DAY #1!

Hello blog readers! Today is the day I start getting myself back on track from my major holiday detour. I am now normally a very consistent and careful eater. Nothing like my days of the past when I ate mindlessly, not realizing how everything I was putting in my mouth was causing me so many health problems and serious limitations not to mention over 120 lbs of excess body fat. For some reason, I kind of went off the rails the past month with all the holiday foods. I can't believe how awful I feel! Bloated, sluggish, foggy headed, depressed. All of it. Blah!! So this morning I got on the scale and took a picture of the number without actually looking at it. I didn't want to start off my holiday recovery plan by feeling bad. I'll look at it in a few weeks after I've lost and then be happy at seeing what I've accomplished! Brilliant, right?

In a few more days it will be 2017. If you are wanting to set a goal of weight loss, why wait another 5 days to do it? Start now with me and we can go in to the New Year already feeling better then we do now. Go to www.cambridgediet.org and place your order. If you already have your supply ready to go, start now if you can. If you are obligated to New Year celebrating, then be ready to hit the ground running come Jan 1st. With commitment and consistency, you can reach your weight loss goal early in the year and then have the rest of it to enjoy the results.

Ok 2017..I'm ready for ya!

It's been a while since I posted anything to my blog. My apologies  for that. I do write quit a bit for my Support Board and my FaceBook page, so I hope you all take time to visit there. But being as how this is a blog, and they tend to be a little more personal at times, I decided to come here to share what my plan is for this new year that is rapidly approaching.

Like most everyone, I have overdone it with the holiday eating. Yes, I know better, but I also know it's not a death sentence because I have my beloved Cambridge to rescue me! My son and his lovely girlfriend have temporarily moved in with us and their eating habits are typical for most 20 something's. Lots of sugar, fried fast foods, pizza, and...well..you get the idea. My son likes to cook and bake and I've been lax in my normally strict eating habits. So..like all of you, I will be beginning my Cambridge Diet damage control come January. Well...I'm actually going to start right after Christmas. I feel sluggish and uncomfortable with the weight I've gained. I have a very small window with extra weight and I feel it right away. Not good.

Will you join me?

Welcome to 2017!

Just imagine, one year in to the future. It's Jan 5th, 2017. You wake up and your first thought is, "Wow! Another day in my new life in my slim healthy body that I worked so hard for in 2016!". You know that every sacrifice you made was not a sacrifice at all! it was a gift you gave to yourself. Each time you stumbled, you dragged yourself back up and continued on. Every time you resisted a craving and denied and turned away from all those old behaviors and habits  that kept you imprisoned in your overweight body, it was worth more then you ever could have imagined.

You look back at the choices you made in 2016 and if you could, you would go back and give yourself a big hug and a high five! It was all worth it! Now you are free to move in your body without limitation. You can feel comfortable in the world and not feel as if you don't fit. You can accept those invitations and not stress about what to wear or if you will be able to squeeze in the booth. All those aches and pains you thought were just normal aging are gone. You can shop and buy clothes that flatter and look cute on you, not just because it's the only thing that fit. You can see your actual face, the shape and structure like you may not have seen in a good while...or ever. You can cross your legs and sit in a theater seat with enough room to tuck your purse next to you. You can graciously receive compliments without immediately doubting their sincerity. You can go try new things that you never would have before. You feel attractive and sexy and strong and full of energy.

The only question you ask yourself now is why did you wait so long? Why did you give all your happiness and your vitality for so many years to food? How did you remain lost for so long and so completely unaware of how much of your life you had missed out on? You shake your head and know that while you may regret all that time you could have done better, it is 2017 and that old life is behind you. You look back at 2016 as the year you changed your life.

54 Day Countdown!

Ok...here goes. I had my 100 (actually 99) days of SS count down to my 56 birthday and ended up taking a break for Christmas. I haven't been weighing or really doing anything other then just being careful, but I definitely feel like I gained some of my weight back. New Years is a non-event in our house so the celebrating is OVER! Tomorrow I begin my 54 day countdown to my 56 Birthday goal. My wonderful son gave me an ice cream maker for Christmas so I finally get to experiment with some Cambridge ice cream! My husband also gave me a very nice Cuisinart Immersion blender with all sorts of attachments and a perfectly sized container that will be great for really blending the ice. I'm all set!

I'm having tons of new traffic on my site so others are searching for their answer to weight loss for the New Year. No doubt, a lot of the visitors are old friends that are back to try again. It's never too late to lose the weight and restore your health! We all have a clean slate in front of us.

                                                          2015, Time To Get Lean!

Just A Few More Days

For those that are waiting to get Christmas over to once again commit to their weight loss program, it's only a few more days. If you're waiting until after the New Year, well...that's another story. Always waiting for the perfect time to diet is pointless as there is always another holiday or event coming up. Trying to make progress in between can mean  a lot of effort for not a lot of progress. Don't waste those in between days. Make them count too. 5 days of work is not cancelled out by one day of play, as long as you give it your best.

Jan 1st will be here soon enough and then for the most part, the excuses dry up for a while. For those who are SSing or attempting to and making progress, or even just maintaining (which is also an accomplishment!) well done! Real life demands that we make tough choices and sacrifice what we want in the moment, for what we want most in the future.

Thanksgiving Is Over...

Good Question! We made it through Thanksgiving. Some of us were able to stick to our plan, some of us went off the deep end, but all of us look forward to a better future so no looking back! Tomorrow is December 1st. 2014  is almost over. We have a few weeks to either make excuses, or make progress before the New Year begins. 

Holiday Madness!!!

Halloween is next week. In my past, this was a license to buy copious amounts of candy, (no judgmental looks at my shopping cart from other shoppers) sneak eat it all, then go buy more to replace it. Sometimes this played out more then once before Oct 31st. Have you ever eaten an entire bag of Reese's Peanut Butter cups? I have. Reese's were my favorite. Using the word "favorite" is undervaluing my obsession for them. In the midst of my binge I would be in an almost trance like state, but still aware of what I was doing and completely unable to stop myself until they were all gone. Wow...just reliving this makes me so sad.

Most of our upcoming holidays have a heavy (no pun intended) price attached of too much celebratory high calorie, sugary, and fat packed foods. It's a hall pass to eat with abandon and without thought of nutrition or consequence. It's comparable to being on a cruise ship. A major part of the cruise experience is the food. The endless buffet encourages people to "get their money's worth" since it's included in the price. We justify overeating and making ourselves sick with food because we are on vacation...so it doesn't count. Hmmm. Same for the Holiday season. Tradition, family gatherings, work parties and friends, all reasons to put our diet and our health on the back burner until the New Year.

My question is... why? Is this really the only option? Of course not! We have just as much of an ability to control our thoughts, decisions, and actions in the months of Oct, Nov and Dec as any other month of the year.  Sacrificing 1/4 of the year to mindless and excessive eating, year after year after year, in the name of "celebrating" is just plain crazy.

After all, Halloween is a kids event. I'm not a fan of Halloween and now that I no longer have kids of my own at home or Day Care kids I generally don't participate in passing out candy. I just can't feel ok about it anymore considering the rate of childhood obesity and diabetes and I won't waste my money on alternative trick or treat items that the kids will just throw out. I keep the porch light off and my dogs are grateful.

November brings Thanksgiving. Now, if ever there was a food worshiping holiday, this one is it! There are plenty of articles online that debate the true story of the Pilgrims and what took place, but that's not the issue here. As with most official holidays, Thanksgiving has been manipulated by the retailers in to a "spend money and eat too much" day. Because there is not as big of a potential financial gain for Thanksgiving as there is for other more profitable holidays, it has pretty much been squeezed out in the stores for the more marketable Halloween and Christmas holidays. Still...it is a license to over-indulge.

Christmas is LOADED with all sorts of excesses, food being one of them. Our pockets are wrung dry of money most of us can't afford, but we justify spending. Our diets are put on hold and we once again justify feeding and feasting, all the while planning our return to sensibility once the year ends.

All told, we are talking about approximately 70 wasted days that we could be making progress to our goal. 70 days that could bring you good health and the happiness that comes with it. Food will never give you that reward. It is an absolute fact that come Jan 1st, you will look back at this time with some degree of regret if you put your life on hold once again for the sake of eating the same holiday foods you eat every year. In reality, we are only talking about 3 days. 3 days out of 70. Unfortunately we don't restrict our celebratory eating to just those 3 days. It ends up being 3 months and a LOT of damage can be done.

This year I would encourage you to remember that you DO have a choice.  It is not mandatory to repeat the same old behaviors that have only contributed to your weight issues. If you were a recovering alcoholic, would you justify getting drunk on certain days because it's tradition? Would the people that love and care about you expect you to break your sobriety? No. You would be respected for your choice to hold to your new life style and convictions. We all deserve the same respect, not just from others, but more importantly, from ourselves.

Welcome to 2014!

Originally Posted by Pam Turner on 01/01/14:
Yes, another new year. Time is going so fast it seems. Do you have your goals set for 2014? I haven't put too much thought in to it yet, but I do know that I want to lose a few more pounds and get as lean as I can be. I haven't had a gym membership the past year and a half since we moved here to Florida. I have a beautiful pool, but it's unheated and yes, even here in sunny Florida it gets too cold to swim. You get about 6 months of the year before the water gets too cold. My goal is to need a new swim suit for summer because my old one will be too big!

This year had some challenges. My sister recently died. She was only 2,5 years older then me, (55) but she was diagnosed a couple of years ago (at the age I am now) with cardio pulmonary hypertension. She basically died of congestive heart failure. My mother died of congestive heart failure when she was only 62 and I also had congestive heart failure when I was only 26. So you can see there is definitely a genetic factor here I am determined to beat. Thankfully, I am currently in decent health, active and living as stress free of a life I can create. My Cambridge keeps me healthy and is my main tool for keeping a life time of obesity under control. I am so far away from the person I used to be 12 years ago. I understand that even though there may be genetic tendencies in my family, that doesn't mean I can't counteract them with a focused effort to eat and live healthy.

I hope that 2013 was kind to you, and if it wasn't, I hope 2014 will be all you hope for. I am not one for magical thinking, but people seem to be expressing a common sense that 2014 is going to be a great year. If we welcome it with that attitude, then we stand a much greater chance of it being so.

If you have weight to lose, don't wait another day. Go to my website at cambridgediet.org and order your product today. You will have it in your hands in less then 7 working days. You can take the time you spend waiting for it to clean out all the sugar and simple carbs in your diet to prepare your body for an easy transition to the diet. There is nothing else out there that can give you the results that Cambridge can!