Why Cambridge Was My Success Story (finally!)

As I have shared before, I spent most of my life, beginning in toddlerhood, on a diet. I was born chubby (9lbs, 3oz) and I was always aware of the fact that I was different from my three thin siblings. Going through life constantly mindful of every bite of food you take and labeling it "good" or "bad" can really mess up any chance of feeling normal.

Going on Weight Watchers at the age of 9 with my mother was my reality. I was the only kid there in a room full of adults. I can't count the number of times we started and stopped that diet. We would lose some weight, and then gain it back...over and over. The meetings and weigh ins were torture. I can remember how labor intensive it was to follow back then with the counting, weighing, measuring, substituting, and generally having to choke down weird tasteless food. Yuck!

Now, many of you may not be old enough to have been on WW in the early days. It was very structured and detailed. I have to give most of the credit to my mom for the amount of work involved since she did the cooking. Once I got older I took over some of the kitchen duty and it was an enormous pain. It took up the whole day, planning meals and special prep work, making sure we had our weekly meals planned including the mandatory servings of liver and fish and veal, etc. I came to the conclusion early in life that dieting makes a person even MORE obsessed with food! Not the result you are looking for when you are already giving way to much of your time and attention to it.

I was poking around on the Internet this morning and came across this article that has the old original WW plan as I remember it from the 60's/70's. Maybe you can see why Cambridge was such a miracle for me and others who were completely burned out on conventional weight loss plans. This is long, but unbelievably and intensely detailed! Not unlike most weight loss plans that have you accounting for each bite of food you take. Cambridge's simplicity is the reason I was finally able to succeed at losing my weight and keeping it off for the past 14 years.

Here is the Weight Watchers original plan. You will be even more grateful for Cambridge. Click on the link below and prepare to be amazed!

http://www.dwlz.com/WWinfo/old1972ww.html

August Is Cambridge Customer Appreciation Month!

August is customer appreciation month! Orders placed through the month of August receive 10% off! Call 386-585-2528 to place an order TODAY!! If ordering online type "10% off promo" in the comments field of the order. Discount price will be adjusted when method of payment is processed.

YES, Cambridge are still around after 35 years, and we appreciate our customers! Why have we been the #1 weight loss program in the world for so long? Because it works, it’s simple to use and taste great! Cambridge Diet products, a totally integrated system for nutrition and weight management. With the Cambridge Diet, you are not stuck eating horrible tasting packaged meals or counting or weighing every bite. IT’S JUST TOO SIMPLE!! Drink 3-4 nutritional supplement shakes a day, depending on your diet needs and goals and you will literally watch the pounds shed away. Studies show participating in a diet with a friend is helpful in losing unsightly pounds— so tell a friend that the Cambridge Diet is still around, and get Back On Track TODAY!

Call me to place your order, or go to my website at www.cambridgediet.org to order online.

Which Step Have You Reached Today?

Diet Fatigue

One of the things I remember about my weight loss experience with Cambridge is something I called "diet fatigue". It kicked in towards the end of the second month of my diet. I had already had a great deal of success. I had lost over 30 pounds my first month so there was plenty of reason to feel motivated! I was happy with my Cambridge products, not having any hunger, wonderful energy and all in all, I felt great...physically. Mentally was another story. This was not an issue with missing food. I know that's what it probably sounds like, but actually it was just an overwhelming impatience for the weight loss period to be over. By mid way through my 120 pound loss, I felt like it was dragging on forever! This was obviously not the case since I had dieted for many months before on other programs like Weight Watchers with only a moderate weight loss result. Here I was only 2 months in and had already lost over 40 pounds! For some reason, the rapid weight loss made me want to wave a magic wand and be at my goal. I had a taste of what was to come in my new life and I wanted it NOW!

I started getting sloppy. A nibble of this, a bite of that, some hot air popcorn at night...before I knew it, my weight loss had stalled. I was perplexed since I wasn't consciously sabotaging my diet. If someone had asked me, I would have sworn I was sticking to my plan 100%. I really was in denial. It was my daughter that pointed out  what I was doing and I realized that even though I had thought I had conquered my food issues by that time (totally unrealistic!) I was in fact still playing the same games I had always played with other diets in the past. Self sabotage is a hard thing to admit. It is easy to blame everyone and everything for our failures, but ultimately our weight problems are from the choices we make. I had to learn to pay attention to that little voice telling me that I deserved something extra, or that this little bit won't hurt. Worse was the old behavior of making impulsive decisions and seeing what I could get away with. None of these behaviors display the self control I thought I had. I also think that at some level I may have been a little scared of how my life was changing. I made no sense, but it didn't have to.

If you have experienced your own diet fatigue and feel like you may quit.. or like me.. be self sabotaging, this is your wake up call! When we say this is about "persistence, not perfection", it's really true! Losing weight is not for wimps. It challenges us on so many levels, both physically and emotionally. Getting our bodies healthy and in shape is one thing, but you have to get your mental health in line as well. One supports the other and when one is struggling, the other will follow. Starting a diet is easy. Finishing is something else. That finish line is there waiting for you. Don't let something as unimportant as boredom or frustration get in your way and keep you from what you want most.

Happy 4th Of July!

Hey people..we are in to another holiday weekend and that usually means food, right? I know it's tough to abstain, it seems like it really matters that you take part in the celebratory BBQs and pot lucks, but does it really? Do we attach too much importance to the food and not enough to the company or the events or the actual reason for the celebration? Most of our holidays have been reduced to spending money and eating mass quantities of food. There's nothing wrong with these things in moderation and as part of the celebration. But for most of us here, the food is the main event. That's a great way to miss out on the memory making stuff. We don't carry memories of food throughout our lives, but we do of the places, people, experiences, and love and friendships that were there.

This 4th of July you have choices to make, the same ones we make every day. Do I put my energy and focus on food, or on things that really matter?

Happy 4th everyone!

Fat Time Of Day? Really?

I read an article this morning on Yahoo News that had these advertisements from 1970. I found it amazing how aggressively manipulative the food and advertising industries have been in the past, as well as they still are today. All they have to do is present their pseudo science "facts" and fill in with a few technical sounding words or theories and they can mislead the public. The fact is that we humans were not designed to consume vast amounts of sugar, natural or otherwise. We evolved on a seasonal diet of fruits and other plant life as our main source of sugar as well as things like honey when available. The abundance of processed sugar is relatively new and the effects have been devastating to our health. It was only a few years ago that the corn industry was making a huge public push to convince us that high fructose corn syrup was perfectly natural and safe..."just like regular sugar". Well..I guess they are right because they are both equally unhealthy. What are you thoughts about these advertisements? Do you see any similarities to products being promoted and sold to us today?

Excuses vs Reasons