the original sites in Jackson County, outside of city limits in Bridgeport, Ala.

Off Highway 72 on County Road 255.

FTC employees supported their favorite Iron Bowl Team the week before the “big game” while at the same time supporting a “big cause” — The DeKalb County Children’s Advocacy Center. Employees wore their “This Bama Fan” or “This Tiger Fan supports this house” shirt to show their support for their team and their community. The DeKalb County Children’s Advocacy Center provides free counseling and other services to abused children. To purchase your favorite team shirt call 256-997-9700.

The 2012 event commemorates the 150th anniversaryof the War Between the States.

For more information call Glenn Hill at 256-495-3614 or 256-495-3614. Gate admission: $5 adults, $2 children 6 and under.

Connected - FTC · to the people of Northeast Alabama. The company has over 16,000 access lines,...

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