My New Way To Eat - Trim Healthy Mama

Who needs to lose weight? It seems like I'm always needing to shed a few pounds. It's something I've struggled with since around college. In high school I *thought* I was fat. That makes me sad because when I look back at pictures of myself then, I was a perfectly proportioned, beautiful young lady. I spent a lot of time not liking myself when I really had nothing to dislike. 

Fast forward to now...I am still a beautiful *youngish* lady. Not exactly perfectly proportioned any more! I strive to LIKE myself no matter what I LOOK like but to be perfectly honest, I don't do a great job at that most of the time. I look in the mirror and feel sick to my stomach at what I see there. I shy...okay RUN...away from cameras which makes me sad because I'd like to have more pictures of myself with my kids and husband. I dread shopping because I hate the sizes I have to buy and I leave depressed because nothing looks right. And let's face it - being overweight is just flat out uncomfortable. Nothing fits right or feels right. No bueno!

I've been on many weight loss journeys in my life. Weight Watchers has gotten tons of my money and time - I even worked there as a receptionist weigh-er and a leader in the past. It's a great program that stands the test of time! But...lately I just couldn't get myself motivated to do it again. I needed something new and different. Something that would challenge me a bit. 

I ran across an eating plan called Trim Healthy Mama. It's a little bit of a lot of things. It's got some clean eating, some focus on healthy fats, some focus on low carb but also focus on healthy carbs. There's also a lot of stuff missing...counting calories being the main one!

I love, love, love everything I'm eating and I love, love, love how I FEEL. I don't every feel hungry and shaky. I don't feel sugar lows and highs. I don't feel deprived. I don't miss anything I'm not eating anymore which is basically just sugar and things like potatoes, white bread, etc. I know - I don't miss SUGAR. I don't know how that is but it's true!





There is a little more cooking, planning, preparing involved while doing this plan. About a year ago, I tried the 21 Day Fix by Beachbody and I really struggled with this part of the plan. I honestly don't know what is different this time. I can't put my finger on it. I really have not had trouble keeping up with the extra work involved in following this plan. 

The ladies who developed this plan are amazingly beautiful Christian women. They emphasize over and over that you have to give yourself grace while going through the process. They want you to eat every 3-4 hours and so their saying if you mess up is that your only 3 hours away from turning it back around. I love this! I have fallen off several "diets" because of one little mess up. One small candy bar can derail weeks of doing great. But this saying helps me remember that I can just get right back on the horse again and do better the next meal.

Okay, the fun stuff...I've lost 11 pounds in the 5 weeks I've been doing this. So a tiny bit above 2lbs a week...that's pretty good and steady weight loss. I'll take it!! So, please indulge me as I keep you updated on weight loss and share info and recipes etc in the future!

**This post contains Amazon affiliate links**

Image Body Spa Rejuvenating Lotion - Product Review

Alright friends...gonna get real up in here! For the past several years I've struggled with...well, something...on my back. At one point the dermatologist said it was Keratosis Pilaris. Later he said it was back acne - or more commonly known on the street as bacne - haha. I've used prescription medicines, creams, gels and also tried some essential oils - whatever I could find. I kept my hair super long (for me) for a much longer time than I would have liked because I wanted my back hidden. I've suffered through wearing bathing suits and knowing everyone could see it. I've blushed as people have told me I have a rash and blushed knowing people were seeing it and wondering but not saying anything. I thought I'd just have to live with this condition and embarrassment forever. But then the gal who does my hair and my good friend, Sheila, was running a special on Image Body Spa Rejuvenating Lotion. I read about it and saw a review from a woman saying that she used it and it made her bacne go away! I thought I'd give one more thing a chance and told Sheila I wanted to buy some of the lotion. I didn't tell her I'd read that review and I told myself not to get my hopes up. It would most likely be another dead end. I was delighted when she said she'd drop off a bottle if I would write a review about it.

Well my friends...this stuff did the trick. Nothing I've tried has helped...but this did. Not only did it work, it worked fast! Just within a few days I could tell a difference. Now I can't see it's all completely gone, but the redness and raised bumps are gone. The itchiness is gone. The dry crackly skin I had back there is gone. It's AMAZING!!! Sheila couldn't even believe her eyes when I went to get my hair done a few weeks ago and she saw the difference!

Like I said before, I'm not one to pay a lot of money for products like lotion...but I will pay whatever it takes to keep using this wonderful product!!

**I received this product for free in trade for a fair and honest review**

Image Body Spa Rejuvenating Lotion - Product Review

Alright friends...gonna get real up in here! For the past several years I've struggled with...well, something...on my back. At one point the dermatologist said it was Keratosis Pilaris. Later he said it was back acne - or more commonly known on the street as bacne - haha. I've used prescription medicines, creams, gels and also tried some essential oils - whatever I could find. I kept my hair super long (for me) for a much longer time than I would have liked because I wanted my back hidden. I've suffered through wearing bathing suits and knowing everyone could see it. I've blushed as people have told me I have a rash and blushed knowing people were seeing it and wondering but not saying anything. I thought I'd just have to live with this condition and embarrassment forever. But then the gal who does my hair and my good friend, Sheila, was running a special on Image Body Spa Rejuvenating Lotion. I read about it and saw a review from a woman saying that she used it and it made her bacne go away! I thought I'd give one more thing a chance and told Sheila I wanted to buy some of the lotion. I didn't tell her I'd read that review and I told myself not to get my hopes up. It would most likely be another dead end. I was delighted when she said she'd drop off a bottle if I would write a review about it.

Well my friends...this stuff did the trick. Nothing I've tried has helped...but this did. Not only did it work, it worked fast! Just within a few days I could tell a difference. Now I can't see it's all completely gone, but the redness and raised bumps are gone. The itchiness is gone. The dry crackly skin I had back there is gone. It's AMAZING!!! Sheila couldn't even believe her eyes when I went to get my hair done a few weeks ago and she saw the difference!

Like I said before, I'm not one to pay a lot of money for products like lotion...but I will pay whatever it takes to keep using this wonderful product!!

**I received this product for free in trade for a fair and honest review**

Spring Cleaning Help!

What do you think of when you think of spring? Easter, grass, bunnies? Allergies, sneezing, cleaning? The good and the bad of spring. Today I want to focus on spring cleaning. I've come across a few new products to help with this unpleasant part of spring that I'll be sharing.

Today I'm sharing how I'm using a tried and true product that everyone is familiar with...but maybe not in relation with cleaning. I received Arm & Hammer Baking Soda free to use and review. I had always thought that baking soda was only for...well, baking. But it actually does SO. MUCH. MORE. Like CLEAN!

I thought I'd start in the bathroom. I'm having trouble making my bath tub look clean. Despite the fact that I clean it regularly and despite the fact that I've cleaned it with all sorts of products - bleach, Comet, Soft Scrub...I cannot make it look sparking WHITE! Would baking soda be the answer? Well yes and no. Let's start with no. Sadly, the dark spot didn't go away. This is not the answer I've been searching for to get the white. BUT...I did get the sparkling! I'm not kidding - that tub sparkled like fairy dust had been sprinkled on it!

Next I decided to try it on a problem spot in the kitchen. My stainless steel refrigerator. We got this new fridge in January. It's beautiful...and spacious...and prone to STREAKING. The streaking drives me crazy.

See how awful! No matter what I did, it looked like this! So I wondered if the baking soda might be the trick and after a little Googling I found that it might be just the thing I needed!

I started by making a paste -  mixing baking soda with a bit of water. I used a microfiber cloth to spread the paste on and then took a piece of a wet old t-shirt and washed the paste off. Then I dried it with a paper towel. I started with one small area just to test it out and was blown away!

Success! It looked so GREAT that I did the rest!

So happy! Go get your own box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda! Use it for baking...cleaning..Get more information on this product HERE.

No More Busy!!

Someone posted an article on Facebook the other day called Busy Is A Sickness and it really got my wheels spinning! Go read it, I'll wait...

If you didn't follow directions, I'll sum it up a little bit. He speaks about how busy we all are these days and about how we wear our "busyness" like a badge of honor. When friends ask how we are doing, we tend to dramatically exclaim about ALL that we have to do and ALL that we have going on and then the friend commiserates and gives us a run down of how busy they are as well. But one day his friend put things into perspective - made him think of how lucky he was to either "get to" or "be able to" do all of the things he had to do in that day. And he began thinking of how much of his being overwhelmed came from self imposed anxiety.

After my conversation with my friend, I began to notice how much of my rushing was an overreaction to my "awfulizing" in my head. Most of the time, I manufacture urgency in hopes that it will create urgency in others. Instead, it only creates anxiety, resentment and spite. Which is absolutely counter-productive. And even in the cases where the urgency is real, it's often due to a packed schedule I created.

This is the part that really got me to thinking about my life and my feelings of stress. My husband and I were talking the other day about whether or not I should go to work at some point. He asked why I would want to do that when I am finally a stay at home mom like I have always wanted to be. I told him that I just haven't settled into it as easily as I thought I would. I like everything about it and feel so blessed but I just always have this uneasy feeling of guilt that I'm not earning money. After I read this article, it really hit me why I am not enjoying being at home like I thought. It has to do with what he says about manufacturing busyness. In my case it goes something like - I sit down to have a leisurely lunch on a slow day but  instead of enjoying it, I think of all the people at their offices working hard or other moms who want to be stay at home moms but are at work instead and then I feel guilty. So I rush through my lunch and start thinking of all the things I "should" be doing - organizing a closet, wiping down a baseboard, running an errand - and then I don't feel so guilty because I'm not relaxing, I'm stressing out and feeling pressure about all of these things that do need to be done but are not anything urgent or needing to be accomplished right at that moment. And if I really want to pile it on, I start thinking of all of the things I've not done that I probably should have or things I didn't do as well as I could have. And then I feel really nice and stressed and busy. And then I don't have to feel guilty!

Obviously, that is not good. And now that I realize it, I will stop. I woke up this morning feeling nauseous after a night of not very good sleep because I felt nauseous all night. The old me would have made myself fight through getting a bunch done all while feeling horrible. But today I thought about how much I've gotten done the past few days, about how once the kids get home this afternoon I'll have tons to do, and how I have a meeting tonight. I got comfy on the couch and started up my latest binge watching Netflix show(Hart of Dixie right now - SO good!) and I've been getting a baby mermaid tale done all morning...and NOT feeling guilty one bit about it.

The writer of the article sums it up with this

I am created in the image and likeness of God, yet somehow that isn't good enough for me. So I fill my Facebook feed and my calendar with self-important busyness to avoid just being. In the process, I not only miss out on the peace and beauty that lies within myself, but I also miss seeing that same beauty in others, because my manufactured urgency has covered it up with anxiety and worry.
It's time I let my busyness rest in peace.
So my prayer today is this. That I stop defining myself by my doing, and start defining myself by my being. That I stop measuring time by the clock on the wall, and start measuring it by the experiences I share with those around me. And that I stop seeing my life as "busy," and instead, see it for what it truly is.
Full.

I am adopting this prayer and hope that you can do the same!