Did You Know I Have A Facebook Page?

I've posted the link to my Support Board on here before (I think?) but here is is again just in case.

 http://members5.boardhost.com/pam140/ . Please feel free to join in on the conversations there or start one of your own.

What I haven't mentioned is that I also have a Facebook page where I share interesting articles, thoughts, insights, success stories, all sorts of fun facebooky kind of stuff. So go check it out at

 https://www.facebook.com/PamTurnerCambridge/ .

Comment or just post and say "Hi". Be sure to share my page.

Tips For Those New To Cambridge, part 2

Part 2

Here are a few hints about how to prepare the products along with some other info..        
       
1. Be sure to mix and drink your shakes right away. Don't let them sit around for any length of time          before drinking them. The encapsulation will wear off and you will notice a vitamin taste.        
       
2. When making the FFL Super Oats as a hot cereal I use about 1 cup water to my two rounded scoops. I first heat the water to just boiling with some cinnamon and a about 1 T coconut oil. Coconut oil is not part of the program, but I like to use it as a healthy fat that has actually has been proven to accelerate weight loss, plus it tastes wonderful in the Oats. Do some research on it and decide if you want to add it to your program. I like to cook mine on the stove, but you can use a microwave oven if you want. If you use the micro be sure to use a big enough bowl so they can't boil over. Stir a couple of times to avoid lumpiness. You can sweeten them with whatever sugar free sweetener you normally use. You can add cinnamon or any other spice if you like. I use cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. There are recipes here for yummy things like pancakes for the Super Oats on the Support Board. You can see them at,

http://members5.boardhost.com/pam140/msg/1241977486

Be sure and check those out!      
       
3. The Rich Shake flavors are an extra thick and creamy option in the Original 330 line. Don't miss out on those! The Rich Chocolate is my favorite. I usually add about a half tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder for a more intense darker flavor. I like DARK chocolate!   If you use 3 to 4 oz water and 3 ice cubes, you can blend it until super thick like a mousse.    
       
       
4. It is a matter of personal taste and preference when choosing between the three plans, the Original 330 including the Rich Shake flavors, the 330 with the addition of Tonalin CLA, or the Food For Life (FFL) 420 formulas. FFL uses soy for it's protein source, while the 330's uses dairy whey. It's a good idea to try from all formulas so you can find which suits you best. They are all different in flavors and textures.
       
5. The 30 Day Starter Plans are for first time customers only. You are allowed to try one of each,     the Food for Life 420 30 day Plan, the Original 330 30 Day Plan, or the Tonalin CLA 30 Day Plan. All 3 come with the money back guarantee. If you try to reorder a plan that you have already tried the company will hold your order until they can contact you to explain the rules. They will offer to sell you the 6 cans at the regular retail price, but you will not get the free items again. Sorry!        
       
6. Do not mix hot soups or drinks in a closed blender! It will explode!!        
       
7. You can mix your shakes in the blender, with a hand shaker cup, or one of those hand held immersion blenders that fit right into your glass. My favorite blender is a low priced single serve little guy. It was only about $20 at Walmart and works perfectly on ice for a thicker shake. It is like the "Magic Bullet" only a lot cheaper and the personal blender mugs that it comes with are a little bigger. Perfect size for our shakes!        
       
8. You can use the Super Oats to make a great hot cereal, but you can also make pancakes,        
cake, muffins and whatever else you may come up with yourself! Have fun and experiment! Recipes are available on the Support Board,

http://members5.boardhost.com/pam140/msg/1241977486.top
                 
9. Once you have been on the diet for a while you will likely have friends and family who will see your results and want to do it too. You may want to consider signing up for a distributorship so that you can buy your own products at wholesale and then sell to those who express and interest. Please contact me for details. Signing up is simple and the cost is only $40.        
       
       
10. Try to clear your calendar for at least two weeks when you are first beginning. You don't want       to have to fight temptation in the first couple of weeks. Get to the point when you have       experienced some exciting weight loss and are into ketosis so the appetite is not a problem        
before you put yourself in a place to have to make food decisions. Just be warned what many people find out too late...that adding food can throw them off track and it can be very hard to get back on again. Be SURE that you can handle it! My best advice is to not play around and just get it done before adding food back in to your regular diet. By that time you will be in a much better state of mind to make food decisions and you will no longer be bothered with food addictions or cravings.        
       
11. You can add spices and any flavor non fat broth to your soups. People on the Support Board will be happy to share their ideas and there is also the recipe page on my web site.

  http://members5.boardhost.com/pam140/msg/1241977486.top    
       
The same for the shakes. Try different flavorings like a couple of drops of peppermint in your        
chocolate or vanilla shake. You can get all sorts of flavorings in your local store or online.        
       
12. You can make a thicker shake by adding ice to the blender. Some like adding frozen fruit like berries. Make sure that you are not one of those that fruit is a problem for. Be careful with citrus or bananas, both high in sugar. If you find you are hungrier after fruit, don't use it. The same goes for adding vegetables. Remember, this is a mental as well as a physical effort, in fact I tell my people that is is 90% mental and only 10% physical. You may think that your greatest challenge will be hunger, but believe me that you will battle your thoughts much more then you will your appetite. Remember, none of us got fat because we were hungry.        
       
I hope these 2 blog posts help you in your journey. Everyone finds their own way to succeed with this, but the main things to remember are, have all 3 Cambridge servings, no matter if you add a meal or not, try for 2 weeks straight sole source, drink your water, no strenuous exercise for the first week or so, don't get hung up on weighing all the time, be prepared for the first few days of adjustment and then for the exciting and motivating changes you will see each day!
 

Why So Hard On Ourselves?

Originally Posted by Pam Turner on 07/18/11:

This is a message posted on my support board that I wrote today. You can visit the board at: http://members5.boardhost.com/pam140/

In the 10 years I have been running this board I have met some amazing people. I am continually impressed by the level of compassion and empathy that total strangers extend to each other. So much love and kindness comes from each one of you here and always has. Board members have come and gone...and often come back, but the atmosphere remains positive and welcoming thanks to all of you here. 

So my question is, when we are so ready to encourage others when they are feeling like they've failed or let others down or themselves down...why don't we automatically extend the same grace to ourselves? Why are we so hard and unforgiving when we may trip and fall? 

So often we will have friends here that get off to a good start, maybe even lose a good chunk of their weight, only to have something knock them off track like a wedding or a vacation. They fade away from the board because they feel shame and defeat. Right when they need support and an understanding shoulder to lean on, they disappear and hide letting the negative emotions take over as they have in the past with other dieting efforts. That same love, compassion, fforgivenessand empathy that they extended to others should be turned inward to themselves. Unfortunately what most of us tend to do is revert to the same old negative self loathing dialog. 

The perfectionist in all of us causes us to have an all or nothing way of thinking. The conditioning from years and years of attempted weight loss efforts encourages this and is the main reason for serial dieting. If we slip, we don't just stumble, we dive in to a full on face plant! It's almost a self sabotaging kind of behavior. We commit to 100% on our plan which right off the bat sets us up for failure. NO ONE CAN EVER BE PERFECT ON THIS OR ANY DIET! If you aim for perfection you will surely fail. It's that simple. 

Here's an example to give you an idea of how unrealistic this is. You have your first child. You hold that baby in your arms and you pledge to be the best parent there ever was. Certainly you will be better then your own parents were. Your goals are lofty but you know you want this more then anything. There may be doubts, but you tuck them away. At first everything goes smoothly. Then around 3 months maybe you feed your baby something that he has a bad reaction to. Oh no! You made a mistake! Suddenly your 3 month old baby is whisked away and a newborn takes his place. You must start all over again. This happens several more times over the months and maybe even a year or two goes by. Each mistake takes away all that time and effort and replaces it with a new born.You must begin again. Will you ever reach your goal of perfect parenthood? Will you ever get that child to adulthood? Probably not. No matter what you learn or how much progress you make with each individual effort, you will always make mistakes and then you are back to square one over and over again. 

I'm sure you can see the nonsense in this. It makes so much more sense that we learn from our mistakes and continue on. Nothing in life requires perfection. Not parenting, not your job, not in marriage, not even in the medical profession or there would be no such thing as malpractice insurance and certainly not dieting. Yet, we go in to weight loss demanding perfection from ourselves and anything less then that causes a spiraling down into defeat and shame. Once we get over beating ourselves up we rally and try again, but because of the all or nothing thinking we begin again with Day #1. After all, it only counts if we're perfect, right? We screwed up and completely ruined our previous efforts so in to the garbage they go and we face another beginning. How depressing. Instead of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" how about we just change out the water and continue on with the bath? The little guy will get just as clean in the long run. You will lose just as much weight if you realize and learn from your mistake and continue on as if nothing happened. In fact you will be far more likely to lose your weight if you do. Stop counting the days and just let the time pass. Good or bad choices, learn from them and continue on. I often tell my parents who are in the frustrating period of potty training that they really have nothing to be stressed out about. All kids are potty trained by the time they go to college! If they keep slapping on a diaper every time the child has an accident they will never learn and it will drag on forever. If they just make up their minds to mop up the occasional puddle their child will know success in a much shorter time. You don't berate them for it, you encourage them..keep it positive..and pretend it never happened. Same thing when you have an "accident". You dust off the crumbs, make yourself a shake, tell yourself you are still on your diet act as if it never happened. You continue on to your goal. 

Remember to extend the same positive energy towards yourself that you do to others. You are just as worthy of love as anyone else. You are a work of art in progress. Like a block of marble in the hands of a great artist, it takes time to chip away the bits that will eventually reveal the masterpiece that you are!