“Hey, Where’d You Go?”

I thought I’d better write a post today because it’s been a while since I’ve written one. My best friend from college visited over Memorial Day (she was in town for her Grandfather’s funeral), and I was pretty busy while she was in town. Even so, I did pretty good sticking to my eating plan, although there were a few times when lunch was a little heavy so I thought I should probably skip dinner, and I did. I also kept on working out, and I only missed Monday while she was here.

I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I seem to have caught a cold. It’s been a rough couple of days, and I first started feeling symptoms on Monday. Here it is, Friday, and I still don’t have my voice back completely. I tried working out yesterday, and I was able to do ten minutes on the Gazelle before I felt like I was going to pass out. Today I’m not even going to attempt it. 

My weight has fluctuated some this week, although I’m down .7 from where I was a few days ago. I’m hoping that if I’m able to get some rest this weekend, I’ll get back on track with everything on Monday. 

I really miss working out. I love how I feel when I’m exercising, and afterwards I feel like I could just take over the world. It’s a wonderful feeling and I really miss it when I’m not doing it. 

Remember, Skinny Fiber has given me some great tools to be able to lose weight. It could help you too. For more information, contact me today!

Separating The Social Experience From Food

Yesterday I had lunch with my best friend. We hadn’t seen each other in a few weeks, and I missed her. So, we arranged for her to bring lunch to my house since she had the day off.

Normally, this is a problem for me. Not that I don’t want to see my friends, but it’s been a problem in the past when I’ve been in social situations. For me, being social has always equalled eating too much. When she asked me what I was in the mood for, I knew I didn’t want to overeat, but I also knew that I doubted there was a way NOT to overeat without sacrificing having a good time with her while we were together.

Then I stopped myself.

Why was I thinking that way? That was really kind of dumb. After all, since when do the two HAVE TO go hand in hand? Why is it that in order to enjoy my friendship with her, I have to eat too much food? That just doesn’t sound right, does it?

We agreed on Panera Bread, and I ordered a small lunch that I knew would help me stay within my calorie goals for the day. It worked! I still lost weight when I weighed myself this morning, and my friend and I had a wonderful visit together.

This weekend is going to be full of social experiences for me. I’m determined to focus on the PEOPLE I will be with, and not on the food. In the past, I’ve given food way too much power in my life, and I’m determined that this weekend is going to be different. I’ll enjoy the company, and I’ll eat the amount of food I need to eat to stay within my calorie limits for each day.

Have you found any triggers that you’ve “trained” yourself to think need to involve overeating? What are they? How can you change your way of thinking?

Skinny Fiber is still working great for me! I’m down 15.5 pounds and 18 inches. I’m determined to press on, and I’m thrilled about my progress so far! If you’d like to know more about Skinny Fiber, contact me today!

Fighting Against The “I Don’t Wanna’s”

This morning was tough. Yesterday morning was pretty tough too. For some reason, I did not want to exercise. I’m not sure why that was…I just know that the thought of getting on that Gazelle just didn’t appeal to me this morning, or yesterday. In fact, I felt a lot like this:

What’s that going to get me? More weight lost? Nope. So, what did I do, you might ask?

I did my exercise. I did it like I knew I needed to do it. Yesterday I did my 30 minutes like I knew I should. Today, I did 40 minutes because I needed to bring my body under submission. This is the way I see it…

I weigh 238.8 pounds right now, when I’m supposed to weigh around 130. I didn’t get that way overnight, and I DID get there because one too many times, I “didn’t feel like” exercising. Obviously, my mind doesn’t know what my body needs. So, why should I listen to it?

Yesterday and today I took control of my mind and my body and I told them both what they were going to do. This morning when my planned 30 minutes were up, I told my body it was going to go for ten more minutes. Why? Because I’m in charge of this weight loss. I am taking control of this situation before it takes control of me.

A big part of that has been using Skinny Fiber. Skinny Fiber is not a magic pill, and I know that it doesn’t work unless I work too. But I also know what it has done for me, and I’m finding more benefits every day. Including:

• Helping me to have more energy to exercise
• Stopping me from craving chocolate and sweets
• Bringing my PCOS under control (I’m having more normal periods now, and prior to using Skinny Fiber, I hadn’t had a period in months. This has been an ongoing problem for me for years)

This is the longest I’ve consistently worked to lose weight in years. I’m going to keep on putting the “I Don’t Wanna’s” in their place. If I feel that way tomorrow morning…well, I might just have to make myself exercise for 50 minutes.

I’m in charge of my weight loss.

What about you? If you’d like to give Skinny Fiber a try, contact me today!

Fat Clothes? Maternity Clothes? NO WAY!

I bought new shorts this weekend!

That might not seem like a blog-worthy thing for you, but it certainly is for me. It’s exciting! My clothes are getting more and more loose. In fact, many of my pants are no longer staying up on my hips. Even if they are, I can still take some of them off pretty easily without even unbuttoning them. 

I decided that I was getting rid of one pair of my shorts this weekend. These shorts are shorts I bought when I got pregnant with Caleb. They are pregnancy shorts, and they’ve seen five summers. I decided this year that was enough, and I’m not pregnant, so I’m not wearing them.

 

Here they are! 

It’s kind of sad that I’ve worn these shorts for so many years and I wasn’t pregnant. I’m vowing never to do that again. I will not wear maternity clothes unless I’m pregnant, and I’m NOT planning on getting pregnant. I guess God could have other plans…but I’m 37 and I quite sure my child-bearing days are over. 

What about you? Are you rockin’ any of your maternity clothes from days gone by? Even if you’re just wearing bigger clothes, it’s time to do something about it! If you want to know more about Skinny Fiber, contact me today! 

A Post When Things Are Good

I frequently post when I’m struggling. On the days when things are going really well, I don’t always write a post. I realize that I need to write some good posts about my journey, for you, just as much as for myself.

If you’ve been watching my Progress and Goals page on this blog, you’ll notice that this week I’ve lost quite a bit of weight. As a matter of fact, I’ve lost 3.6 pounds so far. It would be great if I could make that 5 pounds by the end of the week. After having such a fluctuating week last week, it seems so good to see that scale keep on going down.

I realize that Skinny Fiber is a huge part of how successful I’m able to be. However, I also know that I’m doing a lot of work to make it happen. I’ve said it many times, I know I wouldn’t lose any weight at all with Skinny Fiber if I wasn’t counting my calories and watching my intake closely, as well as getting enough exercise.

I’ve listed my end of May goal as 230. I am really beginning to think that goal is attainable now that I’ve been able to push past that stagnant period of last week. I’m also beginning to be concerned about my clothes fitting me all summer long. I don’t want to sink a bunch of money in clothes that are only going to fit me for a little while. But, I know I’ll need to come up with a solution to get me through the summer.

I’ve looked back on this week in an effort to see what I’ve been doing consistently. I thought I would share that here:

1. Eating three meals a day with no snacks, nothing eaten after dinner at all. Even if LoseIt! says I have calories left for the day.

2. Exercising on my Gazelle for at least 30 minutes every morning before 8:00 am. Yesterday I did 40 minutes, today I did 45.

3. I’ve eaten a lot of salad. Actually, I fill up one of our serving bowls with salad. I use Romaine, spinach, baby carrots (about 10) and cucumber along with fat free Italian Parmesan dressing from Wegmans (35 calories). I’ve been eating salad at dinner time, along with the main dish we have. For example, on Tuesday we had burgers and fries. I didn’t have any fries. I did have a hamburger on a bun (small bun, for which my hubby made fun of me by saying, “Why don’t you use a bun that fits the burger?”), I didn’t have cheese, but I did have a tiny bit of mayo, pickles and one piece of bacon. My side dish was a huge salad. The next morning I found that I had lost .7 lb. Awesome.

4. Drinking water-this is very important because Skinny Fiber relies on water to do its job. I drink a 12 oz glass of water every time I take Skinny Fiber, plus I have a 32 oz water bottle that I fill up at least twice and drink throughout the entire day. I try to drink three of them, but sometimes I forget. I’ve stopped drinking milk at dinner time in an effort to up my water consumption a little more.

Things are going well, and now I’m mentally preparing myself for the weekend. There should be no reason why I can’t continue my excellent progress over the weekend. I will just follow my plan and do what I know I need to do in order to see the scale keep on going down.

230 by May 31! I can do it!

For more information on Skinny Fiber, the only weight loss supplement that offers you an empty bottle guarantee, contact me today!

More Weight Lost On Skinny Fiber

I wanted to write a quick post today because I was just so thrilled when I stepped on my scale this morning. I thought I might see a little bit more weight lost, but when I saw those first three numbers were: 2  4  0, I was so excited!

It seems like it’s been a long time to get to this point. Although if you ask anyone who is an “expert” in weight loss, they’ll tell you that I’m really losing weight right on track with what I “should” be doing. The recommendation is for one to two pounds a week.

I don’t like the recommendation.

I’ve watched my progress, and I’ve seen myself lose up to four pounds in a week just to put three more back on, and hold steady for that whole week. That’s not a trend I care to continue. Especially if I plan to make it to my goal of 230 by the end of this month. That means I have to lose about ten pounds in two weeks.

Do you think I can do it?

It’s going to take some serious “buckling down” and absolutely NO cheating. But you know what? I think I can do it!

If you want to know more about Skinny Fiber, contact me today!

Weight And Inches Lost On Skinny Fiber

OK, so it’s been a rough couple of days. I had some setbacks over the last week that were MY OWN FAULT. Read this: I’m not making any excuses. I know that these things were all me, and not because of anything that was out of my control. The first thing that happened was that I got the mother of all sunburns.

MY OWN FAULT

I was unable to exercise for two days because I could hardly move. Ugh. That was awful. My lesson was learned though, which I discussed in this blog post.

Then, as the week went on, I kept on playing with the same half a pound or so. I’d lose it, I’d gain it. Then I’d lose it again. It was very frustrating. I don’t know if that was just water weight, or what was going on. I will tell you that I’ve learned that I absolutely cannot…

I MEAN I CANNOT

…snack at night. Even if I’ve been so good all day, and I still have three hundred calories left to go. I cannot snack. Even if it’s only a 100 calorie snack. If I eat it at night, after dinner, I will gain a little bit back. I’m not sure why this is. If you’re reading this and you have an idea, maybe you can let me know by leaving me a comment.

Although there were no more birthdays, or big holidays this month, there was Mother’s Day. On Sundays, I usually only eat two meals. It’s something that I’ve held onto since I was a kid when Sunday night dinners were either something you made yourself (like a sandwich) or you just didn’t have because Mom never cooked on Sunday nights. So, after church on Mother’s Day, I wanted to go out to lunch. I chose Panera Bread because I figured it would be more healthy than food I might get other places. I had a wonderful lunch, and I finished out my calorie intake for the rest of the day. I didn’t worry about it because I never eat dinner on Sunday nights, so I should have been all set. Right?

Nope.

Later on, my husband made these amazing chicken wraps from the leftover chicken he had made on Saturday for dinner. I ate a half a wrap (saved the other half for lunch yesterday), but I ate it late (around 7:30pm) AND it was over my calorie allotment for the day. So, of course, I gained a little bit.

I do want to mention that my exercise time was great during last week, even though my diet was a little off. There were a few days when I worked out for 50 minutes on the Gazelle instead of the 30 minutes I had been doing. There were also some days when I went for a walk at night, or rode my bike in the evening in addition to using the Gazelle in the morning.

Yesterday my nutrition was spot on. In fact, I ended up only eating 1288 calories when I’m allowed 1551. I exercised for a loss of 436 calories (that’s half an hour with the Gazelle) in the morning. This morning when I weighed myself I had lost 1.8 pounds. I also measured today and found that I’ve lost a total of 16.25 inches. I was really thrilled with that.

The morals of the story are:

1. No eating snacks at night. Period. Water only.

2. Don’t finish all of my calories at lunchtime, even on a Sunday.

3. Stick to my eating plan and don’t sneak any food, thinking that it won’t really make a difference. It does.

Am I still excited about taking Skinny Fiber? I am. I believe it’s making a lot of things right in my body, including my blood pressure, my “time of the month” (Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome) and probably some other things that I wasn’t even aware of. I also believe it’s helping me to say “no” to a lot of the sweets I used to love. It’s also helping me with my energy levels.

I did forget to mention that I stopped taking it three times a day a few weeks ago. I’m down to two times a day now, at lunch and dinner. My breakfast is always the same: coffee, a Special K bar, and a banana. I didn’t think I really needed to worry about keeping myself from overeating at breakfast time.

Skinny Fiber is the only weight loss supplement that offers an empty bottle guarantee. If you’d like to give it a try, you can do so without any worries. Contact me for more information!

What Are Your Excuses?

Excuses.  I used to have so many of them, it was hard to count them. I’m not even sure I can remember them all right now. Ever since I started taking Skinny Fiber, I’ve come to recognize them for what they are.

Of course at the time, I didn’t think they were excuses. At the time, I believed in them wholeheartedly. Some of them might have even not been excuses…but at the same time, they ended up being excuses.

Excuse #1: I don’t have anyone to impress.

When Craig and I met, I wasn’t thin, but I looked pretty good. I still had a good fifty pounds I could’ve lost, but I was really content with what I looked like.

As the weeks went on, and as those weeks stretched into months, I came to realize that this man really was the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with. He and I both did what lots of people do–we got really comfortable. As we did, we gained weight. Why not enjoy all the food we loved? We didn’t have anyone to impress, right?

Even though we had a wonderful romance right from the beginning (If you’re not familiar with our story, you can read about it on my personal blog), it was a terrible idea to eat the way we did. It wasn’t that I wanted to get fat…did I really think I wouldn’t? I don’t know…

I do know that I used our love as an excuse to get lazy and fill my body with junk. What a terrible idea.

Excuse #2: I can’t give up chocolate (sweets).

You don’t even know how many times I have started a weight loss regimen and then given up a few days to a few weeks into it. I’ve been a slave to chocolate and other sweets for as long as I can remember. It’s incredible how much I used to love eating chocolate. It was a vice for so long…and I would do just about anything for a taste of chocolate.

If only I had stopped at just a taste.

Excuse #3: I’m too busy.

I’m sure everyone falls prey to this excuse at some point if they’re putting off trying to lose weight. This was nothing but a cop out. Am I busy now? Yes. I work for many clients who all need me to write for them consistently. I also have a busy three-year-old at home, a husband who wants to spend time with me, and two older children who need me to be an involved Mom for them too. Guess what? I have time to work out. Amazing.

Excuse #4: Eating better is too expensive.

This excuse was one I used frequently. I knew I should be eating fresh food. I just didn’t think we could afford to buy better food. We spent so much money on crap food. It took a long time, but my husband started turning our family away from processed foods little by little until we were eating better. We’re still not perfect. But we’re so much better than we used to be. I love spending time in the produce section of Wegmans. Amazingly enough, I don’t think our grocery bill has really gone up much at all.

Excuse #5: I’m stuck in a weight-gain cycle.

This one was, by far, my favorite excuse.

When I was nineteen, I was in a car accident that left me with a herniated disk in my back. Over the years, I kept injuring my back until I had five herniated disks, and one of those I herniated twice. Pain has been a part of my life for a long time, and my weight has not helped to alleviate that pain at all, as you can imagine. Whenever I would begin a weight loss program, I would start exercising and I would eventually feel an increase in pain. That would halt my progress. I would tell myself that I tried, but it was obvious that I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t exercise because it hurt so much. I was doomed to gain weight for the rest of my life, which was going to make it impossible to lose weight because I couldn’t exercise because of my pain…etc.

Poor me.

I’m finished with excuses. I’m making changes in my life that are going to stick. Do I still have back pain? Of course I do. It doesn’t slow me down though. I don’t let it. I don’t have time for that. It only took a few times of working to get past the pain before I was able to control it better just through exercising every day. I know it’ll keep on getting better as I continue to lose.

Are you ready to get rid of some of your excuses? Skinny Fiber can help with that! Contact me to learn more!

Protecting My Journey With Skinny Fiber

You have no idea how happy I was this morning when I was able to work out again after having to take a break for two days because of this ridiculous sunburn!

Not only was I happy, but I find myself bursting with blog posts. Actually, this morning, I wish that my job was to blog about Skinny Fiber and losing weight all day. However, it’s not. So, for now I’ll concentrate on how I’ve felt because I was able to work out again, and how important it is to protect my weight loss journey every way I can.

Happiness Galore!

It’s amazing how great I felt when I got back on the Gazelle this morning. When I started, I felt quite stiff, but I told myself that if I kept on going, I’d work past the stiffness and I’d find my groove like I always do. It worked. About ten minutes in, I was going at a great clip and enjoying every minute of it. I was listening to my praise and worship music, and it was just like I had never left the Gazelle in the first place.

I have a lot of people ask me what a “Gazelle” is. I’m sure they think it’s this:

It’s not. A Gazelle is actually this:

Let me tell you, this machine packs quite a punch as far as calories that are able to be burned. This morning’s workout for 30 minutes burned 433 calories. When I finish working out, I’m dripping with sweat, my shirt is soaked, and it’s incredible. In short, I look NOTHING like that lady in the picture.

But I will someday.

By the way…special thanks to my in-laws for giving me this wonderful exercise machine!

Protection For The Journey

There have been a few times since I started taking Skinny Fiber and getting serious about losing weight in March that I’ve gotten de-railed. On the surface, it’s seemed like there has been nothing that could be done about these times. However, I’m learning that I need to be proactive about protecting my weight loss journey. A few of these times include:

• Taking a vacation
• Getting a sunburn
• Celebrating a birthday

Each of these times has been a struggle. Each of them could have been handled better if I had been prepared ahead of time. So, that’s what I’m going to be working on. I’m going to be more purposeful about my weight loss regimen. I’m going to do all that I can do to protect my body. That means making sure I have liberally applied sunscreen when I know I’ll be outside. It means planning my meals when I’m going away, or even just going out to eat. It means not indulging in birthday cake (or other desserts) because I feel pressured to do so.

The great thing about Skinny Fiber is that it gives me the added motivation I need to be sure I can “keep on keepin’ on”. In the past, I’ve looked at these “de-railings” as a reason to quit trying. I can think of so many excuses I’ve used in the past for why I couldn’t lose weight. Ah, but…that’s a blog post for another day.

Maybe tomorrow?

In the meantime, if you’re interested in more information about Skinny Fiber, I’d love to talk to you. Contact me for everything you’ll need to know about the weight loss supplement that WILL change your life!

Taking Some Forced Time Off

Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice. I have to take some time off from working out. I hope it’s only one day, because I sure don’t want to take off more than that.

Why would I do such a thing, you might ask?

Yesterday was opening day for my son’s little league. It was his second game, and of course, the game got started about an hour later than it was supposed to start. Before we left the house, I put sun screen on my children, and I put some on myself, too. Well, let me rephrase that…I put some on my arms, neck and face. I didn’t put any on my legs. Today, I pay the price for that decision. In fact, I look like this:

I’m in a lot of pain today. I slept horribly last night, and can hardly walk. I knew I wouldn’t be able to manage taking a shower, so I had to skip my workout as well as church.

*SIGH*

Maybe this will be a good experiment for me, weight loss-wise. NOT that I’m going to change anything about my workout schedule or how I’m eating if I continue to lose weight without working out. I won’t. But, it will be interesting to see how my weight loss changes over the next day or two without a workout, yet with Skinny Fiber and continuing to eat balanced meals.

If you read my post where I broke up with bacon, you’ll be happy to know that I only had one piece of bacon yesterday, and I had an opportunity to have much more than that.

I missed working out while I was on vacation so much. Please pray that this time spent healing my sunburn won’t last too long.

Oh, and if you’d like more information about Skinny Fiber, contact me!