Val's turning the big 5-0!

I just read Good Housekeeping’s article about Valerie Bertinelli. I can’t believe she is almost 50; she doesn’t look it at all! I really hope I can look like that when I hit the big 5-0.

Her down-to-earth personality shined as I read about her struggles, obstacles she has overcome, family life, and accomplishments. She truly seems to be happy in her own skin now. She explained how Jenny Craig has helped many aspects of her life because she was able to understand why she had been overeating, and learn how to face the emotional problem rather than fill a void with jalapẽno cheese poppers! I recall so many times where I have eaten to solve my relationship woes, and Val is right, we have to learn different ways to deal and cope.

I loved Val’s video interview with the behind-the-scenes of her photo shoot. She looked so happy, healthy, and was embracing getting older. She talked about being grateful, learning to love and forgive. It made me realize how at any age we should be grateful for everything we have been given. She also taught me how truly important for us to forgive others, but most importantly, ourselves. If we can’t forgive ourselves how can we possibly learn to forgive others and move forward?

I thought her article was truly inspiring and put me in a great mood to kick-start my weekend! Thanks, Val!

Val's before and after!

Have you ever put motivational pictures on your fridge so you stay on track, and won’t grab that late-night pint of ice cream? I have!

I thought instead of putting a picture up to keep me from munching, I would put the Jenny Craig team up on JC Talk! This way they all act as reminders and inspiration on my online “communal fridge.”

Here are some awesome pictures to keep you  motivated along with links to Val, Sara, Nicole, and Jason’s video blogs, plus a behind-the-scenes too!

Valerie

• http://jennycraig.com/successstories/blog/valerie/100007
• http://www.youtube.com/jennycraig#p/u/33/3q056PjdYK8
• http://www.youtube.com/jennycraig#p/u/4/07NLLGW0p84

Sara

• http://jennycraig.com/successstories/blog/sara/saravlog2
• http://www.youtube.com/jennycraig#p/u/8/vDEb2zBBbk4

Nicole

• http://www.youtube.com/jennycraig#p/u/25/Wu_hBeTNfDE
• http://www.youtube.com/jennycraig#p/u/0/cIGp0v3liao

Jason

• http://www.youtube.com/jennycraig#p/u/9/fq1WC-9uh_c
• http://www.youtube.com/jennycraig#p/u/1/2DC8pE0LiJA

Behind the scenes with Valerie!

Sara in December

Sara in January

Nicole in October

Nicole in February

So as I previously pledged, I’m going to participate in the local St. Patrick’s Day race. I officially signed up this morning (eek!), and now I have to stick with it! I’m going to have to figure out a good routine to either get up early or run after work to train. I have a little less than a month so wish me luck and I’ll keep you posted! If you’re interested in finding a local race or marathon check out Cool Running’s website and find what’s coming up in your area!

In the meantime, since today starts my “no eating after dinner” vow for the next 46 days (April 3^rd seems so far away!) I’ve been trying to think of other ways I can get excited and enthusiastic besides late-night snacking while watching the Olympics.

I’ve decided I’m going to replace a bad habit with a good one. I absolutely LOVE to cook, although I do prefer baking! Since I can’t (correction, won’t) eat late at night, I’m going to make phenomenal dinners so I won’t have the desire or the stomach space to eat late.

Rather than just going to the grocery store and roaming the aisles for inspiration I decided visiting local farmers’ markets would be more fun! Not only are there awesome fruits and veggies that you can sample, but some of the stands offer free recipes as well! It’s a great way to get out with friends or family, and be a part of the community and get fresh produce. I found a great website where you can look up your local farmers’ markets, so rather than lounge around all weekend I’m going to hit up my local farmers’ markets! I’m excited to see what I can find, taste, and take back to create my next masterpiece! Who needs late-night snacks now?!

In honor of Mardi Gras starting tomorrow I thought I’d look into cooking a classic Cajun style dinner. Cajun food is absolutely delicious, but can pack on calories with butter and starch.

Thus I went on a mission to find a healthy dish. I finally came across a Cooking Light recipe that looks out of this world. The best part is not only is it healthy, but other New Orleans recipes are included as well!

So what the heck, lets try out a few! My top picks to make are the Jambalaya with Shrimp and Andouille Sausage, and for my sweet tooth I’ll make the Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce. Both recipes are under 500 calories a serving, which is awesome! This may seem like a splurge, but if you plan ahead you can enjoy a special meal and keep on track.

Speaking of Mardi Gras, is anyone giving something up for Lent this year? I decided to challenge myself. After going back and forth trying to figure out whether or not I actually wanted to commit, I’ve decided no more eating after dinner. I’m going WAY out of my comfort zone. It will most definitely be hard to give up late night chips, popcorn, and dessert, but I think I can do it!

If anyone has advice besides locking my cabinets and refrigerator or placing an alarm system in my kitchen to keep me away from snacking, I’m all ears! For those of you who are also going to give something up this week, good luck! I’ll let you know how it went in April (eek that sounds far away); I should probably pick up a late-night hobby for the next 46 days!

I must admit, when I started hearing about doctors recommending drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day I wasn’t fazed. I am without a doubt, the biggest water drinker I know. To keep up with my water trends, over the years I have gone from trendy athletic water bottles to the newest, Klean Kanteen.

Needless to say, although I think of myself as a water expert, I was fascinated when I came across this water article on Oprah. Although I know the 8 glasses a day rule, I never really knew the logic behind why our bodies actually need and crave water. There’s got to be a reason why our bodies are comprised of 60% of water, eh? I also discovered our bodies can actually give us signs and signals for as to when we need water when we are dehydrated, need energy, or to aid in digestion.

The article ends with a challenge that is something we all can try. For a week when you start to get thirsty, go for water rather than coffee, soda, or juice and pay attention to how your body and mood feels after. You might start noticing you don’t need that caffeine fix or morning cup of orange juice to you get you going. Water can give you the boost you need without the calories!

Perhaps they were onto something when they deemed water the elixir of life!

This topic really comes from my personal struggle with people who used to be very close to me, but after catching them in SO many lies I finally got the courage to eliminate them from my life. BUT lately I’ve realized that when you point 1 finger at someone else there are 3 pointed back at you.

There are some common “lies” that I tell myself or have told myself along this journey and the more I expose the lies the healthier I become. So my challenge to myself and to all of you if you wish to take it is to tell the TRUTH…to come clean.

Here are some of my little “lies” that I can still tell myself that I need to dig up and throw out of my life:

1. I tell myself there’s something wrong with me when I deviate. I can go into deep analysis. TRUTH: I’m human and imperfect and have had years of using food to cope so I slip sometimes so what. Just move on.

2. I can start to doubt my ability to go all the way to my goal weight. TRUTH: Doubt doesn’t mean don’t. In other words I can move forward and still doubt. It’s just a feeling/emotion it’s not a fact

So those are just 2 of the lies I need to throw out of my life. How about you?

Here’s to our own personal truths. A life of integrity starts with keeping promises to the person we spend the most time with….ourselves.

Here we go….. Hope

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On my second flight yesterday, there was this little girl who just kept staring at me. I wondered what she was thinking as she smiled so innocently at me. It took me back to her age and the thoughts I used to have when I’d see women like me…dressed in a suit, seemingly going “places”, and wondering just what life had waiting ahead. Then this quote came to me that I think applies to our journey:

“We must give up the life we had planned to have the life waiting for us”

Childhood dreams sometimes come true and then sometimes not. For some of us, we are living lives VERY different than what we imagined for ourselves. BUT the innocence on that little girls face made me see it from a new perspective. Even though some dreams haven’t come true and some may be lost forever, there is still a lot WAITING for me and all of you on the OTHER side of our goal weight.

Can you just imagine for a minute what’s waiting for us when we step into our lives at our goal weight?
*reduced risk of all kinds of diseases
*increased longevity and/or quality of life
*improved energy
*more consistent state of mind (drastic reduction in self loathing over weight)
*new hobbies
*looking in the mirror and feelin’ HOT
*increased self esteem and self respect
*new clothes and lots of options for places to shop
*new friends who share our new lifestyle habits (working out, kayaking, hiking, running, etc)

The list goes on and on and each of you will have a customized list of all that’s waiting for you.

I personally want to challenge myself to feel okay with where I am. In some aspects, my life may not be what I planned but I’m EXCITED about what giving up those plans could mean for me and anxious to see what’s WAITING on the other side. So that’s my challenge and that’s what I offer to you….Are you willing to give up some of what you planned to go for what’s waiting for you? Are you willing to let the possibilities of what STILL CAN HAPPEN in your life be the driving force to go for what you want today?

Here we go……

Hope

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I have to come clean. Since reaching halfway I have had a lot of fear bubble up. I know others have expressed before so I wanted to make FEAR the topic this week.

For SOOO much of my adult life I’ve realized that I hid behind my “weight” issue for a lot of different reasons, and some I’m JUST now discovering as I get smaller. I would always blame or fall back on the weight when anything didn’t go well. For example if I went out with a guy and we didn’t hit it off, then it had to be because of the weight. When I lost my baby I blamed . . . what else . . . weight. In spite of boatloads of evidence to support the contrary, it was like my default button. So lately I’ve been getting more attention and while it’s great, it’s also uncomfortable at times.

Then there is economic fear. For all of us in this country it is a volatile time. I’ve been added to the list of potentially having to change positions and even relocate completely - all potentially not definitively - but it has introduced another layer of fear for me.

My coping skills for fear and other emotions have gotten better but they aren’t perfected to the point where I don’t think of food when all of this starts swirling in my head. Last night I had an old school sugar binge . . . cupcakes, cheesecake, and carrot cake. I just didn’t want to be awake for the pain . . . BUT the ironic thing is that the binge didn’t do for me what it used to. I think I’ve worked SO much on becoming self aware on this program that I instinctively started journaling.

I wrote all my fears out and then I wrote what I could do if all those “worse case” scenarios came true. It made me see it was MUCH bigger in my mind that it was in reality.

So that is my challenge for me this week and I offer it to all of you if this is applicable in your life. FACE whatever is bothering you. Play it out on paper all the way through and see for yourself that YOU DO have what it takes to survive . . . no to THRIVE.

So this morning is a clean slate. I’m about to throw the remains of the sugar binge away and head to my consultation.

NEW definition of FEAR:

F Face
E Everything in my life
A and
R Remain on Jenny Craig

So there . . . what’s there really to fear? I’ve just turned it into something good and that’s what it’s all about . . . how we DEFINE a situation/feeling determines how we feel, which then determines how we’ll behave.

Let’s get it started. It’s a brand new day, a clean slate just waiting for all of us to make our mark.

HAPPY NEW DAY everyone!

Here we go…..

Hope

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I barely made it to my consultation this week because I was so sick. I was at a conference where I had H1N1 exposure but thank goodness that’s not what I picked up. Turns out it was just a nasty cold. It did make me think about being “sick and tired” though.

We talk about how bad it feels to go around others and feel insecure because of our size, we talk about how we don’t like being the “largest” (at least for us women, who hasn’t scanned the room to see if someone is bigger and internally rejoiced about it), we spend our days consumed about our size, weight loss progress or lack of, we start a lot of conversations about what we “should” do…..

Then somewhere along the list of complaints there’s inevitably the comment “and I’m so sick and tired of this”….SOOOO my challenge to myself and to all of you who wish to take it is: HOW SICK ARE YOU?

Sick and tired enough to dig in and do the WORK required to change lifestyles?

Sick and tired enough to bring up problems/struggles with the intent to find SOLUTIONS?

Sick and tired enough to be uncomfortable as those old habits die a slow death?

Sick and tired enough to know the scale will not always say what you want, by the date you want?

Sick and tired of making the scale your ONLY data point to measure success which inevitably will lead to a rollercoaster of emotions?

Sick and tired of NOT accepting that sometimes you can do everything right and the scale doesn’t reflect your efforts? Are you willing to give up the meltdowns over a single number on a single day?

Sick and tired enough to know that emotionally you will not always feel pumped up and raring to go open another Jenny Craig entree but you do it anyway?

Sick and tired enough to find the kind of workout and workout “style” (meaning social or alone) that you prefer and accept that it may take time to find your personal “click”?

Sick and tired enough to make wallowing and self pity unacceptable and that from this point you choose to be powerful not pitiful?

Sick and tired enough to stop being your own enemy with negative self talk but working to have daily affirmations to change it?

Sick and tired enough to realize perfection isn’t required and so neither is a complete meltdown when imperfect days happen?

Sick and tired of starting and stopping the program only to realize that quitting never makes your progress faster?

Sick and tired of comparing yourself to anyone other than your former self?

………….So that’s it for me. How SICK are you?

For me today I can honestly say that I’m sick enough of talking about weight, so I continue to commit to my program. I went to my consultation anyway because I know that this is the ONE area of my life that I have complete control AND it comes with a guarantee of feeling great about me and my life.

So as I morphed into a major pity party for being sick, I simultaneously took care of what I could take care of….my eating, my thinking, and my “no matter what” I’m going to my consultation.

No weigh in this week because I had two liters of water before my consultation from being dehydrated from the medication I was on, but I’m happy to say that I’m better and I’m “sick and tired” enough to do the work to continue to move towards my goal weight.

Hope…sick enough to do the work!

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Beyond Halfway!!!!

This was one of the most stressful weeks on my program. First of all, I had to work over the weekend, so by Friday of this week I had worked ten days straight! Second of all I had a long-term customer of mine tell me (admittedly due to a mistake on my part) that I was unprofessional and had lost all credibility. The last straw was the possibility that my job could be eliminated. So you roll that ball of stress up and what do you get? For me at this point in my life it meant sticking even closer to my program. I have finally learned that when things external to me and beyond my control are spinning it is even more important for me to follow my JC menu. On my 10^th day of work I calmed myself with some Evian water and magazines at 9pm at night at the end of my workday. I passed all the drive-through restaurants that used to be my retreat in times of stress when I would convince myself that “this” was just not a “good” time to follow my program. Now I know ALL the time is a GOOD time to follow my program. So what was my reward for taking exceptional care of me? I didn’t meet my halfway goal of 40 pounds, I PASSED IT and lost 2.8 pounds for a total of 41 pounds GONE. YAY ME!

It hit me that I had finally grown to a point where the opinions others have of me don’t define me. I get to determine who I am, and I know I AM professional and credible, independent of what that customer said about me. I know I am someone who will land on my feet regardless of what happens to my job. Why? Because I have decided on whom I am, and that’s a woman who knows how to put herself on her “to-do” list of top priorities.

I haven’t felt this proud of my choices in a very long time. I could get used to being powerful and not pitiful.

I’ve also attached a picture of me in front of the poster at my center. I think I’m looking pretty good if I say so myself!

Hope

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