Hi Everyone

I was doing GREAT with my diet and workouts, that is until yesterday at work, right at witching hour (3′ish).

I was working through a problem at work that I didn’t quite understand and wasn’t really interested in. On top of that, I had a ton of boring administrative stuff to do that I didn’t really want to do. I just wanted to leave, but with about 2.5 more hours left in the work day, I couldn’t. For me, all of this creates stress and I guess my coping mechanism was pigging out on candy.

I complained to my husband afterwards of how I blew it, let myself down, yada yada yada…He said that things, like weight loss, don’t go in a straight line. Two steps forward and one step back. Also, that there’s no traction forward without resistance, otherwise, you’d just be floating. That’s an interesting concept. I get that, but this is the bad habit that plagues me and that’s going to keep me from reaching my goals.

Looking on the internet as to what I can do to control cravings, I find the following link. They’re looking to sell something, but it gives a pretty good explanation of why cravings happen.

http://www.womentowomen.com/understandyourbody/symptoms/cravings.aspx?id=1&campaignno=cravingsforcarbs&adgroup=ag2sweets&keywords=sugar+cravings+causes

Let’s see what else I find…here’s one… this one says chew Gymnema Sylvestre leaves…”In the following hour or two anything that is unsweetened will taste better than anything containing sugar.”

http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Sweet-Cravings

Here’s another, and I like this idea…”Practice “urge surfing.” Cravings have cycles of highs and lows, like a wave. When your craving is intense, spend five to 10 minutes distracting yourself and change your environment by doing a different activity, going to another location or brushing your teeth until the craving is low. It will pass. ”
http://www.mylifetime.com/lifestyle/health/diet-nutrition/curb-sugar-cravings-now

Ok, not new information for me. I’ve been here before, but hopefully the spark I need to keep moving forward. 

Thanks for reading.

Hi Everyone

Last week, I was out of steam – mentally and physically. I realized I had reached a plateau and had lost my motivation. I also realized that if I didn’t re-capture that motivation that I wouldn’t be able to make more progress.

So, I read some articles on moving past plateaus and decided to change two things: 1. my diet and 2. my workout.

I re-introduced starchy complex carbs into my diet: brown rice mixed with chickpeas, sweet potato and oatmeal.

I also focused more on lifting weights to build muscle instead of my usual aerobic activity with a little bit of weight lifting.

At the end of the week, I feel great and motivated to continue. I weighed in at 124lb and my thigh measurements were down a bit. Left thigh was about 20.75″ and my right was on the nose at 21″.

I just looked at my stats page and the last time I weighed in at 124lb was on  5/2/09, so I haven’t really made much progress during the past month, but I feel that now that instead of being at the end of my rope, I’m at the beginning and feel fresh, motivated and ready to start again.

So, I’m excited to see what next week’s ‘Week in Review’ will be with my new found motivation.

Thanks for reading!

Hi Everyone

During the past week I’ve been focusing on building muscle. In my legs primarily, but I haven’t neglected the rest of my body either. I think it was Tuesday when I worked my legs and I did a warm-up set first and then 3-4 sets of heavy weights (at least they were heavy for me). I did squats and really focused on my butt and ball-wall squats (put a ball against a wall, lean back against it and squat – you should feel it in your thighs). I also did curtsy lunges without the kick as seen at the following link: http://www.prevention.com/cda/categorypage.do?channel=news.voices&category=videos&videoID=a8a8e3e5af6bb110VgnVCM20000012281eac____

I was sore for about the next two days, so instead I focused on my upper body by doing back, chest, shoulder and arm exercises.

So today, I’m planning to work my legs hard again, but I want to introduce some new exercises because ‘they’ say that exercise variety will give you the quickest results because your body won’t get the chance to adapt. Let’s see what I find…

I went to the Muscle&Fitness Hers site and I found lunges on a bench – that sounds hard. I’ll do that. Plie’ squats, which I haven’t been doing. Romanian deadlifts to work hamstrings. If you go under Training and do a little searching, you’ll find articles on working your legs:

http://www.muscleandfitnesshers.com/training

The next site, Bodybuilding.com, I find more exercises like the split squat

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/5_exercises_for_strong_shapely_legs.htm

Here’s another workout routine for the butt, but there’s nothing all that different – just more squats and lunges:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/planet46.htm

So I guess that’s the secret. A bunch of squats and lunges with variations every week to keep your muscles guessing. After looking at all those articles, I’m totally motivated to workout now, so here I go!

Good luck and thanks for reading.

The following was posted after my workout

Hi Everyone – I’m back! I just had a super killer workout despite being interrupted twice by my daughter. The first time was a 20minute diversion after she woke up from a nightmare. It was right in the middle of the curtsy lunges. So, I calmed her down, got her dressed, gave her a little breakfast…the second time she needed help changing from a DVD to the TV…but I digress…

The point is I had a super killer leg and butt workout and I had TONS of energy. I did narrow stance squats, regular stance squats, ball-wall squats, dead-lifts, curtsy lunges, plie squats. Unfortunately, I don’t write anything down, so I can’t remember exactly what I did. And I lifted heavy, about as heavy of a dumbbell that I can lift. For the narrow stance squats, I was up to 80lbs (40lbs in each hand). After lifting, I got on the bike for about 20minutes (this is where the second interruption happened) I could have gone on longer – like I said I had TONS of energy. I attribute this to re-introducing starchy complex carbs back into my diet during the past week, like oatmeal and brown rice. I did have one cup of coffee before my workout, but no amount of coffee gives you energy like this! Have I learned the secret to carbo-loading? I wonder.

I know I’m going to be hobbling around for the next three days, but I’m excited about the results. Of course, I need to be careful not to undo my efforts by succumbing to my sugar cravings. I’ll need to be extra vigilant about that.

A few posts ago, I wrote that I had lost my motivation. Wasn’t that just last week. Have I gotten my motivation back? Yes! All it took was changing my diet a little bit and my workout approach. I feel ready to go again.

Good luck and thanks for reading

I’m giving up coffee. This is a pretty difficult thing for me since I typically drink 2-4 cups per day. Always 2 cups in the morning. So, on Monday and Tuesday, I dropped it to one cup and that’s what I had for the entire day. I didn’t feel too tired and I didn’t get any headaches. So now that I’m down to one cup, I’m going to start reducing that as well.

According to The Fat Flush Plan, caffeine is not supposed to be good for weight loss because it raises the level of stress hormones secreted by your body. These stress hormones raise your stress level. Your body, which sees increased stress levels as a threat to survival, starts storing extra fat to protect itself. I don’t need any help storing fat, so the coffee must go. I’ve also heard that ditching coffee enhances your chances for getting pregnant, and since I haven’t given up on having a second child, I’m in.

The last time I quit coffee is when I was pregnant with my daughter. I quit pretty much cold turkey as soon as I found out I was pregnant and got the most terrible headache I can remember. I was sooooo tired too. But that lasted about 1-2 days and then I was fine. Fortunately, the suffering is not prolonged.

I have heard contradictions though on the fat loss part, so that has me a little confused. Caffeine is supposed to increase metabolism and give you more oomph for your workout. But perhaps they aren’t enough to counteract the fat storage due to raised stress hormones. In any case, I’m trying it since it can’t hurt to have one less pollutant in my body.

Thanks for reading!

124lbs. I’ve hit a plateau. 124lbs may not seem like a lot, but it’s not exactly svelte when you’re 5’2″.

Based on some things that I’ve been reading, I need to mix things up a bit. I haven’t been eating many starchy carbs for awhile, so maybe it’s time to re-introduce them.  Also, it sounds like I need to change my workout routine too. I’ve been doing about 20 minutes of aerobic exercise 4 to 5 times per week and getting in about 10 minutes of weight lifting about 3 times per week. I think for the next two weeks, I’m going to really hit the weights hard to try to build some more muscle.

So my plan is more carbs and more weights. Let’s see what happens.

Here are two good posts on some simple steps for working through a plateau:

http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2006/02/27/5_ways_to_break_a_weight_loss_plateau.php

http://www.googobits.com/articles/2235-11-ways-to-break-out-of-a-weight-loss-plateau.html

Wish me luck and thanks for reading!

Cocamidopropyl Betaine. This is the first ingredient after water in the BodySolution Detoxifying Scrub. Doing a quick search on the Internet, I find that while this ingredient is used in thousands of cosmetics, it can also be harmful. According to the following website, Cocamidopropyl Betaine “may contain harmful impurities or form toxic breakdown products, itching, burning and blistering of skin. Synthesized from coconuts, this chemical is found in body products and may be labeled natural or organic.”

http://www.purezing.com/living/toxins/living_toxins_dangerousingredients.html

On another website, http://www.cosmeticdatabase.com/ingredient.php?ingred06=701520, which seems a little more scientific, I find the following:

• “Known human immune system toxicant” 
• “Determined safe for use in cosmetics, subject to concentration or use limitations – Safe for use in cosmetics with some qualifications”
• “May contain harmful impurities”
• “An agent that can induce an allergic reaction in skin or lungs:Yes”

What I gather from this, is that it’s safe to use in cosmetics, but it’s concentration needs to be limited. And if you’re allergic to it, you probably want to stay away from it altogether.

As I look into this site a little more, they list products which contain this ingredient and the degree of hazard. Interesting, some products that you would think are safe, are actually categorized with a high degree of hazard. I couldn’t find BodySolution though…

Let’s go to some other ingredients: Camelia oleifera (green tea) Leaf extract and Camlia sinensis (while tea) leaf extract.

This link, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FKA/is_8_64/ai_89379600/,  brings up the following for green tea:

Caffeine. Although drinking caffeine seems to increase cellulite–probably by impairing circulation and lymph flow–topical application can reduce fat content in cells by blocking phosphodiesterase, an enzyme that inhibits fat breakdown. Caffeine may be listed on ingredient labels as caffeine, kola nut, tea or green tea.

Hmmm…so all of that coffee that I drink during the day, 2-4 cups per day, could be contributing to my cellulite. I’ve had two cups so far today, and I could still go for more. Ugh!

From the Murad site, http://www.murad.com/cellulite-treatment.jsp, is the following:

Tea (Red, White, Black, Green)
Tea comes from leaves and leaf buds of plants cultivated principally in China, Japan, Ceylon and other Asian countries. Tea is a mild stimulant, and its tonic properties are due to the caffeine content. Topically, it is used to reduce puffiness in areas affected by cellulite. Green tea also contains polyphenols, powerful antioxidants that function primarily in the skin. It is thought that these antioxidants may be able to inhibit cancer in some cases. For example, the topical administration of green tea has been shown to result in a reduction of tumors that occurred following UVB radiation.

There’s some other ingredients too, but I’m not going to go through each one. Unfortunately, despite my using the scrub and the other products to the letter, I still haven’t seen any results yet. Maybe I need to give it more time.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading!

Hi Everyone

I’ve been doing pretty well this week food-wise and I’d like to think that its due to the positive affirmations that I’ve been practicing. But realistically, I think its partially due to the affirmations and also the fact that I’ve been at a training class this week and plucked out of my usual environment. Of course, there is a lot of goodies that the training company sets out for breakfast and breaks, and I’ve managed to avoid the worst of it.

In any case, I’m interested in learning more about this affirmation stuff. It seems to me, that one can effectively brainwash oneself for the better.

There are a ton of sites out there all offering a positive affirmation system to achieve the goals in your life. I’m looking for something a little less gimmicky.

Here’s another link that I think is worth browsing. The front page offers a lot of things for sale, but if you click on the left menu, there’s a lot of good articles there:

http://www.successconsciousness.com/index.htm

I have a feeling that I’ll be taking a trip to the library soon, to see what kind of books I can find on positive thinking and affirmations. Maybe I’ll just check out Nordine Zouareg’s book again, Mind Over Body. That was my introduction to meditation, visualization and affirmations.

I’ll let you know what else I find.

Thanks for reading!

I’m losing my motivation. This is evident by the same 3lbs that I keep losing and gaining. For the past few weeks, I’ve cycled back and forth between 127lbs and 124lbs. Currently, I’m at 127lbs. You might be thinking, “3lbs – what’s the big deal”, but I can’t seem to mentally get myself past this point. I don’t have the motivation to exercise or stick to a diet. Even when I do exercise, I can’t focus and I’m waiting for my 20minutes to be over.

I was about to delete what I wrote above because it’s so negative, but decided to keep it to examine my choice of words.

“I can’t seem to mentally get myself past this point. I don’t have the motivation to exercise or stick to a diet. Even when I do exercise, I can’t focus…”

Interesting. A book that I read a while ago, Mind Over Body: The Key to Lasting Weight Loss Is All in Your Head,described how your sub-conscious mind will believe whatever messages you say to it and it can’t tell the difference between real or imagined. So, if I keep thinking these negative messages, that’s what my mind will believe. If I replace them with positive ones, eventhough that’s not exactly what I feel right now, then eventually they will become true and that’s what I will feel.

So, let’s try it.

• I’m motivated to lose weight.
• I’m motivated to get rid of my cellulite.
• I’m motivated to exercise to reach my goals.
• I’m motivated to stick to my diet to reach my goals.

Hmmm. I feel more empowered already just writing these down. It must work – so much has been written about it. Let’s see what I can find on the internet…

Whoa, check these out. Just what I was looking for:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/14700-self-affirmations/

http://bmindful.com/articles/affirmation-class-questions-and-answers

http://stress.about.com/od/optimismspirituality/a/positiveaffirms.htm

I’m going to cut this post short to work out now. I’m actually motivated to do it for the first time in about 2 weeks. Must be something to it!

Thanks for reading!

Hi Everyone

I fell for it, but decided it was worth the try. I signed-up for the ‘free’ trial of BodySolution. Before I even ordered, I already felt scammed.

First of all they have several sites to direct you to the BodySolution page. One is a ‘product review’ page that reviews a few products and of course BodySolution is the highest rated product. Here’s that link:

http://www.cellulitetreatmentwarning.com/

Then they have two sites with ‘success stories’. They show two different women who claim to have used BodySolution withsuccess. The problem with the advertising is that while the women’s faces are different, the pics of their legs are the same picture. How can one pair of legs belong to two different women?!! I think not!! Here are those links:

http://www.rachelcellulitesecret.com/

http://www.mycellulitesuccessblog.com/blog/?s=P3149648

Despite all of those red flags, I decided to order anyway. BodySolution offers a free* trial and you only pay for shipping and handling of $6.95. 

So, I entered my info despite the deception and wondering what the ‘*’ meant. Before I finalized my order, I got two pop-ups wanting to sign me up for other offers. The first was the following, to which I said “No thanks”:

With this purchase, you have an opportunity to buy a 3 months supply of BodySolution™ for the low price of $99.95 and get your first month free!

You’re also enrolled in the BodySolution™ Fit and Firm program. Every 4 months, you’ll receive a new kit of BodySolution™ at the locked in low price of only $99.95 (plus $12.95 S/H) for as long as you are a member. Cancel anytime.

The next pop-up was for anti-wrinkle cream, to which I declined.

Lastly, when my order was finalized, I was surprised to learn that I had signed-up for the following:

With your RISK-FREEtrial, you’re also receiving free membership into the BodySolution program. You’ll automatically receive a new supply of BodySolution every 60 days at the low wholesale price of only $79.90(plus s/h) for as long as you are a member (BodySolution normally sells for $179.00 in retail stores). And best of all, you can cancel your membership at any time. No questions asked! 

When I received my receipt, another surprise.

Your 14-Day risk-free trial ends on 06-09-2009 and you will be billed the low price of $39.95

$39.95?? Where did that come from? Oh well, “Caveat Emptor, Let the buyer beware.”

 When I received my shipment, there were only 6 days left to the 14-day free trial, so I called up customer service to try to extend it and avoid having the $39.95 charged to my credit card. More red flags. First the phone connection was impossibly bad. Then I waited for what seemed like a long time for someone to answer – it was probably 10-15mins. Then the final straw. When a customer service rep finally answered, they had such a thick accent and combined with the bad phone connection, I couldn’t understand what they were saying. So they hung up on me. I couldn’t believe it.

So, then I sent an email to the email address on the BodySolution site, explaining my plight. I sent it on June 4th and haven’t received a reply yet. By the way, after going to their website again, I found a Terms&Conditions link where the ‘*’ after the word ‘free’ was explained and all of the surprises that I encountered along the way were explained. Here it is:

Terms and Conditions
Start your RISK-FREE Trial now to receive a full 30 days supply of BodySolution 3pc System (retail price of $134.00). You have 14 days from the day you receive your product, – until 06-27-2009 to evaluate the product and see the results for yourself. If you enjoy BodySolution 3pc System, simply do nothing. You will be billed the super low price of $39.95 at the end of your 14 day trial period … and still enjoy a significant savings! If, for ANY reason, you decide that BodySolution 3pc System is not for you, simply call 888-478-4792 by 06-27-2009 for an RMA number and return instructions. Then, return the unused portion of the product within 30 days of receiving your RMA number. Plus, when you accept this RISK-FREE Trial, you will also receive a FREE membership in the BodySolution 3pc System VIP Program. That means you will continue to get a fresh supply of BodySolution 3pc System every 30 days for the low price of $79.90, plus shipping & handling of $6.95. No commitments, no hassles. Cancel anytime. Your complete satisfaction is our primary goal!

Fortunately, I tried the customer service phone number again, and this time I didn’t have to wait that long, maybe 3-5 minutes; I got a good phone connection, and someone that I was able to understand and who was actually very pleasant. They extended my 14-day free trial until June 23 rather than June 9, since I explained that when I received the products there were only 6 days left. So that was all positive

So, I opened the box and found the following: a shower scrub, a lotion, a serum and a receipt. The instructions are on the backs of the bottles. The scrub of course you use in the shower and the lotion and serum are supposed to be applied twice a day, but it doesn’t say whether the lotion or serum should go first.

So I tried the scrub first. Smells nice – like lily of the valley I think. But it doesn’t seem like it gives me enough of a scrub. After the shower, I applied the lotion first and then the serum. Both have the same scent as the scrub. The lotion is in a 8oz tube and the serum is 4oz. After applying, my legs felt cool and dewy, as though the products never really dried, even though they did. I didn’t mind it though. I haven’t seen any results yet, but its still early.

I’ll keep you posted on my findings.

Thanks for reading!

Hi Everyone

I’m back from vacation! And of course I didn’t stick to any diet. So when I weighed myself on Monday 6/1, I was surprised and pleased that I was up to 127lbs from about 124lbs. Not too bad given my indulgence.

I promptly put myself back on The Fat Flush Plan and by Wednesday morning I was back down to 125lbs. I know what you’re thinking, “It’s just water weight”, because that’s what I’m thinking too, but sure feels good to see that number on the scale.

It’s an interesting thing though. I look fatter now at 125lbs than I did about 2 weeks ago at 125lbs. I have a theory about this. Every time I lose weight, as soon as I lose it, I look pretty good. But when I stay at that weight for a few weeks, I morph back into my old shape. My theory is that it has to do with your body’s setpoint. When you first lose weight, you’re body isn’t used to it, so it takes on its new and improved shape. When you stay at that weight for a while, your body resets itself into a smaller version of your old shape. Yes, you look better overall, but if you don’t keep at the diet and exercise, your body gets comfortable with the new weight and starts resorting to your old shape.  So anyway, that’s my theory – don’t know if its right or wrong, it’s just what I observe about myself and my husband.  (He’s trying to lose some weight. He’s lost about 20lbs so far and has remarked about the same phenomenon.)

On a separate note, I just want to say for the record that I’m not in anyway affiliated with The Fat Flush Plan – I just keep writing about it because it’s working for me.

In any case, that’s its for now. Next post is this weekend.

Thanks for reading!