Currently Browsing: Successes!!
Nov 30, 2009
Posted by Jennifer on Nov 30, 2009 in News, Successes!! | 17 comments
It took me 6 months to complete this course, but I got my certification in the mail on Saturday!! I am officially a Certified Nutrition and Wellness Consultant!
I was super nervous because in order to get certified I had to get a score of 95% or better. And considering, it was several hundred multiple choice questions, 100 true or false questions plus an in depth case study, I was hoping it would all go well and I was super excited I passed the first time!
Here’s my official certificate, plus I got a laminated i.d. card! Wahoo!!
I’m of course still on my weight loss journey, but I learned so much from taking this course I know it won’t just continue to help me, but I hope to help others as well!
Sep 24, 2009
Posted by Jennifer on Sep 24, 2009 in News, Successes!!, weight loss superstars!! | 15 comments
Welcome to the second installment of my series of profiling people who inspire me! These people have lost weight and kept it off. No miracles, no pills, no surgery.
I “met” Jen through her blog, and even though she’s had a recent tragedy of losing her Mom unexpectedly, she’s still fighting the fight and is trying to keep going.
Jen, thanks so much for being so honest in your answers, I think everyone will enjoy this interview!
1). What was your “Aha” moment when you decided you needed to do something about your weight?
I had attended a weight loss surgery seminar with my dad and remember sitting there, looking around thinking “HOLY SH*T, I am fat enough to be considering this and am 25 years old!” As I continued to listen to how my life would change, should I get the surgery, I told myself there is no way I want to go through that and that I would so much rather fight for my life then go through all the pain & suffering of the surgery and still fight just as hard. That was it – I joined a gym and have cried, sweat, kicked, screamed and fought my way through this.
2). Had you tried to lose weight in the past – were you successful when you tried?
What HAVEN’T I tried?! I tried Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, South Beach, Low carb this, low cal that, no sugar here, no fat there. I tried to stop eating once, that lasted 5 hours.
3). How do you find time for yourself to concentrate on losing weight?
I realized that its now or never. My life is never going to uncomplicated itself and in fact, I’m pretty sure it will just continue to get busier & more complex. I continue to tell myself, I have to figure it out right now, no matter how busy I think I am. Because in the end, there is always someone busier then I am who makes it work.
4). What kept you going? Were there times where you wanted to give up?
I want to give up every day. But I don’t. The only thought that keeps me going is remembering those deep down feelings of shame, embarrassment & sadness that I could barely admit to myself let alone anyone else. Those feelings of longing to be like everyone else, of feeling like I’m the only one and no one else struggles as much as me. I’ve come to realize, we all share those feelings, we are all struggling just as much as the next person. The trick is, is to push through those feelings and do something about it.
5). How has maintenance been, is maintaining harder than losing weight?
I fight just as much now as I did when I was losing weight. Sorry to burst your bubble friends, but I have a saying around my blog – “sugar coating not included.” I’m not “there” and I didn’t “make it to the other side.” Nope, I still have to wake up and fight to make the same healthy decisions that got me here.
6). Did you exercise while losing weight, if so, what do you like to do for exercise.
I started slow on the treadmill. At first, all I could do was walk. But I push myself. Every day I would try to go just a little faster, a little longer or a little harder. At first, it was mostly cardio. Once I lost a little bit of weight, I started to look outside of cardio at the weights. The weights still scare me but I try to get into the weight section more often then not.
7). What are some tips that helped you a long the way?
The biggest tip that helped me was just sucking it up, accepting that my body was never going to be naturally thin or healthy and moving on. It’s a mental mind game more than anything. It’s not about losing weight, its about not allowing my mind to play games with me, to pull the sheet over my eyes, to lie to myself. There was not and is not one day where I wake up and wanted to go to the gym. I hate doing laundry. I hate going to the grocery store. But I do those too. They take the same amount of time – so I just have to suck it up.
8). What was a typical eating day like before you lost weight?
No limits. Anything and everything I wanted. Sure, I would ask for the dressing on the side but then I proceed to dump the whole thing on the salad anyways! I would eat until I was stuffed. Not full but stuffed. I longed for that feeling, maybe because if gave me something else to feel instead of the emotions.
9). What is a typical eating day like now that you are at your goal weight?
BLECK. This is a never ending struggle for me. I hit my goal on my 2 year healthiness anniversary but within hours of my anniversary, I experienced the most traumatic emotional event of my entire life, one that I no one should ever have to go through. (See blog for details.) I am now fighting to not spiral out of control and lose all the habits I worked so hard to get. My journey of fighting for a healthy life continues – it’s not about the weight, its about the habits now. My world was turned upside down in August and now, I’m fighting, kicking & screaming at all these horrible habits that have come flooding back to me. (see blog for more info)
Life is a continuous circle of ups and downs. Eating for me, flows with the ups and downs. My story is one of a priorfatgirl. I used to be fat, but don’t let my physical appearance fool you – I still struggle just as much now as I did then. For the rest of my life, I will have to continue to push & fight for what I want & have gotten in life. Life is never easy but at some point, we just have to suck it up and fight for what we want. You can do this too – you just have to stand up and fight for it. It’s NOT easy. But it’s worth it.
You look amazing!!
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Thanks again Jen for sharing your story with my readers!
Come back tomorrow for another product review and a coupon for a free sample of that product for one lucky winner!
Also, if you missed my first success story interview, meet Diane for her inspiring story!
Sep 18, 2009
Posted by Jennifer on Sep 18, 2009 in dieting, Muffin of the Week, News, Successes!! | 9 comments
Weigh in Friday! I can’t believe another week has come and gone already! That’s why I am trying to make every day count, because before you know it, its time to weigh in again!
For those of you who don’t know, I am doing Weight Watchers on-line. I’ve gone to meetings in the past, and I enjoy that, but my schedule is kind of crazy and it was hard to commit to a weekly meeting. I LOVE WW online! There is a ton of information and I love logging everything on-line.
So…..I lost 1.6 pounds this week! So my grand total is 11.4 pounds in 8 weeks. Not as fast as I would like, but I am feeling great.
One thing I am integrating into my day is exercise. If it weren’t for my co-worker’s suggestion of working out during our lunch, I probably wouldn’t be doing as much. I highly recommend a work out buddy, because when you aren’t feeling like working out, or think you can’t go any farther, you can push each other to do it! For me, I am NOT a morning person, so waking up before my family and working out is never going to happen. I used to try to work out when I got home from work, but after being gone all day just to come home and leave again, I had a little Mommy guilt going on, and by the time everyone is in bed, working out at 9:00 p.m. I would usually not do it, because I was too tired! Working out during my hour lunch break has been perfect for me!
Our routine is jogging 4 days a week (3.3 miles) and going to a cardio sculpt boot camp one day a week. PLUS, I have been riding my bike to work which is another 3.6 miles!! We are on week 7 of doing that and we are hoping to keep that going!
This brings me to a new site I found called The Daily Mile. If you need motivation for moving, or are training for a race, or event, this is the site for you. It’s free to join, and basically you can post what exercise you have done and it will keep track of the miles/minutes for you!
If one day you are on the fence about whether to exercise, you can log in and see what activity other people have done that day and maybe it will motivate you to get your gym shoes on and off the couch!
How many of you exercise on a regular basis??
I hope everyone has a Fantastic Friday! My daughter has a sleepover tonight, so we are taking our 2 sons to see the movie “9″ tonight. Is should be fun!
ALSO: Check out Mara’s site for an awesome $150.00 cheese gift basket
Apr 21, 2009
Posted by Jennifer on Apr 21, 2009 in breakfast, dieting, lunch, Muffin of the Week, News, Successes!! | 17 comments
I had a super busy weekend, lots of errands, a baby shower, shopping for the baby shower, my younger son had a sleepover, my older son had a birthday party, etc…when I had to drop everything because my Mom injured herself on Saturday. She was painting the side of her garage, and as she was getting off the ladder, she twisted her knee in what she explained as “it felt like my knee exploded”. Off to the hospital, x-rays, sent home with a big brace and wait to make an appointment for an MRI, so I went to her house to take care of her for the rest of Saturday…my poor Momma! She’s almost 70, I live a mile away, I said, why didn’t you call us over to help?? She’s Miss Independent, that’s why!
So by last night, I was exhausted! But, I still made the carrot muffins, AND made my lunch for the next day. If I plan out my food, I find its better for me to stay on track
My breakfast started out with the muffins I made yesterday. It kept me full until lunch!
My lunch was 1/2 a turkey honey mustard sammie, some grapes and pretzels with laughing cow cheese. The flavor of the cheese is so good…french onion!
When I got home from work, I had two surprises:
Food Buzz sent me this pasta! I’m not a huge fan of mushrooms, but I will definitely try it!
I forgot to mention… Day 7 on my brother’s book tour! Visit Jeff’s site today for my brother’s guest blog about his book!
And I got a free preview to this magazine, Cuisine at Home! Its full of great recipes. I’ve read about half the recipes, plus they have a lot of kitchen tips!
So now comes dinner… I make some sort of pasta dish every week, just because its quick. Tonight I made spaghetti with my homemade sauce, and decided to add something extra…
I cooked it separately in a skillet and was going to cut it up into the sauce, but decided just to leave it whole and my family could just cut it themselves
It turned out really good. The turkey sausage is only 160 calories, so that’s not a bad addition to the pasta. Although, I really wanted seconds!! But, I set the timer for 15 minutes, got busy doing other things, and just put my plate in the sink! The kitchen is closed for the evening!
I forgot to mention my brother’s virtual book tour, day 7!! Visit Jeff’s site to read my brother’s guest post there today!
Jul 17, 2008
Posted by Jennifer on Jul 17, 2008 in News, Successes!! | 1 comment
One thing that I have been trying to change in my weight loss this time around is the night time eating!! For some reason I would do great during the day, stay on track, drink my water, avoid food pitfalls at work, but then when I would get home, making dinner, I would reach for the chips and in a matter of a few minutes I would consume half the calories that I had eaten all day, and that was before eating dinner! Another pitfall for me is late night eating. I have 3 beautiful kids, but once they are all in bed, my husband and I get to watch our shows and more chips would appear. And I would never put some in a small bowl, or measure it out; I would eat straight out of the bag, so who knows how many servings that is when you aren’t paying attention! So, I’ve come up with a few strategies that seem to be working.
1. When I get home from work, I make a small snack, or heat up some vegetable soup, sit down and take a moment to catch up on my kid’s day, and transition to the rest of the evening. Doing this, I’m not only spending quality time with my kids, but I am not thinking about food when I am making dinner, and my hand does not reach for the chips!
2. After dinner, I do have a small treat. Whether it is a cookie, a small scoop of ice cream, a skinny cow ice cream sandwich, pudding, etc… Once I am done with that, I make an imaginary rope across the kitchen that the kitchen is closed for the evening!
3. If I am really struggling with wanting to eat, even though I am not hungry, I have used those Crest Whitening strips for my teeth. You need to leave it on your teeth for ½ an hour and by the time that is done and I brush my teeth, I’m usually fine.
4. On the weekends, when my husband and I are chilling out, watching a movie after the kids go to bed, I will either make 94% fat free popcorn, or I have recently been eating more veggies as snacks with fat free dip, like sugar snap peas, carrots, pepper strips etc…Not only are you getting more veggies in your diet, but they fill you up to.
5. Keeping yourself busy is also another way not to pig out in the evening. I like making jewelry, so that usually keeps me busy, or I’ll fold laundry, or clean out a drawer to distract myself.
6. I also made a list of why I want to lose weight, and usually reviewing that will help me meet my goals.
Jillian Michaels, from the Biggest Loser, offers this advice for late night noshing:
1. Don’t eat while standing up, in the car, or on the go. If you sit down and pay attention to every meal, you will be more relaxed and you are less likely to overeat.
2. Don’t skip meals. You may think you are saving calories, but you will only eat more at your next meal.
3. People eat at night because they are bored. Take up cross-word puzzles, call a friend on the phone, or go for a walk.
4. Brush your teeth. You are less likely to snack if you have a minty clean mouth.
5. Try a cup of hot tea; the warm liquid in your stomach can help you feel satiated.
Jillian’s last piece of advice:
“When you are fulfilled – say you have a productive job, joyful activities, and healthy relationships, you’re much less likely to mindlessly eat. If you start taking charge of the external things in your life, it will be easier to take charge of the internal ones. Finding non food ways to fulfill yourself will pay off for your body, but it will also help you relax and become a happier human being. When you take the time to look after yourself, you tell the world that you’re worth it, and that you deserve the best life has to offer. Once you project this kind of attitude, you can’t help turning it into reality”
I think that’s pretty good advice!
