If you were at the Heavenly Ball the following may sound familiar...If you weren't at the Heavenly Ball, I hope this will inspire you to become more involved with Annie's Angels...
When I saw the final board vote on our Angels Among Us theme for this year’s Heavenly Ball, I got so excited. My mind went in 2 directions.
The first place my mind went was to my mom. She is the angel that’s always with me. Here’s how I know. Mom used to find change on the ground. Heads up she would pick it up, tails up and she would turn it over to heads and wait 10 seconds then pick it up. I’m not sure why, I think it was bad luck but that was just the rule. When I have an issue, I like to talk to her about it. Sometimes after a talk, I’ll find change on the ground. I know she was listening.
About 7 years ago, I rode my bicycle from Daytona to Exeter, 18 days, 1800 miles of pedaling. Along the way I found change. Through sweltering heat, even through a hurricane I found change. One day, I was climbing some very large rolling hills. I was struggling and wondering why I was out here. I even remember saying out loud “who do you think you are? What do you think this is going to change?” Then I saw it, there was a quarter on the road. I told my mom, “sorry but I can’t stop. It’s to dangerous.” And I kept pedaling. I started climbing the next hill and there was another quarter. I said again, “mom I can’t stop here.” I made it to my third climb of the morning and there was a dime on the road. Now I’m thinking she’s getting mad, she only left a dime. I still couldn’t stop there, and I told her so. Finally, I made it to the last climb of the morning and there it was, another dime. I said, “mom you’re killing me here. I can’t stop on these climbs.”
I made it to my rest stop and told my navigator Chris Beliveau about the change on the road. He had been collecting it all along the ride, so he knew what it meant. He said, at least you know your mom still here. We went to leave the stop and we had to cross traffic and I had a red light. I stopped, put my foot down, looked down to check my bike and right there next to my foot, 2 quarters and 2 dimes, heads up. I picked them up and went to hand them to Chris but he was freaked out. He wouldn’t touch them. In that moment I knew what mom was trying to say. She was saying, I was there with you in the heat, I was with you in the storm, I was with you through the danger. I will always be with you.
That is the message I want to bring to our Angel families. We will be with you through good times and difficult times, from now until forever.
Let me tell you about 3 of our Angel families…
Imagine you’re a teenager with diabetes, it’s hard enough to be just a teen, right? Now you have obstacles. You have constant blood checks, adjust your insulin either by injection or a machine you keep strapped to you. I can only imagine it’s not fun. There’s a summer camp that can teach you to cope and teach you to manage your situation. You meet other kids like you, you talk and make friends that understand you. But this camp is a little too costly. How can you possibly go?
Imagine that your young family has a new baby and that baby came 5 weeks early by emergency C-section. Imagine that he’s not breathing well, and he has heart trouble. Before you can even hold him, imagine that he is taken from you and sent via ambulance to another hospital for more intensive care. Imagine, that you will spend the next week out of work traveling between 2 hospitals then the next 4 weeks out of work traveling to the hospital to visit your new son. Imagine, how do you buy gas to do all this driving, how will you buy groceries, how do you make ends meet?
Finally, Imagine that you’re a veteran. You’ve served your country and made us proud to know you, but you have a secret. Every morning you lock yourself in the bathroom with your weapon. You stare at yourself in the mirror and hold the pistol under your chin and you search for reasons to NOT pull the trigger. How do you go on?
The second place my mind went was to all of you. You see, I get credit for being an “angel.” People we help tell me all the time, “thank you, you are an angel.” But I know better. I know that YOU are the true angels here. I know that without your support I’d be helpless and our Angels families, would be hopeless.
I can tell you that every one of these scenarios is a true story. I can also tell you that YOU were the Angels that made the difference in these people’s lives. You sent 2 teens to that summer camp. You helped get that young family gas cards and Market Baskets cards. You are the reason Chris Pets for Vets is succeeding in helping veterans find a reason to live. YOU were the answer to these family’s prayers.
I’m here tonight humbled by your generosity but empowered by your commitment. I’ve seen the good that we can do together, you’ve heard the stories of hope, so when I say our goal is $125,000.00 tonight, I know that it’s within reach. I know that you will come through!
This is my personal invitation to you to be a beacon of hope to local families struggling through life threatening disease, illness or disability.
This is my personal invitation to be a connection neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend and business to business.
This is my personal invitation to you to be part of a caring fundraising network.
Annie’s Angels is Angels Hands, Angels Hearts working together to help friends in need.
Thank you for attending tonight and thank you for your support.
Meet Our Board - Diane DaGiau
Born and raised in Medford, MA. Met Bill DaGiau in Killington VT in 1987. Married in July of 1990. Co-found/secretary of Annie's Angels Memorial Fund, Catering director for Eurest at Lonza Biological.
Two children, Stephanie Marie and William Arthur Jr. Three beautiful grand children, James Michael, Snow Valerie and Dimitri Parker.
We have been blessed to say the least. Bill came to me with this spiritual inspiration in 2007 of beginning a ‘charity’ of some sort. A way of helping people. He actually gave me an ultimatum of ‘are you in’? Of course!
We owned a deli at the time in memory of my father-in-law, Valerio. Valerio’s Kitchen. So it only seemed right to name the charity in memory of my mother-in-law Annie. And so Annie's Angels Memorial Fund was born. With the help of a dear friend handing Bill a start-up check which covered all of the necessary fees with registering a charity, our life as Mr. and Mrs. Annie's Angels began!
Bill had been doing charity bicycling events for years but we just had to raise funds, show up and do the work. Having your own charity is a BIG difference. You not only show up and do the work on a daily basis, but you create the events, recruit the participants and volunteers, raise money to not only put on the event but have enough left over to ‘help families’, wake up at dawn to set up, stay late to break down, and at the end of it all, kiss each other good night knowing you, together, had the best day of your life!
Annie's Angels Memorial Fund has come a long way in 12 years. We have helped more families than we ever thought possible. We have acquired one of the most outstanding, loyal and dedicated group of people we call our board of directors and our friends.
We have together shared almost 30 years of marriage and still wake up every day next to our best friend!
Life is never easy! Life is hard for so many. Life is what you make it! Life with my family and Annie's Angels....irreplaceable!
Thanks to YOU we are able to ease some of the stresses that come with a doctors diagnosis. We just
can't do this good work without YOUR support. I ask that you please consider making a tax deductible contribution to
Annie's Angels
or visit the
Our Families
tab on the website and select a particular family to help. Get updates about "your family" on the website or follow them on social media to see how your contributions are working, and thanks again for your continued support.
What's Killing My Metabolism?
By Cindy May Gibb
Good question! If ever there was a ‘secret’ to fat loss, perhaps it boils down to…..wait for it……a faster metabolism, right? Are some people just born with a faster metabolism than others? We’ve probably all tended to think so…you know that ultra thin girl who hasn’t exercised a day in her life who just never seems to pack on pounds, or that guy who literally eats everything in sight but complains he can’t gain weight. What’s up with that!???
It’s helpful first to define metabolism….we’ve all heard the word, but what the heck is it? I had to look it up (I mean I know what it is, but put on the spot, I couldn’t actually define it). So here we go: “the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.” Hmm. Ok, for the purposes of this blog, we’re the living organism. Our metabolism is what converts our food (fuel) to little building blocks for proteins, fats and some carbs, it takes the food and with it provides the energy needed to run cellular processes and for immediate use….or storage for later.
That’s enough of the scientific lingo….as fascinating as it all is, science boggles my brain. Essentially, we eat food, our digestive system breaks down the food to be used as energy sources which are absorbed into the blood and carried to the cells. The energy from these compounds is either released for use (yay!) or stored in our body tissues (like our liver and muscles—great! or body fat—which is also great, until the body fat storage gets out of hand—sad emoji).
So what about some people being born with a faster metabolism than others? Kinda. The reality is that some people are just born with a more muscular body type than others, and therefore they naturally do have a faster metabolism. These genetic lottery winners will find it easier to lose or maintain a healthy weight. On the flip side, they’ll find it more challenging to gain weight if they so desire, so there’s that. Guess it depends on your perspective—it’s all relative, right?
As my goal is to always bring my readers value, actual tangible solutions for health struggles, I am opting to point out some of the lesser known factors that affect the rate of our metabolism negatively. That being said, here we go, and for those whose goals include crankin’ up the ole metabolic processes, consider the following defeating habits:
- Skipping breakfast
. At the risk of sounding like your mother, I won’t say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I will say you shouldn’t eliminate it altogether. You don’t have to eat the second you get up, absolutely not. But you should “break the fast” your body has been on for the overnight hours. As metabolism slows while we sleep, eating ramps it up and gets us on the path to burning calories throughout our day. No breakfast signals your body to conserve rather than burn our next incoming calories. Not at all what most of desire.
- Eating the wrong breakfast
. Sorta goes without saying that sugary high-glycemic foods firstly won’t satiate you for long, but they also set you up to crash later …. and crave more sugar. Not good.
- Not drinking enough water
. Can you believe that drinking enough water throughout the day can increase our metabolic rate by up to 30%! Every time you drink 16 ounces of water, that 30% increase in your metabolism can last about 60 minutes! If you’re wondering how much water you should drink daily…take your current weight in pounds, divide by 2. That number in ounces is recommended at a minimum…other factors certainly come into play (activity level, weather, illness, pregnancy, etc.), but as a general rule, try to drink at least ½ your body weight in ounces every day.
- Stress and high cortisol levels
. Cortisol is referred to as the stress hormone. The more stressed we are, the higher our cortisol levels go. What’s wrong with that? Lots. Cortisol = increased appetite, increased cravings, increased laziness, poor sleep quality. None of which is obviously good for weight management or weight loss. Stress is basically a given for us all (this could be an entire blog on its own), but there are certain things we can do to reduce and manage our stress levels. Consider exercise, yoga, ‘me-time’, meditation, all natural supplements to reduce cortisol levels (I use one if you’re interested in learning more---message me!).
- Not consuming sufficient protein
. Muscle is super important to our metabolism as the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you’ll burn. What is the #1 macro-nutrient muscles need to grow? Protein. So, if you’re not eating enough, your muscles aren’t getting enough. And if your muscles aren’t getting enough, you will more quickly lose your muscle mass, never mind grow it. Quality matters, too! If you are in the market for a high quality, nutrient dense un-denatured whey protein or plant-based protein, please reach out to me and I can hook you up!
- Poor sleep
. I am learning a ton about the crucial role sleep plays, not just in maintaining metabolism, but in our overall health in general! Not only does poor sleep leave us sluggish and lacking energy, it impairs our brain functioning and messes with our hormones including melatonin and cortisol both of which can lead to weight gain…..ugh.
- Neglecting exercise, strength training in particular
. Everyone pretty much knows that a sedentary lifestyle puts your body into an energy-conservation mode which in turn slows metabolism making it more challenging to break down body fat. Cardio helps to quickly burn calories which is phenomenal, but as soon as the cardiovascular activity is over, the calorie burn pretty much returns to normal. Enter strength training—it’s directly related to muscle mass and as discussed earlier, the more muscle mass we have, the more calories we burn! And for a longer period of time! That’s right-when the weight training session is complete, your muscles need to repair themselves and this elevates our calorie burn for an extended amount of time. Sweet! Definitely incorporate pumping iron into your exercise routine. Don’t worry-you’re not going to get big and bulky~it just doesn’t work that way! When combined with the right nutrition plan, sufficient sleep, water and stress management, be prepared to get lean and toned!
You can reach me via email at
missionchanginglives@gmail.com
or connect with me on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/cindymay38
Thank you for taking time to read!
In Health,
Cindy May Gibb
