September is here!

I LOVE September!

There are several reasons I love this month:

      *Cooler weather is on the way

      *All the fun holidays are right around the corner (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas)

       AND

      *It's my birthday month



With global warming and all, there's always a chance it will be hot on my birthday. I DO NOT like to sweat on my birthday! It's very hard to be all fabulous when you are sweating like a _____  __  _____

(insert clean or naughty verbage). And I'm always fabulous on my birthday.

This year, we don't have any plans per se--53 is not a glamorous birthday as far as parties go. But we are going to The Eagles concert on Oct. 7th~Woot Woot!! Thanks to Shawn Steward, we have pretty fabulous seats. I have fore warned him I sing to ALL the songs. In fact it he's interested, I could probably tell him a memory I have of any particular Eagles song. Same goes for Barry and Fleetwood Mac.

And now about my journey:

I still feel great. I am 2 months cig free and 18% closer to my goal weight. I have to admit, I was tempted the other day to take a drag from a friends cigarette. Not because I was craving a cig, but just to see how gross it would probably taste. I couldn't bring myself to do it. Part of this journey/blog is to be honest with myself and I would have to tell you all. My next door neighbor said if she ever saw me with a cigarette in my mouth she would rip it out and________*&**_____. I think she means it.

Several of my friends have asked me how I'm doing this. I've told them, and as soon as I say "I'm taking these great vitamins", they give me the "OH no--she's going to try to sell me/get me to sign up for some cockamamie thing.

That is not my intention at all. I really want everyone to feel as good as I do! And if I tell you about TrueStar, I will only mention it once or twice. Once to tell you how swell it is, and once to follow up. Like when I sold Pampered Chef, I don't want my friends crossing the street when the see me coming. I also don't want the people I care about to say to me" Why didn't you tell me about this!?!"

It's a personal decision. Period.

If you'd like to hear more about it, please let me know. If you think it's similar to Amway--it's not. The only similarity is multi level marketing and Pampered Chef, Mary Kay, 31 gifts, Tupperware, etc...--they're all MLM. If you want to feel great and pay retail, I won't stop you. But if you'd like to feel great and get up to 40% off your vitamins, give me a shout.

<Jumping off soapbox>

Oh--one more thing <climbing back up>--we went to KC last weekend and had a wonderful Italian dinner with Amy and Nathan. I drank 4 big glasses of wine (which I never do because wine gives me a killer hangover) and DID NOT have a hangover. Seriously. Again, I don't think it's a coincidence.<

<Jumping back down>

Everyone have a great week!

TTFN

P.S. Love Love Love to my fave Sean~thank you so very much for fluffing up The Diva Mwah!

65 Days

65 days.... It's been 65 days since I've had a cigarette in my mouth. Most of the people who read this will think "Good for her" or "I can't believe she's stuck with it"  Trust me, I would totally be in the latter group. But this time, I haven't cheated. Haven't bummed a puff or a cig-- which has never happened. Oh I've tried to quit before-- and I might not have had a cig in 6 months. I'm in a bar, having some cocktails and I cave. I bum a cig from someone and while I'm smoking it, minding my own business, some a**hole will come flying up to me, shouting" I thought you quit!!!" Shit that used to make me mad. Then I'd  think, Screw it .... I can't stop. Where's a flippin Quik Trip?? 

I remember thinking " I will not buy a pack of cigarettes that costs more than a dollar."  THAT'S how long I've been smoking. 😞

And the crazy thing is, I don't want one. I haven't been impossible to live with. And I'm losing weight. 11% of my goal gone. 

I don't want to fuel my body with crap anymore. Last week I needed some quick food and stopped by McD's for an old fave--a plain hamburger. I squirted my extra pack of ketchup on it, and noticed the color was weird. Oh Nancy, it's just the light in the car. I ate it and immediately started to regret it. WTF do they put in those things?!?!? An hour later I was certainly glad I was home! The proverbial saying " shit through a goose" came to mind. TMI? Sorry. 

I can't help but think this is mostly due to the vitamins I'm taking. 

I NEVER want my friends to cross the street when they see me coming, but I'm   telling you they are making me feel good! I turned my friend Chris onto them-- she said " I don't want to sell them. I don't care what they are or what they cost. I just want whatever you're taking" 

I texted her to see how things were going and she said she was down 7 lbs in a week (with Weight Watchers help as well--which we all know IS the best way to eat) and she said she felt great. I'm excited for her!!

I do have to admit, Small Cakes is ahead-- but only by one bite. They are delish, but it was too much sugar for me. Holy cow who's talking!!??!! Too sweet? I'm going to go look in the mirror and make sure the pod people haven't taken over. 

TTFN

It might as well have been a Monday

Greetings!

Today was good. But it was nuts at the salon and I felt like I could never catch up. I hate that feeling! 

I'm still feeling good and don't feel at all like I'm depriving myself of anything. Yesterday I wanted a dipped cone from McDonalds--so I got one. There you have it. Now if I get a craving every day for one, we have a problem. So far, so good. 

There is a small obstacle that has popped up--SmallCakes Cupcakery just opened in the Tallgrass Shopping Center where I work. Good God--why didn't they just put an "Everything's Chocolate" store in too?!?!? I drove by it today & resisted temptation  (even after a well meaning client brought her cupcakes into the salon to show us how beautiful they were. I almost jumped over the counter and stole that little @$%*+ 's cupcakes!) But I didn't--Nancy 1 Cupcakes 0

I will stop while the score is 1-0

TTFN

My journey begins

I teased ya'll on Facebook last week about a journey I was ready to begin. Actually I already started it, but a had a hell of a time setting this Blogspot up! I don't remember it being this difficult :(

I posted 29 days ago that I had quit smoking after many, many years. The response from my friends was overwhelmingly positive and supportive that I'm going to throw my weight loss journey out there. Suffice it to say, I have been fighting this fight for longer than I care to admit, each time losing weight successfully, but never keeping it off.

When I've embarked on a "diet", some of my more idiotic friends said things like:
Don't gain it back this time      or
Haven't you tried (WW, JC, NS, etc...) before?   or
You looked so good when you'd lost all that weight last time       or 
(My personal favorite)
You're so beautiful....(knowing they're actually thinking--too bad you're overweight)
I've heard it all.

Six weeks ago, my friend Judy Hull invited me to a meeting about some vitamins. I thought "Dear gawd--how am I going to get out of this without hurting her feelings?"
So of course I agreed to go, rather than disappoint her. (She has become my surrogate mom since Sally's passing)
All that aside, I was so impressed by this, after much research, I signed up for these vitamins. It's a multi-level marketing operation (I know---ooooooooo---MLM--- Brings shivers upon remembering the '80s when your "friend" would invite you over to watch a "video" and it turned out to be the cult known as Amway----ugh---but some of those f-ers were rich as sh(*!) Anyhoo......
Judy had given me some samples of their basic Anti Oxidant vitamins and when I took them, about 30 minutes later, I felt "different". Not amazing, or full of energy, just different--in a good way. The "vitamin" people had said you would feel something right away--i thought they were full of hooey. I felt this way all day! Amy Ringer called me about 3:30 that day, and when I answered the phone she said" What are you doing up? I was just going to leave you a message."  You see, I have had a "sinker" about 3:00 every day for as long as I can remember, and am usually napping at this time.
I told her I had taken these vitamins and I felt good. Again, not amazing or life changingly fantastic, just GOOD. 
She was of course very skeptical. (and still is) The next day, and the next I took the vitamins and still felt GOOD. More focused. Clearer. After I ran out of the 5 day supply, I went a couple of days without taking them. I didn't fall completely into the way I'd felt before, but could certainly feel a difference! Thank God my package came and I had a new supply of A/O!! I don't want to go a day without them again!
Along with the A/O vitamins came the Lean Extreme. Four little pills with all kinds of ingredients. Judy's daughter, Jennifer was taking these and had lost 2 dress sizes. That was what REALLY caught my attention about this. 
So let's back up about 3 months--I had looked into Lap Band Surgery and was seriously thinking about undergoing this drastic solution. Being the weenie that I am, I kept putting it off and putting it off.....I had tried every plan known to mankind and was still fat. I didn't want to go under the knife, but thought I had no other choice. Until.......
www.truestar.com 
Hence, the journey. I will post pictures soon chronicling all this--I'm just not ready to put them out there. My sister says I have to take these pictures with my bra and yoga pants only. She is crazy. I will find something "snug" to wear, but you all aren't ready for that. And I'm not on The Biggest Loser vying for a million dollars. I'm not even sure a million dollars would be enough for me to post a bra shot of myself right now. 
I am going to post about my successes, failures, struggles and victories. Maybe every day for a while, but definitely once a week.  When I was blogging about The Dish Diva cookbooks, I felt like I had to be insanely clever every time. Way too much pressure. I can be insanely clever--just not ALL the damn time...:) 
I started taking Lean Extreme on Monday July 29th, 2013. So far I have lost 3% of my goal. 
The actual # of pounds, will be posted at a later date--for now, percentages will have to do.
I hope those of you who choose to follow me will gain something from this. Even if it's one little thing, or I made you chuckle, it will be totally worth while. But I am doing this for myself this time. No one else. 
TTFN