Today is a short day for me, will mostly sleep since I have to work tonight.  I've already had one shake this morning, will probably have salad before I go to bed and that will be all.  At the moment I'm not even craving a Diet Coke, so that must be a good thing.

Mike picked me up some globe grapes and a couple more pomegranites, woohoo!  He is really going out of his way to make sure I have healthy foods to eat for snacks.  That really helps.

Yesterday wasn't so bad, but it's a good thing today is short to make up for it.  I had my shake while I was making dinner so I wouldn't be tempted to eat too much at dinner.  We had the Pasta Roni Garlic and Herb Vermicelli, and I added frozen chicken and frozen peas.  We also had Asian salad.  I think my portions were just less than one serving, so I did ok on the portion control.  I enjoyed talking too much (so what else is new!) to eat, so I was the last done.  Other than a glass of suger-laden juice (I was too tired to get up and refill my water) I did just fine.

But today I'll probably go back to bed in half an hour when the kids leave and possibly get back up when Skip comes to get Mike at 8:40 for the Bishop's Storehouse.  Hopefully I'll have the mental energy to get a few things done until he gets back home, then will likely be in bed for the day by 1:00 pm.  When I get up for work tonight I will have my cereal and Diet Coke and be a happy camper again!

Posted by mythinnerself at 6:10 AM PST

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Well, I didn't get a nap yesterday but I had a GREAT day none-the-less.  I watched the Today Show and got a great idea for a costume ... they called it "The Road Less Traveled", it featured a black turtle-neck and pants and yellow tape as the solid and dashed center lines.  I called my friend to borrow a black turtle-neck, and she said she'd wear her brand-new "biker babe" clothes over and we could have our pictures taken together as the biker babe and the road.  So that was fun.

Anyway, this morning I took my measurements again and I can't help but think I didn't do them right the first time ... theoretically, I lost 11.5 inches!!!  How is that possible?  The 1 lb lost I can understand, but 11.5 inches??!?!  I can't have done that correctly.

Tonight will be a challenge, though, becuase I forgot the missionaries are coming for dinner and I've already eaten my "sensible meal" -- Raisin Bran and an apple.  But it looks like I will skip the evening shake and eat salad and veggies instead.  One thing I've learned is that life happens, and we need to be flexible in our diets to accomodate it.

Posted by mythinnerself at 6:20 AM PST

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Wow, am I ever glad yesterday is over.  I had my Raisin Bran and Mt View Orchard apple for breakfast and washed my Adderall down with my Diet Coke.  I even roasted pumpkin seeds this morning -- it is Halloween, after all.

For snacks today I have hard-boiled eggs, a pomegranite, hazel nuts, carrots, etc.  I'm not really concerned about the calories because these are whole, healthy foods.  I just need to resist the call for another Diet Coke!  That includes tomorrow, too; I'm shooting for every other day until my next cleanse on Monday then hopefully will give it up entirely. 

I still need 20 minutes of exercise -- shouldn't be hard today if I stay awake long enough to take the kids Trick-or-Treating.  I'm thinking about going as "the road less traveled" ... I saw it on the Today Show this morning, with a black turtle-neck and pants and yellow duct-tape making the striping on the road.  Should be easy enough, warm, and I can wear my black boots while I walk around.

 Right now, though, I need a nap!!!

Posted by mythinnerself at 10:51 AM PST

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Today is actually "Day 1" -- my first cleanse.  Can I just say, I am STARVING!!!  I didn't even have my Diet Coke this morning, and I'm definitely feeling it.  It's not something I'd be able to follow every day but once a week I think I can handle

I had to work this morning.  Today is my Friday (I scheduled my cleanse this way on purpose) and my 5th graveyard shift in a row.  So I took my cleansing stuff at midnight, 4:00am and 9:00am.  Scripture study and FHE begin at 6:30pm -- yikes, 9 hours still to go!  Good thing I can take an Ambien and sleep most of the day.

I'm also allowed 6 small snacks -- let's see, I've had a handful of hazelnuts (twice), a hard-boiled egg (and a half), a pomegranite and cauliflower.  Right now I'm working on sunflower seeds.  The only thing that worries me is I have to go all day still, so I've saved my last cleanse for later but won't have any more snacks.  Will it be so bad if I go over today and do better next time?

Posted by mythinnerself at 9:32 AM PST

Updated: Wednesday, 1 November 2006 6:03 AM PST

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My box arrived yesterday so I unpacked it and set everything out.  It's actually a pretty comprehansive program!  I had already gone to bed, though, so I started "the program" tonight when I got up for work.

First of all, there are 7 success steps listed in the Isagenix Program Guide:

1. Complete "My Personal Success Promise" and choose a cleansing coach.  I set a short-term goal to lose 35 lbs by the end of the year.  Depending on how this program works, that'll put me at 155 lbs and a reasonable 12 or 14 dress size for Alea's wedding January 5th.
2. Take a picture of yourself.  I already have horrible, ugly pictures of me but I went ahead and took another one (below).  I look better now than I did in Feb 2005, though -- I've lost a few lbs and learned to carry myself differently so it looks like I've lost more.
3. Track your progress.  Yes, I measured my inches along wiht my weight and BMI.  I'll see how they change on this program.  Numbers as of today:  Weight 189.5; Neck 14.5; Upper Arm (L/R) 14.5; Bust 43; Diaphram 39; Waist 39; Abdomen 43; Hips 47; Upper Thigh (L/R) 24; Upper Knee (L/R) 18.5; Calf (L/R) 14.25; Total Inches 368; BMI 33.6
4. Listen to Dr. Becky Natrajan, "Why Cleanse?  Why Isagenix?  Why Cleanse for Life?"  I don't need to, it would be preaching to the choir.  :o)
5. Plan ahead.  I completed the calendar and planned my start days carefully to minimize the effects of the caffeine withdrawal while I'm trying to work.  My box arrived Friday, if I pre-cleanse Saturday and Sunday and cleanse on Monday (my Friday) then I'll have all week to get over the caffeine.  On my rotation, all of my cleanse days will be a work day do I can lay low and just sit at my desk all day, then go right to bed if I need to. 
6. Get rid of the junk food.  We don't really have a whole lot anyway -- except for the fact that it's Halloween!!!  But I am allowed up to six snacks about 30-50 calories, so I can have a bite of something if I need to.  I don't think it is healthy to completely eliminate junk food anyway, as long as it's kept to no more than about 10% of total calorie intake daily.
7. Diligently do the pre-cleanse days.  It basically gets the body used to the nutrients in the Isagenix system before shocking it with teh cleanse.  I'll cut back my Diet Coke to one on pre-cleanse days and none on cleanse days, then will see what it will take to eliminate soda completely.  I should be able to replace the pick-me-up with the Ionix Supreme that is part of the 30-day program.

So far, I've done what I've been told.  The shakes aren't bad (I mix them with non-fat milk and add a scoop of protein powder) and they curb hunger fairly well.  Knowing I can eat six reasonable snacks (30-50 calories each) and a sensible meal (up to 600 calories) doesn't make me feel I'm depriving myself.  Of course, this is only the first day!

I am hopeful that once I get the weight off I can keep it off if I stay on top of it.  The problem with this last weight gain was first, stress leading up to and including an inter-state move and second, working graveyard.  I've finally gotten some help with the stress and developed strategies to adjust to working graveyard -- it was largely mental anyway, I had to learn to make the best of what I had and make it work for me instead of yearning for, even coveting, something different.

So, here are my "before" pictures; view at your own risk!  I hope I'm sizing all these pictures according to correct proportions!  I have to eye-ball them and hope they are accurate.

This HAS to be the WORST picture EVER taken of me!  YIKES!!!!  This was one of my original "before" pictures taken in February 2005 at 199 lbs.  I went on to gain 7 more by year's end, topping out at 206 just before Christmas 2005.  Then I got serious and started going the other way -- albeit slowly.

This one was from the karate training camp in April 2006.  I had already lost 10 or 15 lbs from the above photo -- not that you can tell!  I certainly don't look like a serious martial arts student, and I could barely tie my belt. 

 I can NOT even believe this is me!!!  This was taken at my friend Carol's during our family vacation on the Oregon coast in August 2006.  I took pictures of her in her studio and felt it was only fair that she be allowed to take a picture of me.  Mike doesn't like it when I wear  my "moo-moos" but they were the most comfortable things I had to wear.

This is a great picture of my big rear end -- lol.  Our Relief Society participated in the Walk America for the American Diabetes Association at the end of September 2006.  I was NOT in shape for this, and even though I finished the full 4 miles it took me more than a week to get over the aches in my hips and knees.  I'm too young to feel this old!!!

This is my official "before" picture, taken on my first day following the pre-cleanse portion of the Isagenix system.  It's definitely not as bad as first picture, but it's bad enough!

So what am I doing differently?  Besides Isagenix and karate I'm eating more vegetables and whole foods, focusing on sleeping better, and I joined a program called Celestial University and selected Physical Education for an "Associate's Degree" or "minor".  Yep, me, a PE minor!

Posted by mythinnerself at 8:59 AM PDT

Updated: Wednesday, 1 November 2006 6:04 AM PST

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Boy, I don't even know where to begin here ...

Weight loss is not a new idea to me; I lost 58 lbs in 2002 on Weight Watchers and even joined their staff that January and worked meetings (mostly At-Work) until we moved to Oregon in September 2003. 

Thanks to stress leading up to the move I gained back 30 lbs then when I started working graveyard in May 2004 I gained another 40 lbs.  I finally topped out at 206 lbs just before Christmas 2005 -- 20 lbs higher than when I started at Weight Watchers in July 2001 and 80 lbs above my personal goal.  NOT a good place to be.

On the one hand, I feel it is important to be able to accept myself as I am, as God made me.  I know who I am inside, and that is the same whether I weigh 135 or 185. 

On the other hand, I am tired, stiff and sore all the time. My BMI is over 33, I take medication for high blood pressure and have tendonitis in both hands and both ankles (including both Achilles tendons).  Thanks to working graveyard 4 days on and 4 days off, I take Ambien to go to sleep and wash my Adderall down with Diet Coke to wake up again.  Most importantly, though, I don't feel I have taken good care of this precious gift -- my body -- that God has given me.

I have made some progress this past year:  Last November our family started taking karate, in May or June I bought a bicycle, and in August I added weekly Tai Chi.  I figured if I could get up and *moving* I would loosen up enough to move more.  And it has definitely worked -- I weigh 20 lbs less now than my all-time high last Christmas and I am more flexible now than I have been in years, I think!

But with my schedule, I finally realized I needed HELP to get to where I want to be and know I CAN be.

I have recently become aware of the benefits of CLEANSING.  Our bodies take in so many toxins on a daily basis -- in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the foods we eat, even in over-the-counter and prescription meds.  The human body isn't prepared to process all these toxins, so it coats them in fat cells and stores them in the mid-section.  Logic dictates that if you flush out the toxins, the fat cells follow.  Makes sense to me -- but does it work?

With this background in mind, I read with interest the reports I was receiving from a good freind of ours, Jess Bulkley, who had just lost 50 lbs after two months on the Isagenix Cleansing System.  (If I can figure out how, I'll add the e-mail with his before and after pictures that clinched it for me). 

 I invited Jess over last Friday and he started on his spiel, but I told him he was preaching to the choir here -- I was already familiar with the concept of cleansing (I started noticing articles about it in magazines) and the Isagenix product (I had been to his website and had watched some of the promo videos) -- and I just needed a price list and application.

So this morning I took the plunge and enrolled as an Associate (http://amfree.isagenix.com/) and ordered the basic 30-Day Plan (http://amfree.isagenix.com/cleanse_30day.dhtml?inv=0).  After seeing Jess's results, I am confident this will be the kick-start I need to finally reach my goal and stay there!

Posted by mythinnerself at 6:56 AM PDT

Updated: Wednesday, 1 November 2006 6:14 AM PST

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