Just clicked one day...

For many years, I was waiting for things to click. I tried numerous things with diet and exercise, but never moved the needle on the scale. I am preparing for my first Shaklee event to promote healthy living, and I started thinking about the moment that things "clicked" for me.

Me & Jen

As you've read in previous posts, I met my personal trainer, Jen,  last summer. On my first day, she handed me a spiral notebook and gave me a website to track my food.  At first, I thought there is no way that I can want to do this, but as an effort to change my behavior, I began logging every morsel. It wasn't until after about two weeks that she said the most profound to me.  She was reading my food journal and she looked at me with a serious voice and said," you aren't eating enough!"  WHAT?!? She explained to me the most simple concept that I never thought of before.  If you burn 1000 calories per day, you need to replace them! I should mention that I was doing two workouts per day, so NO, I am not superwoman. I was starving my body! I was always told to burn as many calories as I could, but I had never been told to replenish the nutrients that my body lost! Who knew? Lightbulb! This was the beginning for me. The first time that it "clicked" for me, and so my nutritional journey began....

Before my workouts, I always eat some kind of protein.  It could be homemade Healthy Oates' protein bars, Special K w/ almonds and almond milk, or my favorite, Shaklee Cinch protein shake.

After workouts, I make sure that I eat something like a banana, apple, or a Performance Recovery Shake depending on how many calories I burned.

For the rest of the day, I just try to eat natural/non processed foods.  My first rule of thumb is if I can't pronounce the ingredients, I usually don't eat it.  Secondly, I try to limit the number of ingredients to 5. There are alot of recipes that are fantastic with the "less is more" mentality.  The last thing I will leave you with is be reasonable. It is not normal to give up everything you love in life, so if you know it is going to be a pizza night, you better workout twice as hard to enjoy it!

Light Bulb Moments:

Are you eating enough?

 What exactly are you eating?

Are you giving up your favorite foods? 

Skinny up Cleaning Routine!

Today, I revisited a blog that I found back in December, CleanMama.  I decided, since today was the first Monday in February, I would finally adhere to her suggested monthly cleaning schedule.  It seems to be attainable, and so easy.  It allows you to focus on certain rooms each day with a few extras to help things in order.  I have a short cleaning attention span, so the plan seems like it will work for me.  I may need to make adjustments as I go, but I am willing to give it a shot. 

CleanMama offers great tips and tricks to help with cleaning, but most importantly, she uses CLEAN products.  Since I became a distributor for Shaklee, I started replacing one toxic cleaner per month with a better green cleaner to cut back on the poisonous exposure in our home.  Since we started using these products in our home back in November, our children's health seems to be better.  As I was looking over her blog, I noticed that she too, uses Shaklee Get Clean products.  If you would like to skinny your wallet and your cabinet space, check out these clean products that are nontoxic, natural, doubly concentrated, and have biodegradable surfactants.  Check out the products here.  By getting myself on a regular cleaning schedule, I hope that our health will continue to improve. Happy Green Cleaning!

New month, New news....



As read in my previous post, I was quite shocked when my Dad passed so young.  Me, being proactive, decided to have some hereditary test done to see if I had any signs of these same issues.  The good news is that after a few test, I didn't have any symptoms present, but there was a  preliminary finding. A growth/nodule/cyst (however you classify it) growing right around my thyroid in my neck.  {insert my freak out} The good news was that they didn't see any "characteristics" that needed a further look, but I should do a routine checkup in 6 mos. 

Fast forward 6 mos, I went yesterday.  Today, I got the call that it had grown, so I needed to come in for an ultrasound biopsy.  {insert 2nd freak out}  Many emotions and thoughts come rushing into your head when you hear news like this.  The first thing I have to do is try to remain optimistic.  Yeah, I know, Mrs. Devil Advocate, how am I suppose to do that?  Well, it's a new month, new year, and hopefully, a new outlook.  For now, I will just do what they tell me and hurry up and wait........to be continued....