Rebecca’s Blog

My journey of weight loss has been an incredible learning curve, even though it hasn’t even been a full week since I started. I seem more aware of the choices I make.

One thing I have noticed is my change in mood. I feel that I used food to fill voids. Now that I’m not complying with those “quick fixes” I’m left with those voids to fill with something else. I’m kinda at a loss in those moments. Simple tasks seem more overwhelming than they need to be and it’s taking longer to think things through. Weird, I know - but that’s how I’m feeling.

Could all this be related to how much food I consumed? Maybe. Maybe it’s also due to past incidences where I used to starve myself and now that my body is receiving less food than before - my brain is replaying how my body felt during those periods of time. Other things that I’m feeling is that it’s harder to concentrate, harder to recall memories and just a whole mix of feelings! I am aware that my body needs time to adjust to this change. I’m certainly not starving myself, I am receiving enough calories and other nutrients. My body is just used to eating more.

If I’m not posting as consistently as I used to, it’s because there is all of a sudden SO MUCH swarming around in my head and I’m just trying to sort everything out. Thank you friends & family for all your support.

I AM GOING TO DO THIS!

125 by Dec 1 here I come!!!

The past few days have been like a breath of fresh air. Aside from how whoosy and achy I’ve been feeling lately and the need to take more naps than normal- I feel GREAT! Clark and I have been doing well this month in our business and I was able to go and fill our cupboards and fridge. That is SUCH  a good feeling! Clark says that I smile from ear to ear around the house and just my essence is at peace after I put the groceries away. He told me today, “The sound of you putting the groceries away… I don’t even have to see you - you sound so happy. The sound alone is a happy sound! “

We had the Missionaries over for dinner tonight. I love when the Missionaries come over. It’s like our home is recharged and protected with the blessing of their presence. It’s one of Clark’s and my greatest joys to feed them. We had hamburgers tonight. I have been craving BBQ ever since summer has started out here in LA for us. MMMMmmmmmm was it good! Good Job Clarky! The hamburger patty was cooked to perfection! Clark and I normally don’t eat red meat, but it sure did taste good tonight.

I have been so proud of Clark and I this week. We’ve been diligently getting on the Treadmill nearly everyday and have kept our Calories under our Max Goal on FitDay.com while maintaining a good and high nutrition level. I just feel the end goal and the reality that we’re REALLY going to do it and that feeling excites me! I feel that the fact that I’ve committed myself and made the decision to just DO IT that I really believe in ME. I know that because I do really believe in me and my ability to actually accomplish this goal that I’ll really make it happen. I want it so bad. That feeling alone is helping me to not crave so many munchies. The fear of not reaching that goal physically prevents those intense cravings. Thank goodness!

So, now Clark and I are just trying to work out a strict sleep routine. We both are night owls and have had trouble falling asleep. We seem to not be able to fall asleep and end up just chatting till 12 and then deciding to compute until 1 or 2 AM and then finally fall asleep. This habit is one that’s been hard to break. We’ll get there though.

I’m excited for tomorrow!

It’s a challenge to take control of ones self. To dig into that inner wiring in our minds and re-route thoughts that affect your instincts and others impressions of your outer being. What goes on in the brain is miraculous! We have more power than we give ourselves credit for!

Prov. 23: 7

7 For as he ^athinketh in his ^bheart, so is he:…

Sunday’s lesson was right up my alley. I LOVE studying behaviors and ways that I can improve. Our teacher first instructed us to get a piece of paper and pen/pencil. Go ahead and do the same and I can take you through the incredible lesson I learned.

We folded the paper long ways and she instructed us to write on the top of the paper “Negative Thoughts” and proceeded to tell us to go ahead and write down all our negative thoughts that we tell ourselves/think regularly… (So go ahead and do the same if you’d like and then continue to read below).

After about 5 min that she allowed us to write them all down she then explained to us the power of our minds. That whatever we choose to tell ourselves, in telling our mind we will in turn believe it to be true. i.e. “She is so stupid!” or “I just can’t do anything right, everybody hates me!“. If we tell ourselves that often enough, we’ll believe it. One lady chimed in out of the group with a great thought that I love:

“When you point one finger you have four more fingers pointing back at you!“

Our teacher then asked us “Why is it that we get so frustrated that nothing is going right? That everything seems to go wrong and we can’t seem to get a hold on things?” She then also added later another thought “How do you feel when somebody who you care so much for just seems to get stuck in life and their whole world is so horrible for them? They vent the same things over and over to you and no matter what advise you give them they just can’t seem to get over their troubles? How do you handle that? What more could do you do for them?“

She gave some great thoughts to keep in mind to help us with just that situation:

“Keep in mind when your in that situation of speaking with them to (1) Listen, (2)Validate their feelings, (3) Acknowledge the reality of the situation… then keep in mind when it’s easy to label the person or place judgment with them or anyone in general that you may be speaking to or about:

They are doing the best they can for who they are and where they’re at in life.

Assume the best of everybody.“

There is a channel we have with the Spirit that when we pray for guidance, unless there is a place within us for the Spirit to reside, without it in no way can we expect any assistance in our troubles. Yes, God is always there, but we also need to humble ourselves and invite God’s Spirit appropriately. What we need to keep in mind is:

3 Ne. 11: 29

29 For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of ^acontention is not of me, but is of the ^bdevil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.

Doesn’t it make sense that the reason that we feel we’re getting no where or no one is listening or i.e. “I just can’t seem to get these last few pounds off..” etc is maybe because you continue to think negative and proceed to put  yourself down? You’re not allowing the negativity/contention to leave you! Where there is contention within us, there is no room for the Spirit. The moment we let that contention leave us, the Spirit has room to reside and help us to progress.

Thank the Lord for the trials in your life, for trials are not always consequences for doing something wrong. There is no need to blame yourself but accept the situation as it is and thank the Lord for the opportunity to learn from this obstacle/trail and the ability to grow into a stronger and wiser person because of it.

Also, another thing to keep in mind:

We are only as good as what has proceeded us.

Meaning, we can only expect ourselves to react to situations as we have grown up with the behavior taught to us. i.e. Did you have a Mother/Father who was behaviorally a negative person in general? This doesn’t mean we’re stuck with these traits - because we always have the ability to change that behavior.

Another thought to keep in mind is:

Would you speak as negatively to your child as you speak to yourself? If not, than why would you speak to God’s child (you) as you do? Something to think about. Keep in mind to remind yourself:

“I am taking care of God’s child (me). How would He want me to take care of me?”

Our teacher then instructed us to take that list of negative thoughts and change them into positive thoughts on the other side of the paper. (Go ahead and proceed to do so if you’re following along in this lesson).

What a great exercise of positive thinking this lesson was. It really opened my eyes in how powerful I really am. There are quite a few things that I want to improve in my life that I feel I instinctively hold myself back on. I don’t give myself enough credit that I can change this. I am not stuck with “this” for life. If I can tell myself that “I can and I will meet the President in person” and make that happen, then why can’t I use that same willpower to do anything and everything else in life? I personally feel that there isn’t anything that is impossible in this life if you believe in it & yourself enough.

What a life saver! I came across a website that helps you keep track of eating goals, nutritional goals, fitness goals and weight goals ALL-IN-ONE!

www.FitDay.com

You can use the software online for free, or purchase it with added features. The online software works well enough for me since I’ve been through the whole weight-loss journey several times before and what the added features are on the purchased software version is more like a personal trainer added. I’ll be OK without one. All I need is an all-in-one place where I can keep track of my foods, the nutrition and weight. FitDay.com HAS it all plus!!! The chart reports are absolutely amazing, the fact that I can search for food with the Nutritional label information already added or add custom food myself so all I have to do is say I had 1 serving of ‘this’ and 2 servings of ‘that’ and it adds all the calories, nutrition facts all together for me! I can add a daily calorie goal, a long/short-term weight goal and it even reports your daily activity so you can at the end of the day/week run a report on how many calories intake vs. burned through activity, you can generate a nutrition report daily/weekly and a weight-loss report. You can even generate monthly reports!

They also have a journal area where you can vent or just report on your weight-loss journey.

But anyways, I am just so excited about this website. It calculates how much weight you need to lose weekly to reach your goal- whatever it may be. Clark will reach his goal by August and I will reach mine by December. So here is my report everybody. It’s embarrassing, but in order for me to reach my goal I just need to have that feeling that people are depending on me or else (for me) it’s too easy to get lazy and not think about it. I need to think about it all the time. So, also I said before I wasn’t going to weigh myself, but I realized that I need to in order to reach my goal in the time that I need to for my health’s sake.

Weight Goal Stats

Current Weight
Your weight is 175 lb as of 05/05/2008.

Weight Goal
Your goal is to weigh 125 lb by 12/01/2008

Goal Progress
You are currently 50 lb above the target weight.

The deadline for your goal is 210 days (30 weeks, 0 days) away.

To meet your goal you need to lose about 1.67 lb per week.

So there you go everybody, wish me luck! Check out the website, you’ll LOVE it if your goal is to lose weight, and also just to maintain good nutrition and your current weight. This is a site I think I’ll use for a lifetime.

www.FitDay.com

Other stuff I’m using to help get myself Fit For Life!

Nutripoints

To help me choose the BEST foods in a day.

Juice Plus+

To help ensure that I have my total value of Fruits & Vegetables in a day

Juice Plus+ Complete

One of the best meal replacements to date out there. Great source of protein, fiber, low cal, low cholesterol and low carbs. Can’t get any better than this stuff.

Juice Plus+ is the simple, convenient, and inexpensive way to add more nutrition from fruits and vegetables to your diet, every day.

Taking Juice Plus+ is the next best thing to eating fruits and vegetables.

Juice Plus+ provides nutrition from 17 different fruits, vegetables, and grains. Each ingredient is specially selected to provide you with a wide range of nutritional benefits.

Juice Plus+ contains not only a much wider variety of naturally occurring vitamins than vitamin supplements, but it also contains other phytonutrients, antioxidants, and nutrients — even some of the fiber — found in the fruits and vegetables it’s made from. These nutrients work together in combination to provide you more of the nutritional benefits of eating healthful whole foods.

The Concept of Juice Plus+

Vegetable gardens. Fruit orchards. They give us nature’s bounty and provide the foundation for healthy living and good nutrition.

The latest dietary guidelines and clinical research consistently emphasize that people need to eat more fruits and vegetables to improve their chances of living long and healthy lives. And scientists learn more every day about the nutritional power packed into every tomato, cranberry, and piece of broccoli. Antioxidants. Phytonutrients. Vitamins. Fiber. And more.

Juice Plus+ provides the nutrition from 17 different fruits, vegetables, and grains in convenient and inexpensive capsule form. Juice Plus+ Orchard Blend contains seven of the most nutritious fruits around:
apples, oranges, pineapple, cranberries, peaches, acerola cherries, and papaya. Juice Plus+ Garden Blend contains ten nutrient-dense vegetables and grains: carrots, parsley, beets, kale, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, and rice bran and oat bran.

Taking Juice Plus+ capsules every day provides the nutritional foundation we so desperately need that is so lacking in our diets today.

The Reason For Juice Plus+

“Eat more fruits and vegetables.” Over the years, people have found countless ways to ignore that advice. “I don’t have time.” “It’s too much trouble.” But as scientists and nutritionists continue to learn more about the disease-fighting and preventive powers found in fruits and vegetables, it’s advice we ignore at our peril.

There is no substitute for eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, at least 7-13 servings every day. But if you’re like most people, you don’t eat enough fruits or vegetables or enough variety. And those fruits and vegetables that we do eat tend to be overprocessed, over-cooked, or too far removed from the field.

That’s why there’s Juice Plus+. It’s a convenient, affordable, and natural whole food based nutritional product providing nutrition from 17 vegetables, fruits, and grains.

Juice Plus+ is not a vitamin supplement, providing a limited number of handpicked nutrients. Juice Plus+ is a whole food based product providing the wide array of nutrients found in a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains.

It’s the next best thing to fruits and vegetables…because we don’t get nearly enough of the real thing every day.

The Science Behind Juice Plus+

The many healthful benefits of Juice Plus+ have been demonstrated through numerous independent clinical research studies conducted in leading hospitals and universities by investigators in the United States, England, Australia, Austria, Italy, and Japan.

• What Juice Plus+ clinical research shows
• Juice Plus+ clinical research currently underway

To date, Juice Plus+ clinical research has been published in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals, including:

• The Journal of Nutrition
• Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
• Journal of the American College of Nutrition
• The Journal of the American College of Cardiology
• Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition
• Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine
• Nutrition Research
• Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics
• Integrative Medicine
• Current Therapeutic Research

The large and growing body of Juice Plus+ clinical research is leading to increasingly wide acceptance of Juice Plus+ among doctors and other health professionals. Thousands now recommend Juice Plus+ to their patients and clients.

Read and listen to what a few of them have to say about the importance of eating more fruits and vegetables and the role that Juice Plus+ can play. [Click Here]

Get Your Juice Plus+ Today!

Today seems to be the day of ‘Thank You’s’. Carly on her blog & on FreeandFlawed’s Blog. Maybe somethings in the air, if so I want to add to it. I hope you do too! So here’s what I am so thankful for today:

• Our cats (Hero & Tiny Kitty) who are so well behaved.
• The money that’s coming in - that we are working so hard for & learning from - that enables us to move forward in our goal for July.
• Life Lessons.
• The Gospel that gives us hope & security in life.
• Family.
• Friends.
• Blog Friends.
• My Readers who comment on my blog - THANK YOU!
• Peace in the world.
• Recycling.
• The fact that becoming Green is the new trend (finally a trend that’s positive! AND looks good!)
• Amazon.com
• The fact that gas is not $10 a gallon yet.
• The fact that when gas is $10 a gallon that we know exactly where we can escape to in UT +plus we can ride the new Trax EVERYWHERE we’d need to go in UT.
• That we don’t have to drive a lot here in LA while we live here.
• Working from home (with my husband)
• Email.
• The Internet (The good side of it)
• Blogs.
• Animals.
• The fact that my husband LOVES Vegetables, Juice Plus+, doesn’t like to eat that much Red Meat, Loves Fish (including Sushi), wants to buy me a puppy to go along with my Kitties (When we have a bigger place and more money) and just the all around fact that he loves what I love and I love what he loves!
• Netflix.
• The Beach.
• No Snow in CA
• A Family who loves Animals.
• iTunes
• Petco.
• Petsmart.
• Animal Nannies (I want to be one SO BAD someday!)
• Family Oriented Companies.
• The Possibility of moving to San Francisco. I would LOVE to live near my brother someday! (hopefully soon!)
• Books. Also, I am thankful bookstores like Barnes & Noble & Borders let you lounge around in couches and read their books there without buying them
• Juice Plus+ . I am so thankful that I can know that I am getting all the Nutrients from Fruits & Vegetables that I need in a day.
• Corner Markets run by Asians who know how to pick good produce and sell for a reasonable price. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
• The ability to Paint

The mind will believe whatever you tell it. The tabloids are good in influencing what you choose to believe.

I thought Oprah’s interview with Tom Cruise was one of the most down to earth interviews I have ever watched of any celebrity. I am ashamed at how I let myself perceive Tom Cruise since the whole “couch deal” on her last interview with him nearly 3 years ago. How powerful the media is and more often than not we don’t realize it. Women in particular like a good magazine like a good Soap Opera (I myself, am guilty of giving in at times).

In her interview she cleared up a lot of the most popular attacks on Tom Cruise. The couch jumping which Tom explained, “It was just a moment. That’s how I felt.” The quote about Brooke Shields & Anti-Depressants, which he explained, “It was said wrong, and that is my fault. I should not have even addressed Brooke. I apologized and we are now even closer friends than we were before.” He emphasized his belief in using Anti-Depressants, “It should be the choice of the parents. My intention was more about anti-depressants being used with children. I just feel that people should have a choice. It is not my position to tell people what to do and I never wanted it to come across as telling people what to do.” And finally, the interview with Matt Lauer. “I wish I had handled things differently. I felt pressed and I see a lot, even that day - what I could have said differently.”

Now that the news, the tabloids have the internet to filter things quickly- a lot of media clips get edited and thus spread around the world rapidly. Things are so easily misunderstood and taken out of context that before these Celebrities know it- a lot of their fans get sent the wrong message. Like Tom Cruise and Scientology. He said, “A lot of the media portrayed me as preaching. I am not one to tell people what they should believe or say ‘You must believe this!’ That is not what Scientology is about. I have learned through all this that when I go to promote a movie, that is all that I will do. Before when I was asked about my beliefs I refused to talk about that because it wasn’t what the interview was supposed to be about. But the one time I chose to share, it turned into ‘Tom Cruise is Preaching’. From now on, I’ll just keep to the topic of the Interview.” Tom Cruise shared his feelings about the paparazzi and being a celebrity “It’s the risk you take as a celebrity. But regardless, I take it on in stride in order to do what I love, and that is making movies.”

During the interview they showed pictures of Tom Cruises family doing normal everyday activities. The interview took place in their Colorado Home in Tulleride. Had you walked through and viewed the pictures not knowing who Tom Cruise was you would not have known he was a Celebrity. The interview was calm and peaceful. So much of what he talked about was such a contrast in what is portrayed in the media. I have such a bad taste in my mouth with how I feel about the magazines that honestly my heart hurts for what he and Katie have had to go through these past few years. I admire them for living their life regardless. How easy that we forget that they are just normal everyday people like us who watch them on the big screen. They’re not another species of people - though we get caught up in the news like they are. It’s so weird to get a wake up call like this Interview was.

After watching this episode I feel that we owe it to Tom & Katie to always give them the benefit of the doubt. Like Oprah quoted in the end of the interview, “Tom, I wish for you the peace that this home and its surroundings provide for you. I wish for you peace in this life always…”

I’m not reading those magazines anymore… I feel betrayed with what they have put out into the world in filling our minds with false ideas and dark messages. Rumors do such horrible things and I feel it’s only getting worse with YouTube and Celebrity Blogs like TMZ and PerezHilton.

I respect truth, and now I know where to find it. If I’m going to believe anything, I am certainly not going find it from a magazine article or a celebrity news blog. I’ll find it from an in depth interview from a credible source like The Oprah Show or 20/20 with Barbara Walters, The Today Show or Larry King Live. I used to like watching the news but even they seem to get caught up with spreading rumors like the Tabloids. The only news I watch now is The Today Show. Sad where this world is moving, but we certainly can’t give it the time we do on dwelling on it. I just feel we can make a difference and that’s where we lend support.

So, what I’m going to do is support the shows I feel get their information from the ONLY source and that is who they are speaking about, and I am not going to even give those magazines or false news sources the time of day. That’s how I am going to help people like Tom Cruise.

Life has really taken a turn lately. Clark and I have committed ourselves to several new goals. There is a lot we want to accomplish by July which has made us even more busy and determined than before.

We want to lose our extra weight. We’d like to look good for this summer, but we really want to make a difference in our health (and as an added ‘fun bonus’, be a “shocker” at our Holiday parties at Thanksgiving and Christmas).

We want to ultimately one day in the near future be completely debt free, but our major goal by July is to be personally debt free. Life’s been rocky lately… Bills pile up quickly and out of nowhere life can really take you over. There are fee’s that come out of the woodwork that you didn’t plan on, health issues that you didn’t know you had, gas prices rising - which rises grocery prices which rises everything else that pertains to life. So, with that comes added stress upon everything. The tough part is making sacrifices on things you love to do/or go and really get a hold on money. Sad, but money is linked to everything in life. If money management is out of whack - it affects your entire world. At that point- I personally feel that it needs to be taken a hold of by the reins, slow down and really get things back in order. Repetitive disturbances need to be prevented by learning from mistakes and being aware of what went where/wrong and how can we do ‘this’ better next time. How can we prevent money management from going out of whack and get back on track stronger than before? My personal belief is: “If you don’t learn how to manage $500 NOW how will you EVER be able to manage $5,000 later?” I am not of the belief of putting things off and worrying about them later. I am of the belief of “Get it done NOW so you can be STRONGER later”.

In the 168th Semi-Annual General Conference President Hinckley (Prophet of the LDS Church) said:

“I am suggesting that the time has come to get our houses in order. So many of our people are living on the very edge of their incomes. In fact, some are living on borrowings. … There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed.”

In counseling about debt President Hinckley said: “I recognize that it may be necessary to borrow to get a home, of course. But let us buy a home that we can afford and thus ease the payments which will constantly hang over our heads without mercy or respite for as long as 30 years. … I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt to the extent possible. Pay off debt as quickly as you can. … That’s all I have to say about it, but I wish to say it with all the emphasis of which I am capable.”

Another good article to read about “getting your house in order” asap is a post I put together the other day titled: “The World As We Know It Today“

Basically the message is, is to get out of debt ASAP. Sure, live life and have fun - but be realistic. Be prepared for any unexpected thing to hit at any time. The future is unpredictable and things need to be taken care of NOW and not later. That is exactly how the Credit Card Companies get young naive teenagers to get into debt. So what kind of examples are we being for our children if we ourselves can’t even handle money? If a war were to hit our country, and the country goes into recession (because we never know) - will you be prepared? Our Country is in debt not because of the Government, because as the United States Constitution says “WE the People…” not “We the Government…”. We brought the Country’s debt to the high that it is because we put off making those payments and paying our debtors back. We decided to worry about it later. That’s not ‘cool’.

With all that’s going on - you’d expect two people running around our house like crazy chickens - but we’re not. One thing I just love about our companionship and friendship as a couple is that we take each obstacle in life in stride. We still know how to have fun under budget so we feel like we have a life, but we also realize that even though we’re working for ourselves - we need to behave like we’re working a 9-5 job and actually work a routine that’s strict within the day. It’s so easy to be lax throughout the day because we’re at home. Clark’s schedule is so unpredictable because he’s both a DP (Cinematographer/Director of Photography), Photographer, & Programmer. I am a Blog Designer, Photographer & Artist. We have many hats that we wear so creating a strict routine can easily be disrupted depending on what we’re called to do on a particular day. So this routine is something that we’re continually refining.

Long talks that we have on life and how we can improve individually and as a couple is something we do regularly. Clark doesn’t particularly like the long talks, he just likes things to be done when asked - no questions asked. I’m different. I like to know the why’s and how can we say this better to each other so both needs are met and we’re feeling respected. But again, I love our communication. It’s not 100% yet but we’re getting there. I have so much appreciation for Clark in always being willing to work on things. He’s so sensitive to my feelings, but also knows how to stick up for himself. He’s willing to admit when he’s wrong and own up to it as am I. I truly feel lucky that Communication is one of our strengths.

I am so grateful to have a husband like Clark. We may not always agree, but one thing that we know how to do well is compromise and make sure both our needs are met. For that I am so grateful to be blessed with him as my husband. Together, we can accomplish miracles!

Today I have received the most hateful comments I have ever received to date in a select period of time. 98% of the time I approve all comments, even if they disagree with my beliefs. I am open to discussion.

But there’s a line.

I do not approve hateful comments.

I find it interesting that everyone deep down in their hearts want peace. They want acceptance. Yet, I feel that these select people get some sort of ‘high’ or ‘power fulfillment’ in beating someone down like a schoolyard bully. That’s how I feel when reading their comments. Have I hurt them? Have I caused them physical pain? Do they not understand the Golden Rule in treating others how they would want to be treated?

The other day I got a comment from someone telling me that I should go kill myself. What the heck?

Anyways. Enough of the hate. You know who you are. Don’t waste your time on my blog if you plan on painting it with your dark filthy words. It’s not what I’m about, nor what this blog is about.

If you want to disagree with me, use tasteful words and an open mind and you’ll receive the same in return.

Please remember, my goal on this blog is to bring about peace and understanding.

Treat others how you would want to be treated. Remember Love, Peace, Humility and Gratitude.

Meridian Magazine (An LDS Magazine) Editor Maurine Jensen Proctor writes:

Steve Studdert, was recently interviewed by Meridian Magazine, Steve was President Reagan’s “advance man.” He was entrusted with preparing all of President Reagan’s trips to make sure security was proper, protocols were met and arrangements flawless. He was privy to many top level discussions on national security and indeed contributed to those discussions.

Steve is a very down to earth man. He was Stake President of the McLean Stake in Virginia (Alexandria, McLean and the area on the Virginia side of the Potomac across from D.C.). He’s not prone to wild flights of fancy nor conspiracy theories, but pays careful attention to hard facts.

I strongly recommend you read this interview. It’s a well compiled view of where we are today.

Former White House advisor to three U.S. Presidents — George Bush, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford — Stephen Studdert knows Washington as an insider with privileged information, contacts and insight. Unfortunately these days this knowledge is a burden and the normally optimistic Studdert admits that he’s a worried man.

He has written America in Danger — What You Must Know to Protect Yourself to raise a warning voice saying that such a complexity of factors influencing American independence and the economy are upon us that it is difficult for most citizens to gain perspective. However, it is essential to have this understanding to be adequately prepared.

He writes:

Things feel of late like the planet is on a downhill runaway train and picking up speed, growing ever closer to the mountain cliff. The inevitable crash is around the next bend, or the next. There are frightening clouds of instability on the close horizon and they are easily seen by those who look. In many respects we are a nation sinking under its own weight. My restless and nagging fear is that the avalanche may suddenly come crashing down before we get our houses in order.

His intent is not to frighten readers, but help them assess the risks and dangers that exist from following the policies America is currently pursuing. He says, “We need to hear the real facts and the plain truth even if it hurts.”

Studdert lists ten dangers including the triple threat to our global economic dominance posed by China, India and Russia; the time bomb of American debt; our unfunded entitlement programs; radical Islam and terrorism; federal government stupidity; the bursting of the housing bubble; our unquenchable thirst for oil; immigration insanity; pandemic plagues; and America’s failing infrastructure.

Some of these are issues we assume we see, but Studdert connects the dots for readers in a way designed to help us pull our heads out of the sand.

Meridian Magazine recently interviewed Stephen Studdert about the issues he discusses in his book.

Meridian Magazine: You indicate right now that you are very worried about America. Why?

Studdert: I told my wife when I first went to the White House when I was 26-years old, I’ve been exposed to too much information that is just frightening. Sometimes I wish that I hadn’t known it.

However, as I look at the issues facing America, I have never seen a more potentially dangerous time since the Civil War, and what worries me most is that if two or three of these possible dangers hit simultaneously, our ability to respond to is very limited. To me a perfect example right now is that we have a housing/credit crunch with the burst of the housing bubble and foreclosures are already at a historical high. Theoretically to avoid a recession, the government passes a so-called stimulus 160 billion refund to the taxpayers, but it is a refund of taxes never yet collected, so in reality it’s 160 billion more debt on the backs of the American public.

Meridian Magazine: Tell us about the economic threat facing America.

Studdert: For over a century, the United States has been the economic powerhouse of the world. But not much longer. We are not paying enough attention to the triple threat of China, India and Russia that are emerging as global economic powers in their own right.

China is a danger to us in that China, with its 3 billion new capitalists, is consuming an increasing amount of global resources, which is driving the cost and availability up for our country. China today has about a million cars. In 15 years it is estimated they will have 160 million cars. Where’s the fuel for those cars going to come from?

India has a billion people, they are surprisingly well educated, and they speak English and so the cost of labor there is a fraction of what it is here. We’re going to see more and more jobs migrate from the United States to India.

Russia’s geopolitical objectives are very counter to ours, and Russia has enormous gas and oil reserves, which are going to make it a new and dangerous power in the world. Each of those three countries has global objectives that do not necessarily align with the objectives of the United States. They are countries with newfound wealth and we are a country of enormous debt.

Meridian Magazine: Talk about the U.S. debt. Is it something to be concerned about or will increased productivity substantially lower it?

Studdert: Our debt is a ticking time bomb. Last year, for example, we Americans, as consumers, spent $20 for every $19 we made. One doesn’t have to be a Ph.D economist to figure out we can’t sustain that for very long. At all levels, the government, corporate and personal level, we have been spending money we don’t have, by financing debt.

Who is the largest buyer of our public debt? China. I find the behavior of China curious when looked at from an American perspective, but when looked at from a Chinese perspective, which is thousands of years in the making, it looks very different. They are on a course to restore themselves to what they see as a rightful position of world dominance. We’re going to fund that. We are in the process of indirectly funding it.

David Walker, the comptroller general, says that if the federal government were a private business, it would be declared bankrupt. He also says that if we don’t deal with it now, the only choice in a handful of years will be to cut the federal budget by half or double taxes. Those are draconian measures that would be enormously disruptive to our economy, but he says we have no choice.

I dedicated the book to my children and grandchildren with an apology for the mess we are leaving them. Our children will be the first generation of Americans to enjoy a lesser quality of life because of what we have done.

Meridian Magazine: Most Americans are not aware of the intricacies of our national debt. Why don’t the politicians do anything about it?

It is interesting if you watch our electoral behavior, we tend to ask our elected officials what’s in it for me? Federal program after federal program is being funded so that we the voters will keep electing them. It’s self-serving, reckless and ultimately very destructive.

We see politics at its self-serving worst. If we look at the true federal government debt, and we say its 9 trillion dollars, that ignores all of the unfunded federal obligations and entitlement programs, which when you add them together, it is about 77 trillion. A trillion is a thousand billion, and a billion is a thousand million. Think about that.

It troubles me that so many of our public officials at every level — federal, state, and local — are more concerned with their own political preservation than they are the public good. My observation is that in Washington today, the long-term aggregate impact is never assessed. They only look at the immediately, short-term political benefit.

We as citizens look to the government to fund all kinds of things, and the amount of money spent and the influence of special interest groups on public officials is at an unprecedented level. Elected officials who used to be beholden to the public are now so much more beholden to the various special interest groups who fund their re-election campaigns that the whole process has become very distasteful.

Meridian Magazine: You mention that many Americans are losing their pensions because businesses have made promises they can’t fulfill.

Studdert: I talk in the book about the crisis in American pensions. I’m astounded as I talk to people how absolutely uninformed they are on that subject and yet every day that is an issue that worsens. Many pension funds are broke, too. For example, the city of Vacaville, California, is filing bankruptcy, because of their inability to pay police and fire pension obligations. Kentucky has a multi-billion dollar shortfall for state employees’ pensions. With 78 million baby boomers starting this year to retire, that is a problem that is going to accelerate and worsen.

Meridian Magazine: We are all feeling a new crunch at the pump as gasoline prices continue to climb.

Studdert: We are in a very fragile position regarding oil.

Today we’re an oil dependent nation and our five biggest oil providers are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela. We have to be insane to have handed our security to those countries. They are not known for long-term stability or for true friendship to the United States.

Look at Nigeria, which has as corrupt a government as there is in the world and is primarily a Muslim country. Iran’s leader is a madman who says Israel should be obliterated from the face of the earth and refers to America as the Great Satan. Saudi Arabia has spent billions over the last twenty years building schools that teach their Wahhabi beliefs and Wahhabism teaches that America should be destroyed.

Meanwhile, we prohibit drilling ANWR in Alaska and prohibit drilling off the coast of Florida, and yet Cuba is drilling 40 miles off the coast of Florida — go figure. I appreciate being sensitive to the environment, which is part of the covenant we as members of the Church mean when we work to be good stewards, but it also means being a wise steward, and we haven’t been very wise of yet.

Meridian Magazine: Are the mortgage failures included in your list of dangerous issues?

Studdert: Most of those are adjustable rate mortgages where the rate resets and the homeowners haven’t the ability to pay the higher price. The market has dropped so much that the owner owes more on the home than it is worth.

People wonder if the housing market will rebound. I am of the opinion that the current problem is not temporary, and we will see it continue to worsen and spread to multiple other fronts as we’ve seen it spread to the bond insurance companies.

Meridian Magazine: Tell us about your concern about terrorist attacks.

Studdert: There are approximately 1 billion Muslim adherents in the world. A small percentage of them, 10% or so, could be categorized as extremists. That is 100 million people who would like to see the United States destroyed because of the values we’ve adopted that they find offensive. I attend on an occasional basis, meetings with those in the intelligence and national security community. They are doing a masterful job of preventing terror attack. People in these agencies are working to the point of exhaustion to protect this country. They need our praise. They need our respect and they deserve it, but they all speak in terms of not if, but when. They speak in terms of the inevitability of a terrorist attack on this country, here at home, be it nuclear, chemical, biological or other kinds of terror.

If the anti-American terror groups don’t have access to nuclear weaponry it is only a question of time when you look at North Korea, Pakistan and Iran.

Just in recent days as we were talking about the terror threat to the United States and what our government has gratefully prevented, a senior official said to me, if the public had any idea what we’ve already prevented, it would scare them to death.

Meridian Magazine: Of all the issues you mention as possible terrorist problems for America, what worries you the most and could cause the most devastation?

Studdert: I suppose the one that concerns me the most would be a terrorist attack where the terrorists used an EMP, an electromagnetic pulse, which we know exists for example in Russia. If one of those were detonated over the continental US at 30 miles up, it would cripple this country instantly in every single measure. What an EMP does is destroy electronics, so instantly power plants, the starter on your car, computer systems, refrigerators — all would be destroyed and the country would collapse. Instantly there wouldn’t be a vehicle in this country that has an electric starter that would run. What would we do for food tomorrow if we haven’t stored it? That is the one that frightens me most. The other problems are sneaking up on us one day at a time. Hopefully, our national defenses could prevent some of the other terrorist possibilities, but we are not equipped to prevent an EMP. The only way we could stop that is through good intelligence. If one explodes, in a matter of milliseconds the damage is done.

Meridian Magazine: Why don’t Americans realize the dangers that we are in?

Studdert: As I watch the so-called news reporting today, the media are not reporting the hard news of fiscal issues or public policy as much as they are such ridiculous issues as steroid use by major league baseball players. The second thing to quote Elder Maxwell is that we’re too often bogged down in the thick of thin things. Because so many of these problems are seemingly over the horizon, we’re busy managing our own lives on a daily basis instead of paying attention to the bigger picture.

What happened at 9/11 came a as complete surprise to all of us. As tragic as it was, it was limited just to one city. We could learn from that or from Katrina how without warning, devastating things can occur. What would happen if China — who is the largest holder of U.S. treasury debt — were to say, “We’re not going to hold this anymore. Or we’re going to sell all of these debts at a discounted price. It would have an emormous destabilizing force on our country and we would not have even seen it coming.

Meridian Magazine: What can any of us do about this personally? It all seems a bit overwhelming.

Studdert: We ought to feel an urgency, but not a panic. It is interesting, if we listen to the words of President. Hinckley and others of the General Authorities over the past years, how many times have they kindly, but firmly said to us, get your houses in order? And while you and I can’t on our own fix the nation, we can certainly take care of our lives and our own houses and our own families.

We have to be serious about getting out of debt individually and as families. We ought to be serious about not taking on more debt. We ought to be serious about living within our means. We ought to be serious about higher education for the best employment we can qualify for, and we ought to be serious about things like food storage and family preparation.

I had a son who worked in a car dealership in a community that was overwhelmingly LDS. Our son observed that an extraordinary number of people bought cars that were bigger and more costly than they could possibly afford, but because financing was so readily available, they splurged. We don’t need that big house. We don’t need that SUV. We need to be safe and secure first. The savings rate in the U.S. is a negative number. In China the average person saves 30%. Just that number alone speaks volumes about where our two countries are going.

It is interesting the brethren have told us for decades that our personal food storage ought to include wheat and the scriptures talk about wheat for man. Last week wheat futures closed at $22 per bushel and wheat supplies in the U.S. are at an all-time low. If you talk about a perfect storm for trouble, there it is.

Elder Oaks gave a talk about good, better, best and said we need to make choices between good, better and best. We need to make our lives more simplified and less harried, so we can focus on weightier matters without all the bombarding confusions of the world.

Meridian Magazine: Beyond helping our own families, what can we do for the future of America?

Studdert: I love the United States of America, and I am deeply concerned about the future. Unfortunately today we’re more concerned with political correctness than we are political courage. I wish we could change the definition of P.C. to be political courage. To make political decisions that are right for the country may mean the decisions are unpopular, and most politicians today don’t want to make unpopular decisions.

In addition, today there is a poison of politics. The personal costs of running for public office and serving in public office are very dear because that vitriolic tone has made the notion of being involved in public service less appealing to more and more people. One example comes to mind during the administration of the former George Bush when the number two position at the state department became available. The position was quietly offered to 59 people before someone would accept the appointment because of the cost, the stress, the drain and the innuendo and the attack. Not one of those 59 wanted to expose themselves to that.

I’m of the view that America was created, as the founders said, under the hand of providence and it had and has divine purposes. For 200-plus years, America has been the light of the world and the envy and desire of most of the world. You go to any country in the world, and there are lines at the U.S. embassy to get visas to come here. There are not lines at other embassies, but because of our reckless spending and self-serving public policy we are dooming ourselves

I for years I’ve pondered a phrase in my patriarchal blessing about being my brother’s keeper. I think that includes to alert your brethren to danger and for me that was a driving force in writing this book. The second driving force is my love of the United States of America because it is still the best system in the world.

Great civilizations in history have failed when they didn’t follow the words of the Lord and the words of the prophet, and I pray such is not the course we’re going to choose.