Another Picture

I should have posted this a couple of weeks ago, but I have been uber busy with my business.

So here it is, and I will post another one asap with the new differance. The changes are suttle, but I can see more tone in my arms, stomach and my hiney is lifting. lol I don't have as much fat around my chin, face and neck and I can see my cheek bones more these days. :)

Rachel

Induction Flu

My mom has been a hardcore atkins dieter for the last few years and it does very well for her. She feels better. She had been talking to me for the last few years about my sugar and carb intake. Knowing that much of anything is not healthy, I didn't realize just how many problems the sugar was causing me.

In the atkins diet there is the "Induction Phase". During this time your body has to adjust and go through with withdrawl from the bad negative foods you've been putting into your body.

One of my biggest things to get away from is sugar. I have a big sweet tooth, primarily around that time of the month and my appetite goes wild! Caffine is another thing I have to say no to because of my heart condition, that's SO HARD!

Carbs, eh.... they are in so many things, but the big ones is bread and pasta and where as I enjoy those things, I can live without them.

So when I started back on my pathway last week after a solid month of one illness after another, I decided I was doing it all.

I am not going to be successful in changing my lifestyle if I do not learn to say no to the sweet tooth. I love to bake especially for my children, but you know it's so hard for me not to touch it and am I teaching them unhealthy habbits?

So I gave it up. Not the baking, the sugar. I think a treat sometimes is fine, but it should be a left a treat and not an every day thing.

So I have been 9 days without sugar,bread, pasta, etc. Drinking lots of water and down to one diet soda a day.

The last three days I have been an absolute blah!

I talked to my mom about and asked her if it was normal after cutting back on sugar and all of that jazz to feel tired and foggy.

she said, " yep, what you're experiencing is induction flu".

Basically, just like drugs or alcohol, when you get away from it, your body withdrawls and you feel like crap until it's all of your system! I remember going through that in rehab a few years ago and it sucked bad. lol I felt like I had the flu.

So, for the last three days I have felt absolute fatigue, and brain fog. I just want to take a nap and snack on a cookie. lol Yes, the cookie sounded perfect, like a real pick me upper.

NO! I didn't do it, and I haven't and won't. I am going to work this out of my system and get through it like a trooper.

I want to change my eating habbits and not have cravings for sweets and carbs all of the time. That's what tricks me out on my diet everytime. I will lose real good and then the cravings hit and I cave and BOOM! There I am two steps forward and one step back.

It could take me a life time to get my weight off at that rate. No way! I am refusing to let it kick me.

It's hard and I'm tired, but I know it will pass!!

Used to, a few days into no sugar and the onset of the blah's, and I'd give up. But I am seeing the scales move nicely and my pants falling off, I WANT to get through it this time and not go backwards again.

Another Loss!!

So it's time for another weigh in right? Sometimes I really look forward to it and sometimes I dread it.

You know how it feels when you did great all week and you know you're gonna see a loss because the pants getting baggy and you can see and feel the differance? But on the flip side those scales don't always show a full and accurate discription of what is really going on.

So, let me begin with the new jeans I bought a couple of weeks ago. Remember the first new pair of jeans I had bought in five years? when I tried them on, they fit, they were snug but my belly rolled over the top a little. I really should have taken a picture but I hate pictures of my role, right? lol

Well, it's two weeks later, been watching and counting my calorie and exercising, rotating my week with yoga, turbo jam and kicked it up with tae bo this week. I put those jeans on yesterday and OMG! I can pull them on and pull them off without unzipping and unbuttoning them!! ROCK ON!!

Dreadfully I stepped on the scales. I know how it goes, because the scales sometimes won't move... lol

But, this time they did!! YAY I stepped up and WOW! 149.5!!

Ok, three exciting things happened here for me.
1. I lost 7 lbs!!

2. My new jeans are falling off!!

3.I got over my plateu!

I always , always, always, get stuck at 152 lbs. It frustrates me really bad!

So, I am going to keep going. I have entered a new ten lbs zone. I beat the 50's on the scale, and now I am focusing on the 40's!!

I can tell already since I started that it's easier to breath and yoga is getting easier to do because I can bend down farther without my fat role getting in the way.

Also, the more pumped up workouts I enjoy, tae bo and turbo jam is getting easier to breath through and my stamina is increasing! That's so great.

I can't wait til it's gone. I want to have it all history by summer, but I want to keep working out so I keep it off but continue to make a lean beautiful body.



GO RACHEL!!!

30 minutes a day is not enough?

Last night before bed I was watching the local news and they said "New studies are saying that 30 minutes of exercise a day is considered no longer enough to lose weight and keep it off! Now fitness experts are saying to successfully lose weight and keep it off perminantly you need 50 minutes of exercise a day!"

This may be true, I dunno, I plan to look into it deeper. Damnit! I want to know if I am doing enough or if I am even scimming the surface. It bugged me because they didn't offer any recourse. what is the deal with the news and all of the media offering very little recourse???? WTH? UGH! I know one thing, I can do 50 minutes a day easily with just Turbo Jam and my Walking or Yoga and Walking, but for crying out loud.... if this 50 minutes a day thing is fact, it irritates me with these 10 minute work outs and 20 minute works out they advertise all over TV!

Make up your mind! GEEZ!

Apple Pie Oatmeal

This is just delicious! Courtesy of Splenda!

1 cup water
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 dash salt (optional)

Apple Pie Topping:
2 teaspoons SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend
1 tablespoon chopped apple
1 dash apple pie spice

Stovetop Directions: Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in oats and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat 5 minutes

Microwave Directions: Combine water, oats, and salt in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover tightly with heavy-duty plastic wrap; fold back a small edge to allow steam to escape. Microwave on HIGH 2 1/2 to 3 minutes; stir well

Top oatmeal with SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend, chopped apple and spice.

serving size is one recipe.

calories: 200 , Fat: 3g Fiber: 5g Total CarbsL 37g Protien: 7g Sodium: 400mg , Cholesterol: 0r

Laughing my Butt off

ok, I think I have actually burned a few extra calories laughing SOOOOO hard at a couple of things I have found via the internet for weight loss. This stuff is great and I hope you'll get as big of a kick out of it as I have.

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this one:


You're kidding me right? LOL!!! Surely no one believes this stuff.

or how about the slimming lip gloss? Fuze Slenderize lip gloss promises to help shed pounds. By infusing chromium and L-carnitine into the gloss. WHAT!? lol Skinny Lips! Plump Lips... what the??? ha

or how about Bath & Body Works Instant Aromatherapy Crave Relief claims that rolling on their fragrant grapefruit and sweet fennel essential oils will stave off hunger. First of all, I work with natural and synthetic essential oils and fragrance oils in my business ( www.soaps-n-suds.com ) every day and trust me, this is hog wash. LOL!! People are willing to say anything to get people to buy their stuff.

The vicous cycle of fad diets

What are fad diets anyway? How can you tell you're looking at one.

I think I've posted about this before actually, complaining of the countless ads I have seen littered all over myspace and various websites I frequent, showing before and after pictures and proclaiming fast weight loss of amazing amounts, like 20 lbs in two weeks or 30 lbs in a month.

But ya know what, there are other fad diets out there, excluding "magic pills" that show great weight loss and make us say "heck yeah I wanna lose weight on that plan".

Before I start my opinionate bashing and execising my freedom of speech on how I feel these diet plan sales people are exploiting those of us who really want to get our weight off via our pocket books, I am going to relist my check list of things to look for in spotting a fad diet. I do this to remind myself periodically not to fall for the hog wash I see floating around that makes it seem easier.

1. general rule of thumb, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

2. If it promises weight loss with out changing your eating and exercise habbits....

3. if it promises large amounts and fast weight loss in a short time period ( 20 lbs in two weeks etc..)

4. buying meal plans or prepackaged foods....

5. Focuses on just a certian amounts of foods, excluding certian foods or groups and doesn't focus on a healthy balanced diet.

Ok, so, I've voiced my opinion on the magic pills and annoying fake diet blogs floating around advertising free samples of acai berry and green tea. Those really piss me off!

But this is what is urking me lately. It's the beginning of the year, everyone has done their new years resolutions. I'm laying back for the evening, relaxing with my family and watching television and guess what commercial I see? Jenny Craig....

I saw this commercial this evening, and of course with me wanting to get my weight off real bad, any diet plan or weight loss commercial is going to grab my attention. I see these people sporting their new look with before and after pictures and I did it with Jenny! It bothered me because I thought " what are these people going to do AFTER they lose their weight and they aren't eating their preplanned meals anymore? Their whole menu is set out for them. They eat what is on the plan, and it's all pre portioned and through the months they are eating this and losing weight, are they learning how to cook better, portion better and continue on a healthy eating lifestyle?

Like many other diets, slim fast, dexatrim, cabbage soup etc. If you aren't learning to cook leaner, make healthier choices and better portions, you're going to gain it back eventually. from my personal experience, you don't keep weight off if you don't make perminant changes in lifestyle, and I just don't see how these prepackaged meal plan diets are teaching anyone how to change their life style and eating habbits PERMINANTLY! It seems to me, it's another scam to dip into our pockets, by weighing on our emotional desires to lose weight, knowing full well that most of us would do damned near anything to get it off!!

It upsets me!!

I am not saying Jenny Craig is bad, or some of the other prepacked food diets. But I think it should fall into the catagory of fad diets and should be done with caution. Not so much because they are unsafe like magic pills, but because it doesn't seem to be a perminant fix to a life long problem. what happens when the weight is lost and you go back to eating your own prepared foods and the weight comes back? You go back to the prepacked meals to do it all over again?

Why would I want to do that? I want to get my weight off once and keep it off. I don't want to struggle like this over and over, or every few years. I want to learn how to exercise and eat properly and change my habbits so I never get here again!!!

And I certianly don't want diet scammers to feed on my emotional desire to look and feel better about myself to the point that they are getting richer by the day.